20. Leo St. George

Chapter 20

Leo St. George

S omething was up with Junjie.

The vampire had been acting strange since he’d returned from the grocery with Ming Yu, Erik, and Xiao Dan. His face was exceedingly pale, and his eyes had a glassy look to them, as if he’d been crying or on the verge of crying. Everything about him just seemed twitchy. He moved constantly, his hands fluttering about his body like he didn’t know what to do with them. What was worse was that Junjie refused to meet his gaze.

Something had happened while he was away, and Junjie refused to tell him. It also wasn’t reassuring when Chen of all people swooped in after Junjie received his initial hugs and kisses from Erik to take the boy away to play with him and Moon. The vampire might be coming around to the little boy, but Chen never stole Erik from Junjie’s arms or volunteered for play time.

Grabbing Junjie by the hand, he dragged the vampire down the hall, away from the rest of the clan, until he found an empty room. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“Wh-what are you talking about?”

“Jun-Jun, I’m not an idiot?—”

“I never said you were!”

Leo frowned at Junjie. “No, but you’re treating me like one. I know something is wrong. You’ve been acting strange. Did Jiang Chong show up again? Was anyone hurt?”

Junjie swallowed hard as he shook his head. “No, he didn’t come near the manor as far as I know.”

“Is it the fae? Have you heard from Trin? Did they attack a new city? Did you get news from the Variks?”

Junjie’s eyes darted away from him. “There’s been no news regarding the fae.” He brought his eyes to Leo and forced a smile so brittle on his lips it looked as though it were going to shatter into a million pieces. “Everything is fine.”

“Everything is not fine. Something is bothering you.”

“It’s not. Nothing is bothering me.” His grin grew sharper, and he took a step toward Leo, sliding his arms around his waist. “Maybe…maybe I’m nervous about us.” As he spoke, Junjie dipped his head and brushed his lips across his cheek. He placed soft pecks across his face to the corner of Leo’s mouth.

Instinctively, Leo turned his head to snag another tender kiss while his mind continued to turn over Junjie’s words. Okay, Junjie might be nervous about them pursuing whatever the fuck this was, but that puzzle piece didn’t fit with the rest of what was happening with the vampire right now. Junjie’s nervousness equaled being shy and withdrawn.

What was happening since he’d entered the house was a fearful Junjie.

No, a terrified Junjie.

Something had scared the shit out of the vampire, and now he was trying to hide it.

Leo ended the kiss and pulled away to see the fear in Junjie’s eyes before he could try to cover it all up with another fake smile.

“Let’s continue what we started yesterday,” Junjie suggested. One of his hands slipped under the edge of Leo’s T-shirt and skimmed along his stomach, but Leo caught his wrist, stopping his progress.

“Here? Now?”

“Sure. Chen and Moon have Erik. We have time alone.”

A hundred red warning lights blinked in Leo’s head while claxons screamed. This was all wrong. “Why don’t we go to your room? We’ll have more privacy there.” Leo released Junjie’s wrist and turned to head down the hall to Junjie’s private quarters.

“No!” Junjie shouted. The vampire tried to grab him, but Leo already expected it. He shifted into a cat and raced along the hall. Junjie was hiding something from him, and it was in his bedroom. Why else would he attempt to seduce Leo in one of the public rooms shared by the entire clan?

His paws slipped on the wood floors as he ran. Junjie thundered after him, shouting his name, but Leo didn’t stop. He squeezed between decorations and darted between the legs of others, keeping out of Junjie’s reach. Just as he reached the vampire’s bedroom, he shifted into his human form and threw open the door. His heart stopped.

A whirlwind of destruction and chaos crowded the normally tidy space. A table lay broken into dozens of pieces. Glass and bits of clay pottery littered the floor. A pair of candles had spilled their wax across a mat. Small spools of thread in a rainbow of colors were scattered everywhere. For a moment, he thought maybe someone had attacked Junjie in his room, but his eyes finally caught on the long, crumpled length of fabric with its kaleidoscope of colorful stitches.

Junjie’s fortune-telling scarf.

Before he’d revealed himself to the vampire, he’d seen him working on it a few times when they were trying to locate Yichen. Junjie had even talked to him about it, never expecting Leo to actually understand what he was saying.

Slowly, he turned to the hallway where Junjie stood a couple of feet away, his expression fraught with deep lines while his fingers tangled together in front of him. “You finally did a reading,” Leo whispered. “What did you see?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Junjie turned away, but Leo pounced on him. He clutched Junjie’s arms and slammed him against the wall.

“Tell me. What did you see?”

“I…”

Leo gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to shake him. “I promised to be honest with you, so we could give this dating thing a try. I didn’t expect that I’d have to drag the same promise out of you. We can’t possibly build something going forward if you’re going to keep me in the dark about things happening in your life.”

Junjie squeezed his eyes shut and choked on his name. “Leo.”

“Let me be there for you.” Leo moved his hands on Junjie’s biceps, loosening his hold enough to massage the tight muscles. “Together, we can tackle anything. Jiang Chong and the fae don’t stand a chance. We’ll protect your clan and Erik together.”

The vampire opened his eyes, and they were glassy again. He blinked and two fat tears streaked down his cheeks. “I saw…I saw Jiang Chong. He was here. At the manor. He killed…he killed…”

Leo’s stomach knotted, and a chill ran through him. “Who? Who did you see him kill?”

