AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I…” he began, extending one empty hand in front of him, but stopped as if reevaluating his words. “I…I can’t sleep.”
That was not what he’d wanted to say. Even after all this time, the vampire still couldn’t spit out what he really wanted to say on the first try. But that was okay. Rei had grown skilled at pulling the truth out of him after a time.
“Do you think it was a mistake coming here?” Yichen blurted out. He took one step forward and froze, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “Do you think it would have been better if we’d remained in our place downtown?”
Rei ignored the tightening of his chest at the mention of “our place” and tossed aside his covers as he sat up in bed. He was already wearing a pair of loose shorts to sleep in, but he snagged his T-shirt from where he’d tossed it on the end of the bed.
“No, I don’t think it was a mistake,” he murmured as he pulled his long loose braid out from the T-shirt. “Your family is relieved to have you here. They’ve waited a century to find you. Traveled a great distance. This is where you belong.”
That earned him a dark glare.
Yichen crossed the room and picked up a simple white jade hairpin. As Ming Yu had shown him to the pretty room with the large bed and elegant painting of a white crane flying over misty mountains, Gao Mei Lian had hurried over and presented him with an assortment of combs, brushes, hairpins, and bands to tie up his long hair. She’d blushed when Ming Yu threw her a questioning look and tugged on her own short locks. “I can’t use any of this now that my hair is so short. I thought he could use them.”
After he thanked Mei Lian, the two women left his room, bickering amongst themselves.
“We’re putting my clan in danger by being here,” Yichen mumbled.
“My father has already crossed swords with your clan, and they are prepared for another encounter, regardless of whether we’re here. Moon has taken steps to protect the Zhang clan, far more than we took in that apartment. We might as well take advantage of that so that we can get at least one good day’s sleep.”
Yichen made a dismissive sound in the back of his throat as he put the pin on the bureau and began sifting through the other things lying there, no longer willing to even glance at Rei.
“Since you’re over there, can you bring me the brush and the green jade hairpin?” If Yichen had come to grumble and prowl his room, Rei had one solid way of getting the man to talk to him.
Without comment, Yichen grabbed the requested items and brought them to Rei. He accepted them and placed them next to him on the bed before pointing to the floor in front of him. “Sit.
Yichen’s handsome face scrunched, and he retreated half a step. “What?”
“Sit. I’ll brush your hair while you tell me what the real problem is.”
“What? No. I told you. I’m worried about their safety.”
Rei shrugged one shoulder and made a show of yawning. “Then leave if you’re going to lie to both of us. I want to sleep.”
The vampire didn’t believe him in the slightest. They’d been together for decades. Yichen could see through nearly all of his ruses, lies, and playful teases. This one wasn’t even a good one.
A loud, annoyed huff jumped from Yichen’s lips and he dropped onto the soft rug. Rei swung about so that his long bare legs dangled off the end of the bed on either side of Yichen’s shoulders. He gathered up the silken strands of the dark-brown hair that hung to his lower back. Rei had glimpsed the vampire upon his arrival in the fae realm and recalled the short, neatly styled hair he’d possessed. He’d been cute in a lost puppy sort of way.
But time still passed in the fae realm, even if it didn’t look like it on their faces. Of course, the vampire didn’t age, but his hair grew. When it brushed his shoulders, Rei found himself having more questionable thoughts about the man, most of them revolving around plunging his hands into those beautiful silken locks.
As the years passed and Yichen became Yiyi, he trusted Rei to brush hair, offering him an ounce of comfort in a world that was trying to kill him. Surprisingly, Yiyi returned the favor. Mostly after Rei had suffered his gravest injuries and betrayals.
He enjoyed the feel of Yichen running his fingers through his hair, but the vampire had little skill at braiding hair. That was fine. Rei derived more joy out of giving his friend this comfort.
“Let’s dispense with the nonsense that this is about the safety of your clan,” Rei began as he dragged the brush through Yichen’s hair, scraping over his scalp with just the right amount of pressure. “You’ve been growling and snapping at everyone since you walked in the door. If you were a skunk, you would have sprayed them all several times already.”
Yichen turned to glare at him over his shoulder, but Rei pressed his fingers into the top of Yichen’s head and turned it forward again.
His companion bent his legs and rested arms on his knees. “I don’t like how they treated you.”
“You mean your clan—your family—is suspicious of an elf when it was an elf who kidnapped you and stole you away from them?” He snickered. “I’m impressed that only one of them tried to kill me. I was expecting far worse.”
“But I told them we’re friends. That you saved me. Why don’t they believe my word?”
“Because they weren’t there for all those years. They didn’t see or experience what we did. Unless you’re willing to provide them with every gory detail…” Rei paused, staring at the top of Yichen’s head. It was unnecessary, though. He knew Yichen had no desire to tell his family everything that had happened to him, and Rei didn’t blame him. There was plenty he wanted to forget as well. “Then you’ll have to give them time. I don’t mind proving to them that I don’t mean you any harm. Besides, if roles were reversed, and I was your shixiong, I would have killed the elf the second he appeared and asked questions later.”
“This is why I worry about you taking your parents’ place on the throne,” Yichen muttered.
“I can be benevolent…when I’m in the mood.”
