I stopped. The school?
I ignored Iggy awaiting my response and grabbed him by his arm roughly, dragging him out of my room, down the steps and to Ms. Martinez's kitchen table. There I picked him up, sat him on the table and lifted his shirt. He shuddered, but I didn't relent. I put my hand on Iggy's chest, all over his scars and burns from all the tests they did on us ran my hands along his shoulders which as a result of heavy work, were now skinny with only scars left. Then I ran my hands along his wings, and his eyes . . . Iggy would never be the same again as he was when he was born, no he had wings even then. He would never be the same as he was meant to be because of those psychopaths and he wanted to go back? I don't care how old Iggy is and I don't care that I'm not his real brother or a father or whatever. I just know that I will never allow Iggy to go back to the school for whatever reason. "What's going on here?" A voice yelled out from behind us. I turned to see Max with the rest of the flock and her sister and mother behind her. All the little ones had big scared eyes and I could tell Angel was trying to get into my head, but I had learned how to block her now. Ella was the first one to notice Iggy's scars, and she gave a horrified look at us. Thinking back, when we were both seven, I'm sure that was the same look I gave Iggy when he showed me just how bad the tests had been. Max had her arms crossed and so did Ms. Martinez. They could deal with Iggy, I had to go and think before we continued this conversation. "Wait!" Iggy called out. I looked back at him to see he wasn't just giving me a blank look of desperation. He was practically glaring at me. "I don't want to Fang, I need to! I need to go back!" He erupted into tears, which was very unlike Iggy. In all my time knowing Iggy, he's only cried four times. Now being the fifth. Every one stared at him as he sobbed into his hands, trying to hide his face. I couldn't just leave him . . . But he wanted to go back to the school. Then it hit me, Iggy had it just as bad as us or even worse. He wouldn't go back to the school unless he absolutely needed to. I shook my head and took a deep sigh. Max was looking between us. She was the only other one who had ever seen Iggy's scars but she didn't know how Iggy felt like I did. She just knew he got really depressed sometimes. I knew the length of how bad it got. I went over to Iggy, picked up his shirt and picked him up wedding-style. I went to the door of the house and said, with only a half look back, "We'll be back, we have some business to attend to." Max was going to argue, but Angel tapped her on the arm and shook her head as to say, 'no'. I was grateful for that, so I extended my wings out and flew as high as I could go while carrying Iggy so no one on the ground could see us. Iggy's eyes were puffy, as he looked in my direction to say, "I'm sorry Fang, but I need to go." I looked down at him, he reminded me of a real angel. Unlike Angel, who was like a cute cherub baby, Iggy was handsome beyond his years and could be either wise or funny with the most human of qualities. It was almost like he was even two different people sometimes, the pleading angel Iggy who I felt such deep feelings for sometimes or the boyish Iggy who made bombs and liked to annoy me. "No", I said simply. He started to whine again, but I quickly put my finger to his lips to stop him. "You're not going without me." Iggy gave a half smile as I glided. Yeah, I couldn't let Iggy go back to the school and get himself caught without me. We landed to hard ground at the Hawk's cave and before Iggy could look around or start talking about something else I took his hand and sat him down. "Now Iggy, tell me the whole story.
He took a deep breath before saying, "You remember when I came back from tests all the time bleeding and scarred?" He asked. I nodded. "Well, they showed me children. Versions of us mixed with other DNA from the other flock members. Max and Gazzy, Nudge and Angel, You and I and so-on." I stared at him in awe, trying to imagine what these kids would look like. Why were the White Coats always trying to throw us off? What they possibly get off out of this? I imagined another angelic Iggy mixed with my traits or face, this was the worst they've done since they were . . . y'know, born. I leaned forward coaxing him to go on. "Back when I was little most of them died, the only ones that were left back then were Angel and Nudge's mix Chevelle and your and my mix Fate. Your and Max's was named Score and he ran away after going berserk one day after being pushed to his limit on a test." I gave him a look of terror, Score was out there somewhere a mix between Max and I, the girl I loved and I. But then again, there was Fate in the school, the mix of Iggy and me, the guy I held dear and me. This was too much to handle, all of it. "And something else," Iggy said, squirming a little. "Fate can communicate through his mind. We're both telepathic now."