Two Thousand Promises (Kings of Chaos #5)

21. Huli

Chapter 21

Huli

A branch snapped, the sound echoing through the silent woods, and Huli froze, listening for any other signs of movement. Night had fallen a few hours earlier, and the temperature hovered near freezing. By morning, a thick coat of frost would cover the ground and trees, whispering of winter that was barely more than a month away.

When it came time to confront Min, he’d been sure it would be in the middle of the city, where she had access to all the humans and comforts she preferred. She might have come into existence as a fox spirit and passed her earliest years living in a burrow in the ground, but as soon as she could shift into a human, she remained among the humans, preferring their silk finery, comfortable beds, and delicious foods.

But Kai had located her deep in the woods no more than a few kilometers from the Zhang property, as if she hadn’t wanted to travel far from her target.

The dragon had been quite put out when Xiao Dan had banned him from killing the huli jing the moment he’d located her. Huli might have been surprised at first. After losing his tail, he just wanted Min dead so Xiao Dan would be safe.

Yet, as the days passed and Huli slept curled in Xiao Dan’s arms, his head on the vampire’s chest, he understood why he’d stopped Kai. This was their fight. Min had threatened Huli’s mate, and he needed to clean up his own mess.

Xiao Dan also wanted some payback after Huli had suffered at Min’s hands.

The rest of the Zhang clan had accompanied them into the woods this night, but they were there only to keep the white huli jing from escaping.

A large hand came to rest on the top of Huli’s head, and he gazed up to find Xiao Dan standing beside him with a sheathed sword in his other hand and a reassuring smile on his lips. Just that touch was enough to release the tight grip of fear on his lungs, allowing him to breathe a little easier. With his mate at his side, he could accomplish anything.

A scent drifted through the woods and Huli snapped his head around, pointing his nose toward the faint whiff he’d caught. Could it really be Chenxiang?? 1 Maybe with a hint of lotus blossom. It was something old that called to fuzzy memories of a time long since dead. Without a word, he darted after the scent. The odor didn’t come from the vampires, which left only one creature from his past—Min.

As he followed it, the smell grew stronger. He didn’t dare look behind him and risk Min surprising him. He trusted that Xiao Dan was a step behind. Kai would track them from a distance, ready to deploy the rest of the clan the moment Huli had Min in his sights.

There was a flash of white on his right. Huli tried to change direction, to avoid the coming attack, but Min was faster. Thankfully, though, his vampire was faster than all huli jing. A hand seized the scruff of his neck, jerking him back as a dagger sped through the air and embedded in the dirt where Huli had been standing a second ago.

“Sorry about that,” Xiao Dan murmured as he released Huli.

The fox winked at his mate and turned his attention to the blur of white as Min darted away.

“Why are you running, Min?” Huli shouted. “I thought you wanted to claim the rest of my tails and steal all my power away. That’s why you helped me, wasn’t it?”

“That’s still my plan.” Her voice drifted out of the trees like a hawk on a gust of wind. “But you’ve brought along a vampire to protect you. I’ll need to kill him first if I’m to get to you.”

“At least you have a fair understanding of the situation,” Xiao Dan called out. “There’s no way I’d allow you to harm my mate. You’ll have to go through me.”

Min’s low chuckle trickled out of the shadows. “It’s amazing that you’re still willing to protect him after everything he’s put you through, the danger he has introduced to your precious clan. It’s as if you don’t know him at all.”

“Shut up!” Huli barked. He lunged away from Xiao Dan, rushing to where he thought she was hiding.

“Huli!” Xiao Dan shouted after him.

“What’s wrong, Little Fox? Afraid I’ll tell him who you truly are?” Min’s mocking voice came from his far right. She’d moved without him even noticing. Huli turned and ran toward where he thought she was hiding yet again, but still came up empty. He needed to stop her before she told all his secrets. After their travels and years of cultivation, Huli had spent as much time with Min as he did with Xiao Dan. Possibly even more. And with her, he hadn’t bothered to watch the things that came out of his mouth. Xiao Dan couldn’t know how horrible he really was.

“Huli, be careful! Don’t get too far from me,” Xiao Dan called after him, but Huli couldn’t risk glancing over his shoulder at his mate. He needed to keep those brief glimpses of white in sight.

“Yes, Little Fox. Don’t wander too far from your protector.”

A low growl rumbled up Huli’s throat, and he clenched his teeth. He hated when she called him that. It had been Xiao Dan’s nickname for him during his early years. She wasn’t allowed to use that name. He raced forward.

Their running through the woods had taken them to a deep valley where the sides around them rose steeply and were covered in fallen leaves and branches, making it hard to escape. Huli stopped too sharply at the top. His body weight carried him past the rim, forcing him to slide and tumble to the bottom of the valley.

Huli jumped to his feet and searched the area to find that he was alone. There was no sign of Min, and he’d even outrun his mate.

