The yama uba had put up a somewhat decent fight, though perhaps that was an euphemism. For a creature leagues weaker than himself, she’d done well, but really, it hadn’t even been a decent matchup. She’d certainly fought bravely, and she possessed enviable combative talent, but that was all she had going for her.
“At least she was better than the last group that came after me,” he hummed. “And maybe I can get some information out of her.”
The other group that had come here hadn’t given him any useful information, and the one person who could was proving difficult to break. Even now, after several weeks of torture, she hadn’t cracked. Of course, at the moment she was healing. He’d been rather vicious in his last interrogation session and his prisoner was nursing a broken jaw.
Maybe I should dispose of that one now that I have this one… but no. There’s a chance that this one won’t have the information I seek. Better keep the other one alive.
One of his yōkai henchmen ran up to him. “Lord Yamata!”
“Have you found the other one?” he asked.
“N-no sir. We were tracking her through the town when she used one of those human flash grenades and escaped. We’re currently trying to locate her.”
“I see…”
Swifter than the yōkai could blink, a tail shot up and moved across his throat. Blood gushed from the open wound like a faucet, and gurgling chokes emerged from the man’s mouth. The yōkai reached out with his hands, as if trying to stem the flow of blood. The yōkai was fortunate that he’d held back.
“Let that wound stand as a lesson to what will happen should you fail me again,” he said, his hissing tone colder than ice.
“Y-yes, Lord Yamata,” the yōkai rasped in fear.
He smiled. “I’m glad we understand each other. Now, send out the Hunters. If we cannot capture her, then we shall simply exterminate her. It really is too bad. I’d been hoping to use her as a means of interrogating this one.” He kicked Phoebe in the ribs. Her body shook before falling still. “Ah, well. You win some; you lose some.”
As his henchmen went off to inform the Hunters that they had new prey to hunt, Yamata hefted the one he’d defeated under his arm like she was a sack of rice.
I wonder what I should have for dinner tonight? He pondered as he left the hotel room. Rats or mice?
CHAPTER 12
SEDUCTION AT ITS FINEST
Kevin stared out the window as their plane touched down on the ground.
The jerky motions startled Lilian awake. Her head jerked up and she looked around, bleary eyes peering at everything and nothing—until they landed on Kevin.
“B-Beloved…” she yawned before leaning in for a kiss, which Kevin gladly welcomed, even though she had morning breath. He took her lower lip in his mouth and gently nibbled on it. This elicited a pleased groan from the vixen and caused her to press her mouth against his more firmly. “Good morning,” she murmured against his mouth.
“It’s actually twelve in the afternoon,” Kevin corrected as they pulled away. “At least, it is where we are now.”
Lilian’s eyes fluttered rapidly as she processed his words. She then looked outside the window to see that they’d landed, and their airplane was now slowly moving toward the docking station. The midday sun was high over their heads.
“We’ve arrived, then?” she asked.
He smiled. “Yep. Welcome to Columbus, Ohio.”
Lilian stretched her arms above her head. Kevin heard bones cracking and managed to contain his wince. He did blush, however, as he listened to Lilian’s satisfied moan. The way her nipples were poking through her shirt really didn’t help either.
Down libido.
“We should probably wake up Iris,” Lilian said.
“Yeah…”
Kevin turned his head to stare at Iris. The girl was conked out cold. During their trip, Iris had enchanted some poor hostess into giving her massive amounts of alcohol, and she’d drunk herself into a stupor. He would’ve stopped her, but he knew how much Iris hated flying, so he’d let her antics go—just this once.
Now she was leaning against him, snoring away as she hugged his arm between her breasts.
“She’s drooling all over me again.” He sighed. “Just great.”
“Has she done this before?” Lilian asked.
“Once. It was back when you’d been kidnaped by the Celestial Kyūbi. She didn’t get drunk that time, but she’d been so frightened by the idea of flying that she passed out after the initial panic wore off.”
“Ah.”
