A Fox's Family (18 page)

Lilian’s
breasts had been always sensitive, perhaps because of how large they
were, and the act of Kevin fondling them, of his hand touching the
bare skin of her breast, proved to be too much for her to handle.

“K-Kevin…”

Kevin
stiffened when a pair of legs locked around his waist.

“Please…”
It wasn’t a word. It was a moan. Kevin thought he would die of
sexy. “I need you… please…”

Before
they could go any further, the door burst open with a loud
bang!
reminiscent
to cannon fire. Kevin and Lilian froze. Their necks slowly craned
over to see Iris standing in the doorway. With her hair overshadowing
her face and her crimson eyes glowing with vicious malignance, the
incredibly gorgeous kitsune looked like Sadako Yamamura—a very
hot version of Sadako Yamamura, but still kind of
The
Ring
-like.

“You…
you two…”

“Uh.”
Kevin thought fast. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

Iris
stared. Lilian stared. Kevin felt the combined weight of their stares
and blushed a deep scarlet.

“… Okay,
so maybe this is what it looks like.”

Iris
ground her teeth together.“I can’t believe you would do
this to me! See if I ever decide to apologize to you again!”

The
door slammed shut behind Iris, who they could hear stomping down the
hall. When the sounds of her angry footsteps faded, they looked at
each other.

“Sooo.”
An only slightly blushing Kevin raised an eyebrow. “Any idea
what that was about?”

“Not
a clue.” Lilian shook her head. “Wanna start making out
again?”

“After
what just happened, I think we’d better not.”

“Hawa.”

“Don’t
steal your mother’s catchword!”

***

Maddison
used to be a member of a very small clan of Water Kitsune located at
the edge of the Bodhisattva’s territory—until her family
sold her into slavery because the son of the Bodhisattva, Jiāoào
Shénshèng,
had decided that he wanted her for himself.

Her
clan had been forced to sell her as a slave. Oh, they called her a
vassal of the Shénshèng Clan, but she knew that was a
very loose concept as far as Jiāoào
was concerned.
While everyone else in the Shénshèng Clan treated her
with the respect deserving of a vassal, Jiāoào
treated her like a toy.

She
knew the reason Jiāoào
wanted her. With her long red-haired, green eyes and lovely curves,
she looked somewhat similar to Lilian Pnevma. Of course,
Jiāoào
made sure to inform Maddison of her deficiencies at every
opportunity; mentioning how her hair didn’t have Lilian’s
otherworldly luster, how her eyes lacked the brilliant
vibrancy
of emeralds, and how her body didn’t possess the luscious
curves of the real Lilian Pnevma. She didn’t know what made it
worse, that he told her these things to begin with, or that he was
usually degrading her during intercourse.

She
walked through the second home of the most powerful clan of Celestial
Kitsune. Located next to the Tianmen Mountain, the Shénshèng
Clan’s second home held the appearance of a
mansion from the Han Dynasty.

Only
Jiāoào
used this home. Here, away from the eyes of his father and sister and
brothers, he could debase his servants—slaves—to
his heart’s content.

Maddison
eventually reached the room that served as Jiāoào’s
private chamber. She knocked upon the extravagant door, with its
depiction of orchids and a nine-tailed kitsune sitting under a tree,
and then she waited.

The
person who greeted her was not
Jiāoào,
but another woman who, like her, had been enslaved to serve Jiāoào.
Like all kitsune, she was quite beautiful, with purple hair, blue
eyes, and a voluptuous body. Her three tails hung limply behind her.

She
wasn’t wearing any clothes.

“Yes?
Can I help with you something?” Ling asked, and Maddison nearly
shuddered. Ling Mei was a “vassal” who had served Jiāoào
for far longer than her. The
woman’s eyes were dead, emotionless in a way that dolls would
envy. How many decades had she been forced to endure under Jiāoào’s
yoke
to
have eyes like that? Maddison pitied her.

“Yes,
could you inform Lord Jiāoào
that
a spy living in Arizona has uncovered the location of Lilian Pnevma?”
Maddison thought she saw a flicker in Ling’s eyes, but that
could have just been a trick of the light. “It appears that she
and her immediate family have traveled to Phoenix, Arizona.”

