Page 70 of Two Thousand Blades

No! Someone!

The sensation of someone climbing on his body tore him from his frantic worries about Xiang. Kai snarled and tried to thrash about. Those fucking elves were still trying to obey Belladonna and cut off his horns.

“Shhhh, baobei, it’s just me.” Xiang’s whispered words cut through his panic and his throat clogged for a new reason. “Don’t move. I’m hiding in all your pretty hair while I inspect this shackle. Rei is busy blowing shit up as a distraction.”

Kai froze, not wanting to do anything that might reveal that his precious vampire was crawling over him, his hands moving on the shackle while cursing the fae with some horrific things. Really, his sweet vampire had a twisted mind when it came to torture. Not that he disagreed with anything he was saying.

“All right. Looks like I’ll have to cut through the chain on your neck. We’ll get this fucking thing off when we get home. The second it’s broken, you need to take to the sky and get out of here. On the count of three?—”

Wait! My tail!

As he sent the thought to Xiang, he tugged at the spike through his tail and nearly cried out from the pain. He could try ripping it out, but he was afraid he wouldn’t have enough strength left to make it into the air.

“What?”

Spike…through my tail. I can’t fly.

Xiang’s hands twisted in his mane and his face pressed against his scales. He could feel his lips moving more than he could hear his words. “I’m going to kill them all for what they’ve done to you. Between torturing Yichen and now you, they all deserve to die.”

His lover’s bloodthirsty words warmed his heart, making it easier to breathe and think.

Do you think you can remove the spike?

Another explosion punctuated the lengthy silence from Xiang. Rei was likely having fun, but there was no doubt he was on borrowed time. The fae would be scrambling for only so long before they organized and located him. He needed to get free now.

“I can, but it’s going to hurt,” Xiang warned.

The pain won’t matter if I can return home with you, Kai promised. Give the chain a single hard strike to weaken it and then turn all your strength to pulling out the spike. I can break the chain the rest of the way.

“Ready?” Xiang whispered.

Go! Hurry! Kai begged. Rei’s distractions wouldn’t keep them busy for much longer. There wasn’t much he’d be able to do to help Xiang if the fae spotted him.

Xiang pushed away from Kai and from the corner of his eye, he could see his lover raise his sword high over his head. Flicking firelight caught on the saber, caressing the heavy blade. He’d brought Chain Breaker—one of the weapons he’d added to the Zhang collection. Such a wonderful saber. Kai had never thought it would be used to save his own life.

The vampire brought the blade down on the chain with amazing force, creating a bright flash with an impact to rival even his best bolts of lightning. One link broke in half. Just enough for Kai to pull free.

Xiang ran along Kai’s body while he shoved the saber into the sheath. With both hands, he grabbed the spike while bracing a foot on Kai’s tail. Blinding pain shot through his entire body. There was no holding in his roar, but he could feel the spike sliding free of his flesh. The world turned blurry, and a creeping blackness crowded the edges of his vision. Pain and blood loss were making it hard to remain conscious. Metal clanged on hard stone, helping Kai to find his way back to the surrounding chaos. He was free. His sweet Xiang freed him.

A shout went up from the fae army. They’d spotted Xiang at last. Time had run out for them. Kai picked up his vampire in one hand and launched himself into the air. It was not a graceful flight. Part of his body slammed into a castle wall, toppling it over again. But he hugged Xiang close to him, protecting him as best he could with his own body.

“Rei! We need to get Rei!” Xiang shouted over the thunder and howling wind. “He’s there.”

Kai squinted to where Xiang pointed, but he hadn’t really needed to. The elf was easy to spot, since twenty heavily armed elves with their bows drawn had circled him. There was no way Rei was getting out of that mess without help.

With more force than finesse, Kai wove his way between the trees, plowed through the circle of elves, and snatched up Rei in his other hand before shooting toward the clouds. The elf screamed in his hand, his fingers nearly biting into his scales.

“Too high! Too high! We are way too high!” Rei shouted.

“What’s wrong? Don’t like flying?” Xiang teased, his laughter swept away by the buffeting wind.

“Falling! My problem is falling from this height!”

“It’s fine!”

“It’s not fine! Your dragon is bleeding and not flying straight!”

Rei was right. Kai was struggling to stay in the air. His vision was blurry and every flick of his tail to propel himself was absolute agony. Even the sun was too bright here above the clouds and the pleasant wind that usually caressed his scales was like a thousand blades scraping along his flesh. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in a dark place and not move.

---