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Moon snorted as he slouched on the couch. “Yeah, well, cutting off the arm of their king was probably enough to rattle them pretty good.”
“It’s just a shame I didn’t have the presence of mind to cut his head off as well,” Chen muttered. Three weeks had passed, and he was still stewing over that misstep on his part.
Moon laughed. Reaching out, he gave Chen’s shoulder a small shove. “In your defense, you did look up and see the man of your dreams with a sword sticking out of his chest. That would have distracted most people.”
A shiver ran through Chen and he squeezed his eyes shut, willing that memory away. Every night since that encounter, he had a nightmare of that moment. Except, in his dreams, he wasn’t able to turn Moon into a vampire in time.
Fingers threaded through his and squeezed his hand. Chen opened his eyes to find Moon smiling at him.
“I’m still here,” he whispered. “You saved me.”
“Forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I joke about it so I don’t have nightmares.” Moon released his hand and pushed Chen so that he was lying with his back against the corner of the sofa. Moon draped himself over Chen, his head resting on his chest. “If you need me to remind you every night that I’m still alive and that you saved me, I’m happy to do it for the next ten centuries.”
“And if I need you to do it for eleven centuries?”
Moon tipped his head so that his chin sat over Chen’s heart. “The first ten I’ll give you free. After that, I think I’m going to need a little compensation.” He waggled his eyebrows and grinned, making it more than clear what kind of compensation he had in mind. Not that Chen had a problem with it.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
His lover laid his head down on his chest, seeming to settle in for a nice early evening cuddle. “Has everyone recovered from the fight?”
“Fox’s broken leg will take several more weeks to mend. In the meantime, I understand Winter is keeping a very close watch over his mate. The rest of the Variks have recovered, but those are the benefits of being a vampire or shifter. King Aiden has invited us to his clan’s home in three days to discuss King Ash’s plan to keep the door open between realms. They’re trying to reach a witch named Zelda. The hope is that she might shed some light on this matter.”
Moon hummed. “Zelda is really fucking old and powerful. I doubt this is her first rodeo with the fae. She might know something. What about the Montgomery clan?”
Chen’s arms tightened on Moon. “Aiden didn’t say anything about them, but I’m sure they are still in mourning.”
The casualties had not been high on their side compared to the fae losses, but the Montgomery clan lost four vampires and a human in the fight. Several other smaller clans suffered losses, but Chen wasn’t sure of their names. The Variks were doing what they could to support them, but for the most part, it was talking the clan leaders out of launching another attack on the fae in the name of retribution.
“I saw on the news that the city was lifting the curfews. Rafe’s nightclub should open up soon,” Moon murmured.
“No.”
Moon’s head popped up. “What? I—”
“Fledglings may not leave the clan and play with other vampires so soon. It’s too dangerous. I’ll end up killing more vampires, and that is not how we make friends in our temporary home.”
A slow smile spread across Moon’s lips, pulling them back enough to reveal the points of his fangs. “But I’m not just a vampire. I’m a blood witch vampire.”
Chen placed a hand on the top of Moon’s head and urged him to lay it down again. “All the more reason for me to be afraid.”
He’d been worried that Moon would lose his magical abilities if he became a vampire. It turned out that being a blood witch caused an extra complication. Moon had fed only once since becoming a vampire and everything seemed fine on the vampire side of things. It was when he tapped his witch-y magic that things went very wrong.
It was as if the power and blood lust blurred his mind. He was prone to violent outbursts and wanton destruction. The choices right now were for Moon to stop performing magic or for him to learn to control his witch side again.
Right now, Moon was choosing to not use magic out of fear of hurting Chen or one of the other members of the Zhang clan.
That was not a long-term solution.
Moon had said it himself. Being a witch was a large part of who he was. Denying that part would fix nothing, and it was going to result in only misery. Chen wanted him to learn control and acceptance, but they could only start that when Moon was ready. At the moment, Chen was focusing on teaching Moon proper meditation techniques. A clear mind was a good first step to facing this darkness within him.
