Iris leaned over from Lilian’s other side. “I know what might help the stud,” she said, making the two lean in to hear what she had to say. The devious vixen grinned. “Give him a good, hard fucking.”
Lilian and Iris stared at Lindsay, who squawked, jerked backwards as if scalded, fell off her seat, and then crashed face-first to the floor. Lindsay pushed herself up and rubbed her face, wincing. Everyone else had stopped what they were doing to stare at her.
“Ms. Diane, are you bothering Lilian?” Ms. Vis demanded with a stern frown.
Lindsay sat back on her seat, her nose red from where it had rubbed against the carpet. “Uh… no, Ms. Vis. I just dropped my pencil and fell when I went to pick it up.”
“That’s right,” Lilian added in defense of her friend. “She didn’t disturb me at all.”
“Of course, Lilian darling, whatever you say!” Ms. Vis squealed. It was all kinds of freaky.
As the obsessive teacher turned back to her lecture, Iris whispered to her sister. “Is it just me or is Ms. thinks-I’m-a-sparkly-vampire getting even more obsessed with you than usual?”
Lilian shuddered. “It’s just you. It has to be just you.”
She didn’t want to think about Ms. Vis’s odd obsession with her. She didn’t know what had happened to make this woman have such an intense 180-degree reversal in regards to her, but the less she thought about it, the better, as far as she was concerned.
When the bell rang, everyone stood from their seats and began filing out. Lilian walked up to her mate as he finished putting away his notebook.
“Kevin?”
The young man stiffened. Lilian frowned as she moved in front of him. Kevin looked at her for a second, and then he turned his head—tried to turn his head. Lilian forced him to look at her by grabbing his face and turning it toward her. He held her gaze for a second, but then his eyes slowly shifted to the side.
Her frown deepened. “Kevin? Is everything okay?”
Her mate took a deep breath… and then he smiled. It was fake, so disgustingly fake that it made Lilian’s heart clench.
“I’m fine…”
No, he wasn’t. He was lying. She hated that he was lying to her. However, now wasn’t the time to deal with this. They were at school, and this was something that they should talk about in private.
Putting on a smile that was every bit as fake as Kevin’s, Lilian grabbed his hand. He flinched at her touch. “Come on. Let’s head to our next class.”
“Um, okay.”
There was another thing that bothered Lilian. After Kevin had grown comfortable with their relationship, he had been the one to start initiating acts of physical intimacy between them, whether it was holding hands or kissing or even pleasuring her with oral sex. Now he didn’t do any of those things.
It hadn’t been so bad at first, but the more time that passed, the less intimate Kevin became. She didn’t know what was wrong. He recoiled when she touched him, he refused to look her in the eyes, and he often crawled out of bed after she fell asleep and slept on the couch. Lilian was at her wits’ end.
I’m going to get to the bottom of this.
“I really feel like I’m missing something here,” Lindsay admitted as they left the classroom. “Did something happen between Lilian and Kevin that I don’t know about?”
“Naw, nothing so dramatic,” Iris said, waving her hand dismissively. “The stud’s just got some hang-ups that he needs to get over.”
Lindsay looked curious. “What kind of hang-ups?”
“Who knows?” Iris said with a shrug, earning herself a pout from the pixie-haired blonde.
Lindsay eventually split off from Lilian, Iris, and Kevin. Her next class was different than theirs.
The school was crowded as everyone wandered to their next class. Some people congregated together, chatting about whatever took their fancy as opposed to traveling to whatever class they attended. Others went to their lockers to grab their books. Kevin, Lilian, and Iris already had the necessary supplies and moved on their way.
Someone stepped in front of them before they could make it too far.
Chris Fleischer didn’t look much different from the last time they’d seen him. He was skinnier, and he stood with a noticeable slouch, like his bones were no longer capable of supporting him. His hair had also grown out, showing that he’d not cut it in recent months. Sunken, bloodshot eyes with dark bags hanging underneath them glared at the trio with impotent malice.
