The Stray Kitsune: (A college age urban fantasy werewolf community center book 2), page 1
Abigail Smith
The stray Kitsune
Copyright © 2020 by Abigail Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
Abigail Smith asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.
First edition
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For grandmother, for giving me the chance
For M. L. for helping me on the way
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
About the Author
Preface
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Chapter 1
“E-lis, hold ’em down!” the comm shrieked as a figure ran out from the alleyway.
I was stationed on a rooftop, amidst the bustling mid-rises around the community center, wielding my trusty, albeit banged up, sniper rifle. I fired a shot, and just to the man’s left, a burst of flame engulfed a shopping cart.
“Dammit…” I growled under my breath as I fiddled with the bolt and aimed again.
The man ran away from me, and I fired a shot. He ducked just at the wrong time and electricity danced along the ground right in front of him. “Dammit!” I shouted, undoing the bolt again.
By this point my shoulder had gotten used to the punishment firing this thing caused. I wasn’t as salty about that as missing all my shots.
“Why are people so tiny?!” I asked.
Turns out using sniper rifles to take down two-story demon monsters wasn’t very good for target practice.
The werewolf pack came running through the alleyway and turned to chase him. He was reaching for his grimoire. I had one last chance to stop him with my sniper rounds.
“Come on…” I said, lining up the scope.
Another burst that would break my eardrum if I wasn’t wearing noise-cancelling headphones. Another blunt force rammed into my shoulder. The freezing bullet raced through the air faster than sound. It ducked just below his body. It exploded into an icy crystal, and caught him by the leg.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m–” I started to say as he reached for his grimoire. I growled, realizing that this would just be a minor roadblock… or would it?
With him standing still I once again lined up the shot. “Not today, pal,” I said and fired.
I managed a shot straight through his wrist. It froze the book and his arm. David got up to him and shifted his hand back to human to deliver the knockout blow to the dude’s temple. I smiled widely.
“E-lis, you’re magnificent!” David said over the radio.
“I’ll come get you while they deal with him!” Silvia piped up.
“You know what, that was so good I think I’ll just take the stairs…” I said.
I was not feeling like a seven-story drop tonight.
“Oh oh oh! I got something for this!” Fumnaya said as she floated out of the alleyway. “It’s essentially feather fall from DND!” she added enthusiastically.
“Don’t you mean D AND D?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You uncultured swine,” she said back, seeming to be actually hurt by my insistence.
“What? That’s what it’s called!” I protested.
“Whatever… jump off the building, I got you!” she assured me.
“I’d rather do it on a werewolf than nothing at all,” I admitted as I made my way towards the rooftop access point.
“You’re no fun… AND wrong,” Fumnaya pouted.
I walked out a few moments later. The guys were all around the escaped magical convict we’d been hunting, while Fumnaya and Silvia crowded me.
“So, MVP, how’s it feel?” Fumnaya asked.
“What, are you jealous now?” I said, smiling smugly.
“What? No, why would I be jealous?”
“Because you’re normally the MVP,” I said calmly.
“What do you mean, normally? We’ve only done this a couple of times…”
“First two times you could use that excuse but not now. There’s so much more your wizarding powers have given you!” I said, showing how jealous I was… just a bit.
“Girls, don’t fight.” Silvia had grown a lot over the past year; sure, she still wore the same stuff but now she was only half a head shorter than me.
It’d been a year since that fateful week. Not only did I get to stand up for what I thought was right, I got rewarded for it, with a new job and getting pulled into the masquerade that a community of magical people upheld as they protected the Earth from… whatever could make it through the Earth elemental plane.
I’d learned a lot more martial arts with more of a leisurely approach than that one week where I had to learn Ninjutsu and anti-knife self-defence. I’d practiced with the sniper rifle, both with the scope and without. Fumnaya studied her grimoire of the blood mage nearly every day.
She even picked up a few spare grimoires that had been going spare at the community center. Just to help her with magical knowledge and skills in general.
The boys had stayed in shape, using the gym in the community center. But, ultimately, they looked the same as ever. They all had amazing abs… and uh… Lorenz still had his hair done up as he always did. David always wore a smug smile whenever he could. Gavin, well, Gavin did switch sweaters one time, and I’ve been reeling in confusion ever since.
