RUN. I shot the warning to my fellow wolves and barked wildly for Sun Bin and Khyber to get away. However, by the time I whirled back, the Dark Spirit was already there: Xecotcovach.
The pale, cadaverous thing screamed, extending a handful of charred talons that clicked together like needles. Its wisps of black hair blew across its formless face, revealing the holes where its eyes should be. The Dark Spirit’s gaping mouth transformed into a shrieking, tempestuous hole of terror, stretching to its ear nubbins.
–Come–
At its beckon, Yu Li, Sun, and Rafael began to stagger backwards toward the wasting humanoid. The only one unaffected was Bae. He shifted back and buried his head in his hands, refusing to look at the malevolent ghost. I felt the air drain from my lungs until each breath was a wheeze. Any step I tried to take away from the Dark Spirit felt like walking on the bottom of the ocean.
Khyber dropped down noiselessly behind the Dark Spirit. I caught the glimpse of a bone dagger flash before he shredded the creature’s neck. My friends halted in mid-step, paralyzed.
Xec laughed as its head swung by a few yarns of skin, and then it whirled around to seize Khyber’s wrists. Both Children of Death remained fastened to one other. The poisonous tendrils of their respective death touches curled up around the other’s arms and then tunneled like worms toward their hearts.
Abruptly, Xec’s head snapped back into place. It gave that mind-shattering scream again before it tripled in size. Mouth expanding like a black hole, the Dark Spirit clamped its jaws around Khyber’s head.
My view was blocked as Santiago dropped down to challenge me. Tauntingly, the former conquistador strode up to Rafael with the click of his immaculate black boots and tilted a pistol against the paralyzed wolf’s head. “Had enough, demon wolf?”
“Release them, you coward,” Demon’s magnified voice rumbled through me like fire. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sun Bin’s eyelid twitch.
The vampyre prince smirked. “You are defeated. Shift back.”
His compulsion was different than Khyber’s. It was brusque, intrusive, as if Santiago expected me to snap like a branch in winter frost. I steeled my mind with Wolf’s growl, and Demon greeted Santiago’s attempt to break me with flames. Santiago retreated back a step with a hiss.
Nearby, Xec gurgled as it attempted to eat Khyber’s face. An odd shiver trembled through its gaunt frame. Then, abruptly, it tore Khyber’s head off.
My howls broke into a human scream halfway through. I collapsed on my knees in human form, shivering in night air awash with curses and the stench of the unclean. I watched the Dark Spirit limp over to the rail and hurl the severed head over the edge. I caught one glimpse of the eldest vampyre prince’s expression—stunned, in pain—and then he was gone.
Xec regarded the fallen Crown Prince’s remains with its hollow stare.
–You betrayed us on Lunar New Year. A Dark Spirit may wander the cold side of the world for a thousand years, but we never forget–
Santiago leaped upon Khyber’s headless body and stabbed it with wanton abandon. Of the tattered midnight wings, he seized fistfuls of feathers and hurled them into the air like confetti. A low moan escaped my lips with each black feather that hit the deck. What was I going to tell Raina?
“Face Gouger!” Santiago cried. “How you have lived up to your name!”
–I go– The Dark Spirit replied, unaffected. –The ore imugi must find the pearl for us–
I blinked. So Fred had told Ankor truly that the vampyres meant to find some sort of newborn Imugi’s Pearl.
“Yes, yes.” Santiago waved a hand impatiently. Delighted, he raced to call the others to come see the fallen prince.
Xec dragged its feet, one over the other, to the rail. At the last second, it whirled around. Its unnatural hole eyes met mine, and raspy, ecstatic laughter rose like a crescendo in my mind. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shut it out.
–Dare make a deal with us yet, fire girl–
Then the wasting horror was gone.
Sun Bin blinked again, and I knew she had broken free of the compulsion. Yet she stayed rigid in frozen posture behind Yu Li and Rafael. I desperately wished I could telepathically communicate with her as I could my pack. How much did the Yong twin know of the life bond between Khyber and me?
“There are far worse things my brothers could do to curse us eternally.”
