A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6)

by Brandon Varnell

  “Sorry,” Lilian mumbled as the hug expanded to include Iris, who really did look close to passing out.

  “It’s fine,” Iris slurred, her eyes slowly shutting. “So long as you let me join in, I’m good.” And just like that, the cost of using so much youki and the Void took its toll. Iris fell asleep.

  With the battle having reached its conclusion, the school campus was abnormally silent. The two warriors that Seth had summoned, the staff wielder and the gunslinger, were no longer present. Kevin couldn’t be sure, but he guessed that, without Seth around to anchor them to the mortal plane, the two had been sent back to wherever they had come from. Maybe they’d even crossed the Sanzu River by now.

  “We should probably leave,” Lilian said. “The barrier disappeared when Seth died, so we don’t have to stay here.”

  “Right,” Kevin agreed.

  He didn’t want to stay there any longer either. The place reminded him of a war zone in a Battlefront game. Pockmarks and scorch marks covered the ground. Blood stained the cement. The school building to Ms. Vis’s classroom was gutted and destroyed, a demolished wreck that looked like a wrecking ball had plowed into it…

  … Seth’s cooling corpse lay naught but a foot away.

  Are we… going to have to dispose of the body?

  “Kevin?” Lilian forced his attention onto her. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Not really.” Kevin sighed before giving her a weary smile. “But I will be after a good night’s rest.”

  Lilian worried her lower lip. “What about…?” she trailed off, and Kevin inferred what she wanted to ask through her inability to ask it.

  “I… I might have some nightmares tonight, but I think I’ll be okay.” Kevin looked at Seth’s corpse again, at the expanding puddle of carmine underneath it. He looked away. “I didn’t… want to kill someone again, but he didn’t leave me with much choice.”

  Seth hadn’t left him with many options. If Kevin hadn’t killed Seth, then Seth would have killed him, Lilian, and Iris. He lacked the strength to fight without killing. In the end, when forced to choose between himself and his loved ones, Kevin had done what any sentient creature would have done: He chose himself and the people he loved.

  “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to let me know,” Lilian said.

  Kevin nodded and gave her a smile. They stood up, and Kevin lifted Iris into his arms. Iris’s legs swung back and forth like a pendulum. Kevin shifted, adjusting her so that her head was resting on his shoulder.

  Lilian pouted. “That’s the second time in one month that my sister has been carried in your arms. I think she’s doing this on purpose.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Kevin looked down at the raven-haired vixen in his arms. “I think she’d rather be carried by you than me.”

  “Maybe.” Lilian sounded dubious, but she chose not to say anymore.

  “Anyway,” Kevin began, “let’s find our friends. Christine should still be around here somewhere, and if she’s here, I’m willing to bet that some of our other friends are here, too.”

  “Good idea.”

  Together, the two set off in search of their friends. Hopefully, they were all doing fine.

  ***

  Standing on one of the school buildings in his hybrid form, Stephen Valsiener, known as Juan to everyone else, watched Kevin and Lilian walk off.

  Just as he had suspected, the fights had been most entertaining. He had been impressed by Iris and Lilian. For a pair of two-tails, they were incredibly talented. The techniques they used, the way they fought. Lilian was better than Iris, but the raven-haired succubus’s void powers were frightening to behold.

  Kevin Swift had also been something of a surprise. He knew that the young man was training with Kiara, but he’d not realized that training had borne such fruit. Even if that nekomata hadn’t been fighting at her full power for whatever reason, it did not change how impressive his victory over her was. That he’d gone on to fight and help defeat a kitsune with three tails only showed how dangerous he was becoming.

  “What a most impressive and unexpected outcome,” he said to himself, not like there was anyone else around to hear him. “Though I doubt the person who sent those assassins after Lilian will agree.”

  Indeed, the Bodhisattva would not be happy to learn that the assassins he hired had failed. What a joy it was that the task of informing the Bodhisattva’s spies of this abject failure rested solely on his shoulders. He was beginning to wonder if one or more of the eight million Shinto gods hated him.

