A Fox's Family (American Kitsune Book 4)

by Brandon Varnell

  All words fled when Kevin turned Lilian around and embraced her. He didn’t say anything. What could he possibly say to help her? He’d never killed someone before. Any words of wisdom or comfort and understanding that he could have said would have rung hollow. The only thing he could do was give her his support and love. So that’s what he did. It was enough.

  That night, Lilian cried herself to sleep in her mate’s arms.

  ***

  Halloween arrived two days after Kevin had rescued Lilian. That night Kevin, Lilian and Iris went to the Halloween party being hosted at their school.

  From the moment they walked in, Iris became the center of attention with her slutty maid outfit—girls, boys, teachers, it didn’t matter. All drooled at the sight of her.

  Kevin couldn’t blame them. Iris looked like sin made flesh on the best of days. That night her every pore seemed to ooze sex appeal.

  He and Lilian also received a number of looks, though not

  nearly as many as Iris. Some of it was certainly due to Lilian, who looked gorgeous in her white satin gown with a sleeveless purple overshirt, golden shoulder pads, and a jeweled tiara with the Triforce symbol. Her blond hair might have also been cause for some of those looks. She’d dyed it that night. It went well with her pointy elven ears.

  Kevin’s outfit might have been another reason. How many people wore a green tunic and a sock-like cap of the same color, white linen pants, leather boots, and had a sword and shield strapped across their back? Not many.

  The Halloween party was taking place in the amphitheater, a gigantic room located within the same building as the gym. The teachers had clearly gone all out that year. Orange and black streamers hung from rafters high overhead and were long enough that he could reach out and touch them. Jack-o-lanterns sat on tables and in corners, and one huge, grinning jack-o-lantern found itself situated in the center of the room.

  “Ho… look at all these different costumes,” Iris said, glancing around at all the people. “Mine’s still the sexiest.” She sent off several winks. Sixteen boys and thirteen girls suddenly passed out from blood loss.

  “Would you stop that already?” Kevin grunted in annoyance.

  Iris’ smirk was devilish, hotter than a freaking stove and absolutely sinful. “Jealous?”

  “Hardly.” Kevin looked at Lilian walking by his side. When she saw his gaze on her, she tilted her head inquisitively. He smiled, and affectionately squeezed her hand. “I already have my princess.”

  Lilian’s beaming smile contained the brilliance of a thousand suns. “Oh, Kevin, you know just what to say to make my heart go doki-doki waku-waku.”

  “Doki-waku what now?”

  “Hmph!” Iris crossed her arms under her chest. “Whatever. Anyway, I think I saw Slowpoke somewhere in the crowd, so I’m gonna go bum some money off him. See ya.”

  Lilian and Kevin watched the sexed-up kitsune wade into the crowd. Kevin tried not to notice the alluring sway of her hips.

  He leaned over to whisper in Lilian’s ear. “I don’t see anyone dressed as a Slowpoke in here.”

  “I think she’s talking about Justin,” Lilian whispered back. Kevin suddenly felt annoyed, both because Iris would try bumming money off his friend and that he hadn’t been able to yell at her for attempting to do such a thing in the first place.

  “Dang vixen.”

  “My Lord!” a voice suddenly boomed over the din of music and conversation.

  “Stop calling me that!”

  Eric Corrompere walked up to them. Kevin took one look at his friend’s costume, and then wondered if Eric had been dropped on his head as a child. There were way too many bandages and not enough actual fabric for him to even consider that as clothing.

  “Eric… that costume is…”

  “It’s awesome, right?” Eric looked at himself and grinned.

  “Not the word I was going for,” Kevin mumbled.

  “I think horrendous is the word I would go for,” Lilian agreed, her nose wrinkling in disgust.

  “Of course, it’s not as awesome as yours and Lilian’s.” Eric looked at their costumes and began sniffling.

  “Oh gods, he’s crying again.”

  “Maybe we should have worn something less extravagant?”

