by Erin Hayes
My brothers and sisters are all crying as they turn back to me with big, wide eyes.
“Did you see anyone?” I demand of them. “Did you see who took Ken?”
A few kits sob louder while some shake their heads. I hear someone stammer, “N—no!”
Too much smoke. Of course not. That would be too easy. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.
I hold up my right wrist, which has my communication device in my palm. “Call the Intra,” I instruct the device. I swallow, looking back at my mother.
Ken, where are you?
“So, there’s nothing you can do?” I demand, putting my hands on my hips as I face the Human Intra officer. She looks down at me while her fellow officers check around the apartment for any sort of clues. Being stuck in a confined place like the Complex, I’ve seen her around. She’s even eaten at our restaurant as recently as a few days ago.
Still though, there’s a sense of detachment from her. So much for Humans and Metas co-mingling peacefully.
“No, I’m sorry, Miss Fuchs,” she says to me sympathetically as she inputs her data into her mini-tab. Her eyes flick from her partner to the crime scene investigators, then to my mother who continues to stare ahead, lost in her shock.
I step in front of her gaze, protectively keeping her from looking at my distressed mother. I don’t want any more scrutiny for her than the questions the Intra have already asked. I saw their looks of disapproval when they arrived, that she’s raising eleven children herself. I recognize it from so many others who look at my family that exact same way.
Kitsunes can have as many as twelve children at a time. It’s called a litter for a reason. I was born without littermates—my brothers and sisters weren’t, through no fault or irresponsibility of my parents.
But in situations like this, where Mom is chastised for keeping her children in the only apartment she can afford—I can’t fucking stand their unspoken criticism.
So I face the female Human officer with my arms crossed and the hair on my three tails standing on end. It’s a reactionary defense, to make myself look more intimidating. I look at her nametag—Sergeant Lewis—and tuck that information away for later.
Lewis sighs and puts away her mini-tab. “Look, Miss Fuchs,” she says, “we’ve done everything we can do here. There’s been a lot of Meta kidnappings lately—”
“And what are you doing about it?” I demand.
Her eyes narrow, and she steels me with her hard gaze. “Everything, I assure you.”
I take a steadying breath. No use in pissing off the people that can help us out the most. But I do have some more information for them. Information that I hope can help them track down Ken.
“There was a shtrigu at our restaurant today,” I say to her under my breath, careful so that Mom doesn’t hear. “You know what a shtrigu is?”
“I’m familiar with the term,” she says tersely.
I guess that’s good enough, because she looks like she doesn’t want me to give her a Meta lesson. So I just charge on forward. “He talked to Ken earlier. And he had made a joke about feasting off one of my siblings.”
I know I don’t have much information, only my prejudiced suspicions of a fellow Meta—but he is a shtrigu and I wouldn’t have survived this long without being cautious.
Sergeant Lewis seems to finally take me seriously as she takes out her mini-tab and starts taking notes on the shtrigu, from his appearance, to what he said. I offer her everything I know, which isn’t a lot, to my chagrin, but it’s all I have to go on at the moment. And, apparently, it’s all the Intra have to go on as well.
Mom’s mostly silent. They interview the other kits—they were all asleep, and when the smoke bomb went off in the living room, it wasn’t until they started coughing that they woke up and realized that Ken was gone.
Ken—my little brother who’s more responsible than my other siblings—is gone. Kidnapped. All because of that fucking shtrigu.
If I ever get my hands on him…
“Miss Fuchs?” the Intra officer asks, and I realize that I started growling, thinking about that shtrigu.
“Sorry,” I mutter. “It’s been a long day.”
She smiles sympathetically. “We’ll find him. He’s somewhere in the Complex.”
Well, of course he is. You can’t leave the Complex, not unless the shtrigu wants to forgo the rest of his payout and leave a captive food supply.
Will they find Ken? With all the missing kids lately, one would think the Intra are sitting around twiddling their thumbs. No, something has to be done, something that they’re not doing.
