"I'm going out for dinner! I'll be back later tonight!" I shout from the front door.

"Okay! Be careful and don't do anything I wouldn't!" Dad replies from the kitchen.

"See you later!" I say as I walk out the door and into the cool evening. 

It's Wednesday and I'm on my way to the Voshell's house for dinner. The days had seemed to both go by in a flash and drag on forever. I had found myself fantasising about what this night would be like. On Monday I had gotten a message from Yama telling me where to meet them and what time to be there. I was nervous and couldn't help but think of all the ways this could go wrong. I really wanted Mr Voshell to like me. It was like Kate said. Even though I knew this was potentially dangerous and that it was unlikely anything would happen between us I couldn't help but be interested in the beautiful fox man. 

I had ended up going with Kates advice and wearing the outfit she described. She could see the future. It was stupid not to do as she said.

As I walked down the main street on my way to the place Yama had said to meet at I passed a flower shop and saw a bunch of carnations sitting in the window.

Why not? Make a good impression. I thought to myself.

I got out my wallet and walked into the store.

Fifteen minutes later and I was standing out the front of one of Mr Voshell's hotel buildings with flowers in one hand and my phone in the other. I was checking the time for about the sixth time in the past three minutes. He was late. I was starting to think I had gotten the wrong address when Mr Voshell himself followed by three other men came sweeping out of the front doors of the hotel.

He was stunning. I had thought he was beautiful in my memory but it paled in comparison to the real thing. He was wearing an expensive looking three piece suit with a dark grey suit jacket and pants, a deep forest green vest and a navy blue scarf instead of a tie. Over the top of this, he wore an elegant looking black coat which was fitted to his frame around his broad chest and trim waist, but came down to flow around his calves and billowed out behind him as he came flying out of the doors and into the wind. His expression was fierce and annoyed. His blue-gray eyes looked stormy and his mouth was set in a tight line.

"Mr Voshell! You can't do this! Please just hear me out!" cried one of the men following him. This man was short, only coming up to Mr Voshell's shoulder and had a round pudgy figure. He was red in the face and panting from trying to keep up with Mr Voshell's large strides.

"I have heard enough of your excuses Mr Simons! And they are frankly not good enough! I expect a high standard from my staff and you sir do not meet that standard! From today on you are no longer an employee at this establishment! Leave or I shall have you removed!" Mr Voshell growled. I could tell from the tone of his voice that he was seriously annoyed and had likely been repeating himself quite a bit.

"But sir! I . . ."

"Enough! You have 24 hours to collect your belongings and remove yourself from the premises before I call the police!" He interrupts gesturing to the other two men who each take one of  Mr Simons' arms and usher him back inside.

After they are out of sight Mr Voshell sighs and starts pinching the bridge of his nose like he feels a headache coming on.

I decide to take that moment to approach him.

"Rough day?" I ask in way of greeting.

"Timothy! You saw that did you?" He says grimacing and pulling his braid over his shoulder.

"Yeah. What happened?" I reply.

"Ugh. That was Mr Simons. He used to be the manager here, but he has been seriously lacking in his job and the standard of the hotel has gone down since he took over." He replies shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest.

Kate told me to distract him from his work. This must be why.

"Here I brought some flowers for you and Alice," I say holding out the bouquet.

His expression brightens and he reaches out to take the flowers.

"They're lovely! Oh, you shouldn't have! I'm supposed to be the one thanking you!" He exclaims delightedly.

Feeling satisfied that I had distracted him for now I smiled back.

"I wanted to. It's only good manners to bring a gift when being invited into someone's home." I tell him. It's an old-fashioned prospect that Kate taught me but knowing his age I know he'll appreciate it. 

He looks at me surprised. "Not many people your age know about proper manners."

I shrug in response. He smiles before looking back at the flowers and smelling them. As he does a hair slips from his braid and falls in his face and without thinking I reach forward and tuck it behind his ear. He goes very still and looks at me questioningly.

"I . . . Um . . . I . . ." I stumble trying to think of an excuse or an apology or something. I notice my hand is still outstretched towards him and I quickly draw it back to my chest.

Say something!

"I'm sorry! It's just I have three younger siblings and I always do it for them and I just wasn't thinking and I . . ."

