Firefox: a Fox Demon's Claim

by Lizzie Lynn Lee

  Her nightmares these days always involved Norman in some way or another.

  A noise came from the front of the house. The mailman. Chloe’s mailman was the most reliable thing in her life most days. She was in the front of his route, she’d discovered after making conversation with him one day on her way to work, and had discovered he delivered the mail almost exactly at ten minutes after nine every morning. She went to reach for her purse to check the time on her phone, but remembered she’d done a dance on it in the bar. She leaned back to look past the guy to see the clock on her microwave: nine minutes after nine.

  Would a precise detail like that make it into a dream?

  Chloe put both hands on her face and leaned on her elbows. This really isn’t a dream?

  “Okay. I’m awake. That doesn’t mean anything you’re telling me is true. None of this can be real. It can’t be.” Her argument sounded feeble even to her own ears. She took a deep breath and turned to him. “Okay,” she breathed, her stomach flip-flopping.

  This guy had cured her hangover with some sort of static electricity charge. He’d beaten her there even though she’d left him sleeping in the motel. She couldn’t explain either of those things. And she certainly couldn’t explain the fact that two ears stuck out of his hair on either side of his head. Two cute, furry, animal ears. Ears like…a fox. A white fox.

  She blinked.

  I’m never drinking bourbon again.

  No.

  Not a drop of alcohol will touch these lips again.

  Chapter 6

  He started feeling so comfortable around her that he let his guard down. And when he was feeling at ease, his shifting control slipped and his true nature took over, showing his fox marking. Sparrow waited for her to accept what she was seeing. When she reached toward him she touched one of his ears too lightly, tickling him and making it twitch. She pulled her hand back, but redoubled, the next touch firmer. “Oh my God,” she whispered. Then she tugged on his ear sharply.

  “Ouch.”

  Chloe gasped. “How?”

  “I told you, I’m a kitsune.”

  “Yes, but…do you understand how hard that is to believe?” She turned to face him on her stool and ran both hands over her hair to pull it into a ponytail at the back of her head, only to let go of it again. “We’re told stories when we’re kids, and we grow up and know that they’re not real. They don’t exist.”

  Sparrow tilted his head. “An unfortunate trait in humans, refusing to believe in wonders. But it makes life in the other realms easier, I suppose.”

  Chloe rubbed her fingertips over her forehead. “Other realms…this is mind-blowing. You realize that, right? Unless I’m losing my mind, and I don’t realize it. I suppose that’s possible.”

  “You’re not losing your mind.” Sparrow drew his ears in, and she gasped like a delighted child, patting his hair where they’d just been. “You believe me now?” Slight disappointment crept in when her smile faded.

  “I believe there’s more to you than I thought, yes. That you’re something…special.”

  “And that you are the goddess Gaia?”

  Chloe smirked. “I could strain myself until I had a stroke and no ears would pop out of my head.”

  Sparrow felt good now that he was making progress with his goddess. “You don’t have ears, my goddess. You’re not a fox, don’t be silly.” He cupped her cheek. “But you have powers beyond your imagining. And your reincarnation means its time you used them to help restore your kingdom.”

  “My kingdom?”

  “This realm. You rule over the earth, over flora and fauna and all living beings. They’ll start to wane without your attention. The sooner your gifts are restored, the better.”

  Her eyes narrowed. She seemed convinced by his ears, if nothing else, but wasn’t quite on board with the whole truth yet.

  “How do I do that?”

  “We do it.” He took her hand and leaned closer. “We consummate our union, and that will bring you to the fullness of your power.”

  Chloe smirked, a sign he was learning to recognize as disbelief. “That’s convenient. We have sex, and I’ll become a goddess?”

  “You believe the rest, but that’s unbelievable to you?”

  She sighed. “It’s all unbelievable, when you boil it down. But I don’t know how to explain it, so I’m choosing to believe you, at least for a while. The consummation bit, though? Sounds like the worst pick-up line ever.”

