Wild Creatures

Chapter 22

XiChen hurries over to where Wei Ying and Lan Zhan are standing.

There is a suspiciously clean spot in front of them, the ground looking as if it was thoroughly scrubbed and all traces of blood removed, and then purposefully "dirtied" in order to give the impression that nothing had happened.

Wei Ying looked worried, his expression was a mix of confusion and fear. The same was visible in his younger brother's eyes, and XiChen, as the oldest one among them, was at a loss on how to assure them that everything would be alright.

The weight of being an older sibling was dragging his shoulders down. How to make them feel better, when he had no answers himself? He felt like a phoney in not being able to give them an adequate response.

"This is more disturbing than the crime itself." He looked up at Lan Zhan when the words slipped out of his mouth, unfiltered.

Lan Zhan nodded, still reeling from this new discovery.

"Well, this proves two things: your attacker knows exactly what he did, and by returning, maybe he thought you would still be here? And what now, now that you're obviously not still lying there?" Wei Ying taps his nose, thinking hard.

"That means you're in danger, too." XiChen unconsciously moves closer to him.

"If he comes back for me, only one of us will be leaving that meeting." Lan Zhan growls.

He suddenly feels almost…feral. That long overdue anger rears its head inside him, and he's livid. Rage flows all through his body, fiery and absolute. It blows through any rational thought, except those that involve killing this mysterious person.

Their crime is unforgivable.

And if the reasoning behind his bloodlust is to save future victims, that's only secondary to his need for revenge.

Lan Zhan had up till now, been quite complacent as his personality went. He wasn't particularly violent; his chosen exercises involved more of yoga than boxing. He didn't actively participate in confrontations, but if a punch was thrown in his direction, he was confident of disabling his opponent with the minimum of fuss.

That was before the change.

Now?

Lan Zhan wants to spill guilty blood.

A hand on his face, brings him out from his murderous thoughts.

"What if the person who cleaned the crime scene and the one who caused it, aren't the same? What if we're dealing with more than one person?" Wei Ying says. But his beautiful silver eyes are asking Lan Zhan if he's okay. There's more than just worry in those stormy bright orbs…

Lan Zhan takes a deep breath. It's only a muscle memory now and by no means necessary, and it really helps. This practised method brings about his usual calm demeanour and Lan Zhan nods, imperceptibly.

"Interesting." XiChen muses. "That would mean more than one person knows about…you."

"And they're making a real effort to keep things hush hush." Wei Ying adds.

They start looking around.

For Lan Zhan, this place is an assault on his olfactory sense.

He can smell the strong, pungent odour of bleach, and whatever chemicals used in the paint on the fresh graffiti at the mouth of the alley. Someone nearby is using garlic and cumin seeds in hot oil; and in the other direction, someone else is baking bread. And this alley seems to be quite popular with those who liked to smoke weed. That smell was the heaviest, lingering despite the cool breeze.