Fox in the Quarter

by Audrey Claire

  “I can find out if the Nakahara family owns any other property in New Orleans other than the restaurant.”

  Nathan was far more useful than Kit had given him credit. He had already found out Habiki’s real surname. I appreciated my friend if no one else did. He wasn’t all nose and muscle.

  “The phone can tell you that?” Kit said, in a rare occasion of allowing Nathan to both see and hear him.

  A feminine squeal split the air, and a human woman flitted across to us on impossibly high heels. “Oh my gosh, he is so cute. What’s his name?” She scratched Kit behind his ears, and the fox started making that annoyed sound, which only made him more adorable to the woman. She boldly lifted Kit from my shoulder to cuddle in her arms.

  “I call him Kit,” I said, not interfering no matter how many pleading looks Kit tossed me.

  “Like a cat? Aw, that’s so cruel, but he is precious.” Then the woman’s gaze strayed up to Nathan’s face, way up, and she was lost again. “Oh my gosh, s-so cute.”

  Nathan, the beast, blushed. He was not good with the ladies, although I thought he should have natural werewolf charm. I unbent to take Kit back from the woman’s arms. “Yes, well both my little pets have to get going. Please excuse us.”

  “Pet?” Nathan and Kit protested loudly, but it was a good thing I had already turned my back on the woman and started walking down the street.

  Nathan bumped my shoulder once we were out of earshot of the woman. “Admit it, Rue, you were jealous. You want me for yourself.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Nathan,” I shot back. “I’m not the one who’s asked you out on a date nonstop since I met you.”

  “You’ll give in eventually.”

  “Did you find out about the properties?”

  He looked disappointed that I refused to continue the conversation, and Kit disappeared from my hands to appear again on my shoulder.

  “This is no time to discuss your love life!”

  Nathan grumbled. “I found three other places. One is near here, but it doesn’t say what it is. Just gives the address.”

  “Well let’s check it out first.” After he told me the address, I darted ahead, but I didn’t move so fast as to distance him. We arrived at the address to find a small grocery store. Sniffing the air gave us no clues, not even the family’s scent, which Nathan and I both had firmly in our memories.

  “It’s suspicious that we can’t even smell them,” Nathan said.

  “I agree.” I started forward and stopped. “What in the world? Do you see that?”

  “What do you see, Rue?” Kit asked.

  I pointed, not believing Nathan and Kit couldn’t see what I saw. “It’s right there. All along the top of the building, there is a line of runes. At first they weren’t there, but the closer I walked to the building, they began to glow. Are they reacting to us?”

  “Possibly,” Kit said. “The same way that anchor alerted Nakahara-san you weren’t human.”

  I glared at him. “Oh, so you were around?”

  “It was better for Yukiko that they don’t identify who hired you yet.”

  “And the rune on his wrist?”

  “Probably to protect him from a nonhuman hurting him. You might have been burned.”

  I winced. “They don’t play fair with these runes, but I confess, I want to try them sometime.”

  Nathan let out a low growl. “I’d like to see them before they turn against me!”

  “There, there, big guy,” I teased.

  We entered the grocery store, and Nathan snagged a cart so we would look less suspicious. As we wandered around from aisle to aisle, I scanned every face and opened my senses. Odd that I couldn’t detect anything, and yet, I felt the burning of the runes. Our presence—or it could be mine since I tended to shatter spells upon contact—seemed to be igniting the runes and consuming them as we moved.

  In the cereal aisle, Nathan stretched over the cart to grab a box of sugarcoated frosted wheat. “This is my favorite.”

  My eyebrows went up. “You don’t strike me as a cereal kind of man.”

  He grinned. “Not usually, but this is a part of expenses.”

  “Huh?”

  The smile broadened. “I’m working. I’ll bill you for it.”

  I stopped walking and waggled a finger at him. “Nathan, just because I said I’ll hire you to work with me, it doesn’t mean you get to spend money any way you like. I’m not rich, you know.”

