American Kitsune, Volume 8 (Light Novel)

1. Weak to Strong Protagonist (Expect Kevin to grow both mentally and physically as the series progresses)
2. Aggressive Main Love Interest
3. Accidental Perv Moments / Ecchi Shenanigans
4. Harem Hijinks
5. Classic Harem Archetypes
6. Fourth-Wall Breaks
7. Over-the-Top Fanservice

Kotohime was a very traditional kitsune.

Perhaps it was because of her upbringing in Japan, but the traditions instilled within her remained even to this day.

Among those traditions was to never go against her lord, the one whom she was bound to serve. Loyalty to one’s lord was one of the most important facets of Japanese culture. Going against the person she had pledged allegiance to went against her nature.

Yet here, now, that was exactly what she was doing.

“I do not approve of this plan, Pnév̱ma-denka.”

“So you have said several times already.”

If Pnév̱ma-denka was bothered by her words, the woman did not show it. Sitting on a throne encrusted with gold, ornately crafted and beautiful, just like the woman who lounged on it, the nine-tailed kitsune, the greatest of the Ghost Kitsune, wore a smile that reeked of amusement.

“And I will say it again several more times, as many times as I have to.” Kotohime knelt before the one she served, head bowed in deference, yet still defiant. “I should have gone with them.”

“You are worried about them.” It was not a question.

“I should be with them, protecting Kevin-sama and Iris-sama from danger and attempting to rescue the one whom you bade me to protect.”

“Such loyalty is admirable.” Pnév̱ma-denka’s amused smile bothered Kotohime more than she cared to admit. “In most other circumstances, I would have no problem with you traveling with young Kevin and Iris. But circumstances dictate that you cannot go with them on this journey. Not only do you stand out like a sore thumb, but you are also well known among our kind. A human boy and a young two-tails can slip past the Shénshèng Clan’s spies without detection. The infamous mercenary and former princess of the Ślina Clan cannot.”

It galled Kotohime to agree with her master but agree she did.

“You should have a little more faith in your charge’s mate and sister. Young Kevin seems quite resourceful for a human, and Iris, despite her blasé demeanor and oftentimes rude attitude, is not lacking in intelligence.”

Kotohime agreed with the Pnév̱ma matriarch’s assessment, especially about Kevin-sama. Having watched him since before he decided to become Lilian-sama’s mate, she had witnessed his remarkable growth. Kevin-sama now trained daily to grow stronger, worked hard to learn about yōkai and kitsune in particular, and, while he still refused to have sex, he had stepped out of his comfort zone to please Lilian-sama’s voracious sexual appetite.

She knew that Kevin-sama was not a force to be underestimated, and she knew that, should the situation come down to it, he would not hesitate to kill to protect the people he loved.

She also knew that killing was anathema to him. He hated killing, even when those he was forced to kill were enemies. She wanted to spare him from that pain, the pain that came from being forced to take a life.

“I… understand, Pnév̱ma-denka.” The words from her mouth, smooth and lyrical and composed, stood in direct opposition to the way she really felt.

Pnév̱ma-denka probably sensed this, but true to her disposition, she did not reveal that she knew of Kotohime’s true feelings. She sat upon her dais, body shifting until she was resting her left cheek against her left hand. Nine tails of the purest silver roved across her body like a second toga, shimmering with the light of a ghastly, otherworldly power.

“Do you know the story of how Lilian met Kevin?”

The question startled Kotohime, though that did not stop her from replying.

“Of course. After Lilian-sama overheard Shinkuro-dono’s desire to set up mating arrangements between her and his son, she ran away. I believe her reason for running was because you said they would be a good match.”

“Indeed, though looking back on that moment, I would have to reassess my words. Lilian and Jiāoào would have been a terrible match. Power wise, they are compatible. Any offspring they sired would have been quite strong, I imagine. However, their personalities are too dissimilar. Had they been paired, I imagine Lilian would have snapped and killed Jiāoào after he tried forcing himself on her.”

Kotohime agreed but said nothing. It was not her place to speak about such things.

“In either event, you know that Lilian ran out of the Pnév̱ma estate and into the forest that bordered Psyxḗ, yet she still remained within the boundaries of the barrier. So then—” Delphine’s eyes brimmed with a curious gleam “—how did a human boy, a child with no powers whatsoever, pass through my barrier and find her?”

Kotohime furrowed her brow. She had never really thought about it before, but with the question now posed, she did have to wonder. How did Kevin-sama make it past the barrier, a barrier which should have kept all humans out? Even if Kevin-sama was not human, which he most assuredly was, it still would have kept him out since he did not have permission to enter—and his expulsion from the barrier would have been, should have been, most violent at that.

“I… I do not know,” Kotohime confessed.

“Neither do I,” Pnév̱ma-denka professed. As Kotohime gazed upon the woman she had pledged her loyalty to, the Ghost Kyūbi of the Pnév̱ma Clan gave her a bone-chilling smile befitting one titled The Silver Queen of the Netherworld. “However, since that time, I have become most curious about that young man. It is the reason that I had you all travel to the United States, and the reason that I presented Lilian with the opportunity to reach Arizona unmolested.”

Kotohime carefully hid her frown. Was Pnév̱ma-denka telling her that Lilian-sama’s escape from the Pnév̱ma estate in Florida, along with her traversal across the United States, had all been premeditated in order to let Kevin-sama and Lilian-sama meet again?

“How is that even possible?” she wanted to ask. She did not. Even if she wished to know, learning such knowledge was not her place, and some part of her was afraid of uncovering the truth.

Certain things in this world a kitsune such as her was not meant to know about.

“In either event,” Pnév̱ma-denka began again, “Kevin and Iris have already left and are on their way to China. While you could follow them, I would rather you not.”

“If this is your will, then I shall, of course, abide by it,” Kotohime said, even though she wished to say otherwise.

“That is good.” Pnév̱ma-denka nodded with the imperious grace of a queen. “And now that we have settled this matter, let us put it out of our minds. I have a task that I would like you to perform.” Her eyes glimmered with a devious cunning that Kotohime found hard not to shiver at. “One that I feel you will be most suited for.”

***

With a startled jerk, Kevin was driven from his sleep and into the waking world. Screeching tires filled his ears, and the entire world rumbled around him, causing him to shake in his seat.

It took him several seconds before he finally realized where he was. A glance out of a small, round window revealed planes, trees, and mountains flashing across his vision like streaks of blurred color, and he remembered that he was on a plane that was—had been—traveling to Turkey. From what he saw outside, it looked like they had arrived.

Something soft resting against his side made him turn his head. The soft thing pressing against him was, of course, his companion. Iris Pnév̱ma, Lilian’s fraternal twin sister, lay sleeping against him. She had been attached to him from the very moment this flight had taken off.

It turned out Iris enjoyed flying even less than most kitsune. She had screamed when the plane was taking off and grabbed onto him for dear life. Then she had spent the next thirty minutes fighting off a panic attack. Kevin had felt so bad for the girl that he couldn’t bring himself to shove her off him.

She had only fallen asleep after exhaustion hit her, maybe an hour or so ago. She was also still recovering from falling into a coma, so she was weaker than normal. He’d fallen asleep not long after her, his own body giving into the lulling warmth that she emitted, even though he felt guilty for doing so.

The speakers came on overhead, and a female voice, speaking in a language that he didn’t know, said something. Having never been to Turkey before, he wasn’t well-versed in the language. Though he could speak several others, at least enough to hold a basic conversation and not sound like a fool, he would be pretty useless speaking to the people in this country.

Guess I’ll be relying on Iris, then.

Kitsune had the ability to understand and be understood regardless of what language someone was speaking. Their patron god, Inari, had gifted them with this ability. Iris spoke Greek, but to him, whenever she or Lilian spoke, it always sounded like she was speaking in English. It was a mysterious power that he didn’t understand but didn’t question either.

He shifted in his seat. The chillingly cold but perfectly smooth gem and the cord that it was attached to felt odd as it rested underneath his shirt. Delphine, Lilian and Iris’s grandmother, had given it to him. He wasn’t one for wearing jewelry. He did his best to ignore the necklace and, knowing they’d be disembarking shortly, prepared to wake up his companion—when he noticed something. His shirt, from the right shoulder down to the sleeve, was soaking wet.

He looked at the beautiful girl again. Raven hair fell around her head, covering some of her porcelain face, but he could still see her mouth, which hung open like the gaping maw of a sarlacc pit.

She was drooling. A lot.

Resisting the urge to twitch, Kevin shook the girl awake.

Like everything Iris did, the very act of waking up seemed more like an erotic dance than someone being woken from a deep slumber. Even the drool leaking down her mouth somehow appeared sexy on her. He didn’t understand it, so he tried not to think about it.

“Mornin’, Stud.” Iris stretched her arms above her head. Kevin closed his eyes in order to keep from staring at the way her tight black shirt stretched against her bosom. She wasn’t wearing a bra. Her nipples poked through the fabric and hints of midriff revealed itself during her stretch.

