Hell to Heaven by Kylie Chan

their heads bowed.
    The Tiger walked in, came to me, fell to one knee, saluted, then rose again. ‘Hope my girls are showing you a good time, ma’am.’
    I pulled out the oldest excuse in the book. ‘I need some air.’ I turned to Louise and Jennifer. ‘I need to talk to the Tiger alone, if you don’t mind.’
    ‘Whoa, listen to the boss lady,’ Louise said. ‘Top-secret, superhero god stuff, eh?’
    I slithered out of the hall, the Tiger following me. When we were some distance from the crowd I stopped. ‘They just gave me three cheers for killing Rhonda,’ I said, my voice hissing with frustration. ‘Bitches.’
    ‘That they are,’ the Tiger said, glancing back at the hall. ‘Not many women aren’t. Particularly when things get tough.’
    I glared at him. ‘That goes for me too, I suppose.’
    He put his hands on his hips and smiled slightly. ‘You more than any of them.’
    I turned away. ‘Make it quite clear to them that I had nothing to do with Rhonda.’
    ‘I have. They need someone to hero-worship, and you’re it. Some of them have started learning the artsfrom the Masters here. You’ve even inspired some of them to talk back to me. ’
    ‘I think Rhonda would have had something to do with that as well,’ I said, turning back to look at him. ‘Now I see why she said you had to be dragged tailfirst into the twenty-first century.’
    ‘I love the twenty-first century; health care is at an amazing level. Used to be if my wives went down to the Earthly for a trip, they’d come back with all sorts of nasty shit and die in no time. Now, just about everything’s curable.’
    ‘Doesn’t it bother you—you living so long, and them ageing and dying?’
    He concentrated on me. ‘You worried about Ah Wu ditching you because you’re getting old?’
    ‘Actually, no. But it must be hard to lose so many that you love.’
    ‘Meh. They live a good, long, healthy and luxurious life here, and they die and I move on.’
    ‘Damn, you’re a callous bastard. Don’t you mourn them?’
    ‘I prefer practical. I lose a few a year—I’m not spending all my time mourning them, that’d be a waste. They live a good life. That’s worth celebrating.’
    The sweet scent of fresh, young blood wafted over the lawn and I raised my head. ‘What’s that ?’
    The Tiger sniffed the air. ‘Just some birds.’
    A woman walked past with a couple of small children, both about five years old. She wore a traditional long silk tunic with matching leggings, and the children wore pantsuits in black cotton with toggles and loops, their hair shaved except for a topknot each. When the woman saw the Tiger she dropped to one knee, bowed gracefully, then rose and continued.
    The scent was coming from them; the children in particular exuded the wonderfully sweet, rich scent of fresh blood. It drew me closer. The woman saw me approaching, grabbed the children’s hands and ran. I didn’t think; I just pursued them. One of those children would keep me satisfied for weeks, and the feeling of swallowing it whole would be precious indeed. If I grabbed it and squeezed hard enough, it might even take bird form and be even more delicious to eat.
    One of the children tripped and sprawled on the grass. The mother saw how close I was and changed to phoenix form. She spread her wings protectively over her children and burst into flames.
    Something grabbed me by the throat from behind and hurled me to the ground, holding me there. ‘Go,’ a voice said, a throaty rumble, and the phoenix changed back to human form and hurried her chicks away.
    The pressure holding me down didn’t give way. ‘Now listen to me,’ the voice said, and I recognised it as the Tiger. My senses began to return and I shrank with horror at what I’d nearly done.
    ‘You can let me up,’ I said.
    ‘Not quite yet, she’s still too close,’ the Tiger said. ‘Listen up. You’d better fucking start eating when you’re on the Celestial Plane or I’ll make a