And I know for damn sure that I’m not going to just let them do their thing—I’ll do my own investigating.
I glance back at my mother, who has fallen even more despondent, and my heart goes out to her.
I’ll find him, I silently tell her. I’ll find Ken myself.
And I’m going to kill the shtrigu when I find him.
Maintenance comes about an hour later for repairs. I’m not about to leave my family unprotected with a giant hole in our front door—not after Ken’s kidnapping. The Intra leave and I’m a bundle of nerves watching the crew weld a metal plate to the door. I know that it’s not much—but at least it’s the illusion of protection I need. It will help my mother’s peace of mind and help my brothers and sisters sleep.
But I’m not going to sleep. Not until Ken is back.
“Is Ken going to come back, Sissy?” my little brother Henderson asks, coming up to me. He’s a bit more of an introvert compared to the others, but he and Ken were close.
Having Ken gone probably shattered his world.
I give him a small smile and a hug. “Yes,” I tell him. “Even if I have to go get him myself.”
He gives one shuddering sob before heading to Mom’s and my room where my other siblings are lying in a pile on the floor. I’m sure some are sleeping and some aren’t.
I hope they don’t have nightmares, although I suspect they will. If there’s one thing I wish I could do in life, it’s to take away their nightmares. They’re too young to remember much of the war and our father died before they were born, so I’m glad they don’t carry the horrors of it with them.
But this has just shattered their innocence.
I clench my fist, feeling the fox inside me rear its head. Ready to go hunting for a shtrigu.
“What are you thinking, Serena?”
I look up and see the pale form of my mother. She hasn’t said more than three words to me since Ken was kidnapped. She’s shaken, her gaze unfocused as she watches the maintenance crew repair the door.
“I’m thinking I need to do something,” I tell her.
Her face falls further, but she nods. “Don’t get yourself killed,” she murmurs softly. “I can’t…lose anyone else.”
I glance back at the door to our bedroom, where the rest of my family is sleeping. I sigh and comb a hand through my hair. “You won’t lose me. After all, the restaurant would burn down if I weren’t there.”
A smile ghosts her features. “You are a gift to me, Serena,” she tells me softly.
She hugs me awkwardly; we haven’t shown much affection for each other throughout the years, but I know she does care. I feel her half-caught sob wrack her body and bite my lip.
The shtrigu’s days are numbered.
“Think you’re okay here with the door?” I ask Mom, nodding to the maintenance crew. They’re almost finished up, otherwise I wouldn’t leave. But I can feel Ken’s disappearance slipping through my fingers, like the longer I wait, the less of him there is to find.
Mom picks this up too and nods.
“I’ll be fine,” she says, and there’s enough conviction in her voice that I believe it. “Find Ken.”
I nod and call forth my inner fox. I’ll be better able to smell him in my fox form. My black hair changes to a tawny red from the tips to the root as my entire skeletal structure shrinks, condenses and pops into a sma
ller, more compact form. I feel my incisors elongate and fill my mouth as that, too, changes. My hands turn into paws as do my feet, and I fall on all fours.
My beast roars to life, as my senses flare and everything looks better through my fox eyes. In this form, I can smell the barest hints of Ken. But no shtrigu. Bastard.
I shrug out of my regulation uniform, leaving it behind. If I have to change back to my Humanoid form, I can conjure up some clothes to wear, which I’d prefer anyways, as it gets away from the drab gray linen the Complex makes us wear. It’s one of the powers a kitsune has. We’re masters of disguise.
I give one glance back at Mom, and she gives a subtle nod. “Find him,” she commands.
I yip at her once before turning on my tails and heading out the door just as the maintenance worker comes in to talk to Mom. He gives a surprised shout as I squeeze through the door and out into the hallway, using my nose as my guide.
I don’t have much to go on. But I’m going to do everything I can.
I’ve got your number, asshole, I silently tell the shtrigu. Don’t piss off an older sister. Don’t piss off a fox shifter.
