‘And so I told her that there’s only one vampire left in the world, and he’s a Retainer of the House of the North and lives in a graveyard in London,’ she said. ‘You should use the disabled space, Leo, you have the right. Use the label.’
‘I’m not disabled,’ Leo said, turning the car into a vacant spot in the Pacific Place car park.
Simone continued talking as we got out of the car. ‘So she said, “Is he hot?” and I said, “If you like your guys short, skinny and old.”’
‘What did she say?’ I said.
‘She said, “But vampires are gorgeous!” I told her, “Never have been, and the last one left looks like a ferret.”’
‘He doesn’t look like a ferret!’ I said, then stopped. ‘Okay, maybe he does.’
‘You’re being rude to poor Franklin behind his back,’ Leo said as the wheelchair floated out of the boot of the car and unfolded itself.
‘She’s going over to London to take a look,’ Simone said.
‘Isn’t that too far from her Centre?’ Leo said as he levitated to sit in the chair, then wheeled it next to us.
‘Nah, she’s one of the Tiger’s kids, she’ll go with her dad on the next wife trip,’ Simone said. ‘So I have to warn Franklin: here comes another one, be ready with the girl repellent.’
‘It’d be better if you just didn’t tell people about him,’ I said as we walked out towards the shopping centre.
‘He asked me to,’ she said. ‘He loves blowing their romantic brainless little notions out of the water. He says it’s the most fun he’s had since he swore off, and that’s more than two hundred years.’
‘He’s a vegetarian vampire,’ I said with amusement.
‘And he’s not into girls,’ Simone said.
‘Well, not so much not into girls as not into anything,’ I said. ‘He’s just asexual, Simone, he isn’t interested at all. Most of them were like that. The sexy vampire thing is just the mythology that’s grown around them.’
‘That explains why he has no looks, charm or charisma,’ Simone said.
‘Not even any gay sparkle,’ Leo said.
‘Gay sparkle?’ I said with disbelief.
‘Gayer than me, and that’s saying a lot,’ Leo said.
‘We are evil,’ I said.
‘No,’ Simone said. Her face went slack and her eyes turned inwards, then she took Leo’s and my hands. ‘That’s evil.’
She shared what she was seeing with her touch. Somewhere up ahead and below us in a maintenance area of the shopping centre, there were two large forces facing off with a third entity standing panic-stricken nearby. One force was dark and cold; one was demonic; and the third seemed to be human and scared out of its wits. We dropped our hands and ran towards it. Whatever was happening, the human was in peril.
We entered the underground corridor between the car park and the shopping mall. A stairway on the left led up to ground level; the standoff was below us. We went down the stairs, Leo making his chair float above them. At the bottom there was a door, and a grimy mop and bucket leaning against the wall. The area smelled of stale cigarettes and urine.
Simone pulled at the door; it was locked. She raised both hands with palms towards the door.
I put one hand on her arm. ‘If you can unlock it without blowing it off its hinges, we’ll have the element of surprise.’
She put one hand over the lock and the door opened. ‘Blowing it off its hinges works both as a surprise and a warning.’
There was a corridor on the other side of the door, with plain concrete walls and floor and bare white-painted pipes through the ceiling. At the end of the corridor and facing towards us was a young European of about sixteen. He was the same height as Michael, with sandy brown hair, and didn’t appear anything special. An older European man stood behind him, taller and slimmer with the same colour hair — probably his father. The third person was a young Chinese man, the same height as the younger European and heavily-muscled; he stood with his back to us in a long defensive stance.
Older man is human. European kid is a demon type I’ve never seen before. The one facing away from us is a half-Shen, seems reptile, may be one of Daddy’s, Simone said.
‘Stay back,’ the Shen said to us without turning away from the young European. ‘Leave now. I will protect you.’
The older man put one hand out. ‘There’s nothing to protect anybody against. My son won’t hurt you. Please, whatever you are, just let us go.’
‘I don’t want any trouble,’ the younger man said. ‘I won’t hurt anyone, I promise.’
I stepped forward to stand next to the Shen. ‘Stand down,’ I said without looking at him. ‘I’m Emma Donahoe, Regent of the Northern Heavens, First Heavenly General. This is Princess Simone Chen and Lord Leo Alexander. We’ll handle this demon, you don’t need to destroy it.’
The Shen stared at me. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘I’m not a demon!’ the young man shouted, his face fierce with fury. ‘I’m not … I’m not …’
His father put his hand on the young man’s shoulder and spoke soothingly. ‘Don’t lose it, Tom, deep breaths, you can do it. Hold on, lad, you can’t change here. These people know what you are!’
The Shen and I both stepped back as the skin on the young man’s face disappeared.
‘Snake Mother,’ Leo whispered behind us.
‘Can’t be,’ Simone said. ‘The only male Mother-type is the King himself.’
‘What the hell are you people talking about?’ the Shen said, turning to glare at me again.
I raised both hands. ‘Okay. You.’ I pointed at the older man. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Ben O’Breen,’ he said. He pressed his hand harder into Tom’s shoulder and the young man’s face returned to normal. ‘I’m his father, and he won’t hurt anybody.’
I raised one hand towards the Shen. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Vincent Pang,’ the Shen said. ‘Your name is Emma? You know what I am?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then you probably know more about me than I do.’
I turned back to the Europeans. ‘Ben, do you know what your son is?’
‘I know that his mother was something vicious and powerful, and that we had to get away from her before our son turned into something similar,’ Ben said.
‘Was she Chinese or European?’ I said, noticing Tom’s slightly Eurasian features.
‘Chinese,’ Ben said. ‘Do you know what she was? What he is?’ His face filled with hope. ‘Can you help us?’
‘None of them has any idea what they are?’ Simone said, incredulous.
‘Strange as it sounds, I think that’s the case,’ I said. ‘Tom’s half demon. Vincent attacked him because that’s his nature, being what he is.’
‘What am I?’ Vincent said.
‘You’re half Shen, and probably my half-brother,’ Simone said.
He turned to stare at her. ‘You can see what I really am?’ He took a couple of steps back and appeared ready to run.
‘Don’t