Wan Mei / Unnamed island in the Yellow Sea
The island was tiny and seemed quite desolate. Wan Mei looked at his companions. They were all dressed in dark colours, and Nico's bright blond hair was hidden under a dark cap. So far, so good, but it wouldn't hurt to summon some mist. He had no occasion to do so because Nico came to an abrupt halt when they exited the boat, and Wan Mei almost bumped into him.
'I don't see them anymore,' the Tracker announced, sounding almost panicked.
'Please tell me they haven't left,' Jass sighed.
'They have not left, but I don't know where they are. They are here. I just don't know where exactly. It's like something is blocking me,' Nico tried to explain.
An awful feeling came over Wan Mei, but before he could say anything, manic laughter tore through the night. He panicked when a voice spoke in an ancient Chinese dialect. It was a language and a voice he hadn't heard for centuries, but he still recognized both.
'Wan Mei! Still prettier than the dawn and dumber than a melon!'
He felt his heart beat faster but stood his ground as the apparition spoke on.
'So many immortals vanquished and destroyed. So many mightier and smarter than you. Why are you still alive? You have no purpose in this ugly world anymore,' the disembodied voice mocked. It came from nowhere and everywhere at once.
'What the duck is that?' Jass asked from behind Wan Mei.
'Nightmare,' the latter replied through gritted teeth.
'What is it saying?' Nico asked.
'Just boasting.'
'What kind of witch is that?'
'He isn't,' Wan Mei replied in English and then addressed the being in the same old dialect it had spoken to him.
'We don't want anything to do with you. We are looking for the Xiang Clan.'
The manic laughter tore through the air again.
'You are looking for that jade pin, pretty boy. Lost it again, did you? How careless!'
'Show yourself!' Jass suddenly called out in English.
'No!' Wan Mei shouted, but it was too late.
'Your wish is my command,' the disembodied voice replied in a mockery of Jass' American accent.
A blaze of light tore through the air.
Wan Mei called to his companions, 'Close your eyes!'
They either did not hear him or were too dumbstruck to obey. The humanoid form that one could barely see in the shadow started changing shapes. It formed all kinds of chimaeras from the worst human nightmares, then became a giant snake snapping at Nico's face. The young man fell to the ground. Jass called out to him but then froze as a filthy corpse of what may have once been a young woman rushed towards him.
'Stop it! That's enough!' Wan Mei shouted.
He concentrated, and in the centre of the illusion, he saw the Nightmare's true form – a malicious, deformed boy with shining red eyes and sharp incisors. He reached for him to stop the illusion, but the form moved away. Jass sank to his knees, breathing heavily. The Nightmare roared up into the air, and Wan Mei froze in surprise as it reformed into a man in the prime of life. He was tall and lithe but well-muscled, dressed in jeans and a somewhat clingy white t-shirt. His wavy dark hair reached to his shoulders, and strange dark blue eyes glistened like cold gems under long, dark lashes. The face was of an almost unearthly beauty with a straight, long nose, high and chiselled cheekbones, a square chin and full lips suddenly drawn into a condescending smile. It was not the man's outstanding looks that stunned Wan Mei, though, but the fact that this was apparently Lia's biggest fear. The Nightmare was infallible in drawing those out. Snakes and zombies he could understand, but this?
The apparition spoke to her in a deep, seductive voice and a lilting Irish accent. 'And what are you going to do about it, little girl? You couldn't save them, and you cannot save him.'
Lia's mouth was slightly open, her eyes wide with panic. Then she suddenly narrowed them, and red energy exploded all around her.
'Is that all you have?!' she cried out angrily and directed all the crackling red energy at the floating figure, continuing to shout in a language Wan Mei did not understand. The mass of energy hit the apparition directly in the face, and the Irishman disappeared. A swirl of roaring black matter fell to the ground, where it tried to form itself back into shape again. Lia ran towards it, and Wan Mei finally unfroze enough to catch up with her and grab her arm.
'Don't touch him.'
'Why? It is just an abomination!'
'He is a demon, lady. Do not touch him with your skin!'
'I don't care!' she cried out, firing another ball of pure red fury at the constantly changing form until it lay still on the ground. She flinched back when she finally registered the malformed boy. Wan Mei quickly put a chain spell on him, hoping it would be enough to hold him in his weakened state. Jass was limping towards them, and Nico was getting up, looking confused. The Nightmare strained against the chains but was still too weakened.
