Chapter 44 Yiran
Yiran
Yiran lay on his dormitory bed, half wishing he were back home on his own larger, more comfortable one with its soft sheets
and down duvet. He’d memorized everything in the brief for tomorrow’s mission. He was to be part of a team inspecting a neighborhood
that had previous Revenant activity, escorting a technician who was doing maintenance work. It seemed fairly straightforward,
almost too straightforward. The Guild wasn’t about to send cadets out on anything too dangerous—or exciting—for their first
mission, he supposed.
An hour passed, feeling like it’d dragged on for days. His eyes were still open. Insomnia had crept in. The more anxious he
was about sleeping, the more awake he felt. Finally, he threw off the covers, put on his glasses, and started doing pull-ups
on the bar he’d installed in the bathroom doorway to tire himself out.
At the thirteenth pull-up, something hit the window.
Yiran paused, hanging on the bars, listening.
Clink. There it was again.
He went to the window. There was no one on the grounds outside. Weird.
Something creaked. A pair of legs dropped down in front of him.
Yiran cursed in fright.
An upside-down face appeared next.
Yuki.
Yiran’s room was on the highest floor of the dormitory. The Hybrid had to be hanging from the rooftop deck right above.
Yiran slid the window open. “What the hell are you doing here?” he whispered. Why was he whispering? He should be sounding
the alarm.
Yuki smiled and disappeared.
Dammit. Yiran put on a pair of jeans, pulled a hoodie over his head, and stepped out on the narrow window ledge. The chilly air gave
him goose bumps. Praying the ledge wouldn’t break under his weight, he felt for a secure spot to haul himself up.
There was a weather-beaten couch left on the roof deck by a previous batch of cadets, and some odds and ends like old sparring
sticks strewn in a corner. Yiran had only been up here once, when Mai decided to have an impromptu campfire. It was always
cold and windy on the deck, and he didn’t care for the view.
Yuki plopped onto the couch. He didn’t seem to mind the dirty upholstery.
If anyone knew Yiran was up here with a Revenant, he’d be in trouble. But inexplicably, it wasn’t himself he was worried about.
“You do know this is a training school for Exorcists, right? You’ll get killed the moment someone sees you and recognizes
you for what you are.”
“And yet, I’m still alive. I thought you might start screaming to wake everyone up.” Yuki cocked his head. “But you didn’t.”
It sounded like a question, and it was a logical one. Why was Yiran up here, unarmed and talking to the enemy? He didn’t have
an answer.
“How did you know where my room was?” he said.
“Luck? I was in the trees when I saw a light in a room and someone who looked like you.”
“Unintentional stalking, I see,” Yiran said in half jest. More suspiciously, “What do you want?”
“Company.”
“You wanted company, and you came here? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?”
Yuki flung his head back on the couch. “I was bored, okay? I wanted to see if I could break in, so I did.”
Yiran didn’t know whether to believe him. But what else could Yuki want? If he intended to harm Yiran, he’d already have done
so.
“Relax, I didn’t have to kill anyone to be here,” Yuki said. “Xingshan needs to do something about its security.”
“Thanks for your advice.”
“You’re welcome.”
“I’ll notify the administration.”
“As you should.” Yuki patted the spot next to him. “Now stop pretending that either of us is going to attack the other and
come sit with me.”
Against his better judgment, Yiran did so. Up close, Yuki’s gray eyes twinkled with amusement. Without the killer wings at
his spine, he looked like an ordinary teenager. Yiran gave himself a mental shake. If he wasn’t going to sound the alarm,
if he was going to keep talking to Yuki, he would wheedle information out of him.
“You’ve recovered from your injuries,” he said, trying not to stare at Yuki’s smooth skin and elegant neck.
“Perks of being a Hybrid. It takes quite a bit to kill us,” Yuki said dryly.
“Aloysius was killed.”
“Good riddance. He was an abusive jerk when he was human and stayed one when he changed. The world will not miss him.” Yuki
smirked. “I should thank that girl if I see her again.”
