The water brightened. The Serpent drifted upwards. The sunlight made streaks of vivid blue in the water. The Serpent reached the surface and lay, unmoving, just beneath. It raised its head slightly above the water, then dipped it below again. It cried. There was no answer.

       Chapter One

      Itapped gently on the door. ‘Mum? Dad?’ ‘Come in, sweetheart.’

      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.

      ‘You okay, guys?’ I said.

      Both of them smiled weakly at me.

      ‘You don’t need to worry now,’ I said. ‘That attack’s been coming for a while. I think he threw everything he had at us. It’s finished. It’ll be quiet for a long time.’

      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. ‘Does that sort of thing happen often?’

      ‘Small attacks, all the time. Big ones like that, no. That’s only the second or third time we’ve had so many demons thrown at us at once.’ I paused and thought about it. ‘No, actually more than that.’ I smiled an apology. ‘We 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 Jennifer’s house.’ I counted them up. ‘Four, not counting last night.’

      ‘Jennifer’s house? You mean your sister Jennifer?’ my mother said. ‘Oh, that’s right, Leonard works for Mr Chen. Jennifer was attacked? So she knows all about this?’

      ‘Yes. But Jennifer wasn’t attacked. They attacked us, at her house. Her family weren’t threatened at all, from what I could see.’

      ‘She never mentioned it,’ my father said.

      ‘I don’t think she wants to dwell on it,’ I said. ‘It was a very frightening experience for all of them. We’ve posted guards at their house, but no more demons have gone anywhere near them. The demons are after us. Wong wants to take John’s head to the King.’

      ‘They have a King?’ 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.

      ‘Yeah. Big red-headed bastard. The little creep who came after us last night is his son. The King’s said that anyone who can bring him John’s head will be promoted to Number One son.’

      ‘They want his head?’ my mother said.

      ‘John — Xuan Wu — 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 he’s weak like this, they’ll keep attacking him. If they get his head, he’ll be gone for a very long time.’

      ‘What do you mean “gone”?’ my father said. ‘Dead?’

      ‘No. If they take his head, he’ll revert to True Form. He’ll 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.’

      ‘He’d change into a what?’ my mother said.

      I sighed. ‘Yeah, I know it’s weird. Even the other Shen say he’s strange, and they’re all completely unbelievable themselves.’ I explained before she could ask. ‘They’re called Shen . Spirits. Not really gods, but that’s the closest word in English we have for it.’

      ‘So this guy you’re engaged to isn’t a human being at all,’ my father said. ‘He’s some sort of animal spirit.’

      ‘Got it in one. He’s the Spirit of the North, Emperor of the Dark Northern Heavens, a combination of a serpent and a turtle.’ They both opened their mouths and I answered before they could ask. ‘Yep. That’s right. He’s two animals. And it gets