Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters) (15 page)

“That’s what I like to hear,” she purred, opening up her old music box. She pricked herself, and then sprinkled a drop of blood onto the shapeless mannequin. It sprang to life, wearing Donovan’s unbearable swagger and arrogance.

But wingless. I hid a smile.

“Prince Donovan, returned already.” The Queen sounded surprised. “Did you find Duck Young?”

“Too late. He’s already gone after her.” Donovan sighed. “Ah, my impatient little brother. By dawn, that werebitch Alvarez and all of her pack will be dead.”

Chapter 18: Temple Besieged

I sat bolt upright in the darkness, my breathing a living animal trapped in the room. She was gone. They had done it. I couldn’t find her anywhere.

From somewhere far away, I heard knocking, as if bitter information were trying to batter its way into my head, to tell me things I already knew. Then I heard the pounding of fists again, followed by the jiggling of the lock. Someone was trying to come in.

“What the hell?” Miguel rose off his cot in the living room, disheveled black hair poking up like a seagull’s wing.

“Miguel, get back!” I rammed past in my hurry to check the peephole, tripping over a disgruntled Saja in the process.

“
Yah!
Citlalli, come here!” Una’s voice, usually so cool and unruffled, sounded truly frightened now. I’d thought she was spending the night at the
jjimjilbang
.

“It’s happening, Citlalli! They’re attacking the temple.”

I didn’t need to clarify who “they” were. I’d gone through a hell of a lot of work to make sure Duck Young’s soul stayed in Peomeosa Temple.

“Grab your keys.” I tossed Miguel a jacket. “We have to go.” We bolted after Una down to the street, Saja on our heels.

My arms felt eerily numb in the cold of the car as we drove, neon lights partially blinding me. I could still feel the living, beating pulse of Raina’s life force—before it had been snuffed out. I didn’t want to know. My God, I didn’t want to know. After all of these fruitless months of searching, of believing there was still some hope… My mind blanked out, rigid with cold. I could only half concentrate on what Una was telling me.

“
Agusshi
Hyeon Bin found me in dreaming,” Una explained in a voice white with shock, oblivious to Saja’s attempts to bury his nose in her lap. “The vampyre prince, Duck Young, sent ordinary people to Peomeosa Temple. Monks invite them in. These people, not so ordinary. They don’t find soul, but they do kidnap head monk. Now they will kill him if monks don’t give up soul. Already many vampyres attack surrounding villagers. No one can defend. Agusshi tries to fight with small group, but they need help.”

“I thought the soul would be safe there.” My mind raced. Khyber. What was he doing during all of this? He couldn’t want Duck Young to recover his soul.

The Were Alliance headquarters were abuzz with activity by the time we got there, the Weres preparing to enter Eve. Jaehoon nodded when he saw Una.

“Good. You will guide us.” He asked in Korean,
“Did you bring them?”

Una held out the prayer wheels. Jaehoon lifted one aloft. “Take one and then go to your stations!” he bellowed. “I will go first.”

I was first in line, but Jaehoon grabbed my shoulder. “Citlalli. You are on watch duty with Yu Li.”

“Watch duty?”

“Someone goes. Someone stays behind, to watch the bodies.” Una gestured to the prone Weres who had already entered Eve. “I will return soon with updates.”

“But—!” This was all happening too fast. Across the room, I watched Kaelan help Moon fall asleep, Bae set up the candle doorways to guide their spirits back, and Yu Li stalk back and forth like a caged cat. She didn’t like this any better than I did. Nowhere did I see the familiar mop of ruffled, brown hair.

Then a callused hand slipped into mine.

“Take good care of my body, will you?” Rafael said with a wink. I clung more tightly to his hand. His eyes widened, but I didn’t look away. I would have held on longer, but then Yu Li glanced our way. Immediately, our fingers sprang apart.

“I’ll try to resist adding any alterations. You know. Tattoos on your face. Nipple piercings.”

“I could pull it off,” he shot back, and I privately agreed.

“Get out of here! Go avenge my lost finger!”

He grabbed my scarred stump and pressed his lips to it, briefly. Then he was gone.

Rafael might not have cared who saw us, but I couldn’t say the same. I sat there, cringing like a wilting plant, as Yu Li turned on the full wrath of the sun.

“A friendly kiss between teacher and student?” she asked bluntly.

