“I do.”
“Then why are you always doing this to me?”
She smiled. Kevin knew she’d smiled, even though he couldn’t see her. He could feel her smiling at the back of his head like an itch that he couldn’t scratch.
“Perhaps it’s because you intrigue me…”
A chin came to rest on his shoulder.
“Or maybe it’s because you’re the only human who’s ever resisted my enchantment…”
A nose nuzzled into his neck.
“Or it could just be that I think you’re my path to claiming Lilian for myself…”
Two soft tails the color of midnight snaked around his waist, their tips traveling underneath his shirt to feel the hard muscles of his stomach and chest.
“Iris,” Kevin said with deadly calm, “I would suggest you stop this right now.”
Iris’s grinning face came into the view of his left peripheral.
“What will you do if I decide not to stop?”
“This.”
“Iyah!” Iris’s voice was a mixture of pleasure-filled moan and pained gasp. “M-my tail… let go… of my tail…”
“Ha! I don’t think so.” Kevin grinned as he squeezed her tail, not hard enough to cause true pain, but definitely hard enough to give Iris some mild discomfort. “Do you really think I’m going to just let you walk all over me? That I’m going to allow you to tease me like that and not suffer any repercussions?”
“Y-yes!” Iris gasped as his thumb brushed against a spot underneath her tail that was slightly bumpier than the rest.
“Then you clearly don’t know me very well.”
“Da-damn human.” Iris’s legs quivered before she fell onto her knees, her chest swaying as she heaved in deep lungfuls of air. Her ass shook and small, glistening droplets of sweat trailed down her milky thighs. “You’re sneakier than I… than I thought.”
“I’ve been living with you kitsune for ten months now,” Kevin replied as he continued his ministrations on her tail. Iris buried her face into the ground as a loud moan escaped her. “I’ve learned a thing or two, like how the tails are an erogenous zone for your kind. Now give up. There’s no way you can beat me.”
Iris looked up at him, her carmine orbs hooded with the sensual desires of a predator.
“I’ll never give up!”
“Then I’ll just keep doing this until you lay defeated at my feet.”
Perhaps it was his words—in fact, later that night, Kevin would come to believe it was his words and lament ever opening his trap—but Iris’s determination seemed to harden. She surged to her feet with a strength that she shouldn’t have possessed and body tackled him to the floor.
They both went down in a tangle of fur and limbs, and then began rolling around the carpet as they struggled to overpower one another.
“Ha! Take that, puny human!”
“Puny?! Which one of us has already defeated numerous yōkai and which one was stuck in a coma for the past week?”
“Ouch. That was a low blow. Just for that, I’m going to return the gesture in kind!”
“Return the—get your tail out of my pants!”
“No, if you want it out, then you’re going to have to—i-iyhan!”
They continued struggling and rolling and causing a ruckus. Their wrestling eventually came to an end when Iris used reinforcement to strengthen her limbs and pin him to the ground.
He lay on his back, panting, his face flushed red from exertion. Despite losing, his lips had stretched into a wide smile. That smile was reflected back at him by Iris, who lay on top of him, her own chest swaying enticingly as she took in deep gulps of air through her slightly parted lips. She straddled his leg. Her crotch rubbed against his thigh, leaving a wet trail. He frowned. Why did that feel so weird?
“Looks like I win,” she said, her hair falling to one side, creating a curtain that tickled his cheek.
“You cheated,” he accused.
The seductive smirk on Iris’s face already told him what she would say before she said it.
“My dear Kevin, don’t you know that all is fair in love and war?”
“Whatever,” he muttered. “I still say you cheated.”
“And I say you’re a sore loser.”
Almost against his will, Kevin glanced up at her. The nightie that she had donned fit loosely on her frame, though he supposed that was how it should fit, and one of the thin strings holding it up slid off her shoulder. He could see the pearlescent skin of her calves, covered lightly in sweat, and the way her breasts heaved alluringly every time she breathed through gentle, upturned lips that were curled into a genuine smile made him wish he could turn away. It was in that moment, as he stared at a girl whose beauty transcended humanity, that he noticed something he should have realized but somehow still took him by surprise.
