Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (16 page)

Santiago flashed a smile full of sharpened teeth and pricked Mami’s neck with his blade. “Give us the Korean boy and this is not the fate that will befall your mother.”

Mami glared straight ahead, her hands curled into fists on her lap. Her eyes flicked to mine, and she gave the briefest, most imperceptible shake of her head. A growl built up in my chest.

“You know full well who that ‘Korean boy’ is,” Raina spat defiantly. “You lost the Were War, and now you’re desperate. You’re only the fifth eldest vampyre prince, after all. Capturing Khyber’s soul won’t bring him back to you; it will only bring his wrath.”

Santiago laughed. All three of us tensed as his sword skittered up and down Mami’s neck, drawing tiny pinpricks of blood. “From what I have observed tonight,” the vampyre prince drawled, “Khyber’s wrath means nothing more than throwing nachos over a bad referee call.”

A stainless steel machete whipped through the air and buried itself in Santiago’s forehead, causing his sword arm to whip up. Without hesitation, Mami dropped to the ground and crawled underneath the table.

My heart picked up pace in my chest; out of hope or trepidation, I did not know. For from out of the shadows stalked none other than the eldest of the Vampyre Court himself: Crown Prince Khyber. His smoky gray-blue eyes churned dark like the heart of a storm, his jet-black hair curled around the harsh features of his face, and his scarred skin gleamed pale like intricately carved ivory. This towering, brooding creature with wings as black as midnight looked a gaunt shadow of the young, cheerful Korean man he’d been earlier, enjoying the soccer game.

“I apologize on my soul’s behalf,” the elder vampyre told his bleeding brother. “I shall have a chat with him about that later.”

“Khyber!” Raina blurted. I was thankful I was a wolf at that moment; too many emotions welled up hot and ready behind my eye. This was the—thing—I had split the pack over. I had chosen to give Khyber a second chance over Rafael’s plea for revenge and gotten myself stuck in a life bond with the wretched undead prince that would cost me God knew what. However, at that moment, watching light flare to life in Raina’s eyes, I remembered why I had stayed my hand: Khyber, the enemy, had sided with
Raina
in the Vampyre Queen’s palace. Thanks to him, my sister was still alive.

Plus, anyone who tried to behead Santiago with a machete was good in my book.

“Mweo?” The soft
“what?”
bubbled up from the corner. To my horror, I realized that Taeyang had removed the invisibility cap, no doubt stunned by hearing his same voice echo from a decidedly less handsome, rugged version of himself that came with wings and fangs.

Santiago ripped the machete free from his forehead with a flourish. He ignored the black blood that dribbled down into his eye. “Have a talk with your soul about stupidity while you’re at it,
traitor
,” he sneered, and then launched himself across the table.

Khyber seemed slower than I remembered, but he still threw himself in Taeyang’s way just in time. Unfortunately, Santiago was now doubly armed, and he whipped that fancy conquistador sword around as if it were as light as a stick.

I howled at Miguel, something along the lines of:
Get Mami and yourself out of here!
However, I didn’t have time to see if he got the message. The fiendish crimson-faced Spooks vaulted over the desk with seeking elongated fingers. I tore through the first one easily enough, but then three more knocked me to the ground. Their fangs ripped through my guard hairs, and one of them clawed at my remaining eye. I growled, struggling to buck them off.

Raina saved me. She called up the winds with her hands and sent two of the Spooks spinning into the file cabinet. The last Spook sprang at her and thwacked against the glittering armor of her dragon scales. The sapphire-blue hide sprang up to encase her from head to toe. Another Spook attacked, and Raina lashed out with pearly white claws, her dark eyes broiling with the amethyst hues of her inner Were.

Khyber and Santiago were a blur in the corner. Black wings danced with gold as they wrestled across the floor, their eyes drained of emotion and their mouths horrible black holes with gleaming white fangs. Santiago recovered his sword and bombarded Khyber with a lightning-quick flurry of thrusts, but Khyber had an infinite amount of patience. Parrying with the knife-sharp feathers of his wings, the elder Vampyre Prince waited until the last possible second before his eyes were swallowed up by blackness, and then he seized Santiago’s wrists in his Death Grip. Santiago was forced to drop his sword and tumble away before Khyber’s deadly touch severed his hands from his arms.

