02.00am Sunday
Lan Zhan feels his consciousness coming back in slow increments, one piece at a time.
The first thing he notices is that he's cold.
Colder than normal, which can't be good, though it's not too bad, just uncomfortable. He wishes Wei Ying was there to warm him up, and that thought somehow jerks the rest of him wide awake.
Where's Wei Ying? Is he alright?
The last time Lan Zhan saw him, his expression had been one of panic, and Lan Zhan still didn't know why. And then he wasn't there, just like that, draining Lan Zhan's world of all colour.
Lan Zhan forces himself back into this, his present state, because something feels awfully wrong.
He can't move.
It's like his first few days as a vampire when he was newly turned. The helplessness came back in full force, along with his frustration that he couldn't do any of the numerous things in his head, the unhelpful suggestions that his brain kept supplying him with.
Carefully keeping his eyes closed, Lan Zhan does an inventory of his own body, feeling a little bit better that everything seemed to be in working order.
He was lying on a hard surface, perhaps not even a bed, but a cold concrete slab with strange grooves under his skin. And he wasn't wearing his shirt anymore, either.
It left him feeling exposed in more ways than one.
"Good, you're awake."
The voice sounds old. Raspy, like someone with a bad smoking habit.
Really old, and in his mind's eye, Lan Zhan sees dusty caverns and ancient texts, spells and magic rituals.
His eyes snap open when he feels something sharp trace the contours of his abdominal muscles, immediately wanting to shrink away from the abhorrent touch.
Only Wei Ying was allowed to touch him like that.
He sees a finger, or what used to be one, now most definitely a talon with a long, curved and sharp pointy nail. That's what is still tracing patterns on his skin.
"Stop touching me." Lan Zhan bites out, turning his head to see whom that finger belongs to.
"Or... what?"
There's a cruel laugh, and a face zooms right in front of him. Lan Zhan cringes back with disgust, suddenly appalled.
There are so many wrinkles, creases that are long and narrow, twisting into others like grooves carved into marble. His skin is papery thin, see through to the extent that Lan Zhan can see many veins moving about his face, just under the surface of it. His deep set, dark eyes are mostly all black, voids of an endless depth which stare back at him with barely concealed hunger, and something else.
This person has no hair, just liver spots decorating his bald head, also wrinkled as much as his face, and Lan Zhan realises he is seeing an ancient being.
This person isn't just old, he is very old.
The finger moves again, deliberate and with a little more pressure. Testing.
If before the contact had been absentmindedly done, casual and just for fun, this time it is an extension of the first act just to rile Lan Zhan up, to force a reaction.
Lan Zhan is being watched.
No, studied, would be a better word.
This person is scrutinising his every reaction, from the crease of worry between his eyebrows, to the flickering hatred in his eyes.
Lan Zhan has to breathe very carefully and let his emotions go, because by hanging onto them, he is giving away more than he wishes about himself, and in the space of a few seconds, Lan Zhan has come to the sudden realisation that it would be a very bad thing.
This is going to be a challenge.
"What are you going to do, if I continue?" The person speaks in measured tones, never looking away.
Lan Zhan is terribly glad that he has perfected the stoic expression on his face.
"In fact, what CAN you do?" He laughs, something cruel and twisted, as if he has made a joke.
That at least is pointing out the obvious.
The truth is, Lan Zhan can't do anything, not until his system recovers from whatever they injected him with, and his strength returns. His senses feel numb though, which is another bad thing, because he's under no illusions that he is most definitely among the enemy.
"Why have you taken me?" He asks, lending his voice a bland quality to suggest that he isn't bothered, not by what is happening, and not what he is going to hear.
"Ah, that's an interesting question, isn't it?" He muses, thankfully taking his finger away.
He begins to pace with his hands clasped behind his back, and this gives Lan Zhan an opportunity to study him properly.
He's tall and must have been broad shouldered at one point in his youth. He's wearing dark robes that drape across his thin frame as if the fabric were a liquid, with graceful, billowing sleeves. Along the cuffs, there is red and gold embroidery, swirls of fantastic fires that give Lan Zhan the impression that he's some kind of nobility. He looks a little familiar, but Lan Zhan cannot remember ever seeing him before, and that's even more strange because Lan Zhan has always been good with faces.
