Vixen (The Fox and Hound Book 1)

by Catherine Labadie

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on with you

  both, but I’m going to go work on some new cases in my office before it gets too late,” he says, also standing. “By the time I come down here for the rest of the pasta salad, I expect you two to be on good terms again.” Eisen sniffs sarcastically.

  “If by office you mean your bedroom, okay, Harry,” he says, and I see Harold’s patience wearing much too thin as my blonde brother speaks. I glare at Eisen, wondering why he’s being such a jerk.

  “We’ll be fine,” I assure Harold. “Go on up, and I’ll bring you the pasta salad later if you want.”

  He does, leaving me alone with Eisen, who continues to glare at me as he reclines on the couch. His arms are crossed, his ears flattened back on his head, and somehow he’s peering down at me from his long nose even though he’s sitting in a lower place than me.

  “Suck up,” he mutters, his cerulean eyes a lot harsher than I’m used to. I’m annoyed with his hostility, but if I get him too angry before we get to the meat of the matter, he might be less willing to keep his voice down.

  “Well, one of us had to be. It’s not like this has been the best day for everyone, so you should give him a

  break,” I say, glancing up the stairs to check if Harold or Wade is within hearing range. I’m reasonably certain their fox senses are tuned down right now, but I keep my voice low just in case.

  “It may not have been a good day for the rest of us, but I don’t know if you had a bad day at all,” Eisen says accusingly.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I demand.

  “You’ve been moody lately, so if you have a problem, spit it out.” My hands shake; I absolutely hate fighting with Eisen, because he usually wins all the arguments if we’re left to our own devices.

  “Sierra Candra Maurell, if you think you can lie to me all the day long, you have another thing coming—”

  I interrupt him. “Shhh! Can we please try not to make this a household affair?”

  “Maybe it needs to be,” Eisen growls. “If you are choosing now of all times to be a rebel and sneak off with a human boy, then maybe the rest of us should hear from you about it!” I knew this was coming, but my pulse still quickens unpleasantly.

  “Why would you think that?” I ask, stroking my tail anxiously. Eisen laughs derisively before replying.

  “I know this because you’re a bad liar, at least when you’re trying to lie to me. I don’t like snitching on you, little sis, but something like this is serious. Especially now that the human mood towards us has become so appalling,” he says, and I stay silent.

  Duncan told me to tell some of the truth so maybe Eisen would be on our side, but that doesn’t mean I walked in here knowing what to say. I can’t even explain our attachment: it’s a half-breed thing that started it all, and describing it sounds foolish.

  “Well?” Eisen challenges, breaking into my musings on how to respond.

  “How did you know?” I ask softly. Eisen huffs, launching to his feet so he can pace in front of me.

  “No way in hell did any of Issachar Reis’s 'college buddies' consent to carpool a bunch of high school kids home. If one of them had, it would’ve been just

  you and him, and you definitely would have broken curfew,” he snarls; from what I saw of the Reis heir, I can’t disagree with that. “When you came home last night, you smelled like a lake, and I happen to know for a fact that the Reis twins don’t live near a lake. Plus, Sierra, I have my wits about me, and even I can look out a window to see who dropped you off.”

  “You saw who it was and didn’t say anything?” I ask. I’m surprised he still covered for me now I see how angry he is.

  “I saw the human boy you brought to my coffee shop, yeah. Generally I’m not a nark, so I didn’t say anything. I thought I’d give you a chance to explain yourself to me before I told Harold you needed a transfer pass out of that damn school,” Eisen bursts out, running his hands through his silky hair. He releases a frustrated sigh, and I feel another guilty pang over my deceit.

  “Come on,” I say impulsively, walking to Eisen and tentatively grabbing his hand as it hangs loosely at his side. “I’m going to make some warm milk with cinnamon and honey, and I can explain while we drink.”

  “I want mine laced with brandy,” he grumbles, but he follows me anyway. Perhaps to give us both time to think, we brood in silence as I prepare our nighttime drinks. Once we sit down at the kitchen table with two hot mugs in our hands, I take a deep breath and try to explain.

