My insides quivered at the thought of his sun-kissed skin, his dark, wavy hair, his smart aleck remarks. The way his eyes crinkled in that special Raf smile: a grin that was privately laughing at something beyond what had been said. I knew what I wanted to ask Yu Li. I wanted to know what it meant, that Rafael had refused to give me up as a student. I was probably giving myself more hope than I should. I was “only eighteen.” Rafael wanted me because I was his prodigy, his creation. My success was his success. To give me up would be admitting failure.
But I wished it was because of something else. I wished Rafael liked this new Were me, this new Citlalli, because the Were was changing me in ways faster than I could keep track of—or, perhaps, discovering dark things that had been there all along. Threatening before thinking. Alienating myself on purpose. Killing and being able to sleep at night.
I wished Rafael liked all of these things, because no normal boy would. And I couldn’t ignore the dark things now that I’d dug them up from their shadowy recesses. They lurked on the surface now, glaring from my red-rimmed eyes, my protruding jaw, my quick lapses into anger. No other boy would understand unless he’d been there to dig them up with me. And Rafael had been digging far longer and deeper before I’d come along. He was my hero, my proof that a person could go to hell and emerge stronger, like an ordinary rock transforming into a diamond under extraordinary pressure. Did Rafael like the girl he plotted war with? Or more importantly: Would he want her after?
But Young Soo’s giggles invaded my thoughts time and time again, and I shook myself awake. Seriously. I had no shot with Rafael. It was nice to have schoolgirl day dreams about those bronzed arms taut with muscle slipping around my waist and holding me close, but that was all it could ever be. Young Soo was involved. In this case, only one person was allowed to be the child.
Young Soo continued chattering. I shook myself. Come on already, I agree with your point! But then I realized his voice wasn’t inside my head.
“Um, Yu Li?”
She sat with arms folded, staring at the prone bodies with undisguised jealousy. “What do you want?”
“Why did you bring Young Soo to base camp? I mean, I know we’re not exactly on Ground Zero, but come on!”
She looked annoyed. “What are you—?” The color slowly drained from her face. She’d heard it, too, then. A boy’s laughter in the corridor.
I immediately started for the door, but she raised a hand to stop me. “Don’t move. It is a trick.”
“Yeah, but a trick played by who?” I stared agitatedly from her to the number of bodies strewn between us. The Weres posted defensively around the apartment suddenly seemed very far away.
Yu Li spoke rapid Korean into her headset to the four guard posts.
“Report? Report!” she said over and over. I swallowed hard. No reply. Crap, I’d been mad about missing the action before, but now all I could long for were the minutes when the worst thing I’d had to fear had been insults from Yu Li
She made the executive call. “I’m telling them to come back. The juin-nim must send back reinforcements now.” She swiftly scribbled out a message on the prayer wheel.
An arrow struck it straight from her hands.
“Whoa!” Young Soo said, mouth dropped wide open. He applauded vigorously.
“See, son? Appa’s still got it.” Vampyre Prince Duck Young took one step into the room, and then another. The image of him…it was more vivid than anything I’d ever seen in Eve. Cardinal-red wings, like splashes of blood on his back. A dark gray suit. Carefully-styled black hair, hugging the sides of his face like ivy. No wonder the guards weren’t reporting in. There weren’t enough arrows or bullets in all of the world to stop him. Not when Duck Young was steering Young Soo’s body before his.
“Annyeong, yeobo,” he said softly to Yu Li, as if he were soothing a frightened deer. He probably thought I couldn’t understand him, since we weren’t in Eve, where language was no obstacle. People were understood how they meant to be understood. But back here in the sunshine world, those hard months of tutelage under Jaehoon hadn’t gone to waste. Yeobo was a term of affection between married couples.
“Look who invited me in.” Duck Young’s fingers played with Young Soo’s full head of black hair, pawing and then tightening, a reminder that he could rip the boy’s head off just as easily. It made me sick to watch. “Curls. Like his father. He does look too skinny, though. Don’t you remember to feed him? Or are you too busy playing war? Yu Li.”
