Chapter One: Bent and Broken

"Hey, Mum, we're out of-" I froze. In the doorway was my mother, Valencia Martinez, with her shirt lifted a quarter way up her stomach. Her protruding stomach. A massive grin engulfed her tanned face and she exclaimed, "Max, you have a baby sister!" I could tell my eyes were comparably golf ball sized and my mouth was gaping open judging by the breeze cooling the spit in my mouth. I plastered a fake cheesy grin to my face and nodded frantically as I walked out into the hallway and then in the general direction of my bedroom. Entering the creme, dark brown, and black walled room I slid down the plaster and grasped the strands of golden blonde hair in my fingers (which I really should wash...) And gulped in a massive breath of air, then promptly letting it go. How did I miss that? Her stomach looked as big as a basketball!

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I must've sat there for two hours. The sky stained an inky black-blue colour which reminded me that I needed to stretch out the wings and go for a fly later today. I finally stood up and straightened out, walking back out to tell my mum goodnight. Light murmuring trickled into the hallway, and into my genetically enhanced ears.

"Shh, baby don't worry. Soon you'll have a gorgeous set of wings; just like your sister." My eyes re-grew to golf ball size and I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from shrieking as I flattened myself against the wall. As I swallowed, an iron ball settled in my stomach and I felt the same way I did about Angel the first time I saw her at the small age of two months. A motherly sense of protectiveness. They would not touch my baby, I thought. Untangling a plan to escape with the child on the way back to my room. No one would touch my Veil. No harm would come to that child.

AN:

Hey guys! I'm sure you're a bit confused at this right now, so I'll explain a bit.

First if all, I do realize that it's moving a bit fast, the story. And yes, that is what I intended to do.

Secondly, Veil is the name Max chose for the child. Almost like Val, but darker-ish, you know?

And the flock is there, I just don't really mention them. So, we good? Now here's a bit more.

Two weeks later:

I clenched my fists, listening to the sound if my knuckles cracking and the baby wailing from the other side of the white hospital door. I swear, I'd barely breathed in a molecule of air since I've ran in here, out of fear. The chemical smell would twist and spiral it's way down my throat, burning as it went, and in my mind the walls would begin to shift inward, giving a cue to claustrophobia to set in. A smiling nurse poked her head out if the door and motioned for me to file in.

I nearly went into cardiac arrest.

The child obviously wasn't the product of Jeb and her, from the sight of the beautiful baby girl. Deep amber eyes glinted adoringly at me and the beginnings of glinting bronze-gold mixed hair stuck out in tufts. She was already gorgeous. Not to mention, as good as mine. Sorry mum, but I can't let her go through the misery I did. Never; I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Running was the best option out these, and it was the one I was going with.

Five days later:

The sky was pitch black, midnight black, Fang black.

I shook my head at the thought- he didn't and wouldn't care if I ran away. He'd look after the Flock, because it was only me he wanted away from. He still loved all them, just not me. Wait- I thought I'd stopped talking about him? Okay, Max, focus.

The army drab bag on my back seemed to weigh tons and I almost turned back and went to sleep.

Veil whimpered in her slumber, dreaming of something. Valencia chose to name her Maria in place of her grandmother, but I refused to call her anything but Veil. She seemed to like that one better on my opinion, smiling a bit and trying to lift her hands above her head. She was deathly pale, and from what I had gathered, her father was part albino: which explained it.

I shifted the bag in my back into a somewhat more comfortable position and stooped down to bring Veil to my chest. She was wrapped thickly in soft and comforting blankets, ensuring her warmth against the rainy weather where we were headed. In one night, I wouldn't be able to do it. But now, not running for my life and hers, we had much time to cross from Mesa to rainy Quillayute, Washington.

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Three years later:

My breathing stopped, as he flipped his black skater hair back and grinned at the clerk. He hadn't seen me yet, but he would if I didn't get out soon. He still looked exactly as I had imagined him at seventeen, when I had also stopped aging.