  “I’m sorry I lied to you, Eisen. Honestly, it’s no excuse, but everything just got carried away this week,” I begin, selecting my words the same way I

  would choose good fruit from bad in the grocery store. A muscle near his mouth twitches, revealing his annoyance, but he doesn’t speak.

  “I did bring Duncan to Omnium Beanery, but that was because I thought it was a good place to test him out. I didn’t know anything about him, except that he’s one of the kinder humans who asked to talk with me,” I say. “That went pretty well, and you and I did talk about this. Like I said, I’m sorry for lying about yesterday…I did go to the party, but—” Here I don’t know how to continue. Duncan crashed the party to see me so he could tell me his deepest secret?

  “You bailed on the party to hang out with your human?” Eisen assumes, mirroring Wade’s earlier action and tracing his index finger around the rim of his mug. Well, that’s simple enough, I think, hesitant to follow this easy way out.

  “Yeah. My new half-breed friends are a little…clingy…and I needed to get away. The all look up to me as some sort of revolutionary leader against the administration and I didn't want to deal with that anymore,” I say cautiously, trying not to ramble. More truth, at least, I think.

  “So…you meet this human boy, he’s nice to you a couple of times, so you go out for coffee. That sounds fine. Well, not fine, but understandable," Eisen growls deep in his chest, obviously winding up for a rant. "Then you decide it’s all right to bail on a party where you could be having fun with your own kind, just to go somewhere alone with this human boy you barely know. On top of that, the very next day you do it all again, and spend the greater part of a day—a day

  when almost everything in relation to our kind is in uproar—with this kid. How is this smart, S?”

  “The bare details are a little...sketchy,” I say in a small voice, because it’s true: aside from the missing detail of Duncan’s true nature, and our consequent bond springing from the connection in our mixed DNA, my actions sound similar to what any other empty-headed teenage girl would do. At least I haven’t mentioned anything about love…

  “Sketchy? You sound like an idiot, Sierra, and it’s a miracle you’re okay after making one stupid decision after another!” This stings, and I blink as hurt worms its way into my system.

  “I understand that times are crazy right now, Eisen, but I am capable of making educated decisions about people—” I begin, my voice already stiff. Eisen cuts me off.

  “Educated decisions? Our world is going to hell, and you decide now is the time to cozy up to a human? Are you some kind of pet, responding to human ‘kindness?’ Really?”

  “That was a really awful thing to say,” I murmur, taking a sip of my cinnamon-crusted milk instead of saying anything else. I’m hurt, but I’m angry as well. I don’t want a shouting match.

  “It’s true though, isn’t it? You get to a new school, everything is overwhelming and you’re the center of trouble, then one human boy is nice to you, and you fall for the act right away," Eisen says. I want to be like Duncan, I want to be the anti-racist one who can say “they’re not all bad” and push for equality. But part of me wonders, even after such a splendid time with

  Duncan, how he acted towards half-breeds when he thought he was just human.

  “I don’t know all of what’s going on, Eisen, I just don’t,” I say. “But I do know making a hasty judgment based on someone’s race pro
bably got us into this mess in the first place…sure, the humans started it, but why should we continue it?” I don’t know where this message is coming from, but I feel a tiny bit better once the peaceful words fall from my lips. Eisen stares at me like I’ve lost my mind.

  “You think you love him, don’t you?” he remarks, seeming more stunned than angry. I almost choke on a sip of my drink.

  “What?”

  “You barely met this kid and you’ve already got stars in your eyes from just a few days,” Eisen speaks his perceived knowledge like it’s the end of the world. My hands shake, so I clench them into fists.

  “That’s what you picked up with all your grand perceptive abilities?”

  “It’s the only answer that makes sense,” Eisen insists stubbornly. “I don’t normally think you’re a fool, but you’re young, and you’ve never dated before…making you easily accessible for a boy to take

  advantage of, if you ask me.”

