Mob Sorcery 4 - Ch1

Vince was no stranger to waking up in unfamiliar situations on New Year’s Day with no memory of how he’d gotten there. Almost always with a hangover.

Two years ago, he’d stirred to find himself on his roommate’s lap. Nina told him that he’d taken up the whole couch and she hadn’t wanted to wake him up when he’d clearly been out all night drinking. In retrospect, he’d been pretty thick to miss the hint. In his defense, his head had been producing aftershocks on the Richter scale.

A year ago, the succubus, Salome, awoke him in her office slash bedroom above her club. His phone had been full of messages from Nina, which he’d ignored thanks to the naked succubus crawling all over him.

This time, he found himself in his own bed for once. The unfamiliar situation was finding two naked women cuddled up to him.

His mind raced as he stared down at Fia and Nina. Both were his girlfriends, and certainly friendly with his each other, but he never thought any of them were at the point of a threesome.

Both their animal ears twitched. Fia’s wolf tail brushed over his legs, while Nina’s lion tail remained wrapped around his torso. He slowly began to undo Nina’s tail. The lack of a distinct… smell made him suspect nothing had happened.

They’d stumbled home and collapsed in his bed. The clothes tossed haphazardly near the entrance of the room suggested as much, but he couldn’t remember a damn thing.

“I hope Pola got home alright,” he muttered as he showered.

The last thing he remembered were Lionetti enforcers joining them at the Prefect’s Lounge at around 3AM. The New Year’s event carried on all night, but the club thinned out enough for newcomers to arrive and the Lionetti enforcer captain called her pals to visit.

A small army of mafia wolfgirls knew how to drink, and they pawed Vince up like he was the only guy in the club. Even if he remembered nothing else, he recalled the incendiary gazes of the other male patrons.

His harpy roommate, Nicki left her door open. She lay on her bed, face-down, and still sound asleep. One of her arms hung over the edge and he worried she’d fall off, so he gave her a gentle push. She mumbled something in her sleep and shuffled beneath her blankets. At some point in her life, the birdgirl had mastered the art of cocooning herself in blankets despite the two pairs of wings jutting out from her back.

The clock in the main room of the apartment showed it was past noon. Vince rubbed his head, sighed, and began making coffee in the moka pot he’d been gifted for Christmas. The fancy grinder his boss gave him rumbled away. It was the only sound in the apartment for close to a minute.

“I’d ask you to make me one, but I brought my own,” a frustratingly familiar voice said from behind him.

“Are you the cranky one or the flirty one?” he asked, not bothering to turn as he poured the ground coffee into the moka pot.

“What if I’m both?”

He glanced back to confirm he was dealing with who he expected, for what little it mattered.

To his surprise, a young four-tail fox sat on the edge of the couch. Her golden tails hovered around her and she wore a fluttery dress that he vaguely recalled Nicki gawking at last month. She wore the dress as naturally as the model in the ad Nicki had seen.

Agent sat here, possibly in her true form, but likely wearing another illusion. She carried a paper coffee cup from a major chain, rather than the plastic reusable cup he’d seen her with once. Something about her appearance was familiar.

Her golden eyes bore into him as she smiled. “Like what you see?”

“Given up on hiding what you truly are?” he asked.

“You’re convinced I’m a fox, so why not give you what you want?” She wiggled the tips of her tails at him. “Do you want to fluff them? I understand you humans have a fascination with that. Some of you do, anyway. I’m confident I can reproduce the sensation perfectly.”

He frowned at her as he started boiling the moka pot. “If I want to play with a big fluffy tail, I have two girlfriends with them. And aren’t you worried they’ll find you?”

“And do what? Get mad at you for staring at my panties?” She elaborately uncrossed and recrossed her legs to give him a view of her crotch while laughing. “Given up on guessing who I am, yet?”

He grunted. Her illusion abilities were impressive.

Which, ironically, might help him.

“I’m surprised you didn’t message me last night,” he said. “I get a lot of other new year messages. Busy with a big mess left for Houou?”

Agent narrowed her eyes at him. “More than Houou were busy with the pile of shit you left in Albion. But I’ll admit, you impressed me that night. That fire tornado?” She licked her lips.

