Dark Serpent

by Kylie Chan

  ‘Sorry.’

  She stayed with her forehead on the window.

  ‘Simone?’ he said.

  She didn’t reply.

  ‘I truly am sorry. Help me to be more human.’ He dropped his voice. ‘I need you.’

  ‘And we need the Jade Building Block,’ she said.

  ‘Huh?’ the stone said. ‘Did someone say my name?’

  ‘You’re fading, stone,’ John said.

  ‘I know,’ the stone said.

  ‘What if you’re gone and she needs you?’

  ‘You should replace me, my Lord.’

  ‘Not on my watch,’ I said. ‘We can find a volunteer to back you up, but I’ll always wear you as my engagement ring.’

  ‘I’ll start looking for someone to help me now,’ the stone said. ‘We’ll have one ready for you as soon as you get home.’

  ‘How active is the network here?’ John said. ‘Can you communicate?’

  ‘It lags slightly, but I can talk to everybody.’

  ‘Then start making inquiries, because stone circles here have been kidnapped.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Stone circles are disappearing,’ Leo said. He showed the picture to the stone. ‘Find out what you can.’

  ‘Right,’ the stone said with renewed purpose. ‘Let me link into the stone network here and find out what’s going on. I’ll report back as soon as I have something for you.’

  ‘Good,’ John said.

  ‘Oh, and Emma?’ the stone said.

  ‘Hmm?’

  Its voice softened and filled with affection. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Heh, I like having you as an engagement ring,’ I said. ‘People ask me if you’re “that” stone.’

  ‘People used to ask the Yellow Empress the same thing.’

  After three and a half hours of travel on the motorway, the traffic had thinned until we were one of the few cars on the road. We passed over a large causeway with flat muddy ocean on either side of us.

  ‘We’re arriving on the island of Anglesey,’ John said. ‘Only about twenty more minutes and we’ll be on Holy Island.’

  ‘Good, my bum hurts,’ Simone said. ‘This van is the most uncomfortable thing ever.’

  ‘One of the large houses we talked about is on the coast near here,’ I said, watching the green hills pass by.

  ‘We’ll settle into the inn first and reconnoitre,’ John said. ‘Leo?’

  ‘No problem at all holding the shape.’

  ‘Good. Stone? Any word?’

  ‘A moment, my Lord.’ The stone was quiet, then, ‘I have been given a contact on Holy Island. It will meet us in human form in the centre of town for lunch. I suggest I take human form myself to make communication easier.’

  ‘Good idea. One more person will add to our camouflage, and we have an extra room booked anyway,’ John said.

  ‘Is that all right, Emma?’ the stone said.

  ‘Of course.’

  The stone took human form: a tall, slim European man in his mid-sixties with a shock of white hair. He was wearing a pair of jeans, a green turtleneck and short black leather boots. He took one of the spare seats at the back and buckled up, then briskly rubbed his hands through his hair, making it all stand on end.

  ‘Ageing hippie enough for you, Simone?’ he said.

  Simone leaned her forehead on the window. ‘I’m surrounded by old people.’

  ‘I am not a people,’ the stone said with dignity. He leaned his elbow on the windowsill, his chin on his hand. ‘I wonder if there’s a retirement village on the beach here?’

  ‘What on earth for?’ Simone said.

  The stone glanced at her, his eyes full of mischief. ‘Mature British women are completely wild. Absolute powerhouses.’

  ‘The Tiger said that too,’ John said.

  Simone covered her ears. ‘This conversation is stopping now!’

  ‘Suit yourself,’ the stone said, and grinned into his hand.

  We went over another, shorter bridge fifteen minutes later. The road was almost deserted.

  ‘We’re crossing onto Holy Island now,’ John said.

  ‘It’s all farms and ponies,’ Simone said with interest. ‘Cute little farmhouses.’

  John’s phone rang.

  ‘Simone, put that on speaker for me,’ he said.

  ‘A “please” now and then wouldn’t kill you,’ she grumbled as she pressed the button.

  ‘Gods don’t beg.’ He raised his voice. ‘Hello?’

  ‘Lord Xuan. It’s Lindsay Gration, Leonard’s sister.’