  “To think.” Sniffle. “That My Lord is so great.” Sniffle, sob. “That he can even convince his girlfriend to wear couple’s cosplay with him.” He turned away, his shoulders shaking.

  “What is Eric doing?” Alex asked his brother.

  “Don’t know. Hey, Eric, what are you doing?”

  Eric’s body shook some more.

  “I’m not even worthy of looking at him.” Another sob. Eric got down on his knees and bowed before Kevin. “I’m just not worthy!”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake! Get up, Eric! Everyone’s starting to stare at us!”

  Eric didn’t get up. He remained prostrated on the ground. While Lilian giggled into her hand, Kevin decided to ignore the crying idiot on the wood paneled floor. He turned to look at the two newcomers.

  Alex and Andrew wore what Kevin could only assume were a samurai and a ninja costume respectively. Alex had donned a black one-piece suit, had a sash tied around his waist, wore tabi ninja sandals and the distinctive ninja headgear, which Kevin thought looked more like a ski mask than a ninja mask. His brother, on the other hand, was wearing light blue hakama pants and a traditional dark blue men’s kimono. Strapped to his side was a sheath with an obviously fake katana. He also wore geta sandals.

  “Are those the costumes you two bought?” Kevin looked at his friends’ outfits. “Not bad.”

  “Yeah, well, they’re not as good as yours, obviously.” Alex glared at Kevin’s costume, as if his stare would make it spontaneously combust. “Seriously, where the hell did you get those?”

  “We ordered them online,” Lilian answered. “They were custom made! Check it out!” She gave a spirited twirl, which caused the hem of her dress to flare a bit. “Isn’t my costume beautiful?”

  “It’s definitely the most amazing costume I’ve seen so far,” Andrew nodded in agreement, “but I don’t think it’s the costume that makes it look so pretty. Isn’t that right, Kevin?”

  Kevin grunted as Andrew nudged him in the side with an elbow. “If this is some unsubtle way of trying to tell me how lucky I am, then you can stop it. I’m already aware of that.”

  While Lilian started drawing more attention to their group just by being her normally vibrant self, Christine walked up to them.

  “K-K-K-K-Kevin!”

  “Hey, Christine!”

  Kevin paused to get a look at Christine’s costume. Alex and Andrew whistled.

  For Halloween, Christine had chosen to wear a downright jaw-dropping yukata. It was light blue and shimmered when she moved. Starting from the hem and moving up in a whirlpool pattern were thousands upon thousands of white snowflakes. A dark blue obi held it together.

  There seems to be a lot of Japanese-themed costumes in our group.

  “You look amazing.” Kevin’s complimented with a bright grin. Christine’s face appeared to undergo spontaneous combustion.

  “Guh…”

  A struggle clearly took place within the girl. Her body shivered and her face became mottled with blue. Steam poured from her ears and the temperature took a sudden plummet. Kevin shivered, his breath misting as he exhaled.

  “W-what is this? Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know.” Andrew shivered. “Maybe the alignment of the planets has created a hole in the fabric of the universe, and the Frost Giants have come to this world in order to turn it into a neverending winter.”

  Alex stared at his brother. “You’re an idiot.”

  “Hey! You shouldn’t call your brother an idiot! I’m not an idiot!”

  “I’m not even gonna deign that with a response.”

  “You just did!”

  “T-t-t-t-tha… tha…”

  Christine emi
tted odd noises from her mouth, like the choked gurgling of a dying animal. Her face scrunched up further, pale blue lips trying to form words that refused to come out.

  “What’s up with Christine?”

  “Don’t know, but something is seriously wrong with this girl.”

  Fortunately for the young yuki-onna, Eric finally noticed her presence.

  “Ah! Gothic Hottie! How wonderful to see you here! And in such a beautiful dress! Why don’t you come back to my place where we can take it off and―Balthazar!”

  Everyone stared at the twitching, moaning pile of flesh formerly known as Eric.

  “The heck did he just say?” Lilian asked.

  “I think it was a name,” Kevin answered.

  “Bal-tha-zar? Huh, what an odd name.”

