WOOOOOOT!!!

Welcome everybnody to Bloodlust 2 : Queen of Hearts. This is the seqel to Bloodlust and I can't thank you all enough from mthe botto of my heart for making Bloodlust such a big hit. I Neverdreamed I'd actually have the chance to make a equel to it. LOL

But quickly, I'm just going to rant a disclaimer at you (since I keep forgettinbg, and I really don't wanna be sued. LOL)

First off, I do not own the characters of this fic -- Max, Fang and the others all belonmg to James Patterson -- author-extrordinaire and genius at writing.

Secondly, I do however, own this story and this plot. So with all due respect and kindness and love towards you all, PLEASE DON'T COPY ANYTHING FROM IT!!!!!...please?! LOL.

If you want to borrpow any ideas or anything from the plot, please ask me first? Okay? Sweet!

Enjoy guys!!! And thank you so much for all of your comments and support on Bloodlust, and I hope you guys will like this fic just as much!!!!!

Love from, CK

Bloodlust 2 : Queen Of Hearts

Chapter 1

When we reached New York in the mid-afternoon, we all couldn't help but cheer in relief. We'd been flying for about two or three days (I'd lost track) stopping only to eat and sleep (and get supplies, like candy) as we made our way to New York—our newest School safe-haven.

New York was a blur of colour, sights, sounds, and people, meaning that if six scraggly-looking kids suddenly showed up in the city, no-one would know notice or care.
…and this is a really helpful thing when you're on the run.

It's been only a few days since we'd left that cave on the outskirts of the School, but ever since then something seemed to have changed within our Flock. We were stronger as a family and a lot happier than we'd been in almost six months (when our house was destroyed and we found out Jeb was a whitecoat—again.)

Not to mention, we hadn't caught sight of any Erasers since our last escape, which is always a very good thing.

"Max?" I heard Nudge say from behind me. "I'm hungry...can we land now?"

"Not yet" I told her gently. "We need to fly just a little further into the city, then we'll drop down, stroll through the streets, maybe see some sights, and grab a whole load of pizza. Does that sound good?" I teased.

"Yeah!" Nudge practically squealed with happiness. I heard murmurs of agreement go through my Flock and I grinned at them all, before I felt a feather-light tough on my arm.
I turned to see that it had (literally) been a feather-light touch, as Fang's jet-black, temptingly soft looking wingtips brushed across my arm. I looked up from the wingtips to their owner, Fang, who was looking at me with a look that made my heart skip a beat and my mouth go dry with desire.

He was smirking at me softly, like he could read my thoughts, and the light wind was causing his hair to move adorably in front of his deep, brown eyes that were so…so...
Max… My Voice hissed warningly in my ear, snapping me from my Fang-gazing-trance.

"Huh?" I said outloud, dumbly and saw Fang's smirk widen at me. I saw Fang's mouth move as he spoke, but I was too busy starring at his lips to notice. They looked so…so…

"Max?" Fang said, (again) waking me from my trance. I caught his eye and had to stop myself from blushing at how openly I'd been starring at him. He raised an eyebrow at me.
"Am I tempting you too much?" Fang asked, a knowing grin on his lips.

I did a double take and frowned at him angrily as I scoffed.

"No..." I said, sticking out my tongue. "You're not that good-looking, so don't get too cocky…" I told him teasingly. Fang just continued to gaze at me knowingly.
"Alright, the next time I see you starring at me with dreamy eyes, I'll try not to let it go to my head" he muttered, smirking at me.

Oh! Why that little!---

Max… My Voice whispered in my head again.

What now? I asked it irritably. Can't you go on vacation or something?

Max…you have a single day of bloodlust left…do not throw it away by letting your teenage urges for Fang claim you…

I snickered outloud and saw Fang and the rest of my Flock giving me weird looks.

What is so funny, Maximum?… my Voice asked. This is a very serious matter…

I know –- I'm the one who's going through it, remember? I shot at my Voice.

It's just so funny to hear a voice in my head say the word 'urges'. Hehehe!

I started to laugh again but had to stop and bite my lip instead as a sharp, aching pain settled in my head.

Jerk… I shot at my Voice, but there was no response.

