Chu Haoyu stared down at the beautiful man laid out on the rickety bed. His gaze was soft and gentle as he lightly caressed Wu Chen's unconscious face. He allowed himself to continue running his hand lightly down his neck, his chest, and then stopped just before he lost control. His body grew heated, as it always did. He wanted to crush him underneath him, wanted to hear him cry out, wanted him...always he wanted him.

His hand shook slightly as he brushed a strand of hair from his cheek. Then he leaned down and lightly licked his soft lips. The temptation was just too much, and he kissed him. Gently at first, but then the fire inside exploded! He grasped his face in his hands and deepened the kiss. His tongue opened his sleeping lips and delved deeply. Tasting him, feeling his lips, soothing his soul. He had missed this so much.

He withdrew from Wu Chen and lightly ran his thumb across his mouth to erase his traces. Now wasn't the time, and without a response, it was just not as fulfilling. He could be patient when he needed to be. Wu Chen was worth being patient for.

He lowered his head to his neck and drew in his scent deeply one last time, rubbing his head against his silken hair. Then he laid himself down on the only other bed in the dark tiny room.

***************************************************

Wu Chen slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself in unfamiliar surroundings. He didn't move but instead did a quick assessment on himself. He didn't seem to have any injuries, although he was a little dizzy, and his qi was flowing as usual. There didn't appear to be any wards preventing him from using it either. That was odd since he was obviously being held as a prisoner somewhere. He shrugged inwardly. He certainly wasn't going to point that out to anyone.

Satisfied that he wasn't in immediate physical danger, he checked for his weapons. His swords were gone, and his Void Bag too, but that didn't surprise him. He had only checked to be thorough anyway. He wasn't shackled or tied up, and he breathed a sigh of relief for that. Trying to pretend he was still knocked out, he carefully looked around the small room with lowered lids.

It was very dark, but with his enhanced vision, he could make everything out clearly. He was obviously in a cell of some kind, with walls of rough stone like those from a cavern. There was a small table near his bed, and on the other side of that was another bed which seemed to be occupied. The only other things were a zisun tong for toileting and the door which had a small barred window.

He slowly raised up on his elbow, his head still spinning slightly, and gazed over to see who was locked in there with him. He assumed it was Lu Yong, and he wanted to check that he was okay. One look at his cellmate made him sit straight up, causing his head to throb violently in protest. His eyes widened in shock despite the pain. What was he doing here?

On the other bed was none other than Chu Haoyu from the tournament! His red robes looked a little dirty and had several rips and tears as well as spots of dried blood. He appeared to be asleep, although considering what he'd experienced personally, he was more likely unconscious. His hair was a mess, and his face was a little dirty. He looked pretty pathetic, actually.

Wu Chen groaned softly. His head was really pounding. He laid back down and chuckled inwardly. He probably didn't look any less pathetic right now, he thought.

After a short time, he heard movement from the other side of the room. Chu Haoyu was waking up. Good. He had questions.

Speaking softly in case he alerted anyone, Wu Chen said, 'You're finally awake. How are you feeling?'

There was a muffled groan, and then just as softly, 'I have a pounding headache, and I'm dizzy, but everything else seems okay. I didn't expect to see you again so soon.'

'Any idea where we are?' asked Wu Chen, hopefully.

'From what I overheard, it's the Red Talon headquarters. They're bandits, I guess.' Chu Haoyu replied.

What were the odds of Chu Haoyu ending up in the same cell as him? He wasn't about to just trust the guy. His own instincts were far more trustworthy, and they were telling him that something wasn't right. 'How did you end up here?' Wu Chen asked suspiciously.

'I was headed for a ruin I heard about and camped in the forest for the night.' He said, his voice slightly raspy. 'While I was getting water from the stream, I got ambushed by these bastards. What about you?'

'Lu Yong and I were ambushed as well. Thinking back, the whole thing was very odd.' Wu Chen stated, his mind sifting through the evidence.

'A bandit ambush is already pretty odd, isn't it?' Chu Haoyu asked wryly.

Wu Chen shook his head. 'No. This was different. They knew everything about us. Where we were, the arrays we placed, just...everything. It's like they were waiting for us to show up.'

'That is weird.' Chu Haoyu pondered for a moment. 'Now that you mention it, you aren't really that injured either. At least you're not in as bad a shape as I am right now.'