Complimenting her long locks of raven-colored hair, which shimmered as sunlight streamed in through the small viewport to their left, Iris’s eyes were a deep crimson. The seductive quality in that narrowed gaze would have put most men under her spell. In fact, several men at the airport in Greece had tripped over their own bags when they had stared at her as she walked by, and even more had suffered from spontaneous combustion of the nasal cavities. Along with her black shirt, the skirt that she wore was the same color and so short that her panties would show if she bent over.

She was wearing a black thong.

“It’s actually noon,” he corrected as he opened his eyes.

“Whatever.” Iris dismissed his words with a wave of her hand. “If you’re waking me up, that must mean we’ve arrived.”

“Yes.” Kevin nodded. “We have.”

Iris glanced over his shoulder, looking out of the window. Their plane had finally stopped moving and now sat still on the runway.

Van Ferit Melen Airport didn’t look like much, just a single building; long, rectangular in shape, and containing no more than two stories. A single control tower jutted from the top. Like an inverted pyramid, the tower became narrow as it moved into the building, while the top was shaped like a square, the walls made almost entirely of glass with an electric fence surrounding it like a crown.

“Thank Inari’s sagging testicles for that.” Iris slumped in her seat, the relief she felt an almost physical thing. Kevin’s lips twitched.

“Who knew there was something out there that you were more afraid of than dogs,” he teased.

“Oh, shut up.” Iris crossed her arms under her chest, purposefully squishing her breasts together, allowing her nipples to become even more visible through the fabric. “We foxes were never meant to travel through the air. Leave the skies to the tengu.”

“Violet said something similar to me once,” Kevin said idly.

“Ah, so you’ve spoken with the prude,” Iris said. She had been in a coma until just yesterday, so she didn’t know what he’d been up to this past week.

“Prude?”

“Yeah, prude. Anyway, I don’t really like her, cold fish that she is, but she’s got the right idea about flying. Why you humans are so fascinated with it is something I’ll never understand.”

Kevin responded to her words with an eloquent shrug. Flying was convenient. That was all there was to it.

“By the way—” Iris looked at his shoulder “—why is your shirt all wet?”

Kevin couldn’t keep from twitching this time.

***

Unlike most airports in the United States, the one in Van had them disembarking via a set of stairs and not a docking station that extended from the building itself.

After grabbing their luggage, a suitcase containing his guns and another bag containing several sets of clothes for them both, he and Iris exited with all of the other passengers.

Warm, dry air hit his skin as he stepped onto the runway. Because he lived in a desert, Kevin was fairly used to this kind of weather. He actually found the heat to be milder than Arizona’s summer weather, and it was therefore easily bearable.

Airport security directed their group into the airport building. It was smaller than any other airport he’d visited before. Unlike most airports where he had to walk through long hallways filled with stores and restaurants, this place had none of that. There weren’t that many people, either, which didn’t surprise him, considering the size of the airport.

Because they didn’t have any luggage beyond what he was already carrying, Kevin and Iris didn’t require going to the small baggage claim station. He’d wanted to travel light. His companion had complained about not having enough stuff, but he had cajoled the devious vixen into submission with his logic.

They headed for the exit, where airport security made them stop. Kevin stood back and let Iris take over.

It was almost amusing listening to the conversation. He knew that Iris was actually speaking in Greek, but to him, it sounded exactly like English. The security guard would be hearing her words in Turkish.

Iris stopped talking, turned to him, and smiled.

“He says that he wants to see our passports and identification. You’ve got those on you, don’t you, Stud?”

“Yeah.” Kevin reached into his pocket and pulled out two sets of passports and two IDs. “Here they are.”

He handed the IDs and passports to Iris, who in turn gave them to the security guard. The man, an aging fellow with wrinkles lining his face like creases on old parchment, stared at the objects with an unblinking gaze. Dark eyes then looked up to stare at him and Iris. Kevin tried not to let how unnerved he felt be seen on his face. He was used to being stared at, but the intensity of this man’s gaze left him feeling vulnerable.

Fortunately, the staring didn’t last long. The man handed their IDs and passports back, and Kevin pocketed them as the security guard waved them through.

***

Despite not having a large airport, Van was a very populated area.

After hiring a cab to take them into the city, he and Iris found themselves walking along a sidewalk. A number of people walked on either side, some going in their direction and others traveling the opposite way. Cars drove along the streets, their chassis cast in shadow from the numerous buildings that loomed over them. Signs hung on these buildings, written in a language that he couldn’t read. It was a bustling place, perhaps not as crowded as Los Angeles, New York, or even Phoenix, but there were still a lot of people.

A lot of those people were staring.

“You’re attracting attention,” he sighed.

“I always attract attention.” Iris winked at him. “But you knew that, didn’t you, Stud?”

He did know that. He just disliked it.

“It’s going to be harder to go unnoticed if everyone’s staring at us, at you.”

Iris shrugged at him, uncaring.

“That’s not really my fault.”

He knew that as well.

Kevin did what he could to ignore the stares. They weren’t directed at him but at Iris. That didn’t really make it any better, but at least he knew the reason for it.

Kitsune were avatars of beauty. He had yet to meet one that was ugly. Even Jasmine, who looked like a thirteen-year-old girl, was enchanting in her own way.

As one of the most perfect examples of her species, Iris attracted more attention than most. It wasn’t just in her looks but also her mannerisms. The alluring sway to her hips was like a magnet. It brought all attention to her magnificent rear end, which shook and swayed as she sashayed her hips. Those in front were treated to a glorious view of her flat stomach, the flawless, milky skin visible because her black tank top only covered about a third of her stomach. And if that didn’t attract attention, then the alluring sway of her chest did. With such enchanting beauty in their presence, he supposed it was only natural that people would be drawn to her.

Unfortunately, that same beauty often drew the wrong kind of attention.

They had been sitting on a knee-high wall before getting up and walking over to them, stopping before the pair, impeding their progress. There were three of them, all boys of the teenage variety. He judged them to be just a little older than him, maybe seventeen or eighteen. Their leader, or at least the one he presumed was their leader, gazed at the vixen by his side with a look that he’d seen plenty of times before, on both men and women.

The young man said something then. Kevin was surprised when he could understand him.

“Hey there, baby,” the boy said, smoothing back his shoulder-length black hair in what Kevin guessed was supposed to be a smooth gesture. “You look new around here. How would you like to join my friends and me? We could give you a tour. Maybe you’d even like to take a tour of my bed.”

The other two boys laughed like children who’d been told a fart joke.

Anger coiled in his stomach like a viper spitting venom. The desire to lash out at these people was there, but he ignored it. They couldn’t afford to start a fight. He instead relied on Iris to deal with this. A simple enchantment should suffice in sending them off.

“Sorry, boys.” Iris’s dark red eyes glowed with unnatural light. “But I’m not interested in your little friends. The only man who’ll be sticking his Excalibur into my Guinevere is the stud over here.” She winked at Kevin, who merely rolled his eyes, and then looked back at the boys. “So do me, and yourselves, a favor: Get out of our way. Now.”

Kevin expected them to leave. That was what most people did when Iris enchanted them. Few could withstand her enchantments.

That was not what happened this time.

He felt mildly alarmed when the trio of teens refused to leave. Their leader placed a hand on Iris’s shoulder, his lips curling into a gruesome grin filled with malicious intent. Kevin could practically feel the boy’s desire for Iris permeating from him like a physical thing.

“Sorry, baby, but I’m not the type who takes no for an answer. Don’t worry, though. I guarantee that you’ll be begging for the D after I’m finished with you.”

The other boys began crowding around Iris. Through the gap between their bodies, he could see her eyes widening in alarm.

In most other instances, Iris could have taken care of herself. While not much of a fighter, she knew a little combat just like her sister. Illusions were out of her reach without her tails out, but reinforcement was still possible.

However, Iris was still suffering from when she’d been in a coma. The celestial youki, so anathema to a kitsune with an affinity for the Void, may have left her system, but it had done its damage. She would recover in time, but she would be weak for a little while.

Which meant getting these boys to leave would be up to him.

How troublesome.

“Excuse me.” Kevin placed a hand on the shoulder of the boy nearest to him. The teenager’s shaggy brown hair bobbed when his head turned. “But get your hands off my friend.”

The boy sneered at him. Dark gray eyes narrowed in a fierce expression as lips peeled back to reveal sharper than normal teeth.

“Get lost, punk! This chick is ours now. If you think we’re going to let a weakling like you step onto our turf, then you’ve gotta another thing—”

Kevin didn’t allow the idiotic teen to say anything else. Loud crunching echoed around them as his fist met the boy’s face. He didn’t consider himself a violent person, but he couldn’t deny that there was something cathartic in feeling some pretentious fool’s nose breaking under his fist.

The boy stumbled back, a hand held up to his nose. Blood leaked from between his fingers, dripping down his face. Wide eyes stared at him in shock. Kevin didn’t know why. With the way he and his friends were acting, he should have expected this outcome.

Because he didn’t want to give them any time to react, Kevin launched himself forward. The boy barely had time to take a single step back before the hard, metallic case in Kevin’s hand slammed into his temple. He crumpled to the ground in a heap, senseless, glazed-over eyes staring listlessly at the sky.

