Page 15 of Birds of a Feather

“Because your anger will speed up the mutation. It could be painful.”

“What… the fuck… you…” Searing pain cut through the skin of her upper back. It was as if someone had taken a whip, striking her. The flesh across her shoulders stung. The table fell from her hands. It hit the ground with a thick clatter missing her feet by a few centimeters. She nearly fell on top of it when the burning sensation began. It was too late. He’d already dosed her with his toxic cocktail while she was unconscious. “What…did you…do to me?!” she roared.

“Gabrielle, my angel, calm down. There’s no need for violence.” His voice made her want to do anything but.

Focusing proved difficult with the unbearable pain spreading across her upper back. It felt like she was being ripped from the inside out. This must be how childbirth felt to mothers. How the hell did anyone do that voluntarily? Blades cutting through her skin would have hurt less.

She grabbed the table and threw it again, smashing it into the door. This time, a spiderweb of cracks spread across the glass in long, thin fingers. She cocked her head sideways. Did she throw the table harder that time? Or was it her imagination?

A scream blasted out of her mouth as another burst of pain dropped her to her knees. A warm trickle of blood, hot and sticky, slid down her back. She tried to reach for the table, but her shoulder blades hurt too bad. There was too much tension across her skin. She reached back to investigate. Short, round protrusion poked out of the tears in her skin. No wonder itfelt like her back would rip open if she stretched for the table. Something had broken through her skin and was growing.

She glanced around, looking for the camera. There had to be one. It seemed that aside from being able to hear her, Dr. Grimm could see the transformation as well. At the very least, she’d rob him of that satisfaction.

Up in the corner above the intercom, she spotted a small, round camera lens. Fuck her back. She’d heal.

Gabby picked up the table and launched it where the corner of the wall met the ceiling of her cell. It smashed into the camera, and the device burst into a handful of pieces. There was no denying it now. She was stronger. There was no way she’d have been able to throw a metal table that high prior to whatever Dr. Grimm did to her.

The protrusions in her back lengthened. The flesh of her back tingled as it spread across the new bones forming. Soon long spires jutted out of her shoulder blades. The sensation was similar to when her arms turned into wings when she shifted into her crow. The materials of her body rearranged themselves, morphing into something similar. In this case, creating something new.

She thought back to what Dr. Grimm had said moments ago.Gabrielle, my angel…Did he give her wings in human form? Like an angel? Her thoughts went to a woman she’d heard of named Nevaeh. She was a legend around the rehab wing. A woman who’d been considered an angel or a harpy. She couldn’t exactly remember which was true and the topic seemed up for debate.

She didn’t have time to think about Nevaeh, though. The scorching pain finally let up and the skin of her back quickly healed, stitching itself back together, sealing the gash the new bones piercing her back had left. New muscle and flesh knit together, forming a covering to the once bare bones. The familiartingling of feathers erupting from the new skin spread across the large wings.

She’d end the good doctor herself if given the chance.

She grabbed her trusty table again. Without the terrible pain, picking it up wasn’t so bad. Instead of throwing it, she decided to use it like a baseball bat, swinging it over and over again at the tiny glass until it shattered into a million pieces. The space she created was too small for human Gabby to fit out of, but it was the right size for a crow to fly through. If she could shift. Who knew what other changes the doctor’s new formula had made? She hoped the new wings were the extent of it.

She shut her eyes, focusing on the bird inside of her. Her bones shrank and hollowed out, turning into light bird bones. The awkward and heavy wings compressed, sizing down as the rest of her body did. But instead of her arms turning into wings—as was usual for her shift—to her dismay, they merely shrank. Gabby thought they’d disappear, but she wasn’t so lucky.At least I don’t have two sets of wings—that would be weird. And awkward.

But right now, that was the least of her worries. She had to get the fuck out of Dodge before the doctor did something else to her.