  The fortuitous tsukkomi act served to calm the snow-maiden down. She looked at Kevin and smiled, though her cheeks still remained a little blue.

  “Thank you. You look… really nice… too…”

  “Thanks! I’m really glad we decided to go with these costumes.” He looked down at his green tunic, white linen pants and brown boots. “I think these actually kind of suit me.”

  “Mm.”

  “Is Lindsay with you?” asked Lilian.

  Christine looked at her for a moment, then shook her head. “Last I saw, she was with her friends on the soccer team.”

  Kevin tried not to let himself feel hurt. He really did. But, it was kind of hard not to feel pain when one of his friends had decided that she wasn’t sure if they could remain friends any longer.

  “It’s not that I don’t want to be your friend, or even that I don’t want to be Lilian’s friend. It’s just… my mom was injured because she got caught up in Lilian’s problems. I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you or Lilian. I really like you both and want to continue being you guys’ friend, but I just… I need some time to figure things out.”

  Kevin had promised to give her that time. He understood where she was coming from. What happened to her mom only happened because the person who’d attacked the car her mom had been driving was after Lilian. Lindsay was finally beginning to realize that she, and her family by extension, were in danger simply by being associated with a kitsune. Kevin could do nothing less than give her the time she needed to decide on whether or not she wished to continue being their friend. It still hurt.

  “Kevin…”

  “I’m fine.” Kevin tossed Lilian a smile, grateful for her presence and the soothing warmth of her hand on his back.

  “S-so, Kevin,” Christine was back to blushing, “I was… I wanted to… would you be willing to talk to me… in p-p-p-private, I mean.”

  Kevin blinked. What an odd request. Still, he didn’t see why he couldn’t oblige her.

  “I’ll go and find Iris,” Lilian said. She leaned up and gave Kevin a swift kiss on the lips. “She’s probably turned your quiet friend into a drooling sack of hormones by now.”

  “Ugh, now there’s an image I didn’t need to see.”

  Lilian waded into the crowd, disappearing from sight. Kevin and Christine left the amphitheater and found themselves in a hallway. Kevin felt amusement when he noticed that it was the same hallway that Christine had saved him in two months ago.

  Christine stood before him. Her eyes would look at him, dart to the left, then the right, before looking at him again. It was… well, it was really quite cute, actually.

  “Is everything alright?” asked Kevin. “You seem kind of nervous.”

  “I-I-I-I…” Christine paused, gulped, and then forced her blush down. “I’m fine. T-thank you for your concern.”

  Kevin scratched the back of his head. “There’s no need to thank me. You’re my friend. It’s only natural that I would be concerned about you.”

  Christine frowned. “A friend?”

  “Pardon?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  Kevin didn’t think it was nothing, but decided not to argue. “So, what did you want to talk about, exactly?”

  “I just wanted… no, I have something that I need to tell you.”

  Christine placed a hand against her chest, clutching the fabric of her yukata. Kevin grew worried when the snow-maiden’s face started to become blue again.

  “I…the truth is I… I’vealwayslikedyou!”

  A pause.

  “Um, what?”

  Christine flushed, but now that she’d said it once, she was able to repeat it, and in such a way that Kevin could actually understand it. “I like you.”

  “Ah.” Kevin grinned. “I like you, too.”

  “No. Not like that, you idiot.” Christine actually rolled her eyes. “I mean I… I like you in… that way.”

  It took Kevin a couple of seconds to realize what “that way” meant. When he did, his face went through a series of emotions: shock, surprise and “oh my god, I think someone just confessed to me!” being the first three. His face then gained an expression that was best described as a combination of embarrassed, pleasure, and ashamed.

  “I… wow… I never knew that.”

  Christine deadpanned. “You didn’t? All this time I spent with you and you never once suspected that it might be because I have feelings for you?”

  “Ah, well, you kept hitting me and getting angry all the time, so I just sort of assumed you didn’t like me.”

  “You… you really are an idiot, aren’t you?”

