I should have known. How often had I seen Rafael talk back to Jaehoon, his own creator? I’d laughed it off then because Rafael and I had been on the same team. Now I wondered how Jaehoon had ever held back.
I had to get out of here, or else Demon would take over again. Miao looked at the wisps of smoke curling from my fingernails curiously. That was the last thing I needed reported back to Xiang: Not only was the pack in shambles, but the “Alpha” was a dangerous Triad whose mind could fall apart at any second.
Kaelan raised his bowl. “No talk of missions tonight. Let’s make a toast to Ae Cha. She would have killed in the obstacle course. You boys with me?”
Everyone raised their bowls solemnly. I fell into the background, unobserved and forgotten, as the men turned to talk of other things. The women headed to the makeshift dance floor. Even Bae was engaged in a deep conversation about “tire rotators,” from what I could make out. I dragged my Alpha tail out the back of the tent. A hurt little girl.
A kitchen boy handed me a bottle of makgeolli. The alcohol was flowing faster than water tonight. I gulped it down greedily on the beach, and Wolf and Demon finally faded into a dark shadow staining the back of my mind.
Musical laughter and thudding footsteps echoed amongst the beach reeds. Hot pain scalded the back of my throat: Rafael and Miao. Clad in little more than swimsuits. He was holding her; she was laughing, throwing back her head as he twirled her beneath a sea of stars.
I clumsily tried to get to my feet and fell. Both Weres heard, of course. Miao grabbed Rafael’s face and tried to turn him back to her.
“Why worry? It is only some drunk. The beach will have many of them.”
“You should go back to your friends.” Rafael stood rigid and alert. I shivered as the wind rustled across my skin, carrying my scent back to him. “I want to be alone tonight.”
Miao rolled her eyes. “They were right about you. You break the hearts of many women, two in your own pack. Good riddance.”
Rafael said nothing. She left him gazing out at the black sea.
I crawled with as much dignity as I could back toward the tents. Then a hand, warm and gentle, touched my shoulder.
“Citlalli?”
I still shivered when he said my name.
Rafael swished the near-empty bottle with a slight smile. “Haven’t gotten any better at drinking, I see.”
“You haven’t gotten any better with women.”
His face darkened with anger.
“Go home. Shouldn’t you be with your sister? The one who’s afraid of the night?” He kicked at the sand, and I saw his Wolf flash in his eyes. “The one you stopped the war for?”
“Shouldn’t you be hunting Khyber?” I snapped. “Instead of destroying the pack your creator worked so hard to keep?”
“Yeah,” Rafael growled through white lips, “Jaehoon was my creator. Not yours. Don’t think you get a free pass on this, just because you’re a Triad. Why the hell did he choose you over me?”
Our wolves lunged at each other. I hit him hard across the jaw first, but then my vision went blurry with tears. I was so angry with him. For making me—and then abandoning me when I needed him most.
I didn’t see him hit me back, but then I was knocked head-over-heels into the sand bank. Rafael charged in. My legs lashed out in defense, catching him in the groin. He winced; I sprang on him in a frenzy of bared teeth and scratching fingers, seeking his eyes. I pounded my elbow into the soft spot on his temple.
His head slumped. I hesitated. Had I gone too far?
Suddenly, in one lightning-swift move, Rafael flipped me over and then pinned me, burying my face in the sand. I gasped for breath. Faker.
His entire weight crushed me beneath him, and I clawed the sand in frustration. Why could I never beat him? He’d once told me it was a creator thing: Rafael had made me and then taught me, so he could read my muscle movements. He could catch the slightest flash of fear in my eye—and act on it.
I felt his fingers slide through my black curls. Rafael’s breath was hot on the back of my neck as he leaned in. I could feel my entire body shaking as his lips brushed my ear:
“I am hunting. Khyber is tethered to this life. He will never die while tied to his life partner, the ones the Dark Spirits cursed to suffer along with him…”
His fingers twined around my bathing suit straps. My mouth went dry.
Rafael fell down next to me, hiding his face in his hands. “You! Why did they choose you?”