'Where are the Xiang twins?' Wan Mei asked but got no answer.
'What the duck is this?' Jass gasped as he reached them.
'The living embodiment of nightmares. Unkillable. Indestructible.'
'I am willing to try,' Lia offered with a frown.
'Don't. You have already expended a dangerous amount of energy. You can blast him into pieces, but he will eventually reform. As long as people sleep and dream, he will be around. He is normally quite harmless.'
Lia went down on one knee next to the Nightmare.
'How long would you like to float in limbo until you reform?' she asked.
'I am the Nightmare, you bitch! You don't threaten me!' the boy spat angrily.
'Really? Right now, you are just an ugly boy,' she said.
The demon managed to break one of the chains and reached for her, but she was quicker and created a red shield between them. He screamed as he came up against it, and when he lay down again, she let it crash on him, which made him yell even more.
'Lia,' Jass said nervously, and even Wan Mei got worried about her state of mind.
'What?! No killing humans, right? This isn't one,' she hissed, letting the shield smash onto the apparition again.
'Lia, he is not Aidan!'
'He is not a he at all!' she shouted, lifting the energy shield.
'I suggest you tell her what she wants to know,' Wan Mei told the Nightmare in English.
'They knew you were coming. They are taking a boat to the mainland.'
'How did they know?' Wan Mei asked.
'They have a Protector with them. He saw the danger coming.'
'Did he summon you to hold them back?'
'Let's say I owed him a favour.'
'Where is the boat?' Jass asked.
'I don't know. This is none of my business,' the Nightmare said petulantly.
Wan Mei sighed. 'Let him go, lady.'
'But if I let him go, he'll warn them.'
'About what? That we are here? That he didn't hold you back? They know that already, since they'd hear us screaming our heads off otherwise.'
Lia hissed something in a foreign language at the Nightmare before she let him go, and he disappeared immediately. She took a deep breath and asked Nico if he was all right.
'I'm fine,' the young man said brusquely. 'They are on the other side of the island. I don't think we can get there in time. It will take twenty minutes even if we run. And I don't think I can run in the dark on this terrain.'
Wan Mei looked at Jass. 'How fast can you run?'
'Would Cheetah speed do?'
'Is it safe for you to do it here?'
'Of course.'
Wan Mei got a língfú from his trouser pocket and activated it with a drop of blood from his finger.
'Direct this at the boat. Just throw it in the general direction. It will stick where it is supposed to. Preferably so they don't see you. Do not touch the blood. Do not engage them alone. Just slow them down.'
Jass seemed to want to protest for a moment but eventually just nodded and took off at a preternatural speed.
'So scary when he does that,' Lia said with a shudder.
'Lady, you beat up a demon. He's just running fast.'
'Meh,' she said and sighed, adding, 'I hate hiking.'
'Let's go,' Nico said, looking determined.
Lia looked quite worried about him but said nothing.
Once they'd reached the peak, they could hear shouting from the coast. One did not need to understand Mandarin to know they were swearing. Wan Mei risked using his true sight for a second and saw that Jass was safely hiding in the background while two men and a woman were arguing and trying to start the boat.
He switched it off again when Lia asked, 'What did that paper do?'
'Just a blocking spell. They will not be able to start the boat. Still, a Water Elemental should be able to steer it even without an engine, so let's hurry up a bit.'
Lia made a red protective shield in front of them when they came close. The pier was also dimly lit, which made them easy to spot. They had not gotten far before a blast of green energy hit the shield. It held, so Lia gritted her teeth and went forward. Another blast came their way, but the shield held. Wan Mei stepped aside and fired silver lightning at the Protector. The man doubled over and fell on his knees while the woman who had been shooting fire screeched. Wan Mei ran down as fast as he could without having his companions become too suspicious and kicked the younger man down before he could jump off the boat to increase his powers with water contact, then barely dodged a fire blast the woman directed at his face. It singed his clothes and hair, but he managed to push her away. She fell into the water with flailing arms while her brother jumped to his feet. Jass came running and struck him down again, then grabbed the woman in the water. Wan Mei turned to the Protector and enveloped him in spell chains.