I barked happily and prowled after the remaining Spooks. An unusually tall one waited for me, and something like intelligence narrowed his eyes. He watched me approach with caution and then snapped off a table leg.

“Die, dog,” he snarled, before launching the makeshift javelin at my chest. I didn’t have time to react. But Demon did.

My black wolf shape erupted in rubicund flames, the fires of an ancient demon fox spirit known as the kumiho, and the table leg disintegrated.

Demon howled Her victory. I tried to rein Her in, but my muscles were already exerted from fighting. She overpowered me easily. Padding toward the remaining four Spooks with Her tongue hanging out in a haunting grin, Demon erupted, sending a barrage of fiery arrows streaking down upon the huddled vampyre underlings. I heard their wails but couldn’t see them; the smoke screen was too thick.

“Victory!” I heard Santiago crow. I rounded in his direction just in time to see the Spanish vampyre prince break loose from Khyber and dash to stand in front of the office exit. He mockingly saluted me. “Burn in the hell it is your destiny to create, Fire Wolf!”

Then he was gone, but not before he’d locked and bolted the door from the outside.

Khyber slammed his shoulder against the barricaded door, but it was half-hearted. Taeyang sank to his knees beside his vampyre twin and touched his shoulder questioningly. Khyber curled up into a ball, his wings shriveling from the heat of the blaze. I burned with no ordinary flames, I knew. And fire was one of the surest ways to kill a vampyre, besides beheading and a stake to the heart.

The roar of a dragon pierced the smoke, and then the small office shook with the fury of a small thunderstorm. Warmth flooded my chest, and my golden eye refocused in the middle of the sudden downpour.
Raina.

Demon receded, pouting. I staggered back into human form and fell to my knees. Through the misty haze, I caught sight of Raina standing above me, offering me her leather jacket.

I accepted it gratefully. “Have I ever told you how thankful I am that you don’t take after me?”

A ghost of a smile crossed Raina’s face. “Not nearly enough.”

Someone kicked the door in. Raina and I braced ourselves, but it was only Miguel and Mami. They dashed toward us with blankets and a fire extinguisher.

“Ay no,”
Mami moaned upon catching sight of her ashen files.

“Dios mío,
woman,
”
Miguel muttered. “Quit crying over the paperwork and think about what we’re going to tell the cops. This vampyre attack wasn’t exactly subtle.”

“The police can wait,” a cool voice replied. Wincing, I opened my good eye to see Khyber step forward through the smoke, fully recovered with Taeyang in tow. The vampyre prince regarded me for the first time since he’d finally reappeared to protect his soul, and the look wasn’t kind. “We need to have a talk, dog. Alone.”

Chapter 18: Khyber Returns

~Citlalli~

A media firestorm had descended on our little alley of Itaewon. Mami stood at the forefront, spinning an increasingly tall tale about the prejudice foreigners faced setting up businesses abroad. Miguel stood beside her with his arms crossed, trying hard not to roll his eyes.

I watched from the rooftop, my wolf ears picking up the soft rustle of wings behind me. Vampyre Prince Khyber strode up to survey the crowd below, the temperature dropping in his presence.

“He is something, isn’t he?” the exiled prince said softly, watching Taeyang’s eyes flare golden under the onslaught of camera flashes. Raina stood supportively at his side, but her shoulders were slumped. Every now and again, her gaze drifted up toward the rooftop where we stood. I knew how deeply Khyber had wounded her by barely giving her a nod of acknowledgement.

I folded my arms. “Great, my life partner’s in love with himself.”

“I didn’t know if it would work.” Khyber prowled the rooftop, his raggedy wings twitching restlessly. “I studied with Maya when she divided herself into her four life stages. However, I pushed it farther. I just split myself in two. And into that second half…I poured my soul.”

“Taeyang is your opposite in every way,” I said. “He heals while you kill. He can walk in the sunlight while you slink around in the dark. He’s kind while you’re a jerk. And he is utterly
gorgeous
while you—”

Khyber raised an eyebrow. “Careful how you finish that sentence, dog.”

“Oh, insulting your looks is where you get touchy?”

“I may have given him too much,” Khyber admitted, leaning against the piping wearily. “I am weak. Santiago almost bested me today, Citlalli. We have not seen the last of him and his Compañia Rojo
.
There will be other, stronger vampyre soldiers, and they will have rifles. And it is now, with their puppet queen Maya dead, that
our
masters begin to stir.”

