A Fox's Tail (American Kitsune Book 2)

by Brandon Varnell

  The sphere of light that was just seconds from being launched at Kiara stopped. Lilian's brows furrowed.

  “What are you talking about? In case you haven't realized it, that means you’re also trapped in here with me.”

  “I'm saying that I couldn't do much in that hallway. Or more like, I didn't want to bring this building down around my ears when I went all-out on you.”

  Kiara turned around, and Lilian noticed something about the woman that hadn’t been there before: her hands were clawed. Sharp, deadly-looking nails glinted under the light from the large bulbs overhead. They looked like they could very easily rend flesh from bone if needed.

  Realization struck Lilian like a bolt of lightning, sending a ripple of shock through her body.

  “You're not human!”

  “Finally figured it out, did you?” Kiara enjoyed the look of bafflement and shock that permeated Lilian's face. While not sadistic like her younger brother, she did so enjoy getting the drop on her quarry. “Didn’t you wonder how I could dodge your attacks so easily? No regular human could’ve done that. You were so enraged by me sending men after your mate that you never even suspected that I might not be human.”

  “But… but how?” Lilian glared at the woman, shock and confusion warring for dominance over her features. “I would have known if you weren't human! I would have sensed it!”

  “You may be able to sense yōkai that have no talent in suppressing their youki, but I've been around a long time. And in that time I've honed my skills to perfection—abilities that most yōkai have never heard of. My ability to suppress my own youki is so great that only the most talented sensors can even glimpse my power, and even then, it's only if I allow them to.” Kiara smirked as Lilian's eyes widened. “Hiding from a young two-tails like yourself is well within my capabilities.”

  Now that the truth of her nature had come out, there was no more need to hide it anymore. With a large grin on her face, Kiara unleashed her incredible and potent power.

  It came out of nowhere, appearing like a hurricane—the amazing power that Kiara possessed. Her body was suddenly engulfed in a bright, red light. Like a torrent of violent flames they licked and flickered across her body, covering her in a powerful aura that caused the ground around her to quake. Several loud sonic booms were unleashed as the air around her spontaneously combusted with her no longer suppressed youki.

  Lilian was forced to raise an arm to shield her eyes. It was so bright that looking at it directly caused her retina to burn! But how could that be? How could someone possibly have youki that was this powerful? It was unlike anything she had ever felt before!

  The light eventually died down, and Lilian risked lowering her arm. The moment she did, she really wished she hadn't.

  Kiara had not changed much; nowhere near as much as Chris Fleischer had, but what changes had been made were drastic.

  Her body emitted a potent-looking red aura. It covered her like a second skin, and didn't look like it would be pleasant to touch. Lilian was sure anyone who wasn't Kiara would be burned if they touched it.

  Several additional appendages had become visible, allowing Lilian to figure out just what this woman was. Two floppy brown ears hung down her head, almost camouflaged by her hair. A single bushy-brown tail stuck out of a hole in her pants, wagging back and forth behind her back.

  While discovering that the woman before her was an inu was certainly a terrible epiphany, it wasn't the worst part about this whole affair. With her dog appendages no longer hidden, Lilian finally realized why this woman looked so familiar.

  “It's you!” She exclaimed, shock and fear coursing through her body, crashing into and overloading all other thoughts and feelings like a tidal wave as it swept everything away. “You're the one who nearly killed me when I first came to this city!”

  “So you finally remember me, do you?” Unlike Chris, whose voice had been a horrible amalgamation of a dog's bark and human speech, Kiara sounded perfectly normal. “I had wondered why you looked so familiar as well. Were it not for your scent, I would have never realized that you were the kitsune I ran into nearly three weeks ago.”

  Lilian took a step back, but quickly stopped herself. She shook her head, trying to regain control over her fight or flight instinct. It was difficult, very much so, but she couldn't flee, not now.

  “Not going to run?” Kiara sounded more curious than anything else.

