“Get lost, all of you! I killed the kraken and have been killing mermaids for a month! Now get lost so Wei Caihong can heal me!” Screamed Master Wang. His voice was raspy and he was staring straight into Nikola’s eyes. The Shiva knew that Wei Caihong had exhausted his skills in healing and now it was time for the real master to step up.

“Master Wang, why are you so mean? We want to see some magic!”

“Yes, when next are we going to witness something like this?”

“Master Wang…”

“Out!” Screamed Master Wang and the people trembled. They begun to leave one by one. Nikola went to kneel before Master Wang and the Shiva grabbed his hand.

“You fix me, you hear? Your armor couldn’t protect me so now you have to heal me.” Nikola’s face twisted. His armor hadn’t protected him? Nikola had seen the armor; it was battered but not dented. Rudra must have removed his pauldron himself to be this battered.

“Your injuries are going to get healed. But it will cost you.” Nikola was not going to stunt himself for someone else. Rudra was just going to use the opportunity to end him.

“For how much time?” Master Wang, Nikola decided to start calling him this even in his brain, asked.

“You will lose your power for a month for each wound.” There were chunks of meat missing from the arm. It couldn’t be helped. Master Wang counted his wounds. Five. He could survive for five months without his magic. He was more of a warrior, anyway.

“Do it. The pain is killing me.” Nikola placed his hand over the most gruesome wound where even a chunk of the bone was gone and drew from Master Wang’s magic. It healed in seconds but Master Wang swayed to the side.

“We can make a pause…” Tried to say Nikola but Master Wang gritted his teeth and shook his head.

“I will not be taken by an infection. Continue.” So, Nikola did that. He was drawing from the man’s future reserves. But he was also absorbing some of the magic into himself. Master Wang had given him nothing for the trident or the armor. So, he was going to pay him in magic.

When Master Wang’s arm was healed Nikola checked Master Wang for any further wounds but found none.

“Why did you remove your pauldron?” Master Wang smirked at him.

“I needed to keep a hold of a mermaid. Blood makes your armor slippery.”

“You won’t be able to hunt them anymore.” Said Nikola as he moved to step away but Master Wang gripped his hand tighter and pushed him to himself.

“I noticed you stealing from me. I’ve killed for less.”

“Did you pay me for your arms and armor?” Was the only response accompanied with a raised eyebrow.

“I can tell everyone who you are, thief.” Threatened Master Wang and Nikola dug his nails into the palms of his hand, forcing him to let go. There was blood on his nails as he raised them and showed them to Master Wang.

“A hundred years ago the Indian Maharaja swore vengeance on China when I finally received support in the war from it. You will be received with fear and distrust. It will be my word against yours.”

“I defeated a kraken!” Said Master Wang through clanged teeth.

“I do charity.” Told him the not impressed Nikola. “Why do you hate me so much, Rudra?” He asked finally. Master Wang was being irrational.

“You think that we should all thank Penemue that he decided to make you his bitch?” Asked Master Wang with a sinister smile. “Do you know that even angels may die when they receive another’s soul if they are not soulmates? And no one survives phoenix ashes.”

Nikola paled at that. So, his plan to make Wei Caihong immortal could fail?

“Where do you know about this from?”

“Your husband is an open book. But then again so are you. Penemue never wanted you to be able to guard your mind against him.”

Nikola knew that for angels even mind reading was not impossible but surely if there was a way to protect himself from it Penemue would have told him.

“I can teach you.” Said Master Wang and he reached out and took a hold of Nikola’s bloodstained hand again. “But you have to give me a piece of your soul. I won’t die and I will regenerate for as long as you are alive. And when have you ever heard of a dead phoenix?”

“I’m not a phoenix!” Snapped Nikola. He was trying to tug his hand free but to no avail. Then suddenly there was a sabre pressed to Master Wang’s throat.

“We won’t be making any deals with you.”

“I can see when you die. You have a day left.” Nikola blinked and checked Wei Caihong’s future and saw him dead at Master Wang’s feet. Decapitated. That bastard!

