6. Kai

Kai hesitated outside the hoard, fiddling with the small box clutched in both hands. It had been three days since he’d tossed Xiang in with the hoard and removed the metal door. Enough time for his temper to cool and to realize he might have overreacted.

Was it any surprise that Xiang was attempting to escape?

No. If their roles were reversed, he would do the same thing. Ugh. He’d be worse. He would promise the moon and stars, tell any number of lies to be free.

And maybe Xiang did need to feed, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t multitask. Grab a bite to eat and coordinate a rescue with his clan.

Xiang probably was telling the truth about wanting to reassure his family that he was alive and well to relieve at least some of their worries.

But beyond his attempt to escape, what stung was the idea that Xiang had been willing to leave without him. The frustrating vampire had been so adamant over the past few weeks that he intended to take Kai with him. That there was no way he was leaving without him. His words and fierce tone had convinced Kai.

But it had all been a lie to get Kai to help him. The vampire didn’t care about him or whether he ever escaped the dragon’s clutches. He was a fool.

All of which was laughable. There was no escaping the dragon. He was the dragon.

And when Xiang discovered the truth, he was going to be so very pissed. Justifiably so. The fragile friendship they’d built on the back of their mutual lies was going to be reduced to ash in the fury of Xiang’s temper.

A smart dragon would cut his losses now and keep his distance, but he didn’t want to. Ever since their last encounter in the park, Kai couldn’t put Xiang out of his head. His angry words kept ringing in his ears while Xiang’s frantic, desperate face filled his mind.

Fate would have them part on bad terms, but for now, he could at least try to mend the bridge between them.

His mind made up, Kai summoned up the brief flicker of magic needed to reappear within the hoard. A quick glance about the massive cavern revealed nothing out of place, but there was an eerie silence, as if he were the only living creature within it. There was no way Xiang had escaped. He checked the time on the clock and confirmed that it was the normal hour for Xiang to be awake.

“Li Xiang?” he called out, letting his voice carry to the farthest reaches of the cave.

“Kai?” Xiang’s ragged voice was filled with surprise, as if he couldn’t believe that Kai had returned.

A flash of movement in the bedchamber caught Kai’s eye, and then it was a blur. A heartbeat later, Xiang’s body slammed into him. Kai didn’t have a chance to react defensively or even in panic. But it didn’t matter. Xiang’s arms wrapped around his neck, holding him in a fierce hug while his forehead rested on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. So very sorry. I won’t lie and say I wasn’t thinking about escaping, but I changed my mind. I swear. Chen said he was coming to get me, and I was going to tell him not to when you grabbed the phone. I was afraid that if I left without you, I wouldn’t be able to find the dragon’s hoard again to save you.” The words poured out of Xiang in a torrent of words that ran together as they rushed off his tongue.

Kai hesitated, his arms out to his sides. This was not what he’d expected. He thought Xiang would be angry at him for taking him to the cavern. He’d never thought he’d hear an apology from Xiang. After setting aside the box on a nearby table, he folded his arms around Xiang. As he steadily increased the pressure, something cracked inside of him. It was like he could take a deep breath for the first time in his very long life. His eyes burned, and he squeezed them shut as he held Xiang.

“Don’t apologize. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. Any sane man would attempt to escape a dragon when given a chance,” Kai murmured into Xiang’s sweat-damp hair.

Xiang’s arms tightened on him, threatening to choke him. “I won’t leave without you. I swear. We go together, or I don’t leave at all.”

Kai could feel his lips lifting into a small smile. “You’re leaving here one day. I know it.” As soon as he finished speaking, there was an answering ache in his chest. Of course, he’d gotten used to having Xiang close by. He was a pleasant distraction, but he didn’t belong here. He had a clan he belonged to, and he needed to return home.

“Kai?”

“Hm?”

The vampire’s arms loosened to the point of nearly falling away, but he didn’t lift his head. His voice remained muffled against Kai’s chest. “Could you talk the dragon into returning the door?”

“What?”

“The door. It’s gone. I swear I won’t try to escape through it, but…when it’s not there, I kind of lose my mind. It doesn’t make sense, but I feel more trapped.”

Kai winced. He’d forgotten about that. His temper didn’t strike often, but it was nasty when it did. With little effort, the door reappeared at its normal spot on the far wall. “The dragon returned it when he let me come in. I’m sorry about that.”

Xiang’s head jerked up, his dark hair falling forward into his eyes while his lips parted in surprise. “Really?”

Releasing him, Kai stepped away as he motioned to the steel door that broke the monotony of stone. Xiang jogged across the room and placed a trembling hand on it, as if he needed to check that it was real. A high-pitched laugh broke from his throat as he laid his forehead on the door. His shoulders slumped, and the vampire appeared so worn and tired.

