Page 11 of Two Thousand Shadows

Leo rolled his eyes and snatched up his own glass. “The kid wasn’t bait, but yes, they took him to their place. He’s their problem now.”

“Then what’s with your sour mood? Are you afraid they’re going to snack on him? He’s such a tiny thing. He couldn’t be a full meal for even one of them, and you said there’s an entire clan hiding out.”

For a second, all Leo could do was stare openmouthed at her. There was a reason cat shifters were solitary creatures, and it started with the fact that every last one of them rubbed him the wrong way. The sad part was that Sage was the most tolerable of the ones he knew, and right now, he itched to smash his glass against the side of her skull.

“I wouldn’t have handed the boy over to them if I thought they’d use him as food,” he snarled.

“So, the kid got a new home. At the very least, a decent temporary one.”

More than decent. Leo had spent several months with the Zhang clan, wandering through winding halls and watching their interactions. They bickered, teased, and fought as much as the average family, but there was no missing that they were also very close. They watched out for each other. Protected one another.

The dynamic didn’t change when new mates joined them. Moon, Rei, and Kai were folded into the clan as if they were meant to be there. One big happy family.

And now the kid was included. Leo knew it without needing to see it. Junjie had the biggest, softest heart. The vampire might be cold and dead, but there was no one warmer in all the world. He was going to wrap that little boy up in so much love and happiness that he’d forget all about how he’d lost his birth parents.

No, he wasn’t envious.

Not even a tiny fucking bit.

“I’m sure the kid is going to be fine,” Leo murmured, talking mostly to himself. “It’s a shame we couldn’t find another cat totake him in. There’s no one to teach him the things he’s going to need to know about himself when the time comes. Bastet?1 knows the vampires can’t explain shifting to him.”

A harsh noise left the back of Sage’s throat, almost as if she were hacking up a hairball. “Another cat? Really? You thought that was even possible?” She laughed while Leo finished the last of his drink. It was tempting to order yet another, but he wanted to be able to walk out of here when he was done with this annoying conversation. The alcohol was already going to his head, smoothing the harsh edges of the world and mellowing out the ache in his chest he refused to examine too closely.

“Idiot,” Sage muttered as her laughter died off. She finished her drink and waved for the bartender to pour her another. “Even if you could find a cat who wasn’t utterly useless and irresponsible, it’s likely they want kids of their own. You can’t bring someone else’s kitten into your litter. That’s bad fucking luck. You’re asking for one of your own to be killed off.”

That was the old superstition that preyed on the minds of every cat who’d looked at the orphan after they’d found him. Despite cat shifters being insanely rare, they refused to raise another’s kitten. It was thought that if you took in another cat’s offspring, you doomed your own. Cats were independent by nature. If a parent died, shifters believed the kitten should survive on its own.

Except the little boy couldn’t have been more than two years old!

How could he be left on his own? He would have died.

Yet, after he’d been discovered and brought to that house in the woods, more than one cat had whispered to him in passing that they should leave him. Some bad karma had found the parents, and it was only a matter of time before the same fate befell the kid and anyone who helped him.

Fuck that shit.

It wasn’t karma that had killed the boy’s parents. It was the damn fae.

“You did the right thing. You’re the one who said that these vampires were like a real family. I bet they’re going to feed him and teach him things. You know, other than how to bite people.”

Leo lowered his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d had about enough of this conversation.

“Besides, what were you going to do? Keep him and raise him yourself?” Sage cackled so hard she almost fell off her stool. “You can barely keep yourself alive. What do you know about caring for a kid?”

“Nothing,” Leo mumbled. “He’s just a cute kid.”

“Absolutely adorable.” The eye roll was evident in her words, and Leo ignored it. “That still doesn’t mean he isn’t better off with bloodsuckers.”

“Don’t call them that.”

“What? Bloodsuckers? That’s what they are.”

Leo bit off the rest of his argument. Yeah, Junjie and the rest of the Zhang clan might be vampires, but they were way more than that. However, his words were wasted on Sage, and he didn’t want to bother anymore.

“Okay. Fine. You found me. Was there something else you wanted?” He lifted a hand to the bartender to get his attention and made a motion in the air as if he were signing the bill. It was time to close his tab and get the hell out of there.

“Are you worried about them coming to find you?” Sage asked.

“No. If they wanted to catch me, they could have before I got away from the house.”

---