A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6)

by Brandon Varnell

  At the sound of her name being called, Christine spun around with a mouse-like squeak. She almost dropped her books.

  “K-Kevin?” she said, surprised, right before surprise turned into anger. “W-what the hell?! Don’t sneak up on me like that, jerk!”

  Already used to her personality by now, and knowing that she wasn’t being rude on purpose, Kevin ignored her insult. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d have gone home by now, or gone to Lindsay’s place.”

  Kevin had noticed that Christine and Lindsay hung out a lot. When they weren’t doing something with everyone else, or when Lindsay didn’t have soccer practice, the two of them were together. He guessed that was why Iris made fun of them.

  “And do what? There’s no one waiting for me at home,” Christine retorted, then sighed. “And I actually did have plans to spend the night at Lindsay’s, but she cancelled at the last second, something about having unfinished work that she needed to stay at school for.”

  “Really?” Kevin was surprised. Lindsay rarely ever stayed at school because of “unfinished work.” He didn’t even know what that meant. “Well, she doesn’t have soccer practice, so I don’t know what she could be doing.”

  “Me neither.” Christine bit her lip. “Though I wonder if it has to do with how she’s been acting lately. She’s been really absentminded for the past week, like she’s not all there.”

  “I noticed that,” Kevin agreed. All of their friends had been acting strangely. He tried not to think about that, though, because doing so made him feel uneasy. “Speaking of Lindsay, I really have to ask, are you and she… well, you know?”

  From the clouded expression on Christine’s face, which reminded him of a wrinkled kinrath pup, Kevin inferred that she didn’t know what he was talking about—at least for the first second. Then her face turned an unique shade of blue.

  “W-w—of course not! How could you even think that?!”

  Kevin ignored the strange feeling wiggling inside of his stomach and shrugged. “It’s not that I think you and she are, um, together. It’s just that Iris kept on making fun of you, and you two are really close, so…”

  Christine’s expression went flat. “So you thought that Lindsay and I were a couple?”

  His face heating up, Kevin looked away and nodded.

  She groaned. “I can’t believe you would think that. Iris I can understand. She’s always trying to get a reaction out of me, but at least she doesn’t actually mean it. You sounded like you were seriously asking me that.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Whatever. Just forget about it.”

  He and Christine moved over to a table and sat down. Kevin set the manga that he’d chosen, a good old-fashioned shōnen called Yu Yu Hakusho, on the table. Christine set her manga in her lap.

  “I want you to know right now that Lindsay is just a friend,” Christine said suddenly. “I’m not into girls.”

  “I understand. Sorry for asking something so stupid.”

  “As long as you understand.”

  Silence engulfed them. Kevin tried to pay attention to his manga, but for whatever reason, he felt uncomfortable. Was it because Lilian wasn’t with him? Because he was with Christine instead?

  It was strange, but when he and Lilian read together, they almost never spoke, engrossed as they were in the story. Being with Christine instead of Lilian, Kevin felt a strange urge to engage in conversation. It was weird.

  “I didn’t know you were into shōjo manga.”

  “W-what? You mean this?” Christine let out a strained laugh. “I’m not really into manga or anything. I just started reading a few to see what they were all about. That’s all.”

  “Is that so…?”

  “Yes, the only reason I’m reading these manga things is because you and Lilian kept talking about them. No other reason.”

  “Hmm…”

  “W-what?” Christine blushed. “What are you smiling for? Wipe that stupid smile off your face!”

  Kevin chuckled, just a bit. “Sorry, I’m not smiling because I’m amused or anything. I’m just glad to see that you’re giving manga a shot. Lindsay never gave the stuff that I enjoyed watching or reading a chance. I’m pretty sure that when we all get together and watch anime, she falls asleep.”

  “She does,” Christine admitted. “I’m the one whose shoulder she’s drooling on when she falls asleep.”

  “So what do you think about those?” Kevin gestured toward the manga in her hands.

