Quiet Burn (Discordia University #2)

Animal

Salem

K it came out of the doc’s office looking a bit green. He was clutching a bottle, so I assumed he got medicine for whatever Dr. D thought he should have it for, but he wasn’t willing to discuss it further. O and I didn’t press; the poor kid was clearly processing something and Dottie abandoned us to comfort him immediately.

But now we’re back in the room, and everyone else will show up once the pizza arrives. I had Oriel warn off the herd until then so Kit could go to his room to change and take a few minutes to himself without being bombarded. I don’t know what Dr. D told him, but it’s definitely fucking with his head and I can understand that. It’s easy for hybrids like us to forget what it was like when our shit came into effect because we were prepared for it our entire childhoods. KK is dealing with all of this at once, plus his own shit.

It’s normal to be overwhelmed, I think.

“I’m no good at this, you know. Kit Kat’s way better,” Oriel says grumpily. I recruited him to help get the room ready for our study session/dinner, and he begrudgingly agreed. It hasn’t stopped him from bitching, though.

“Dude, we’re giving him a second to breathe. I doubt whatever went on was serious, but we grew up knowing we’d have demon magic and shifting and all that shit. The doc has to trickle the stuff we learned as kids to him little by little. I can’t imagine trying to comprehend it here from where he’s from.”

The dark haired crow shifter thinks about that briefly, then sighs. “True. He hasn’t even seen any of us full shift yet—on either side. Hell, he hasn’t seen anyone go total demon or total animal yet.”

Oh, shit that’s true.

“We should probably do that before this Games stuff ramps up, huh?” I say as I check my phone. The message from downstairs says the pizzas are here, so I forward that to Zav to handle. “I don’t know if all at once is a good idea, though.”

“Only one way to find out,” Oriel shrugs as he sets drinks on the low table in the middle of our new hang-out spot in the living room. “Let’s ask Kit himself.”

“Ask me what?”

We both look at him sheepishly as he comes in dressed in the baggy sweats. After a few seconds of silence, I give in. “We realized you haven’t seen anyone go full demon or completely shift. That’s probably not good with the Games and all. Being shocked won't be good for your anxiety.”

He pads over to his chair, tucking his legs under him as Dottie scampers to the arm of their chair. “You’re probably right about that. I have all sorts of… ideas? But none of it is real until I see for myself.”

Arching a brow, I walk over to stand in front of his chair, tilting my head. “Oriel thinks we shouldn’t do it all at once. Maybe… one at a time? What would you prefer?”

Kit’s eyes widen and he looks from me to Oriel then at the door. “Uhhh. All together seems like a lot. Smaller groups or one-on-one might be less jarring.”

“How about now?” O says as he joins me. He flicks his hair off of his face, dark eyes watching my roommate carefully. “Salem and I could do one or the other before everyone invades. If you want, I mean.”

Dottie puts her hands out, making a motion like we should scoot back as Kit just gapes. I chuckle, taking a step back from the two of them and O follows. Kit licks his lips, looking very nervous as he murmurs, “Maybe… um… show me animals first? ‘Cause you can like… fully shift or half shift in both, right? So you’re going to do that?”

“Do you want to see both?” I ask. “We definitely can do that. It might help ease you into the whole ‘shifter’ thing.”

“Yeah. Okay. Um…” Kit sucks in a breath and blows it out, his face flickering between expressions until he hits resolve. “Do it halfway first then, um, whole. Just animals right now. I think I can deal with that.”

“I’ll go first.” I step back again, shaking my limbs. “I’m pretty cuddly looking.”

Kit sits his chin on his knees, nodding, and I let the panda come forward enough to expose ears, a tail, and then finally, an upright humanoid version. He gasps, putting his hand over his mouth as his eyes widen. “This is like an anime!”

At least, I think that’s what he says… it’s pretty muffled by his hand.

I give him a panda-human grin then nod at Oriel. “You go now, dude.”

In a blink, O has shifted to his humanoid crow form—dark, feathered, sharp-eyed and with large black wings. “We can talk, by the way, but most hybrids can’t in their shifted forms. In Hell, royalty or species leaders can.”

“Like an alpha or something?” Kit Kat practically squeaks when he lifts his palms. “Those are the shifters who can talk?”

“Exactly,” I reply. “Are you ready for the rest of the way?”

His eyes widen more, but he nods, swallowing hard. “Go ahead. I’m as ready as I can be.”

Winking, I let the panda take over completely. My hands drop to the ground and my bulk gets bigger until I’m furry and muzzled. Since I’m bigger than a normal panda, I give him a second to adjust before I pad over to bump his hand with my nose lightly. “Still me, man.”

“This is so fucking weird ,” Kit breathes as his fingers reach out to touch my big head. I tilt for him, hoping he’ll get how much I like ear scritches in this form. Amazingly, he immediately gives me what I want and I make a satisfied sound. “Okay, go Oriel. No reason to keep me in suspense.”

A squawk echoes in the room as Oriel seamlessly shifts to a crow the size of a large eagle. His feathers shine in the low light, and he slowly approaches KK from the other side until his free hands can touch the feathers. “I can be smaller, but this is easier to… you know.”

“You can?” The new guy shakes his head, his hands touching both of us gently and I listen for the sound of his heartbeat to check his panic level.