Abruptly, the fox blinked across the room. Her coffee cup hovered in the air where she had been, while her fingers ran along Vince’s jaw. Agent’s hot breath ran along his neck as she pressed herself against him and he felt her breasts press into him.

“I knew you were a human worth investing in,” she whispered. “Making good use of that soul egg, hmm? Although I’m curious where you put it. I looked but couldn’t find it.”

A cold sweat ran down his spine. Had Agent tried to steal it back? Did she know that it was real after his stunt at Arnulfo’s mansion?

Vince kept the real soul egg Agent had given him inside a special magical container. One that Nicki had given him. It required a special trick to open it, or else it would show a false compartment.

If it could fool Agent, he needed to thank Nicki ten times over.

“What’s wrong?” Agent purred. Her fingers cupped his jaw. “Fox got your tongue?”

A sputtering sound came from behind them, and they both looked down to see coffee bubbling in the top of the moka pot.

“Uh, I need to finish making my coffee,” Vince said. “Can you let go of me?”

Agent obliged. “Well, I wouldn’t want to ruin your coffee. That would be criminal, and I gave you those beans to enjoy, not burn the shit out of them like some neanderthal.”

Vince finished making his coffee, while Agent retrieved her floating cup. By the time he refocused on the conversation, she sat atop the counter. Her golden eyes stared down at him.

He really couldn’t shake the familiar feeling of her current appearance, even though he knew he hadn’t met a golden-tailed fox this young. If at all.

“Do you enjoy looking down at me?” he asked.

“You served that line to me on a silver platter, but I’ll ignore it,” Agent said. She sipped her drink. “You truly did leave a mess on Friday night, however. It’s not often just about every conglomerate and the police prepare for war. Of all the moves made in the past month-and-a-half, I’d say that felt like the best one. If Alessia Lionetti’s position were weaker and she needed to hide the assassination of Arnulfo Siragusa, the scheme would have succeeded.”

“You think Alessia would ever have lied to everyone about what happened?”

“No. But she should have.” Agent drummed her fingers on her coffee cup and stared past Vince. “Think about it. She despises Houou. The company took almost everything from her, and this was a chance to turn the city on them. If the situation were reversed, do you think Houou would have told the truth if it allowed them to destroy an enemy without even lifting a finger?”

For the first time since meeting Agent, Vince felt the woman was voicing her earnest thoughts, unfiltered and unvarnished. These lines weren’t rehearsed or intended to manipulate him.

Rather, Agent didn’t understand Alessia. Or, perhaps, she did, but fundamentally disagreed with her.

“Is that what you’d have done?” he asked.

A long pause. Agent’s expression slowly hardened as she stared out the glass doors of the balcony. Her tails remained dead still.

“Before I came here, no,” she whispered, voice barely able to reach Vince’s ears. “It’s easy to stand on principle and defend your pride until you understand how easy it is for those without either can steal everything from you.”

Anger bubbled up in Vince. His knuckles whitened around his coffee mug. “Alessia has lost plenty. You just said it yourself.”

“And yet, she still retains her silver spoon, her billions, her status. She could have walked away from Aulfair’s underworld and lived a life of endless luxury, beyond the reach of anyone.”

“Isn’t there a saying about this?” Vince asked. “An eye for an eye makes the world blind?”

“Go on. Do nothing when somebody takes your eye or your friend’s. I’m sure that will stop them.” Agent’s smile was humorless. “This isn’t the discussion I intended to have, but it is a reminder that Aulfair remains the way it does because its rules are enforced with power and written in blood. The might of the city nearly rounded on Houou, because it was believed to have crossed a line. To have taken an eye it shouldn’t have.”

“And you think it was a scheme.”

Agent hopped down and strode across the room. Her form changed. She transformed from a fox into a familiar young Japanese woman with jet black hair and wings. A red tengu mask hung from her waist. Kiyoko, the Yakuza officer that Vince dealt with regularly.

But Agent didn’t wear her usual fashionable attire. Instead, she’d taken on the traditional red and white robes of a Japanese shrine maiden.

“You’re the one who suggested a scheme, not me,” she said. “But, yes, this one is obvious. If not Houou, then who else?”

“Knightsgate,” Vince said.

