AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You will wait in the safety of the car,” Chen growled at Moon as he held the phone to his ear. The vampire-witch pouted but didn’t argue. Of course, Moon joining in the fight was a bad idea. It was unlikely he had any proper martial arts training and right now, his use of magic was frightening.
As he and Xiao Dan were hopping out of the vehicle, Chen shouted that Xiang was snagging Rei and hurrying to their side. That was reassuring, but he wanted to see how much damage they could cause before reinforcements arrived.
“Yichen, take the right. I’ll grab the left. We’ll herd them to the center. Chen will protect the vehicle and catch any who try to escape,” Xiao Dan commanded.
“Yes, Shixiong!” Yichen shouted, and Chen instantly echoed it. Something in his chest soared, and he laughed. Truly fucking laughed for the first time since rejoining his clan. This was what he’d been missing. Not simply seeing them or sharing a meal with them. No, it was running into battle, a sword gripped in his fingers and his brothers at his back.
In the two thousand years they had been together, they’d fought countless fights. They’d sneaked past enemy lines and taken out armies ahead of anyone sounding an alarm. They wiped out entire clans who’d dared to stand against the emperor. The Sword of the Heavenly Garden Sect had become an unstoppable force. After a long absence, Yichen was finally home.
He darted forward, his feet barely touching the ground as he dodged arrows that cut through the air and whistled past his head. Lifting the sword, he blocked the first blade aimed at his neck and ducked under a second, spinning away from the pair of elves in leather armor. Neither looked familiar, but those he’d gotten close enough to recognize hadn’t escaped the royal court alive. Either he or Rei had slaughtered every one of them who’d come for his life.
As he blocked, slashed, and stabbed through the army, he smiled. Blasts of ice shot past his shoulder as Chen took out anything with wings. He encased them in blocks of ice, sending them crashing to the ground with a dull thud.
Sweat trickled down the side of his face and covered his back, leaving his T-shirt sticking to his skin. A delicious burn filled his muscles as he fought while the scent of green grass and red blood tickled his nose.
Over the shouts and clang of steel hitting steel, he could hear Shixiong calling out combat moves as if he were still on the training field with his brothers and sisters.
Soaring Moon Strike.
Crane in the Western Sky.
Wind Carrying Delicate Snow.
Oriole Stalking Behind Mantis.
Without a single thought or breath of hesitation, his body reacted to complete the move, whether he was dodging, soaring, or striking. Zhang Xiao Dan was the voice of master and he was the disciple.
Each move deepened his sense of peace and called on old trust like a cord being struck on a guqin1 buried within his chest. He was home.
Now he just needed to remove the fae from around Moon’s home. He needed to get free of this blood bond so Rei could return to his home without worrying about his fate.
Of course, that was assuming they didn’t get overrun by the fae right now.
Chapter 8
Rei
“Hey, Elf!”
Xiang’s sharp voice as he shouted out the doorway had Rei cracking open an eye. Maybe his excuse to stay behind while Yichen accompanied his shixiong and er-ge on an errand had been entirely made up, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use some peaceful meditation to soak in the rather excellent energy radiating from the small garden.
Until the vampire had come shouting, the only sounds to intrude on his solitude were the whisper of the wind through the leaves and the occasional soft splash of the large koi as they swam in their pond. It was stunning to discover that humans could create such a space filled with lush energy rising from the earth. Personally, he would have made a couple of changes if he’d been arranging this garden, but those changes were just tiny, nitpicky things because he refused to believe humans were capable of such perfection.
The one thing keeping him from reaching a point of blissful peace was a nagging need to reach out for his Yiyi and reassure himself that the vampire was safe.
Well, now there was also the shouting annoyance.
“The fae have surrounded Moon’s house and are about to attack Yichen and the others. Get your ass moving! You’re coming with us!”
Rei was on his feet and darting toward the house before Li Xiang finished talking. “Of course I’m going with you!” Rei snapped. “But first, you must show me to your armory. I refuse to believe you don’t have an exquisite collection of weapons stored somewhere in this house. It would be uncivilized.”
Xiang’s perpetual scowl morphed into a grin as he motioned for Rei to follow him. The vampire led him along a set of corridors he hadn’t walked yet to a set of large double doors with a riddle lock. After sliding a variety of flat metal pieces this way and that, followed by two turns of a knob, a metallic click echoed down the hall, announcing that the room was unlocked.
He pulled the doors open with a flourish, and Rei’s heart gave an unseemly skip as his eyes danced over hundreds of shining blades for swords and sabers. There were countless rows of daggers resting on tabletops and hidden away in drawers. And then there were the bows. Dozens of bows, each expertly crafted and carved by hand.
“Yiyi said your clan was a great collector of weapons, but this…this brings a tear to my eye,” Rei whispered as he stepped farther into the room to explore. He wanted the chance to inspect every blade and touch every bow, but now wasn’t the time. With a sigh, Rei grabbed a couple of daggers and strapped them to his body. A short sword followed with its sheath tied to his back. A soft leather quiver full of arrows came next. He was still tying it in place as his eyes skimmed for a bow.
“Third and fourth from the left are Yichen’s favorites,” Xiang volunteered.
