The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 4 - the warehouse

Cara woke up in the morning ready to have a new start. She took a few bags out of the closet and started folding clothes into the bags. Once she folded her clothes she looked around. The apartment was mostly empty as she wasn't a big collector of things but there were a few essential things she needed to take with her to her new life.

First she went to the bathroom, taking the herbs and balms that she used for first aid and stashing it in her bags being careful not to break anything in the process. Her next stop was her small kitchen. She grabbed the special bag of her tea mixture, the same mixture as she had given kaz yesterday.

her mother taught her the recipe for the mixture, consisting mostly of common plants and herbs. She remembered her mother drinking it on her bad days to calm her nerves and ease the pain. She started drinking it herself after the accident, without it she probably wouldn't be here right now.

she entered her bedroom again and walked over to her dresser by the window. This is where she stored her most precious items. She carefully wrapped a picture of her and her mother and put it away. Then she took a little wooden figure from the desk. It was wolf made out of wood, her dad made it for her when she was little and gave it to her when he went off to the war .. ad never returned. Her last item that she took with her was her book, it looked old and worn out but she always took care of it.

once she was all packed the looked at the apartment one more time. It wasn't much but it had been home for a long time. It would still be hers to come back to if she wanted but for now Cara was ready for a new start, a new life as a crow.

Once she entered the slat she went straight for her room, opening it she was surprised how big it was. You entered in a small sitting area with a small couch and 2 separate armchairs. In the back of the room was a big bed, a closet and a dresser. If you turned the corner there was a table with some chairs. At the back there was a big window that looked out on the street. There was a medium sized private bathroom attached to her room as well.

Cara started putting all her stuff away making sure to carefully put the picture and wooden figure on the dresser. Then she sat down and pulled out a book to read. An hour must have passed before she heard a knock at the door.

"come in" the door opened to reveal kaz. He brought a plate of food with him. "i thought you might be hungry, i noticed you did not go downstairs yet today so i brought you some food while we could talk about tonight."

Cara quickly stood up and took the tray from him. "thank you kaz, please come in" as she motioned for him to follow her. She put the plate of food down on the table and took a seat as he took the seat across from her.

Cara started munching on the carefully prepared sandwich as kaz spoke up. "i would like to go to the warehouse after you are finished here, i own the warehouse so you can train there while we wait for the other to capture the informant." Cara nodded.

She quickly finished her meal and they both headed over to the warehouse. They entered through a side door. The hall was large, the warehouse was mostly empty. There were a few dummies standing in the corner as well as a few weapons spread out over a table nearby. Cara walked over to the table. "what is your preferred weapon?" Cara looked over the tale and picked out a big two-handed sword. "i don't use weapons much but if i have to i mostly pick the one needing brute strength" she said

Kaz nodded and watched her from a distance as she walked over to the dummy. She planted her feet and swung at the dummy once, twice and the third time she cut it straight in half. She walked back over to the table and put the sword back away.

Kaz walked over and sat on one of the crates. "would you mind showing me your power?" Kaz didn't need to say more as Cara knew exactly what he meant. In a blink of an eye she shifted into the small wolf.

She looked around the warehouse, observing the area. Then she jumped onto the crates who were around 2 meters high and on the crates on top of that until she could reach a horizontal support beam. She got on and walked over it and got back down on the other side. All within 10 seconds.

she then turned to the damaged dummy and took one half in her jaws and swung, throwing the dummy all the way to the other side of the warehouse. Kaz did not look impressed leaning on his cane while he sat.

so, Cara took off and in a blink of an eye had stolen the crows's cane as he stumbled forward a bit losing his balance. He looked at Cara with murder in his eyes "you are fast i will give you that now give me back my cane." Cara slowly walked over to kaz placing the cane at his feet.

"you should probably stay like that until after we deal with the informant just to make sure." Cara nodded her head and stretched out. Kaz took out some papers to study. Cara saw this and took the table with he weapons on in her jaw and dragged it over to kaz. "thanks" he said as he put the papers on the table making it more comfortable to read.

