Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65856 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 329(@200wpm)___ 263(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
He wandered along, poking his head into one room after another, but there was no sign of Gege. Maybe he was in the kitchen. This was why he needed one of those silly phones Moon had shown him. He could send Xiao Dan a covert message to meet him in his bedroom.
At the next hallway, his feet stopped. Right in the middle of his path stood Erik, the adorable two-year-old the clan had adopted. He belonged to Junjie and Leo, though, considering how they doted on the boy. Huli stared at the child in red pajamas that featured a cartoon fire engine. Under one arm, he clutched a large white bunny with floppy ears. Huli looked around, but there was zero sign of Leo or Junjie.
“Hey there, Little One,” Huli said a bit awkwardly. “Where are Jun-Jun and Leo?” He’d almost asked where his mama and baba were as a playful reference to the vampire and shifter, but he bit his tongue. The fae had stolen the child’s real mother and father. No reason to stomp on that painful memory.
The child’s face lit up, and he pointed at Huli with his free hand as he exclaimed in some garbled Mandarin. It took Huli an extra second to realize Erik had called him “Pretty Gege.”
Huli straightened and flashed Erik a bright smile. “Yes, I am Pretty Gege.” His mischievous side had so wanted to feed the sweet child Cantonese words just to see if he could make Junjie’s head explode, but now he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not when this brilliant boy had cobbled together what words he knew to christen him Pretty Gege.
He’d have to fuck with Leo’s language lessons instead.
“What are you doing by yourself? Shouldn’t you be in bed? Or with Junjie?” He glanced about again, but there was no sign of the vampire or the cat shifter.
Erik said something he didn’t understand at all. He thought he heard mention of a fish, truck, and stars, but it was all nonsense to him. Apparently, Erik didn’t need him to understand. The little boy toddled over to Huli and grabbed his hand with his free one. He pulled Huli along the hall, still jabbering away, leaving the fox to make the occasional noise of agreement. He stared at the tiny hand as it held his. In all his thousand years, he’d had few interactions with kids and none where they could touch him.
But Erik had shown no hesitation in taking his hand and smiling up at him, as if he trusted in Huli completely. He cleared a sudden blockage in his throat and blinked away a bit of dust. These vampires needed to do a much better job of keeping up with their cleaning duties.
After a couple of stops to get the bunny repositioned under his arm, Erik led Huli to one of the sitting rooms that opened to a garden complete with a small koi pond. This was one of Erik’s favorite places to play because there was a retractable roof that blocked the sun during the day and allowed Junjie and the other vampires to be out there with him.
As they reached the garden lit up by a variety of lanterns, Erik released his hand and went straight for the yellow dump truck sitting under one of the trees. He held it up for Huli to see with a huge grin on his face.
“Ah. You wanted your truck. Should we go to your room now?”
“No.”
Well, he understood that easily enough.
The boy plopped down on the ground, put his bunny beside him, and proceeded to play with his truck. Huli glanced over his shoulder at the house. He wanted to locate Xiao Dan, but he didn’t feel comfortable leaving Erik on his own. Junjie and Leo probably thought the little guy was still napping and weren’t in a big rush to check on him.
Oh, well. This gave him an opportunity to shift. When he’d returned to the Zhang manor, he’d healed enough to change into his human form so Xiao Dan could help him clean up. Being human also made it easier for cuddles. But he’d not had the chance to change back into his natural form.
In the blink of an eye, Huli shifted from human to fox. He shook out his tails behind him and stretched one leg after another, working out the kinks. It wasn’t uncomfortable to spend extended periods of time in a human body. He’d done it for so long now that it had become a comfortable fit, but there was no denying that it felt nice being a fox again.
Erik’s excited squeal drew his gaze. The child clapped his hands and stared up at him with wide eyes. “Pretty Gege! Pretty Gege tails!”
“Oh, you like my tails?”
Erik’s eager nod dissolved into giggles as Huli brushed one tail across his cheek. His laughter squeezed Huli’s heart. It was the second best sound in the world. The best was still Xiao Dan telling Huli he loved him.