I’d seen a round of seasonal clothing, but as it was currently autumn, they had their transition clothes for winter. David had a logoed jacket, Lorenz added a scarf to the ensemble and Gavin… Gavin had a thicker sweater. The old sweater incidentally was most often wrapped around Silvia’s waist. Sometimes she’d wear it if she was too cold. Yes, the old sweater got washed.
With the convict hog-tied we headed back to the community center, where the bar was waiting with my name on it.
While we were walking back, I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. It was only for a moment, but I thought for sure that I’d spotted a dark cloud moving with purpose.
I immediately started on a dash and everyone looked towards me in shock. “Book gas guy!” I shouted as I ran around the corner I saw him passing through.
Silvia transformed into her wolf form and followed me. Fumnaya got out her grimoire and searched for a spell to move faster. Around the corner, I lost sight of the cloud. I looked up and past the alleyway.
I ran forwards towards a T-section and peered around the right side.
Silvia barked and I heard the rush of expanding air as a fireball hit her on the side. She stumbled but managed to right herself next to me and we both turned towards the familiar figure.
Book gas guy – the blue and red robed demonic mage that’d come to this world to bring its boss here. Its black mist face was already edged with red, like before when we’d nearly killed Fumnaya inside of him.
“Book gas guy! How’d you get back here… and where’d you get a replacement
“Eh– I’m sorry, what did you call me?”
Fumnaya floated up to us and took a battle-ready stance. “He’s right, you should totally have called him the grimoire gas guy – that’s an alliteration!”
“Shut up…” I bit my lip, only now realizing the folly of my actions.
“I spent years earning the title of the cobalt shadow, I’ll not stand for you calling me by such a lesser title,” it hissed at us.
“We’re going to call you whatever we like!” Silvia said as she transformed back into her human form. Gavin and David rushed up the alleyway, growling as the mage just floated there.
It had crossed our minds that his modus operandi was having a demon rampage around. He flew up higher and started to cast his summoning spell.
“Not this time!” Fumnaya shouted as she took out her copy of his grimoire.
This seemed to infuriate him. “Zambol-nagur-exulta!”
The summoning circle, about half-filled with demonic sounding syllable runes, faded and the mage was left floating there.
“Zambol, why have you forsaken me? Your loyal servant?” The mage spoke solemnly as it turned to us.
With two large werewolves and three kickass women, he had no choice but to run. The boys were on his trail almost immediately though, quickly getting up the buildings he had to fly past. I hopped onto Silvia and we rocketed up just after them. I aimed with my sniper rifle, confident we could get two villains in one night.
He rose, and the boys launched their grappling hooks. David missed while Gavin managed to catch the bottom of his robes and started to pull him down. I fired the last bullet in my magazine. It hit him and as though hit by a truck he was blasted out of the sky. He flew towards Gavin who was pulling him in.
He landed with a forceful thunk, causing an extra bit of black smoke to spurt out of the head area. Silvia raced to get over to the building he landed on. He got up in nearly a flash and pulled out his book.
Once again Fumnaya was ready with her counterspell. “It’s over, book gas guy! There’s no spell you can cast that’ll get you out of this!” I said.
It almost seemed like that comment gave him an idea, as he let his grimoire drop. “It seems you’re right, why waste the energy? There’s only one thing left to do: find a ritual to defeat you all…”
With that the standard death summoning circle that came for all demons I’d seen die – the same one twice, that is – opened up and he slowly sank back into his plane.
“That… doesn’t sound good…” I said before pressing a button on my communication’s earpiece. “Hey, uh, Miriam, can you scry into other planes? Yeah, no, that’s what I thought… get the community center on alert… the book gas guy is back… and this time… I think he’s not underestimating us…”
Chapter 2
The garage door to the community center closed behind us, and there was a team of werewolves to carry him off to wherever they’d be taking him. Miriam was there, holding a clipboard.
“Excellent work,” she said coldly.
She handed each of us a little slip that could be redeemed for our part of the bounty once he was handed over to the larger community.
“So, you think the demon mage has returned – has he contacted any of the former members of the cult he siphoned off?”
“As far as I can tell he just got back and had to flee from us since he didn’t have anyone to take blows or distract Fumnaya.”