“Xiang?” Kai said as he reached the vampire’s side.

Xiang shook his head and straightened, moving away from the door. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I panicked when it disappeared.” He turned to Kai and cracked a weak smile. “I know you and the dragon come and go using magic. I mean, what better way to protect a dragon’s hoard than to have it all locked away in a doorless room? Logic claimed I could get out with magic, but…”

“Logic doesn’t always rule the mind,” Kai finished for him.

“No. Seeing the door is reassurance that I’ll be able to leave one day. I might have also broken one of the dragon’s swords.”

Kai’s chest tightened in panic as Xiang led him over to a long table where the broken remains of a thousand-year-old sword lay on the gleaming wood. All sense of loss fizzled when he caught sight of the smears of blood on the hilt. Xiang hurt himself in his frenzied panic, and it was all his fault.

Reaching out, Kai caught Xiang’s limp right hand and turned it over, inspecting the palm and fingers. There was no sign of his wounds other than some redness and smears of dried blood, but it was proof enough that Xiang had been both physically and mentally hurting.

The sword didn’t matter. The only thing that was important now was healing Xiang.

“You will get out of here. I know it,” Kai stated through the sudden tightness of his throat. He released Xiang’s hand and gripped Xiang’s shoulder, squeezing it. “Come sit. Rest. I have something to show you.”

“What? The dragon find a new bauble to add to his collection?” Xiang showed the first spark of his usual snarky energy since Kai entered the cave.

Kai directed him over to the giant mound of cushions with the gold tassels and silky fringe. It was the one place he frequently found Xiang when he slipped into the cave. Well, it was the one place he found the vampire aside from the moments he preferred to pace and cause trouble.

As Xiang flopped onto the giant pillow mountain and closed his eyes on a happy sigh, Kai called over the box he’d brought with him. He clutched it in both hands and then thrust it at Xiang before the twisting knots in his stomach could convince him to change his mind about this.

“I felt bad about what I did to your phone,” Kai blurted out.

Xiang blinked, his eyes wide and slightly crossed as he stared at the box mere centimeters from his nose. “Um…” He took the box and tipped it so he could look at the picture of the smartphone on the cover. His grin spread until it split his face and the twinkle returned to his eyes. A low laugh started and built as he’d dropped on the pillows, holding his stomach with his free hand.

A burning spread across Kai’s cheeks, reaching up to the tips of his ears. He’d wanted to make Xiang feel better, but he hadn’t wanted to make a fool of himself in the process. It was no better than he deserved after what he put Xiang through.

Of course, that didn’t mean he was going to stand there and allow Xiang to continue to laugh at him. With a huff, Kai turned on the balls of his feet, preparing to walk away from the cackling creature, when a firm hand snagged his wrist and jerked him back. An embarrassing noise erupted from Kai’s throat. It may or may not have sounded like a chicken’s squawk.

His body half collided with Xiang’s, and he ended up nestled in the cushions. He froze, trying to ignore the alluring scent of jasmine coming up from the pillows to mix with Xiang’s own personal musk to create something more valuable than all the perfumes of the world. He wanted to turn his head into Xiang’s neck and breathe him in. Instead, he kept his eyes trained on the vampire’s smiling face as it appeared above him.

Xiang was lying on his side but holding himself up with one hand while clutching the box in the other. “Don’t be grumpy. I love it.”

“You laughed.”

“Because it’s a great gift. It’s thoughtful.”

Kai narrowed his eyes at Xiang. He wasn’t buying it.

“Okay, well. Also, it’s kind of funny because the one you destroyed in the park wasn’t mine. It belonged to the guy I fed from.”

Kai’s frown deepened. He hadn’t thought of that, and he had no interest in replacing the phone of the man who’d gotten to feel Xiang’s bite. The one who had supplied him with sustenance when Kai could not. “Well, you had one of these devices during your kidnapping, correct? Wasn’t it harmed by the water?”

“Oh, yeah. Totally useless now.”

“There,” Kai declared with a single nod. “The phone replaces the one the dragon destroyed.”

“Well, there’s also the issue of being what I’m guessing is several hundred meters underground. There’s no way that it’s going to get anything resembling a cell signal. Plus, I doubt you’ve even got it hooked up to a carrier.”

Xiang was saying words, and not one of them made any sense to him, but he understood the tone. “What you’re saying is that it is a useless chunk of plastic and glass because you are stuck in a cave.”

The cheerful man turned very serious as he pointed the box at Kai. “I did not say that.”