Iris wasn’t wearing any panties.
Carmine orbs gleamed victoriously as his body responded like any other teenage boy’s would in this situation.
“Is that Excalibur in your pants or—”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” Kevin muttered embarrassingly as he finally turned his head.
***
As the ruler of Van, Kağan was the cat’s meow.
He controlled everything within the city, working from the shadows and concealing his presence from the humans.
As the most powerful yōkai in Van, Kağan expected all those underneath him to obey his commands.
He took great pride in his strength and ability to inspire others. Those who did not follow him, for whatever reason, were either re-educated or executed, for he had no room in his group for weak yōkai or those who disobeyed orders. Disloyalty was always met with death.
Meow.
As someone who led others by example, Kağan was a harsh taskmaster, but he rewarded those who served him well.
He wasn’t like other yōkai, who ruled through fear alone. Respect was something to be earned, not given, and he had earned that respect by being both compassionate and ruthless. It was how he had earned his nickname.
So when three of his boys came in looking beaten and battered and weaving tales about a human who kicked the crap out of them, he decided to do something about it.
“So, let me see if I got this right, meow.” Kağan scratched his cheek with a long, clawed finger. “Some human boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a kitsune with black hair and red eyes beat the utterly living crap out of you three like it was nothing? Did I get this right, meow?”
“It pains me to say it, but that’s about the gist of it, Boss.” The one with slicked-back hair, Boran, spoke with an emphatic nod.
“You wouldn’t believe how strong these two were,” the one with brown hair, Adem, said. “That human had these strange guns that shot this weird energy from them and his punches really hurt. I didn’t know humans could get that strong!”
“That fox also knew how to use her tails,” Nur, the last of the trio, added. “She lifted me up with them and slammed me right into a wall, she did.”
“So I see, meow.”
Kağan deliberated. He didn’t do so for very long, as thinking wasn’t really his style. He preferred making on-the-fly decisions. They’d served him well enough so far, and he saw no reason to change that.
“Dіlara,” he called out.
A woman stepped out of the shadows and bowed before him. The three thugs on the ground quivered at the sight of her, which caused him to smile. Dіlara was his most powerful and dangerous servant, and she inspired almost as much fear among his underlings as he did. Unlike him, however, she inspired none of the loyalty. She simply didn’t have the charisma for that.
“You called, Rabbim?”
“I did. There are some people in this city who have wronged my underlings, meow, a human and a kitsune with two tails, meow. I want you to go out and find them. You may do what you wish with the boy, but bring the girl to me, meow.”
“Of course, Rabbim.” The woman’s wrinkly l
ips peeled back into a smile that showed rotting yellow teeth. “Your wish is my command.”
***
Sleep did not come easily for Kevin Swift.
He would have liked to say the reason for that was because he was simply too wired, but that would have been a lie, or at least only partially incorrect. While he was indeed too wound up to sleep, the reason was because of his companion. He felt like he could have slept easily if not for her.
The hotel that he and Iris had rented out only had one bed. While Kevin’s original intention had been to sleep on the floor, Iris had shot that notion down with the disdain Van Helsing had when slaying demons. In her mind, sleeping on the floor was dumb when they had a perfectly good bed that was large enough for two.
He reluctantly agreed with her.
“We’ve already slept together plenty of times. Why stop now?” had been her words.
It was true that he and Iris had slept together many times in the past eight months. While he hadn’t bothered counting, he believed that she and he had shared a bed at least seventy-five percent of the time they’d known each other.
That wasn’t the problem.