After
taking a moment to absorb this information, Ling bowed to Maddison,
who returned it. “I will hand this information to Lord Jiāoào
at once…”

She
trailed off when a cry of pain reverberated from within the room.

After
a second of awkward silence, she amended her statement.

“Correction:
I shall hand this information over to Lord
Jiāoào
once he has finished satisfying himself.”

Maddison
shuddered again. She thought Ling also shuddered, but she couldn’t
be sure. Either way, she had done her task and, seeing how she had no
desire to become
Jiāoào’s
plaything, she decided to leave before he became aware of her
presence.

“In
that case, I shall leave you to it.”

With
one final bow, she left, walking down the hallway as quickly as her
legs could carry her.

Chapter
4

A
Teacher's Closure… Sort of

The
next day was an awkward one. Iris tried to pretend that what happened
last night had never happened, and Lilian helped by claiming
ignorance. There were still some problems, especially between the two
sisters, but Kevin decided not to interfere for fear of exacerbating
the issue. That, and Iris didn’t seem to like him very much, so
he thought it best to avoid her for the time being.

That
morning Kevin rode his bike to Mad Dawg Fitness, which was only a few
miles from his complex.

He
really did love how everything was so close to where he lived: the
mall, the gym, school, the park, the grocery store. Literally, every
place he might need or want to visit was between ten to twenty
minutes away.

The
air that morning was crisp, cool and refreshing. It was still fairly
early. The sun had risen but wasn’t that high. It sat low on
the peaks of a mountain range in the distance, barely a third of it
peeking up from sharp spires painted in oranges and pinks.

As
he pedaled, he thought about Kiara and his training. He trained with
her four days a week: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He had
actually wanted to do more, but Kiara told him that four days would
be more than enough. She further explained that if he trained any
harder it might actually damage his muscles, which would hinder his
attempts at becoming strong enough to stand against yōkai. He
complained in the beginning, but after their first week of training,
he understood why she refused to train him more.

Kiara’s
training was tough. Really tough. Brutal even. Kevin never went home
without feeling like someone had tried to tear his muscles apart from
the inside out, like he’d been skinned and had his body dunked
in rubbing alcohol. After experiencing her routine firsthand, Kevin
was glad that he didn’t have training with Kiara more than four
days a week.

Mad
Dawg Fitness was one of those gyms that could be considered truly
gigantic. Not just huge, but monstrous. Spanning nearly 12 acres of
land, the fitness center looked like a sprawling metropolitan mall
instead of a gym.

The
building itself had three stories. Having been there plenty of times
in the past―especially recently―Kevin knew that each
level consisted of different recreational activities. The entire
second and third levels were dedicated to fitness classes like Zumba
and stuff. It had all of the normal sports rooms that people expected
from a gym: basketball court, tennis rooms and a swimming pool.
Anything people could think of that dealt with exercise, it was
probably there.

Already
dressed in his workout clothes, Kevin arrived in the room that Kiara
had dedicated to his training. Spacious and more than a little
spartan, the large room’s only real decorations were the large
blue mat that covered nearly the entire floor and a mirror that
spanned the entire northern wall.

Kiara
was already there, standing in the center of the mat, waiting for
him.

She
also wasn’t alone.

“Ack!”

The
three jabronis who had tried to beat the crap out of him with little
success just over a month ago grinned at him.

“Wh-what
the heck are they doing here?!” Kevin’s voice sounded
quite shrill as he shouted, pointing to the trio of tall, taller and…
midget. Seriously. Kevin had never seen someone so freaking short.

He’s
like a pint-sized meathead.

The
fanged grin on Kiara’s face did little to settle his nerves. In
fact, it just made everything worse. “I called them here to
help train you.”

“T-train
me?”

“That’s
right.” Kiara crossed her arms, the smirk on her face widening.
“I think your physical fitness is at a level where you can
begin learning how to fight against opponents stronger than you.
You’re actually lucky to reach this point so quickly, but I
think we can attribute that to you being on the track team.”