  “T-they’re alright,” she admitted, looking down, as if she didn’t want him to see how blue her blush was. “The stories are decent, and the artwork is really pretty… b-but it’s, like, they’re not anything special.”

  Kevin knew that she wasn’t being entirely honest. Those manga in her hand were third and fourth volumes, meaning she had already read the previous ones. He didn’t call her out on it, though, because he didn’t feel like teasing her. That was more Iris’s forte anyway.

  Just then, a loud explosion blasted across the campus and caused the windows to rattle. He and Christine snapped their heads up and looked in the direction of the nearest window. Smoke was rising from one of the school buildings.

  Kevin’s eyes widened. “That’s where Ms. Vis’s classroom is!”

  “Let’s go!” Christine said.

  He and Christine rushed toward the library exit, but they found their way blocked by the head librarian. The normally mousy woman wrapped in a gray skirt and a white-collared shirt stared at them with dead eyes, eyes that contained nothing, eyes that were nothing.

  “Ms. Leerge? What are you doing?”

  The woman stared at them for a second longer, then, without warning, she lunged at Kevin. Surprised, Kevin reacted on instinct. He fell backwards, grabbing onto the woman’s outstretched wrists, his feet going straight to her gut as he used the muscles in his legs to lift her off of the ground and toss her behind him. The woman crashed face-first into the floor. He thought she would stay there, but she slowly climbed back to her feet.

  Not wanting to stick around, Kevin grabbed Christine’s hand and raced out of the door and down the hall. He burst through the double-door exits and rushed onto the campus grounds—only to find himself and Christine surrounded.

  “What the heck?!” Kevin shouted. “These are all students from my math class!”

  Indeed, everyone in Kevin’s class was surrounding them, and even quite a few who weren’t in his class were present. They all looked at him and Christine with the same dead eyes as the librarian. What the heck was going on here?

  The first one to lunge at Kevin was mercilessly put down when he slammed into the boy with a swift uppercut palm strike. With his legs having been bent to increase his power, Kevin’s attack packed a lot of punch. The hapless student was thrown into the air before landing on the ground with a harsh thud. He didn’t get back up.

  “They’ve been hypnotized,” Christine said in shocked realization. “All of them have been hypnotized by some kind of enchantment!”

  The look that Kevin sent her was filled with equal amounts of shock and anger. Was this what Juan had warned him about? “You mean a kitsune did this?”

  “Or another yōkai capable of using enchantments.” Christine warily eyed the people around them as she answered. Several came at her, but they were all met with small pellets of ice that pelted them, showering their faces and bodies until they fell back underneath the onslaught. “Kitsune don’t have a monopoly on enchantments. They’re simply the best at using them.”

  Two more people lunged at Kevin, but through the use of some fancy footwork, he slipped around their attempts and retaliated. The one to his left found a fist planted into their side, a powerful punch that knocked the wind right out of their sails. As the person, a young man, fell to his knees and coughed, Kevin knocked him out with a deft kick to the face.

  At the same time, he tripped up the other person by latching onto her arm and swinging her into a group that had been trying t
o sneak up on them from behind. The people were sent to the ground like bowling pins after a strike.

  “So what you’re basically telling me is that we have no clue who or what we’re up against.” Kevin clicked his tongue. “That’s just great.”

  “Seems that way.” A ball of ice formed in front of Christine and was then launched right into someone’s chest, knocking the person back and causing him to bowl over several other people. “Fortunately, enchantments like these are easy to break—all you have to do is knock them out.”

  “That’s all well and good, but I don’t think we have the time for that right now. That explosion came from Ms. Vis’s classroom, which means whoever enchanted these people is currently fighting Lilian and Iris. I have to get over there.”

  Even as he spoke, Kevin wove his way through several attacks, knocking peoples’ legs out from underneath them with swift kicks to the shins. He ducked underneath a punch. His hair swayed as a gust of wind flew over him. Straightening up, he swiftly knocked his attacker unconscious with a head-butt.

