Page 19 of Two Thousand Blades

There. He looked like he was taking a snooze. Nothing suspicious to see here.

Smiling, Xiang picked up the phone and the man’s right hand. It took another few tries with the proper finger, but he managed at last to get into the device. He winced at the image of the nearly naked woman that served as the phone wallpaper. Any lingering regrets that might have been forming over his meal evaporated. The poor woman was supposed to be seductive, but the pose struck him as painful, and she was probably cold. Someone needed to give her a sandwich and a blanket.

Whatever. He tapped the icon for the phone and stared at the numbers. Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

What the hell was anyone’s phone number?

It wasn’t that often that he had to call any of them and when he did, the number was programmed into his phone. All he had to do was tap their name, and the call connected.

Of course, his own phone never turned on again after being dragged through the river with him and the dragon. He’d tried placing it in rice and even baked it in the oven. The only thing the device did was melt and spark a bit. Nope, the poor thing was dead and now he had to rely on his two-thousand-year-old memory.

He punched in some numbers. Stopped. Erased them. Tried a second time.

Finally, a low groan tumbled from his lips as a phone number rose crystal clear in his mind. Naturally, it was his number. Why couldn’t it have been anyone else’s?

He dialed it and waited. The phone rang three times and just as he was preparing to hang up before the voice mail picked it up, the call was answered. Chen removed all doubt that Xiang had gotten the right number when gruff Mandarin filled his ear, followed by Moon’s familiar snickers.

“Asshole,” Xiang muttered.

“Xiang?” Chen gasped.

“Yep, it’s me. Still alive.”

“Jun-Jun said you were. Where the hell are you?” Chen demanded.

“Told Junjie the dragon spit you out after trying to eat you!” Moon shouted in the background.

Xiang stifled a laugh and smiled at the ground. It was good to hear their voices. Even Chen’s. He missed them all more than he cared to admit. Each of them had gone traveling here and there during their long existence, needing to get away from the clan and explore. To find themselves in this new world. And maybe make peace with all they’d lost. But Xiang hadn’t been apart from his brothers for this long in centuries.

“I’m not sure where I am. The dragon dropped me in this park in the middle of a city, but I don’t know if I’m still in Hartford or if the big lizard flew me somewhere else.”

Something muffled their voices for a second as Chen repeated what he said to Moon. The fledgling vampire’s voice came through louder when he spoke, as if he’d either grabbed the phone from Chen or the call has been put on speaker.

“What’s in the park? Any statues or buildings?”

“A fountain with a deer on the very top,” he replied.

“That’s Corning Fountain in Bushnell Park! You’re right in the center of Hartford!” Moon crowed loud enough to threaten Xiang’s hearing in his right ear.

Relief swelled in Xiang’s chest. The trip to the park hadn’t seemed long. Wherever the dragon was keeping his hoard, it was at least somewhat close to his clan. That increased his chances of making it to them safely. He needed to figure out the tricky details of how.

“Can you find a place to hide from the dragon?” Chen demanded. “We’re leaving right now, but it will take us at least thirty minutes to get downtown.” Just under his voice were the sounds of keys jangling and footsteps hitting the wooden floor hard in their haste. Other, more distant voices rose in the background as Moon spread the word that they were coming for him.

“No. Wait?—”

But he never got the chance to finish.

Someone ripped the phone from his fingers with astounding force. He followed the phone with his eyes, watching fingers crush in an instant, reducing it to nothing more than broken glass, twisted plastic, and computer chip fragments. His head snapped up to see Kai standing beside him, face flushed and eyes glowing gold in the darkness.

“You lied to me!” Kai roared. “You said you needed to feed, but this was all a plot to escape.”

“No, it’s not!”

Kai shoved the fist holding the broken phone in his face and shook it before tossing the remains onto the grass. “Lies. I caught you planning to meet with your clan to rescue you. This wasn’t about hunting.”

Xiang stepped aside and waved his hands at the still unconscious man lying on the tree. “Yes, it was. Look! I fed from him.”

---