“Is that safe?” I demanded of Raina. “Even if you go by way of China, that’s still perilously close to weretiger territory. We haven’t heard a growl from them since Jaehoon’s death.”
“A weretiger will be teaching us,” Raina said quietly. “The Second Spirit Guardian, Baek Bo Ra. North Korea may be their territory after the divide, but the tigers still bow their heads in allegiance to the Dragon King and the Lady of Eve. Bo Ra is head of her clan and will ensure the safety of the children of Mun Mu.”
“As long as it’s not a trap,” I warned. “Be vigilant, Raina. The enemy will not stand idly by while the Celestial Dragons earn their fourth claws. They are going after anyone who could threaten their operation behind the Emerald Veil. Santiago already infiltrated our restaurant and tried to kill Taeyang. The dragons didn’t participate in the last Were War. If they step in now, then they could turn the tide in our favor.”
“I know,” Raina said. “But Citlalli, Mun Mu was Dragon King while Maya reigned. Why hasn’t my father interfered before now?”
I stood up to pace. “The vampyres never united the Dark Spirits together for a common purpose, either. Their mist threatens to destroy the barrier between the mortal world and Eve. I’d say Mun Mu would have a problem with that. If only Una could tell us what they’re doing! She managed to build a dream bridge to me, Raina. Even with all of the shit they’re putting her through, Una is still fighting.”
Raina said nothing. I whirled around to find her spirit form thrashing around on the ground. Her face blurred as something attempted to pull her soul out of her.
I heard gasps behind and turned to see Old Mother Leopard Cat and her kits’ bright amber eyes glowing in the darkness.
“Light every single sunshine lantern! Hurry!” I cried. The kits leapt to. Soon the lantern shop blazed with radiant, cleansing energy that chased the evil spirits away. Raina slumped, and I hurried to cradle her head.
Her hand seized mine. It had partially morphed into its silvery-blue scaled form. “Citlalli,” she whispered, “he tried to take me there.”
“Who? A Dark Spirit? Santiago?”
“Donovan.” The last time I had heard her utter the name of the dreaded white-winged vampyre, her soul had been stolen. She had crooned it with such tenderness, utterly accepting of her place as his next wife. Now she spat it out quickly, as if saying his name aloud would make him appear. Although my sister tried hard to mask it, I knew she was terrified.
The purple glow in her dark brown eyes receded. Raina took in several huge, gulping breaths to steady her spirit form. “He’s…happy, Citlalli. Whatever they’re trying to find…they’ve made a breakthrough.”
My eyes hardened. “Go home, Raina. Focus on your Trials.”
“What are you going to do?”
“It’s time to find out what they’re after. The vampyres think they’ve been so smart, infiltrating us with spies. Now it is time to use that against them.” I straightened and nodded to the leopard cat spirits. “Bring it out.”
Reverently, they unveiled the small spherical lantern made of glass. It caught every mote of light and drew them into its internal rainbow tempest. We’d spent months blowing the glass for it. I grudgingly admitted that it would have taken years for me to finish it on my own.
Raina gasped, pointing toward Old Man Zhi’s collection of blueprints. “Is that—?”
“One of the most powerful of all lantern designs,” I said proudly. “A Truth Lantern that can tell facts from lies. It is also a trap that will catch an old friend of mine: a certain silver-tongued nine-tailed fox.”
Chapter 24: Werewolf Politics
~Citlalli~
My call to Hyeon Bin about Una’s dream message had been a hard but necessary one.
None can pass unless They wish it.
Una’s whisper unfurled across my mind like a wisp of smoke. Her uncle and I had both agreed: the only way Ko Siwoo and his family could have escaped from Jeju Island was if the vampyre princes had wanted them to.
I passed under the barbed wire barricade surrounding the warehouse. The Seoul werewolves had a new den after Duck Young, the youngest vampyre prince, had found our last base and razed it to the ground. Before Maya had turned him, Duck Young had been Yu Li’s husband. Yu Li had been forced to kill him in order to save her son’s life and mine. I don’t think she ever wanted to return to our last headquarters, either.
