Feathers and Fangs

Chapter 1: Fight

Max's POV

"Maaaax!" Nudge whined. "I'm hungry."

I resisted the urge to scowl at her, and instead glanced at Fang with a look that said 'There's a surprise'. He recognised the look and smirked at me. As in proper showing-his-teeth smiling! He had unnaturally straight teeth for a guy who was punched in the face almost on a daily basis. And white too. What did he drink, bleach? I looked away before I lost enough concentration that I dropped out of the sky.

"Alright, Nudge. Let's stop here then, guys."

Lovely spot to pick, Nudge. As we steadily descended, we could see plenty of forestry scaling mountains, probably the Olympic Peninsula, if my built-in compass was correct (which it always is). Almost smack-bang in the middle of it all, was a cute, but very small and basic-looking town. But I could see a restaurant, or the likes of one, and the mountains would give us a great place to camp-up for the night.

But the weather; had this place ever seen the sun before? The clouds looked thick and lingering, almost stubborn, and I was half expecting a booming voice to come from the sky saying, "We're not movin' nowhere!"

I spotted a clearing in the mass of trees, and pointed to it, signalling to the others we need to set down before we enter the town. They all understood, and tilted down, slowly circling towards the ground.

By the time we had finally walked through the forest to the town boundary, the younger kids were practically bouncing up and down at the thought of food. I glanced at the town's name board as we entered.

"Forks. You think there's a town somewhere nearby called 'Spoons'?"

Fang shoved me playfully but he was smiling again. I like making him smile; it means I get to see his smile more often.

Never, Max, I told myself. You're going goofy and stupid over him again. Snap out of it before I make you give Gazzy an excuse to slap you across the face.

I frowned at myself, but regained my composure before the others could notice. We found a small bar/restaurant, called 'The Lodge', and I checked the prices and our total cash before checking with the others. They all nodded, and we entered. There weren't many people in there, probably just the usual local customers, because some of the bar-tenders and waitresses looked at us a little surprised, as if they hadn't expected any new customers. The customers just kept enjoying their food or drink. I gotta say though, the food looked, and smelled amazing.

I placed our orders – double helpings of whichever order belonged to whoever – and, again, the servers seemed very shocked at the quantity of our order, but they did as we requested, and tried to put on a normal-looking smile as they said that our food will be out in up to half an hour.

I spotted the restrooms behind the bar, and told the others I would be back in a minute. I walked between the bar and the tables, but as I was walking past the last table, I caught the young girl's arm, who was just getting up from the booth, and the water from her glass went over the both of us. The girl, who looked about seventeen or eighteen, with dark chocolate brown hair, just below her shoulders, and pale white skin, put her hand to her mouth, shocked.

"I am so sorry, I didn't mean to. Oh, God, is anything stained?" she apologised sheepishly. I just laughed at her worry.

"It's alright, it's just water. And anyway it was my fault; I'm a bit distracted about something, and pretty tired and I wasn't paying enough attention."

"No, no, no, I didn't look before I got up. I –"

"Guys," the man sitting opposite the girl said. He was probably her father; they looked pretty much alike. "Just drop it otherwise we're all going to be here whilst you guys argue all night. Just go get another glass, Bella."

Both of us looked down at our feet, embarrassed, and I just smiled at her before walking off to the toilets.

Bella's POV

Once that girl I had bumped into went to sit back down, she smiled at me sheepishly as she passed, then went to sit with a few other kids. They all looked pretty scruffy, as if they've been camping for a few days and hadn't packed well. The youngest looked no more than seven years old, probably younger. The others of the gang were somewhere between seven and about fifteen. Yet they ate so much! The younger blonde boy ate like two steaks with an extra helping of fries. Not even Charlie can eat that much in one go! There's something funny about those kids; I hope they aren't going to pull out guns any second now. They just didn't seem to want to make eye-contact with anyone but members of their group. They seemed to keep to themselves. I asked Charlie if he could hurry with his food, explaining my fears. He looked at them over my shoulder, and nodded to me. We left as soon as we could.

