Kitsune Tales: Two Short Stories
Read Kitsune Tales: Two Short Stories Online
Authors: Emily Kay Singer
Kitsune
Tales
By Emily Singer
Copyright
© 2016 by Emily Kay Singer
All
rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used
in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the
publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
First
Printing, 2016
www.EmilyKaySinger.com
Yuri crouched on the rooftop beside the motel, squinting
through a pair of binoculars at the people passing on the street below. She
knew Piccolo was here; she could feel his power pulsing, pounding,
growing
. Rhythmic, tinged with lust. Spiced with music. All
contained in that one male body, wrapped up somewhere in that seedy motel.
Piccolo had abandoned her immediately after the successful
completion of their last mission. After a day and a half of searching, she
finally knew why the bastard had been so eager to leave. His favorite little
tramp must have offered him a hell of a deal to keep him occupied for so long.
She should have gone without him as soon as she got their new
orders. Instead, she had wasted four hours worrying, then spent the night
prowling through Capitol Hill. Now she crouched on a rooftop near Colfax and
Moline, spying on the freakishly dull mortals just because she hated going on
these things alone.
Her last two solo missions had ended in disaster: one with a
dead human and the other with Yuri herself nearly dead. Thinking about either
of them still gave her shivers.
“Finally,” she muttered as red-brown skin and a dark suit
passed through her binoculars. She twisted and found the narrow-shouldered man
before he disappeared into the crowd. No doubt about it; that was Piccolo.
Just as she was about to head down to the street, he looked
up and winked at her.
Cursing under her breath, Yuri tossed the binoculars away.
They hit the cement rooftop with a lens-shattering crash, but she didn’t care.
She’d swipe another pair if she needed them.
She slipped down the fire escape without a sound and scurried
to the mouth of the alley, where Piccolo leaned against the brick wall, his
ankles crossed. Even before she reached him, she could smell the pungent odor
of sex surrounding him. By the time she stood beside him, the musky, sweet
smell nearly overwhelmed her, making her wide nose wrinkle in revulsion.
“You couldn’t shower before you came out?” she asked.
Piccolo laughed, a sound like a timpani in the rain that
always hurt Yuri’s sensitive ears, even though they looked completely human. He
tugged on the neon green ribbon tied around her ponytail. “It’s not my fault
your nose is so sharp. Showered twice, just for you. Now, you want to tell me
why you were spying on me up there, or do I have to guess?”
“Guessing is much more fun, don’t you think?” she asked dryly
as she stepped out of his reach.
He pouted dramatically and Yuri fought memories of what it
had been like to feel those full lips trailing the curves of her body, his hand
tugging gently on her concealed
fox tails
. Not
everyone got a chance to fool around with a literal god of sex, and, despite
their
best efforts to keep things mostly platonic, the experience
sometimes made it hard to concentrate on the task at hand.
Which, of course, was probably his goal at that moment.
She shoved the distracting memories aside and dug a folded
piece of paper out from under her bra strap. “A group of miniature sphinxes
came through from the Flipside yesterday afternoon. All but one
are
back where they belong. We need to find that last one
and get it through the wall before its magic starts acting up.”
“And before the hole in the wall closes.” Piccolo refused to
take the paper, instead digging a smart phone out of his pocket and beginning
to tap on it as if the conversation was over. “The hole’s contained, but it’s
already started repairing itself. You should have about three hours, best
guess.”
Yuri stared at him. “What do you mean ‘you’? You’re coming
with me.”
He didn’t look up from the glowing screen. “Nope. This one’s
all you, sexy.”
Terror worked its way through her veins like a silk scarf
through a frosted pipe—cold and smooth. Her fingers trembled as she tucked
the note back into her bra. If he had been teasing her, he would have watched
for her reaction. The fact that his attention was fully centered on the phone
meant he wasn’t waiting for an amusing response. He truly wanted her to track
down a sphinx, find a weak place in the wall between worlds, and throw the
creature back all on her own.
“I’d start in City Park, if I were you,” Piccolo muttered,
apparently oblivious to Yuri’s panic. “Looks like someone’s advertising a
chance to see a ‘magic talking cat’.”
