Page 92 of Two Thousand Shadows

Junjie nodded. “Help me with Chen. He’s the only one who can get through to Moon.”

“Okay, but it seems to me that Moon’s got shit under control. Literally.”

Junjie lifted his gaze to where Moon was standing to find the bodies of the elf soldiers they had killed were climbing to their feet in front of their master. Moon had raised the fucking dead. The living elves standing among them screamed and ran toward the field, trying to put as much distance between them and the zombie army.

“Yeah, that’s creepy,” Rafe muttered.

Junjie couldn’t argue with that. He pulled free of Leo’s hold and rushed to a frozen Chen. He quickly pulled the last twoarrows out of Chen’s chest and held the vampire up when Leo jerked the sword from his stomach. Chen’s legs instantly gave out, and Junjie caught him while keeping one hand pressed to the largest wound.

“Talk to him, Chen-ge. You can feel the rage rolling off him. Make sure he’s truly in control of this,” Junjie murmured in his ear. “Moon is still in there. He’s only doing this out of fear. He loves you.”

Chen gave a jerky nod and used Junjie to get back to his feet. “Moon? Baobei? Look at me. Please.”

Moon’s head snapped to his mate and those glowing red eyes made Junjie swallow hard, but Chen didn’t hesitate to close the distance between them, his trembling hands cupping Moon’s blood-splattered cheeks.

“Baobei, I’m okay. I promise.”

“They hurt you. They tried to kill you.” Moon’s voice shook, and tears clung to his lashes before spilling down his cheeks.

“But they didn’t kill me. I’m still here with you. Are you here with me?”

“I’m here. I swear.”

Chen released one of his cheeks and grabbed his hand. He lifted it up between them so Moon could see the blackness covering his skin as if he had been charred to a crisp. “Are you in control? Because this is scaring me. The last time you used magic, you weren’t in control and it nearly destroyed you.”

A smile lifted the corners of Moon’s mouth, and he blinked, changing his eyes from red to golden brown. “No pain. I’m in control. I promise.” Moon raised Chen’s hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. “Sky told me how to tap into necromancy with my blood magic. It was a more natural outlet for me since I’m a vampire now.”

Moon winked and slipped away from Chen. He spun with his arms wide, and more dead fae climbed to their feet. He wavedhis right hand toward the field where the fae were fighting the first team and Moon’s dead army joined in the fray, evening the odds at last.

“So, he’s a vampire necromancer now?” Philippe asked.

Moon grinned at them. “Not a full-blooded one like Sky. I can’t see ghosts and the underworld minion language still sounds like gibberish to me, but I can command the dead.”

“And this is what you’ve been chatting with Sky about the past few weeks?” Chen demanded in a low, even tone.

Junjie knew that tone and took a step away from Chen.

Apparently, Moon knew that tone as well, because the fledgling vampire had the good sense to drop his head to his shoulders and flash some very big “I’m sorry” eyes. “Maybe…” he whimpered.

“I’m killing the necromancer when we’re done here,” Chen muttered.

“Okay, but can we kill the fae first?” Huli bounded close in his fox form, all nine of his tails dancing behind him in his excitement. “Especially since Moon wasniceenough to create an army for us.”

“He has a point,” Leo agreed. “I like fighting with an army at my back.”

Chen glared at Leo for all of two seconds before he finally sighed. “Fine. Let’s go kill the fae army with our dead army. We can’t let the dragon have all the fun, anyway.”

Chapter 28

Leo St. George

Leo had never been the type to go diving into a fight. In fact, he’d always gone out of his way to avoid getting drawn into any kind of scuffle. But the fae were different.

The fae had killed Erik’s parents.

They’d hurt Jun-Jun and his clan.

Those reasons were more than enough to get him involved. Junjie and Erik were his everything. His family.

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