Minutes after Charlie and I arrived back home, Edward knocked on the front door. I let him in, and Charlie greeted him with the usual warmth, then grunted something about a big game being on the flatscreen. Edward and I smiled at each other lovingly as soon as Charlie couldn't see us anymore, and we linked fingers as we ascended the stairs to my room. I closed the door quietly behind me, then turned around and wrapped my arms around Edward's neck, stretching up to kiss him. He grinned, then bent down to meet me half-way. I immediately relaxed when our lips touched, and I tried to make the kiss last, but Edward pulled away. Always too soon. He caught my annoyance and winked at me. I just rolled my eyes.

"Sorry we couldn't get home sooner; Charlie insisted that we went to The Lodge for dinner."

He shrugged. "That's fine. Did you enjoy your meal?"

I nodded. "It was really nice. Weird kids there though."

Edward raised his eyebrows, confused, but there was a teasing glint in them. "Was Mike Newton involved in creating your perspective of them somehow?"

I grinned but hit him playfully. "The three eldest seemed no more than fifteen or so, and the youngest was about six or seven. There were six of them. But they all wore really tatty and scrapped clothes that were really filthy. And the amount that they ate! It was incredible. The six-year-old girl ate about two steaks, one portion of fries, but then the chocolate gateau after."

Edward's eyebrows moved higher. "A six-year-old girl? Wow, that's a first." Then he grinned again. "Do you think more werewolves are in town?"

I giggled at that. We still hadn't let go of each other, and I got lost in his dark eyes again. The spell finally broke when he spoke again.

"All of us are going hunting tonight, so I won't be able to stay with you tonight, and it's a faint possibility that I won't be back for two days. It depends on how far we go to get our prey."

I looked at him sceptically. "Were you planning to go to South America to hunt? Or will you just decide to walk a human pace back from Canada?"

He laughed loudly. "We haven't been hunting for a while, so it might take us a while to find enough prey." He let go of me, then kissed my nose. "Which basically means, I should go now."

"What?" I protested. "You've only just got here, and…" I struggled to find an excuse for him to stay longer. "…and Charlie will be suspicious if you just drop by like this." I folded my arms, pleased with myself.

"I'll just tell him I had to give you something before I went to an appointment." He pushed me onto the bed, and placed a hand on my head like I was a child. "I love you. And you look tired, so get some rest for me, please? I'll be back before you miss me."

"Then come back now," I pleaded, "because I miss you already."

He winked at me again, then opened and closed the door before I could argue. Only when I tried to stand up did I realise he was right; I was exhausted. I laid down on the bed, curling up in a ball on my side, and fell asleep to the sound of the Volvo's engine purring to life.

Max's POV

Wake up, Maximum! Wake up!

Huh? Voice, what the hell? A female, mutant bird-freak needs their 'z's, what do you want?

Danger is coming! You must protect the flock!

Danger? I jumped up from my sleeping position to jerk my head wildly around, searching for the "danger". All the others were sleeping peacefully, whilst Fang had his back to a tree whilst he was taking watch. He saw me up, and noticed my anxiety, standing up to join me by my side.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice low in case of enemy ears.

"The Voice told me danger was near. It hasn't been wrong yet; always right in some kind of roundabout way. And this time it sounded scared, urgent."

He immediately stood behind me, back-to-back, circling so we could scan all our surroundings. We all had our wings hidden beneath jackets, so we couldn't take off lightning fast if we needed to. I heard a rustling in the bushes nearby, and someone whisper-shouting.

"No, Jazz, wait! Stop him!"

A blonde human suddenly sprung out of the bushes to my left, his eyes almost as wild as his crazy curls. But the weird thing was, he was snarling. Like an animal. I managed to hold in my scream, but I yelled to Fang.

"To your right, roll under him!"