I gulped, running my hand through my own hair, now died a dark brown-almost black colour. He must've turned around during my reverie, because he was staring straight at me now: mouth agape and eyes wide. He could still recognize me, probably because I had been stupid and refused contacts because they interfered with my vision. I full out ran back to the front if the store where Veil was being watched in the stores day-care. I hadn't gathered anything from my list yet, so I suppose that's a bonus, not having to drop random items into the aisle. I rounded the corner and nearly slammed into the front wooden panel of the nursery. I gulped in a few breathes, then held out my arms for my baby girl. Some workers here knew me by name because this is where I usually went for groceries. This was the third time we'd moved so far, still keeping in the Washington-Oregon area, because of one tiny thing. Apparently they'd already managed to slip a drug into Valencia and therefor into Veil. Whereas nowadays I look about nineteen or twenty, with makeup, she still looks a week or two old. She was also born prematurely, so she was very tiny and people sometimes gave me dirty looks or scolded me on taking her outside. But she had an amazing immune system for her age. In some ways, better than my own; seeing as I've actually gotten sick for the first time in my life after coming here. Chicken pox. Ironic, right? And Veil had been perfectly fine. She had barely left my arms since we left. Not a sore, or even a scratch, nothing. It was like she was suspended in time, her hair hadn't even grown over a centimeter. But she sure knew how to get her point across to you. Because even though I'd thought that I'd gotten to her too fast for any hypodermic needles to come flying at her, apparently it wasn't all that fast, Veil can teleport her own thoughts to others. Which can be helpful, in some situations. Not so helpful in others. But that's a story for later, right now, Fang was flying (Not literally.) Towards me. A big smile on her face, an elderly looking Latino women leaned over the counter and placed Veil into my arms; I was practically a walking panic attack. He was- a hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back over to a wall by a Redbox kiosk and the men's restroom.

"Max?" he hissed, and I flinched like he'd sprayed venom in my face. (Yes, I have toned down my hostility level just a bit. No need to be a bad influence on the kid, right?)

"What the heck? You've been here for the last three years? Why did you abandon the Flock?" He demanded, shaking me slightly by my shoulders. His head was bent down level to mine and glared deep into my same brown eyes, jaw clenched, he seemed to be fighting the urge to hurt me. And that fact scared me, when the heck did he change this much? I gulped hard and opened my mouth to reply when Veil let out a little heart-wrenching squeal of discomfort. Fang's face blanched as he looked down and saw her. "Max-"

I cut him off by running in the opposite direction, towards the doors and out into the parking lot; my arms wrapped tightly around my baby girl. My feet pounded the sidewalk as I ran towards the parking garage opposite the store. (The parking lot was full when I got there so I sufficed with this.) And reached the cool outer wall of the massive building and started to slide down when I heard a fast paced beat from around the sharp corner of the building. Straining my leg muscles, I got up and sprinted the rest of the way to my car.

I jumped into my car, an olderish Camaro type thing, painted a champagne colour. Jamming the key into its proper spot, I twisted it. The engine sputtered. My eyes widened and what I can only describe as horror gripped my mind. A knock on the side of my window resounded in the car and I found myself clenching my jaw and tightly squeezing my eyelids together to refrain from shrieking and sobbing. I drew my knees up onto the seat and close to my chest, sitting Veil in between them and resting my chin softly on her head. The door opened and a frigid breeze entered my car, making me shudder as I was dressed in a thin oversized hoodie. Arms slipped under my knees and around my back, I cringed involuntarily into Fang and then realized my action, so I leaned as far away from him as possible with out falling and injuring myself and Veil. He sighed, and his warm breath trailed down my neck, somehow breaking the barrier between my protective wall of hair and himself. I curled closer into myself and sort of snuggled into Veil and her warmth. "Max, come on. We need to talk," his words spilling a flood of warmth down my neck. I whimpered lowly and then groaned a bit louder to cover it up. Being in this suspended fetal position wasn't helping my aching and hollow stomach or the fresh scabs on my back from my most recent incident. I could practically feel them re-opening and trickling trails of crimson liquid down my now pale and skinny back. I chomped down on my bottom lip until I felt the tangy metallic-ness of, you guessed it, blood. I lifted my head up and released my bottom lip, we were in a deserted and grimy corner of the parking garage. Fang set me down on the concrete ground and kneeled in front of me, and since I was in a corner, I couldn't run away. I couldn't do anything but sit there, cradling Veil until the only whimpering was probably my own. Fang grabbed my chin and forced me to look into his eyes until I averted my gaze, instead focusing in on some graffiti on the walls. I felt a warm something slip down from my lip and realized I was bleeding at the same time Fang did. He reached up a finger to wipe it away but I darted out my tongue and lapped it up before he could, then I tilted my head back so he wasn't holding my chin anymore. Then hung it downward so that my hair covered my face. I could hear Fang growl slightly and I knew he was still mad at me, did he want to hurt me because I ran away? He grabbed a fistful of my hair and pinned my head back against the wall.

Stupid question.

"Max, look at me! Why did you run away?" He said in a deadly voice, like he'd yank the fistful of my hair he was holding right out. Veil whimpered again and he directed his fatal glare at her, but his eyes softened. When he looked up at me, though, they were black steel again. He opened his mouth to say something to me, but I spoke up first.