  Kevin’s cheeks puffed up. “That’s not very nice. I’m not an idiot. I’ve got the third highest grades in my class.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Still, I suppose I should have suspected something,” Kevin mused. “I guess there was some truth to all those times Lilian called you a tsundere, after all.”

  “Urk!”

  “I mean, thinking back on it, all those times that you got really angry and violent, those were, like, classic tsundere moments.”

  “Geh!”

  “Really, I’m almost ashamed of myself. As an anime fan, I should have recognized the signs. I don’t know how I missed them.”

  “Can we stop talking about how I’m a tsundere already?!”

  “Right.” Kevin offered the girl an apologetic grin. “Sorry.”

  “W-w-w-whatever.” Christine crossed her arms and huffed. “So, um, about what I said…”

  “Christine.” Kevin’s smile was gentle, but it was mixed with guilt and sadness. “I’m sorry. I like you, I really do. You’re an amazing person. You’re kind, you’re fun to be around, and you’re super cute.”

  Normally, Christine’s cheeks would have flushed at being complimented so much, but she had already worked out where this was going. Instead of getting embarrassed, she merely looked resigned.

  “But you like Lilian, right?”

  “That’s right.” Kevin nodded. “Lilian and I are mates. She’s important to me. I like you, but I love Lilian.”

  “But how can you know that for sure?” asked Christine. “How can you know that you love Lilian? We’re fifteen. We don’t know what love is.”

  Blond hair swayed as Kevin shook his head. “I used to think that, too. That I couldn’t possibly know what love really is because I’m too young, but I’m beginning to think that age isn’t all that important when it comes to matters of the heart.”

  “But you’ve only known her for three months!”

  “I’ve only known you for about three months as well,” Kevin pointed out.

  “That’s not true,” Christine blurted, “you and I have—eep!” Christine clamped her hands over her mouth.

  “Christine?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “It’s clearly not nothing,” Kevin frowned.

  Christine began to look irritated. “Look, if I say it’s nothing that means it’s nothing, okay?”

  “Um, no,” Kevin determined, shaking his head. “Not okay. You don’t get to decide what is and isn’t nothing all on your own. Something I said clearly bothered you, but I can’t even
apologize because you won’t tell me. Do you know how that makes me feel? It makes me feel like you don’t trust me. You say you love me, but relationships are built on trust, Christine. If you can’t trust me, then—”

  “How can I trust you when you don’t even remember me?!” Christine exploded like a geyser. A very cold geyser.

  “So we’ve met before,” Kevin murmured as Christine huffed and puffed.

  “Obviously,” was her biting reply.

  Kevin thought back to when he might have met her. He recalled a previous conversation with Christine, where she had told him that she used to live in Alaska, which he had visited back when he was younger.

  Hm…

  “W-what are you doing?” Christine squeaked like a frightened mouse when Kevin got into her personal space.

  “You…” Kevin squinted, as if doing so would help him see her more clearly. “Are you Ice Girl?”

  “DON’T CALL ME THAT, YOU IDIOT!”

  “Doof!”

  Kevin was sent sprawling to the ground from Christine’s mighty fine pimp slap. He held a hand to his red cheek, gawking at the girl who, after calming down, stared at him in shock.

  “Ouch,” Kevin muttered, “did you have to hit me?”

  “S-sorry,” Christine mumbled, looking down at the hem of her robes. She then glanced shyly at Kevin as he stood back up. “So, you… you do remember me?”

  “Well…” Kevin rubbed the back of his neck, “I remember Ice Girl, but I hadn’t realized that she was you. As I recall, you were very shy back when we first met—and you weren’t as prone to violent outbursts. It took me the entire time I was there to break you out of your shell.”

  “W-whatever,” Christine huffed. “I haven’t changed that much.”

  Silence. A number of crickets chirped, adding their music to the awkward moment.

  “W-what are you looking at me like that for? I haven’t changed.”

  “Christine, back when we first met, you were more likely to hide in a corner than to beat the crap out of someone for upsetting you.”