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“Yes. That’s it.” Junjie sighed heavily. “Rafe will contact us when he can set up a proper meeting.”
“When?” Yichen demanded.
“No idea.”
Rei placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “Cheer up. People are trying to help. You won’t be stuck with me for much longer.”
Yep, he was going to strangle the elf.
Stuck was not the word he would use to describe their situation, but the softer words that came to mind didn’t do them a bit of good.
No, he was not stuck with Rei.
Chapter 10
Rei
How long does it take to find an old witch?
Apparently longer than a week.
Rei wandered through the rear garden, breathing in the warm night air. They’d been waiting to hear from this Rafe Varik for ten nights.
Patience was one of his strong suits. He was young among his kind but ancient among the humans.
Okay, nearly ancient. The Zhang clan still made him look like some reckless teen.
The point was, he’d lived this long and had learned to be as patient as a willow tree.
But it was hard to remain patient when his father and mother were out there creating havoc among the humans and plotting their brand of evil to let loose on the world.
He couldn’t even guess what their next move was going to be. The local news reports had announced another increase in human disappearances. The only difference was that their bodies weren’t popping up. Were they still alive? He prayed they weren’t. Nothing good came from being the new toy of King Ash and Queen Belladonna. He’d witnessed that firsthand with Yichen.
They couldn’t continue to wait for the fae to launch a fresh attack. They needed to act. Now.
Except they couldn’t.
Not until his Yiyi was free of him.
It didn’t take a genius to see that Rei’s odds of surviving a confrontation with his father weren’t very good. While no one was saying it, Rei could see it written in the eyes of every vampire in the Zhang clan. They had to keep him alive, if only for Yichen’s sake. Once they broke the blood bond, they would shove him out the door and demand he deal with his family drama. Preferably somewhere far away.
Of course, living with the Zhang clan hadn’t been a bad thing for the past several days. The tension that seemed to fill their frames had dissipated. Xiang’s “keeping an eye on him” during the daylight hours felt less like a jailor guarding a prisoner and more like friendly hanging out. Su Ming Yu hummed softly as she kept him fed and introduced him to all kinds of new foods. Meimei was familiarizing him with K-dramas while Moon was teaching him about BLs.
But he passed most of his days in the gardens.
The vampires gave him a little space while he was walking through nature, as if they thought he needed it. He was just happy to give them some much-needed space away from him.
There was one person he didn’t want any space from, though.
Yiyi had been stuck with him for a century. He would be relieved if Rei walked off among the trees and never returned. Wasn’t his presence a constant reminder of what he’d suffered at the hands of his parents? The sooner Rei disappeared, the sooner Yichen could move on with his life and heal from his ordeal.
Space between them was a good thing. Since returning from Moon’s old home, the desire to lean in and capture Yichen’s perfect lips was overwhelming his common sense. He daydreamed of tracing those soft, pink petals with the tip of his tongue until they parted to welcome him inside. Their gasps would mingle and twist together, allowing Rei to swallow them along with the moan of delight that followed.
He sighed, and he felt an answering sigh from the pair of maple trees he’d passed.
Distraction. A distraction was most definitely needed.
Smiling up at the trees, he lifted his hand and caressed one long branch. “There’s no need for us both to be sighing.”