“I can do to you what you want to do to Wei Caihong!” Said Nikola and he gripped the sabre with his free hand. Master Wang grinned.

“This is not the first time I lose a head. And am I dead? You will bury me, throw me to the mermaids and sharks so that I will need another vessel. But I will get another body. Another stillborn in which my soul can reside. And I will find you, Emerald Emperor.”

“You are dead already.” Nikola said this in a low voice, not wanting to believe it himself. This was a ghost possessing a body. What had happened to the real Master Wang?

“Stillborn as a babe, didn’t you listen? I grew his body with magic. Now, if you don’t want your husband to become a head shorter you will lean in and give me a kiss. I’ll do the rest.”

“What will you do with my soul?” Did this angel want to be reborn? He would need something more than that.

“I will implant it in a woman’s womb. I wanted to do it with Loki. He has six children; he can give birth. But then you refused to summon him.”

Master Wang’s body was that of a human and Loki was an angel. The product would be a Nephilim. Loki’s children didn’t look like traditional giants. Two of his sons were beasts, his daughter was half a corpse but of normal high, one was a horse of all things and the youngest two…he didn’t want to think of their fate.

“What will happen to the woman you impregnate?” He asked and Master Wang’s grin droped.

“It all depends on whatever or not you will help. If you don’t, she will die of loosing too much blood. If you do help only this meat sack will die.”

“You are not giving him your soul!” Screamed Wei Caihong and Nikola shushed him. This was not the time for Wei Caihong to act up. He was going to die. That was how Rudra dealt with his problems.

“I have to. Just turn around and don’t look.” Nikola leaned into Master Wang and the Shiva pulled his head up. And suddenly Nikola felt like he was burning and Master Wang was trying to get as far away from him as he could.

“You ate a phoenix! How did you even manage that?” Master Wang was staring at him in amazement. His lips looked burned and bleeding. Yet another thing Nikola would need to heal.

“I ate it’s ashes…” But the phoenix hadn’t been in it’s nest when Nikola had found it. And phoenixes were very territorial. Nikola had expected that the phoenix would tear him apart and then burn him. Could it be that what Master Wang was saying was true?

“Your soul will burn me to a crisp.” Said Master Wang and then he got a glint in his eyes. “You must be the father of my new vessel. A phoenix for a father. I will never die again.”

“I am not setting my husband aside!” Said Nikola and then he looked worriedly at the door. With all the commotion people would start to wonder what was going in here.

“You just need to have a tumble with a woman once. Or I can turn your husband into a woman for nine months. Your soul will prevent for the transformation to take place.”

Wei Caihong let out a chuckle and pointed at himself. But when both Master Wang and Nikola looked at him seriously, he backed towards the door.

“Absolutely not!” He said and looked between the two men on the floor. “I am not going to allow you two to use me as a broodmare. I’m not even a woman!”

“You could become one easily. The kraken’s body is full of magic. I know the incantation. And it’s perfectly reversible as long as you are not pregnant.”

“Nikola, you are not seriously considering…”

“He’ll kill you otherwise. I can see you without a head at his feet. I can’t protect you from an angel.”

“How are we going to explain to the villagers that I am suddenly a woman?” That was the last straw Wei Caihong had. He didn’t want to become a woman and then to give birth to something that wasn’t even human, darn it!

“We can say you ate a mermaid’s heart and was cursed. Master Wang could have given it to us as a payment for the arms and armor. He should have given us something…”

Wei Caihong begun to laugh hysterically. A villager burst in and looked at the scene. Nikola had raised to his feet just as the door was opening so no one saw him on top of Master Wang.

“Wei Caihong? Has a spirit possessed you?” Asked the villager the still laughing man.

“No, but it soon will. I have no say into my own life, you see?” Then Wei Caihong exited the room and the villagers stared at him in bewilderment.

“It took a lot of him to heal me.” Said Master Wang. “And he ate a mermaid’s heart recently and is not feeling well.”

Tonight.

Said Master Wang in Nikola’s head. Nikola nodded. The villager looked the exchange with wide eyes. Was trader Nikola going to buy the kraken corpse now?

