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Arms caught him before he could hit the ground and Chen was there above him, but he was so pale. Tears were streaking down his face while hands pressed hard to his chest. A cry of agony broke from Moon’s throat and his mind cleared.

The sword had hit his heart.

Fucking King Ash. The man had one goddamn target, and he was good at hitting it.

“Please, Moon. Baobei. I need you to focus. Can you heal this?” Chen demanded. Each word trembled as it left his lips, crashing under the weight of his desperation.

Clenching his teeth, Moon closed his eyes and strained to pull together what magic he had left in him. The moment they’d reached Yichen, he’d already been running low. He’d slung so many protection spells and attacks at the fae as they’d approached the castle. He’d not had much left when King Ash had attacked.

Now…now it was all pain. The very essence of what fueled his magic was pouring out of him.

Every beat of his heart was torture. The forest was growing fuzzy. He opened his eyes and even Chen’s face had become blurry.

“I…I can’t,” Moon choked out.

“No!” Chen bellowed. “You can’t leave me!” As the vampire screamed, his eyes flashed from brown to stark white. Magic slammed through his body and out into the forest. He blinked and what had been shades of brown and green were crystalline white. Chen had frozen all the forest in his desperation.

“Ah-Cheng…it’ll be okay.”

The vampire shook his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, sending a river of tears down his blood-smeared face. “Please, don’t leave me. Not yet. Not like this.”

“I love you.” Moon closed his eyes, letting the cold wrap around him, numbing the pain so that he was floating now.

“Moon! Moon! Open your eyes!”

His eyes fluttered open to see Chen staring at him with a new burning intensity. An icy hand cupped his cheek. “Will you let me turn you?” He bent and pressed their foreheads together, the tips of their noses brushed. “Please. I will love you even if you can never do magic again. As long as I can wake beside you and see your smile. I want centuries of holding you in my arms and listening to your stories. I want to smile secretly at the jokes you crack with Xiang, and I want to introduce you to Yichen. My didi needs to know you.”

Listening to Chen’s pleas, Moon almost laughed. His lover didn’t need to beg. He didn’t even need to give a list of reasons. As he lay on the icy ground, rushing headlong toward death, he realized this decision he’d been agonizing over for weeks wasn’t really a decision at all.

Death or centuries with the greatest man he’d ever met?

Chen Bo Cheng loving him was the best magic of all. It was the only thing he’d ever need.

“Change me, Ah-Cheng. Want…to be…with you,” Moon choked around a mouthful of blood.

The vampire didn’t hesitate. Wrapping Moon in his arms, Chen lifted him into his lap, nestling him close. Moon moaned as the pain rose above the numbing cold. But it lasted only a second.

Chen nuzzled his neck, brushing what might have been a quick kiss, and then his fangs were sinking deep. A whimper tried to escape, but he wasn’t sure if he made a sound.

Darkness slammed into him hard, swamping and sucking him into a swirling vortex. He tried to fight it. Tried to reach out, to cry out to Chen for help, but he couldn’t tell where Chen was. Where he was.

The world had fallen away. And with it went all the pain. All the fear. All the endless questions that tugged at his brain.

The spinning cyclone spit him out at last, and he was floating in nothing. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do or where to go. How was he supposed to find his way to Chen?

Or had it not worked…?

As time passed, it felt as if bits of himself were flaking off, becoming specks and dust motes floating in the air. He was becoming less and less. Soon there would be nothing of him left. Not even enough of him to wait for Chen in the next life.

He blinked or tried to. The darkness was so complete he couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. As his gaze drifted down his body, he caught a faint glimmer of red. So slim and slender. Nothing more than a thread.

Their thread!

“Moon!”

It sounded as if Chen was screaming, but the sounds were barely more than a whisper.

“Baobei, fight! Return to me!”

That.

That was what he needed. He needed Chen’s desperation and fear. The pain his lover was suffering to spur him forward.

Gathering up all the pieces of himself he could, he pushed toward the sound of Chen’s frantic voice. It was like swimming uphill in cold, thick molasses and he was so fucking tired, but he kept fighting. Chen’s voice was growing more desperate with each word he spoke.