Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (5 page)

“The third piece of your soul. A part of Wolf breaking off into Demon after It jumped in the way to save you from Fred.”

“And that third part’s way worse than a beast, let me tell you that.” Citlalli bit her lip. “She just goes after what She wants, Raina. She makes up Her mind that She wants to fuck a boy, and then,
bam
. I’m fucking him. No matter how many people She had to hurt to get there.”

“Oh my God, Citlalli.” My eyes glittered with tears. “All those boys. You didn’t want to—”

She looked at me, my bold, sometimes crass older sister, who’d bragged about all of the sex positions she would invent, about all of the hearts she would break. “You know I never wanted
them
, Raina.”

Rafael
. I wisely didn’t bring him up.

“Oh, don’t go looking like a puppy’s been put down.” She began scrubbing herself down vigorously with sand. As if she could rub the demon out of her skin. “At least the bitch has good taste. I imagine it would be fun—with someone you actually cared about.” She flicked her thick black curls over her shoulder. “That’s how it’s going to be for you. Right, Raina? All of those evil-ass vampyre princes wanted some action, but they never— After Maya stole your soul, Donovan didn’t—”

“Nope,” I said quickly. “Had one of those pap smears, and, erm, I’m good. The castle has not been breached.” The smile felt forced, and I was blushing horribly. Yes. I was the seventeen-year-old who hated talking about sex.

“
Good
.” Beneath her thick curtain of hair, I could see that Citlalli was smiling. Really smiling. “That’s good to hear, Raina. You’ll have to give me the number to your clinic.” She sighed. “I have an appointment of my own to make.”

Only after she left to get us some
patbingsu
did my smile fade.

There were some battles I had to fight on my own.

***

Daniella left Citlalli a scathing voicemail worthy of an upcoming mother. The whole subway could hear it. The nearby group of ajummas looked impressed.

From Yu Li, there was a courteous “get well” message. From Rafael, nothing. Citlalli didn’t mention it, but I knew that hurt worse.

She clicked her phone shut. “Damn. When are we going to tell Daniella that we have incredible shapeshifting powers?”

“Do you want to drag Dani into this when five out of eight vampyre princes are still out there?” I asked mildly. “She and Hosuk are safe in America helping Papi through AA.”

Citlalli shrugged, popping her gum obnoxiously loudly. “True. There’s still a giant, fanged, shapeshifting war going on. At least one sister in the Alvarez family should be blessed with blissful ignorance, a normal job, and a hottie boyfriend. God knows the rest of us are doomed. And when are
you
going to tell your father that you want to start learning about
your
incredible powers? That pretty calligraphy letter can’t stay on our kitchen table forever.”

“He’s going to need to give me some space.” I shut my eyes to block out the looming family crest intertwined with the fiery red beast.
Yong.
Dragon.
“There are swim meets coming up, university exams to prepare for… I can’t do it all, Citlalli.”

“I know,” she said softly, staring out at the tunnel rushing by. “I need you, too. So I don’t go crazy.”

We both sagged against each other, her iron-muscled arm the only reason I didn’t fall.

Mami let Citlalli know she’d been fired through text message:

I understand your circumstances,
mija,
but there is no earthly reason I can give to cover for you. The staff must understand that this type of behavior will not be tolerated—by anyone.

I watched my sister’s face grow whiter and whiter.

“That does it,” she said suddenly. “Call Yu Li. I’ll round up the rest of the pack. I’m the Alpha, and I’ve decided we need a goddamn vacation.”

Chapter 5: The Mud Festival

~Citlalli~

I stood high atop a water slide overlooking the golden East Sea and banners fluttering from rows of white tents on the carnival grounds. The air tasted of salt and fish, and the ocean was filled with the bobbing heads of beachgoers. I inhaled deeply. This was what I needed.

I launched myself head-first down the slide—much to the dismay of a groaning Bae behind me.

Rushing water roared in my ears as I was sucked down the chute. My mind was lost in delirious joy at the speed and the sheer vertical drop. I shot into the puddle of mud at the bottom.

“PIG PILE!” A dark shape flashed over my head, and my fist flew out instinctively. The next thing I knew, a stocky New Zealander was groaning in the mud beside me, covering his left eye.

Four of the New Zealander’s mud-caked friends stood nearby, staring at me in amazement.

“Hey!” They pumped their hands in the air. “Did you see that? Knocked Connor straight out.”