"Fang," my voice cracked and I would've flinched if he hadn't have had my hair in a death grip.

"You're- you're hurting me," I said it do quietly even I wasn't sure I'd actually said it.

"You deserve it. Do you know how torn up the Flock is without you?" Everyone except Angel, I said in my mind.

"They were going to kick me out anyways, I wasn't really leader anymore. I never talked or ate or anything," I groaned out as my hair was yanked back, my spine arching.

"Why would you do something so stupid?" He growled in my face.

"The one person I trusted left. And why are you using past tense? I still don't eat, am I good enough to deserve you now?" I sort of hissed while shifting Veil over I yanked up my hoodie and loose long sleeve under it, to reveal my bare stomach and extremely protruding ribs. It wasn't a pretty sight. You could probably fit a toddlers belt around it and room to spare. (Come to think of it, I probably weigh as much as said toddler, around 30, 40 pounds.) My ribs looked almost ready to jump off me and run away, covered with pale near-white skin from very little light exposure and a few freckles. It was also mottled with bruises from my most recent incident, like my back. Fang's face went white and he traced my ribs in wide-eyed horror. "Max-" he choked out. "Why did you do this?" I tugged back down my two layers and gulped down saliva, still getting over the tingling sensation Fang left on my bare stomach.

"I used to do it because I thought you left because I was ugly. Now I know it was because you hate me, so I give all the food I get to charity and such, there's a lot more people who need it more than I do. Besides, I don't think I'd be able to stand the taste and smell of food anymore. It'd make me sick," and I was telling the truth. Yesterday I walked into Subway yesterday to use the bathroom and the smell of bread and food in general sent me rushing to a stall to retch. Fang looked pale and sick at the sight of me. Veil reached up a hand and touched my forehead, words and images flashed behind my eyelids, Veil was scared, of what? I wasn't sure, until an image of Fang's face, dark and snarling, flashed to centre. My eyes flew open and I shoved Fang backward and made a flying leap over him.

My feet pounded the sidewalk and I ran into the nearest store, Target. My slick soles slid over the hard tile as I rounded a sharp corner, diving into the woman's bathroom and locking myself and Veil into the small stall in the very back. Her bottom lip was trembling when I looked down to her. Big, wide, and deep brown eyes were rimmed with tears. I slid down the wall and started crying silent tears with her, mumbling apologies to her. I was breaking again, and I still couldn't stop shattering into glittering shards of glass.

Fang POV:

I scanned the aisles, scouting out the next item on Iggy's pre-written list. 'Worcestershire sauce,' what the hell is that? I looked up, and found an employee. I wove my way through the sea of carts, ocassionaly mumbling an 'Excuse me,' or a 'Move it, shorty.'

Then, finally free of the mob, I tapped the brunette on the shoulder and cleared my throat to obtain her attention. She spun around and smiled brightly. "How may I help you today, sir?" She asked, eyes gliding over me. I raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment on it. I handed her the list from my pocket and her smile faltered a bit, seeing as it was just words and not numbers. She turned around and looked up to read the signs organizing the aisles, 'She must be new.' And said, "Aisle three, near the front." I grinned crookedly at her and turned in that direction. Time froze as a pair of shockingly deep brown eyes met mine, and only one thought dominated my mind; Max.

The brown eyes widened and she took off toward the daycare station, why would she be going there? My brain restarted and my legs flew toward where she was going. I started thinking, about how she'd just dropped everything and left, leaving the Flock behind and leaving me and my 'Flock' to pick up the pieces. Anger started to fuel me now, instead of longing to be near her. It raced through my veins, adrenaline tagging along. I was mad, no, I was furious. How could she be so goddamn stupid?

She was at the counter now- she couldn't have a kid, could she? That thought went to the back of my mind as she turned around, arms crossed tightly around her stomach. She spotted me again and raced for the exit, but I was to close to her. My hand clamped down on her shoulder and I almost removed it, there was something hard and kind of pointy on her shoulder. I passed it off as shoplifting and continued to drag her over to a vacant corner.

She looked different, cheekbones a little more visible. Eyes vacant and scared, and skin almost unnaturaly pale. My eyes tightened into a glare and I backed her into a wall.

I don't remember what I said after that, just that I was madder than I ever was before.

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A/N: OOkay! So there you have it :) This story, Deadly Uppercuts and Lethal Jabs, and Best Friends Brother are THE ONLY ONES I will be working on for a while :) Sorry for any inconveninces!

And please give a few minutes of your time to go say hi to my FAVOURITE BETA! GoodGirlGoneFANG! Wuvz you buddy xD