AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Screw you! My Ah-Cheng2 loves me! He’d never let me go!” Moon bellowed with a wide grin on his face.
The double wooden doors swung smoothly open, giving them a glimpse of the winding drive leading to an enormous home of ancient Chinese architecture that whispered of secret gardens, pavilions, bamboo floors, and a serenity Yichen hadn’t tasted in a century. And in front of the main doors was his family.
“Ready to go?” Moon asked, extending his hand to Rei.
“I am. Thank you for the thoughtful escort, Mr. Witch.”
“It is my pleasure, Mr. Elf.”
With every step forward, Yichen became more and more convinced that he was going to have a heart attack. His heart was pounding so hard it felt as if it were bruising other organs. A lump tightened in his throat, nearly choking him.
As soon as the doors closed behind them, Moon released Rei’s hand and smiled. “See. Piece of cake. You’re both safe and sound in here now.”
Yichen managed a nod. He wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn’t get any words out. They continued walking as though he wasn’t dying to break into a run.
“Oh, screw this waiting!”
Someone within the group finally snapped. A young woman slithered through the gathering and broke into a fierce run, closing the distance between them in almost a heartbeat.
She launched herself at Yichen, and he caught her easily.
“Yichen!” she squealed.
He hadn’t seen her face clearly yet, but something in her voice triggered a memory at last. “Meimei?” he whispered brokenly. He was holding Gao Mei Lian—though as the youngest of the clan, everyone called her Meimei.3
She squealed a second time, hugging his neck almost tight enough to break it. “Home! You’re home!”
He was. Even if he wasn’t lucky enough to be in Luoyang, the only thing that mattered was that he was with his family. His clan. Squeezing his eyes shut against the burn of tears, Yichen hugged her with everything he had.
At the light sound of feet hitting the ground behind him and the approach of the rest of his family, he released Meimei. Moon had stepped away to join the others approaching from the house. Everyone appeared so relieved and happy to see him with wide smiles, hearty laughs, and the soft shimmer of unshed tears, but their gazes turned wary each time they strayed toward Rei.
Yichen grabbed Rei’s wrist and pulled the elf behind him as he took a couple of steps back so he could now see Xiang on his right and the rest of his clan on his left.
“This is Rei. He may be an elf and a member of the fae, but he is my friend first. He protected me while I was a prisoner. No one may harm him. If he is not welcome here, I’m not staying either.” As he spoke, he stared at each clan member, meeting their eyes, daring them to question his words. He’d never been one to rebel or speak out against his shixiong and shijie,4 but he was drawing the line with Rei. They’d gone through too much together.
“This isn’t necessary,” Rei whispered in his ear. “I can be close when I’m needed and away when I’m not. There’s no reason to make your clan uncomfortable with my presence.”
“He’s right, Yichen,” Xiao Dan added, and it was like a fist grasped his heart in an icy grip. But then his shixiong smiled, and the ice melted. “Chen told us about your meeting. Though we have a lot of questions, if he is your trusted friend, he is welcome here. Your caution is unnecessary.”
Releasing his hold on Rei’s wrist, Yichen cupped his left hand over his right and bowed to Xiao Dan. “Thank you, Shixiong.”
“Enough,” Xiao Dan grumbled, pulling Yichen into a hug that made his bones creak. And that was only the beginning. His clan mates hugged him so many times as they passed him around between them.
Both Ming Yu and Meimei had tears slip free before Shijie scurried into the house with the promise to make all of Yichen’s favorite foods. That idea alone made him choke up. Ming Yu’s cooking. How he’d missed that! Even though he’d largely given up eating after becoming a vampire, it didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy a taste here and there. But a hundred years had passed since a single bite of Ming Yu’s cooking had crossed his lips.
When the hugging was finished they stood in a loose circle, the silence broken by choked laughter and some awkward sniffles. A large orange tabby cat resting in Junjie’s arms suddenly sat up and hissed. Junjie tried to soothe it, but the creature darted off, disappearing into the shadows.
They turned in the direction the cat had hissed to see an orange-and-white fox with black feet playfully bounding across the lawn, all nine of its fluffy tails flowing behind it.
“The huli jing!”5 Yichen gasped.
“Jiuweihu,”6 Moon corrected in a loud whisper. “He’s been cultivating for a long time.”
Chen groaned and pulled Moon into his arms. “That’s enough helping from you.”
Yichen tore his eyes from the fox spirit—who was now trotting over to Xiao Dan as if it were the most natural thing in the world—to Chen’s smile. His er-ge was actually smiling! He never smiled.
The fox narrowed its gold eyes at Rei and released a low growl in the back of its throat. Xiao Dan reached down and gave the fox a little thump on the top of his head. The creature’s large black-tipped ears flattened, and he delivered the most pathetic look imaginable to Xiao Dan.
