Lord Aengus is so taken with his own theatrics he doesn’t notice the thunder on Tony’s face.
‘She is not available,’ he says, his whole demeanour changing from mild-mannered scholar into a dangerous predator. I wouldn’t say no to more of this Tony.
Unfortunately, Lord Aengus is too busy looking at himself in the mirror to notice. ‘Oh? My goodness, if Lady Jing were my beloved, I certainly wouldn’t leave such a treasure alone for months at a time.’ He tears his gaze away from himself and turns to Tony. ‘Back home, if you neglect your loved one, others slip right in there to take your place.’
Tony looks uncertainly between Lord Aengus and me.
‘Stop tormenting Tony,’ I say. ‘He’s been busy in the mortal world; it’s very unsettled there at the moment.’
‘Civil war rages across the country,’ Tony says quietly. ‘It’s been hard to get away.’ He glances pointedly at Lord Aengus, and lowers his voice to a mumble, ‘I’d prefer it to be a little less crowded in here.’
‘We can all hear you, Mr Lee,’ Gigi says, making an entrance in a frothy pink confection. ‘Brother Yang, I hope you are being kind to Tony. He’s the one who is supposed to be watching over you at night. Don’t give him any reason to pour you down the toilet.’
He widens his blue eyes, puts on a guileless expression. ‘Lift high your honourable hand, noble Mr Lee, and spare this lowly one who appears before you.’
‘You are full of dog farts,’ I say.
‘I amwhat?’ Lord Aengus says in mock horror. ‘Is that how you treat your friends, Lady Jing?’
I’m about to retort that friends don’t steal their friend’s boyfriends to be their roommate when Ah Lang puts a cocktail in my hand. He hands one to Gigi, another to Tony, and holds one with a straw for Lord Aengus.
‘To old friends and new,’ Ah Lang says.
I blow a raspberry, but I raise my glass all the same as we clink and drink.
Ten
Entrenched
The days pass in a happy blur, filled with games, and laughter, and so much kissing. Ah Lang even manages to rein in Lord Aengus’s windbaggery by sharing stories of growing up with Brother Zhu, the only topic where Lord Aengus is more content to listen than to speak.
On our last day before arriving in Paris, Tony and I sit together in my room. I’m working on a painting of Gigi, Ah Lang and Tony sitting together at a cafe and sharing a laugh. Tony, as usual, is sitting on my bed, reading.
‘Have you ever thought about the future,’ I ask. ‘I mean, our future?’
He looks up from his papers. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You know . . . I’m yaojing. You’re mortal.’
Soft fingers tip my chin up. Tony gazes down at me. ‘What’s brought this on?’
I fiddle with my brushes and paints. ‘I had an odd conversation with Big Wang about immortality and my vampire heritage. It got me thinking about us, about our differences.’
Tony laces his fingers through mine and pulls me over to sit with him on the bed. ‘I won’t deny we have some challenges ahead of us. We come from very different worlds. At the same time, it feels as if we’ve known each other for many lifetimes.’ He traces my wrist, carefully avoiding the jade bangle. ‘We are connected by the threads of Fate. I have Queen Mother of the West’s qi protecting me. Both those things give me faith we will find a path forward. And we are very fortunate to have manyelders we can ask about our options when the time comes: Big Wang, Lord Black, even Queen Mother of the West.’
I nod. All true. ‘But compared to me, your time in this world is short.’
The look he gives me is pure Bullhead.It is what it is.
‘I am mortal,’ he says.
‘But what if you could be immortal?’
‘I’m not sure I follow.’
‘There are various paths to immortality.’ I list them on my fingers. ‘There’s the elixir of immortality, Queen Mother of the West’s immortality peaches, there’s cultivating your qi through meditation...’
He chortles. ‘They used mercury extensively in those elixirs. Heavy metal poisoning is an unpleasant way to die. As for Queen Mother of the West’s peaches, the last person who ate them without permission was imprisoned under a mountain. I also don’t want to spend hundreds of years meditating in a cave. I’d miss you too much. There’s no way I could focus. I am comforted to know at the end of my life, a ghost ferry will take me to yin Shanghai’ – his eyes go soft – ‘where you’ll be waiting to greet me.’