  “Who asked you?” I snark again. “Thanks so much for assuming that I don’t know how to take care of myself, or that any human boy who likes my company is a pervert with a fetish!” I set my mug down hard on the table, angry and ready to escape this scene.

  “I just don’t understand…you don’t lack the qualities you would need to captivate a boy. Why does

  it have to be a human? And, if it’s so wholesome, why do you have to sneak around to hang out?” Eisen backtracks as he tries to reason with me, perhaps employing argument techniques he learned from Harold. I try to be reasonable in return, as much as I can be; but then I remember Lyle, and dislike churns in my stomach along with my hurt that Eisen apparently thinks I’m a fool.

  “If the case is like you think it is, shouldn’t you trust me enough to believe anyone I chose would be worthy of me?” I say. “Even if it’s a human, would I pick someone who was a complete jerk?”

  “Others have before you…and the fact remains that he’s a human. I know you’ve heard the horror stories of what’s happened to some half-breed girls before, and—” I cut him off this time, irritated that he’d bring up those nightmare stories of dark allies and girls left for dead.

  “I don’t have anything else to say about this, Eisen,” I say in what I try to make a clipped, cold voice. “Are you going to tell Harold or not?” I squeeze the stone handle of my mug tightly, hoping that the answer will be no. Sure enough, Eisen is furious, but his shoulders slump, and he’s quiet for a moment.

  “I don’t want to. I want to trust you, S, I do…but you aren’t the problem here. It’s him. Humans do not mean us well, and they never have,” he says at last. “If I don’t try to stop you, will I find you later on in some ditch all bloody and bruised, if I find you at all?” My heart softens, but I try not to let it show.

  “Are you going to get Harold to enforce a ban on talking to humans?” I press for a definite answer,

  sensing that I’m winning.

  “No. I’m no snitch, like I said. But there are conditions,” Eisen says, and a small breath of relief escapes in a short exhale on my part.

  “Yes?”

  “Every single time you’re with him, I want a message telling me where you are and how long you’re going to be. When you come home, I want you to look me in the face and tell me how you spent your time, and if anything weird happened. I don’t want to be a jailer, but if you’re going to pursue this, and if you want my cooperation, you’ll obey my rules.” Eisen rattles off his conditions, waiting for me to object. I’m silent, weighing my options…would Harold impose the same restrictions if Eisen did tell him?

  “They’d be worse, believe me,” Eisen says, guessing what I’m thinking. “You know he’s more traditional, and it would take hours to talk him through this so the results would end up in your favor.”

  Finally, I nod. “Okay. But you don’t tell anybody about this. It’s between us.” Eisen growls as I finish speaking, perhaps because I closed the loophole of him sharing any tidbits with Wade.

  “Deal,” he grunts. Before I can say anything else,

  he’s taken off towards his room upstairs. I sigh, sitting still for a moment before taking both of our empty mugs to the sink. Abruptly, weariness washes over me, and it’s all I can do to drag myself out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my own room. Duncan was wise enough not to message me while he knew I’d be dealing with my brothers, but before I head off to shower I send him a quick message.

  SIERRA MAURELL: We’re okay. Eisen's a drama queen, but I think he’s fine. I only told him the necessary parts and saved the rest for another time.

  DUNCAN LEDFORD: Glad you’re okay. I’m dealing with a friend who wants to know why I’ve been so nuts lately, so I’ll get back to you tomorrow about that.

  After this, I shut off my phone with a determined click and place it on my dresser instead of on my antique white bedside table. My recycled red journal, rare because it's made of physical paper, attracts my notice, and I decide to write in it after my shower. My thoughts don’t seem to be in order, though, because they keep repeating in a loop and echo my doubts.

  I hope I’m not wrong about him. Please don’t let me be wrong…

  23

  “Sierra!” Hayley exclaims through the phone, nearly making me drop the device on my bed. I’m in my room trying to work on my math homework while carrying on a conversation at the same time, but so far our dialogue has taken precedence over boring equations.

  “Why are you always so loud?” I ask, holding the phone away from my ear. “It’s not as big of a deal as you think it is.”

