Year of the Boar: Tica

By Heather Heffner

GROWING UP ON THE VIBRANT HAWAIIAN ISLAND of Oʻahu, Tica Dominguez looked forward to being the brainiac marine biologist who would save her family’s dwindling fortune. Instead, Tica is the cancer girl. After she loses an arm to the deadly bone disease, Tica can’t swim. Can’t surf. Can’t live. A mysterious and alluring new student named Jinho promises to understand her pain, but what Tica doesn’t know is that shadows have come to her island home. And Jinho has a secret that could threaten everything she cherishes.

One wants to die and the other wants to live. What choices they make will generate a wave of tragic romance, self-destructive revenge...and sow the seeds of a paranormal war.

This is the first Changeling Sisters Novella recommended to read after Year of the Wolf (Changeling Sisters #1).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Heffner
• Release date: Jan 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370317868

Heather Heffner

HEATHER HEFFNER was born in Seattle, Washington, where she grew up being dragged along on endless hikes by her well-meaning parents. Luckily, her brother was forced to come, too, and they ended up storytelling to entertain themselves. Heather's never given it up since, and now she can't think of anything better than imagining a thousand-page-long epic (and maybe even going for a hike, after).Heather is the author of the dark epic fantasy book, THE TRIBE OF ISHMAEL (Afterlife Chronicles #1), about a boy who accidentally boards a train bound to Hell, and the urban fantasy book, YEAR OF THE WOLF (Changeling Sisters #1), about a girl who faces off against supernatural evil in Seoul, South Korea. You can read all about her adventures, or more likely, misadventures, on her blog:https://heatherheffner.blogspot.com/

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Changeling Sisters Novellas 1.5

Year of the Boar:

TICA

By Heather Heffner

The right of Heather Heffner to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988.

YEAR OF THE BOAR: TICA. Smashwords Edition. Text copyright © 2014 Heather Heffner. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Find out the latest news on the Changeling Sisters series at: https://heatherheffner.blogspot.com/

Year of the Boar: Tica (Changeling Sisters #1.5) is a flashback novella about Rafael’s childhood on O‘ahu. It is narrated by his sister, Tica, and his archenemy, Vampyre Prince Khyber. This novella contains spoilers for Changeling Sisters Book I: Year of the Wolf.

Seven deadly vampyre princes. Two sisters far from home. One spirit world in trouble. Let the shifting begin.

Changeling Sisters Series

Year of the Wolf (Book 1)

Year of the Tiger (Book 2)

Year of the Dragon (Book 3)

Year of the Rat (Book 4)

Year of the Snake (Forthcoming Book 5)

Changeling Sisters Novellas

Year of the Boar: Tica (Book 1.5)

Welcome to Hell. Don’t abandon all hope. That wouldn’t be as much fun.

AFTERLIFE CHRONICLES

The Tribe of Ishmael (Book 1)

The Staff of Aaron (Book 2)

The Stars of Eden (Forthcoming Finale Book 3)

~Available on major online retailers~

To Greg, who first showed me the islands

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Boy on Fire

Chapter 2: A New Dream

Chapter 3: The Luau

Chapter 4: Kiss

Chapter 5: The Plague Man

Chapter 6: The Job Interview

Chapter 7: Bethany Hamilton

Chapter 8: The Spirit Sea

Chapter 9: Night of the Living Dead

Chapter 10: The Blood Drinker

Chapter 11: Confrontation

Chapter 12: ‘Āina Becoming

Chapter 13: The Bigger Picture

Chapter 14: Rumors

Chapter 15: Stop n’ Inspect

Chapter 16: A Storm Spent

Chapter 17: A Camping Trip

Chapter 18: Shifting Shapes

Chapter 19: Nightmarchers

Chapter 20: The Ritual

Chapter 21: Daughter of the Gods

Chapter 22: The Boar God’s Offer

Chapter 23: Long Shadows

Chapter 24: The Ice Maiden

Chapter 25: The Return

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Prologue

~Khyber~

At first, they watched me with unwelcoming eyes.

Do you know why the sun shines so brightly here? the tallest mo‘o asked, his scaly tail the color of red earth. It is to chase away all the shadows.

