On the night the moon disappeared, the demons invaded.

Golden lions and red dragons danced down the streets. Creatures with the heads of fearsome beasts and the bodies of costumed humans. They paraded past squealing children, dancing to the beat of drummers and explosions of firecrackers.

It was the eve of Chinese New Year. Every corner of San Francisco's Chinatown lit up with red lanterns hanging from rooftops. Half the world's population crowded the streets, purchasing dumplings from shouting vendors and exchanging red packets of money, hong bao, to ring in the Year of the Horse.

No one had an inkling that a few among them were not who they appeared to be.

It was easy for me to blend in with the crowd on a night when almost everyone was wearing some kind of disguise. Easy to snatch up an abandoned mask and claim it as mine. All I'd had to do was wait for an unsuspecting man to throw his green and gold demon mask onto the ground before heading into a restaurant, offering me an unintentional gift. He probably hadn't thought anyone would steal the cheap thing. Well, he didn't know desperation like I did. Desperation was having no hong bao, no spending money at all—and no business being somewhere forbidden.

I pressed my face into the sweaty inside of my stolen mask while snapping the strap against the back of my chin-length brown hair. The glittery disguise covered every recognizable trait on my face. Every mistake.

Light brown hair marked me as half-Chinese, a 'blood traitor' in my father's community. The edges were still darkened by my failed drugstore hair dying experiment from three years ago, when I'd tried to blacken my hair out of desperation to fit in with the others in the society. It hadn't worked. The other girls had mocked me until the dye faded into a stain of ugly memories on my hair.

Then there was the black mole that sat on my right cheek—"The beauty mark of an empress: Faryn, the Fair One," my father used to call me.

Masked, I was free to enjoy the celebratory sights and sounds of San Francisco Chinatown—as long as I didn't run into them.

Someone up there must get a kick out of ruining my life, because no sooner had I shoved my way to the front of the crowd did an unwelcome sight greet my eyes. A procession of Jade Society warriors, clad in bronze armor from head to foot, marching military-style in four neat rows down the parade line. The costumed dragons and warriors met each other and stopped.

The crowd quieted respectfully in the presence of some of the powerful men in Chinatown swept through the streets, followed by their sons. Mr. Wei, the chef who ran the most prosperous restaurant in Chinatown, the Jade Kitchen. He was followed by his short, squat, and trollish-looking son, Yao. Then there was Mr. Yang, the dragonhead leader of the Black Thorns gang, an underground operation hidden beneath red paper lanterns and pagoda-shaped buildings. Mr. Yang and his son Luhao shared the same leer on their long, narrow faces.

A boy with a tall, study build and coal black eyes stepped out of the crowd and faced a dragon decorated in gold, red, and yellow. The nian dragon. "Every Chinese New Year, you return to our village in the hopes of destroying the crops," the heir to the Jade Society boomed in a dramatic voice. He thrust a weapon at the dragon's fabric red mouth—jagged blade of a custom-forged sword. "But this year, I, the great Wang, will banish you forever. Prepare to die, beast!"

The crowd whooped, eating up the performance as Wang and the costumed dragon pretended to go at each other. Firecrackers exploded near their dancing feet.

A few high school aged girls in front of me swooned and squealed up a storm. I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Crowd-pleasers." I had pictures of my own father, from before he'd died on a demon hunt, to remind me what a true warrior looked like. These 'warriors' were more like kids playing dress-up in their fathers' battle armor.

I wasn't the only one who thought the warriors were full of it. "Our so-called protectors from evil," scoffed an old woman from behind me. She shook her head, the bright lights reflecting in her dark eyes. "How far they have fallen from what they used to be."

A college-aged guy next to her snorted. "What they used to be? When were those pretty boys ever anything but a bunch of show ponies, Nai Nai?" He wore a black Canada Goose winter coat paired with tan Timberland boots. He glanced up from his phone for a second before gluing his attention back to the screen.

"Ben sun zi," the woman scolded her grandson, "don't speak about things you don't understand. When I was a young girl, the warriors were the heroes of Chinatown. They worked tirelessly to capture rogue demons and protect the Earth. These boys look like the only thing they could capture is a silly girl's heart. Zhen mei yong."

"Demons?" The boy rolled his eyes. "Never even seen one."

The old woman's frown deepened. "That's because they can disguise themselves as humans."

"That'd explain the story behind that idiot we have in the White House," the boy muttered under his breath. To the woman, he said, "Nai Nai, you're the only one who believes those folktales."

"They aren't folktales," she insisted, whacking her grandson over the head with her cane.

"Ow!"

"You should be careful what you say, silly boy. The demons are at their strongest during the fifteen days of the New Year celebrations, before the moon is full."

The old woman's words jogged my memory of my grandfather's stories. Thousands of years ago, the Chinese New Year celebrations had been designed to ward off evil spirits. But the world had a way of balancing everything out, Ye Ye had told me. As the demons grew more powerful, so did the gods—and warriors.

A familiar woman's face flashed in the crowd. A pair of cold black eyes pierced mine, and I ducked my head into the crowd before forgetting I was wearing a mask. But still, I couldn't shake the fear that the cruel mistress of the Jade Society had seen me. I peeked up again. The long-haired woman's eyes still fixed on me.

"Oh, deities," I cursed. Talk about demons. If evil spirits grew stronger during Chinese New Year, Mao had probably developed X-ray vision. I had to get back to the Jade Society—now.

I fled. My feet automatically took me down a shortcut back to the Jade Society, which sat just on the outskirts of Chinatown. I'd be back in three minutes flat. Nobody would've even noticed that I'd left.

Then I rounded the corner of the alleyway, and my heart gave a lurch of surprise. I found myself face-to-face with a very convincing costume of a red and gold dragon. It loomed before a group of four children, two boys and two girls who couldn't be older than seven or eight.

"We aren't scared of you," shouted a bald little boy. "You can stop pretending to be a demon now. The real nian dragon isn't such a lame-looking lizard, anyway."

"Don't be mean, Ah Wen. I bet they worked really hard on their costume," the girl next to him scolded. She turned to the dragon costume. "I really like the fangs, shu shu. They look super real. Can I touch them?"

A deep, rumbly snarl in response. I was impressed. These paraders were really into the dragon thing.

"Maybe we should leave whoever it is alone," the other boy suggested nervously.

But his friend ignored him. "Fetch, fido!" Ah Wen reached into his pocket and chucked something at the dragon: a dumpling. It bounced off the costume and landed with a plop on the pavement. "What's the matter? You don't like vegetable dumplings, either?"

"Ah Wen, you're being rude! No one likes the veggie dumplings."

A low, feral growl rumbled through the alley, shaking the ground. I looked at the costume, really looked at it, and was doused with a sudden, icy realization.

There were no signs of human feet poking out under the scaled underbelly of the beast.

*****

A/N - Ok soooo this is my first fantasy novel ever!! My baby for Nanowrimo '17 (Yes I wrote this all in a month yes I'm insane). I hope you guys like it!! If you enjoyed the chapter, please comment/vote, it's much appreciated.

Also, if anyone knows how to make cool fantasy covers or can point me to someone who does, please PM me or comment below! In desperate need lol. Thanks and much love <3