Yuri glowered at him, her hands still shaking. “I’m not
walking to City Park on my own.”
“Don’t have to. Got you a cab. Should be here any minute.” He
finally looked up and grinned at her, white teeth flashing.
“
On my
own
.” She emphasized each word with a forceful poke to his upper arm. The
panic had already begun to give way to anger, sizzling in her blood.
Piccolo sighed and finally tucked the phone away in his
breast pocket. “You can’t sit in the shadow of gods forever, little
kitsune
. I know you’re afraid because of what happened last
time, but I believe in you.” He paused, then sighed and gently took her chin,
urging her head up. “Yuri, look at me.”
She reluctantly tore her gaze from the bustling street and
back to his placid face. For a moment, she wondered what would happen if she
just turned tail and ran. Left Piccolo high and dry, forgot about this stupid
sphinx altogether. She knew the answer, of course, and driving half of Denver’s
population mad wasn’t something she wanted to take the blame for.
“If you want to be part of this team, you have to learn to
work on your own. I’m not always going to be here to drag you out at the last
minute.” He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into an awkward, sideways
hug.
Her shoulder dug into the bottom of his ribcage. She couldn’t
tell if it was more uncomfortable for him or her, but she didn’t want his
awkward comfort. She squirmed out of his hold. “I know you’ve got other stuff
to do, Piccolo. I just—”
“Just use your head and kick ass,” he interrupted as a dirty,
yellow taxi pulled up to the curb. With a grin and a wink, he opened the cab’s
rear door. “Off you go.”
She stared at him for a long minute. The car’s idling engine
filled her ears and a light breeze blew the acrid smell of exhaust into her
sensitive nose. She wanted to drag Piccolo into the cab with her—-and she
knew tricks that would have had a mortal man on the seat in seconds-—but
she knew he wouldn’t budge. “Are you sure you can’t come with me?”
“I know you can manage.” He jerked his chin toward the open
door. “Quit wasting time.”
Still trying to stop her nervous shaking, Yuri reluctantly
slid into the back of the cab. It smelled like spearmint gum and sweat. The
leather was hot under her thighs where her miniskirt ended. The door slammed
and she jumped. She rolled down the window to swear at Piccolo, but a group of
giggling girls strolled between him and the car. He was gone by the time they
passed.
She left the window down the whole drive in an attempt to
avoid making small talk with the gum-chewing cabbie.
By the time she reached City Park, Yuri’s hands had stopped
trembling. Her insides still squirmed at the thought that no one would be able
to help her if things went terribly wrong, but at least she looked calm and
collected.
The cab dropped her off on the western side of the park, in a
roundabout just off 17
th
Avenue. She paid for the ride with a bundle
of rice charmed to look like bills and climbed out of the cab. Standing beside
the fountain in the center of the asphalt circle, she opened her mouth to take
a whiff of the park air. The chemicals in the fountain water burned the back of
her tongue, making it hard to smell anything beyond chlorine and algae poison.
She wrinkled her nose and trotted across the roundabout to
the rest of the park. A group of humans gathered around a portable grill
nearby, shouting and laughing over a loud radio. A few late-day joggers made
their way around the wide bike path. Normally, Yuri would be intrigued by their
summer antics, but she forced herself to focus.
She could feel another magical presence nearby, tugging at
the power inside her, but she couldn’t pinpoint it yet. Piccolo had a knack for
finding the exact location of whatever they were looking for. Another reason
she wished he was there with her now.
Moving farther
away from the fountain, she took another deep breath. This time, she caught a
whiff of something that smelled distinctly magical—-that musty, ancient
smell that only came from power that didn’t belong on this side of the wall.
Yuri zeroed in on that aroma and followed it to a bench
shaded from the late afternoon sun by a tall elm tree. A ragged homeless man
lay sprawled on the bench, one arm bent beneath his head and the other stroking
a large cat resting on his chest. The cat lay stretched out, its head at the
man’s collarbone and the tip of its tail near the man’s knees.
It was the cat that smelled like the Flipside. The creature
lifted its head and blinked at Yuri with intelligent eyes. It rippled with a
spell of illusion, no doubt to hide its human face, but the magic felt hasty.
