"So," Zhu Irzh said, smiling at Jhai. "How was it for you?"
She twisted round in his arms. "How did you know I was awake?" The first of the dawn's thin light was coming through the little window.
"I could tell." The demon, though horizontal, managed to effect a shrug. The memory of the previous evening, hazed by sleep, returned to Jhai in a rush and she sat up. The tail was gone, and so were the teeth. Zhu Irzh nuzzled her neck. There was a now familiar twinge at the base of her spine, eclipsed by rising desire. Zhu Irzh's pale fingers were almost skeletal against the sudden dark barring of her stripes.
"A deva," the demon murmured. "I've never met a deva before."
"You know what they are?"
"I have read the Kama Sutra, darling," Zhu Irzh said reproachfully, adding, "several times. Now, hush. I have things to do."
An hour later, restored to a semblance of human, Jhai lay in his arms.
"Zhu Irzh?"
"Mmm?"
"Did you know what I was? Before I changed?"
He squinted round at her. "No. I thought you were using pheromones."
Jhai exhaled a long, pent-up breath. "Good."
"So why do you hide it?" the demon asked, then answered his own question. "Because you'd be put on the next boat to Hell, I suppose. But plenty of businesspeople have demonic associates."
"Associates, yes. They're not actually running corporations, as far as I know. I don't want to spend my life in Hell, Zhu Irzh. No offense, but Earth is my home. Besides, I'll end up there soon enough."
"It's not so bad. Anyway, you'd be very popular. An exotic, in a Chinese Hell—I'm presuming that's where you'd end up? Maybe not." He frowned in momentary theological speculation. "You'd rise straight through the ranks, with your looks." He smiled reflectively. "And skills."
"That's what worries me. I don't want to end up as some kind of tart, Zhu Irzh."
"And what's wrong with that?"
"You were with the vice squad in Hell, weren't you?"
"That's right."
"I see." She wriggled over so that she could look down at him. The golden eyes were dreamily glazed.
"What do you take?" he murmured. "To keep your true form at bay?"
"Both are my true forms, my mother told me. But certain—circumstances—bring out the devic characteristics. There's a compound of various drugs that inhibit neuroreceptors. I've been taking it since I was a child."
"That transformation must have taken a few lovers by surprise, though. If what I remember about devic biology is right, then no drug can withstand the powers of arousal."
Jhai was silent.
"What did they do, hide under the bed?"
"It was never an issue," Jhai told him, and could not believe she'd said it.
"What do you mean, not an issue? You're not a virgin."
"No."
"So that means—what? Don't tell me you've never become sufficiently aroused."
Jhai felt her face flaming. "No, never. Because I was so uptight about it, I suppose. I thought it was the drug, holding it back. But now it seems that it might not have been that at all. Also, you're a demon."
"But that's terrible!" Zhu Irzh said with honest indignation. "You must have felt so frustrated." He caught sight of the look on her face and fell silent.
"I don't want pity," Jhai snapped. A brief war seemed to cross the demon's countenance, and tact apparently lost.
"So it was that good, was it?" If there had been more than a trace of smugness in Zhu Irzh's voice, Jhai would have hit him then and there. A fleeting memory of the previous night, and morning, made her betray herself.
"Yes, if you must know, it was, actually," she said through gritted teeth.
"What, waves crashing on the shore? The earth moving? Curtains fluttering in the—" He caught her striking hand and laughed. "Anyway," he added, sobering up. "You can have your cake and eat it, now."
"Meaning?"
"Well, you can dispense with the drug, for a start. Tell your mum it's obviously all been a huge misunderstanding and what generates the instability between your two states is simply that you haven't got satisfactorily laid. Then, when the change starts regenerating itself, all you have to do is—"
"Oh, for God's sake!" Jhai rolled off the bed and reached for her underwear. "That's so typical of a man. So all I need to sort me out is a good fuck, is that it?"
"I couldn't have put it better. Obviously, you'll need someone to supply that particular aspect of your cure, and I will nobly volunteer my services."
"If you think I'm sleeping with you again after that remark, you've got another thing coming."
The demon studied her for a moment, then appeared to come to a decision. He rose sinuously from the bed, snatching up a silk robe in passing. Knotting it about his waist, he said seriously, "I would like that. You had as great an effect on me as I have had on you, though perhaps a bit more predictable. It's not just about sex, Jhai, or even love. It's about meeting your match."
"Bullshit." She frowned. "Are you proposing?"
Zhu Irzh laughed. "Not yet. But who knows?" He took her by the shoulders and kissed her, gently and lingeringly. "Perhaps when we're no longer enemies."
Jhai took a reluctant step back. "Is that what we are?"
"Two bodies, Jhai. Not ours. Two people ripped apart by something with teeth and claws." He raised an eyebrow, still smiling. "A human wouldn't dare to ask you that, after last night. But I will."
There was a long, arctic silence.
"Are you accusing me of murder, Seneschal Zhu?"
"Maybe. You say this is your first real transformation. Flattering, but is it true, I ask myself?"
Slowly, Jhai sat back down on the bed.
"Yes, it's true. I've never just . . .changed."
"You're sure?"
"I'm absolutely sure." That was the truth, anyway, she thought. She knew exactly who, or what, had killed Deveth and the feng shui man, and it wasn't herself. The murderer was even now roaming the city, released by the compassion and incompetence of Robin Yuan.
The demon sat down beside her and took Jhai's chin in his hand, turning her face to meet his own.
"You didn't kill them. Then who did?"
"Suppose I knew. Suppose I told you. What would you do? Go to your masters in the police department, Hellkind that you are?"
"Perhaps. Perhaps not."
"Liar," she said softly.
"No, I am not lying. I don't know if you can trust me, Jhai. It depends how high the stakes might be."
"Pretty damn high." She met his gaze, as golden as her own could be. "As high as Heaven."
"I've been to Heaven," the demon said, with seeming irrelevance. "A pretty place, if you like that sort of thing. Bit insipid."
"Perhaps not for much longer," Jhai said, taking a risk.
"And why would that be?"
"Zhu Irzh, there's something I'd like to show you. Not here. At the Farm."
"The Farm?"
"It's a nickname, for my mother's country estate. It's not far from the city. I could send a car to pick you up."
The golden gaze narrowed. He didn't trust her, Jhai thought with reluctant approval. She could hardly blame him.
"Let your colleagues know where you're going. You can even bring that large sergeant of yours, if you want."
"When?"
"Tomorrow afternoon? I have things to arrange before then. One o'clock?"
"All right." Zhu Irzh stepped forward, and kissed her mockingly on the cheek. "I'll see you then. Send a car to the wharf. I'll be waiting."