Aside from the tiny human arms on her bird body, Gabby found herself in crow form. She tucked her arms under her wings, doing her best to sink them into her soft, black feathers. How she was going to fly was beyond her. She thought back to her childhood. Since Dad was also a crow, he’d taught her to fly. He’d explained that wings worked differently than arms. The bones linked together, bending and flexing in a way that arms couldn’t.

She remembered those first shifts. They were uncomfortable, and she’d been so clumsy. It was the equivalent of learning to ride a bike. But she didn’t give up. Her dad helped her to learnhow to use her wings, how to flap them when gaining altitude, and how to hold them out to glide.

It was now or never. Gabby’s bird legs took a few tiny steps as she flapped first her arms by mistake then her wings. Before, when she shifted, her human arms moved and turned into her crow wings. Now her arms had merely shrunk, and a new set of limbs remained as her wings. It was like trying to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time. She brought all her focus to her two sets of upper limbs. Tuck the arms, flap the wings.

Soon she had enough momentum for takeoff. Her altitude was too low to float through the window, so she did a lap of the room first. She noticed the window wouldn’t allow her wingspan through. She’d have to dive.

Gabby did an extra lap to make sure she had enough speed—and practice—before attempting the maneuver.This could go very wrong.She could splat on the side of the door or knock herself out of the air. Then she’d be gift-wrapping herself for Dr. Asshole.

Gabby eyed up the opening and lined herself up just above it. She flapped toward it. At the last second, she tucked her wings back into a dive. Like jumping through a hoop, she javelined herself through the window. Once sure she was on the other side, she opened her wings to soar before she crashed into the ground. The strange new wings pushed her up into the air like a kite.

“Gabby!” Dr. Grimm called from the other end of the hall.

It took all her focus to not fly after him to scratch his eyes out. Anger would lead to mistakes. That would cause her to get caught. Again.

She banked right and flapped away from the yelling doctor. Whether the rooms lining the hall were vacant or filled, she didn’t know. Didn’t have time to stop. She’d tell FUC and ASSabout this place later. If she was able to fully escape.One thing at a time, she reminded herself.

Her side feathers didn’t do much to cover the human arms. She fought back a shiver from the cool air blowing across her naked limbs. The violent motion of that could rip her out of the air. Instead, she tried to nestle her arms deeper into the feathers. A feat that proved beyond her talent or practice. She lost altitude. In a panic, she started flapping her arms by mistake, her wings helplessly moving in a way that didn’t keep her afloat. She could not guide her body through the air and lost control. Gabby hit the door at the end of the corridor with a thud. One side of her body ached from the blow.

She shook it off, ruffling up her feathers before changing back. Gabby looked human aside from the large wings poking out of her back. She needed regular-sized hands and body to open the door but had every intention of shifting again to fly away from this hell hole. After flinging it open, knocking her right wing on the doorframe as she ran through before slamming the door shut behind her. Without missing a beat, Gabby ran up the stairway. It looped around like the stairs of a lighthouse. Running in a spiral made her dizzy. Blackness entered her field of vision, but she refused to succumb to the nausea. Her bare feet pounded on the cold metal. Up and up she climbed. Her lungs burned, her ribs ached, and she felt a new stitch in her side. If she could power through wings growing out of her back, she’d survive this.

The stairs popped her up into a narrow chamber with a lone door at the far end. She kept her legs pumping away, closing the distance. She pulled the next door open, nearly collapsing with joy as the warm rays of the sun kissed her skin. Without taking too much time to survey the surroundings, Gabby shifted back into crow form. Once the transformation was complete, she willed her arms to tuck and the new wings to flap after a fewmishaps of moving the wrong set, keeping a steady pace with her bird feet before taking flight.

She saw the aggravation on Dr. Grimm’s face as he burst out the door seconds behind her. Still ignoring the urge to claw—or peck—out his beady little eyes, Gabby soared higher. She enjoyed the warm sun soaking into her sable feathers. Freedom tasted sweeter than revenge.

10

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