1
Kai Smith is hiding. He's been hiding his entire life.
That's made slightly more difficult when you stand out from literally everyone else.
He's been chased and hunted for as long as he can remember, for something he can't control. He's unnatural, strange, weird, basically every negative word for 'different' in the human language.
But it's not his fault, okay?!
It wasn't like he told his parents, "Hey, Mom and Dad, I'd love to be a mix of human and animal! Yes, I think that's a wonderful idea, and I'm totally on board with it!"
Not that he's even sure he has parents.
But how else do you explain him?
"You're making that face again."
Kai Smith turns, fox ears swishing through the air as he focuses on the raven-haired fourteen-year-old girl frowning at him. "What face?" he asks his sister grumpily.
"That face that means you're thinking about, well... this." She waves a hand at their matching ginger fox ears, billowing tails, and overly-exaggerated canines.
Heh. 'This'. The perfect way to summarize their abnormality.
"Well, you're wrong," he lies between his pointy teeth. "I was just... thinking about how we're gonna find food today."
Nya's eyebrows rise, but she goes with the topic change. "We could always try hunting down that farmer's chickens again. Remember, the one who tried to skewer us with his pitchfork?"
Kai winces. Yes, yes, he does remember. He also remembers having to clean blood from his sister's wounded arm while she gleefully gloats over their over-cooked chicken, the only food they'd had that day.
"Stop making that face!" Nya growls, swatting at him irritably. "We won't get caught this time! I've been practicing my stealth; I can be so stealthy!" She crouches low, swishing her tail back and forth almost silently – and knocking over their empty water bottles with a clatter.
"No," Kai sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna go into the city again."
Nya shakes her head at once, ears flapping against her face. "NO, Kai. That's where-"
Scarlet skates through his mind, phantom pain blazing across his face, fury burning like fire in his heart...
"I know," he cuts across his sister, clenching his teeth, resisting the urge to move his hand across his face where a scar traces across his left eye. "I can be careful."
"I'm coming with you," Nya says immediately. Kai opens his mouth to argue, but her ears flatten against her head, and he doesn't want to deal with this. Even though he's going to regret it forever.
"Fine."
She flashes a toothy smile that he doesn't return, and they both proceed to hide their... unusual features in silence. There's a pile of clothes on the ground with no other purpose than this. Hat over the ears, extra-long coat to hide the tail, the same emotionless face so their teeth don't show. Kai hates this, hates the mask he and his little sister have to wear. She deserves better...
"Ugh, your neutral face looks even worse than usual," Nya wrinkles her nose in disgust. "You're supposed to be somber, not savage. You look like you're ready to tear someone's face off."
Kai knows he's supposed to reprimand his sister for her vicious behavior because it will only end in disaster, but her statement is very accurate. Scratching somebody sounds immensely satisfying right now.
Nya unzips the entrance of their tent that pretends to be a house, revealing the cave they've been sheltering in. They shiver as a gust of cold wind blows through. "Let's go," Nya whispers, her playful attitude hidden beneath a steely voice that doesn't correspond at all.
As they stride through the tall yellowish grass still slippery with frost, Kai is thankful that the grey clouds swirling overhead haven't decided to pour rain down on them yet. Still, it is unreasonably cold, and he hates it. Kai's feeling a lot of hate today.
Not like you don't every day, a tiny voice whispers. His long sigh turns to smoke in the icy air.
"Farm," his sister breathes, nodding toward a tiny red house and barn slightly to their right that draw steadily closer, the very one where the scene he had glimpsed earlier had taken place. He can see the urge to crouch and hide that Nya is fighting off and feels another prick of anger.
"We'll cut through the cornfields," he says shortly. She glances at him, probably sensing the fire growing inside his chest, but doesn't speak as they move through the tall green stalks. Kai resists the temptation to pluck the cobs and hide them in the overly-large pockets swinging about his knees. He'll take all he wants when Nya's not around, he promises himself. Nya has this annoying habit of not stealing, because it's wrong and immoral and blah-blah-blah. He hates it, especially when the tiny voice in his head reminds him that he's supposed to be setting her a good example.
Well.
Maybe he'd be a better example if anyone deserved morals.
As they pad forward in silence, the grey outline of the city comes into view and Kai feels foreboding descending on him. The sight of the buildings always comes with this, but today, it's particularly strong. Maybe it's because of his sister by his side, her head just slightly below his, unusually silent as they slip into the first street. Before long, they're swallowed by a sea of dark buildings, fog curling around their ankles.
Nya inhales a slow breath as they join a crowd of people milling around a grimy street center, vendor stalls set up randomly around them. Orange lanterns provide the only light in the square, hanging from clothes' lines and beaming out of windows. Kai tries to ignore the posters lining the dim walls, but faces loom out at him, emblazoned with scarlet letters.
WANTED is painted over the sketch of a frightened girl's face, framed with large bat ears, two leathery wings just visible behind her. DEAD OR ALIVE adorns a poster featuring a snarling boy, golden mane bristling around his neck, an unnatural green light burning in his eyes. REWARD jumps out at them from every wall. So many more are plastered around them, shimmering with CAPTURED and CAGED, and in between, messages blaze in pink lettering.
Animals belong in cages.
No hybrid is human.
Mutations are monsters.
