Kotohime understood what Davin was asking—no, demanding. It was a pretty way of saying, “We can’t protect you and your group, so I’m telling you to leave.” Basically, she and the three Pnév̱ma Clan members had become too troublesome for Davin to tolerate.
“I… I understand,” Kotohime said at last. “What about Kevin-sama?”
“The brat?” Davin inhaled a deep breath of air and blew it out. Rings of smoke emitted from his nostrils. “It’s not really my choice anymore, is it? Even if I told him to stay here, he would not listen, and I can’t force him to stay. I might have made a promise to his mom, but I’m not going to stop him from making his own choices.”
Kotohime breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Davin-dono.”
“Don’t thank me. I’m simply foisting responsibility of the brat onto you. From now on, you’re going to be in charge of him, and you’re going to have to tell his mother about what happened here.”
Despite Davin’s words, Kotohime could feel nothing but relief as she gave one final bow and left his office. Even if they had to leave the country, at the very least, Lilian would have her mate. She knew that her charge was going to need him in the coming days.
***
While all the rooms belonging to members of the Pnév̱ma Clan came equipped with their own bath, the guilty pleasure of the clan was most definitely the matriarch’s. Of course, calling it something as mundane as a bath would have been doing it a disservice. Bathhouse was a more appropriate term.
The bathhouse of the matriarch was large. With a ceiling that rose high above her head, decorated with mosaic tiles to look like the clear summer sky, and a bath the size of an Olympic swimming pool, even terms like large and grand did little to describe it. Arrayed around the room, protruding from the walls, were several waterfalls situated between majestic Corinthian columns. Many tales abounded among kitsune of the legendary orgies that had taken place in this bathhouse.
Delphine believed that the term “legendary orgies” was misleading. That said, she would not deny that several of her sons and daughters had been born in this very bathhouse.
Poke.
Sitting idly, whiling away the time with a glass of wine that floated on a tray in front of her, Delphine studied the bathhouse that she had created so many centuries ago…
Poke.
How many of her daughters had been conceived in this bathhouse? Three? Four? How many of her numerous sons? She supposed it didn’t matter, but thinking about it amused her nonetheless…
Poke.
Her mind idly wandered to Camellia. What was she doing now? Was she safe? Given her mentality, there was a good chance that she had gotten into trouble. If only she had never allowed Demetry to marry Camellia…
But then I wouldn’t have Lilian and Iris.
Poke.
Lilian and Iris were a study in opposites. Where Lilian was open and enthusiastic, Iris was mysterious and alluring. If people likened Lilian to a fresh spring breeze, then Iris was the searing summer heat. Light and Dark. Naïve and cynical. Yes, the only way those two could have been more different was if Lilian had some modesty and shyness to go along with that irrepressible personality of hers. As it was, Lilian and Iris were still vastly different from each other.
Poke.
There is also that sister complex that Iris has. Delphine frowned. I do so hope that she doesn’t decide to follow in her half-sisters’ footsteps. I do not need another set of lesbian twins.
Poke. Poke.
Delphine sighed as she finally decided to address the person who was poking her left boob.
“Is there something I can help you with, Jasmine dear?”
Jasmine Pnév̱ma was Delphine’s youngest. The girl had only gained her second tail thirty years ago, and she looked a lot like Delphine did at that age. Her silvery hair was styled in braids, and her emotionless carmine eyes were nearly identical to her mother’s. There were only three differences that were worth noting.
Height and bust were the first and most obvious variations between mother and daughter. Having only become a supernal being thirty years ago, Jasmine held the appearance of a thirteen-year-old girl. As such, she didn’t have much in the way of a chest, nor was she very tall.
The last difference was not something that could be seen except by those who were observant. Demeanor. Whereas Delphine preferred to greet the world with a deceptively sweet smile that made her seem more approachable than she truly was, her youngest wore a facade of emotionlessness. She knew the girl had emotions; Violet seemed able to rile her up with little effort. However, by and large, the quiet beauty often remained impassive, even in the most extreme of circumstances.
Currently, her youngest daughter was poking her left boob while staring at it with inscrutable eyes.
“Do not worry, Mother,” her daughter said in a bland voice. “I am merely trying to ascertain how it is possible for someone to have titantic titties such as yours. I am quite certain that these magnificent melons defy the laws of nature, physics, and probably a few other universal concepts.”
Were Jasmine anyone else, Delphine would have worried about how she said all that with a completely straight face.
“If you are worried about whether or not yours will grow to be this big, then I would not worry. You are still young, and mine did not get this big until I reached 160.” Delphine watched, amused as Jasmine ceased her poking to cup her own breasts, which could barely even be called such. “Oh, dear. Are you embarrassed? There is no need for that. Even without breasts, you are awfully cute.”
“I am not embarrassed.” Jasmine began rubbing her chest up and down. “I am merely wondering if rubbing my measly baby bumps will cause them to grow bigger. I heard of a secret method about making your boobs grow from Holly.”
