Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters)
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Authors: Heather Heffner
Year of the Tiger
By Heather Heffner
The right of Heather Heffner to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988.
YEAR OF THE TIGER.
Text copyright © 2013 Heather Heffner. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Find out the latest news on the Changeling Sisters series at:
http://heatherheffner.blogspot.com/
The Changeling Sisters Series
Year of the Wolf
Year of the Tiger
Year of the Dragon
(Forthcoming)
For my 4
th
grade teacher, Mrs. Perez, who gave me a journal and told me to write.
Table of Contents
Chapter 6: A Most Surprising Invitation
Chapter 9: Careful, the Floors Are Wet
Chapter 10: One Winter Afternoon
Chapter 14: The Birthday Dinner
Chapter 16: The Soul of Donovan
Chapter 19: Before I Fall Asleep
Chapter 23: Third Time’s the Charm
Chapter 25: Of Livers and Love
Chapter 28: Negotiating on Thin Ice
CHAPTER 35: THE FIRST SACRIFICE
Chapter 39: Battle of Brothers
Chapter 40: The Four Stages of Life
Chapter 42: The Alpha and the Omega
Foreword
My name is Citlalli Alvarez.
To those of you who know me, I apologize in advance. I probably insulted your mother, or told you it would never last with Mr. Not-So-Picky-About-His-Quickies. I’m the last person to give out romantic advice, since I’m currently interested in an unavailable werewolf and all, but that doesn’t mean the words don’t come out anyway. (Rafael. His name’s Rafael. He’s tan and has tattoos. Need I say more?)
For those of you who don’t know me, then I’ll bring you up to speed, but you’ve got to catch on quick, because the Alpha of our werewolf pack, Jaehoon, cracks down hard if I’m late to Korean class. Maya, the centuries-old Queen of Vampyres, has been stalking my family for some creepy-ass purpose. She kidnapped my eldest sister back in New Mexico before we ever knew about vampyres, Weres, and Eve, the dangerous spirit world, where all ghosts who can’t move on end up.
We moved to Seoul, South Korea for Mami’s restaurant business, and Maya struck again. This time she’s taken my younger half-sister and best friend, Raina. She claims Raina will make the perfect bride for one of her handsome, hot-out-of-hell sons, but I know there’s something else going on. Never before has a vampyre returned to hunt the same family twice.
Lunar New Year has almost arrived, and us werewolves, along with our Were Alliance friends from other nations (yes, werebears, weretigers, and werenagas exist, too) are running out of time to put an end to Maya before she does something irreversibly dreadful to the forty girls she’s kidnapped. Maya believes she is the queen of the spirit world. It’s time to show her who the true Lady of Eve is.
If you’re not good with names, I’ve included a list here. See you in Eve.
—
Citlalli
IMPORTANT PEOPLE
(in my opinion)
Alvarez Family:
Citlalli:
Me. Turned into a werewolf against my will. My Were, Wolf, is pretty hard to control, but I don’t broadcast that bit of news around. Don’t want the pack to think I’m in danger of turning into a triad.
Raina:
My younger half-sister. Our family always gave her a hard time for being the child of an affair, and now she’s gone missing. Talk about a guilt trip. But I’ll get her back. She’s a bit shy, but she likes to lend her voice to the story now and again.
Marisol:
My lost eldest sister, now doomed to an eternity as a vampyre bride.
Miguel:
My dickhole older brother. Luckily he doesn’t read much, so I doubt he’ll ever see this.
Daniella:
My perfect older sister, who works as an English teacher at the local elementary school. She completes the Alvarez family, except for—
Mami:
Mom/Boss/Dictator. It’s complicated.
Good Guys:
Una:
My close friend, who makes sure I don’t get hopelessly lost in Eve. Her family has been responsible for guarding the doors to Eve for centuries.
Saja:
Una’s dog, a Korean breed called a
jindo
.
Old Man Zhi:
A blind lantern-maker in Eve, whom I’ve greatly wronged.
No-Name
: A ghost girl who wears a red ribbon, and Maya’s former servant who guarded the Pavilion of Far-Reaching Fragrance. Luckily I convinced her to switch sides and go search for her long-lost mother, like she’d always wanted to.
The Pack:
Rafael:
My werewolf creator and teacher. He’s been through a lot of shit, especially with the eldest vampyre prince, Khyber.
Yu Li:
Rafael’s unfortunate choice of a girlfriend, and the first frenemy I have a grudging respect for—but I’d never tell her that.
Jaehoon:
Our awesome, super-strong Alpha.
Evil Incarnate:
Maya:
Queen of the Vampyres and current ruler of Eve. She was originally a princess obsessed with discovering the secret of immortality, a lust which transformed her into a soul-eating monster able to shift into any stage of her life: Girl, Lover, Queen, and Vampyre. My wolf pack attempted to assassinate her, but the attempt mysteriously failed. Now Maya wears a black ribbon around her neck to keep her head from falling off and steals the bodies of young girls to wear.
Khyber:
Maya’s eldest son. A long time ago, he sacrificed himself in order for his sisters to escape from Maya. He doesn’t remember that innocent boy anymore. If I thought my taste in men was dangerous, then I don’t have anything on Raina. I’m scared she might
like like
him, which would be bad, because he’s a deceitful, sociopathic son-of-a-bitch. To put it lightly.
Donovan:
Maya’s third son. Worse than Khyber. He has every intention of making Raina his bride—most definitely against her will.
Duck Young:
Maya’s youngest son, turned just in the past decade. Marisol’s “husband.” I recently stole his soul, so he’s kinda pissed at me.
Aaron, Crispin, Santiago, and Aleksandr:
The rest of Maya’s lovely brood.
Fred:
A tricky nine-tailed fox. He’s managed to fool me twice before. There won’t be a third time.
Part I: Wolf
Chapter 1: Ostracized
I woke up in the hospital. Again. I hoped this wasn’t becoming a habit.
My left hand was a lump of bandages. I tried to lift it. There was a strange absence of weight where my pinkie should be, and I immediately set it down, frightened.
“Don’t try to move it yet,” a quiet voice said from the corner. I almost didn’t recognize it as Mami’s. The whole family was here. My eldest brother Miguel sat hunched over, head in his hands, and my good friend, the spirit gatekeeper, Una, looked trapped. I could count on my remaining fingers the number of people in this room who knew about the spirit world of Eve, our fight to free my youngest sister Raina from becoming a vampyre bride, and our quest to liberate the enslaved ghosts from the self-proclaimed Vampyre Queen, Maya. Odds were everyone else would happily believe I’d lost my finger on an acid trip, not to a charismatic vampyre prince who had a touch like death.
“Relax your muscles. The pain will kick in—”
The pain kicked in. I tucked my head in and cried.
“Nurse,” Mami said sharply. The woman hurried to give me another dose of pain medication.
The door swung open, and Rafael, my werewolf pack brother, dashed in, adorable brown hair disheveled more than usual.
“I heard she woke up,” was all he had time to get out, before Miguel jumped up and punched him in the face.
“You asshole!” he yelled. “You said you’d look after her! Why the hell did I ever trust you with my sister’s safety? Do you know how Una and I felt, not knowing what the hell was going on—?”