Year of the Rat, page 35
part #4 of Changeling Sisters Series
Samson snorted, stretching back. “Your mother’s application was easy enough to expedite. Polished business entrepreneur with excellent English skills who was humble enough to make us believe she wouldn’t challenge the status quo? That was an easy sell. Your father was the problem. Some gambling-addicted farmer from a poor Mexican village? I didn’t understand why she didn’t just leave him, but your mother remained firm that he was part of the deal.”
I forced down the heat rising in my ears and kept my gaze trained on those amber eyes. “Why did she come to you?”
The Golden Mane ran a claw idly along the brim of his glass, creating a jarring note that made Wolf’s ears flinch. “Why, she was on the run, Alvarez. She made the wrong deal with someone in Mexico that no regular authority could help her with, and her only choice was to disappear. I don’t know how she got my name, but your mother is resourceful and cunning. She didn’t just know that I was a high-ranking Were; she had dirt.” He chuckled ruefully. “I didn’t know whether to be angry or impressed, but in the end, I knew your mother was no threat because she let one important thing slip…”
He lowered his lips to my ear: “She was desperate.”
I struggled to keep from breaking the railing. “So why help her? Why bother with the lowly Mexican immigrant?”
“Because I knew what she was really running from.” Samson wisely took a step back, allowing me some air. “I told you before: it was her fear that haunted me. Ileana told me she was running from vampyres, but I knew it was something worse. And she was petitioning someone who was sympathetic to the overthrow of the gods.”
My head shot up, and Samson smiled at me strangely. “The twins can’t stand to be near me for longer than five minutes, but maybe you are wise like your mother. It’s never beneficial to hold a grudge. I am glad Yong Mun Mu has returned. We have much to talk about. We were best mates back in a time when we saw how much the gods were fucking up the world in the name of preserving their fading identities. Now, Mun Mu would fall upon his sword if it meant conserving localized hubs of Were power, but I know that for us to prevent the rise of monsters like the Death Gods, then we must be willing to sacrifice individual rights for the sake of a global Were Nation. I hope you come to understand this, like Ileana did. If I can count on your support, then I will tell you what deal a mortal woman once made with The Twelve, and why I knew it necessary to pull on every one of my connections to get her out of it.”
I gazed at him, sniffing for deceit, but the werelion had lost the twinkle in his eye. It returned as Sun Bin joined us with drinks. Bowing gracefully, the Golden Mane said, “I take my leave. Miss Yong, may I say what a striking figure you make tonight?”
“I know,” Sun Bin retorted before entreating me away. She offered me a wine glass that was practically overflowing. “The hell did he want?”
“Taunting me with the truth behind my mother’s immigration to America,” I replied, taking a large gulp to calm my nerves. “I just have to buy into his faction of the Were Directorate, spy on your father, and take his belittling insults toward my family on a daily basis.”
Sun Bin raised her delicately threaded eyebrows. “Well, if you ever wanted to know what it’s like to work for a feline…”
“Tempting.” Grinning, we continued our descent to the packed dance floor.
Ankor stood in the heart of a small circle, the candlelight glinting in his obsidian earring. I hadn’t seen him since we had emerged from the Han. I’d managed to avoid him at every turn, too tired to get into an argument over putting his father’s powers on the bargaining table with Ryujin. Now I marveled that he’d ever been spat out of the sea. His black hair, which ages ago had been kept meticulously gelled in a rigid block cut, now tangled longer around his ears. He cast a slender shadow in a tight-fitting suit with a white button-down dress shirt and tie that accentuated his dark complexion. Turning with a hand in his pocket, he broke into a smile. My step fumbled when I realized he was looking at me.
I returned his smile, the wine bringing a soft flush to my cheeks. His gaze didn’t break as we joined them. Confusion stole over me and heated my blood as we stood side by side. His hand was inches from mine, and I was more attuned than ever to the static electricity leaping between us.
“Is this the waygook you mentioned?” one of the girls in the circle said in Korean. She was human, small and teetering in her heels, and had an angelic face shaped by a shiny black bob. I recognized her as one of the liberated prisoners. She saw me looking at the manacle imprints on her skin and rubbed her wrist self-consciously.
