Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Yet before he could finish turning, two arrows slammed into his chest. Junjie stumbled under the impact, his heavy weight falling onto the cat shifter. Leo grabbed him and jerked him behind a large tree. He pressed Junjie into the rough bark, his hands trembling uncontrollably, his mouth dry. He’d been about to kiss this man, and he now had two arrows sticking out of him. One of them was far too close to his heart.
“Leo. Leo, look at me.” Junjie’s firm voice jolted Leo’s eyes up to his face. His expression was tight and pained, but his words were steady. “I won’t die.” The vampire punctuated this statement by pulling one arrow from his abdomen.
Leo lunged forward, covering the open wound with both hands to staunch the bleeding. “But—”
“I won’t die,” Junjie repeated and pulled out the second arrow. He tossed it aside with a curl of his upper lip. “But I need to get to my clan to help them. Shift to a cat. It’ll be easier to escape that way.”
“I want to help,” he choked out.
“Get out of here!” Chen shouted. His long sword flashed through the night, cutting down elves and blocking arrows with ease. “You’re a distraction.”
Chen’s words sliced him to the bone, but it was Junjie’s lack of argument that was the fatal blow.
“Run while we take care of them,” Junjie ordered.
He darted into the fray even as blood soaked into his shirt. Each fist clenched a sword as he fought, but he turned them into silver blurs, slashing through one elf after another.
Mei Lian was just as impressive with her spear. She could make it strike with the speed of a cobra and zip back again. No one could get close to her.
Leo shifted into his cat form and darted up a tree, but he didn’t leave the scene. His eyes were glued to Junjie while indecision tried to strangle him. He possessed none of the same fighting skills as the vampires, but he wasn’t worthless like Chen seemed to think. Cat shifters had more than their fair share of secrets, but once those secrets got out, all their advantages disappeared.
Yet, Junjie needed him.
Maybe not in a fight, but he needed him to not be useless.
Little Erik needed him to not be useless.
When the kitten grew up and Junjie told him stories about other cat shifters, what would Junjie say? That the only cat shifter he ever knew was a selfish, lazy flirt and coward.
A tiny nagging voice whispered, What did it matter? You pawned the kid off on him. Who cares what he or the kid thought? They’re nobodies.
Leo dug his claws into the bark and hissed at himself. Junjie was not a nobody. How could someone who looked at him like that be a nobody? He took in a kid his own kind didn’t want!
No. Junjie was special. He needed to be protected at all costs.
Leo jumped from his perch and crept through the brush toward one archer hanging to the rear of the group.
Without a plan in his head, Leo shifted into his human form behind the elf and picked up a sturdy log. He hefted it, thinking he would bash the elf on the head, but he wasn’t as stealthy as he thought.
The archer spun as he brought the branch down, blocking it with his bow. The creature with the sharp features and cold green eyes sneered at him. “Stupid human. Really thought you could sneak up on me?”
With his left hand, the elf palmed a dagger from his waist and slashed at Leo’s stomach. Leo’s heart surged into this throat as he jumped away. He swung the branch like a baseball bat at the elf’s head, hoping to keep some distance between them as he scoured his brain for another plan.
Run? No, dagger in the back.
Shift and run? Nope. Too close. Elf could still catch him.
Beat him with the log? Not likely.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He was still useless. He wanted to help Junjie, but he still needed the vampire to save him.
The elf slashed at him again and again. Each time Leo dodged or blocked the blade with the branch until the damn thing snapped.
A horrible laugh rose from the elf, but it was cut off, changing to a thick, wet gurgle. His body lurched and bowed forward. Hot blood sprayed across Leo’s face. He looked down to find the point of a sword sticking out of the elf’s chest. His head snapped up to see Junjie straightening after throwing the sword into the elf’s back.
Junjie had saved him.
1 Er-ge – second oldest brother. A term of endearment. Referencing Chen Bo Cheng here since he is the second oldest behind Zhang Xiao Dan (a.k.a. da-ge)
Chapter 9
Zhang Junjie
“Itold you to leave!” Junjie raced across the short distance that separated them and seized Leo’s tense shoulders. The cat’s face was pale and splattered with blood from the elf, but he appeared fine otherwise.