  Being an information broker really sucked sometimes.

  ***

  Eric woke up to a headache—and a strangely musky smell that made his nose twitch, but mostly the headache. It felt like someone had slammed him in the head with a sledgehammer. His head was pounding and his ears were ringing.

  As his senses slowly returned, he became more aware of his situation. He was lying on his back. The ground underneath him was hard and cold. There was also something lying on top of him, and his face was being smothered by whatever that something was.

  Eric opened his eyes to get a glimpse of whatever lay on top of him.

  He stared at the decidedly male crotch, covered by blue jeans, that was mere inches from his eyes.

  Eric’s muffled screams echoed across the campus.

  Chapter 13

  Black Cat Wanders Back

  Kevin, Lilian, and Iris had met up with Christine, Heather, and Lindsay after the battle’s conclusion. During their reunion, they had held a quick conference, letting each other know what had happened so they were all on the same page.

  Christine, Heather, and Lindsay had been pretty shocked to learn about Cassy and Seth, the two assassins sent after their friend. Lilian was just angry when she found out that the assassin who’d gone after her in California had followed her all the way to Arizona.

  With Heather’s cellphone, which had survived the battle—unlike Kevin’s, which he discovered had been crushed during his fight with Seth—they dialed up Kiara and Kotohime to inform them of the situation. The two had shown up a mere fifteen minutes later.

  Kotohime had expressed her most sincere apologies for having not realized that they were in danger. Apparently, the barrier that Seth had put up had been a quadruple-layered illusion to fool all their senses. It even blocked out youki emissions, ensuring that not even the most sensitive yōkai could detect the release of energy during the battle.

  They were driven home by Kiara after that. Heather had hung back at school, stating that someone needed to be there when the yōkai whose job was to erase any evidence that would reveal their existence to humans arrived. They would erase everyone’s memories and dispose of the corpse.

  There wasn’t much they could do about the damage, though, as there were no techniques that could restore property to an undamaged state. They were yōkai, not magicians.

  Kevin would find out the next day via the news that the property damage would be blamed on vandalism. That seemed to be a popular theme to use. Both the destruction of the gym, courtesy of Kiara and Lilian several months back, and the destruction of the office building that he had fought the gorilla yōkai in, had been blamed on vandals.

  Kirihime had been quite beside herself when they arrived home. The normally demure woman had been nearly in tears when she learned about their battle with Seth. Nothing seemed to console her, not even when he, Lilian, and Iris told her that they didn’t blame her for not being able to protect them.

  Camellia had merely stood there during the recap of events.

  The week after the battle passed uneventfully. Ms. Vis was sent to the hospital for brain damage. Seth’s possession combined with an enchantment that Kotohime had placed on her to treat Lilian like her own daughter—which he and Lilian had only just learned about—had taken its toll on the woman. She’d been in a vegetative state since then, no doubt due to the undue stress that had been placed on her mind. No one knew if she would fully recover.
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  Ms. Vis had also been replaced by a new teacher. Yuno Valkire had a knack for teaching. Despite having only taught for a week, many of the students already loved her, especially the guys. Of course, she was gorgeous, so that was to be expected, but the girls respected her for her friendly and helpful demeanor. She was, in a sense, the perfect teacher.

  She was also a yōkai sent to watch the school to make sure further incidents like this didn’t happen.

  Kevin and Lilian’s training had been upped as well. With another threat having been barely averted, Kiara and Kotohime had decided that they needed to work harder. Four days a week, he and Lilian were put through grueling paces and unimaginable spars. They never went home without bruises.

  Even Iris had been forced to train, much to her displeasure.

  Alex, Andrew, and Eric had been fine. None of them could remember what happened. According to Heather, no one that had been enchanted could remember the incident. It seemed that Seth’s enchantment wiped the memories of everyone caught under its sway.

