A Fox's Vacation (American Kitsune Book 5)

by Brandon Varnell

  ***

  Kotohime and Kiara walked down one of Los Angeles’ many streets. The sidewalks were crowded with people who pushed, bumped, and shouted, all of them trying to arrive at their destination without delay. No one seemed to care for the two non-human women walking amongst them, though the one dressed in a kimono and carrying a katana did generate some stares.

  “… And in other news, a most unusual occurrence happened this afternoon in Long Beach, California.” Kotohime stopped in front of a small shop. A TV sat in a glass display, and the female news anchor on it was giving the latest news. “A large tidal wave crashed into the beach in what scientists are calling an anomalous and unprecedented disturbance in the ocean’s tides. It is believed that the cause could possibly be related to global warming, however, no evidence has been given yet to suggest that this is indeed the case.”

  Snorting, Kotohime ignored the rest of the reporter’s words and started walking again. That woman knew nothing.

  “Global warming my left butt cheek,” Kiara said, apparently agreeing with Kotohime. “We both know that was not caused by anything natural, or even by humans.”

  “Indeed,” Kotohime’s voice remained composed. “That wave was most definitely a yōkai technique. There are a number of water-faring yōkai who are capable of creating something like that. An Ocean Kitsune with at least five tails could have done so easily. It could have also been a particularly strong kappa, or even a group of kappa. Amabie are also capable of such feats, as are akamata.”

  Kiara stayed silent for several seconds before summing up her thoughts. “So in short, we have no clue as to who or what caused this.”

  “Not quite,” Kotohime confessed. “While we were at the beach, I saw several figures in the distance. I could not see them clearly because they were too far away; however, I am now positive that they were locked in combat.”

  “So, there was a battle going on at the beach,” Kiara mused. She hadn’t seen anything, but that didn’t surprise her. Like most dogs, she had an incredible sense of smell and powerful hearing, but her vision was lacking. “However, we don’t know who was fighting or why.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “In that case, we need to gather information,” Kiara determined. “We’re not going to be able to avenge Kevin and Lilian if we don’t even know who did this.” Her eyes flickered over to Kotohime. “I’m guessing that’s why we’re not at the resort?”

  “Indeed. We’re going to look for information.”

  Kitsune were creatures of impulse, of desire—including Kotohime. While she always presented a calm front for others, she was just like every other kitsune, and she’d just been hurt by the loss of a loved one. Like any sentient being, she wanted to take revenge on the people who’d killed Lilian and Kevin.

  “Good idea, but, Kotohime?”

  “Yes?”

  “Do you even know where to find the information we’re seeking?”

  “…”

  Kiara facepalmed. “I thought not.”

  ***

  Kevin awoke, not with the slow realization that came from regaining consciousness, nor with the startled gasp of a man having a nightmare, nor even the groan that was stereotypical of anime characters when they wake up—no, when Kevin woke up, it was to the feeling of a hand being shoved down his throat.

  His eyes snapped wide open. However, he still couldn’t see anything. His eyes perceived nothing beyond the amalgam of blurred colors, mixing and matching and morphing and changing, a sickening compendium that his mind couldn’t comprehend. Images flashed past his vision. A walk on the beach. Red hair. A swell. A raging torrent, an infinite tide of water rising into the sky, cresting against the heavens. He tried to cough, to hack, to something, but it was no use. The hand remained shoved firmly down his throat.

  And then it was gone.

  Kevin gagged, and then coughed out what must have been several gallons of water. Each cough wracked his body with pain. Each breath caused his ribs to creak. Even the slightest movement hurt.

  Something appeared in front of him. It was a blurry green object.

  What… the… heck?

  “I’m glad to see that you’re awake,” the shape said. Kevin blinked. “Tell me, how many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Fingers…”

  Was what he meant to say.

  “Fssshrrsss…”

  Was what he said.

  “Hmm, it seems your eyesight is a bit unfocused. Here, let me fix that for you.”