  John dropped his voice and spoke kindly to her. ‘Good morning, Lindsay. How is Leonard?’

  ‘He’s still in a coma.’ Her voice brightened. ‘The doctors are positive he’ll recover. We just have to wait and see.’

  ‘That’s good to hear. If there’s anything I can do to help, just call me.’

  ‘Thanks. There’s something you need to know; it might be important.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The police came around to my house this morning. They’re looking for Emma.’

  Simone glanced back at me, her expression unreadable.

  ‘Do they think I did it?’ I said loudly enough for the phone to catch it.

  Lindsay took an audible deep breath. ‘They didn’t say as much, but it’s obvious that they do. They asked me if you held a grudge against Leonard because he was your sister’s ex. They also wanted to know where you’d gone. You all disappeared the day after he …’ Her voice faded, then she rallied. ‘After he was attacked.’

  ‘Thanks for warning us, Lindsay, we can handle it,’ John said. ‘You don’t need to worry, we can fix everything up. Liaise with my butler, Peta, and call me any time.’

  ‘Thanks, John,’ she said, her voice full of tears, and hung up.

  ‘Stone,’ John said. He glanced in the rear-view mirror and his voice sharpened. ‘Jade Building Block.’

  The stone jerked awake from where he had been drowsing in the back seat. ‘My Lord.’

  ‘They think Emma tried to kill Leonard. Contact Gold immediately. Have him arrange for records to show that Emma returned to Hong Kong the night before Leonard was attacked. Also have him arrange an Emma double in Hong Kong ready to be questioned if necessary.’

  ‘My Lord,’ the stone said, and his eyes unfocused. ‘Oh, to hell with this, it’s way too hard,’ he added, and changed to True Form: a small green stone sitting on the bus seat.

  ‘It’s too hard to hold human form while you talk to him?’ Simone said, concerned.

  ‘Well, holding a shape as profoundly charismatic as that does take some energy.’

  ‘Charismatic,’ Leo said from behind his newspaper. ‘Sure. Let’s see you run for Chief Executive.’

  ‘Charisma has nothing to do with winning an election in Hong Kong, you know that.’

  ‘People’s Congress, then.’

  ‘As I said,’ the stone said with dignity, ‘I am not a people. Now be quiet, I’m talking to Gold.’

  As we neared Holyhead, the mountain came into view. The shape of it went through me like a flash and I remembered the dream. I was climbing that mountain in snake form and there was blood on top. I needed that blood, my whole body sang for it. Suddenly I could smell the blood of everybody around me — and I craved it. John was deep and powerful, like a vintage red wine, meaty with hints of spice and fruit. Leo was tainted by the large amount of coffee he drank, but strong and rich. The scent of Simone drove me mad — she was light and fresh, full of clean air and green grass, with an icy powerful fizz that bubbled within her. She was too good just to smell and I nearly couldn’t control the need to taste the blood singing within her. I closed my eyes, put my head in my hands and slammed my forehead onto my knees, trying to clear the craving. The mountain’s shape throbbed inside me and I took deep breaths. That didn’t help because I inhaled even more of their scents.

  Someone grabbed me, undid my seatbelt and bundled me out of the van. I leaned against i
ts side and filled my lungs with tasteless air.

  ‘Talk to me,’ John said.

  ‘I can smell your blood. It smells so good,’ I said between gasps. ‘Move well away from me.’ I banged the back of my head against the side of the van, trying to distract myself. ‘Back off!’

  ‘Touch the earth. Touch the sky. Touch your Buddha nature and what makes you who you are,’ John said. ‘Feel for your yang and take snake form if you need to. I will hide you.’

  I reached down within myself and found Kwan Yin’s essence, the purity of compassion that would never harm another living thing, and the need for their blood subsided. A passing car slowed, but then roared away. They’d probably seen John’s wild hair and lurid T-shirt and decided not to stop.

  I bent over my knees and ran my hand over my forehead. ‘Holy shit, I’m a freaking vampire.’

  ‘Nope,’ Simone said, ‘no fangs, and no sparkle.’

  ‘Don’t joke about it,’ I said. ‘My snake form has very nice fangs.’

