Chapter 116: I’m Not A Damn Dog!

Cyrus stood motionless at the floor-to-ceiling windows, his silhouette carved against Feilun’s glittering skyline.

His suit jacket hung abandoned over his chair, sleeves rolled to his elbows like a war general surveying battlefield wreckage.

Kane slumped on the leather couch, tablet balanced on his knees as medical data scrolled endlessly across the screen.

Every chart, every graph, every clinical note hammered home the same brutal truth.

Two weeks.

"The binding agent’s molecular structure is unlike anything in our databases," Kane read aloud, his voice hoarse from hours of research.

"Synthetic compounds interfacing with spirit essence at the cellular level. Creating unprecedented fusion reactions."

His thumb swiped through another page of technical jargon that might as well have been written in ancient draconic.

"Translation: we’re screwed."

Cyrus’s reflection ghosted across the darkening glass, his red-gold eyes burning with frustrated intensity.

"Current medical science assumes the separation of synthetic and organic compounds. But Rina’s condition transcends those boundaries."

Kane looked up from the tablet.

"You’re saying conventional medicine won’t work because she’s something new. Something that shouldn’t exist."

"Precisely."

The city lights twinkled below them like fallen stars, beautiful and utterly indifferent to the countdown ticking in their minds.

Cyrus crossed the room, his footsteps muffled by the thick carpet.

Without a word, he plucked the tablet from Kane’s hands and set it aside on the glass coffee table.

"You’ve been staring at that screen for four hours straight."

Kane’s protest died before it reached his lips. The weight of exhaustion crashed over him, his eyes burning from the endless stream of medical terminology and failure statistics.

"I need to find something. Anything that might help her."

"What you need now is a break."

Cyrus settled onto the couch beside him, his presence solid and grounding.

Kane hesitated for only a moment before shifting, lowering his head to rest against Cyrus’s thigh.

The fabric of Cyrus’s slacks was warm beneath his cheek, and Kane’s glamour flickered as his fox ears emerged, twitching with nervous energy.

Cyrus’s fingers found Kane’s hair, threading through the silver-white strands with gentle pressure.

His eyes fluttered closed as tension bled from his shoulders. Cyrus’s touch was soothing—fingers working small circles behind Kane’s ears in a way that made him feel familiar.

"Do you think Rina is okay?" Kane murmured against Cyrus’s leg, his voice muffled by fabric and worry.

"Isabelle is monitoring her personally. The containment chamber has stabilized her energy fluctuations."

Cyrus’s fingers continued their steady rhythm through Kane’s hair, each stroke deliberate and calming.

"Isabelle knows more about spirit physiology than anyone I’ve ever encountered. Her expertise exceeds even my understanding of such matters."

Kane’s tail curled around his waist, a subconscious gesture of comfort.

"She’s more attentive than I could ever be. I just sat there reading charts while she actually saved Rina’s life."

"Medical intervention requires precision, not sentiment."

"Still. Isabelle knew exactly what to do."

Cyrus’s fingers found the perfect spot behind Kane’s left ear, applying just enough pressure to hit that sensitive nerve cluster.

Kane’s foot jerked involuntarily, his leg kicking out like a reflex he couldn’t control.

Heat flooded his cheeks as the motion repeated—Cyrus scratched the same spot again, and Kane’s foot twitched helplessly against the couch cushions.

"Stop that," Kane mumbled into Cyrus’s thigh, mortification creeping up his neck.

"Stop what?"

The innocent tone didn’t fool Kane for a second. Cyrus knew exactly what he was doing.

Another deliberate scratch, another involuntary kick.

Kane groaned, burying his face deeper into the expensive fabric.

"I’m not a damn dog."

"Of course not."

Cyrus’s voice carried that subtle note of amusement that made Kane want to bite him.

"Dogs don’t have fox ears."

The scratching continued, methodical and maddeningly effective.

Kane’s protests dissolved into a low rumble of contentment that sounded suspiciously like purring.

His rational mind screamed that this was undignified—that he was acting like some pampered pet being soothed by his owner.

But his exhausted body betrayed him completely, melting under Cyrus’s touch.

"We spend centuries perfecting human facades," Cyrus murmured, his fingers never pausing their rhythm.

"Tailored suits, corporate boardrooms, social etiquette. But underneath it all, we remain what we’ve always been."

Kane’s purring intensified despite his embarrassment.

"Spirits weren’t born from human understanding of the world. We emerged from the raw forces that shaped existence itself—wind, fire, earth, the hunt, and the moon’s pull on tides."

Cyrus’s voice took on that ancient quality Kane had heard before, like stones worn smooth by millennia of rain.

"No matter how human we try to appear," Cyrus murmured, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through Kane’s bones, "we cannot deny our animal spirit instincts."

His fingers stilled in Kane’s hair, the sudden absence of touch making Kane’s ears twitch with disappointment.

"Dragons hoard what they treasure. Foxes seek comfort from their pack."

Something electric sparked through Kane’s chest at those words—a recognition that went deeper than conscious thought.

His fox ears perked forward, alert and listening, as if Cyrus had spoken some fundamental truth Kane had been trying to ignore.

The clinical research, the desperate need to solve Rina’s problem, the way he’d been pushing himself to exhaustion—all of it suddenly felt like running from something essential.

Kane’s ears twitched as fragments of memory suddenly clicked into place like puzzle pieces finding their homes.

The Whispering Shard. His apartment break-in. Rina’s synthetic binding agent research.

Three incidents that appeared separate but were actually connected.

"What if we’re approaching this wrong?" Kane lifted his head from Cyrus’s thigh, fox ears swiveling forward with sudden alertness.

"What if the solution isn’t medical or scientific but spiritual?"

Cyrus’s fingers stilled completely in Kane’s hair.

Kane shifted on the couch, energy crackling through his exhausted limbs as connections formed in his mind.

"The spirits who ransacked my apartment were looking for the Whispering Shard. Rina was investigating the synthetic binding agent. Both artifacts manipulate spirit energy in ways that shouldn’t be possible."

His voice gained momentum as the theory crystallized.

"What if they’re connected? What if someone is using these shards to create the binding agent?"

Cyrus’s red-gold eyes sharpened with predatory focus.

"You’re suggesting the artifacts are being weaponized."

"I’m suggesting they might also be the key to reversing what’s happening to Rina."

Kane sat up fully, his fox tail curling around his waist with nervous energy.

"Where did you put the Screaming Shard? The one Madam Xiu traded for the chalice?"