Mun Mu had insisted we take up in the old abandoned Yong Enterprises’ warehouse, which was still heavily fortified from years before. It had stored artillery during the Korean War. Giant conveyor belts wound their way up to the upper reaches, and there were still large, decrepit shipping crates with toxic labels gathering dust on the basement level.
It was a full house today. Rafael’s supporters stayed on the eastern side of the warehouse. Namkyu and Moon were teaching Ae Cha’s children basic taekwondo stances while Iseul prepared them a snack. On the western half, Bae was reading to Yu Li’s son, Young Soo. Kaelan and Yu Li stood with the Jeju-do werewolves around a map, pointing to various parts of the mist. I didn’t see Rafael, but I did spot Siwoo resting his hands on the railing of the second floor, struggling to control his shivers.
I carefully eased the Truth Lantern into my jacket pocket and strode briskly up the ramp to meet him. I nodded along the way to my bowing werewolves.
“Any luck remembering how you broke through the mist?” I asked Siwoo.
The lantern flared warm beneath my hand as he answered, “S-s-sadly not yet, Alpha Alvarez,” and I didn’t need to take it out to know it was as red as his lies.
Right on cue, Miguel slipped into the warehouse. He motioned to keep quiet to Young Soo and then snuck up behind Yu Li. When he grabbed her around the waist and kissed her ear, Yu Li easily twisted out of it.
“Miguel. Really.” Her voice floated up to us. “We are in the middle of discussing a scouting mission.”
“You were so focused on faraway surveillance that you didn’t notice a trespasser right under your nose,” my brother bragged.
Yu Li raised an eyebrow. “Every wolf noticed, and every wolf didn’t detect a threat.”
“You underestimate me. I know exactly how to take you down,” Miguel teased and reached for her again. This time, she let his arms wrap around her. She leaned her head against his, and the tiniest of smiles softened her rigid features. Young Soo made a gagging noise. When I turned to Siwoo, I could see he felt the same. His eyes had narrowed into slits, and his fingers clenched the railing hard enough to shatter it.
I casually leaned back, studying the giant steel pipes crisscrossing the ceiling above. “It must be tough. You’re finally a human, but you don’t have the form you wanted.”
Startled, Siwoo broke his death glare with Miguel to find me a hairsbreadth from his face.
“And Una will never look at you the way you want because you’re not my brother,” I hissed, my voice fire. “Isn’t that right…Fred?”
Siwoo backed away, shaking his head. “A-A-Alpha Alvarez, w-what do you mean? I don’t understand—”
“I have a Truth Lantern that says otherwise.” Its glass tinkered as I slapped it down on the handrail, the red orb awhirl with warning.
Fred did what a fox typically does. He fled. And at last, beneath all of the layers of nauseating cologne, I finally caught a whiff of the real beast that lay within.
I caught him in the watchtower. Siwoo backed away from my towering form and put up a pleading hand. He looked utterly ridiculous in his plum pinstriped suit. A sinister shade of red darkened his brown eyes.
“Please, Citlalli. It is not what you think.”
“What I think,” I growled, stepping menacingly closer, “is that some poor boy is lying dead back on Jeju-do, his marvelous dreams of the city and inventions never leaving the island because of you. What I think is that Una has fallen prisoner to Dark Spirit monsters because of you!”
Smoke curled up between my clenched knuckles, and I was pleased to see
Fred’s eyes widen in fear. He had done this to me. He had meant his kumiho fire to obliterate me from the face of the earth, but I had survived. His fire burned within me, a twisted, dreadful beast named Demon, and now he was afraid. I could hurt him.
Fred dropped to his knees, shuddering with the effort to keep his form.
“Wait!” he begged. “I didn’t know what they would do to Una! I don’t like what the vampyre princes are doing any more than you do. I want to get her out!”
My narrowed eyes shifted to the Truth Lantern. Green. This silver-tongued vermin was finally telling the truth.
“What happened after you kidnapped her?” I asked in a dangerously low voice.
Fred straightened his suit. “I took her vacationing in the southern isles. I knew I could show Una things she had never dreamed of in the waking world, and that eventually she would accept her place by my side. But we were approached by a Greater Dark Spirit named Xecotcovach. It promised me something I had never believed possible: humanhood. In exchange, it wanted the Doorkeeper in order to seal off Jeju-do and all of the islands in the South China Sea as a safe haven for the Vampyre Court.”