“Did you get into trouble when you went back empty-handed? Were they upset with you?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.”
“What do you want to talk about then?”
“Do you like Exorcist school?”
“Why do you care?”
Yuki looked amused. “I’m curious about you the way you’re curious about me.”
Yiran wasn’t sure what to make of that. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, shivering as a gust of wind blew
by.
“You know, I don’t feel the cold anymore,” Yuki shared.
He was staring at the moon, and his skin seemed to glow in its light.
Dressed in white billowing clothes, he resembled an ethereal prince from a long-forgotten tale.
Not a knight in shining armor, but the one who was locked up in a tower, waiting to be freed from a curse.
“Good for you. I’m freezing my butt off.” Yiran pulled his hood over his head and blew into his fingers.
“Isn’t this nice though?” Yuki said with an impish grin. “Us sitting on this crummy couch, chatting as if we aren’t about
to be mortal enemies in the near future?”
In spite of himself, Yiran smiled.
“You know, I lost all my friends when I changed.”
“Can’t be friends with someone who wants to eat you.”
“I was the one who stayed away,” Yuki told him. “I hid myself from my family and friends because the hunger was too much and
I didn’t know what to do at first . . . I think they thought I ran away from home or something.”
“How did you become like this?” Yiran asked, noting the sadness in Yuki’s eyes. It was strange to see such a human emotion
in a Revenant.
Yuki stretched his arms out and sighed. “About a year ago, I was on my way home from a movie. There was no moon that night
and no curfew either. Everything seemed fine. I remember taking my usual shortcut home from the subway, down one of those
side alleys. I felt something sweep over me, like a thousand needles poking my skin. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a different
neighborhood. Alone and cold and hungry. There was blood all over me, but it wasn’t mine.”
The Blight got to him, Yiran thought. It was bad luck, nothing more. It could happen to anyone. “What happened after that?”
“I met some . . . friends. They helped me acclimatize.” Yuki looked coyly at Yiran. “I can control myself better now. It’s
the reason why you’re sitting next to me and still breathing.”
“Is it difficult? To be here beside me?”
“Yes.” Yuki raised his hand suddenly, fingers grazing the scar on Yiran’s cheek.
Yiran flinched, and his hood fell off. The Hybrid’s touch was cold, but it had sent a bolt of heat through him.
“The mage made me angry. I never meant to hurt you.”
“As I recall, you made it plain you wanted to kill me,” Yiran reminded him.
“Did I?” Yuki laughed. Then a genuine look of regret appeared. “I’m sorry it left a scar.”
“Takes more than a scar to diminish my good looks.”
Yuki laughed again. There was no reason for his laugh to sound so melodious to Yiran’s ears.
“The glasses suit you.” Yuki made a square with his thumbs and index fingers of both hands, and pulled back, framing Yiran’s
face as if he were taking a picture of him. “The perfect college boyfriend vibes.”
“Flattery doesn’t work on me,” Yiran quipped. But he felt his pulse speeding up. “You said you could control yourself, your
hunger . . . how?”
“The Blight turns spirits into ghoulish things—the original Revenants—but the strain that infects humans causes people to
react differently to it.” Yuki paused to stare at him, as if deciding whether to go on.
Sensing this could be valuable information to the Guild, Yiran said, “What happens to the infected humans?”
“Always digging for information, aren’t you?”
“Maybe that’s what you’re here for too,” Yiran countered. He didn’t want it to be true.
Yuki held his gaze. “It would be stupid for either of us to trust the other.”
“Never said I trusted you.”
“You shouldn’t.” Yuki glanced away. “Anyway, as I was saying, some infected humans die immediately because their bodies can’t
handle the change. Others starve to death because they refuse to feed.” He side-eyed Yiran’s grunt of disgust. “Don’t judge—feeding
is a natural instinct. Sometimes, the infected person changes entirely, becoming totally unrecognizable, something more grotesque
like the original Revenants.”
