Demon Child by Kylie Chan

breath bubbled through the blood in his throat. He attempted to speak, and made more horrible gurgling sounds. He changed to silent speech.
    There was a small memory device attached to the point. They are ready to go to war and will attack soon. This memory device has intelligence on their plans and an outline of their strength. You need to keep me alive until you can remove it. If I die, it’s gone .
    John checked the wound. ‘This isn’t fatal. He’s missed your carotid and pierced your trachea.’
    He held one hand over Er Lang’s throat and the blood lifted free. Er Lang gasped with relief, the breath whistling through the wound in his throat. He panted until blood started to well from the wound and blocked it again.
    ‘We need a tracheotomy tube to clear your breathing.’ John looked around for Yanluo Wang, who had already gone. ‘We’re finding one. He told you to attack him?’
    He said to make it look good .
    ‘You didn’t. He defeated you easily in front of everybody.’
    I wasn’t expecting him to be quite as good as he is. He’s faster than me. He did defeat me easily . His breath sucked through the blood. Help, Ah Wu, I’m drowning!
    John lifted the blood free again and Er Lang panted with relief. He turned his head to see me. What did you teach them?
    ‘Nothing,’ I said. Er Lang’s dog appeared and pushed me aside. ‘The Jade Emperor restricted me from teaching.’
    ‘This is all my fault!’ Zara wailed from her ring on Er Lang’s right hand. ‘Never ask me to be jewellery again. I am bad luck!’
    Just take the device out of me so I can go! Er Lang said, his breath still bubbling.
    John studied the wound. ‘I can’t see it. I’ll have to open you up further to find it.’
    Er Lang’s dog whined.
    Zara rose from her setting in a ring on Er Lang’s finger. ‘Let me do it,’ she said, her voice hoarse with emotion.
    She shrank as she swept through the air towards the wound, then disappeared into Er Lang’s throat. His face went rigid with pain and he gritted his teeth, arching his back.
    ‘I have it,’ Zara said, re-emerging covered in Er Lang’s blood. ‘My Lord Er Lang, I am so very sorry. I vow I will never be a piece of jewellery again.’
    ‘It’s not your fault, Zara,’ I said.
    ‘I am cursed!’
    Yanluo Wang entered holding a tracheotomy tube in a sterile bag. ‘Sorry. Took a while to find one.’
    Don’t bother , Er Lang panted through the blood, his face a fierce grimace of pain. Do me a favour, Ah Wu? You are the quickest and cleanest way .
    John hesitated, then glanced up at me. He didn’t want me to know he could do it.
    ‘Do it, John, I know you can,’ I said.
    John dropped his head to speak intensely to Er Lang. ‘You ask a great deal; you know how difficult this is.’
    I know. Please, Ah Wu, let me go , Er Lang said.
    ‘Only for you, old friend,’ John said.
    He put two fingers on the side of Er Lang’s throat and concentrated as if taking his pulse. Er Lang’s breathing stopped and he went limp. He disappeared, and his dog fell over his front paws then disappeared as well.
    ‘Hold your hand out,’ Zara said to John.
    He opened his palm and she dropped a tiny, blood-covered micro-SD memory card less than a centimetre to a side into his hand.
    ‘Will it still work after being soaked like this?’ I said.
    ‘It’s an expensive waterproof one,’ Zara said. ‘Uh, my Lord, did you just kill him with your touch?’
    John didn’t reply.
    ‘It’s part of what he is,’ I said.
    ‘You are as cursed as I am, Dark Lord,’ Zara breathed. ‘I am glad it is difficult for you.’
    ‘It isn’t. The difficulty lies in not killing everything else around me.’ He glared up at her, his voice icy. ‘Do not tell anyone.’
    ‘My Lord,’ Zara said. ‘Forgive me, I think I’m going to be sick.’ She disappeared.
    ‘I’ll head over to Court Ten and talk to Judge Pao,’ Yanluo Wang said. ‘We need Er Lang back as quickly as possible now we know