A Fox's Revenge (American Kitsune Book 7)

by Brandon Varnell

  “You’re afraid of flying, aren’t you?” Kevin asked. Violet blushed, then sputtered.

  “W-w-wha—afraid?! Hell no, I’m not afraid!” Violet pointed at herself with a thumb. “This Lady Violet is afraid of nothing! Especially not stupid metal death traps that—kya!”

  The plane accelerated. Violet threw her hands up in the air and fell from her seat.

  He shook his head. “Not afraid, my ass.”

  Lilian giggled. Violet glared.

  “What was that? You got something to say, girly?”

  “… No.”

  “Good. Then why don’t you keep q—”

  There was a moment of weightlessness as the plane suddenly left the ground.

  ***

  The airport was always a bustling place, with hundreds of people congregating there, using it as a hub to get where they wanted to go. Today was no different. The walkways were congested with dozens of people, all of them vying to reach their destination. Children walked with tiny strollers. Adults in business suits strode forward on long legs, a case in one hand and a phone in the other. Parents. Grandparents. So many people were there, and all of them wanted to get where they were going fast.

  “KYA!!!”

  A blood-curdling scream stopped everyone in their tracks. People looked around, as if expecting to find the source of that scream right next to them. When, after several seconds had passed, nothing happened, the people went about their business, the scream forgotten.

  Life at the airport continued on as normal.

  ***

  Flying in a private jet was vastly different than flying in a regular plane. For one thing, there was no need to fasten the seatbelts—because there were no seatbelts. There was also no tiny aisle that people were forced to walk through if they wanted to get somewhere. Then there were the free drinks and food, which were actually good drinks and food and not the salted peanuts and soda they gave people on regular planes. It was definitely way better than flying coach.

  Kevin stood in the middle of the plane—on his hands. He was doing a handstand, or rather, handstand pushups, though his were a little different from regular handstand pushups. Kiara often made him do these as a means of simultaneously working on his balance, strength training, and muscle coordination—and because she enjoyed torturing him, he was sure.

  “Ninety… two…”

  Sweat dripped down his bare torso, slick like oil. His face felt red. He could feel all the blood rushing to it. It was a light-headed feeling, like when you’ve sucked in too much helium. He imagined stoners felt this way when they were high.

  “N-ninety-three…”

  Sitting on a couch several feet to his left, trying not to show how nervous she was about flying, Violet watched him work. He could feel her eyes on him as if they were lasers.

  “You know… I didn’t notice this before, but he’s kinda ripped, isn’t he?”

  “Indeed.” Kotohime was still cleaning her katana. She sat on the couch near the front, her practiced motions only slightly jittery. “Kevin-sama has been undergoing intense physical training in order to fight against yōkai alongside Lilian-sama.”

  Violet raised an eyebrow. “A human is trying to become strong enough to fight yōkai? Is he stupid?”

  Kotohime indicated the negative with a headshake. “Not at all. Kevin-sama has simply realized that in order to stand by Lilian-sama’s side, he must become stronger. It would not be wise to underestimate this human, Violet-sama. Kevin-sama has already defeated Jiāoào, a nekomata assassin, and a three-tailed kitsune—with Lilian-sama and Iris-sama’s help, of course.”

  Taking a deep breath, Kevin bent his legs at the waist, until his body formed the shape of an L. Gritting his teeth, he raised them back up, and then lowered his body, while at the same time moving forward. The end result was that his body was parallel with the floor. He pushed himself back up to a handstand position.

  “Nine… ninety-four…”

  Violet whistled. “Really? That brat already defeated several yōkai?”

  “This brat… can hear you… you know?” Kevin grunted as he finished his one hundredth push up. Grunting, he placed his feet on the ground and stood up.

  “So?” Violet raised an eyebrow at him. “What makes you think I care if you can hear our conversation. Compared to this Lady Violet, you’re just a good for nothing human brat.”

  “Tch.” Kevin clicked his tongue. This woman’s constant arrogant and demeaning remarks annoyed him, but he wouldn’t let himself fall prey to her taunts. He would be the bigger person. “Whatever. Does this jet have a shower?”

