Page 20 of Curses & Kitsune

Raiden stirs with a grimace, easing open an eye. “Fuck… what happened?”

“The silver weakened you,” Ren says. “You passed out, and we brought you back to the safehouse.”

Raiden sits up slowly. “Were you followed?”

Ren shakes her head. “Are you okay?” She reaches out and yelps in pain.

“Jinta!” Raiden exclaims.

I look down, and my heart lurches. I’m gripping Ren’s wrist tight, claws driving into her skin. I don’t care. Nobody touches my mate. I bare my fangs and snarl, “Back away.” Fur ripples over my arms.

Ren gasps in pain. “H-hey. Easy. I wasn’t going to—”

A roar tears from my throat, silencing her. “Don’t fucking touch him!”

“Jinta, enough!” Raiden’s voice snaps me out of my furious trance. The red haze descending over my eyes disappears. I yank my hand away from Ren’s wrist, horrified as the skin darkens into a violent bruise. What the hell just happened to me? “I… I’m so sorry!” Clutching my clawed hand to my chest, I stumble back and bump into the wall. Oh my god. I wanted to kill her.

Ren watches as the bruises on her arm disappear. She glares at me. “I thought you both were supposed to be handling the curse.”

When Raiden glances at me, he hastily looks away. “Go stand guard. I need to, uh…” He jerks a shoulder at me.

Ren looks between us, and whatever fury she sees on my face makes her cough. “Right. Okay. We’ll just be… outside.” She and the other yakuza leave. The door closes behind them, and in the frigid silence, it’s like the slam of a dungeon door in some dank, dark prison. My anguish holds me captive, barely allowing me a full breath.

Raiden folds his arms defensively. “Hey, this isn’t as bad as it looks. You should see the other guy.”

“I told you not to retaliate.” I barely recognize my voice as it shakes with anger and devastation. “But you just had to, didn’t you?”

A muscle ticks in Raiden’s jaw. “Yes, I did. I told you, we can’t afford to look weak. My own men are starting to question me! If the pack falls apart, how are we going to fight off the hunters and Takada’s people? We need to be unified!”

“Or we could just leave and go find your father! But no, you just won’t do that, will you?”

Raiden lurches to his feet, lips in a tight line as he glares at me. “We don’t need anything from that bastard. I’ll figure out a way to help you myself!”

I want to rip my damn hair out. “Before or after I kill Ren or whoever else in your pack tries to touch you! Or—or maybe after I’ve drained an entire hospital dry! Would that be better for you?”

The low furious rumble of his voice hurts my heart when he says, “There has to be another way to lift the curse.”

A scowl tugs at my mouth. “Do you know of one?”

“No.”

“Then what other options do we have? I understand how you feel, but—”

“No, you don’t!” he snaps, his harsh words make me flinch. “I never wanted a goddamn thing to do with that son of a bitch. He tore my family apart. Drove my mother into a deep depression. If he hadn’t left, I never would have been forced into joining the Namikawa-kai. That fucker ruined my life. I want nothing to do with him.”

“But—”

Shaking his head, Raiden turns his back. “Find him yourself.”

He storms off like a teenager. What the hell? He’s never walked out on me before. I bound after him as he stomps into the bedroom. Raiden yanks off his tie, then chucks his bloody shirt into the hamper in the corner.

When I say his name, he ignores me. Finally, I snap, “Would you quit behaving like a child?”

Raiden whips around, eyes blazing. “Yeah, you know why that is? I was never allowed to be a child. He stole that from me, and so did my mother. They fucked me up, so if you’ve got a problem, take it up with them.”

Anger heats my blood and makes my cheeks burn hot. “I do have a problem. I’m possessed by a kitsune, and unless we can cure it, I could kill people! Is that what you want?” Throwing my hands in the air, I pace to the other end of the bedroom. “Do you like it, Raiden? The fighting? The killing?” When he doesn’t respond, I whip around and find his arms wound across his chest and his gaze far away and vacant. My mouth goes dry, and a bitter laugh escapes me. “You do, don’t you?”

Raiden closes his eyes and gives a heavy shrug of his shoulders. “And if I did? I spent all my life feeling totally powerless under Namikawa. Trapped. I don’t feel that way anymore. Is that such a bad thing?”

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