He honestly didn’t care if Iris snuck into his bed every night. He’d grown so used to the antics of Lilian’s family that nothing they did bothered him anymore. The problem was that whenever Iris slept with him, Lilian was always there as well, and the raven-haired succubus spent more time cuddling with her sister than she did Kevin. Sure, there were times when Iris would use him as her hug pillow, but he would say that, more than half the time she snuck into their bed, Lilian received the majority of her fraternal twin’s affections.
Such wasn’t the case now. Lilian wasn’t there. It was just him and Iris.
He could feel the swell of her massive mammaries squished against his back as he lay on his side. The thin nightgown did nothing to hide the feel of her tits. Her nipples were poking him.
One of her legs had hooked around his and one of her arms had snaked over his waist and was being used to pull him closer to her. Warm breath hit the back of his neck. As if a gorgeous girl who was not his mate cuddling up to him wasn’t bad enough, both of her tails had wrapped around him like a furry quilt.
The otaku fanboy in him was squealing.
Kevin felt guilty. His mate was in danger, but instead of rushing off to China, he was sharing a bed with her twin sister. His stomach clenched into knots. His mind was awhirl with the grotesque mixture of arousal and disgust.
It was easier when Iris crawled into the same bed as him and Lilian. It seemed more like she was sleeping with Lilian instead of him, and he was just an additional presence, an add on, if you will. Lilian had eventually given up on convincing Iris to stop sleeping with them, and so he had just gone along with her decision. It made things easy. With that not being the case here, with Lilian no longer being around, he had no means to justify them sharing a bed.
Lilian…
He wondered how she was doing. Was she safe? Had those people from the Shénshèng Clan hurt her? He didn’t know, and he hated that. He hated that she was no longer with him, that he had failed to protect her, that he couldn’t even tell if she was okay.
Sometimes I wish I wasn’t human…
If he’d been born a yōkai, then he would have had the strength to protect her. If he’d been graced with supernatural abilities, then he wouldn’t have had to worry about lacking the power necessary to save the person he loved most.
As he closed his eyes, a smile filled with irony caused his lips to quirk.
But if I wasn’t human, Lilian would have never fallen in love with me, would she?
It was ironic that the one thing he sometimes wished to change about himself was the reason Lilian, the person who made him wish he wasn’t human, loved him so much.
He settled himself in and tried to get some sleep…
… When a feeling of wrongness settled over him like a heavy cloud of smog. His eyes snapped open and peered into the darkness of the room. Light spilled in through the window, which revealed a sea of stars. Nothing seemed out of place. Nothing appeared wrong. Even so, he could tell that something was amiss.
Kevin Swift was a human. He had no supernatural abilities. He didn’t possess any powers. He couldn’t sense a yōkai if his life depended on it. What he had was instinct. And right now, that instinct was screaming at him.
“Iris,” he whispered, “are you awake?”
“I am now,” she said in a low groan. Her face pressed against his neck as she held him close. “You’d better have a damn good reason for waking me up. Otherwise…” she rubbed herself against him, “I’m going to punish you.”
“We’re not alone.”
The teasing demeanor that practically oozed out of her every pour changed. He could almost sense the shift in her personality, could feel the way her body stiffened with an alertness that hadn’t been there before. The hand resting against his abdomen moved restlessly, fingers tracing circles on his bare skin. Her tails had stiffened and become bristles that scraped against his legs. Even the leg hooked around his suddenly seemed to grow tense with anxiety.
“I sense them,” she whispered. “I can’t tell who or what they are, though.”
“How many are there?” Kevin asked.
“Just one.” Warm breath hit his skin as Iris nuzzled her nose into his neck. “There are a few other presences near us, but only one is coming toward us.”
“Where are they coming from?”
“The hallway.”
Kevin’s mind went several hundred miles per second. Someone was coming for them. Logic dictated that this person was a yōkai. They’d only had trouble with yōkai so far. The question wasn’t what they were, but who, and what they wanted. Members of the Shénshèng Clan? Possible but improbable. The chances of them knowing about his and Iris’s whereabouts were unlikely. What about one of those three goons who had tried hitting on his companion? Unlikely as well. He and Iris had kicked their butts pretty good last time. What about a friend of theirs? Someone bigger and stronger than they were? That made the most sense, and it was the scenario he decided to go with.
