Fox in the Quarter

by Audrey Claire

  “He’s not dead,” Nathan said when he was decent. “I lost him.”

  “That’s impossible. You can track down anyone.”

  He grinned. “Thanks, but they’re using runes.”

  “They’re what?”

  He rubbed his nose hard, and I assumed that sped up his healing process. Then he squinted at the floor. One of the metal trays had managed to catch a bullet. Nathan picked it out.

  “Be careful. That thing burned my fingers,” I warned him.

  “Don’t worry. It’s dead now.” He strode closer so I could get a better look. “See these symbols? They’re called runes. It’s a type of magic the humans and some others are able to use. The thing is it’s pretty specialized.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  He shrugged his big shoulders, and I wanted to sigh for old times sake. “I mean, they have to inscribe onto the item what they want to happen.”

  My eyes widened. “You mean like having the bullets act like missiles?”

  “Is that what they did?” Nathan let out a low growl at sight of my wound, but I scratched behind his ear to keep him calm. He was a pretty protective kind of guy, which was one of the things I liked about him. However, it was also his weakness. Nathan’s anger could set off at the drop of a hat, and he would be useless for anything other than a killing machine.

  “The bullets and that stink bomb.”

  We both grimaced at the painful memory, but then I was distracted when I sensed Kit had returned. Obviously since Nathan didn’t react to the little fox sitting on the bar, I knew he couldn’t see him. I decided not to talk to Kit either because Nathan was too unstable right now.

  “Why don’t you go find some clothes? And don’t shift again tonight. I’ll go catch a quick meal—alone.”

  Nathan looked at me oddly for the emphasis I put on my words, but they were meant for Kit. My friend never tried to go with me to feed. As much as Nathan accepted and cared for me as a friend, his kind thought mine were disgusting when it came to eating, and it was kind of mutual.

  “Did you lose a lot of blood?” He tried to look down my blouse, but I smacked his hand away.

  “No, but any loss triggers my hunger. I’m hardly hanging on here. We’ll meet back at my apartment in half hour?”

  “Is that enough time?”

  “I’ll make it enough. I don’t know what those men will do to Yuki. We have to get moving, but I will be a danger to her and them if I don’t feed. And hopefully you didn’t give the restaurant patrons a show tonight!”

  He coughed and rubbed his neck then looked around. “Oh heck, I guess we have some explaining to do.”

  “What?” My nose hadn’t healed all the way yet.

  “The cops are coming. Violet is angry. I can feel it from here.”

  I patted his back. “Good luck, my friend.”

  “Rue!”

  He shouted to my back as I vacated the premises as fast as my vampire abilities could take me. The night had been eventful enough without running into another werewolf who also happened to be a policewoman, who also hated vampires. Lately, I thought Violet was coming around, but we weren’t there yet. Since she and Nathan were good friends, he could handle it while I took care of my own urgent needs.

  6

  I paced the small space that was my apartment. For me it was fine, but during times that Nathan came by, the place felt more like a closet. I should have told him to meet me at his apartment, which had plenty. So, before he finished his business, I determined to get to the bottom of Kit’s.

  “What’s going on, Kit?” I demanded. “You disappeared right before the rune activated, almost as if you knew the type of magic Yuki’s abductors would use. What haven’t you told me?”

  The little fox paced as well, but his small spot was no wider than a couple of feet on my carpet. I suspected he did it just to have something to do with himself while he thought up a lie. This time I wasn’t falling for the cuteness. Okay, I was falling for the cuteness, but in addition, I wouldn’t be fooled.

  I crouched before him and aimed a finger at his snout. “Talk! Now, before Nathan gets here.”

  The fox bristled. He didn’t look forward to Nathan arriving even if the werewolf couldn’t hurt him. “Yukiko is…special.”

  “Uh-uh.” I waggled my finger. “I’m going to need you to use a broader vocabulary, young man.”

  He glared and said something in Japanese. “Fine. Yukiko is from a very important bloodline. She is the last in her family. In fact, an ancestor was one of Japan’s greatest emperors.”

  “Wow, impressive.”

  He nodded in agreement. “Yukiko doesn’t know this.”

  “Hm, well many of us don’t know our actual family’s genealogy. In my own case, I wouldn’t know if I should look into my original bloodline or the one from this body’s history.”

  He blinked at me as if he had no clue what I was talking about, and I waved him off.

  “Never mind. It’s complicated.” I didn’t see the need to tell him how years ago, I used to be Liberty Grace, a human. Now I had a new body and a new name—Rue Darrow. I looked radically different from the way I did then, cuter if I did say so myself. The overconfidence and the hint of sarcasm came with vampirism. Not my fault at all.

  “When I say Yukiko doesn’t know about her family’s past, I mean because she was adopted. She doesn’t know that the parents who raised her weren’t her biological parents.”

  “How cruel. Why do you, a spirit, know and not her?”

  “I have my reasons.”

  “Which are?”

  “You don’t need to know to find her. She is in real danger.”

  I stood straight. “You can leave now, fox. Good luck with the search.”

  His eyes widened. “I don’t believe you would leave a young woman in danger and turn your back.”