We rolled under the springing human/animal thing, and he rushed over us as we both regained our footing. The others were awake by now, and immediately took their fighting stances. I turned back around almost at the same time as the creature, and grabbed a large loose branch. I spun around quickly throwing it at the strange threat. It hit him square in the face, and he flew back a few feet. But get this; the branch shattered. Completely. The whole branch just smashed into smaller splinters. Shock was the first emotion that flashed across the creature's face, but that was soon replaced by pure fury. It roared again, then charged at me, moving almost too fast for me to see (with raptor vision, so that's saying something). Fang's voice reached my ears as I tried, and failed, to find a way out of this situation.

"Max, look out!" Undisguised fear covered every word that Fang said, and this was the first time I have ever heard him portray that emotion. Or any emotion that strongly.

Suddenly, my vision of the charging human was blocked by a black jacket. I immediately understood what was happening.

"Fang, no! Get out of the way!"

Fang was grabbed from in front of me, and thrown through the air, extremely high up, to crash into the stone side of the nearby cliff, creating a medium sized crack. I heard him cry out in pain (that must have really hurt; Fang never admits or shows he's in pain), but he then fell from his position, back down to the ground, and didn't move.

"FANG!" My whole flock screamed at his body, but no response was given. Rage pulsed through my blood, and I spun back around to face our attacker, fists clenched so tightly my knuckles were screaming at me. The creature was about to lunge for me again when six other humans (well, they can't be humans; no human can move that fast) jumped out of the shrubbery and a huge, beefy one pinned the blonde one down. The blonde writhed within the other's grasp, keeping his wild, pitch black eyes looked onto me and my flock. I was about to take advantage of his position, grabbing another branch, when I was suddenly restrained, hands behind me, by someone unbelievably strong. I couldn't move an inch, no matter how reckless I felt. Then I remembered our own casualty, and spotted him a few feet away.

"Oh my God, Fang!"

I shook my arms loose, and I felt the hands try to grab me again, but I twisted away from them, stumbling desperately over to my right-hand man.

"Fang? Fang! Oh God, please wake up. Fang, answer me, dammit!"

I rolled his body over, and he was unconscious, his face still screwed up in pain. The back of his head was bleeding a fair bit, and his back was swollen up really badly.

"Oh God, no. Please, please, let him live. No, not now, not him. Please God, not him. Let me be dreaming. Please, I want to wake up, I need to wake up."

I heard the creatures making plans between themselves. They had a leader too, and he was telling them to 'go and hunt somewhere far from here. I'll stay here with them. Only come back when Jasper has calmed down'.

"Iggy!" I screamed at my brother, mostly ignoring the creatures. He came rushing over, following the direction of my voice, and I directed his hands to Fang's back and head.

"Oh, jeez. Oh God, this is real bad. His back could be broken; maybe a few ribs, could be his…spine."

I was biting my fingers so hard trying not to cry. I felt so helpless, and yet I needed to do something to let Fang live. I needed him, I always have. I loved him. Why did I see this now, when he was just about to die? I couldn't even tell him that I loved him, because he was never going to gain consciousness again. His last heroic act was to dive in between me and the danger. Oh God, you idiot! Why? You didn't have to prove yourself a hero! You –

"Please, excuse me, I think I can help. I'm a doctor, and I have some resources back at my home –"

"Shut up!" I exploded at the creature. "If it weren't for you and the blonde wild animal, he wouldn't even be like this! Just f*** off!" I tried to lunge at the leader, but he grabbed my wrists and pinned them to my sides. He looked so calm and understanding I wanted to punch his face in. But he also looked apologetic, so I gave him a chance to speak.

"I know you want to kill me right now, and I don't doubt that all of you together against me could probably achieve that. But that won't help your friend's condition, and if you leave me alone for enough time to get to him, I could find out what was wrong with him. Then you can all come back to my home, whether I can help him or not. My family have left us for now, and they will come back when they are fit to do so."

