CHAPTER FOURTEEN: CASSIE

I wanted to say something to Melissa. Tell her that it wasn't really Fluffer in that carrier, tell her that we were the good guys and everything was going to be okay-but I didn't dare. It was too dangerous for any of us to speak to her while we were in morph, too dangerous for any of us to risk telling her anything.

Besides, I probably would have been lying anyway. Things were not going to be okay.

There were more cops coming, for a start. This time they had their sirens on; I guess they figured this fight had passed the point of stealth. I shied, rearing. The horse-side of me was not happy. The noise, the blood, the shouting-all I wanted to do was run away.

All the horse wanted to do was run away. I wanted to run too, but I wanted to save my friends more. So I took a deep breath, my horse heart hammering, and trotted toward the end of the driveway. The Controller in the UPS uniform that I'd charged at the start of the fight was nearby, groaning. I think I'd broken both his arms with my kicks. I felt kind of bad about that, but I told myself I couldn't think about it right now. Not if we wanted to get out of this alive.

{Guys,} I thought-spoke to the others nervously, {we're going to be surrounded soon. We need to get out of here while we can…}

{You see a safe exit I'm happy to take it,} Marco retorted sourly. He was busy flipping the cop car I'd battered onto its roof, which I guess was one way of making sure the cops inside weren't going to become a threat. One of them shot through the window at Marco, so Marco punched out the window, reached in, took the cop's gun away, and broke it into five different pieces before chucking it back at her. She screamed and seemed to decide that this was a good time for her to drop out of the fight. Her partner's head lolled limply against the seatbelt holding him in place and I winced, hoping he wasn't too badly hurt.

I half-expected Rachel to shout something about "making" us an exit-she never did like being told what she could or couldn't do-but she seemed to be transfixed by Melissa, like she couldn't move until her friend released her.

{I...I can't leave,} Rachel thought-spoke frantically. {If I move, Melissa will see the Hork-Bajir in the truck, and if she sees them…}

We all knew what that would mean.

I whickered nervously. We were in trouble, and who was going to get us out of it? Me? I didn't know what I was doing in a fight! I mostly just tried to aim the horse's panic-instincts in the direction of the bad guys and follow the others' lead! Tobias? He was stuck in the cat carrier, he could barely even see what was happening. Marco? Would Rachel even listen to Marco, if he had a plan to offer?

Chapman was hunched over and holding his ribs like they hurt, but when he shouted, "Melissa, get away from that creature! Come over here!" his voice came out plenty strong. For a moment I thought I saw genuine concern in his eyes and I wondered, was the Yeerk that good of an actor? Or was the real Chapman's fear for his daughter strong enough to break through the Yeerk's control?

"But daddy, it has Fluffer!" Melissa sounded so indignant I might have laughed if I'd had human lips. She was ready to fight the whole world for her cat, even if "the whole world" in this case consisted of several thousand pounds of bewildered African Elephant.

As an animal lover myself I could only approve, even if she was making things harder for us. Rachel didn't dare step away from the truck as long as Melissa was there; if she saw the Hork-Bajir it would all be over for her. She'd be a Controller before the night was out.

How to get her out of here without hurting her-or ourselves?

The new cop cars screeched to a stop in front of the Chapmans' house and my heart sank. It was too late-

Then the night split in half with a roar so loud and deep it reached all the way down to my bones and shook them like an earthquake. The horse was too scared to run; I was overjoyed.

{Jake!} I shouted.

{Sorry I'm late,} Jake said, bounding into view in a blur of orange and black stripes. He snarled at Chapman, who stumbled backwards and tripped over his own feet to go sprawling into his neglected flowerbeds.

"Daddy!" Melissa shrieked and abandoned her assault on Rachel to run to her father.

