White Tiger

probably demons waiting to grab us at the bottom of the stairs.
    ‘We’ll be okay, Emma,’ Simone whispered.
    I sincerely hoped so. I had faced some demons in the training room, but I wasn’t capable of taking out anything bigger than level two or three with my bare hands. These ones were much too big for me.
    I vowed to try valiantly anyway, if I had to. I straightened and held Simone behind me. I would protect her at any cost.
    The remaining demons slowly pulled themselves upright, still grinning. There were five left.
    Leo readied himself, moving into a standard defensive position. Four of the demons threw themselves at him at the same time.
    He moved so fast he was a blur.
    His left fist crunched into the face of the demon in the centre as his right hand came out and blocked the blow of the one next to it, pushing it so that it blocked the one on the far right. He let the one on the far left strike him as he dealt with the other three, and didn’t even seem to notice the blow to his face.
    As the first one he had struck dissipated, he grabbed the one to the right and slammed it into the one on the end, destroying both together, at the same time pivoting and lashing out with his foot to take out the one on the far left.
    I didn’t see any more because the remaining demon had sneaked around Leo and was approaching Simone and me. He grinned viciously as he came closer.
    Simone moved next to me and took up a long defensive stance, her little face set with determination.
    I grabbed her and pulled her behind me.
    ‘I wanna fight,’ Simone said, but I pushed her back and she didn’t resist. I moved into a defensive stance and readied myself to defend Simone, with my life if necessary.
    Leo’s dark forearm appeared around the demon’s throat and yanked. The demon’s face filled with astonishment, then horror, then it dissipated as well.
    Simone ran around me to Leo and he knelt to check her.
    I knelt with them. ‘Are you okay?’
    ‘I’ll have a shocking headache later, but otherwise I’m not injured,’ Leo said. ‘Are you all right? Simone?’
    ‘I’m fine. Leo, you were great,’ Simone said, and moved to hug him.
    He pushed her away, keeping her at arm’s length. ‘Sorry, sweetheart, there’s demon stuff on me. I need to go home and wash it off. Don’t touch me until then.’
    Simone nodded, understanding. ‘Okay.’
    Leo rose and I did as well. I took Simone’s hand.
    ‘Are you okay, Emma?’ Leo said.
    I shrugged. ‘Sure. You were tremendous.’
    ‘All part of the job.’ He collected the shopping bags from the ground and checked the contents. ‘Nothing broken.’ He turned back to the car. ‘Let’s go.’
    I guided Simone to sit in the back. Leo threw thebags into the boot, pulled out a towel and wiped his arms and face. ‘Better get home and wash this stuff off.’
    He got into the car and started the engine.
    ‘How many of them could you take bare-handed, Leo?’ I said.
    ‘What level were they, Simone?’ Leo said. ‘Fifteen? Twenty?’
    ‘Twenty,’ Simone said.
    ‘I could probably take about ten of them with my bare hands,’ Leo said. ‘More than that, they’d get through me and do some damage. I could take down twenty or thirty of them before going down myself.’ He shrugged. ‘Used to happen all the time, but they eased up a couple of years ago.’ He lowered his voice. ‘They stopped coming after they took Michelle. Obviously they’ve found out about Simone and they’re coming after her now. We need to go home and tell Mr Chen.’
    ‘You should let me help,’ Simone said. ‘I can kill level ten demons. I wanna fight too.’
    ‘You are a remarkable little girl,’ I said, giving her a squeeze. ‘But you should let Leo do the demon killing for you right now, because you’re too small.’
    Simone crossed her arms in front of her chest and made a face.
    Leo eased the car gingerly into the car park lift. ‘I hope your dad’s home to guard you, Simone, ‘cause I’m gonna have to clean the interior of the car now. There’s black demon stuff all over the front seat here.’
    ‘Does that stuff have a proper name?’ I said.
    Leo shrugged. ‘Not as far as I know. There may be a word for it in Chinese, but I’ve never heard anybody use one. Everybody just calls it demon stuff, demon essence.’
    ‘I’m hungry ,’ Simone said loudly. ‘I wanna go home and have some ramen.’
    ‘You’re always hungry,’ Leo said.
    A group of young men were lounging