  For the most part my cases were for humans, but they were few and far between. In addition to that, too many of them already knew about the existence of humans. When they weren’t satisfied with the answers I provided them, they tended to uninvite me to their homes with half or no pay. Sure, I could catch up with them later and get whatever I wanted with glamour, but I wasn’t that type of vampire. Okay, mainly it was because forcing them to pay me was probably the same as hurting them, which I didn’t have the ability to do. Darn my sire!

  When I put the cereal back, Nathan grabbed it again and dumped it into the cart. “You always pay for my expenses, Rue.”

  “This is not work-related.”

  “Says who? We have to look normal. What would the enemy think if we just push around an empty cart?”

  “Fine, but I’m not paying for it when we’re done here.” I walked around the cart and started forward then stopped. Seconds before, two women debated over cold breakfast choices. The next moment, I realized they and we weren’t the only ones present in the aisle. I lowered my gaze and spun to face Nathan. “You know what? Why don’t we grab two more? And this, too.”

  Nathan’s face lit up so much I thought I’d buy at least one box when we were done. Maybe I was developing a soft spot for the man, although who knew how that was possible.

  “Really? Rue, you’re the best.”

  I scowled. “You sound like an excited kid. Don’t look now, but there’s a man standing in the aisle with us.”

  Nathan’s happiness changed to confusion. “I don’t see anyone or smell them.”

  “I said don’t look. He’s invisible. Maybe he used a symbol for invisibility. Is there anything those runes can’t do?”

  “They can’t hide from you,” Kit offered.

  “You’ll give me a big head before long.” I raised a hand to my head as if to brush the hair away but peeked through my fingers. The man spun away, and I grabbed the cart and followed as casually as possible. When he turned to walk along the meats section at the back of the store, I did as well, exclaiming loudly over the deals on pork chops. Unfortunately, there was also a strong scent of blood here. Even dead blood rattled me.

  Nathan took over the cart as my fangs descended. Kit disappeared from my shoulder. Now I followed the man without any pretense, and he started to run. A bright blue light flashed, and he became visible. Nathan growled. All around us, I began to see the differences, people who weren’t customers but were the family’s muscle. Every one of them began turning in our direction.

  One part of the grocery store, a section of wall space with racks of various wines wasn’t a wall at all. Behind it was a hallway, and my prey ran full tilt down it. I pursued, my blood lust running a tad hot. His heart pounded, pumping blood that sang an invitation to me. His fear enticed me beyond reason.

  Calm down, Rue. You just fed. You’re not hungry.

  Wrong. A vampire was always hungry for blood. Twenty-four hours a day. They were just able to resist it sometimes. The grocery store might be a front, but it existed. The bloody meat in the cases and behind it were real. That’s why I bought my wine in a shop that only sold wine, no meat.

  Tired of toying with the man, allowing him to stay ahead of me, I sped up and captured him around the nape of the neck. I drew him back, and without giving it a second thought, sank my fangs into his throat.

  “Back, demon!”

  Something burned me, and I released my prey before I could grab more than a mouthful. Another man stood before us, holding up his hand. A rune scratc
hed into his palm caused me pain, and I covered my face. The symbol burned bright, but not before he grabbed his friend, and they fled.

  “Where is he?” Nathan demanded, arriving at my side. “We’re not letting them run again.

  I was busy willing the last of the pain to ease. Nathan shouldered past me and jogged to the end of the hall. He bumped against a door, and it appeared he had scarcely given it much effort. Wood splintered, and metal buckled. He tossed the door aside and descended stone steps. I was soon on his heels. The farther down we went, the more sure I was that we would find Yuki.

  8

  “So this is why it’s not likely they moved her far, Kit?” He didn’t answer. In fact, I wasn’t sure if he was in the room.

  We had at last located Yuki. She was a petite slender girl. In fact, I doubted she reached five feet tall. She looked more like twelve than eighteen. With long silky dark hair and small slanted eyes, she had a very beautiful round face. Those lovely eyes stared right through me at the moment, vacant but a tad threatening. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  Yuki had been strapped into a chair, her wrists and ankles bound in a room absent of adornment except for the very handy alter behind her. Habiki and his men knelt around Yuki, chanting something I couldn’t make out. Yuki’s lips moved as well, but I was pretty sure what she spoke wasn’t Japanese.