Smaller mo‘o—spirits of streams and palm trees—laughed, crawling over pebbles and branches until I was surrounded. A long time ago, the supreme mo‘o, Mo‘oinanea, sent her lizard-shaped children from Kuaihelani, the land of the gods, to cross the spirit bridge over to the islands of the living. They became messengers, tricksters, guardians.

It was my luck to run into the latter sort.

My enemy they spoke of erupted in the east. The molten eye gravitated close, hungry to swallow the sky and the islands and the ocean itself. The turquoise bay blazed with blinding golden light as if set aflame. The palm trees crawled before my eyes, and Kīlauea Crater blurred.

My skin began to flake like ash and was scattered by the Trade Winds. My fangs dislodged, sinking into my lower chin. My black wings, already tattered by the long flight over to the big island of Hawai‘i from Korea, rattled like the last leaves in a harsh desert. I could feel my vampyre body begging me to find a dark cave in which to nest. A vampyre could not walk during the day.

However, I was no ordinary vampyre. I was Khyber, eldest Vampyre Prince of the East.

And I had come here to die.

If you’ll excuse me, I growled through my fully exposed fangs, I have somewhere to be.

The tallest mo‘o cocked his head. You are a Child of Death, but you know nothing of it.

Oh? I asked sarcastically. My mother is a soul eater. I have as many lives as people have regrets. For as long as I can remember, I have dealt out death and watched it veil its victims’ eyes. What more would you have me know?

Fear. The mo‘o’s voice thundered around me while he shrank, his terrible lizard face and fearsome jaws shrinking into that of a harmless brown gecko. As he crawled away into the glistening bromeliads, I thought I heard a whisper on the wind: There are things out there older than you, vampyre prince.

I might have remembered his warning if rational thought wasn’t obliterated from my mind in the next few hours of hell. I staggered up the slope of Kīlauea, step by agonizing step, my wings long since burned to dust by the sun. My skin melted from my bones and dripped into my eyes until I had no eyelids left to hide behind. My mouth was set in a permanent dead man’s grin because my face had long since deteriorated into a skull. My fangs were the only things that persevered, knocking against my chin bone, as I waited for my head to shatter into a million pieces.

That moment never came. I reached the top of Kīlauea at noon. The full force of the sun pummeled me time and time again. The winds blew up from Kīlauea’s throat and tore at my feeble frame, stoning me with caustic steam: You shall not enter here!

My jaw bone clattered as I surveyed the blue roundness of the globe far below. The world swam before my spiraling vision. Please.

I heard the Mother curse me from far away. Then I threw myself down the crater.

***

I awoke with the taste of sand in my mouth and snow in my hair. The palm trees were dark silhouettes hiding the wary eyes of many mo‘o, and the sky had blossomed the color of dark berry juices, running down the unknowable figure of Kīlauea in the dark. Turning over, I gazed out upon the sapphire ocean that had spat me out. A silvery orb arose from its depths like a newborn pearl.

I had lived to see another moon.

A woman stood nearby, a moonflower tucked behind her left ear. Her ebony hair was sleek like black ice and reflected the stars, while her pā‘ū skirt was gold, her shoulder cape white, and her palms blue with frost. I had felt her and her sisters watching me when I’d attempted to freeze myself to death on Mauna Kea a week before. There were beings out there older than me, indeed.

I inclined my head, jagged black hair falling in my eyes. Was it you who rescued me from Kīlauea, O Great Poli‘ahu? Pele resides there; I know she would have left me to burn indefinitely.

Each time you attempt to end your unnatural life, it brings the shadows that much closer to our home. The snow goddess’s deep, haggard voice was disapproving—but curious.

I gazed into her timeless eyes whispering of icy winds blowing around a lonely white peak trapped in paradise. She could smell the snow on me. She understood that I had to die, or else the shadows would take us all.

I arose on my newly formed feet. My skin was still scarred and throbbing; the volcano goddess Pele had made sure I wouldn’t forget Kīlauea any time soon. I took a step closer to Poli‘ahu.

You’re wearing the moonflower I left on Mauna Kea’s slopes.

My sisters and I fought over it. The snow goddess gave a ghost of a smile. I won.