  “In that case, just leave this to me!” Christine commanded as she sent a blast of freezing cold air at some unfortunate girl. The poor lass was shrouded with frost, which coated her entire body and sapped her strength. She collapsed to the ground seconds later.

  “Are you sure?” Kevin spared her a glance after knocking someone out by whacking them in the temple. He hoped they didn’t suffer brain damage, but he couldn’t afford to go easy on them.

  “Don’t start acting like some kind of clichéd hero by worrying about everyone,” Christine admonished. “You want to rescue Lilian, right? Then this is the only way to reach her in time! Whoever she’s facing must be incredibly powerful to subjugate so many people, which means Lilian and the wench are going to need help.”

  “And even now you call Iris a wench…”

  “Oh, stuff it and just go!”

  “All right. Thanks, Christine! And be careful! I don’t want to see anyone I care about getting hurt, all right?”

  Christine saw Kevin run off out of her peripheral vision, knocking out several people with some impressive punches and kicks. She couldn’t pay much more attention to him, though, because their ambushers were now enfolded around her.

  “Okay,” Christine muttered darkly, creating several dozen golfball-sized pellets that hovered in the air around her. Now that Kevin was gone, she could cut loose without fear of inadvertently hurting him. “I’m warning you all right now that this is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me, so you’d better be prepared to wake up with a serious headache!”

  ***

  “Celestial Art: Barrier that Protects the Princess!”

  In desperation, Lilian wove a barrier in front of her and Iris. Barely a second later, a large beam of energy slammed into it. The air seemed to scream as she fell to her knees, or maybe that was Iris. Blood trickled down her ears as the earth shook. Cracks appeared along the surface of her shield.

  Gritting her teeth, Lilian tried to maintain her barrier, pouring as much youki into it as she dared. The world around them was crumbling. Fragments fell from the ceiling. The ground cracked and dented. Walls broke apart as they were devastated by the aftereffects of the silvery energy beam, which shrieked as if outraged that it couldn’t reach its target.

  And then it was over. The beam dissipated, and Lilian’s barrier shattered.

  “L-Lily-pad!” Iris shouted, kneeling down next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “A-are you okay?”

  “Yeah… I’m fine… how about you?”

  “I’m not dead. I suppose that’s something.”

  The room had been destroyed. There was almost nothing left. It reminded Lilian of those decrepit buildings from Call of Duty. Seth was nowhere to be seen.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Iris suggested.

  “Good idea,” Lilian said.

  Standing up, Lilian and her sister walked out of the now-ruined building. The campus, or at least the area around them, was empty. Not a soul was in sight. Above them, the shimmering form of a white dome revealed that they were trapped within some kind of barrier, though Lilian couldn’t determine which kind. It didn’t really matter in the end.

  “It looks like we’re in trouble,” Iris said.

  “You think?” Lilian snarked.

  “My, oh my. I was sure an attack of that caliber would’ve killed you, but it looks like you two are stronger than I gave either of you credit for.”

  Lilian’s eyes widened as she looked up. Seth was standing on the roof of a building, though he quickly hopped down. His hands were at his sides, relaxed, and there was a smile on his face.

  That feeling, the bloodlust and desire to kill that this man exuded, still lingered in the air, a malignant sensation that tried to fill her with dread. She fought it, though, using the training that she had received from Kotohime to counter such techniques.

  Killing intent was the physical manifestation of someone’s desire to cause another person harm. To fight it, Lilian created a protective barrier of youki around her body. The feeling lessened.

  Standing tall, Lilian moved protectively in front of Iris, whose eyes widened.

  “Lily-pad…”

  “Why are you here?! What do you want from us?!” Lilian demanded.

  Seth chuckled. “Didn’t I tell you? I’m here to add you two to my collection.”

  His tails curled over his shoulder, the tips roaring with strange white flames—no, they weren’t flames. A closer examination revealed faces within the flickering fires, tormented faces, and the roaring was, in fact, the cries of agony that those faces howled to the world.