“We’ll have to be on the lookout for strange activity,” Miriam said as she took out a phone and started to text. “At ease, the community center’s not going to be besieged again, if what you say is true. We’ll deal with him when we find him, and we’ll make sure to make it a decisive blow.”
“Right!” I nodded and started to walk over towards the kitchen entrance.
“Oh, Elizabeth…” Miriam said, with the first inflection I’d heard her use that night.
I stopped dead in my tracks, as everyone in the room smiled but me. I sighed, letting my shoulders drop.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Miriam said.
At the end of our first adventure, Fumnaya ordered some bartending uniforms for us to wear, because she liked that sort of thing. Upon seeing me, Leonardo decided that he should encourage Fumnaya’s spending habits. She’d been ordering different versions of the uniforms for different occasions, and to mix things up a bit.
I didn’t know what the current uniforms were meant to be, and Fumnaya’s one-word explanation of ‘Lolita’ didn’t explain much.
Once they were ordered I saw that they had a very frilly skirt. This one was about a foot long and had three layers of frills all in a deep purple. The top had a section of belt buckles in the same deep purple. Above that were buttons on a black dress shirt-like material, which had some lighter purple lines running through it. The sleeves were really thin and boasted a floral pattern, only there were red parts that made it look like the flowers were bleeding.
I sighed and went over to the storage container that housed the uniforms for us both, and started to get into the clothing. Fumnaya joined me, as the group had a big laugh at my expense.
Now suited up, I walked into the bar. There was already a warm atmosphere going, and a few people had some food. One witch liked to cook as well. Some had gotten beers from the, ‘trust bar’ area.
They were a few whoops when we entered the area and slid behind the bar. I got in and got to work on my usual first drinks of the night, even if it was a few hours late. One Dragon Salts Tequila Sunrise, or Dragon Rise, and one Splashdown.
Minerva and Dan picked up their drinks and started to sip them.
“So, how was bounty hunting?” Minerva asked.
“Pretty good. Snagged the guy,” I said as I peered over at who was next to them.
Over time a few werewolves, mages and witches started to regularly come to the bar, they had their favorite drinks and Fumnaya and I started to know what to make just by sight.
I made a Shadow Strike, for the laid-back witch.
The gang sat in the center of the bar, to not pick a side between me and Fumnaya. Problem was that there were two chairs; Lorenz and Gavin got down first, and Silvia sat on Gavin’s lap.
Fumnaya, being closer to the soft drink fridge, grabbed a coke and a root beer, and I picked up the craft beer for Silvia’s mix.
“Hmmm,” Lorenz said, stroking his chin while peering at the drink menu.
“Come on Lorenz, I’m thirsty too,” David said, waiting behind him.
“I’m thinking of something we haven’t tried yet…”
“You haven’t tried a Dragon Rise,” I offered.
“Ohh oh oh! You should try the Light Bringer!” Fumnaya said while stifling a giggle.
“Haha no…” Lorenz responded.
“Or how about a romance cocktail with some dragon salts?”
I looked at Fumnaya. She was leaning on the bar, angled towards Lorenz, a large smile on her face and her hands supporting her head. She was wiggling back and forth, a motion that I couldn’t help but notice attracted everyone’s attention… but Lorenz’s.
“Ohh, I know, Shadow Jolt!”
I picked out the alchemical ingredients and started to mix. It was made up of a Re-charge and Shadow Strike combined, leading to an unnerving visual of dark electrical arcs just fizzling off the person who drank it.
Fumnaya adopted a frown and went to serve her regulars as I handed over Lorenz’s drink. He got up as he gulped it down and David sat down with an excited smile on his face.
“Lemme guess, you want something new, too?” I asked, smugly.
“Well, it is about time to get something a bit more adventurous… Hmmm, how about a gin and tonic?”
I snorted – the thought of a gin and tonic being adventurous was a bit too much for me to retain my composure.
“One gin and tonic for the old man!” I said, stifling a laugh.
It got a few laughs from the nearby tables. I grabbed one of the very few non-vodka bottles on the shelves and started to pour it into the glass.
“M-maybe with some dragon salts,” David said, peering over his shoulder.
“Too late,” I said, reaching over to the fridge for the tonic water. Despite never being opened it was fairly flat, as it’d been there for what I could only guess was seven years.