Please, I said, pity me. My mother’s shadow has not yet touched here. If there is any way I can die, then it will be here, on the sunshine islands of Hawai‘i. You are wise and see many things from your mountain. How can I die?

I have consulted my sisters, and we cannot watch you continue like this, she agreed. Here is what you must do. First, you must seek out the son of the shark god, whose name is Nanaue. He was defeated on Moloka‘i a long time ago, but now he has returned to this world. Wrestle with him and contain him. You can do this: both of you hunger for the flesh and blood of your own people. This man-eater is of the day, and he will help you walk in sunlight.

What do you and your sisters get in return? I demanded.

You will rid the world of him for us. Poli‘ahu paused, and the rattling breeze around her face made her features harder still. For second, you must seek out a young girl of mixed lineage on the island of O‘ahu and feed her blood to Nanaue. When you find her, make sure you choose a different name than Khyber, my vampyre prince, or else her protectors will become aware of your presence.

Why should I care to bring death to yet another child? I asked, weary of such things.

She is already dying, Poli‘ahu said dismissively, but she will not leave this world quietly. No, vampyre prince, seek her out—for Tica Dominguez shall be your death.

I raised an eyebrow. I had survived wars, plagues, storms, and the belly of Kīlauea itself. Now a young girl was to be the death of me? Challenge accepted.

I closed my eyes, and Poli‘ahu showed me her face. I almost didn’t want to see it.

Just one more death. One more family to ruin. One more future to rob.

Then I would leave this world before I destroyed it.

Chapter 1: The Boy on Fire

~Tica~

The first word they taught me to say in Hawaiian was the name of the state fish: humuhumunukunukuāpua‘a.

Humu—humu— My best friend Ryoko stopped and thought, her fishing pole swinging in the wind.

—nukunukuāpua‘a! I grabbed her pole and scampered up the slippery rocks to Pele’s Chair, turning to grin at Ryoko from the top.

Ryoko frowned and tossed her silky black hair over her shoulder. She sat down on the smoothest rock she could find and pulled out her glittery pink phone.

Whatever.

It’s not whatever! I slid the first pole into an old iron anchor and looked for a good spot to position the second one. Pele’s Chair loomed above us, a volcanic pinnacle spearing the blustery blue skies. It was named after Pele, my favorite Hawaiian deity: the goddess of volcanoes. Ancient and majestic, but if you spent too much time looking up, you risked cutting your feet on the broken beer bottles and trash littering the bottom. I scowled and opened up my tackle box, courtesy of my older brother, Rafael. Not that he knew about his generous loan.

The reef triggerfish is a symbol of where we live, Ryoko.

So? Knowing a few words in Hawaiian isn’t going to get me a job, she replied, annoyingly cold and logical as always. Everyone here speaks English. You’re the only one who remembers the phrases they taught us in elementary school.

I was the only one who remembered the humuhumu when it swam up to me a long time ago. I’d been sitting on the dock near old Kaiser Mansion, dipping my toes in the water. Suddenly all of the fish scattered, and I’d feared a shark was coming. However, then I spotted a lone reef triggerfish. Black bandit stripes shadowed its blue-rimmed eyes, and brilliant yellow stripes cut up its body into triangles.

I’d thrown the humuhumu bread crumbs, and it had devoured them, circling ever closer. Its rainbow scales had glistened so brightly that I remember taking off my sunglasses and rubbing my eyes. When I’d looked back, the reef triggerfish was gone. In its place was a tall, dark-skinned man floating beneath the waves. He’d given me a brief, proud nod, and a single word had rolled through my mind like thunder:

Daughter.

Then the waves had swept him away.

I still dreamed of seeing the humuhumu again.

However, having otherworldly communions with fish wasn’t a reason to get your best friend pumped about going fishing—more like one to make her doubt your sanity. With my poor health these days, I couldn’t afford that.

So I rolled my eyes instead. "Tell that to Obaa-san the next time she teaches you Japanese. I bet that’ll go over well." Ryoko’s stern grandmother was the first of her family to immigrate to O‘ahu. Her hardness was always softened by the mochi ice cream, fish-shaped crepes, and pancakes stuffed with red bean paste she gave me whenever I came over.

Ryoko smiled and actually looked up from her