I reached for him tentatively. “Rafael—”
My fingers skimmed his, only to disappear into his fist as he yanked me toward him. I thudded against his bare chest, feeling the heat of his skin set mine on fire. For a moment, we stared at each other in amazement, as if surprised that we would ever find ourselves in this position again. Then a shadow of his face chased away the stars.
He kissed me forcefully, rolling me over so he could prowl across my body. His fingers caressed the sensitive skin of my neck, my shoulders, and then the V-line of my chest. I gasped as he teasingly stroked my breasts through the lacey fabric of my swimsuit. Rafael flashed a dangerous grin before he leaned in, his jagged brown hair tickling my nose.
Wolf growled in approval. My lower hand braced itself against the tattoo of a compass inked out across his lean abs as his warm hands slid beneath the straps of my bikini top, and then lower. I arched up to brush his lips with mine, suddenly hungry. Our teeth and tongues tangled together until we were panting, and still, I wanted more.
He pulled away suddenly. I blinked to keep him in focus.
“You kiss differently now.”
“Well, it’s been a while…” My fingers ran over the taut, scarred muscle of his upper chest and then tugged at the strings of his board shorts.
“Sure, I guess.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But I remember exactly… Who else have you been kissing?”
“Would you like to hear the full list?” Demon asked, unabashed of Her conquests. I shoved Her away and reached for Rafael.
“I—I really don’t remember—”
“I missed my chance, didn’t I?” Rafael shoved himself to his feet. “It wasn’t just kissing.”
My face burned. “That was all you were interested in?”
“Seriously, Citlalli? I could get sex anywhere, and from much more experienced—”
“Fuck you.”
Rafael raised his hands. “Look, I know there’s a lot of shit going on with us politically right now. But I meant what I said back in the winter cottage, that night of the last Were War battle. Lunar New Year. Do you even remember what I said?”
I stared back at him suspiciously. I said things, too.
“I’m not the type of guy who makes false declarations of love, or whatever.” Rafael glared off darkly. “I’ve always been honest with you. You knew where I stood about Khyber. You knew where I stood about everything, and I still do. Especially with where I stand about you.”
I snorted, struggling to stand as well. “Okay. Let me tell you where that is. You are standing away from me. And your back is turned.”
“You know what to do to change that,” he retorted just as hotly. We glowered at one other, each daring the other to back down.
“Citlalli?” a softer feminine voice interrupted us. We turned to see Yu Li’s thin silhouette illuminated by the moon. She was hugging a willow-patterned robe around herself.
“Bae said he see you go to beach.” Her words came out in a stumble.
“Yu Li…” Rafael brushed sand from his board shorts and looked back and forth between us. I felt stupid and drunk.
“Thank you for looking after the Alpha, Rafael-ssi,” Yu Li said in a dangerously calm voice. “I will see her home now.”
I didn’t see him leave. I remembered our harsh breathing in the darkness, and then I saw our hotel up ahead, flickering with cranky neon lights.
“Citlalli,” Yu Li said slowly, “I know this isn’t my place to say this. But I think you shoul
d know: You must be very careful, with Rafael.”
“He seemed open tonight, Yu Li!” I forged ahead excitedly. “Receptive. I think he’ll come back to us—”
“Back to you,” she cut me off bluntly. “That’s what he wants you to think. I’m worried, Citlalli, that Rafael will pretend to have feelings for you…to take over the pack.”
Immediate protests welled up only to fall back down with a thud. I was beginning to creep beyond the makgeolli haze, and the stars brightened with clarity. It seemed surreal that I had really been sprawled out on that moonlit beach, making out with Rafael and feeling his long, lithe body push against mine while his hands touched me with such longing…
“Why do you care, Yu Li?” I opted for boredom. “He’s your ex-boyfriend. Shouldn’t you be wishing both of us the worst?”
“Yes. In the past, I have greatly disliked you.” Shock of the century. “However, I agree with you about ending the Were War. Too much blood has been shed, and we wolves are too few. The Lady of Eve will return balance to the spirit world. Also, if I am going to be dating your older brother, then that makes you my sister. And I am your unni.”