  “Even if I ran you would still catch me,” Lilian sounded resigned. “You have my scent. I doubt I would be able to get very far, even if I used the enhancement technique to increase my speed. Besides—” the redhead's eyes narrowed into a glare, “—I can't leave when my Beloved is in danger. I'm going to beat you, and then I'm going to rescue him from those men.”

  “You must really care about this kid if you're willing to stand up to someone like me,” Kiara observed.

  “Of course. Kevin is my mate,” Lilian declared proudly, using his name for the first time ever. “He means everything to me. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for him. That includes fighting you.”

  After saying this, she settled herself into a light stance. She spread her feet slightly apart, though the action felt awkward, and raised her hands, even though she wasn't sure what to do with them. Like all kitsune, she was not a fighter, but that didn't mean that she didn’t know at least a little self-defense.

  The kitsune world was dangerous; the world of yōkai even more so. Many threats existed out there, especially to a young kitsune like herself. There were other kitsune who’d love to get their hands on someone of her status, yōkai that enjoyed violently killing others for no reason other than because they could. Her matriarch had made sure that she had at least been taught a little about martial arts, so that she would have something to fall back on in the event that her kitsune powers failed her.

  Even then, she was not a fighter, and it showed in her awkward stance.

  “But you're still afraid.” It was not a question.

  “Terrified,” Lilian admitted freely. A glance at her legs, which were shaking, confirmed this fact. “But that won't stop me.”

  “Fighting for the one you love, eh?” Kiara gave a genuine smile. “I can respect that. Very few people are ever willing to fight for another. The fact that you would is impressive.”

  Her smile turned devilish, though, as she also took up a fighting stance. Unlike Lilian, whose stance was very basic and clearly untested by true combat, Kiara's showed experience. Her stance was narrow, right leg forward, an orthodox stance. Her footing was light as she bounced from one foot to the other.

  Even the placement of her hands suggested that she was a very skilled fighter. Where Lilian simply held hers up as if she didn't know what to do with them, Kiara's were near her face in a guard position, a traditional boxing stance.

  “However, I don't want you to think I'm going to go easy on you, just because I can respect your decision. I've never given anything but my best in a fight, and I'm not about to stop that just because you're young and inexperienced.”

  “I wouldn't expect you to,” Lilian retorted, “nor would I want you to.”

  “Good.” Kiara's smile became truly feral. “Then let us begin.”

  Chapter 8

  Kiara Versus Lilian

  Kevin ran down the hall as fast he could. He didn’t know how long he’d been running; all he knew was that he couldn’t afford to stop.

  “Hey! Get back here, you little twerp!”

  “Quit running and take your beating like a man!”

  “Waaa, my toof!”

  And those three were the reasons he could not stop running. The henchmen he’d inadvertently caused to injure each other were still in hot pursuit of him. They’d recovered pretty quickly—less than a few seconds after he’d escaped from the locker room, in fact. He’d scarcely ran more than a few meters before they were on him like an Otaku on a poster of Miku Hatsune in a bikini.

  He raced down the hall in a mad dash, hoping t
o find a way out of the school, so that he could escape into the desert or something. He’d already tried the nearest exit and it had been locked. No surprise there, considering how late it must be, but he hoped there would be at least one door left unlocked.

  Actually, he had been hoping to run into a teacher by now, but that hope had disappeared within the first few seconds of this chase. If a teacher hadn’t come by to investigate after the ruckus they'd made in the locker room, chances were good that no teacher was present.

  “Damn it… how can this kid run so fast?”

  “He’s a quick little bastard, I’ll give him that! But don’t think that will be enough to get away from me! YOU HEAR ME?! I’M GONNA CATCH YOU AND BEAT YOUR ASS!”

  “My toof! It huwts so muff! Waaaa!”

  If Kevin couldn't find an unlocked door and he really was trapped inside, then he would be in some serious trouble.