More shouting was heard. The other two boys surged forward. Kevin met their charge head on, falling back into the stance that he’d adopted for dealing with yōkai.

The first one, the leader, attacked in a straightforward manner. His left fist lashed out, aimed at Kevin’s face. It was dodged.

As he stepped to the left, Kevin used his right hand to push the boy’s left hand away from him, then took a single step forward, bringing himself into the taller boy’s guard. He slammed his open palm into the boy’s jaw. Teeth clacked shut with painful reverberations. The boy’s head snapped back like he’d been smacked with a steel bat. He then doubled over when Kevin slammed the metal case into his stomach, which was followed through by that same case slamming into the underside of his chin. The boy dropped like a sack of bricks, his body crumpling in a broken heap upon the ground.

The last of the group hesitated when his eyes landed on Kevin. The boy stopped in his tracks, body frozen as though he’d been hit with a yuki-onna’s powers.

“Take your friends and leave,” Kevin told him, his voice holding an authoritative tone that he never really used. It wasn’t in his nature to display authority of any kind. He often left the task of ordering others around to the adults.

The boy looked from Kevin to his insensate friends. The other two boys, the ones with shaggy brown hair and shoulder-length black hair, lay on the ground like broken dolls. He then looked at Kevin again. Seeing the hesitance still there, Kevin took a single step forward, which seemed to freak the other boy out and caused him to grab his friends by the scruff of their shirts and drag them away. Moving as fast as his legs could carry him, the boy disappeared down a side street.

Kevin turned his attention to Iris.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Of course.” Iris tried to smirk, but he could see how her body shook. Her legs were trembling. “You don’t think a little something like some foolish boys trying to come onto me is enough to shake me up, do you?”

Kevin shook his head.

“No, but a trio of yōkai who are immune to minor enchantments might.”

Kevin could see how his words bothered Iris. He took her hand and began walking again. Iris allowed him to take her away from the sight of the short skirmish.

“Thank you for that.” He glanced over to see the normally confident kitsune biting her lip. “I’m still not feeling much better yet, and without my tails, all of the enchantments I can cast are subpar and won’t work on yōkai.”

Kevin nodded. He knew about kitsune powers and how it all came from their tails. They could still cast enchantments without bringing their tails out, but their powers were greatly weakened when they were in a completely human form.

“Could you tell what kind of yōkai they were?” He wove past several people, keeping a tight grip on Iris’s hand so they wouldn’t get separated.

Iris shook her head, clearly aggrieved about her inability to determine their species. Then again, there were more types of yōkai than there were types of food.

“Unfortunately not. While my powers are excellent at sensing life, it is nearly impossible for me to distinguish one type of lifeform from another.”

Kevin nodded noncommittally. He still didn’t know much about the Void, the sentient hunger that afflicted Iris and other Void Kitsune, but he knew that its only desire was to consume all life. It didn’t differentiate between lifeforms because it didn’t care. Everything would eventually be consumed.

“By the way…” Iris continued, making him look at her again. The smirk on her lips, one that reeked of amusement, made him almost stumble. “I’m not the one people are staring at now.”

He needed a moment to comprehend her words. Only after he understood what she’d said and its meaning, did he notice that everyone around them was now staring. Not at Iris, but at him. They gawked and pointed and whispered in each other’s ears. He couldn’t understand a word of what was being said, and it wouldn’t have mattered if he could because most were too far away for him to hear, but he didn’t really need to understand what they were saying to know they were talking about his short fight with those disguised yōkai.

He looked back at Iris, at the sensual smirk adorning her face, which seemed to be accusing him of calling the kettle black. He turned his head away, his cheeks heating up and embarrassment coloring his voice.

“… Shut up.”

This was yet one more thing that he would never live down.

***

Lilian awoke to a dull ache in the back of her neck. The pain was akin to background noise, a sort of static aftershock that remained after receiving an injury.

As she opened her eyes, she had to blink several times to clear spots from her vision. Her eyelids felt heavy and the desire for more sleep was hard to ignore but ignore it she did. Her vision was muddled, distorted, like she was looking through a tainted window that had been partially melted. She needed to shake her head several times before her eyesight sharpened and remained clear.

The large red canopy that hung over her head was unfamiliar to her. A glance to her left revealed walls decorated in red and lined with gold. Large posts stood in intervals, and between each post sat a window that revealed a blue sky. Sparse decorations of furniture in rich dark woods and the nightstand and dresser led her to guess that she was in a bedroom.

How did I get here? And just where is here?

In an effort to find out more, Lilian turned her head… and shrieked in surprise when she found a face inches from her own. She jerked her body back in shock and tumbled over the side of the bed. In an effort to keep herself from falling, she grabbed handfuls of the thick red quilt, but all that did was cause the bedspread to go with her.

Her head cracked against the carpeted floor. She became a tangled mess of limbs and sheets as the blanket wrapped around her while she squirmed and struggled. The struggling just caused the sheets to entangle her even more. It took nearly two whole minutes of laboring under thick, heavy sheets before she finally managed to get herself untangled.

She stood up and glanced down at the figure lying on the bed, a boy who was clearly not her mate. Long blond hair shimmered like silk against red sheets of satin. Resplendent robes that looked awfully uncomfortable to sleep in adorned a thin frame. The fox ears and two tails, golden in color and tipped with white fur, denoted this boy’s origins. He looked familiar, though it took her a while to put a name to his face.

“This boy… Jiāoào?”

“Indeed, it is,” a calm voice spoke up.

“Gya!”

Lilian nearly tripped over the blanket as she spun around to face the person who spoke. He looked a lot like Jiāoào, an older, more mature, nine-tailed version of Jiāoào. His long blond hair fell down his head like a waterfall of silk. Stately purple robes, ornately decorated with swirling designs and gold piping along the hem, covered his effeminate frame. He was handsome, to be sure, but it was the bishounen kind of handsome, where he could easily pass for a girl at first glance. Nine tails swayed behind him, popping out of his clothes, their motions beautiful and elegant in ways she could scarcely imagine.

“Lilian Pnév̱ma, the young kitsune who spurned my son’s desire to mate with her,” he said. Lilian tried to mask her fear, but she could not quite contain the shudder that ran down her spine. “It has been many years since we last met. I see that time has treated you well, unlike my son.”

Perhaps it was the utterly calm expression on his face or maybe it was that unfathomable gaze, those blue eyes that seemed bottomless and vast, but Lilian felt fear trickle into her gut.

“Have you nothing to say to me, the father of the son whom you ruined?” he asked.

“W-why am I here?” she croaked.

“Ah, a question.” The Bodhisattva nodded his head, sitting calmly on a chair made of crystal several meters from the bed. “I should have expected questions like this from one such as you.” He spread his arms in an all-encompassing gesture. “In case you have not figured it out yet, you are currently within my home. I had you brought here for the purpose of curing my son.”

Lilian’s mind had trouble comprehending his words, or maybe she just didn’t want to comprehend them.

“What?”

“Confused? My words were very straightforward, I believe. You are going to cure my son of his vegetative state. I have heard from several sources that people whose minds have shattered can be brought back by being in the presence of people who mean a lot to them.” He paused as though to give her time to absorb this knowledge. “You have always been on the forefront of my son’s mind, despite my disapproval once it became clear that you were an uncouth individual unworthy of my son’s attention. Because of this, I have come to believe that if you are constantly in my son’s presence, he will eventually get better, which is why you shall be remaining here for the foreseeable future.”

Lilian had a few choice words to say about that, “hell no” being at the forefront of her mind. She didn’t say that, however, partly because she knew that speaking out of turn in front of this man could get her killed, but also because of the pressure his presence exerted over her. Even though he was just sitting there, the urge to kneel before him, to submit herself to his majestic presence, the presence of a king, was nearly overpowering.

“So… I’m just… going to stay here?” she asked, struggling to form the words. Her tongue felt thick, heavy, swollen like a sponge.

The Bodhisattva shook his head.

“You will not just be staying here. You will be looking after my son. As you are the one who put Jiāoào into this pitiful state, you and that human mate of yours, it is only right that you care for him as he recovers.”

Lilian didn’t understand. She tried to say as much, but her voice had stopped working as the pressure he exuded finally became too much. It pushed down on her, preventing her from speaking.

“You are confused.” It was not a question. “Allow me to explain. My son can do nothing on his own. He cannot eat; he cannot move; he cannot even go to the restroom without aid. You are going to be the one who aids him.”

“No.” The word left her lips even before she realized what she was saying.

“No?” The Bodhisattva raised an eyebrow at her defiance. “No,” he repeated. Not a question. The look he gave her, so calm, so placid, sent chills down her spine. “You would defy me?”

Lilian tried to speak, but the pressure that had been building since the nine-tailed kitsune announced his presence suddenly became unbearable. Her legs didn’t buckle. She simply fell flat on her face. Like Earth’s gravity had suddenly undergone a two-thousand-fold increase, the Bodhisattva’s presence bore down on her in such a way that she was forced to the floor.

