Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (14 page)

My flaming hand went dark. Trapped, I did the only thing I could think of: I dove. The waves rushed up over my head, but I felt the icy claws of the Vampyre Queen scrape my scalp, ripping out a piece of my hair. The infinite well of the ocean spread deep and dark below me. Terrified out of my mind, I paddled as fast as I could until the pressure built up inside of my head.

Then the world exploded.

***

I woke to Siwoo shaking my shoulder.

“Are you okay?” he exclaimed. “The group interview is about to start!”

A jolt of reality rushed through my body.
The Yong Enterprises job interview
. Springing to my feet, I realized I was standing in the stark white lobby of the secretive company dressed in a pencil skirt and blouse. Thankfully, the receptionist hadn’t returned yet.

“How long was I out?” I whispered.

Siwoo shook his head. “You start acting funny after we pass through Rainbow Room.”

The place where the veil between the waking world and Eve was the thinnest. I shook my head again to clear it of sleep. The White Tiger was right. Unsolicited journeys to the spirit world were becoming more common the longer Una was under the vampyre princes’ control. When I touched my scalp, I felt a raw bump where a piece of my hair had been torn out.

“What were you dreaming about?” Siwoo asked curiously. “You started twitching and growling a lot.”

“Giant turtles and stuff,” I muttered. The receptionist returned and gestured for us to follow her.

The interview room was an oval space in the upper recesses of Yong Enterprises with a view of the Han River curling below. Wolf whined, unhappy to be trapped in the white, sterile chamber, and I sympathized.

The walls hummed and changed in patterns of holographic falling dogwood blossoms. They were meant to be soothing, but they only freaked me out more. My job history was a little patchy. I had experience in the following professions: a “server,” an “Alpha of the Seoul werewolf pack,” and a “lantern maker.” I wasn’t quite sure what sort of career path that set me up for, but it was definitely going to be a hard sell to this technologically glamorous wonderland.

I adjusted my black pencil skirt for the hundredth time. Since Daniella was away in America, I had raided her closet for the interview and squeezed into a pair of her ankle boots, tights, and a carmine bow-tied blouse to go with it, along with a slender gold chain upon which my Alpha fang dangled. I’d given up long ago on ever taming my ridiculously thick black curls, but my bangs I’d managed to style sideways across my eyebrows. Mari would have been proud; it was a style I’d taken from her.

Beside me, Siwoo wasn’t doing much better. He hadn’t ceased his compulsive shivers even while sleeping. Currently, he was having a difficult time picking up his complimentary green tea.

Despite his tremors, Siwoo had confessed to me about how happy he was to be offered the job interview. Working at Yong Enterprises had been his childhood dream ever since he’d discovered he enjoyed taking apart and rebuilding every electronic appliance in the house, rather than running around naked in the forest like his werewolf brothers. However, his rural home on Jeju Island had always felt worlds apart from Seoul. Siwoo told me that when the Emerald Veil appeared, he had vowed to do everything in his power to break through before his dream vanished forever.

After my nightmare,
I
was ready to hire him if he could destroy that wretched mindfuck of a mist forever.

“W-who do you think will interview us?” Siwoo asked between chatters.

I shrugged. “I just know it will be a group interview to consider if we’re a good fit for the company. The front desk told me they’re waiting on one more candidate.”

Siwoo nodded. “Kamsahamnida
,
Alpha Alvarez. Even if they ch-choose me as a test subject to ex-experiment on, I will be happy.”

I squeezed his hand. I really had to remind him to tone down the cologne. “They’ll find out how to help you, Siwoo. You’re a hero. You may have discovered the way to break through the mist.”

“But I don’t remember what I did,” he muttered to his suede shoes. I could only rub his back consolingly. Whatever Siwoo had done to momentarily lift the mist had fried his brain. He described “huge white spots” appearing in his head whenever he tried to remember, and it hurt to probe them too deeply.

Just then, the sliding door hissed open. My jaw dropped. “Taeyang” strode in. His sightless dark eyes were flecked with gold, and his usual jagged black hair was combed in a side-swept wing across his forehead. Unlike Siwoo’s flamboyant taste in violet tuxedo vests, he looked comfortably self-assured in navy blue. When he clasped my hand in greeting, his mouth dropped in equal surprise.

“Mud Girl!” he blurted.

Siwoo growled to hear me addressed by
that
flattering title. However, with his shivers it sounded about as menacing as a stuttering engine.