“You forgot whiskers,” Yuri said. Her voice wavered with the
remains of her panic, but she forced herself to act brave.
The homeless man turned his head to frown at her. “If you’re
here because I said I had a
talkin
’ cat, she don’t
talk to just anyone.”
“Oh, she’ll talk to me.” Yuri flashed her sharp teeth and
both the man and sphinx drew back in surprise. She loved watching people when
she caught them off guard. She could get a glimpse of their true nature, and
could use it to manipulate them if she wanted. Piccolo often told her it wasn’t
subtle enough for him, but he wasn’t here to frown this time. “How much do you
want for her? Name a price. Anything and you got it.”
“She
ain’t
for sale.” He stroked
the sphinx’s tawny fur. It clung to his fingers, standing straight up from the
animal’s back. “She found me and I
ain’t
givin
’ her up.”
Yuri fought the urge to roll her eyes. Humans always thought
they could own everything. Oh, sure, she would pay him—-in the same way
she had paid the cabbie-—but she knew well enough that the sphinx was its
own creature, not hers. “I’ve got two thousand bucks I can give you. Cash.”
He hesitated, but shook his head. His eyes flashed with greed
and terror, a combination that confused Yuri as much as worried her. One of his
hands twitched as if he moved to draw an invisible weapon.
Before she could say anything else, the sphinx stretched and
sat up, balancing on the man’s stomach. After a moment of studying Yuri with
its wide, golden eyes, it spoke. Its high voice and haughty tone grated on
Yuri’s nerves. “He won’t accept, Small Ears. I’m not going back, and you’re
better off wasting someone else’s time. Don’t you have rabbits to chase or
something?”
“Nope. I have a snotty little sphinx to take home.” Yuri’s
mind raced. If she couldn’t pay the guy to let her take the sphinx, she could
easily put a spell on him. But her unique,
Earthside
power was at a severe disadvantage against pure Flipside magic. If she tried
anything as small as a simple charm, the sphinx might be able to turn the spell
back onto her. Using magic was out of the question. Which left persuasion,
trickery, or pure speed.
“I told you: I’m not going.” The sphinx lifted one paw and
licked it, though its nose wrinkled like it wasn’t used to the motion. “I’m
sick of the desert, and this place has fish. I love fish.”
Yuri considered asking if it also enjoyed driving mortals
mad, but she swallowed the question and darted forward instead. Screw talking.
Grab it and run. She closed the distance between them in the span of two rapid
heartbeats. One hand closed around the scruff of the sphinx’s neck and the
other grabbed it around the belly.
“Hey!” The homeless man moved too fast, grabbing for Yuri’s
wrists. His fingers closed around her left arm before she could yank the sphinx
away. “That’s my cat!”
The sphinx yowled and squirmed, swiping with its claws. The
needle-sharp talons tore into Yuri’s right arm. Blood welled up along the cuts.
Yuri froze, cold panic crashing through her for the second
time. One arm ached where the man held her and the other stung from the
bleeding scratches. The sound of the man’s breathing was harsh and erratic in her
ears.
The smell of the sphinx’s magic—-rotting fish,
sun-bleached dust, and lotus flowers—-made her eyes water.
Very slowly, she uncurled her fingers from the sphinx’s fur.
Grab-and-run had failed. She’d have to find another way to get the sphinx away from
the man.
As soon as the sphinx’s claws pulled out of her arm, Yuri
jerked out of the man’s hold and clapped her free arm over the gashes. They
weren’t deep, but they throbbed.
“I told you, you
can’t
have her.”
The man glowered, a possessive hand on the sphinx’s back. His next words
sounded like a garbled incantation rather than anything Yuri recognized as
actual words.
She
tensed,
ready to spring away
from a giant fireball or whatever else the unknown spell might conjure.
Nothing happened.
The sphinx laughed, high and nasal. Its tail twitched. “You
don’t know much about language, do you, Small Ears?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yuri hated her voice for
shaking so much. She didn’t want anyone to know how panicked she felt, least of
all an annoying sphinx that insisted on calling her names.
The man spat and the sphinx laughed again. “Whatever he said,
it didn’t mean anything. Not in any language on any world. And I should
know—I know all of them.”