"Can you give us some information? Now what's his name? Is he your boyfriend?" the nurse asked.

"His name is . . . Nick," I lied nervously. "Nick, um, Johnson. He's my boyfriend." Grate Fang my best friend in the world is now my boyfriend. The nurse smiled looked over my shoulder. "And them?" she asked pointing her pen at the flock. I turned around, walked to them, and picked up Angel. "These two are Nick's siblings," I pointed to Nudge and Gazzy. "And these two are my siblings," pointing to Iggy and gave Angel a little bonce. She smiled and put her head on my neck. "Do you need to call your parents?" the nurse asked. I shook my head, "our parents are missionaries. They're on a short trip. Nick and I are in charge."

A doctor in green jammies hurried up to us. "Miss?" he said, looking at me, glancing at all of us. "Could you come with me, right now?"

"Think he noticed the wings yet?" I heard Iggy barely murmur.

I put Angle down, and tapped Iggy twice on the back of his hand. It meant, You're in charge till I get back. He nodded, and I followed the doctor down the hall, feeling like I was on death row.

11

Walking quickly, the doctor looked at me in that zoo-exhibit way I've become familiar with. My heart sank.

All my worst fears where coming true. I could already see the mesh of a big dog crate closing around me. Those Erasers! I heat them! They always showed up, and when they did, they destroyed everything.

You have to respect your enemy, Max, said the Voice. Never, ever underestimate them. The second you do, they'll squash you. Be smart about them. Respect them. Respect their abilities, even if they don't respect yours.

I swallowed hard. Whatever

We pushed through heavy double doors and were in a small, tilted, very scary room. Fang was on a gurney.

He had a tube going down his throat and more test tubes attached to his arms. I pressed my hand to my mouth. I'm not squeamish, but cracked, painful memories of the experiments done on us at the School were sweeping into my brain, and I wished that my Voice would keep talking, say something really annoying to distract me.

Another doctor and nurse were standing by Fang. They had cut his shirt and jacket off. The horrible jagged claw wounds in his side were still bleeding.

Now that he had me here, the doctor didn't seem to know what to say

"Will - will he be okay?" I asked, feeling as if I were choking. Life without Fang was unimaginable.

"We don't know," said one of the doctors, looking very concerned.

The woman doctor gestured to Fang. "How well do you know him?"

"He's my boyfriend."

"Do you know of his . . . condition?"

"Yes. In fact, I'm just like him." I set my jaw and kept my eyes on Fang. I felt my muscles tighten, a new, unwelcome flood of adrenaline icing its way through my veins. Okay, first I would slam his little trolley against the nurse's legs. . .

"So you can help us," the first doctor said, sounding relived. " 'Cause we're not recognizing all this stuff. What about his heartbeat?"

I looked at the EKG. He blips were fast and erratic.

"It should be smoother." I said. "And faster." I snapped my fingers a bunch of times to demonstrate.

"Can I . . . ?" the doctor asked, motioning his stethoscope toward me. I nodded warily.

He listened to my heart, a look of amazement on his face.

Then he moved his stethoscope over my stomach, in several places. "Why can I hear air moving down here?" he asked

"We have air sacs," I explained quietly, feeling as if my throat were closing. My hands tightened into fists by my sides. "We have lungs, but we also have smaller air sacs. And – our stomachs are different. Our bones. Our blood." Gee, pretty much everything.

"And you have . . . wings?" the second doctor asked in a low voice. I nodded.

"You're a human-avian hybrid," the doctor said

"That's one name for it" I said tightly. As opposed to say, mutant freak. "I prefer Avian American."

I glanced at the nurse, who looked like she'd rather be anywhere but here. I so related

The female doctor became all business. "We're giving him saline, to counter the shock, but he needs blood."

"You can't give him hu- regular blood," I said. All the years of report and experiments started coming to the surface. "Our red blood cells have nuclei." Like birds'.

The doctor nodded. "get ready to give him a donation," she instructed my briskly