  He scoffed. “It’s not. I am your consort. If only you’d give me a chance, you’ll see that all of it’s true.”

  The suspicious look never left her face, but one corner of her mouth turned up. “So, you’re saying if we have sex, I’ll be able to do what you did? Zapping me to heal me, getting here so fast?”

  “Gaia, your power dwarfs mine. Your influence keeps the entire planet in balance. My powers are like cheap tricks compared to yours. My power is nothing like that of a holy deity like you.”

  “Why do we have to have sex for me to regain my power?”

  “Each time a new Gaia is reborn to a new vessel, the holy power is sealed within your center.” He touched the middle of her ribcage. “It’s sealed for good reason. If a new Gaia wields power before the Awakening, the consequence is disastrous. Untrained power emanated through the holder’s emotion. If a Gaia is in despair, this realm will be blanketed in ice and snow. And if she is in a rage, terrible draught and heat will scorch this earth, spelling doom for every living creature. And as your consort, it is my duty to unseal that power and teach you how to use it. The unsealing process requires intimate skin contact in order for my mana to enter your body. Thus, the act of love-making is the easiest and fastest way to unseal your power.”

  “What’s mana?”

  He pondered. “I guess the easiest explanation is it’s the source of energy that allows us to use magic.”

  “Was there a former Gaia who didn’t have sex with her consort in order to regain her power?”

  Sparrow furrowed his brows, thinking hard. “If I’m not mistaken, I believe there was a Gaia who came to hate her consort and she refused the intimate act.”

  “What happened to her?” She wanted to know.

  “She didn’t become fully Gaia and her power passed to her next incarnation.”

  “Does she have human lifespan? Or was she like, immortal or something?”

  “Gaia is a living human goddess and so she lives a human lifespan.”

  “What happens to the consorts?”

  “They die when their goddesses die.”

  Her expression showed him that she didn’t expect that answer. “Why?”

  “When a Champion wins the Selection, he binds his soul to serve his Gaia. And so he perishes when the lifespan of his Gaia ends.”

  “Hmmh. Curious.”

  “Indeed.” Sparrow studied her face. “Does making love with me repulse you? I’m considered desirable among my kin.” He leaned forward and gave her a conspiratorial wink. “I’m also a great lover.”

  Her eyes widened. Blush followed. “Oh. I didn’t mean that. I find you very attractive. A very, very attractive man.”

  She seemed have more to say but was reluctant. He waited.

  Chloe waved her hand dismissively. “It just that a decent woman doesn’t jump on a man she just met, does she?”

  “But you’re not just a woman. You’re Gaia.”

  “I’m still processing that I’m a reincarnation of a goddess. You know how crazy that sounds?”

  “To common folks, perhaps. I know, I shall give you a little demonstration.” Sparrow snapped his fingers to illustrate, sending up sparks.

  Her eyes widened. “Show me?”

  Sparrow never expected his goddess to be so skeptical of him. This doubt should be rectified immediately. He nodded, then moved several feet away from her on the other side of her kitchen. He would rein himself in, but hopefully still convince her. Last time he let loose with the full depth of his power, he’d
blown all the nearby transformers. He’d only been trying to stop what humans called a “mugging” and hadn’t meant to plunge the whole neighborhood into darkness for several hours.

  Sparrow kept his human form, but his ears re-emerged as they always did when he let his guard down, and he let his true form come through, not just the kitsune or the demon, but the combination of both.

  Chapter 7

  Chloe had expected to be able to snatch the fox ears off the guy’s head. She’d seen people wear those, fans of anime and certain shows. Heck, people took selfies and added cat and dog ears to their pictures all the time. But the ears had been real, and she’d watched them curl up and disappear inside his head.

  It couldn’t be, but it was. She’d just witnessed something impossible, which by definition made it something possible instead.

  Could there be truth to the rest of it?

  It seemed most likely to her that he was telling the truth about himself, but was sadly mistaken about her. A case of wrong identity. She couldn’t be a goddess. Would a goddess have had a life as filled with tragedy and misery as hers?