Ankor smiled, and I noticed the same flush from alcohol darkening his cheeks. “Yeh, this is her: Alvarez Citlalli, the Fire Wolf. She is family on my half-sister’s side.”
“Your step-sibling,” the girl said brightly, and I felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over my head.
Sun Bin snorted into her drink. “The knot hasn’t been tied yet, Nara-ssi. And now is really not the time to plan a wedding.”
Nara pouted, which turned her mouth into a rosebud. “Aw, don’t be that way, unni. We’re more familiar than that.”
Sun Bin raised her eyebrows at me as she took another drink. “Unni, hmmm? I’m losing track of how many younger sisters I’ve acquired over the past year. Soon I’ll have enough to replace Heesu.”
“Yah, Yong Sun Bin,” Ankor hissed, tugging his twin away. They left me staring awkwardly at the three rescued Seoulites. The trio whispered amongst themselves and gestured after the twins, no doubt shocked over the news about the youngest Yong sibling.
“I am Kim Nara, high school friend of Yong Ankor,” Nara finally introduced herself in English when it became clear that the twins weren’t finishing their argument anytime soon. She made the word “friend” sound like something cozy and intimate that further stirred the feeling of loss I felt inside. I didn’t dare shift my robotic arm lest it start chirping that it was low on battery life. “This is Yi Daheun and Lee Geon-woo from Yong Sun Bin’s home room.”
Daheun had uncannily large, soulful eyes and a canary-yellow dress that she twisted nervously while staring after Sun. One foot was still heavily bandaged from a sprain, and yet the girl had somehow fit in heels. Geon-woo took my bionic hand in the Western-style, betraying the thickly corded muscles beneath his navy-blue suit. My mouth went dry when we shook, and I prayed the music was loud enough to mask the sound of my joints whirring.
“Whoa!” he gasped, and my heart sunk. “Ankor-ssi, it is no joke! She is cyborg girl.”
Ankor returned to our circle, still red-faced from his confrontation with Sun. “It’s okay, Citlalli,” he told me, the small smile returning to his face.
His hand fell upon my glove, and I remembered those hours spent alone in his laboratory when he’d haltingly told me I looked “cool.” I’d thought he’d meant something different then. But this Ankor wasn’t the scientist awkwardly adjusting his glasses as he tried to explain things like neuroprosthetics and residual limbs. This Ankor channeled his father the businessman, smoothly tugging my glove off to reveal the gleaming robotic advancement. He pointed out the different motors and the soul channeler while speaking in rapid Korean as if addressing potential investors. Daheun and Geon-woo oohed and aahed at all the right places. Nara sidled closer to Ankor as if trying to get a better view.
I held still for as long as I could before I’d had enough of being shown off like the latest car model. I quietly but firmly tugged my bionic arm from Ankor’s grip and muttered, “Excuse me.”
I found Sun Bin on the balcony, where she gazed moodily over the party like an ice statue. She reached under her panda shawl and offered me a bottle of vodka. “I found where they keep the good booze.”
I accepted it and took a swig, trying not to make a face. I didn’t know how Mikhail did it. “Ah. Give me whiskey any day over this rubbing alcohol shit.”
Sun Bin hid a grin, her shimmery powdered eyes returning to the floor. “There she is. Back there with my brother and his friends, I was beginning to think you’d gone mute.”
“I guess the Master Inventor forgot to program his prized robot to talk,” I muttered sourly.
Across the floor, Hyeon Bin was trying to convince a shy group of refugees to dance. They seemed more interested in watching a monk do the electric slide. Taeyang and Una stood at a cocktail table nearby with Namkyu and Iseul, devouring everything the server brought to the table as if it were their last meal. My stomach clenched in response when I saw the spot Moon would have been, between Namkyu’s arms. Una caught my eye, and I toasted her.