This guy seemed nice, and he spoke logically, definitely knowing his priorities. He looked about in his early twenties, with his blonde hair neatly slicked back over his head, and was dressed in smart, sophisticated clothes.

"And how do I know that, when your family comes back, you won't just try to attack us then?"

His eyes, more golden than our attackers, stared deep into mine.

"You don't."

I thought for a second. Literally a second, because I knew every minute I wasted was another minute off how long Fang had to live. I nodded my head once, and he released my wrists. I called to Iggy to come over to me, out of the way, and I watched as the doctor looked Fang over, running his hands gently over his back.

I turned back to the others of my flock, and they looked so scared for Fang I just opened my arms out wide, signalling for them to run to me. They all did as they were told, and I pulled them all close. Angel stuck out the most though; her face showed a picture of pure terror. I didn't expect to find it so intense on her face, and I frowned at her in confusion.

Angel, what is it? I thought to her. She looked up at me.

That family, both our attacker and the ones that stopped him…they're all vampires.

Oh…my…God. I looked over quickly at Fang, realising that his head was bleeding badly and a vampire was nursing him.

No, no. He's fine. He's the most controlled out of all of them. The blonde one attacked us because he could smell the dried blood on our jackets. They were really thirsty, and they're good vampires

I stared at her incredulously, and jerked my head over to Fang, lying half-dead on the ground.

They have an excuse though, she insisted. They only drink animal blood, even though human blood is most satisfying. They try to be civilised, but they never really feel satisfied, so it's a little hard for them to be around humans when they're hunting. The one that attacked us was less practised in resisting human blood.

I suppose that's an excuse. But that doesn't mean I'll forgive this guy – Jasper, wasn't it? – because Fang could be crippled for life. What the hell were they made of, anyway?

They have super-strength, super-speed, and their skin is really hard and tough. It takes a lot more to hurt them than it does us, or humans.

OK, time to put on my leader hat and analyse the situation fully. Can they do anything else? I asked my youngest, most talented sister.

The one with the bronze hair, the one who was holding you back, can read minds like me. I don't think he's picked up on our wings or talents though, because you guys have had experience on trying to block me out. I almost laughed at that part of her explanation, as she sounded quite upset.The really big one is the strongest of the family. Emmett, I think his name is. The doctor is Carlisle; that much I know. The one who attacked us is probably Jasper, and from what I picked up, he can control people's emotions and feelings. His girlfriend, the really small one with the spiky hair, can see people's futures, but her vision-y-things can change with something that I didn't get. The others can't do much special, and I didn't really pick up their names.

Alright, well let's try and learn them later. Tell the others what we've just been talking about, all of it, Angel, and then tell them to wait for my signal if anything goes wrong.

They've been listening the whole time, Angel replied.

Now that the conversation had ended, I had nothing to distract me from the very-real, limp and badly injured body of Fang, with the vampire doctor – alright, my hat's off to him – leaning over him and examining him. I crossed my fingers in the vain hope that it would work, and that Fang would live.

"His spine is still intact," the doctor – Carlisle – suddenly called to us, loud enough to indicate that he still didn't know that we had raptor hearing. I rushed over to him, looking down at Fang.

"It's not broken?" I breathed.

"No, just badly bruised." I practically sank to my stomach in relief. "He's probably broken a couple of ribs as well, and I might need to give him more blood because of his head wound. But if my calculations are correct…" He hoisted Fang carefully up into his arms, his legs over one arm, head at the other shoulder. "…then he should be alright if he stays at my home for a while, so I can work on him."

My heart was literally doing back-flips, side-flips, front-flips, cart-wheels and any other gymnastic move that would be interpreted as sheer joy. Somehow, when the doctor was examining Fang's back, he hadn't needed to take his jacket off or anything, so he still hadn't found out about our wings. Carlisle started walking through the forest, due north-west, and we all followed him, trying hard not to look at Fang or skip around like a goon. I failed on both tasks.

"I'm sorry, but my home is quite far away, so it may take some time to get there," Carlisle apologised sheepishly.

