her legs, and tucked into knee-high boots with a very impressive heel. She was grinning at us, with a little strut in her step, and her hands rested on her hips.
It crossed my mind that we were having a collective hallucination. Maybe I was seeing her, and they were seeing a camel. Or I was dead and heaven consisted of an anime fetish. Except she wasn’t wearing a schoolgirl’s skirt and kneesocks, so maybe not that. Also, if this was heaven, the ground was really dirty, I still ached all over from the kicks, and frankly there was something kind of intimidating about the way she was smiling.
Apparently my assailants were also confused. “Bitch, what the fuck?” the leader asked. I was thinking of himas the leader because he had the most rings in his nose, and also he was the one holding my wallet. He also seemed to have the best command of the English language.
The woman thought so too, because she laughed. “Very eloquently put,” she said. “Now do me a favor and run along. You’re messing up my property.”
She didn’t even glance at me, but I gathered that I was the property in question.
My muggers didn’t think much of her request. “Fuck you, bitch,” the leader said. “And you’d better start running, because when we’re done with this fucker, you’re next.” But none of them moved. Whatever sense of menace was emanating from the woman, who could barely have topped five-foot-five and probably got carded every time she ordered a drink, they felt it too.
Her smile widened. “This is your last warning. And now I’m not even going to let you keep his wallet.”
“She’s crazy,” one of the beta thugs muttered.
“Yeah, get her,” said the other one.
“Too late,” she said. She lifted one hand off her hip and blew a kiss. For a long minute nothing seemed to happen, and I wondered if she actually was a crazy woman. I hoped not, because then I’d have to try to save her, and I’d already done an incredibly crappy job of saving myself.
But then the leader of the thugs let out an ear-piercing scream, echoed almost immediately by his cohorts. My wallet dropped onto my stomach, and they were running like track stars, still screaming, across the street and down an alley.
Their shrieks were disappearing into the distance. If we’d beenin a residential area, people probably would’ve been calling the cops, but here there was nothing but chained-up storefronts. I started to get up, but the woman had walked closer, and she pressed her boot against my throat, effectively pinning me down.
“Uh-uh,” she said, leaning down closer to me. I got my first close-up look at her face, and felt my stomach give a flip that had almost nothing to do with the recent blunt-force trauma it had suffered. “I think I like you where you are. Maybe you’ll cause less trouble like this.”
Behind her, there was a small scuffling sound and then a rhythmic clicking. I tore my eyes away from the gorgeous woman and my brief hopes that this might go the way of a
Penthouse
forum letter to look and see what was causing the sounds. It was a fox—its brilliant red coat, dark feet, and pristine white throat and tail tip visible even in the weak light from the half-dead streetlights. The fox sat down next to the woman and looked at me with golden eyes. Then it gave a wide, deliberate yawn.
I looked back at the woman, who was still patiently standing with one foot balanced gently on my larynx.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered. “You’re kitsune.”
She gave me an approving grin and tapped my nose with one finger. “Got it in one.”
Chapter 4
The kitsune were shape-shifters and tricksters. They were native to Japan, but one of them had come over right after World War II, and had petitioned my mother to live in her territory. Madeline granted it, and the kitsune had set up shop, quickly raising a horde (or, more accurately, a litter) of children. There were many types of supernatural creatures in her territory, but
It crossed my mind that we were having a collective hallucination. Maybe I was seeing her, and they were seeing a camel. Or I was dead and heaven consisted of an anime fetish. Except she wasn’t wearing a schoolgirl’s skirt and kneesocks, so maybe not that. Also, if this was heaven, the ground was really dirty, I still ached all over from the kicks, and frankly there was something kind of intimidating about the way she was smiling.
Apparently my assailants were also confused. “Bitch, what the fuck?” the leader asked. I was thinking of himas the leader because he had the most rings in his nose, and also he was the one holding my wallet. He also seemed to have the best command of the English language.
The woman thought so too, because she laughed. “Very eloquently put,” she said. “Now do me a favor and run along. You’re messing up my property.”
She didn’t even glance at me, but I gathered that I was the property in question.
My muggers didn’t think much of her request. “Fuck you, bitch,” the leader said. “And you’d better start running, because when we’re done with this fucker, you’re next.” But none of them moved. Whatever sense of menace was emanating from the woman, who could barely have topped five-foot-five and probably got carded every time she ordered a drink, they felt it too.
Her smile widened. “This is your last warning. And now I’m not even going to let you keep his wallet.”
“She’s crazy,” one of the beta thugs muttered.
“Yeah, get her,” said the other one.
“Too late,” she said. She lifted one hand off her hip and blew a kiss. For a long minute nothing seemed to happen, and I wondered if she actually was a crazy woman. I hoped not, because then I’d have to try to save her, and I’d already done an incredibly crappy job of saving myself.
But then the leader of the thugs let out an ear-piercing scream, echoed almost immediately by his cohorts. My wallet dropped onto my stomach, and they were running like track stars, still screaming, across the street and down an alley.
Their shrieks were disappearing into the distance. If we’d beenin a residential area, people probably would’ve been calling the cops, but here there was nothing but chained-up storefronts. I started to get up, but the woman had walked closer, and she pressed her boot against my throat, effectively pinning me down.
“Uh-uh,” she said, leaning down closer to me. I got my first close-up look at her face, and felt my stomach give a flip that had almost nothing to do with the recent blunt-force trauma it had suffered. “I think I like you where you are. Maybe you’ll cause less trouble like this.”
Behind her, there was a small scuffling sound and then a rhythmic clicking. I tore my eyes away from the gorgeous woman and my brief hopes that this might go the way of a
Penthouse
forum letter to look and see what was causing the sounds. It was a fox—its brilliant red coat, dark feet, and pristine white throat and tail tip visible even in the weak light from the half-dead streetlights. The fox sat down next to the woman and looked at me with golden eyes. Then it gave a wide, deliberate yawn.
I looked back at the woman, who was still patiently standing with one foot balanced gently on my larynx.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered. “You’re kitsune.”
She gave me an approving grin and tapped my nose with one finger. “Got it in one.”
Chapter 4
The kitsune were shape-shifters and tricksters. They were native to Japan, but one of them had come over right after World War II, and had petitioned my mother to live in her territory. Madeline granted it, and the kitsune had set up shop, quickly raising a horde (or, more accurately, a litter) of children. There were many types of supernatural creatures in her territory, but
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