Jake loped past the Chapmans, paused to snarl at the truck full of Hork-Bajir, and sailed past Marco and the turtled police car to land gracefully at my side. {I had to wait for Meilssa to leave the closet before I could morph,} he explained as he roared at the new cops. All but one of them scattered. That one got off one shot before Jake pounced. He pinned the cop to the sidewalk and gave his wrist one quick, light bite. The gun went flying. The cop started screaming.

{Now let's get out of here.}

{Way ahead of you on that wish, buddy,} Marco said, giving his car one last shake to encourage its occupants to stay put. {How?}

{Rachel, give the carrier to Marco.} Jake must have known she would protest that order, because he quickly added, {He can duck into a side yard and open it with his gorilla fingers while the rest of us lead the Controllers on a wild goose chase.}

{I'm not leaving Tobias,} Rachel insisted.

{Tobias doesn't have enough time left in morph for you to waste any of it,} Jake retorted, and Rachel stopped arguing.

She lowered her trunk and deposited the carrier gently into Marco's waiting arms. {How you doing in there, bud?} Marco asked.

{Shaken not stirred,} Tobias managed to quip, although his thought-speak voice sounded rattled.

"No!" Chapman shouted, and I whipped around to look at him, my mane flapping. He was still sitting on the ground, still clutching his ribs, Melissa crouched anxiously at his side. This time he wasn't yelling at us. He was yelling at the truck...or at the Hork-Bajir in the truck. "Too many witnesses! Conceal yourselves, fools!"

"Daddy, what-"

Melissa started to turn, then staggered as though struck by an invisible fist. She pressed a hand to her head and stared around, wide-eyed in confusion. Whatever she was looking for, she didn't find it; by the time she turned around again the door to the truck was closed and the human-Controllers had gathered themselves enough to start shooting at us again.

{Go!} said Jake.

{Going,} said Marco, and we all took off-Marco in the lead, where we could hope our bodies would hide him from the sight of the sure-to-follow Controllers. Jake took one of them down with a vicious swipe to the leg as he bounded away. Rachel detoured out into the street long enough to trample the newly arrived cop cars, making sure that the only way anyone would be following us was on foot. I just fixed my eyes on Marco's back and ran.

"Get them!" Chapman bellowed. "Don't let them get away!"

Bullets followed us-one grazed my flank, making me neigh in shock and pain, but it hadn't hit anything vital; I kept running. Most of the bullets hit Rachel, she being a much bigger target than the rest of us. She started to turn around and go back to the fight. Fortunately, while elephants can be fast, they aren't agile. Jake saw and snapped for Rachel to keep running, and she did.

I didn't even notice Marco slip away until after he was gone. I wondered how much time had passed. The fight felt like it had taken days-and yet also only moments. I hoped it hadn't been too long. I hoped Tobias would be okay. I hoped we would be able to get away from the Controllers. I hoped Melissa hadn't seen enough that the Yeerks would decide she needed to be infested. I hoped…

Well, I hoped a lot of things.

Horses like to run. I let myself settle down into the horse brain, letting the animal come to the forefront. The horse was shaky and skittish and hurting, but so was I. It was easier to let the horse take the lead and follow my friends out through this neighborhood upon which we'd brought so much violence and destruction.

I wondered how many people living here would be made Controllers because of what they'd seen tonight.

I pushed that thought away and let the horse run.

In what seemed to be no time at all, the sounds of pursuit dropped away. Eventually Jake said, {Okay, demorph. Over here by that shed. Rachel-come on!}

We all stumbled to a halt. Even the horse was tired, after all the fighting. As the adrenaline of the run faded I realized that my flank was absolutely on fire from the pain. Horses don't really whimper, but the noise I made came pretty close.

Demorph, I told myself. The pain will stop once you demorph.

