Changed by Fire (Phoenix Rising #6) - Harper Wylde Page 0,168
I turned and set my sights on Ishida.
Be careful. It was Damien’s last warning before he disappeared from sight.
Thoroughly pissed off, I dove toward Ishida, ready to end this shit once and for all.
Forty
Hiro
Naoko, don’t do this, I begged—more for myself than for him—as my younger brother pounced around me, his beady, evil eyes full of a hatred I didn’t understand. The two of us had never been close, but I always figured that was because we’d been ripped apart as children. He’d remained with our parents and grew up in my childhood house while I was sent to live with the Council, an abomination to my family for being born a forest Kitsune. An embarrassment to their name and my ancestral bloodline.
I dipped my head, unmoving, as I gave him the chance to walk away, but he just bared his teeth at me with a yip of impatience, clearly thinking me weak for offering a truce while he only wanted blood.
But little did he know that my allegiance was short-lived. My family had never made an effort to be a part of my life, choosing to ridicule and belittle from afar. Loyalty apparently meant little to the Takama line, a heritage I planned to change with my future children.
We paced in a circle, tails whipping side to side as we sized each other up. When his paws left the snow, I darted forward, dove underneath him, and spun around, sinking my teeth into one of his tails and shaking furiously until I was left with a bloodied chunk of fur in my mouth. I spat it away as he howled, his dark magic bleeding out in deep purple waves to shield him in shadows as he absorbed all the light around us. I scraped my claws into the snow and dirt below, my eyes unable to adjust to the pure obsidian darkness, though I tried to stay vigilant as I searched for where he’d disappeared to. As a dark Kitsune, he had the ability to control light and shadow, his dark fur making it easy for him to hide. How far his magic had progressed since we were kids, I didn’t know, but if Ishida had called upon him to distract me so he could get his hands on Nix, then my bet was he was powerful indeed.
The sounds of battle surrounded me—grunts and screams, clashes and roars—as shifters fought and fell. My muscles were taut as I listened, trying to get a lock on my brother so I could end this and get back to helping everyone else.
I keened as sharp claws raked down my side, matting my fur with blood. I hopped away from the contact, licking my side to soothe the wound. With a growl, I commanded the frozen vegetation to rise. I heard his scurrying in the rustle of foliage that popped from the snow like daisies and lashed at him with coiling vines. The shadows fell away, and moonlight infiltrated our fight to show the wicked welt forming on his flank, the fur rubbed raw where the vine had struck.
My tails flicked, writhing like snakes behind me as my vines slithered across the ground, waiting for my command. I lashed one out, wrapping it around his back ankle and pulling him off balance, but he parried me, forming a shadow creature out of the inky gloom that looked like a pit bull or a hellhound. Its jaws snapped at me as I ducked and rolled, making it to my feet, but the shadows defied logic, bearing down on me faster than I could right myself. The fanged maw of the dog clamped down on my leg, and I screeched and cried, kicking the smoky hound off me. Gaining no leverage, I changed tactics before the beast could rip me apart. My markings glowed green, casting an eerie hue over the snow as I scrambled to wrap another vine around Naoko’s stomach, growing thorns that pierced fur and flesh. The shadow animal vanished with his cry of pain, and I winced as I struggled to stand. I didn’t release my hold as I limped forward, leaving a trail of blood in my wake. Injured and trapped in my ever tangling web, I wrapped more vines around my brother, gaining sick pleasure from having bested him when he and my family thought me so weak. I held him in place as I stalked forward with a hard, unforgiving gaze.