Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (15 page)

“He called me exciting?” I interjected, but Ankor overrode me:

“You see, I know something Minho doesn’t: He is constantly in mortal danger around you because of who you are and what you have done. That is
not
worth the passing fling you see him as.”

“Who are you to pass judgement on my dating life?” I spluttered. “I like Minho, okay! He’s easy to be myself around.”

How would you know?
Demon jeered, and I ignored her. If Minho was in Raina’s half-brother’s life, then I wasn’t going to give him the cold shoulder. I wouldn’t let how we met decide our future.

“For now, we’re
just friends
,” I stressed, “but we both want to explore if this could develop into something…more. We’re taking it slow, alright?”

“I talked to your sister. It seems that you like to ‘have fun’ with many guys.”

I stopped and put a hand on my forehead to keep from shaking some sense into this uppity lizard prick again. Demon was rolling around laughing, and Wolf sat ready for a command.

“Listen,” I said slowly, “yes, the vampyre princes are still out there. Yes, they are plotting God knows what behind the Emerald Veil. However, we can’t let them dictate our actions about who we date and love. Minho and I had a good time together, and I want to explore if there’s something more. I didn’t ask to go on real dates with those other guys, okay. It’s just him. He’s the first guy since”—
Rafael,
my heart sang—“my old boyfriend who makes me look forward to each day.”

Ankor looked a little unsold, so I pressed home: “My old boyfriend was a werewolf, and that didn’t work out. We were both too much alike. So quit preaching against interspecies dating, okay?”

Finally, the slightest hint of a smile brightened the shadows of his face. “You won’t hurt him? You will give me a heads up if you begin to have doubts?”

I rolled my eyes. “If you want to cuddle and braid each other’s hair, too, I’m sure we can arrange a sleepover.”

“I am serious,” the Autumn Dragon reported, deadpan. “Minho has been my best friend since grade school.”

“Fine. It’s a promise.”

Siwoo and Taeyang waited for me in the flag hallway, both of them hiding from a pig-shaped robot that was attempting to serve them drinks.

“F-f-finally,” Siwoo chattered, vainly trying to ignore the happy-faced metallic pig as it poked him and droned: “PLACE…AN…ORDERZZZ.”

Taeyang bent down and found the button to make it go away. “How it go?”

I grinned broadly and extended my arms. “I got the job. Laboratory Assistant I.”

“C-congratulations, Alpha Alvarez!” Siwoo beamed. “I thought Mr. Yong hated you!”

I shrugged. “That’s just what Alphas do, Siwoo-ya. All it took was some eloquent negotiating.” …
and a little throat-throttling, just the usual.

Siwoo grabbed my hands and bowed. “I look forward to beginning work with you on Monday. Now I must g-go home and rest.”

Taeyang and I watched him shiver his way out. He jumped as the pig concierge ambushed him again.

“What happen to him?” Taeyang asked.

I draped an arm around his shoulder. The old Khyber would have torn my head off and kicked it with a derisive, “Stupid keh,” but this guy I could hang out with.

“It’s a long story. How about you and I go celebrate our newfound employment with a drink at this restaurant I know?” I took his hand to lead the way. “The manager and I go way back.”

Chapter 17: The Red Company

~Citlalli~

I watched the Korean boy who wasn’t Khyber sit next to Miguel at the Alvarez Family Restaurant bar and down a Tequila shot. Miguel clapped him on the back and gestured for our bartender to pour him another. Khyber—no, Taeyang—saluted him and then returned to listening to the soccer match.

Miguel dropped down on the stool next to me and shook his head. “Well. If that’s how they’re making vampyre princes these days, then they’re welcome here anytime. This kid drinks like a horse and eats enough for one, too. That’s going to be a nice tab, Rogelio,” he called to our bartender.

Rogelio paused in the midst of polishing a wine glass to blow a kiss in Taeyang’s direction.

Miguel tapped the sugary rim of my margarita glass. “Might be enough to make me forget how my sister came by this.”

Rogelio gave me an apologetic look and then replaced my frothy mango margarita with water. I glowered at Miguel. “Thanks, Mr. Manager. First I’m fired and now I can’t even drink here?”

“I love you, sis, but you’re not worth losing our liquor license over,” Miguel said cheerfully. “Cheer up. If we were in the States, you would have to wait three more years instead of one.”