  ‘Yep, hottest thing about it,’ John said. ‘Feeling better?’

  ‘I can’t go back in the van with all of you.’

  ‘Try doing it as snake,’ John said.

  ‘I can’t change to snake right now.’

  ‘Yes, you can. Just concentrate; nobody can see you.’

  ‘No, John, I can’t risk it.’

  ‘I’ll help you. Do you want me to hold you so you don’t run to find my Serpent?’ He reached out to me and I quickly backed away. ‘It’s all right; your snake may not be similarly affected.’ I continued to back away from him and he stopped, confused. ‘It’s all right, Emma, your snake may be able to control it. Just bring it out and have a try. I’ll help you.’

  I was backed up against a tree and I raised my hands. ‘Stop, John.’

  He kept moving towards me. ‘It’s all right, I’m here. I’ll help you change.’

  ‘John, stop. I can’t change when I might be pregnant!’

  He stopped and stared at me.

  ‘The test you bought the other night was positive?’ Leo said. He rushed to me and pulled me into a huge hug, dragging me off my feet. ‘Damn girl, that’s great news!’ He put me down gently and backed off, concerned. ‘I didn’t squeeze you too tight, did I?’

  ‘No, I’m fine. The test was negative, but it might be too early to tell. I have to be careful until I’m sure one way or the other …’

  ‘And a human baby can’t live in your snake body,’ John said, understanding. His face went slack. ‘A human baby? Another one?’ Realisation dawned on him and it was wonderful to see. ‘We’re going to have a baby?’

  He came to me and lifted me the same way Leo had. ‘This is wonderful!’ He spun me around, then gently lowered me, gazing into my eyes. He brushed one hand over my hair. ‘You have to be careful you don’t change to snake. And no energy work.’

  ‘Like I said, John, the test was negative, but it might be too early to tell.’

  ‘Can you look inside and see?’ Simone said.

  ‘At this stage there isn’t anything to see,’ he said. ‘As Emma said, we’ll just have to be careful until we’re sure one way or the other.’

  Simone hugged me more gently than the men had and spoke with her voice full of tears. ‘I hope you are, Emma.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Just don’t get your hopes up too much. I’ve only been on the fertility treatment for a couple of months and the doctor said it might take a while for it to work.’

  ‘Let’s go on to Holyhead,’ Leo said.

  ‘I can’t go back in the van with all of you. As long as I can see that damn mountain, the bloodlust is too strong.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Simone said.

  I had an idea. ‘I’ll be okay as long as I can’t see the mountain. Hide the top of it.’

  ‘Hide it? What, put a really big tablecloth over it?’ Simone said.

  ‘Weather. Fog. Clouds. We have a weather god here, don’t we?’

  ‘Brilliant,’ Leo said.

  ‘I can, but I’ll need to take Celestial Form,’ John said.

  ‘Will it fit inside the van?’ Simone said.

  John looked around. ‘Pull the bags out and I should just fit.’

  I sat on the grass at the side of the road with my back to the damn mountain, but still intensely aware of its dark presence, while all four of them pulled the bags out and stacked them on the roadside. John climbed into the van and sat on the floor, cross-legged. Leo sat on the grass next to me, and Simone and the stone stood beside us to watch.

  John changed to Celestial Form. His head was too tall for the roof of the kombi so he placed one hand on the ceiling, and pushed a dent into it with a horrible shriek of distressed metal.

  ‘You’re paying for that,’ Leo said.

  ‘I can afford it.’

  John settled with his head in the dent and put his hands into his lap and closed his eyes. His hair rose around his head, a nimbus of shen energy surrounded him and the air around us grew cold.

  ‘Asian god in a kombi. That is the hippiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life,’ Simone said softly.

  Quiet, I’m concentrating, he said.

  Something in the cold air shifted; it became denser and more humid. Clouds formed around us, then the humidity was gone and the air returned to normal. John dropped back to his normal human shape, ran his hand over the top of his head and smiled at us.

  ‘You’re not too drained?’ Simone said.

  ‘I’m fine.’ He climbed out of the kombi and studied the mountain. ‘You won’t be seeing that for a while.’ He turned to me. ‘How’s the blood fury?’