  “It’s down the hall at the back,” Violet said. “Like, all the way at the back. It’ll be on your right.”

  Kevin looked toward the back, where a small hallway eventually ended and split in two directions. One side had the sign for a restroom. The other said shower.

  “Right. Thank you.”

  He walked over to the bed. Lilian was lying on top, sleeping next to her sister. Like a crimson curtain, her hair was splayed out, starkly visible against the white backdrop of the bed sheets. She lay on her side, her legs slightly curled. She was also naked, and lying on top of the sheets, so he could pretty much see everything. He touched her shoulder and gently shook her.

  “Lilian. Lilian.”

  Lilian cracked a single eye open.

  “Kevin.” Her voice held the slur of someone who’d just woken up. “Are we there yet?”

  He shook his head as she sat up and stretched. “No, but I was planning on taking a shower and wanted to know if you’d like to join me.”

  Her eyes brightened at the idea of joining him. She opened her mouth, no doubt to tell him that he shouldn’t have even asked, when she paused. Her head turned, gaze traveling down, and suddenly, Kevin realized something.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’ll understand if you want to stay with your sister.”

  Lilian hesitated for a moment, then slowly shook her head. She graced him with a smile.

  “It’s fine. Iris isn’t going anywhere.” She didn’t quite sound like she believed her own words. “I’d love to take a shower with you.”

  “Kay. Come on, then.”

  Kevin allowed her to take his hand and pulled her up. He then began leading her to the back.

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Violet called out. Lilian turned around long enough to pull her right eyelid down and blow her aunt a raspberry. “Little brat!”

  “Please calm down, Violet-sama.” One of Kotohime’s tails wrapped itself around the tiny kitsune and kept her from leaving the couch. “Getting yourself so worked up will give you ulcers.”

  “Shut up, Kotohime! Let go of me! I need to show that brat who’s boss! Let! Go!”

  The last thing Kevin saw was Violet struggling to break free of Kotohime’s tails.

  The shower wasn’t much, just a tiny cubicle big enough to fit maybe four people. Despite that, Kevin still thought it was awesome that a private jet had its own shower.

  “You’re really sweaty, Beloved,” Lilian noticed.

  “That’s because I was exercising.”

  “Ah.”

  Being the only one not naked, Kevin quickly stripped out of his clothes and put them in a cabinet that contained several towels. He then turned on the shower—

  “IYAN!!”

  —and was blasted by freezing cold water.

  “Hahahaha! Looks like I forgot to tell you that the water’s cold when it first starts! How do ya like that, brat?!” Violet shouted.

  “D-damn that, w-woman.” Kevin shivered as he was left with no recourse other than to stand in the freezing cold shower. If he moved, then Lilian would be the one getting the spray of chilling water. “I sometimes forget that you kitsune are tricksters.”

  A pair of warm arms wrapped around his middle and a full-bodied figure pressed into his back. He could feel Lilian’s nipples slowly harden against his skin. It was electrifying.

&nbs
p; “I’m sorry about her.” Lilian pressed her lips against the junction between his shoulder blades. “While all kitsune enjoy pranking to some degree or another, Violet tends to prank constantly. They’re usually just small and annoying ones, kinda like her.”

  “I HEARD THAT!”

  “NO, YOU DIDN’T! SHUT UP!”

  Kevin ignored the outraged cry coming from the lounge. Hearing Lilian shout at her aunt amused him enough that he didn’t feel as annoyed. The water was beginning to warm up anyway.

  “All right.” Lilian pumped herself up. “Time to wash your back.”

  Despite having been dating Lilian for nearly nine months and being this intimate with her for about seven, he still couldn’t get over how far they’d come. Many eons ago—ten months ago—the very thought of doing this with a girl, any girl, would have made him pass out from embarrassment.

  Kevin stood slightly hunched over, his hands pressed flat against the wall. Lilian was gentle as she scrubbed his back with a luffa that had been hanging off a rack near the door. It felt nice, even better than the hot water cascading down his back and shoulders.