Raina hopped up on the other stool. She nervously smoothed out her leather jacket over her skinny jeans and glanced in Taeyang’s direction. She had taken a break from packing for her upcoming Trials of Wisdom trek to see if she could help us with Taeyang the Magical Healer Dude. “What’s the verdict? Does he know who we are?”

“Seems like a pretty chill guy in my opinion.” Miguel shrugged. “Says he’s lived his whole life on Jeju Island and recently moved to Seoul to find a job.”

“Jeju-do, which is currently under siege by an evil green mist,” I said flatly. “Something doesn’t add up.”

“Boss,” Rogelio warned, just as glass shattered. We turned to see a boisterous group of businessmen stagger down the stairs from the second story. They laughed as they sloshed their half-full beers down their dark trench coats. Their hats were pulled so low that I couldn’t make out their faces.

Miguel sighed. “Excuse me. Time to go tell these fools that this ain’t a fraternity.”

I returned to watching my sister fret over Taeyang. “He seems so much
warmer
,” Raina whispered, twisting a napkin in her hand as Tae laughed with the man beside him and ate another nacho. “Do you think this second Khyber—the original Khyber—has something to do with the return of his soul?”

I stopped and stared at my sister in wonder. It made sense. Khyber had destroyed the souls of his brothers that night on Seorak San, but not his own. All vampyres were obsessed with finding their souls, that part of them that was severed upon their unnatural transformation. What if it wasn’t just to guard them jealously, like Donovan had done? What if it was because of something far more marvelous, that their souls had the power to recall their former lives before they had been untimely ripped away?

“How’d you get so smart?”

Her mouth quirked. “I paid attention in school. Ever heard of that, ’Lalli?”

I tried to shove her, but she dodged. Damn her lightning-quick reflexes. I thought dragons were supposed to be slow and clumsy.

Raina’s gaze softened as it returned to the vampyre boy she’d bonded with during her captivity in the spirit world. “He just looks so…alive. Do you think it’s possible, Citlalli?”

I sniffed the air. He hadn’t smelled dead so far, but maybe Siwoo’s cologne had made me nose-blind. I stretched out Wolf’s senses, absorbing the laughter of children and the mouth-watering scent of sizzling fajitas. There, beneath it all, was something old, rotten, and oh-so overpoweringly dead.

The kitchen door swung open, regaling my face with the stench of festering flesh. My heart froze, and I leaped to my feet. “Spooks!”

Just then, one of the drunken businessmen ripped off his bowler hat. His neck extended to reveal a leering smile, empty black eyes, and a pale face that had been painted red. He gave a high-pitched cackle and then shoved my brother down the flight of stairs.

“Miguel.” I was off and running, but a sharp cry made me turn. The man sitting next to Taeyang shrugged out of his trench coat to reveal a similar painted face and hands. His arms were long and bendable as if he had no bones. In one swift second, he’d wrapped them around Taeyang’s neck.

“Save our brother.” Raina streaked past in a ripple of silvery-blue scales. I made for the staircase, Wolf’s claws extending. Panicked patrons screamed and dashed for the door, and I spotted more shadowy shapes lurking outside. My heartbeat drummed in my throat. How many Spooks were there? I’d never seen this large of a brood before, particularly after Queen Maya’s death. Which vampyre prince had rallied them?

“Citlalli!” A fellow server, Jung Yeon, was cowering in the corner with her tray over her head. I dashed over.

“Call the cops and open the emergency exits. Get everyone out, Jung Yeon!”

A guttural roar rose by the stairwell, intensifying the screams of the young children in the restaurant. I herded several shaking families toward the emergency exit and then glanced over my shoulder. The group of Spooks who had ambushed Miguel on the stairs was scurrying around in a fury, several sniffing up and down the wooden steps. My brother had vanished into midair. I gave a sigh of relief, thanking God I’d had the sense to pass on the Dokkaebi invisibility cap to him.

The red-painted Spooks heard my laugh. Growling, one balanced on the wooden railing and then launched himself at me. Fur rippled down my spine and I met him halfway. Wolf’s fangs tore out his jugular. Demon howled in ecstasy as black blood dribbled down my chin, and I gave chase after the others. They scattered like crows, taking wing down the hallway toward the back office.

Glass shattered behind. I whirled around, yellow teeth ready, to see Rogelio staring slack-jawed at the limp Spook that Raina had just blown through the bar. She raised her hands, ready to call up more wind, but then relaxed when she saw me.

