Page 30 of Curses & Kitsune

“Ready yourselves!” Akira howls, drawing his pistol.

The kitsune hurls himself through the barrier and charges in a white blur. Gunfire makes my ears ring, and I cry out in horror as blood bursts from various parts of the kitsune’s body.

Nothing slows the beast down. He pounces upon a group of hunters, seizes one in his jaws, and shakes her around like she’s nothing but a chew toy. Blood spatters the hunters pinned beneath him. Then he throws her broken, mangled body into the wall. With a furious roar, he conjures bright blue orbs of foxfire.

“Get back!” Takada bellows, but it’s too late.

The foxfire blasts through the air, roasting the flesh and fur of any wolves it touches, consuming hunters’ bodies in seconds. The screams and the stench of burning meat make my stomach roil.

Takada’s wolves howl in anguish as fire melts the skin from their bones. The kitsune clones itself, making wolves and hunters alike become distracted by fighting off three different versions of himself, and then he vanishes before my eyes.

In a flash of white, he appears behind me and presses himself against me. His big, bushy tails wrap around me. A growl rumbles through his body, reverberating through my own chest. Changing back to my human form, I grab at his fur.

“Jinta. Hey. Sunshine, listen to me. You need to calm down!”

“Get that thing away from the boss!” one of my men shouts, and my wolves charge toward me.

I bellow, “No! Stay back!”

But it’s too late. I can only watch, frozen, as the kitsune leaps upon my own wolves, slashing at them, shredding them with his fangs. Their screams of horror and agony sear themselves into my memory.

That thing isn’t Jinta. He’s been turned into a monster that can’t differentiate friends from foes. He became a monster to protect me.

I’m the reason my own people are being torn to pieces right now.

Ren barks as she charges, leaping toward him.

With a snap of his jaws, Jinta grabs her out of the air and crunches down. Ren howls in agony as blood stains her white fur.

“Jinta, no!” I roar, terrified I’m going to watch my mate slaughter my friend.

Snarling, Jinta hurls Ren across the room, and she smashes into a shipping crate with a yelp of pain.

I hate to abandon my pack, but if I stay, the kitsune will kill them all in my name. Drawing in a deep breath, I bellow, “Jinta!”

The kitsune whirls toward me, eyes blazing, snout wrinkled in fury.

“Let’s go!” I start to run, tearing toward the exit.

“Noboru!” Takada roars. “Get back here and fight!”

A snarl splits the air. The kitsune leaps, slamming down on the ground in front of me. One of his many tails coils around me. The kitsune bunches his muscles and springs into the air, completely weightless as he flies up toward the roof. The wind roars in my ears as the kitsune soars up through the hole in the roof and higher still, up among the clouds.

The city falls away below us, and my stomach lurches with the sudden urge to vomit. I swallow frantically and close my eyes, trying to gird my stomach. We stop ascending and drift among the clouds. The kitsune lifts his tail, and I let out an embarrassingly shrill scream as he suddenly drops me.

“Fuck, shit!” I crash onto his fluffy back and immediately grab handfuls of his dense fur.

The wind billows around us as the kitsune flies over the city and toward the distant mountains. My stomach swoops as the kitsune dives. I hide my face in the kitsune’s white fur and nearly lose my damn dinner when we land with a bump on solid ground.

Feeling like my heart and bowels exchanged places, I slide off the kitsune’s back and touch the forest floor. The woods around us are dark and quiet and oddly familiar. The kitsune rubs against me and leads the way. I follow at his side, and the trees eventually clear, revealing a familiar traditional home.

This home used to belong to Namikawa, but he left it to my grandfather, who then left it to me in his will. I haven’t been to this house since before Namikawa and my grandfather died. We should be safe here.

I approach the door and find the spare key hidden in a potted plant. I turn toward the kitsune and shiver under those intense red eyes. The fury has left, but the kitsune hasn’t shifted back.

“Gonna change back?” I ask him.

The kitsune grumbles and paws at the dirt.

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