Destiny's Child (Kitsune series Book 3) (31 page)

Off the trail, there was a rock bigger than Tukka.  I could tell; they were side by side.  He was asleep, curled in a massive, teal blue lump on the crunchy, autumn leaves.  The rock looked something like a petrified monster.  Green moss clung to the side I studied.  A raven sat on its crown.  The bird stared at me with beady red eyes.  Why he wasn’t off looking for early worms, I didn’t know.

In the shadows of my mind, Taliesina tensed.  Her golden eyes blazed in warning. 
Not bird.  Raven.

I nodded my understand
ing; the bird changed everything.  Yeah, it could be normal.  It didn’t have to be the Trickster, who could manifest as Coyote or Raven, but I knew my luck, all of it bad.  And then there were those tiny red eyes that wouldn’t look away. 

I scowled.  “What do you want, feather brain?”

The raven didn’t answer.

I wondered if he was waiting for the Hysane to get here.  I eyed the rock under him with grave suspicion.  If it started to move, I was outta here.

What really sucked was that I couldn’t say goodbye to my friends now.  I couldn’t track trouble to their door.

I glared at Tukka.  “Moments away from fighting for our lives—maybe—and you’re asleep.  That’s helpful.”

He only grunted in his sleep, following it up with a sigh.

An evil grin slipped across my face.  In a sweet voice I said, “Mmmmm, chocolate.” 

I looked back to the bird, as Tukka jerked awake. 
W-what?  Did
some one say …
chocolate?
The thought was edged with hope and pain.

I ignored the question, stooping to gather up a couple of rocks from the trail.  Standing, I bounced one of the stones off the rock, a few feet below the bird.  It squawked at me, shaking out its wings a little.

“You’re going to answer me or the next one goes down your throat.”

Why Grace threatening beak-face?
  Tukka asked.

“Use your nose,” I shot him a look of exasperation.  “Does that smell like a real bird to you?”  My glance went back to the rock.  The raven was gone.  Trickster sat on top of the rock now.  He wore his dark suit with the priest’s collar.  His crucifix dangled.  His legs were folded under him.  And his eyes still smoldered red.

He held a little white paper sack.  He shook it so it rattled.  My heightened sense of smell already told me what was inside.  Tukka surged to his feet and trotted over, sniffing the air, taking in deep draughts. 
Chocolate?

“Chocolate stars,” the trickster popped one in his mouth, rolling his eyes in pleasure.  “Mmmm.  Incredible!”

Tukka stared, drooling.  Then he shook his head and backed away. 
No.  Tukka stronger than chocolate.  Just say no.

Staring hate at the Trickster, I rolled my hands into tight fists, one of them with a rock inside.  The muscles of my clenched jaw bulged.  I spoke through my teeth.  “You heartless bastard.”

His eyes popped wide in surprise.  “What did I do?”

Leaves crunched. A voice came from behind me, “Up to your old tricks, Dad?”

It was Fenn.  He came around and stopped beside me.  His hand took mine, not the one with the rock in it.  Our fingers laced together.  The air seemed to drop ten degrees as Fenn stared at his father.  Fenn said, “I warned you to leave her alone.”

“But I’m just sitting here, eating my chocolate stars.”  He rattled the bag again.

My right hand kept hold of the stone as I poured out aura and shadow.  The stone was lost in the hilt of the weapon I created.  Four feet of shadow sword extended from my fist.  The darkness was a smudge at the core of writhing orange haze.

The rock under the Trickster surged to its feet.  The golem was apelike, with great forearms, and knuckles that dragged the ground as it hunched forward, taking a step toward Fenn and me.

Growling, Tukka fell in next to Fenn.  We formed a line of defiance.

“You are dead to me,” Fenn said.  “I never want to see you again.”

My heart cracked a little for Fenn, as it had for Maddy last night.  I couldn’t understand what was wrong with parents that they pushed their children away like this.  I thought of my own father, my human father.  He’d walked away from Mom and me, and I never even got to say goodbye. 