Kevin shook Iris awake. Her eyes fluttered open as she pulled her head from his shoulder. She blinked once, twice, then rubbed her eyes in a manner that somehow managed to look sexy. Her eyes landed on Kevin seconds later. She smiled.
“Morning, Stud.”
Kevin didn’t have much time to speak before Iris grabbed the back of his head and pulled him into a kiss. His shout was muffled by Iris’s tongue filling his mouth. He moaned as her skilled tongue caressed him and guided his own tongue along as he kissed back. If Lilian’s kisses were enthusiasm personified, then Iris’s were talented beyond compare. They were only kissing. However, he was so tempted to pounce on this girl it wasn’t even funny.
“Pua!” Iris pulled her head back, a satisfied smile on her face as she smacked her lips. “Mm, not bad, but you’ve got to do better than that. You shouldn’t let yourself respond so weakly even if I surprised you. I give you a four out of ten.”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “What, are you grading me on my kisses now?”
“Hey, I figured if I’m gonna kiss you, then I might as well make sure it’s enjoyable.”
“Whatever. Just move so I can grab our luggage.”
Kevin stood up and moved into the aisle. Several other people were doing the same thing he was—and a good deal of people were glaring at him, no doubt because of the two kisses he’d just received. It was something he’d noticed even more recently. While they were always the subject of attention, that attention became more vitriolic when these two gave him affection. Even now he could hear the discontent grumbles from the people around them.
He ignored these and grabbed their luggage from the overhead compartments.
“All right,” he said, “I’ve got our stuff and—”
Kevin stopped talking. His tongue froze as if ice had encroached inside of his mouth, and his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.
Lilian and Iris were kissing. Iris had pushed her sister against the seat and situated herself between the redhead’s legs, which squirmed behind Iris. With their mouths open as they kissed, Kevin was given a glimpse of their tongues swirling around each other, exchanging saliva between them as if it was their life’s essence. Iris’s hands were on Lilian’s deliciously tight bum, grasping and squeezing and caressing, much to the emerald-eyed vixen’s apparent delight, if her moans were any indication.
It took every ounce of willpower Kevin had not to suffer from the fabled nosebleed, which was something that should have only been possible in anime. Many other people weren’t so strong, and several men, both young and old, were knocked out as blood shot from their noses like a broken fire hydrant. Only after Iris had thoroughly plundered her sister’s mouth did she pull back.
“Ah, that was nice.” Iris had a very “cat that got the cream” smile. “Good morning, Lily-pad.”
“Uh, um, good morning,” Lilian said, sounding most dazed.
“Lily-pad?” Kevin mastered his blush and raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t used that pet name in a while.”
“I felt it was appropriate.”
“Right.”
After Lilian regained her bearings, they left the now blood-covered airplane—along with the numerous passed out males and angry females—behind them.
Port Columbus International was a busy place. There were people coming and going constantly. They crowded around the terminals, some sitting, others standing, all waiting impatiently for their flight to arriv
e, or for the people they were waiting for to show up.
Kevin, Lilian, and Iris walked through the terminal. Being the chivalrous male that he is, Kevin had decided to carry the bags. As they walked through the airport, he studied the people around them. He couldn’t see any yōkai, though they could have been hidden. However, there were a lot of soldiers guarding the terminal points. Green military fatigues and Kevlar vests adorned their broad-shouldered frames. Assault rifles were carried in black-gloved hands.
“I think we might be in trouble,” Kevin muttered.
“Yeah…” Lilian agreed.
“Do you want me to enchant them?” asked Iris.
“I don’t think enchantments are going to work here,” Kevin said with a headshake.
The war had been going on for months, and the military had long since cottoned on to the different techniques various yōkai species used, and they’d created numerous contingencies in the event they ran into one of them. Enchantments were a common technique used by many different yōkai.
They had been able to fly here because Kuroneko practically owned California now that the navy force stationed there had been defeated. However, Ohio was purely human territory. As far as they knew, there weren’t any yōkai living in this state—though that did make Kevin wonder about the heavy military presence. Was there something going on here that they weren’t aware of?
