Page 81 of Hummingbird and Kraken

The opossum immediately stilled and nodded.

“Back to the van?”

An emphatic no.

“Break the cage open here?”

Yes. The little body shook with conviction.

The cage was built of overlapping links, a bit like chicken wire in structure but much stronger in material. Geir fit his larger fingers into the circles and pulled. He was warping the material, but not making any particular hole bigger. He couldn’t just tear it apart.

He tried again, teasing the tips two fingers into one hole and just trying to enlarge it. He increased the diameter from about one inch to two, but that wouldn’t be enough.

The opossum slowly nodded at him, its body language showing… trust? Confidence?

“I’m going to need to cut you out.” He bent to pick up the cage, but the opossum started running frantically around it again.

He could only think of one solution. “Um, I’m going to do something to get you out. Don’t be scared, though. It’s just me.” He felt stupid as soon as he said it. Of course it was just him. But he wasn’t quite sure how to explain.

He could do a half-shift, but he’d only used it in battle before. His appearance was so terrifying that enemies had run at the sight. Others went into a frenzy, trying to kill the monstrosity and leaving themselves open to other attacks. It wasn’t anything he would do in front of a child.

The opossum calmed and nodded again. Hopefully he wouldn’t traumatize it for life. Or not worse than it had already been traumatized.

Now he was feeling angry. Whatever this poor child had gone through that made his own monstrous appearance the better choice should never have happened.

Fueled by that rage, he shifted. His vision went hazy, but the subtle changes in lightness and shadow popped. His skin went lax and wobbly and his bones scrunched and elongated as his teeth melted into hard, black chitin, thrusting out of the place where his mouth had been.

Unlike his other full and partial shifts, this one hurt.

He clenched his hands at his side, his tentacles automatically pulling back as he absorbed the pain.

When he was done, it took a few moments for him to relax again. He didn’t need to touch his new head to know what it would look like. Two bulging eyes with U-shaped pupils looking out to the side. His kraken arms distributed around where his mouth would have been. And emerging between them, a giant black beak, glossy and hard like a parrot’s.

Wanting this to be over as quickly as possible, he bent and started snapping through the bars of the cage, the sharp edges of his beak aided by unnaturally strong muscles.

The moment the opossum judged the hole to be big enough, it scampered up the walls of the cage, wound its way out the top, and flew up Geir’s arm. Its tiny claws drew blood on Geir’s unprotected skin as it nestled, shivering, into his shoulder. Through his skin, he picked up the flavors of unwashed fur, dried blood, and the sour tang of a sick animal.

Whatever bullshit laws about preventing cruelty the scientist had been talking about, this creature was a mess.

How bad must it have been for the opossum to come to him, in his horrific form, to seek comfort?

He settled one hand on the opossum's shivering back, giving it an awkward pat. He felt, perhaps, some affection for the little one. It had trusted him, and he had provided for it.

He swung around to start jogging back toward the vehicles, but the opossum scampered down his back and jumped to the ground. It tried to shift too fast and ended up in a tangled huddle of human limbs and shaggy, unwashed hair.

“Please,” the child said as she stood, revealing herself to be a girl of around ten years, “you have to save my brother.”

Chapter 29

Declan

It could be any animal, though the dark fur and rough outline that blended in with the night made him think it was a predator. Its eyes were close to the ground, but he could see that it was much bigger, its shoulders and hips higher than its head and much fuller.

But why wasn’t it coming back to the car? Was it even on their side?

He had the revolting thought that the shifter children could have been captured by other shifters. How could he tell them apart?

He and the predator watched each other. If it wanted to take him down, surely it would. He clicked the lock on the door, which he probably should have done earlier.