Not when you have super-speed, I thought, and then I realised that I wanted him to get to work on Fang as soon as possible. I bit my tongue so I didn't ask him to run as fast as he could.

"It won't take a while with the speed you and your family can reach," Angel hinted for me. We all stood still, and Carlisle came to a stunned, abrupt stop. He whirled around to face Angel, shock clear on his face, but guilt and pain seemed to be hidden deep as well. He stared at Angel for a while, before she finally told him.

"We're special. I can read minds, send thoughts to them, sometimes control them, and we all have other secrets. Because of what I can do, I know what you and your family are, and I've told my friends, apart from the one in your arms. We'll tell you them when you get home and get our friend in a stable condition. We can travel separately to your home, so we don't reveal our secrets too soon."

Since when did I put Angel in charge? But I just realised; she sounded exactly like me, and this was such a brilliant idea I wondered why I hadn't thought of it earlier. Carlisle swallowed, considering this, then nodded once, but didn't move.

"Alright," he agreed. "I'll probably make it back to my home in about five minutes, and my family may arrive half an hour after me. How long will it take you?"

I shrugged, taking control again. "How fast can you travel?"

"Slightly faster than five hundred miles an hour."

I silently compared the speed that the doctor travelled at with our own speed, then converted this to time.

"We'll probably arrive at your house about five or ten minutes after yourself. Just tell us which direct bearing to travel."

"North-north-west. Keep travelling until you find a road then follow that west for a short distance."

We all nodded back at him, and he turned around to run off at a speed that was impossible to describe. He was blurring through the forest, around the trees nimbly, until I was sure that he was going to hit one of them, and Fang would surely die then –

Shut up, Max! Fang's going to be fine. You heard the doctor yourself.

I sighed hopefully, and motioned for the others to U and A, and we all took off, careful to cruise along at a casual pace so as not to fly over Carlisle and reveal our secrets too soon. We also kept a look out for Carlisle's family as well, just in case they saw us before we had arranged. I gave Angel a look that showed that I was immensely proud of her for coming to such a logical and leader-like decision, and she smiled sadly at me.

I just want Fang to get better.

I nodded at her to say 'Me too', but she wasn't finished.

I want Fang to get better so that you can tell him you love him.

I quickly looked away, so she wouldn't see the pain on my face, or the tears in my eyes. I needed him more than myself. I needed him to survive, to stay sane. If I fall to pieces, he's always the one picking up the pieces and sticking me back together, and we've always been together. I remembered reaching through the bars on my dog-crate, reaching out to each other for years, but our arms were never quite long enough. Then, suddenly, one day, we had reached through the bars, and our fingers had touched. We were so delighted and shocked by this improvement that we had sat there for hours, our arms out-stretched towards each other, fingers touching. Over the next few years, our arms had grown more, and we could hold more of each other's hands. It finally got to the time when we could link fingers perfectly, and we had stared into each other's eyes, comforting each other silently and letting the other know that we were there. In my mind, I reached through my bars, reaching out to Fang.

I'm here, Fang, I called out to him. I'm here, and I'll never leave you.

I kept staring into Fang's "mind-cage", and I thought I saw some movement, as if he was trying to get closer to the bars. So I called out again.

I'm here. It's okay. I love you.

Fang's POV

Through all the blinding pain coming from my back and my head, I felt the wind ruffling my hair at an unnatural speed, but I was slowly slipping back into the blackness. I didn't even bother trying to open my eyes, because I knew I'd just close them again. I felt cold, hard arms underneath me, but they felt safe enough. Then I heard something I knew I shouldn't be hearing.

I'm here, Fang. I'm here and I'll never leave you.

Max. Oh, God, Max. I hear you, Max, I hear you. Don't let me slip back under; I want to stay with you. Please pull me back up.

I'm here. It's okay. I love you.

She did. I knew it. I knew she loved me. Max, hear me, please. If there's a God, please send her this message: I love you too.

Blackness.