  Kevin would have asked what this object—person? — meant, but he never got the chance—because something smacked him in the head. Hard.

  “Ouch!”

  Kevin covered his face with his hands. Gods that hurt! What the hell was he just hit with? A mallet?

  “What the heck was that for, you crazy coot?!”

  “Ho? Can you see me now? How many fingers am I holding up?”

  Kevin was about to answer, but words fled when he realized who—no, what stood before him. Scaly green skin covered a small, squat body, clothed in a plain brown robe. This… thing stood with a stoop. It had a hunch of some kind, and Kevin was certain that the robe was covering something big attached to its back. A really long neck protruded from the robes, which was attached to a reptilian and very bald head. It was holding up three fingers. Mainly because it only had three fingers.

  “Holy crap, it’s a Ninja Turtle!”

  The “Ninja Turtle” twitched.

  “I am not a Ninja Turtle!” It shouted. “Don’t confuse those sea turtle rejects with me!”

  “Holy crap, it talks!”

  More twitching.

  “Of course I talk, you idiot!”

  “Well, excuse me for having never seen a talking turtle before,” Kevin snapped. “You think this is easy for me? Waking up to find out that some turtle has been shoving his hand down my throat? It’s not, especially after I…” Kevin’s mind screeched to a halt. His eyes widened. “Lilian! Where’s Lilian?”

  “If you are talking about the… kitsune who was with you, she is right over there.”

  If Kevin heard the way the turtle-person said kitsune with enough venom to slay an elephant, he didn’t show it. He turned his head to follow the hand that was pointing at a bed several feet away. On that bed lay a familiar figure. Long red hair. Soft and smooth skin, unblemished and perfect. A white blanket covered her up to her chest, but he could see the swell of her breasts, the rise and fall she took with each breath.

  “Lilian…” he said weakly. Wanting to go over to her side, Kevin made to get off the bed.

  “Hold up, young man. You shouldn’t try to stand up just yet. Your body is too—”

  The turtle winced as Kevin crashed to the ground, his body toppling over like a broken doll.

  “—weak,” he finished. The turtle stared at Kevin, who stared at the ceiling, eyes blinking, not quite comprehending his situation.

  “Why is the ceiling suddenly so high up?”

  The turtle could only face palm.

  “… Idiot…”

  ***

  It took about an hour before Kevin had enough strength to stand on his own. Fifteen minutes after that, the turtle-thing, which he’d learned was a kappa, checked him over and proclaimed that he was able to move without further embarrassment. They spoke while the turtle-doctor checked him over.

  “So, you’re a kappa?” Kevin asked, ignoring the small hammer tapping against his knees, testing his reflexes. “No joke?”

  “What is that? Some kind of slang you brats use? Of course I’m a kappa. What the hell did you think I was?” The doctor’s gruff response bothered Kevin. Actually, he just didn’t like sitting there while Lilian was laid out on the bed next to him. He sat still, however, knowing that moving before this strange talking turtle said he was ready would result in him getting whacked over the head. It had already happened twice. “And if you say Ninja Turtle, this Taylor hammer is going down your throat.”

  Kevin snap
ped his mouth shut.

  The rest of the checkup proceeded smoothly. Kevin remained quiet, mostly because he was trying to come to terms with the fact that he was standing—sitting—in the presence of an honest-to-gods kappa. He knew they existed. Kotohime had taught him that much. She’d said that all yōkai who appeared in manga and anime existed, along with several that hadn’t appeared in Japan’s most well-known forms of media.

  It still shocked him, though. While he should have seen this coming, and a part of him was berating himself for having reacted the way he did, another part had never expected to meet one. Perhaps this was what it meant to be human. Maybe he would be shocked every time he met a new yōkai.

  He certainly hoped not. His reaction upon waking up had been embarrassing.

  “Okay.” The kappa took the freezing cold metal cylinder off his chest, the task of checking his heartbeat finished. “You seem to be fine. In fact, you’re unusually healthy and hearty for a boy your age.”

