The room was a disaster zone. Looked like a tornado had a fight with a shadow monster and lost. Gao was a shriveled-up raisin on the floor, and his daughter was starting to stir on the bed, which was our cue to bounce.
"Time to go," I said, already heading for the giant hole in the wall.
Di Jun didn't move. He was just standing there, looking at the pathetic remains of the Magistrate. "We can't just leave him like this."
I stopped and turned around. "Uh, yeah, we can. He literally tried to drain an entire city to… I don't know, level up his daughter? He's not getting a get-well-soon card from me."
"He's a link to whoever sent him," Di Jun said, his voice all serious and annoyingly logical. "He's a loose end."
"And what are you going to do? Interrogate a prune? I don't think he's very talkative right now."
Just then, Lian, the daughter, let out a soft moan. Her eyes fluttered open. They were a clear, lovely brown, and full of confusion. She sat up, looking around the wrecked room, her gaze landing on her father's withered form.
"Father?" she whispered, her voice hoarse.
This was bad. This was so, so bad. We had an audience.
Di Jun was at her side in a flash, moving with that creepy, silent speed of his. He knelt down, his expression… gentle? It was weird.
"Your father is the victim of a powerful curse," he said, his voice smooth and hypnotic. "We were sent to break it. We succeeded. But he is weak now. He needs rest."
Lian looked from Di Jun's handsome, concerned face to me, then to the wrecked room. Her eyes were wide, but she wasn't screaming. She was just… processing.
"Who… who are you?" she asked.
"The people who saved your life," Di Jun said, with a confidence that was just so… him. "Now, rest. We will handle everything."
He stood up and gave me a look that said, Let's go. Now.
We slipped out through the hole in the wall and into the garden. The city felt different. The heavy, grey blanket of despair was gone. The air was lighter, cleaner. I could hear people talking, laughing. We had actually done it. We had saved the city.
As we were melting back into the shadows, a figure stepped out from behind a large willow tree, blocking our path.
It was Xiao Longwei.
He was in full celestial warrior mode, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his face a mask of cold fury. He looked from Di Jun to me, and his eyes narrowed.
"I knew it," he said, his voice like ice. "I felt the surge of demonic power. I should have known you were behind this… mess."
"Mess?" Di Jun scoffed, stepping slightly in front of me. "I just saved an entire city. Where were you, General? Polishing your armor?"
"I was tracking the source of the plague, which I now see was you two," Xiao shot back, his gaze fixed on me. "Qian'er, step away from him. I don't know what spell he has you under, but this ends now."
"It's not a spell!" I said, my frustration boiling over. "The Magistrate was the one behind it! He was using his daughter to drain the city! We stopped him!"
Xiao looked at me, his expression softening for a second. "And I suppose you just happened to be in the middle of it with the most wanted demon in the Six Realms? A coincidence?"
"Yes!" I yelled. "No! I mean… it's complicated!"
"It's really not," Di Jun said, his voice dangerously low. He took another step forward, getting right in Xiao's face. "She is with me. She is safe with me. Which is more than I can say for anyone who tries to take her from me."
The air crackled with tension. It was a classic pissing contest between two alpha males, and I was the prize. Ugh.
"Enough!" I said, stepping between them. This was getting old. "Xiao, we are on the same side. We just saved thousands of people. Can we please just… not do this right now?"
Before Xiao could answer, we heard a new sound. The heavy tread of boots, the clank of armor. A lot of it.
We all froze. A squad of city guards, led by a very familiar-looking, stern-faced man, rounded the corner. It was the same guy from the teahouse, the one who was talking about the Magistrate's daughter.
He saw us, and his eyes widened. Then he saw the hole in the wall, and his face turned pale. He drew his sword.
"Seize them!" he yelled. "They're the ones who attacked the Magistrate!"
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," I muttered.
The guards charged.
Xiao didn't hesitate. He drew his sword, a blade of pure celestial light, and moved to intercept them, a whirlwind of righteous, golden energy.
Di Jun just sighed, like this was a massive inconvenience. He grabbed my hand. "Hold on."
Before I could ask what for, he pulled me into his arms. The world dissolved into a dizzying blur of darkness and speed. It felt like being ripped apart and put back together in the same instant.
One second we were in the garden, the next we were in a dark, narrow alley on the other side of the city.
I stumbled, my head spinning, and would have fallen if Di Jun hadn't been holding me. I was pressed up against his chest, my hands on his rock-hard abs. I could feel the steady, cold beat of his heart through his robes.
"Whoa," I breathed, looking up at him. "That was… a lot."
He was looking down at me, his silver and gold eyes intense in the dim light of the alley. He was still holding me, his arms wrapped around my waist like he had no intention of ever letting go.
"We need to get out of this city," he said, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through my entire body.
"Yeah, no kidding," I agreed, my brain still trying to catch up.
But he didn't move. He just kept looking at me, his gaze dropping to my lips. The alley was silent, the sounds of the distant fight fading away. It was just the two of us, in the dark, our hearts beating in a frantic, syncopated rhythm.
"Di Jun…" I started to say, but I didn't know what I was going to say.
He leaned in closer, his face just inches from mine. I could feel the cold from his body, a stark contrast to the heat that was flooding my cheeks.
"You know," he whispered, his voice a low, seductive murmur, "for a mortal, you're not completely useless."
And then he kissed me.
It wasn't gentle. It wasn't sweet. It was a crash, a collision. It was cold and demanding, a claiming. His lips were cold as ice, but they sent a fire through me that threatened to burn me alive. It was a kiss that said, You're mine. And the scary part was, a part of me was starting to believe it.