'Who are you?' he asked in Korean.
The man gave him a hateful look before his eyes widened in surprise.
'What are you?' he asked back in Mandarin.
Wan Mei felt Lia's energy behind him.
'Calm down, lady. You will burn out,' he said without turning around. She said nothing but just stepped beside him and looked at the man. The Protector gave her a disinterested glance and focused back on Wan Mei.
'What are you?' he asked again.
'No one important.'
'I did not ask who you are, but what you are.'
'I am nothing important, either.'
The man's face reddened. He probably thought Wan Mei was ridiculing him.
'You certainly are nothing, you stinking little turd! Did you sell your ass to the Europeans and are now doing their bidding like a good little boy-toy?'
Wan Mei let the insults bounce off him. A sound of panting announced Nico's arrival.
'What's happening?' he asked.
'As far as I can guess, this gentleman is cursing Wan Lao,' Lia explained.
'How do you know?'
'Well, he is certainly not complimenting him in such an aggressive tone.'
Wan Mei gave her a wry look. 'Go help Jass,' he told her.
She inclined her head ironically and uttered, 'Shi, gong-zi.'
'Your accent is an insult to my ears,' the man on the floor informed her in an impeccable upper-class English accent.
'Everyone's a critic,' she sighed and tugged at Nico's sleeve. 'Come on. We are not wanted.'
'Did you teach that she-devil Mandarin?' the Protector asked Wan Mei.
'Had I taught her anything, she wouldn't be so bad at it.'
'Why are you with her?'
'I am not with her. Just doing an old friend a favour.'
'You are not old enough to have old friends, boy.'
'As you say, elder.'
The man blushed in fury again. 'Do not call me that! You have no honour to have an elder kneel before you.'
'What is it you want me to do? Let you kill us all?'
The man looked him up and down. 'What are you? If someone as strong as you were born anywhere in Chinese territory, I would know. And you speak too well to have been born somewhere else.'
'You would know? Could any kind of witch even survive in China?'
'You know the answer, you fool! That is why we need the Jades. They belong to us, not to those foreigners!'
'That's as may be, but what do you want to do? Even supposing the legend is true – you cannot un-create the history of a whole nation. Mao is dead. You cannot un-create the dead. It is too late to go back to things as they were.'
'I would still try if I could. But I want to save the last refuge where a Chinese witch can still be Chinese. Hong Kong has fallen; Taiwan is all that is left.'
'I am sorry. I do understand. But I cannot allow you to abscond with such a weapon.'
'You cannot allow me? I am the last witch descendant of the Lin Clan! It was given into our protection!'
'Then you should not have lost it!' Wan Mei snarled. Despite his anger, he tried to find any familiar features in the man. He was tall, handsome and graceful even in his current state. A chain with the clan insignia hung around his neck.
'It took us hundreds of years to find it again! I was only taking back what's ours!'
'You were supposed to hide it from the world since you could not destroy it. You were not supposed to use it!'
The man blinked at him.
'How does one so young know so much? What are you?!'
Wan Mei did not answer, just asked, 'Where is it?'
The man just gave him a hateful stare. Wan Mei closed his eyes and concentrated. He did not want to do it, but he was fed up, and this was all going nowhere. He could feel the pulse of the dreaded thing close. Luckily, it was still trapped and not activated.
He opened his eyes again and asked, 'Did you have a vision? Of an imminent attack?'
The man did not answer, and Wan Mei took that as a no. However, Taiwan had feared an imminent attack from China for 70 years and not without reason.
'It will not fall,' he said gently.
'You cannot know that!'
'You didn't have a vision. Your protection honours you, but you will have to do it without the Jades. You have prevailed until now, and you will in the future.'
The man was furious and made to protest, but something behind Wan Mei caught his attention, and he started struggling against the chains despite his weakened state. Wan Mei turned around and saw quite a scene. The female Elemental was defiantly yelling at Lia, whose furious red energy lit up the sky.
'Stop your bitch!' the man demanded.
'They killed one of her elders. She is entitled to take revenge,' Wan Mei said coolly, though he hoped she would not.
'It was just collateral damage.'
'Tell me your name.'
'What?!'
'Tell me your name, and I'll stop her.'
The man looked to his friends on the coast and back, then said, 'Lin Yuchen.'