“Seeing how you are the progeny of a traitor, I am unsurprised by your audacity.” The Bodhisattva’s voice remained calm, even as the weight of his presence threatened to crush her. “However, I had been hoping that you would have become a more reasonable person with time. It seems such is not the case.”

Lilian’s mouth opened to say something, but all that came out was a raspy, gurgling sound. Breathing started to become difficult. Her lungs tried to inhale, but oxygen refused to come. It felt like she was underwater without scuba gear, and with the weight that threatened to crush her into a fine paste, she might as well have been stuck at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

“Let me tell you something right now, Lilian Pnév̱ma.” The voice came from above. She tried to raise her head, but the presence, the weight, the indescribable feeling that pressed down on her and proclaimed her worthless, prevented that from happening. “The only reason you are alive right now is because I need you. If you refuse to help me, if you do not cure my son, then you are of no use to me, and will be disposed of accordingly.”

Lilian gritted her teeth as she struggled to retain a grip on her sanity. Blackness crept at the edge of her vision. The lack of oxygen to her brain made her head fuzzy. The only reason her mind hadn’t snapped yet was because of the anchor she used to keep herself from breaking; it was the image of a young man with blond hair and blue eyes smiling at her. It kept her from going over the brink, though it did little to keep her from feeling like her body was being turned into a bloody smear on the floor.

Such was the power of the being before her. Those granted the ninth tail are akin to gods walking the earth, kitsune whose powers have transcended the boundaries that constrain their race, granting them a near limitless power. And Shinkuro Shénshèng, the Bodhisattva, the nine-tailed Celestial Kitsune of a legendary and ancient clan, was considered to be the greatest Celestial Kyūbi in all of history.

“This is not a request,” the Bodhisattva continued. Lilian made a sound like a vacuum sucking in nothing as the weight of his presence increased. “This is an order. You will do this for me, or you will die.”

“I…”

Lilian gritted her teeth as she struggled to get up.

“I…”

Her legs and arms shook like the limbs of trees caught in a violent hurricane.

“I…”

Finally, she managed to raise her head, and she looked up into the blue eyes of the Celestial Kyūbi, whose presence continued pushing her to the floor.

“I… w-w-w…”

She managed to keep her head raised for exactly two seconds. Then her head fell back down, smacking against the carpet, and darkness engulfed her vision.

***

They needed to find a place to stay for the night.

Kevin looked up at the sky. Night had yet to fall, but the sun was going down. A combination of red, yellow, and orange swirled across the sky, setting buildings ablaze, making the atmosphere appear as though it was on fire. He looked at the buildings, trying to figure out which one was a hotel, but he really couldn’t tell the difference between any of these buildings.

“I wish I could read these signs,” he said with a sigh.

“You mean you can’t?” Iris gazed at him with a bemused expression. “Haven’t you been all over the world? I thought someone as well traveled as you would know how to read and speak other languages.”

Kevin’s messy blond hair swayed as he shook his head negatively. He absentmindedly noticed how empty the street they turned down was. He couldn’t see a single soul. How odd. It had been busy everywhere else, even at this time of day.

“While I’ve traveled to a lot of countries, I can only speak and read the languages of countries I’ve been to a lot of times. I know French because Mom spends most of her time in France. I know Spanish because we often traveled to Spain whenever she took me with her. I know Japanese because—”

“Because you’re an otaku.”

Kevin’s right eye twitched as he glared at her.

“I am not an otaku!”

“Oh? So you’re a weeaboo, then?”

“I’m not that either!”

“You so are,” Iris teased. “You have all the makings of a weeaboo.” She began ticking reasons off on her fingers. “You watch anime all the time. You’re obsessed with reading manga. You care more about Japanese culture than your own. You cosplay.” She gave him an amused smirk. “Need I go on?”

Kevin’s eyes narrowed.

“Okay, one: I don’t watch just anime. It just so happens that anime is my favorite form of televised entertainment. Two: I read manga because I like the artwork more than American comics. Three: I do not care more about Japanese culture than my own. I rather like being an American, thank you very much. Four: I cosplay, but so do a lot of other people. There’s nothing wrong with dressing up in a costume and having fun.”

“Whatever you say, Stud.”

“Tch!”

Kevin was about to say something sarcastic, but he never got the chance because two people, familiar faces that he remembered seeing about half an hour ago, emerged from behind a door to their left.

“Look at you two, having a little lover’s quarrel.” The man with slick-backed black hair grinned at them. Kevin noticed that the bruise he’d given the other man was gone. Of course, the man’s attention was not on him but on Iris. “You see, this is why you should have come with us. Unlike this kid, we could have actually shown you a good time.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that.” Iris’s smirk was deadly seductive as she draped herself over Kevin, who did his best to ignore the pair of pneumatic knockers pressing into his side. He actually thought Iris might be a bit bigger than Lilian. “You see, the stud here may be an anime-obsessed nerd—”

“Hey!”

“—but he’s also strong, kind, and knows how to play my games. He entertains me in ways you boys will never be able to. He’s also got a really big dick.”

“Would you not mention my dick?!” Kevin shouted.

“Why? You should be proud of your Excalibur. Sure, it might not be a one-eyed monster, but it’s still a good size for someone your age, and you’re still growing.”

“How would you even know something that like?”

“You underestimate my abilities of observation,” Iris declared, her snuggle pups jiggling as she puffed out her chest. Kevin almost facepalmed when the three disguised yōkai started nose-bleeding. “I can tell the size of a male’s manmeat just by looking at them. For example—” she pointed at the guy with slicked-back hair “—he’s got an inch worm for a phallus.”

The man squeaked, an embarrassed flush crossing his face as he covered his crotch with his hands. Sweat ran down the left side of Kevin’s face. It looked like Iris had been right on the money.

“And that one next to him has an average-sized needle dick.”

The man she pointed at, a young man with a brown head of hair and gray eyes that sat upon a square-jawed face, followed his friend’s example and covered himself.

“And that other guy they were with has a chode.”

“Girly, you are so dead,” a voice said behind them. He and Iris turned to see the last member of the trio, a lanky teen a head taller than Kevin, glaring down at them with a red face. “I don’t care how hot you are. No one insults members of The Cat’s Nya and gets away with it.”

“The Cat’s Nya?” Kevin made a face at the name.

A grin made its way onto Iris’s face. “Is that some kind of yaoi fanclub?”

The man with slick-backed hair snarled. “That does it! You two are so dead!”

The three beings surrounding them began to change. Their bodies shifted and morphed, squashing and growing compact, becoming no larger than a child or a really small adult. Their skin changed color, and in the sparse amounts of light remaining, their skin shone with a thick layer of grease that covered their bodies like unwashed filth. The skin of the one with slick-backed hair became a deep red like blood, while the other two turned a mottled green reminiscent of mold. Legs became long and gangly, double-jointed appendages that moved in ways human limbs weren’t supposed to move. Long, disgusting tongues stuck out of their no longer human faces.

“Iris?” Kevin leaned over to the vixen. “Do you know what these things are?”

“Don’t look at me. You’re the otaku. Shouldn’t you know what they are?”

“I’m not an otaku.” Kevin glared at her. “I can function perfectly normal in regular society… and I only know the major yōkai that often appear in anime, not the ones you rarely ever see.”

The grin Iris gave him revealed her sharp canines as they glinted in the remaining speckles of light. “And you just proved my point.”

“Enough of your blathering.” The one with slicked-back hair looked ready to start spitting acid. “You two are dead; prepare to meet your maker!”

Kevin and Iris looked at each other, then glanced at the creatures that leapt at them. All three yōkai had launched themselves into the air like predators pouncing on their prey.

“Yeah, we’d rather not,” Kevin said.

Just as all three were about to pounce on the pair, Kevin and Iris disappeared, or rather, the minor illusion that Iris had cast to make it look like they’d been standing there disappeared.

“What the hell?!”

“Where’d they go?!”

Kevin rushed out from behind a dumpster as their squawks of shock resonated across the street, his silver and black handguns already in his hands, firing off several rounds. The creatures squawked in shock and scampered away from the bolts of bright red energy that lanced out of his guns with the thunderous roar of cannon fire. The energy bolts struck the ground, blowing large chunks out of the cement.

“Extension.”

Appearing several feet to Kevin’s left, one of Iris’s tails shot out from behind her, lengthening to an incredible size and smacking the red-skinned leader in the face. The yōkai’s head snapped back as he was launched off his feet, hitting the ground like limp ramen noodles. His two companions stared at their boss’s flaccid body in wide-eyed horror.

“Bro!”

“Don’t take your eyes off your opponent!” Kevin shouted as he rushed at the two other yōkai. The first one became the victim of a pistol whipping. Kevin slammed his gun against the back of the creature’s head and sent it face-first to the ground.

The second one tried launching its tongue at him, but it soon found a tail wrapping around it and constricting it like a vice. Gurgling emitted from its mouth, which opened wide like a gaping maw. Its long tongue squirmed and wriggled like a worm being poked with a hot needle. Gruesome saliva the color of bile dripped from its mouth and hissed angrily as it burned the ground like acid.

“Extension.”