  “No? Even in Japan, you’ve heard of vampires. You know our nature. We lose all attachment to our humanity, which includes emotions. I can tell you with all honesty, I feel nothing when it comes to Yuki’s safety or her death.”

  No one said a vampire couldn’t lie. We were the best at it, total poker face. In this case, I didn’t lie per se. True, my emotions were dying a slow death. They weren’t gone completely. I wavered between feeling bad about Yuki’s plight and knowing I should feel bad. My conviction to save her came from my sire’s order—protect humans. Help them when possible. Bummer. Kit didn’t need to know any of this as he had said to me.

  I pointed to the door. “Go, or I will banish you. You’ve heard of that, too, haven’t you? Banishment of spirits?”

  That got him riled. If possible the fluffy little chest swelled, and he raised his snout in the air, ice blue eyes snapping with indignation. “Do you know who I am or how long I have inhabited this earth? My power transcends any spirit you have ever known. I have walked as companion to emperors, powerful rulers who could destroy a nation with a word. My power is what gave them theirs, and you dare to threaten me?”

  “What. Power?” I said, pronouncing each word with care.

  He deflated. “Please, Rue Darrow. You’re my only hope of finding Yukiko, and I promise you. If she’s not found, it could mean death for not just America but the world.”

  I strode over to the door and opened it. Two people were headed our way. “Nathan is almost here, and so is the human woman from the restaurant.”

  He made a funny sound like a fox puppy, and I spun around to face him, wanting to pick him up. Guess all the emotions weren’t gone. “You know in the summer, the artic fox’s coat is blue not white?”

  He scowled. “As I have said, Yukiko comes from an important bloodline. Many years ago, all of her people were assassinated, every one of them. Yukiko was entrusted to my care, and I hid her away. We lived a quiet contented life together until she wanted to visit America.”

  “If you knew what happened in the past, why did you let her come?”

  “Do you have a child? What am I saying
? You’re a vampire.”

  I didn’t correct him. Not many people knew I had a son, and I liked to keep it that way. However, I did understand his sentiment. I had learned my feelings for Jake would never die even if I was cursed to be a vampire. Knowing it had brought me extreme relief.

  Nathan arrived at the foot of my stairs. My apartment was on the second floor, and my landlord’s on the first. I signaled for him to wait a second. He saw my hand in the dark and stopped. When Georgia walked up moments after, he got her talking, and they strolled down the street arm in arm. I heard Georgia’s panting from where I stood.

  “I believed she would be okay to visit America after never having left Japan before. Nothing associated her with her people, and as I said as far as anyone knew, all of them had been assassinated many years ago.”

  “Someone knew something,” I insisted, or she wouldn’t have disappeared so quickly.”

  He jumped to my shoulder and turned toward the doorway. “I will explain in simple terms. There is a system that exists all over the world, hierarchies of power.”

  “I kind of heard something like that.”

  “As you recall, I said I couldn’t just enter into America without permission, as a being with nonhuman power.”

  “I frowned at him. “I’m pretty sure I can leave America whenever I’m good and ready.”

  “There are those who would give you instant access because of who you are.”

  “Vampire?”

  “Many creatures—magical, nonhuman, and human would like to control someone like you.”

  “Goody.”

  “So for the chance to have one more of your kind in their domain, of course, you wouldn’t feel resistance. I however am restricted to my home land.”

  “Because you can’t be controlled or because you’re too powerful.”

  “Some have called me a god.”

  One of my eyebrows rose. The little fox thought highly of himself, and hadn’t he previously been about to call himself a demon?

  “In any case, from what I can gather, when Yukiko crossed into America, an alert went off.”

  “Someone with power recognized it in her? I thought you said she’s human.”

  “She is human. Her bloodline is specific. Her enemies probably set up the alert system for anyone matching her bloodline, forever, on the off chance that one of them survived.”

  “Oh dear. So in coming here, she kind of rang the doorbell and woke up the entire house.”

  “Not the entire house,” he said, just one family. One that wants her dead.”

  I tapped a finger to my lips. “I think you’re wrong, Kit.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “If they wanted her dead, she would be, but I don’t believe they’ve killed her. You don’t either, or you might have already unleashed the little of that power you’re so proud of.”

  I shut my door and descended the stairs with Kit riding on my shoulder. We reached Nathan and Georgia, and she forgot the handsome werewolf to pounce on me, locking arms with me. “Rue, I just thought of what we can do.”

  I eyed Nathan, and he moved a little way off. He whispered to me knowing only I—and maybe Kit—could hear. “Don’t be jealous. You’re still the one for me, Rue.”

  I ignored him, which was easy given Georgia shouted in my ear and cackled at every other word as if she spouted witticisms. “I was thinking we could get matching tattoos. Isn’t that just the best idea? It would show our sisterhood and prove to the world how close we are.”

  “Georgia, I’ve never in my life considered such a thing.” Although I was slightly curious about it after seeing the runes on Habiki’s arm. While I knew it wasn’t the same, what can I say? Rue, the vampire, was a curious kind of woman in vastly different ways than the small town divorced mom I had been. “Besides, isn’t a tattoo basically getting a scar? I don’t scar anymore.”

