Ten miles

chapter 16

Feng Jiu opened her eyes and blinked several times before wincing in pain. She'd never been ill like this and felt it could be the equivalent to mortal flu. Would she be able to hear Zhi Yan if she felt this badly? Her eyes closed and her hand went over the soar spot where the shadow had been placed inside her by that demon. How sad he had lost his true mate, she thought feeling bitter about the fate of her clan. At least with the shadow here, she could talk to him. But this shadow...it was as if it were already dying. Helplessly, she opened her eyes afraid to tell him such.

I know he wants me to host it, but I don't think it works this way, Feng Jiu thought carefully.

When she sat up, the demon stared at her carefully regarding her in case she'd try to run. "You are strong. I should not be surprised that you woke so quickly." When he stared for longer than normal, she winced.

"It seems you are very powerful." His smile was faint, "that means success this time is sure."

Very powerful, she thought passively. It's not enough to keep me out of trouble. "Why is this shadow so weak?"

"You have no idea what you are, do you?" He asked her almost too smugly. Her brows rose, and her face pinked oddly. He sat down and began to fix something in what looked like a flash. When he was done, he handed it to her. "It will make you tired."

She didn't hesitate to take it, but she didn't hide her trembling fingers. Calm yourself, she chanted inwardly. They will come to you.

"Fox spirit and phoenix-of the earth and sky. How miserable you must feel. Usually the more dominant creature is what your root form would include. Even worse that your true mate is heavenly." he remarked. "In another time I would have found this fascinating, but for now, only time could say if she can be restored. I was not always this way, but to be weak is to be without power." He watched her drink the flask with speculation, but she didn't hesitate. It was good she was afraid, but he was already on guard against the meek act.

"I didn't mean to try to wake up," she lied. I can't remember what I even did, she thought and touched her head. The pain there throbbed and she shut her eyes hoping to ease the pain. When that didn't relieve it, she opened them again. Her vision blurred for a moment, and then her eyes darted around curiously. "Where am I?" When she looked down, her clothes were not the same. Swallowing thickly, she remained quiet. Inwardly, she shivered and felt exposed that he'd done such a thing.

He stood and stepped back as she swung her legs over the small bed she was in, but when she didn't try to run, he watched her with surprise. Her eyes took in his change of clothes, black robes lined in gold and red.

She regarded him, "I have no energy to run, but I know you will watch me for it. I can already feel the shadow in me. It's pointless with how drained I am." She let the silence linger, and then followed with, "did you get to see her?"

"What do you care?" Whatever tender feelings he had dissipated. When he looked at this one's face, she looked similar, but not so much like the clan of women his wife was from. It's due to the fox heritage. If anything, her beauty was rather staggering. But this was just a face.

Not liking the pity he saw in this woman's eyes he said, "unlike your lover, I have not given up on my wife. Then again, I don't hold the same regard for immortals as you do two do. Your true mate bond is a curse."

Feng Jiu found herself nodding before she realized it, "it's horrible. I practically jumped on my teacher...publically. Then there was a pong incident."

He stopped what he was doing and listened perplexed at this one. The others had not really shared with him their understanding of this cursed phenomenon. In the future, it may help him to understand her bodies reaction to this other male. "That close? Dong Hua following around a little kid like you. I wish I could have seen it."

Even demons had standards, she thought as she nodded. Or was it their possessiveness that kept them from doing evil acts openly. "It took several people to keep us apart, and I almost died."

He frowned at that. His eyes narrowed, "you would say anything to protect him."

She shrugged, "you can ask people there. I made a racket in the sky." After saying that, she shut her eyes and felt a flush sweep across her cheeks.

This time he did laugh, "that was you?"

If she bonded, I would have lost the chance to mate with her, he thought when he tried to read her thoughts. There were only flashes, but he saw them in her weakened state. Hints of her and Dijun against a pillar, her in the sky, and the following cool off period. This girl really had almost perished.

It seemed the males could mate with another only after the death of their female, but the females could not once bonded. For this reason, pairs were protected in those days. They couldn't even go to war to risk the chance of losing any females being born to a mated pair. He laughed and thought, how weak. It is good she grew up without any knowledge of her ancestry. Then she cannot play their games.

Feng Jiu felt her body waver and slammed her hand onto the side of the bed before she hit it. Her wide eyes glanced at the man in black, but he didn't move toward her. She thought he must think this is a ploy. Her head lowered as a feeling of complete loss filled her. Why was everything so hard? Tears started to feel her eyes, but she held them back. Normally she stood tall and proud holding her own, but this demon was nearly as old as time-not much younger than Dijun. How can I have any hopes, she wrestled with the scrambled thoughts. This shadow was like a void of negativity, and Feng Jiu found herself drowning in it.

This one is unique among her kind, he thought as he watched her wrestle with the shadow. Regardless, he kept a vigilant eye on her and tested the area for intruders. He'd hoped the hosts' essence would cure his wife's shadow, but it looked to be a bit more complicated.

"What made you two fall in love then?" The girl asked him in a slurred tone. I have to fight it, she said to herself.

The tonic was taking effect, so he felt no need to guard against her inquiry. "My clan and yours were among the first to come into being. As such we were natural enemies. Your clan had unrivaled strength among generations of females and all of its leaders. But they did not marry outsiders. When I was young, I was slimmer and weaker. Being bullied by several powerful demons, she stood in front of me and protected me."

