The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

Chapter 3 - answers revealed

When cara opened her eyes she was in an unfamiliar room. She looked around while making sure she did not move her head much, it was a mostly dark room with a few lit candles. The room smelled of smoke with a hint of alcohol. Yea she was definitely still in ketterdam.

she slightly moved her arms and legs making sure she was not bound by chains or anything and when she felt she was free she quickly sat up, taking in the whole room. She appeared to be in some sort of guest room. She could hear slight laughter and bantering from downstairs. A faint clicking noise brought her back to her senses.

she was in the crow club! Memories flushed back, she had blown her cover, she had killed those men. She hoped that she hadn't hurt kaz. She had only gone into her monster form once before ... she vowed she never would again after what happened then.

'click ... click' he was getting closer, she needed to get out. She stood up and immediately doubled over from pain, looking down she noticed that she had bandages over her shoulder, arm and felt more bandaging on her stomach area.

she opened the window of the room, she was about to change into the wolf to jump when she heard a voice. "don't" she turned around quickly, facing the voice and she looked straight at kaz brekker. He stood in the door opening holding his cane with 2 hands.

this was the first time somebody else than her mother had known about her power. She wasn't afraid of him. If anybody should run away it was him and she knew it. He looked beaten up but still managed to intimidate her with just a stare.

"i know what you are" kaz said. Cara rolled her eyes "i would have been more surprised if you did not know by now, you should sit down you look worse than i do and i got shot 3 times" kaz did not respond but instead grabbed a nearby chair and sat down in the corner of the room motioning cara t sit in the chair nearby.

Cara carefully moved towards the chair and sat down. There was a silence between them that lasted for a few minutes until kaz finnaly broke it. "you are a shape shifter with the wolf as animal. You are also the black wolf dog that lurks outside. ... and you are the beast of ketterdam"

Cara slowly nodded. "who else knows?" she looked at the man beside her "nobody but me". "good" she tensed her muscles to stand up but immediately regretted it. "you are hurt, the bullets missed anything vital, nina bandaged the wound the best she could.." you cocked an eyebrow "who is nina?"

"she is our heartrender, she doesn't know about you. A few minutes after you ... saved me, my crows got to us, i told them you had helped me fight off the dime lions. I didn't tell them anything else." Cara nodded "thank you"

kaz stared off into the room, he looked as if he was in deep thought. "why do you kill people on the streets?" he asked. Cara gulped "they are not complete strangers to me, they ... did things ... horrible things. They deserved what came for them." Kaz nodded. " i need to attend to some business, you can stay here if you want or you can go that is up to you. You are always welcome at the crow club." Cara nodded as Kaz stood up and left the room.

Cara waited until she could hear another door open and close a few rooms away, then she got up and jumped out of the window. Changing midair into the wolfdog and landing not so gracefully as she would have liked on the street. That bullet wound was a real pain she thought as she made her way towards her apartment. Noticing the sun she guessed it was around mid-day.

changing back in a dark alley she made her way inside, immediately going to the bathroom to check her wounds. The scrape on her arm and shoulder had already fully healed. The wound on her belly was already closing up nicely but still hurt like hell. She changed the bandages on it and went over to the bedroom to rest.

She awoke later in the evening. She thought things over. Kaz knowing her secret was a risk. If he told the wrong people she would be hunted down, going back to ... no she would rather die than go back there. She couldn't leave ketterdam either, this is the only home she has ever known, this apartment is all she has ... no she couldn't leave. So she decided that the best way forward was to keep an eye on kaz, find out what he wanted. Make sure he did not spill her secret.

So she took her book as well as her gun and sword and headed out to the crow club. Once she entered the club she immediately noticed that it wasn't busy tonight. She nodded towards the person standing near the door and went over to sit at the table she sat at last time at the back of the club.

She took out her book and started writing again. Around 15 minutes later she heard footsteps coming towards her so she looked up. " good evening, i was told to bring this to you. Its on the house." She put a mug filled with hot chocolate milk in front of her. "thank you." Cara slowly took the mug and took a sip, it was surprisingly good.

the person that brought the drink to her sat down across from her. "you looked a lot worse yesterday, you healed incredibly fast" Cara was surprised for a second before regaining herself. "you must be Nina, thank you for tending to my wounds." Nina looked like she wasn't buying any of it. "yesterday you had a huge scratch on your arm and shoulder, they are completely gone. Did you see a healer?" not wanting any more problems Cara slowly nodded.

"yes i have a friend who is a healer." Nina looked like she was going to say something else but before she got the chance to say anything kaz suddenly appeared behind her. " Cara please see me in my office." He simply said and turned around as he made his way up to his office.

"you don't want to keep kaz waiting, he gets moody when he needs to wait longer than a few minutes" nina said. "is it even possible for him to get more moody?" Cara said and Nina giggled as they both got up. Cara put her book away and took her drink with her to the office.

She knocked on the door and heard a "come in" so she opened the door and entered the office. The room was surprisingly big with one wall completely filled with books, a big window at the back of the room where moonlight could shine through. Multiple candles around the room were the main source of light.

