12. Kai

Xiang was up to something.

He was being too nice.

The vampire was scheming again. Kai wasn’t sure what he was thinking. Xiang hadn’t given away any hints that he was plotting something, but he was just being so attentive. It had to be a trick to get Kai to lower his guard.

After nearly five days of being stuck in a bed, Kai was finally feeling better. He wasn’t at full strength yet, but most of the aches had left his body. His mind was clear, and he could feel his magic coursing through every cell. It was time to get on his feet and stop allowing Xiang to care for him.

Not that he wasn’t thoroughly enjoying it.

He stepped out of the bathroom, following a shower and a fresh change of clothes. Xiang stood a few meters away with a bundle of bedding in his arms after he’d changed the sheets.

“So, I gotta know. Is the dirty clothes hamper magical?” he asked as he approached. “I put dirty clothes in and the next day they’re in the bureau, smelling of lavender.”

Kai snapped his fingers. The soiled bedding disappeared. “No, I’m magic. The clothes hamper is Ikea.”

Xiang threw his head back and cackled.

The kitchen and bathroom hadn’t existed in his hoard until he’d brought Xiang to it. While Xiang might be a vampire, he still needed some basics for his survival and comfort. As a result, Kai had conjured up a bathroom and kitchen based on pictures he’d seen in a magazine. Both rooms were woven with spells so that dirty things were cleaned instantly when Xiang walked away. Anything in the cupboard or fridge that was exhausted would be replenished by morning. That way, Xiang would want for nothing.

“Feeling better today?” Xiang inquired as he approached.

“Yes. Thank you for your attentive care.”

The vampire shrugged and smiled. “Can I get you anything? Something to eat?”

“No, thank you.”

“In the mood for a little sparring?”

“No, thank you.”

“How about a game of weiqi?”

Kai narrowed his eyes on Xiang and took several steps closer until his chest nearly bumped into Xiang’s. “What are you up to?”

“Huh?” Xiang laughed. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re being too nice. You never offer to play weiqi with me. I have to convince you to play,” Kai grumbled.

His companion chuckled and gave his shoulder a shove as he took a couple of steps away. “You’re being paranoid. I’m not up to anything.”

Maybe he was being paranoid. After all the sweet care Xiang had given him, it was rude to suspect him of plotting something. “Forgive me. I was rude.”

Xiang stretched his arms over his head as he paced a short distance away. The motion hiked his T-shirt up so that it exposed a section of his smooth, muscular back. Kai jerked his gaze away, directing it to the floor while ordering his heart to resume its normal rhythm. He was not attracted to the vampire. It was just that things had gotten confusing with Xiang caring for him and that very random kiss to the center of his forehead. Besides being a strong, handsome man with a deep sense of loyalty and love for his clan, Li Xiang was a nuisance and a pest.

“Well,” Xiang drawled out. He dropped his hands to his sides and turned to face Kai with a crooked grin. “Since you are feeling better, I have one small request. A tiny one.”

With all his grace and strength, he managed to not roll his eyes. Here it comes. He knew it.

“Would you be willing to let me see you as a dragon?”

Kai blinked. “What?” That was not what he had been expecting the man to ask for.

Xiang sprang across the few meters separating them, his face alight with excitement for the first time in days. He snagged one of Kai’s hands in both of his and squeezed. “Please! The one time I saw your dragon was when you grabbed me. It was all so fast and terrifying. I was more concerned with you trying to eat me. Even when you took me to hunt, the travel was done in the blink of an eye. I just have an impression of immense size and power.”

“Really? You wish to see me?” The words slipped out in barely more than a whisper.

The vampire’s eyes were so wide, they were in danger of rolling out of his skull. “Are you serious? Of course I want to see a dragon! Especially since I know you don’t want to eat me.”

For a flash, Kai’s mind went somewhere dirty, but he jerked it out of the gutter while holding on to his shocked expression. It was a little concerning that Xiang was so obsessed with being eaten. Did he not understand that he wasn’t all that appetizing? There were far more delicious things out there to be eaten.

He cleared his throat and nodded once. “Okay.” He glanced about before his eyes caught on the perfect spot. “Go sit on the cushions.”

Xiang ran across the room and climbed up onto the mound of cushions where they usually played weiqi and reclined while Kai read and Xiang played on his phone. It had become their spot in the hoard and Kai’s favorite place.

“Okay!” Xiang shouted. “But don’t we need to go outside? Is there enough room in here?”

Kai smirked at his concern. Yes, the hoard was packed with treasures, but this was his hoard. Of course, he could move his large body through it without being in danger of damaging anything.

With a shake of his shoulders, Kai released a breath. It was like relaxing a muscle he’d forgotten that he’d even tensed. Power rolled through him and out, carrying him through the narrow, winding paths in the treasure room and up the giant pile of cushions until half of his body was coiled around Xiang. He opened his eyes and stared down at the small figure, who watched him with a mix of awe and terror scrawled across his features.

Xiang scrambled backward, seeming unable to take his eyes off Kai. He almost fell from the cushions but caught himself at the last second by placing a hand on Kai’s side. The vampire jerked his hand away on a gasp as if he’d been burned.

“S-sorry,” he choked out.

You can touch. I don’t mind.

Xiang yelped and jumped, only to point at Kai. “I heard that! I heard that in my head.”

I can speak with my mouth, but my voice in this form is loud and booming. Speaking directly to your brain is gentler.

“Whoa,” Xiang exhaled. He sat on the pillows, but it looked more like his legs collapsed beneath him. “Can you read my mind?”

If I wanted to, but I try to avoid reading filth, he teased, hoping to get Xiang to relax.