“I see.” Delphine had heard of that method, too, and she already knew it to be a lie. She wouldn’t tell Jasmine that, though, as watching her youngest grope herself amused her. “Well, far be it for me to stop you. Perhaps if you keep that up, yours will grow to be as big as mine one day.”
“I do not believe I want massive mammaries like yours,” Jasmine declared, her vacant carmine orbs not changing in the slightest. “They must be the cause of unbelievable back pain.”
Delphine pouted at her daughter. “I rather resent that.” Her expression returned to its placid demeanor as she sipped her wine. “I will have you know that I have never suffered back pain once in my life.”
“Hn.”
Just then, something appeared before them. Its long, pipe-like body, ethereal form, and large eyes denoted it as kudagitsune. Delphine recognized the youki signature of the one who summoned it, and a smile crossed her face.
“Oh, my. A message for me?”
The kudagitsune held a message aloft for her to take, which she did, unfurling the scroll and holding it above the water while she read. The message was short and to the point. At the bottom was Kotohime’s signature in kanji.
“Hmm. It seems there is some excitement going on in North America as well.”
“Mother?” Jasmine’s lips twitched into the slightest of frowns.
Delphine smiled at her youngest. “Jasmine, would you be a dear and inform Violet that I would appreciate her company for lunch?”
Jasmine twitched at the mention of Violet, but she did not do anything else. She stood up in the water, which stopped at her navel, and bowed.
“I will do as your command, Mother.”
“Thank you.” Delphine smiled as her youngest exited the bathhouse. When the girl had disappeared, she turned back to the scroll. Her smile widened. “It has been so long since I’ve seen my daughter and granddaughters. It will be nice to see them again.” The smile stretched from ear to ear. “And, of course, I am looking most forward to finally meeting Lilian’s mate.”
***
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN OUR APARTMENT WAS DESTROYED?!”
Kevin winced as his mother yelled at him over the phone. He jerked the cellphone
away from his ear, waited until he was sure she was finished yelling, and then put it back to his face.
“There was a, uh, an accident. One of the other residents left the stove on, or something, and our apartment blew up. In fact, most of the complex was destroyed.”
“Are you okay? What about Lilian? Is she okay? Kotohime?”
“Everyone is fine,” Kevin assured his mother. “We weren’t there when the apartment exploded.”
“That’s good.” His mother sighed over the line. “No, wait, this isn’t good! Our apartment was destroyed! What are we going to do?! Where are you going to live?! Do you want me to come home?”
“No!” Kevin nearly shouted. He received a raised eyebrow from Kiara, which made him flush and lower his voice. “I mean, don’t worry about us. Kiara’s been kind enough to let us stay with her. She’s even agreed to help set us up with a place to live until the apartment complex is repaired.”
“Oh, well, okay, I guess.”
Kevin had the distinct feeling that his mom was disappointed, but he tried not to think about that.
“Anyway, I was just calling to let you know that.”
“All right, honey. You be good okay, and be sure to thank Kiara.”
“I already have. Don’t worry, Mom. I’m not you.”
“Now that’s a mean thing to say to your mother.”
“And no less true. Anyway, gotta go.”
“All right. I love you, Kevin.”
“Right. Love you, too.”
Kevin hung up the phone with a sigh. Pocketing it, he turned to face Kiara.
“Sounds like you’ve got everything with your mom squared away,” she observed with a cool gaze.
“I don’t like lying to her like this.” Kevin rubbed his face. “It feels wrong.”
“Of course it does.” Kiara snorted. “No one likes lying to their loved ones. However, sometimes we don’t have a choice.”
“I know. It still doesn’t seem right.”
Kiara shrugged, as if to say, “That’s how it is.”
“Do you have everything packed?” she asked.
Kevin nodded. “Yeah, not like I have much that needs to be packed anyway. Everything I owned was in the apartment. All I have now is the stuff I bought the other day.”
He hefted the two bags containing his and Lilian’s clothing. Since he and Lilian had nothing to wear, he’d gone out and bought them some clothes the previous day. Lilian did have a few more items than him, but most of that was the lingerie she stored in her Extra Dimensional Storage Space.
“In that case, come with me. I’ve got something to give you.”
Kiara turned on her heel and walked away. Curious, Kevin followed her, walking along the light beige carpet of her expensive condo.
His instructor in the art of badassery lived in a ritzy place. The condo that she owned had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with an additional office and a small training room. It was a lot larger than most condos, being about the size of a one-story house.
It wasn’t the size that made this place so incredible, but the appliances that decked the place from top to bottom. Everything Kiara owned was top of the line. She had the latest and greatest in technological innovations, be it her desktop with its multiple monitors and ridiculous processing power, or her surround sound system that could be accessed from anywhere, or be localized to specific rooms. If that wasn’t enough, then running through most of the house, visible through small glass slits along the floor, was a small stream that constantly recycled water via the waterfall in her living room.
He and those who lived with him had been staying there for the past few days, though he was the only one present at the moment. Kotohime and the others had left already. They were probably visiting Iris at the hospital right now. It was where they went every day after breakfast.
