Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (44 page)

Yu Li stepped up, her blue eyes hardening like crystals as she surveyed the war-torn beach. “The sea has claimed Bae for now,” the white wolf said. “But it will underestimate him, like so many others do. Bae is a Seoul werewolf. His spirit will always run with our pack, as long as we draw breath.”

Iseul began to howl first. Namkyu’s deep baritone buoyed her song up, and then Yu Li, Moon, and Rafael joined in. I placed my paws on the driftwood and did my best to howl. Ankor drew close to my side, his narrowed eyes darting about the other fully-manifested werewolves with wariness.

A dragon’s hum joined our chorus. It was a haunting sound that carried the sorrow of the deep and the immensity of the sky. Raina padded toward us in a woven rope robe and stopped short to incline her head to Yu Li.

“I am sorry about Bae, Alpha Ahn.”

The white wolf blinked at her. “Komaweoyo. However, it brings my heart joy to see that his sacrifice helped one of our pack members return to us and the Celestial Dragon to rise. The wolves and dragons have created a powerful alliance, Yong Raina. We only wish your father could be here to see it.”

Raina hesitated, her dark eyes straying to Ankor. “I’m sure he will be.”

A landmine erupted further down the beach, sending up showers of sand and vampyre limbs rolling. The Lady of Eve and Una loped toward us.

–You have done well– the White Tiger rumbled. –But the Enemy still holds the False Yeouiju within Seongsan Ilchulbong. And I sense the presence of a Greater Dark Spirit–

Ankor’s face reddened as Her stern gaze brushed his. “They have my sister.”

Una panted, her fingers slick with black blood as she brushed back her hair. “The vampyres have warded the peak with the Language of Death. I may be able to create a temporary doorway for some of you to slip through, but the Celestial Dragon and the Elder Life Spirits cannot enter without becoming corrupted.”

I shivered at the thought of confronting Xec alone but managed to pull my muzzle back in a snarl. “We will drive them out. Moon, are you okay?”

The small, cinnamon-brown wolf shook her bite wound dismissively. “The leech Santiago did this to me. I am weakened, but I will hold this form for as long as necessary to give him one in return.”

Yu Li nodded around our ring of purposeful faces.
“
It is decided, then.
Kaja!”

Chapter 53: The Death Circle

~Citlalli~

Dark waters swirled around the entrance to the sea cave while the towering peak of Seongsan Ilchulbong arched through the mists forebodingly. The air reeked of decaying flesh saturated with sea brine, and the salt was so strong that it stung my eye.

The Elder Life Spirit Thavi materialized, cautioning us to stop. The clouded leopard disappeared to scout the beach ahead. The only sign she was slipping in and out of space and time was the flick of her spotted tail. In her wake, hidden landmines erupted in a flurry of dark sand. At last, she reappeared on the foothills of the sea castle and gestured us forward. The Lady of Eve flanked us while Xiang soared above. The shouts and clash of battle dulled the closer we approached the peak, swallowed up by the roar of the sea.

Una approached the sea cavern entrance and
placed
a hand against the wall of hardened ash. A wave rushed up to throw her back. However, a string of familiar ugly characters appeared, engrained not only in the stone but hovering in the air itself. Una stood up, cradling her injured fist, and studied the barrier.

A shiver ran through the Doorkeeper before turtle flesh enveloped her human skin. Then she reached out and
unraveled
the first character, changing its shape and form into another word entirely. A small tear appeared in the barrier. Working quickly now, Una seized more characters and altered them until they began to slip and slide like puzzle pieces that could no longer fit together.

“Go!” she hissed, her arms shaking under the tension of restraining the inscription’s original form.

I dove headfirst into the flickering doorway with Yu Li and Raina hot on my heels. Rafael and Ankor just managed to make it before the foreboding hoot of an owl rang eerily over the pounding tide. I caught a glimpse of Una’s face, pale with shock, before the death characters reared up like nasty spider legs and twisted free from her grasp. A familiar Dark Spirit appeared behind her. It had a dead man’s grin set within a face as white as rice powder and hollow black eyes that bore into the back of her head.

“Una, look out!” I cried.

Una’s grip on the characters faltered as she glanced over her shoulder. She just managed to shift into her protective turtle form before Xec charged at her, the Dark Spirit’s pale fingers extending into needle-black talons that were eager to rip out her eyes.

“Face Gouger!” Xiang cried from above, recognizing an old foe. “How dare you show yourself here!”

