Aamaya's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

The last creature was gone, but the fight still gripped Aamaya's body. Her claws stayed out. Her fangs pressed against her lip. She stood over the five dead things on the cabin floor and tried to breathe. One had seen her change. It knew what she was. And she didn't. She needed an answer, and the bodies at her feet were the only place left to look. She knelt beside the nearest corpse. Its wings folded like torn paper. She turned it over with a claw. Black blood, small teeth, green eyes gone dull. Nothing about it explained why the last one had stared at her before it fled. Not with fear. With something like knowing. "Careful," Alana said. Her sister crouched beside her, sidearm still warm in its holster. She checked each body the way she'd check a scene, calm and quick. "Look for anything they carried. Marks. Anything." They searched. Aamaya rolled each creature over, one by one. No collars. No signs. No words carved in skin. The bodies told her nothing. She sat back on her heels, still clawed, still not herself. "There's nothing here," she said. Her voice came out rough. "It looked at me like it recognized me. And I can't even find out why." The black cat jumped down from the table. It walked past the corpses without stopping. It went to Aamaya and pressed its head against her clawed hand. She froze. The cat purred, low and steady, rubbing against her fingers as if the claws were nothing new. Something loosened in her chest. The cat wasn't afraid. Alana wasn't afraid. The danger was over, and her body finally understood it. Aamaya felt the ache in her gums fade. Her fangs slid back. She looked down and watched the black claws shrink, curl, and become fingernails again. Her hand shook, but it was her hand. "Aamaya," Alana whispered. "I'm back," Aamaya said. She turned her palms up. Human skin. Human nails. Her breath came easier. "It comes when I'm scared. It goes when I'm safe. That's what it is. A door that only opens under fear." Alana pulled her into a hug. "Then we keep you safe." But Aamaya's mind stayed on the empty answer. The bodies gave her nothing. The change was a defense, she understood that now. It had proven that much. Yet the creature that fled had looked at her like kin, and no dead thing on this floor could tell her why. She stood and looked out the broken window, toward the dark grove. The one that escaped was out there. It had seen her. It knew what she was. If the corpses held no answer, then the living one did. She wiped black blood from her hands and made her choice. "The bodies can't tell us," she said. "But the one that ran can. I have to find it."