“You should jump in the mud-wrestling pit, girlie,” Connor slurred beside me in his thick Kiwi accent.

“Been there. Done that!” I sprang free from the mud and sauntered off as cockily as one could when slogging through a foot of clay-red mud. Only when I felt significantly lost amongst the throngs of carnival-goers did my grin fade.

“Oh, Citlalli.” Raina stood with Yu Li by the Mud Painting Tent, in which they’d spent the last half-hour meticulously decorating their bodies in pastel pink, blue, and green mud. Their glossy black hair gleamed in perfect condition. In turn, I looked like a savage emerged from the swamp, gray mud swallowing up my bathing suit all the way to the roots of my wild curls.

Raina covered her mouth to keep from laughing. Yu Li was less amused.

“
Alpha
,” she stressed, “I know the Boryeong Mud Festival is a time for fun, but you do know we are here to represent our pack. Not roll around in the mud like children.”

“
Beta
,” I replied. Usually, all pack members were on a first-name basis, but I just liked reminding her of where she stood in the alphabet. “Beating their chests and rolling around in the mud is what men do best. I’m just bonding with Bae and
Kaelan
. You know, Kaelan the Irish fellow—the only pack member to witness Jaehoon passing on the title of Alpha to me?”

She raised a striped eyebrow. “And where is Kaelan?”

Bae caught up at that point to unhelpfully add: “I see Rafael
sunsaeng-nim
ask Kaelan to drink the
makgeolli
together.”

Rice wine. A traditional bonding drink to laugh and share good times with. I glared at Bae. “Don’t call Rafael ‘teacher.’ He’s a pack breaker.”

“And if he wins Kaelan over to his side, then the stalemate is broken.” Yu Li’s eyes darted to mine, wariness hardening her features at the name of the man we both loved.
Had
loved. “He wins.”

I gazed off into the angry glare of the sun. It dipped over the sea to cast everything in a bloody light. I always felt a queer tremor run down my spine when night approached. I didn’t feel safe. Not when the vampyre princes Khyber and Donovan were still out there. Not when tensions were mounting along the DMZ after the North Korean military had “accidentally” sunk another South Korean ship.

Not when the pack—
my
pack—wasn’t unified to face it.

Dealing with Demon had been a definite set-back, but the problems had started long before that. When my first command as Alpha hadn’t been to serve up exiled Vampyre Prince Khyber’s head on a plate, Rafael had split from the Seoul werewolf pack. And he had taken intelligent Moon, strong Namkyu, and bitter Iseul, grieving over the loss of her close pack mate, Ae Cha, with him.

I’d thought it would be a brief separation. I understood: I was an eighteen-year-old foreigner, and I hadn’t exactly gotten off on a smooth footing with the pack.

But I’d always thought that out of all the werewolves, it would be Rafael, my creator, my teacher, my first love, who would step up to support me as Alpha. I’d been sure that with time, Rafael would grow as tired of the Were War against the vampyres as I was. He would put his obsessive crusade to kill Khyber on the back burner. Not because it was wrong—I fully understood the need to destroy the murderer responsible for ending his mother and sister’s lives—but because thanks to the malicious Dark Spirits, I was cursed to a life bond with Khyber. As long as I lived, so did he. To kill Khyber meant to end me. Rafael had done nothing to suggest he wasn’t against that.

It hurt. I’d thought…he would choose me over revenge.

I scowled. So what if I’d been left with Bae, our resident omega who had once lost a fight to a particularly violent alley cat, and Yu Li, Rafael’s ex-girlfriend who had clashed with me as often as she had vampyres?

God knew the only reason Yu Li was sticking around was to feed information to the rebel pack, but really, what did it matter? I had Kaelan, didn’t I? He had been with me that last terrible battle in the spirit world of Eve. He had been there when our old Alpha, Jaehoon, had bravely taken the lead over a cursed bridge and fallen to his death. Kaelan had also witnessed Jaehoon passing on the tooth necklace of the Alphas to me:
“Do not lose the necklace I gave you, Citlalli.”
His word kept
my
pack the official one in the eyes of the International Were Council.

