A Fox's Family (American Kitsune Book 4)

by Brandon Varnell

  “Hawa…”

  Munch. Munch.

  “I’ve noticed that you’re a very beautiful woman, Camellia. I was wondering if you’d, hehehehe, allow me to use you as inspiration for my books?”

  “Hawa…”

  Munch.

  A drop of sweat trailed down the left side of Heather’s face. “You… I can’t help but notice, but you really eat a lot.”

  Kevin stopped in front of the odd pair. “Ms. Grant, what are you doing here?”

  “Ah! It’s the kitsune boy.”

  “I’m not a kitsune!”

  “No, but your girlfriend is.”

  “Whatever,” Kevin grumbled, “and you didn’t answer my question.”

  Heather opened her mouth to answer him, but was beaten to the punch.

  “Hawa, it’s Kevin-kyun!”

  “Eh?! Camellia! Don’t―mrphgglle!”

  Everyone in the cafe watched in open shock as Kevin found himself being asphyxiated by two of the largest breasts any of them had ever seen. Heather managed to sum up everyone’s thoughts on the matter quite succinctly.

  “Damn, my young apprentice was right. It’s like he makes women fall for him by simply existing.”

  ***

  After running into Justin at the mall, Iris and her new chaperone found themselves seated at one of the long tables in the food court.

  “I’m awfully surprised to see one of the kiddo’s friends here,” Iris made idle conversation while they ate. She’d managed to coerce Justin into buying her lunch; a type of food called a hamburger, which she’d never had before. “I’m even more surprised it’s you. You don’t strike me as the type who’d wander around on his own for no reason.”

  Justin looked up from his food―a burrito―and turned his head to face her. His eyes met hers before they were invariably drawn down to her boobs.

  “Ho?” Iris smirked when she saw where he was looking. “See something you like?” She placed her hands on the edge of the seat and leaned back just enough so that her chest strained her shirt.

  While Justin’s face remained bland, his cheeks did turn a bit red. He turned his head. “… No…”

  “Huhuhu,” Iris’ chuckles sent shivers down Justin’s spine. “If you say so.”

  She and Justin grew silent. Conversation continued around them, with people talking about this and that. Iris would have normally listened in, but she honestly didn’t care. She had her own problems to deal with.

  “Say, you’re friends with Kevin, right?”

  Justin looked up from his food. “… Yes…”

  Smiling a devious little smile that caused Justin to actually show surprise, Iris leaned forward and allowed him to catch a tantalizing glimpse of her cleavage.

  “What can you tell me about him?”

  ***

  “Beloved! There you are!”

  “Lilian―waagghh!”

  For the second time that day, Kevin found himself lying on his back with a beautiful girl on top of him. Fortunately for his eroding physical health, Lilian did not smother him with her breasts. She merely sat there, straddling his hips and grinning in a vulpine manner that made her look very, well, foxy.

  “I can see why Eric has so much respect for this kid,” Heather said, mostly to herself. “He’s quite the player to have all these women jumping him like that.” A perverted grin. “Hehehe, I can already tell this kid is going to give me loads of inspiration.”

  “Hawa?”

  “Nothing,” Heather waved at a hand at the confused Camellia, “just thinking out loud.”

  “Hawa.”

  “I’ve finally decided on the two manga I want!” Pulling two manga from her Extra Dimensional Storage Space, Lilian showed them off to Kevin. “These ones!”

  After shaking away the stars floating around his head, Kevin looked at the manga in her hands. “So, you’ve decided to go with Vampire Knight and…” He looked at the other manga, his face slowly deadpanning. “Gurren Lagann.” His right eyebrow twitched. “Are you making fun of me?”

  Lilian’s smile was absolutely brilliant as she spoke, “Of course not, ufufufuf, why would you think that?”

  Oh, yeah. She was definitely mocking him.

  ***

  Kevin stood in line with Camellia, Lilian and Heather, who had decided to join them.

  “I’ve got nothing better to do. Might as well join you. Besides, I need some more inspiration.”

