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But while they might look at Chen as a brother, would they ever see him as anything more than an interloper? Was it too greedy of him to want another family? His little coven of Sky, Mad, and Red were family. Four bickering brothers who would do anything for each other.

How in the world was he supposed to insert himself into a group that had been together for centuries?

“Well, a damn good first step to winning them over is keeping them safe,” he said as he lifted his knife to the wall again. He was probably drawing these wards too close together, but he refused to risk the fae finding an opening in the protection spells he was layering together. The wall was simply the outer defense. He’d need to draw up some designs, but he was considering a new interweaving of wards that would be even stronger. Those he would etch into the house itself.

Was it overkill to put both on the bedchambers of each of the vampires?

“Is it important to win them over?”

Moon shouted and jumped at the question. He spun, pointing the small blade in front of him, only to jump and screech. A very large fox with a multitude of tails sat a mere four feet away from him.

“I-I—” Moon broke off and looked around. Did that question come from the fox? Did he freaking pass out? This had to be a dream. Foxes didn’t talk. They also weren’t this size and didn’t have so many tails.

The fox continued to watch him from where it sat, its tails twitching and flicking behind it in a sort of lazy fashion. The creature cocked its head to the side, its eyes narrowing. “Your language is English, right? I heard you speaking it earlier.”

“Holy shit! You talk!” Moon tried to back away, but ended up slamming into the wall. He took a couple of steps to his right, sliding down the cool stone, putting a bit more distance between himself and the talking fox.

“Fuck! Are you one of the fae?” The words had barely left his lips when Chen’s warning returned to him. This was the creature he’d told him to stay away from. The one that had followed them from China. “You’re…you’re the huli…dammit, what was the name? Huli jing?”

The fox straightened his head and sniffed. “The proper term is jiuweihu. A nine-tailed fox. Jiu1 means nine. You can count, can’t you?” As the magical creature spoke, he fanned his fluffy orange tails with the white tips out behind him like peacock feathers. Moon’s brain was still too shocked to count, but it certainly looked like there were nine of them behind the fox.

“Wow…that’s…just…” Each word dripped from his tongue, his brain lost to the fact that he was talking to an honest-to-God fox spirit. “You’re amazing. A huli jing is a fox spirit with one tail, but you…you have nine. That means you had to work for those tails. They’re an accomplishment. You…”

“Cultivated, yes,” the fox finished. While his tails relaxed behind him, the fox tipped his chin up and puffed his chest out.

“A jiuweihu,” Moon repeated, trying to wrap his tongue around the term.

The fox snorted. “Ugh. Your accent is horrible. You need to practice our language more.”

“Sorry. I’m still learning. I’ve picked up a few words so far, but I plan to become fluent. It’s important to me that I’m able to speak with the Zhang clan using their own tongue.”

“That’s acceptable,” he decreed, making Moon grin. His manner was very regal and stuffy, but Moon couldn’t guess if it was real or an act. Chen had warned him that the huli jing was mischievous. “You may call me Huli. You are able to pronounce that acceptably.” The fox rose and walked past Moon to the last ward he’d cut into the wall.

Moon retreated, trying to maintain a comfortable distance between himself and the spirit. “Thank you, Huli. I’m Moon, Chen Bo Cheng’s mate.”

The fox pushed up on his back paws and braced his left front foot on the wall. He’d leaned in to sniff the ward Moon had drawn and smeared with his blood, but froze when Moon finished speaking. His triangle-shaped head whipped back, eyes wide. “Mate?”

“Yes. We’re mates. I mean, mates like bonded. Not mates like friends. Though, I guess we’re friends too.” He was rambling. He rarely rambled, but he was talking to a thousand-year-old magical fox creature that held untold power. It was making him nervous. He glanced at his hand to find he was still pointing the knife at the fox, though Huli seemed to be ignoring it. Moon lowered it to his side, but couldn’t bring himself to put it away.

“I know what mate means,” Huli snapped. He pushed off the wall and strolled to Moon on all fours, his tails swishing behind him. As he approached, Moon fought the urge to retreat or raise his knife. The fox’s nose twitched as he sniffed the air close Moon. “You do smell like he claimed you. I guess that explains this.” As he walked away from Moon, he tossed his head up and Moon felt a sharp tug on his left pinky.