“Good to see you again,” I say to him, feeling proud of myself when my voice doesn’t rise several octaves.
Confusion mars his face and he takes his time to answer. “Sorry. Have we met?”
Blinking, I hesitate. “Last night at Vee?”
My temper begins to flare. Only last night, he was telling me that I was perfect. Then again, I did walk away. Perhaps he only remembers the ones he actually fucks. If that’s the case, I really don’t need to waste my time with him. Especially my ice time. Ice time is precious.
The small girl oblivious to my irritation, takes my hand only to pull back abruptly. “You’re so hot! Are you sick?”
Immediately, I focus on my body temperature. This is supposed to get easier with age, but seeing as how I’m still practically a baby in Kitsune years, I have a long way to go before I have better control. Taking her hand in my own once more, I check it for burns but fortunately her gloves have protected her skin from the worst of my heat.
“I’m not sick,” I tell her quietly. “I’m a fire Kitsune.”
“You haven’t got a fever?” she asks uncertainly. “Mummy died after she had a fever.”
I look up at Holden, who is still looking at me like I’m a puzzle he can’t work out. Maybe he has amnesia.
“I promise, I’m not sick. I’m just not very good at controlling my temperature.”
“Uncle Klaus! She’s like daddy! You always say daddy can’t keep his temp—”
Klaus? I look up at him again. I thought he said his name was Holden. Riley’s words from last night come back to me. ‘Klaus has the same pretty face, minus the sluttiness.’ This must be Holden’s twin brother.
“Your daddy only ever gets angry with your Uncle Holden,” Klaus says quietly.
“Your Holden’s twin?” I ask even though I already know the answer.
His nostrils flare when I mention his brother. “You know Holden?” It’s clear from his tone that this fact disappoints him.
“We met briefly last night.”
“What’s that?” The child points at my shadow on the ice in bewilderment.
“My shadow.”
“But…” She pauses, rubbing her eyes as if that might change what she sees. “Look Uncle Klaus! It’s a fox!”
Her uncle doesn’t say anything, perhaps thinking it would be rude to comment on the shape of my shadow.
“Why doesn’t your shadow look like you?” The girl asks.
“It does,” I begin.
“But you’re not a fox!”
Laughing, I try to work out the quickest way of explaining just what I am to this little girl. There’s nothing like seeing it for yourself, so I allow my body to morph before her eyes until what she most likely thinks is a very cute fox sits in front of her.
“See Avery, I’m a Kitsune. A sort of spirit fox.”
Her eyes widen in surprise to hear a fox talking. Returning to my human form, I ask her, “Can you see my tail? Sometimes I forget to hide it.”
“No. It’s gone,” she decides after looking for it with the sort of deliberation you’d expect if she’d been tasked with saving my life. “Will you teach me how to skate like you do?”
“If you like.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
“Right now?”
I had been planning to invite her to the skating school that Leith and I will be running, but I can’t bring myself to refuse her anything. “Sure. The first thing you have to learn is how to fall.”
“What? I don’t want to fall!”
“Of course, you don’t want to fall, but you need to know how to fall so that when you do, you won’t get hurt.”
She frowns at me, her eyes darkening. She obviously doesn’t like the idea.
“Everyone falls,” I say soothingly. “Even me, remember.” That does the trick and her expression softens.
We spend the next thirty minutes practicing how to fall safely on the ice. Klaus is quiet, not uttering a single word. It’s unsettling and I feel compelled to try and get him talking but I’m flummoxed for how to do it. I feel his gaze follow my every move though and it’s hard to concentrate on anything else.
It’s only when Garrick actually comes onto the ice to give me a telling off that I remember that I’m supposed to be practicing.
“Ember, what the hell are you doing?”
“Teaching. You’d think you’d recognize it, seeing as how you’re a coach.”
My sarcasm doesn’t go down well and he glowers at me, his eyes bright with anger. “Really? So, first you’re late and now you’re teaching someone else to skate? Do you want to win? Or should I wait until this little kid is old enough to win the championship?”
“I’m going to win,” I reply hotly.
“Really? Winners don’t turn up late for practice.” He skates intimidatingly close to me. “Winners don’t waste their ice time.”
“I’m sorry.” Klaus’s voice breaks into our conversation. “My niece wanted to learn how to skate and, er – Ember, was it? – was just teaching her a few things.”
That might be the most he’s said in the thirty minutes I’ve known him, and he doesn’t look particularly happy about having to utter a single word. I get the impression he isn’t much of a conversationalist.
“Garrick doesn’t mean to be rude. He’s just worried that I need to practice. Isn’t that right, Garrick?” He’s giving me another one of those dirty looks he’s so good at, but I don’t let it bother me, matching it with my own.
After a long pause, he finally gives in. “Yes. I just wanted to remind Ember that she needs to practice.”
“Avery, I’m going to be teaching here soon.” I crouch down in front of the child. “Would you like to be in my class?”
“Class?” She looks unsure.
“A skating class.”
“You’ll still teach me how to skate?” She glances nervously at Garrick.
“Of course. I said I would, didn’t I?” Turning to her uncle, I give him my telephone number so that we can arrange the details later and then I’m skating away. Swirling and weaving in between the other skaters, I mentally high five myself for managing to give Klaus my number in a surreptitious way.
Now I just have to wait for him to use it. That will probably take a ridiculous amount of patience. I really shouldn’t be interested in him, not right now at least. As a Kitsune, I’m going to live for a really long time, and will probably meet at least a few men just as attractive as Klaus, but somehow that thought does nothing to ease my unease.
Even with my back to him, I’m hyperaware of his presence and I’m not completely sure why. I’ve met plenty of attractive guys before but never have I felt this way. Not even with his brother Holden.
Trying to find a reason for why I can’t put him out of my mind, I find myself making a mental list of everything I know about my own kind. I can’t remember anything about Kitsunes having mates. From my understanding, Kitsunes tend to be a little on the slutty side. At least according to the internet, there are only three reasons a Kitsune takes a sexual partner: for fun, to reproduce or for that much needed spirit energy that we need to survive. That’s one of the major pitfalls of not having a parent to teach me about Kitsune kind, having to rely on Wikipedia for everything.