“You said it—”

“Don’t play dumb. You just stole Kiyoko’s appearance. Anyway, I’ve talked this out enough recently. Either give me something new, instead of relentlessly discussing the Sword of Dangun or whatever, or leave.”

Agent blinked. Then she placed a hand against her face and broke out in laughter. “The Sword of Dangun? Truly, the fraud pretending to be a spy from Inaba used that of all spells? You’re certain?”

Vince shifted uneasily. Agent felt off today. She’d flirted with him, but in a way unlike herself, and appeared more vulnerable than ever before.

He worried if this was truly her, or if she was rattled by the events of Friday night.

“Wagner identified it,” Vince said. “I described it to him, including what the fox said while casting it, and he was certain.”

Agent froze, and her expression melted into disbelief. “Wagner? The Wagner? He’s truly here? I’d heard reports, and my si—” She bit her lip and looked away, frustrated at what he guessed to be a slip of the tongue. “You spoke with him?”

“Yes.”

“Then I know exactly who was behind the disappearance of Sorashi Inaba and the attack on the Siragusa estate.” Agent sighed. “I feel I should pay you for this. I gave you the beans as a gift, but other than the egg, I’ve been a rather stingy handler, haven’t I?”

“You’re not my—”

She waved a hand and stood up, turning her back to him. “I’ll think of something. I’m unfortunately quite busy, so I might not be able to repay you until the end of the month. But at the very least, I’d say I can offer you a… ‘get-of-scheme-free’ card.” She looked her shoulder and smirked at him, long golden hair flaring around her face and golden eyes flashing.

Then she blinked away.

Wait, golden hair and eyes? When had she changed her appearance from Kiyoko’s? He struggled to remember what Agent looked like when she vanished.

But he knew he recognized her in some faint way.

Annoyed at the horrible start to his day, Vince peeked inside the fridge.

Surprisingly, he found it better stocked than it had been the rest of the week. Nina must have gone shopping before she joined the rest of them for the New Year’s party yesterday, in anticipation of the public holiday. A lot of the small stores nearby wouldn’t open today, and those that did closed early.

Nothing looked microwavable and it was too late for pancakes or waffles. He closed the fridge and relaxed on the couch. Minutes passed in silence.

His phone kept him company as he alternated between flicking through it and staring out the window at the beautiful day. Part of him wanted to leave his girlfriends and Nicki behind and go train at a park.

They’d never forgive him, though. Fia and Nina would wake up next to each other and wonder if he’d panicked.

Speaking of the devil, the door to his bedroom opened and Fia stumbled out. Her rust-blonde hair was a mess but her tail swished happily upon spotting him.

Their eyes met and he couldn’t resist the urge to admire her naked body.

“Do you, uh, need some clothes?” he asked.

“I brought some spares over last time I slept over,” she said, voice groggy and a little croaky from the late night.

Without another word, she stepped into the bathroom, her tail wagging behind her and attempting to distract Vince from staring at her ass.

Well, she hadn’t flipped out upon waking up next to Nina. He took that as a good sign.

The sound of the pipes running brought him back to reality. His coffee was empty, so he rose and began preparing a double dose in the moka pot. Fia had thought ahead and bought him a large one.

By the time she emerged, he had another mug out and was pouring coffee into them. She padded over barefoot in jeans and a patterned V-neck top. Her eyes lit up upon spotting the coffee.

“You’re amazing.” Fia leaned against him, her tail batting against the back of his legs.

Her hands tugged his head to face him and she pulled him into a kiss. When they broke it, she stared into his eyes, biting her lip.

Then her face reddened and her eyes widened. She hunched her shoulders and looked away.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“I can’t believe I just acted like that,” she mumbled.

Nonplussed, he handed her a mug of coffee. She accepted it but stared into the dark mug of java wordlessly.

Before silence could descend, Vince cleaned out the moka pot. He expected it to get plenty of use today.

“Acted like what?” he asked while emptying out the coffee grounds.

“Like newlyweds. We just started dating.” Fia sighed and sipped her coffee. “Where’d you get these beans, by the way? I can tell you didn’t buy them yourself.”

“They were a gift.”

“From who? I bet they know their coffee.”

“Uh…”

Fia raised an eyebrow at him, before narrowing her eyes.

