"Can you get her a gla.s.s of water? I think she must have fainted. The heat probably."

Sam did as he was asked, stealing glances at the big man who stood behind the sofa and staring at An Ning.

An Ning was coming to when Sam arrived with the gla.s.s of water. Matt took it from him, lifted An Ning in his arms and put the gla.s.s in her mouth. An Ning took a sip then downed the rest of the water. She sat up and looked at them perplexed.

"What happened?"

"You went out like a light. I think it must have been the heat. Are you feeling okay now?" Matt asked.

"I had this funny dream where this monster spoke to me and I told him to bug off," An Ning said, shaking her head. "Funny, huh?"

"Umm...look behind you," Matt muttered.

An Ning tilted up her head. She then turned around and looked at Matt.

"What is he doing here?"

"I have no idea."

"Did somebody accidentally switched on his controls? Sam?"

"I don't even know where it is," Sam protested.

An Ning stood up and walked towards the big man. Sam and Matt hurried behind her, Matt grinding his teeth in frustration.

"An Ning, don't get too close to him," he warned.

"If he wanted to attack us he would have done it earlier," An Ning pointed out impatiently.

When she reached the creature, she stood before it and examined it from head to toe.

"There's something different about him," she said absent-mindedly, poking at the skin on its face with a finger.

"What?" asked Sam.

"The skin seemed to have metastasized," An Ning said.

"What do you mean?"

"It's becoming more humanized and its spreading throughout his body. How can that be?"

"He's a machine. Of course it's not possible. You must be mistaken," Matt said then gasped in surprise when the creature suddenly moved and enfolded An Ning in his arms.

An Ning was paralyzed with shock. She braced herself against a sudden attack when she suddenly felt the tremors shaking the creature's body. It was so unexpected, so unbelievably insane that she raised her eyes and met his gaze. The eyes were warm and human, the irises black and aware.

The huge body was shaking with mirth, a completely human expression that took her by surprise. She ran her arms down the creature's shoulders and arms, behind the ears and neck. She was not mistaken. Instead of a killing machine, the creature holding her had somehow changed into a man, a human being whose ma.s.sive chest rose and fell with each breathing.

The girl and the creature looked at each other silently. There had been many weird things that happened in An Ning's life in the past several days but by far this was the weirdest. This creature was sent to attack and kill her yet here he was staring at her like she was his best friend. Totally insane.

"Who are you?" she asked, stepping back from his slackened arms.

"Your blood...it broke the spell," the man answered, his voice scratchy like he hadn't used his vocal chords in years.

"My what the what?" An Ning asked, totally confused.

"Come, you must help me. You must save my people," the man said, taking her arm and pulling her towards the door.

"Hey, where are you taking her? Stop!" Matt shouted, blocking the door.

The man merely pushed him aside and continued to drag An Ning outside. An Ning didn't protest. She merely curled a leg around a pole and refused to move. The man turned his head with a frown.

"I think we'd better sit down and you explain to me what's happening," An Ning said reasonably. She gently pulled her arm from the man's hold and walked back inside, taking a chair next to a table with a huge flower vase.

The man seemed to hesitate then turned back and took the chair opposite her.

"Now, tell me who you are and why are you suddenly looking like this?" An Ning said.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, you went from an ogre to this...," An Ning said, suddenly at a loss.

"You mean, a man?"

"Did I pull some lever that removed your disguise? I know somebody wired you. Part of the camouflage, I believe."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I know of no lever. It was your blood."

"My blood? What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? I don't remember giving you my blood."

"You hurt your finger and I tasted some of it."

An Ning was startled. She looked at the wound on her finger. She had completely forgotten about it. It was still bleeding sluggishly. She got up and went to the pantry. She was cleaning the wound under the tap when the man entered.

"Such precious blood. It was just a few drops and it completely broke the link. Master, if you will. Help me."

"f.u.c.k off. You're bothering me," An Ning snapped, wiping her wet hand with a paper towel.