Oddly, he’s cool as a cucumber right now—that’s a fucking great sign.

“Is it normal for shifters to be, like, bigger than the normal version of that animal?”

I nod, settling back on my haunches so he can look at me. My paws rest over my lap because having him pet my ears sent the bear into a bit of a frenzy inside. I don’t want to scare him, but I’m white knuckling control. Since this has never happened to me before, I don’t know how long I can maintain it. “Yep. Slash is like an enormous megalodon in the water. Truly terrifying.”

My roommate unwinds his limbs, scooting to the edge of his seat to get a closer look. First, he reaches out to stroke his fingers over Oriel’s wings, earning him a not-very-subtle cooing sound that makes me glare at the avian shifter. His shit is much less obvious if it’s turning him on and I want to knock him on his feathered ass. “Soft. And it smells… familiar. Like… your scent is good, somehow. It makes my nose tingle, but in a good way.”

Ignoring Oriel’s preening, I wait until he turns to me. Kit scoots further forward, leaning in to scratch both my ears as he inhales. I grit my teeth, my eyes closing as he explores the animal form carefully. The bird may be pretty, but I’m cuddly as fuck and I know it. “You’re handling this really well, KK.”

“I… Well, I like animals in general. Zoos and shows… but I haven’t gotten to be this close to many outside of occasional dogs or Dottie. So it’s kind of cool.”

If only we could show him what’s really cool without ? —

“Well, well. Just what in the Wastelands is going on in here?”

Kit whips his head to the doorway to look at Jasper. “I…”

“Calm down, man. We thought Kit should see our forms before the damn Games,” Oriel says, his sentence ending with an indignant squawk that belies his irritation.

“Sound logic, but why the secrecy?”

I look at Slash, shifting back to half-bear quickly. “Not secret. We thought of it while KK was changing, and asked him when he came out. He said we could show him animals tonight. So we did.”

“Uh-huh,” the Prince says as he barges in with a scowl on his face. “That seems like a decision we should have all been a part of, Salem.”

Kit sits back, crossing his arms over his chest as he narrows his eyes at the dragon. “I think who I want to see shift or change or whatever and when is my decision, Jasper. You’re the Prince of Hell, not of me.”

“Technically—” Zavida starts, but quickly stops when the evil glare is turned on him. “Never mind. I’m going to deal with the pizza.”

“Good choice,” X says as he comes fluttering in with his books. “It’s true that he’s the caliphate leader, but I don’t know what the gray area is for not having emerged yet. You’re not fully a demon yet, so it’s like there’s a lot of toss-up situations.”

“Stop helping him,” Jasper says as he flings himself into his chair. The motion makes the floor shake a bit, and I give my best impression of a laugh in panda form.

He’s definitely going to be picked last and he knows it.

“Guys, it’s not a… ‘favorites’ thing. It was totally coincidental.” Kit glances at Anton and X, then Slash, and finally, Zav and the Prince. “I have to see everyone’s… everything… eventually, right?”

“Everything?” X arches a brow and the entire group laughs except for Kit, whose face pales. “That’s going to be quite interesting, Kit Kat.”

The embarrassment is clear on the guy’s face and his eyes cut to his room, and suddenly, I get it. I know exactly what happened earlier and why he looks like he’s seen a ghost now. Luckily, I’m in animal form, so my face doesn’t give it away. Fondness floods me at his reaction, so I scootch my big furry butt closer and rest my chin on the chair. His fingers dig into the scruff of my neck and I make a happy sound.

“For fuck’s sake,” Jasper mutters. “If you let him do that, he’ll be asleep before he does homework and eats. Salem, Oriel…shift.”

Just like that, I’m human again and Kit’s hands are in my hair. Oriel is kneeling on the other side, naked as me, but for the ink covering our skin. Kit gasps, pulling his hand back with a surprised expression. He points a finger at us, making a strangled sound then gives Jasper the angriest look I’ve seen on his face yet. “You motherfucker.”

Uh-oh.

When I look up at the guy, there’s a ring of fire in his eyes that entrances me. I haven’t seen this yet, but the Prince looks smug as hell. He must have known this would happen and purposely poked at Kit. “I believe that’s Prince Motherfucker to you, mmm?”

“Not smart,” Slash mutters as he trudges to the kitchen to help Zav.

“You could have warned me. I mean, I…” The guy goes from furious to calculating in an instant and I almost hold my breath as I wait to see what he’s going to say. “Fine. You wanted it; you got it. Stand up and get dressed, you two.”

I blink, looking at Oriel, who shrugs. We both stand, putting every damn thing on display for his eyes as we pull on our sweats. Kit’s expression doesn’t change the entire time, though the temperature in the room rises quite a bit. Once we’ve got pants on, he holds up his hand.

“That’s good enough.”

X snorts, putting their hand in front of their mouth to hide the amusement threatening to spill out. Kit shrugs, waiting for the others to get settled as our leader stands in front of him fuming. Zavida and Slash walk in with arms full of plated pizza, ignoring Jasper’s mini-tantrum to hand them out. By the time they’re done, Oriel and I are curled up in the same spots our animals chose next to Kit’s chair and Dottie is munching on fruit.

“You win this round, I think,” Anton remarks as he holds his slice up like he’s toasting with it. “Kit-1, Jasper-0.”

Considering the look on the Prince’s face, I don’t think that will last long.