Chapter 24
THE RUSHof people—Taide, Sand, and the grand master—coming straight at Walter should have panicked him. Every one of them looked angry, and Walter did his best to keep his cool. His hand twitched at his side, looking for his inhaler. He didn’t have it—butthistime he realized he didn’t need it. He’d been using his inhaler to keep himself calm, not only when his airways narrowed but when stress made him feel panicky. But looking at Bing, who was already looking back, grounded him enough that he didn’t need anything else. One shared glance was enough to strengthen him for the situation at hand.
After a quick smile, he focused first on the cop. “I don’t care what this man has told you.” He pointed to the grand master. “The truth is, he gets a shitload of insurance money if we shut down. His allegations are false.”
“What about the kangaroos? You don’t have a permit for kangaroos,” the cop said belligerently.
“We’re not using kangaroos!” He looked at Auntie Sand. “Send them away. You’re not helping anything.”
“And you took forever to get here!” she snapped back. “Pick your demon and let us create a story!”
He frowned at her, completely at a loss. “There are no demons here.” Except maybe her. He’d finally accepted that she was not a human as he knew her but some kind of paranormal creature who only looked normal.
She scoffed. “Look around. There are plenty of enemies to smite!” She gestured at the cop, at the grand master and his son, at Gator, who was filming everything, and even at Bing. “Pick! And we will begin!”
“And what if I pick you?” he demanded. “You’re the one who lied to me, who used me to manifest Monkey and even tricked me into embodying him. You’re the only demon I see.”
“Ingrate!” she growled. “You are rapidly becoming irrelevant.”
Boy, she sure knew which buttons to push, throwing the curse of his entire childhood back at him. Since he wasn’t a doctor, his family thought he’d wasted his life. As a comic book artist and a screenwriter, he constantly struggled for respect. And through it all, his aunt had been the one to love him. Or so he’d thought. It was odd that her betrayal didn’t crush him. Thanks to Bing, he was starting to know his own worth. Better yet, he knew she still needed him.
“I’m going to tell a story, Auntie Sand.” He glanced sideways at where Gator was sidling forward, his cell phone extended. “One where Sand, the demon companion to the Monkey King, is old and feeble. Her power is gone, along with her honesty. She is no longer—”
“Idiot!” she cried. “Do you think I have no power of my own? I chose you, nephew!”
“You used me,” he responded coldly.
She curled her lip and extended her hand. She gripped the grand master’s arm and pulled him around until they were face-to-face. Walter could see the old man’s surprise, and though he tried to break her hold, she was too strong for him.
“Stop her!” Bing screamed as he started running forward. “She can bring Monkey forth!”
How? Walter frowned, his mind working furiously. Out of everyone here, she was the most closely tied to Monkey. And since he’d pushed Monkey out of him—
“I didn’t have the strength to bring him forth before,” Sand said to Walter. “I needed you for that. But now that you have cut the energy free, I can give it to another.” She grinned at the grand master. “Do you want power?” she asked the man. “You can be the Monkey King. Only say you want it.”
The man didn’t hesitate. “I want it.”
“The Monkey King is reborn!” she cried. Then she stepped backward and started talking loudly, straight at Gator’s camera. “Once, long ago, the Monkey King was trapped in a stone egg, but with prayer and devotion over centuries, I have brought him forth again. See him be born again. Now. In him!”
She had a delivery worthy of an opera stage, but that was the point, wasn’t it? She spoke to the camera, and everyone watching invested a tiny piece of their energy into seeing what she had declared. The grand master’s eyes widened, his hands went out, and suddenly he had a staff in one, which he twirled on his right side. He slammed the staff down hard into the ground. If the cop hadn’t been fast, he’d have lost a foot. Then, in true Monkey style, the grand master arched his back and let out a laugh reminiscent of all the grand villains of the world.
Wait, that wasn’t right. Monkey was supposed to be a good guy.
“Once reborn,” Walter said, taking up the tale, “Monkey took a look at the chaos surrounding him.”
“Monkey loves chaos,” Sand said firmly.
“But he doesn’t love liars. You lied to create him. You lied about who you are. You lied—”
“Lies are effective tools,” the grand master said with a grin. “Monkey knows that.” Then he turned to Sand. “Who do we defeat today?” She began to point at Gator, but he knocked her arm aside. “Him,” he said, turning her toward Bing. “He is the demon who destroyed my son.”
Oh shit.
Bing wasn’t watching. He was facing off with the steadily approaching kangaroos. Did he have his power back? If not, he risked getting pummeled by a dozen angry beasts. Meanwhile, Kong’s head snapped up with a mutinous expression on his face.
“I am not destroyed, Father! I am here and whole.”
His father shot him a contemptuous look, but it was the cop who interfered next. “There are no demons here!” he snapped. “And you’ll take those kangaroos to a zoo where they belong.” Then, when Sand turned away from him, he stepped directly into her face. “Do you hear me?” he demanded.