With a little searching they had found Wei Caihong in the brewery with a bottle of mead. He didn’t look drunk, but he was talking Bjorn’s ear off about how he was going to become a woman soon. He looked ready to cry and he was leaning on Azazel’s shoulder who gave his back a few pats.

“Well? It can be reversed. Let us see, on average it takes a couple of tries for someone to get pregnant. But we are talking about Nikola. So, you will probably be a woman without being pregnant for two months.” Wei Caihong raised his eyebrow at that.

“He is my grandfather, Wei Caihong.” Said Bjorn as he pushed the other bottles of mead away from Wei Caihong. “His seed can’t be as potent as it used to. After a thousand years. And he told me stories how grandma Maria took two years to get pregnant with their first child. Granted she was fourteen when they started trying…”

“Two years?” Wailed Wei Caihong. He raised the bottle to his lips and took a couple of sips.

“Anyway.” Said Azazel who was eyeing his own bottle and was considering if he shouldn’t make Master Wang turn his Bjorn into a woman too. “So, after that you have nine months of back pain, barfing, having your stomach kicked from the inside and bench eating. Oh, and sore feet.”

“Oh, the joy.” Said Wei Caihong as he emptied his bottle. He reached out towards the others but Bjorn slapped his hand.

“You are going to be pregnant soon! Drinking is bad for the baby.”

“The baby is an angel/god thing that is already dead! And it can heal any damage my drinking does to it by itself!”

Master Wang choose this moment to grip Wei Caihong by the hand and to make him stand up.

“You will not damage my internal organs before I was even born. And Azazel forgot to tell you I will expect to be nursed. So, you will remain a woman for an additional half a year. And then when you turn back you will still need to raise me, mother.”

Nikola was looking down at his feet. Even if Master Wang was going to be their son Wei Caihong and he would have a child of their own. A brother for Wei Zhaohui. A friend for the Han siblings. The baby would be innocent while it still couldn’t speak, at least.

“Surely it won’t be good for you to be the progeny of a vampire, son.” Bit back Wei Caihong.

“We need to get you to the kraken and then father needs to make you into a woman, mother. I expect you two begin trying to get me into a sturdier vessel as soon as possible.”

Wei Caihong sputtered. Nikola blushed and Azazel and Bjorn choose this moment to retreat. Azazel because Bjorn had been eyeing him and had been thinking about babes and Bjorn for pretty much the same reason. They went to the side and begun to argue. Wei Caihong raised his eyebrows as he heard the words. Joy. Beautiful. Eternity. Then Bjorn made his axe appear and Azazel responded with drawing two swords out of thin air. They begun to battle, although they were teasing each other the whole time.

Finally, Bjorn pushed Azazel to the ground and he jumped up in joy. Then the pair came back to the trio and Bjorn pointed at Azazel.

“He ate a mermaid’s heart too. What a tragedy.”

“What was it Azazel? Two months of fucking like bunnies. Nine of pure torture. And let us not forget you’ll have to nurse your spawn afterwards.”

Azazel pulled Wei Caihong into a hug and pretended to tear up.

“We’ll go through womanhood and motherhood together! My son will be a giant and yours a pissed off angel and they will be the best of friends!”

“I will not befriend your spawn, Azazel.”

“We’ll put you in dresses together. And we will have it painted for future use.” Said Azazel as he hid his face into Wei Caihong’s neck.

“And arrange you a marriage, regardless of your gender.” Said Wei Caihong who felt like he needed some revenge.

With that said and with Master Wang threatening to kick extra hard inside Wei Caihong’s stomach if he didn’t drop the betrothal between him and Azazel and Bjorn’s child they headed to the beach. The water was red from the kraken’s blood. Mermaids watched them from the caves. It seems that they had decided to use the kraken themselves.

“How many of those would be needed to make me into a woman?” Asked Azazel and Master Wang hummed.

“Well, you are an angel. So, I take it you will need at least five.” Azazel’s swords were in his hands immediately and he yelled his challenge to the mermaids. The smarter ones fled. But plenty swam to the angel. He grinned and jumped into the water with Bjorn following close behind him with his axe.