–Wolves! Down! Do not look it in the eye!– the White Tiger commanded and then bounded after the Dark Spirit. Xec smiled and dissolved in a flurry of molting feathers. It appeared in the sky as a gigantic, loathsome, white owl, its beak stained crimson from the blood of others. When it released its mournful song, villages and shifters alike stopped and swayed, their eyes slowly veering upwards.

Xiang’s fierce cry interrupted Xec’s spell. The Red Bird began to smolder with the fury of a phoenix and then crashed into Xec. They tumbled across the sky in a clash of fire and feathers. In the wake of their fury, weather demons hurtled out of their roosts atop Seongsan Ilchulbong toward my exposed pack. The White Tiger leaped to defend them.

“Iseul, you are in charge. Hold the beach,” Yu Li ordered. We just had time to see the sienna wolf nod, and then an avalanche of stones crashed down, burying our exit.

“Well,” Rafael said softly, to no one in particular, “we’re on our own.”

Our Were eyes adjusted to the dark, enough for me to make out Yu Li snort. “Is this what you had in mind when you pictured hunting down the last of the vampyre princes?”

Rafael eyed the tiny lava tube passage uneasily. “Fine, you’re right. This is different. During the Were War, the vampyre princes made themselves known, exposed. Now that they have chosen to retreat and strike from the shadows…this is when they will be at their most dangerous.”

“
Yeh
. Now they are the ones watching us,” Raina said softly. She shivered, her nostrils flaring at the darkness ahead. “In here, Eve feels like it did when Maya ruled…cloaked in hostility…mistrustful…and cold with the breath of the angry dead.”

Ankor folded his arms. “I am sorry, Raina. Now I understand why you were always afraid. This was never the Eve that me and my siblings knew. We should have interfered long before. These vampyres and the horrible things they did while holding us captive… I do not understand why my father turned a blind eye to them for so long.”

Raina shifted uncomfortably and shot me another furtive glance. “He must have had his reasons.”

“I shouldn’t have come.” Ankor kicked a stone. “I thought I could find the pearl before the vampyre princes, but it was their plan to use the fox and have me find it for them all along. And now I don’t even know how I can help without shifting.”

“You can keep our hopes up with some of your legendary optimism,” I suggested, and Ankor shot me a glare.

Yu Li nudged Ankor’s hip with her cold black nose. “Imugi Prince, the vampyres would have only extended their reach to torment thousands more if you hadn’t come. They wanted the False Yeouiju, and they would have stopped at nothing to find it. You are an ore dragon. If you found the pearl once…then maybe you can find it again.”

Ankor dipped his head to Yu Li. “Alpha Ahn, kamsahamnida. It is as you say.” Crouching, the ore imugi uttered a series of those strange chirping sounds and then placed his ear against the earth.

My tail thumped against Raina’s shin. “No one takes treasure from a dragon and gets away with it.”

“Quiet, Citlalli,” Yu Li warned, trying not to smile.

Ankor listened intently and then pointed. “This way.”

We approached a stone staircase plunging into the bowels of the cone. The sound of dripping water intensified until my eardrums throbbed, and it became difficult to keep the staircase in focus.

I blinked. The steps weren’t there any longer. A yawning abyss stretched before me. The staircase had shifted, extending up—there, on the ceiling.

No, it was to my left. My eye swung about, confused. Wolf barked at me to walk straight ahead, but that couldn’t be right.

“I have seen this before…” Rafael’s human hand grabbed my leg with sudden force. “Quick, shift and grab hands! They will be able to separate us unless we stay together!”

He snatched for Raina’s fingers, but it was too late. The staircase vanished and then reappeared directly beneath my feet, flattening into a slide. Rafael and I went tumbling down into the depths of the chasm.

“Shit.” I stood, swaying in human form. “What was that?”

Rafael gripped my elbows to steady me. “The leeches are manipulating the fabric of Eve. It’s some sort of distortion of the dream bridge, except instead of building a path to someone, it drags the spirit
to
them. I saw an illusion like the disappearing staircase once before when I was imprisoned in Takakazu’s Death Place in Japan. It appears that the twisted madman shared some of his tricks with Donovan and Santiago.”

“Ugh. I am glad that was one vampyre prince I never had the pleasure of meeting.” Shivering, I shied away from Rafael and looked half-heartily around for a jacket. If I made it through this alive, I would have to audition for The Discovery Channel’s
Naked and Afraid
. They could toss me down a volcano, and I would still win. “Do you hear that sound? Above the water?”