Wan Mei jumped from the boat and grabbed Lia by the arm. That wasn't exactly safe, but he was losing his patience. As she turned to him, he saw that even her eyes had turned to blazing red.
'Stop it!' he ordered, and she pushed him away.
He caught her arm again, whirled her around and pressed her against him. Her arms flew up to push against his chest, and they ended up glaring at each other, nose to nose.
'Stop it,' he hissed.
Her eyes slowly returned to their usual green, and she nodded.
'Is that all it takes you to heel, bitch? A pretty boy?,' the Fire Elemental taunted with a sneer.
Wan Mei threw a silencing spell at her, and her lips closed.
Jass touched his bleeding face and uttered breathlessly, 'Dude, I really wish you had done that like 10 minutes ago. Bitch's crazy. Foul-mouthed, too. Those nails of hers are like daggers.'
'Other people could have chosen not to rise to the provocation,' Nico said caustically in Lia's direction and knelt beside the unconscious Water Elemental.
'Is he alive?' Wan Mei asked.
'Just a little lizard venom. He'll recover,' Jass explained with a dismissive hand gesture.
Wan Mei turned on Lia. 'You cannot explode just because she calls you names!'
She glared at him, but her powers did not flare up.
'It wasn't about the insults. She said it was so much fun watching Signora Agatha kill herself,' Jass said.
'Suicidal, are you?' Wan Mei asked the Fire Elemental.
She sneered and suddenly launched himself at him, her long nails going for his face. He blocked her and pinched a nerve at her hip. She went limp, and he caught her before she could collapse.
'Woah, that's a neat trick! I want to learn that,' Jass exclaimed enthusiastically.
'Can you carry the guy over to the boat?' Wan Mei asked him.
Jass nodded and picked the Water Elemental up as if he were a rag doll. They put the twins down next to the Protector, who leaned anxiously over the girl, then straightened up and glared at Wan Mei.
'Release her!' he demanded.
'It will wear off. She is fine,' Wan Mei said. His hand shot forward so quickly that Lin Yuchen did not even have time to be surprised. An indignant scream left his lips as the Dragon Glass case with the jade pin fell from the inside pocket of his jacket.
'You were mad to hold this so close to your heart,' Wan Mei growled, inspecting the opaque glass. The receptacle was a bit longer than his hand, and the delicate hairpin made of two entwined pieces of jade looked as harmless as any trinket. Yet he knew that the evil in it could eventually penetrate one's mind, even through Dragon Glass. It would drive anyone crazy if it was kept in constant proximity. That was why the Lin Clan had hidden it between the cursed stones of the Tianmen Mountains, far from human settlements.
'Let's go,' he just said tiredly and set the boat in motion.
'You asked for my name. Are you such a coward you won't tell me yours?' Lin Yuchen asked him, eyes burning with rage.
'People call me Wan Lao.'
'Which suggests it is not your real name.'
'What is it you want with me? I am not a danger to your people.'
'You stole our last line of defence.'
'You should not rely on a cursed object for your defence!'
'That is not up to you to decide!'
'Follow the righteous way; don't take crooked ways. Do not associate with cursed objects. Do not fall to evil. Stay on the righteous path. What happened to all that?'
Lin Yuchen stared at him in horror. 'How do you know our clan rules?' he finally asked.
'I read them somewhere. You used to have too damn many of them, but those were among the few that seemed reasonable.'
'Read them? They are not written down for everyone to read them!'
'Those are just general guidelines you could find in the rules of any decent clan or any book on religion, one way or another,' Wan Mei said with a shrug.
Lin Yuchen did not seem to believe his lame excuse, so Wan Mei changed the subject, 'Do you not have enough problems with China? Why are you seeking the enmity of the European witches in addition?'
'Because they took what is ours!'
'Are you mad? How many of you are left? A few hundred? There are thousands of them.'
'If we had the Jades, we would not have to worry about them!'
'You don't! It was foolish to bet everything on this one cursed object! You are not powerful enough to wield it. No Protector is! You may as well have killed your people by accident!'
Lin Yuchen seethed but said nothing for quite a while. Once Wan Mei stopped the boat, he inquired, 'So you are leaving us alive for your foreign masters to punish?'
'I have no masters. I do not want you to die. I will not even tell them your name or your reasons as long as you do not seek revenge against them.'