  “Not a big deal?” Hayley squawks again. “You should be glad all of your brothers are working today so they don’t hear my effusions of joy!”

  I blink, unsure how to handle her reactions. “I wish we were having this conversation in person so I could read what you're thinking a little better,” I say.

  “Well yes dear, that would be nice, but I can just tell you what I’m thinking! I am thrilled for you!” Hayley’s excitement is palpable even over the long distance, but I’m not sure she understands the import of what I told her.

  “Hayley, I just told you I’m in a relationship with a boy who used to be human, and now he isn’t, and I’m

  not even sure I should’ve told you that secret,” I say, ticking off the details as I tap my stylus against the surface of my school SMARTpad. “Eisen will be watching me like a parole officer from now on, and all my friends at school are on my back about crap already.”

  “Heavy the head that bears the crown,” Hayley intones with a mockingly ponderous voice. Then she laughs, and in spite of my troubles, the sound lightens my heart. “Boo-hoo…you’re a leader at school, so if your new friends keep bothering you, use your usual blunt honesty and tell them they need to get over themselves. You should be elated over the fact that you have a boyfriend—who, not to be weird, might end up being your eternal soul mate, since that’s how these things usually transpire—and I happen to know just the right way to get Eisen back into his place.”

  “Oh? Share,” I say, ignoring her advice to tell off my friends. Since Hayley has been home-schooled, she might not realize that getting on the bad side of new friends when the year has barely started isn’t a swimming idea.

  Hayley hums indistinctly into the phone before sharing her plan. “Look, Eisen’s card is that Harold doesn’t know about Duncan yet, right? You don’t want Eisen to tell Harold, who will panic because, as far as Eisen knows, Duncan is human. Now, you know you’re eventually going to have to tell your brothers all about this. You told me, for crying out loud, and you know I’ll keep your secret—I’m having this conversation in the woods behind my house so my family won’t overhear, after all—but I think you should trust your brothers with

  this.”

  “You think I should’ve come out with this last night?” I ask. “Hayley, Duncan hasn’t even told his family about this yet, and you want me to tell everyone in my family about this?”

  “Duncan basica
lly gave you permission, which was decent of him. But instead of telling Eisen, you told me over the phone. Let’s pray the government isn’t listening in…” Hayley trails off, suspiciously listening for white noise in the background of our call to let us know if anyone is spying on our dialogue. “I agree that last night was not the time to discuss your budding romance, not after a long, bad day for everyone but you, but this Tuesday might be the day.”

  “Why Tuesday?” I ask.

  “Tuesday evening, all of you Maurells and Duncan are going to make the drive to my house for a nice family dinner. We’re going to conduct a little experiment, my child.” Hayley sounds entirely too gleeful about this whole affair.

  “That sounds risky,” I point out.

  “Great leaders take risks,” she says; my silence prompts her to continue in a more serious vein. “If Duncan walks into your house before the dinner as your boyfriend and as a half-breed, only you and Eisen will know the difference. We can see how he reacts, but I’m going to make an educated guess that he’ll wait to talk to you again before freaking out. This will give him the entire dinner to cool off and think…and the rest of your family will have ample time to adjust to the idea that little sister has a boyfriend.”

  “That…kind of makes sense, but at the same time it

  doesn’t,” I say, completely abandoning my homework as I recline on my bed. “Eisen might not keep quiet, but if by some heavenly act he does, there’s still the fact that my brothers now think Duncan’s a regular half-breed.”

  “Exactly! Your brothers will meet Duncan as an unassuming half-breed, which means when you eventually tell them that there’s more to the story, they won’t have anti-human bias in the way,” Hayley speaks like she’s presenting a magnificent hand of poker before an audience. “Eisen, upon meeting your future lover, will be able to analyze your attachment for himself, and when you talk to him after the whole event, it will be easier to calm him. You’ll have taken away his trump card for causing Harold to freak out and put you under house arrest, and after a rousing argument, your whole family will be on your side.”