Stone-Cold Fox (Black Dog) Read online

  We hit the half wall and climbed over it, striding into absolute darkness lit by her magic. The porch loomed ahead, and I walked to its edge, straining my ears. Whistles rose. Voices strained. They hadn’t found her yet.

  Gen’s fading scent covered the porch from our earlier escapade. “Did you see which way the girl went?”

  “Yep.” Thierry decided on a way down and shoved me toward it. “That’s why I said it won’t take them long to find her. She’s a smart cookie and coolheaded. Otherwise, they would have located her already.”

  I shimmied down one of the support piers anchoring the porch. Thierry landed in a crouch beside me, nostrils flared as she oriented herself to our surroundings. When she started walking, I was slower to follow.

  I cast a backward glance over my shoulder. “What about my dad?”

  “Mr. Hayashi agreed to give me time to handle the situation before he took matters into his own hands.”

  We hit the grass and crawled along the same path Gen had used earlier. Apparently Thierry had been studying the girl’s trails and used them to reach me with as little fanfare as possible. To the left, moonlight bounced off the patchwork tent the Tanabes called home. Drawing in the scents of the area, I tasted Chiffon, Gen, Ryuu and Katsuo in the back of my throat.

  A spate of sharp yips pierced the night, and my knees locked in place. Those voices were familiar. Oh no. No, no, no. I reached out and caught Thierry’s ankle. She twisted sideways and raised her eyebrows.

  I wet my lips. “Do you hear that?”

  “Foxes barking. So?”

  “Those aren’t just any foxes.” I rose on my knees, barely able to see over the tops of the wheat stalks. “They’re Hayashis. That’s our skulk call you’re hearing.”

  When the skulk hunted as a whole, we used the series of short yips to locate one another. If they were using it now, it meant they were waiting on me to answer. Maybe they even thought I was the one who had gone missing and that the Tanabe skulk was trying to locate me. They probably had no idea what they were rushing into except that—like Thierry—the chaos presented a prime opportunity to extract me.

  “This will end badly.” Dad would have sent our sentries, fighters who were skirmish-trained, when this skulk had left bookworms to guard my door. Nothing against bookworms, but I doubted many rescuers would halt their escape attempts while the guards finished reading to the end of the chapter. Thierry had knocked them out with magic before they knew what hit them. “I have to intercept them.”

  “Mai.” Thierry tackled me. “The cavalry has arrived. Stop trying to hamstring them, and let’s get out of here.”

  I shoved her off me and climbed to my feet. “These are innocent people, Tee. We can’t let them get hurt because of me.”

  “Whatever happens isn’t your fault. It’s theirs.” She pulled magic into her runes. “They took you. They had to know that was the dumbest dumbass thing to do, and yet here you are.”

  “I can’t explain it.” I barely understood the overwhelming urge to protect these people myself. I pleaded with her using the puppy eyes she so often turned on me. “Help me keep them safe.”

  “Fine.” She set off at a lope. “Let’s secure the kid first. I don’t want to risk her being used as leverage.”

  A sour taste coated the back of my throat. I had a bad feeling I was about to understand the full scope of my dad’s willingness to recover me, and I was equally certain the actions of my skulk’s enforcers wasn’t something I could unsee. Thoughts of Ryuu, of Katsuo and their family, bumped around in my head looking for an outlet I couldn’t give them.

  Please don’t let us be the bad guys here.

  Bypassing the tent, we hit a trail that wound down toward a stream. I sneezed once, then three more times in rapid succession. Someone had dumped a ton of lavender-scented washing powder on the ground, and the potent smell made my eyes water.

  “Gen?” I asked through a voice gone nasal.

  “The kid?” Thierry grinned. “Yeah. She doused the whole area while you and Hot Stuff were eating. She was serious about not being followed.”

  As limited as resources were, she was going to be in big trouble for wasting supplies when her brothers caught her. They wouldn’t thank her for their stuffy noses either.

  Fox calls dimmed behind us as we ran deeper into the high grasses bordering the stream. I no longer heard whistles or shouts. No doubt the Tanabe skulk had gone dark to keep the Hayashis from pinpointing their locations.