Great. I’m supposed to guard a bunch of comatose bodies, but who’s gonna protect
me
from
her
? I hopefully grabbed for Miguel’s sleeve, but he shook me off.

“Sorry, Citlalli. Gotta make a run for more medical supplies. First assignment as unofficial adoptee of the pack. AWOO!” Doing his best wolf cry, Miguel disappeared up the stairs with Saja.

Yu Li and I set up posts on opposite sides of the room. Things were better between us now. I knew we
had
to be better, after our last showdown in the playroom. With a unified pack finally behind us, the Were Alliance had approved the mission to go ahead with the infiltration of Maya’s court. Yu Li had shut up any last dissenters with her infamous death ray gaze. She had my back. I could trust her. But there was still one last obstacle we hadn’t talked about—the man who had brought me into this life, who had grown to be a father figure for her son: Mr. Rafael Dominguez. Usually after a bad break-up, you don’t step within a square foot radius of your significant other. We all practically lived in the same quarters.

My insides quivered at the thought of his sun-kissed skin, his dark, wavy hair, his smart aleck remarks. The way his eyes crinkled in that special Raf smile: a grin that was privately laughing at something beyond what had been said. I knew what I wanted to ask Yu Li. I wanted to know what it meant, that Rafael had refused to give me up as a student. I was probably giving myself more hope than I should. I was “only eighteen.” Rafael wanted me because I was his prodigy, his creation. My success was his success. To give me up would be admitting failure.

But I wished it was because of something else. I wished Rafael liked this new Were me, this new Citlalli, because the Were was changing me in ways faster than I could keep track of—or, perhaps, discovering dark things that had been there all along. Threatening before thinking. Alienating myself on purpose. Killing and being able to sleep at night.

I wished Rafael liked all of these things, because no normal boy would. And I couldn’t ignore the dark things now that I’d dug them up from their shadowy recesses. They lurked on the surface now, glaring from my red-rimmed eyes, my protruding jaw, my quick lapses into anger. No other boy would understand unless he’d been there to dig them up with me. And Rafael had been digging far longer and deeper before I’d come along. He was my hero, my proof that a person could go to hell and emerge stronger, like an ordinary rock transforming into a diamond under extraordinary pressure. Did Rafael like the girl he plotted war with? Or more importantly: Would he want her after?

But Young Soo’s giggles invaded my thoughts time and time again, and I shook myself awake. Seriously. I had no shot with Rafael. It was nice to have schoolgirl day dreams about those bronzed arms taut with muscle slipping around my waist and holding me close, but that was all it could ever be. Young Soo was involved. In this case, only one person was allowed to be the child.

Young Soo continued chattering. I shook myself.
Come on already, I agree with your point!
But then I realized his voice wasn’t inside my head.

“Um, Yu Li?”

She sat with arms folded, staring at the prone bodies with undisguised jealousy. “What do you want?”

“Why did you bring Young Soo to base camp? I mean, I know we’re not exactly on Ground Zero, but come on!”

She looked annoyed. “What are you—?” The color slowly drained from her face. She’d heard it, too, then. A boy’s laughter in the corridor.

I immediately started for the door, but she raised a hand to stop me. “Don’t move. It is a trick.”

“Yeah, but a trick played by who?” I stared agitatedly from her to the number of bodies strewn between us. The Weres posted defensively around the apartment suddenly seemed very far away.

Yu Li spoke rapid Korean into her headset to the four guard posts.

“Report?
Report!
” she said over and over. I swallowed hard. No reply. Crap, I’d been mad about missing the action before, but now all I could long for were the minutes when the worst thing I’d had to fear had been insults from Yu Li

She made the executive call. “I’m telling them to come back. The juin-nim must send back reinforcements now.” She swiftly scribbled out a message on the prayer wheel.

An arrow struck it straight from her hands.

“Whoa!” Young Soo said, mouth dropped wide open. He applauded vigorously.

“See, son?
Appa
’s still got it.” Vampyre Prince Duck Young took one step into the room, and then another. The image of him…it was more vivid than anything I’d ever seen in Eve. Cardinal-red wings, like splashes of blood on his back. A dark gray suit. Carefully-styled black hair, hugging the sides of his face like ivy. No wonder the guards weren’t reporting in. There weren’t enough arrows or bullets in all of the world to stop him. Not when Duck Young was steering Young Soo’s body before his.