And don’t piss off Serena Fuchs.
Chapter 3
There’s one thing I quickly find out about the shtrigu—I can’t pick up his scent anywhere. That fresh smell of the forest after the rain? Cinnamon?
Nothing. The only things I can pick up are small traces of Ken, the Intra, and the repair crew in the apartment.
It’s as though the shtrigu only existed in that moment of time when he was at the restaurant—and that’s it. I immediately head back to ‘Uni Versal Noodles’ and sniff around the place in my fox form. There’s a hint of him at table four, towards the front, and once he’s past the doors, I can smell that he turned right.
And that’s where the trail ends.
I have nothing else to go on from there.
I growl, low and guttural in my chest before I transform back to my humanoid form, using the wind and air to wrap clothes around my body. Despite being strapped for cash all the time, one of the nice things about being a kitsune is the ability to weave clothes out of thin air. Some shifters are uncomfortable with being naked.
Not a problem for kitsunes. I could even design high-fashion clothing if I took the time to, but I’m usually too busy. Like now.
I tighten the belt of my robes, my tails swishing in irritation as I move about the restaurant.
Why did the shtrigu target Ken, out of all my siblings? What could he have done to follow us back to our apartment and kidnap him when we were all asleep? I run my fingers along the tables, sniffing the air lightly. I can smell my whole family, as we spend most of our time here. Mom, with her air of overwhelmed fatigue that smells like body odor and panic. Me, with my perfume of apples and spices. There are my individual siblings, each with their own idiosyncrasies that come out through their own personal brand of smell.
And then I pick up Ken. Even here, nearly eight hours after we left the restaurant, he’s still here in the sense that his youthful exuberance nearly assaults my nose. For a being that feeds off the life force of its victims, I can’t think of a better source than Ken.
And if the shtrigu picked up on that…
I clench my fists. No wonder he followed us back to our apartment. I can feel Ken kicking around my sinuses like he’s ready to go out and play.
I comb a hand through my hair, glancing about the restaurant in frustration. There’s nothing more for me to do here, other than confirm that there was, indeed, a motive for getting Ken.
“Hang on, little brother,” I promise. “I’m coming.”
I transform into a fox again, my clothes disappear into thin air, and I skitter out into the streets of the main city. If I have to remove the Complex brick by brick, steel plate by steel plate, I’m going to find him.
And galaxies help the shtrigu that took him.
“A what?” the Mer asks me, her eyes wide. She looks up at me from the tank, her green tail spread out behind her in the water. I see her brethren swimming happily in the pool of the Aquatic Dome of the Complex.
I have my hands on my hips as I give a long sigh. “A shtrigu—they’re life force-sucking Metas.” At her continued blank look, I try another tactic. “About yay high.” I show how tall he is, which is almost taller than I can reach. “Dark hair. Golden eyes. Looks like a druggie.”
The Mer shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I haven’t seen anyone like that.” She turns behind her and asks the other Mers in their language. I pick up a few pieces of their conversation, but I let them discuss in peace.
The Mer turns back to me. “No,” she says with a shake of her head. “No one has seen anyone like that.”
I guess that means they haven’t had any Mer children stolen then. A part of me is relieved about that—at least they don’t have to worry about the horrors of a missing child. I’ve been scouring the entire Complex for answers to see if someone—anyone—has seen the shtrigu. So far, I’ve gotten blank stares and gasps when they connect the Meta with the disappearances. Some know what a shtrigu is, others have to be told. And when I describe how terrible a shtrigu can be, I can tell that they’re scared.
So much for being discreet.
“All right, thank you for your help,” I say half-heartedly, angry that I’ve reached another dead end. Where to next? I’ve checked out the Forest Dome, which is where my family lives, the Aquatic Dome, and the Desert Dome. The only one that’s left is the Snow Dome, and that’s the last place I want to go.
