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“What did you want with Ellie? The cat shifter?”
Her face contorted as she worked to remember. “The shadow cat. She was most interesting. She didn’t get away without leaving her mark on me.” She glanced down to the white scars running down her slender legs. “Dr. Smith had his eye on her. You’d have to ask him… oh wait, you FUC agents killed him!” Without warning, Sandy launched herself at Grayson. The light caught on the long knife in her hand.
Grayson barely had time to react before a giant gray bird launched itself into the room, grabbing Sandy’s extended wrist in its giant beak. Sandy screamed. Grayson fumbled around, looking for a light switch. He flicked the toggle to find Peahen Cass sitting on top of Sandy. Cass pinned the tiny woman to the ground, nearly suffocating her with her silky tail feathers. She was nearly sitting on her face. Cass held her long, graceful neck in the air, clearly pleased with herself. The more Sandy squirmed, the more Cass ruffled her plumage to keep her at bay.
Grayson was about to thank her when an army of FUC and ASS agents entered the room. Agent Brett Kipp sauntered in, touting a pair of cuffs for Sandy. He and his girlfriend, Ellie, could rest soundly knowing the hawk that tried to cat-nap her was finally apprehended.
Agent Kipp had to coax Cass off of the bird shifter. She seemed pretty content to have the woman smothered by her feathers all night. She eventually stood as Agent Kipp slapped the cuffs on Sandy. The woman touted a mouth full of large, grey feathers.
Cass transitioned back to her human form as Sandy was escorted out of the observation chamber. “I hope you choke on them!” she shouted at the hawk shifter as she disappeared out of the room.
Grayson chuckled. “You couldn’t let her leave without saying something?”
“Damn straight. Words are my best weapon.”
“Aside from your beak.” Cass nodded. Grayson looked around. “Where’s Phineas?”
Cass sighed, wrapping her arms around her body to keep out the cold air. “We found his sister in one of the last stalls. She looks human, but…” Cass paused, choking back a sniffle.
“But what?”
“She’s having a real hard time talking.”
“Like the seagulls?”
Cass nodded, her red curls brushing her brown shoulders. “We didn’t find his dad though. The last door we tried opened to the forest. Phineas is in there with some agents looking for him.”
* * *
Cass tossed on her clothes and led Grayson into the forest room. “Where is Phineas?” she asked an agent standing on guard near the entrance. He pointed toward a row of towering pines.
They marched toward where the agent indicated. Sobbing filled the grove. Cass and Grayson sprinted toward the sound, fearing the worst. Her breath hitched in her chest as the beat of her heart thrummed loud in her ears, nearly drowning out the sound. If Sandy killed the kid’s father, she’d gladly stuff more feathers down the monster’s throat. She caught some of what the hawk explained to Grayson before she lunged at him. The woman was three-shades batty.
They cleared a row of bushy evergreens to see a couple of agents hovering near a shaggy-haired boy and a young woman in a hospital gown. Tears streamed down both their faces. Phineas held a normal-sized black crow in his lap, cradling the creature as if it were a porcelain doll. He stroked its back with his tiny fingers. “It’s going to be all right,” he whispered.
“Dad,” the young woman said. Phineas’ sister must have been ten years older than him. Tears cleaned a path through her dirt-streaked cheeks. Her matted head of brown hair leaned on Phineas’ small shoulder as she put an arm around him. “Dad,” she kept repeating over and over, unable to communicate with more than a word.
The crow opened its beak as if to caw. Instead, it said, “Gabby. Phin.”
Cass could have sworn she saw a tear leak out of the small bird’s eye.
* * *
Cass sat on the corner of Gray’s desk as he typed up his report. Phineas’ sister, Gabrielle, was declared stable. They left them in the hospital wing of WANC. Gabby couldn’t communicate and would need a lengthy rehabilitation period but was otherwise healthy. Joe, the crow, was a more challenging case. They weren’t sure what their doctors could accomplish, with him or the other shifters they rescued. It was too soon to know if any of it was reversible.
You wouldn’t know that by looking at Phineas though. He was happy just to have his family back. He didn’t care that his dad was stuck as a talking bird or that his sister could only utter one word repeatedly when she tried to talk. They left Phin beaming ear to ear, sitting on his sister’s hospital bed reciting the harrowing tale of how he’d rescued a FUC and ASS agent from wandering an abandoned mall and helped them rescue all the shifters below.
Cass smiled just thinking about it. They didn’t care what shape they were in, as long as they were there. Together. It was beautiful.
“We did good today,” she said over Gray’s pounding on the keys. He was racing to complete the reports because Cass had promised to make him her homemade eggplant parm. It was a little out of season, but they both decided they needed some comfort food tonight.
“That we did.”
“Are you over your fear of birds pecking your eyes out?”
He shook his head. “I’ll probably always wear sunglasses around them.”
“Did they figure out what that device was? The one the goon pulled on you in the warehouse?” Cass asked, remembering back to the first time she saved Grayson’s ass on this mission.