  That was probably a good thing, Kevin felt. There was no need to put undue stress on his friends’ minds. They might know about the yōkai world, but they didn’t need to become a part of it.

  With Seth dead and Cassy missing, presumably gone, Kevin could only hope that his life would finally settle down. He really needed a break.

  ***

  The potentially disastrous consequences brought about by Seth Naraka’s assassination attempt on Lilian at school had been averted. Davin Monstrang had several yōkai located within local and international media channels, as well as the newspapers, and had ordered them to create a cover story for what happened at the school.

  Kotohime had to admit, she was very impressed by the system set up in the United States. While the Four Saints no longer associated with each other, having disbanded decades ago, the system that they had created ensured the continued peace better than anything else she’d seen. It was no wonder that the United States had one of the lowest yōkai crime rates in the world—recent incidents caused by herself and her charge’s family notwithstanding.

  Now that the crisis had been averted, a meeting of the minds had been called, so to speak.

  Kotohime observed all of the people stationed around the room. Kirihime was next to her, standing with her back straight, hands clasped in front of her. Only Kotohime noticed the sweat covering her forehead, a sign of nerves. Kotohime didn’t blame her. She was in the presence of one of the Four Saints.

  Kiara leaned against the wall, her only remaining hand stuffed in the pocket of her gray slacks. She looked rather detached, but Kotohime knew the woman well enough to know that her keen ears were listening to every word being spoken. Beside her stood Heather, the only human among their group, wearing a basic blouse and t-shirt combination.

  “Ever since you kitsune arrived, Arizona has been in a state of complete disarray. I’ve had to deal with more disasters in the past six months than I have my entire time living in this state,” Davin Monstrang said in his usual gruff demeanor.

  “You have my most sincere apologies, Davin-dono.” Kotohime bowed before the older and far more powerful yōkai. “It was never our intention to cause you or anyone else trouble. Truth be told, if it weren’t for Kevin-sama becoming Lilian-sama’s mate, I would have taken my charge and left this state when I first located her.”

  Davin grunted. “Well, what’s done is done. There’s no use complaining about it now.”

  “The media did a good job of spinning a believable story,” Kiara smoothly changed topics. “It must have been difficult with all of the evidence that pointed toward this incident being a combat situation.”

  Kotohime had to agree. She’d seen the battlefield left by Seth’s assassination attempt. It had been quite the disaster zone. It had also clearly been caused by a fight. Anyone with a brain would have been able to see that.

  “A lot of mind manipulation was required,” Davin admitted. “Several of the human reporters were a bit too nosy for their own good and had to be enchanted before they could snoop further. We’ve convinced everyone that this was nothing more than a vandal who got their hands on some explosives, but this incident came closer to revealing the existence of yōkai than any other we’ve had.”

  Kotohime struggled not to speak, and also to keep her guilt inside. She knew that this situation was their fault, the fault of her and the Pnév̱ma clan. However, she’d already apologized once. Apologizing any more would only serve to irritate Davin Monstrang further, and that was to be avoided at all costs.

  “That may be so, but we’ve still managed to successfully avert disaster and keep our existence a secret,” Kiara said. “I think that’s what matters the most right now. I’m more interested in learning more about those assassins.”

  “They come from a small village hidden somewhere in the United States,” Davin said, shrugging. “They’re technically not criminals, and they have no interest in revealing our existence to humans. Doing so would be bad for their business.”

  “They’re one of many hidden villages located throughout the world,” Kotohime spoke up. “I believe there is one in each major country, and even a few in various third world countries that are experiencing war. I myself had once been offered a chance to join but declined.”

  “So they’re like a village of hidden assassins?” Heather asked.

  “More or less. They take on a variety of jobs, but assassinations are what they specialize in, and both yōkai and human alike use their services. They’re only known in certain circles, though, so I’m not surprised that Davin-dono’s intelligence network has not been able to learn much about them. I only know of them because they offered me a position, and even then, I do not know where any of their villages are located.”