  His breathing sounded harsh to his ears as he made a sharp turn around the corner. There were a number of hallways in this building. There had to be, it was a big building. Kevin knew from having walked them so many times that, not including the locker rooms, there were six rooms. Two gyms, a workout room, a theater, a dance room and a room that contained an indoor swimming pool. For this reason, there were several exits and a number of corridors to choose from.

  Acting quickly, he ducked into the first room he passed, which turned out to be the weight room. Several dozen machines were scattered about, lined up in rows. The weight room also had six benches for people to exercise with dumbbells, and another six for free weights.

  “He went in there!”

  “Let’s get that little shit!”

  “My tooof!”

  Eyes widening, fear pumping through his veins, Kevin rushed further into the room. The doors burst open soon after, and his pursuers ran inside.

  “There he is!” Tall pointed him out as he ran to a bench with metal brackets protruding on either side. The brackets acted as a rack for the long metal pole used for bench-presses. “Let’s get him!”

  As they rushed towards him, Kevin, in desperation, jumped on one of the benches. He ran forward, hopped over the pole and landed on the ground. Short followed him. He ran along the bench and jumped—well, tried to jump, over the metal pole. Perhaps it was because of all that muscle, but he didn't make it over. His legs smacked into the long, offending pole, and he slammed face-first into the rubbery floor.

  There was a loud crunching sound that reverberated through the room, sounding abnormally loud. Blood gushed from the now broken nose, pooling onto the floor and spreading rapidly to create a slick carmine puddle.

  While Short rolled around on the ground, hands covering his now bleeding nose, the other two came in from either side, trapping him in a pincer maneuver.

  Kevin darted through two of the benches before they could reach him. Both men had been running at a full-sprint, their hands outstretched to catch him. When they saw their prey slip away before they could beat him into submission, their eyes widened, and they quickly tried to halt their forward momentum.

  They didn’t succeed.

  The sound of two bodies colliding rang harshly throughout the room, as the pair crashed into each other. The one with the chipped tooth ended up smacking face first into Tall’s chest. Because of his height deficiency—especially in comparison to his stupidly tall friend—he was sent sprawling to the ground.

  Tall stumbled backwards. His feet landing on the puddle of blood, causing him to slip. His arms frantically windmilling about, he fell backwards—

  “AAEEIII!”

  —and landed right on top of Short.

  A loud shriek of pain rang out, echoing around the room. Kevin didn’t wait around for them to recover. He bolted for the nearest door, slammed it open and rushed out. A quick right after exiting the room took him into a new hallway, one that contained an exit. Even at this distance, he could see it at the end of the corridor, two large double doors with a red exit sign over them.

  He ran toward it in a full-sprint. Adrenaline pumped through his body, fast and powerful, increasing the amount of effort he could put into his muscles. His breathing went from ragged and harsh pants to loud rasps. His lungs burned, hot and painful; his esophagus was on fire. But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop. Not when he was so close.

  The walls passed by in a blur. This particular exit had no other doors near it, which meant he would be more than a little screwed if it turned out to be locked.

  Despite this, he continued to run. He no longer had a choice in the matter. Kevin had committed himself to this course the moment he turned down the corridor. He couldn’t turn back now even if he wanted to.

  “There you are, brat!”

  “I’m gonna get you break your face in for what you did to my nose!”

  “My toof! My toof!”

  Those guys were following him again? Dang, they recovered quickly, didn’t they?

  Despite being tired from having run so hard and for so long, Kevin made it to the doors in record time. His body crashed against the hard and unyielding steel object, his shoulder pressing into the large handle that would open it.

  The door didn’t open.

  “No,” Kevin whispered. He rammed into the door again, harder this time. It still didn’t open. “No, no, no, no!” This was not good. This was so not good! So, so, so not good! Oh god, he was so screwed! He was―

  “Well, well, well, finally decided to stop running, did you?”