I concentrated on my human fingers; on my human face; on my tight curls and my stubby toes and my round, not shot-and-bleeding human butt. This time the change trickled down like rain, starting at my head and shivering down my body in pieces. I almost fell over when my front legs withered into arms but managed to keep my balance at the last minute, although I winced hard enough at the stabbing pain as my weight shifted onto my wounded leg that I might have been better off if I had fallen. It didn't last long, though; as my bones shifted and my coarse hide thinned back into smooth brown skin the pain shrunk and faded until finally it was only a memory and I was only a girl again.

Exhausted, shaking, and wearing nothing but a leotard, but a girl and alive.

I sat down in the grass, ignoring the chill of it on my bare skin, and let myself remember how to breathe.

I didn't have a respite for long; Rachel and Jake finished demorphing only a few seconds later, and Rachel immediately turned around and started back the way we'd come. Jake grabbed her arm and I scrambled to my feet.

"What are you doing?" Jake demanded.

"I'm going to find Tobias!"

"You can't just go wandering around hoping you'll stumble into the right yard," I pleaded with her. "You'll never find them-or worse, the Yeerks will find you!"

"Cassie's right," Jake said. "Besides, Marco and Tobias aren't going to be sitting around waiting for you. I told Marco to meet us at my house. Come on."

Jake probably should have started with that; without another word, Rachel spun on her heel and took off towards home.

It wasn't long before I missed being the horse. For one thing, Rachel and Jake's legs are both a lot longer than mine, so I had to trot to keep up with the pace Rachel was setting. I think even Jake was getting a little winded, not that he'd ever have admitted it. (Boys.) For another, we were all barefoot. My feet aren't as sensitive and fragile as some people's, since I do run around barefoot on the farm sometimes, but romping in the grass of the fields is a far cry from pounding pavement for several blocks at high speed.

"We really need to figure out how to morph shoes," I muttered.

Jake shot me a sympathizing look and nodded.

Rachel just kept walking.

I made the effort to put on a burst of speed and catch up so I could grab her hand. "Hey," I said. "You know it's not your fault, right?"

"What isn't my fault?" she asked. Her voice was bitter and didn't sound much like a question.

"Any of it," I said simply. "Melissa's parents being Controllers, Tobias getting into trouble, the Yeerks invading us in the first place...you didn't do any of that. You're just trying to help, like the rest of us. Don't blame yourself because you can't fix things that are too big for anybody to fix. Okay?"

I wouldn't call the look she shot me a smile, exactly-but it wasn't a frown, either.

"Tell me that again after we find out Tobias is okay," she said.

"I will," I promised.

This time it was almost a smile. I think.

I didn't say anything else; just walked a little faster. I think Rachel noticed because she squeezed my hand.

Then she sped up too, and I was reduced to huffing and puffing at her side and trying to ignore the soreness of my feet.

Jake's house wasn't too far from Chapman's, at least; if we'd had to walk all the way to my house, or Tobias's house, I'd have been breaking-down and suggesting that we fly even though none of our bird morphs were species that should be out and about at this hour.

"Finally," I muttered when I saw the familiar shape of Jake's house looming out of the twilight. Rachel put on a fresh burst of speed and I released her hand and let her go.

"Backyard!" Jake whisper-shouted, and Rachel veered away from the front door and around the side of the house without breaking stride.

"She really is tireless sometimes, huh?" Jake asked me.

"She's your cousin," I retorted, and he grinned at me. Suddenly my feet didn't feel quite so sore.

Rachel's frantic whisper stopped me before I could say something dumb. I was mostly glad about that. "They're not here!" she hissed, peering back around the corner. Her blue eyes blazed with accusation.

"They probably didn't speed-walk the whole way," Jake shot back. "Calm down."

Rachel glowered at him, then turned and stomped away across the yard.

Jake shook his head and together we followed her into the grass.

"You okay?" I asked him.

He gave me a startled smile. "Who, me? Yeah, of course. Are you?"

"I'm not the one who almost got caught in Chapman's house," I deflected, because I didn't really want to talk about how I was feeling until my heart stopped pounding. Until my brain stopped screaming, you just got shot! By a cop! You were shot by a cop! at me. If my parents ever found out about this, they would flip.

