Ahhh…sleep. Sleep is good. It's also something that we mutant bird kids have pretty much been deprived of since birth. Because heaven forbid that anything should ever actually be easy. Oh, no. And naturally, just about every time I finally get to lie down and rest, some Eraser with cut-and-pasted on wings arrives needing a big, fat reality check in the form of a good ass-kicking. But after a few months of living in various places including a New York subway tunnel and a big cushy estate (that happened to be owned by a certain person even worse than Jeb), we'd found a nice place to rest—an abandoned house in northern Ohio. The floors creaked and a few of the windows were busted, but I'm not complaining. This definitely beats getting harassed by a paranoid tech nerd in the middle of the night.

And because I completely deserve it, the peacefulness of sleep continued for many more hours until I was full awake and as cheerful as the morning sun…

…NOT.

I heard foot steps and muffled shouts--the tell-tale signs that someone was going to cut my sleepy-time short. I don't want to get up; don't wake me—

"MAX, GET UP!!!" Fang screamed as he stormed into my room.

"What?" I asked, extremely annoyed beyond description.

"Angel's missing!" He said.

"Are you sure?" I asked, still groggy. "Maybe she's developed another deranged power of invisibility or something." Man, that 6-year-old should get put in accelerated mutant-bird-freak curriculum or something, because power-wise she'd definitely skipped a few grades.

"I'm positive! Iggy was running around the house screaming, 'ANGEL, IF YOU DON'T COME OUT I'M GOING TO BLOW CELESTE UP WITH A BOMB!!!!" and no Angel appeared." Yep, that confirmed it. When a bear gets a death threat and there are no tears there is something not right.

I immediately threw myself out of bed. I sprinted down the stairs as I put on sweats. (Note to self: Do NOT try putting on sweats while running down stairs.) Of course, I fell flat on my face at the bottom. I knew that pain far too well. Hello Pain, how are you today? I'm Max.

I looked up and saw Nudge, gaping silent with an unreadable look on her face. Nudge, silent? God knows that was a first. Gazzy was sitting next to her, fighting back the tears. Total sat on Gazzy's lap with a depressed look. Iggy was still screaming bomb threats in hope that Angel would miraculously appear. Fang was behind me on the stairs, fighting laughter. Why he was laughing at a time like this...

"Come on, guys, this has happened before. We-we can just break into The School and find her again..." I said to the flock. I was trying hard to stay calm, but it felt as if my world was once again crashing down on me. I'd already had my baby taken away from me once. I didn't know if I had enough strength to go through that again.

I stood up with as much dignity as I could muster and slapped Fang hard across the face. Well, he deserved it. I walked over to Gazzy and Nudge and hugged them tenderly. They needed comforting right now. So did I, but I chose to ignore that fact. "Stop shouting, Iggy," I said as gently as I could. "It-it's not going to help."

I sank to the steps, my head in my hands. Angel was gone and probably being subjected to who-knows-what at this very moment. If only I'd been awake, maybe I could have stopped the Erasers…

"Max, it's not your fault," my Voice said. I waved away its comments, too distressed to notice that I appeared to be insane, listening to the air. It didn't matter. None of it mattered.

I knew I should get up, should get the flock and break into the School, but I couldn't move. All I could think was, "She's gone, she's gone…"

"Max, listen to me. The Erasers didn't take Angel."

Well, this made absolutely no sense. If the Erasers didn't take Angel, who did? What was the Voice talking about?

"She ran away, Max," said the Voice.

Tears of anger welled in my eyes. I knew Angel would never leave us. Why was the Voice trying to turn me against her? "Shut up, Voice! You don't know jack about Angel!" I screamed inside my head.

I could've sworn it chuckled. "I know a lot more than you think…"