  “Actually, I do know who is involved with this particular village,” Davin admitted. “And I’ve sent her a message telling her to cut contact with the Bodhisattva and refuse the mission to assassinate your charge. I haven’t received a response back, but I don’t expect one. In any event, they won’t be bothering you or those under your care again.”

  “Thank you.” Kotohime did not know how the man managed to get the assassination order on Lilian repealed, but she knew better than to ask about it. They were allies right now, but her allegiance was to the Pnév̱ma clan. He would not reveal his methods to her.

  “How are the kids?”

  “If by ‘the kids,’ you mean the humans who were enchanted by the one called Seth, they’re doing fine,” Heather said. “None of them have suffered any harmful side effects of the enchantment. The only one who seems to have been adversely affected was the math teacher, Ms. Vis, who remains in a vegetative state.”

  “She must have been under Seth’s possession for a long time,” Kotohime concluded. “Kudagitsune, the Kitsune Possession Technique is one that can put incredible duress on the mind, especially if the kitsune and the person being possessed are not working as one. That assassin probably did a sloppy job possessing her, too, which does not help matters.”

  “Do you know if she’ll wake up?” asked Davin.

  “I believe she will. However, only time will tell for sure.”

  Davin did not seem pleased by that. He grunted but dropped the issue. There wasn’t much they could do in any case.

  “And what about the others? Swift and his friends.”

  “Most of Kevin’s friends were also enchanted by Seth, including myself.” Heather twitched, her hands clenching and unclenching. It must have been galling for her to get trapped in an enchantment during this incident. “They’re all fine. Christine avoided being enchanted and the ones who were affected woke up without incident. Lilian and Iris received the worst of the wounds, though they won’t require hospitalization thanks to Kotohime. That said, they did have a rather severe case of youki exhaustion.”

  “Fighting against someone much stronger than you will do that,” Kiara said, wearing her feral grin. “Still, the fact that they
managed to defeat Seth speaks highly of them. I hear the boya also did well in defeating both a nekomata and delivering the finishing blow to Seth, which he seems to be taking remarkably well.”

  “Indeed, Kevin-sama has grown into a very capable young man,” Kotohime agreed.

  At the mention of Kevin, Heather looked at her roommate. “Speaking of Kevin, when are you going to let me teach him advanced shooting techniques?”

  “After he gets the basics down,” Kiara told her. “It shouldn’t take more than a month or so. After that, I’ll let you teach him.”

  “I’m not sure I approve of letting Swift and his friends become a part of this,” Davin told them all. “The yōkai world has never been a place meant for humans to tread. That five of them have already set foot into this world is dangerous. Swift’s life will be especially difficult if he keeps spending time with you kitsune.”

  Kotohime frowned. She did not like the way he said that. “What do you mean by that, Davin-dono?”

  “It’s clear that you haven’t heard this yet, otherwise you would have done something before now, but I’ve learned from several sources that the Bodhisattva is gathering forces and rallying his allies. It might not happen for a while, it might even be one hundred years from now, but some time in the future, I have no doubt that the Bodhisattva will declare war on the Pnév̱ma clan.”

  To that, no one could think of anything to say.

  ***

  Kevin woke up in the middle of the night when something small and light pawed at his chest. Opening his eyes, he was met with another pair of eyes mere inches from his face. They were familiar yellow irises surrounded by a black-furred face.

  He stared at Cassy in her cat form, who merely stared back for several seconds before hopping off of the bed and bidding him to follow her. A glance to his left revealed that Lilian and Iris were still sleeping. Iris was spooning her sister, who in turn was snuggling with him.

  He shook his head. Iris was finally beginning to wear down Lilian’s resolve. His girlfriend hadn’t even cared when her sister crawled into bed with them that night. He would’ve complained, but he’d been so tired from training that he’d been half-conscious when Iris and Lilian climbed into bed.