I have a good fur coat, but it drops to some ridiculous temperatures there. Trust the shtrigu to be hiding out in a pain-in-the-ass place. I nearly growl at the thought.
“Well, if you see anyone that matches that description, please contact me,” I say to the Mer. “My name is Serena Fuchs. Call me.” I tap my right palm where all our communication devices are kept. She nods.
I turn to leave, but the Mer calls after me, stopping me in my tracks. “Why are you looking, instead of the Intra?”
I warily glance back at her. “Because they aren’t moving fast enough,” I explain. “And I’m not going to sit still while my little brother is in trouble.”
I meet the Mer’s eyes, and she gives an understanding nod. “I hope you find him, kitsune” she says.
I give her a salute before I call a zipper to take me to the Main City. It’s getting to be nighttime, and I don’t mind looking after dark, even with the nocturnal Metas poking around. But I know Mom will start to worry. She’s been alone with ten children all day—the first time that has ever happened to her, and I hope she survived all right. I’ve always been there to help. I doubt the restaurant opened today—why would it, after Ken was kidnapped? Mom needs time to grieve and come to her senses.
And I need to find Ken before something happens. I can feel every second, every minute weighing on me. If the shtrigu were desperate, I may already be too late.
No. I refuse to think of that. Ken is still alive.
I have another hour or so before nighttime falls, so I’ll spend that time asking anyone else if they’ve seen the shtrigu or Ken.
As the zipper flies me to the Main City, I glance up at the Eye in the Sky, the headquarters where Complex government operates. Forty-five and a half miles up, the Eye in the Sky is like some sort of omnipresent being keeping watch over us. And it truly is, now that I think about it. It’s suffocating, really, to think that everything we’re doing is under their watchful eye.
And I doubt they saw where Ken went.
Such a strange concept, the Complex. Whoever thought that Humans and Metas could coexist peacefully? Metas can’t even coexist peacefully with each other—and this shtrigu is a prime example. After the war between Humans and Metas, this whole experiment to see if we can inhabit the same space feels like a plea for help, a way to gamble with our very lives.
I feel trapped. I wanted to take my payout after the end of two years and run. But I realize that my time here is go
ing to scar my soul. Even if I do get Ken back.
I step off the zipper into the Main City. People are bustling around, going about their daily lives. I pass by a gaudy pink candy store. It’s so sugary sweet in appearance, it makes my teeth hurt. I shudder slightly. Some of these government-run stores take their inspiration too literally.
I’m not too far from ‘Uni Versal Noodles’, and I think briefly about heading back there to see if Mom actually opened the shop today. Then again, I could spend this time asking nocturnal Metas if they’ve seen the shtrigu or Ken. My little brother was taken at night, so maybe they saw something.
What to do? What are you supposed to concentrate on when time is a factor in whether your little brother lives or dies?
Stop thinking that way, I firmly tell myself. It won’t do any good to think of him that way. I take a steadying breath and concentrate on the task at hand.
I’ll stay here.
I spot an inconspicuous door in the wall next to a massage parlor. It’s a door that blends into the walls of the Complex, and I wouldn’t have noticed it except for the “Restricted” sign. It must lead to the tunnels underneath the Complex.
Shit, there’s an entire network of tunnels that I’ll have to investigate as well. No wonder the Intra haven’t been able to find the missing kids. This place is enormous. And there are so many hiding spots for dastardly deeds, even with a literal Eye-in-the-Sky.
My feet move of their own accord as I walk over to the door, my hand reaching out for the doorknob. Surely it wouldn’t be unlocked, right? That would be incredibly stupid.
My hand touches the knob, and to my utter astonishment, it turns. But only slightly, because a strong pale hand clasps mine, keeping it from unlatching the door and opening it. Momentarily, I freak out, worrying that I’ve been caught entering a restricted section, coming up with a bunch of excuses as to what I was doing, how I was trying to keep the residents of the Complex safe. Anything to get me out of trouble.