That night, Nafan drifted in and out of a restless sleep. His memories of the night flickered from a hazy unconsciousness to the sensation of lying under sweaty blankets with his eyes open and the crickets chirping in his ears. Mingled in the two scenarios were images of Khyriel – his pale, nude body swimming in and out of focus, his vivid blue eyes blinking slowly, and his pink tongue running over his sharp white fangs underneath. The boy’s voice – his cries, his coy whimpers, and his breathless gasps – made it into Nafan’s sleep, too, but he couldn’t remember if those had been real or were just fragments of his dreams. By the time he opened his eyes to see that the room was finally lit with pale sunlight, Nafan couldn’t have been gladder to wake up.

Despite the fact that his head was throbbing and that it felt like he hadn’t slept at all, Nafan hopped out of bed and went straight for the inn’s bathroom. There was nobody there yet, so he reckoned it was still early – but no complaints there. He washed his face, wiped down the rest of his body, and rinsed out his mouth with some salt water. Then he returned to his room to put the rest of his clothes on and headed out to the front of the inn, thinking of breakfast.

Indeed, it was early. The front door had been left open and when Nafan peered out into the village he saw that it was dim and still quiet. The owner’s daughter was already awake, though, and he could see her leisurely washing dishes at the sink behind the counter. When he walked in with the floorboards squeaking underfoot, she glanced over and her drowsy expression turned into a smile.

Smiling back, Nafan was about to lift his hand in hello when he saw Da Shan staring at them with one eyebrow raised. A little awkwardly, he instead scratched the side of his head and offered the owner a smile, too.

Da Shan’s eyebrow twitched but settled back into a benign expression. Sitting across from the man on the other side of the counter, was Khyriel.

Nafan hadn’t immediately recognized him because Khyriel was wearing normal clothing. But now that he was looking properly, he saw the boy’s distinct hairstyle – fluffy and layered, with one long ponytail growing out to his mid-back, held in a small silver cuff.

Normally, the boy’s lycan outfit was very distinct, with white wolf-fur draped over one shoulder and striped black-and-white feathers dangling from behind his ears. It was of Raoul design, with an outer long robe in black, and an inner tunic in a lighter brownish-grey, tied together by a dark waist sash. His mother had said that the Raoul made their clothing from their own fur, which allowed them to transform between their wolf and human forms without losing their clothes. The feathers were souvenirs from a pup’s first hunt, and the leather choker around their neck was strung with their first three baby fangs… but Nafan wasn’t sure what the white wolf-fur scarf was. It looked like a tail of some sort, and his mother had never said anything about the Raoul wearing the body parts of deceased comrades.

After a slight hesitation, Nafan walked over. As he sat in the chair next to Khyriel, the boy stirred and glanced over. Nafan met his gaze, and offered a quivering sort of smile – it was alright to smile at someone, even if they were strangers, right? – but Khyriel turned away again with nothing more than a slight narrowing of the eyes.

Da Shan was oblivious to their interaction. The man shifted over to Nafan, leaned over the counter, and jerked a thumb in his daughter’s direction.

“She caught your eye, demon?”

Was he going to be called that for the rest of his stay? Dismayed, Nafan shook his head. “No sir. She’s beautiful, but I have a wife and children waiting for me.”

It was a lie, of course, but one that he’d used often in the past, so he knew it sounded pretty convincing. Khyriel, too, turned his head again and spared him a glance. Nafan could see a mixture of disbelief and curiosity in the boy’s eyes.

“Oh?” Da Shan’s eyebrow shot up again and the man leaned even closer over the counter. “A child already? You don’t look very old.”

“Really?” Nafan ruffled his hair sheepishly, not sure what to say now. He was only a year over twenty, but because of his mixed blood and appearance, people usually mistook him as older than he really was. “It’s a baby girl, newborn.”

“And yet you’re heading to Zhao? Shouldn’t you stay with your child?” Da Shan queried, tilting his head in extreme curiosity. The man didn’t sound suspicious or anything yet, but Nafan was starting to run out of lies. He should’ve just said that he was older than the owner thought…

“Uh, yeah, because we really need the money…” Nafan mumbled thickly. His voice faded as doubt appeared in the owner’s gaze, but before he could scramble for a way to save his lie, they were interrupted by an angry shout and the noise of multiple feet stomping forward.

“You! Whore!”

It was the trio of noblemen from last night – and they were walking straight towards them.

Nafan tensed, fists clenching within his sleeves. Da Shan stiffened noticeably too, eyes narrowing in a wary look. Only Khyriel remained relaxed, turning in his chair and facing the angry guests with a slight raise of his eyebrow.

The head of the trio stormed forward, grabbed Khyriel by the front of his shirt, and dragged him roughly off his seat. Nafan couldn’t help but cringe a little – not out of fear for Khyriel, but because he half expected the man to instantly lose his head in a spray of blood.

The lycan, though, gazed ahead calmly as the nobleman continued to jostle him.