"Tim!" he says interrupting my rant. "It's okay I was just a little shocked. You don't have to look like I'm about to bite your hand off."

"I . . ." 

I didn't know what you'd do . . .

"Yes right I'm sorry. Why don't we go now then?" I suggest.

Stupid! What on earth were you doing?! Think before you act next time!

"Yes. I'll call the car around." He replies.

We spend most of the drive in silence. I keep looking over at Mr Voshell in order to see what he's thinking. He is curious about me and think's I am a little strange but is trying to put that aside as since I saved his daughter he is inclined to have a positive opinion of me, plus I brought flowers and he likes how I look in this outfit. So mostly positive things but still I could be doing better. I mentally sigh and curse myself for the stupid hair stunt. His skin had been so soft though and it had felt like electricity where we touched.

After what felt like an eternity we finally arrived at his house on the cliffs. Here the wind was stronger than it was in town. I pulled my jacket closer around my chest and crossed my arms to try block out some of the cold. We hurried to get inside, Mr Voshell reached the door first and pulled it open but as soon as he did something small and orange shot out of the door and between his legs. 

Realising what it was I quickly bent down and scooped it up into my arms before it could run past me. Alice let out a little squeak of surprise as I lifted her off the ground. I held her close to my chest as she squirmed and wriggled so she couldn't get away.

"Alice if you don't stop moving I'm going to drop you," I warn her.

At the use of her name she freezes and looks up at me with wide eyes. In this form she looks just like a regular fox, well apart from the green eye's and the two twin tails, but I imagine regular humans don't see those.

Just then I hear thundering footsteps coming from inside and a few seconds later Yama comes running down the stairs which are visible from the open door. "Alice-chan please come back here!" he calls out.

"It's okay I got her," I reply just as he sees us standing in the open door.

He freezes and his one eye goes wide with shock. His expression is saying "Oh shit I've done it now."

I turn my head to look at Mr Voshell in order to judge his reaction to me knowing about Alice. It's a good thing I did too as he was gathering his magical power and was about to attack me with it.

"Don't shoot!" I exclaim transferring Alice to one arm so I can put up the other one in surrender.

"I already knew but I'm nothing dangerous really! I'm just a human!"

"Then how did you know I was about to attack you?! Huh?!" Growls Mr Voshell.

Well, there goes any chance of him having a good opinion of me. I sigh mentally.

"I have the power of the Sight but I swear I'm human! You can check if you want." I reply. I have to talk my way out of this.

"Why did you not mention this earlier?!" He shoots back.

"It didn't seem relevant," I explain quickly. "Why go around telling people my power? Most people wouldn't believe me, and those that would generally don't want someone around who can see all their secret." 

He has no answer to this. He continues to look at me sceptically and does not dispel the power he had collected.

Just then Alice started squirming around and making little-whining noises. I looked down at her and saw that she wanted me to put her down so that she could turn back into her human form.

"Okay," I answer as I lower her to the ground.

Once on the ground she stands up on her hind legs and half transforms so she is in an in between stage where she is still covered in fur but all her features are a mix of human and Fox. She looks like she did when I first saw her true self.

"Alice what are you doing? Come over here right this second!" Mr Voshell commands her.

"It's okay Daddy! Tim is telling the truth! Tim doesn't smell like he's lying. Tim smells human!" Alice exclaimed. As she said this she stood in front of me and held her arms out to her sides to protect me.

"It's okay Alice. It's my fault for not mentioning it." I tell her. I put a hand on her shoulder to get her to lower her arms and give her a lopsided smile.

"I'm sorry for intruding. I'll leave now. I won't bother you again." I say to Mr Voshell. I was looking forward to getting to know him and Alice but that doesn't matter if they can't trust me. 

"Tim! No! Don't leave!" Alice exclaims clutching at my arm.

Suddenly before I can respond Mr Voshell is right there up in my face. Thinking he was going to attack me in some way I closed my eye's and prepared for a blow, but one never came and I started hearing a snuffling noise. I slowly opened one of my eyes and saw one of the most bizarre things I had ever seen. Mr Voshell was standing barely an inch from me with his eyes closed and his brow furrowed in concentration. As I continued to stare at him I saw his nostrils flare and I realised he was scenting me to see if I was human or not.