“And you believed Xec,” I said flatly. “You’ve been a professional bullshitter for nine hundred years, and you couldn’t smell what it was feeding you?”
“The promise of humanhood blinded me,” Fred said quietly. “I knew of Xecotcovach and its elder masters. I knew they could do what it claimed. My dream to become human is not something I expect you to understand.”
I remembered the Lady of Eve attempting such as well, only to fail her test and become an eternal guardian in the spirit world. Many legendary creatures of power and wisdom dreamed to become human like Fred did. He was right; I didn’t understand. Humanity wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was an awareness of consequences. It was the power to save the world or destroy it.
Perhaps Fred did finally understand the former, because he blinked wet eyes and then gazed away miserably. “They said they would only need Una for a moment. She was the Doorkeeper, and she alone could upset the balance between Eve and the mortal realm, allowing the Emerald Veil to leak into your world. They tortured her until they coaxed out her true form. Then they trapped her in-between. At that moment, I knew: they never intended to give her back to me. As for this”—he extended his hands, which trembled violently—“they indeed made me human. Yet you can already see how quickly I fade.”
I resisted the urge to shake him. “What is Una’s ‘true form’ that you speak of? And who are ‘they,’ Fred? Why do the vampyres need the Emerald Veil to keep us out? What are they searching for?”
Fred didn’t answer for a while. “You already know,” he said finally. “The Crow Prince told you, didn’t he? The vampyre princes are desperate now that their claim to the East has been lost, wolf girl. They have allied with the Dark Spirits and now seek to free their creators, the Death Gods of Xibalba. Day and night they toil, scouring the deep, for something that fell long ago…with the power to open Xibalba itself.”
“A relic of some kind,” I said, remembering Raina’s dream of the enslaved haenyeo diving for treasures while Donovan cast a sinister winged shadow across their backs. “But Siwoo’s family escaped! So there is a way in.”
“No.” Fred regarded me pityingly. “There is only a way out…if they wish it.”
I stared at him, aware of the last rays of sun retreating from the windowsill. In the silence, the first of the cries rang out.
Dragging an uncooperative Fred along, I hurdled back toward the first floor. Bounding down the staircase two steps at a time, we wheeled around the corner to see Yu Li and Miguel bracing themselves against Siwoo’s family—who had all transformed into Dark Dogs. But what was far worse was what emerged from the center of their pack: a giant half-lion, half-dog haetae with eyes of burning green flame.
“Bae, get the children out!” I barked. My omega looked only too grateful to comply. I heard the other wolves form ranks behind me. Miguel swung open his switchblade with a click before disappearing under the Dokkaebi cap.
The massive haetae, an armored orange beast with a golden mane and a single horn protruding from his forehead, stepped forward. The gentle kindness of Siwoo’s father had been swallowed up by the hungry green fire raging in his eyes.
“Princes Donovan and Santiago send their greetings, Alpha Alvarez,” the haetae’s great voice thundered, causing dust to shake from the ceiling. He took another step forward, and I sensed my pack’s resolve waver. The haetae alone would have been a problem, but he had eight snarling Dark Dogs with him. The haetae’s nostrils flared in satisfaction.
“They wish to thank you for welcoming us so easily into your headquarters,” he continued, leering. “They also wonder, how many more dens do you have left to scurry off to? The restaurant…the warehouse…your little friend Minho’s loft…”
How had he known Minho’s name? I swallowed as he towered directly above me.
“How many more homes must we destroy before you wolves understand that you are on the wrong side?”
I stepped in front of Taeyang, not liking the way the Dark Dogs were snapping at him. “Your masters want everyone to be as cold and dead as them.”
“Humanity is a blight on the face of the earth that has long turned its back on the spirit world,” the haetae decreed. “And your allies in the Were Nation have long been corrupted by their greed.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
The haetae snorted. “Foolish girl. Why do you think the dragons looked the other way while the Vampyre Queen reigned? Why do you think the goshawk leader insists on a stranglehold of power over the Were Nation rather than let your tribes live alone in peace?”
Yu Li crouched beside me, her eyes flashing with blue sparks. “Careful, Alpha. He means to divide us.”