“You,” Junjie bawled. “He killed you.”

“Oh.” Well, that fucking sucked.

Junjie shoved off the wall, pulling out of Leo’s grasp, so that he could wrap the cat shifter up in a suffocating embrace. His entire body trembled, and Leo mentally pushed aside the prophecy to focus on the vampire who was losing his shit as he held Leo tighter and tighter.

“Baby, you need to breathe,” Leo said and then paused. He was a vampire. Did he really need to breathe? He shook aside the errant thought and stroked his hand up and down Junjie’s back. “Don’t worry about Jiang Chong. I’m sure we can stop him. What you saw is a possible future, right? Nothing is locked in stone. We’ll figure this out.”

Junjie released him enough to look in him in the face. “All of my prophecies have come true exactly how I’ve seen them. I’ve never been able to stop a single one from happening. But you don’t have to worry; I’ll stop Jiang Chong this time. I’ll keep you safe.”

Leo didn’t have a chance to comment. Junjie rushed through the hall, leaving Leo to jog after him if he planned to keep up. The vampire was on a mission, and didn’t seem like he planned to listen to anyone who might want to reason with him.

“Jun-Jun, baby. Honey,” Leo called to his lover. “I’m touched that you want to keep me safe, but we need to talk about this. You can’t go rushing out to attack Jiang Chong. You don’t know where to find him. Plus, he’s a slippery fucking eel. You’re going to need help. Let’s go find Xiao Dan and the others.”

There was no response to his words. Junjie stopped when he reached a pair of large, heavy doors with a complicated lock. He’d seen the vampires go in and out of this room a few times, but he always gave it a wide birth. With this kind of security, they’d notice anyone getting near it, even a cat. Prior to revealing himself, he hadn’t wanted anyone to notice him.

After entering the combination, Junjie opened the doors to reveal a large room full of weapons. Oh, this was taking a very bad turn. Junjie could not go off half-cocked to take out Jiang Chong alone. He’d get himself killed.

“Jun-Jun, you need to calm down and think rationally about this.” Leo followed Junjie around the room as the vampire snatched up weapon after weapon and placed them on the center table. Swords, daggers, bows, a wicked-looking staff. Things he didn’t even have names for. Junjie was going to be a one-man army. “You can’t be completely sure of what you saw, right? Are you sure I was dead-dead? Maybe I was just wounded. Why don’t we go talk to Xiao Dan? I bet your shixiong will have some good ideas.”

“Shixiong can’t fix it this time.”

Junjie headed to the far corner to grab another weapon, but Leo caught his arm and stopped him. As the vampire turned to meet his gaze, his eyes were wide and slightly unfocused, as if he weren’t actually there, but lost in his own panicked thoughts.

“Listen to me. We’ll fix this together . I’m not leaving you,” Leo pressed.

“I know. We’ll stop him. But I need you to stay here for a little while.”

“What?”

“You can’t leave. If you leave, Jiang Chong will kill you.”

Leo’s brain was still digesting those ominous words when Junjie pulled free from his grasp and zipped out of the room. It was his own fault for forgetting that vampires could move insanely fast. That fact was hammered home as the heavy double doors slammed shut before Leo could make it past the table.

Fucking Junjie had shut him in the armory without taking a single weapon for himself. It was all a ruse. The goddamn vampire tricked him.

“Junjie! Junjie Zhang! Let me the fuck out of here!” Leo bellowed at the top of his lungs. He pounded his fists on the steel doors, but they didn’t budge an inch. “Let me out right now!”

“I can’t, Leo. Jiang Chong kills you here in front of the house. I don’t know when. Probably soon. That’s why I can’t let you leave.” The thick doors muffled Junjie’s voice, forcing Leo to strain to hear him.

“You can’t hold me prisoner forever! Let me out!”

“It’s not forever. There’s someone I need to talk to. I’ll be right back.”

He was leaving? Who did he need to talk to that required him to lock Leo up? The vampire had lost his damn mind. He couldn’t leave him locked up in the armory.

Leo stepped away from the doors to see if he could find a hidden release or some other trigger to unlock the doors, but there was nothing. Not even a set of handles on this side of the doors. The metal was completely smooth. If there was a mechanism to let him out of the room, the Zhang clan had hidden it really well.

“Keep the doors locked. Don’t let anyone open the armory or Leo will die. Do you understand?”

Leo lunged for the doors again and pressed his ear to it.

“I’ve got it. Chen has told me about your vision. I will protect that cat until you return.”

Kai! He put the dragon in charge of guarding him. Why not? Dragons were known for being able to protect treasure, and right now, Junjie was acting like he was one of the most precious things to him. Enough to make him temporarily lose his mind.

“Kai! Old buddy, you gotta let me out of here. Junjie isn’t thinking clearly. He needs help,” Leo shouted at the door.

“You have nothing to fear, cat. Junjie is leaving now to get help. I will keep you safe in the armory.”

Leo dropped his head on the door, banging his forehead on the metal. Fuck . His only hope now was for Xiao Dan to get wind of this nonsense and to set him free. If there was anyone who was sensible and calm in this clan, it was Xiao Dan.

With a heavy sigh, Leo slid down and sat on the cold floor with his back against the door. Dying at the hands of Jiang Chong didn’t scare him. But something happening to Junjie in his pursuit of Jiang Chong terrified him, and right now, there was nothing he could do to stop it.