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“Xiang is already starting his nonsense? The sun set barely an hour ago,” Xiao Dan murmured. He released Chen and took a step away, sighing. “I guess that’s one luxury when you are a daywalker.”
“There are times when I wish the sun would burn him up,” Chen growled, but even as the words left his lips, he knew they weren’t true. Xiao Dan’s smirk proved he didn’t believe it either. “Well, at the very least, burn up his tongue.”
“Okay, I might agree with that one.” Xiao Dan grinned and rubbed one side of his chin with his knuckle. A sure sign of embarrassment. “But this is my fault. I told him to fetch you. He finished his reconnaissance this afternoon. We need to discuss plans. Ming Yu is making some tea and Meimei3 has just woken. She will be ready soon.”
“Jun-Jun?”
Xiao Dan shook his head. “I haven’t seen him yet, but I noticed that there are now cans of tuna in our pantry.”
“Naturally.” Chen sighed. If their other clan brother was good at anything, it was picking up strays. Back in Luoyang, Zhang Junjie had fed at least a dozen feral cats daily. Anytime he saw the vampire walking around or even sitting, he had a purring feline stretched out in his arms. “I’ll locate him. You get to deal with Sean Li,” Chen finished with a sneer.
Turning on his heel, Chen marched down the hall, ignoring Xiao Dan’s low chuckle that chased after him.
Okay, so maybe he was having trouble adjusting to the western style of names. Given name before the family name. And then some of their given names were going to trip up American tongues.
Such as Xiang.
His brother had chosen Sean because the sound was closest to Xiang.
Zhang Xiao Dan had shrugged and said he was going with Daniel rather than explaining Xiao.
Chen wasn’t hard, right?
The idea of a complete stranger calling him Bo rankled to no end, though.
He’d spent two thousand years in China. Now he was in America for the first time in his very long existence, and after just a couple of months, he was already aching for home. This was bad. He wasn’t opposed to adventures and his brain craved new things, new experiences, new information, but they were all on edge because of their reason for making this long journey.
If they’d been able to travel to this new land for a different, more pleasurable purpose, maybe he’d be in a better mood.
Or maybe he didn’t appreciate beginning his night with Li Xiang and his annoying mouth.
Yes, that was most likely it.
He peeked inside of Jun-Jun’s chambers to find the bed empty and neatly made. With a nod, he wove his way across darkly stained bamboo floors covered with elegant rugs and past tall windows that looked out on landscaped grounds, gilded in thin moonlight. They had brought tapestries, paintings, and carvings from home, each one crafted by a member of the sect.
When they’d discovered they would travel to America for this mission, Zhang Xiao Dan had begun designing the home they would use. Chen was proud of his clan brother. Their home was an eclectic mix of old and modern. Every turn of the home was an echo of a world long gone while offering all the modern amenities and protections they’d become accustomed to.
The single-story structure was laid out in a series of interconnected buildings that formed three separate courtyards. Two of those courtyards even had retractable roofs, allowing them to venture into the garden during the day if they wished. There was plenty of room for the six of them.
Soon to be seven once again.
Chen passed through the kitchen Xiao Dan had included to keep up appearances and make the house resalable in the future. As far as he knew, they had no intention of remaining in America longer than necessary, but right now, they had no idea how long “necessary” was.
Slipping out a rear door that opened to the enormous field behind their residence, Chen found Zhang Junjie sitting in the grass, stroking a large orange cat as it devoured a bowl of tuna. Its purrs were loud enough to hear even from several meters away.
“You need to be careful,” Junjie whispered. “There are predators in the area bigger than you, and you don’t want to be someone else’s meal.”
“There is no way you’re the only one feeding that cat,” Chen observed. “He’s far too fat to be a stray.”
Junjie tipped his head up, twisting so he could see Chen standing behind him. “He’s big-boned and fluffy. Not fat.”
Chen scoffed. His earlier irritation with Xiang melted away at Jun-Jun’s grin. While Li Xiang and Zhang Junjie were the same age and had entered the sect at the same time, the two men couldn’t be more different. Where Li Xiang was loud, boisterous, and impulsive, Zhang Junjie was a quiet, gentle soul.