The moment he said her name, she started crying. Tears spilled from her haunted eyes, and I knew she had never stopped loving him. She’d never stopped believing he might return. And that really sucked, considering it left me compromised—and an innocent boy in the hands of a monster.
I stood statue-still, feeling Wolf’s hackles rise. What was Duck Young’s game plan? Imagining beheading him had been so much easier. Now that he stood before me with eyes that twitched at the slightest movement, and a bow in one powerful hand, I wanted to barricade myself in the nearest church. But I couldn’t leave Rafael alone. My eyes drew agitatedly to his helpless body, a hairsbreadth from the vampyre’s boot.
“What were you doing while our child grew up? Plundering and murdering?” Yu Li countered in a low voice, and I gave her mental applause.
The hand stopped stroking Young Soo’s hair. We both tensed, but Duck Young only gave a pointy smile.
“Beautiful yeobo. I have missed your quick tongue so much.” Duck Young drew closer in what seemed like genuine anguish. “You always challenged me to be better. You always pushed me to go further, to drive the issue home, even when my hired help would shy away from the controversy. I remember now.
“I remember your Umma. I remember you.” Duck Young crouched down to Young Soo’s level. “Your Umma is brave, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Young Soo said without hesitation. “She’s the bravest Umma in the whole world.”
Duck Young laughed, running one long finger down the boy’s cheek. “My son, I have a sad story to tell you. A bad lady wanted me to forget your mother. She wanted me to forget you. She did many things to me until my memory was gone.”
“Is that why you have wings?” Young Soo regarded them curiously, without fear. Maybe he would take the wolf-shifting news well.
“Yes. She gave them to me. Her methods worked, for a while. But then I received a picture of you. And I knew that you were important to me.” His finger stroked Young Soo’s cheek, although his eyebrows remained scrunched, puzzled. I knew, then. It was the same bizarre behavior I’d witnessed in Marisol. She’d known that she’d wanted her sisters sent to her. But she hadn’t been able to understand why.
“Why aren’t you trying to get your soul back?” Yu Li said in that same low, detached voice. She was having a hard time looking at him.
Duck Young couldn’t take his eyes off Young Soo. “Because I don’t care. I still stand by what I said. It’s a useless trinket, considering I can live forever. Don’t you understand, Yu Li? I came back for you.”
Yu Li tensed immediately. “Very well. You can have me. But let him go. Young Soo!” she called, desperate. “Come to Umma right now!”
Young Soo started forward obediently, but Duck Young’s fingers dug a little deeper into his shoulders.
“Now, now. That’s rather selfish, isn’t it, my son?” he asked, hugging the boy. “Your mother’s had you for all of these years. Don’t you want to spend some time with your father?”
“I want both of you!” Young Soo glanced between them, confused. “Why can’t we all be together?”
“Young Soo!” Yu Li’s head hung to one side, tears smearing her mascara.
“Why not indeed?” Duck Young’s arms continued to encircle Young Soo’s neck like a noose. “Why can’t we all be together? Forever? An eternity of baseball games and amusement parks and trips to the beach?”
“Yes, yes, yes!” Young Soo nodded vigorously.
“An eternity of changing the worl
d for the better, for bringing Korea back together, for stabilizing peace around the world?” Duck Young murmured, this time to Yu Li. “I could do it, if you were at my side. Our partnership was rudely interrupted, it’s true, but that was only to give us the ultimate gift: immortality. With death as no obstacle, Yu Li, think of what we could do! I know you would take the risk. You always have. Your dog condition is no matter; my queen can fix you. She can do anything. Together, our family will rise up to rule the East! You, me, and little Young Soo, when I deem him old enough for the honor.” The boy gazed up at him adoringly.
Now Yu Li took a step forward. I gazed at her in shock. She couldn’t have missed how Duck Young referred to Maya as both “bad lady” and “queen.”
Yu Li reached out one hand, trembling.
“Give me my son,” she whispered, “as a sign of good faith. A sign that you mean what you say. That you really have changed.”