The tail elongated more. It whipped around and slammed the yōkai into the brick wall of the nearest building. Then the tail retracted, but the strange supernatural creature hung there, embedded into the wall. The yōkai’s asphyxiated gasp of pain soon turned into a squeal of horror when several red bolts of energy exploded off the wall all around him, showering him with shards of brick.

Kevin glared at the creature as he walked up and stuck the silver gun into the yōkai’s face. The frightened squeak it let out was like the kind a mouse made when caught within the paws of a cat.

“I do not know what you are, who you are, or what your reasons for transforming in front of a human are, and quite frankly, I don’t really care. Instead, I am going to give you this one chance to leave. Run away with your tail tucked between your legs and never bother me or my friend again. If I ever see you again, I won’t be this nice.”

With the barrel of a gun being practically shoved into his mouth, with Kevin giving him a glare filled with his annoyance, the yōkai could do nothing but nod.

“Good. Now get out of here.”

Kevin retracted his gun and watched as the yōkai grabbed his friends and scampered off. That fight had been easier than he had expected. He was actually kind of disappointed.

“Those are minor yōkai.” Kevin looked at Iris, who smirked as though seeing right through him. “That’s why it was so easy to fight them. Minor yōkai like that aren’t much more powerful than a human. They just look different and have some minor supernatural abilities, but even then, most of their powers are pretty weak.”

“Is reading minds a void ability now?”

“Course not.” Iris chuckled as she leaned into Kevin, making sure to press her breasts against his arm. “I just know you so well that I can tell what you’re thinking.”

“Whatever.” Kevin shook himself out of her grip and walked off. “Come on. We still need to find a place to stay for the night.”

“Whatever you say, Stud,” Iris mumbled as she ran to catch up with him.

***

The hotel room they had rented out for the night was sparse. Lacking in any real decorate, it only had enough furniture to be vaguely considered a hotel room. There was a single bed, two nightstands, a dresser, and a small table. Nothing else.

Iris sat on the bed, laying on her stomach, feet kicking in the air like something a child might do when they were bored. She wore nothing but a semi-translucent nightie, which fit her frame perfectly and tantalized him with hints of her cleavage. He could also see her nipples poking through the fabric.

She glanced over at him, her chin resting on her hands, the look she presented inquisitive.

“What are you doing?”

He looked up from the map that he’d been pouring over to glance at her for a second. He then looked back down at the map. It was spread across the table.

“I’m trying to determine what route we should take to sneak into China,” he answered. “The matriarch told me that the entirety of China is under the control of the Bodhisattva, both the humans and the yōkai. That means sneaking in via airplane, which had been my original intent, won’t work.”

“Is that why we traveled to Turkey and not China?” Iris sat up. Kevin’s right eye twitched when her twins bounced once, jiggled, and then swayed as she moved.

She’s doing that on purpose…

Kevin nodded as he looked over the map, ignoring the creases from where it had been folded and letting his finger traverse the mostly smooth paper. He did his best to ignore Iris.

“That’s right. We can’t just go in half-cocked and expect things to work out. We need a plan.” He paused, frowning as his finger grazed against Azerbaijan. “The problem is that I am unsure of which route to take. From what I can see, there are three routes we can take to get to China. One is to head south after reaching Azerbaijan and travel through Iran along the Caspian Sea, then make our way through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another is to head north and travel through Kazakhstan. The last option is to travel straight through the Caspian Sea and then traverse across Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgzstan.”

“The people in that area sure love their stans, don’t they?” was the idle comment from Iris.

Kevin rolled his eyes, showing just what he thought of her childish words.

“Be serious here, Iris. Lilian has been kidnapped and we have to rescue her. We can’t afford to let ourselves be whimsical.”

“I rather like being whimsical.” Kevin didn’t look up, but he didn’t need to. He could practically hear the grin in her voice. “It rolls off the tongue so well.”

“I really wish you would be serious. Don’t you care at all that Lilian’s been kidnapped?”

“Of course I do.” Iris’s huff was followed by the rustling of fabric and the bouncing of springs. Kevin ignored it and continued focusing on the map. “You know that Lilian is the love of my life. Every moment that she and I are apart tears me up inside. However, I also know that allowing myself to get stressed out and constantly worry isn’t going to help her.” Kevin frowned. Why did her voice sound closer than before?

He found out the reason for that a moment later when a pair of slender arms wrapped around him and two perfectly rounded breasts pushed against his back.

He stiffened. In more ways than one.

“You know what I think you need?” Hot breath washed over his left ear. He told himself that the shudder that coursed down his spine was due to fear and not arousal. “I think you need to relax, take a load off. I can help with that. All you have to do is ask.”

Kevin took several deep breaths to center himself. When that didn’t work, he pinched his thigh hard enough to cause a sharp jolt of pain to travel straight to his brain. The pain brought clarity. It brought focus.

“I thought you loved Lilian,” he said.

“I do.”

“Then why are you always doing this to me?”

She smiled. Kevin knew she’d smiled, even though he couldn’t see her. He could feel her smiling at the back of his head like an itch that he couldn’t scratch.

“Perhaps it’s because you intrigue me…”

A chin came to rest on his shoulder.

“Or maybe it’s because you’re the only human who’s ever resisted my enchantment…”

A nose nuzzled into his neck.

“Or it could just be that I think you’re my path to claiming Lilian for myself…”

Two soft tails the color of midnight snaked around his waist, their tips traveling underneath his shirt to feel the hard muscles of his stomach and chest.

“Iris,” Kevin said with deadly calm, “I would suggest you stop this right now.”

Iris’s grinning face came into the view of his left peripheral.

“What will you do if I decide not to stop?”

“This.”

“Iyah!” Iris’s voice was a mixture of pleasure-filled moan and pained gasp. “M-my tail… let go… of my tail…”

“Ha! I don’t think so.” Kevin grinned as he squeezed her tail, not hard enough to cause true pain, but definitely hard enough to give Iris some mild discomfort. “Do you really think I’m going to just let you walk all over me? That I’m going to allow you to tease me like that and not suffer any repercussions?”

“Y-yes!” Iris gasped as his thumb brushed against a spot underneath her tail that was slightly bumpier than the rest.

“Then you clearly don’t know me very well.”

“Da-damn human.” Iris’s legs quivered before she fell onto her knees, her chest swaying as she heaved in deep lungfuls of air. Her ass shook and small, glistening droplets of sweat trailed down her milky thighs. “You’re sneakier than I… than I thought.”

“I’ve been living with you kitsune for ten months now,” Kevin replied as he continued his ministrations on her tail. Iris buried her face into the ground as a loud moan escaped her. “I’ve learned a thing or two, like how the tails are an erogenous zone for your kind. Now give up. There’s no way you can beat me.”

Iris looked up at him, her carmine orbs hooded with the sensual desires of a predator.

“I’ll never give up!”

“Then I’ll just keep doing this until you lay defeated at my feet.”

Perhaps it was his words—in fact, later that night, Kevin would come to believe it was his words and lament ever opening his trap—but Iris’s determination seemed to harden. She surged to her feet with a strength that she shouldn’t have possessed and body tackled him to the floor.

They both went down in a tangle of fur and limbs, and then began rolling around the carpet as they struggled to overpower one another.

“Ha! Take that, puny human!”

“Puny?! Which one of us has already defeated numerous yōkai and which one was stuck in a coma for the past week?”

“Ouch. That was a low blow. Just for that, I’m going to return the gesture in kind!”

“Return the—get your tail out of my pants!”

“No, if you want it out, then you’re going to have to—i-iyhan!”

They continued struggling and rolling and causing a ruckus. Their wrestling eventually came to an end when Iris used reinforcement to strengthen her limbs and pin him to the ground.

He lay on his back, panting, his face flushed red from exertion. Despite losing, his lips had stretched into a wide smile. That smile was reflected back at him by Iris, who lay on top of him, her own chest swaying enticingly as she took in deep gulps of air through her slightly parted lips. She straddled his leg. Her crotch rubbed against his thigh, leaving a wet trail. He frowned. Why did that feel so weird?

“Looks like I win,” she said, her hair falling to one side, creating a curtain that tickled his cheek.

“You cheated,” he accused.

The seductive smirk on Iris’s face already told him what she would say before she said it.

“My dear Kevin, don’t you know that all is fair in love and war?”

“Whatever,” he muttered. “I still say you cheated.”

“And I say you’re a sore loser.”

Almost against his will, Kevin glanced up at her. The nightie that she had donned fit loosely on her frame, though he supposed that was how it should fit, and one of the thin strings holding it up slid off her shoulder. He could see the pearlescent skin of her calves, covered lightly in sweat, and the way her breasts heaved alluringly every time she breathed through gentle, upturned lips that were curled into a genuine smile made him wish he could turn away. It was in that moment, as he stared at a girl whose beauty transcended humanity, that he noticed something he should have realized but somehow still took him by surprise.

Iris wasn’t wearing any panties.

Carmine orbs gleamed victoriously as his body responded like any other teenage boy’s would in this situation.

“Is that Excalibur in your pants or—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Kevin muttered embarrassingly as he finally turned his head.

