The vampyres and the villagers on the beach went still. Moments passed. Finally, Ankor emerged, his black hair dripping as he stared down at an object in his palm. I swam close enough to see: It was a white pearl, tinted with a hint of rosebud pink. When Ankor tilted it under the moonlight, the pearl’s surface rippled like a snow globe, giving a glimpse of doorways into other worlds. It was such flawless, symmetrical purity… How could something so perfect be the destructive opposite of the Yeouiju?
“La Perle de la Mort,” Donovan whispered. He stumbled into the ocean, and salt water rose up to his calves. Oblivious, the vampyre prince extended a hand. “Give it here, ore imugi.”
Ankor’s gaze was pure contempt as it swept from Donovan to the hungry vampyres on shore. Then he backed up deeper into the sea. His black eyes began to swirl with the flows of eventide, and I realized what he was about to do.
“Ankor! Don’t do it!” My vocal cords were still weak after Santiago’s attack, but the wind shifted to carry my voice to him. The Autumn Dragon stopped, staring at me over the frothing waves.
“Citlalli?”
“We came all this way to rescue you.” I gave up fighting my way through the current and gave the dragon prince a small smile. “Give us a chance to do that.”
A shadow fell across my face, and then Donovan touched down between us, gnashing his teeth.
“So. My brother’s pet dog still lives,” he sneered, his turquoise eyes relishing the sight of my bitten neck and burnt hands. “Or should I say…his little demon? Dying and rising again, getting so much blood on your hands that your skin can’t be washed clean… Just what do you think that makes you, Citlalli Alvarez, if not one of us?”
I heard the breath of wings descend. Then a voice as cool and depthless as the sea gave a chilling reply: “She is my sister.”
The dark waters of the tiny cove began to spin in a whirlpool as none other than Raina cut through the mist with her leathery wings. Violet smoke poured from her nostrils to dance around her amethyst eyes. I caught a glimpse of her feet—three-toed.
But the waves still mirrored her movements. Raina hovered over the ocean with thunder rumbling in her chest. “And your fight is not with her. It is with me.”
Chapter 52: Battle of the Southern Isles
~Citlalli~
Donovan blanched at the sight of the fully-manifested water dragon and took flight. He seized the flute from his belt and swung it; instantly, it shimmered into the form of a gleaming, curved sabre. Before Ankor could defend, the vampyre prince struck the ore imugi’s hand that held the False Yeouiju. The pearl flew into the air, and Donovan shot forth to catch it with his protective gloves before it was lost to the depths again.
Stealing a glance back at the vengeful Raina, Donovan fled across the rain-smattered sea toward the summit of Seongsan Ilchulbong.
“Kill her!” he ordered the weather demons. They rallied to answer his command just as Raina unleashed a streak of violet lightning. The violent flare lit up the bay; the weather demons were fully illuminated as their ribcages shook under the powerful electrocution. Then they dropped burned and charred into the sea.
Chaos erupted on the beach. The stoic haenyeo herded screaming villages for the safety of the hills. My wolf pack shifted and burst free of their bindings, making fresh meat of their former captors on the pier. Meanwhile, the Compañia Rojo shouted and formed ranks, training their rifles on Raina in the storm-tossed sky.
“Raina! Look out!” I cried as Ankor and I swam for shore.
The roar of a second dragon startled the soldiers. Many of their shots went wild, giving Raina time to vanish into the thickening fog. Then Yong Heesu materialized atop the cliffs. Her four gleaming claws held a jet-black pearl that twinkled like starlight. I smiled, shaking my head ruefully. If it couldn’t be Raina, then I was glad it was Heesu.
The Celestial Summer Dragon merely watched as the gun barrels aimed in her direction. Then she raised the Yeouiju high.
Out poured the Elder Life Spirits: I caught a glimpse of fiery red wings as Xu Xiang dive-bombed the nearest cluster of Spooks; a Clouded Leopard leaped her way down the cliff before camouflaging completely with her surroundings; there was a giant Asiatic Black Bear who stood up on her hindquarters at the top of the staircase and then charged; lastly, a large purple Nagi looped her coils down to strangle vampyres who tried to flee.
