Page 70 of Two Thousand Shadows

That was not happening. Ever again.

Leo let that subject drop for now as they climbed out of the shower and dried off.

“Are you planning to stay for a while longer?” Junjie inquired as he wrapped a towel around his waist.

Leo stood with his fluffy pale-blue towel held in front of him with both hands. He’d just been trying to figure out what to do next. Normally, he would stay with Erik in his cat form until the sun rose, which was still a few hours away. But after what happened, he was left wondering if maybe he should leave for a few hours to give them some space. Not that he wanted to leave.

“I could stay…if you want. Is there something you need?”

Junjie seemed to look everywhere but at Leo. They had frotted in the shower and come hard enough to make him temporarily forget how to breathe, and now this sexy man couldn’t meet his eyes?

“I was wondering if you would stay with me. In my bed. In your human form. Not all day, of course. Maybe just until I fall asleep.”

No. Stop. If this vampire became any more adorable, Leo was going to die from it. No one should be allowed to be this cute.

He tossed aside his towel and wrapped his arms behind Junjie’s neck. “How about I go check on Erik one last time while you get snuggly in your bed? I’ll join you in a minute.”

The smile that blossomed on Junjie’s face could have stopped time. It definitely stopped Leo’s heart. He grabbed a brief kiss and shifted into his cat form. Junjie let him out of the bedroom so he could pad across the hall. With a bump of his nose, he wriggled his way through a crack in the door. His sharp cat eyes scanned the semidark room for any signs of disturbance or Jiang Chong lurking in the dead realm. He possessed the same catlike vision in his human form, but it was more precise when he was a cat.

Everything appeared fine since he’d last stopped in Erik’s room. He crossed to the bed where Erik lay under a soft yellow blanket filled with cavorting cats of all colors and sizes. There was a plush rabbit doll on one side of him and a large koi fish doll under his arm, just like the fish he fed every day in the various ponds on the Zhang property.

After getting his fill of a soundly sleeping Erik, Leo trotted across the hall to Junjie’s room, where he found the lights out and there was a soft rustle of the blankets as the vampire got comfortable. The cat jumped onto the bed and shifted into his human form so he could pull the blankets down.

“Erik?” Junjie murmured.

“Sound asleep and safe. Nothing to worry about except for the fact that I like to burrito in the blankets while I sleep.”

Only, Leo didn’t wrap the soft blankets about his body and turn away from Junjie as he got comfortable. He actually laid his head on Junjie’s chest, his ear right over the vampire’s heart, while dropping his arm across his stomach. Junjie pulled the blanket up higher so that it covered most of Leo’s chest and back.

“Comfortable?”

“Completely.”

Chapter 19

Zhang Junjie

Junjie paced his room, his arms wrapped around his middle as if that could suppress the rolling waves of nausea in his stomach. He paused at the closed door to stare over his shoulder at the top drawer of his bureau. After a second, he resumed pacing, his footsteps silent on the floor.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect. Ming Yu had taken Erik grocery shopping with her so the child wouldn’t feel so cooped up. Erik needed some exposure to the outside world. Xiao Dan and Leo had tagged along as protection for both of them.

The house was quiet, and he’d prepared everything. Almost. A low table sat in the center of his room and a couple of candles flickered in the dim lighting. Incense smoke curled up from the burner, creating a calming atmosphere.

Since the fight with Trin two nights ago, the fae had retreated and not stirred up any new trouble. They’d seen nothing of Jiang Chong.

He needed to do this now while there were no distractions.

Putting it off was harming his clan. They needed the information he might glimpse, thanks to his gift.

He could do this. He could be brave for his clan. For Erik. And for Leo.

Junjie sucked in a deep breath and crossed the room to his bureau. An icy chill bit into his fingers as they wrapped the slender handle and pulled the drawer out. The only thing resting inside was a long, slender, scarf-like cloth he’d folded several times.

Swallowing hard, Junjie reached in and pulled out the cloth. He closed the drawer with his hip and shifted the cloth to his right hand while he grabbed a small case of special threads and needles from another drawer.

It hadn’t taken too long to realize that his vampiric gift was the ability to see into the future. The problem was learning to focus and harness it into something he could understand. At first, he’d thought what he was seeing was nothing more vivid than nightmares.

Until those nightmares began coming true.

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