  Kevin didn’t really understand what she’d been talking about when she mentioned “inspiration,” but decided not to bother with it. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to know anyway.

  While they stood in line, waiting for their turn at the register, Lilian wandered over to a small rotating display case that sold small trinkets. Kevin followed her with his eyes for a second, but didn’t pay much attention to her until…

  “Beloved! Beloved, look at this!”

  Kevin didn’t call Lilian out on using her old pet name for him. He knew she was just excited.

  “Check it out!” She showed him the item she found. “It’s an official Shinobi Natsumo kunai!”

  “So it is.” It wasn’t a real kunai, of course, but it was still a pretty good replica. It was even made out of metal and not plastic. “Would you like me to get it for you?”

  “Would you?” Her eyes widened with hope, and then dimmed when she remembered something. “No. No. I want it, but you’re already spending your hard-earned money on my manga. I can’t ask you to get something like this for me.”

  Kevin rolled his eyes. “You’re not the only person who likes manga, you know. Besides, I’ve got enough money to buy that as well.” Lilian opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. “It’ll be fine. Really, I want to get this for you.”

  “A-are you sure?”

  Kevin knew Lilian was on the verge of giving in. She was, in many regards, an open book.

  And to think this girl is actually a kitsune.

  “Really.”

  “Okay,” Lilian said demurely, her large, innocent eyes looking at him from beneath a curtain of crimson hair. “Thank you, Kevin.”

  Lilian leaned in and pressed her lips against his. Kevin accepted the kiss, welcomed it even—despite the fact that they were in public and it was kind of embarrassing. He was beginning to get used to her public displays of affection.

  “Huhuhu.” Heather giggled in a most perverse manner. “Eric was right. This kid is solid gold! Gold, I tell you! Huhuhu!

  Camellia expressed her confusion at the lecherous woman’s words in the only way she knew how.

  “Hawa?”

  Exactly.

  ***

  Mei Ling watched as Kevin left R-Galaxy with Lilian and Camellia.

  She’d been observing them for several days now, following from a distance, studying them to learn everything she could. Her master wanted to know about the human that the Pnevma Clan heiress was so enamored with, and she did not want to suffer the consequences that would come if she failed him.

  While Mei Ling acted like an emotionless doll to avoid having her sanity eroded by her master, that did not mean that she didn’t have emotions. She merely hid them behind an inexpressive visage. It had helped to keep her alive and sane ever since she had become her master’s slave.

  Mei Ling followed the trio from a distance as they stepped onto a bus. She waited for a moment and then entered the bus as well, choosing to sit near the back where she could continue to her observations.

  She would spy on them for a bit longer, just to be on the safe side. Then she would report back to Lord Jiāoào with her findings.

  ***

  Kevin woke up to the fulfilling warmth of his mate’s embrace. The hour was late, signified by the darkness outside his window. He stared at the ceiling, wondering why he’d woken up. Then his stomach growled.

  “Ah. That’s why.”

  He looked down at his mate. Lilian lay snuggled against him, her head on his shoulder, her arms around his waist, and her
legs entwined with his. Soft snoring escaped her delicately parted lips.

  She was also sleep talking.

  “Zzzzz… munya-munya… you think you can beat me… silly Britannian homo… I’ll show you… coz I’m the pyro-ninja… zzzz…”

  Kevin felt some sweat accumulate on his forehead at Lilian’s muttered words. This girl said the most bizarre stuff in her sleep sometimes.

  After extricating himself from Lilian’s grip, Kevin wandered into the kitchen for a midnight snack. The apartment was engulfed in darkness. None of the lights were on, and with the new moon out, it meant he only had what sparse starlight filtered in through the window to guide him.

  He saw Kotohime sleeping over in a corner of the living room on a futon. It was almost unusual to see her asleep. While he knew that, logically speaking, Kotohime had to sleep sometime, the idea that she ever actually went to sleep was somehow shocking. Kirihime slept next to her sister, her arms and legs spread as she lay on her back, drool leaking from the corners of her mouth.