He feels that this one too, should be memorable to him, had he really seen it before.
At his waist, a tight leather belt holds his robes together, encrusted with an assortment of different sized rubies, and he's wearing a brooch.
It is the Wen logo, the emblem that hangs on top of the Wen Laboratories, and suddenly, there it is.
Lan Zhan has seen that emblem before.
Not on anyone's uniform, nor on a building, but somewhere far more personal.
These two dire owls with their spread wings are also custom made to embellish waistcoats that won't close any more, because two buttons with that same image are missing.
Lan Zhan thinks about that evening when Wen Rouhan had come to their table, also wearing that waistcoat. His buttons were there, all six accounted for. But Wen Chao was also there, and in between the useless flapping of his lips, Lan Zhan had noticed his gaping waistcoat and privately thought to himself that even monkeys, no matter how dear to their keepers, still needed to be taught how to dress if they insisted on mimicking their human counterparts.
Only then, too busy keeping Wei Ying safe meant that his attention was divided, and therefore he had not put two and two together until now: the buttons he and his Xiongzhang had found in the alley near Love Bites belonged to Wen Chao.
Probably broken off in a struggle, for which Lan Zhan was proud of himself.
He had tried to fight back, and that was saying something.
It loosened a knot of tension in his gut, because part of him thought it ridiculous that he had been attacked and let whoever it was, have their way with him. But he had fought back, and managed to get damning evidence of who his attacker was.
And unless Wen Xu also had buttons missing on his waistcoat, Lan Zhan could honestly say now that it was Wen Chao who had turned him.
It must have been an accident though, because from the amount of blood beneath him, Lan Zhan could surmise that Wen Chao meant to kill him that night.
Could it really have been for something as inconsequential, materialistic as the Architecture award?
From the way Wen Chao behaved, it was a reasonable assumption.
Lan Zhan felt incensed.
The slowly burgeoning anger simmered under his skin, as he began to think of ways to hurt Wen Chao, ways that would definitely hurt him. To stop him from ever turning anyone else ever again.
Even if he was mistaken, and the culprit was Wen Xu, ending him wasn't exactly a bad thing, either.
He closed his eyes quickly, not wanting to let this stranger see how he was feeling.
He had some time, it felt like that, as if they as a collective were waiting for something to happen, and hopefully, Lan Zhan could use this time wisely.
"Everything has a beginning and an ending." The stranger said, quietly now.
"Who are you?" Lan Zhan asks him, tired of wondering.
The feeling that he should know him wasn't going away, and yet Lan Zhan couldn't remember him at all.
"My father was Wen Mao." He lets that sink in.
"You're Wen Rouhan's brother?" Lan Zhan says incredulously.
That made sense, finally. Lan Zhan hadn't met him, but someone with similar enough features and mannerisms to mistake an acquaintance.
"Hm. I suppose it makes no difference what I tell you because the likelihood of you leaving here is zero to none." He wears a cruel smirk as if by saying that, he has somehow hurt Lan Zhan.
But Lan Zhan is far more resilient than he knows, and his smile disappears when he realises that his words have the same impact as slapping a plank of wood.
So he brings a stool closer to him and perches on it elegantly, drawing a tall table nearer so that Lan Zhan can see what is on there.
But with his close proximity, Lan Zhan can smell something else. It's the same smell as what he could detect around Mrs Lan, a stagnant, musty smell, one of steadily increasing rot.
"You're dying?" Lan Zhan blurts out. And then regrets it, because he shouldn't be giving anything away in this bizarre power struggle.
"Indeed. But not if I can help it. Let me explain," he says, picking up something that looks like a manual drill.
It is one of many tools, as if someone upended a handyman's toolbox. There are a number of different sized screwdrivers, needles, a hammer and many types of pliers with assorted heads.
Lan Zhan fights to retain his bored look, but he knows that when this person decides that he's ready, he is not going to show any kindness to Lan Zhan.
This is someone who probably has never felt that emotion, judging by the gleeful anticipation on his face right now.
Let him try, Lan Zhan thinks, mentally preparing himself. He could already feel sensation in his toes, and all he had to do was wait, for now.