“B-b-but
why are these three here?! They’re just a bunch of side
characters with no real purpose!”

While
Midget and Pimples scratched their heads with a witless look on their
faces, Tall got angry. “Hey! Did you just insult us?”

“YES!”

Kiara
looked amused. “You’ve been hanging out with those foxes
way too much.” Kevin glared at her, but she just chuckled.
“Don’t give me that look. You knew this was going to
happen eventually. The only way you can learn how to fight properly
is by fighting other people.”

“I
know that.” Kevin’s scowl did not leave his face. “I
just don’t know why I have to spar against those three. Why
can’t I spar against you?”

“Because
even if I were to hold back, just a single punch from me would
probably kill you. At the very least it would put you in a hospital
and cripple you for life.”

…
An
unsettling silence descended upon the room. Several crows cawed
somewhere in the distance, which Kevin found strange because they
were inside… and Arizona didn’t have crows.

“Okay,
you make a very good point,” Kevin admitted reluctantly, “but
I still don’t understand why it has to be them.”

“Aw,
don’t be like that, bud.”

“Yeah,
we won’t hurt you… much.”

“And
I certainly won’t break your teeth in for what you did to my
tooth.”

While
the three jabronis cracked their knuckles, Kevin gulped.

Kiara
did her best to reassure her disciple. “Don’t worry,
boya, I’ll stop them before they do too much damage to you.”

“Your
words are like a bastion of safety in this sea of fear and
uncertainty.” Kevin deadpanned.

“Really?”

“NO!”

“Oh,
well,” Kiara shrugged, “can’t say I didn’t
try. Now let’s get to work. Boys?”

As
the faces of Midget, Pimples and Tall split into wide grins, Kevin
whimpered.

I
knew I should have stayed home this morning.

***

That
morning, Lilian went about doing everything she normally did.
However, while she went through the motions of daily life, she was
still very conflicted about what happened last night with her sister.

She
remembered Kevin’s words before they went to bed. She knew her
mate was right. While there were several things about Iris that she
neither liked nor approved of, Lilian really did love her sister. So,
she planned on apologizing.

Unfortunately,
apologizing proved to be more difficult than expected, especially
since she didn’t know how.

Sitting
around the table with her family, Lilian’s mind worked
furiously on trying to think up the best way to apologize. Sure, she
could just say “sorry” but, in all honesty, she really
didn’t know what she should be sorry for. The fact that she and
Iris got into a fight? That she walked out on her sister while they
were taking a bath? What about how she didn’t think it was okay
for her and her sister to bathe together in the first place? Two of
those three were things she didn’t really feel all that sorry
about, and the last one wasn’t even her fault.

As
she sat there, gazing at the table in silent contemplation, Kotohime
served them breakfast.

“You
should have told me you were cooking breakfast, Kotohime,”
Kirihime said as a plate of broiled salmon and a bowl of rice was set
in front of her. “I would have been more than happy to help
you.”

“The
reason I didn’t tell you I was making breakfast is because of
your tendency to use questionable ingredients.” Kirihime’s
shoulders slumped. “However, if you like, you can help me clean
the dishes.”

Kirihime
perked up seconds later. “I’ll help you clean up after
breakfast, then.”

Seated
on Lilian’s left, Camellia absently munched on her rice.
Looking at her mom made Lilian feel guilty. Not just for running away
and worrying her, but for a lot of other things as well. It was sad
to see the woman who’d given birth to her and her sister
reduced to such a pitiful state, especially since she had been so
much more, once upon a time.

Kotohime
used to tell her stories about her mom, tales of a once legendary
kitsune who’d earned the title
The
Dancing Lily
.
Lilian didn’t know how much of those stories were true, and she
would likely never find out. Camellia’s mind had degraded long
before she and her fraternal twin gained their second tail and became
supernatural creatures.

Lilian
turned her attention away from her mom and looked at her sister, then
looked away when Iris noticed her looking. Wanting to pretend she
hadn’t been staring, her eyes strayed to the empty seat beside
her. Kevin’s seat.