'Why?' the other man asked suspiciously.
'They will not come after you because you stole the Jades now that they got them back. Kill another one, and it may become a different story. Do you want to be attacked from two sides? Do you want Taiwan to fall because of your utter stupidity!'
The man glared at Wan Mei but said nothing. Eventually, his eyes turned to the three European witches who kept themselves at a polite distance, as far as the boat allowed.
Finally, he asked, 'Do you have the authority to speak for them?'
Wan Mei shrugged and suggested, 'Ask them yourself.'
'I will not ask them on my knees. I'd rather die.'
Wan Mei removed the chains and called the others.
'He wants to talk to you,' he said to no one in particular.
'Who is he?' Jass asked.
Wan Mei shrugged and gestured for Lin Yuchen to talk.
'I wanted the Jades for the protection of my people. They are Chinese, not yours.'
The others just looked at him until Nico finally said, 'No offence, sir, but you cannot keep the thing under control. We acknowledge that it doesn't rightfully belong to us, and if it were a work of art or anything else, we would give it to you readily. Yet this is a different story. If you do not have a Warlock or a secure place, you'll likely kill yourself with it before you can defend anyone.'
Lin Yuchen looked at him coldly, then declared, 'That is the usual excuse of your kind. But I acknowledge you won. I do not want a feud between you and the Xiang Clan.'
'We do not want a feud either. That is why your Elementals are still alive,' Nico replied equally coldly.
Lin Yuchen's eyes darted to Lia, who looked at him so furiously that Wan Mei thought it better to intervene.
'Can you guarantee that there will be no feud?' he asked.
'As long as they do not set foot into our territories again,' Nico qualified.
'You think everything is your territory!', the Protector exclaimed.
'You will not set foot in any European country west of Turkey or Russia unless specifically invited. And by 'you,' I mean anyone from the Xiang clan and the Lin clan.'
Wan Mei's head shot up, and Lin Yuchen paled.
The blond man continued in a strangely echoing voice, 'We can imagine why you did what you did, Protector of Taiwan. We are letting you off with a warning, and we, too, do not wish Taiwan to fall. But be warned, you have maliciously killed a member of the European Council of Witches. If either of those two murderers sets foot on our territory again, we will execute them. The only reason they are still alive is out of respect for Master Su and the integrity of his territories.'
Wan Mei was surprised by Nico's authority and determination. There was something off here, but he could not lay his finger on it.
'It was not a malicious kill. Just self-defence,' Lin Yuchen said heatedly.
Lia's eyes blazed, but she kept herself in check as Nico calmly explained how the Italian elder had died and produced the língfú. The Protector looked at the woman lying on the boat floor as if seeing her for the first time.
'Do you accept our terms?' Nico asked.
'As long as it is understood that you will not set foot in Taiwan either.'
'I cannot guarantee that for every European witch.'
'You three and your Warlocks.'
'I can promise that.'
Lin Yuchen nodded stiffly, then turned to Wan Mei and said in Mandarin, 'If you want to join us, we can talk about it.'
Wan Mei knew what it cost the man to say that, so he said respectfully, 'I am honoured by your words, but there is another path in front of me.'
✽ ✽ ✽
Once they were on their way back, he couldn't resist asking Nico, 'How did you know?'
'Know what?'
'Who he is.'
'I didn't,' he said and looked away.
Wan Mei frowned. Lia looked at the sky as if debating with herself, then said, 'It wasn't him. It was Julien.'
'Your Warlock? Isn't he on a plane back home?'
'He can go into a trance and sort of possess those who are bound to him even over great distances,' Nico explained.
Wan Mei frowned. He had heard of such things but thought them just legends.
'He was …in you?'
'I really wish you did not put it that way. Let's just say he was sharing my mind for a time.'
Wan Mei stared at him in horror and finally asked, 'Did you allow that?'
'Yes. I called for him when that demon arrived, and I felt I was losing it.'
'Does he do that to all of you?'
'No. Usually, telepathy is enough. It is just for emergencies,' Lia said.
'It wasn't bad. Just strange,' Nico added.
'Were you still there?' Wan Mei inquired.
'Yes. He was just in the back of my mind. But then he took over when he spoke to the Lin guy. That was creepy. I was like a spectator in my own body. He was furious, too.'
