Kylie Chan - White Tiger

‘Yes, my Lady,’ Leo said, saluting me with Dark Heavens still in his hand.

‘Shit,’ I said under my breath. I tried to shake the black stuff off my hands but it stuck. Leo was right; we both needed a shower.

Simone had woken and hopped out of the car as we approached. ‘You were terrific, Emma!’ she squealed, jiggling with delight. ‘You were as good as Leo ! Isn’t she, Daddy?’

John smiled with admiration. ‘Absolutely.’

‘Let me get a change of clothes. I need to have a shower.’ Leo popped the boot again and I threw my sword in, found a towel, and wiped my arms and face. Leo put Dark Heavens into the car. I handed the towel to him and he wiped the demon stuff off as well.

I scrabbled through my duffel bag for a change of clothes. Leo opened his bag as well.

I stopped dead as I saw the contents of Leo’s bag. ‘What?’ Leo said.

Leo’s bag was immaculately packed. Everything was neatly folded and arranged.

‘Geez. You can pack my bag next time,’ I said.

‘It would be an honour and a pleasure, my Lady,’ Leo said. ‘Your bag looks like it’s full of dirty laundry.’

I found a pair of jeans and a shirt. ‘You are so going to keep, Leo.’

Leo saluted me. ‘My Lady.’

‘We’ll have something to eat on the terrace while you change,’ John said. ‘Simone says she’s hungry.’

‘Okay.’ I shoved Leo as I walked past him. ‘Bastard.’

‘I heard that, my Lady .’

When we arrived home, Leo parked the car under the Peak apartment building and we all piled out. He went to the boot and grabbed John’s and my bags. ‘I’ll take my own bag,’ I said.

‘It is my duty as Retainer to serve you, my Lady,’ Leo said with a broad grin. ‘I’ll return to the car later and collect the other luggage.’

I tried to grab my bag from Leo but he wouldn’t let me. He moved it out of the way every time I tried to take it, and eventually just raised it out of my reach.

John took Simone’s hand and led her to the front door. ‘Watching you two is the most amusing thing I’ve seen in centuries.’ He glanced down at Simone. ‘What do you think?’

Simone giggled. ‘Yeah, they’re funny. They’re stupid .’

Jade and Gold were waiting for us inside. They both fell to one knee and saluted us. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’

Leo took the bags down the hall, grinning broadly. I wanted to thump him.

‘We have an urgent problem that must be dealt with immediately,’ Gold said. ‘The engineers have discovered that the student dormitories on the Mountain are so badly damaged they must be demolished. We need to find somewhere for the students to live while we rebuild.’

‘I need to rest,’ John said. ‘Emma can handle it.’

My mouth dropped open and I looked from John to the Retainers.

‘You can do it, Emma, I have complete faith in you,’ John said. ‘Could you come with me for a minute first? I need to talk to you.’

I sighed with resignation and indicated for Jade and Gold to go into the dining room. ‘Wait for me in there.’

Leo came down the hallway from the bedrooms, saw me and fell to one knee, saluting.

‘Cut it out,’ I said.

He rose and grinned. ‘Face it, Emma, your life is about to become a hell of a lot more interesting.’ He saluted me again. ‘My Lady. I’ll take Simone while you meet with your staff.’

I ran my hands through my hair in exasperation and followed John into his room.

He turned away from me and pulled off his T-shirt. The muscles flexed over his back, golden and glowing. He undid his black jeans and pulled them off. He had black silk boxers underneath. He turned to me as he retied his hair and the skin rippled over his abdomen.

I swallowed hard. ‘I think I’d better go.’

‘Oh, come on, Emma. I’ve seen inside your head, remember? I know what you want. I’d like to let you see all of me, but it wouldn’t be a good idea. I don’t think I could control it.’

He sat cross-legged on the bed and gestured for me to come closer. ‘Sit. I need to talk to you.’

‘Isn’t there any way at all that we can…’ My voice trailed off as I sat on the bed, as near to him as possible without touching.

‘None that I can think of.’ He shrugged. ‘We’ll find a way. There has to be a way.’

‘ Look but don’t touch. It’ll kill me. Next time you’re going to undress in front of me, let me get a video camera.’

‘If you like. Don’t reciprocate though; much as I’d like you to, I’d definitely lose control.’ He saw my face. ‘What?’

‘I was expecting you to be more old-fashioned Chinese about this. We’re not even married.’

He smiled gently. ‘I’m an animal Shen. You’ve seen the Tiger. I’m a Turtle. A reptile. Many human attitudes don’t make much sense to us. As I said, the Jade Emperor often doesn’t know what to do with us. Particularly me. There are many people on the Celestial Plane who firmly believe that I don’t belong there.’

‘John Chen Wu, you never cease to amaze me.’

He looked me right in the eyes. ‘Good.’ I sat on the bed next to him. ‘Too close.’

I edged slightly away.

He sighed. ‘Emma, the demons all know about you now. If you want, I can move you somewhere safe where they can’t get you.’

‘No. We won’t have much time together before you go. I know you promised to come back for me, but there are no guarantees in life. I want to spend as much time as I can with you now. Besides, I’m here to look after Simone.’

He pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. ‘We really are a pair of fools.’

‘I know. Lie down.’

He stretched his long legs under the covers and I pulled the blankets over him, careful not to touch him. ‘Now get some rest.’

‘Is that an order?’ he growled. He wriggled under the covers and banged his head on the pillow. ‘Damn straight it is.’ I turned to go out. ‘Emma.’

I turned back to him. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you too, Xuan Wu.’ I had a sudden inspiration. ‘How about later this evening I go into my room and call you on your mobile?’

He shot upright to stare at me. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. His gaze was very intense as he shook his head.

‘Is that a no?’

He fell back onto his pillow and his voice floated to me, soft and deep. ‘No, my love, that is very much a yes.’

I went out to talk to Jade and Gold. Leo was right. My life was about to become a hell of a lot more interesting.

The Chinese language is divided by a number of different dialects and this has been reflected throughout my story. The main dialect spoken in Hong Kong is Cantonese, and many of the terms I’ve used are in Cantonese. The main method for transcribing Cantonese into English is the Yale system, which I have hardly used at all in this book, preferring to use a simpler phonetic method for spelling the Cantonese. Apologies to purists, but I’ve chosen ease of readability over phonetic correctness.

The dialect mainly spoken on the Mainland of China is Putonghua (also called Mandarin Chinese), which was originally the dialect used in the north of China but has spread to become the standard tongue. Putonghua has a strict and useful set of transcription rules called pinyin, which I’ve used throughout for Putonghua terms. As a rough guide to pronunciation, the ‘Q’ in pinyin is pronounced ‘ch’, the ‘X’ is ‘sh’ and the ‘Zh’ is a softer ‘ch’ than the ‘Q’ sound. Xuan Wu is therefore pronounced ‘Shwan Wu’.