22. Zhang Xiao Dan
Chapter 22
Zhang Xiao Dan
“ J iejie, will you teach me to cook?”
Xiao Dan stopped in the middle of the hall and replayed that request and voice. Yes, that was Huli in the kitchen with Ming Yu, and he was asking her to teach him to cook. For a moment, he was both confused and terrified. He couldn’t imagine good things happening in the kitchen when Huli was mixed with knives and fire. Ming Yu seemed to have the same initial reaction.
“I…I don’t understand. Is there something you’d like to eat? I can make it for you,” Ming Yu replied, sounding as if she wanted to protect her precious kitchen from the fox spirit. Xiao Dan turned around and started for the kitchen to save Ming Yu’s kitchen from the fox, but Huli’s next words stopped him cold.
“I want to learn to cook, so I can learn how to make Gege’s favorite meal for his birthday. Also, I need to know what his favorite meal is. And I need you to tell me the date of Gege’s birthday.”
Xiao Dan slapped a hand over his mouth to hold in his laughter while his heart melted for his mate. He didn’t know what to do. Should he go in there and help Ming Yu? He didn’t want to walk away. This conversation was too adorable.
“Oh. Well, Xiao Dan’s birthday isn’t until December thirty-first. The last day of the year. Vampires don’t celebrate birthdays much. They lose their meaning after a couple of centuries. I usually make a big meal to celebrate the end of the year. It would be too much for you to do alone. Would you like to help me with it?”
“Okay.” Huli’s voice sounded bleak. “But can we make him a cake? A big one? With lots of candles and pretty flowers? And swords! He likes swords.”
“We can, but why are you so determined to celebrate Xiao Dan’s birthday?”
“Because Gege is amazing and we need to celebrate him every day, but especially on his birthday.”
Xiao Dan dropped his hand from his mouth to rest on his heart. He needed to put a stop to this before he expired on the spot.
“I think we can figure something out,” Ming Yu said with a smile in her voice.
“Jiejie, have you seen my mate?” Xiao Dan called out as he walked toward the kitchen. He turned the corner to find Huli standing behind the center island with Ming Yu, a wide grin on his face. “There you are! What are you up to? Sneaking snacks?”
Huli tipped his chin up and squared his shoulders. “Why not? Jiejie always makes the very best snacks.”
“That is very true. I was wondering if you would like to go for a walk with me through the garden.”
“Yes, please!” The playful fox pressed a quick kiss to Ming Yu’s cheek and skipped to the rear door with his hand held out to Xiao Dan.
Xiao Dan winked over his shoulder at Ming Yu, who was now silently laughing at the fox, and escorted him outside. The dark sky was full of twinkling stars, and a deep chill had settled in the area. It felt as if they were mere days away from the first snowfall. He was torn about wanting to stay to see their American home covered in a sparkling white blanket and wanting to hurry to China so that they could see the snow descending on a place they all loved so much.
Of course, Chen could stir up their own personal blizzard anytime he wanted, but it wasn’t the same. He wanted to watch nature’s magic as it fell on their home.
He gave Huli’s warm hand a squeeze as they followed the stone path over the small bridge and into the trees. His lips twitched to see one of Erik’s red cars by the brook, nestled by a couple of bushes. He would need to remember that so he could take it back in after their walk. Their littlest clan member would be searching for that later.
“Huli, I was thinking…I don’t know when your birthday is.”
“I don’t have a birthday.” The fox spirit gave a shrug of his shoulders, his free hand swinging at his side. “Fox spirits aren’t born the same way humans are. Min believed that our essence escaped the underworld and after a lot of time, we developed enough magic and consciousness to become a creature. I think I was born a fox near some magic, and that enabled me to cultivate into a fox spirit. Either way, I don’t know when all of that started.”
“So, by that logic, you could be older than me.”
Huli stared up at Xiao Dan for several seconds before bursting out in laughter. “That’s silly. There’s no way I could be older than you. Besides, you are Gege, and you will always be Gege.”
Xiao Dan lifted their joined hands to his lips and brushed a kiss across Huli’s fingers. “I will always be yours.”
As they reached the trees, Huli skipped a step ahead of him and turned so that he was facing Xiao Dan while he walked backward. “But if I had a birthday, does that mean I would get cake and presents?”
“Of course.”
“Can I pick any day out of the year to be my birthday?”
Xiao Dan nodded, his smile growing wider. “Do you have one in mind?”
“I do. I want my birthday to be the same day as yours.”
“December thirty-first?”
“Yes. I want us to celebrate together. We’ll eat cake and shoot off fireworks.”
“That is a wonderful idea. I can’t wait for our birthdays.”
Huli pulled his hand free and shifted into his fox form with his eight tails dancing behind him. He bounded and leaped around their private forest, darting between the trees and disappearing into the shadows, only to reappear a second later.
Xiao Dan leaned on a tree and watched his mate stretch his legs. Everything Huli did was so full of joy and energy. It was impossible not to smile when he was nearby.
Yet, Xiao Dan’s happiness faded as his eye caught on the flurry of fluffy orange and white tails that flowed behind the fox. Min had been destroyed. They were free of all hindrances and threats to their clan at long last. They could return to China, but the white huli jing had left a mark on them. Specifically, Huli. He was still missing a tail.