I bit my lip, the night’s chill deepening in my bones. Maya’s raven-haired head still floated in my dreams. It grinned eerily, and its trail of intestines and skin tissue made a smacking sound when it slithered over the ground.

My pack called our fight against the Vampyre Queen “The Were War,” but in reality, we had only fought a battle. Now the real confrontation loomed on the horizon.

“Who are we up against?” I asked quietly.

“The Death Gods of Xibalba.” Khyber laughed humorlessly. “Naming them will attract their attention, but let them know. There are Twelve Dark Lords, and they walk in pairs, strewing pain and curses in their wake. They are the Mayan Death Gods of Old, and once they slumbered in their nightmarish underworld. Then mortal humans woke them with their wars and bloodshed. Now they seek to end us all and rest in eternal silence. Life’s laughter threatens their kingdom.”

“Great, seven billion people ruined naptime.” I kicked a pebble. “So the obvious solution is mass genocide.”

“They have the power to remake the world, Citlalli,” Khyber said slowly. “Eve is the bridge land, where the mortal world and the Beyond collide. If the Death Gods were to take control of it, then they could destroy the veil between the living and the dead forever. Those they do not murder will be transformed to their liking. The things I saw there…”

Something I had never seen before, something that looked like fear, rippled through the impassive vampyre and left his face contorted in pain. “There is more than one way to kill the soul of the world.”

“You’ve been to Xibalba,” I whispered.

He said nothing, his face a grim shadow. We watched the reporters mount around Mami, their voices rising in a great tide that shattered the silence of the night.

“There was once a pair of hero twins who locked them away.”

I turned to see Khyber perched on the roof’s shingles. His gray-blue eyes reflected the moonlight as he spread his wings, preparing to fly.

“Wait! Where are you going?” I spluttered. “We haven’t even discussed this life bond thingie yet! When are these death gods coming? How are we supposed to fight them?”

“We must stop my brothers from releasing them. They are working with a Greater Dark Spirit named Xecotcovach. I believe both of us have unfinished business with it. It goes by Xec.”

My insides curdled. I remembered the wasting horror that had ambushed me after I had defeated Maya. It had placed this life bond curse on me. I had been so close to Rafael; so close to escaping Eve and going home.

Khyber regarded me gravely. “Do what the White Tiger bid you, girl. Find a way to get through that mist.”

I dashed to catch up to him, but he had already leaped into the air. “So that’s what they’re looking for?” I called after him desperately. “Some sort of key to the underworld lost on our side of the world?”

“Keep my soul safe for me,” he had the gall to reply. Then Khyber was gone, winging off through the wispy clouds.

The skylight door burst open. I spun around, matted black hair springing up on my forearms. A spiced woodsy scent assailed me, and then none other than Rafael barreled across the rooftop, breathless.

“Citlalli! I heard about the attack on the restaurant! Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He stopped and sniffed the air. My heart withered as Rafael’s frantic gaze settled upon a single black feather caught in a vent.

“He was here.” The chill in his voice could have frozen the rooftop.

“Rafael, it’s not what you think…” I began carefully.

He rounded on me, his eyes dimming to deep molten orange. “You’re working with him.”

The accusation pierced through my sternum and lodged in my heart. I had never seen Rafael tremble with so much fury and yet sound so lost at the same time.

“Why?”

I put up my hands. “I know he’s a murderer. I know what he did to your family. But Khyber and I are
linked
, Raf! We’re trapped in a life bond with one another, and there’s a giant, fanged shitstorm coming our way. We have to work together to break through the Emerald Veil sealing off Jeju Island, Rafael. Otherwise none of us will be left to settle our debts. There won’t be a ‘sunshine world’ to return to.”

“Give me leave to make my own pack.”

I stopped and gapped at him. “What?”

Rafael stared fumingly up at the stars, his face a hardened stone. “The newcomers. I want half of them to come with me and run in
my
pack. Otherwise I will tell the Were Council that you’re a Triad.”

Wolf howled in protest while Demon hissed death threats. “You wouldn’t,” I whispered, ignoring their tails brushing against my throat. “Xiang would use that as an excuse to depose me and take over South Korea’s Were tribe, Rafael. You know he would, on the basis of restoring stability to the region!”