Chapter Two
Valmont isn't great at keeping secrets.
"Look, Helen, how dare you send me a fourteen year old girl with no warning, and no explanation other than you don't want her! That is such bad parenting! What if I hadn't been in?" Valmont bellowed down the phone, the next day, Catrina was still asleep; it had taken her a while to calm down after her excitement over her room.
"She's nineteen, she would have survived. And besides, I meant to call you, but I forgot, just like you've forgotten every single one of her birthdays." A smooth voice retorted. "Every single year, birthday and Christmas I've had to pretend your card has gotten lost in the post. She looks up to you, although I haven't a clue why, and I'd like to show the little brat that her adoring uncle, who would never do a thing wrong, is actually a master criminal and once caught will probably face years in jail."
Valmont glared at the phone. All the reasons why he hadn't called all those years had suddenly come flooding back. Helen. The dragon, he had always thought that she would go nicely with Shendu. Actually, he had always thought that she would marry Shendu, divorce him, take all his money and get horrifically murdered in the night by Shadow Khan. He must introduce them one day.
"Look, Helen, I have important busin-"
"And what do expect me to do about it? I'm sick of her. I just need a few weeks by myself. No more stroppy mood swings, no more arguing, no more scaring my boyfriends, no more refusing to do anything but sit at her computer. I just need some space."
Valmont smiled, wryly, 'I just need some space' had been Helen's excuse for divorcing three perfectly fine, rich, men. No wonder Catrina was a little bit rebellious, given a mother like Helen, Australia wouldn't be far away enough from her. America wasn't.
"Send her back at the end of the holidays, and she will go to college and be a good little girl and get out of my hair." Helen was saying, while Valmont thought about how difficult it would be to move to Australia. "Oh, and don't let her get a tattoo, any more piercing, dye her hair with permanent dye, or get a serious boyfriend. Oh! And don't let her have sex. She looks upon it as some kind of revenge at me!"
Valmont, having heard enough held the phone away from his ear. He did not need to know about his niece's sex life, or her mother's reaction.
"I'm warning you, V, if she comes back saying you let her do anything, I shall fly over there myself." Valmont shuddered.
"No need, Hells bells. I'll make sure she doesn't have sex, acquire any more piercings or tattoos or dye her hair. Happy now?" Wait, how in the world had the conversation gone from him shouting at her for being a bad mother to him meekly agreeing to all of her terms?
"Aww, that's no fun, Uncle V, what am I supposed to do this holiday? Sit and knit? Bye Mum!" She said, making Valmont jump. Quickly, Catrina pressed the end call button and turned to Valmont. "So, what did the old bat have to say? That I'm irresponsible? Argumentative? No? Oooh! I know! That I use my very explicit tales of sex to annoy her?"
Valmont held up his hand. "Please, Catrina, I don't want to know."
Catrina laughed. "Ahhh, it's not like that really, I just write down all these stories in my diary, and she goes and reads it. It stops her searching for my real diary." She bounced up and down on her toes, still in her pajamas, baggy pink bottoms with a pale pink camisole top. Her hair, loose, was scruffy, and she looked so much younger, and slightly more vulnerable, without make up on.
Valmont smirked, he had to hand it to her, she'd got Helen sorted. It was quite a good
Plan; he wished he'd thought of it when he was younger.
"Right, well, I'll see you, this afternoon. Here, fifty dollars, which should get you through the day. Perhaps you could go into the city and see a movie?" Valmont said, handing the bemused teenager a wad of cash.
"Surrre. What are you going to do?" She asked, keeping a tight hold on the notes.
"I, ah, have to go into the city as well; I postponed a meeting yesterday so I could see you get settled in. I could give you a lift?" He offered. Catrina nodded and ran off to get changed. Hopefully his three lackeys hadn't decided to hitch a lift. One of them would obviously be driving, usually Ratso, but the other two liked to tag along in the back seat.
Valmont stood by the open door, some time later, rubbing his forehead, his car was waiting. Where on earth was Catrina?
"CATRINA. We have to go! Now!" He yelled, Catrina sauntered downstairs, in a different but similar pair of jeans and the same hoody she had wrapped around her waist the day before. She yawned, but looked immaculate, her hair was smooth and shiny, her jumper obviously designer, her make up as carefully applied as possible, and she had the 'I don't care if I'm late, I look goo-oo-ood' walk off pat.
"I'm here, I'm here, don't fret! Oooh, limo!" Catrina said, patting her uncle's cheek as she walked out. She opened the car door and slid inside, leaving Valmont to lock up and put certain alarms on and such. Taking a seat in the car, Catrina looked around curiously.
It was a very average limo, all done up, nice and clean, with alcohol placed in certain areas. Of course the two stunned young men sat in, each with a bottle in their hand wasn't what she had though a limo included.
"Hi." She grinned, looking at the two men. Finn and Chow looked at each other nervously, had Valmont gotten a girlfriend? Why would he be taking her to meet Shendu?
"Uhh, hello?" Finn started, leaning over and offering his hand. Catrina looked down at it and shook it warmly. "I'm Finn, and this is Chow, and the guy driving is Ratso."
Catrina began to giggle. "Why are you wearing that? Didn't you know? We've moved on from the 1970's." She said, sympathetically. Finn scowled.