“The mysterious agent who keeps visiting me,” he admitted. Before Fia could do more than twitch her ears angrily at him, he continued, “She was just here earlier. Sounded rattled.”

“… She’s absolutely from Houou.”

“Her denials are paper thin at this point, but…” Vince dropped the moka pot parts on the sink with a clink. “Something’s off. About all of this. I get the feeling she’s a step ahead, and is sitting back for some strange reason. Didn’t Alessia think that the person who gave her the dirt on Arnulfo and Hatoyama was making a play for power?”

Fia’s eyes widened. “Oh. Oh! Shit. You think this is part of that? That whatever the Yakuza are up to, this Agent character is using you?”

“Obviously.”

Right now, Agent had benefited him more than she’d hurt. In fact, she hadn’t hurt him at all.

The soul egg she’d gifted him had saved his bacon against Black. That strange six-tail fox would have ruined everything had he escaped, and if Agent had never appeared in Vince’s lift, he would have lacked the power to defeat Black.

Fia settled on the couch while he drifted off in thought. She pinched the aging fabric, which Nina had torn gouges in over the years.

“You should buy a new couch, by the way,” she said. “You definitely have the dough. Especially after the Arnulfo job. What was it, 20k between you, plus whatever Alessia throws in as a bonus because that fox showed up?”

“And just think how much of it we drank away last night,” he said drily.

Fia gave him an upturned look.

As if he wasn’t right. Drinks weren’t cheap at the Prefect’s Lounge, and Fia, Pola, and Nina all tipped well enough to make Vince feel embarrassed. Quintus has long since pulled the tab he provided for Vince, too.

“More to the point, Nina and I agreed to hold off on any big purchases until after the heist,” he said. “We don’t know how much we need to spend on tools, infusions, or fines. Plus our financial security is up in the air until then.”

A sigh escaped Fia. “I hate that you’re right. Alessia’s offering a lot, and the Kaziern part of the contract is closing. But until we meet our end of the deal with the Yakuza, retribution from the Golden Path is an open possibility and she can’t offer anything until we’re secure.”

“I’m not blaming her. The amount I’ll make once I complete my outstanding contracts is more than I’ve made as an enforcer in my lifetime, plus she’s covering a lot of the costs of the heist. But…” he trailed off and stared at the eavesdropper leaning on the doorway from the bedroom corridor.

“But this is a job akin to raiding Lionetti Tower,” Nina said, purple eyes narrow as she tried to look serious despite her lack of clothes. “Houou threw a few million bucks around to take out the Lionettis in November. Taking this soul egg off Houou won’t attract police attention, but they’re a conglomerate. Any mistakes and we’re dead.”

Fia did little more than grimace into her mug.

Aware that Nina had made the conversation extraordinarily grim, Vince pointed at her. “Care to put some clothes on before joining us? Or do you want to wave your tits at Fia whenever she out-argues you?”

“Hey!” Nina snapped.

“Don’t pretend I’m intimidated by her tits,” Fia said.

Vince slurped his coffee and ignored their glares. Internally, he was glad neither were close enough to hit him nor knew telekinesis.

Once Nina slipped into the bathroom, grumbling the whole way, he turned back to Fia.

“She’s right. But the pay is also right,” he said. “It’s a six-figure job, even if I’ll probably put a lot of it into gear afterward so I can survive the blowback from Houou.”

Plus the likelihood he wouldn’t get any big jobs for months. Nina had warned him that massive jobs came with downtime, simply because Houou would put a price on their heads. Ordinary jobs would become more difficult as dangerous enforcers would show up to take them out.

This was why Juliet kept a low profile after she made an appearance, particularly now an insurance company wanted her ass on a silver platter. If she took a contract, a dozen bounty hunters would try to stake her.

“What are your plans for the month?” Fia asked, changing the subject. “I’m going to be tied down with heist planning and helping Alessia with the new territory. Even if I wasn’t becoming consigliere, we have a ton of new territory that gangs are expanding into and whose operations we haven’t vetted. Need to clamp down on the cowboys.”

He nodded, although he didn’t fully understand. “Training, mostly.”

“That’s all?”

“It’s the most important thing I can do all month. Especially now Nina will join me. Once we actually decide on enough of the heist, I want to be involved in that if it’s my ass on the line. Nina and I can start buying magic tools and making preparations as soon as we know that.”