Yu Li and Defense Minister Carver were surrounded by avid admirers, who were showering them with gifts to show their gratitude for the Lotte World rescue. The two made quite the striking pair, she in a sleeveless violet chiffon gown with her hair bound in a glossy black bun, and he in a crisp white blazer that accentuated his golden watch. Several whispered and pointed at Yu Li’s vivid red scar when they thought she wasn’t listening, no doubt inventing tales of the Alpha wolf facing down hordes of the undead.
Yu Li’s smile remained fixed even as her ears flicked toward the gossipers in a very wolf-like manner. Her attention soon turned to scolding Young Soo, who was whining about his bowtie. Samson chuckled and bent down to loosen it, earning him Yu Li’s short nod of thanks.
Sun Bin noticed my wrinkled nose and leaned over, allowing several drops of vodka to rain on the dance floor below. “If your Sleeping Beauty of a brother doesn’t wake up soon, he’ll find the cat making himself quite cozy on his side of the bed.”
I shrugged, my gaze drifting toward where Ankor and Nara now leaned against one another on the dance floor. Her small stature molded perfectly against his shorter height. “Well, given Yu Li’s taste in men, I wouldn’t be surprised if she stooped to felines.”
Sun Bin noticed where my attention focused and took several more sips before offering me the bottle again. “Ah yes, Kim Nara. She dated Ankor his senior year.”
I nodded numbly, feeling sick to my stomach. I had suspected as much, but it still hurt to hear it said aloud. Ankor was shaking his head as Nara tried to pull him into the lines of Hyeon Bin’s electric sliders, but her endearing coos eventually coaxed a grin to his face. I watched the easy way his shoulders relaxed as he followed her into the throng of dancers. Ankor had never let his guard down like that around me.
Well, one time. I remembered the couch in his nerd den back in Yong Mansion, when we’d teased and cuddled and played video games. I hadn’t been sure what that was. I didn’t think Ankor knew, either.
Sun Bin leaned in conspiratorially. “They broke up his first year at uni. I never liked her. One time I was struggling to set up our new television, and Nara just sat there absorbed in her phone, not even offering to help.”
“I would have helped you, Sun Bin.” The words slipped out before I meant them to, but Raina’s half-sister nodded vigorously.
“I know you would.” The Winter Dragon leaned back casually on the balcony, jerking her head toward the thriving dance floor. “So? What are you waiting for?”
I blinked at her in shock. In my momentary space of silence, the other parts of my soul rushed to fill it. Wolf barked excitedly as if we had picked up a familiar scent; Demon hissed in agreement but muttered of seeking out the other one—the taller one.
Ankor’s twin sister had been the last one I’d expected to give me “her blessing,” so to speak. I didn’t exactly factor into any picture of a powerhouse chaebol family. Of course, she had downed four shots, as if some part of Sun believed that if she even acknowledged one brief moment of happiness tonight, then she would be unable to rise and face the endless war tomorrow. And as I watched Ankor twirl Nara beside Yu Li, who was showing her son how to grapevine, I, too, let my hand slip from the railing.
“I can’t.” I remembered my heart flailing when I’d discovered that the handsome Rafael Dominguez was taken by a pretty wolf, who, in my opinion, was a stone-cold ice queen. I remembered the stabs of savage satisfaction when he’d begun to choose me over Yu Li. Maybe ice had been my color as well, but it wasn’t now. “I’ve done this dance before. I won’t be the other woman again, Sun.”
“Whatever.” Sun Bin dabbed more shimmery powder on her eyelids and then snapped her compact mirror shut. She primped her high ponytail while surveying the dance floor, as if it were her kingdom and she had finally deigned to join it. “Well, Daheun has had a crush on me forever, and if I stay on this balcony any longer, then her neck is going to cramp from all those wistful glances.”
She handed me the vodka, and I mockingly saluted her. “Truly you are an example to us all, Yong Sun Bin.”
The air imugi sighed. “I know. It’s hard being so beautiful all the time.” A familiar wicked glint darkened her black ice eyes. “Not that you’d know anything about that, Cyborg Alvarez,” she added with a sympathetic pat to my arm. She slipped down the stairs before I could swat her.
“Prick!” I settled for calling, which was the only British insult I could think of.
