A Fox's Family (38 page)

“A-alright,
but you guys have to promise not to laugh.” Heather eyed all of
the people present. “Before I became a member of The Sons and
Daughters of Humanity, I was actually a cop.”

“I
can believe that,” Kevin said, and Eric nodded in agreement.
While the woman looked sort of like a cheerleader with her blond
hair, bright attitude and curvaceous figure, she also had a toughness
about her that was reminiscent of several police officers he’d
met before.

“Right,
so, I actually used to work for the LAPD, however, I was fired for,
uh, reasons.”

“Reasons?”
Several brows furrowed, Kevin’s included. “What kind of
reasons?”

“Oh,
you know…” Heather avoided eye-contact with everyone.
“The usual reasons.”

“Stop
beating around the bush and just tell us!”

“I
was caught peeping, okay?!”

Silence.

“Um,
what?” Kevin asked, not quite sure he’d heard her
properly.

With
those words, the dam broken, there was no stopping Heather now. “It
all started back when I was younger. Ever since I was little, I’ve
been enamored with women’s bodies. There’s just something
about a woman’s figure that drives me wild. The way their
breasts bounce, how their butts jiggle, the flow of seamless curves,
it’s enough to really get my motor running. Kukuku…”

Heather
giggled like a perverted old lecher. Her bluish-green eyes glazed
over and drool leaked from her mouth, dribbling down her chin.

She
eventually snapped back to reality and noticed that everyone was
looking at her with matching deadpan expressions―except for
Eric, who had stars in his eyes. She blushed, absently wiping the
drool away.

“A-anyway,
this love for women’s bodies soon turned into something more:
admiration and the desire to immortalize the beauty of women
everywhere, which is why I began peeping—and also because I
wanted to use them as inspiration for the books I’m writing.”

A
moment of silence ensued.

“It’s
a female version of Eric,” Kevin suddenly deadpanned.

“A
female Eric has descended upon us,” Lilian added.

“At
least this female Eric is hotter than the male version,” Iris
said, which caused everyone to look at her strangely. “What?
All of you were thinking it, too.”

After
several headshakes, the group turned back to Heather.

“Please
continue, Heather-san.”

“Um,
right. So, anyway, I would peep on women and, well, I eventually got
caught, like, multiple times. After the… seventh time, I
think?” She paused, then nodded. “Yeah, after the seventh
time getting caught, the Chief of Police fired me. He said something
about how I was breaking the law.” She huffed. “I don’t
see how I broke the law. I’m a woman, they were women; it’s
not like it’s illegal for me to ogle another woman.”

“The
fact that you would even use the term ogle is reason enough to fire
you,” Kevin stated with certainty.

“That
still doesn’t explain how you came to work for these Sons and
Daughters of Humanity,” Kotohime pressed.

“That
came later,” Heather admitted. “See, I was pretty down on
my luck after that. I couldn’t hold a job for very long because
I kept peeping on my female coworkers while they were changing. My
managers would always fire me after receiving several complaints—or
when they discovered the hidden cameras I had installed inside of
each locker.”

Kevin
would have facepalmed, but since his face was buried in Lilian’s
neck, he refrained.

“I
was eventually picked up by a recruiter, who said that my experience
as a cop would secure me a job with the agency he worked for. He also
said they didn’t care if I peeped on women in my free time, so
I took it.”

“And
these people turned out to be The Sons and Daughters of Humanity?”
Lilian asked for clarification.

“Yep.”

Silence
fell over the group as everyone absorbed this latest piece of
information.

“Dang,”
Kevin grunted, “those people don’t have very high
standards, do they?”

“I
think it’s more that they just don’t care who works for
them, so long as that person is skilled enough to be of use,”
Heather told Kevin.

“Why
are these people after you now?” asked Kirihime. “Weren’t
they your comrades?”

“Because
I disobeyed orders, I think, or maybe because I failed to deliver Red
over there.” Heather pointed at Lilian, who puffed up her
cheeks at the new nickname the woman had given her. “I’m
not really sure what goes on in the minds of those up top. All I know
is that after the debacle in which Red and Swift got away, the agency
decided to cut us loose.”