"There are 20 or more of us in the compound. They took us and captured us then experimented with us. The monster you fought with the other night was the result." The man said it so casually as if he was talking about something so ba.n.a.l as eating cereal for breakfast.

An Ning was struck so dumb by what he said she didn't even notice when the paper towel slipped from her hands and dropped to the floor.

"They came to our village and killed all the women and children. They didn't kill the men though. They turned us into their slaves; tortured us then experimented on us. It was such a long time ago. I think I was I was twelve or thirteen when they first came to our village. It was such a long time ago I don't even remember all the details," the man continued calmly.

An Ning gaped at him, eyes wide with horror.

"You see, the world is not what it seems. It's not the good versus the evil but something else. The grotesque and the things that go b.u.mp in the night."

"Who is this 'they' you are talking about?" Matt asked, his face pale. Sam stood behind him, looking small and frightened like a little kid.

The man turned to face him.

"Women. An army of women," he said. "The most brutal women you've ever met in your life. It took them less than an hour to ma.s.sacre 500 people, my mother, sister and father amongst them. My cousin Rolio, who was twelve at that time, was taken, too. He died when he was fifteen.

"They were experimenting on him with other animal parts. They call it alchemy. Rolio couldn't take it anymore. He stabbed his own heart with a bone," the man laughed mirthlessly. "I didn't care anymore after that. Then I tasted your blood and I don't know why but I realized I was free," he added, looking at An Ning.

An Ning didn't say anything. She walked out and went back to her own office. She turned on her computer and was inputting data when Matt knocked on the door. An Ning glanced at him but continued with what she was doing.

"He's waiting for you," he said awkwardly.

"I know."

"An Ning..."

"What do you want me to say, Matthew? He tasted my blood and he became human? Can you hear how ridiculous that is? This is the 21st century, for G.o.d's sake. Ghouls don't exist. Vampires are alive in movies. And monsters are imaginary creatures invented by Disney."

Matt didn't argue but sat down and stared at her with a question in his eyes.

"What?"

"What if it's true?" Matt asked. "What if what he said about your blood is true?"

An Ning laughed.

"Come on, Matt. My blood is special? Who do you think I am, some kind of heavenly being?I'm just like you. Human."

"You said yourself he suddenly looked humanized. He changed from a monster to a person. How do you explain that?"

"Somebody transformed him, a human being, into a killing machine. It's not farfetched as you think. It's possible because they used some kind of as yet undisclosed technology on him. It's not alchemy either. It's technology we haven't seen before, Matt. And I can't believe somebody like Maya has it."

"You think it's Maya?"

"Who else? Yu Yan is dead. As far as I know I don't know that many people who want to kill me so who else is there?"

Sam suddenly popped outside the door.

"He's leaving," she said.

"What?" Matt was dumbfounded. He glanced at An Ning before das.h.i.+ng outside.

An Ning sighed. It was going to be another long day. She really should have just stayed home and sleep all day. She got up and went outside. The man was arguing with Matt while Sam was trying to hold on to his arm and pull him back inside. An Ning took a deep breath.

"What's your name anyway?" she asked, strolling forward.

The man stopped prying Sam's hands from his arm and looked at An Ning.

"Gara."

"Well, Gara. My name is An Ning and these two are Matthew and Sam. Why don't we go back inside and talk some more? Are you hungry? Matt, call Sarai will you? Tell her to cook something for us. How about that beef thing she cooked for us last night? And Sam, can you ask Moira to deliver some cake for us and my favorite iced tea? Order whatever else you want."

An Ning's phone rang. She answered it still while still giving orders.

"Matt, take him to the conference room, will you? I'll be with you in a bit. h.e.l.lo?" she said, finally answering the call.

"Meet us at the airport tomorrow morning at seven. We're coming home." Richard's voice was m.u.f.fled, as if he had a cold.

An Ning was surprised.

"Richard? What happened?"

"We found Yu Yan."