Then the White Tiger emerged. With one challenging growl that heralded death, the Lady of Eve rallied the spirits of the deep, the earth, and the air. Sea snakes reared their slimy heads up from the waves and then lashed out to drag the firing soldiers underwater; ghostly sea birds descended on the weather demons in a storm of feathers, and all manner of woodland spirits loped after any soldiers who tried to flee.
Ankor crouched by my side behind a pile of driftwood as the supernatural battle raged. “Where is my father?” he asked, peering out.
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry, Scaly. Maybe he got waylaid bringing some super-secret weapon from Yong Enterprises down here. Now, we’ve gotta find your sister. Where are they keeping Sun?”
The Korean boy nodded in the direction I’d dreaded: toward the towering Seongsan Ilchulbong peak.
A group of conquistadors had my wolf pack cornered. Suddenly, a giant black turtle erupted from the surf and crushed them underfoot. The soldiers fired on her in rapid succession, but Una retreated into her shell, and the bullets bounced harmlessly off.
I shifted to Wolf and danced out to greet my pack, barking joyously.
“Alpha! Raf! You’re alive!”
We collided in a frenzy of fur and wagging tails, our tongues lolling out and our noses cold as we nuzzled one another. Rafael’s tail thumped repeatedly against my leg.
“You’re ok. We saw the mist fall, but we never imagined…”
I shied away as the shadowy wings of a vampyre crossed my mind. Now wasn’t the time or place to extol who my partner-in-crime had been.
“I had help.” Panting, I looked from Yu Li to Rafael happily. “The Doorkeeper is back on our side.”
Our remaining pack members hung back. Iseul cocked her head at me.
“Bae?”
My heart beat faster against my ribcage, and I dropped my head. “I don’t know his fate, Iseul-a.”
Yu Li stepped up, her blue eyes hardening like crystals as she surveyed the war-torn beach. “The sea has claimed Bae for now,” the white wolf said. “But it will underestimate him, like so many others do. Bae is a Seoul werewolf. His spirit will always run with our pack, as long as we draw breath.”
Iseul began to howl first. Namkyu’s deep baritone buoyed her song up, and then Yu Li, Moon, and Rafael joined in. I placed my paws on the driftwood and did my best to howl. Ankor drew close to my side, his narrowed eyes darting about the other fully-manifested werewolves with wariness.
A dragon’s hum joined our chorus. It was a haunting sound that carried the sorrow of the deep and the immensity of the sky. Raina padded toward us in a woven rope robe and stopped short to incline her head to Yu Li.
“I am sorry about Bae, Alpha Ahn.”
The white wolf blinked at her. “Komaweoyo. However, it brings my heart joy to see that his sacrifice helped one of our pack members return to us and the Celestial Dragon to rise. The wolves and dragons have created a powerful alliance, Yong Raina. We only wish your father could be here to see it.”
Raina hesitated, her dark eyes straying to Ankor. “I’m sure he will be.”
A landmine erupted further down the beach, sending up showers of sand and vampyre limbs rolling. The Lady of Eve and Una loped toward us.
–You have done well– the White Tiger rumbled. –But the Enemy still holds the False Yeouiju within Seongsan Ilchulbong. And I sense the presence of a Greater Dark Spirit–
Ankor’s face reddened as Her stern gaze brushed his. “They have my sister.”
Una panted, her fingers slick with black blood as she brushed back her hair. “The vampyres have warded the peak
with the Language of Death. I may be able to create a temporary doorway for some of you to slip through, but the Celestial Dragon and the Elder Life Spirits cannot enter without becoming corrupted.”
I shivered at the thought of confronting Xec alone but managed to pull my muzzle back in a snarl. “We will drive them out. Moon, are you okay?”
The small, cinnamon-brown wolf shook her bite wound dismissively. “The leech Santiago did this to me. I am weakened, but I will hold this form for as long as necessary to give him one in return.”
Yu Li nodded around our ring of purposeful faces. “It is decided, then. Kaja!”
Chapter 53: The Death Circle
~Citlalli~
Dark waters swirled around the entrance to the sea cave while the towering peak of Seongsan Ilchulbong arched through the mists forebodingly. The air reeked of decaying flesh saturated with sea brine, and the salt was so strong that it stung my eye.