"I just like the look." He shrugged, as Chow leant over to say hello.
Valmont got in the car, looking stressed. "What are you two doing in here! Oh never mind…This is Catrina, my niece." He said pointedly. "She will be dropped off in the city. She isn't coming with us." Catrina grinned, especially at Finn, who assumed it was just because she was a fashion conscious teenager.
"Well? Go!"
The car sped off. Catrina spent most of the time sitting between Chow and Finn, since they had the best window, and didn't mind in the least if she asked questions.
Ratso stopped the car and Catrina was told to move, giggling at something Chow had said, Catrina got out of the car.
"Wait! How do you know when to pick me up?" She asked, as the door closed and the car left. Luckily it hit traffic, and so Catrina was able to follow the car by walking, or running at one point. They had stopped outside a big office building, and Catrina watched them all get out, at first she was just going to run up to him find out the arrangements and leave them to it but a mini Catrina appeared all in red by her shoulder.
"Follow them in. He's been so secretive of this business. Aren't you curious?"
"No! Just say something now!" Another Catrina dressed in white argued. "Give your uncle some privacy!"
Catrina shook her head, and both disappeared. She stood and deliberated for a few moments. That was enough, they had gone in and Catrina had no choice but to follow them sneakily. Grinning, Catrina set off and walked in. There didn't seem to be anyone there, she had expected at least a receptionist. The place was abandoned.
Although Valmont and his crew, plus one Hak Foo, who had been waiting for them inside, had taken the lift, Catrina just saw the floor number and started up the stairs. This was getting more and more puzzling. Why was an empty building so important? Why couldn't she go?
Panting slightly when she got to the tenth floor Catrina stopped outside a door, open only a fraction, hearing voices.
"Listen, Shendu, we have looked everywhere. There isn't a spell. I'm sorry, but you're stuck like that." Catrina heard Valmont say, she recognized him anywhere, but the next voice was the stuff made from nightmares. Dangerous, full of power, and obviously angry, Catrina had never heard anything like it.
"I will not accept that fact!" Assuming that this was Shendu, Catrina crept close to the door, to hear easier. "You just haven't been searching!"
"I have, I've spent thousands on books, we've searched the internet, libraries, monasteries, and the amount of trips my men have been to China is unbelievable!"
"You will search harder! You will keep searching, or you will die. There is a way, you are just incompetent!" The voice hissed. Catrina's eyes were as wide as saucers. She glanced inside the door and saw the five men talking to a huge statue on a wall. From what she could see, the statue looked as if it had been broken apart countless times, a big snake all curled up. The snake had glowing red eyes, were they rubies? They couldn't really be glowing…And who was talking?
Catrina leant on the door and it creaked.
"What was that!" The hissing continued.
She winced and suddenly there was a man clothed all in black with red eyes looking at her through the crack!
She started to run, heading for the stairs, seeing black shapes appear on the floors on the walls and suddenly there were hundreds of the men. She didn't know what they were, or what they would do to her, all she knew was she was in big trouble. Catrina ran down the stairs, two, three at a time, but still they were gaining on her, they seemed to just fly through the air.
It was like a light bulb appeared above her head, and Catrina paused, loosing valuable time to sit on the banister, it went all the way down without a break, she slid down, now going faster then the flying men. The wind whipped through her hair, but she was far to scared to realize how much fun that would be. It was a bit hairy on the corners, every time she thought she was going to fall off, but she managed not too, probably through sheer adrenaline.
Out of the building, she had made it, daylight once more! However one glance behind her told her that getting out had only saved her for so long. Still, they came after her, completely silent, and their red eyes making Catrina's blood run cold. She ran, thankful she still had the fifty dollars her uncle had given her tucked away neatly in her jeans.
She ran until she saw crowds, this was where the shops were, and Catrina wasn't sure whether to curse them, or be relieved, it made getting away slower and tougher, but in a crowd no one could see her. Catrina jumped on a bus, no, wait, a tram? She paid for her ticket and ducked down so none of the ninja's could see her.
Eventually she got off, when she was sure that she hadn't been followed, finally her heart was given a chance to relax, and her breathing could slow down. Valmont was going to kill her when he saw her…She walked along the streets, just looking, they weren't as big here, small and pokey really. Strange names like 'Uncle's Rare Finds'.
The Shadow Khan attacked again, although it wasn't really an attack, they merely circled around her, like sharks. Catrina found her voice, and screamed shrilly. There was a crash inside the shop, but at least it had caught someone's attention.
A young Chinese man came running out and took two of the shadow khan out immediately. Following him out was a young girl, determined to be part of the action and a huge man. Following that was an older Chinese man. Catrina didn't know where to look, but they seemed to know what they were doing, good thing, because Catrina didn't have a clue.
The older man kept zapping the Shadow Khan, making them melt, the young one was fighting, and his movements fluid and exact. Catrina was in awe, she turned to watch the big man, Toru, squash one, and the small girl was trying to fight, but nothing compared to her elders.
Distracted by the group of, in Catrina's opinion, super hero's, Catrina didn't notice the two black shapes appear behind her until they had each a hold of her arms. The rest disappeared, melting into the ground, and to her horror, so did Catrina!