“Tug-of-War Boy,” I greeted, and Taeyang grinned. He gave Siwoo a wide berth and came to sit by me.

“You can do magic thing, too?” he asked.

“Yes, Taeyang. What can you do?” Wolf’s nose was working overtime, but I still didn’t catch any scent of rotting vampyre flesh. Mostly just another dose of Aquatic No. 3. I glared at Siwoo.

“Demonstrations will be saved until the end. Please understand that bringing down the Emerald Veil in the South China Sea is Yong Enterprises’ top priority right now, and we expect your presentations to illustrate how you will help.” Mun Mu swept into the room, followed by Ankor.

Raina’s father smiled at me. “You clean up well, wolf.”

“You serpents are too obsessed with uncomfortable clothing,” I complained. Siwoo and Taeyang winced, but the Dragon King merely laughed.

“Until you demonstrate your invaluableness to the company, then I expect you in nothing less.” He paused in the doorway. “Then maybe we can talk Jeans Fridays, Citlalli.”

I grinned. Mun Mu gestured toward the inclined heads of Taeyang and Siwoo. “Rise. This is my son, Yong Ankor, who will be interviewing you today. He is head of the Futures Department. Your spirit skills must impress him.”

“You won’t be interviewing us?” My face flamed. “
Sajang-nim
, I admit my Korean might not be good enough.”

Mun Mu smiled and squeezed my shoulder. “I admire your willingness to try, Citlalli, but Ankor speaks perfectly good English. Didn’t he tell you he graduated from MIT?”

My heartbeat drummed in my head, and my face was full-on fire. Ankor sat composedly at the head of the table sorting papers, but he glanced up to shoot me the smallest of smirks. My disbelief only intensified. Had he been planning to let me stumble through the entire interview with my clumsy Korean? I’d thought his twin was the evil one, but at least Sun Bin would have let me know if she had a problem with me. I had no idea what I’d done to piss this guy off.

“Of course, Sun Bin graduated from Oxford with first-class honors, and that was with her ridiculous obsession with rugby,” Mun Mu casually mentioned, fixing his son with his dreaded reptilian stare. “Her advisor remarked that Sun Bin exhibited the leadership to expand Yong Enterprises internationally.”

“MIT doesn’t partake in that sort of ‘honors’ nonsense,” Ankor muttered, his American English low but velvety smooth.
“Sajang-nim,”
he pinned on sarcastically at the end. Mun Mu’s lip curled at his son, and he left without another word.

Ankor glared balefully at the three of us squirming in our chairs. He adjusted his black-rimmed glasses. “So. Who will speak first?”

Siwoo and Taeyang kicked me unhelpfully under the table. I cleared my throat. “I can make magical lanterns. My technique is still developing, but I can make sunshine lanterns that chase away shadows.”

Ankor regarded me impassively, like a cat unimpressed with the string I was dangling before it. “Yes. That is what lanterns do, dog. They
light
up
.”

Wolf pulled my mouth back into a snarl. “With all due respect, there are many different kinds of shadows. Some are evil spirits. Trust me, this mist will be full of them. My lantern would act like a repellent toward them and disperse the invading green fog.”

“A good idea, but I checked your references.” Ankor tipped up his glasses to read: “Quote: ‘Citlalli Alvarez makes an appearance at her place of business once a full moon, if we are lucky. We are far behind on our lantern orders, and the shop is in danger of being raided by violent ghosts. I doubt her reliability. Signed, Mangdung, Assistant Lantern Maker at Old Man’s Zhi’s Lantern Shop.’”

I spluttered in outrage. “First, Mangdung is not a professional reference or even an employee; he’s a bratty leopard cat spirit! Second, you’re checking up on me without my permission?”

Ankor folded up the paper and turned to the next file. “Thank you for your presentation. However, we have someone here who can do exactly what you are proposing. Ko Siwoo broke his werewolf family out of Jeju-do, didn’t you?”

Siwoo bowed his head, his teeth chattering. “I did,
kwajang-nim
,” he spoke in Korean, “but I cannot remember how. I have always been different from my werewolf brothers on Jeju-do. I was never good at hunting or howling, but I could make sensors to measure our Were body readings. I developed a drug that helped us control our Were impulses, even in wolf form.”

I sat up straight at that, and I wasn’t the only one. Ankor’s face softened as he let Siwoo finish without interrupting: “The mist break caused damage to my memory. However, within your care, I am convinced that I could recover my memories and aid your department’s mission to develop beneficial Were technologies in any way I can.”

