Page 76 of Two Thousand Shadows

River bounced on the couch cushions. “Winter and Fox told us you’d adopted a cat shifter. We can’t wait to meet him. Has he tried shifting yet?”

Junjie struggled to hold on to his smile while the panic in his chest rose. “Leo says he’s too young for that. Cat shifters don’t usually shift until their late teens to early twenties.”

Wyatt grunted. “That’s not too far off from wolf shifters. We’re usually in our teens.”

With a scoot to the edge of his seat, Junjie moved closer to the trio. “That’s what I’ve come to talk to you about. Shifters, I mean.”

“Sure,” River replied with a grin. “We’re happy to help anyway we can.”

“Can you change a shifter into a vampire?”

As soon as the words were off Junjie’s lips, all three faces fell. River cuddled closer to Bel, and Wyatt reached out to wrap an arm around both men. Bel’s eyes were wide and took on a haunted feel, as he slowly shook his head.

“No. You can’t. It’s…it’s impossible…and very dangerous to even attempt it.”

“What?” Junjie croaked. It was as if a hand had reached inside of his chest and squeezed his heart, threatening to turn it to dust. “But…but why? Are you sure? What if?—”

“No!” Bel snapped. He turned to River and hugged the slender shifter, pulling him in as close as he could get without climbing into Bel’s lap.

“I’m assuming you’re asking for the cat shifter, Leo,” Wyatt said, drawing Junjie’s heart-broken gaze over to him. Junjie could only nod. His throat was raw and tight, making it impossible to sneak out any words. “A few years ago, the local wolf pack attacked our home. River suffered horrible injuries and was near death. He was losing blood too fast and couldn’theal. We were forced to give him some vampire blood to speed up the healing. As a result, River went berserk. It took almost the entire clan to hold him down, and he was still weak from his injury. If he’d have gotten loose, he would have killed the entire clan.”

A tiny whimper slipped out of River, and he shuddered in Bel’s arms. The vampire pressed kisses to his head and cheeks, soothing him.

“A short time later, he regained his sanity and finished healing. However, Bel and I believe that if we’d attempted to actually change him into a vampire, he would never have recovered his sanity. He would have gone on killing until he was finally stopped. There was nothing of River in that monster when it had control of him.”

“Our blood and powers aren’t compatible,” Bel stated in a low, rough voice. Still holding River, Bel looked over at Junjie. “Have you tried drinking from Leo yet?”

“Twice,” Junjie whispered. “The first time, I…I suffered an injury during a fight with the fae, and Leo offered me his blood as we ran.”

“And?”

“It’s not like human or vampire blood. I didn’t take much, but it was like I’d become intoxicated on it.”

“The same thing happened to me,” Bel admitted with a small, crooked smile that didn’t reach his sad blue eyes. “Vampires have no problem taking in shifter blood, but it’s toxic in reverse. Thankfully, shifters seem to live extremely long lives. We don’t have to worry?—”

“I had a vision of Jiang Chong killing Leo,” Junjie blurted out, cutting Bel off and silencing everyone in the room. No one breathed.

Junjie squeezed his eyes shut and dropped his head into his hands while resting his elbows on his knees. He’d come to theVariks hoping to find a way around Leo’s death sentence, but this was a dead end.

Pain and panic blanketed, making it impossible to think. He didn’t want to lose Leo. Not yet. Not after they’d only known each other for a few months. The wily cat shifter had been this bright spark in his long, dark life. How could that light be snuffed so quickly?

“Then…then we kill Jiang Chong before he kills Leo,” River announced to the suffocatingly quiet room.

Junjie dragged in a loud, shaking breath. “I’ve had countless visions of Jiang Chong killing people, and I’ve never stopped one of them. It’s as if they were fixed events in time. Unchangeable.” He lifted his eyes and narrowed them on Wyatt and Bel. Those were the science-minded people. “Are you sure? Wolf shifters and cat shifters must have some differences.”

“That is very likely,” Wyatt admitted. “If you could get us a sample of Leo’s blood, we could run some tests, compare it to my blood and River’s.”

A soft smile spread across Bel’s face as he stared at his mate, but it disappeared when he turned his attention to Junjie. “I know what’s going through your head, Junjie. You want to try it anyway. I’d be the same way, even after seeing what happened to River. But you need to remember, if you’re wrong, Leo will die regardless of your efforts. The only difference is that if you bring Leo back and he becomes a berserk monster, it will be your job to kill him.”

Could he do that? Could he kill Leo if he woke a monster? There was no way that Leo would want to harm anyone in his clan.

“I don’t know what to do. I can’t lose him,” Junjie choked out.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bel rise from his place on the sofa and come over to kneel in front of Junjie. He took his hands, pulling them away from his face so he could meethis gaze. “We won’t let Jiang Chong hurt Leo. That’s what we’re going to do.”

“But there’s no way to stop him. I’ve seen it happen so many times before.”

“True, but that was thousands of years ago. Times have changed. We have more tech, more magic, and a hell of a lot more crafty vampires to help you. We’ve got someone here with the same power as Jiang Chong. That’s got to make a difference.”

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