  Kevin dismissed the claim. “I work out a lot.”

  The kappa looked at him for a little longer… and then sighed. “Right. Anyway, you’re free to move about, however—” dark eyes hardened into a glare “—you are not to leave this room. If you do, then I won’t be able to guarantee your safety. Someone will come by later to give you some food.”

  With that, the kappa packed his medical bag and left. When the door closed with a soft click, Kevin scrambled over to Lilian’s bed.

  He sat down on the edge, the mattress giving way underneath him. Lilian’s body shifted slightly as a result. Reaching out with his left hand, he tentatively let it come to rest on her cheek. Her skin was smooth and soft, but it also felt cold. Letting his thumb move without conscious thought, he slowly rubbed circles against her skin.

  “Lilian…” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Please wake up.”

  She didn’t. Not that Kevin had expected her to. She was clearly unconscious.

  As he sat there, staring into a face that was too beautiful to be human, an idea slowly churned in his mind. It was, admittedly, an idea born of desperation, but he didn’t think that made it any less viable. If it worked in Sleeping Beauty, then surely it would work in real life.

  I must be stupid to think this is going to work.

  He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers in a light kiss. A second passed, then he pulled back and waited—waited for a sign that she would wake up. A fluttering of lashes. A parting of lips. Something. Anything. What he got was silence.

  Frowning, he tried again.

  He pulled back and waited.

  Still nothing.

  Feeling more than a little desperate, he kissed her again and again and again and again. Each time he kissed her and didn’t receive a response, he became more overwrought. Something was wrong. It had to be. Lilian never failed to wake up after the first kiss.

  One last time. He kissed her one last time and pulled back. Nothing happened. Kevin was just about to panic, when he noticed something that he hadn’t noticed before.

  Lilian.

  She was smiling.

  Kevin deadpanned.

  “All right, you can open your eyes now. I know you’re awake.”

  A single green eye cracked open, lashes fluttering slowly as they unveiled the gem hidden behind them.

  “You caught me,” Lilian said, her smile turning just a tad sheepish. “I’m sorry for deceiving you, but it’s been a really long time since I’ve played a prank on anyone.”

  “You’re terrible,” Kevin growled. “Do you know how worried I was when you wouldn’t respond? I thought something might be wrong. You really… you had me so worried.”

  Lilian’s eyes widened, then softened. Her smile became warm and caring, genuine. It was the smile that she reserved for him.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” he relented. He wasn’t really angry, just worried. There was something else on his mind anyway. “You saved me. Back there when that wave came crashing down, you protected me.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Lilian answered anyway. “I did. Right before the wave was about to hit us, I used a new technique that I’ve been working on. Kitsune Art: The Barrier that Protects the Princess. It’s a defensive technique that creates a small layer of celestial youki around an area of my choosing. It’s not complete yet, but it was enough that we survived having a large wave crash on top of us.”

  Kevin closed his eyes as a wave of self-loathing and disgust hit him. Once again, he’d proven to be useless, and Lilian had been forced to save him. All of the training that he’d gone through, all of the work he’d put in so that he could stand by her side, and it was nullified by something so far outside of his ability to deal with, it was almost laughable.

  What have I been doing all this time? Am I really so weak? I’ve been training with Kiara so that I could help Lilian, not burden her! I really am a—

  “Stop that,” Lilian said, her voice adamant.

  “W-what?” Kevin snapped out of his thoughts and sent her a startled glance.

  Lilian’s gaze was firm. “That, stop degrading yourself like that.”

  “I-I don’t—”

  “You do,” Lilian interrupted. “You always make a face whenever something happens that you feel you should have been able to stop. You need to stop thinking like that. You’re not useless. You never have been.”

  “I… you’re right,” Kevin said, shaking his head to dispel his negative thoughts.

  Lilian beamed at him. “Of course I’m right.”

  He returned her smile. “Thank you, both for saving me and for now. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

  Lilian’s smile turned somewhat devious. “You want to know how you can really thank me?”

