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“Fear?”
“Yes, you scared me, but that helped me to realize how important you are to me.”
“Then we are…”
A sigh escaped Yichen, sending his breath across Rei’s damp lips. “Complicated. We. Are. Complicated.”
Rei smiled and pressed his mouth against Yichen so the vampire could feel his grin. “We were complicated prior to you discovering the joys of kissing me.”
A low growl rumbled from Yichen half a second before the vampire poked him in the stomach. Rei captured that finger as he tried to pull it away and pressed a kiss to the tip.
“But yes, we are complicated,” he agreed.
“Regardless, the kiss was real. My feelings are real. I’ve wanted to kiss you, to claim you as mine for so long…I…” Yichen’s voice broke, and Rei swore his heart was exploding in his chest. His Yiyi cared for him. Just maybe loved him. So many years lost if only they’d said something. If only he’d been brave enough to make the first move. But there was nothing to be gained with those thoughts. They’d finally wised up and were together now.
Yichen cleared his throat and continued, “What happens next…we have to figure that out. Maybe nothing changes from our original plans. Maybe everything changes.” Yichen’s hand came up and cupped his cheek, his cool touch soothing Rei’s heated skin as he pressed his forehead to Rei’s. “But regardless of what we decide, I will not leave you or betray you. I will always stand by you, Rei.”
Tears stung his eyes, and his throat threatened to close up. All he could do was grip Yichen’s wrist and give a small nod of agreement. He could always depend on Wu Yichen. Just the same as his Yiyi could always depend on him.
“Sleep, Yiyi,” he said roughly. “I’m going to annoy Xiang and get him to feed me.”
Yichen huffed a weary laugh and released him. “Don’t destroy the kitchen, or I’ll let Shijie take your head. I’ll protect you, but not from Ming Yu’s wrath.”
Smiling to himself, Rei slipped out of the bed and from the room. This thing between them was real. Now he had to figure out how the hell he was going to keep it safe.
Chapter 16
Rei
After a bit of searching, Rei located Xiang in the kitchen, where he was warming some soup on the stove. A place had been set at the center island with a steaming cup of tea. A delicious, hearty scent filled the air, stirring his stomach to complain about its empty status.
“Were you dreaming?” Xiang inquired as Rei stepped into the room. The cocky vampire glanced over his shoulder at Rei and smirked, laughter filling his eyes. Rei didn’t care. They might have a long, difficult road ahead of them, but he’d gotten a taste of something he’d been sure he’d never have. If that was the end of it, he would be grateful for that sip.
“No, not a dream. Is that for me?”
“Mn,” he grunted as he ladled soup into a bowl. “Jiejie1 made it for you and left me instructions on how to reheat it when you woke.” His tone made it very clear how he felt about being elected the elf’s caretaker. “She warned that it’s not likely to have the same magical restorative power since you’re not part of the clan, but it should at least be filling.”
“I’m sure it will be exactly what I need. Will you join me?”
Xiang paused in the middle of placing the bowl in front of Rei, his eyes wide. “Oh. Sure.” He put the bowl down with a soft click and grabbed another out of the cabinet for himself. “Vampires might not be big on eating, but I’ll never pass up a chance to have Jiejie’s soup.”
Rei stirred his soup with a spoon, helping to cool the liquid as he waited for Xiang to join him. “I’ve noticed that Yichen calls Ming Yu ‘Shijie,’ but you use Jiejie. Why is that?”
“Oh, habit, I guess.” Xiang carried his bowl over to the other stool beside Rei and slid onto it. “I joined the Sword of the Heavenly Garden Sect a few years prior to Yichen. Su Ming Yu was a servant in the Zhang household at the time, working in the kitchens mostly. Junjie, me, and some of the other disciples would sneak into the kitchen and beg her for treats between meals. She’d scold us while handing over baked goodies. We all started calling her Jiejie because she was like an older sister to us. Yichen never did that. He grew up in a palace prior to coming to the Zhang clan. As a prince, he wandered nowhere near the kitchens and didn’t talk to the servants. I don’t think he got to know Jiejie until after she became a vampire. Shortly after, Xiao Dan officially made her a member of the sect, and she became Shijie for everyone.”
“Is it normal to make a servant a member of a martial arts sect?”
“There’s nothing normal about it, but normal gets tossed in the trash when your entire clan must choose between death and vampirism. Some of them didn’t get the choice. Our new master deemed them too weak and slaughtered them on the spot.”
Rei lowered his spoon and bowed his head at Xiang. “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have asked such a personal question.”
Xiang shrugged a shoulder as he slurped his soup. “You want to know about Yichen. Besides, I doubt there are many vampires out there who have a cheerful story about the night they were made. It’s not normal to include a servant in the sect, particularly when it’s unlikely she’ll ever study martial arts, but she begged our maker to become a vampire. She wanted to remain close to the only clan she knew and continue to serve and protect the disciples.”
“Such an act certainly made her worthy of joining the sect.”
Rei took a bite of the soup and released a happy sigh as the heat and spices combined to warm his chest in the most wonderful way. The rest in the garden had done much to restore him to his previous strength, but this soup was reaching down to his soul. It was love and compassion wrapping around him. Was it just soup, or was this vampire magic? Maybe a bit of both, though he was reluctant to believe that Ming Yu’s magic could touch him in any way.
“Did you tell him?”