Kevin instinctively moved to stand protectively in front of Lilian and Iris. The action seemed so natural that he didn’t even seem to notice he’d done it.
“I’ve got a bone to pick with you, Swift,” Chris’s growl lacked the threatening demeanor that it used to have. No longer was it powerful and intimidating, but instead it was weak and, well, kind of pathetic.
While Kevin seemed oblivious to his own actions, Lilian had noticed them readily enough. His eyes, once lacking their usual vibrancy, became hard as diamonds. His posture became straighter, too, as if he’d just gained his second wind. It took her a moment to realize what had caused this change, but when she understood the reason for it, she allowed herself to smile.
Kevin, even now you’re still protecting me.
Sure, she didn’t necessarily need his protection. Kevin knew that she was capable of defending herself from the likes of Chris, but that he would put himself in harm’s way for her even now warmed her heart.
Lilian’s resolve hardened. She didn’t know what was bothering Kevin, but she wouldn’t let him face whatever it was alone.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” asked Kevin.
“I want to know why the fuck my sister is training you.” Chris demanded. “You’ve been showing up at her gym every fucking day for the past five months. You might think I don’t know, but I’ve seen you! I’ve fucking seen you. Why? What’s so special about a pathetic little shit like you? Why would she bother training a waste of human excrement, huh?!”
Chris got up in Kevin’s face and grabbed the front of his shirt.
“You think you’re hot shit just because you’ve got my bitch of a sister teaching you? Well guess what, Shitstain, you’re nothing but a—ggrrrraaaahhhH!”
Even Lilian was shocked when, without warning, Kevin latched onto Chris’s wrists and yanked them off of his shirt. He kicked Chris’s legs out from underneath him, dropping the inu to the ground like a sack of stones. Kevin proceeded to roll the other boy onto his stomach with a kick and trap his arms behind his back, followed by pressing a single knee into Chris’s lower vertebrae.
Even Kevin seemed surprised by his own actions. He stared at the boy underneath him, listened to the whimpers and grunts that were emitted as Chris’s arms were forced to contort in ways that they were not meant to go.
Lilian had a front row seat to her mate’s eyes slowly widening, as if he was just now realizing what he’d done. His face shifted to an unhealthy shade of green and twisted into an expression of combined horror and disgust.
Kevin let Chris go and stood up, backing away from the other boy.
“Beloved…” Lilian reached out a hand despite knowing that she was too far away to touch him. She could do nothing as Kevin turned tail and ran off in the opposite direction of their class. She stood there for several seconds before, slowly, dejectedly, she brought her hand back down.
That look on Kevin’s face had been startling. An expression filled with the horrified realization of what he was doing. Lilian didn’t know what that look was for, or why he had been wearing it, but she knew one thing for sure: She would need to speak with Kevin soon.
“Damn.” Iris whistled. “That was pretty cool, but I was really hoping to see the stud put this stupid dog in his place.” Lilian’s lips squeezed into a thin line. Iris didn’t seem to notice her glare until several seconds after she started. “What?”
“Can you not read the mood?!” Lilian shouted, her body twitching like she’d stuck her finger in an
electric socket.
***
Kevin didn’t pay attention to where he was running as he rushed across the campus. All he knew was that he needed to get away from Chris.
His mind reeled from what he had done, from the violence that he had displayed toward the inu. It was exactly like what had happened with Luna Mul. Sure, he hadn’t killed Chris, but he still reacted without thinking, resorting to violence and causing someone else pain.
What kind of person am I turning into?
He turned a corner and bumped into somebody, causing him to stumble. He yelped. The other person grunted.
Kevin would have fallen to the ground, but he was saved from that fate by a hand latching onto his wrist.
“Whoa,” the person he crashed into started, “take it easy, kiddo. What’s the rush?”