  “Those are the Souls of the Damned,” Lilian mumbled, her body stiffening in shock. “You’re a Spirit Kitsune!”

  “Indeed I am. It’s so nice of you to finally realize that.” Seth’s lips twisted into a sickening grin. “Though just knowing what I am isn’t going to save you. Now then, why don’t you two play with me for a bit? I would like to be entertained before I turn the both of you into my puppets.”

  ***

  “Spirit Art: Spirit Wave.”

  The damned souls coalesced in front of Seth before they surged forward at incredible speeds, creating a giant wave that engulfed Lilian and Iris, smothering them.

  Or so Seth was led to believe.

  “Tch.”

  Seth clicked his tongue when, upon his wave dispersing with an agonized wail, nothing remained. hellfire that he’d created. His technique didn’t burn things to ash. It disconnected a person’s spirit from their body. There should have been two soulless corpses lying on the ground.

  “Celestial Art: Divine Spears that Strike the Earth.”

  Looking up, Seth saw hundreds—no, thousands of light spears descending upon his position. It was like a wave of death sent by the gods themselves to smite him.

  Seth moved before the first projectile hit. It sank into the ground before dispersing into particles of divine energy. Two more spears flew down. Seth hopped backwards, but this time, the spears turned at the last second and shot at him. They followed him, tracking him of their own accord as if they were heat-seeking missiles.

  More and more spears fell. Some came one at a time, others descended in twos, threes, and even fours. Seth was forced to constantly move backwards and zigzag across the ground. Even reinforcing his body just barely kept him ahead of the attacks.

  It wasn’t until one came close enough to singe his skin but didn’t that he realized what was happening.

  “An illusion? How quaint.”

  With a flare of youki, the illusion shattered. The spears that hovered above him disappeared. All that remained was an empty schoolyard.

  Seth narrowed his eyes. “I should have realized your attack was just an illusion. You’re a two-tails, so you lack the power required for an actual attack of that level.” Silence met him. “Let me guess, your plan was to hem me in with those illusory attacks, and then strike me from behind while I was t
oo busy dodging the fakes. Not a bad strategy. Too bad I’m also a kitsune.”

  Still no answer.

  “Tch! Do you really think you can hide from me?!”

  Whirling around, Seth’s tails shot forward, extending to well beyond their original length, heading straight for a set of nearby lockers.

  “Extension: Spirit Art: Soul Stealer.”

  The tails struck the lockers with force, but nothing was destroyed. The tails passed right through the lockers like a ghost and came out the other side. Lilian and Iris, who’d been using it as their hiding place, burst out from behind the lockers, racing in opposite directions.

  “Oh, no you don’t! Spirit Art: Hellfire.”

  As if it was emerging from the very depths of hell, dark purple flames erupted from the ground and raced forward. The flames branched off, splitting like a fork and traveling in two different directions: one toward Lilian and the other toward Iris. It didn’t take long for the hellish fire to overrun them, sweeping over them like a tidal wave of darkness.

  There was no way they could have survived that. Hellfire destroyed everything that it touched, consuming even their bones and dragging their souls to the underworld. Seth frowned. He’d been hoping to add them to his collection.

  The feeling of something latching onto his legs caused him to look down. Wrapped around his calves were several chains composed entirely out of light.

  “What the—”

  “Celestial Art: Underground Chambers Prison.”

  “Void Art: Fires of Oblivion.”

  Seth looked up in time to see a wall of flames even blacker than his own rush across the ground. It was dark. Malevolence pulsed from it. He could practically feel the fire’s hunger, its desire to consume everything, from where he stood.

  Void fire. The flames of a Void Kitsune.

  He tried to move, to escape, but the chains were impossible to escape from. He was unable to do anything but struggle as the flames blazed toward him, consuming the pavement and leaving nothing but black gravel in its wake.