Red Rose [Never Let You Go, Again Book 3]

22: My Brother's Always Been A Monster

"LAN ZHAN!"

Wei Wuxian watched, horrified, as his husband sunk towards the lakebed. "Lan Zhan, no!" Wei Ying shouted as he tossed and turned to get out of the chains, gasping and panting in terror.

Shouting? How am I breathing? Wei Ying blinked as he looked around. Yes, he was in the water. And yet... Yes, he was breathing. That was when he sensed a tingling sensation along the side of his neck. Frowning, he raised his hand to the side of his neck to check. Strange, soft flaps of skin lined his neck. Wei Wuxian flinched. Gills... What the hell? He wondered as he spotted something spreading along his hands and legs fast. Scales? Golden scales? What the heck is going on?

Water. He'd always wanted to be drowned in the water. And now that's what was happening. Smiling as he realised what was happening, he spun around in the water, letting the aureate energy bursting from his back light up the water and break the chains. The jutting shoulder blades on his back burst open and he screamed as something grew out from his ribs, stretching far and wide into the water. His legs disappeared fast into a thin cocoon of scales and his hands vanished altogether. That's it, come on, faster! Wei Wuxian spun round and round, letting the metamorphosis speed up until he thrust his chest forth and roared.

Dammit, no hands, now what? He wondered as he dashed across the water to the lakebed. I'll use my teeth. Carefully, he opened his mouth and slithered his jaw through the chains and tore them apart. Yes! Darling's freed! He cheered in his mind before bending his suddenly gigantic body and nuzzling his nose against Lan Wangji's face. Nope, knocked out. I've got to het him out fast... No hands... Can't use wings to carry, I have to fly... Mn, he nodded to himself and bent down and picked his husband up in his teeth: his open mouth was as tall as Lan Wangji himself. Raising his head to look up at the surface, he shot up through the lake.

**********

"Woah, what the hell was that?" Jiang Cheng screeched to a halt at the sound of the roar deep under the lake. They'd arrived at the quay and were fighting with the incessantly attacking Lius when the sudden grumble from underwater had shaken the ground.

"Sounds too familiar," Nie Huaisang sulked.

Just then, the roar resumed. This time, it zoomed upwards closer and closer to the surface. Zidian and every other weapon was at the ready, the battle effectively ceased because of the clamour.

And then, something massive shot up out from the lake, crashing through the surface, sending huge waves over their heads as it soared up into the sky. Yet another heinous battle cry and the clouds were blown away by its flapping golden wings, the brightest sun shining onto its body. Golden scales lined the dragon-like fish, golden wings stretching out from its back in the place of fins, a pair of eyes gleaming with joy as it fluttered in mid-air.

"WHAT!" Jingyi shouted.

"THE HELL IS THAT?" The other juniors cried out.

"Kun Peng..." Nie Huaisang hid behind his fan.

"What on earth is a Kun Peng doing in my lake!" Liu Zhongliang gawked at the magnificent monster shimmering in the sunlight.

"That's not any Kun Peng, you bloody IDIOT!" Zidian crashed against the man's back.

Chen Xuanji, Nie Huaisang and the juniors turned to him with raised eyebrows to find him grinning.

"Oh no, it's got Wangji!" Lan Xichen gripped Shuoyue.

Jiang Cheng chuckled and held him by the wrist. "You're all buffoons. Can't you see?"

"See what?"