"My father had three children: Wen Li Hua, the youngest, Wen Rouhan, my younger brother, and myself, Wen Zhong. I was a sickly child in my youth, and my father searched for many years to find a cure. There was a witch who lived in the forest of Yiling and she told my father of a creature who didn't seem to age, but regularly visited the upper caves of the Burial Mounds, and if its venom was given to me in small doses, it might save my life.
"My father was desperate because at the time, I was his only child. Naturally, he wanted to save me, so he lay in wait for the creature to visit the Blood Pool. Imagine his surprise when it was the Immortal he discovered, who then tried to stop him from wanting to save me. Needless to say, they ended up fighting and my father thought he had won when he drowned him in that very place.
"But places like that hold onto Resentment energy. It permeates everything, especially blood, being a life force. My father unfortunately succumbed to its wiles and after giving me a much needed dose, he went on a killing rampage.
"It was around this time that he fathered two more children, my brother and sister. Of course I wanted to protect them but I myself was just recovering from nearly dying, and so in my father's absence, I went searching for the source of my medicine. I found the cave after looking relentlessly for three days, by the end of which I was a starving, pitiful thing.
"The Immortal found me and gave me food, but he left one day, saying he needed other types of herbs to cure me, and not knowing that the medicine I needed was right there. The moment he left, I crawled to the Blood Pool and drank my fill.
"Within hours, I felt the change. But something was wrong. I instinctively knew that only by having a constant source of blood, would I survive. The Immortal came back then, and he was horrified at what I had done, once he found out. We fought, and I killed him. And then, I found his work.
"The man was a genius," he says, with admiration.
"But you killed him." Lan Zhan accuses him.
This was the creature that had killed Wei Ying's grandfather. He had no right to be proud of whatever the Immortal had achieved, not when he had murdered him.
"I had to. It was my life or his," he replies casually, picking up another tool.
This one was curved with a serrated edge.
"But he had a family." Lan Zhan reminds him, angry on Wei Ying's behalf.
If Wei Ying's grandfather had survived, wouldn't their lives have been different? The sadness that was constantly present in Baoshan Sanren's eyes wouldn't be there anymore. And she must not be over him if she had yet to find another person to love, because she was still single.
Lan Zhan could understand that part better now.
It was how he felt about Wei Ying. He knew without a doubt, that he loved Wei Ying with all of himself, to the point that he was starting to see Wei Ying as an extension of himself; anything that hurt Wei Ying, hurt him, anything that gave him happiness, made Lan Zhan's happiness brighter. He knew that even if their love was fated to end, he was completely incapable of loving another.
Wei Ying was everything to him.
"So did I!" Wen Zhong pushed away from him angrily. "What about my brother? My sister? I had to wait to turn my brother, and my sister. But I won."
"You're still dying." The petty part of Lan Zhan makes him say that, a verbal revenge until he recovers his strength.
"Thanks to the genius Immortal, not for long," he boasts.
"Meaning?" Lan Zhan's awareness of his body spreads to his knees.
"Do you know why you're like this?" Wen Zhong gestures to his body.
"No. Please explain."
"A few decades ago, we discovered a child with amazing bloodwork. So of course, we killed his family and took him in, his name is Wen Zhuliu in case you're wondering. There are many benefits to owning your own labs, and we found out by accident, as the best discoveries usually are. His blood, not venom mind you, has the ability to nullify every superhuman quality that vampires possess. It's actually very useful. And it's how we have been able to incapacitate every single threat that we faced from other vampires.
"But going back to the Immortal, we were shocked at his foresight. He too, had been thinking about how to conquer those vampires that became feral. It is an inevitable condition, resulting from either not feeding enough or feeding too much. The Immortal had created something called the HeartStone, and it is a weapon of ultimate destruction. But to activate it, we need a key, which in a matter of hours, will be in our possession. That's where your boyfriend comes in."
Lan Zhan fought to keep his tone neutral.
"He's not my boyfriend," he says as honestly as he could, hoping to negate any power play they want to try.
In his mind, Wei Ying was already his fiance, and nothing was going to change that. But Wen Zhong didn't need to know that.
"It doesn't matter," he says.
Wen Zhong does look disappointed, though.
"Why?"
"Your...not-boyfriend is on his way to bringing us the key, and then in addition to the HeartStone, we are halfway towards the end goal."
Oh no!