Oh, and did I mention that before? I've only got a day left of bloodlust and then I'm home free. Can we say 'thank-you-gods!?'

(Can you believe it? Just one more day of bloodlust and then I'm done. Finished. Finito. Finis…. and those are the only three languages I know how to say 'finished' in, so I'll stop now before I embarrass myself.)

"We're here" Fang suddenly said, nodding his head to down below us. I trailed off from my thoughts and nodded at him, motioning for my Flock to follow me as I swooped down behind a high skyscraper.

(Skyscrapers… one of the many things that are more helpful to us bird kids than you humans may think…)

Once we all landed on the pavement in an empty alley, I instructed everyone to throw on their sweatshirts and we casually walked out of the alley, putting looks of 'who-us?-fly-down-from-the-sky-and-hide-in-alleyways? Nah' types of looks on our faces.

"Now can we eat?" Nudge quickly said before I could speak, and I had no choice but to agree.

After buying 22 slices of pizza and 16 cans of soda from a street vendor, we headed off to the New York Public Library to do some R&R—which for us, is research and relaxation.

(Research being Fang checking his blog, and myself, Iggy, and Fang looking up more on Itex. Our relaxation being that the library is quiet, peaceful and we can nap there before it closes.)

And you want to know what the best thing was? The street vendor didn't even give us a second-look when we bought our 22 pizza slices from him, and (talk about a bonus) there was a newbie working the library (according to Nudge's powers) and he let us through without asking us to sign in and told us it was 'cool' if we wanted to eat and drink in the library.

…No doubt he'll end up getting fired soon, but hey, we sure liked him a lot.

We headed up the stairs two-at-a-time -- seriously, the library was so big it had stairs to another level! Do you know how cool that was for us? -- And as soon as we reached the top, Fang wordlessly headed for the computers.

Angel and Gazzy ran off giggling and returned with their arms full of colourful books, while Iggy and Nudge went to a small table and just talked.
I sat down on the computer next to Fang's and immediately started to play games on the internet, deciding I could research later and relax now.
(What? I had a deprived childhood and I planned on making up for it.)

It was peaceful and it was nice to just all sit together and soak up the atmosphere after flying non-stop for a few days…

….if only it had lasted long enough for me to actually enjoy it!

As I was playing games on the computer, I suddenly heard Fang swear a little-too-loudly under his breath. I turned to him quickly when I heard it.
Fang never swears when the younger guys are so close—which meant that he was either really pissed or something really bad had just happened.

And I had a bad feeling it was the second option.

Instinctively, I did a 360-sweep for any supermodel-looking people that could possibly be Erasers in the library.

"We've got a big problem…" Fang hissed at me, his eyes never leaving the computer screen.

"What about the bloodlust is so bad? Did something go wrong?" Angel piped up from flicking through a colourful book on the floor. Fang shoot her a warning look and I tensed.
"Fang…is something wrong with me?" I asked, hoping he couldn't hear the worry in my voice.

"Does this have something to do with the bloodlust?...or are you in trouble because of the bloodlust?!" I asked him, fear creeping in that maybe the bloodlust may have found a way back into Fang's… well, blood.

"No, it's not me…and it's not you either…" Fang muttered.

"Well, what is it?' I asked him, leaning down so he could whisper it to me as he quickly gave me a 'you-better-lean-in-because-this-is-important-but-the-little-guys-can't-know-about-it-or-they-ll-worry' type of looks.

Fang shot a hard, warning look over his shoulder at an almost too-innocent looking Angel and Gazzy who were looking up at us from the floor. I quickly closed off my mind from Angel as Fang shooed the two away with a single glance.

After making sure they were far enough away, Fang's eyes rooted to the computer screen again.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to peek over his shoulder since he (obviously) wasn't telling me much.

"I just got an e-mail from Lissa" Fang said in a low tone I didn't recognise.

I had to stop myself from screaming in the library.

"What!?" I hissed at him, anger boiling in my blood and ringing in my voice, yet Fang's eyes stayed glued on the screen.

"What the hell?" I hissed quietly again, making sure the younger guys hadn't heard me. "How did you get Lissa's e-mail address?! Better yet, why do you have it and why does she have yours!? And you actually have an e-mail address? Why? Who are we going to give our e-mails to anyways!?"