“Hold it!”
Kevin and Lilian froze as a soldier stopped them. They had just stepped up to a security checkpoint, and neither of them had thought about how to get out of this. The two of them glanced at each other. Both of them had broken into a cold sweat.
“Hey, is there something we can help you with?” Iris asked, stepping forward. She leaned into the young man who’d stopped them, her breasts gently pushing into his arm. The soldier, who looked like he was in his mid-twenties, stiffened and a bright red blush spread across his face.
“U-uh, um, well, we’re… I mean, we need to check… um, something?”
“You really are quite diligent, aren’t you?” Iris’s eyes became half-lidded and seductive as her lips curved in a beautiful smile. Even Kevin felt his breath becoming hitched. “That’s impressive. There are so many soldiers these days who cut corners with their work, but not you. I’ve always respected men like you: Strong, hardworking, intelligent. You’re clearly a soldier of the highest caliber.”
Iris drew circles on the young man’s Kevlar vest. The young man scratched the back of his head, seemingly pleased that this gorgeous woman had recognized how hardworking he was. So easy.
As Iris did her job of buttering the man up, Kevin and Lilian shared a hopeful look. Maybe they could get out of this after all.
“What is going on here?!” another soldier barked, a female this time. “You there! Soldier! What are you doing with this girl?!”
The soldier snapped to attention, his spine going ramrod straight. The effects from Iris’s seduction hadn’t quite worn off. Even so, it seemed this woman garnered enough fear and respect that he couldn’t help but respond.
“M-ma’am! I was, uh, I was—t-that is I—”
“Please don’t be too hard on him,” Iris interjected smoothly. “He was merely doing his job.”
She strolled over to the woman, her hips slowly sashaying from side to side. The female soldier stiffened when Iris gently took her arm and held it to her bosom. With her eyes sensually narrowed, the raven-haired vixen’s lips curled into a delightfully sexy smile. Kevin wasn’t even the recipient of that smile and he felt his libido spike. The woman who was on the receiving end of Iris’s smile was even worse—her entire face turned bright red.
Is this an enchantment? Kevin wondered.
“It’s not an enchantment,” Lilian said.
“H-huh?”
“You were thinking ‘this is an enchantment,’ right?” Lilian smiled. “Iris isn’t using an enchantment. You’ve never seen her do this before because Iris isn’t interested in anyone but me—and you—but she doesn’t need enchantments to seduce someone. While I was going to be sold off to Jiāoào, Iris was trained to be our clan’s best seductress. She can seduce anyone, no matter who they are.”
Kevin looked back at Iris. The girl was really working over the poor woman. She was pressed against the lady soldier’s side, her narrowed eyes bewitching the poor woman, whose face looked like someone had set off a nuke on it.
“Have I ever told you that I just love a woman in uniform?” Iris asked.
“Uh… n-no, I don’t think you, um, did.”
Iris glanced at the soldier she’d initially seduced out of the corner of her eyes. Kevin saw Iris smile, that same Cheshire cat grin she usually wore when pulling a prank, and like a bolt of lightning striking him in the face, he realized what her plan was.
I see, so that’s her plan. Very clever.
“Hey!” the male soldier shouted at his female partner. “What the hell do you think you’re doing with my woman?!”
The female soldier switched gazes from Iris to the man, her blush receding and her eyes growing annoyed.
“Your woman?” she asked, grabbing Iris and holding her protectively. Kevin almost snorted when he saw the smile on Iris’s face grow. “You’ve got some serious nerve to think she’s yours! This girl is mine!”
“You bitch!” A vicious snarl tore its way from the man’s throat as he lunged at the woman.
The female pushed Iris behind her before the man crashed into her.
“Bring it on, cock sucker! I’ll die before I let you touch this girl!”
The two soldiers began to brawl, which drew the attention of the other soldiers, who tried to stop them.
“H-hey! Calm down, you two!”