  She bounced up and down. One would think she were younger than I was instead of maybe in her fifties. “That’s the thing! I’ve known scads of vampires, and some of them get tattoos every once in a while for the effect.”

  I had a feeling she was exaggerating on the scads comment. “What effect?”

  “Emotional.”

  “Doubtful.”

  “It may be temporary, Rue, but some humans find it cathartic to get tattoos. The vampires I’ve known get them to…well, feel. The tats last two days at most, and then they fade.”

  “All that pain for two days enjoyment?”

  “To feel,” she repeated.

  “Not to mention telling the world for two days that we’re sisters.”

  “Yes!” she squealed, thinking I finally understood. I shook my head. “Anyway, Georgia, about the restaurant. I had a meeting with the manager of your restaurant, and when I returned to the dining room, everyone was gone. What happened?”

  “Oh! After you went to the back, one of the other managers, a cousin I think, told us the restaurant was closing for a family emergency. We were all rushed out and told our paychecks would be mailed to us.” She pouted. “I hope the restaurant will reopen tomorrow. I liked working there, and Keith was so dreamy to look at. Don’t you think it was weird for them to rush the customers away? Some of them were mad, but at least they didn’t have to pay. Sometimes, I think there’s a lot of stuff we don’t see that’s happening in New Orleans.”

  “Think so?”

  She nodded wide-eyed and then smiled. “Well, anyway, if you’re ready, I can call the tattoo parlor and make an appointment for us.”

  We stopped walking. “Let me think about it, okay?”

  “Okay. Well…” She swayed side to side with her head down like a small child. I knew when she dragged out the l’s what she was going to get to. She never gave up. “Tonight at the restaurant was really traumatizing, Rue.”

  “I’m sure it was, sweetheart.” I patted her hand.

  “You could um…”

  “No.” I stilled the swinging and spun her to face away from me then gave her a little push. “Good night, Georgia.”

  “But—”

  I didn’t give her a chance to say more. Rather, I caught the wind and moved faster than her eyes could track me in the opposite direction. The scents, sounds, and sights of New Orleans whipped past me, especially one I was growing used to, the sound of jazz music. In my wake, Nathan moved slower, but I knew he would go where I went, and he wouldn’t lose track of me even if he didn’t shift again tonight.

  “What did she want from you, Rue?” Kit asked close to my ear.

  “She wanted me to glamour her.”

  “Is that why she wants to be your sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “She wants to use you?”

  “Yes, like the latest drug.”

  “I’m sorry you don’t have a real companion. A vampire’s life must be solitary.”

  I stopped moving, and humans walked along the streets, laughing with each another and oblivious of one such as myself so nearby. They were innocent of paranormal creatures’ existence, and most of us wanted to keep it that way.

  “You’re wrong, Kit.”

  I heard Nathan running in my direction. He was moving fast but steadily.

  “I have a companion. More than one actually.”

  I thought of all the people in New Orleans I had met since coming here and those I had started to grow closer to, including the angry Violet. I had lost people in the past, but I had gained several good friends, mostly nonhuman of course.

  “You would be surprised. Now, let’s get to the restaurant and start again from there.”

  7

  I sniffed all over the French Quarter and so did Nathan and found nothing. We expanded our search to take in more of New Orleans, but Nathan stopped me when I suggested Metairie.

  “There’s no way they’re that far, Rue,” he said, wiping moisture from his forehead. “Not if I can’t even pick up a trail that leads to it.”

  I leaned against a parked car and folded my ar
ms over my chest. “Okay, what if they flew, you know like that man did out of the hotel room window?”

  Nathan eyed me as if I was crazy.

  “Not likely,” Kit said. “The rune spells don’t last long. If they did, they would need to be enhanced by another type of magic or power. For instance, if a nonhuman used them. The people in that family are all human, and they don’t have a special ability other than runes.”

  “You said yourself it’s been a long time, Kit. Maybe the gift enhanced over the centuries.”

  “I don’t believe so, and I don’t think they would be able to move Yukiko far. Therefore, they would rely on the runes to hide her.”

  I speculated about why the men wouldn’t be able to move Yuki far, but now wasn’t the time to ask. I straightened and glanced up and down the street. We were near the paranormal library, a place where one of the companions I had referred to worked. Thinking of my friend and his circumstances gave me an idea. “The runes can camouflage a building?”

  “Yes.” The little fox seemed to get excited. “I should have thought of this. A building where they might engrave the runes would disguise it and them. It would cover their tracks.”

  “Wait,” Nathan said. He walked over to me and held out his hand. “Let me borrow your phone.”

  “What happened to yours? Did you break it?” I fished mine from my pocket and handed it over.

  He frowned. “No, I didn’t. I’m not that irresponsible, especially if it means a job. I canceled my data package last month, and I need the paranormal underweb.”

  I moved closer to him. “What are you thinking, Nathan?”

  He concentrated on the screen, his big fingers flying over the tiny keys. I didn’t marvel so much at the speed as much as whether he was accurate. My phone was small, and Nathan had purchased the biggest one available. I assumed he did so because he was a big man.