“And
by cut loose, you mean they tried to silence you,” Kotohime
stated more than asked.

“Right.”
Heather nodded. “I’m pretty sure the others in my
division are already dead. Our base was attacked and completely
destroyed. I was out at the time, so I wasn’t there when it
happened, but I saw the aftermath. There were a lot of corpses and no
survivors.”

“How
do you know it was these Sons and Daughters people?” asked
Lilian. “Couldn’t it have been someone else?”

“You
mean aside from the killer robots that attacked me?” Heather
shot back. “The only people who knew the location of our base
are the people in my division and our superiors.”

“We
also know where it’s located,” Kevin pointed out.

“No,”
Heather shook her head, “you know where our holding cells were.
That wasn’t our actual base, which is located seventy-two miles
outside of Phoenix in the middle of nowhere.”

“If
you knew these people were after you, then why are you still in
Arizona?” Lilian asked the question that Kevin wanted to know
as well. It didn’t make much sense to him.

“Where
would I go?” Heather shrugged at her own question. “These
guys aren’t a small terrorist cell or a tiny drug cartel.
They’re a large organization that spans fifty-two different
countries. They’ve got spies everywhere. How else do you think
they can kidnap so many yōkai without anyone ever knowing it’s
them?”

No
one had an answer for her, and it was this very lack of an answer
that scared Kevin the most.

Aside
from what Heather had just told them, he had no clue as to who these
people were, but he knew one thing for sure.

This
would not be the last time he and his friends encountered The Sons
and Daughters of Humanity.

Chapter
8

Invitation

“I
see. So, both Kotohime and Kirihime are acting as my Lilian’s
bodyguards, are they?”

“It
seems that way, Lord Jiāoào.”

Jiāoào
sat on a comfortable-looking couch made of red leather. Gold inlays
and intricate designs swirled around it in esoteric patterns. The
leather squeaked as he shifted. Laying on the couch with her head on
his lap, a docile Maddison rested, her dead eyes staring into a void.

His
current abode, while still depressingly tiny, had a much more
ostentatious appearance now. Large tapestries hung from the wall,
their colors a combination of royal purple and gold. The plain white
carpet had been switched out for the same purple as the tapestries.
He had even added several gigantic columns to the foyer and switched
out the boring staircase for a much grander one.

While
he still didn’t approve of the place and would be glad to leave
it, at least now it held the decor of someone befitting his station.

“I
should have known they would be here,”
Jiāoào
murmured, mostly to himself. “Kotohime has been my Lilian’s
personal bodyguard ever since she gained her second tail, and
Kirihime has been taking care of her sister and mother for decades.”
He stroked the underside of his chin with one of his two tails. “Is
there any chance you and Maddison could defeat them?”

“Doubtful,”
Ling’s answer was swift and sure. Had anyone else spoken in
such a manner, or told him such a thing, they would have been
punished. He trusted Ling’s judgement on matters such as this,
however.

“Which
means we cannot attack while either one of them is around,”
Jiāoào mused.

“In
a two on one battle we might be able to defeat Kirihime,” Ling
said, her three tails writhing agitatedly at the thought of fighting
the water user. “However, it would be a close call. She did not
earn the title of Yandere Berserker for nothing.”

“Hmm.”
More thinking noises. “What if we went after Lilian while she
is at that… school that she is currently attending?”

“We
would be breaking one of the few laws that all yōkai must abide
by, Lord Jiāoào, in which case, we would have to deal
with Davin Monstrang, a yōkai whose power is said to be on par
with an eight-tailed kitsune.”

Jiāoào
grimaced. “That damn Saint is causing me problems without even
realizing it.”

All
yōkai traveling to the US had to go through an immigration
process, where their names were put on record. Jiāoào had
not wanted to deal with the Four Saints, so he’d simply
infiltrated the country by entering the human way. This meant they
had to be more cautious than he normally liked.

“If
you’d like,” a voice spoke up, “I could take care
of those bodyguards for you.”

Jiāoào
looked at the speaker, trying not to show his disgust as he
contemplated the suggestion. “No, even if you could defeat
these two, doing so would create too much of a ruckus, and I would
rather not have to deal with a member of the Four Saints.”

