I turned my back to the others as I stripped and put on one of the offered kimonos, this beautiful swath of white silk with pink cherry blossoms that matched the trees lining the hill on either side of the stone steps. It was quite strange to see them here, in the middle of a pine forest in Colorado, but it was quite clear that they'd been brought here for a greater purpose.
"Let me get that for you," Revel said, stepping up behind me to tie my pink sash around my waist, turning it into a giant bow at my lower back. But the way she did it, so slow and sensual ... I had to close my eyes and exhale to keep my emotions from turning into a storm. There was something about this place that made me feel like I was standing on a live outlet, drawing organic energy from the earth. With a little help, I threaded my tails through the hole in the back of my outfit and breathed a small sigh of relief.
When I turned around to help Revel with hers, I found the kitsune woman with her kimono unbound, her bare breasts exposed, that beautiful tattoo of hers vibrant against her pale, naked skin. Her kimono was white with a symbol of the Japanese rising sun on the back of it. I got a good look when she turned around and let me tie her sash into a bow.
"Here," Nix said, passing out tabi socks and zori shoes. For the unfamiliar, tabi socks are like toe socks, but with only a single spot for the big toe while the rest remain together while zori are essentially fancy flip-flops.
I sat in the back of the SUV and slipped on the offered footwear, wondering why Nix hadn't just given us all this crap back at the house. My guess is that he wanted to check out my ass. I should've taken the moment to check out his, I thought as I stood up and brushed my hands down the front of my kimono.
"Now what?" I asked as I started loading up on weapons: my katanas, my knives. When I went for my gun, Nix put a hand on my wrist. I felt this sharp, heady thrill go through me.
"No guns at the temple; they won't work up there anyway." He took a step back from me, wearing a gray kimono with bamboo branches on it. His fur was still draped around his shoulders, his new earring swinging as he turned to look up the hill.
"What's up there?" I asked as the wind teased the trees and a shiver went down my spine. Mik was watching me, his dark blue kimono dotted with ... little white foxes.
"A god," he said in place of Nix, and my blood went cold.
"How do you know that?" I whispered, because it suddenly felt blasphemous to speak any louder than that.
"Can't you feel it?" Mik said with a sigh, pulling out a set of blades. He slipped the bandolier over his kimono as I did the same to my own.
"Your employer is a god?" Revel asked, but Nix just smiled mysteriously and started up the steps.
"God, goddess, sometimes neither," he said mysteriously as we started up after him.
I'd only made it about three steps before a voice sounded from behind me.
"What are you up to, little pet?" Bennett asked, and I froze. So did Mik. Not good.
"Pet? Holy fuck, Thea, you better get these assholes in line or else I'll be forced to do it. You don't want to see what I do to men I teach lessons to." Revel turned to face Bennett's naked form, cocking a red brow as she sneered at him.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" I choked out, wondering why people kept appearing out of nowhere and fucking up my day. Seemed to be kind of a chronic problem for me.
"Mm," Bennett said, pushing his dark, shaggy hair back from his face. I noticed, however, that he didn't approach the steps. "I'm not feeling particularly inclined to share."
"Then you can fuck off," I said, just before a strange noise sounded at the top of the steps, like a giant in pain, screaming their anguish to the dark forest. Scared the ever living shit out of me and broke the strange peace I'd felt since stepping out of the SUV.
"What the hell was that?" he asked as Nix sighed, pushing his glasses up his face. He sneered at Bennett as he neared the bottom of the stairs. "If you're going to be here, you better damn well honor her wishes," he said, and I highly doubted he was talking about me. More likely, his mysterious employer.
A god.
And based on the imagery and the statues, I had a pretty good guess of who that was going to be.
Inari Okami, the fox god/goddess/genderless deity that ruled my entire race.
Nix moved back over to the SUV and tossed another kimono at Bennett, a black one this time. I was torn between grilling him to see how he'd managed to follow us here and perplexed about the noises now emanating from the top of the steps. To Mik's credit, he didn't say a damn thing about the alpha. He, too, was focused on the temple.
I couldn't blame him.
There was this keening sound now, vibrating the very molecules in the air.
"Let's just get this over with, shall we?" Nix said, storming past me and sweeping his way up the steps.
Bennett slipped into the kimono and padded up to stand beside me.
"This is the guy you just fucked?" Revel asked, and I cringed. Mik scowled, and continued on up after Nix.
"Unfortunately," I said dryly, giving the alpha wolf a long, lingering look. "Don't think I've forgotten that you've now stalked me twice in as many days." I started up with Revel by my side.
"I've never dated a bisexual girl before," she said, and then it was my turn to cock a brow.
"Who said we were dating?" I asked, and Revel grinned.
"I figure I'm dying, and it's my last wish. How could you deny a girl that?" My turn to smile back. "But really, this guy? He's a little ... basic, don't you think?"
"If you're jealous, then fuck her. You won't find me caring or complaining," Bennett said, looking Revel over with a predatory gaze. And by predatory, I mean he looked like he wanted to slit her throat, not have sex with her.
"Why are you even here?" I asked, but he didn't answer me. I had a feeling he wasn't planning on it.
When we reached the top of the stairs, I found that I was actually winded. And I was in good shape, too, so holy shit.
An open stone courtyard greeted us, surrounded by more of those stone torches and fox statues. Some of them were downright menacing, a good reminder that Inari Okami was not a solely benevolent deity.
Across the courtyard, the temple stood watch over the forest, surrounded by cherry blossom trees, its columns made of stone, the screens that normally covered the entrances open. They led into a central room, its floors covered in straw mats with a shrine on one end. Incense smoke drifted in the air, and a ring of pillows sat waiting for worshipers.
A woman sat there in a kimono, weeping into her hands, her long dark hair hanging down her back, hundreds of tails swishing around behind her.
"Follow me and keep your fucking wits up," Nix said, his shoulders stiff and tense. He moved forward and I continued after him, letting Bennett take up the rear, Revel on one side and Mik on my other.
As we approached, the woman paused in her crying, turning to look at us.
When she did, I realized her face was not that of a woman, but a white fox, its long snout open and gaping with sharp, white teeth. She raised her nose to the air to sniff and I felt my spine go stiff.
I was looking at a goddamn god.
And not just any god, but my god.
"Inari Okami," I whispered as she faded from sight like a ghost.
"Holy shit," Revel said, drawing my attention over to the left of the room where a man lay on his back on a mat, blood and goo leaking from his pores. "It's the Fox Father," she whispered, noting the distinct orange color of the man's hair, and the blood red of his tails and ears. His skin was covered in hives as he lay there. Fuck, it looked like he was dead.
From the right, I heard footsteps, just as Mik moved to intercept a woman covered in white, scraggly hair, blood oozing from her lips.
A mad god.
An infected god.
One of Inari's nine lovers—I recognized the woman from the distinct cherry blossom tattoos at her ankles, tattoos that I'd based my own work on.