  One of the men stood and approached her with a weapon in his hand. I shouted before I moved. “Stay away from her!”

  My steps faltered when power swept out from Yuki to raise the man from his feet and slam him into a wall. I gaped at the young girl, came to myself, and approached. Nathan touched my arm, but I shook him off.

  “Yuki?” I said softly. “I’m here with Kit, um, Kitsune, your companion. I won’t hurt you.”

  None of the men moved or stopped chanting. The girl didn’t respond. What had they done to her?

  “Yukiko, can you hear me?” No response. The two men from the hallway upstairs entered from a side door. I expected them to come after me, but they joined the circle of men as if Nathan and I weren’t there.

  “This is some kind of cult craziness,” Nathan whispered. “Trust it to happen in New Orleans.”

  “Right under a grocery store,” I agreed. “We have to get her out of here, Nathan, and I’m going to make these men sorry they targeted her.”

  “Back away.”

  Nathan and I spun around at the voice. My eyes must have bugged. Standing before us was a young Asian man, mid-thirties maybe, but I sensed he was far older. Instead of regular clothing, he wore robes styled from an era long vanished.

  Nathan bared his teeth, which had turned wolf. He was on his way to a change. “Who are you?”

  I shook my head in disbelief. “Nathan, it’s Kitsune.”

  Nathan gaped at me then swung his head toward the fox who had become a man. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive. What’s this about, Kit? Why are you in that form? Have you been lying to us all this time?”

  “You’re surprised?” Nathan snapped. “I told you you couldn’t trust a fox!”

  Nathan launched himself at Kit, but with a wave of his hand, Kit sent my friend flying. I moved in the blink of an eye between Nathan and the wall. Bad mistake. I’d forgotten in that moment even if Nathan got hurt, he would heal. My insides felt like they had been crushed. The impact put both Nathan and I through the wall, and plaster and cement crumbled around us.

  “What are you doing, Rue?” Nathan groaned as he climbed to his feet and yanked me to mine. I bit into my lip to keep from crying out. Good thing my fangs had already receded after the earlier incident.

  “He is not as powerless as he claimed,” I said when we re-entered the room.

  “You’re wrong,” Kit said, and he continued across the room toward Yuki and the men, moving as if he concentrated hard. “I am using what I reserved and what I have been forbidden to use here. I’ll be found out soon, but it will be too late for them.”

  Habiki snapped out of his trance to turn to me. “Please help us! Don’t believe what he’s told you. We aren’t the bad guys. My ancestors were responsible for killing off all of her bloodline, but we had a reason.”

  “There is never a reason to kill a young girl and her family. I don’t care how you try to justify it.”

  “Even if it’s to save the world?” Habiki stood and faced me.

  “Silence,” Kit commanded, but we both ignored him.

  “The Nakahara family are protectors of mankind, not destroyers. Habiki pointed to Yuki, and his face contorted with rage and hate. “Her and all her family are evil.”

  “Now, now. Name-calling isn’t appropriate.” I inched along the wall closer to the front.

  “Do you think this is a joke, vampire?” He flung something toward me, but I deflected it. He wasn’t getting me with that trick again.

  “I don’t think it’s a joke, but if you think I’ll believe anything you say when you have Yuki strapped to a chair, you’re mistaken. The only reason I haven’t killed you yet is because I need you to take her out of that trance.”

  “That trance,” he grumbled, “is the only thing that’s keeping us all alive. She hasn’t awakened, but if you take her out of it, she will.”

  “Awakened?” I wondered aloud. Nathan had been making his way around the opposite side of the room, and at Habiki’s words, he paused along with me. “What do you mean?”

  “Listen closely, vampire,” Habiki quipped, and I was tempted to throttle him for the repeated offense he infused the word vampire with each time he said it. “When the members of this girl’s bloodline awaken, they are always overtaken by evil. It has never been different in fifteen hundred years. That’s why we put the alert on this country as well as all others that will give us permission. Upon the off chance a descendent was missed.”