“Blame the Yakuza for that,” Fia said. “Even Kiyoko was a little annoyed. I get the feeling they were waiting on something before deciding on how or whether to share their plan. Which is annoying, because as we found out with Arnulfo’s mansion, the earlier we buy our tools, the less likely we get screwed on prices.”

Nina joined them, long golden hair still damp from the shower. Vince presented her with coffee and she gave him a kiss like Fia, but without the drama.

Food came next. Unlike him, Nina remained fearless in the face of the food she’d bought yesterday.

She cooked up a simple tomato and bacon pasta, covered in freshly grated cheese and with a healthy bit of heat to it. Fia hummed approvingly as she peeked at the dish in progress.

“Rigatoni.” The Italian American wolfgirl nodded. “And you’re even adding butter to the sauce. My nonna thinks that’s her secret ingredient.”

“I think it’s the secret ingredient of every restaurant,” Nina said drily. “Dad adds filthy amounts of oil, salt, and butter to everything he serves in his restaurant. I never learned to cook like him, but he insisted on making me cook alongside him while I visited over Christmas.”

The two women traded knowing looks, then stared at Vince.

He knew that look and threw his hands up defensively. “Hey! I didn’t ask you to learn to cook.”

“Yeah, but you can’t cook,” Fia said, and Nina nodded in agreement.

“I can cook more than Alessia and Pola,” he said.

“And a toddler can walk better than a man with no legs. But you’re not a toddler.”

They were ganging up on him. In his own apartment. This was a travesty.

The smell of food brought Nicki out of hibernation. The harpy fluttered near her bedroom door and sniffed loudly. “Do I have time to shower or will it get cold?”

Nina looked between Nicki and the pasta. The harpy was at least dressed.

“Your call. I can reheat it—” the lioness started to say.

Nicki began walking into the main room before Nina finished.

Once they ate, and Fia badgered Nina for the recipe, the slow start to the day came to an end. Even if it was New Year’s Day, they all had things to do.

Agent’s appearance signaled just how important January would be to Vince. He couldn’t slack or he’d be dead.

For her part, Fia needed to collect her car from Lionetti Tower. She’d left it there yesterday when they’d gone downtown.

“I’ll give you a lift,” Nicki said. “Just let me clean up.”

Once they left, Vince found himself alone with Nina. She leaned over the back of the couch and rested her tits on his head.

“I get the feeling you want a lazy day,” he said.

“Unlike the others, I’ve barely seen you for a week,” she said. “But I get it. There’s a tension in you. Something happened?”

“That agent showed up again.”

Nina swore. “I was in the bedroom sleeping and she showed her ass? What a bitch! You should have woken me up and—”

“Watched her teleport away?” Vince barely held back a laugh. “But, yeah, I’m tense. We barely beat that six-tail. Sure, Wagner mentioned—”

“We’ll talk about the fucking god-level dragon showing up later, by the way,” Nina said. “Can’t believe you met fucking Wagner yesterday.”

He didn’t blame her for her reaction. Wagner was Wagner. If Vince had to choose between meeting the President or Wagner, he’d choose Wagner any day of the week. And not just because President Davis was a moron.

“Anyway, that six-tail was powerful, but this ancient soul egg will be guarded by at least one six-tail, I bet,” Vince continued. “I need more practice to reliably cast my new meister-tier spell, as well as to fight better in general.”

Nina gave him an odd look. “Seems you cast it when you needed to. Can’t believe it, to be honest. Two meister-tier spells? Sure, the new one is weird as hell. A huge fire tornado that doesn’t incinerate anyone, and it’s a meister-tier spell? But it held the six-tail in, and I bet it could keep him out.”

“It’s a complicated spell—”

His girlfriend leaned forward and tapped him on the nose. Her face appeared in front of his, upside-down.,

“Don’t worry about explaining it here. Anyway, I do want a lazy day. We can go all out training tomorrow. I have plans for both of us, especially now I’ve seen how you fight up close for an extended period. You’re a lot better than I thought, but you’ll get your ass handed to you by a kill team of foxes.”

“Thanks. That makes me want to take the day off,” he drawled.

A weight left his head as her face vanished. Nina strode back toward the bedrooms.