Rafael surveyed the curtain of whispering darkness with distaste. Now that we were in Eve, the compass tattoo stretching along his tanned abdomen began to spin. “Yes. Chanting.”

I turned, and there was a rope dangling before me. Pressure began to build up in my temples again, and I closed my eye frantically. “Oh no, not again—”

“Citlalli?” Rafael’s voice echoed as if far away underwater. I felt the slimy cord bump my fingers.

“Rafael! I’m here!” It ended in a yelp as the rope abruptly looped around my ankle and tugged. I barked as it yanked me into freefall. Rafael lunged for my hand. Together, we plummeted.

My fall halted a foot from the ground. I spun about in midair, dangling by my ankle from a rope tethered to a cavernous ceiling. Rafael let go and hit the ash-hardened rocks with a wince, landing smack in the middle of an inky-black ring encircling the floor.

Chained to the heart of the runic circle, Taeyang lifted his head. “Mweo?”

“Taeyang!” I spun about like a disoriented acrobat in the air, struggling to reach the knot holding my foot hostage. “It’s us! Citlalli and Rafael! We’re here to, um, rescue you!”

“Mud Girl,” Taeyang murmured, and his voice was tinged with sadness.

Realizing he was nose-to-nose with Khyber’s soul, Rafael scrambled over backwards and hit an invisible barrier.

“What the hell?” he demanded. His tattooed compass arrow swung about wildly now, as if the poles had shifted out of balance.

A
hiss-hiss
of laughter slithered through the darkness. Lanterns flared to life on all sides of us, revealing the Language of Death inked across every crevice of the cavern. I froze in my efforts to free myself. We were inside a Pandora’s Box.

Prince Donovan rose from where he sat safely outside of the runic circle on a golden throne encrusted in algae. Santiago sat on the second throne of bronze and freshly splattered blood, frowning at me and playing with his rusty Toledo sword.

“Well, well, well,” Donovan sneered. “We only meant to take the wolf bitch, but it appears that her beloved pack mate refused to be separated from her. Isn’t that sweet…eldest brother?”

A shadow shifted on the third silver throne, his face a sliver of pale moon in the dark. Jet-black hair fell across his face as he refused to look up. Iron manacles bound his legs and arms.

“Two wolves I loathe to the core of their furry beings instead of one. This will make things very interesting.” Donovan raised his golden head and flashed a gleaming smile. “Who will Taeyang kill to complete his corruption?”

Rafael immediately shifted and began digging along the perimeter with a vengeance. Unable to break through the spell’s enchantment, he dashed to try on the other side. I swung myself toward the wall, hoping to gain a handhold to climb my way up to the rope. Immediately, Donovan blurred and reappeared in front of me. My head crashed into his chest.

“Easy,
mademoiselle
,” the Frenchman purred, his breath cool in my ear as he steadied me. I stiffened as his fingers admired my burned hands. Then I felt his hand travel higher to caress my breast, and his breathing quickened. “We don’t want your death to be too easy.”

I snapped to Wolf in a cloud of black smoke and lunged for his head. Donovan dodged and laughed, smoothing back his ruffled golden hair. “What do you think, Crow?” he taunted his elder brother, gesturing to my struggling form. “Now that she has died and become one of us, wouldn’t you say the wolf slut has become much more appealing?”

He blurred across the room and appeared behind Khyber. Lowering his pale lips to his ear, the Frenchman whispered: “A life partner much younger and impressionable than Maya… Does it ever cross your mind to take her? To sink your fangs into her scars until she opens up to you completely, both in mind and body?” Donovan licked his lips as he looked me up and down. “Ah, that faded bite mark…perhaps you already have?”

Rafael howled and slammed against the barrier again in a berserk rage. Donovan smirked and moved to Khyber’s other ear. “All the more worthwhile to stake your claim…and let your mortal enemy watch.”

Khyber finally raised his head, his clear-cut gaze refusing to rise to the level of Donovan’s perversion. “Where is Aaron, Donovan?” he asked softly.

Donovan shared an exasperated glance with Santiago. “Khyber, you grumpy old prude, how many times do I have to remind you that you betrayed us? You do not get to know where Aaron is or what he is doing. By the Mother, your ears must be as ruined as your face. You have always been a blot on us all, but then again, you were Mother’s first experiment.” Donovan looked Taeyang up and down and then laughed. “Why the hell did she make a
blind
boy into a vampyre? She should have scraped you the moment she saw your imperfection.”