“Are you both okay?” Miguel reappeared from the corner, hurrying over with the invisibility cap clenched between his pale knuckles.

“Yeah.” Raina glanced at my growling form and then wiped a hair off her forehead from where it had gotten stuck in her half-manifested scales. “We’re not the target.”

“He is.” We all turned to regard the thoroughly stunned Taeyang sprawled on the floor. He extended a quivering hand to touch my hairy foreleg and then recoiled.

“W-w-wolf.”

I glanced at Raina and Miguel and then licked my paw. Taeyang may have been an insider at Yong Enterprises and its secret spirit world experiments, but I supposed this was the first time he’d actually experienced someone’s shift.

“Wear this.” Miguel unceremoniously plunged the Dokkaebi cap over Taeyang’s head. “Think invisible thoughts.”

“Rogelio fainted,” Raina announced, rising from checking the bartender’s pulse.

“He’ll get a raise when he comes around.” Miguel hurried to lock and bolt the doors. “Everyone else out?”

I barked an affirmation.

“Who the hell invited them in?”

Raina glanced wryly at the overturned hostess stand littered with menus. “Well, we haven’t exactly trained the servers to check for undead patrons.”

“I’ll add that to the agenda for the next all-staff meeting. Which way did the bloodsuckers go?”

I yapped, finally eager to get back to the hunt, and padded toward the back office. Color drained from Miguel’s face. “Mami came in earlier to work back there.”

We exploded into action, sprinting down the hallway. Raina stayed at Taeyang’s side, whispering comfortingly to him.

“Air,” I caught her saying in Korean. “Imagine yourself as air.”

Taeyang’s sightless eyes stared in her direction, but then something in them seemed to calm. He nodded, relaxing, and just like that—he vanished.

Cool and collected like the old Khyber,
I thought as Raina and I shared a glance.
He still trusts her, too.

We burst into the back office to find none other than Spiro. He pressed an ancient, three-foot-long sword to Mami’s throat. The stooped, greasy man smirked and then shimmered, his body slimming and his shadow lengthening to include two beating wings. When he’d finished his transformation, a hardened soldier with remorseless coal-gray eyes, golden wings that flickered as if on fire, and slightly sharpened teeth stood before us.

Raina gave a sharp intake of breath and named the unfamiliar vampyre prince: “Santiago.”

“My, my, three of the Alvarez siblings show up for work today.” Santiago’s gunmetal gray eyes glittered as they aimed at each of us in turn. “If only I’d known that threatening mommy dearest would encourage attendance. I had my doubts. Why, Mama Alvarez didn’t bat an eyelash over firing the weremutt.” He grimaced as molten saliva pooled around my jaws and dripped on the floor. “Although I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“I knew your Spanish sounded like something out of a history documentary,” Miguel snapped, taking a step closer. “Since your memory seems about as rusty as the rest of you, let me bring you up to date, princeling: your precious queen is dead. Standing in front of you is the wolf who did it,
and
she’s brought friends.”

“
Sí
, her lizard sister; I’ve heard.” Santiago amusedly looked Raina up and down. “The lost daughter of Mun Mu emerges: the so-called legendary Spring Dragon of the East. I look forward to using her hide for my boots.” Spooks began to drop noiselessly down from the ceiling like dead leaves, and Santiago’s smile grew. “You see: I, too, brought friends.”

I counted eight in all. Eight frothing mad Spooks, their corpse-like skin as white and wrinkled as dried husks; their hands and faces stained war red. Wolf was clawing inside my head, going absolutely crazy in the presence of so many undead, while Demon hissed in my ear:
Alpha. You know it is time.

Wait
, I cautioned her.
We shouldn’t play our whole hand at once.
Amazingly, I felt her purr of respect. Disgusting. A wolf did not purr.

“My
Compañia Rojo
.” Santiago regarded the grinning corpses with as much warmth as he could muster on his cold, dead face. “We have been together since our war campaigns under Cortés. Do you like their make-up? Every time they kill, they paint their faces with their enemies’ fresh, hot blood. That way they can always
taste
their victims and savor the memory of their fear before they perished. It is said never to slaughter cattle when the herd is frightened because it provides tough meat. We disagree. We like it when our enemy’s flesh dies writhing in anguish.”