  “Lilian?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Do you remember when I mentioned training with you?”

  Lilian paused, then resumed cleaning his back. Her hand went lower.

  “I do. It was a few days after that three-tails tried to kill us. You mentioned how it would be a good idea for us to learn teamwork; that way we could overcome people more powerful than us. I believe your words were ‘We’ll be far stronger working together than we would fighting as individuals.’”

  “At the time, you said that you didn’t think you were strong enough on your own,” Kevin recalled Lilian’s answer. “You told me that you wanted to get stronger as an individual first, then work on fighting together with me.”

  “That’s right.” He couldn’t see it, but Kevin could tell that she was nodding.

  “Do you feel strong enough now?” The luffa stopped moving. “I’m only asking because I think it might be a good idea if we started learning how to fight together. I… I don’t want what happened during our battle with that Fan woman happening again. Had we—you, me, Christine, and Iris—worked as a team right from the start, we may have come out of that battle relatively unscathed.”

  “Yes,” Lilian said softly. “I suppose you’re right. Perhaps if we’d been able to cover each other’s weakness like a four-man cell should, we wouldn’t have been so overwhelmed at the beginning, and Iris would have… she wouldn’t…”

  Kevin turned around and pulled Lilian into a hug. He ignored his growing arousal in order to comfort the girl in his arms. He still wasn’t ready to have sex. He couldn’t, not until he became strong enough that he could truly stand beside her. Even if he was ready, he didn’t want their first time to be while she was grieving over her sister.

  “Don’t think about that right now. If there is one thing that I have learned from Kiara and Kotohime, it’s that regretting what happened in the past is pointless. We can’t undo what’s already been done. The only thing we can do is learn from our mistakes and never repeat them.”

  “You’re right.” Lilian nuzzled against his chest. He could feel the smile as her lips kissed his skin. “You know, it really is amazing to see how mature you’ve become.”

  “You think so?”

  “Oh, yes.” Lilian’s smile shifted. A pair of soft hands landed on his butt. “You’ve become a much more mature person. Really, you’ve truly grown… in more ways than one.”

  Kevin yelped when Lilian pinched his backside. It stung, but then she began rubbing the spot she pinched, which he had to admit felt nice.

  He placed a hand under Lilian’s chin and tilted her head up. Half-lidded pools of emerald stared up at him from above an enthralling smile.

  “I believe,” he began in a very serious manner, “that it is my turn to clean you.”

  “So it is,” Lilian agreed, right before he pushed Lilian until her back was against the wall and his lips had consumed hers in a fiery kiss.

  It would be nearly an hour later when they emerged from the shower because the water had gotten cold.

  Violet would complain about the amount of noise they made.

  ***

  It took about nineteen hours to get from Phoenix to Greece. Due to the time difference, they arrived at five a.m. That was around eight p.m. in Arizona.

  The island where the Pnév̱ma Clan lived had an unusual shape, longer than it was wide, with numerous small peninsulas and several sheer cliffs. There was a massive mountain situated in the center. Located at the mountain’s peak was a crater.

  Because the Pnév̱ma estate didn’t have a landing strip of its own, nor did the village next to the estate have one, their jet had to land on a strip near the resort.

  Kevin looked out of the window to see the resort, a large series of buildings shaped like traditional Greek architecture with a modern touch. From an aerial view, he could see that all the buildings were built within a circle. A series of walkways and gazebos connected them. The beach was within a few minutes walking distance on one side, and vast, tropical forestry lay on the other. The landing strip was a little ways from the resort. There were several other jets parked there.

  “It’s because of all the humans who like to come here,” Kotohime explained when he asked her about it. “Most humans arrive on the Pnév̱ma Clan’s private cruise line, Spirited Away, but some prefer traveling to the resort via plane. That’s why the Pnév̱ma Clan bought its own airline.”

  Kevin wondered if the sweatdrop on his head was natural. Not only did they have a private jet, but they had their own airline as well? What the heck?