'With whom?' Lia asked nervously.
'Himself, mostly. He suspected that the head of the Taiwanese witches may have sent them, but he did not expect he would meet them in Korea or he would not have left.'
'He knew that a Lin was the head of the Taiwan witches?' Wan Mei asked, trying not to show any emotion.
'Didn't you?' Nico asked back.
'I thought the Lin Clan was extinct,' Wan Mei admitted.
'He thought so, too. The head of the Taiwan witches is known by his title, not his name. Something that sounds like Sushi.'
'Wūshī Jūnzhǔ. It means something like the king of sorcerers. Nothing to do with food.'
'Sorry. Where did you learn to speak English so well?'
Wan Mei recognized a desperate attempt to change the topic when he saw one but decided to indulge the young man anyway.
'In San Francisco and New York.'
'Can I ask where you were born?'
'I came into this world in Hong Kong,' he said honestly.
'That's an interesting way of putting it,' Lia said with an amused smile and asked, 'When was that?'
'1997. A few days before it was returned to China. Did he tell you what he suspected?' Wan Mei asked, refusing to be further distracted.
Lia hesitated, but Nico nodded.
'Is he suspicious of me? Because I am Chinese?' Wan Mei asked.
'Because we cannot tell what you are.'
Wan Mei raised his eyebrows.
'I couldn't even see you were a witch before Lia told me,' Nico remarked.
'Me neither,' Jass said.
'You still haven't taken the Jades from me,' Wan Mei said.
'I am not sure we can,' Lia admitted.
'There is something you cannot do? A raging Assassin who beat up the Nightmare?' he teased.
She looked embarrassed for a moment but then calmly replied, 'I don't know what you are and how far I would have to go. I would rather not risk killing you. For now.'
He looked at her thoughtfully, and she just stared back. 'What will you do with it?' he finally asked.
'Give it back to the High Warlock.'
'He cannot destroy it.'
She shrugged. 'I do not know that. I can only see that I cannot destroy it myself. Maybe we should just drop it into the ocean?'
'Do you think no one has tried that?'
'How do you know?'
'I assume someone did.'
'And then a goldfish ate it, and someone caught it and found this inside?'
'There are no goldfish in the ocean,' Jass said, but they both ignored him.
'Maybe. The point is that cursed objects always find their way back.'
'What is your suggestion then?'
'If I knew what to do, I would have done it already.'
He got the item from his pocket and put it in her hand. She blinked in surprise.
'Do you believe it can do what it is said it can do?' Nico asked, still looking out at the dark sea.
'I do,' Wan Mei said.
'So why are you giving it to us?'
'I do not know. Because you had it for so long and haven't used it yet, despite all your wars? Or maybe I just don't know what else to do with it.'
'The High Warlock offered to leave it with Master Su,' Nico pointed out.
'Master Su is smarter than that.'
'No one really wants it except for the Taiwanese,' Jass said.
'I am sure there are many others who want it.'
Lia was still looking nervously at the object in her hand. 'What if I activate it by accident?'
'Can't you feel it?' he asked.
She shook her head mutely. Jass stretched his arm out and touched it, then closed his eyes. He soon withdrew his hand as if he had been bitten, and his eyes flew open.
'I can hear it screaming.'
He looked at Nico, who just shook his head and said, 'I do not want to feel it.'
Lia prodded at it again.
'I am become death, destroyer of worlds,' Nico quoted dreamily, and she looked at him with a worried expression.
'Are you saying I am a nuclear bomb?'
'I'm not. Maybe you cannot feel it because it is close to your power, and you always feel that.'
'It feels wrong to just stuff it into my pocket,' Lia admitted.
'How are you the only woman who doesn't carry a handbag?' Wan Mei teased her.
'Because I expected to have a conversation in a hotel lobby and not be dragged off to practically North Korea!'
'Well, that should teach you about strangers with candy,' he informed her with a grin, and she gave him a wry look.
'Speaking of candy, I am starving here. Did anyone see any food in the port?' Jass asked.
Lia got out the candy bar Wan Mei had given her and looked at it ruefully. 'Sorry, it is all squished.'
Jass ate it anyway, and Wan Mei promised, 'We'll find something outside the port.'