As the sun rose the mermaids were all slain and their corpses were levitated to the caves where Master Wang had lured the kraken. Both Wei Caihong and Azazel were required to prick their fingers and bleed over the bodies that would power their transformation. Then it was only a matter of Nikola repeating after Master Wang and soon Wei Caihong looked down at his heavier chest to see a pair of small perky breasts poking through his robe.

His hair was the same length as before but everything about him was more delicate, womanly. He lowered his head down. Next to him Bjorn was calling Azazel every compliment he could think of. Wei Caihong looked up to see a beautiful blond woman with gray eyes. Then without any shame the woman took Bjorn by the hand and dragged him to a dark corner of the cave. Soon the song of skin to skin was heard and Master Wang cleared his throat.

“You two should start as well. That corner over there looks comfortable.”

“I am not bedding Wei Caihong in a dirty cave!” Snapped Nikola who had been staring with adoration at his wife. And wasn’t it good to call Wei Caihong such? A wife meant children of his own blood. Surely after the pregnancy with Master Wang he could talk Wei Caihong to remain a woman for a little while longer so they could have a couple of normal children? He moved to his wife and grabbed her hand.

“You are beautiful beyond compare, Wei Caihong.”

“Wasn’t I before?” Asked Wei Caihong. He was accosted with a lot of different emotions now. And vulnerability was one of them.

“Before you were handsome.” Said Nikola simply as he went to hold Wei Caihong’s waist. “But now you are a pure lotus, my Ebony.”

“Let’s go already. I feel weak. This meat sack is expiring.” Said Master Wang. Nikola looked down at the pale body of the kraken. Now that it was sucked dry of magic it could be used as food.

“Master Wang, do you mind donating the body of the kraken for food? Winter is nearly here and the villagers could use a feast to raise their spirits.”

Master Wang pocked a tentacle. The kraken would feed the village for a week. Especially if it was put into steamed buns.

“Someone will have to guard it from mermaids. Or you can use the stolen power from me and put up a barrier.” Nikola nodded. He had taken so much that he could ward off the caves and the beach without a problem. And the mermaids will stop coming when they finally learned that the kraken was all used up.

With the barrier in place Nikola saw some mermaids circling around it and testing the defenses. But this was a barrier powered by the magic of an angel. They wouldn’t be plaquing the shores any more. Which meant that Nikola could now take care of his little greenhouse project.

Wei Caihong’s boots were too big for his slender womanly feet so Nikola ended up carrying him. Only to be stopped by granny Nuo Nuying with her ladle hitting them both as the grandmother screamed shame for all to hear.

“Granny, this is not a random lady. This is Wei Caihong! Stop your attack already!”

“It is?” Asked the grandmother and she backed away to observe the woman she had attacked. “What have you done now, Nikola!” She screamed and Nikola looked worriedly at the gathered crowd.

“Nothing. Wei Caihong ate a mermaid’s heart. So did Basil. They turned into women.”

Someone in the crowd snickered. Wei Caihong still had people who disliked him even after everything he did. The noble lady glared at the source of the noise and frowned.

“You think it’s funny? I’ll feed you a mermaid’s heart and then you will turn into a woman too! Let us see if your wife will still want you like my husband wants me!”

The man paled and ran and Wei Caihong grinned in satisfaction.

“It’s definitely him.”

“Aren’t they going to the next town for the essay competition with their new boy? What if the emperor sees him?”

Wei Caihong remembered the grumpy emperor and hoped that when he started laughing at him it would be to the death.

“You need robes!” Tao Jiao was elbowing her way to the front of the crowd. “Something to show your station as a noblewoman. I’ll make you the best cotton ones there are.”

Wei Caihong didn’t want to show himself in front of court in cotton. But he didn’t want to disappoint her either. It seems that he would need to speak with the distasteful wife of the magistrate and buy some silk for Tao Jiao to make him robes.

“You will make me fine silks. Purples and red and black. I’ll get you the materials.”