Ankor smiled. It looked like the unfamiliar muscle movement was causing him physical pain. “Kamsahamnida,” he told the young werewolf inventor. “Now, Taeyang-ssi. My father interviewed you ahead of time, so I have his notes. However, I would like to see a demonstration of your skills to decide where best to place you.”

Taeyang nodded and opened his briefcase. Inside were the last two things I expected to see: a mouse and a pair of tweezers. Before the mouse could run away, Taeyang stabbed it viciously. Blood blossomed up from its abdomen, and the mouse withered in agony. I looked at Taeyang’s face to see if the mouse’s piteous cries affected him, but his face was a blank slate. Just as quickly, Taeyang placed a finger on the mouse’s wound. The golden flecks in his irises expanded, consuming his eyes in radiant white fire. The light poured forth from his fingertips, mending the mouse’s tissue. When he released it, the mouse scuttled off, unharmed.

The Korean boy shook, and the golden sparks in his eyes receded. I sucked in my breath. Taeyang’s healing power was the exact opposite of Khyber’s death touch.

“Great,” the Autumn Dragon said. “There is a mouse loose in Yong Enterprises.” Before Taeyang’s face fell, Ankor grinned and extended a hand. “Welcome, my friend. You’re hired.”

***

I chased Ankor down the hallway. He moved quickly. With every slither, I watched my dream of working at a clandestine hi-tech company evaporate.

“Yong sunsaeng-nim!”

He paused when I addressed him as “teacher,” and I caught up.

“Look, we’re family, right?” I gave Ankor my best Citlalli smile, the one that Mami said made my face light up like a star. “I really admire the work you guys do here, and I want to be a part of it. Maybe we can go back to discussing several items on my resume? Serving has taught me a lot about multi-tasking. And as far as handling pressure goes, try being the Alpha for a pack of emotionally-charged, bloodthirsty werewolves—”

The Autumn Dragon stalked faster down the hallway. “Yes. You rose to be Alpha of the Seoul werewolves after you obtained some silly fang necklace during rather suspicious circumstances in the last battle. The old Alpha is dead, and the only one to validate your claim is a fellow foreigner.”

Wolf welled up inside of me, and I launched myself at him. I twisted Ankor’s perfectly crisp collar as I held him against the wall, my one eye burning as hot as a laser. “How. Dare. You. How fucking dare you! Jaehoon, Kaelan, and I were surrounded and outnumbered by the Vampyre Queen’s mad Dark Dogs on a mountain peak in the middle of a goddamned war. The only dragon I saw was my sister and Sanghee, after we summoned her! Where were the rest of you great and mighty lizards? You and your father and the glorious Yong Enterprises didn’t do jackshit, and yet you have the nerve to accuse me of killing my old mentor? You’re nothing but a fucking scaly turd. If you weren’t Raina’s half-brother, I would throw you through every wall in this building!”

Ankor’s hands leaped up to seize my wrists. “Do it,” he hissed, his eyes lengthening into slits of fire and his scales shooting out to cut my skin. “Then Appa will terminate you and be done with it.”

My grip loosened. “So…I am hired?”

The Autumn Dragon shoved my hands off in disgust and straightened his suit. “I didn’t have a choice. Appa told me that you are family and we just need to go through the motions of an interview. At least I am to be your supervisor. Mark my words, wolf: I will build a case for exactly why you are everything that is wrong for this company.”

I resisted the urge to tend to my wounded hands. These cuts were nothing compared to a Vampyre Queen strangling the soul out of me, after all. “What is your deal, anyway? I thought dragons looked down on pissing contests.”

Ankor’s jaw locked. “Minho.”

Whatever I had expected, it hadn’t been that. I tried not to laugh, failed, and then gapped at him in amazement. Of course, I had been surprised when Minho had contacted me after our run-in at the Yong mansion, but I’d thought Ankor would have been happy I wasn’t blowing off his best friend. “
Minho
is why you’ve declared war against me? Are you jealous of us or something?”

“He asked you out as a friend, and you said yes.”

“Right.” I waved my phone at him. “Through
text
. I don’t hear wedding bells ringing, do you?”

Ankor folded his arms. “You are a werewolf dating my best friend, who is
a mortal human
,” he said coldly. “You are the werewolf who defeated the Vampyre Queen, and you are currently the controversial Alpha of the Seoul werewolves. Your enemies are countless, and yet you blindly drag Minho into your shapeshifter mess. For some reason, he can’t stop gushing about seeing the ‘strange and exciting waygook girl’ again.”