“Okay. That’s—hey! I don’t…okay, never mind,” he finished with a smirk. Xiang’s bright eyes followed him down from the tip of his golden horns, across white whiskers and his winding body. Though they did pause at his long talons. “So, you’re still in there. That’s…that’s…insane.”

Still in there?

“Well, you’re still Kai, but you’re in a dragon’s body now.”

A grumbling huff escaped Kai, and he lowered his head so he was closer to being on Xiang’s level. This is me. The true me. The human body you’ve known these past weeks is the fake. I took that form to put you at ease.

Xiang swallowed hard, his eyes continuing to move over him, as if his brain were attempting to catalogue and understand everything it was seeing.

“Oh.” The vampire paused. He reached out with one hand to touch Kai’s scales but then pulled his hand away. “Does it bother you? To walk around as a human? Is it uncomfortable or exhausting?”

Not particularly. But it is nice to lie in my hoard in my true form.

As if to prove it, Kai stretched his long body, allowing his scales to brush ever-so-lightly against the many things he’d collected over the centuries and millennia. There was something so very calming about being safe in his hoard again. The lingering tension and worry about the fae slipped to the very back of his mind and, for a time, he could forget they existed.

He laid his head on a pile of pillows and closed his eyes, letting out a contented sigh. A smile teased his lips, but he pushed it away as he felt a hand graze his side as Xiang got up the courage to touch his scales. He held still as Xiang’s touch grew firmer and bolder, tracing a particular scale before moving up his body.

“Soft and smooth as silk, but they’re stronger than steel,” Xiang said in such a tone of awe. Kai didn’t get the impression that Xiang was talking to him, but talking out loud. “But…you’re gold.”

Kai’s eyes flicked open at the note of surprise. Xiang had turned to face him, confusion wrinkling up his expression. “I remember you being blue when you grabbed me in the forest.” Xiang turned to the scales he’d been caressing. “But you’re gold.”

Mn. My scales take on a blue tint when they are wet.

“Like camouflage?”

Kai lifted an eyebrow at him. Do you think a dragon needs camouflage?

Xiang cackled and went back to sliding his hand along his scales. “Yep, you’re still Kai. Even as a dragon, you’ve got that huffy, insulted tone.”

To his shock, Xiang turned and dropped against Kai’s body. He shifted several times, settling amongst the cushions while resting his head on Kai’s scales. A smile rose in Kai’s heart as he watched Xiang wiggle and shift, his hands resting on his stomach. The only thing that was missing was his phone, and his position would be identical to all the times he’d lain his head on Kai’s chest.

“You’re warm,” Xiang announced.

Kai grumbled. Of course, Xiang had a knack for opening his mouth and saying exactly the wrong thing.

I’m a dragon. We’re warm-blooded. I’m not a lizard, he snarled across the vampire’s mind.

Xiang grinned at him and sat up. “I’ve got a new request.”

Kai shifted his head on the cushions and closed his eyes. Now that he was comfortable in his own skin, stretched out in his hoard, he was feeling quite content and sated. Maybe a nap wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

You can’t have a new request. You just said you had only one. You’ve made your request.

“I want to amend my original request.”

His whiskers twitched as he tried not to smile. It was wrong how adorable Xiang could be when he was wheedling for something. What is your request?

“Will you take me flying in your dragon form? I know you’ve flown with me in the past, but it was all a blur. I want to remember it. See things. Feel the wind.”

Kai opened one eye to see Xiang crawling awkwardly across the cushions toward his head. He reached out one hand and stroked the tumble of silken whiskers that were spread about near him.

Flying?

“Yes! I could ride on your back. We’ll soar through the clouds.”

It was a tempting idea. Part of him wanted to share the feeling of flying with the vampire. To hear him laugh and feel his excitement as they rushed over the earth.

But flying meant being out, away from the safety of the hoard, where the fae might spot him. They had plenty of creatures within their numbers that could fly.

Besides, he’d played this game with Xiang and gotten burned. He’d said he needed to hunt, but what he’d really wanted was to contact his clan. No, he wasn’t going through this again.

With a snarl, Kai shifted into his human form, which made it much easier for him to scowl at Xiang.

“Hey!” Xiang shouted when the dragon body he’d been leaning on disappeared.

“Just want to go flying, huh?” Kai snapped. “And then what? Go spy on the fae? Or maybe, since we’re flying, we’ll fly by your clan’s home, where I can drop you off before I head to my cave alone.”

Xiang struggled to his feet, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open. “What? What are you even talking about?”

“Don’t act coy. You’ve already played this trick with me. Asking for one thing while planning something different.” Kai hopped down from the oversized pillows to the hard stone floor covered with ornate rugs. He stomped away from Xiang, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “For the past several days, you’ve been silent about wanting to return to your clan, but you haven’t fooled me. I know everything you’re plotting.”

“You’re being ridiculous!” Xiang shouted at his back. “I wasn’t trying to fucking escape!”

He wasn’t willing to listen to another word. With a thought, Kai disappeared from the hoard only to reappear in the dark cave corridor just beyond that metal door. While he couldn’t hear Xiang’s inevitable angry rants, the vampire’s last words were still ringing in his head.

Escape.

Xiang leaving would be an escape, because he didn’t want to be there. Kai could argue that he was protecting Xiang in his hoard, but in truth, Xiang was his prisoner.

And this couldn’t go on.

Why couldn’t Xiang realize that the one safe place for him was the hoard?

Because the vampire didn’t care about being safe. The only thing that mattered to him was his clan.

He had to go home. Return to his people.

Kai just wasn’t ready to let him go yet.