As the thought crossed his mind, bright-white fur cut through the darkness. Min strolled along the top of the valley above him, her tails dancing behind her.

“Oh, no. Look at poor Huli. Lost his mate,” she taunted. “So determined to keep him from knowing the truth. You didn’t even bother to watch where you were running. Is his love for you really that fragile?”

“No. It’s not,” Xiao Dan stated, less than a meter away from Min. The white fox yelped and attempted to jump away from him as he swung his sword. Even from his angle at the bottom of the valley, Huli could see the tip of the blade slice her side as she tumbled into the valley.

Before she even stopped falling, Huli pounced on her, his sharp teeth sinking into fur and flesh at her throat. Blood coated his mouth and Min’s screams filled his ears. Yet, as he tried to give her a neck-snapping shake, Min planted her feet into his ribs and shoved free.

The white fox faced off against Huli for a couple of seconds, then darted to the other side of the valley, putting more distance between Huli and Xiao Dan. As she reached the top of the hill, Mei Lian stepped out from behind a tree, a spear held in both hands and leveled right at Min’s chest. Min dug all her feet into the soft earth to halt her sprint. She changed directions, searching for an escape route, but one by one, the Zhang clan stepped out around the side of the ridge, blocking her exits and forcing her into the valley to face Huli and Xiao Dan, who had now descended to stand beside his mate.

“No!” she snarled.

Huli chuckled. “You would almost think we planned this.”

“Did you really think you could hold the truth about Huli’s personality over his head?” Yichen called out.

“We know he’s selfish,” Xiang said.

“And lazy,” Junjie added.

“And that he’d sacrifice all of us if it meant getting an extra five minutes of alone time with Xiao Dan,” Chen stated.

Huli huffed. “They’re enjoying this too much.”

“I’ve always known all those things about him,” Xiao Dan interjected, shooting a warm smile at his fox mate. “And I still love him with everything I am. Nothing you can say would ever change that.”

Thank the gods he was covered in fur, because it felt like his face was on fire. How could Xiao Dan say those things where everyone could hear him? He wasn’t worthy of this vampire. It didn’t matter how many tails he had. Eight? Nine? A hundred? Not enough to prove his worth.

He’d just have to kill Min.

Huli lowered his head and flattened his ears as he stalked away from Xiao Dan, approaching his prey. Min’s tails flicked restlessly behind her, her gaze darting from the vampires watching above them and Huli as he crept closer.

“Is this how you finally beat me? With an entire clan of vampires?” Min mocked.

“They are there to make sure you can’t escape,” Huli growled.

“Your fight is with us,” Xiao Dan finished.

The white fox huffed. “Two against one? Hardly seems fair.”

Xiao Dan pulled his sword from his sheath and slashed it through the empty air. “You were the one who was foolish enough to attack my mate and my clan. No one touches my mate or my family.”

As Min stared at Xiao Dan, Huli leaped at Min, tackling her to the ground. They rolled through the fallen leaves, broken branches, and stagnant pools of cold water. A horrendous noise rose out of the valley, a cacophony of screams and barks. They kicked, clawed, and bit at each other, tearing flesh where they could.

At last, Huli flew away from her, freeing himself from the tangle of teeth and tails. The second he was away, Xiao Dan stepped in, swinging his sword. Min was forced to shift into her human form. She blocked the vampire’s sword with her own magically conjured blade. Metal clanged and sparks flew up, briefly lighting the darkness.

While Min was quite strong fighting as a fox, she hadn’t studied the art of swordplay for as long as Xiao Dan. She struggled to keep up with his series of offensive slashes and thrusts to the point of her shifting back into a fox after less than a minute and darting off to another part of the valley.

As she ran, heavy tree branches fell from the trees that lined the edge of the rim. Each time, Min had to dart and dodge to avoid being hit.

“Rei!” Xiao Dan shouted. “We agreed on no interference.”

“That wasn’t me!” the elf cried out.

“Forgive me, Shixiong,” Kai mumbled.

Huli giggled until angry sparks of magic crackled along Min’s tails. He’d been hit with those magic bolts in the past, and it wasn’t an enjoyable experience. He hunkered low, preparing to dart out of the way, when the white fox yelped and violently jerked to the left, pulling her tails out of a tangle of vines that had somehow threaded their way through them.

The elf snorted. “Okay. That one was me.”

Xiao Dan might not appreciate the interference, but Huli did. The second Min was distracted, he lunged at her. The impact of their bodies hitting drove her to the ground again. Unfortunately, she was ready for him and kicked him away. He hit a clump of leaves, rolled to his feet, and shifted into a human. He palmed the throwing knife Xiao Dan had pressed into his hand before they left the manor and threw it straight at Min.

With a wicked grin, she batted it away. But she didn’t notice that Xiao Dan was already racing toward her. The vampire snatched the blade out of the air and plunged it into her neck.