“As
you wish,” a man garbed like a butler bowed mockingly low.

Sighing,
Jiāoào relaxed back into his posh, comfortable sofa. His
fingers idly scraped Maddison’s scalp. Maddison shuddered, but
she didn’t react to his ministrations otherwise. Jiāoào
ignored her shuddering.

“This
is quite the conundrum.” Thinking about the issue some more, he
eventually happened upon an idea. “I want you to enroll in my
Lilian’s academy. Find out everything you can, and if you see
an opportunity to capture her without rousing suspicion, then do so.”

Ling
bowed before him. “Of course, Lord Jiāoào.”

As
Ling left to perform her duties, Jiāoào smiled as an
image of Lilian appeared within his mind. “Soon, very soon, you
will become mine.” He looked down at the pathetic excuse for a
kitsune resting on his lap. “And then I can get rid of you.”

Jiāoào
drifted off, thoughts of how he would break Lilian flitting through
his mind.

He
never noticed Maddison gritting her sharp canines. Nor did he see the
single tear that leaked from her right eye.

***

On
Monday morning Kevin, Lilian and Iris headed to school with Eric.

Eric
did not take the bus to school, because his old man was the
principal—a fact that appalled women. They were driven to
school by Mr. Corrompere, who somehow managed to sleep through
everything that had happened last night.

I
guess it’s because Kirihime had placed an enchantment on him.

School
felt very odd that day. Perhaps it was because of what happened last
night, the break in their routine, the knowledge about the anti-yōkai
group,  and the strange machines that Kirihime and Kotohime had
fought, but Kevin and Lilian felt off all day. Going to school,
sitting in class, and spending time with friends talking about
regular teenage stuff--all of it felt so normal that it threw them
for a loop.

“I’m
telling you, nobody can beat Kenshin Himura in a straight up sword
fight. He’s the ultimate badass swordsman, and that style of
his is way more awesome than anyone else’s.”

“You
clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. Kirito
would pound Himura’s ass into grass.”

Kevin
let the argument between Alex and Andrew wash over him. Lilian sat
beside him, listening to Lindsay as she tried to convince the redhead
to join her soccer team.

“Are
you sure there’s no way I can convince you to join the soccer
team? I really think you would be a good addition,” the tomboy
was saying. “You’re really fast, and you’ve got
some serious kicking power.”

Lilian
smiled apologetically at her friend. “I’m sorry, but I’m
not really interested in playing sports.”

“Ha…
I get it. I’ll stop asking, for now at least.” Lindsay
gave her friend a pout. “But, don’t think I’ve
given up or anything.”

Lilian’s
demure giggle rang through the air like wind chimes. “Of
course. I would expect nothing less from you.”

“By
the way, I noticed that Kevin seems kind of tired today.”
Lindsay leaned into Lilian, a somewhat mischievous grin on her face.
“You two didn’t do anything inappropriate, did you?”

“Great,”
Kevin sighed, “Lindsay’s become a gossip.”

“Hush,
you,” Lindsay said without taking her eyes off Lilian. “So,
did you?”

Lilian
tilted her head in curiosity. She appeared genuinely confused. “I’m
not sure I understand.”

Lindsay
gave her a dubious look. “Oh, come on. You know. Did you and
Kevin get up to anything…” she leaned forward more and
whispered into the redhead’s ear, “naughty?”

Kevin
took a bite of his pork cutlets as he cast a sideways glance at the
pair.

I
wonder if I should tell Lindsay that I can hear every word she’s
saying?

“Naughty?”
Lilian’s frown grew.

Lindsay
nodded emphatically. “Yeah, you know. Like, some healthy adult
fun and all that?”

Lilian
placed a finger against her lips, her thoughtful mien undeniably
cute. “Well, Kevin and I did take a shower together, and we
lounged in the bath afterward. We also kissed a lot.” Lilian
looked at the now red-faced Lindsay, who apparently hadn’t
expected him and Lilian to have actually gotten up to anything
risque. “That might have tired him out a bit, but I don’t
think we did anything inappropriate.”