Chapter One
Itapped gently on the door. âMum? Dad?â âCome in, sweetheart.â
I opened the door and sidled in. My father was rummaging through his suitcase on the desk. My mother was further inside, folding clothes on the bed.
âYou okay, guys?â I said.
Both of them smiled weakly at me.
âYou donât need to worry now,â I said. âThat attackâs been coming for a while. I think he threw everything he had at us. Itâs finished. Itâll be quiet for a long time.â
My mother came into the little sitting room and gestured for me to sit next to her on the couch. Her bright blue eyes were serious under her short greying brown hair, and her long, kind face seemed more lined than usual. âDoes that sort of thing happen often?â
âSmall attacks, all the time. Big ones like that, no. Thatâs only the second or third time weâve had so many demons thrown at us at once.â I paused and thought about it. âNo, actually more than that.â I smiled an apology. âWe had about five demons come into the apartment when the Mountain was attacked last January. Then a couple of dozen came at us in China last April. The King of the Demons himself threw about fifty small ones and a dozen big ones at us in London, August of this year, and then straight after that the little bastard who came after us last night had a go at us with a big group at Jenniferâs house.â I counted them up. âFour, not counting last night.â
âJenniferâs house? You mean your sister Jennifer?â my mother said. âOh, thatâs right, Leonard works for Mr Chen. Jennifer was attacked? So she knows all about this?â
âYes. But Jennifer wasnât attacked. They attacked us, at her house. Her family werenât threatened at all, from what I could see.â
âShe never mentioned it,â my father said.
âI donât think she wants to dwell on it,â I said. âIt was a very frightening experience for all of them. Weâve posted guards at their house, but no more demons have gone anywhere near them. The demons are after us. Wong wants to take Johnâs head to the King.â
âThey have a King?â my father said, coming to sit next to me. Close up, the deep lines around his blue eyes made his tanned, leathery face look older. He studied me with concern.
âYeah. Big red-headed bastard. The little creep who came after us last night is his son. The Kingâs said that anyone who can bring him Johnâs head will be promoted to Number One son.â
âThey want his head?â my mother said.
âJohn â Xuan Wu â is the mightiest demon killer ever to exist. He ran them all off the face of the Earth a long time ago and they hate him. While heâs weak like this, theyâll keep attacking him. If they get his head, heâll be gone for a very long time.â
âWhat do you mean âgoneâ?â my father said. âDead?â
âNo. If they take his head, heâll revert to True Form. Heâll change into a turtle, combined with a snake, and have to go away for a long time to recover from the exertion of maintaining his human form to stay with Simone and me.â
âHeâd change into a what?â my mother said.
I sighed. âYeah, I know itâs weird. Even the other Shen say heâs strange, and theyâre all completely unbelievable themselves.â I explained before she could ask. âTheyâre called Shen . Spirits. Not really gods, but thatâs the closest word in English we have for it.â
âSo this guy youâre engaged to isnât a human being at all,â my father said. âHeâs some sort of animal spirit.â