Wu Chen's head was splitting, so it was a little hard to think straight. 'Something else strange. There weren't any archers or swordsmen. It was just cultivators and their leader, who was really strong. All the signs we saw along the road pointed to physical attacks, and that's not what we experienced at all.' He shook his head and laid back down.

'That's certainly not the type of attack I had.' Chu Haoyu groaned. 'There was only one cultivator, but he was really strong. I think he's the one who knocked me out.'

'Yeah? Describe him.'

'He was all in black, and he wore a really fancy mask. Fancier than the other bandits.' Chu Haoyu said slowly. 'I remember that because I thought it was really odd. He stood out.'

'That sounds like him. What did he hit us with?' Wu Chen rubbed his temples. 'Whatever it was, it leaves your head in a mess.'

'I couldn't agree more,' gasped Chu Haoyu.

'I wonder what they plan to do with us.' Wu Chen was confused. Why take them prisoner? Why not just kill them, rob them, and be done with it. And where in the world was Lu Yong?

'I heard some of the guards talking. I guess they plan to sell us. Something about pretty boys like us would bring in a nice profit.' Chu Haoyu sighed.

Wu Chen curled his lip in disgust. His qi was still in good working order. If someone tried that with him, they'd be working as a eunuch for the rest of their lives.

He heard boots outside the cell. The sound came close, and then stopped at the little window. A grizzled face looked in at them and sneered.

'Boss wants to see you guys.' His eyes glittered as his gaze slowly wandered over Wu Chen's body. He licked his lips and said, 'Better not give us any trouble. The place is crawling with our boys, and they'd have a lot of fun with pretty little things like you.'

Chu Haoyu raised an eyebrow at Wu Chen and gestured to the man, saying, 'See? What did I tell you?'

Wu Chen shot him a look and then demanded of the disgusting guard, 'Where's Lu Yong?'

The guy laughed. 'Don't know who you're talking about.' Then he glared at them and growled, 'Just shut up, and do as you're told.'

There was the sound of keys jingling, and then a click as the lock was opened. The door swung outward with an earsplitting grating noise, and the guard stood to the side. He gestured for them to follow him and waited impatiently for them to get up.

Both men slowly got up from the beds. Wu Chen's head was feeling somewhat better, so he decided to use this little trip to get a better idea of what they were dealing with. He needed to get out of here and find Lu Yong. That was the priority.

The cell opened right out to an enormous cavern. The ceiling was so high that it seemed to disappear into absolute darkness. There were tables for dining with candlelight flickering across the worn wood. It must not have been mealtime, however, as no one was sitting at them. In fact, there was only one man sitting in this area, and he was at the head table.

Wu Chen gazed around the torchlit room. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of other people in the giant cavern at all right now. There were two guys talking far across the cavern, another three were tossing dice far to the left near some other cells and their guard. There was no one at all guarding the giant cavern entrance that was lit so brightly with sunlight. They must feel relatively safe here to be so lax with their guards, he thought.

With so few enemies around, he was tempted to try escaping. Unfortunately, he needed to find out if Lu Yong was captured, too. The only way he could see doing that was by talking to the leader of this bunch. With any luck, if Lu Yong was here, he'd want to dangle that information in front of him in hopes of keeping him under control.

Yeah, good luck with that, Wu Chen thought to himself angrily.

They were led to the guy at the head table, and the guard made a quick bow. His voice was a little shaky in front of the bald man with the nasty scar, 'Brought them for you, Boss.' Wu Chen realized then exactly who he had to deal with.

'You can go.' The leader waved at the guard, who gave a quick bow and went back to his post.

'Where's Lu Yong?' Wu Chen growled at the leader.

The man didn't answer. He leaned back with his hand under his chin and gazed at Wu Chen calmly. His lecherous gaze slowly traveled from Wu Chen's head right down to his feet. Wu Chen didn't waver. He remained staring angrily at the man in front of him.

'With that attitude, I don't know that you're slave material.' the man stated, still relaxed.

'Answer my question.' Wu Chen gritted out through clenched teeth.

Chu Haoyu cleared his throat and whispered, 'Wu Chen...maybe...'

Wu Chen made a chopping motion with his hand to tell him to shut up and continued glaring at the man.

Just then, a body came flying across the cavern's great hall and landed hard on one of the tables. It was a mangled mess, and half of it was frozen. The bulging dead eyes stared at them from its bashed in face.

'Where is he, you bastards?!' A voice roared from outside the entrance.