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And now his soul was literally tied to another creature for the rest of his life.

What if Chen discovered Moon wasn’t worthy of him?

What if Chen didn’t want to be with him? What if he felt it had been the only way to save his life and now he was stuck with Moon?

What if Chen fell in love with someone else? Found his real soul mate…

Above his head, a door flew open and a couple of steps padded briskly across the floor. “Moon?” Chen demanded, his voice low and breathless.

Moon rushed up the last of the stairs to find Chen standing in the middle of the hall. He’d wrapped a towel loosely around his waist while water streaked along his glistening body. He’d be quite the delectable sight if it weren’t for the fact that his eyes were glowing a pale blue and his fangs were bared. Frost was even creeping along the baseboards. Moon exhaled and his breath fogged in front of him.

“What’s wrong? Are you all right?” Chen inquired. The vampire crossed to him in two quick steps. His hands came up and grabbed Moon’s shoulders before running down his arms, as if inspecting him for injuries.

“Nothing’s wrong. Everything is fine. We’re safe.”

Chen released him, his eyes changing from ice blue to dark brown while his expression grew more closed off. “I felt…fear…panic.” As he spoke, he lifted his right hand to gesture toward his own heart. “I thought those emotions came from you, because of our…” His words drifted off as if he were afraid to speak of the same thing that had unnerved Moon seconds ago.

Except he wasn’t unnerved anymore. He was fucking melting.

How could he not? Chen had jumped out of his shower and was ready to rip apart any threat to Moon while he was still naked and dripping wet. He had no defense against that. No one did. His sweet, grumpy vampire was tearing away all his doubts. Maybe it was fast and didn’t make any sense, but Chen was his and he would do whatever he had to in order to be worthy of this man.

Lifting his hand, Moon cupped Chen’s clean, damp cheek, guiding him forward into a soft, tender kiss. He pressed one after another to Chen’s lips, coaxing the vampire’s mouth open to welcome him inside.

“Everything is fine. I think everything that’s happened has caught up with my brain. Just got a little overwhelmed for a moment. Now that I have you, I feel better.”

Chen retreated so he could stare into Moon’s eyes. “Are you sure? If this is too much for you, I can give you…space.” While the offer was sweet, Moon wanted to laugh because Chen sounded as if he’d choked on that last word. The vampire would rather tear out his own fangs than give Moon an inch of space.

“No,” Moon said, swallowing his laughter. “I want you. I want you in bed with me.”

“Mn. Then you must shower.” Chen straightened and took a step back. “But do not put on Sky’s clothes. I must inspect all of you thoroughly to make sure you’re not injured.”

After dropping that bomb on Moon’s head, the haughty vampire turned on his heel and marched into the guest room.

And this was why Chen was his perfect match. He pushed all of his buttons. Especially the sexy ones.

Moon leaped into the bathroom and took the world’s fastest, most thorough shower in all of existence. He scrubbed his skin until it was pink, determined to remove all the dirt, sweat, grime, and blood. His body needed to be squeaky clean so his vampire could make him so very dirty.

Buffed dry, Moon wrapped his towel around his waist and tiptoed across the hall to the guest bedroom. He’d crashed here plenty of times after a night of drinks and binge-watching BL.

Only his vampire wasn’t waiting for him quite like he’d expected.

Chen lay on one side of the bed, the blankets pulled up to his waist, and his hands folded on his stomach. His eyes were closed, and he appeared completely at peace. Or dead. But that was a vampire thing.

Apparently, he’d taken a little too long in the shower because his sweet man had passed out. Not that Moon blamed him at all. Chen had been through a lot in the past day, come far too close to death, and then passed through the underworld. He deserved to get as much sleep as he could manage. They still had to get him home so he could meet with the rest of his clan and figure out how they were going to rescue Yichen.

Still, since Chen was sleeping, he could at least look his fill. The vampire was graced with a long, oval-shaped face that came down to a nicely rounded chin. His lips seemed fuller now that he was relaxed, as if his normal state of being was to compress those beauties into a hard line.