Jake and I were walking toward Cassie's place when we heard shouting.
"Tom has the Morphing Cube!" Cassie yelled, coming running from the house." He went that way!" She pointed to indicate the forest next to her house.
Right. Questions could wait until after we kicked Tom's butt.
I ran pell-mell towards Tom's retreating figure as I turned into a grizzly, and for some reason Jake disappeared from my vision. Was he trying to get Tom in a pincer? Probably, right?
Tom tried to be tricksy, dodging this way and that through the woods, but I was both faster and had hanged out in this forest much more often. I caught him in a small clearing as he was trying to doge back into the trees.
Stop struggling. I won't hurt you if you stop. He still had the small blue morphing cube clenched in his fist. Good. He couldn't be allowed to leave, though; he obviously knew too much to be allowed to blab to his superiors.
"Like hell. Visser will kill me!"
And I won't? My heart clenched a little as I said that. When did I become able to say that? A long time ago.
Tom continued squirming, albeit less than before, so I decided to cut him a break and took him back to Cassie's house.
Guys, I have him. I called, wondering where on earth they were.
Then the inevitable happened. With one last twist down my chest, as I was distracted, he managed to fall to the ground.
So I cracked his skull with my fist.
Horrified, I stared at the body. The body of my cousin. My body felt odd, like I was going to throw up, only not that, exactly, and numbness everywhere. Sitting on the steps, I waited for Cassie and Jake to come back.
Scanning the sky, thinking that perhaps they had decided to provide air support, I saw a familiar red tail hawk. Tobias swooped down and demorphed, and I got up to greet him.
He gave me a sad-eyed look and hugged me.
"What happened?" he asked matter-of-factly.
"Tom stole the morphing cube. He almost managed to escape," I whispered. "Jake's going to be sad. Cassie is going to hate me."
"No, she won't." Tobias said gently. "And it would cause Jake more pain if Tom had escaped."
"You're right." I said, taking a deep breath. Then found myself crying silently. Tobias held me harder and started stroking my hair, and I guided him down to the steps, and we sat down on the steps as we quietly waited for Jake and Cassie to arrive.