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“Wow! Bravo!” Moon clapped loud and slow. “If there was a prize for royally stepping in it, you would have won it hands down. Really, just amazing!”
Red reached out and gave Moon’s shoulder a hard shove. “Shut up. I’m nervous.”
“It’s been a weird summer already, Moon,” Mad complained. “First, you hook up with a vampire and get yourself turned. And now you’re introducing us to an elf.”
“Not to mention the scariest thing,” Moon said. All three witches turned in unison to the necromancer. “Sky is in a healthy, functioning relationship.”
Sky sighed as he flipped his friends off. Dropping his hands to his sides, he flashed Xiao Dan a sunny smile. “Shall we go inside? Has the huli jing showed up? I believe I heard we need him as well.”
“Huli hasn’t appeared yet, but he has promised to be here this evening to help. I’ve also told him the full details of what we need, though the precise amount of blood was unknown to me. Moon has reassured me it would be less than a liter,” Xiao Dan stated, motioning for the witches to precede them into the house.
Moon threaded his arm through Chen’s and leaned on his mate. “Oh yeah, we only need to cover the sandstone. And it’s not like we’re going to make Rei wear a boulder around his neck.”
“Speaking of,” Yichen interrupted. “Do we have a piece of sandstone for this spell?”
“I brought several,” Mad answered. He held up a wooden box with one hand. Its contents rattled against the sides.
“Zhang-ge?”
They stopped their progress at the sound of the meek voice. Yichen turned toward the speaker, his hand coming up to push Rei behind him, but he stopped when his gaze fell on the huli jing as he crossed the yard from a small stand of trees. His buoyant, fluffy tails were dragging on the ground, and his large triangular ears were drooping. Even his long whiskers appeared limp.
“What’s wrong, Huli?” Xiao Dan rushed over to the fox spirit and kneeled in front of him. With both hands, he cupped the fox’s face, lifting enormous amber eyes to meet his. “Did something happen? Are you hurt?”
“No, Zhang-ge. I’ve come as I promised to give up all my blood to you.” Huli’s voice was so soft and pathetic.
“No! Not all! I told you we only need you to donate a little. Just enough to fill a teacup, perhaps. Nothing more.” As Xiao Dan spoke, he rubbed a hand over the fox’s head in a soothing caress. The fox’s eyes closed and his whiskers perked up.
“Hey, Moon,” Mad whispered. “You ever see those videos on Facebook where the dog will limp in front of a sliding glass door and then stop the second he gets inside the house? This feels a lot like that.”
Huli cracked one eye open and glared at the witch while still soaking in Xiao Dan’s attention. Yichen was inclined to agree with Maddox. The fox was laying on the pathetic act thick. Xiao Dan was no fool. He had to see through this, and yet he was catering to the fox’s silliness.
“Hush,” Rei murmured. “I’m taking notes. This is good stuff.”
Cackles broke out from the witches and Yichen huffed. “Nope. Not a chance. That’s not working on me.”
Rei stepped in front of him and batted his eyelashes. When his eyes opened, they seemed to have doubled in size, glistening green like wet leaves. “But…but Yiyi…don’t you care even a tiny bit about me?”
Yichen’s damn heart lurched and his lungs constricted before his brain could get control of his body again. This was ridiculous. He pointed a finger right at the tip of Rei’s nose. “Don’t be evil.”
Rei’s voice wobbled precariously as he replied with a quiet, “Yiyi?”
“Oh, I like him now. He’s fun.”
Both Yichen and Rei twisted at the huli jing’s sudden and cheerful announcement. They found the fox staring up at them with bright eyes and a broad grin on his furry face.
“Well, that can’t be a good thing at all,” Chen muttered.
Thankfully, Xiao Dan decided they’d engaged in enough nonsense and wrangled them inside of the house. They chatted over some tea while Mad showed Rei half a dozen little, flat sandstone rocks that had already been drilled with holes to allow for a strap to be passed through it. For now, everyone seemed to avoid talking about King Ash and the fae army. They still didn’t have any solid answers about how to deal with them.
Once Rei selected the stone that would hold the magic he needed to survive, their party moved to the rear garden with the stone, a shallow bowl, and a first-aid kit for the poor huli jing. At the direction of Red and Mad, they gathered beside the koi pond where the waterfall tumbled into a larger pool.
“Are you sure this is the best spot?” Moon inquired. “The bowl will be exposed. What if it rains?”
Both Mad and Red scowled at the former blood witch while Sky cackled.
“This is the perfect spot,” Red snarled. “Here, the bowl will be exposed to the sun and the moon as they cross the sky.”
“Plus, you have the added energy of the falling water,” Mad chimed in. “Just because we’re using blood doesn’t make this blood magic. Stay in your lane, vampire.”