Gaining all nine tails and becoming a jiuweihu had been his lifelong dream. For centuries, he’d let nothing stand in his way to attaining his goal.
Now that he was one short, Xiao Dan couldn’t help but wonder if he was about to lose his sweet fox all over again. A fist closed on his heart and squeezed. The selfish part of him dreaded it. They’d lost so much time already. He wanted to support Huli, but he also didn’t want to go another night without his smiling face.
“Huli?”
The fox stopped sharply in his running and darting through the woods. His head snapped around to focus on Xiao Dan before he zipped between the trees to stop right in front of the vampire.
“What do you need, Zhang-ge?”
Xiao Dan swallowed hard and forced his smile back on his lips. It was better to know Huli’s mind ahead of time rather than stewing in worry alone. “I was thinking about your tails.”
Huli sat up a little straighter and fanned his eight tails behind him like a peacock trying to attract a mate. They were all very similar, with shades of orange along the tails and the tips were colored white. A few had streaks of black here and there that matched his feet. He looked like a normal red fox in all aspects except for the fact that he was twice the size of one. His tails were also longer and fluffier than the average fox.
“They are the best, most beautiful tails you’ve ever seen, right?”
“They really are. I can’t imagine any huli jing in the world has better tails than you.” At his praise, Huli tilted his chin higher and even puffed up his chest. His huli jing was ridiculous, and it only made Xiao Dan love him more.
“But I know you were very frustrated to lose one of your tails, leaving you with just eight,” Xiao Dan continued.
All the tails slumped and Huli’s triangular ears flattened. “Stupid, evil Min,” he muttered under his breath. “Death was still too good for her.”
Xiao Dan wasn’t sure he disagreed with Huli on that point, but this wasn’t what he wanted to discuss. “I was wondering if you planned to resume your cultivation as soon as we returned to China so you could regain your missing tail.”
The fox’s ears instantly straightened, and his furry brow wrinkled as if Xiao Dan’s words confused him. He hadn’t meant to surprise Huli with his thoughts.
“I bring it up because I know how important it was to you to gain all nine tails. I want you to know that I support you.”
Huli’s head tilted to the side. “Do you want me to leave to cultivate for a ninth tail?”
Crap . He was beginning to wish Huli would shift into his human form. His expressions and moods were so much easier to read on a human face. When he was being sly and sneaky, he couldn’t hide it as well as he could in fox form.
“No, I don’t want you to leave, but it would be selfish of me to ask you to stay and keep you from your dream to be a jiuweihu. You’ve also made it clear that you can cultivate faster away from Luoyang. I want you to know that I support you no matter what you decide.”
A knot formed in Xiao Dan’s throat. These were all the right words to say to support his fox boyfriend, but his heart and brain were both screaming at him to take them back. He needed to demand that Huli stay at his side and not leave him behind for another hundred years. But he couldn’t. It wasn’t right.
Huli lowered his head to stare at the ground, seeming to think about Xiao Dan’s words. The vampire bit his tongue to keep from throwing more fuel on this disastrous fire. Huli needed space and time to think.
Except he didn’t.
Huli shifted into his human form and stepped right up to Xiao Dan, resting one of his hands on his mate’s chest. “Do I need to have all nine tails for you to love me?”
Xiao Dan choked on the air he sucked in on a harsh gasp. “No! Of course not! I love you just as much now as I did when you had nine tails.”
“So, you think I’m still worthy of you, even though I only have eight tails?”
“Yes. My Huli is very much worthy of me. Not because of your beautiful tails, but because of what’s in your heart. You’re a good man and a good fox. That’s what matters to me.”
Huli leaned into him. The hand resting over his heart slid upward to hook around the nape of Xiao Dan’s neck. “Then there is no reason for Huli to leave his Zhang-ge.”
“What? Really? Are you sure?”
Xiao Dan cursed himself as soon as the questions jumped from his tongue. Why couldn’t he keep his mouth shut?
“Yes.” Huli lifted on the tips of his toes and pulled Xiao Dan closer so he could steal a soft kiss. “Why would I want to leave? If you love me as I am, I’m not leaving.”
“But your dream of becoming a jiuweihu?”
“I was one once, and that is enough. Besides, Huli is still powerful with eight tails. Scarier than most vampires outside the Zhang clan.” Huli rested his other hand on Xiao Dan’s chest and started to trace random designs. “Besides, if Huli gets in trouble, Gege will still come save him, right?”
Xiao Dan cackled as he wrapped his arms behind Huli’s waist, pulling him in tight so he could plunder his silly mouth with a long, deep kiss.
He didn’t think it was possible, but he was finding new ways to love his fox every night. No one had ever made him so happy. He didn’t think it was possible to feel this much joy with another person, but Huli brought him to new heights every night they were together.
“Yes, Huli, I will always protect you.” As he spoke, his lips rubbed Huli’s, teasing his fox. “And I will always love you no matter how many tails you have.”
“Good, but I have no intention of losing any more.” Huli bumped the tip of his nose against Xiao Dan’s and grinned. “If I do, you must come with me while I cultivate. I will never sleep apart from my vampire again.”
“Deal.”
Xiao Dan would happily follow his fox wherever he led him.