Kitsune Tales: Two Short Stories (3 page)

The thunder of cars stopped behind her and
Yuri sat back on her heels, staring at the empty brick wall. She took several
deep breaths. Her hands started to shake. Blood dripped down her cheek, hot and
wet.

She had done it. All on her own, more or
less. Piccolo
had
told her where to
look for the sphinx at the beginning, but everything else was
her
.

“You did good, sexy.”

Yuri’s head jerked around at the dusky,
musical voice. She glowered up at Piccolo and jabbed a trembling finger at him.
“You could have done it ten times faster.”

He shrugged and offered her a Starbucks
cup. “Sure. But that’s no fun, is it? You did it all on your own, and that’s
worth something, right? Hell, you can do this without me now.”

“What, are you disowning me now?” She
reluctantly took the cup and sniffed at the strong coffee. He had remembered
the cream. How sweet.

“Nah. You’re just going to be doing more
solo runs.” He took a casual sip of his own coffee and studied her with dark
eyes. “Think you can handle it?”

She frowned down at the white plastic lid
as she thought. The sphinx wasn’t remotely the most dangerous thing she had
dealt with in the last few years, but she had managed it on her own. Maybe she
could survive without a partner, as long as she kept her head screwed on right.

That wasn’t going to stop her from a bit of
revenge.

She pulled herself to her feet, transferred
her coffee to her left hand, and slugged Piccolo across the jaw with her right.
The blow made her knuckles sting, but seeing his surprise was well worth it.
“Yeah. I think I can handle it. Asshole.”

“Good.” He rubbed his chin,
then
draped his arm over her shoulders.

Yuri sighed and leaned against him, glad
for the support now that the adrenaline had begun to wear off. All she wanted
to do was sleep for a day. Maybe, if she was lucky, he might actually let
her.
 

Yuri hadn't anticipated how
difficult it would be to conceal three
fox tails
in a
bikini. She was used to miniskirts and fishnets, but there was a huge
difference in the amount of fabric that she just hadn't counted on. The
illusion spell she cast was a great way around it, but she had been looking
forward to pure relaxation on this vacation--not keeping up a constant magical
façade to hide her
Kitsune
nature. At least she was
on Galveston's East Beach and lounging on a warm towel in a sexy, black bikini
that made most of the guys passing by, and some of the girls, stare.

She liked the staring. She always
had.

She was less fond of the 'red
alert' ringtone that blared out of her cell phone. She'd turned the phone off
as soon as she reached the beach; it shouldn't be screaming at her. There were
only a handful of people who could--or would--use magic to get a call through
to a powered-down phone. Yuri didn't particularly want to talk to any of them.

Trying her best not to curse too
loudly, she rolled over to dig the phone out of her overlarge beach bag.
Grumbling under her breath in Japanese, she tapped the button to answer the
call. "What?"

"Good morning
to you, too." Piccolo's voice was smooth and edged with laughter.
"Enjoying the beach?"

Yuri replied with
irritated silence. Her work partner and sometimes-bedmate knew better than to
tease her on her time off. She would have hung up, but she knew whatever he'd
done to get through to a powerless phone would probably keep the line open.

Piccolo's chuckle sounded
like raindrops plinking on stone. "That good, huh?"

"What do you
want?" Yuri asked instead of telling him to shove his head in a dragon's
mouth. "Boss said I had a whole week to myself, and you're calling me
barely a day in. It better be important."

"Your trust
in me is astounding," Piccolo said. Papers rustled on his end of the call.
"Listen, Yuri, we just got a report of a siren targeting humans in your area.
I know you don't--"

"I'm on
vacation," Yuri interrupted. "That means not working.
At all.
No tracking down dangerous artifacts, no going after
sirens. No hiding super-dangerous magical things from stupid mortals. Got me?
I'm here for a week on the beach,
relaxing
,
not working."

Piccolo sighed.
"I know. Webb and I are coming down to deal with it, but you be careful in
the meantime."

Yuri rolled her
eyes. "I can handle myself. You've made that perfectly clear."

"You've never
handled something like this."

"It's just a
siren." Yuri's pride bristled. "I've dealt with worse."

Piccolo made a
strange choked, snorting sound. "It's not
just
a siren, Yuri. She stole something from a friend of Webb's and
he says it makes her twice as dangerous."

Yuri shrugged,
even though she knew he couldn't see it. A siren twice as dangerous as normal
was still less threatening than a ravenous chimera. "Thanks for the
warning, I'm good."

Piccolo snorted
again. "Just watch your back until we get there."

The call dropped,
leaving her phone blank and powerless.

