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“I know, and I can die. Even before all my lives are up. If Jiang Chong had beheaded me, I wouldn’t have returned. My body has to be largely intact when I die. My body can heal from a lot of wounds, but I can’t regrow body parts. I’m a cat, not a lizard.”

“So, stabbing you can return from,” Chen observed.

“And drowning,” Xiang added.

“Strangulation,” Mei Lian chimed in from where she sat next to Ming Yu and Erik.

“Can we not list all the ways Leo can die?” Junjie snapped. He was still trying to recover from Leo’s last death.

“Pretty much, yeah. Assuming I have lives left,” Leo agreed with a nod.

“Erik’s parents…” Ming Yu’s voice drifted off without her finishing the thought.

Leo hung his head, his fingers tightening on Junjie’s. “I don’t know how they died, but the fae burned their bodies to ash. There’s no coming back from that. Doubt anyone would even want to try.”

“Is there any way to know if something might have happened to Erik…before the cats found him?”

Junjie’s stomach twisted. He knew what Xiao Dan was really asking. Was it possible that the fae had killed Erik when they killed his parents, but he’d been lucky enough not to have his remains destroyed?

Leo’s head snapped up. “Erik has never died. As far as I know, that gift doesn’t kick in prior to a cat’s first shift. Right now, Erik is nearly human. His eyesight is like a cat’s, andhe probably has sharper hearing. But until he’s a teenager and shifts, that’s all he’ll have.”

“Speaking of shifting…” Junjie narrowed his eyes on the cat shifter next to him.

His lover’s smile became wide and tense. “Yeah…um…I should have been clearer that when I said cat shifter, I kind of meant all cats.”

“Kind of?” Junjie repeated. He was still feeling grateful and relieved that Leo was alive, but there was a rising frustration that left him wanting to strangle him as well.

“Yeah, I mean, I haven’t tried to shift into all the different species of cats, but it’s my understanding from other cat shifters that we can change into any cat species.” Leo lifted his hands in front of him. “As you might guess, it’s not very practical to walk about as a tiger or cheetah. Most of us stick with house cats. We can go anywhere. Most people pay little attention to us, and there are even a lot of people who are happy to take us in and feed us.”

“No kidding,” Junjie muttered.

“Sneaky bastard,” Rei said with a chortle. “How many of you spies are wandering around out there?”

Leo made a face at the elf. “Not that many at all, and there are plenty of us who won’t go near humans in our cat forms out of fear of being discovered.”

“This is astounding,” Xiao Dan whispered. “I would never have guessed that cat shifters were so complicated.”

“I understand your reticence in sharing this information. If humans or even other shifters found out about this, your kind would be hunted and imprisoned.” Junjie paused and his gaze drifted across the table to where Erik was sitting in Ming Yu’s lap playing with one of his plastic trucks. “But this is critical information that we would need for Erik when he gets older. If you don’t accompany us to China…” He couldn’t finish thesentence, and Leo didn’t seem willing to say anything either. His thumbs moved across Junjie’s fingers in a gentle caress.

“I’m sorry. This thing with Jiang Chong happened faster than I expected. It spiraled out of control,” Leo mumbled.

“Not helped by Junjie panicking and locking you in the armory,” Chen added.

Junjie wanted to throw an evil look at his er-ge, but there was no point. He was right. If he hadn’t panicked, if he had sat down with Leo and talked to him about what he saw, maybe Leo would have trusted him with this valuable information.

“So, Leo, if that is your real name,” Mei Lian taunted. “Do you have any more great secrets that we should know about?”

Leo released Junjie and shoved his hands through his hair, moving it from his face. He took a deep breath, but there was no wincing. Was the wound in his chest fully healed now? He exhaled loudly. “I don’t think so.” He thrust his hands out in front of him and waved them. “No, seriously. Honestly, I don’t think so. Shifting, nine lives, cat vision, seeing the dead. That’s the big stuff. If there’s something else, I’m not trying to hide it from you. It’s just that I take it for granted and don’t realize you don’t know.”

“Thank you, Leo,” Ming Yu said. “We appreciate the gravity of the trust that you’ve placed in us to keep your secrets.” She stood with Erik in her arms. “I’m going to change this stinky boy and get him something to eat. If you need somewhere to sleep or a change of clothes, Leo, I am sure Junjie can give you a hand.”

Shijie swept out of the room, her head held high after making that declaration, Mei Lian following close on her heels. It was clear that no matter what Leo said now, she had decided that he was one of them and belonged under their roof, despite the secrets he’d kept.

Xiao Dan coughed softly, lifting his hand to his mouth to hide his smile and doing a poor job of it. “Yes. Well. Jiang Chong isgone for now. I’m relieved to find that Moon’s and Kai’s warning spells are still working, even if we can’t see him right away.”

“He doesn’t plan to kill you all,” Leo blurted out. He stared at Junjie, his expression growing pained. “Only Jun-Jun. He…I ran into him after I stormed away. He said that he wants to reclaim the clan and take you back to China, where you’ll become the ruling power there. I’m assuming he means thathe’llbecome the ruling power. But he plans to kill Jun-Jun because he’s the one he blames for nearly dying all those years ago.”

“Fuck him. Not gonna happen,” Moon grumbled.