"Yeah, I'm fine-"

"You shouldn't have been there at all!" Rachel snapped, rounding on us. "It was my idea, I was the one supposed to go in." Her glare shifted from Jake to include me and I felt my cheeks warming. "If you two hadn't conspired to trick me-"

"What would you have done?" Jake shot at her. "You'd have been a flea, too. You wouldn't have been able to do any more than I did."

"Maybe!" Rachel burst out. "But at least I'd have been the one in danger, not you!"

"Oh and that would have been better?"

"Yes!" Rachel insisted. She looked angry, and I could tell that she was, but I could tell she was scared, too. Rachel's one of those people who turns fear into anger; I think it's why she can be so brave, even when she isn't angry about it. Sometimes I'm jealous, like when she laughs-off an insult that would make me cringe all the way down to my clumsy boots or when she fires back with a retort while I'm tongue-tied into silence, but mostly I don't like being angry. Being scared isn't nice either, but I don't think angry feels any better.

Rachel, clearly, disagrees.

"Yes, it would have been better, because I was the one who was supposed to be at risk, not you! Not Tobias!"

"Why?" Jake retorted. "Why you, and not us?"

"Because it was my fault!" Rachel shouted. "Because Melissa's my friend!"

"And we're your friends," I said, stepping forward between the two cousins. "We're all in this together, Rachel. If there's a risk you need to take, we'll take it with you."

"It was my idea," she insisted stubbornly. "I'm the one who should have gone."

I guess I could have ratted her out to Jake for not telling us everything up front, but I didn't see where that would help anything. Instead I said, "I know you're scared for Tobias, and you were scared for Jake. I was-am-too," I said. "But that doesn't mean it's your fault. The Yeerks are the ones-"

"Think you guys are making enough noise?"

We all whipped around to stare as Marco trudged around the corner. He looked exhausted. For once, he wasn't even smirking.

"You remember there's a Controller sleeping in that house, right? Maybe keep it down?"

We all searched the empty space behind him. "Marco, where-" I started to ask, my heart in my throat.

Then Tobias, looking even tireder, stepped into view.

"Tobias!" Rachel yelped. "You made it!" She ran forward and flung her arms around Tobias in a tight hug. In the brief glimpse of his face I got before it was obscured by two shades of blonde hair, he looked both startled and embarrassed.

"Yeah," he mumbled, ducking his head as much as he could with Rachel's shoulder in the way. "Um, I'm happy about it too."

Our laughter was awkward but sincere. When Rachel stepped back her cheeks were burning, but she was grinning too.

"So uh...thanks for breaking your promise, I guess, Jake," Tobias said.

"I didn't break any promises," Jake insisted loftily. "What I promised was not to let anybody get hurt saving you. And see? We're all here, we're all fine. Ergo, promise kept. It's not my fault if you didn't listen close enough to know what that promise really was."

"Wow, and I thought Rachel's mom was the lawyer," Marco teased. "Nice fine-print, Jake."

Rachel snorted. "As if I'd have let him keep a promise like that anyway," she grumbled.

"None of us would," I agreed. "We're all in this together-all of us, Tobias."

It was his turn to blush. "Well...thanks," he mumbled. "I mean, I guess getting stuck as a cat wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to someone," Tobias continued. "But I don't think I'd be much good to the rest of you curled up in a sunbeam all day." He looked down at his hands and grimaced, as though he wasn't entirely happy with them, but when he looked back up at us he'd managed to smile again. "Besides," he added wryly, "I don't think Aragorn would actually be very good at sharing."

The laughter was easier this time, even if it felt more like relief than amusement. Marco even punched Tobias lightly in the shoulder and said, "Dweeb."

Rachel didn't hit him back. Tobias just smiled.

And I felt, for maybe the first time all night, that I could breathe again.