Year of the Tiger (Changeling Sisters) (2 page)

“What
was
going on?” Her quiet voice crept up our shoulders like sharp nails, reminding us that we were back in the normal world, where things like vampyres and Weres didn’t exist.

“How did my daughter’s finger get cut off?” Mami reiterated, as calmly as if she were settling a disturbance at the restaurant.

Everyone looked at me. My older sister Daniella couldn’t stop combing her fingers through my hair.

Jesus, it was only a finger. I could have lost an arm. A leg. Or, I glanced at Rafael, my entire family.

Even though now I understood Rafael’s endless pursuit of revenge, it made it that much harder to accept, considering who he was going up against. Eldest vampyre prince Khyber had batted us away as if we were mere puppies, and then held us down and made us smell our own failures. At least we had successfully stolen his brother Duck Young’s soul and delivered it, albeit, a bit battered, to Peomeosa Temple, where the monks could guard it.

“I don’t remember,” I muttered in response to Mami’s question. “We all drank too much. I blacked out. I remember waking up in Una’s house, seeing blood everywhere, and that’s it.”

Mami’s eyebrows rose so high, they disappeared into her hairline. “What do you remember?” she demanded of Una.

“Yes. Alcohol. Lots,” said Una, who doesn’t even drink. “Sorry. My English—so poor.”

“We went out in Seoul somewhere,” Rafael said confidently. “Erm, we got separated. Anything could have happened.”

“So you’re the infamous Rafael Dominguez my daughter always talks about.” Mami and Miguel look about as forgiving as coondogs who had cornered a squirrel in the backyard. I knew right then that Miguel could never find out that it was Rafael who’d turned me.

“I know foreigner friends can be scarce, Citlalli, but that doesn’t mean you should settle for washed-up adrenaline junkies.”

“I’ll go.” Rafael raised his hands and backed out of the room. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Alvarez.”

Una rose to follow, and Mami’s arm lashed out to stop her. “Sit down, child. I’m taking you home. Your parents and I need to have a talk. When I agreed to let my daughter go over to your house, I didn’t know it would be under a complete lack of parental supervision.”

“Parental supervision? Mami, I’ll be eighteen in a month!” I complained. December was right around the corner.

Mami shot me a look that could wither daisies, and I realized I was acting highly unnatural for someone who’d just lost a finger and couldn’t remember how.

“My parents aren’t here now,” Una muttered to her feet. Una was a do-gooder. She didn’t like to be in trouble with someone who scared the shit out of her.

“That was perfect English,” Mami countered, and Una shrank back further. “Now, hand me your phone. I need to speak with your parents.”

She had her cornered. I tried to alert Una, but I couldn’t even lift a hand to wave a warning.

“My parents—dead. I live by myself. Okay?”

Mami measured Una for a moment. “Okay. You’re coming home with us.”

“What?” There was a collective gasp.

“No young girl is going to live by herself. Not when so many horrible things are happening.” Mami nodded briskly to herself. “You’ll share a room with Citlalli.”

Taking Raina’s place. A lump rose in my throat. I couldn’t count the number of ways that bothered me.

“I have a dog,” Una said in a ghost of a voice.

Mami sighed. “Of course you do. We’ll go fetch him. Citlalli, dear, the surgery went well, so you can be discharged in the morning. It’s amazing you drank enough to
black out
,” she added scathingly, “considering the doctors didn’t find any trace of alcohol in your blood. Now, I’m quite content to believe my daughter is that much of a light weight, but what
really
bothers me is that the doctors can’t make heads or tails of
what
might have happened to your finger. It’s like it just fell off. No messy edges or anything. Frostbite in November.”

Finally they all left, leaving me alone in a dark room with blue shadows draping me through the window blinds. I pulled the bandaged hand closer to my heart, as if I could save the rest of myself from that strange absence eating up Citlalli, one piece at a time.

Wolf’s cold nose nudged closer.

Chapter 2: The White Tiger

I stood on the palace balcony and longed to be at home with Citlalli and my sisters. I longed to be anywhere other than this twisted vampyre court in Eve, to which Queen Maya had brought me and thirty-nine other kidnapped girls. We’d been pitted against one another in a cruel competition to win the hand of one of her seven sons. If we weren’t one of the lucky seven selected to be their latest vampyre brides—the keepers of their secrets, their supply of “sustenance”—then we would never see the sunshine again.