The Elder Life Spirit Thavi materialized, cautioning us to stop. The clouded leopard disappeared to scout the beach ahead. The only sign she was slipping in and out of space and time was the flick of her spotted tail. In her wake, hidden landmines erupted in a flurry of dark sand. At last, she reappeared on the foothills of the sea castle and gestured us forward. The Lady of Eve flanked us while Xiang soared above. The shouts and clash of battle dulled the closer we approached the peak, swallowed up by the roar of the sea.
Una approached the sea cavern entrance and placed a hand against the wall of hardened ash. A wave rushed up to throw her back. However, a string of familiar ugly characters appeared, engrained not only in the stone but hovering in the air itself. Una stood up, cradling her injured fist, and studied the barrier.
A shiver ran through the Doorkeeper before turtle flesh enveloped her human skin. Then she reached out and unraveled the first character, changing its shape and form into another word entirely. A small tear appeared in the barrier. Working quickly now, Una seized more characters and altered them until they began to slip and slide like puzzle pieces that could no longer fit together.
“Go!” she hissed, her arms shaking under the tension of restraining the inscription’s original form.
I dove headfirst into the flickering doorway with Yu Li and Raina hot on my heels. Rafael and Ankor just managed to make it before the foreboding hoot of an owl rang eerily over the pounding tide. I caught a glimpse of Una’s face, pale with shock, before the death characters reared up like nasty spider legs and twisted free from her grasp. A familiar Dark Spirit appeared behind her. It had a dead man’s grin set within a face as white as rice powder and hollow black eyes that bore into the back of her head.
“Una, look out!” I cried.
Una’s grip on the characters faltered as she glanced over her shoulder. She just managed to shift into her protective turtle form before Xec charged at her, the Dark Spirit’s pale fingers extending into needle-black talons that were eager to rip out her eyes.
“Face Gouger!” Xiang cried from above, recognizing an old foe. “How dare you show yourself here!”
–Wolves! Down! Do not look it in the eye!– the White Tiger commanded and then bounded after the Dark Spirit. Xec smiled and dissolved in a flurry of molting feathers. It appeared in the sky as a gigantic, loathsome, white owl, its beak stained crimson from the blood of others. When it released its mournful song, villages and shifters alike stopped and swayed, their eyes slowly veering upwards.
Xiang’s fierce cry interrupted Xec’s spell. The Red Bird began to smolder with the fury of a phoenix and then crashed into Xec. They tumbled across the sky in a clash of fire and feathers. In the wake of their fury, weather demons hurtled out of their roosts atop Seongsan Ilchulbong toward my exposed pack. The White Tiger leaped to defend them.
“Iseul, you are in charge. Hold the beach,” Yu Li ordered. We just had time to see the sienna wolf nod, and then an avalanche of stones crashed down, burying our exit.
“Well,” Rafael said softly, to no one in particular, “we’re on our own.”
Our Were eyes adjusted to the dark, enough for me to make out Yu Li snort. “Is this what you had in mind when you pictured hunting down the last of the vampyre princes?”
Rafael eyed the tiny lava tube passage uneasily. “Fine, you’re right. This is different. During the Were War, the vampyre princes made themselves known, exposed. Now that they have chosen to retreat and strike from the shadows…this is when they will be at their most dangerous.”
“Yeh. Now they are the ones watching us,” Raina said softly. She shivered, her nostrils flaring at the darkness ahead. “In here, Eve feels like it did when Maya ruled…cloaked in hostility…mistrustful…and cold with the breath of the angry dead.”
Ankor folded his arms. “I am sorry, Raina. Now I understand why you were always afraid. This was never the Eve that me and my siblings knew. We should have interfered long before. These vampyres and the horrible things they did while holding us captive… I do not understand why my father turned a blind eye to them for so long.”
Raina shifted uncomfortably and shot me another furtive glance. “He must have had his reasons.”
“I shouldn’t have come.” Ankor kicked a stone. “I thought I could find the pearl before the vampyre princes, but it was their plan to use the fox and have me find it for them all along. And now I don’t even know how I can help without shifting.”
“You can keep our hopes up with some of your legendary optimism,” I suggested, and Ankor shot me a glare.
