A Fox's Family (27 page)

What
right did those lousy humans have to reprimand him for what he did
with his toys? They were just a bunch of lowly apes.

Jiāoào
was a firm believer in yōkai superiority. They were the stronger
race, the more intelligent species. Yōkai, and kitsune in
particular, had it all; power, intelligence, abilities beyond mortal
comprehension, and the longevity needed to truly master those
abilities. What did humans have? Nothing. They only had their
technology, which they thought was enough to protect them from beings
like himself.

Truly,
humans were a pathetic race.

With
an air of disdain,
Jiāoào
observed his new, temporary home. It was disgustingly bare and much
too small. The house, if it could even be called such, couldn’t
have more than fifteen rooms, and some of those rooms were even
connected. Who’d ever heard of the sitting room being connected
to the kitchen like that? Not only was it tiny and lacking any sort
of decorations befitting a kitsune of his status, but the bed was
miniscule. How could he be expected to enjoy his playthings properly
in such a small bed?

“You
see, Maddison?”
Jiāoào
finally turned his head to look down at the woman by his feet. She
really did look quite miserable. “This is what you get for not
finding me proper accommodations.” With a
tsk
of
disappointment, he smashed his heel into her back, eliciting a wail.
“And you wonder why I am always comparing you to my Lilian. Not
only do you lack her beauty, but you clearly lack her brilliance as
well.”

He
looked back out the window, ignoring the muted sobs of pain. It was
no less than she deserved. Everything wrong that had happened during
this trip was her fault.

“I
hope my other servants prove to be more useful than you. They are,
after all, the ones that I have tasked with finding everything out
they can about my Lilian and her living situation, as well as her…
human toy.”

Jiāoào
grimaced. He refused to call that human her mate. His Lilian clearly
did not know what she was doing. That, or she’d been
brainwashed. Why else would a kitsune of her stature and ability be
with a lowly waste of ape-flesh?

“I
really do hope they return soon. Still…” His lips curled
as he looked down at the girl. His two tails wrapped around Maddison,
who tried to struggle but no longer possessed the strength to fight
him. “… I suppose I shall just have to find some way to
kill time while I wait.”

As
wails of pain turned into cries of agony,
Jiāoào
thought about his Lilian. Soon, she would be his, and then she would
be properly broken.

***

Iris
was not a morning person. She had never enjoyed waking up early,
preferring instead to sleep in until around noon.

Too
bad Kevin did not believe in doing the same. It was bad enough that
he’d gone and stolen her sister from her. Couldn’t he
have the decency to at least stay in bed until she wanted to get
up―or at least be a little quieter?

Her
sleep-deprived eyes glared balefully at the ignorant Kevin as he put
on his sneakers and exited the apartment, the
click
of
the door being locked following his departure. It was only after
Kevin left to do Inari-knows-what that Iris realized something. If
Kevin was no longer sleeping, then it meant he wasn’t in bed.
And if he wasn’t in bed, it meant Lilian was currently alone.

Several
seconds later, an excited Iris wandered into Kevin’s bedroom.
She sat down on the bed, her added weight causing Lilian to shift and
tighten her grip on the pillow she held. Lying on her side, the
redhead’s sensual curves were visible yet hidden beneath the
covers.

As
Iris watched her beautiful sister’s sleeping face, a sense of
longing swept through her. How long had it been since she and Lilian
had slept together? Five years? Six? The matriarch had not approved
of how close they were, claiming it would ruin their chances of
finding a good mate. Iris snorted. That woman had just wanted to set
her sister up with some douchewad from the Shénshèng
Clan in order to gather more power to herself.

Reaching
out with her left hand, Iris ran her fingers through Lilian’s
hair. Her fraternal twin mumbled something incoherent and shifted in
her sleep again.

“I…
I love you,” Iris whispered. The words hurt for some reason. A
tight pain entered her chest, constricting her like a snake coiled
around its next meal. She held back tears she could not explain. “So
much…”

“
Kill…”

A
cold chill swept through her arm, coalescing at her fingertips. Her
eyes went wide in terror when she noticed that her fingernails had
become tinged with a distinct ebony color.

NO!
Iris
pulled her hand back hastily. She gritted her teeth, struggling
against a force that could not be seen, heard or distinguished; an
intangible urge to destroy that which she cherished most.
I
won’t you let you take her!

Unable
to stand in her sister’s presence without feeling the
disgusting, implacable urge to stain the bed in Lilian’s blood,
Iris bid a hasty retreat from the bedroom.

The
apartment was not silent, Iris realized. While she had not noticed,
Kotohime was already up and preparing breakfast. Kirihime had also
woken up and could be seen on the balcony hanging up clothes.

Iris
went into the washroom, where all of the extra towels were kept.
Maybe a shower to rinse off the accumulated sweat would help her
regain her bearings.

As
she neared the restroom, the sound of the shower running caught her
attention.

***

Kevin
rode his bike and tossed newspapers onto the driveways of the homes
he passed. He shivered and took his hands off the handles of his bike
long enough to zip his jacket closed, keeping October’s chill
from seeping into his bones.

Riding
around and delivering newspapers was getting easier, Kevin had
noticed. He wondered if this meant he was getting stronger. He hoped
so. All that exercising and all those sparring sessions had to be
doing something.

After
he had finished delivering newspapers, Kevin arrived back at the
distribution center where his boss, Davin Monstrang, presented him
with the money he’d made.

“Here,”
the monstrously-sized man grunted, pressing a wad of bills into
Kevin’s hand. It wasn’t much, about $50 all told, but
that would give him enough money for what he had planned today. “Try
not to spend it all in one place, brat.”