“The sooner you accept these truths about yourself, the better!” the Winter Dragon retorted, tightening that ridiculously large panda shawl around her neck.
Chapter 47: Spectrum
~Sun Bin~
In all of the times I had pictured our high school reunion, I had never imagined it like this. Granted, in our final years, we had spent more time memorizing cram school books in preparation for our college entrance exam than talking. I had teetered on the brink of paying someone to take the Suneung for me.
I remembered the tears when Daheun failed and Geon-woo did poorly. The last time I’d seen them, Geon-woo had disappeared to do his two years of military service, and Daheun had been the red-faced barista at the register when I’d sauntered up with a visiting university mate. I’d walked away with the iced-soy-whatever-shit I’d ordered in shock, remembering every night I’d convinced them to sneak into the clubs rather than study. I’d always told myself that they could keep up with me. That they were playing in the same field as a chaebol family with a governess and four tutors and a chef and whatever the hell else I wanted.
Now fate had brought us together in an impromptu reunion where half of our graduating class members were starving skeletons, and the other half couldn’t make it because they were dead. Put it in those terms, and my former schoolmates were happy to forget that I had ever used them—especially when being at my side meant their literal survival. So I smiled when they toasted my courage, downed shots with them like old times, and smiled falsely some more.
“I didn’t know about your sister,” Daheun finally said when we were alone in the bathroom. She had already finished washing her hands with sweet pea sanitizer and now stood by the door, waiting for me as always. I sniffed my hands and wrinkled my nose. If this was the only fragrance that we were down to, then it was time to hit the streets for more.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.” She twisted the ends of her canary yellow dress. “Heesu was…so kind. I mean, everyone loved her.”
My gaze locked with hers in the mirror. I wanted her to yell at me. I wanted her to throw things. From what Geon-woo had told me, her parents had been working in the heart of Gangnam when the Red Night had fallen. And yet, she continued to unknowingly sympathize for the family whose fault this entire thing was.
“And Nyssa.” Daheun’s surgically enlarged eyes were wide like a deer’s as she backed herself into a corner, but she was unable to help herself. “I-I haven’t seen her. Is she…?”
“Gone,” I said shortly, touching up my eyelash extensions. Ignoring her stutters, I nodded toward her leg. “Who did that to you?”
Daheun glanced down at her cast. Someone had drawn a glittery smiley-faced cat on it. “One of the w-werebeasts,” she said, stumbling over the new word. “He sank his claws into my skin, and I couldn’t get him off. Geon-woo pulled me to higher ground in time, but the beast took part of my leg with him.”
“Bloody hell.” I fumbled to open my make-up purse, my hands shaking with rage. “You did great back in Lotte World, by the way. We wouldn’t be having this party without you.”
A predictable flush deepened her skin, but it was pretty all the same. Daheun took a step closer. “And thanks to you,” she said. “I-I can’t believe it, but you’re one of them. You’ve been one of them all this time. We never knew.”
I shrugged, reapplying my lipstick. “You weren’t supposed to know.”
“You’re different than the others, though.” Daheun cocked her head, one strand of her French twist escaping to brush her cheek. She smelled like cherry blossoms, but it was a light and subtle scent, far more fragrant than the chemically-induced odor of the sanitizer. “You were so beautiful when you changed. Magnificent. I never knew winter could look like that.”
I could turn and have her right there. Her breath tickled the back of my neck. Her hand grazed mine. I could turn, shove her against the wall, and give her everything she had been fantasizing about for the last eight years.
Except it was only that: a fantasy. Winter was pretty to look at, but once you stepped inside, everything was dead.
I snapped the make-up purse closed, making her jump. Flashing a wicked grin, I jerked my head toward the door. “Come on, then. Show me how a girl can dance on one leg.”
Daheun grinned ruefully but took the lead. Her hand trailed knowingly along my waist as she passed. “You are impossible, you know that, Yong Sun Bin?”
In the mirror, I imagined Eobshin watching us leave. I saw her hollow eyes that had long dried up in servitude, the rippling hair that could scarcely be contained in a humble bun, and the flexing claws that dripped blood across the tile. None of my family and friends would be safe with her still out there.