***

As the ruler of Van, Kağan was the cat’s meow.

He controlled everything within the city, working from the shadows and concealing his presence from the humans.

As the most powerful yōkai in Van, Kağan expected all those underneath him to obey his commands.

He took great pride in his strength and ability to inspire others. Those who did not follow him, for whatever reason, were either re-educated or executed, for he had no room in his group for weak yōkai or those who disobeyed orders. Disloyalty was always met with death.

Meow.

As someone who led others by example, Kağan was a harsh task master, but he rewarded those who served him well.

He wasn’t like other yōkai, who ruled through fear alone. Respect was something to be earned, not given, and he had earned that respect by being both compassionate and ruthless. It was how he had earned his nickname.

So when three of his boys came in looking beaten and battered and weaving tales about a human who kicked the crap out of them, he decided to do something about it.

“So, let me see if I got this right, meow.” Kağan scratched his cheek with a long, clawed finger. “Some human boy with blond hair and blue eyes and a kitsune with black hair and red eyes beat the utterly living crap out of you three like it was nothing? Did I get this right, meow?”

“It pains me to say it, but that’s about the gist of it, Boss.” The one with slicked-back hair, Boran, spoke with an emphatic nod.

“You wouldn’t believe how strong these two were,” the one with brown hair, Adem, said. “That human had these strange guns that shot this weird energy from them and his punches really hurt. I didn’t know humans could get that strong!”

“That fox also knew how to use her tails,” Nur, the last of the trio, added. “She lifted me up with them and slammed me right into a wall, she did.”

“So I see, meow.”

Kağan deliberated. He didn’t do so for very long, as thinking wasn’t really his style. He preferred making on-the-fly decisions. They’d served him well enough so far, and he saw no reason to change that.

“Dіlara,” he called out.

A woman stepped out of the shadows and bowed before him. The three thugs on the ground quivered at the sight of her, which caused him to smile. Dіlara was his most powerful and dangerous servant, and she inspired almost as much fear among his underlings as he did. Unlike him, however, she inspired none of the loyalty. She simply didn’t have the charisma for that.

“You called, Rabbim?”

“I did. There are some people in this city who have wronged my underlings, meow, a human and a kitsune with two tails, meow. I want you to go out and find them. You may do what you wish with the boy, but bring the girl to me, meow.”

“Of course, Rabbim.” The woman’s wrinkly lips peeled back into a smile that showed rotting yellow teeth. “Your wish is my command.”

***

Sleep did not come easily for Kevin Swift.

He would have liked to say the reason for that was because he was simply too wired, but that would have been a lie, or at least only partially incorrect. While he was indeed too wound up to sleep, the reason was because of his companion. He felt like he could have slept easily if not for her.

The hotel that he and Iris had rented out only had one bed. While Kevin’s original intention had been to sleep on the floor, Iris had shot that notion down with the disdain Van Helsing had when slaying demons. In her mind, sleeping on the floor was dumb when they had a perfectly good bed that was large enough for two.

He reluctantly agreed with her.

“We’ve already slept together plenty of times. Why stop now?” had been her words.

It was true that he and Iris had slept together many times in the past eight months. While he hadn’t bothered counting, he believed that she and he had shared a bed at least seventy-five percent of the time they’d known each other.

That wasn’t the problem.

He honestly didn’t care if Iris snuck into his bed every night. He’d grown so used to the antics of Lilian’s family that nothing they did bothered him anymore. The problem was that whenever Iris slept with him, Lilian was always there as well, and the raven-haired succubus spent more time cuddling with her sister than she did Kevin. Sure, there were times when Iris would use him as her hug pillow, but he would say that, more than half the time she snuck into their bed, Lilian received the majority of her fraternal twin’s affections.

Such wasn’t the case now. Lilian wasn’t there. It was just him and Iris.

He could feel the swell of her massive mammaries squished against his back as he lay on his side. The thin nightgown did nothing to hide the feel of her tits. Her nipples were poking him.

One of her legs had hooked around his and one of her arms had snaked over his waist and was being used to pull him closer to her. Warm breath hit the back of his neck. As if a gorgeous girl who was not his mate cuddling up to him wasn’t bad enough, both of her tails had wrapped around him like a furry quilt.

The otaku fanboy in him was squealing.

Kevin felt guilty. His mate was in danger, but instead of rushing off to China, he was sharing a bed with her twin sister. His stomach clenched into knots. His mind was awhirl with the grotesque mixture of arousal and disgust.

It was easier when Iris crawled into the same bed as him and Lilian. It seemed more like she was sleeping with Lilian instead of him, and he was just an additional presence, an add on, if you will. Lilian had eventually given up on convincing Iris to stop sleeping with them, and so he had just gone along with her decision. It made things easy. With that not being the case here, with Lilian no longer being around, he had no means to justify them sharing a bed.

Lilian…

He wondered how she was doing. Was she safe? Had those people from the Shénshèng Clan hurt her? He didn’t know, and he hated that. He hated that she was no longer with him, that he had failed to protect her, that he couldn’t even tell if she was okay.

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t human…

If he’d been born a yōkai, then he would have had the strength to protect her. If he’d been graced with supernatural abilities, then he wouldn’t have had to worry about lacking the power necessary to save the person he loved most.

As he closed his eyes, a smile filled with irony caused his lips to quirk.

But if I wasn’t human, Lilian would have never fallen in love with me, would she?

It was ironic that the one thing he sometimes wished to change about himself was the reason Lilian, the person who made him wish he wasn’t human, loved him so much.

He settled himself in and tried to get some sleep…

… When a feeling of wrongness settled over him like a heavy cloud of smog. His eyes snapped open and peered into the darkness of the room. Light spilled in through the window, which revealed a sea of stars. Nothing seemed out of place. Nothing appeared wrong. Even so, he could tell that something was amiss.

Kevin Swift was a human. He had no supernatural abilities. He didn’t possess any powers. He couldn’t sense a yōkai if his life depended on it. What he had was instinct. And right now, that instinct was screaming at him.

“Iris,” he whispered, “are you awake?”

“I am now,” she said in a low groan. Her face pressed against his neck as she held him close. “You’d better have a damn good reason for waking me up. Otherwise…” she rubbed herself against him, “I’m going to punish you.”

“We’re not alone.”

The teasing demeanor that practically oozed out of her every pour changed. He could almost sense the shift in her personality, could feel the way her body stiffened with an alertness that hadn’t been there before. The hand resting against his abdomen moved restlessly, fingers tracing circles on his bare skin. Her tails had stiffened and become bristles that scraped against his legs. Even the leg hooked around his suddenly seemed to grow tense with anxiety.

“I sense them,” she whispered. “I can’t tell who or what they are, though.”

“How many are there?” Kevin asked.

“Just one.” Warm breath hit his skin as Iris nuzzled her nose into his neck. “There are a few other presences near us, but only one is coming toward us.”

“Where are they coming from?”

“The hallway.”

Kevin’s mind went several hundred miles per second. Someone was coming for them. Logic dictated that this person was a yōkai. They’d only had trouble with yōkai so far. The question wasn’t what they were, but who, and what they wanted. Members of the Shénshèng Clan? Possible but improbable. The chances of them knowing about his and Iris’s whereabouts were unlikely. What about one of those three goons who had tried hitting on his companion? Unlikely as well. He and Iris had kicked their butts pretty good last time. What about a friend of theirs? Someone bigger and stronger than they were? That made the most sense, and it was the scenario he decided to go with.

“I’ve got a plan,” Kevin told Iris.

“A plan, huh?” The amusement in her tone was obvious. “Go on.” He could almost feel the upward curl of her lips on his neck. “I’m listening.”

***

Dіlara was an ao nyōbō.

Many myths surrounded her kind, tales told by men about how her kind had once been court ladies of Japan—paragons of youth, beauty, education, and refinement. These stories told of how they served in the palaces of high-ranking families until they were married off to worthy suitors. After being married off, they spent their days in their own private residences, patiently waiting for their husbands to come home each night or for secret lovers to show up during the day.

Ao was the Japanese word for blue, and supposedly referred not to her kind’s skin color, but to an implied immaturity or inexperience. Their name referred to low-ranking women of the old imperial court who, no matter how hard they worked, couldn’t seem to catch a husband or elevate themselves to escape from poverty. Originally, this name was an insulting term used to describe unsuccessful court ladies.

The history of her people was, as is the case with most legends of yōkai told by humans, incorrect. However, she had no intention of correcting the foolish ape species of their misconceptions. Let them think what they wanted. Let them believe that her kind were once humans who had turned this way out of envy toward others. It mattered not.

The hallway that she walked through was devoid of all life. Lights situated overhead flickered and buzzed. Beige walls crawled with her shadowy figure. She looked at the doors, searching for the one that her prey resided in.

They had been lucky that one of Lord Kağan’s men worked at this hotel. After informing his underlings about the two troublemakers, along with orders to report should the pair be discovered, they’d received word about two people who matched the description renting out a room here.