Cara jumped up a crate next to kaz, close enough that she could see his gloved hands tremble slightly as he simmed over the papers. She lifted her head and made out the name 'pekka rollins' . it took a few more minutes of cara watching kaz tremble slightly before she moved. She sat next to him and nudged him.

"what?" he looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. Cara looked at his hands and back to him. "it's nothing, don't worry about it" kaz growled as he went back to studying the papers. Cara nudged him again. This time kaz turned to her. "stop bothering me will you i need to concentrate on this because –"kaz stopped mid-sentence as Cara has moved her head and body so that the hand that kaz was using to gesture was now on top of her head.

Kaz could feel the warmth through his gloves, he did not say anything else. Cara retraced her head but laid down right next to him on the crate head between her front paws looking at the side door from underneath the table.

Kaz hesitated for a whole minute while he regained himself but then slowly lowered his hand until it was resting between the shoulders of the wolf next to him. Cara felt that after a few minutes the trembling of his hand stopped and she swore she could hear him release a sign as his muscles relaxed next to her.

Cara was almost dozing off when she heard people approaching from outside. She lifted her head and nudged kaz. He looked down and quickly removed his gloved hand as she jumped down. Kaz stood up and walked behind some crates so that people that came inside wouldn't directly see him. Cara by his side.

Some people entered the warehouse and grunting was heard. Cara sniffed the air and nudged kaz to gain his attention. Once he looked at her she slowly nodded and kaz understood that it was the crows.

he slowly walked from behind the crates as the informant came into view, his eye was swollen shut and he had blood running from his nose as jesper and matthias forced him on his knees. His hands were tied behind his back.

kaz stood in front him while cara sat down by his side looking intensely at the man in front of her. "where is pekka rollins investing 400 000 kruge in?" the man started laughing. "you really think i will tell you? I would rather die." Kaz nodded "that can be arranged." As he clicked his cane to the ground.

Cara stalked forward, growling a deep threatening growl. It was as if the man only noticed her now, his eyes looking at her with a hint of fear. She stalked forward as if she was ready to pounce on the man until she stood right in front of him baring her teeth. She opened her jaw and snapped her jaw shut next to the man's face. she saw panic and fear in his eyes but he wasn't quite ready to talk yet.

"don't play with your food" kaz said behind her. So, she stood up straight towering over the man on his knees. Making herself look as big as possible while looking at the man and right as she made the move to pounce on him the man yelled "stop please, i will tell you." A click of a cane was heard again and cara went back to sit next to kaz.

"go on then" kaz said sternly. "he's buying the pits" Kaz took a step closer to the man as Cara suddenly let out a very aggressive growl. "what are the pits?" kaz asked the man. "i don't know, pekka didn't say all i know is that its some sort of fighting ring. "who fights there?" kaz was losing his patience with the man.

"i don't know! I don't know please! Please don't kill me!" Kaz knew the man truly did not have more information so he motioned to jesper and matthias. "get rid of him" they nodded and took the man to an unknown location to deal with him.

meanwhile Cara was pacing back and forth growling. Kaz clearly saw she was dealing with something so he didn't say anything until a few minutes had passed. "we should go back to the slat" Cara stopped pacing and looked at him. Shifting back to being human she walked over to the table and picked up the papers kaz had been reading, without looking at them she folded them and walked back to kaz who hadn't moved.

she held the papers out to kaz and he took them from her. She walked over to the door without saying a word and held the heavy door open. "are you comming or not?" she said in a loud voice as kaz still hasn't moved from his spot.

Kaz limped over and was secretly gratefull that Cara held the door open for him, it was a pretty heavy door. He locked it behind them and they walked tot he slat without saying another word.

once they arrived at the slat they both headed upstairs to their respective room. Kaz being right behind Cara. Right before Cara opened her door she turned to kaz "its a fighting pit for shifters" and with that she opened her door and closed it behind her leaving kaz in the hallway as some of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.