Page 50 of Two Thousand Promises

“I want her dead!”

Huli froze. That was Xiao Dan. But he’d never heard his sweet and tender vampire speak in such a hard, bitter voice. He wasn’t simply angry. He was enraged. Fury shook in his voice.

He bit the inside of his cheek and forced himself forward through the house toward the main meeting room, where the clan always made their big plans, especially for dealing with the fae. This time, it sounded like Xiao Dan had called them together to deal with Min.

“She hurt Huli. She stole his tail and nearly killed him. I will not rest until she is dead. No! That’s not enough. I want all of her tails. I want her pelt and her head.”

“Xiao Dan, stop and take a breath,” Chen coaxed.

“Take a breath? Were you calm when the fae king nearly killed Moon?”

Huli flinched at the answering silence. There was no need to comment. He’d seen the way Chen had struggled even after Moon had become a vampire, narrowly escaping a permanent death. The memory of the fae king’s attack on Moon had haunted him for weeks following that horrible night.

He stepped into the open doorway to see Xiao Dan pacing at the head of the room. His pale skin appeared almost gray in the light, and dark shadows stretched from under his eyes. Even his normally soft and perfectly styled hair looked messy and greasy. His vampire had not been taking care of himself. He wasmaking himself sick with worry. All the clan watched him with expressions of fear and sadness, as if they didn’t know what to do for him. Huli could not allow this to continue for another second.

“Zhang-ge?”

Xiao Dan whipped around, his wide eyes jumping to Huli’s face. “Huli.”

His name became a prayer exhaled in relief. Xiao Dan started to approach him, but Huli took a step back and bowed low.

With the jade clutched in both hands, he thrust it forward, holding it out to the man who would be his mate. “Forgive me, Zhang-ge. I have failed you. I’m not worthy of this precious gift any longer and must return it to you.”

As he forced the words out, the jade trembled in his shaking hands. He squeezed his eyes shut so he couldn’t see the dangling ribbon swinging in the air. “I brought Min into your life. Put all of your clan in danger. I thought I could defeat her, protect you, but she beat me and even stole one of my tails. Your Huli is a weak nothing.”

Large, powerful hands covered his and lifted them up, forcing Huli to straighten. Huli’s gaze followed those hands as they rose to Xiao Dan’s smiling lips. With tears shining in his eyes, Xiao Dan pressed kisses to Huli’s fingers while careful to keep them curled around the jade pendant.

“I gave you this because I love you, Huli. It’s a symbol of my love for you. Are you saying that you don’t want my love any longer?” Xiao Dan whispered between kisses.

“No,” Huli choked out. “But I’m not worthy of your love. I’m just a stupid huli jing with eight tails. I might never regain my ninth tail. I might never be as strong as I used to be.”

“You aremyhuli jing.” Xiao Dan squeezed his hands a little more, his smile growing stronger as he spoke. “I fell in love with you when you were a tiny ball of orange fur that liked to jumpat my feet. I grew to love you more and more over the years, not because of your tails, but from your determination, bravery, and sense of adventure. You make me laugh, and you love me even though I’m boring.”

Huli’s pain and disappointment was forgotten for a second at Xiao Dan’s words. “You arenotboring! You sit under the stars in the plum orchard and tell me stories. Those have always been my favorite memories.”

“Then I think you need to keep that.” Xiao Dan pressed Huli’s hands toward him so that the jade rested on Huli’s breastbone.

“But…I lost a tail.”

“You didn’t lose a tail. It was stolen from you,” Mei Lian argued, reminding him that they weren’t exactly alone in this fragile moment.

“Huli, the only mistake you made in all this was to go off after Min by yourself,” Xiang interjected. “You’re part of a clan now, and that means relying on your clan to help you.”

“I am?” Huli’s voice wavered as his gaze skimmed the face of each person watching him from the other side of the room. No one was looking at him with distrust or hate. There was just acceptance and joy.

“Of course.” Xiao Dan released Huli’s hands and cupped one of his cheeks. “You’re my mate, aren’t you? That means you’re a member of the Zhang clan now. We’re all your family.”

“You make Shixiong happy. Nothing else matters to us,” Chen stated. Moon grabbed his lover’s face and planted a loud kiss on his cheek.

“Okay.” Huli nodded. He grinned at the yupei he was still clutching, his eyes stinging for a new, happy reason. “Family.”

That was not something he’d ever had. It wasn’t even something he’d let himself dream about. His focus had been on winning Xiao Dan’s heart and being worthy of him. He’d never expected to win an entire crazy family as part of the deal.

“Good! Now come help us plan to kill that witch,” Mei Lian ordered, pounding her left fist on the table in front of her. “No more leaving us out of the fun. It’s like Xiao Dan said. We’re taking all her tails as payback for touching one of yours.”

“Meimei!” Ming Yu gasped from where she sat at Mei Lian’s right, their fingers entwined.

Mei Lian blinked wide eyes at her. “What? It’s true.”

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