"Classic beginning to a love story," Feng Jiu muttered. It reminded her of the plays her Aunt loved to watch. Boy meets girl, grows obsessed, then everyone dies.

"Hardly. As the clans grew, the hatred spanned on to other generations. Newer Immortals were born with less power, and so the dawn of the beginning was at an end."

"Hmm?"

She is almost out, he noted pleased, "That phoenix Zhi Yan was the last primordial to come into existence. Oh, how they celebrated. That year, I didn't have many battle merits, but I had earned all kinds of awards. It was when the weaker mortals were driven down to the lower realm. I created a powerful elixir and dulled their ability to cultivate. I enhanced their desires, and I managed to reduce their lifespans. They reproduced like wild rabbits," he explained. "They had no place, no real power, but did have numbers. Today, one a rare few come to the heavens. I believe you have heard of humans?"

He moved closer, sat beside her, and checked her pulse. As slow as it was meant she was in a dream-like awareness, but could not move. It was time to give her fertility herbs. He dug into his pocket and blew a cloud of fine dust over her face that she immediately inhaled. "She had not found a mate in 149,125 years. My father wagered they have no choice but to accept a peace agreement between us and them. No way to argue, no chance to stop it. She was the only one to never have found her true mate. Imagine how they looked down on her. He arranged me with her knowing her softness for me. back then, we were both outcasts."

"You used her?" Feng Jiu felt her pulse begin to spike, and his hand gently caressed her back as if trying to soothe her.

"I pretended," he said and leaned down. "One cannot show weakness or love openly in my clan. It was all a guise to gain their power and at her age..."

"My aunt was older when she married. Why do men judge women like this?"

He snorted and openly smiled. "You must be a real treat when you get going. Anyway, they agreed. After that, we held a ceremony. She was not happy about leaving home and coming to the demon clan, but I assured her I could protect her. By this time, several guest had accepted. He came to our ceremony by chance, and they seemed ever drawn together. My father had a spy put on her-if she broke her vows we had a reason for war. Within two months, I found them nearly on the cusp of..."

"Ouch," Feng Jiu slurred. I feel so drunk, she mused. "That start a war?"

"Zhi Yan stole her away. Tensions rose, and my family ended up dead when they went to claim her back. This bird would not return her. I single-handedly took out people of her clan, and won my father's respect. We took in females, but with their true mates gone, they produced no heirs. Then the younger unmarried didn't fair better. She gave birth to a demon child, but nothing extraordinary came of any of it. "

"They can't mate like that. A true mate pair is the only pair that yields a girl."

"So we discovered. She compromised. When she returned, but she became a shell of who she was. Maybe it was not perfect, but we made the vow first. I lost my family because of her. Dong Hua brought the entire heavenly clan on us. Then your petty Dijun killed what was left of my people."

"But you loved her?" So you killed her clansman, took their women and virgins, and expected no retaliation? Is he for real, or just stupid?, she thought.

The demon lord took the tiny woman in his arms like a small child and held her.

"I didn't understand then what happened when the bond took place, took hold, and the after-effects. She stopped responding to anyone and began to deteriorate, so I took her shadow. This was her state when she was near her end. And then she died. I later learned that they always keep one royal secluded and hidden. It seemed what she was going through was a broken bond. She did this to save the very people that had spurned her once. I took her, I took her child with that man, and her child's child...all of them branded with the same ugly fate. All deceived me. All because they couldn't help it. Don't you want to be free of it? What has he done for you? Is it really love, or is it just fate making you want someone?"

Other half, her mind said. "We are one...there are things like matter and energy...laws...we are the same energy as the other."

"That is the laws in the human realm," he clarified.

"But all things are pairs. Like you said, in the beginning, those are the strongest pieces. (aka Gods that are not born but who come into being) So their fibers," she said and looked at her own hands and broken threads, " and their fates are more pronounced. The more power, the harder the struggle. Pieces of puzzles," she used her hands and arms to make an exaggerated widening of her arms to express that and giggled, "that are a part of a single thing...er unit. They came into being when time began, but always come back together in the end."

"Do you believe just because you are part of a landmass that breaks off to its own island, you need to find a way to drift back? What about your own wishes? What about where you want to go and who you'll be? You can exist on your own."

"Perhaps in all the time chasing this piece of the puzzle you missed the one meant for you? My life is short, but its been hell. I am on my own. Even the world that humans live on broke apart. Eventually, the lands will only collide on the back end. The land will slide, submerge, collide, and new land is made. It is the cycle of living things. It is the essence of the beginning and end."

"Then why did they come into existence at that moment?"

Feng Jiu could bearly stay awake, "So that we all could be born, of course."

"Those children born from your clanswoman all died. Do you find comfort in knowing the old fool will preserve all else and give up everything he wants with you to save everyone else? Feng Jiu, you are always second. You are the price he will pay-all of them will pay it. Will you sacrifice yourself to save them all?"

Though she was in the grips of slumber, her heart ached as the last words of his passed through the threshold of her heart.

#

Dong Hua felt a sharp pain course through his chest. When he gasped, his hand fisted over his heart.

"Something is not right, something is wrong..." No matter how hard he tried to sense her, he was unable to feel the link to his Feng Jiu.