“Yeah, what are you fighting about anyway?”
“Piss off, shit stain! You think I’m gonna let this bitch take my girl?!”
“Your girl? Ha! She’s mine! I claimed her first!”
“I’ll fucking stab you, cunt!”
“Not if I shoot you in the face!”
“Don’t pull a gun out here!”
The female soldier tried pulling a pistol on her fellow soldier. The others piled on top of her. Meanwhile, the male had whipped out a knife and was threatening the people trying to calm him down.
“Calm the fuck down, soldier!”
“Stay back! That bitch is gonna get it!”
Kevin caught Iris’s and Lilian’s eyes. They both nodded at him and, discreetly hiding themselves under one of Lilian’s illusions, the trio snuck past the security checkpoint. No one noticed them.
Taking Iris and Lilian by the hand, Kevin navigated through the crowd of people. They traveled down long hallways and passed several souvenir shops. There were several more security checkpoints, including a place where people underwent a very invasive x-ray that revealed whether they were human or not. He and his two companions bypassed it by walking behind the person sitting in front of the monitor. Not long after they snuck through the last checkpoint, Kevin, Lilian, and Iris made it outside.
“What should we do now, Stud?”
Kevin looked up at the sky. It was evening now. Had they really stayed in that airport for so long? Sneaking past security had taken even more time than he’d realized. The sun was dipping beyond the horizon. A cornucopia of colors splashed against the sky, creating swirling streaks that reminded him of several nebula congealing together.
“It’s getting pretty late, so I don’t think we’ll make it to the train station before they close,” Kevin started. “Let’s hop on a bus and find a place to stay the night.”
“Sounds like a plan, Beloved.” Grinning, Lilian pumped a fist into the air. “All right! It’s time for our next adventure! Let’s go!”
Lilian dragged Kevin and Iris behind her as she marched off, a grin tugging at his lips. Lilian’s cheerful demeanor no matter the situation always impressed him.
They hopped onto the nearest bus, and were soon on their way toward the heart of Ohio’s capital.
/>
***
Justin woke up with a start.
Sitting up on his cot, he gazed around the room, trying to determine what had caused him to awaken. Knocking came from his door. Justin rubbed his eyes and slowly wandered over to the door, opening it and peering at the person standing on the other side.
“Yes, Jill?” he asked. “Did you need something?”
Jill dropped the folder in her hand. She stood there, stock still and red faced. Justin needed a moment to wonder what was wrong, then he looked down and realized that he was only wearing a pair of boxers. He also had a bad case of morning wood.
Huh… it’s been awhile since I got a boner first thing in the morning. Did I have a good dream or something?
Dispelling the amusing thought, he looked back up at Jill, who wasn’t looking at his face.
“Soldier,” Justin snapped.
Jill straightened and stopped looking at the tent in his boxers.
“Y-yes, sir!”
“Did you need something?”
“Um, oh! Right!” Jill snapped off a salute. Her face was still red. “We have just received word that three people matching the description of Kevin, Lilian, and Iris have been spotted in Columbus, Ohio.”
His eyes lit up. “Have we received visual confirmation?”
“Yes. Now where is—oh! Whoops!” Jill knelt down and picked up her folder, which she then handed to Justin, who took it from her and looked through it. “Several cameras have spotted them wandering through the city.”
“Good, then let’s get ready to leave. Jill, I want you and your brother to come with me to Ohio. You have one hour to pack everything you need.”
“Yes, sir,” Jill said, looking down again, her blush coming back once more.
“My face is up here!” Justin shouted.
***
It took them about an hour of searching before they found a hotel they could stay in.
The Sheraton Suites was a large building made of white brick. Their rooms were all modestly sized, with a large bed and a bathroom. It had several nice amenities, too: a television that played several channels like HBO and StarTimes, soft beds with memory foam mattresses, and a bathroom that had a large shower/bathtub with air jets built into the sides.
A Fox's Alliance (American Kitsune Book 10) Page 34
