Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Xiao Dan threw his head back, laughter bursting out of him. Huli stared at him, his mouth hanging open. This was not a laughing matter. This was all very serious. Even after all these years, there were times he still could not understand humans.
“You planned to betray her from the very start!” The vampire chortled. He wiped a tear away from the corner of his eye. “How could I love such a wicked fox?”
Huli narrowed his eyes on Xiao Dan and pointed one finger at the tip of his nose. “You do love me! You said it! I heard it!”
Xiao Dan wrapped him up as he continued to chuckle. “Yes, I still love you. I’ve loved you for years, all while knowing how evil you can be.”
He gave a shrug as he laid his head on the vampire’s shoulder. “I don’t try to be wicked. I try to be a good Huli, but it is so hard. You don’t know how hard it is for Huli. Especially when Chen and Xiang are so very annoying.” That last bit he grumbled under this breath, but he knew Xiao Dan would hear him.
“They are annoying because they are protective of their clan. They want me to be safe because they also know Huli can be wicked. The one thing that they don’t understand, is how good Huli’s heart is. Only I know that.”
Gege was magic.
There was no other way to explain it. All his words and wonderful hugs had a way of making it all feel better. He was no longer scared of Xiao Dan casting him aside forever. He always seemed to know the right thing to say to fix things.
But words would not fix this problem with Min.
No. To stop Min, he had to kill her. She would give them no other choice.
“Shortly after meeting Min, I left Luoyang and traveled with her. Stealing souls is one way for a huli jing to gain power, but it’s a slow and tedious process. Humans have so little magic in them. I wanted to become powerful quickly. The faster I gained my tails, the faster I could talk and shift for my gege.”
“If it’s a slow way of gaining power, why are huli jing known for stealing the souls of humans?”
Huli snorted and sat up so he could look Xiao Dan in the eye. “Because it’s fun.”
Xiao Dan rolled his eyes. “Of course. Silly me.”
“Yes, that was silly of you, Gege.”
“So, all those times you were gone for years at a time, you were traveling with Min?”
He reached across Xiao Dan’s lap, picked up the vampire’s hand, and pulled it over to his own lap. He traced the lines of his palm and down his fingers, loving that he had the freedom to touch him. It had been a long time since they’d last had an escape like this. Not since before Yichen was kidnapped. Everything had changed when the fae stole Yichen…
“No, I stayed with Min for a few centuries. Once I learned all the tricks she had for teaching me to cultivate and how she found the best magic-infused places in the world, I parted ways with her. I still wasn’t strong enough to defeat her, and I thought that if I went off on my own, I could gain power faster. She guided me through gaining my first two tails. The rest I did on my own.”
Xiao Dan closed his hand, capturing Huli’s fingers. “And they are magnificent tails.”
He couldn’t stop preening. They were fantastic tails, and only Xiao Dan appreciated them properly.
“But…” the vampire prodded.
“But many years passed until I saw Min again. When I did, she had nine tails, and I was still stuck at seven. There was no way I could kill her. I had to get my ninth tail first.” He huffed and pulled his fingers free of Xiao Dan’s grasp. “After I got my final tail and became a true jiuweihu, it was like she disappeared. I never saw her. The few huli jing I encountered also said they hadn’t seen her in years. I thought someone else had killed her. And then…” His words drifted off, and he swallowed hard.
“What?”
It took Huli a couple of seconds to spit the words out. “The fae kidnapped Yichen.”
That was the one period since he’d first met Xiao Dan that had been the absolute darkest. He’d never seen Xiao Dan so broken and distraught. It had been the brutal wake-up call he’d been needing to put his petty desires behind him and focus on what the man who owned his heart needed.
“After his disappearance, we spent all our time digging for information about the fae and how to get to Yichen. I forgot Min ever existed. It wasn’t until I saw her in the garden, heard her voice, that I recalled that I’d been searching for her.”