'A takeaway preferably,' Nico suggested, looking at his dirty clothes.
They were all ragged and covered in water stains. Wan Mei's clothes were singed in several places, and Jass' face was scratched and bloody.
'When we return to the hotel, they'll probably call the police because we look like we have committed several crimes,' Lia said.
'I do not think anything we did since we got into this boat is legal,' Nico sighed.
✽ ✽ ✽
When they arrived at the pier, it was generally agreed that Lia still looked presentable, albeit slightly muddy, so it fell to her to return the boat.
'Do you have more chocolate in the van?' Jass asked hopefully.
'I don't think so. It is one of Master Su's. He wouldn't be caught dead eating chocolate. Detachment from earthly desires and all that.'
'Well, that sounds like fun. How did you survive his school?'
'I didn't. I was never one of his disciples.'
'I see. I was wondering how you got away with blue hair. Not that I am judging, he just does not look the type to allow that.'
Wan Mei just grinned. He had seen Master Su's disciples on a night out, and they got away with more.
'He does not impose his standards on his students. He only teaches them to control their powers.'
They had reached the van, and Nico collapsed onto the back seat, saying, 'Don't wake me for anything but the apocalypse.' He closed the door behind him.
'What's he going to do in case of the apocalypse?' Wan Mei asked.
'Say goodbye like the rest of us. Do not diss him just because he is a minor witch.'
'I wasn't. He is smarter than both of you put together.'
'Thanks, man,' Jass said dryly, and Wan Mei grinned.
'I mean, he has more common sense.'
'My dad says there is no such thing as a sane witch. Nico is the closest to one I've ever seen, though.'
Lia came towards them in a quick stride. 'Why didn't you tell me you used a different name at the boat station?'
'I thought that was obvious.'
'Still, you could have told me what the name was.'
'Was there a problem? What did he say?'
'I have no idea. I assumed he was asking about where you were, so I told him you were drunk and passed out. I am not sure if he understood me, but he laughed and then kept saying 'name'. So, I told him a made-up one, thinking he meant my name, but then he tried to mimic you – at least, I think that was what he was doing. He messed up his hair, fluttered his eyelashes and pretended to swag around, then looked at me and pretended he was me swooning. The man has missed his calling. It was a great little pantomime.'
Jass doubled over in laughter, and Wan Mei tried to keep a straight face. He got out the ID card he had used to get the boat and read, 'Ahn Moon Su.'
'Bro, if you go to the trouble of getting a fake ID, at least remember the name,' Jass suggested.
'Master Su gave it to me a few hours ago. I didn't think I'd actually need it. I thought he was just being all dramatic.'
'Yes, I am sure Master Su is a drama king,' Lia said dryly. She opened the back door and sat down next to Nico.
'I think the lady wants to leave,' Wan Mei concluded with a smirk.
'It is way past her bedtime, cut her some slack,' Jass said.
'It is barely midnight,' Wan Mei replied, shifting into backward gear.
'I don't see your point", Lia informed him.
'Just go to sleep then.'
'I cannot sleep when there are other people around.'
Wan Mei turned around and grinned, but the Beast Master elbowed him in the ribs as he opened his mouth.
'Leave it be, bro. Let's go find some food. Preferably without kimchi,' Jass said.
'And without fish,' Lia said.
'And tofu,' Jass added.
'And tentacles.'
'Yes, people, I get the drift. No, kimchi, no seafood, no tofu, no dog meat,' Wan Mei enumerated.
'You are joking about the dogs, right?' Lia asked.
He just smirked at her in the rear-view mirror.
'He isn't,' Nico said sleepily and sat up, rubbing his already reddened eyes.
Lia sank further into the seat and got out her phone.
'Don't bother looking. The next flight home is in two days. At least one without stops,' Nico informed her, trying to hide a yawn.
'Who says I was?'
'Weren't you?'
She sighed and let her phone sink onto her lap.
✽ ✽ ✽
After a while, Wan Mei turned into a MacDonald's drive-in and asked, 'Happy now?'
Jass snickered. 'She hates MacDonald's.'
Lia held up her hands. 'It's fine. I will settle for anything that does not include tentacles or gills.'
'Or puppies,' Wan Mei chimed in.
'Thanks, Sparky. I was trying to block out that piece of information.'