Belatedly, Lan Zhan realises that whether he likes it or not, Wei Ying is going to come here. If he could be persuaded to go with a complete stranger just because of a hint that Lan Zhan could be in danger, then of course, Wei Ying would do everything in his power to come and save him now.
"You do care!" Wen Zhong says, delightedly.
Lost in his thoughts, Lan Zhan had forgotten to hide them, and now he had done the equivalent of giving up a piece on this weird chessboard game.
"Wei Ying doesn't have any key." Lan Zhan tries, but it's clear that Wen Zhong doesn't believe him.
"He might not have it now, but I believe he is capable of getting it. Do not underestimate him. It is detrimental to your own survival." He laughs softly.
"Even if he does, how is that going to save you?" Lan Zhan argues, feeling a tingling in his upper thighs.
This is getting better.
"Oh, that's something else that my father was also working on. The Elixir Of Life."
A pretentious name, Lan Zhan thinks. Out loud, he says, "what's that?"
"A secret formula. It cures any ailments. It can cure me," he says, eagerly, coming back to sit on the stool again.
Maybe it could cure Mrs Lan too?
Lan Zhan prepares to pay attention properly now.
"Have you used it? How do you know what it can do?"
"There were a bunch of notes with the Immortal's things. Some were coded, some were not. And no, it cannot be used until we add the final ingredient." He looks back at Lan Zhan thoughtfully. "We've tried other alternatives but nothing has worked so far."
"What is the missing ingredient?" Lan Zhan can feel his waist now.
"A drop of pure Wen blood."
Lan Zhan thinks this guy might possibly be brain damaged. It must have shown on his face, because Wen Zhong actually laughs.
"I can see what you're thinking, but if you recall, I said Pure Wen Blood. Not venom. So that cancels out Wen Rouhan and his sons, because both of their mothers were turned before the children were born," he says, echoing Lan Zhan's thoughts.
"What about Wen Qing and Wen Ning?" There's a part of him that pushes them forward because he's rightfully upset at those two.
Lan Zhan remembered Wen Qing telling him that her notes were stolen, which meant she had put both himself and Wei Ying in danger. He didn't think she was innocent now...except...except if she was guilty, then why had she tried to warn him? That part didn't make sense at all. He'd seen the notifications of missed calls and only because his phone had been on silent because of the ceremony, that was the only reason why he'd not noticed it vibrating in his pocket.
"We tried. Their blood doesn't work, and I suspect it's because their mother, my sister, her DNA is not compatible with the Elixir. I have long suspected that we need a male donor. And it must be pure blood, not mixed with venom."
"Then I guess you're stuck." Lan Zhan can't help feeling smug about this.
They can't activate the Elixir because they're out of options. But then, he thinks of sweet A-Yuan.
No.
It can't be...right?
They can't know about A-Yuan...or do they?
His frightened eyes drift back to black ones looking far too happy.
"Back in the day, people got married when they were young. I had a son. His line continued until about eight years ago, when the last known Wen descendant passed away. I was too late to save him. But then we recently found out he was involved with someone, a young lady who ended up marrying a Lan of all people. And wouldn't you know it? She had a two year old infant at the time." He looks so smug.
Lan Zhan has had a feeling of pure dread filling his body.
They might not know about A-Yuan, but this is just as bad.
And Wen Zhong confirms his suspicion.
"Why do you think we've been looking for the woman who now calls herself Mrs Lan? Her son, Lan JingYi, is the last remaining Wen Descendant. It's his blood we need. And it should be with us in just a few hours. Now, you need to rest. We want you in your best condition before we can begin draining."
"Draining?" Lan Zhan asks, still reeling from his verbal bombs.
"Oh yes! Did you think this was just a social visit?" He laughs cruelly. "I was just fascinated by you, enough that I wanted to meet you. But as it turns out, you're nothing special. Only your venom is, and since that's the only useful thing about you, we're going to keep you as our pet. Wen Qing will be put to work on how we can use your contribution to our community and soon, we will be able to walk outside in the daylight, just as you can. Now, REST."
Too late, Lan Zhan fights against the Compelling.
His eyes close against his will and his last thought is about Wei Ying.
He must not let the vampires know that it is only Wei Ying's blood which allows him to walk in the sun.
************
A/N
Dear Beautiful Readers,
So what do you think? Exciting chapter? I hope so!
Lots of chocolate wishes!
Charlie