Fewer things could wake me up quicker than that. “Wait, what?”
“Miguel has not spoken with you?” I knew mock surprise when I saw it. “We met in the last battle of the Were War. I rescued him from the snows. He impressed me very much with his courage. Also, he tells many jokes—” She gave a small smile, a rarity for Yu Li. “He makes Young Soo laugh.”
I was drunker than I thought. No freakin’ way. Miguel knew full well how I felt about Yu Li. Had he conveniently forgotten how she’d tormented me when I’d been the lowly omega of the pack? Had he completely overlooked Una?
But all I could manage was: “He’s already met your son?”
“Yes, he will be a good role model for him. Young Soo can grow more confident in his English. And of course, your brother is, how do you say? Hot. So very hot.”
“Okay, stop, stop, STOP!”
Wolf rolled over playfully, Its pink tongue flopping from Its mouth, and Demon was amused. I now knew why Miguel “had” to work during the Boryeong Mud Festival.
“Miguel’s a good role model, you say.” I paused. “Do you know what he did back in America?”
“Yes, people hired him to do their taxes.” Yu Li gave a brisk nod. “Good at math. Another admirable quality.”
Yes, I’m sure he was the accountant of the little gang he ran around with. I started to laugh. I laughed so hard that I cried. I was doing way too much of that tonight. To hell with makgeolli.
“Why do you laugh?”
I couldn’t answer. Miguel had dug his own grave on this one. And I was…surprised. Yeah, he’d been slow to realize how Una felt about him, even up until the end, but after her sacrifice…that deserved more than a tip of the hat in thanks. Sure, Fred was one of the scarier spirits of Eve, but my brother still had his liver, thanks to Una. I expected more from him.
Yu Li scowled. “Insufferable,” she spat with perfect pronunciation. “You are insufferable, Citlalli.”
“I know Miguel didn’t teach you that one,” I muttered.
“No, your sister Daniella did.” Yu Li gave another smile. “I like this Daniella. She is very smart and a good teacher. And I like this word ‘insufferable.’ It is my new favorite English word.”
“Wait, so now you’ve met Daniella, too?” I gapped. Talk about going behind my back. “Fuckin’ insufferable.”
“Not the correct usage,” Yu Li had the nerve to chide. “We’ll work on it when I come over to your apartment.”
I was ready to catch the next bus back to Seoul right then and there to murder my brother in his sleep, but I’d already paid for one more day at the Mud Festival. A gigantic obstacle course had been arranged, complete with a tug-of-war at the end, and I had a feeling I’d have some anger to burn.
So I said, “Goodnight, unni,” instead, and Yu Li was so pleased to be called older sister that she embraced me in an awkward hug that clanged our collar bones together. I took one last look out at the beach. I could still see a lone silhouette down by the water.
Chapter 7: The Pearl
~Raina~
I dreamed of Eve again. The place of my nightmares. The spirit realm in-between where animals spoke, objects moved on command, and my friend Colleen had died. I had been spirited away to Eve by the Vampyre Queen and learned that I had been “chosen” along with forty others to become vampyre brides. I had then been forced to compete against my fellow captives for the hand of one of her seven beautiful but heartless sons. I couldn’t remember another time I had felt so utterly helpless, until my water powers had come to my aid. After Citlalli had helped me and five other survivors come back to the waking world, I had vowed never to return to Eve again.
Yet it continued to visit me.
In my dream, I gazed down on an old fishing shack on an unknown island surrounded by foreboding green haze. Elderly Korean women in diving gear plunged into the frothy sea and came up holding wonders: coral-encrusted necklaces, abalone mirrors, gold rings. My older sister Daniella had told me stories about this unique older island generation who could dive deep and hold their breath for several minutes: they were haenyeo, the sea women.
Gentle rain cleaned my eyes and trickled down the ridges of my scales in rivers. The moon shone through the delicate snowflake pattern on my wings. I circled up and around, my head looping through my sapphire coils in excitement. What fun those divers must be having! They had found treasure fit for a queen!