The familiar cool voice dripped down my mind with its hints of sarcasm. Khyber’s presence had formerly been so unwelcome, but now, after all of the battles we had fought together, he couldn’t be gone. The eldest vampyre prince had fended off three of his brethren simultaneously on Seorak San during the Were War. He had survived for hundreds of years. Surely he would persist to see the end of his accursed brothers with us.
Khyber couldn’t be gone. He needed to atone for what he had done.
With a sudden shout, Bae uncoiled from his prone pose and lunged across the deck. Santiago’s head whipped around like a serpent’s, but Bae had already shoved Khyber’s body overboard to join his head in the dark waters.
“That was unwise.” Donovan had arrived with the army of Compañia Rojo. Raina and Heesu were held prisoner at the forefront, both royal imugi bound and gagged.
The Frenchman smirked, dragging his lips against Raina’s cheek. “I think the old wolf wants to go over, too. What do you think?”
“Please,” Raina begged. “No!”
Donovan chuckled and nuzzled her neck. “You have a soft heart, my love. The dragon way is not for you. Santiago,” he commanded. His younger brother grinned wolfishly and then lifted a struggling Bae over his head. I just had time to see my former Omega’s panicked brown eyes meet mine, and then Santiago hurled him over the side.
Bae’s fall broke the spell on all of us. Yu Li tried to lunge forward, but Santiago whisked out his sword and pricked my throat. His long fingers wrapped delicately around my upper arm from behind.
“Have a care, she-wolf. At our command, your entire pack will join the old dog at the bottom of the ocean.”
My gaze traveled desperately to Sun Bin. At last, she moved. Her head tilted, a fraction of an inch, toward the green mist. Toward the hole she had frozen to ensure our way home. Now we could never be sure we would see Seoul again.
Neither can die while the other lives. Bae, who spoke few words of English, had dedicated his last act to making sure Khyber’s body joined his head in the ocean. Where they could be reunited. I had no clue how long that would take, but I wasn’t about to waste Bae’s gift.
Wolf waited loyally for my command, but for once, I reached for Demon.
She responded with a purr of intoxicatingly seductive flames. It is about time, girl.
I blinked at Sun Bin, my eye momentarily glowing luminescent gold. Then I stretched out my mind to Yu Li and Rafael: Be ready.
I was aware of the sharp curve of Santiago’s Toledo sword pressed against my neck. Then his cold, dead weight leaned in close so he could whisper in my ear: “Consider yourself leashed, dog.”
His gauntleted hand traveled farther down my thigh, and I bucked against him. The Spanish vampyre prince only renewed his search with vigor.
“My, my, I like you in this form much better,” he murmured, his penetrating gunmetal eyes roving across my chest and then farther down. “If you’d worn this uniform to the night shift, then I would have overlooked your overwhelming stench and worked you like a dog in a different way.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I reported.
His only response was hissing laughter. “Such a naughty mouth. What will your precious Mami and brother say when I tell them those were your last words?”
“My Prince,” one soldier hissed, pushing through his armed compatriots with a struggling Taeyang in his grasp. “Look what we found hiding in the brig.”
Donovan and Santiago regarded the blind Khyber look-alike, momentarily stunned. Then their mouths curved into identical nasty grins.
“Mi he
rmano,” Santiago whispered, “luck is indeed with us today. I told you the Crow learned the secrets our Mother did.”
Donovan was trembling with such ecstasy that his hold on Raina momentarily loosened. “We have his soul.”
“You shall have nothing but your deaths,” I snarled, and then my entire body dissolved into flames. I succeeded in sending several volleys of fireballs the size of melons catapulting through the air before I felt Santiago slit my throat. I collapsed but still managed to release one more wave of merciless flames. Then the cold blade entered my abdomen. Demon shuddered and went still.
Pandemonium erupted on deck. I was having difficulty hearing or seeing, but my ears still picked up the ominous crack of ice when Sun Bin shattered the doorway back to freedom. The answering thunder of the typhoon was a sweet symphony that lulled me to sleep.
I caught a glimpse of Raina sinking to my side. I realized she’d dressed my shaking body in a sweatshirt and shorts in order to give me some measure of dignity as I lay bleeding out on deck. But my eye traveled past her, to the hole in the mist that had begun to close.
