"Not yet. Apparently the disease originated with a kitsune, so Nix—he's a scientist—thinks he can work out how to cure it by studying my magic." I shrugged. "I don't really understand how, but he seems confident."
"Well that's great, if it works. I don't know if Ry told you or not, but your dad has been infected by it, too, along with a couple other kitsune in our Earth. They're being contained at the moment by the kitsune-tsukai magic, but it can't last forever." He delivered the news as matter-of-fact as he could, which I appreciated.
To anyone else, this might have been upsetting news. Not to me, though. My dad and I hadn't spoken in a great many years, and he was little more than a stranger to me now. When Mom died, Dad moved in with his younger girlfriend not even six months later ... It was something I hadn't been able to get past, and something that soured what little relationship we’d had to begin with.
Last I heard, he and Birgette—the girlfriend—had started their own new family and wanted no reminders of his first family. Fine by me.
"Let's talk about something else," I suggested, choking back a wave of emotion. It was too raw, too confusing, to tackle in that already fragile moment. "I saw you'd done some renovations to the treehouse? How's that going?"
Fin laughed at my lame change of subject, but started telling me all about the improvements he and Riot had been making to the house recently. Listening to him talk without all the hate and jealousy ... it was nice. Relaxing, almost, and the rest of the drive back to Vail flew past.
In silence, Fin and I shed our clothes and weapons and changed into the traditional Japanese garb that waited for us in the antechamber, just like we’d done the last time we were here. It was barely a week ago, but it felt like it’d been years.
"I hate these things," I muttered under my breath while adjusting my tails through the slit at the back and then winding my hair around my head in a traditional pattern. I was lucky that my hair manipulated into these styles easily, because the elders were not tolerant of scruffiness.
Fin flicked one of my white ears playfully. "It suits you though. I look like a massive dork."
I snickered, looking him over. "More like a tourist playing dress-up in Japan. Come on, let's go get this over with. I'm itching to get my magic back."
"After you," he replied, bowing and sweeping his hand out to the door which would lead us into the inner sanctum.
Hips swaying as I moved, I lead the way into the opulent room and tried not to cringe at the magnificent gold of the three kitsune sitting on their thrones. Their hundreds of tails fanned out around them, covering almost the entire wall.
They used to awe me, seeing these magnificent, oldand powerful women. But now ... surely one hundred tails would just be a nightmare? How would you even move, let alone shower? Heh. I cracked myself up sometimes.
As required by protocol, I sank to my knees as gracefully as any accomplished geisha, and pressed my forehead to the cool stone floor. Beside me, Fin did the same.
"Finley Wilde," Giselle spoke first—as always—and she sounded pissed. "You were not summoned to this meeting. Why have you come?"
Fin, having been directly addressed, was allowed to sit up and respond while I was forced to remain as I was, with my forehead to the ground.
"Respectfully, I came to formally withdraw my complaint against my former mate, Thea Hunt. We’ve come to our own mutually agreeable arrangement, so I humbly request her magic be restored and her ninth tail safely bound." Fin's voice was strong as he spoke, not wavering with even a moment’s hesitation.
The Ancients sat silent for a long time, and Fin's words hung in the air like a stormcloud. Finally, Nadege took her turn to speak.
"We wish to hear from you, Thea Hunt," she announced, as magnanimous as the freaking queen.
"Not that anything you have to say will change what you’ve done, continuing your work with the murderers’ guild against our direct orders," Trina added in a snide, bitchy tone.
"I—" I started to defend myself but they clearly didn't summon me to hear my side of things.
"This is a formal complaint we will file against your organization. Mikhail Ravena should know better." Giselle again. "We summoned you here to follow up on how things were progressing with Mr. Wilde, but we see now that they have not gone well."
"The kitsune race is already endangered, and now we’ve begun to be affected by this new disease. Now is the time it is mostimportant for kitsune to stand together and stand strong as one pure race." Nadege's voice was coated in frost and I had a sick feeling this wasn't going to end well.
These three were thousands of years old, and progressive thoughts didn't come easily to them. They were totally stuck in the dark ages when it came to their attitudes around cross-species relations.
"I am trying to find a cure—" Once again I was cut off.
"Quiet." Trina's command cracked through the room like a whip. "You have been free to do as you pleased for too damn long, and have brought nothing but disgrace on the Vail Valley Earth. You are a disappointment to your people, Thea Hunt."
I spluttered with outrage. "How am I a disgrace?" I snapped. "I have—"
"Thea Hunt!" Giselle bellowed my name, and Fin lay a hand on my arm. In support or to tell me to shut up, I wasn't sure. "I suggest you keep your mouth shut before I bind it."
"Finley Wilde," Nadege turned to my ex ... was he still an ex? "Your complaint withdrawal has been noted. We, however, find it necessary to keep our binding in place."
"You will not get your magic restored and your ninth tail bound until you officially breed with your intended mate—Finley Wilde." Trina addressed this to me and my blood ran cold. "You will swear an unbreakable oath of fidelity and monogamy, or your magic will never be restored to you. Do we make ourselves clear?"
My jaw dropped open in shock, and I boiled with rage.
"Let us be clear," Giselle continued. "We will not allow the first Nine in seven hundred years to turn her back on her own race and mate with a vampire."
"Listen, you—" The furious tirade I was about to deliver barely began before they caught me in a web of magic. It crushed me to the floor, squeezing every last drop of breath from my body until I thought I might pass out.
"Voice your objections if you have any." Nadege smirked. I might not be able to see her mouth behind that red and white mask, but I could hear the expression in her tone. "None? Good. Now, go. We’ll send a messenger once we’ve scheduled your oath-taking."
The pressure released on me and I lay there sucking in huge lungfuls of air until Fin gently lifted me to my feet and carried me from the formal room.
Once we were back in the antechamber with our clothes, he placed me down and I whirled on him with tears stinging my eyes.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I screamed at him, "You could see they were silencing me! You could have objected!"
Fin shook his head at me, his expression mournful. "I couldn't. They silenced me right after I first spoke. I just didn't notice until I tried to say something later ... that's why I squeezed your arm. I was trying to tell you."
"Shit!" I screamed, collapsing onto the wooden bench seat and burying my head in my arms to sob for a moment. I had been so close to getting my magic restored, and now these old bitches were pulling the pure racecard? Like I was some sort of broodmare for the future of the kitsune race?
Well, fuck them.
"Thea, I can't tell you how sorry I am. This is all my fault, if I hadn't asked they block your binding in the first place..." Fin collapsed onto the bench beside me and scrubbed at his face with his hands.