  “And you missed Japan?” I mused.

  He frowned. “There are many powers in Japan that will cancel such an alert for their own reasons. We were vigilant in our own country.”

  “Not vigilant enough. Anyway, aside from that I mean what’s evil? Some would say I’m evil. One of your men called me a demon earlier.”

  Habiki flared his nostrils. “The kind of evil with an ambition to rule the world and slaughter everyone that stands in the way. Everyone.”

  I started to argue further that he was insane, but movement drew my attention back to Yuki. She was so slight and adorable. How could these people possibly think she—my thoughts fell away. I realized that while Yuki was dressed in simple blue jeans and a blouse, there was an expensive looking necklace hanging around her neck. An emerald that must be the size of her fist was encrusted with diamonds all around it. The gold band holding the gems was half an inch thick. How could an orphan afford such a piece even with a trust fund? Who would want to?

  Then the blue light began, and the necklace glowed so bright it hurt my eyes. I squinted and shielded them, and everyone else in the room did the same. My fangs began to ache, and they dropped down despite the low level of blood lust. Darkness stirred in my soul, something I knew was there ever since I had been changed.

  “Yuki,” I shouted, but she didn’t hear me anymore than before. Yet, the dazed expression left her face. She moved her head, surveying the entire room, taking me in, Nathan, the men, and finally Kitsune.

  “Onii-chan,” she whispered.

  The humans rose, and runes brightened all along their arms and on their faces. I imagined it continued beneath their clothing from the glow produced. In response, the necklace flashed brighter, and blue lightning burned a path from Yuki’s chest down her arms, creating burn-edged holes all along her sleeves. Where the sleeves ended at just below her elbows, runes appeared like an unseen hand wrote them. They continued to her wrists and circled them then snaked into her palms. She raised her hands before her.

  I darted forward. Too late, every single human landed at her feet, and none rose again. I tried to get to her, but the power flashed. This time,
Kit darted between us and took the brunt of the attack. He sank to a knee and bowed his head, panting.

  “You…must…sleep, Yukiko,” Kit rasped.

  I gaped. “What they said was true, wasn’t it? She’s just like they said she is?”

  Kit didn’t answer, but I knew I was right. Yuki looked at me, and the darkness increased. I hissed, but the pressure that had begun in my head the minute she began to awaken became unbearable.

  “Serve me,” she said.

  I tried to shake my head but failed. I couldn’t move. “A vampire doesn’t serve anyone except her sire, and only if he insists.”

  I sounded confident, but in reality, I was getting worried. Yuki’s power was more than I imagined. A groan caught my attention, and I looked down to find Habiki wasn’t dead. He managed to roll over, but he couldn’t stand. I wanted to help him, but I still couldn’t make my limbs obey.

  “Vampire,” he whispered.

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s Rue Darrow.”

  “Rue… We were going to kill her, but the necklace...”

  “What about it?”

  “It came to her when she was close. We kept it safe all this time because we didn’t have the power to destroy it. How could we know bringing her to the necklace would awaken her? We messed up. Please, you have to stop her. Take the necklace off.”

  I frowned. “All this time you didn’t know you needed to keep the two apart, and you call yourselves protectors of men? Honestly!”

  “Rue…Darrow.”

  The compulsion to pay attention to Yuki’s call came over me.

  “Serve me.”

  “I’ve already told you, princess, no deal.”

  She reached out into the air and closed her fist. An unseen force grabbed on and dragged me forward. A roar of rage split the air, and Nathan tried to jump between Yuki and me. Her other hand rose, and Nathan tumbled head over feet across the room. He didn’t move again after he stopped rolling. I detected his heartbeat, but I took exception to her hurting him all the same.

  Rather than resist Yuki, I rushed her, moving at top speed until I hurtled into her. We both toppled backward, but the blue light changed to fire and roasted me. I screamed and held on, thinking if I could bite her I could gain control. Oh the ideas that enter a silly vampire’s head.