The haetae laughed uproariously. “Perhaps the wolves have already fallen as well. Does your newly anointed Alpha share all of her secrets with her pack?” He nodded toward the shuddering Fred. “Does she tell you why this one has not shifted like us?”
I whirled to face my wolves and was dismayed at the uncertainty clouding their faces. “I swear, I just found out myself—” I began, but then Taeyang shouted and pointed.
The sneaky haetae had lunged while my back was turned. I yelped and snapped into Wolf in a clap of black smoke. The haetae sneezed in displeasure, but then his mouth pulled back in a draconic grin as he caught sight of me. He charged with horn gleaming.
A clamor of howls pushed and shoved their way into my mind. My pack shifted without hesitation. I immediately sent Kaelan and Namkyu, two of our burliest brawlers, to hold off the Dark Dogs. I needed our nimblest and most strategic fighters to take on the haetae.
Our pack mind melded together as one. Iseul and Moon ducked the haetae’s swinging jaws and leaped for his haunches. Yu Li dashed forward fearlessly and sprang onto the haetae’s vulnerable head, taking two swipes at his eyes. The legendary creature bellowed and went on a stampeding frenzy. He stepped on a Dark Dog’s tail and nearly trampled an invisible Miguel, who reappeared momentarily to stab a Dark Dog through the throat.
I lunged for the haetae’s underbelly, scoring several marks on his abdomen. Dodging the haetae’s tail, I remerged on the other side with Iseul and Moon. We watched in dismay as Yu Li flew up into the air once, twice, three times; the haetae tried to spear her with his horn each time.
A sudden bark distracted him. My heart surged as I recognized the familiar snarl. Rafael, a dark brown wolf, appeared on the second level. He locked eyes with me. At that moment, it didn’t matter that we were on opposite sides, tense enough to snap off into separate orbits forever. Rafael didn’t hesitate before flinging himself off the platform. He landed squarely on the haetae’s armored back. Skittering up to the great beast’s neck, Rafael sank his teeth in. The haetae hissed, giving both Yu Li and Rafael time to leap to safety.
His eyes! The poor thing is corrupted! Yu Li cried.
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Rafael and I exchanged a look. Only Yu Li would pity a terrifying legendary creature.
The haetae are defenders of justice, she stressed. They protect Seoul from disasters.
I swallowed, feeling Demon prickle beneath my skin. However, I felt a hand on my back and turned to see Fred shaking his head.
“I wouldn’t, wolf girl,” he said softly. “Haetae eat the fire of our kind.”
I growled. What of what Yu Li said? If the haetae is corrupted, then there must be a way to free him.
Fred paused, a cunning twinkle in his eye. “Not bad, wolf. Healer Boy and I may well be able to set up a trap. If you can hold him off, that is.”
Kaelan and Namkyu herded the last of the Dark Dogs toward us. I fastened my jaws around the first one’s neck, my heart darkening as I tore out its jugular with a savage twist. Rafael and Yu Li killed the other two, blood splattering across their muzzles, while Iseul and Moon set upon the last one with their practiced rhythm. We swung around to face the enraged haetae in arrowhead formation.
Where does Si Woo go with Taeyang? Yu Li asked.
I took a deep breath. Si Woo is…not who we thought he was. He is a nine-tailed fox.
The pack’s mind descended into fury and mistrust. Trickster! Kumiho! I heard several cry. Rafael’s orange eyes met mine, round and full.
The fox with many names: Kai. Nicodemo. Fred.
I growled, my ears flattening as the haetae descended on us. We must lure the beast back to the shipping crates. Fred and Taeyang are setting up a ritual to free the haetae from the madness corrupting him. Attack and retreat. Go!
We took turns in waves, darting forward as quickly as shadows to snap at the haetae’s haunches. Kaelan wasn’t quick enough to evade, and the haetae pounced eagerly, his huge claws raking his back. We howled our anguish and hurried forward, but the haetae was waiting and gored Iseul through the thigh.
Suddenly, he reared up. Bae had returned from seeing the children to our basement safe house. As terrified as he was, the old graying wolf still managed to sink his teeth into the haetae’s tail. Miguel appeared out of thin air and helped Iseul and a limping Kaelan to safety.
Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) Page 16