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Instinctively, Leo turned his head to snag another tender kiss while his mind continued to turn over Junjie’s words. Okay, Junjie might be nervous about them pursuing whatever the fuck this was, but that puzzle piece didn’t fit with the rest of what was happening with the vampire right now. Junjie’s nervousness equaled being shy and withdrawn.

What was happening since he’d entered the house was a fearful Junjie.

No, aterrifiedJunjie.

Something had scared the shit out of the vampire, and now he was trying to hide it.

Leo ended the kiss and pulled away to see the fear in Junjie’s eyes before he could try to cover it all up with another fake smile.

“Let’s continue what we started yesterday,” Junjie suggested. One of his hands slipped under the edge of Leo’s T-shirt andskimmed along his stomach, but Leo caught his wrist, stopping his progress.

“Here? Now?”

“Sure. Chen and Moon have Erik. We have time alone.”

A hundred red warning lights blinked in Leo’s head while claxons screamed. This was all wrong. “Why don’t we go to your room? We’ll have more privacy there.” Leo released Junjie’s wrist and turned to head down the hall to Junjie’s private quarters.

“No!” Junjie shouted. The vampire tried to grab him, but Leo already expected it. He shifted into a cat and raced along the hall. Junjie was hiding something from him, and it was in his bedroom. Why else would he attempt to seduce Leo in one of the public rooms shared by the entire clan?

His paws slipped on the wood floors as he ran. Junjie thundered after him, shouting his name, but Leo didn’t stop. He squeezed between decorations and darted between the legs of others, keeping out of Junjie’s reach. Just as he reached the vampire’s bedroom, he shifted into his human form and threw open the door. His heart stopped.

A whirlwind of destruction and chaos crowded the normally tidy space. A table lay broken into dozens of pieces. Glass and bits of clay pottery littered the floor. A pair of candles had spilled their wax across a mat. Small spools of thread in a rainbow of colors were scattered everywhere. For a moment, he thought maybe someone had attacked Junjie in his room, but his eyes finally caught on the long, crumpled length of fabric with its kaleidoscope of colorful stitches.

Junjie’s fortune-telling scarf.

Before he’d revealed himself to the vampire, he’d seen him working on it a few times when they were trying to locate Yichen. Junjie had even talked to him about it, never expecting Leo to actually understand what he was saying.

Slowly, he turned to the hallway where Junjie stood a couple of feet away, his expression fraught with deep lines while his fingers tangled together in front of him. “You finally did a reading,” Leo whispered. “What did you see?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Junjie turned away, but Leo pounced on him. He clutched Junjie’s arms and slammed him against the wall.

“Tell me. What did you see?”

“I…”

Leo gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to shake him. “I promised to be honest with you, so we could give this dating thing a try. I didn’t expect that I’d have to drag the same promise out of you. We can’t possibly build something going forward if you’re going to keep me in the dark about things happening in your life.”

Junjie squeezed his eyes shut and choked on his name. “Leo.”

“Let me be there for you.” Leo moved his hands on Junjie’s biceps, loosening his hold enough to massage the tight muscles. “Together, we can tackle anything. Jiang Chong and the fae don’t stand a chance. We’ll protect your clan and Erik together.”

The vampire opened his eyes, and they were glassy again. He blinked and two fat tears streaked down his cheeks. “I saw…I saw Jiang Chong. He was here. At the manor. He killed…he killed…”

Leo’s stomach knotted, and a chill ran through him. “Who? Who did you see him kill?”

“You,” Junjie bawled. “He killed you.”

“Oh.” Well, that fucking sucked.

Junjie shoved off the wall, pulling out of Leo’s grasp, so that he could wrap the cat shifter up in a suffocating embrace. His entire body trembled, and Leo mentally pushed aside the prophecy to focus on the vampire who was losing his shit as he held Leo tighter and tighter.

“Baby, you need to breathe,” Leo said and then paused. He was a vampire. Did he really need to breathe? He shook aside the errant thought and stroked his hand up and down Junjie’s back. “Don’t worry about Jiang Chong. I’m sure we can stop him. What you saw is apossiblefuture, right? Nothing is locked in stone. We’ll figure this out.”

Junjie released him enough to look in him in the face. “All of my prophecies have come true exactly how I’ve seen them. I’ve never been able to stop a single one from happening. But you don’t have to worry; I’ll stop Jiang Chong this time. I’ll keep you safe.”

Leo didn’t have a chance to comment. Junjie rushed through the hall, leaving Leo to jog after him if he planned to keep up. The vampire was on a mission, and didn’t seem like he planned to listen to anyone who might want to reason with him.

“Jun-Jun, baby. Honey,” Leo called to his lover. “I’m touched that you want to keep me safe, but we need to talk about this. You can’t go rushing out to attack Jiang Chong. You don’t know where to find him. Plus, he’s a slippery fucking eel. You’re going to need help. Let’s go find Xiao Dan and the others.”