Duck Young waved a finger tauntingly. “No, I won’t. Because you see, my beautiful Yu Li, I know that anywhere I take the boy, you will follow. You are the only thing that brought me contentment, in the sunshine days. You will be my only wife. I need no other.”
I couldn’t be quiet any longer, although I chose my words carefully. Young Soo was oblivious to the poison oak he leaned against.
“ ‘No other’? So what will happen to the other women you’ve raped and psychologically tortured?” I was thankful Young Soo’s English level was low, but Yu Li jerked back in horror. “What will happen to my sister? Will you kill her permanently this time, not like when you beheaded her in Eve for failing to dance properly?” Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I’d wanted to spit this out at his cruelly handsome face for countless nights, but he’d always remained out of reach, hidden behind the curtains of my sister’s dreams.
Duck Young reluctantly dragged his gaze away from Yu Li, but when he did, smoke began to hiss from his wings, and his eyes dripped cranberry red. Yep, he knew who I was, alright.
“You,” he said, and clutched Young Soo’s shoulders so tightly that the boy cried out. His father didn’t notice.
“So, you are the infamous Alvarez sister I’ve heard so much about.” We circled each other—Duck Young and Young Soo against Yu Li and I.
“The little bitch with a big mouth and an even bigger nerve. A greater irritation than either of her two sisters combined. I have you to thank for stealing my soul.” A smile suddenly split his pasty features. “I thought for sure they would have sent their fearless little heroine to the front lines. Not left you back here to guard the real warriors.” His toe nudged Kaelan’s cheek. “Is this one a friend of yours?”
I held my breath, forcing my face to show no emotion.
The toe dragged to Rafael. “Or…how about this one?”
Both Yu Li and I lunged forward instinctively, and Duck Young drew a hand across Young Soo’s neck. We froze.
“I know who he is,” Duck Young said quietly. “This is the mangy mutt who tore the wings off my elder brother. Who killed our brother, Takakazu. We know him and hate him.” Then he raised his foot and smashed it down on Rafael’s face, hard. A strangled cry gurgled in my throat. Yu Li put a hand on my back.
Be strong, she was silently telling me. Neither of us could afford to fall apart right now. Although she seemed to see an escape clause that was invisible to me. All I could do was wait. For what, I didn’t know. An avenging bolt of lightning from the heavens. The Korean Army National Guard. Anything.
“I’ll show you exactly how I plan to get rid of your eldest sister.”
Young Soo was crying, but Duck Young shoved him aside so he could kick Rafael in the ribs. He made sure all eyes were on him as he dug his heel into Rafael’s chest, right above his heart. “Orchid claimed to be loyal. But she always disappointed me. Bored me, even. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed fucking her. Yet beauty can only get you so far… But your younger sister…” His hair-raising laugh drowned out Young Soo’s sobs. “Well, she’s far beyond help now. She’s the one. And she goes to a fate that even I pity. You’ll never get her back.”
A wordless shriek built up inside me like an unstable tower, and Wolf’s howls curdled into winds that threatened to knock me over.
The door slammed open, and Miguel came bustling in with his arms full of Band-Aids and pain killers. He took one look at the six-foot-seven-tall vampyre and ran in the opposite direction. Duck Young was on him within seconds. But then Wolf’s teeth were on him.
Duck Young spun around so fast that I lost my grip. I felt his bow slip around my neck, and then he started to choke me. The string cut into my skin until my muscles were left exposed and slippery with blood. Miguel, in a fit of desperation, chucked the heaviest box of stethoscopes. Duck Young ducked it easily, but I managed to slip out. My throat rasping for breath and paws stumbling on the wet floor, I realized I had a window of about five minutes to kill this lethal demon. Any longer, and he’d win by sheer endurance. A white wolf streaked by, carrying Young Soo in her mouth. Out the door to freedom. My throat closed, and I felt the blood soak my guard hairs. At least one family would escape this fight alive.
A tail brushed against my shoulder. Saja. He high-tailed it over to Una and stood over her body, glaring balefully in the vampyre’s direction.