“Raina,” I gurgled, blood spurting from my throat. “Fly. The Final Trial—”
Her tears hit my face like cool rain. “Heesu and I will fly to the Final Trial, ’Lalli,” she promised. “Then I will return a Celestial Dragon with the power to kill every last vampyre here and free you, sister. I promise.”
Donovan’s roar rose above the tide of fighting, his usual musical tenor shattered by Raina’s escape. There was no time for more words. Raina and Heesu launched into the air and flew with gunfire ricocheting off their scales. A fierce air dragon guarded their retreat.
It took all of my strength, but I forced my consciousness to stay until I watched their whipping tails disappear through the hole. Then the spinning, dizzying maw of the typhoon rushed up to swallow our boat, and I knew no more.
Part II: Dragon
Chapter 40: Council of Elders
~The Elder Life Spirits~
In his dream, Mun Mu followed the White Tiger.
The Lady of Eve walked where tigers didn’t go. She led him through the halls of a deserted Gyeongbok Gung, the former proud palace of Korean dynasties bygone. With each step he took, the palace’s torches roared to life. The replicated walls shimmered and dissolved into their former glory before the invaders’ fires had razed them to the ground. Mun Mu glanced to his left and then his right, watching his cold-eyed bodyguards shimmer and be replaced by royal guards wearing the traditional red uniform and wide-brimmed hats.
Drumbeats tolled louder as they approached the palace’s courtyard. The scarlet-robed guards multiplied, extending out around the stone pavilion like a blossoming lotus. From the gates to the east, west, and the south, other figures emerged, power undulating from their approach like waves proceeding a tempest. Mun Mu reached the White Tiger’s side, and the drums ceased.
The Council of Elder Life Spirits had convened.
One by one, the four visiting elders approached to pay their respects: Xiang the Hawk, fastest Wings in the East; Onikuma the Bear, whose fortitude knew no bounds; Kadru the Nagi, renowned for her healing gifts; and Thavi the Clouded Leopard, who slipped in and out of time.
“Yong Mun Mu, we are honored to enter your home. Kamsahamnida.” Xiang rose first. His predatory yellow eyes shifted with restlessness, betraying the great phoenix that lurked beneath. “Thank you, Lady of Eve, for calling this Council.”
“Yes,” Onikuma the great bear growled, the triangle of white fur on her chest ruffling. “This mist spreads too far. Now it encroaches on the Sea of Japan and the Senkaku Islands.”
“It is the East Sea,” Mun Mu rumbled.
Xiang took a step closer. “And these islands you speak of…the Diaoyus….they are Chinese territory.” The three Elder Life Spirits glared at one another.
A hiss of laughter broke off their staring match. Thavi’s smoke-ringed tail waved tauntingly between the colonnades before vanishing.
“So much talk of mortal humans with their borders and their states.” The Silver Shadow’s voice winked in and out around them. Mun Mu felt her invisible tail brush his neck as the Clouded Leopard slipped by. “The spirit world never used to recognize such a thing.”
Kadru stretched her human form. A long, jewel-encrusted tail rolled out from beneath her white silken gown in appreciation, its violet scales twinkling. “True, Thavi, but there also used to be gods. It appears that in their absence, we Elder Life Spirits continue to seek out new masters.”
Mun Mu scowled as the nagi’s pensive silver eyes hung on him. “We do not need the gods to return, Kadru. We are the gods, now.”
–The Dark Spirits do not agree. They seek to bring back old gods from the West. Gods of nightmares. The Twelve– The White Tiger paced the heart of the courtyard, and all the eyes were upon Her.
–The Demon Bird did not cross the globe to conquer one country. It came to herald the end of the world. All of our worlds–
Mun Mu lifted his chin proudly. “Do not worry, my fellow Life Spirits. My children draw close to the Final Trial of Wisdom. They will bring down the Emerald Veil and drive Xecotcovach and the vampyre princes from the East.”
Xiang folded his arms. “The twins failed their Trials, Mun Mu. You would leave our fate to the foreign girl and your gentle-hearted youngest daughter?”
“Do not mistake kindness for weakness,” Kadru retorted.
