Wild Creatures

Chapter 15

Lan Zhan wakes up feeling a little uncomfortable.

He's not sure why, and it takes his brain a few seconds to catch up until he realises what it is. A tiny sliver of sunlight is falling through the curtains...right on his exposed hand which is lying on top of the sheet.

The uncomfortable feeling grows and becomes a prickle under his skin. Lan Zhan quickly reaches out to close the curtain completely...but those few seconds and this seemingly inconsequential event is terribly significant now.

Lan Zhan’s instincts are screaming at him now that he is close to nearing the change...it is almost complete.

He is also hungry and that's the first thing he addresses. He bites his lip and this time, he can taste more venom than blood. Has something happened to escalate his change? Lan Zhan isn't sure, but he's wide awake now.

Wei Ying is sleeping beautifully next to him, blissfully unaware of this difference.

Lan Zhan has to rethink this day now and the things he wanted to go and do...and yet he's incredibly glad that if there's one thing he's good at, it's adapting to changing circumstances. He reaches over Wei Ying to grab his phone and scrolls to a shopping app. The first thing he does is override Wei Ying’s payment details and he puts his own card number down instead.

Then he orders a couple of sets of pyjamas and a state-of-the-art security device for the front door. Lan Zhan feels way better about that now...but he's going to have to make Wei Ying be okay about that.

Perhaps it's better to tackle one problem at a time.

Lan Zhan adds a nice phone to his cart and a new laptop...both these tools will prove invaluable in investigating who attacked him...and he's sure Wei Ying will be able to use them too. Plus he wants to delay as much as possible the inevitable meeting of his family.

But he doesn't want to think about that now.

It's still early and as Lan Zhan relaxes once more, he's pulling Wei Ying closer when a silver eye opens to look at him.

"It's still sleeping time." Wei Ying mumbles, closing his eyes again.

"Mn."

Lan Zhan thinks he hasn't felt this relaxed in ages.

Sleep is something which he may not need in the very near future too...but he cannot bring himself to feel sorry about it...not when he gets to have this. Not when the perfect man is lying in his arms.

The amount of trust which Wei Ying has towards him is simply mind-blowing.

Wei Ying knows what he, Lan Zhan is becoming.

A possible killer.

And yet he still snuggles closer.

Lan Zhan is reminded of people, perhaps zookeepers, who make those videos on YouTube, the ones where they're lying on top of dangerous animals, lions and tigers, cheetahs etc, and they're playing as if the highly expert predator is a tame cat.

His diet is something else which Lan Zhan knows he will have to examine in closer detail. He is still mildly disgusted at drinking blood. Whether this has anything to do with being a vegetarian or not is a moot point; but Lan Zhan likes to think that even if he ate meat on a regular basis, he would still have this problem of accepting the gory liquid sustenance.

But what is going to happen when his blood morphs into pure venom? Will he still be able to nourish himself?

He remembers his brother watching a show where vampires used the blood readily obtained in blood banks rather than 'fresh' sources. He isn't sure how he feels about this.