  “She was following the stream the last time I—oof.”

  Thierry hit the ground hard. Ryuu pressed a knee to her gut and cupped her throat in one of his wide palms. He stared up at me through eyes brimming with so much fury I wondered how he could see through them.

  “You’re not leaving,” he informed me.

  Light poured into Thierry’s runes, and her fingers twitched. I rushed toward them. “Tee, no.”

  Ryuu studied her hand, scowled at the runes and then dismissed them and her. “What are you doing out here?”

  Idiot man. “Looking for your sister, what do you think?”

  “From there it looked like you were trying to run away.” He growled. “Again.”

  “Look, we’ve covered this already. I’m not apologizing for wanting to go home.” I pointed at Thierry. “She’s probably the last person who saw Gen. Her nose is ten times better than ours put together. Get off her. Let her up. Let us help you.”

  “Or…don’t,” she wheezed, runes dancing over her knuckles and hunger bright in her gaze. “I owe you for that dart.”

  Whatever he saw in her eyes, Ryuu eased his grip on her throat before turning to me. “I want your word you won’t run.”

  I thought about blowing him off and doing what must be done, but some indefinable thing had changed between Ryuu and me in the past two days. In another time, under different circumstances, I would have called it the beginnings of trust. Or at least of understanding.

  Thierry’s hoarse chuckles sputtered to quiet shock when I said, “You have it.”

  In a single fluid motion, as if they had choreographed it, Ryuu rolled to his feet at the same time Thierry leapt to hers.

  “You would accept my word at face value—” I snapped my fingers, “—just like that?”

  “Yes,” he said with conviction before turning to Thierry. “Where did she go?”

  “She’s a smart kid.” Already the roughness in her voice was receding as her body healed the damage. “She covered her trail to reach the water. She’ll know she can be tracked if she crosses near here. My guess?” She pointed toward a distant bend that carried the water out of sight. “She’ll stick to the water, use it to mask her scent.” Thierry lifted her chin, filled her lungs. Her nose wrinkled. “I can smell wet dog from here.”

  All I scented was the crisp bite of clean water and the loamy punch of decomposing earth. I aimed a stare at her. “You’re scary sometimes, you know that?”

  Ryuu removed his shoes then waded into the water. It hit him above the knee, which put it about waist-high on Gen. Thierry and I followed on land. It should have been easy keeping stride with him while he fought against the current, but he plowed upriver with single-minded determination. In fact, if I hadn’t known better, I might have suspected the current flowed around him to avoid his wrath for slowing him down.

  “So that’s the guy, huh? He’s got that drag-a-woman-to-his cave vibe going for him.” Thierry kept her voice low enough the constant babble drowned out our conversation. “And we’re helping him, why?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “Complicated makes it sound like you’re getting attached.” She left the thought hanging. “Wait. You’re not—are you?”

  “I’m not attached.” Holding myself accountable for the brat’s disappearance was only right. “I’m confused.”

  “Well,” she mused, “we can both agree on that score. Are you sure his chiseled jaw has nothing to do with it?”

  The night politely
hid my blush. “These people used to belong to my skulk. It’s not crazy or hormonal for me to want to help them.” I grimaced when thorns raked my legs through the thin fabric of my homespun pants. “The thing is…I don’t remember most of them. Isn’t that weird?”

  “Are we talking family reunion with third cousins twice removed or are we talking people you would have seen on a regular basis?” She leapt a fork in the stream, scented it for an indication Gen had taken the branch and then powered ahead to keep even with Ryuu. “How old were you anyway?”

  “I was twelve when Katsuo left the skulk.”

  “So this was a year before we met?”

  I nodded, though even she didn’t have eyes in the back of her head. “His father was the accountant for the skulk. He handled all Dad’s money, and you know how Dad is when it comes to his finances.”

  Some of our more outspoken relatives called him Midas behind his back, and I don’t think it was because everything he touched turned to gold so much as everything gold he touched ended up in his back pocket.

  “How long did Mr. Tanabe work for your father?”

