Shift

by Rachel Vincent

  My pulse raced fast enough to make my head spin, and I barely resisted the urge to turn and face the new combatants. I was surrounded by the enemy, and my fight-or-flight instinct demanded that I make a choice. But neither of those options led to survival—I was sure of that.

  “Look, I’m sorry. But this is the truth, and it’s important. Calvin Malone lied to you, for his own gain. My Pride isn’t responsible for your…Finn’s death. One of Malone’s men is.”

  I’d expected to be interrupted, but I could tell by the universal, uneasy shift in posture that I’d caught their collective attention with the word lied.

  “Why would Calvin Malone compromise his honor with a lie?” The speaker still looked skeptical, but was obviously willing to listen.

  My mood brightened instantly. They were going to let me talk.

  “First of all, he has no honor. But he has plenty of greed and he is hungry for power.” Lots of confused expressions and eerily tilted heads met my declaration, but I rushed on before anyone could interrupt, my left arm around Kaci. “And second of all, I just gave you the reason—for his own personal gain.”

  There was an odd silence as the birds glanced back and forth at one another in quick, sharp movements, clearly conferring silently through expressions I couldn’t interpret. I glanced down at Kaci to see her watching our captors in both fascination and fear, and I was relieved to see the latter winning out.

  A tabby with enough curiosity to override her fear—aka: common sense—would turn out like me, and mine was not a life I wanted for Kaci. At least not until she’d matured enough to balance her mouth with a bit of wisdom. Or at least experience. I’d learned my lessons the hard way, and I would spare her that, if I could.

  Finally, I looked up to see the birds all watching me, and the next voice came from behind me, so I turned again. “We will hear you speak on this matter. But we have no tolerance for ruses. If you transform, we will be forced to incapacitate you.”

  “No problem.” I’d never put myself at their mercy long enough to “transform,” anyway. My fastest full Shift ever took nearly a minute, and even if I could do it again, that was plenty of time for them to rip me from limb to limb, considering how incredibly fast they changed form.

  Oh. And that’s when I understood. They thought werecats could Shift the same way they could. Instantaneously. Miraculously.

  I briefly considered explaining the truth, to make myself look less threatening and set them at ease. But in the end, I decided they were more likely to respect me if they felt just a little threatened by me. Right? That approach usually worked with toms, anyway.…

  “Speak,” an elder female bird commanded, from near the windows on my left. So I spoke, fully aware that the safety of my entire Pride rested on me in that moment. Assuming I wasn’t already too late to help them. And I had no reason to believe the birds would have told me if I were.

  “Malone is running against my father for a position of leadership within our Territorial Council. But Malone doesn’t fight fair.” I glanced around, trying to make sure everyone was listening, but though the faces were different—and in various stages of mid-Shift—their expressions were all the same. They looked frustrated, angry, and impatient. “Anyway, according to a source of mine—a werecat in Malone’s Pride—last week one of Malone’s enforcers killed one of your…cocks in a dispute over a kill and feeding rights.”

  Several of the expressions hardened, and I spoke faster as my pulse raced; I was desperate to finish before someone cut me off. “I’m not saying your bird was necessarily the one at fault. Our two species have different laws, and I’m not qualified to sort that particular issue out. But what I am sure of is that Finn’s killer does not, nor has he ever, belonged to my Pride.”

  “What does Calvin Malone stand to gain from misleading us?” another male bird asked from behind me, and that time I didn’t turn. It didn’t seem to matter which one of them I faced; I was speaking to them all, as unnerving as that concept was.

  It’s like the tribunal, I told myself, grasping for something familiar. Everyone gets an equal vote. Unfortunately, that made the whole thing feel a little too familiar—the majority of the tribunal had wanted me dead.