Yiran remembered the first Revenant he had encountered at the Night Market, how it’d started off looking more human before morphing into a monster, how it’d hardened and turned to ash when he killed it, just like Aloysius’s corpse.
That first Revenant must’ve been a Hybrid.
A human whose body reacted badly to the infection.
“And then,” Yuki continued, “there are those like me.”
“Meaning?”
“Like you said, I’m not one of those mindless monsters. Sometimes I think it’s a disease and I need a cure. Sometimes I think
it’s just evolution. Human food is tasteless to me, and the sun saps my energy, but I’ve retained most of what you’d call
my humanity—my thoughts, feelings . . . I’m aging every day, but it’s slow, so I look the same.” Yuki made a face. “Maybe
I’ll be stuck looking nineteen for a long time. I heal faster, and I’m stronger, my senses better attuned to my surroundings.
Take away the aging thing and the inability to taste food, it’s kind of like being an Exorcist, don’t you think?”
Yiran recoiled. “We’re different—”
“Are we?” Yuki said bluntly.
“Yes, we—”
“What you mean is you’re better than me because you think you picked the right side.”
“That’s because I did.”
“We’re only trying to survive, like all other living organisms,” Yuki argued. “What makes it wrong? Aren’t you doing the same?
Aren’t you training to survive? It’s the law of nature—eat or be eaten.”
“It’s not the same,” Yiran said.
Defiance flashed in Yuki’s eyes. “How is it different? Tell me.”
“First of all, we’re not trying to eat people—your kind kills them. We save them—”
“Why do you care about the normies?”
“I—what?” Yiran was confused by the question. It was a simple one, but he was struggling to find a good answer.
“I was a normie once,” Yuki said. “I know how they can be. Ungrateful creatures. They fear what they don’t understand.
They’re weak. They require protection from the strong, from Exorcists.
But somehow, they think they’re superior, they think they’re better because there are more of them and that’s what makes them normal.
Why are they worthy of saving? Shouldn’t they bow to superior beings like us? ”
Freaks. The normie man from the karaoke club had called Yiran and Zizi and Rui that. He’d even suggested feeding those with high spiritual energy to the Revenants, as if they were lesser beings undeserving of life and dignity. Yiran recalled
the shock and rage that had pulsed through him when he heard the man’s words. Was that Yuki’s point? The man was dead now.
Good riddance—no.
No.
Yiran was appalled by his own thoughts. He couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t save people unequally. He couldn’t decide
who was worthy and who was not. He had no right. He couldn’t be like that man. He shook his head. This was ridiculous—the
entire conversation, him sitting here next to Yuki—Yiran pushed himself off the couch.
“I should get some sleep.”
Yuki got up too. “Got an early day tomorrow? The Guild planning something?”
“I’m not telling you anything. You’re my enemy.”
Yuki blinked. “I know.”
And then he moved closer.
Yiran felt the chill of Yuki’s lips before his brain could register what was happening. His body reacted, leaning into the
kiss, his hand instinctively reaching for the small of Yuki’s back.
He had kissed before, and been kissed, but this was different. It should’ve felt wrong. Should have been foul and monstrous.
Should have made him sick.
But he wanted it, and it scared him.
Yiran pulled away, breathing heavily as he raked a shaky hand through his hair. He could feel the flush of his own cheeks while Yuki’s remained pale and cold. There was a frenzied look in the Hybrid’s eyes. Yiran wondered if it meant he was hungry. If he was using Yiran to test his resolve.
“I should have asked,” Yuki said. “But I was afraid you’d say no and it would make me sad. Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”
The wind picked up, ruffling his hair and billowy shirt. Something stirred in Yiran. He wasn’t looking at some monster, he
was looking at a boy drowning in a white ocean, waiting for someone to save him.
Yuki stepped backward to the edge of the roof, his gaze never leaving Yiran’s face as if he was committing it to memory.
“Why did you come here?” Yiran asked, unsure if he wanted to know the real answer.
With a small smile, Yuki turned and disappeared over the ledge.