  “I got the impression he followed Dad out west when he formed the Hayashi skulk.” And Dad was no spring chicken. “I would say thirty years or more.”

  She glanced back at me. “Why did they leave?”

  “Dad said Mr. Tanabe got an offer from a relative up north, near the area where they grew up.” Dad was from Vermont, so I had no reason not to believe him. “He told me Mr. Tanabe decided to move his family closer to their people.”

  Thierry paused, head cocked before trudging ahead. “How often does mass relocation of a family happen?”

  “More often than you’d think. If a child marries well, the family might choose to follow the child into the new skulk they’ll be forming. It gives them a status boost instead of staying locked in the current hierarchy. It also gives the couple a built-in power base. Sometimes, if the rule of a reynard and vixen is challenged, the couple will reach out to family and offer them incentive to move in order to beef up their supporters’ numbers.”

  “Makes sense.” She swatted a mosquito. “So you haven’t given these people much thought then.”

  “It’s like I mentally wrote them off when they moved. Katsuo was my best friend, and it’s like I remember him from a TV show that got cancelled instead of real life.” A frown tightened my forehead. “Dad bought me a pony that day. I remember, because the family that moved into Katsuo’s house the next week bred quarter horses, and their eldest daughter taught me to ride.” I added softly, “He called it serendipity. I even named the horse that.”

  “There’s a quick way to find out what your dad is hiding, if he’s hiding anything at all.” She paused. “Ask him. You’re the biggest daddy’s girl I know, Mai. If you confront him and do that lip-trembling thing, he’s going to cave.”

  “Yeah.” I rubbed my hands up my arms. “You’re probably right.”

  “You’re worried Ryuu might be telling you his version of the truth.” She gentled her tone. “If you feel strongly enough about what you’ve learned so far that we’re out here facing down ticks and chiggers to rescue this girl, don’t you think you owe yourself the whole truth?”

  “When did you get to be so wise?” I half-mocked.

  “Wise is a strong word for someone with my track record.” She shook her head. “You’re talking to the girl who mated an incubus, who allowed her father to crash on her couch until he returned to Faerie, resulting in her father deciding the best way to help Shaw and me achieve relationship bliss was to monitor Shaw’s feeding schedule, which, yeah. You haven’t lived until you’ve walked in on your father filling out a spreadsheet that coincides with your sex life.”

  “Ah yes. I remember that.” I choked on a quiet laugh. “Shaw ripped it to tiny pieces and set them on fire after he found that pack of gold star stickers.”

  “Yep.” She froze. “Look.”

  A stream of black hair sailed above a thatch of high grass. I glimpsed a flash of yellow fur as Chiffon bounded behind her. His snarls carried to me. So did a duet of sharp barks from the kitsunes tailing them.

  “Ryuu,” I called. Gen was already on the run with Hayashi kitsunes in pursuit. Stealth no longer mattered.

  “I see them.” Climbing out of the stream, he shed his clothes and dropped them on the ground. He shifted in a ripple of magic that raised the hairs on my arms and then joined the chase.

  I shook off the disorientation and charged into the water, Thierry sloshing beside me. The sounds of battle reached me before I got close enough to spot the kitsunes knotted in a ball of red fur and black feet. I hesitated then ran past them, leaving Thierry to untangle the males.

  “Gen,” I growled. “Stop before someone gets hurt.”

  The most likely someone being her.

  My voice must not have been the one she expected to hear. She half-turned to glance back and stumbled, falling forward onto her hands and knees. I pushed for a burst of speed to reach her before she could stand, and Chiffon leapt between us, teeth bared and lips quivering.

  Liquid eyes turned on me. “But Chiffon—”

  “We’ve got bigger concerns than your dog right now. Your skulk is under attack.” I pressed forward. “You’re the reynard’s sister, and Ryuu would do anything to protect you.” I told her a hard truth. “You don’t want it to come down to you or me, brat. These guys don’t play, and even I might not be able to stop them.”

  “Okay.” She grasped Chiffon’s collar, and as if she had given him the signal, his tail began swinging back and forth in wide arcs. “I—I think I want to go home now.”