As I wished on stars that may no longer be, a black-winged angel crossed the face of the moon, fast descending upon the earth.

Khyber knocked me over on the landing, rough black feathers scratching my face. I shielded my head until it was over. When I dared look up, I saw that the heavenly comet had cooled. The vampyre prince shot me a look that could shatter ice and then strode off toward the temple.

My mind still trembled from the price agreed upon in exchange for Khyber’s betrothal gift at the ghost market. How had the Madame of Memories known about my affinity for water? Whatever she’d “taken” from me had left me more aware than ever of the moods of the weather. Now my arm hairs flicked to the direction of the changing winds. My ears were oddly attuned to the eerie stillness hanging overhead, and the strong smell of ozone burned my nostrils. There was going to be a storm tonight. But I wouldn’t tell Khyber.

Keep your enemies in the dark
.

“What’s wrong?” I called out to Khyber. “Did Citlalli do something to upset you?” I caught my breath as his shoulders stiffened. Dare I push it? “I know you never had her captive.”

“Figured that one out, did you?” he said softly.

“Always keep your enemies in the dark.”

“Glad to know that you still consider me an enemy. And yes, in fact, she did do something. Something that fucks everything up.” His eyes were glittering granite framed by longish black hair. “I’d hoped she’d died in the Gyeongbok Gung fire. But wolves are notoriously difficult to kill. Almost as difficult as us.”

“What does
that
mean?”

He looked surprised. “You don’t know what your sister is?”

“A
wolf
? No. She can’t be.”

“I agree. Another vampyre bite would be much more reassuring.”

“But what does it
mean
?” I suddenly thought of those horrible Dark Dogs.

“It means she is our mortal enemy, to be killed on sight.” Khyber paused. “Or put in a kennel. We already have two of the irresistible Alvarez sisters. What’s one more?”

“Why are we so irresistible to you?” I whispered, watching his ruby lips come closer. The other six vampyre princes were so easy to see through. Khyber’s intentions were more twisted, never fully brought to light.

“There is a beautiful strength that sings in your souls. It is both blinding and mesmerizing. There was a heavy price to pay to become a vampyre.” He shuffled uncomfortably, and I caught a glimpse of the teenage boy locked out of the reach of time. Then the boy disappeared, and he became older, more terrifying and beautiful again. “I made a promise to your irritating half-sister. If she did not do as I wished, then I promised…I would hurt you…and still, she refused to cooperate. You can’t blame all of the decision on having a dumb dog’s mind. And now…that leaves me…with a promise to fulfill.”

I backed up a few steps. “You’re not going to hurt me.”

He smiled. “Come here.”

I didn’t want to go. I was suddenly very afraid. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. Out of all of the vampyre princes, Khyber was the only one I could trust not to violate me in an unforgiveable way. Rough me up, maybe. Threaten me. But never, never— No, he wouldn’t go there. He couldn’t. I pleaded with the skies to save me, and the first few beads of rain began to fall.

But then those beryl-bright eyes shrank me where I stood.

When he began speaking, it wasn’t the voice of a captor. It was the honey-silken croon of a lover, rolling over on the sheets to tuck a spare lock of hair behind my ear.

“Are you afraid of your intended?” he teased. “Is there anything wrong with giving your betrothed a kiss?”

No. There was nothing wrong with that at all. Especially with a pale, moon-draped body such as his, or the promise of the curve of his lips.

His breath touched my ear, inhaling my fragrance. I felt as if I’d sunk into a bucket of ice-chilled water. When his fingers crept up my bare shoulder, unexpected shivers rippled down to my navel. A trace of sweet pain. His touch was so cold, it felt like icicles were burrowing deep into my skin. But I couldn’t move. I could only watch him, poised on the brink of quivering eagerness. His finger traced a small circle on the slope of my neck. And then his mouth closed around it.

I gasped as I felt my skin break. Warm blood burst free, and the pressure blossomed scarlet in the middle of my forehead. I collapsed against him. He held me, folding his black wings around my shoulders. The jagged feathers teased my arm. I felt like my body was sliding sideways, half-seizing in pleasure, half-balled up with pain. A cry tore through my lips.