  “He’s gaining three things,” I said, fighting to project confidence and authority. “First of all—me and Kaci. He’s convinced you to remove us and turn us over to him, because in our world, he who controls the tabbies controls the toms. There are only a few female werecats of childbearing age in the entire country, and Malone wants us both married off to his sons, so he can keep all the power in his family. Thus under his thumbs. He tried to force me into a marriage I didn’t want a couple of months ago, through political means, and when that didn’t work, he resorted to brute force with Kaci.”

  “How so?” some nameless, faceless bird called out from behind us, and Kaci cringed against my side as all eyes turned her way for the first time.

  “He snuck onto our property and tried to kidnap her.”

  A couple of the birds—mostly the women—looked upset, if I was reading half-avian expressions correctly. But most of them just looked confused. They didn’t know enough about our culture to understand why Malone would resort to violence over a potential daughter-in-law. So I moved on to point number two.

  “Second of all, he now has you fighting his battle for him. You’re weakening our offensive capabilities while we’re on the verge of a very well-justified fight against Malone.”

  “How is your fight justified?” an exceptionally scratchy, gender-neutral voice asked from behind me and to my right. I gritted my teeth to keep from groaning in frustration as I resisted the urge to turn and search for the speaker yet again.

  “One of his cats killed my brother almost two weeks ago, when they came after Kaci. Malone knows an attack is imminent. But this way, we bring fewer, weaker forces to the fight. Thanks to you guys.”

  To my horror, several of the birds were nodding, not merely in understanding, but in admiration! They approved of Malone’s underhanded strategy! The bastards!

  But even I had to agree that it was effective, if unconscionable.

  “And in the third place, he’s deflected both the blame and the consequence for Finn’s death away from him. Which means his forces remain safe from your rage, thus intact. And you’re not getting the justice Finn deserves, because while you’re fighting us, the real killer is literally getting away with murder. In Malone’s Pride.”

  Now they were frowning.…

  A throat cleared to my far right, and my head swiveled so fast and hard I heard one of my own vertebrae pop. My focus snagged on a single dark beak as it Shifted almost instantly into the creased lips and chin of the oldest thunderbird I’d seen yet. She had thick white hair halfway down her back, and her hands were even more wrinkled than her face, but her eyes shone with shrewd intelligence.

  “You insist that Calvin Malone is willing to compromise his honor for success in war. What evidence can you give us that you are not, in fact, doing that very thing?”

  Why did they always use his full name? Did they think that was how all humans addressed one another? By both names? Or did they run the whole thing together in their minds, as if it were all one word? Like their own names…

  “You’re asking why you should believe me instead of him?” My heart thudded in my ears when she nodded. I’d never delivered a more important argument than the one I was about to launch. Never before had so many lives depended on what I said next.

  No pressure, Faythe…

  “You should believe me because I stand to gain nothing from this except what we had before Malone interfered—the peace to assemble our troops in private and avenge my brother’s murder. I’m not asking you to attack my Pride’s enemies for us. Or to kidnap and deliver any members of his Pride to give us a political edge. Or to give up justice for your own dead by launching an attack against the wrong people. But Malone asked for all of that. He used you. Hell, he’s probably laughing at
you right now.”

  Okay, he was probably too busy plotting our destruction to literally laugh about the wool he’d pulled over the Flight’s eyes, but my point stood. They’d been played.

  And finally, they looked mad.

  “If you’re telling the truth, Calvin Malone must pay for his deception,” a disembodied voice called from overhead.

  My brows rose, but I didn’t bother glancing up. “If I’m telling the truth?”

  “We can no longer trust the unsubstantiated word of a werecat.” This statement came from my left, from a young female bird, whose dark-browed scowl was genuinely scary. “You will bring us proof.”

  Proof. Shit. If I had that, all our problems would be over! “You didn’t ask Malone for proof.…”

  “We are disinclined to repeat our mistake.”

  Another scratchy voice spoke up, but I whirled too late to catch the speaker. “You will bring us evidence in two days.”

  Two days! I glanced desperately from one impassive face to the next. “My whole Pride could be dead by then!” Though hopefully they’d take the thunderbird contingent with them. “You have to call a ceasefire.”