  “My mother and I came here on a plane,” Kevin said. Lilian, who sat by his side, glanced at him. “I don’t remember much about that time, but I remember that much. I think it was because her company was paying for us, but we didn’t come here on a ship.”

  “Ufufufu, that is most interesting.”

  “Whatever,” Violet said bluntly. “Like I care about—HIIII!”

  Kevin stared at Violet as she fell on her hind quarter when the jet touched down on the landing strip. It was a bit bumpy, but nowhere near as bad as a regular plane.

  “Not afraid of flying, huh?” Kevin couldn’t help but tease. This was payback for constantly calling him a brat!

  “I-I’m not!”

  “Of course you’re not.” Kevin nodded.

  “I’m telling you, I’m not—”

  They hit a small bump.

  “—KYA!”

  “And I completely believe you,” Kevin said, straight-faced.

  “S-stupid brat!”

  They eventually stopped, and the flight attendant who’d served them drinks and food also helped them exit the jet. Kevin was amused to note that Violet couldn’t get out of the jet fast enough.

  He hefted his and Lilian’s bags. Because his was heavier thanks to his new weapons, he carried that on his back. Behind them, Kotohime and Kirihime prepared Iris’s wheeled stretcher, while a silent Camellia watched them.

  “You ready to visit your relatives?” he asked Lilian, who shook her head.

  “No, but… so long as I’m with you, I’ll be okay.”

  Kevin offered his mate a comforting smile as she grabbed his free arm. They exited the boarding ramp, the two maids seeing to Iris’s safe disembarking behind them. Violet was waiting near another vehicle.

  It wasn’t a car.

  He stared at what appeared to be a very large horse-drawn carriage. It looked like the kind of thing he’d expect to see in Cinderella, a large white carriage inlaid with gold. Several different types of flowers were imprinted along its length. Two kitsune females stood in front of the double doors, which were already open and waiting for them.

  “You expect us to get there by carriage?” he asked, now incredulous.

  Violent hopped into the carriage. “What’s the problem, brat?”

  “Uh, how
about the fact that we’ve got seven people, and that thing doesn’t look like it can fit more than four at most?”

  “It’s bigger than it looks.”

  “Then how about one of us is comatose and we’ve got nowhere to put her?”

  Violet poked her head out of the door and scowled at him. “Stop being such a baby and get in here!”

  “Come on, Kevin.” Lilian tugged on him. “We don’t really have time to argue.”

  “Ha… I guess.” He sighed. “Really, though, this is so stupid.”

  “What was that?!” Violet demanded.

  “I said you’re the most magnanimous woman I’ve ever met.”

  “Your sarcasm is unwarranted, brat.”

  “Kevin-sama,” Kotohime interrupted before he could retort. “I do apologize for the inconvenience, but do you think you could…”

  “Yeah, I got it.” He sighed again. He could already tell that he would be doing a lot of that. Sighing, that is.

  Kotohime gave him a gracious smile. “Ufufufu, Kevin-sama is too kind.”

  “Coming from you, that sounds more like an insult than a compliment,” Kevin observed.

  Sliding one arm under Iris’s legs and the other under her back, Kevin lifted his mate’s sister into a bridal carry. He then proceeded into the carriage, closely followed by Lilian, Camellia, Kotohime, and Kirihime. On the way in, he noticed something odd.

  Are those two women glaring at me?

  “P-please be careful with Lady Iris, Lord Kevin,” a worried Kirihime said as he entered the cabin, which served to bring Kevin’s focus away from the women staring daggers at him.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” Kevin assured her.

  Iris’s legs swung limply as he maneuvered them into the carriage. He was glad this thing had a double door. Otherwise he would have probably knocked Iris’s head against the doorframe.

  There was still the problem of seating arrangements, though. He’d been right when he spoke of how small it was. They could barely fit six people, never mind finding a spot for Iris. He ended up sitting against the doorless side of the carriage with Iris resting firmly in his lap. Her legs rested on Lilian, who sat next to him, while Camellia took the last place on their side. Kotohime, Kirihime, and Violet sat on the other side.