  Kevin grit his teeth, his face draining of blood as his heart all but stopped. His mind began to panic. What should he do? He didn’t want to turn around, didn’t want to face these three; but really, what choice did he have?

  None. That’s what.

  He turned around to see the three smirking goons who had tried beating him up—were still trying to beat him up. They were in pretty bad shape. Tall had a noticeable slouch and was rubbing at his chest, his face masked in a grimace of pain and agitation. Short was both bleeding from his newly broken nose, and the one with the cracked tooth was holding his mouth, from which copious amounts of carmine fluids oozed.

  “You managed to get us pretty good,” Tall said. He had a rather ugly, put-out look on his face. Kevin thought it suited him. “I admit, we greatly underestimated your skill at hand-to-hand combat.”

  “Uh,” Kevin blinked. They thought he was skilled at hand-to-hand combat? Seriously? “No, I think you’ve got the wrong idea here…”

  “But we’ve finally got you now,” Tall interrupted him. Kevin would have normally been annoyed at being cutoff mid-sentence, but, well, he had other things on his mind—like the fact that he was about to get his face beaten in.

  “There’s no place for you to run, and nothing you can use against us here. You would have been better off sticking it out in the weight room.”

  Kevin pressed his back against the door. His breathing picked up. His heart began thumping like a battering ram in his chest. Fear and panic and a whole slew of other negative emotions raced through his nerves. Dang it! What should he should do? What could he do to get out of this?!

  “Heh, you scared?” Short chuckled. A closer inspection of the man revealed that he was not only the shortest, but the one with the most pimples as well. The guy had a serious acne problem. “As you should be. After the amount of trouble you’ve given us, we’re not letting you get off easy. Oh no. This is going to be very painful. It’s going to hurt, a lot.”

  “My toof! Fow foing fu pay fow whaf you fid fu my toof!”

  The man with the chipped tooth, whom Kevin decided to call Buck, was actually in tears. He had a hand to his cheek, covering the swollen flesh as he cried what appeared to be large rivers—or maybe waterfalls would be a more accurate word to use. Either way, a lot of water was coming out of his eyes. He must have gone through at least several dozen gallons already.

  Three sets of ominous footsteps echoed down the empty corridor. They rang out loudly in Kevin’s ears, who could s
wear he heard his death approach with each dull thud that sounded out. Each step the trio took increased his desperation to escape and the sheer terror he felt, because he knew there was no escape.

  “I wanna say this is going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you,” Tall said, “But then I’d be lying.” He chuckled, laughing at his own joke.

  No one else laughed. It was a lame joke.

  “That was lame, dude,” Short sighed.

  “Really lame,” Buck added.

  “Lame?!” Tall glared at the other two. “What are you talking about? My jokes are classics! Classics, I tell ya!”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Short waved a hand in the air, as if warding off a fly, or a really bad joke. “Why don’t you just close that yap of yours and let's get to beating this kid?” He directed a venomous glare Kevin’s way, causing him to let out a little squeak. “I have to pay him back for what he did to my nose.”

  “Argh! Why are you guys always dissing on my jokes?!”

  As Tall began stomping around like an angry child that had his favorite toy taken away, a small bead of sweat ran down Kevin’s forehead. This guy… how could someone be so terrifying one moment and look so silly the next? It was hard to take these people seriously when they did crap like this!

  After several seconds of watching Tall act like a spoiled brat, Kevin realized something: their attention was diverted away from him. This was his chance! If he could just slip away while Tall was distracting the other two, then maybe he could…

  “Don’t even think of trying to get away, brat!”

  Kevin froze as the three suddenly turned back to him, Tall’s temper tantrum utterly forgotten.

  “L-look,” Kevin raised his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “Can’t we work out our issues without violence? You guys don’t really need to do this, do you?”

  “Sorry,” Tall cracked his knuckles as he closed the distance between himself and Kevin. He didn’t sound very sorry. He didn’t sound sorry at all. “But we really do need to do this. Kiara’s orders and all that.”