She stared at it
for a long moment, then chucked it into her bag and threw herself back down on
the towel, determined to get a nice tan before her week was up, Piccolo and his
siren be damned.

A minute and a
half later, she cursed as she gathered her things. She couldn't stop thinking
about the stupid phone call and the stupid siren.

Piccolo always
pushed her to be more confident and believe in herself and her abilities, so
why had he been so insistent she
watch
her back? She
could handle herself, and she was going to prove once and for all that she
didn't need him hovering over her and waiting for her to make a mistake. She
could deal with a siren. They only fed on mortal men and magic from the
Flipside, right? That meant Yuri was safe on two counts, unlike Piccolo and
Webb. She could have this dealt with by the time they got down here. Easy.

She shoved the
sandy towel into her bag and slung the bag over her shoulder. All she had to do
was find the siren, stop her from hurting the mortals, and get back whatever
she stole. The hardest part would be tracking the siren, but once she got the
scent, even that shouldn't be too difficult.

Her feet digging
determinedly into the sand, Yuri set off across the beach. She let her nose
lead the way, sniffing surreptitiously at every woman she passed. There was a
chance, of course, that the siren wasn't on this beach--Piccolo hadn't
specified how small "her area" was, and the island wasn't exactly the
smallest in the world--but something told her she'd find her prey here. After
all, East Beach was where most of the hot young people gathered. Prime hunting
grounds for a hungry siren.

A couple of men
wolf-whistled as she passed and she winked in return. A little flirting on the
job never hurt anyone. And, besides, it was fun. Leading them on helped her
take the edge off her frustration a bit.

Further down the
beach, near the collection of blue and white tents that marked the edge of a
sandcastle-building competition, Yuri caught the scent of magic--fish and rain
and flowery perfume. It was faint at first, almost hidden under the delicious smell
of the ocean and human sweat and frying oil, but it grew stronger as she
approached the knot of people milling around by the food and vendors' tents. The
competition's stereo pumped out high-energy pop music, ratcheting up the noise
on the beach.

 
Yuri elbowed her way into the crowd,
using her small stature to her advantage as she wriggled between sweaty,
half-clothed humans shouting at each other and laughing. The noise of the
conversations and the pulsing music made her ears ache, but she did her best to
ignore it and focus on finding the siren.

Like she had
anticipated, it wasn't difficult. The siren was a tall, slender woman with
olive skin and a loose, turquoise dress. Golden fins flashed at her exposed
ankles, though none of the mortals seemed to notice. She reeked of magic,
though it was slightly less intense than the powers Yuri was used to working
with. The siren stood with another woman close to the boundaries of one of the
sandcastle lots but away from most of the other humans, her delicate hand
running up the human's arm. Yuri's stomach flip-flopped. Maybe she wasn't as
safe as she had thought.
 
She turned
to walk toward them as casually as she could, though she was surprised to see
the siren hitting on another woman.

The siren's
attention jerked away from the woman she was flirting with, her head snapping
around to watch Yuri approach. Her smile faded and her dark eyes darted toward
the parking lot for the briefest of moments.

"Hey,"
Yuri said as she came even with the couple. She smiled, letting herself enjoy
the momentary look of panic on the siren's oval face. Then she looked at the
human the siren had been caressing. "Where'd you get the beer? I need a
drink."

The human's smile
looked a little shaky, a little unsure. Her eyes were glazed over. At this
rate, the girl would be basically a zombie--or dead--in minutes. "Over
there."

"Take Cassie's,
darling, and leave us alone." The siren's voice was quiet and
sing-song
, like she was moments away from breaking into a
full-on musical number. She plucked the bottle of the woman's hand and held it
out.

Yuri lifted her
eyebrows but took the bottle anyway and sipped at it. The beer was warm and
sour. How long had the siren been feeding on this girl's energy? "Thanks.
But I actually hoped I could have a word with you, Serena."

The siren gave a
disparaging snort. Her arm snaked around the woman's waist. "My name's not
Serena."

"You sirens
aren't exactly known for creative names. Figured I had about a fifty-fifty
chance." Yuri shrugged and took another swig of the warm beer. She pulled
a face, wondering why she had thought that was a good idea. "Ugh, this is
disgusting."

The siren rolled
her eyes.

"Look,"
Yuri said as she carefully handed the bottle back to Cassie, who took it
uncertainly and stared blankly at the label. "It's my job to make sure
you're not hurting the mortals, and to get back whatever you stole from my
boss's friend. I'm on vacation, so I'll be nice and give you a warning: back
off and go home before I have to get nasty."