Kevin
rolled his eyes. His boss never changed. How many times had he heard
Davin Monstrang say those exact same words? It had to be a couple
hundred at least.

“Yes,
sir.”

Kevin
was about to leave, his hand was even on the handle, when Monstrang’s
voice called out to him.

“I
hear you’ve been keeping some unusual company.” Kevin
froze. “It’s not my place to tell you not to get involved
with people like them, but I do recommend remaining wary, especially
around that mate of yours.”

Kevin
worked his mouth silently, his mind trying to grasp the immensity of
that statement. Finally…

“Did
you just…” He paused, then shook his head. “No,
you know what? I don’t want to know.”

Kevin
left the distribution center and rode home, his mind awhirl. He
arrived at his apartment to find Kotohime cooking breakfast. Her
kimono was different that day; a dark velvet made to look like the
night sky. Starting from the hem and traveling up in an artistic
display was what Kevin recognized as a depiction of the Milky Way
Galaxy. He did not know if the presentation was astrologically
correct, but he found it stunning nonetheless.

“Morning,
Kotohime.”

“Good
morning, Kevin-sama.”

“You’re
not making a traditional Japanese breakfast today.” It wasn’t
a question.

“Indeed
I am not. Iris has been complaining about the lack of variety in my
cuisine. Again. I have decided to try my hand at making something
new.” Her lips twitched and, for just an instant, Kevin thought
she was smiling at him. “I do hope that you, Lilian-sama and
everyone else will enjoy it.”

“Hm!”
Kevin nodded. “I’m sure we will. You’re an
excellent chef.” There it was again; that strange twitch. “Do
you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Of
course not.”

“Thank
you. I noticed Kirihime is hanging our laundry out to dry.”

“Indeed
she is. Is that a problem?”

“Not
really, no. It’s just… well, she does know that we have
a dryer for that, doesn’t she?”

Kotohime’s
conciliating smile put him at ease, oddly enough. Wasn’t this
the same woman who had threatened to clean his entrails with her
katana if he didn’t make a decision about his relationship with
Lilian?

“I
am afraid that you’ll have to forgive my sister. She is not
used to living in the human world. Most of the technology we have is
very outdated. She doesn’t even know how to use a washing
machine, so you can’t expect her to know how to use the dryer.”

Kevin
didn’t really know what to say to that, so he changed the
subject. “I see. Well, I think I’m just going to take a
quick shower.” He prepared to move off before a thought made
him pause. “No one else is using the shower, are they?”

“Not
to the best of my knowledge.”

“Good.”

It
turned out the restroom was indeed empty—thank the gods for
small miracles. After turning the water onto its hottest setting,
Kevin stripped out of his clothes and entered the shower. Pressing
his palms flat against the tiled wall, he allowed the warm spray to
ease the tension and soreness in his muscles.

Kevin
never heard the door click open and close. He did feel the pair of
naked breasts pressing into his back, however.

Emitting
a squeak akin to that of a frightened mouse caught by a tiger, Kevin
scrambled away from the breasts. Unfortunately, the tub was small and
slippery, and thus the inevitable happened.

He
tumbled out of the bathtub when his legs hit the lip, landing on his
back and cracking his head against the floor. Stars swam in his
vision as an intense pain caused his head to explode in agony. He lay
there, blinking and trying to stop the incessant rattling of his
brain, and eventually succeeded.

A
part of him wished he hadn’t.

Kevin
had seen many a sexy thing in recent times; Lilian wearing his
clothes as nightwear, Lilian in skimpy lingerie, Lilian naked, Lilian
in the shower naked. Yes. He’d seen enough sexy things that he
could honestly say that Justin Timberlake didn’t know the true
meaning of bringing sexy back. Kevin had seen so much sexy that he’d
been practically desensitized.

None
of his past experiences could have prepared him for what he saw now.

She
stood above him, bereft of clothing, her long raven hair sticking
erotically to her skin. Droplets of water trailed down her body; over
her breasts, her stomach, her hips and legs before dipping into the
crevice between her glorious thighs. While Kevin had seen Lilian
naked plenty of times, there was something intrinsically different
between Lilian and her fraternal twin, something that he couldn’t
comprehend but understood instinctively.

Lilian,
for all her otherworldly, inhuman beauty, was surprisingly innocent.
Even when trying to seduce him, the girl retained an unusual sense of
purity. Because of that, while everything she did had undeniable
charm and sexiness, it didn’t really hold a candle to the
vision of otherworldly seduction standing before him.

Everything
Iris did, from the way she cocked her hips, to how she crossed her
arms under her bust with the obvious intention of bringing attention
to her breasts, and even her facial expressions were designed to draw
people’s eyes to her. There was a strange sort of animalistic
attraction to her that Lilian simply couldn’t compete with.

“Now
there’s a reaction I wasn’t expecting.” Iris’
sinfully sensual lips curved with wicked cunning. “How cute.”

“I-I―what
are you doing in here?!”

“The
door wasn’t locked, so I thought I’d invite myself in.”
Kevin knew that he had locked the door upon entering, which meant she
had purposefully picked the lock and was lying to him. “You
don’t have a problem with that, do you?”

Kevin
wanted to tell her that he did have a problem with her actions, a
very big one. But he couldn’t. His mouth wasn’t working.
It wouldn’t even move. In fact, the moment they made eye
contact, all thoughts tried to vanish from his mind like a cosplayer
dressed as Miku Hatsune running from a horde of fanboys at an anime
convention. All that remained was this woman, this creature of carnal
desire.

One
thought managed to penetrate the haze clouding his mind; a call for
action. Kevin closed his eyes, a vain attempt to keep himself from
responding to her. He’d been enraptured the moment their eyes
met.