“Oh, thank you for the commission, noble lady.” Tao Jiao bowed and ran to Nikola’s shop. Probably to prepare to take Wei Caihong’s new measurements.

Nikola carried Wei Caihong on his back all the way to their house with granny Nuo Nuying following close by. There was a gaggle of women giving Wei Caihong womanly advice on periods and pregnancies. How did women survive having to go through all of this? Asked herself the newly created lady.

“Your hips are so narrow and slender, Wei Caihong.” A woman had come close enough to pinch him on his hip. “You will have trouble in the birthing room.”

“Gege, you treat your wife better from now on. We better not hear any talk of you trying to call the lady Pen here!” Said another and the other women echoed her.

“Lady Wei Caihong is so beautiful and refined. If I feed my son a mermaid’s heart will he turn into a pretty lady?” Asked a granny whose son didn’t have any luck with the ladies. Everyone in the village knew that he liked men. But he still managed to keep it hidden from his mother.

“There will be no more mermaid hearts for the market.” Said Nikola firmly. “They are too dangerous. You women wouldn’t want to be turned into men, would you?” The women all paled at that and begun muttering how their husbands would leave them. But one old granny wasn’t buying the story.

“Many bought a mermaid’s heart, Gege. And yet your husband and your uncle were the only ones who switched genders!”

That got the other women thinking and they begun to nod their agreements. Nikola didn’t know what to tell the granny, so he made a lie up.

“Well, that’s because Master Wang told me some of the mermaids put a curse on their hearts before they died. And the curse is slow acting. Your daughters and sisters might not become men for quite some time.”

“I ate a heart!” Screamed a beautiful dark-haired woman in the crowd. “Oh, no! What am I going to do now?”

She Nikola moved Wei Caihong so that he could see her face and compare it with this woman.

“I have a nymph for a wife.” He muttered bellow his breath and the women swooned as Wei Caihong blushed and she hit him over the head.

“You save these comments for when we are alone, husband.”

“So demure.”

“What a lady.”

“Lady? She hit him. What lady hits her husband after a compliment?”

Nikola smiled as the women around him begun to bicker over whatever Wei Caihong was a lady now or a tomboy. When they reached their house Master Wang stepped to the door and held it for them but blocked the path of granny Nuo Nuying and the women.

“You step away, young man. Just because you are a hero doesn’t mean that I can’t bring my ladle to your head.” Yelled granny Nuo Nuying but Master Wang was not moved.

“There is something that the three of us must speak about in private. And you have a whole kraken to put in your steamed buns.”

Granny Nuo Nuying’s eyes shone at this.

“A whole kraken?” She repeated, not believing her luck.

“You can fry most of it for quicker. You have a lot mouths to feed.”

Granny Nuo Nuying turned to the women and swung her ladle in the air.

“Come now, we have a whole kraken to prepare. We will make bonfires and cook pits on the beach…it is save to go there again, isn’t it?” She was looking straight at Nikola as she said it.

“Just don’t swim towards the mermaids. And don’t throw them any food either.” Said Nikola and then the women looked at Wei Caihong.

“It’s true. I put a barrier just this morning. We may even begin to fish soon.”

“The emperor better not find out.” Said a concern woman and then granny Nuo Nuying lead them towards the direction of the caves. Finally, inside, Nikola let go of Wei Caihong and the two went towards the dining room to listen to Master Wang. But there were the three children and Wei Zhaohui pointed at Wei Caihong.

“Who is the lady, mama? Where are papa and the uncles?”

“I am your papa. I am Wei Caihong. Son, do you remember what we spoke about when we hid in Basil and Bjorn’s room from Baba Yaga? I called you a little dragon and you called me…”

“Tiger, papa. But how?”

“I ate a mermaid’s heart.” Lied Wei Caihong smoothly. Wei Zhaohui could blurt out the secret and then they would all be exposed. “So did your uncle Basil. Now run off, and take Han Shanyuan and Han Fengfan with you.” The three children were soon off to Wei Zhaohui’s room and the three adults sat around the table.