“I’ve got a plan,” Kevin told Iris.
“A plan, huh?” The amusement in her tone was obvious. “Go on.” He could almost feel the upward curl of her lips on his neck. “I’m listening.”
***
Dіlara was an ao nyōbō.
Many myths surrounded her kind, tales told by men about how her kind had once been court ladies of Japan—paragons of youth, beauty, education, and refinement. These stories told of how they served in the palaces of high-ranking families until they were married off to worthy suitors. After being married off, they spent their days in their own private residences, patiently waiting for their husbands to come home each night or for secret lovers to show up during the day.
Ao was the Japanese word for blue, and supposedly referred not to her kind’s skin color, but to an implied immaturity or inexperience. Their name referred to low-ranking women of the old imperial court who, no matter how hard they worked, couldn’t seem to catch a husband or elevate themselves to escape from poverty. Originally, this name was an insulting term used to describe unsuccessful court ladies.
The history of her people was, as is the case with most legends of yōkai told by humans, incorrect. However, she had no intention of correcting the foolish ape species of their misconceptions. Let them think what they wanted. Let them believe that her kind were once humans who had turned this way out of envy toward others. It mattered not.
The hallway that she walked through was devoid of all life. Lights situated overhead flickered and buzzed. Beige walls crawled with her shadowy figure. She looked at the doors, searching for the one that her prey resided in.
They had been lucky that one of Lord Kağan’s men worked at this hotel. After informing his underlings about the two troublemakers, along with orders to report should the pair be discovered, they’d received word about two people who
matched the description renting out a room here.
She stopped in front of the door that her quarry was supposedly hiding behind. Bony fingers grasped the handle, turning it and letting the door open with a soft creak.
She entered the room, slowly, silently. Her feet padded along soft carpet with surprising lightness.
With eyes that could see in the dark quite well, she looked around the room; a plain room with one bed, a table, two night stands, and a dresser. The bed was where her eyes trailed to. Two figures slept within it; one whom her rabbim wanted for himself and one whom her rabbim wanted dead.
She walked over to the side of the bed farthest from the entrance and stared down at the young man that her rabbim wanted dead. Blond hair framed a decently handsome face of sun-kissed skin. Much of his body was covered by blankets, but even covered as he was, she could see how close the girl that her rabbim wanted was to him. The girl, her raven fox ears twitching at intermittent intervals, was wrapped around the boy like a lover holding her man.
Dіlara scowled. She didn’t know what her rabbim wanted this girl for. She didn’t believe this child, this vixen, was worthy of being in her rabbim’s presence. Still, orders were orders, and her rabbim had ordered her to kill the boy and bring the girl. That was what she would do.
She raised her hand, wrinkled blue skin clinging loosely to rail thin bones, while her fingers formed the point of a spear. She then thrust the hand down, expecting to pierce the boy’s chest…
… Instead what happened was her hand went straight through the boy as if he wasn’t there.
“What?!”
Roaring reminiscent of cannon fire sounded out in her ears. Dіlara didn’t even have time to turn as she was hit by what felt like a sledgehammer.
Water splashed against her body as she was launched off her feet, slamming into a wall, and then falling to the floor. She looked up just in time to see the black barrel of a gun pointing at her seconds before a bright white light shot out of the muzzle. It was the last thing she saw.
***
Kevin stared at the creature lying slumped against the wall in confusion. Elaborate, multi-layered robes, tattered and frayed, covered its ogreish body. Its pale blue skin had many wrinkles, hundreds, maybe even thousands. They littered its body like cracks in the ceiling of an ancient and derelict crypt. Skin sagged and its ugly muzzle of a face with its fang-like teeth and square jaw reminded him of a horror movie monster he once saw.
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