Of Birds and Wolves II

Even though I put up a good fight to escape once I realized what was going on, I was no match for needles full of anesthetics. After a dreamless sleep, I opened my eyes to a bright light above me.

I first thought this was that light that everyone always said they saw as they died; but I knew where I was as soon as the smells and sounds caught up with me. The oh-so-familiar smell of chemicals and sterilizers hit my nose, and a beeping that that was synchronized with my heart beat filled my ears. I also felt strong bonds holding me down against a cold metal table, unable to break free of them.

A white-coat came rushing in after some machine started to whirr and beep. “It's awake,” she spoke into a little hand-held radio.

“Well, check up on it. We're supposed to finish adding the DNA and see if it changes its feuding mind. If not, we'll just euthanize it.”

A growl escaped my throat. “I'm not going anywhere,” I muttered, a little hoarse. My blood was starting to boil again as I felt my skin get hot against the cold table.

“She's responsive. Send in a couple lupines to hold her down just in case,” the woman said. She definitely wasn't comfortable around me; she must have been new.

Ari came striding in with another Eraser behind him. “You know, you could just hand her over to us. Then you wouldn't have to euthanize her; we'd do it for you.”

As soon as he came close enough, I spat in his face. “I'm not afraid to kill you, either. Max is too weak to even try. I couldn't care less.”

Snarling, he gave me a good punch in the gut. I wheezed to catch my breath, but still gave him a cocky smile. I just about gagged and puked as I tried to breath regular again.

“Here, Ari,” the white-coat handed him a needle. “We need it to be out while we add more lupine DNA. Then it won't be able to overpower us and escape again.”

He smiled evilly down at me as I swore like a sailor at him until I felt a prick in my arm and everything went black once again.
---

Max's POV

A grin was on my face, stretching from ear to ear. I did it. She was out of my way and he is all mine.

Back at home with Mom, Fang was on the front porch with that creepy four-year old. How he could stand that kid, I'd never know.

“Where is she?” was all he asked as I landed in the yard. Even though the sun was set, I could see the anger on his face.

“Look, why can't we go back to the way things used to be? She's gone now. What ever happened between us?”

Fang gently placed the kid on the porch step and faced me, inches away from me. I could feel his warm breath against my face from where he stood and caught the smell. The smell of Fang; I missed it so much. My stomach fluttered until he spoke.

“What do you want me to say? 'I love you'? I'm not a liar, Max.”

My heart sank into my stomach. “You can't be serious. You barely even know her! We've lived together for years. I think you know me better than I know myself!”

“And I know that you're jealous,” Fang said. “Yes, we did grow up together. But people change, Max. Leara isn't the bad person you make her out to be. You'd see it if you just gave her a chance. Sometimes, you need to think with your head, not your heart.”

As I opened my mouth to argue, he spoke up again. “No, I'm done fighting with you, Max. But I need you to let these kids stay here until I come back. Just this one last favor and then we'll be out of your hair for awhile.”

I was too stunned at everything else he said to really let what he just said sink in. “Fine.” I gave him a good glare. “But you should at least rest tonight. Then you'll have more energy that way.”
---

Leara's POV

“Is she alive?”

“I don't know. She looks dead. Poke her and see if she does anything.”

“No way! It's your idea; you do it!”

“Alright, but if I die, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life!”

Something prodded my arm as these odd voices spoke. I opened my eyes to see two pairs of bright green eyes staring back into mine.

“Told you she was alive,” one girl said. The light above was still blinding, so their faces were still blurry. I could only tell she had black hair.

“You did not! You asked if she was alive,” the other one argued. She had blonde hair; that was the only thing that kept the two from looking like mirror fuzzes.

“Pssh, whatever,” the black-haired girl scoffed and looked back down at me. “Are you alright? You must've been out for awhile.”

Sitting up from the hard floor, surprised I wasn't bound down to a table, I blinked a few times to get the haziness out of my eyes. “I'm fine, now. Still waking up, I guess. Where am I?”

“In the confinement room. They don't bother with cages in here. We're all either too strong or too smart. You're not rippling with muscles, so I take it you must be pretty cunning?” the blonde one asked. With my sight returning, I could see three huge scars, all trailing from her hairline, crossing over her right eye, and ending on her left cheek.

“Yeah, you must be part fox. Gray fox, right? I can tell because of your ears,” the girl with black hair pointed out. She too had facial scars, a huge one from the corner of her left eye that went back to her ear.

Grabbing my head, I muttered, “What the hell...?” She was right: on my head were two tiny ears, perking straight up. They must've been gray, apparently. “No, I'm not part fox. I'm actually part wolf, I guess. I'm only supposed to be part bird.”

“Oh, that sucks,” they both said.

“By the way, I'm Kithara,” the blonde one introduced herself. “And she's Jullianna.”

Still a little upset over the ears, I mumble, “I'm Leara.”

“So Leara, why are you here?”

“They must've put me here because I'm pretty dangerous. Now I'm part human, part bird, part wolf and a little snow leopard. My mind is pretty twisted right now.”

“Like Tom, Jerry and that bulldog on the cartoons?” Jullianna asked. “I love that show. But to have parts of three different animals that all hate each other...”

“Is totally ruining your mind and causing you to go insane. They probably thought you would die from the stress,” Kithara finished.

“Okay,” I raised an eyebrow. “Are you two twins? 'Cause that was kind of creepy.”

They both looked at each other and laughed. “Yeah, we're twins,” Jullianna smiled.

“We have different hair so people can tell us apart. Except for the fact that I'm taller,” Kithara teased.

“Oh, shut up, Kithara!”

“Make me!”

“Anyway,” I interrupted before they continued bickering. “So, what are you two doing here?”
Familiar shapes stretched out from behind their backs; huge wings, like mine, had sprouted from their backs.

“We're avian hybrids. But because we're twins, we developed the ability to communicate through our minds. With both of our brains, we out smart every white-coat. We're originally from Great Britain, but the Twits were too much for them to handle.” They shared a quick high-five.

“So, you two were too smart and kept escaping,” I concluded. “Well, I escaped a while ago when they were planning on adding wolf DNA to me. I ended up adding a little snow leopard DNA to myself before I got captured. Then they added a little wolf DNA. But I kind of went
insane and escaped.”

“We can tell you went insane,” Kithara nodded. “Those scars on your arm. They're too close to the inside of your arm to be from an enemy.”

Looking at the bite marks on my arm, I had flashbacks of the pain and agony of my head wanting to explode and my blood lust. “You really know your scars,” I mused, still staring at my own.

“So, do you feel better now that you have more DNA? You don't seem very dangerous,” Jullianna asked, her green eyes almost glittering with curiosity.

For a moment, I sat quietly as I searched my mind. My blood lust was definitely gone. I felt much more relaxed and just plainly better over all. “Well, I guess I feel normal again. No head-splitting aches, no blood lust, no switching emotions. But besides the ears, is there anything else that's... odd?”

The twins shook their heads together. “Unless you count that growth on your forehead,” Kithara said. She laughed as I quickly grabbed my forehead, only to find no growth there.

“You might as well get comfy. It'll be a miracle if they ever pull you out of here,” Jullianna frowned.

“Yeah. I'm pretty sure we're in here until we die.”