Ask David the (b)rat

"With my laser-focus osprey eyes I saw the big eagle talons rake forward. There was no sound as David struck the crow. They were too far below me for sound. Just one minute the crow was flying along, and the next second it was tumbling.
David caught the breeze again, leveled off, and swooped back upward. The lifeless crow twirled down through the air, an unbalanced, black pinwheel.
[What are you doing?!] Jake roared.
[Um…um…I guess this eagle’s brain kind of took over for a minute,] David said. [l can’t believe I just did that! That poor bird! I just lost control.]
It was possible. It was hard, sometimes, to control the animal you’d morphed. So it was possible that’s what had happened. The others certainly bought it. Cassie comforted him.
But I have an instinct for lies. Maybe it’s because I can lie pretty well when I need to.
I know a lie when I hear one. David had killed that crow. Deliberately. In cold blood. For absolutely no reason."