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“Your clan mate…” Moon began and stopped to lick his lips. “He’s been gone for a full century.”
“Correct,” Xiao Dan replied.
The witch sighed and took another drink of his tea. “If your friend wasn’t already a vampire, I’d say there was no chance of him still being alive. The fae have a long history of stealing humans, and there isn’t a single story of them being seen alive again. But even as a vampire…” His words faded away into nothing.
“Moon, we appreciate what you are trying to delicately say.” Xiao Dan’s expression was warm as he stared at the witch. “We know that there is a very high chance the fae have killed our brother. However, we will not rest until we’ve at least tried to save our didi.”
“And if they did kill Wu-di, we’re going to get our revenge on the elf who stole him and any fae who had a hand in hurting him,” Xiang snarled.
“Got it.” Moon perked up and clapped his hands together. “Rescue mission with a heaping helping of revenge. It’s important that we all begin with realistic expectations. All magic should come with a big neon ‘buyer beware’ sticker.”
“Speaking of magic, you are a witch,” Chen interrupted when it felt like Moon was going to head off on another of his strange tangents. “We need magic to help locate where the fae door to this world will open on Moving Day. Can you do this?”
Moon took a deep breath as if he intended to launch into a long description, but all that came out was “No.”
Chen’s back became painfully straight, and he leaned toward Moon, crowding the man’s personal space. “What kind of witch are you? You said that you would help me—us. You said that you would help us.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Sexy. I’m going to help you.”
Chen could feel all the other eyes in the room snap to his face, which was heating. He nearly reached out and grabbed Moon’s cup. Tea would help to clear the sudden tightness of his throat, but drinking from Moon’s cup would not improve this situation. “Stop calling me that! You’ve already proved that you can say my name perfectly.”
“Chen Bo Cheng takes too long. And you’re my rescuer. I should have something short and sweet. What about that other word you guys used a minute ago? What was it?”
Fear and horror gripped Chen by the throat.
“That’s right! Didi! Can I call you Didi?” Moon asked, placing a hand on the center of Chen’s chest.
Chen gasped, but he fell into a coughing fit as he choked on the air. Jun-Jun and Xiang didn’t have that problem. Both vampires fell into each other, their hard belly laughs filling the room up to the raftered ceiling. There was a thud on Chen’s left as Meimei fell off her perch and lay cackling on the floor. Ming Yu hid her face, but he could see her shoulders shaking. Even Shixiong had turned traitor and was chuckling.
“You may not call me Didi!” Chen seethed when he could speak.
“Didi means younger brother,” Xiao Dan informed Moon, who was looking lost.
“What’s the opposite of that? Older bro—”
“Yes! Yes!” Xiang chanted at the top of his lungs.
“Gege!2 Call him Gege!” Jun-Jun added.
Chen’s gaze snapped to Xiao Dan, who appeared as if he were barely keeping the grin from his lips. “Really, Shixiong? Is this to be my punishment?”
“It’s not…entirely…appropriate. Perhaps you could just call him Chen-ge.” Xiao Dan lost the smile and continued. “We’ll discuss your punishment later.”
Chen shifted his eyes to Moon to find the witch smirking at him.
“Chen-ge,” Moon murmured with such joy, wringing more cackles from Xiang and Jun-Jun. “I like that. Chen-ge.”
Chen sighed. There was no stopping this nonsense now. “Can we return to our discussion about locating the fae?”
“Yes, Chen-ge,” Moon agreed. Chen longed to wrap his fingers around Moon’s throat. “As I was saying, I can’t help with locating the fae. My magic doesn’t work that way. The fae—as I’m sure you already know—are creatures that are influenced by nature. They’re wielders of earth magic. That means you need an earth witch to locate the door.” Moon held up a finger before Chen could inquire what kind of witch Moon was. “You’re in luck, because I’m friends with two very talented earth witches. It might take some work, since they are both scared shitless about the fae right now, but I think we can get at least one of them to cast a spell to locate the door for you.”
“And if we can’t locate the door, one of your friends could help us locate the bulk of the fae as they move into our world,” Xiao Dan murmured.
Yes, that was Plan B.
If they couldn’t attack the fae as soon as the door opened, they would stalk their every movement until they located their clan mate. The only problem was that the fae were as sneaky, if not sneakier, than vampires. Tracking them once they were free to run amuck was not the best option.