His fangs finally withdrew with a soft
click
. He hesitated, and then kissed the spot in a manner that seemed uncharacteristically quick and awkward.

“I thought you said you would hurt me,” I said, fingers drifting up to my damp neck.

Khyber watched me. His eyes glowed incandescent, their rocky depths paved over with smooth silver. He sighed, almost in disappointment, as I reeled over from the abrupt head rush.

“I have. More than you know.”

***

We’d been walking for some time now. I was in a euphoric mood, full of bubbles and laughter as I ran my fingers over moonflower petals and balanced on walls overgrown with ivy. Khyber pushed aside a curtain of moss and led me to a small koi pond tucked away beneath a willow. The willow’s knotted branches scraped the surface of the water like longing fingers. In the pond, three koi chased each other around and around, in a perfectly symmetrical circle.

Normally I loved the water. But tonight it was no more than an anxious presence lapping at the back of my mind.

“Look closely,” Khyber said, crouching by the pool’s edge. “I can trust you now, so you must know some things.”

I knelt down, but I looked at him, looked at the way he gazed into the water with such revulsion at his reflection. I couldn’t understand why everyone called him ugly. They must all be blind. The man beside me was a carved masterpiece, the way time whittles the river, and his crooked nose lent personality to his face. Intensity, dark and ferocious, scowled from his eyes and curled back his lips.

Khyber cleared his throat impatiently. “Raina. Look at the water. Not me.”

Biting my lower lip for having displeased him, I obediently looked toward the beckoning waters. The fish were swimming faster now. One koi was white-scaled with patches of black, red, and blue, like the Korean flag. Another was a blur of orange, like liquid fire. The last glowed a pale, sickly white.

They swirled faster until color leaped off their scales, distorting the water. I peered closer. “What is this place?”

“A memory well.”

“Like the one on Mt. Halla? The Madame of Memories sold Colleen a picture of Duck Young’s son. She said she’d found it in the memory well on top of Mt. Halla on Jeju Island.”

Khyber’s eyes gleamed keenly. “Yes, I have no doubt she claimed it was from there. The crater of Mt. Halla holds the biggest memory well. But there are smaller ones tucked away in all corners of Eve. Places memories go to be found. Or to be left behind.”

“Whose memories are these?”

“Maya’s.”

It was the first time he’d spoken of his maker, the Vampyre Queen, without titles. Just a woman. Just Maya.

The fish whipped around so fast that ripples broke the surface. I felt the cool drops splatter across my fingers. And I was sucked in.

Chapter 3: Maya

Sunshine played over the water, soft and glittering. It was a far cry from the intense light glaring down on the Negev Desert, licking bones clean and leaving no crevice in shadow. This light laughed and played across my blistered face, as I scoured the abandoned coastline for any sign of aid. I only had seconds. My throat rattled like sandpaper as I scraped for one more breath. Then the waves tossed me under again.

I churned around on the bottom before the sea finally spit me out, broken, on a spit of gravely sand. My eyes slowly roved up the carpeting foot of forest to the chain of jagged granite peaks looming above, bucking up and down like a beast’s backbone.

“Seorak San.” The name escaped my parched lips.
The mountains that touched the sea
. So. It was no myth. I had found it. I had found it!

I staggered to my feet and gave a wordless shriek of ecstasy. My callused feet stumbled on limpets and oyster shells, but I stayed standing.

“What now, Princess Maya? Have you gone mad?”

It appeared that at least one other had survived the shipwreck. Captain Abijah, who had sworn to protect me, limped out of the sea, his gray eyes numb with pain.

I combed my fingers through my tumbling, thick black hair. “The Land of Morning Calm. Don’t you understand, you old fool? I’ve navigated the route to the East, where the secret of immortality rests. I’ve done it!”

He shook a finger at me and tried to speak, but only succeeded in coughing up more saltwater. “You? You did it, Princess? What about the oarsmen who paddled thousands of leagues without one complaint? What about those two astronomers who came along to read the skies, even though they were terrified of the sea? What about the crew and
my men
, who endured your endless rants about finding the secret to immortality? We could have been at home with our wives and children!”