She stopped in front of the door that her quarry was supposedly hiding behind. Boney fingers grasped the handle, turning it and letting the door open with a soft creak.

She entered the room, slowly, silently. Her feet padded along soft carpet with surprising lightness.

With eyes that could see in the dark quite well, she looked around the room; a plain room with one bed, a table, two night stands, and a dresser. The bed was where her eyes trailed to. Two figures slept within it; one whom her rabbim wanted for himself and one whom her rabbim wanted dead.

She walked over to the side of the bed farthest from the entrance and stared down at the young man that her rabbim wanted dead. Blond hair framed a decently handsome face of sun-kissed skin. Much of his body was covered by blankets, but even covered as he was, she could see how close the girl that her rabbim wanted was to him. The girl, her raven fox ears twitching at intermittent intervals, was wrapped around the boy like a lover holding her man.

Dіlara scowled. She didn’t know what her rabbim wanted this girl for. She didn’t believe this child, this vixen, was worthy of being in her rabbim’s presence. Still, orders were orders, and her rabbim had ordered her to kill the boy and bring the girl. That was what she would do.

She raised her hand, wrinkled blue skin clinging loosely to rail thin bones, while her fingers formed the point of a spear. She then thrust the hand down, expecting to pierce the boy’s chest…

… Instead what happened was her hand went straight through the boy as if he wasn’t there.

“What?!”

Roaring reminiscent of cannon fire sounded out in her ears. Dіlara didn’t even have time to turn as she was hit by what felt like a sledgehammer.

Water splashed against her body as she was launched off her feet, slamming into a wall, and then falling to the floor. She looked up just in time to see the black barrel of a gun pointing at her seconds before a bright white light shot out of the muzzle. It was the last thing she saw.

***

Kevin stared at the creature lying slumped against the wall in confusion. Elaborate, multi-layered robes, tattered and frayed, covered its ogreish body. Its pale blue skin had many wrinkles, hundreds, maybe even thousands. They littered its body like cracks in the ceiling of an ancient and derelict crypt. Skin sagged and its ugly muzzle of a face with its fang-like teeth and square jaw reminded him of a horror movie monster he once saw.

“I don’t know this yōkai, either,” he sighed.

Iris sent him an amused glance. “You’re kinda useless, aren’t you?”

“Oh, shut up,” Kevin muttered. “You don’t know what this thing is, either.”

“Yeah, but I’m not an otaku.”

“Would you stop calling me an otaku?!”

“So what should we do with this thing?” Iris gestured toward the stirring figure. “Tie it up? Interrogate it? Toss it out the window?”

The vixen’s last suggestion caused him to look at her like she’d suddenly sprouted fish fins on her head.

“Toss it out the window?”

“It’s just a suggestion.” Iris shrugged. “She—he, um… it?” She looked back at the creature again, watching as its fingers twitched, and then glanced back at Kevin. “Anyway, it attacked us. That’s ground rule for getting rid of it and tossing it out of the window is a good way of getting rid of it.”

“I’d rather not kill anyone,” Kevin told her sternly.

“It’s so cute that you still maintain such an idealistic outlook after everything that’s happened to you,” Iris teased.

Kevin, however, took that as an insult. “Just because I don’t want to kill unless I have no other choice doesn’t mean I’m naive.”

“That’s why I said idealistic,” Iris told him.

“Whatever,” Kevin sighed.

He looked back at the yōkai—and then grunted when the thing sprung up and lunged at him, slamming into his body with its shoulder, hurtling him out of the way with tremendous strength. He hit the ground with a harsh thud, looking up as the window shattered and the creature jumped through it, disappearing from sight.

“You okay, Stud?” Iris held out her hand. He hesitated, but then he took it, allowing her to pull him up.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you.” Kevin winced when his shoulder throbbed, tendrils of minor pain lancing through him. It wasn’t broken, though, or even dislocated. It just hurt.

“You’re welcome.” Iris smiled at him, but then she frowned. “What should we do about that yōkai?”

Kevin silently contemplated their options. They could chase after it, of course. The question was: Should they? Did they even need to? If they did, it could lead to them running into an ambush. If they didn’t, it meant letting a yōkai who may try to hurt them again get away. Neither option was all that appealing.

“Let’s go after it,” Kevin said at last. “But we’ll need to be careful. There’s no telling what sort of dangers we’ll run into.”

“Aye!” Iris saluted.

Kevin grimaced. “I knew I shouldn’t have let you watch Fairy Tail.”

“Aye!”

“Stop that!”

***

As it turned out, danger had been a bit of an understatement.

He and Iris chased after the yōkai who attacked them, its fleeing form easily visible due to its frayed kimono and ragged locks of raven hair flapping behind it. The yōkai turned corners and raced down alleys, with him and his companion following closely behind it.

Kevin shot at it several times, bolts of cobalt blue and divine white lancing out of his guns like thunder. The bolts of youki gouged holes in the concrete, blasted chunks off brick walls, created black scorch marks on the many structures around them, and even destroyed a couple of fences. He never managed to land a good hit, however, as the creature’s figure was obscured by its abnormally large kimono. The fact that he was shooting while running didn’t help.

It turned another corner. They followed and were just in time to see it slamming a door shut behind it.

“What do you think?” Iris asked as she and Kevin stood in front of the door. “Should we follow it?”

“We’ve already come this far, haven’t we?” Kevin checked the gauges on his guns. The weapons, reminiscent of Desert Eagles, were more than half full. He judged that to mean he had around seventy-five shots left in each. One hundred and fifty shots should be more than enough to deal with a minor yōkai like this. “Let’s go, but be careful.”

“Worried about me?”

“Of course, I am.” Kevin frowned at Iris before he opened the door and peeked inside. “This yōkai might not be as big a threat as that Fan woman, but we’re still dealing with a hostile, supernatural creature. I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

Iris stared at him wide eyed. Then she turned her head away, not quite fast enough for him to miss the way her cheeks turned red.

“Heh,” she chuckled, the sound containing a tremor. “Better be careful, Stud. Say things like that too much, and I might decide to show you my appreciation.”

Kevin just rolled his eyes as he entered through the door. Darkness greeted him. It was not the pitch-black darkness where nothing was visible, but it was still dark enough that he could only make out silhouettes against a backdrop of inky blackness. He could tell they were in a hall of some kind, though not much else. His hand blindly searched the wall before finding and flipping a switch.

The lights came on and illuminated the hall. Wood floors and walls of concrete greeted him. The ceiling also appeared to be made of gray concrete, but the network of rusty old pipes kept him from seeing much. A glance to his left and right sides revealed nothing. Both sides looked the same.

Iris walked up to his side and looked around as well.

“Should we split up?”

“No.” Kevin shook his head. “I’d rather we stick together. That way we can watch each other’s backs.”

Iris’s eyes glowed with a mischief that was matched by the seductive smile on her face.

“You wanna watch my backside, do you? It’s okay. You can look if you want.”

He heaved a deep sigh. “Can you be serious for once?”

She crossed her arms under her chest. “I am being serious. I’m seriously telling you that you can stare at my ass for as long as you like.”

Kevin decided that he’d be better off ignoring her, so he said nothing.

They walked down the hall, the tap-tap, tap-tap of their footsteps echoing ominously, bouncing off the walls and across the hall. Kevin kept his wary eyes peeled for signs of possible ambush. He didn’t know what this yōkai’s power was. Better to be safe and prepared for anything than sorry and dead.

The hallway eventually branched off into several different sections they could travel to: stairs traveling up, a hallway on the left, and a door that led to who knew where. From the door they heard music, loud and blaring techno dance music. Was this the back entrance to a dance club? He and Iris shared a glance before they both decided to head up the stairs.

Kevin kept a firm grip on his twin handguns. His heart pounded in his ears, a sound of rushing blood that almost drowned out the music. The further up they went, the more distant the music became, and as the music slowly vanished from hearing, a new sound took its place.

Voices.

He couldn’t hear what was being said, but that just made his anxiety worse. He was almost afraid that the people talking would discover them simply from hearing the beating of his heart. Iris walked behind him, one hand on his shoulder, while the other hung almost limply at her side. He wondered if she felt as anxious as him.

They entered a hallway paved with red carpet. It helped muffle their footsteps, though it did little to stop the pounding of his heart, which was akin to the pistons of a V8 engine with 520 horsepower. They passed by several doors, all of them unmarked and plain. As they neared the end of the hallway, the voices became more distinct.

“So, you’re telling me that you failed to kill the boy and acquire the girl, meow?” a voice said, male, deep, and rich. If dark chocolate had a voice, Kevin imagined it would sound like that. There was just one thing about it that bothered him…

“Meow?” Iris mouthed with a scrunched face. He shrugged, indicating his own lack of knowledge, though he could make a rough guess as to what type of yōkai they were facing based on that stupid catch phrase.

“I apologize, Rabbim,” another voice spoke, this one feminine yet raspy, as if they were not used to speaking—or more like they had spent at least two hours a day scraping their vocal cords with a fork. “They proved to be more cunning than I originally thought. They used an illusion to trick me and then attacked from behind.”

“So they knew you were coming, meow?”