  Amused, Kevin allowed himself to fall into her trap. “How?”

  “By giving me a kiss.”

  The feelings of self-loathing disappeared as her smile soothed his troubled mind. Kevin decided to give his mate exactly what she wanted. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.

  All of the negative emotions that he’d been feeling vanished when their lips touched. Relief washed over him. The tension in his back eased. Even the hard knot of anxiety coiling in his stomach came undone. In that moment, nothing mattered to him except the girl whose breathtakingly soft lips were pressed against his.

  Wanting more of this feeling, Kevin climbed onto the bed until he was straddling her waist. Even as he moved, his lips never left Lilian’s. He took her lower lip between his teeth and gave it a gentle tug. Lilian moaned in response and squirmed underneath him. A pair of hands found purchase in his hair, nails scraping pleasantly against his scalp. In return, his hands pushed the covers down. He noticed, almost absently, that Lilian was wearing a shirt. Strange. She had not been wearing one at the beach.

  He dismissed the thought a second later in favor of slipping his hands underneath her shirt and touching her directly. Her skin was warm, pleasant, and softer than silk. Kevin had always admired how soft her skin was. Even back when he’d been sure that he was in love with Lindsay, the feeling of Lilian’s skin never failed to send his mind into a state of pleasure-driven delirium.

  They broke away for a breath, but even then, they couldn’t keep their hands or lips off each other. Their eager bodies kept the flames of their desire alive, rubbing and grinding in all sorts of delicious ways. The friction created was intense, even with the blanket and clothes keeping them from directly stimulating each other, the slightest trace of movement sent ripples through their bodies. Their lips, incapable of leaving each other alone, continued giving small pecks between breaths, stoking the flames of their passion.

  The battle began again when Lilian’s voracious tongue penetrated his mouth, bypassing his teeth and pushing against his own. Kevin responded as best he could, allowing her tongue to glide and dance across his. When he was sure that she wouldn’t be able to escape, he closed his mouth around her tongue and suckled on it.

/>   “Hfnnfnnn!”

  Lewd slurping noises, Lilian’s moans, and the rustling of fabric were the only sounds in the room. That sound was pierced by a loud, albeit muffled, moan when Kevin tweaked Lilian’s right nipple. Like ripples in the water’s surface after a stone sank to the bottom, the enchanting kitsune shuddered. Her body was on fire. Her desire for him became an overwhelming need, a hunger that could not be satisfied by anything less than taking that final step and becoming one.

  “Kevin…” she panted. “I need… you so badly… please… now…”

  While Kevin had done many things with Lilian, sex was not one of them. They’d done every form of foreplay imaginable, but he’d yet to take that final step. It wasn’t because of his age. He was simply scared. How well would he perform? Would he be able to please Lilian? The last thing that Kevin wanted was to be one of those minute men who couldn’t please their mate.

  Should I do this? Is… is this really the right choice?

  Kevin would never get to find out what might have happened if he’d been given more time to consider her offer.

  “Ahem.”

  Because in that moment, reality chose to remind him of their situation. Another Teenage Mutant Kappa Turtle walked into the room, and this one actually fit the bill of a teenager. He couldn’t have been much older than Kevin—at least, Kevin didn’t think so. It was hard to judge age with yōkai.

  “When I came in here, I didn’t think I’d be getting dinner and a show,” the kappa said.

  “How long have you been there?”

  “Several minutes now.”

  “You mean you were watching us?”

  “Aw, don’t get so upset. I couldn’t see any of the goods because your fatass was blocking the way.”

  Kevin twitched as the kappa walked further into the room, a tray of food in his hands. This one’s skin had a greenish-blue hue. Turquoise? No, cyan sounded more appropriate. Either way, this one, unlike the kappa who’d done his checkup, didn’t walk with a stoop and didn’t wear that bulky brown bathrobe. He walked straight, and his clothes were normal—mostly normal. He wore swim trunks and no shirt, which meant that the large shell on his back was visible.