For a heartbeat, it was as if the world had become a frozen tableau of death as Xiao Dan stood over the white huli jing, her tails stiff and still behind her. But on the next beat, Xiao Dan stepped back, ripping the blade from her body. Min fell soundlessly forward on a gush of blood that covered the dead leaves and cold earth. Her tails fell limp. A couple of gurgling gasps escaped her and then…nothing.

She was gone.

The shadow that had stretched through so much of his life, the threat to his happiness with Xiao Dan, was finally gone.

His brain was still trying to process it when Xiao Dan’s arms wrapped tightly around him, pulling him in against his chest. Kisses were pressed to the top of his head and temple.

“Are you all right? Did she hurt you?” Xiao Dan demanded.

Huli lifted his face to look at the worry that lined his mate’s handsome features. A small smile grew on his lips. “I’m okay. No harm done.”

“Can you forgive me?”

Huli blinked at the vampire, his brain locking up after just starting to function again. “Huh?” That wasn’t what he’d expected him to say.

“I know you wanted revenge for all the harm she did to you and stealing your tail, but I lost my patience. She was getting too close to hurting you, and I couldn’t take it any longer.”

A swell of warmth pushed through his body, replacing the cold nausea that followed Min’s death. His mate had acted to protect him. His perfect Xiao Dan had lost his temper and acted in haste. How could he not love him more?

Huli wrapped his arms around Xiao Dan’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss. “Nothing to forgive. You saved me.”

“I will always save you,” Xiao Dan murmured, their lips brushing as he spoke.

“That’s it?” Rei’s cry broke them apart.

Huli stared past Xiao Dan to find the rest of the Zhang clan descending into the valley with them. Most weapons had been tucked away, and there were expressions of relief on their faces. All except for Rei.

“I don’t get to kill anyone or slice off a couple of tails?” Rei continued.

“I can raise her body, and you can fight a zombie fox,” Moon offered.

“No!” Huli shouted, joined by Xiao Dan, Ming Yu, and Chen.

Moon cackled, and Chen caught his mate by the waist, pulling him in close. “You have many more lessons with your necromancer friend, Sky, before you may raise so much as a headless chicken. Plus, you have punishment training to finish for not telling me about this necromancer thing in the first place.”

To his credit, Moon didn’t bat an eye at Chen’s grumpiness. The witch-turned-vampire smirked up at his mate. “How about I do that magical thing with my tongue and we knock a few training sessions off that list?”

Huli choked when he attempted to snort and laugh at the same time. Xiao Dan remained silent, but his shoulders shook as he burrowed his face into Huli’s hair.

“What should we do with her?” Ming Yu inquired.

“Can’t we just leave her here to feed the local animals?” Mei Lian said.

“I doubt it would be wise for the local wolves and such to eat a magical creature,” Xiang muttered. “The humans are still recovering from that fae mess. They don’t need other weird things happening in these woods.”

Huli pulled away from Xiao Dan enough to locate Kai standing beside his mate, staring skeptically at the corpse. “Dragon, can you burn her for us?”

Kai made a face. “I’m a water dragon. Fire isn’t one of my specialties. However…” He paused and waved his hands in front of him. In his left, a fancy jar of what appeared to be lamp oil. In his right was a box of stick matches.

Xiang snatched up both and made quick work of disposing of Min’s body so that she could infect no other creature with her magic. Huli could only stand back, watching as the yellow and orange flames turned her body to ash, a strange mingle of feelings twisting in his chest.

“Huli?”

There was no missing the concern that softened Xiao Dan’s voice.

“I’m okay,” he whispered past the tightness in his throat that angered him. “I can’t say that we ever liked each other. We’d had our secret plans to use each other. But…there’s this huge chunk of my life where we were constant companions. Not friends. I guess more like family who didn’t like each other. That part of my life is truly finished. No more running from it or trying to hide it from you.”

Xiao Dan wrapped his arms around Huli from behind and squeezed. “No. No more running and hiding. You have a new family now. One who doesn’t want to use you or hurt you.”

The tightness in Huli’s throat disappeared, and he breathed easier as he stared up at Xiao Dan. “My family.”

“Is it time?”

Huli stepped free of Xiao Dan’s hold and turned at the sound of a catch in Yichen’s voice as he asked that very simple question. His gaze skimmed the members of the Zhang clan, both new and old. There was something in the vampires’ eyes, a wistful longing that he also found on Xiao Dan’s face.

And that was when it hit him. They were finally free to leave the United States. No more roadblocks, evil schemes, or danger.

“Yes.” Xiao Dan’s voice was rough, and he had to clear his throat before he continued. “After a hundred years of being incomplete, our clan is truly whole at last. We have the shidi we have been missing and the mates we’ve all longed for. It’s time to go home.”

1 ? Chenxiang – also known as agarwood [Narrator’s note: 沉香 Chénxiāng]