However, as I flew closer, I realized the haenyeo were frightened. Overseeing them was a haetae pride, the half-lion, half-dog guardians of justice who could eat fire—and other stuff, like human flesh. However, these haetae looked different than the statues I had seen in Seoul. Their faces were twisted in demonic grins and their eyes glowed eerie green in the dark. The women glanced at them and then grimly returned to their task, littering the gravelly shore with barrels of treasure.
One silver-haired woman emerged from the depths farther out. She raised her snorkel mask and gazed upon the precious stone in her palm warily: it was a gleaming white pearl. I saw her muscles tense, and she attempted to throw the pearl away. However, a haetae spotted her and sent out a warning call.
Instantly, the strange mists overhead collected into fanged faces, which were terrible to behold. The largest mist-monster bore down upon the helpless diver with a bottomless mouth that sucked up both the woman and the pearl.
“Well?”
I cartwheeled backwards in shock. Revulsion whip-lashed me like a wave. I watched the gleaming blond head of Donovan, scheming third son to the Queen who had tried to make me his wife, emerge from the fishing hut. I was a mighty water dragon, and it was all I could do not to turn tail and flee before he hurt me again. The doctors had told me what had been done to my mortal body while my spirit was trapped in the spirit world. I’d forbidden them from releasing that information to anyone else.
The mist-monster blurred for a moment, as if chewing, and then spat out the pearl. The old woman didn’t reappear.
“It is not the one.” Donovan kicked the pearl into a chest with a trove of others. Two limp wings clung to his shoulder blades—not feathery white ones, but ugly skin wings webbed with black veins. A gift from some Dark Spirit, no doubt. Rafael had destroyed Donovan’s real white wings long ago, but the vampyre prince had maintained them as an illusion before the Vampyre Court. I had discovered that the illusion was actually his long-lost soul. I’d captured his soul for Khyber to destroy with his death touch, in order to sever Donovan’s tie with immortality. Now Donovan could die.
The thought made my eyes smolder with hunger.
“Do you see what happens when you don’t do as we ask?” Donovan berated the silently bobbing haenyeo. “Now you must complete the task with fewer numbers. Hurry up and don’t play games. I have someone else to attend to.”
And to my horror, he turned and smiled. �
�Raina, dearest. I knew you couldn’t stay away.”
I wilted when he crooned my name, and not in a good way. I felt crushed, humiliated, and clogged by an ugly sliminess that built a tower up to my throat. How dare he speak to me after what he’d done. How dare he even look in my direction—
But he did. And his gaze undressed me from a fierce armor-clad dragon down to a frightened little girl. I bellowed and fled.
“Seize her!” I heard Donovan command. The barking haetae gave chase below, and the mists surrounded me faster than huntsmen cornering a fox. I saw two holes for eyes and a cavernous throat appear. The demon’s wings beat amidst the shadows in a symphony of thumps like an insect’s, and its barbed tails swished menacingly.
A bolt of lightning struck the demon from out of nowhere. For one moment, I beheld the mist-monster fully illuminated in all of its awful glory: It looked like a horse-headed snake with six wings and twelve tails. Its skin drooped over its bones because it was so hungry.
Then a young green dragon with soft, feathery wings and playful eyes the color of rich soil shot down in a blur. She skillfully bobbed in and out of the monster’s slashing tails and then fired another bolt of lightning directly in its face.
“Yah! Come on!” she yelled at me, ducking a slice from the monster’s wing. “I’m not Godzilla; I can’t make more lightning in time! Are you a water dragon or what?”
The watery resolve in my chest solidified into something heavy. And hopefully lethal. I wasn’t that helpless little girl anymore.
I called on the winds to funnel my blast of rain at the mist-monster. Its mouth widened in a silent scream. It tried to claw its way through, but my storm was too strong. The gale whipped the monster back out to sea.
The green dragon joined me. She drew up and sent forth another lightning bolt. It streaked through my thunderstorm and electrocuted the demon until it dropped dead and charred from the sky.
“Just kidding,” she said with a wink. “I would not leave our fate to newborn imugi.”
Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) Page 5