Yu Li nudged Ankor’s hip with her cold black nose. “Imugi Prince, the vampyres would have only extended their reach to torment thousands more if you hadn’t come. They wanted the False Yeouiju, and they would have stopped at nothing to find it. You are an ore dragon. If you found the pearl once…then maybe you can find it again.”
Ankor dipped his head to Yu Li. “Alpha Ahn, kamsahamnida. It is as you say.” Crouching, the ore imugi uttered a series of those strange chirping sounds and then placed his ear against the earth.
My tail thumped against Raina’s shin. “No one takes treasure from a dragon and gets away with it.”
“Quiet, Citlalli,” Yu Li warned, trying not to smile.
Ankor listened intently and then pointed. “This way.”
We approached a stone staircase plunging into the bowels of the cone. The sound of dripping water intensified until my eardrums throbbed, and it became difficult to keep the staircase in focus.
I blinked. The steps weren’t there any longer. A yawning abyss stretched before me. The staircase had shifted, extending up—there, on the ceiling.
No, it was to my left. My eye swung about, confused. Wolf barked at me to walk straight ahead, but that couldn’t be right.
“I have seen this before…” Rafael’s human hand grabbed my leg with sudden force. “Quick, shift and grab hands! They will be able to separate us unless we stay together!”
He snatched for Raina’s fingers, but it was too late. The staircase vanished and then reappeared directly beneath my feet, flattening into a slide. Rafael and I went tumbling down into the depths of the chasm.
“Shit.” I stood, swaying in human form. “What was that?”
Rafael gripped my elbows to steady me. “The leeches are manipulating the fabric of Eve. It’s some sort of distortion of the dream bridge, except instead of building a path to someone, it drags the spirit to them. I saw an illusion like the disappearing staircase once before when I was imprisoned in Takakazu’s Death Place in Japan. It appears that the twisted madman shared some of his tricks with Donovan and Santiago.”
“Ugh. I am glad that was one vampyre prince I never had the pleasure of meeting.” Shivering, I shied away from Rafael and looked half-heartily around for a jacket. If I made it through this alive, I would have to audition for The Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid. They could toss me down a volcano, and I would still win. “Do you hear that sound? Above the water?”
Rafael surveyed the curtain of whispering darkness with di
staste. Now that we were in Eve, the compass tattoo stretching along his tanned abdomen began to spin. “Yes. Chanting.”
I turned, and there was a rope dangling before me. Pressure began to build up in my temples again, and I closed my eye frantically. “Oh no, not again—”
“Citlalli?” Rafael’s voice echoed as if far away underwater. I felt the slimy cord bump my fingers.
“Rafael! I’m here!” It ended in a yelp as the rope abruptly looped around my ankle and tugged. I barked as it yanked me into freefall. Rafael lunged for my hand. Together, we plummeted.
My fall halted a foot from the ground. I spun about in midair, dangling by my ankle from a rope tethered to a cavernous ceiling. Rafael let go and hit the ash-hardened rocks with a wince, landing smack in the middle of an inky-black ring encircling the floor.
Chained to the heart of the runic circle, Taeyang lifted his head. “Mweo?”
“Taeyang!” I spun about like a disoriented acrobat in the air, struggling to reach the knot holding my foot hostage. “It’s us! Citlalli and Rafael! We’re here to, um, rescue you!”
“Mud Girl,” Taeyang murmured, and his voice was tinged with sadness.
Realizing he was nose-to-nose with Khyber’s soul, Rafael scrambled over backwards and hit an invisible barrier.
“What the hell?” he demanded. His tattooed compass arrow swung about wildly now, as if the poles had shifted out of balance.
A hiss-hiss of laughter slithered through the darkness. Lanterns flared to life on all sides of us, revealing the Language of Death inked across every crevice of the cavern. I froze in my efforts to free myself. We were inside a Pandora’s Box.
Prince Donovan rose from where he sat safely outside of the runic circle on a golden throne encrusted in algae. Santiago sat on the second throne of bronze and freshly splattered blood, frowning at me and playing with his rusty Toledo sword.
“Well, well, well,” Donovan sneered. “We only meant to take the wolf bitch, but it appears that her beloved pack mate refused to be separated from her. Isn’t that sweet…eldest brother?”
Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) Page 34