Nico shrugged. 'Who knows what is in MacDonald's meat anywhere.'
'I think I'll just stick with fries,' Lia decided.
She did, and they stopped by the road to eat.
'You were born in Croatia and spent half your life in Italy. How can you not like fish?' Nico asked Lia, who eyed his fish burger with disgust.
'I just don't like the taste of it.'
'For duck's sake, don't get her started on things she does not like. It is a very, very long list,' Jass warned.
'What's with the duck?' Wan Mei asked.
The Beast Master sighed. 'A priggish little Irish Spell Mage thought I swore too much in her presence and put me under a geas. That's a Celtic compulsion curse.'
'You are just allowed to curse each other? Can't your Warlock undo such a thing?'
'He can, but he thought it's funny,' Jass grumbled.
'Of course we are not allowed to curse each other. But everyone will let a little prank slide. Especially since the girl is just twelve years old, and that is a complicated spell that even experienced Spell Mages can barely manage. It will wear off in time,' Nico explained.
'Let's hope so,' Lia said into her coke.
Jass looked at her in panic, and she shrugged.
'If it doesn't, I'll make her take it back.'
'How?'
She smiled. 'Blackmailing teenagers is easy.'
'That seems pretty ruthless,' Wan Mei said.
'What kind of secrets can the little brat have that she can be blackmailed over it?' Jass asked uncomfortably.
'The same ones you had when you were a teenager. You know – silly stuff that you think will make you die of embarrassment when you are young.'
'Like what?'
'Like who you have a crush on.'
Jass grinned. 'Who did you have a crush on when you were twelve?'
'That is not relevant.'
'Chris Hemsworth,' Wan Mei guessed.
'It is not embarrassing if it is a famous person. Hell, I have a crush on Chris Hemsworth, and I am not even into men,' Jass said, then turned to Lia, 'Who does the little brat have a crush on then? The nerdy Belgian boy who carries her books? I'm already sorry for the little bugger.'
Lia and Nico looked at each other and started laughing.
'What's so funny?'
'She is crushing on you. You are the only one who does not notice it,' Nico said cheerfully, finally fully awake.
'What?! She is twelve! I could almost be her father,' Jass protested.
'It's not your fault, Jass. It is just normal,' Lia said, patting him on the shoulder.
'Wait, she is a twelve-year-old girl who punished him for not being a good role model and based on that, you concluded she has a crush on him?' Wan Mei asked incredulously.
'Women, right?' Jass grumbled.
'She did not curse him because he swears so much. She cursed because she was upset that he flirted with Andrea. Or Maria?' Nico said, turning to Lia.
'Both of them.'
'Why didn't you tell me?' Jass asked grumpily.
'Would it have stopped you?' Lia asked with a grin.
They continued bickering, and Wan Mei smiled. Despite the meeting with the Nightmare and the shock of seeing a member of the Lin Clan after all this time, he realized he was still having fun and not brooding on old wounds.
Jass elbowed him in the ribs and said, 'Am I right, bro?'
'Jass, stop doing that. You'll crack his ribs,' Lia said with a frown.
'I am not that delicate, lady,' Wan Mei said. Hoping Jass' question had been rhetorical, he just added, 'Let's go.'
'Dude, are you falling asleep? Do you want me to drive?' Jass asked.
'No, it's fine,' he said.
✽ ✽ ✽
They thanked him profusely for his help as he left them at the hotel, and he felt a kind of loss once they were gone. He had enjoyed their company. No Korean witch would have dared touch him as casually as Jass had done or tease him as Lia had. Young women were susceptible to becoming blubbering messes around him, regardless of how much he toned down his power. As for witches of either sex, most sensed he was not really one of their kind. He doubted they could have put a finger on the reasons why, though. Some showed admiration, some respect and some pure resentment. He knew, for example, that Master Su's disciples liked him well enough. Still, although the older ones were in their twenties and thus close to his physical age, they always treated him with reverence that would allow no friendship because they saw him as their superior. They would be horrified to know that he sometimes wished he could belong to their group. Those Western witches may have sensed his strangeness as well, but they just chalked it up to differences in cultural and magical background. After all, there was no one in Europe like the Daoist Master Park Su either. It was refreshing, even comforting, to be among people who treated him as an ordinary person. Or an ordinary witch, at least.