Kai swallows back the burning in his throat and turns away. The gasp that escapes him rushes between his clenched teeth and he forces his face back into its mask, even as two very familiar faces shimmer at him. Pale tan-copper skin, wide chestnut eyes, spiky red-brown and smooth black hair.
"How?" Nya hisses, examining her own eyes and fox ears, clearly startled by the accuracy of the image. "How did they-"
"That farmer," Kai growls, resisting the urge to shred the posters to bits. "He must have reported us." Nya shakes her head slowly, slipping her hand into his.
"We should go."
He lets her lead him away, toward the stalls. The churning feelings swirling in his stomach prevent him from objecting as his sister turns over their last few coins for a loaf of bread and a bag of raspberries. Nya doesn't let go of his fingers as they stride back through the alleyways, and he can sense the shock behind the mask she's wearing because it's shivering in her hand grasped around his. He's so focused on his own feet that he crashes into someone head on. As he falls back, his head cracks against the cold hard pavement and he bites back a snarl.
"Hey, you!" Nya shouts angrily and through tears of pain, Kai watches the person turn around.
It's a teenage boy. His brown skin and amber eyes shimmer in the orange light as surprise mingles with the terror written on his face. He starts forward, but a loud siren blares overhead and he inhales sharply before whirling around and taking off.
Maybe it's the way that he runs, a lilting gait which keeps each foot down longer, or the way he's holding his hood over his face with two hands, but Kai knows what's about to happen before it does. A grey tail slides out of the hoodie that the boy is wearing just as he disappears around the corner.
Cold shock slides down Kai's spine, and suddenly he understands the siren shrilling throughout the city, now joined with shrieking and shouts of fury. "We need to go!" he yells to Nya who nods, eyes wide as she pulls him to his feet and they run, rushed footsteps hitting the cobblestones in unison.
Nya suddenly yanks him around a corner, and he realizes which direction she's running. "Nya, we can't!" he shouts, digging his feet into the ground.
"We have to, Kai!" Nya protests, tugging him along. "He's going to be-"
"And that'll be us if we try to help him!" Kai snarls. He allows the growing desperation in his chest to bleed into his voice. "Please, Nya."
Her eyes widen with indecision, but they glide up to the right side of his face and narrow. "We can't let that happen to anyone else."
Kai hates it when she's right.
"Fine!" he snaps. She flashes him a grateful look before they continue running in the direction of renewed shouting. The siren rings in his ears, matching the hurried beat of his panicking heart as they pick up speed. A roar shakes the ground beneath them, and Kai knows what they're about to find as they turn a last corner.
A crowd of people have formed a circle around the teen boy. His hood is gone now, revealing silver pointed ears. His mouth is open wide in a snarl, revealing harshly pointed teeth as he crouches on all fours, backing away from three people in black, wearing rubber gloves and holding nets and a long stick that's vibrating slightly.
"He's a wolf," Nya whispers. Her face turns questioningly toward him, and he nods. He's going to regret this. But then again, what's a life without some danger?
"If something goes wrong, run," he tells her. She rolls her eyes, peeling off the coat and hat. He joins her, throwing his disguise to the ground. The cold wind stings through his T-shirt and jeans, but he can barely feel it as he shoves his way through the ring and jumps.
His nails, even though he filed them yesterday, are again the equivalent of claws and he digs them into the man's shoulders, hanging on for dear life as they whirl around. He can tell he isn't doing much; the protective suit the man is wearing is too strong for his claws to penetrate entirely, but he keeps shredding it, knowing he'll make an impression eventually. Through his scarlet vision, he spots Nya snarling and lashing at an older woman who is trying in vain to grab her. The boy on the ground pounces at the remaining man with a resounding howl and Kai feels a rush of adrenaline pump through his veins. He sinks his fangs into his opponent's shoulder, feeling them scrape on skin and the man yelps, a shocked sound that makes Kai's fire burn hotter in his heart. But as he prepares to bite again, something grasps him hard around the neck.
He chokes, clawing at the fingers clamped around his windpipe. The sound that had turned to white noise begins to flood back as he wheezes for air.
"Kai!" Nya's voice cuts like a knife through the fog clouding his mind. There is a violent ripping sound, and he falls to the ground, pulling oxygen into his lungs, tears stinging his eyes. Someone nudges his side, and he lashes out. A yelp of surprise and hurt grounds him and he blinks to find the strange boy staring at him, bleeding scratches etched along his cheek.
"Run!" he shouts with a voice that is slightly hoarse, before whirling around to tackle someone out of Kai's line of vision. Shakily, he pulls himself to his feet.
"Kai, help me!" His sister's shriek echoes around the walls and Kai's anger mounts again as he spots his sister struggling to escape mesh tangling her limbs. Kai charges toward the woman, but a blow catches him hard in the side and he slides across the ground. His skin burns painfully where it scrapes the concrete, and he struggles to focus past the hurt and anger burning inside. A foot stamps onto his back. Something makes an alarming cracking sound, and a hiss of pain escapes him. Something cold touches him and a painful jolt travels through his body, making him writhe uncontrollably.
A pained yowl sounds nearby and through the stinging tears of pain, Kai watches the wolf boy sink to the ground, eyes fluttering shut. Nya is still wrestling with the net, but her attempts are becoming more and more feeble. As his eyes close, Kai can hear cheers from the crowd gathered around them. Another surge of hatred wells up in his chest and he lets out a last snarl of rage before the darkness claims him and he sinks into a deep sleep.