Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters) (5 page)

A creak in the hallway. Thaksin tensed, a snake coiling up defensively. “Citlalli…please close door.”

I swallowed hard as I checked the hallway. Rows of snug-shut apartment doors. No people.

“Thaksin, it’s okay!” I called over my shoulder. “I don’t think they followed you back—”

My breath caught. The elevator red light. It rested on my floor. Floor 12.

I slammed the door shut, but one of those spider-leg-thin, freakishly strong arms caught it. A blood-drained face joined the hand. Red-crusted eyes gazed eagerly past me toward the dying werebear.

Another vampyre joined its friend. The pair certainly did the Spook nickname justice. Saja threw back his head and howled.

“Saja, quiet!” I frantically assessed my options. No one could come see what was going on, or the vampyres would kill them within seconds.

“Did you miss us?” one purred at Thaksin. “Did you really think you could escape? We let you go, so we could see what hole the little snakie slithers down.”

“So this is your safe house.” The other glanced at me. “Hello, sweetie. Be a polite hostess and invite us in now.” I felt him nudge my mind, all warmth and golden trust, but he had nothing on Khyber.

“Leave now.” I tried to swing the door shut again, but the vampyre’s muscles bulged.

“Try that again and I’ll rip it off the frame.” He nodded to his partner. “She’s the one.”

“Oh, goody! Is she a birdie? I hope she’s a birdie. I really want to take my time with those pretty little hawks, plucking their feathers away one at a time…”

“No, you fool. She’s
the one
. The honored guest who has yet to RSVP…”

I frowned. What game were they playing at now? “What are you talking about?”

“Yes, pretend you don’t know,” the vampyre jeered. “We all know it’s really because you’re too cowardly to answer the invitation.”

“And our Queen shouldn’t waste her time with cowards. She has so little of it as it is.” Their mouths drew back in identical fanged grins.

I resisted the urge to drop into Wolf, all matted black fur and snarls. I didn’t have time for their lies. Someone could appear in the hall any moment.
My family
could come back at any moment. And walk straight into a trap.

“Ignore them,” I told Thaksin. “They can’t get in here. Save his life. I’ll be back.”

Then I was off texting Mami and Daniella at the speed of light, telling them we’d been ordered to stay clear of the apartment because of a reported gas leak. I sent Miguel and Una a more detailed version of events. Then, with my heart leaping in my throat, I called Rafael.

“Please pick up. Please. I need you now! They’re here! They’re outside my apartment door, and if you don’t get here soon, they’re going to start killing.” A loud beep, and then the machine informed me the inbox was full.

I hesitated over Yu Li’s name. Then I sent her a HELP ME! message, and immediately jumped up the list to call Jaehoon. The yelp made the phone slip through my sweaty fingers. I heard Thakshin shouting.

I rounded the corner to see that Saja, true to his lion namesake, had bravely tried to attack the vampyres. They’d grabbed him by the throat and hurled him into a corner. His head smacked the wall, and then he fell limp.

“Time’s running out, missy!” the vampyre called. “Let us in, and we won’t go on a killing spree of your neighbors. Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

ATTACK THEM!
Wolf roared, singeing me like an unexpected wildfire. For a moment, the adrenaline built up in my chest threatened to overwhelm me. Furious, I swallowed Wolf back down. My fingers twitched around the hidden blade of the kitchen knife I’d grabbed. I’d only get one shot at this.

The elevator red light blinked. For a second, we were all still, watching it. Floor 7…8…9…

“Who could that be?” the first vampyre asked. He seemed content to mock me; the other paced back and forth like a caged animal.

“Friend of yours?
Mommy?
”

Floor 10…11…

The vampyre’s eyes began to bleed with excitement. I didn’t glance toward the elevator door as it
dinged!
open. I hurled the knife at his chest.

I didn’t stake him with as much force as I’d intended; the bloody thing moved too fast.

“Ouch!” he cried. “You stupid bitch!” He raised the knife over Saja’s head, but then a blur of white smashed into him.

Yu Li
. My knees shook with relief, and I collapsed into Wolf. The second vampyre scared me, but time was wasting, so I knocked him into the closing elevator door. The sliding doors clobbered his head, and then broke apart with a startled
ding!