Kaz motioned for cara to sit at the opposite side of the desk but did not look up from his book. It took several minutes after cara had sat down for him to speak again. "i would like you to work for me." Cara expected a lot of things but not this. When she didn't respond kaz continued. "your powers come in handy with both heists and everyday life here in the barrel." Cara shook her head. "kaz i can't, if my secret gets out a lot of bad people will come for me." Kaz cocked an eyebrow. "as part of the crows we will protect you. The only people who would need to know are the crows but i won't tell them that is something you need to do. We are your best option for safety and i am sure you are smart enough to know this."

Cara did know this, and to be honest with herself she knew enough of the gangs in the barrel to agree with kaz, the crows were her best option. She already knew most of them. Jesper was good with guns, almost to good ... wylan was a genius with everything involving chemicals. Matthias was the muscle of the group, nina was the heartrender and the wraith was a formidable spy.

"i don't know kaz .. my power is dangerous i could hurt somebody." For the first time kaz looked up. "but you did not hurt me" Cara has no words as she did not remember what had happened exactly. "i will join .. on one condition." Kaz cocked an eyebrow again. "no chains." Kaz looked like he did not understand but did not ask to elaborate.

"when do you want me formally meet your crows?" kaz stood up and grabbed his cane walked over to the door. He opened the door and left, leaving the door open. Cara stood up and followed the sound of his cane down to the club again.

once downstairs she saw all the crows sitting around a table of the now empty crow club. Kaz walked over to them but keeping his distance a bit. "this is Cara she will be joining us from now on." All the crows looked shocked by the statement and looked from Kaz to Cara and back to Kaz. Until Nina turned to Cara "so are you going to tell me the truth about your healing now? You should know lying to a heart render is of no use."

"yes .." Cara slowly stepped towards the crows. "i am a shape shifter". The crows knew what that meant, they had heard stories but of course never met one in real life. "i have so many questions" said jesper. Cara crossed her arms. "fire away" jesper smirked. "what is your animal? have you always lived in ketterdam? Can you control it? Is it true that you can hear better and that you are stronger than a normal human?" a slight laugh escaped Cara

"my animal is the wolf, yes i have lived my whole life in ketterdam. I am in control ... mostly" she looked at kaz while saying that. "an yes i can hear better than you all combined as well as i can easily win an arm wrestling match against with anybody in this room." Matthias smirked "let's see it then." He put his arm on the table ready for Cara to take his hand. She set herself on the other side of the table and took his hand. Jesper did the countdown "3 .. 2 .. 1 ... go" Cara could hold her hand in place with a little effort while matthias was doing everything to beat her, after a few seconds of this she put her strength in and slammed his hand against the table. Matthias took is hand off the table "approved by me" he said with a smirk.

"can you show us your power?" Cara looked over at kaz who nodded and simply said "the big one, the doors and windows are locked." Care took a few steps back making sure there was enough room and transformed in the big wolf. She towered over the sitting crows who were gasping at her so she quickly laid down on the floor to level out with them.

"can you talk while you are like this?" Wylan asked. Cara shook her big head no. Jesper turned to kaz "how have we never noticed we had a shape shifter in ketterdam?" Kaz looked to Cara and nodded. Cara immediately knew what he meant and in a heartbeat changed to the dog sized wolf. She walked over to jesper and sat in front of him. "oh now I get it! You are the black dog that has been outside forever! Wait a second, you protected kaz like a week ago when he got ambushed on the streets to!"

Cara nodded her head again. Then in a blink of an eye shifted back into human form. Nine spoke up "how does the shift work? As you are fully clothed when you shift back." Cara shrugged. "I don't know, I was never taught how it worked. All I was taught was how to survive."

wylan knew a bit more of shape shifter history and asked the next question. "do you have the ... other form? The one they used for the war?" Cara looked over to wylan and nodded. "yes I do, but it is hard to control and I ... don't use it." They all nodded in understanding.

"so that is how you healed so fast, and here I was almost thinking I am getting better at first aid!" nine laughed. " and that is how you got away from me a few days ago" inej said. Cara smiled. "yea sorry about that, I could hear you following me a few minutes after I here."

"alright so now that this is settled, lets go over the plan for tomorrow." Kaz said as he pulled a blueprint of a building seemingly out of nowhere. He started explaining how they would kidnap an informant tomorrow. He was to be brought to a warehouse. "Cara you are with me" kaz looked at you momentarily "I will need you to ... convince our guy to talk." Cara nodded.

"so its settled then, you are all dismissed." Kaz said while he stood up. everybody quickly left leaving Cara and Kaz as he turned to her, clearly indicating that he had more to say. "where do you live?" he asked.

"in my apartment down the street" Kaz opened his coat and retrieved an item from his inside pocket. He outstretched his gloved hand toward her and placed a little key in het hand. "I would like you to come live with me and the crew in the slat. The ley opens the third door on the left upstairs. You don't howl at the moon right?" Cara almost bust into laughter. "uum no?"

"good because you share a wall with me and I like peace and quiet while I work." Cara nodded. "I will move in my stuff tomorrow. Oh and take this." Cara produced a small bag of herbs and placed it on the table next to Kaz who took it and took a look inside the bag. "what are these?"

"put 2 leaves of this in your tea on a bad day." She pointed at his gloved hands. "I don't know exactly what happened and I won't ask but I know what trauma looks like and feels like. You had it when you came out of the club and when you left the carriage, on the bad days these will help. I promise you I am not trying to poison you." Kaz nodded but said nothing.

"good night kaz" Cara said as she walked out of the club towards her apartment.