  Sparrow’s ears popped out again as she waited for him to show her more. And then his outline blurred. He still stood there, solid, casting a shadow, but he didn’t seem constrained by his body anymore. A light shone from his breastbone, not like a flashlight beam but a tiny sun, brighter at the center and shining outward in every direction. Within the light, something darker began to swirl, and it grew until she could barely make out his features behind it.

  It was as if he’d opened himself up and showed her the sun and the universe hidden within. Light and flame and lightning swirled in a maelstrom inside his body, in front of his body, and within it all she could sometimes catch the outline of a fox, not whipped to and fro as one might expect, but riding on the waves of it. Riding the lightning that seemed to be coming from inside of him.

  It was the most beautiful thing Chloe had ever seen, even though she didn’t understand any of it.

  She turned her head to the side and held her hand up to block the glare, the brightness of it growing until she could no longer look directly at it.

  One of the lightbulbs in the kitchen ceiling exploded like a gunshot. And his light and fire disappeared, leaving him standing on the other side of her kitchen, head tilted like a dog who’d heard a whistle, not even out of breath or disheveled in any way. His blond hair still hung careless around his face, his green eyes regarding her.

  “Sorry,” he said, glancing up at her light fixture.

  She was awed. “Holy crap.”

  He approached her, and instantly her hands went to his chest, his stomach, to feel for herself that they were whole and solid. “That’s…amazing.” Chloe became aware of the heat between her legs, how aroused she was after seeing him that way. Or maybe just at discovering a whole new side of existence she didn’t know was there before.

  He closed their distance and pulled her against his body. He was aroused, too, from the hardness. “Will you accept me, Gaia?”

  “Because it’ll restore my powers?”

  “Yes. I mean…it will. I’ve just shown myself to you, a symbol of love and trust. Our fates so intertwined that not even death can do us part.” One hand pressed against the small of her back, the other came up to stroke her cheek and cup the back of her neck. “I’m meant to be yours, and it’s never felt as right as it does at this moment.”

  He moved to kiss her, but despite her arousal, and despite the way his words felt somehow right to her, too, she stopped him. “Wait. What’d you say your name was again?”

  He leaned back, his eyes almost sad. Had she hurt his feelings by not remembering his name?

  “Jagar Aneneroth. But I prefer if you call me Sparrow.”

  Oh yeah, hippy-dippy parents, she’d thought. “Okay. If we do this, Swallow, will—”

  “Sparrow.” A pinkness washed over his cheeks, and Chloe couldn’t resist teasing him a little more.

  “Sorry. Arrow, I’m not—”

  “Gaia, I have the feeling you’re purposefully mispronouncing my name to—” he straightened and used the words like they were new to him and he wasn’t entirely sure they were right—“piss me off.”

  She smiled then. “Says the fox with the bird’s name.”

  Sparrow’s mouth fell open, and his eyes shone, but he seemed to be fighting a smile. “You’re teasing me.”

  Chloe matched his smile. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. You’re kind of adorable when you’re frustrated. And I can’t let you kiss me without knowing your name, right?”

  “Are you going to let me kiss you?”

  She wrapped her arms tightly around him. What did she have to lose? The worst-case scenario seemed to be Sparrow making love to her and nothing happening afterward, no powers or anything for her. But that still meant she’d be made love to by a gorgeous man who she’d just seen open himself to reveal what almost looked like a universe of fire.

  That didn’t happen to a girl every day.

  Besides, she needed an ally. She’d been bracing the storm by herself all these years and just once, she wished that someone would share her burden. Maybe someone to protect her.

  From Norman.

  She leaned forward, meeting him halfway. His lips brushed over hers tentatively, sweetly, before his tongue slipped out and pressed between her lips. He tasted of oranges, and when Chloe thought about what she’d seen as he’d opened himself to her, she could taste something else. A spice. A heat.

  Is this what lightning tastes like?

  And then it came to her what she tasted, what she felt vibrate into her with his deepening kiss.

  Power.