  “No.” Short, simple, and spoken by the bird who’d begun this whole weird interrogation. “We will not stop the attack without proof that your people are innocent.”

  A growl began deep in my throat, and it took me a long moment to contain it. “If you don’t call a ceasefire, I have no reason to go looking for your proof. What would I have to go home to?”

  For a moment, there was more silence, as the birds conferred, cocking their heads at one another, and glancing from face to face. And finally they seemed to reach a mute consensus. “We will halt the attack against your Pride until you return with your proof. In two days.”

  Relief surged through me, cool compared to the flames of fear and anger licking at my heart. I’d bought time for the rest of my Pride—assuming they hadn’t already launched their offensive. But my relief was short-lived.

  “What kind of proof? And how the hell am I supposed to get it? I don’t suppose you have a car I could borrow?” Otherwise, it could take me two days to climb down their damned mountain and find the nearest form of public transportation.

  “No. How you get this proof is not our concern, and we don’t care what form it takes, so long as it is irrefutable.”

  Great. And staggeringly vague. “Well, then, I guess we should get going. We’re burning time.”

  “The child stays,” said a firm, deep voice from behind me, and that time not only did I turn, but I turned Kaci with me.

  “No. She goes with me, or I won’t go.”

  A new voice joined the argument, from overhead again. “You will go alone, and be back in two days, or we will kill the child.”

  Sixteen

  Kaci whimpered and clung to my arm.

  Fresh rage and terror shot through me, singeing what was left of my nerves. Obliterating my patience. “No!” I shouted, and every muscle in my body went so suddenly, completely taut I couldn’t move. “Kaci has nothing to do with this. Where’s the honor in slaughtering an innocent teenager?”

  “The honor lies in protecting our interests and avenging our dead,” some faceless voice announced. I’d given up looking for the speakers. “The girl is merely your motivation.”

  “But she’s just a kid!” And for once, Kaci was too terrified to insist that she was nearly grown.

  “She is not our child.”

  My blood ran cold, chilling me from the inside out. Were they serious? Did they care about nothing but their own people? What about right and wrong? Good and bad? And I’d thought Malone’s moral compass veered left of true north! Evidently thunderbirds had no concept of morality!

  But I knew from Kai that they observed their own code of honor obsessively, even if it didn’t fall into line with mine. Or anyone else’s. Once they’d made a promise, they’d stick to it. And they’d vowed to try to protect the south-central Pride’s tabbies.…

  “You can’t kill her,” I insisted, speaking lower now, as a deceptive calm settled through me. I recognized my father’s influence in my bearing and voice, and that surprised me as much as the determination now steeling my spine, fortifying my nerve. Kaci was depending on me. The whole Pride was, though they didn’t know it yet. I would not let them down. “You swore to Malone that you’d try to keep our tabbies safe. I’m thinking killing Kaci would be a pretty heinous violation of that promise.”

  There was another long pause while the thunderbirds conferred wordlessly. Wings flapped and feathers ruffled at my back as more birds dropped from their overhead perches. And finally, Kaci and I had to turn again to meet the gaze of the latest speaker.

  “Your statement and Calvin Malone’s statement are mutually exclusive—both cannot be true. Therefore, we conclude that a werecat’s word cannot be accepted without proof. Calvin Malone provided no proof, thus our vow to him is null. You and the child are at our mercy.”

  Well, that certainly backfired.

  Chill bumps popped up all over my body, and Kaci shuffled even closer to me. I opened my mouth to argue with the latest avian proclamation, but before I could, another bird spoke up.

  “We would kill neither of you without cause. If you return in two days with proof, as instructed, we will give the child to you, unharmed. If you do not return on time, or return without acceptable evidence, the child will die, and our fight for vengeance against your people will resume.”

  I sucked in a deep, silent breath, trying to absorb the latest twist in thunderbird logic with decorum, though my temper raged inside me.