The rock golem took another cumbersome step.  The Trickster remained on his head, balancing effortlessly.  Several boulders rose to the surface of the forest detritus.  The heads continued to climb, perched on rocky torsos.  Soon, a whole circle of golems enclosed us.  Tukka turned to face behind us, watching our six.

“Still planning on selling me to them?” I asked.

“Not exactly,” the Trickster said.  “What we’ve got here is a bidding war.  You’re quite popular.”

Behind him, coming out of the trees, were half a dozen witches led by Missy and Evil.  The gals were armed with automatic weapons, dressed in green leather and black Kevlar.  Evil winked at me.  Missy wore that fake smile of hers, accenting it with candy apple red lipstick.

White flashed out of nowhere and Inari’s foxes were on the trail.  She faded in between them, bright, pastel robes alive with color in the dull gray of approaching dawn.  Her porcelain skin shone as if lit from within.  I could easily see why ancient Japanese had thought her a goddess.

“And we have another bidder,” the Trickster said.

Everyone thought I was merchandise.  A thing to own.  Even people on my side like Virgil thought of me as someone to use.  At first, it had gotten old, then irritating.  Now? Infuriating.  Rage boiled up.  Incandescent fury that painted the world orange, unless that was my brain interpreting signals from my new antennae.  No, it was my kitsune aura.  My body was sheathed in leaping flames.  Fenn involuntarily stepped away from me as if afraid of being burned, then moved back to where he’d been—a show of faith and solidarity.

I would never hurt my friends.

Tukka’s thoughts meshed with mine. 
Grace, piss on a tree.  Mark territory.  Time come to stop holding back. 

“What the fu dog said,” Fenn murmured.  “You’ve always held back.  I should know; I’m an expert on that.  You can’t afford to pull punches on this bunch, not if you want to stay free and make a point that you aren’t a collectible.”

I thought of the immense shadow force that the proto world had allowed me to unleash.  I’d used that power to carry Fenn and me back to this world.  There was no telling what I could do if I embraced the dark emptiness that I’d resisted even more than the mothman infection.

The Trickster smiled gently down at me from his perch atop his rock golem.  “Now, you don’t want to go starting something you can’t possibly finish.”

Glaring at his father, Fenn’s face fuzzed up.  He grew a toothy muzzle.  His hands morphed into claws.  Enough extra muscle grew in to shred his shirt.  “I think you’ve said and done enough.  We’re going to have words when this is over.”

I had a plan.  I need to clue Fenn in, but not those surrounding us.  Tukka was plugged into my thoughts.  If I told him what I needed, he could tell Fenn.  I turned and said, “Tukka.”  He shot me a glance over his shoulder.  I tapped my head.

What?

I thought deeply on what Fenn needed to do.

Tukka stared at me.  Then he grinned. 

I looked at Fenn’s face.

He looked back, a puzzled expression in place.  Then his feral face lit up with understanding.  His eyes narrowed as a vicious smile took over.  “I’ve never tried crossing that way.  Always used anchored gates, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.”

“They’re planning something!” Missy complained.

Evil thumbed off the safety on her weapon.  “Won’t do ‘em any good.”

The Trickster glared at the witches.  His eyes were back to being red coals.  “No one gets to damage the merchandise before they buy her.  I really must insist you put your weapon away.”

Several of the golems pivoted to face the witches, reinforcing the decree.

I turned my thoughts inward, searching my inner darkness for Taliesina.  Her gold moon eyes hung in that darkness, the rest of her dissolved and ready.  She’d always been comfortable with my shadow nature.  I was the one with the problem. 
Until…

“Now!” I cried.

Down the path from us, Fenn opened a gate to the proto world.  It was a two-dimensional rectangle of light—much bigger than the Trickster’s gate had been.  A blinding gush of desert sunlight swamped us all.  I smelled scrub plants, baked earth, and cactus.  “Fuck me blind,” Evil said. 

