Kylie Chan - Red Phoenix

‘If I were your Serpent, I would be able to do that, wouldn’t I?’ I said quietly.

His face was rigid. He nodded once, sharply.

‘You should have tested her while she was that scaly thing,’ Leo said.

‘You are quite right,’ John said, and eyed me appraisingly.

‘No way is that cat,’ I said, pointing at the Tiger, ‘sticking his claws into my head again. That damn well hurt !’

The knife lifted off the table and moved towards me. ‘Catch,’ the Tiger said, and it fell out of the air. I concentrated quickly. The knife hit the table with a clatter.

‘Try to bend it,’ the Tiger said. I concentrated. Again, nothing.

John grabbed the large bowl, stuffed a piece of newspaper into it, and lit it with the cigarette lighter. He put it in front of me. ‘See if you can change its colour.’

I concentrated. Nothing at all. ‘Put it out,’ John said. Again, nothing.

John lifted the water from the bowl onto the fire and it went out.

‘Not surprising, I suppose,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘Two more.’

John passed me the wooden branch. It was a large twig with leaves on it. ‘Try to make it grow.’ I concentrated. Nothing.

‘I think we’re wasting our time here, guys,’ I said. ‘I think in human form I’m just a perfectly normal human woman, and the Snake part spends most of its time hiding.’ I stopped. ‘I can’t believe I just talked about myself taking human form,’ I said with wonder. ‘That is so weird.’

‘Try the last one anyway,’ John said. ‘But it’s highly unlikely that you would have Earth; such a thing is extremely rare.’

‘You’re Water.’ I pointed at John, and he nodded. ‘You’re Metal,’ I said to the Tiger, who smiled slightly. ‘Qing Long is Wood, Zhu Que is Fire. Who’s Earth? There’s a Fifth Wind?’

‘There is a Centre, not a Wind, Emma,’ Kwan Yin said, her voice full of deference. ‘Earth is the Middle. It is the Lord of us all. It is the Jade Emperor Himself. He is Earth and Stone.’

‘Oh. I sincerely do not want to meet this guy.’ They all went rigid the minute the word ‘guy’ came out of my mouth. ‘Just the idea of him scares me to death.’

‘I think all creatures know instinctively exactly how formidable the Celestial One is,’ Ms Kwan said softly.

John picked up the stone. ‘The Celestial will be extremely annoyed the minute he finds out about those hybrid elementals.’ He put the stone in front of me. ‘Just try to move it.’

I concentrated on the stone. Nothing.

‘No elemental alignment,’ the Tiger said. ‘See if you can nail the snake down when she transforms again and test it then.’

‘The Serpent was extremely powerful. I still may be able to touch you,’ John said. ‘Let’s try.’

‘You won’t,’ I said. ‘What did Meredith say? You let your love cloud your judgement.’

‘Come and stand between myself and Mercy,’ John said anyway.

I rose and stood between them.

‘Hold my hand, Emma,’ Ms Kwan said, and put her hand out. I took her hand in my left. ‘Now take his.’ I took John’s hand in my right.

‘Release my hand. Rest yours on mine,’ Ms Kwan said. I moved my hand so that it was just resting on hers, palm to palm.

‘I will move my hand. Stay perfectly still,’ Ms Kwan said. ‘Don’t move.’

She moved her hand away from underneath mine. Nothing happened.

‘Yes,’ I said softly.

John moved to say something on my right. A black hole opened up in front of him. I was sucked straight into it. Kwan Yin quickly grabbed my hand. Everything rushed together and I was back between them. I sagged. ‘No.’

John dropped my hand, threw himself up, and stalked away from the table without saying a word.

‘Come back here!’ I yelled. He stopped and turned, expressionless.

‘You do not have time to do sword katas right now!’ I shouted. ‘My parents are in my room, shell-shocked, and we are going to talk to them and sort this out! And then we are going to find out exactly what happened, and go and kick some serious demon ass!’

He put his hands up in defeat. ‘All right, all right,’ he said wryly as he flopped back into his chair. ‘Don’t get your scaly tail in a knot.’

Both Leo and the Tiger laughed gently at that.

‘I don’t have—’ I started to shoot back, and then I stopped.

‘Damn,’ I said quietly and flopped down into a chair. ‘I am not having a good day.’

‘I will be watching you,’ Kwan Yin said. ‘I will return to help you with your mother.’ She disappeared.

‘Am I a Shen?’ I said to the Tiger before he disappeared as well.

‘I don’t think so,’ the Tiger said. ‘Like we said, none of us has seen anything like you before.’

‘Am I already Immortal?’ I said more softly.

‘Most definitely not,’ the Tiger said, amused. ‘Don’t try anything stupid. Right now, you are just an ordinary human female.’

‘See?’ the stone in my ring said.

‘Shut the hell up!’ John and I both snapped at the same time.

‘Stay and help, if you can, my friend,’ John said to the Tiger.

‘I am being summoned,’ the Tiger said. ‘I think I’m about to be debriefed. With extreme prejudice. A great deal of brown sticky stuff is about to hit some swiftly rotating blades. I think you should count yourself lucky that you can’t travel very far right now, and that certain Celestials don’t like slumming it on the Earthly. I’ll be back as soon as I’m finished trying to cover for your worthless shell. Okay?’

‘Go,’ John said wearily, waving him away with one hand. ‘Thanks,’ he added sincerely.

‘My Lord, my Lady. Dark Turtle, Dark Serpent,’ Bai Hu added, rubbing it in with relish. ‘By your leave.’

‘Piss off, Tiger,’ I said, just as wearily. ‘Dark Serpent indeed.’

The Tiger grinned at me and winked. He disappeared. John eyed me appraisingly. ‘You think you can do it at will?’

‘I did it because Simone said you were going and I was just so mad I wanted to explode,’ I said. ‘I really don’t think I have any control over it at all.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘with your temper I don’t think we’ll be waiting too long to see it again.’

Later I sat on the couch in the living room with only a table lamp for illumination. The apartment was dark and quiet; everybody else was asleep. Kwan Yin had shown me to my mother, and my mother had accepted me, but it had been hard for her. Kwan Yin had done something to both of my parents and they’d fallen asleep without trouble.

I heard a soft sound. Simone stood in the hallway in her nightdress, leaning on the doorframe. I held out one arm and she crept onto the couch next to me. She put her head on my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around her.

‘Are you okay, Emma?’ she said softly.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I just can’t sleep. What about you, sweetheart? You weren’t too scared?’

‘I’m okay,’ she whispered. ‘I know it’s you. But why were you a snake?’

I sighed with feeling. ‘I wish I knew.’

‘You wouldn’t hurt us anyway. It’s still you.’

‘I know,’ I whispered.

John appeared in the doorway in his black pyjama pants, his long hair falling over his shoulder. He hesitated, then came to us.

Simone shifted so that he could sit on the other side of her, and he pulled her into his lap. ‘Turn around,’ I whispered, and he swivelled so that I could braid his hair for him. I braided it tight, enjoying the silken feeling. I threw my arms over his shoulders and held him from behind, then pulled away. He turned so that I could cuddle into him and he wrapped his arm around me. I pulled my feet up and leaned on him.

Simone put her head on his chest, her huge golden eyes turned towards me. ‘Your hair smells like the sea, Daddy,’ she whispered. ‘Why?’