What's the cool thing, you ask. Well, here you go: Alaer Kino has drawn Ni Tang! The sad thing is that no matter what I try the URLs just won't show here! So please search for her profile in the search, you can't miss her.

And remember to actually do it, there's also other JCA art by her, please give her the credit she deserves. I personally think no one else can draw the demons that well, and you'll love her style too once you view the pics.

NI TANG

Chapter 14

Unlike Hsi Wu, Bai Tsa had immediately fallen in love with the new Rome and time. She loved the colours, flavours, smells and sounds, she thought it was incredible humans could have created a paradise like this. And then when she heard Rome wasn't the only one, that there were also places like Paris and Los Angeles, she was ready to explode because of the excitement.

She had got them two rooms in a fairly good hotel and she herself took the first one leaving Hsi Wu and Jade to share the other. The girl didn't actually approve that, but at least there were two beds and she fell on the other one closing her eyes in relief. Finally she was allowed to sleep...

Hsi Wu didn't sleep, but sat on his bed. It was dark, but the curtains were open and he could have seen everything in the room even if they weren't. The room was pleasant to a human eye, but the sky demon despised it. It wasn't what he was used to and he didn't want anything else.

He was not spoiled or childish, the treatment from the older demons had taken care of that, but now he missed all that what had been before. Bai Tsa could accept the change of the world and even enjoy it, but not he. He just wanted the old times back.

The slave looked so peaceful in her sleep. Funny, when awake she was swift and talked to him with sarcasm, but now she just lay there and slept. Her face was expressionless, even though Hsi Wu could have imagined a small smile on her lips. The moonlight flowing from the window made her black hair shine faintly and created a beautiful glow on her face. At that moment Hsi hoped the girl would open her brown eyes so he could watch them in the dim light.

And then he suddenly understood what he was thinking and slit his eyes hissing angrily at himself and Jade. He should not be thinking like that, especially not about a slave! A child! True, the girl was attractive and would grow into a beautiful young woman, but even then Hsi Wu could not have her. She was the property of Ni Tang and without the polar demon giving her away Hsi didn't even have the right to think about her like that.

But no one else was here now and no one could read his thoughts. So he could watch the slave for a while now when she slept and would not ask stupid questions.

Jade had been so tired she had not bothered to take off her clothes, not that she would have done that in front of a demon anyway, and she was lieing on the bed all clothes on. Hsi Wu tilted his head and licked his lips, he would not sleep tonight, it wasn't necessary. So... he didn't actually need his own blanket, right?

He rose up and took the blanket with him. For a moment he still considered and watched as his figure created a shadow on the slave and then he sighed in frustration. Hsi Wu put the blanket gently on Jade so she would not wake up and decided he would answer the girl's questions by saying Bai Tsa had told him to take care of Ni's slave.

The slave didn't notice anything and Hsi was pleased. He didn't know why he was doing this, it just felt good and right at the moment. Maybe Bai Tsa's scolding had finally worked and made him take better care of slaves. Yeah, that had to be it.

Now when he had done this he glanced at the girl once more and let his eyes move to the Pan Ku box which was laying on the table. He frowned deep in thought, they had been doing pretty fine this far. Two demons were already free, three if they counted Ni too and they had not faced any big problems.

Hsi Wu felt a rare pang of worry inside of himself and noticed he was thinking how Ni Tang would do in San Francisco. The polar demon was so inexperienced and vulnerable right now, it might have been a bad idea to leave him all alone. What if the chi wizard had done something and he was in trouble?

The sky demon shook his head, Ni was a demon after all. He could take care of himself and was not stupid enough to get caught in trouble. Hsi knew this and it made him feel a bit better, but he still wanted to return to San Francisco as soon as possible.

But it had to wait, Bai Tsa had demanded them to continue to the next portal and only then they could return back to the younger brother. Hsi didn't like it, but he had no right to talk back to Bai, who was the oldest one of them right after Tchang Zu, Po Kong and Tso Lan.

And so they had got the next message out of the box. Jade had been so tired she hadn't actually understood what was happening around her, so it had been easy to force her to open the box. The clue had been an easy one, Shendu's portal was located in China, their old home. It was a pleasant welcome and maybe he and Bai Tsa were a bit jealous too. Why was the black sheep of the family allowed to get the best place?