Kai let out a sigh. “I thought you might be able to use it to talk to your family. Reassure them. Since you don’t know where you are, you wouldn’t be able to risk their lives by leading them to the hoard. But it would make you and your family…happy.”

“Would the dragon kill them if they tried to take me from the hoard?” Xiang inquired, his voice low and soft.

“Possibly. Dragons don’t react well to anyone getting near their hoard, and to take something, no matter how small, is a death sentence. The only reason you’re here is because the elf queen ordered the dragon to ‘take.’ Where else was the dragon to take you but here? It’s the safest place.”

Even if Kai didn’t want to hurt Xiang’s clan, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself. His collection was his everything. His reason for being. It was the sum of all of his worth in the world. If someone stole from it, they were stealing a bit of him. The hoard needed to be protected at all costs. Even if he knew Xiang had to return to his clan, it didn’t mean that his instincts wouldn’t fight him on letting his family take him away.

“Is that why you’re here, too? Because someone ordered the dragon to take you and you’re stuck here?”

He was not even trying to wade through that question. Kai directed his gaze to the box in Xiang’s hand. “Why isn’t it useless?”

A slow, knowing smile spread across Xiang’s lips, but he didn’t say a word. Instead, the vampire flipped over onto the cushions, so that he was half lying on the pillows while his head was resting on Kai’s chest. Kai had no choice but to toss his left arm above his head. Otherwise, he would be forced to lay it across Xiang’s chest, and he was not cuddling the man even closer.

Xiang’s fingers cut through the plastic film on the box and deftly pulled off the lid. He threw aside other useless bits and pieces as he powered up the phone and flipped through its various screens.

“Technically, I don’t need a cell signal to contact my family. If there was Internet in the cave, I could use that to call them, but there’s no way in hell I’m trying to explain the Internet to you so you can then explain it to a freaking dragon,” Xiang chattered away as he worked.

Kai bit his tongue. He knew what the Internet was. It was technological magic humans created to send paperless messages and pornographic images. He just had no idea how to make that magic work in his cave. Of course, until Xiang had entered his life, he’d had no interest in letting human magic into his hoard.

“Ah! There!”

Xiang’s excitement drew Kai’s gaze to the screen he was holding up. That was better than trying to convince both his mind and body to ignore the feel of Xiang against him, and how difficult it was becoming to keep his arm from wrapping around the man.

“You see? They’ve been preloading a handful of games on cell phones for years. They’re basic games, like Solitaire, Minesweeper, and mah-jongg, but they don’t require an Internet connection to play.?1 It’s just a little something for entertainment. You know, other than books.”

Kai thumped the top of Xiang’s head with his knuckle but smoothed the spot with his fingers almost immediately. “There’s nothing wrong with books.”

“No, but I read books for two thousand years. I like TV and video games now.”

Closing his eyes, Kai smiled to himself, enjoying the weight of Xiang and the steady sound of his voice as he played with his new toy. “It’s been so long since I last played mah-jongg.”

Xiang huffed a laugh. “Jiejie?2 used to drag Meimei, Jun-Jun, and me into games of mah-jongg, but they always devolved into a fight. Jiejie is fierce when it comes to mah-jongg. Shixiong took the tiles away and hid them when we broke a window the last time we played.”

“How did a window get broken?”

“A chair went through it.”

Kai bit his lip to hold in his laugh. He took a couple of breaths and spoke only when he was sure he could keep his tone even. “Did you throw the chair through the window?”

“I have no idea how the chair went through the window.”

“Was it your chair?”

Xiang sighed extravagantly and lowered the phone to his chest, but he didn’t move from where he lay on Kai. “Who keeps track of these things? The table flipped, a chair went through the window, and weapons might have been drawn. All I know is that Shixong came in, swept up all the tiles, and declared never again.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Seven hundred and ninety-six years ago.”

Laughter burst forth from Kai’s mouth. There was no stopping the explosion. It felt as though his entire body would tear apart if he tried. Xiang sat up like a shot and he twisted around to watch Kai as he rolled on the cushions, laughing hard enough to send tears sliding down from the corners of his eyes. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d laughed, and he was sure he’d never laughed so hard in all his life.

He caught his breath and stared up at a vampire with eyes shining brightly and lips parted in soundless wonder.

“What?” Kai asked.

“You have the best laugh I’ve ever heard. You should do it more often.”

Before Kai could come up with a reply, Xiang resumed his spot snuggled against Kai with his head on his chest, just over his racing heart.

When he was near Xiang, he wanted to laugh more often.

“You have two gege?3, right?”

“Mn. Shixiong is Zhang Xiao Dan, and Chen Bo Cheng. Most of us will call him Er-ge.”