Fenn moved his gate now that it had manifested.  The plane of light followed the trail and extended well to either side of it.  A moment later, the gate had swallowed everyone at the auction, and we were a world away.  The gate closed, and there was no retreat to my world.  The witches formed a knot, staring around in disbelief.  Inari had a small, secretive smile in place, her serenity unruffled.  Her two white foxes, however faced me, teeth bared in snarls as if they feared what else I might do here—where all things are truer than anywhere else.

I heard cloth tearing and saw that Fenn was ripping off his jeans.  I looked away from all he was exposing, my face flushing.  I noticed that Missy and Evil were leering at his nakedness.  That really ticked me off.  I was about to bitch-slap them both with a shadow sword when I was distracted by sounds of pain from Fenn.  He dropped to his knees, muscles writhing, bones melting into new configurations.  Fur spread down his neck in a wave to cover him—as he grew a coyote tail to match the rest of him.  Nothing of his human nature was left.  For the first time, he’d given into his kachina heritage, drawing on its full power.  A big, slavering monster of a coyote, he dwarfed the two white foxes, grinning at them like they were impudent mice whose bones he intended to crunch in his jaws.

The foxes edged in closer to Inari.

The stone golems came closer, hedging us in even tighter.

Tukka got this.
  His thought was a blaze of assurance.

I slid a glance across Inari and the Trickster.  “Then that means they’re mine.”

The Trickster raised an eyebrow.  “She’s a goddess and I’m a cosmic force, and you think you can handle us?”

I smiled and kicked off my shoes.  “Anywhere else, no, but here and now?  Oh, yeah!  And it will serve as an object lesson to the bitches of ISIS and anyone else stupid enough to come after me.”  Stripping off my clothes, I made a pile at my feet.  “Or haven’t you noticed that—despite taking a lot of crap from the universe—I always win in the end.”

A typical guy, Fenn stopped growling at the foxes to look me over.  When he saw that the Trickster was doing the same thing, he snarled at his dad.

I had other things to worry about than modesty.  I already wore the orange haze of my aura.  I reached inside for Taliesina and the darkness, turning the pocket of soul inside out.  I gasped as my legs buckled, melting, reforming.  A coating of darkness moved up from my toes like leggings.  The blackness continued past hips, moving up my torso and down my arms.  My face went icy cold like the rest of me as shadow and aura sheathed me.  I was a living copy of my sword.  My wings remained, beating furiously as three fox tails grew in.  My face lengthened until I could see the tip of my snout as well as bobbing antennae.  I ended up shadow, fox, and moth—all human elements shed except for my heart.

And I had ass to kick!

THIRTY-TWO

“Armed by the Sun,

the Monster Slayer chants,

‘Come and die, come and die!’

As ravens sweep the sky.”

              
                                        —Raven

                                     
         Elektra Blue

My antennae writhed in the desert wind, feeding my brain various scents and their ranges.  I knew where the closest water hole was, where the tastiest plants could be found, and I knew that the wild foxes were here as well, hiding, sneaking up on the bitches of ISIS.  I was free to concentrate on my two opponents. 

I crouched to spring, a wave-like motion that ended with me flying through the air toward the golem the Trickster sat upon.  He jerked his feet up as I snapped my jaws where his toes had been.  Kicking off the golem, I evaded one of the creature’s massive hands making a grab for me.  Arcing through the air, I saw Tukka cut loose with one of his infra-sonic roars, a thing more felt in the bones than heard.  It was his secret weapon, used against dragons, demons, and the occasional rock golem.  The one he faced crumbled, shattering.  He turned to another.

Time conveniently slowed, or maybe it was my perceptions that speeded up.  I turned in flight and smacked Inari across the face with my body, taking her down to the ground in a flutter of robes.  She squealed like a girl.  I wondered how long it had been since she’d done any of her own fighting.