Well, they could give that a thought later and could even ask Shendu himself once he was free. After that opening the portals would be child's play, the fire demon knew where the rest of the portals were and all they needed was the right spells to overcome the ones the old chi wizard had cast.

A warm wind was blowing outside and Hsi opened the window and peered out. He closed his eyes for a while and let the wind flow the dark hair of his human form. He could smell the scents the wind brought and for a while he forgot he was inside and everything seemed to disappear. This was a good night to fly.

It was dark and no one would see him and even if did, would think he was a hallucination of some sort. Hsi glanced behind his back where Jade slept and frowned. No one would miss or need him right now, he could go.

His clothes melted with his own body, his skin turned grey, he grew, his eyes turned red and he got his horns, tail and wings back. Hsi kept them drawn up because of the lack of space and pushed his head out again.

With a swift leap he was on the window frame and then he jumped. He spread his wings quickly before he fell too close to the ground and hit the air. He rose up with every flap and felt the breath of air and coolness on his face.

The sky was cloudless and he could see all the starts flashing in his eyes when he flew through the sky. It was calming, cool and Hsi flew up high to forget the sounds of the humans and the city. He loved this and didn't know what he would do if he couldn't fly.

Just the mere thought of being forever banished on the ground without the opportunity to fly made him feel himself imprisoned. Luckily he wasn't a human, that would have been the worst punishment ever. Hsi didn't dare to close his eyes, as tempting as it was. He was still in the city and could not let himself get careless. The danger could lurk everywhere and he had to be very careful all the time.

He landed on a high building and let his gaze travel down in the mixture of humans and light. No one looked up and even if they had, they would not have seen him in the shadows. It was good, the sky demon considered it to be amusing that he sat above the humans, where he belonged, and watched their pitiful doings.

Two figures walked down there hand in hand, Hsi saw them well despite the distance and darkness. He followed the two with his gaze and when they stepped in the light he felt strange loneliness inside of him.

Father and son.

When losing all his memories he had also lost everything about his parents, his father and mother. Tso Lan had told they had been great demons, one of the mightiest, but that was all. It made him angry and annoyed, didn't he have the right to know his parents too?

They might not have given him any special attention, but Hsi still wanted to remember them. But he had nothing in his mind, not a single memory. Sometimes, when he slept he could remember some fragile pictures, a gentle touch, a said word, a proud smile. He thought it didn't really fit his idea of a demon, not even one who might care about his or her son, but who else could it be? Maybe he would remember it one day, but it would take time.

Hsi noticed he had been thinking for too long, the father and the son had already left. He didn't want to follow them so the sky demon spread his wings before jumping again. He decided to return and keep an eye on the slave.

And maybe he would try to sleep too, you never knew what you could remember.


Jade woke up and sighed. She didn't remember when she had last slept that well. She was still feeling a bit tired, but didn't want to fall asleep again, you never knew what the demons might come up with. Considering the light it was already morning and Jade guessed the clock was nine or something like that.

She rose and let her hands support her and just then she noticed the blanket on her. She frowned, she didn't remember taking it. After some thinking and simple glance on her bed reassured her that it wasn't ever her blanket.

Hsi Wu. The demon had given it to her at some point of the night and Jade didn't really know what she should think about it. It was nice when someone finally noticed she existed, but was the attention of a demon that good?

Well, the demon had cared enough about her being cold and had given up his blanket. Jade snorted, like someone would catch a cold in Rome. But she was not going to complain.

The girl wrenched the blanket away and looked around herself.

"You are awake," Hsi Wu pointed out simply and Jade nodded.

The sky demon sat on an arm chair and read some kind of Italian magazine turning the pages, not actually caring what he did. He was in his child form again, which made Jade feel better and more self-confident and she jumped on the floor.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully.

Hsi Wu threw the magazine away, it was useless anyway, and he could not have been less interested in the doings of some mortals.

"Morning," he said and now when he looked like a kid of her own age Jade almost believed he meant it.

"Thanks for the blanket," she said and took a banana from a basket on the table. Hsi watched as the girl unwrapped the banana skin and took a piece of the fruit. He didn't actually know what to say, he had promised himself that everything was just that they would have a healthy and strong slave with them, but right now he wanted to tell her it had been for the girl personally.