Duck Young and Miguel were wrestling for the bow. The vampyre let him have it, but Miguel was too panicked to realize this. He spun around, fitted an arrow, and loosed it at the vampyre prince. Duck Young caught the arrow in midair. Advancing, still with that horrible smile on his lips, the vampyre prince plunged the arrow into Miguel’s upper shoulder. My brother screamed. A real scream. The sound chilled me to the bone. Duck Young grabbed him by the hair and wrapped another arm around his neck. Miguel’s scream intensified.
I rammed into the vampyre’s side, and then the pair of us rolled over the ground, crushing Iseul’s leg on the way. I lunged for his throat, but he caught my jaws. I felt the familiar strain shoot down to the corners of my mouth as he attempted to snap my jaw in two. My claws scratched his belly furiously in response. I could see Saja yipping, but he refused to leave his position over Una.
Then I saw her. The white wolf. She hovered like a ghost on the edge of my peripheral vision, but finally, something moved her to interfere. Loping forward with great strides, she smashed between the pair of us.
“Yu Li!” Duck Young cried. “Don’t give into the wretched beast within you!”
She snarled in reply. The two began the oddest of fights: each seemed unwilling to hit the other. When Duck Young swung, she slunk away. When she lunged, he dodged to the side half-heartily.
And why not? I realized, my heart thudding. We couldn’t kill Duck Young. Not unless his soul went with him. Otherwise…What had Khyber warned Raina about?…Duck Young would live on in Eve forever. As a Dark Spirit.
I shifted, and immediately wished I hadn’t. The amount of pain Wolf had shielded me from was awful. I staggered to Rafael’s side, and with shaking fingers, scribbled out a message to his prayer wheel:
“No!” Duck Young slapped Yu Li out of the way and charged for me. Without a word, Miguel was suddenly between us, standing tall the best he could. The vampyre’s hands wrapped around his neck, and Duck Young lifted Miguel up into the air, higher and higher, until their heads nearly touched the ceiling. Miguel’s face bruised an ugly purple, like a swiftly swelling balloon.
“Miguel!” The name ended in a bark as I shifted, this time with Wolf’s cool, calculated thoughts at the forefront. How could we defeat a monster who had twice our strength and experience? But this one was still relatively young… He had been born this century, for God’s sakes. He hadn’t seen everything a wolf could do. Especially if a wolf came at him from the last place he expected…from above.
I didn’t even think. I raced at full speed toward the chair by the door. I propelled myself up off the wooden surface, rebounded off the wall, and flew through the air toward Duck Young’s unprotected back.
The wings c
lipped my face as my front claws buried into his shoulders. Duck Young began to shake the pair of us with the force of a mighty oak, but I slammed my teeth into the base of his neck so deeply I felt bone. And then I wrenched back with all my strength. The bone made sickening pops as I yanked it free from its cushy home. I was on fire now. A primal fire that flowed hot and molten through my veins and burned white-hot in my eyes. I tore out Duck Young’s spinal cord and watched it come spiraling down after me, whipping around like a loose cable wire.
When I opened my eyes, Miguel was curled up in the corner. Duck Young lay paralyzed between us, his breaths shallow and his cranberry red wings smashed like squished berries beneath him. Yu Li stood over us all, pale and haunted.
Words escaped Duck Young: “Beautiful…Yu Li.”
She seemed to fight herself as she took the bow, snapped it in half. She raised the pointed end of her makeshift stake.
“Umma.” It hurt my neck to turn my head, but only one child sounded that wounded and betrayed. “Umma, hajima!” Mother, don’t!
Yu Li slammed the stake into Duck Young’s heart.
I could see them now: the little boy staring over at his blood-smeared mother, where she crouched, feral, over the lifeless body of his father. She was a stranger. A beast from the forest. A wolf.
Young Soo fled.
Yu Li watched him go. Slowly, she sank to the ground, all of the fight leaking from her. She curled up next to her dead husband; only now that he had passed on did she allow herself to caress his hair, to touch his lips. A shiny fang exposed itself, and she buried her head in his shoulder once more.
Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters) Page 12