  He shook his head.

  After raiding the fridge in search of food, Kevin eventually decided on something healthy; carrots and celery with a little bit of peanut butter. He got himself a plate and was about to sit down when he saw that someone else was also awake.

  Iris stood outside on the balcony. He couldn’t see much because her back was turned to him, but knowing of the argument that had happened between her and Lilian, he easily determined Iris’s reasons for not being able to sleep.

  Taking his plate of veggies, Kevin walked onto the balcony. “I didn’t think anyone else would be awake at this hour.”

  Iris turned her head, startled. Red eyes narrowed and a frown appeared when she saw who stood behind her. “Oh, it’s you.”

  “Do you have to talk about me like I’m some kind of pest? It’s pretty rude, you know.”

  Iris snorted. “This is how I am. You don’t like it, don’t talk to me.” She eyed him as he wandered up to her. “Is there something you want from me, kiddo?”

  “I’d like a couple things, actually. I’d like you to stop calling me ‘kiddo,’ for one,” Kevin quipped.

  “Not happening,” Iris declared. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s all you are; a kid. While you and I may technically look the same age, I’m still over a hundred years older than you.”

  “It’s that kind of attitude that keeps pushing Lilian away.”

  “Tch! I don’t need a lecture from you!” Iris sent Kevin a vicious look mired by frustration. “I’m perfectly aware that things between my sister and I have not been… ideal.”

  Kevin snorted. “Ideal? What are you, the master of understatements? Your relationship with Lilian is so far from ideal it makes the relationship between Makotou Itou and Kotonoha Katsura look perfect.”

  “Ouch.” Iris winced. “That’s harsh.”

  “And no less true.”

  “Look, did you want something, or are you just here to gloat?”

  “To be honest, I’m not really sure why I came out here,” Kevin admitted, holding his plate of vegetables out to Iris. The fox-girl looked at him skeptically before taking a few carrots. “By all rights, I shouldn’t want to have anything to do with you, not after what you did this morning. Yet, I’m not really angry at you. I mean, I am kinda mad,” he added upon seeing her flabbergasted expression, “but I’m not that mad.”

  Iris looked at the cement underneath their feet. “I don’t understand. Why aren’t you angry at me?”

  “I guess it’s because I can kind of understand how you feel.” Kevin admired the velvet sky. Without the moon, the stars shone all the more brightly. “Granted, I’ve never had any siblings, but I understand that you and Lilian were close before I came along. I imagine it can’t be easy watching someone you love grow distant because she fell in love with someone else.”

  Iris didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to say anything. The look in her eyes, too wide and too round to be human eyes, said more than words ever could. She was stunned; completely and utterly astounded.

  Kevin turned away from the sky to look at Iris. “I’m not going to ask you to like me. If you don’t like me, that’s fine. I’ll understand. But I would like to ask that you at least hold off on judging me until you’ve gotten to know me.”

  “You…”

  “Think you can do that?” Kevin held out his hand. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.”

  Iris stared at the offered hand. Kevin waited. Seconds ticked by, and all Iris did was stare. He began to feel like an idiot. Iris hated him for taking Lilian away. She wasn’t going to accept his offering.

  He nearly squeaked when something suddenly grabbed his hand. He looked down to see a smaller, more feminine and more delicate hand holding his in a soft grip. He looked from the hand to see Iris smiling at him.

  And for the first time since they met, Kevin thought he might have just gotten a glimpse of the real Iris.

  “Deal,” she announced.

  Kevin smiled. It wasn’t much, but he felt like he was finally helping his mate with something. And really, what else could a guy like him ask for?

  ***

  “Hehehehe… oh yeah… look at all those beauties… hee hee hee…”

  Heather Grant was enjoying her favorite pastime—well, her second favorite pastime. Playing eroge was her all time favorite activity, but peeping still held a place close to her heart.

