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

39: Lans Die Fighting

Jiang Wanyin spun around to see what happened to find a tall and huge shadow shielding him. Something rustled against his face, bleeding fast. Feathers? A wing?

"A-Xian!"

"One minute," Wei Wuxian mumbled through the pain searing from his wing before focussing on the man who had stabbed him. "I was wondering where you were, Zhongli."

Liu Zhongli leered at him. "Xingguang Xian, does your beautiful golden wing hurt? You could have just let me stab him!"

"He's my brother, you rascal," Wei Wuxian snarled, baring his teeth before wrapping his wings around Liu Zhongli, crushing the living daylights out of him, amused by the screams that exited his sorry mouth.

Someone standing nearby walked closer and helped him by shutting him up with a forceful punch that broke his jaw.

"SHIFU! Goodness!"

Lan Qiren shrugged. "That was for trying to stab my first in-law." Raising his sword, carefully weaving the blade through the already bleeding wing, he stabbed the man's arm. "That's for stabbing my second in-law."

"Good Lord," Jiang Cheng grinned at his teacher. "Shifu, you...?"

"What? No fighting without permission, consent. This is with consent. My consent," Lan Qiren shrugged nonchalantly. While the rest fought on, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian — still gripping Zhongli — stared at their teacher. "Jiang Cheng, arrest Nie Jiuyue when you and Huaisang get to him. Wei Ying, you may finish the Liu man off."

Wei Wuxian beamed at him, teeth and fangs sparkling bright, before he nodded.

"Yes, Shifu!" Both in-laws grinned and dived into battle. Jiang Cheng hurried to Nie Huaisang's side, speeding things up to end it all soon. Lan Qiren was right. They couldn't let Nie Jiuyue off so easily. He had done something incomprehensibly terrible to Lan Xichen, he had to pay. So Jiang Cheng fought furiously to capture Jiuyue.

Meanwhile, while Lan Qiren returned to fight with the rest of the Lans, Wei Wuxian soared up into the sky, clasping Liu Zhongli firmly in his wings. "Expert at torture, aren't you?"

"Mhmhmhm– Let me go!" Liu Zhongli writhed in his grasp.

"Oh shut up, I'm only letting you have a bit of your own medicine!" Wei Wuxian chuckled as he soared up higher until they were amid the clouds. He was a beast with wings and gills and all sorts of things humans didn't have. Breathing at this altitude wasn't much to him.

But Liu Zhongli was choking. Raspy voice croaked and quivered as he shouted "Kill me! Kill me if you want to!"

"Kill you? Not so easily," Wei Wuxian grinned before squeezing his wings tighter. Liu Zhongli wailed and shrieked as his lungs were crushed into nothing and the air in him swept out. Wei Wuxian snickered and bit on his nape, sending sparks of shock down the man's trembling spine, making him scream even louder. "AAAARGH!"

Wei Wuxian grinned. "What? Painful? And for torturing my brother-in-law," Wei Wuxian bent down and bit on his scalp, before crushing his head with his strong wings, leering as the blood oozed out of Zhongli's head and dripped down his hair. "There, I think you had enough," he nodded firmly before wrapping his better wing around Liu Zhongli's neck and twisting it to the side.

CRACK! Snap! Wei Wuxian let go of the dead body, watching it fall down and collapse in the middle of the Lius.

He hovered weakly over their heads, watching and musing over the expressions changing from shock to apprehension to outright fear.

"Your clan leader is dead! Nie Jiuyue is arrested! Surrender or die!" Nie Huaisang shouted.

Jiuyue was held firmly by Jiang Cheng with Xuanji's Zhipei at his neck.