Secret & Lies (the forsaken #1) [WangXian FF]

34

Lan Wangji jolted back up and found himself in his bed, alone. He felt like he was just being crushed by a huge boulder and that was not a comfortable feeling. 

Then he remembered what happened in the vault and forced himself to stand up to find out about Wei Wuxian's condition, but the headache hit him. Hard. So he closed his eyes and calmed himself down by taking deep breaths, when he heard the door open.

"You should sleep a little bit more." 

He could hear Xiao Xingchen's voice from the foot of his bed as he walked in and put down something on the table.

"How's Wei Ying? Is he okay?" After a few deep breaths, he felt better. Still dizzy but better.

"He's… in his room, with Xiao Hei." Lan Wangji could hear some kind of hesitation from Xiao Xingchen's voice, and he felt the bile rise to his throat. The last thing he remembered was that the dark fire–the Dark Phoenix's most lethal fire–engulfed Wei Wuxian wholly, and no one, no one, ever escaped unscathed, including himself. 

But Xiao Hei wasn't there when he took Wei Wuxian to the vault. What was the kid doing there?

"Xiao Hei? What's he doing there?" Lan Wangji opened his eyes to see that Xiao Xingchen's face was riddled with worry. "What? What happened?" He asked him again, but when he hesitated to answer, Lan Wangji activated his power. "What happened?" He roared with a deeper and echoing voice unlike his usual self. He was using the commanding voice, and it was literally telling anyone who was their subordinate to comply with his words. He did not have time to play around.

Xiao Xingchen from the fox tribe, a sworn subordinate of the Lan's Dragon clan, quickly fell to his knees in respect. He bowed his head down and answered in a low and respective voice. 

"Wei Wuxian and Xiao Hei are unconscious. We found the three of you lying down on the floor in the library, where the door was. Xiao Hei was clutching Wei Wuxian tight and we could not separate them."

Lan Wangji was stunned to hear the latest situation, so he decided to take a look for himself, after all Wei Wuxian was in the room next door to him.

He quickly opened the connecting door, and immediately saw that Wei Wuxian and Xiao Hei were clutching to each other tight, and they looked like they were asleep judging from the slow rise and fall of their chests. Lan Wangji quickly approached the bed and touched their foreheads, and their necks to check for temperature.

"It's normal." He said to no one in particular. "Although he was swallowed by the dark fire, he's fine." He touched their bodies and then Wei Wuxian stirred to life.

"Lan Zhan?" He started to rise from the bed, but Lan Wangji held him back.

"Don't get up yet." He touched Wei Wuxian's back. "How are you feeling? Are you alright? Anything hurt?"

"Mm, I feel… fine. Better actually." Then he noticed Xiao Hei. "Xiao Hei? What's he doing here?" Wei Wuxian caressed the child's hair softly, and he stirred and mumbled something.

"Xingchen said he found you both were clutching at each other, so he brought you back here." Lan Wangji observed Wei Wuxian's face, who actually really looked good, not like the one who just got purged by Dark Fire. Hmm… "Wei Ying, what was the last thing you remembered?"

"Ah… I remembered that Kou broke the amulet and there was some kind of fire coming out of it. Then you woke me up just now. That's it." Wei Wuxian looked baffled when he saw how worried Lan Wangji was, how hard he was clutching his hand, and how pale his face was when he looked at him. "Are you okay, Lan Zhan? You don't look too good." Wei Wuxian touched Lan Wangji's forehead and Lan Wangji felt that the cold hand calmed him down a notch. He felt better in an instant. And that took him to another question.

"You said Kou broke the amulet?" He touched Wei Wuxian's neck softly, where the necklace with the amulet was snuggling comfortably, and he saw that the blood of Dark Phoenix King was gone. Kou, the griffin, never did anything without any reason. Maybe he should go back to the vault and ask her why she broke the amulet on a human. Not a normal human apparently, because if a normal human touched the blood, he would be purged and disintegrated into nothing. And Wei Wuxian was still here, looking as delicious as he tasted. Now he started to wonder if there's any connection between Wei Wuxian, Xiao Hei, and the last King of the Dark Phoenix.

"Uh-huh, and the liquid inside fell on my chest, and produced the strange fire. It wasn't hot or anything, and it disappeared as the blood was… how do I say it… absorbed into my skin. That was kind of strange to think about it again, what was the liquid? And why do you make that face?"

"I think we need to do some tests on you, Wei Ying." He gestured to Xiao Xingchen to call his brother. "I think, maybe you are somehow connected to the Dark Phoenix clan, although I don't know in what capacity yet, since you're human. Not fully, because you can absorb the Dark Phoenix King's blood–that's the liquid inside the amulet–and that trait is only available to mythical beasts."

"What? You think I'm some kind of mythical beast?" Now it's Wei Wuxian's turn to be baffled. This whole thing progressed in an unexpected direction and swept him off his feet, just like when he first met Lan Wangji. Not that he complained.

"I'm leaning more toward yes the more I know you. But there's one thing we can do to confirm my suspicion." Lan Wangji gave him a smirk that caused his heart to beat faster. This was the cunning face of Lan Wangji that he knew and loved, the one he showed just before he unleashed Xiao Bai on him. And it made him feel anxious.

"And what's that?" He was pretty sure they're going to do something bad.

"We need to do some breaking and entering."