"Max..." Fang said in a clear warning tone, but still kept his eyes on the screen.

"What happened!? Did she break a nail?" I said mockingly, but then but my lip to silence myself.

Way too be a witch, Max… I thought to myself in frustration, bubbling with anger and guilt inside.

I was being way too harsh—Lissa was a good person. It wasn't her fault that Fang was attractive and that she liked him …or that she was prettier than I was…or that she grew up in a normal city…or that she hadn't been born with wings on her back in a creepy science lab off the coast of California…

Yet even so, I still couldn't help but dislike her.

"Sorry" I muttered to Fang (and partially to Lissa…wherever she was…) in apology. I cleared my throat before speaking again softly.
"So, what's wrong with her?" I asked, but there was no answer from Fang. Just silence.

"We forgot all about the rules of bloodlust" Fang said quietly, ignoring my question.

"Rules like…" I asked, trailing off.
For the first time, Fang turned away from the computer screen (hallelujah) to look at me deeply and seriously in the eye.

…and did he ever look hot doing it.

His eyes were such a deep, dark brown and piercing with some kind of emotion, and his strong set jaw and his --

I quickly shook my head to rid myself of my thoughts of Fang.

Come on, Max! I told myself in frustration.Just one more day…just one more day…just one more day of crazy-hormone-driven bloodlust for Fang and then it'll all be over…come on...get yourself together!...

"Rules like, bloodlust is spread through mating, germs, salvia…" Fang said, still starring at me intently.

A moment of silence passed between us and I saw Fang's brow furrow in frustration.

What?...did I miss something?...

"I still don't know what you mean..." I finally told him. His brow furrowed even more at this and he sighed softly to himself. (Apparently, I'm dumb for not realising what that statement meant. Oops, my bad.)

"Max…" Fang said quietly to me. "Do you remember the first time you went into bloodlust?"

"Yeah, it was at that carnival in Texas" I said, nodding in recognition. "When Lissa kissed you, I flipped out for some reason."

Fang raised an eyebrow as if to say 'and-you-don't-know-what-that-reason-was?'

Okay, okay, I'll admit – I was furious and jealous of Lissa at the time, but Fang didn't have to know that, did he?

"So…" Fang said, waiting for me to clue in. I frowned in misunderstanding still not having a clue about whatever it was Fang was saying.

"So…" I repeated and Fang frowned again.

"Max" Fang told me gently. "Lissa kissed me at the carnival, remember?"

It was then (ladies and gents) that everything Fang was talking about hit me like punch in stomach.

And it was also like a kick in the gut, punch to the face, stab in the back, and just about every type of pain you can think of all rolled into about three seconds of utter horror and recognition.

"Lissa kissed you…" I repeated as the words sunk in and twisted sickeningly in my stomach. I turned to Fang with my jaw slack and my eyes wide in disbelief.

It couldn't be…no, no….no!...

"People with bloodlust – specifically us..." Fang said, "Aren't supposed to spread bloodlust unless it's to other human avians…"

"Or else the bloodlust backfires in the other person's system…" I said in complete understanding, my eyes still wide in disbelief.

Oh (insert-a-swear-word-of-your-choice-here.)

Fang looked at me solemnly, and it felt like Mother Nature really, truly was out to stab us in the back. My Voice's words (from what seemed like forever ago) whispered evilly in my ear…

…Max, Fang is a human-avian, not just an ordinary human, so his kiss with that girl Lissa was meaningless — and, the bloodlust was not actively in his system when he kissed her…


…However, if Fang's bloodlust had been active and he'd somehow exchanged blood or saliva with her or vice versa – say he'd bitten or kissed her, then I'm afraid to say that Lissa would be lying close-to-dead right about now... a pity, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind it if your competition was destroyed ---

I heard my heart thudding in my ears and had to swallow hard before I managed to speak again.

"…Lissa's dying, isn't she?" I whispered to him.

Fang just nodded.

DUN DUN DUHHH!!!

All I can say is, I hope all you Lissa-haters are happy...

;-p

More on Lissa and this new problem are coming soon!