Kevin looked up to see a man with long, messy red hair that ran all the way down his back and looked sort of like a lion’s mane. Golden eyes peered at him from beneath dark bangs, and his grin revealed slightly sharper than average teeth.
He was also, Kevin noted almost self-consciously, extremely handsome. Strong jawline, attractive facial features, and a muscular physique. He was short, but that didn’t seem to detract from his looks. Kevin felt horribly inadequate just looking at this man.
“I’m sorry,” Kevin apologized, shaking his head. “But I’m in a bit of a hurry.”
“No worries. Just be more careful.”
Kevin nodded before rushing off again. He looked back to see the man that he’d bumped into watching him. For some reason, he was getting strange vibes from that guy.
I must be feeling more self-conscious than I thought.
***
Seth watched as the young boy who’d run into him disappeared around a corner. Kids were quite rude these days. Well, at least this one had apologized. He guessed that had to count for something.
Seconds after the boy vanished, two more people ran past him: a gorgeous young woman with red hair whose appearance was reminiscent of a princess, and another attractive female with black hair who oozed sex appeal from her very pores.
He already wanted them.
“Beloved! Please wait up!” the redhead shouted.
“Damn it,” the raven-haired one swore. “I can’t believe I’m being forced to work up a sweat like this. I hate getting sweaty unless it’s from hot, raunchy sex. You’re going to pay for this, Stud!”
“Oh, be quiet and just keep chasing after him!”
“Tch. Fine.”
The two females eventually disappeared around the same corner as the boy. Seth stared at the spot where they’d vanished for a few seconds longer. Unbidden, a grin slowly spread across his face.
“That matched the picture I was given. So, that would make her my target, wouldn’t it?” he asked of no one in particular. Licking his lips, Seth envisioned the young redhead in his mind once more. “She’s quite beautiful. I wonder if I can add her to my collection after I’ve killed her?”
He continued walking along with seemingly no destination in mind. He wanted to get a feel for the school. Half the battle in an assassination was making sure that the assassin had all of the information they needed to flawlessly assassinate their target.
As he wandered, his mind went back to what he’d seen before that boy had crashed into him. It seemed his target and that young man had a problem with the inu boy. He didn’t blame them. After all, dogs were the bane of yōkai. Nobody wanted to associate with a bunch of ugly, flea-ridden beasts.
“Hm… I wonder if I could fool that stupid mutt into doing my bidding?” he pondered before shrugging.
He could figure out the best way to use that inu later. With luck, maybe the inu would be killed off along with his target. He’d be able to rid the world of something hideous, and he wouldn’t have to be responsible for killing such extravagant beauty with his own two hands.
It would be like killing two rabbits with one claw swipe.
***
Later that day, during lunch, Lilian went to the library with Christine, Iris, and Lindsay.
The library was a large building shaped like a cylinder. Dozens of shelves lined the inside, and there were several tables for people to sit at. The walls were made of glass, not bricks, so the people inside were given a clear view of the campus.
Lilian sat at one of several tables, a large stack of manga sitting on the table in front of her. She’d already grabbed one of the manga that she had selected and was going through it, skimming the pages, her narrowed eyes glaring at it as if she was attempting to derive all of its secrets through intense staring. So far, she wasn’t having much luck.
She hadn’t been able to catch up to Kevin after he ran out on her and Iris, and while she’d tried talking to him during gym, her mate had ignored her and everyone else completely. Lilian had later learned that Kevin had hidden himself inside of the weight room. She guessed he was trying to avoid people after what happened with Chris.
That was why, after their last two classes following gym, Lilian had proceeded to the library instead of traveling to lunch with Kevin. She longed to be with him, however, she also knew that if she wanted to help Kevin with his problems, then she needed to figure out the best method of confronting him. In other words, she needed to do some research.
So she sat in the library. She was quietly dissecting the manga that she’d chosen for research material, fingers idly flipping the pages, eyes scanning the content. Most regrettably, she had yet to find anything that could help her in this situation.