The siren outright
laughed. It would have sounded pretty if it hadn’t been so mocking. "You
think you can tell me what to do, little fox-spirit? That's the most amusing
thing I've heard in decades!"

The hairs on the
back of Yuri's neck prickled, trying to rise like hackles. She hated when other
magical creatures dismissed her as unworthy of their time. "I warned you,
sea-bitch."
 

She lunged toward
the siren, sharp teeth bared. Her neon-painted fingernails grew, sharpening
into small, razor claws.

The siren took a
half-step
to the right and trilled out the mocking,
sing-song laugh again. "Too slow, sweetheart."

Yuri growled deep
in her throat and fell back, crouched low as she glowered at the taller woman.
Everything about this siren was grating on her nerves. Yuri wouldn't mind scarring
that pretty face if she got a chance.

"Uh,"
Cassie the human said, backing away from both Yuri and the siren, "I'm
just…
gonna
go. Yeah."

Yuri barely saw
her stumble away out of the corner of her eye. Good. With the human gone and no
one else nearby, she could really let loose and get back to her vacation. She
smiled,
making sure the siren could feel her preparing her
magic for an attack. Not many magical folk knew how to defend against the full
force of her
Earthside
magic. This would be over
soon.

Except that the siren
didn't flinch like Yuri had expected. Instead, she smiled with teeth like a
shark and stepped forward. Golden webbing stretched between her splayed fingers
as she reached out and brushed her hand against Yuri's arm.

Yuri jerked back,
slapping at the siren's arm. Her nails caught on flesh, but didn't even draw
blood.

The siren's other
hand whipped around and grabbed Yuri's ponytail, tugging hard.

Yuri swallowed a
yelp. She twisted, kicking out, and grinned as her foot slammed against the
siren's thigh. As soon as the siren released her, she scrambled away.

"This is tiresome,"
the siren muttered. Instead of moving to attack again, she held out her webbed
hands and sang three quick words in a language that sounded like Ancient Greek.

The magic welling
up like a storm in Yuri's belly vanished, leaving a void that made her
head light
and her knees week. Gritting her teeth against
the sudden void in her power, she staggered forward and attempted to rake her
claws across the siren's face. A gentle shove from her opponent sent her
reeling.

When she finally
managed to catch her balance, her voice was slurred that she wasn't even sure
the siren could understand her. "What'd you do to me?"

The siren smiled
sweetly and held up her hand, watching the web retract into her fingers.
"Took your magic, of course. Oh, don't look at me like that. It's not
enough to do any real damage, you vixen.
Just enough to let
me go about my business without too much trouble.
I even left you enough
to keep up that charming little illusion on your tails. And it'll come back
soon enough. No need to thank me. Though, if you don't mind, it would be just
lovely if you didn't come after me. Honestly, I'd recommend a good lie-down.
Help with the headache. Anyway, I've got places to be. Ta!"

Yuri grabbed for
her, but overbalanced and toppled into the sand. The siren had vanished into
the parking lot by the time she pulled herself back to her feet.

She glowered at
the siren's footprints in the sand. Took her magic? She'd heard that creatures
who
lived on the life force of others could sometimes feed
on magic instead of a human's soul--since it was more or less the same sort of
thing--but she'd never expected it to be true. Or to make her feel so
cotton-brained.

Eventually, the fuzzy
anger boiling in her blood made her lurch into motion. She took two steps in
the direction the siren had gone, then her knees gave out and she crashed to
the sand. A few humans skirted around her and one asked if she was all right,
but she waved him off. She wasn't going to look weak in front of the mortals.

She tried to force
herself back to her feet, but her head spun and the world went black.

Something cool and
damp pressed against her arm. Yuri slowly clawed her way back to consciousness
and took stock of her surroundings. She was in the medical tent for the sandcastle
competition. A man in a bright yellow volunteer shirt sat in a folding chair
with his back to her.
 

She sat up with a
quiet groan. Her head hurt. Her throat was dry.

At first, she
thought the salt-and-blood smell of foreign magic was a dream. She couldn't
believe the amount of power pressing on her could possibly be real.
Until she looked down and found a small, green-blue lizard, about
the size of her hand, sitting on the edge of her cot.
Yuri got the
distinct impression that it was smiling at her.

"You don't
want to mess with my head, too, do you?" It came out as a tired sigh, even
though Yuri had meant it to be quite a bit more forceful. She tried to make
herself to relax. It didn't work well.

The little lizard
wrapped its long tail around itself like a cat. Its voice was far deeper than
Yuri had expected. "I see you've met
Tullia
.
It's a shame you didn't listen to your superiors and stay out of her way."