"You need your strength today, sister Bai says we will move to the next portal. It belongs to brother Shendu, I think you know him," Hsi said and smiled. Shendu would be happy to see his old enemy too. Then his smile died and he glanced at Jade who ate her banana trying to act like what Hsi had said didn't matter at all.

To this point everything had been pretty easy, she had not been forced to stand the real evil demons. But Shendu was something way different than the quiet Ni, clever Hsi or excited Bai. The fire demon was blood thirsty and cruel and Hsi knew he had to do some actual work if he wanted to keep his brother's claws off the girl.

Jade threw the banana skin on the table and leaned back in her chair. She didn't show it, but the news about Shendu made her feel worried. She glanced where the Pan Ku box was and frowned.

She had now accepted she would not get away just like that and that this wasn't just a regular adventure. She now had two demons keeping an eye on her. Even if she would find a way to escape she had to find a safe place as soon as possible.

Maybe she would find one if she was patient enough. They would travel to Hong Kong next, where her parents lived. At first she considered running to them, but was soon ashamed of that thought. Her parents had no idea what was going on and she didn't want to make them involved, they were good parents but didn't know how to deal with demons. Besides, they might even force her to move back to China and then she would miss all the great adventures with Jackie.

But wasn't this an adventure enough? Jade shook her head and made Hsi Wu glance at her curiously, she would survive as the winner and then it would be the time of a new adventure. Maybe Jackie would take her on a trip? It would be wise, if Jade was left home something like this always happened.

Bai pushed the door open not bothering to know and both Jade and Hsi turned to look. The water demon smiled at them cunningly and waved her hand, Jade thought she looked disturbingly like a average tourist.

"Good morning! Still not up yet?" she asked like she had no worry in the world and closed the door.

She caught an orange and sat to eat it.

"Fun last night?" she asked from Hsi, who frowned and looked at Jade, then at his sister. Was Bai really thinking that...?

"We didn't do anything!" he denied quickly and Jade nodded.

"Yeah, I'm way too young and even if I wasn't I would never let a demon to touch me!" she said and they both just stared when Bai started to laugh.

A peace of the fruit stuck her throat and for a while the water demon could only cough and mutter quiet words, but when she finally was free of it she laughed again and wiped tears from her eyes.

"I didn't mean that! I saw you flying away Hsi, and just wanted to know what you saw outside," she explained in amusement and both Hsi and Jade blushed. Bai glanced at them slyly.

"Even though I could get some dirty ideas considering your guilty expressions..." she said taking a new bite.

"When are we leaving to free Shendu?" Hsi asked quickly trying to make her sister think about something else. The water demon's smile died and she was more serious again.

"Today, I don't want to waste any time. When we've freed him we will return to Ni to look if he's still alive. And as much I hate to admit it, Shendu is a very important right now. He knows where the rest of the portals are, we need him. You have had luck finding the two portals, but in the future we can not afford to take huge risks," she said and Hsi felt anger rising inside of him. So Bai meant what he and Ni had done was not because of their talent, but because of luck.

The water demon noticed her brother's displeased expression and slit her eyes.

"Don't overestimate yourself Hsi," she commented making the sky demon even more angry, but he didn't say anything. Bai Tsa would win the argument anyway and Hsi didn't want Jade to see it. It would not be good if the slave thought he was weak.

"Get yourself ready, I want everything to be in order within an hour," Bai announced and rose to leave. She wanted to get familiar with some things and have fun with the boy in the room service before they left Rome.

"Ciao!" she said cheerfully leaving Hsi Wu and Jade alone.

"I need a hairbrush," Jade commented playing with her black hair which was a mess after the night. Hsi frowned and shrugged.

"Then get one, I'm not your valet," he said.

"I would not take you anyway, you are way too ugly," Jade answered.

"I take that you've never seen Shendu in his real body?" the sky demon commented dryly.

"Actually I have and that was enough thank you. He was pretty horrible in Valmont's body too," the girl snapped and sighed then.

Hsi Wu glanced at her in surprise, he had long time ago noticed that Jade took the death of this Valmont very seriously. He couldn't understand why, the man had been her enemy, so shouldn't she be happy for him being dead? Oh well, maybe it had something to do with compassion. It was so like humans to feel sorry for even their enemies.

"Hurry up," he said standing up and making sure he looked fine to walk among humans.

"Right, like you'd ever leave me here."

To be continued...