  I checked the mountain; the clouds completely covered it. ‘Still there, but as long as I don’t see the mountain I should be okay.’

  ‘Let us know if it starts to come back.’

  Leo indicated the roof of the van. ‘You hold it from inside, I’ll push it from the outside.’

  ‘No need.’

  John lightly jumped onto the roof of the van, held one palm against the dent he’d made, hesitated for a second then leaned into it. The dent snapped back into place. He vaulted down off the roof and we put the bags back and headed towards Holyhead.

  20

  The motorway ended at a train station and Holyhead’s Irish ferry terminal. We stopped at the traffic lights in front of the terminal, and John turned left into the village with its narrow cobblestoned streets. Rows of two-storey houses with small windows were built up the steep hillside heading away from the harbour. The base of the mountain was visible behind the town, but the top was covered by John’s clouds. I kept myself distracted by concentrating on the scenery around us.

  ‘Jade Building Block,’ John said. ‘Guide us to the inn, if you will.’

  The stone jerked awake again. ‘Accessing … go straight through the lights and around past the old church.’

  ‘That church is extremely ancient and on the site of an old Roman fort,’ I said. ‘The walls are Roman.’

  ‘Romans. Ugly bastards, very fond of killing,’ John said. ‘I ran into a few of them when they were expanding; they came as far as China to trade. Considered themselves vastly superior to every other race on the planet.’

  ‘Um … didn’t the Chinese feel that way at the same time?’ I said.

  ‘We still do,’ the stone said with humour. ‘But then again, everybody always does. Turn left here and head up the hill.’

  We threaded our way three hundred metres up the hill until we came to a three-storey guesthouse overlooking the bay. A ferry as big as a cruise ship was heading out of the harbour beyond the breakwater. The sky above the sea was a pale watery blue.

  John turned to speak to us. ‘We probably only have a couple of days at the most before they work out who we are. Let’s find out what’s happening before they do. When we’re inside, assume we’re being listened to at all times and stay in character.’

  ‘Report from Gold,’ the stone said. ‘The alibi’s all set up;
and the squad will be here day after tomorrow to take Emma home.’

  ‘Good.’ John studied the house across the road from us. ‘All clear. Let’s go.’

  The front door opened to a narrow hall with stairs leading up. A door on the right led to the breakfast room, comfortably furnished with three wooden tables. The owner of the inn came out of the back room and welcomed us warmly. She was a motherly Welsh woman in her late fifties named Mabel Defaoite. She glowed in my heightened senses; something about her was rich and cool and much sweeter than the average human.

  ‘We have three rooms,’ she said. ‘Since there are six of you, you have the whole house.’

  ‘Only five now,’ John said. ‘One of us couldn’t make it.’

  ‘Do you still want all three rooms?’

  ‘Absolutely.’

  ‘Then come on up and choose who sleeps where. It’s all completely up to you.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, immediately liking her.

  ‘Is your hair natural?’ she asked me as she led us up the stairs.

  It took me a moment to realise she was referring to my redhead camouflage. ‘Yes. I get constant grief about it.’

  ‘I can understand why people would be jealous,’ she said, smiling. ‘These are the blue and yellow rooms, sleep two each.’

  We all hesitated for a moment.

  Simone, top floor by herself, John said. Me and Emma in the room at the end of the hall. Leo, take the other room this floor.

  ‘What about Jay?’ I said, indicating the stone.

  Mabel looked from me to John, bewildered.

  ‘I’ll share with Gerry,’ he said, slapping Leo on the shoulder. I’ll go back to the ring at night and help guard.

  ‘Okay.’ I followed John into the double room at the end of the hall.

  ‘Well, you seem to be organised,’ Mabel said.

  Simone raced up the stairs and shouted down, ‘This room is huge!’ Leo, want to share this one? The view is great from up here.

  Leo stays one floor below to guard, John said.

  You are so boring, Simone said. We could have a slumber party.

  Ugh. Me big tough man, no want slumber parties, Leo said.

  ‘Since you have the whole house, breakfast is whenever you want it,’ Mabel said.