“Mother, you should put an order for some new boots. If you are sick during the pregnancy it might affect me.”

Wei Caihong’s eyebrows twitched and he hit the table with his fist.

“Now listen here you! I may have agreed to birth you but you will not be calling me mother! If anything, you will call me papa like your future brother does!”

“To go from calling the child disciple to being his brother. It is strange.” Said Master Wang. Then he cut his arm with his sabre.

“I am not healing that!” Grumbled Nikola at the cut. It wasn’t a deep one but it wasn’t closing up.

“I will pour almost all of my soul in him through my blood. And when you give birth to me, I will drop dead, the last fragment searching for the soul chunk it had lost.”

“Won’t that hurt?” Asked Wei Caihong. For all that Master Wang had threatened to decapitate her he had also saved the village and provided food for the poor for quite some time.

“It will, now drink. And for all that is worth I want you both to know that I couldn’t wish for better parents.” Both Nikola and Wei Caihong smiled at that and they held each other’s hands over the table. “Two immortals. One a phoenix and the other soon to receive a phoenix soul piece. This will be my boon to you both. I will teach Nikola how to give some of his soul safely to you, papa. But not before you have both raised me enough so that I can talk and can look after myself.”

“I won’t abandon any son of mine.” Said Wei Caihong sternly. He gripped Nikola’s hand almost painfully before Nikola coughed.

“And neither will I. You will have a good childhood. With two loving parents and two brothers and a sister. And perhaps a couple of cousins, if how attentive Bjorn is to Azazel is of any indication.”

“A legion…” Master Wang thought of the angel with whom he had rebelled. His real siblings. There were so few of them clinging to this world now. Either still alive or in ghost form. Perhaps he would spread the word that the Emerald Emperor could produce vessels for his fallen brothers and sisters? He eyed his prospective parents. Perhaps later, once he found out first hand what it felt like to be raised by them.

“No, a family.” Corrected him Wei Caihong as she, Master Wang shook his head. If he was going to call this vampire papa then he would need to refer to him as a man. As he leaned in and begun to suck out his blood. Master Wang bit his lips so that he wouldn’t scream. By the time Wei Caihong raised his head, having had enough blood, there was a small flicker in Master Wang’s chest. The last piece of his soul. He felt feverish, on death’s door. But he still stood up and did his best not to shake on his feet as he exited the house and went home to put all his affairs in order. He needed to promote one of his apprentices to the title of master so that the village would still have a weapon’s trainer. The magistrate’s younger son was a prodigy. Yes, he would be a worthy successor.

Back at the dining table Wei Caihong was trying to look anywhere but at his husband.

“So…” He tried. Heat was spreading from between his legs and his right foot twitched.

“He didn’t look so good when he left.” Said Nikola who was still staring at the door.

“Then, maybe, we should…” Why was it so hard to ask for sex all of a sudden? He had no such problems before. Except before he was the one taking Nikola and now Nikola would be the one taking him. He blushed at that thought and felt a wetness between his legs. He folded them together and lowered his head.

“Are you asking me to impregnate you, Wei Caihong?” There was a devilish twinkle in Nikola’s eyes and Wei Caihong threw a cup at him, which Nikola stopped midair and then he made it land down by his side without saying a word. Show off!

“What? Are you going to make me beg?” Nikola sighed and got up and then he picked up Wei Caihong bridal style and carried him to the bedroom. When he disrobed him, he kissed the new small breasts lovingly and then kissed lower until his head was between Wei Caihong’s legs.

“So wet already.” He said as he kissed the entrance to his husband. “And we haven’t even done anything.”

“What are you…ahn.” Wei Caihong was suddenly gripping Nikola’s hair and rocking his hips as Nikola kept playing with his clitoris with his tongue.

“I’m giving you a reason to be this wet, my Ebony.” Said Nikola before pressing a finger at his husband’s entrance and gently massaging his way in. He was going to perform so well that Wei Caihong was surely going to agree to remain as a woman or at least change often so that he could undergo more pregnancies. But he was getting ahead of himself. For now, he had a nymph to please.