Kaelan had changed after Ae Cha’s death. The Irishman’s laughter was harder now; his sense of humor black. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking anymore. How long would he follow me, “the Fire Wolf”? His own daughter had been a prisoner of the Vampyre Queen Maya during the Were War, just like my sister Raina. However, his daughter hadn’t made it. She had died to protect Raina. Would Kaelan be tired of war and death like I was, or would he set himself on fire with it as Rafael had done—eating, drinking, breathing flame until he consumed himself?

The mud mask suddenly felt unbearably tight against my face. “Which way did Kaelan and Rafael go?” I asked Bae impatiently.

He blinked, and then pointed back toward our hotel. Bae understood way more English than he let on, but he was too shy to speak it most of the time. I knew the feeling. I’d gone through the same thing myself, minus the “understanding way more Korean than I let on,” part.

“If you’re going by the hotel, then I’ll come, too,” Raina said in a rush. “Early night for me.”

“Are you sure, Raina?” Yu Li asked kindly. “Some of us are going to the concert tonight. It is a nice, family event. Many lights. You’re welcome to come.”

“Maybe another time.” Raina’s smile twitched. “It’s going to take forever to get all of this mud off.”

I slipped an arm around her thin shoulder without a word. My younger sister doesn’t like it when night falls, either.

Yu Li snorted. “Even with mud, you look very polished and refined. It is too bad you are not a wolf. The pack could use you.”

“Nope, I’m just a water dragon.” We looked at each other and grinned. Bae shook his head, not wanting to understand.

We jumped into the ocean for a quick rinse and then threaded our way back through the legions of Koreans and foreigners alike screaming, running, and splashing through the mud. I walked Raina back to the Iris Room in our beachfront hotel, rolled out a sleeping mat for her, and then turned on every single light. I offered to watch TV with her until she fell asleep, but she shoved me away, laughing.

“Citlalli! Rafael already stole your heart, and now you’re letting him steal your pack! Go! But if you bring me back some barbequed clams, I’ll love you forever.”

“Thanks.” I slid my phone screen open. Four text messages.

“Oh, are those from Minho?” Raina rolled over on the bed. “Persistent.”

“I can’t face him ever again. Stupid Demon. She’ll cut off half of the eligible population.” I squatted by my luggage and took out a lantern, which was crafted of delicate buttercup-yellow papier-mâché. “Here. This is a special lantern I made in the workshop. It’s called a sunshine lantern. It chases shadows away.”

My old friend, the Chinese lantern maker Zhi Renshu, had given the spirit world Lantern Shop to me after I’d shown him how to move on. I hoped that wherever he was now, he’d reunited with his brother, the original lantern-making talent.

“It’s from There?” Raina looked at the sunshine lantern, but made no move to touch it.

“Not everything in Eve is bad, Raina.” Easy for me to say. I’d had the freedom to run around the spirit world, not be locked in a creepy palace with a mad vampyre queen. “The White Tiger rules Eve now. She’s changed things. You should see it. Everything is beautiful and blossoming with summer.”

“I’m sure it is.”

I left the lantern at the foot of her bed.

Outside, my faithful shadow, Bae, gazed at me sympathetically.

“She’s getting better,” I told him. “She spent several months locked in Eve, where it was never daylight. The first time the sun set after the rescue, she just flat-out bolted. Found her in the bathtub rocking back and forth, with a damn moonflower clutched to her chest.”

He didn’t understand, but he touched my hand anyhow.

“We’ll work our way back,” I told myself. “Someday, Raina will stop being afraid of the dark.”

Chapter 6: Drinking Makgeolli

~Citlalli~

Men crowded the bar stools in the tent, laughing and toasting each other with shots of soju. Steam hissed from juicy strings of clam fat barbequing on the fryer. I saw the New Zealanders devouring large bowls of
bibimbap
, mixed seasonal vegetables and white rice swimming in red-hot chili pepper sauce.

Rafael and Kaelan dominated the center table of the tent, lifting bowls overflowing with the milky-white makgeolli rice wine and then gulping them down together. They’d attracted emissaries from the wereleopards of Cambodia, several painted goshawk women from China, and one graying Japanese werebear. Maya, the soul-eating Vampyre Queen who had haunted their lives since the Korean War, was dead. Of her eight feared children, three of the vampyre princes had been slain and the rest routed. The rare White Tiger, the daughter of the original Lady of Eve, had returned to the throne of Eve. She had liberated the enslaved ghosts. There was much to celebrate, and our fellow Weres weren’t in any hurry to return to their own nations. Not when there was mud to be played in.