“I really don’t mind lending a hand and everything,” Lindsay commented from where she sat. The blonde stared at the stack of manga that Lilian had placed in front of her. Her right eyebrow erratically twitched as if she’d picked up a spasm. “But do you really think you’re going to find anything in there to help you? Haven’t we already been through this before? Manga can’t help you in real life.”
“I agree with Lindsay,” Christine muttered, even as she turned a page in the manga that she was reading. “Manga has pretty artwork, and I’ll even admit some of them have a good story, but I fail to see how this will help you solve real life problems.”
Lilian’s cheeks swelled like balloons as she pouted at her friends. “You two don’t know what you’re talking about. Manga is filled with real life problems. I’ve been reading this story about a straw hat-wearing pirate who’s always getting into strange and dangerous situations—”
“And how does that possibly relate to real life?” Christine interrupted. Lilian’s swelled up cheeks turned red.
“I was getting to that,” she muttered. “Just because the situations he finds himself in aren’t realistic, that doesn’t mean the lessons the story teaches aren’t. This story is about protecting the people close to you even at the risk of your own life. It’s all about friendship and nakama.”
“Friendship and nakama mean the same thing, Lily-pad,” Iris mumbled. She was sitting next to Lilian. Unlike the others, she was not reading through manga, but was instead buffing her nails and winking at the boys that walked past their table.
She’d already caused several nosebleeds.
“W-whatever,” a slightly embarrassed Lilian grumbled. “My point still stands.”
“Again, I fail to see how this has anything to do with real life,” Christine reiterated, scanning the contents of the page that she was on before flipping to the next page.
“You look like you’re getting really into that manga, Frosty,” Iris said. “Something you want to tell us?”
Christine’s face turned blue as hoarfrost drifted off of her head like steam rising from a hot spring. “S-shut up! S-s-s-so I think this is a halfway decent story! So what?! Who cares?!”
While Lindsay just stared at her friend in surprise, Iris chuckled. “Why are you getting so defensive? I never said there was anything wrong with liking manga, did I? I’d never insult something that my Lily-pad loves so much.”
“W-wh-whatever! Like I
care what you think anyway! Hmph!”
Iris chuckled. “Really,” she mumbled softly to herself, “this girl is almost as easy to tease as the stud.”
“Mou…” Lilian glared at her friends and sister. “Why aren’t you guys helping me? Stop talking and start researching!”
“What exactly are we supposed to be researching?” Lindsay fired back. “I don’t know about these two, but I’m still confused.”
“I need to find an appropriate way to confront Kevin.” Lilian discarded the manga in her hand after realizing that it didn’t have anything useful and grabbed another one. “I’m sure you all know by now that Kevin has been acting weird. He hasn’t been himself, and even though he tries to act like nothing is wrong, I know that something is bothering him.”
“And you want to find out what?” Lindsay asked for clarification.
“Exactly.”
Christine and Lindsay shared a look. They looked back at Lilian, who had once again discarded the manga in her hand when she realized that it was about a musical prodigy who had a mental breakdown during a piano recital after his mother died. In the story, he met a girl, who was also a musician, and they ended up having a love/hate relationship that eventually culminated into a tragic tale of death. It was an incredible story, but she wouldn’t find any useful information in it.
“Couldn’t you just, you know, ask him what’s wrong?” Christine asked.
Lilian put the manga back on the table and stared at her two friends. “You two clearly don’t know how this works. You can’t just ask someone what’s wrong with them and expect them to answer, especially someone like Kevin.”
“Someone like Kevin?” Christine glowered at Lilian as if she had just insulted her lover. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“She means that asking Kevin what’s wrong won’t fix things,” Lindsay explained. “Kevin’s never been the type to externalize his feelings… at least when he’s not dealing with women. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about him from our long years of friendship, it’s that when he’s hurt or sad, he’ll suck it all in and pretend that nothing is wrong.”
A Fox's Mate (American Kitsune Book 6) Page 12