  The world around her looked like something out of a jungle paradise; trees and shrubs of all kinds surrounded her, encroaching upon her from all sides. The steam rising up from the water’s surface combined with the jungle theme of the hot spring masked her presence perfectly.

  “Thirty-five, twenty-four, thirty-two. Not bad… hehehehe, not

  bad at all.”

  She stood behind several large shrubs, which hid everything but her head from view. A pair of binoculars were pressed to her face. A dozen or so feet away, several women enjoyed the hot springs.

  Heather could have joined them if she wanted, but that would have ruined what she was trying to accomplish.

  One could not peep if they sat in the midst of those they wished to peep on.

  “Hmm… fifty-seven up top, fifty-four around the middle, and sixty-six on the bottom. Oh my. You’re a big girl, aren’t you? Hehehehe…”

  Heather had always loved visiting the hot springs. There were so many different body types to enjoy. So many women to sample. Few things could beat a good trip to a hot spring, especially for a peeper like her.

  “You girls are going to make excellent resource material for my book.”

  Heather was a woman with big dreams. While she had, through a series of odd and unusual circumstances, ended up becoming a member of an agency bent on protecting the world from yōkai, her real goal in life had nothing to do with yōkai at all. She wanted to be a writer.

  Of porn.

  It was her dream to write the smuttiest, raunchiest books ever, which was why she needed inspiration.

  And so, with a notepad in one hand and a pencil in the other, Heather Grant continued peeping, her perverted old man giggles heard by no one but herself.

  ***

  Heather left the hot springs after deciding to spend a bit of time enjoying the water instead of peeping. All of the females had welcomed her, of course, being a woman herself. She doubted they had even suspected her of shamelessly ogling their naked flesh from a distance.

  Eric would have been jealous.

  While wandering the empty streets, a feeling came over her. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her arms prickled curiously. She knew this feeling. It was a feeling that had saved her life a number of times when she had worked for the agency, and she knew what it meant.

  She was being followed.

  Pretending that nothing was wrong, Heather carefully observed her surroundings without turning her head, using windows and other reflective surfaces to see all around her. She couldn’t see anyone; not behin
d her, nor to her left or to her right. There didn’t appear to be any people hiding behind dumpsters or walls either. Heather looked at the roofs and frowned when she still couldn’t see anyone. So then, where was…?

  Her eyes widened.

  Above!

  Launching herself into a series of acrobatic back-handsprings, Heather barely avoided being flattened. The street wasn’t so lucky. The pavement cracked and exploded outward in a shower of rubble. Heather clicked her tongue as she used her agility to dodge the rubble coming her way; ducking and dodging and weaving in a ceaseless, fluid motion.

  The area soon cleared of dust and debris, and Heather caught sight of the large crater that had been created by whatever tried to flatten her. She could also see it, the thing that had nearly turned her into a pancake.

  It was tall. Whatever the thing was towered above her by at least three feet. While it appeared vaguely humanoid in shape, with two arms, two legs and a head, the resemblances ended there. What she at first thought to be armor plating rippled when the creature moved, its metallic surface gleaming brightly in the moonlight, giving it an organic appearance. A sleek, bullet-shaped head swiveled in her direction, its red v-shaped visor flashing, presumably scanning the area. Clawed hands and feet clacked as it moved, scraping against the ground and gouging small strips out of the cement.

  “What the hell are you supposed to be? Some kind of Kamen Rider villain reject? Wait, I know!” Heather pointed at it. “You’re one of those human-sized Gundam things that ended up being scrapped because no one cares about human-sized Gundams. Am I right?”

  The thing did not answer. Its head tilted this way and that, as if studying her from a different angle would help it figure out what she was talking about.

  And then it charged. Without warning, without prompting, it rushed at her like a missile locked onto its target.

  Heather rolled across the ground, avoiding what would have been a most painful shoulder ram. Coming back up on her feet, she twisted around to face this creature and reached behind her back, pulling out two weapons from hidden holsters; a 9mm handgun and a flashbang. She fired the already loaded gun several times, frowning when the bullets just sunk into the thing’s armor.