“Why didn’t they play mah-jongg too? They would have been able to keep it calmer.”

A noise escaped Xiang that was something between a snort and a choked giggle. “No way. Shixiong is even more vicious with mah-jongg. No one would have gotten out of there alive.”

“And your er-ge?”

“He likes mah-jongg, but he doesn’t get as invested in it as the others. No, his game is weiqi?4.”

A tremor of excitement ran through Kai and it was a struggle to tamp it down again. “Weiqi?” he repeated, trying so hard for nonchalance. “Did your er-ge teach you how to play?”

“Of course. I?—”

Kai didn’t even wait for him to finish. He jumped to his feet, spilling Xiang over onto the other pillows, while he ran through the cave to a tall bureau tucked near the rear wall. After throwing open the door, he kneeled and carefully picked up the old wood block and the pair of clay canisters beside it. With infinite care, he carried it over to where Xiang was now standing at the edge of the cushions, the phone clutched forgotten in one hand and a confused expression on his face.

“What…fuck, no way,” Xiang muttered as Kai dropped to a cushion near Xiang and gently placed the weiqi board between them on its squat round legs.

“Play with me,” Kai stated as he picked up the two clay canisters. He lifted the lid of each, checking to make sure the stones were there and to find which held the black ones.

A chuckle broke from Xiang and Kai looked up to find the vampire trying to hide his smirk behind his hand as he cleared his throat. “No. I can’t. I’m terrible. Chen would beat me all the time.”

“I don’t need you to be good. Just know the basics. I’ll even let you go first,” he begged as he held up the container of black stones. Xiang didn’t move. He stared at the small jar in Kai’s hand. “Please. It’s been a really long time.”

Centuries. It had been centuries…

“Fine,” Xiang huffed. With his left foot, he kicked over a plump yellow cushion so that it sat opposite of Kai. He dropped onto it and accepted the black stones while putting aside his new phone. “But I don’t want to hear any mocking or complaining about how bad I am. This is for fun.”

“Yes, of course. I won’t say a word,” Kai quickly agreed, even as he wiggled a little on the pillow.

Click.Xiang’s first black stone hit the board.

Clack.Kai’s white stone answered.

The small, polished stone felt so good between his thumb and forefingers. A whisper of memories danced through his brain of rich incense, gold and red rooms, flickering candles, and an old emperor who mumbled as he placed the stones on the board with slightly trembling fingers.

Click. Clack. Click. Clack.

The stones were hitting the board faster now. Kai told himself to hold back. Play conservatively. But Xiang was already stealing liberties and even taking a prisoner. He needed to climb out of this hole before it was too late.

“You’re going easy on me,” Xiang murmured. Click.

“I had thought to, because a certain vampire led me to believe he was a poor player.” Clack.

“I am a poor player. If you want a proper game, ask Chen.” Click.

“No need.” Clack. “I’m enjoying a proper game with you.”

Xiang paused, turning the black stone between his fingers as a grin played on his lips. “I’m surprised the dragon has such an old, beat-up board in his hoard.”

“Not every treasure in the hoard is encrusted with gems or covered in gold. The world would overlook some of the most precious things in the hoard, yet the dragon reveres them. Does that make them less of a treasure?”

“Not only are you an avid weiqi player but also a bit of a philosopher.” Click.

“A philosopher, no. But I love to play weiqi.” Could he not tell by the smile that was stretching muscles that hadn’t been used in a lifetime? The pain was astounding, and yet he couldn’t stop as the joy bubbled up more and more.

Xiang answered with a noncommittal hum. Play went on, and Kai squeaked out a win.

The vampire smirked at him as he helped to clear away the stones. “Maybe this was more fun than I remembered. We’ll have to do it again.”

Briefly, Kai considered launching himself across the board and tackling the man into the pillows with a hug. But that was silly. It was just a game.

With a small nod, Kai managed a soft. “That would be nice.”

Xiang’s deep laugh proved he wasn’t fooled at all.

1 ?Author Note – Okay, okay. I know smartphones don’t exactly work like this anymore. Back in the stone age when I grew up, phones came preloaded with Solitaire and the like. I’m asking for a little suspension of disbelief. We live in a difficult age where the Internet and cell phones are everywhere. Just roll with it. You’ll like where I’m going with this.

2 ?Jiejie – older sister

3 ?Gege – older brother, denotes familiarity and not necessarily a family relation. Can sometimes be added to a name such as Chen-ge

4 ?Weiqi – more commonly referred to as Go. An ancient Chinese strategy game between two players placing small white or black smooth stones on the intersecting lines of the board. The goal is to surround more territory on the board than your opponent. Chess is often viewed as the Western equivalent.