Kiara led him into her office. A combination of wood and glass made up the floor, allowing him to see the stream of water beneath him as he walked inside. The room had its own fireplace on one side of the wall and a gigantic bookshelf sat on the other. Most of the books were physical training manuals and health books. On the opposite end of the room from the door was a large desk made of walnut. Also…
“Is that a poster of Wolverine?” Kevin asked.
Kiara stopped. “You mean Hugh Jackman? Yeah, it is.”
“Why is he half naked?”
“Why shouldn’t he be half naked?”
Kevin had nothing to say to that. Kiara walked behind her desk, which had a safe secured inside of the wall.
“I had these custom-made for you,” she told him as she placed her hand on a small scanner. The safe unlocked with a hiss. “I didn’t plan on giving them to you until you could move and shoot at the same time, but given what happened, I figured now would be as good a time as any.”
Before Kevin could ask what she was talking about, Kiara turned around. There was a case in her hands. It wasn’t very big, maybe a little under a foot in length and half a foot in width. The wood gleamed of fresh polish, and its dark red contrasted with her light tan skin. He stared at the case, then at her.
“Well?” She smirked. “What are you waiting for? An invitation?”
Kevin took the case. It was heavier than he expected. Placing it on the desk, he undid the bronze latches that kept it closed and slowly opened the lid. Purple velvet lined the case. It shimmered with an effervescent sheen, which refracted off the two objects resting within.
They were guns. One shone with the brilliant gleam of freshly polished silver, and the other was so black it seemed to reject light’s touch. Both were larger than the average handgun. The barrels were not only bigger but also a lot longer than a standard 9mm.
“Are these Desert Eagles?” he asked, wondering if the shock he heard in his voice was just his imagination.
“They are not,” Kiara said, “but they’re based on the Desert Eagle’s design.”
“They’re heavy,” he commented as he picked them up, testing their weight. They were probably five pounds heavier than a Beretta.
“Of course they are. Those are experimental guns based on blueprints that were created by the Sons and Daughters of Humanity.” Kiara’s feral grin made Kevin realize that he was staring at the guns with a gobsmacked expression. He tried schooling his features, but he still couldn’t mask his shock. “Surprised? So am I. Apparently, before she left them, Heather raided one of their safe houses where several weapon designs were kept. She gave these blueprints to Davin Monstrang as a form of appeasement when she asked for amnesty.”
“I see. Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. I always wondered how someone who once worked for an organization like that was allowed to live in Arizona and work as a school teacher.”
Kevin looked back down at the guns. Despite their weight, they fit comfortably within his hands. Their grip possessed small grooves that conformed to his fingers, and the triggers were within easy distance of his trigger fingers.
“Those guns are special,” Kiara continued, causing him to look up. “I don’t understand how they work, but they apparently fire youki instead of lead bullets.”
“What?”
Kiara took in his nonplussed reaction and grinned. “Yeah, I made the same face when they told me that. The engineer who helped design my personal training equipment built these. He told me that these guns fire youki bullets.”
She reached back into the safe and pulled out another box, which she set on the desk and opened. This one contained the same velvet lining, but instead of weapons, there were nearly a dozen magazine clips.
Kiara held out one of the clips—only this looked nothing like a standard magazine. It held the same general shape, but this contained numerous glowing red lines that ran along it like veins. He also noticed a single tiny hole located where the bullets would normally be ejected. Kevin took the clip from her and examined it.
“This is your ammunition,” she told him. “The magazine is reusable. Whenever it runs out of energy, all
you need to do is have a yōkai fill it with their youki, and it can be used as many times as you want.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Kevin muttered. “I wonder why the Sons and Daughters of Humanity didn’t use these weapons at the Comic-Con?”
“Because it isn’t practical,” Kiara said. “No yōkai would ever willingly charge their weapons for them, and according to Heather, they haven’t been able to replicate youki with their experiments. From what I’ve been told, these designs were originally scrapped due to that reason.”
“Makes sense.”
Kevin loaded one of the clips inside of the silver gun. Nothing happened at first, but when he flicked the safety near his thumb, red veins like lines from a circuit board lit up along the gun’s surface. He guessed that meant the gun was powered.
“My engineer has made one dozen magazine clips for you,” Kiara continued. “I’ve filled half of those with my own youki. They should last you a good while. We’ve run tests. Using my youki for these will give you about one hundred shots before you run out of bullets.”
“That’s quite a bit. Most magazines only allow twelve to sixteen shots before you need to reload.”
One hundred rounds for a single magazine was massive. It meant he had 200 bullets if he used both at the same time. With that much ammo, it was unlikely that Kevin would ever have to reload during combat.
“Right.” Kiara nodded. “Anyway, I would suggest asking Kotohime, Camellia, and your mate to fill up the other six cartridges for you. Different types of energy will produce different effects, and since different yōkai have different weaknesses…”
“It’ll be good to have as many types of ammunition as possible in order to exploit those weaknesses,” Kevin finished.
“Exactly.” Grinning her feral grin, Kiara ruffled Kevin’s hair. “I’ve taught you well. Now come on. We need to head out. Your mate is probably anxiously waiting for you.”
A Fox's Revenge (American Kitsune Book 7) Page 17