Year of the Rat (Changeling Sisters #4)

Sneak Peek: Chapter 2 - Blackout

Staring at the window reflection, I watched passengers rise like a great tide to pound on the doors. There was an odd ring of space around the businessman in the center. On his back was a strange creature. It was a naked, emaciated thing, wrapped around the man's chest like bandages. Black hair, as thick as a horse's mane, concealed its face. It bent over the man's shoulders, squeezing him tighter.

I whirled around. There was no one on the businessman's back, and yet, he had begun to gasp for breath. Passengers milled around him in fear. Suddenly, the man fell to his knees, clutching his throat. The train lurched, and people stumbled, blocking my view. However, the man's wheezes still echoed in my head as he fought for air that had unexplainably vanished from his lungs.

"Time to go." I pulled the release ring. The subway screeched to a halt, leaving us facing a concrete wall. Young Soo's eyes were wide, and we exchanged a glance. Looking at the slender gap we had to inch along, I knew we both regretted eating that tray of rice cakes.

Another wave of screams started. A chill ran down my spine as beneath it, I heard a deep, animalistic roar. Then from amidst the crowd, three full-grown adults went flying. Something was coming, clawing its way through passengers as if they were cushions.

"Go, Young Soo," I hissed.

Thankfully, the boy was thinner than a pair of chopsticks. He split his knee when he landed, but he didn't complain. Sucking in our bellies, we slid our way along the subway car with the wall inches from our faces.

We were halfway to the subway platform when the electricity went out. A deep shudder reverberated through the city's foundations. Young Soo gripped my hand so hard that he almost cut off my circulation.

"?" he whispered. Terrorist?

"Ani," I told him no as the subway car behind us shook. Something large and heavy crashed into the window above us.

Young Soo understood. "Vampyre." He spoke it in English.

I closed my eyes. Those bloodsuckers and their court were nasty, but I had never seen anything like this before.

But then I remembered Jeju Island. I'd been out at sea, but as we'd approached the island, I'd heard the deep, powerful laughter of something rising from beneath the earth.

"Worse," I replied. I'm not a fan of sugar-coating things.

"Worse," Young Soo agreed. We crouched below the platform as the subway doors above were busted open—by someone's head. An avalanche of passengers tumbled out, struggling to flee. Suddenly, a hand far too large to be a normal human's shot down. It grabbed Young Soo and yanked him up quicker than I could blink.

"Kid!" Only fear for that devious miscreant could make me leave the safety of the rails—fear of what Yu Li would do to me if I lost her son. The thing holding Young Soo was six feet and counting with bones bursting free from its skin, and its clothes were in tatters as if it had grown too fast. Its skin was bleached so white that it almost glowed in the dark. Strange crimson lashes carpeted its body, and its eyes were puckered rings of flesh.

A lady's bracelet glinted among the strings of skin in its teeth. The thing threw Young Soo to the ground, and I charged from behind. My switchblade clicked open, and I stabbed it three, four, five times in the side. My knife slid in and out of its bloodless skin like cutting through butter. So I leaped on its back like I'd seen that weird creature do. I wrapped an elbow around its throat and forced its jaw closed.

Young Soo scrambled away. But the monster freaked out; its arms turned inside out and clawed at my face like the blades of a windmill. Desperate, I stabbed it through the top of the head, but its cranium was solid. I twisted my blade free and leaped off.