  A pure, raw blinding power.

  Chapter 8

  The kiss they’d shared reaffirmed everything Sparrow knew in his blood and his very marrow. He was meant to be with her. He’d been destined to win the Selection from the moment he sprang into being, destined to be the consort of his goddess.

  When he kissed her, not only was his arousal instant and urgent, but his power swelled within him, felt the fullness of it in a way he never had before. And he could feel hers, wanting to be set free, as well.

  She touched his chest with a gentle push, forcing their lips apart.

  “I…” Chloe swallowed and blinked rapidly. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

  “You want to. Do you need more time?” he asked. He knew trust must be earned, hearts must be won.

  “I do.” Her blue eyes were big and uncertain. She licked her lips as if chasing the taste of him. “I can’t just…sleep with you.”

  He smiled. “Technically, you’ve already slept with me.”

  Chloe stiffened, the opposite of what Sparrow had been hoping for. “That makes you a liar, doesn’t it?”

  “A liar?”

  “You said our consummation would restore my powers. If we’ve already fucked, then—”

  He laughed. “Gaia, I would never have taken advantage of your inebriated state. We slept, literally.”

  “I woke up naked.”

  “You kept pulling at your clothes until I helped you undress. I thought you were going to tear them.”

  “You were also naked.” Her eyes narrowed.

  “I sleep naked. Who doesn’t?” Sparrow shrugged. “And you did pull at my clothing, too.”

  Chloe sighed. “None of this makes any sense.”

  “I’ve never forced myself on a woman. But now we have the opportunity, with you fully aware of what we’re doing and why, to bring you back into the fullness of your power.” He stepped close enough that she had to tilt her head back to look up at him. “And I know you want me as much as I want you.”

  “How can you be so sure?” she whispered and leaned forward against him, perhaps not even aware she’d done it. Sparrow knew he was right, she was drawn to him whether she understood what was happening or not.

  “Because I can feel it. I can taste it.”

  He was aware how dark his vo
ice was, dripping with lust. He pressed his lips against hers again, and she melted against him, her arms wrapping around his waist and hanging on tight. When she gasped into the kiss, he slid a hand to the back of her neck, fingers slipping into her hair, and kissed a line down her jaw until his mouth pressed against her neck.

  Her skin was warm and smooth. Her scent nearly drove him insane with need. He could feel the dormant power within her, stirring awake. It called for him, waiting for the awakening. Every fiber of his being responded to its summoning.

  Chloe shuddered against him, and Sparrow’s animal spirit rolled with happiness. He wondered, not for the first time, how well he would handle making love to her. How the kind of pleasure he knew he would experience—not just physical pleasure but the spiritual and emotional pleasure of being complete with his goddess—might affect him.

  He wondered what he might do. He only knew he was eager to find out.

  He pushed toward the couch and sank himself into the cushion, pulling her into him. She let out a nervous giggle, still looking unsure of the direction they were going. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the soft skin of her throat. She arched up against him, her fingers twisting into his shirt, pulling him harder against her. A soft moaned curled out of her throat, inviting him to do more.

  He was more than happy to oblige his goddess. His entire existence dedicated to her. She gazed at him under her lush lashes, sighing happily. He breathed on her skin, telling her how beautiful she was. There were goosebumps on her arm where he blew his breath on her fevered skin.

  “Jagar…” she murmured.

  So, she did remember his name. Though he preferred not to be called that as his first name was bestowed by his father and it invoked unpleasant memories. He banished the thought and focused on the present. His goddess needed him.

  She wanted him.

  He kissed her neck and licked the shell of her ear. She shuddered again as if he’d just hit her erogenous spot. Her breath became heavy as her arousal arose in a fever pitch. He unbuttoned her blouse as he trailed soft, butterfly kisses to her cleavage. He marveled at the smoothness of her skin, the fullness of her breasts. She wore a dark-colored bra adorned with black lace. He hooked his thumb in the cup of her bra and pushed it down. Her succulent nipple was practically begging to be sucked. And he did just that.