“Annyeong,
yeobo
,” he said softly to Yu Li, as if he were soothing a frightened deer. He probably thought I couldn’t understand him, since we weren’t in Eve, where language was no obstacle. People were understood how they meant to be understood. But back here in the sunshine world, those hard months of tutelage under Jaehoon hadn’t gone to waste.
Yeobo
was a term of affection between married couples.

“Look who invited me in.” Duck Young’s fingers played with Young Soo’s full head of black hair, pawing and then tightening, a reminder that he could rip the boy’s head off just as easily. It made me sick to watch. “Curls. Like his father. He does look too skinny, though. Don’t you remember to feed him? Or are you too busy playing war? Yu Li.”

The moment he said her name, she started crying. Tears spilled from her haunted eyes, and I knew she had never stopped loving him. She’d never stopped believing he might return. And that really sucked, considering it left me compromised—and an innocent boy in the hands of a monster.

I stood statue-still, feeling Wolf’s hackles rise. What was Duck Young’s game plan? Imagining beheading him had been so much easier. Now that he stood before me with eyes that twitched at the slightest movement, and a bow in one powerful hand, I wanted to barricade myself in the nearest church. But I couldn’t leave Rafael alone. My eyes drew agitatedly to his helpless body, a hairsbreadth from the vampyre’s boot.

“What were you doing while our child grew up? Plundering and murdering?” Yu Li countered in a low voice, and I gave her mental applause.

The hand stopped stroking Young Soo’s hair. We both tensed, but Duck Young only gave a pointy smile.

“Beautiful yeobo. I have missed your quick tongue so much.” Duck Young drew closer in what seemed like genuine anguish. “You always challenged me to be better. You always pushed me to go further, to drive the issue home, even when my hired help would shy away from the controversy. I remember now.

“I remember your Umma. I remember you.” Duck Young crouched down to Young Soo’s level. “Your Umma is brave, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Young Soo said without hesitation. “She’s the bravest Umma in the whole world.”

Duck Young laughed, running one long finger down the boy’s cheek. “My son, I have a sad story to tell you. A bad lady wanted me to forget your mother. She wanted me to forget you. She did many things to me until my memory was gone.”

“Is that why you have wings?” Young Soo regarded them curiously, without fear. Maybe he would take the wolf-shifting news well.

“Yes. She gave them to me. Her methods worked, for a while. But then I received a picture of you. And I knew that you were important to me.” His finger stroked Young Soo’s cheek, although his eyebrows remained scrunched, puzzled. I knew, then. It was the same bizarre behavior I’d witnessed in Marisol. She’d known that she’d wanted her sisters sent to her. But she hadn’t been able to understand why.

“Why aren’t you trying to get your soul back?” Yu Li said in that same low, detached voice. She was having a hard time looking at him.

Duck Young couldn’t take his eyes off Young Soo. “Because I don’t care. I still stand by what I said. It’s a useless trinket, considering I can live forever. Don’t you understand, Yu Li? I came back for
you
.”

Yu Li tensed immediately. “Very well. You can have me. But let him go. Young Soo!” she called, desperate. “Come to Umma right now!”

Young Soo started forward obediently, but Duck Young’s fingers dug a little deeper into his shoulders.

“Now, now. That’s rather selfish, isn’t it, my son?” he asked, hugging the boy. “Your mother’s had you for all of these years. Don’t you want to spend some time with your father?”

“I want both of you!” Young Soo glanced between them, confused. “Why can’t we all be together?”

“Young Soo!” Yu Li’s head hung to one side, tears smearing her mascara.

“Why not indeed?” Duck Young’s arms continued to encircle Young Soo’s neck like a noose. “Why can’t we all be together? Forever? An eternity of baseball games and amusement parks and trips to the beach?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Young Soo nodded vigorously.

“An eternity of changing the world for the better, for bringing Korea back together, for stabilizing peace around the world?” Duck Young murmured, this time to Yu Li. “I could do it, if you were at my side. Our partnership was rudely interrupted, it’s true, but that was only to give us the ultimate gift: immortality. With death as no obstacle, Yu Li, think of what we could do! I know you would take the risk. You always have. Your dog condition is no matter; my queen can fix you. She can do anything. Together, our family will rise up to rule the East! You, me, and little Young Soo, when I deem him old enough for the honor.” The boy gazed up at him adoringly.