Renata Hamilton's bedroom was just as Tori remembered it from when she'd dropped by last Thanksgiving: walls plastered with posters of Renata's favorite pop stars and movie star crushes, issues of Popstar! Magazine and Seventeen strewn across the floor, and a vanity with a mirror and a jumble of many-hued cosmetics fighting with the bed for space.
Renata sat on the bed applying pink nail polish to her toenails. She suddenly noticed Tori and Erzulie and flinched, sending the nail polish brush flying across the room. "Tori! Erzulie!" she gasped before calming herself down. "I didn't know you two were in town. What brings you two here?"
"A few things, actually," Tori said, smoothing out her leather jacket as she walked into the room. "It's partially about Beck, but that's not why I'm up here right now. Thing is, I've heard that you've been getting friendly with werefoxes."
Renata tried to play dumb. "Werefoxes, Tori?" she chuckled with fake amusement, flipping her waist-length red hair with affected nonchalance. "Seriously?! I think you've been reading too many Dresden Files books. There's no such thing."
"Don't try any BS with me, Renata," Tori sighed, rolling her eyes. "Your mom got some werefox burglars to squeal."
"And I took a look inside Morgana Faye's mind and learned quite a lot of the details," Erzulie chimed in. "You're one of them now, aren't you?"
Sighing, Renata shifted. Red and white fur sprouted all over her curvaceous body as her already luscious boobs and hips rounded even further, stretching her clothes to their limits. Her feet became paws as a bushy tail grew in, and her face pushed out into a vulpine muzzle while her ears lengthened and came to points. "Does this answer your question?"
"I'd say so," Tori said. "Erzulie also learned that you've got a new girlfriend... a werefox named Ruby Reynard." She narrowed her eyes as she said the name.
"And I suppose you've got a problem with that?" Renata groaned.
"Look, Renata," Tori said in what she hoped was a soothing voice. "As I'm sure you've figured out by now, I'm a monster hunter. It's my job to keep humanity safe from asshole monsters who would use their powers to hurt them. Werebeasts honestly aren't the worst monsters... barring certain exceptional breeds. One such breed is the werefox. I don't want you getting mixed up with a bunch of irresponsible, heartless, hedonistic drifters. They just about never mind their manners." That was Tori's way to describe when a 'monster' refrained from harassing humans. "Werefoxes might seem cool or funny at first, but there's something genuinely ugly about the way they care about nothing besides their own pleasure. I'm sure you must know this deep down, or you wouldn't be on the Werefox Inhibitor Potion!"
"Then why do you care that I'm a werevixen now?!" Renata screamed.
"That's not what I'm mad about," said Tori. "Okay, maybe I'm a little mad about that. But what I'm really mad about is that you're DATING a werevixen!"
"Well, YOU'RE dating a witch!" Renata scoffed, flipping her vivid red locks. "Don't be a hypocrite!"
"That's not the same thing!" Tori snapped, defensively putting her arms around Erzulie. "Witches aren't monsters! They're just humans born with a connection to the magic of the being the monsters call Mother Night. Some end up befriending the monsters or committing crimes in their own right, but most are perfectly decent human beings who just happen to be able to cast spells. Werefoxes don't think like humans, not even a little bit. They don't understand responsibility, they don't understand consequences, they don't understand stability, they don't understand compassion, and they don't even seem to fully understand love."
"It really isn't a good idea to date one," Erzulie said. "Werefoxes enter into romantic relationships almost purely to entertain themselves. I've never met any that cared very much about their partners' needs. More than a few actually forget that they have a partner after a few months!"
"Ruby isn't like that!" Renata insisted. "She's going to take a fidelity potion so she can stay faithful to me. She treasures this relationship and wants to make sure her werefox nature doesn't ruin it."
"I admit that's unusual," Tori mused. "But those fidelity potions aren't foolproof. It needs to be taken multiple times before it becomes permanent, and I don't trust a werefox to remember. Besides, that potion only solves one problem. It doesn't make the drinker mind her manners in general. Even if Ruby Reynard isn't a philandering heartbreaker anymore, she's no doubt still a thoughtless prankster and serial shoplifter with itchy feet."
"I do kinda wish she'd just swallow her pride and take the damn Inhibitor Potion," Renata sighed. "But I can't tell her to be something she's not. But what's the worst that can happen as long as we're together? Now that our relationship's secure, I can be a good influence on her."
Tori was tempted to ask Renata what she of all girls knew about being a good influence, but she wisely decided to focus on the faults of Ruby. "Are you sure that your relationship with Ruby is secure?" the monster hunter asked. "Yeah, Ruby's eye won't go wandering anymore, but there's other ways she could betray you. For instance, werefoxes are cowards through and through. They may blindly leap into stupid stunts without considering the danger, but they WILL always run like spineless children once the danger presents itself. Do you honestly think Ruby will stick with you once she hears that I'm in Stokerville? No! She'll crap her pants and skip town with the rest of her worthless skulk!"
"She'd never do that... I think," Renata said. She didn't want to entertain the horrible possibility, but everything Tori had said about werfox instincts was pretty spot-on. WOULD Ruby run when she heard there was a monster hunter in town? An overprotective monster hunter related to Renata, at that? What was more important to Ruby? Her love for Renata or her physical safety?
"You need to at least consider the possibility," said Erzulie. "We don't want you to be blindsided if it happens."
"Well... it won't!" Renata said firmly. "We made plans to found a new skulk together!"
Tori frowned. "There's too many werefox skulks in this world already. I don't want you inflicting another one on humanity because you think being an alpha sounds fun or cool."
"It's not that kind of skulk," Renata explained. "Ruby aside, anyone who wants to join needs to agree to take the Werefox Inhibitor Potion. We're going to be the first werefox skulk that 'minds its manners,' as you like to say."
"That might work," Erzulie thought out loud. "Werefoxes are related to the Japanese kitsune, and they're split into two breeds, the wise and altruistic zenko and the mischievous and hedonistic yako. There's no reason that things couldn't be the same in North America."
"Fine, but there's no place in your skulk for an ill-mannered werefox like Ruby Reynard," said Tori. "Not that I like the idea of you starting up a skulk at all. I mean, you have no idea if it's possible to run an skulk that minds its manners. I'm pretty sure it's never been done."
"Then I'll prove to you it's possible," Renata smiled confidently. "I'm not a child anymore, cuz. I'll be 18 next year."