  “Go now, Faythe Sanders. You are wasting time—yours, ours, and hers.” The old woman-bird’s gaze flicked to Kaci, who shook visibly in my arms.

  They wouldn’t hurt her if I kept up my end of the bargain. She’d be fine. Unless something went wrong.

  What if I got hurt and couldn’t make it back? What if I couldn’t find proof, now that Brett was dead? What if I got caught sneaking around Malone’s territory? Kaci would be dead before anyone else had an opportunity to negotiate for her life. If that was even a possibility.

  And even if I made it back on time, with irrefutable proof, what would Kaci suffer while she waited? She wasn’t in any physical danger—the birds would stand by their word, unless I gave them reason not to—but she was already emotionally fragile. Two days as the prisoner of a hostile foreign species—whose members were practically counting the hours until her execution—would do nothing for her mental health. She’d seen what they’d done to Charlie and Owen, and she had a great imagination. She knew what would happen to her if I didn’t make it.

  “No.” My mind was made up.

  “What’s that?” a voice asked from my left, but my gaze stayed glued to the old woman.

  “I’m not leaving her. Turn us over to Malone.” At least he wouldn’t kill us, and we stood a better chance of getting away from him than from the birds, if only because Malone lived on the ground.

  “That is no longer an option. We want true vengeance for Finn, and you are our best hope of finding it. We believe you will do whatever is necessary to keep the child alive. You may stay or go, as you like, but if we have no proof in two days, the child will die.”

  Shit, shit, shit!

  Wait a minute… “What about a trade? Kai for Kaci. Did you know he was captured?”

  Several half-bird faces looked surprised, and several Shifted into human form, apparently just for that ability. But no one looked particularly upset. “The child is not a hostage. Her release is not negotiable.”

  “Why not?” I glanced from face to face, truly baffled. “Is his life worth less than Finn’s?”

  “Of course not,” said a young man with fully formed wings, then a man whose feathers had begun to gray with age took over.

  “But Kai volunteered to fight, and he knew the risks. To die in war is to die with honor. Finn was murdered. His death must be avenged.”

  For a
moment, I could only stare, clutching Kaci to my side. They were serious. They were not going to let Kaci leave without proof of Malone’s guilt.

  As if to underline that fact, a bustle of movement drew my gaze to four of the largest thunderbirds as they moved to block the front door, the only exit I’d yet seen. None of the birds was over five foot two, but they were all powerfully built from the waist up, even without talons and wing-claws.

  Kaci was dead, if I couldn’t come through. Or at least come back with reinforcements.

  I stood straighter. “How soon can you call a ceasefire?”

  “We will dispatch a messenger immediately.”

  “In person?” They could not be serious. “Where’s my cell? Somebody give me back my phone.” One arm around Kaci, I glanced around the room until movement drew my attention to a mostly human woman—the only fully dressed person in the room, other than me and Kaci. She was pregnant, and evidently about to pop.

  Please let her have a baby in there, and not a giant egg.…

  The woman slid her hand into the pocket of her maternity pants and pulled out my phone, then stepped forward to hand it to me.

  “Anybody know how this works?” I held the phone up in my left hand, while my casted arm slid back around Kaci. A few of the younger birds nodded—likely those who conducted the Flight’s few interactions with human society.

  “Good. I’m going to call my dad—he’s our Alpha, the one in charge—and fill him in. Then he’s going to toss his phone to one of your birds, and I’m going to give mine to one of you guys. You call a ceasefire, then give me back my phone.” I wasn’t willing to negotiate on that part. Without some way to communicate with my Pride, I’d never get to the Appalachian territory in two days, much less find the necessary evidence and make it back to…wherever the Flight lived.

  “Then I’ll be on my way.”

  “No!” Kaci’s head popped up on the edge of my vision, her cheek brushing my arm. I patted her back and squeezed her arm, telling her silently to stay quiet. I’d explain everything to her when we had a little privacy. Assuming we got that chance.