Onikuma huffed at the White Tiger. “These human shapeshifters you have entrusted are taking too long, my Lady! Meanwhile, the veil between our worlds grows much too thin. Its forgetful power is potent, but even the most narrow-minded mortals will begin to notice something is wrong.”
“They will surely know when the Dark Spirits begin devouring them,” Xiang said grimly.
Suddenly, Thavi appeared in a flash of silver smoke, contorting and hissing on the palace floor.
The White Tiger and Mun Mu rushed to her side. “Thavi! What did you see?”
“A boat’s name—The Sun Young.”
A host of glowing spirit eyes swung to Mun Mu, and he felt his chest grow unbearably tight. Thavi picked herself up and shook the silver-streaked black hair of her human form. “Shattered. In pieces. Mun Mu, your children are gone.”
Chapter 41: The Forgotten Island
~Citlalli~
My mind jolted awake from where it had been circling an infinite void. Pain was the first thing that flared to life, beating in my abdomen and head. My prosthetic eye was gone. I lifted my sand-encrusted fingers to touch a choker of thick, corded lacerations around my neck.
The second thing I heard was a noise that sounded like screaming. Then I realized it was coming from inside my own head.
Run! Wolf bayed, and I stumbled upright. The ocean had spat me out on a strange island where the jungle shuddered as if disturbed by a relentless wind. However, I caught a glimpse of a barbed tail ripple in the sky and then vanish. Some sort of evil air spirit. Hundreds of them. They flapped around the spire of the island, which was a misshapen volcanic peak that looked like a crooked finger. Every single tree was flattened on its brow. It looked like something large and dangerous had blown the entire forest out as if wishing on candles.
An eerie green glow emitted from the summit, and I realized that I had made it. I was facing the source of the Emerald Veil itself.
All I could think was: if I was here, then where were my friends?
A familiar roar erupted from the jungle, which sent flocks of egrets scattering in every direction. Demon growled. Haetae. While Santiago’s Red Company slept cold and dead beneath the ground, the vampyres’ corrupted servants patrolled the island. And they were heading my way.
“Citlalli.”
The whisper curled around my neck, pleading. I whirled around, half-hoping, half-praying—
And there he was. Crawling toward me was the shell of what had once been Khyber, now the battered plaything of both sun and sea. His head had found its way back to
his body.
However, the sun pelted him with merciless arrows. Even as Khyber stretched a hand toward me, the flesh melted from his bones and hit the sand with a sizzle. What was left of the vampyre prince’s eyeballs dripped down his cadaverous face and left a fanged skull contorted in pain. By the time he took three steps, Khyber collapsed in a pile of bones and feathers.
Demon urged me to run. My mind white with panic, I managed to ignore Her. With the call of the haetae rumbling in my ears like an imminent earthquake, I hobbled to gather up as many of Khyber’s bones as I could. Boat debris hindered my way, and my breath caught as I glimpsed a twisted piece of aluminum with the name The Sun Young barely discernable.
“Come on, come on,” I muttered to my groaning body, stooping to find Khyber’s jaw bone wedged beneath a sand dollar. “How many bones in the human body?”
Get out of here, girl, Demon hissed.
I crashed into the jungle just as the haetae reached the beach, my arms full of bones. I prayed my pursuers would overlook my footprints in the sand, but miracles didn’t exist on the other side of the Veil. I had to get as deep within the jungle as I could.
Evergreen trees grew in tangles, their trunks zigzagging around one another to break through the canopy. Orchids bloomed between their muddy roots, and I breathed in the distinct smell of fir. I stumbled through a grove of guava fruits, and hunger gnawed at my stomach. However, the moment I tried to eat one of the guavas, my nose picked up the familiar reek of the undead. I crashed through several more bushes, my stomach churning.
Finally, I came upon a bog of mud. I placed Khyber’s bones carefully at the base of a cypress. Then I shed my clothes and slipped in. The mud was soothing against my perspiring skin. I rubbed it up through the roots of my curls, desperate to hide all trace of my scent. Gnats buzzed at my eyelids, and I smacked them half-heartily. For a moment, I glimpsed hazy sunlight above, which was struggling to pierce the thick foliage. Then dark clouds swallowed it.
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