I didn’t let him get up. I leaped on his chest and slid my canines into his throat. He angrily tore his flaps of skin free and kicked me in the pelvis. I dodged his lunge and jumped on his back. A mouthful of greasy black hair came away in my mouth.

The frightfully strong arms wrapped around my legs and flipped me over. The vampyre stabbed for my defenseless belly, but then a golden coil looped around his throat.

Thaksin, in glorious werenaga form, jerked the vampyre into my apartment doorway. The vampyre’s legs began to kick and writhe. He couldn’t enter inside. Thaksin pulled him closer, tongue flicking at his face.

I wearily approached, and with a sudden explosion of violence, tore off the vamp’s dangling head.

Both of us were bowled over by the sudden appearance of the werebear. He barely squeezed through my doorway, before he was off and lumbering toward the vampyre who’d wounded him. Bellowing at Yu Li to move out of the way, he mauled the other vampyre’s head off with one blunt paw. Bellowing again, this time in pain from his deep wounds, he collapsed in the middle of the hall.

A sudden scrabbling of footsteps echoed at the end of the hallway. I wouldn’t have picked it up if I hadn’t been Wolf.

Someone was watching us!

A vampyre scout
.
Assigned to sit back and watch the outcome of the battle.
Yu Li’s blue eyes flickered over me, not unsympathetically.
Maya will know this is one of our safe houses now.

She already knew
. I tried to reassure myself that nothing important had been lost, but I still felt sick to my stomach. I’d rescinded Khyber’s invitation to enter my home, true, but just the thought that more of these bloodsuckers could be lurking outside, posing as the pizza boy, or the postal woman…

A low whimper in the corner. Thaksin swept past me, human once more. “He live. Good dog!”

I blinked in amazement. Saja was already up and sniffing Thaksin’s blood-soaked hand. Yu Li and I locked gazes.

Careful
, she said.
That dog should be dead.

I know
.

“Hiroshi no live.” Thaksin’s lidless eyes blinked rapidly. For a moment, we all stared in silence at the man with the shadow of a bear.

My neighbor’s door clicked. Yu Li stepped up neatly to press against it, while Thakshin and I carried the remains inside. She bolted in after us, and we all sat with hearts pounding, backs against the door, hardly daring to believe that we’d gotten away with it. The commotion outside swelled; now that there was no danger, my neighbors felt brave enough to shed their fear in favor of anger.

Later, Thakshin left to go bring Hiroshi’s body back to his clan. Yu Li helped me clean up.

“I can’t believe you found me so fast,” I choked out.

“This is my district,” she replied. “I lost contact with Thaksin and Hiroshi. Then I received your message and knew where to find them.” She scrubbed at the bloodstains on the floor. “You didn’t expect me, did you?”

My cheeks burned. “I thought Rafael would have come—”

“The
juin-nim
is reevaluating Rafael’s relationship with you. You were in his charge, and he let harm come to you.” Her eyes flickered for the briefest of seconds to my missing finger. “You are easily swayed by his ideals. Rafael should have known better.”

“He didn’t sway me. I wanted to go to Eve, too.”

“You would be stupid to broadcast that.”

“You’re helping me over your boyfriend?”

Yu Li tossed the blood-soaked cloth in the trash bag. “My boyfriend. I love Rafael. More than love, I admire him. I want to strangle him sometimes, but there is no man I admire more. But I can’t control him. Now, he got himself into a big mess. He must get himself out. That will prove to me…if I can still be with him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Foolish girl. Look at you. You thought he cared for you, and look at the danger he put you in.” Yu Li’s eyes challenged me to contradict her. The way she said it made me know she more than suspected my crush. “How do I know he won’t do that to me? To my son?”

“We’re fighting a war!” I heard myself echoing Rafael’s words. “He didn’t ask anything of me that I didn’t sign up for! I can’t be locked up in a cabinet like the newest china!”

“Does Rafael know how to live outside the war?”

Her question followed me around the room as we finished cleaning in silence.

“There.” I shifted the couch over one irritating blood spot that refused to come out. “They’ll never be able to tell the difference.”

Yu Li hoisted up two trash bags full of unpleasant contents: dead vampyre. She still managed to make them look as fashionable as purses. “This time. You should leave them.”