Not knowing what to do I stood completely still and waited for him to make his judgment. After about a minute of nothing happening, he suddenly goes stiff.

"Hold out your hand!" He demands, his eyes flying open.

"What? I don't . . . "

"YOUR HAND!"

"Okay here!" I exclaim holding out my arm.

He grabs it by the wrist and starts . . . Taking my pulse?

"Excuse me what are you doing?" I ask.

"Seeing if you have a pulse." He replies tersely.

"Um, Why?" I ask more worried this time.

"You smell of blood and death." He answers giving me a sideways look.

"That's probably because I spend most of my time hanging out with either a ghost or a vampire," I tell him quickly. It has to be that. Right?

The reaction to my statement was mostly what I expected it to be. Yama who had been standing in the open doorway observing quietly let out a gasp, his one eye going wide again and his aura showing hope and disbelief as he exclaimed "Ghosts?!". Mr Voshell tightened his grip on my wrist until it was almost painful. "Vampire!" he growled under his breath. Alice looked up at me curiously, wanting to know more.

"The ghost is my grandmother who died when I was 6. She also had the gift of sight. The Vampire is my best friend Kate. I know Vampires are dangerous and hated by most other supernatural creatures, but Kate is a good person and she'd never hurt me. I haven't been bitten and I'm not under her control or anything like that. Neither she nor I have any hostile intentions towards you." I explain. I'm rambling. Damn. Need to calm down.

"This Vampire, Kate! How old is she? What is her power?" Mr Voshell questions, still gripping my wrist.

"She is 500 though she appears 13."

"13!?" Yama exclaims.

I'm pretty sure he's been in a constant state of shock since coming down here. His mouth is hanging open and his one eyebrow has disappeared into his hairline.

"How can that be?! It is against all Vampiric laws to turn one so young." Mr Voshell asked.

"Well her master broke those laws and was imprisoned for it. He wanted her power." I explain.

"Which is?" Mr Voshell prompts.

I hesitate. Telling them about me and my abilities is one thing, but Kate is different. I've already said too much.

Mr Voshell continues to stare at me, waiting for my reply.

What should I do? Wouldn't Kate have seen this happening? But she didn't mention anything about it, she just told me what to wear and to be honest. Is this what she meant?

"She can see the future." I sigh finally. I hope I made the right decision.

"That is a rare ability. I can see why her master wanted it." Mr Voshell mused. He seemed to be letting go of his disbelief and mistrust, at least for the moment.

"But why not wait until she had come of age?" He asked after a moment.

"And how could he know what her power would be?" Yama continued, stepping forward for the first time since this situation began.

"I don't know. Kate never told me." I reply.

"Then how do you know it's true? She could be deceiving you." Mr Voshell cautioned. His magic is mostly gone now. His attitude has changed again. He no longer see's me as a direct threat, but someone who may be being manipulated into somehow getting close to him. Not much better but I'll take it  . . . for now.

I wonder where all this mistrust comes from. It's different than most people. More personal somehow. I'm guessing he was betrayed at some point in his long life. Interesting. I bet there's a story there.

Realising my thoughts had been going off track I quickly filed them away for later and focused again on the conversation.

"The Sight remember," I say gesturing to my unique eyes. They change, appearing as different colours to different people. I don't know what colour they really are. They're the only indication that I'm any different from most people.

"What do you mean? I thought the sight gave you the power to see supernatural beings?" Ask Yama.

"Yes, but it does other things too. I can tell when people are lying, what their intentions are, whether they are good people or not and more. Kate is a good person, no matter what else she may be." I explain to him. 

I then turn back to Mr Voshell who is still standing in my space. He released my hand at some point though a phantom touch still lingered on my skin.

"So are you and your family and that is the reason you have little reason to fear me just as I have little reason to fear you," I add.

"How can you be so certain of that?" He asks, standing tall and trying to appear menacing.

He doesn't think he's a good person.

"Because, Mr Voshell I have seen bad people. I know what they look like. And you sir are not one of them. Sure everyone has their own personal darkness, thing's they've done which they regret, but that doesn't make all of them evil, just human, or in your case an albino nine-tailed fox spirit. You should have more confidence in yourself. For someone of your age your incredibly bright."