White Tiger

leapt back, clutching his arm to his side. I’d burnt him.
    He lunged towards me again. I scrambled to sit upright against the bedhead, generated a ball of chi and held it in front of me.
    He hung back, his face rigid with menace. I raised the chi slightly and floated it between us.
    ‘I’ll be back,’ he growled, and disappeared.
    Simone whimpered and rolled over. She’d slept through the whole thing.
    ‘Emma.’ A soft voice in my ear. ‘Emma.’
    I woke up and cast around. I saw a pair of blood-red eyes and scrambled away, knocking into Simone and waking her.
    I grabbed Simone and leapt off the bed, moving as far away from this strange person as I could. He smiled.
    It wasn’t Wong; it was somebody else. He was Chinese, about twenty-five, with a boyish, cheekyface. He had black hair tied in a short ponytail, but his eyes were the colour of dried blood. He wore a pair of maroon stonewashed jeans and a maroon T-shirt.
    He held his hands out. ‘I’m not here to hurt you.’ ‘This is a really big demon,’ Simone whispered. ‘Bigger than the bad one?’ Simone nodded.
    ‘I swear,’ the demon said. ‘I can get you out. Would you like to come with me?’
    I lowered Simone to the floor and she held onto my leg. ‘Why do you want to help us?’
    He shrugged. ‘Maybe I think One Two Two is a creepy bastard.’
    ‘So?’
    ‘Maybe I don’t want him to be Number One.’
    ‘You’ll just take us to swap for the Dark Lord’s head,’ I said. ‘You want to be Number One yourself.’
    He chuckled. ‘I have absolutely no desire to be Number One. None at all.’
    The scene around us shifted and we were in a street in Guangzhou; the sounds of voices and traffic blasted around us. Simone clutched my leg.
    Silence. We were back in the prison.
    ‘I can take you out,’ he said. ‘All you have to do is come with me.’
    ‘Promise you won’t hurt Simone.’
    He smiled gently at Simone. ‘I give you my word I will not harm Simone.’ He glanced at me. ‘I promise I will not harm either of you. I am here to get you out.’
    I moved closer to him. ‘Which one are you? Are you one of the other princes?’
    ‘You can call me George.’
    ‘ George ?’
    He shrugged. ‘You want me to take you out? You want to come with me?’
    ‘Yes, please,’ Simone said, her voice very small. ‘Okay,’ I said.
    ‘I want something in return.’
    I sagged. ‘Why am I not surprised?’
    He gestured towards me. ‘Leave Simone there, I want to talk to you in private. Come over here. I’ll tell you what I want.’
    Simone released me and gave me a push. ‘I’ll be okay, Emma, talk to him.’ Her eyes were wide with hope. ‘I want to go home to Daddy.’
    I nodded and went to the demon. He led me to the other side of the room and leaned against the wall.
    ‘Well, what do you want?’ I said.
    ‘Here’s the deal,’ he said, businesslike. ‘Agree to come with me and I’ll take you out of here.’ He nodded towards Simone. ‘I’ll put her under for a while and we can do it.’
    ‘You want to have sex with me?’
    He nodded.
    I raised my arms. ‘Why the hell me? I’m nothing special, I’m just an ordinary human female. I’m not even particularly good-looking. Why?’
    He smiled slightly. ‘The Dark Lord seems to think that you’re something special.’
    I stared at him.
    ‘Regent of the Northern Heavens, eh?’ he said. ‘You must be something extremely special.’ ‘You know about that?’
    ‘Everybody knows about it. Heaven and Hell are both abuzz.’ He moved his face closer to mine and studied me carefully, still smiling. ‘I’d really like to see what all the fuss is about.’
    I stood watching him as I thought about it. Then, ‘No. I’ll take my chances with Wong.’
    ‘How about a bit of oral? No penetration.’
    ‘Shit!’ I cried softly. ‘This isn’t a market stall!’
    He moved closer and gazed at me with his blood-red eyes. ‘I’ll take you out of here for a kiss.’ I looked at him. ‘One kiss?’
    ‘You would do that for Simone, wouldn’t you?’ He moved even closer and touched my arm. ‘One kiss won’t hurt you. It’s not being unfaithful to your Dark Lord; he would understand.’ He glanced at Simone. ‘I’ll get her out of here for you. All you have to do is kiss me, and agree to come along.’
    ‘Okay. One kiss. You take Simone and me out of here, you don’t hurt either of us, and then you let us go.’
    He jerked with surprise, then smiled. ‘You drive a hard