“Who?”

“Your family. If you really love them, you’ll leave and go far, far away.”

I stayed silent, stroking the head of a mournful Saja curled up in his dog bed. For once, he actually stayed still. I was fast losing my courage as Yu Li approached the door, but at the last second, I blurted out the question: “The vampyres said something about me not accepting an invitation. Do you know what that’s about?”

She looked at me calmly. “Of course not. Do not listen to the vampyres entreating you with false promises of peace. You’re their enemy. Expect only lies.”

I gave a shaky sigh after she left. I hadn’t said anything about peace promises.

Chapter 6: A Most Surprising Invitation

My sneakers thudded on concrete as I made my way down the stairs to the pack’s usual hang-out: Jaehoon’s home school. Saja scampered ahead of me. The dog did earn his keep after all: I’d been able to slip out of the house by telling Mami we were going on a walk. A long walk. One I wasn’t sure I’d return from, if the pack knew what I thought they did.

Wolf didn’t warm up to Saja. It pined away unhappily in the back of my mind, whining over the unnatural smell. I ignored It.

Deserted. Tables were folded up neatly against the wall; an overflowing box of Maxim coffee packets sat in the corner. No rice cake crumbs or any other sign that anyone had been here for weeks. Something…didn’t smell right. I hugged myself in the center of the room.

Saja’s low growl made me jump. I dug my fingers into his fur just as the lights went out, drowning the room in pitch-blackness. My eyes snapped into focus, peeling back the shadows to reveal a world of whites and grays. I didn’t like this. Whistling sharply to Saja, we left.

I knew we were in trouble when we stepped out into the street, and the sun was a red sliver between buildings. The light fled before the impending march of winter, so quick and fleeting that it was hard to remember its warmth. I bundled my scarf around my face, and then I saw it—the vampyre watching me from the mouth of the building.

How was it awake? There was still an hour left until sunset. At least it seemed unwilling to venture from its lair. It simply watched me, head cocked.

I gave Saja a stern jerk on his leash. Yes, Yu Li had warned me to keep an eye on him after his miraculous recovery, a feat both strange and unsettling, but anyone who hated vampyres was a friend in my book.

The vampyre beckoned. It was the first time I’d seen one of those things do something non-violent. I stayed resolutely in my shrinking circle of light.

“What do you want?”

“Wolf-girl, why don’t you answer the Queen’s invitation?”

Wolf was going crazy, picking up other vampyre presences from the surrounding buildings. A cold frost stole over my heart. The Weres’ headquarters had been transformed into a sleeping vampyre nest. When had this happened? How could Jaehoon have let this happen? Where did the Weres stand in the war? Were we…losing?

“I never received any invitation.”

“You did. We delivered it to your pack. We heard no word back.”

As twilight’s shadow soldiers advanced, another vampyre appeared in the alley behind me. Then another in the apartment next door—its face pressed against the glass. Saja squirmed around my legs, frantically trying to determine how best to protect me.

“Trust me. I never got your invitation. I would have remembered balling it up and throwing it at your feet.”

The vampyre paused. “Then shall I relay to my Queen that you have no intention of meeting with her at the palace to discuss a peace treaty?”

I gaped. So much for concealing my emotions. “I can…meet your queen on the home turf? You’ll take me there?”

“Yesssss.” The vampyre was losing patience. “This is an honor, you mutt. No other Were has stepped foot in the Vampyre Court for a century. You are the least of the worthy, but your rash clan leaders have started a war out of misunderstanding. You will visit the court of vampyres in Eve for Lunar New Year, the second new moon after the winter solstice. Queen Maya hopes the new year can mark a new night in the history of Weres and vampyres, one in which we both will have a place in her twilight kingdom.”

“She wants to talk to
me
about this?”

“You have a family member who is part of the vampyre coven: your sister, Marisol. And you are young and untainted by the clans’ views. You are a good representative.”

My heart quickened. “Your sister,” not “sister
s
.” That was good news about Raina, wasn’t it? And an invitation to bypass all the fruitless searching and skip right to the elusive Vampyre Court? My body would be—somewhat—safe if the meeting took place in Eve. This was my ticket to saving Raina. Why the hell hadn’t the pack told me about it? Why had Rafael kept it from me?