“Training while you feel the weight of failure on your shoulders will just make your fuck up,” she said. “Spend some time meditating, Vince. I need to head into the city to grab some shit before the shops close. Do you need any infusions?”

He shook his head. “Ally gave me a bunch, and although I used a few, I’m good enough until she returns.”

“Oh, right. I forgot that fox fixes you up. Keep her tails nice and floofy so she never thinks about anyone else, alright?” Nina winked at him.

That was, in fact, the plan once Ally returned. He’d given her a tail brushing kit he needed to use on Ally and had promised as much.

Of course, he also knew that Ally thought of tail brushing as a very intimate activity. Had Pola thought the same?

Nina left, leaving Vince all alone. The apartment was too quiet.

He’d gotten used to the constant bustle, especially now that Nicki had joined them and Fia regularly visited. Maybe one day he’d get Pola to show up and not turn her nose up.

It might be easier to convince Alessia to buy him a fancy home in Albion, only a stone’s throw away from Pola’s penthouse, he realized.

Sighing, Vince rose. He fell into autopilot and began cleaning. First the kitchen, then collecting spare clothes and putting on the laundry. He did Nicki’s clothes first as her hamper was nearly full, but he needed to do a load afterward. Nina had brought back a bag of clothes, but had washed them at her parent’s home, so he unpacked them for her.

Once done, Nicki still hadn’t returned. He checked his phone.

No messages, but they were adults. They had probably bumped into Alessia or Lucia.

He felt that tension from earlier returning. The feeling that he needed to get to training, and train hard, or else.

Nina was right. Training like this would result in mistakes and sloppy focus. He needed to relax, and meditation exercises were key to that.

As he always had lately, he retrieved his real soul egg for meditation. Silly as it sounded, the being in the egg helped a lot with his focus. Especially the breathing exercises or how to channel his magic.

The being had been utterly quiet when he checked yesterday. Drawing on its power to defeat Black might have been too much. He hoped he could still rely on it.

Rely on it, huh? Vince grimaced at the weight in his hand as the storage egg from Nicki lay in front of him. The tiny soul egg glittered in his hand, a small crown adorning one end and hundreds of sapphires and emeralds surrounding it.

No response as he held it. Yet he worried about how reliant he’d become on it.

Was that how soul eggs broke free? Grant power to the poor sap who got their hands on it, consume their soul, and then wear their skin? The movies and comics depicted them in so many ways, but the true mechanics were a mystery.

All Vince knew was that something powerful lay within this egg. Something deeply knowledgeable that knew more about magic than almost anyone he knew and had a knack for teaching him about fire magic.

He sighed. Once this heist was over, he’d do something about the egg and stop relying on it.

Until then, he needed it. The battle against Black proved it.

He entered the main room, prepared to undertake his meditation for the afternoon. Then stopped dead. His blood ran cold and fear filled his mind.

A nine-tail fox leaned against the closed door, a seductive smile plastered on her face. Her tails were jet-black, but with crimson tips and an odd red luster in the light. She looked hauntingly beautiful, with pale skin, perfect complexion, long black that cascaded down in curls, and eyes like jades.

Unlike almost every fox he’d met, she wasn’t Asian, but could easily pass a runway model or celebrity with her looks. She wore fashionable designer clothes similar to what Fia or the Lionetti enforcers preferred.

“Do you like what you see, Vince?” the fox asked, her voice echoing in his mind. “Or is this more your preference?”

She flicked her wrist and her clothing morphed into an ensemble almost identical to what Alessia wore to the capo lunch before Christmas. A collared shirt, ruffled skirt, thigh-high stockings, and a rose cardigan. Her eyes turned blood-red and red highlights appeared in her hair.

“Well? I can be whatever you desire.” The fox’s smile broadened as she sashayed toward him.

- - - - -

Commentary: Wow. I wonder who this mysterious nine-tail fox is. Whoever could it be.

Putting her aside, Agent makes an appearance that's intended to be a refresher for the book, but also remind you about Anzu, who hasn't shown up for a while. Some of her actions/words will make a little more sense once you read the updated PoV chapter in the book, too, but I suspect they're clear enough.

Otherwise, we're jumping right in with a very floofy start to a very floofy book. Chapters should be every 3-4 days.