“Where is it?” he snarled, bringing his nose to the boy’s face as he bared his yellow teeth at Khyriel. “Our money. Our chains of silver, you stole them, didn’t you?”

“Stole?” Khyriel let out a disdainful scoff. “I didn’t steal it. You gave it to me. In fact, you shoved some up my ass. Don’t you remember?”

“No, we didn’t,” the man growled, shaking him violently. “You seduced us! We don’t owe you a single coin!”

Sighing, Khyriel pried the man’s hands away from his shirt and stepped away. The infuriated nobleman tried to grab him again, but this time Khyriel tossed his hand deftly aside.

“Uh, yes, you do.”

“I said I didn’t, so I didn’t!” the man roared, grabbing at Khyriel’s hair this time. As the lycan ducked out of his way, the nobleman lunged at him with a frustrated shout. “Give it back!”

“No way,” Khyriel let out a laugh, seeming to enjoy the man’s fury as he continued dancing out of reach. The other noblemen exchanged annoyed glances, but their arms were crossed and they didn’t move. “It’s mine now.”

“You serious?” Seeming to realize that he wouldn’t be able to catch the boy, the man paused and lifted his chin haughtily. “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the governor’s oldest son. I could have you executed for thievery!”

Unperturbed, Khyriel chuckled airily and twirled a strand of his hair in his finger. “Aw, you shouldn’t lie. Your governor daddy would be upset if he found out that you sleep with boys and rob them of their compensation the night after.”

The man’s face turned an odd shade of reddish purple. By now, Da Shan had turned away with a sigh, and Nafan was tempted to do the same.

“Fuck, give me the money back, you whore. You don’t have anything to spend it on, anyway.”

Khyriel put a hand on his chest and feigned a look of indignance, then laughed blithely and stuck out his tongue. “Bleh, no.”

The man gaped at him, mouth open and eyes bulging as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. When he finally managed to speak, his voice came out as a hysterical shout.

“I…I’ll tell my father! You think I won’t do it? He’ll send men to come and hunt you down, you know! You’ll be raped and then tortured to death! Do you really think a couple silver coins are worth it?!”

Nafan winced. That sounded a bit scary. Khyriel was supposed to be his bodyguard… he didn’t want to have the governor’s soldiers trailing after them, too.

Khyriel grinned haughtily back. “Oh really? You’re so kind. Sending me more ugly dicks to suck dry, you really don’t have to.”

“You – what the fuck? Are you retarded?” Evidently caught off guard by the boy’s lack of fear, the man paused and stared at him in disbelief. Then, finally, he turned and nodded at his friends.

They uncrossed their arms and narrowed their eyes, then stepped forward with threatening glares.

Da Shan opened his mouth to protest, but seemed to think better of it and instead resumed wiping his countertop a little irritably. Khyriel straightened with an innocent blink, and Nafan grimaced but didn’t get a chance to properly look away.

It was over in a second. Two of them faltered with sudden shrieks, and the remaining nobleman froze in shock. He turned and stared at his friends, who were clutching their wrists in terror. Each of their right palms had been impaled witih chopsticks.

“Go ahead. Send me more men.” Twirling one more chopstick casually in his hand, Khyriel threw them a dark, sharp-toothed grin. “I’ll make sure to milk them dry, too. Then I guess I’ll go and visit your daddy. What do you think he’ll do to you when he finds out that you got all his men killed?”

“Y-You…” The man’s lips curled in another snarl, but as his friends moaned for him to stop, he jittered uncertainly. “Fuck… you’re not a whore, are you?! Fucking demon!” With an angry swish of his robes, the man turned and pulled his friends out the door of the inn. “Curse you!”

It was a while before they could hear the chirping of birds again. Da Shan broke the silence first with a heavy sigh.

“Ah… they haven’t even paid yet. I thought you promised not to cause trouble while you were here, boy?” He spoke gruffly, but his gaze had a couldn’t-be-helped look as he glanced at Khyriel.

“Sorry, sorry.” Khyriel scoffed airily and tossed a chain of silver coins over the counter. “Here, I’ll compensate. I couldn’t help it, you know – they tore up my asshole. Hurts like fuck.”

In the corner, the owner’s daughter, who had been watching timidly, turned bright shade of pink. But Khyriel seemed to think he was talking about something totally ordinary as he sat down, crossed one ankle over his thigh, and stuck a pinkie in his ear.

“It would’ve been fine if they put it in slowly, but he just rammed it in when I already had one inside me. They should be glad that I didn’t bite off the dick that was being shoved down my throat. I swear I was one twitch away from doing it.”

Nafan saw the boy’s fanged choker bob up and down as Khyriel swallowed. He didn’t notice that he’d been staring until the boy turned and addressed him directly.

“So what’s next, when are we leaving? I can’t really walk straight right now, if you know what I mean.”

 Startled that they suddenly weren’t strangers anymore, Nafan blinked at the boy a couple times. Da Shan also did a double-take and gawked at the two of them in bewilderment.

“Wait – you two know each other?”

Khyriel’s lips twitched into a smug grin. “Well, yeah. Demons stick together, right?”