“I believe the girl you wanted me to grab is a Void Kitsune. If that’s the case, she might have sensed my presence.”

“Hmm, indeed, meow.” The voice sounded contemplative, as if its owner was thinking deep and complex thoughts. “And you say they followed you here?”

“They chased after me. I may have lost them, but I don’t think—”

“Hold up, my dear. It seems we have some people loitering around outside, meow.”

Kevin and Iris froze. The sound of footsteps coming near a door to their right told them that trouble was coming. Knowing that retreating wasn’t an option, they entered one of the other rooms, thankful that it was unlocked, and softly closed the door behind them.

Pressing his ear against the door, Kevin strained to listen to what was happening on the other side. His fingers clenched the handle of his guns tightly. Beside him, Iris leaned against his shoulder, her ears twitching.

Anxiety heightened his senses. Adrenaline derived from fear pumped through his veins. He had so many worries. Would these yōkai find them? Would they have to fight their way out? Could they fight their way out? He didn’t even know how many yōkai they would be up against. They’d mentioned something about “idiot akaname,” which he assumed were those three they had already beaten. That meant he and Iris might have to face more than just these two. He didn’t think they could take on more than two yōkai at the same time, especially with so little information to go off of.

Another second passed. Then two. Kevin could hear nothing but the blood rushing in his ears. Finally, after a moment of absolute stillness, footsteps were heard, and the sound of a door closing came from outside.

“It seems I was mistaken, meow,” the smooth male voice said. “There is no one here. We’ll have security guard the back entrance in case those two show up, meow. Come along, Dіlara.”

“Yes, Rabbim.”

Two sets of footsteps receded. Kevin breathed a deep sigh of relief as he slumped against the door.

“That was too close.”

“You’re telling me,” Iris muttered, her own nerves looking a little rattled. “However, we’re not out of the nya yet.”

“Pardon?” Kevin blinked.

“The nya.” Iris’s lips twitched into a grin. “You remember those idiots mentioned The Cat’s Nya? I’ll bet you Lilian’s virginity that it’s the name of this club. Those three we beat up a while ago were probably exclusive members or something.”

Kevin had absolutely no response to that, though it was mostly because of what Iris was willing to bet.

“Anyway, it looks like the back way is out.” When in doubt, just change the subject. “Which means our only option is to go out through the front. We can probably slip out by blending in with the crowd, and maybe making it seem like we’re in a group. We might even want to go a step further and enchant a group of humans to make it look like we came in with them.”

Kevin wondered if he should be bothered by how easily he suggested enchanting humans. He disliked it when Iris had first tried enchanting him (though it was fine for training purposes), and here he was, suggesting that she enchant some innocent bystanders, enslaving their will, and forcing them to help. That didn’t sound like something a good person would do, and he’d always considered himself to be the kind of guy who stuck to the moral high ground.

Desperate times, a voice that sounded like him but was more logical and cold whispered in his ear. It was a voice that he had developed ever since coming to terms with his first kill. He’d taken to calling it his logical side. Of course, it would be easier if you could just get away clean without anyone being hurt, but that’s not possible right now. You need to rescue Lilian, and you can’t do that if you die here.

Much as he hated to admit it, he agreed with the voice. Rescuing Lilian was his top priority, and he couldn’t rescue her if he and Iris were dead.

In the end, it was his desire to rescue Lilian that swayed him.

His expression hardened. He stood up and looked at Iris.

“Let’s go. We’ll sneak into the crowd, enchant a small group of humans to walk out with us, and then slip away when the club is no longer in view.”

The look Iris sent him gave Kevin chills.

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re extremely sexy when you take command like that?”

Kevin tried not to blush.

He failed.

***

They traversed back the way they’d come and entered the door from which loud music blared. The room that he and Iris found themselves in would have been dark were it not for the strobe lights flashing all around them. His ears rung as loud music blared across the room, some kind of techno-fusion remix that grated on his ears like the piercing shrill of Coach Deretaine’s whistle.

He waded into the sea of humanity, of hundreds of bodies mashing together. Iris kept a firm grip on his arm to avoid being separated. The strobe lights danced off her face and body, highlighting her alluring figure which, even while clinging to his arm, swayed with sensual overtones that made everyone near her, male and female, stare at her with blatant want in their eyes.

Several people actually tried coming up to her despite being on his arm. A few even tried coping a feel. Kevin could ignore the way they hit on her, as she wasn’t his mate, but he drew a line at the blatant disrespect shown by the perverts hoping to grab her ass and disappear into the crowd.

The first person to try touching his mate’s sister inappropriately nearly had his hand broken when Kevin caught it, and then proceeded to crush it within his grip. The young man’s screams were drowned out by the music. After that, Kevin took to possessively wrapping an arm around Iris, who actually looked startled by their sudden closeness. He gave her a reassuring smile, a method of telling her not to worry and that he wasn’t trying to be purposefully grabby, and then he sent a ferocious snarl at the next person who tried coping a feel, sending them scurrying the other way.

Iris saw this, smiled, and leaned up to his ear. “You know that if you keep doing things like this, I really will have my way with you?” Even next to his ear, she had to yell in order to be overheard.

Kevin managed to keep from blushing this time.

“If you did that,” he replied into her ear, “Lilian would be most upset with you.”

The grin she sent him would have made lesser men run for the hills—or cream their pants. Whichever came first.

“You clearly don’t know Lilian as well as you think you do.” Kevin frowned at her, but she continued as if not seeing his expression. “Don’t worry, Stud. I won’t have my way with you until after we rescue Lilian. My plan is for the three of us to have a threesome.”

Kevin nearly tripped. Iris must have been expecting that because she reinforced her body and kept him from face planting on the ground. He sent her a dirty look, to which she responded by smiling at him with the innocence of a predator.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the voice that they had heard not two minutes ago echoed from above, “I hope you’re all having a good time, meow!”

He looked up and found the source of the voice; it was a man who looked like the love child of Fabio and the Wicked Witch of the West. He had pale skin and a long nose, which sat upon his square-jawed face. His muscular body was just barely covered by his outfit, a horrendously bright hot pink muscle shirt, along with a pair of spandex stretch pants. He was leaning against a railing and looking down at the crowd, a microphone in his ears.

As a cheer went up, the man above them all smiled. It wasn’t a very pleasant smile.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said, his voice booming over the loudspeakers. “Because we’ve got a special treat for you today, meow, one that should make this night even more exciting, meow.”

The music stopped, and Kevin’s instincts suddenly blared at him, telling him to get away, to take Iris and run.

A spotlight flashed over him and Iris from above, illuminating them like a pair of robbers being chased by the cops. Everyone’s head turned in their direction, and the instincts that had been screaming at him turned into a bellow that would have put the roaring of a dragon to shame.

“Those two are going to be our entertainment tonight, meow,” the man said, his grin stretching from ear to ear. “They have so graciously volunteered themselves, and so it would be rude not to accept their offer, meow. You may kill the boy, but bring the girl to me alive. You know how much I love to entertain the ladies, meow.”

Kevin was not one for swearing. However, in that moment, only one phrase came to mind that he believed could adequately describe what he felt just then.

“Fuck me sideways.”

Despite their situation, Iris’s eyes gleamed. “With pleasure.”

“Quiet, you!”

“Tch!”

Step-by-Step Guide to Sideload EPUB Files Purchased from Shopify onto Kindle

Amazon now supports EPUB files on Kindle, but you need to send them through Send to Kindle or convert them. Follow these steps to get your EPUB books on your Kindle.

Method 1: Send to Kindle (Recommended)

Amazon now allows you to send EPUB files directly to your Kindle via email or the Send to Kindle app.

Step 1: Find Your Kindle Email Address

Go to Amazon → Manage Your Content & Devices (Link).

Click the Devices tab.

Select your Kindle device and note the "Send-to-Kindle Email" (e.g., yourname@kindle.com).

Step 2: Send EPUB to Kindle via Email

Open your email client (Gmail, Outlook, etc.).

Compose a new email to your Send-to-Kindle Email.

Attach the EPUB file you purchased.

Send the email. Amazon will convert it and deliver it to your Kindle.

Alternative: Use the "Send to Kindle" App

Download the Send to Kindle App (PC, Mac).

Drag and drop the EPUB file into the app.

Select your Kindle and send it.

Method 2: USB Transfer (For Advanced Users)

This method requires converting the EPUB to Kindle’s MOBI or AZW3 format.

Step 1: Convert EPUB to MOBI or AZW3

Download Calibre (Link).

Open Calibre and add your EPUB file.

Click Convert books → Choose MOBI or AZW3 as the output format.

Click OK to convert.

Step 2: Transfer to Kindle via USB

Connect your Kindle to your PC/Mac using a USB cable.

Open the Kindle folder in File Explorer (Windows) / Finder (Mac).

Drag and drop the converted file into the Documents folder.

Eject your Kindle, and your book will appear in your library.

Bonus: Use a Third-Party App

Apps like Send to Kindle for Android/iOS or Readwise Reader can also sync EPUBs to Kindle.

Now, enjoy your book on Kindle! 📖🔥