  “Good girl.” I stuck out my hand, and she clasped it. “Let’s get your brother.”

  I led her back to where I’d left Thierry. I hadn’t paid much attention to the kitsunes pursuing Gen, but both had shifted. Ryuu had too. Good thing part of growing up a shifter meant nudity was no longer the distraction for me that it was for non-shifters. Otherwise I might have had trouble swallowing at the sight of Ryuu’s bare back clenched with tension that radiated off his skin. His hair, always kept tight in a braid, had come undone and fluttered around him, the ends brushing the curve of his buttocks, not that I allowed my gaze to linger over the flower-shaped birthmark on his left cheek or anything.

  When I dragged my attention kicking and screaming to the kitsune sentries Thierry had secured, they were both examining me to ensure I was all right.

  Itsuo inclined his head. “I trust you are well.”

  “The Tanabe clan has treated me very well.” All things considered.

  “Your father will be pleased to hear this,” Minoru added.

  Gen’s grip tightened on my hand. I gave hers a comforting squeeze. “Where’s my father?”

  “He waits for you at the den.” Itsuo stepped back as though expecting me to accompany him. “We are to bring you there now.”

  Ignoring the subtle order, I shoved past them and began the hike back to town. “Right now what I need most is to be reassured these people will be unharmed.” Minoru hissed a sound of dissent. “They’re innocents, and they will not be harmed in their own home for actions beyond their control.”

  “My apologies,” he murmured.

  Yeah, the smirk spoke volumes about his level of sorry.

  Thierry fell in step beside me, frown in place as she studied the girl between us. “You’re lucky Mai likes you. You could have gotten yourself and your brother into a lot of trouble tonight without her.”

  “It’s her fault I left,” Gen spluttered.

  “Huh. That’s weird.” Thierry pinched the brat’s earlobe between her fingers and tugged. “I don’t see a mind-control device.”

  “Ryuu took my dog because of her. I had to leave.” She swatted Thierry’s hand aside. “Chiffon needs me.”

  “No. Your family needs you.” She stared ahead. “You can’t run away every time things get hard. You have to accept responsibility for your actions, and that inclu
des the fit you must have pitched to keep that dog in the first place. I’m not a kitsune, but I’ve been around the Hayashi skulk long enough to know how dangerous even good-hearted ones can be to kits.”

  Gen dropped my hand and forged ahead without us, leaving me to stare at her hunched shoulders.

  “You were hard on her,” I said quietly.

  “She’s a brat.” She reached over and tugged my hair. “Trust me. I know how to handle bratty kitsunes. She needs food for thought, and I just served up a heaping helping of reality. She’s what? Eight or nine?”

  I put my hand on Thierry’s arm, knowing she was thinking of her own past and how quickly things had spiraled out of control when she hit thirteen, the dark pit of depression and anger she had wallowed in until I found her and forced her to pop her head out of her shell. Getting her to accept me as more than an annoyance had taken months of work. Earning her trust had taken years.

  I hadn’t been half as worldly as Thierry when we met, but Gen had grown up even more isolated than I had, and her uber-bratty behavior illustrated that kind of peerless superiority kids learned from being the biggest fish in a teensy pond. Sure I had lived in Wink and attended the fae school there, but Dad had kept all of his daughters under his thumb, and Ryuu was applying the same pressure to Gen. If he didn’t lighten up soon—and socialize her—things were going to end badly for both of them.

  The situation back in town was better than expected. The tightness in my chest I had carried since learning of Gen’s disappearance eased. The skulk had gathered in the town’s center, and Hayashi sentries in human form surrounded them. Calm acceptance wreathed the faces of the Tanabe skulk members. Cold resolve hardened the features of the Hayashi males.

  I filled my lungs and pushed out a relieved breath. I didn’t scent blood. The containment had been peaceful. The Tanabes were all safe and corralled. Relief at that realization made me dizzy. These weren’t my people, and I wasn’t responsible for them, but I wanted—no, I needed—to believe my kin would do the right thing, and they had.

  “Minoru.” I squared my shoulders. “I want you to take your men and return to my father with a message.”