Shifted

6

Kalaya

"You bitch!" I snarled some time later, tightening my hand around Tama's neck as I slammed her into the wall. Arms grabbed me from behind, pulling me off and dragging me away from the bird bitch.​"Next time I see you, I'll kill you!" I hissed. "I'll snap that thin ass neck of yours!"

Knowing fighting them would only get me killed; I dropped down to my knees and put up my hands in surrender.

As they shoved me to the ground to place shackles on my ankles and wrist, I looked over, seeing the leather bag I had lifted in the shop with small medicine jars rolling out onto the floor. We were now in the medicine shop where guards had been waiting.

A trap.

A trap set up by one of my own. By a person who I've been willing to help out.

So rarely were there ever traitors among us. It happened, just never happened to me.

I would never make that mistake again.

It was a good thing no one was waiting for me at home. It was a good thing that I was now alone and had no one to look out for or someone who depended on me. But what about Sail? Was she ok? Did they do something to her? Or was she apart of this betrayal? I couldn't be sure.

Tama looked scared as she whispered something to the guard next to her. They seemed a little too close, their arms brushing each other's.

I wanted to start yelling that the two had a relationship going, but that wasn't me. I wouldn't let the humans kill her, our kind needed to deal with this traitor themselves. We weren't bloodthirsty like the humans claimed us to be, but we did have half of an animal spirit and sometimes it was hard to not let that part of ourselves take over.

Right now, all I could think about was slicing into her with my nails and ripping her throat wide open with my teeth.

My rational thoughts kept me still and quiet as they started patting me down.

"There are knives in her boots," the guard next to Tama said. I wanted to kill the smug man next to her too, but I wasn't about to make this personal.

I've been down the road to revenge and it didn't satisfy me, only made me feel more self-hatred.

So I closed my eyes and took in deep breaths to calm myself as they pulled out my daggers that were half the size of my machete I kept under my floor boards at home.

"Well, well," a deep voice spoke as they dragged me up off the floor, placing me on my feet. "The bitch who wants to cause a riot in my town, caught stealing. This is too perfect, almost like it was planned," he gloated.

"General," I greeted the man with a smile. After the public rant and riot I put together, I should have known something like this would happen. This was a whole set up by the petty General. It seemed like too much trouble though. He could have just sent a guard to stab me in my home.

"Half-breed," the General greeted as he grabbed my arm tight enough that it was surly going to bruise. But the anger I was feeling kept the pain at bay. "I think I'll keep you in the cells of my house this time. Wouldn't want you to escape again." He was still salty about how I escaped all that time ago.

"Great! We can be roommates!" I exclaimed, smirking at him. "I can't wait," I spat at his black boots.

The General nodded; looking like he expected this, I'm sure he has captured a lot of smiling, joking, and sarcastic shifted. It's what we did to block out things like fear and hurt.

He held his hand out for one of my knives the guards were holding.

"Ohh, gonna stab me with my own knife are ya?" I laughed as he took hold of one of the knives and looked at me with a leer. "How cliché of you."

The General's grin widened as he turned and without warning stabbed the knife through Tama's heart. The guard next to her nearly jumped out of his skin as she started choking on her own blood. They must have been involved, by the look in his eyes, this didn't seem part of the plan.

I had wanted her dead a few moments ago but seeing the pain in her eyes as she fell to her knees made me actually feel bad for her. A human killing one of my own, even if I had wanted to kill her, it felt wrong.

"What was that supposed to prove?" I asked, with no expression on my face, just raised eyebrows.

The General shook his head, stepping back as the guard next to her blinked and looked away. I tried not to look closely at his face, in case I was tempted to track him down one day to kill him. "Your partner in crime has your knife inside of her body. I wonder the stories they'll say when they find this half-breed tomorrow morning and when you'll only get two days in a cell for stealing." My stomach dropped to my feet at that.

No one had seen us together, but stories could spread. They'd see her dead body wherever the guards decided to drop her off, probably by the bathrooms where everyone went and they'd start spreading the word about me. About how it had been my knife in her about how I only got two days lock up for my third time getting caught stealing when I should have gotten years. Or death myself.

They'd brand me a traitor.

And by how I felt at knowing Tama was a traitor...I was dead for sure.

"Aw, where'd that smirk go?" the General asked as I clenched my jaw and glared at him, feeling like anger was about to consume me. "It would be so much more fitting when you meet your end by the very animals you fight for."

As the General led me to his house, all I could think about was if he'd be feeding me for my last two days on Earth, because dang was I starving.