I was flying over California, I think it was, when a loud scream caught my attention. I would have ignored it ¾ every bird-girl for herself ¾ but Hunter ¾ my falcon/raven familiar ¾ swooped back and tugged on a strand of my hair, pulling me in that direction.

Banking sharply, I swerved, soaring in the direction of the scream. If Hunter thought it was important, it most likely was.

There were six large birds flying west. I squinted, shaping my eyes to that of an eagles, then pulled back sharply, almost forgetting to flap.

They were other bird kids. An entire flock of them! I looked in the direction that they were flying from and saw a low, squat white building, shimmering in the heat. The School. Hmmm… escapees.

I followed lazily after Hunter, my pace not reflecting the pounding of my heart. I knew this area, and it seemed that they were heading towards a cave near Lake Mead about seventy miles southeast.

By the time I got to the cave it was nearly dark. I sensed the strength of the powers in the cave. Mimicry… telepathy… empathy… psychometric… sonic scream… wall-crawling… super speed… water breathing…

But most were still dormant or underdeveloped. The telepath seemed to be fairly powerful, and I debated whether or not to I let my shield slip just enough to let her know I was coming. I decided against it. I didn't know if they were safe or not, so I would wait.

The murmur of voices alerted me to their presence in a cave by a flock of ferruginous hawks nesting grounds. Hunter brushed my cheek with his wingtip before gliding down to converse with his distant cousins-of-sorts.

I perched lightly on the lip of the cave mouth. "Hey-"

I was cut off by someone launching themselves at me. Moving fast from years of practice, I twisted to the side, crouching to the floor and sticking my foot out to trip the boy, touching his arm lightly to show him his Fear as he hurtled by. He had olive skin, shaggy black hair, and black wings.

Someone else moved in to attack me, and Hunter came screeching into the mêlée, leading his new hawk friends. They merely fluttered in the faces of the other kids, screeching loudly and flapping wildly.

I drew the shadows to me, forming a thick wall of pure darkness between us. "Stop!" I shouted at them. "I'm not trying to attack you!"

A small blonde girl with snowy white wings, blonde ringlets, and big blue eyes tugged at a girls arm. She had a bruise on one cheek, but it was fading to an ugly yellowish-brown. The older girl had brown eyes and light hair with sun streaks. Her wings were brown with sprinklings of off-white feathers and tan stripes. I noted sourly that both of them were beautiful, or, at least the little one would be, when she grew up. If she grew up.

"She's telling the truth, Max," the little girl said earnestly.

'Max' looked at her. "Are you sure, Angel?"

The little girl, Angel, frowned. Realizing she was the telepath, I let my guard slip. Just a little bit, though. There were things that I didn't want anyone to see. Ever. Her frown vanished and she smiled widely. "Positive. Her name is Raven."

I let the shadows dissipate slowly, acting with the caution of someone facing a much larger group of people. Another blonde kid ¾ a boy of about ten or eleven ¾ scrambled by, yelling, "Call off the hawks! Call them off!"

"Oh, sorry," I said. I made a chattering sound to Hunter, who in turn relayed it to his new pals. They settled down, swooping out to their nests. One of them stayed, perching on the arm of a tall, pale boy with strawberry blonde hair and milky blue eyes. The hawk preened, running it's beak through the boy's hair. I put a hand over my mouth to hide a smile.

Max stepped forward. "I'm Max. This is ¾ Where's Fang?"

As she spoke, the dark boy hauled himself over the lip of the cave, groaning. I remembered that I had zapped him with his Fear just before knocking him out of the cave. Crap. Max rushed to his side.

"Fang, Fang, what's wrong? What happened?" she cried, her voice panicked.

"Crap," I muttered to myself. I had seen a flash of a cage, and if his worse Fear was being in a cage he wouldn't have been able to fly and would have splattered on the ground. I rushed over. "Get out of the way," I ordered. Max opened her mouth to snap at me, but I didn't give her a chance. "I did it, sort of, and unless any of you can heal, you aren't going to be much help."

I didn't wait to see what she thought, but gently placed my hand on his chest, feeling his pulse and his breathing. My heartbeat and respirations slowed to match his, and I felt that, even with his bird-kid healing, it would take him months to heal, and he would still fly a bit weird.

Unless I did something about it.

I hated doing this. It absolutely sucked. I would give him some of my life-force, part of my Grace, as I called it, to make him whole again. It hurt like hell, and I always felt empty after it.

But it was my fault, and Blade had always told me to pay your debts before they had a chance to pile up. I took another deep, pain-free breath, and let my energy flow into his body.

At first, it seemed like nothing was happening, but I hung on fiercely, refusing to end it even though it felt like I was being stabbed by white-hot needles. But at last I saw movement. Tiny bone spurs began to grow across the breaks, slowly at first, then quicker. Marrow formed, building itself in the protection of the bone. Bruises began to vanish. I didn't allow myself to even consider quitting until marrow, bone, nerves, veins, and muscles were healthy.

When I opened my eyes it was dark, and I was lying on top of someone's purple backpack. There was a whisper of cloth as I sat up, and the conversation at the front of the cave ceased abruptly. The bone spikes on the tops of my wings scraped the stone of the walls, and I ached fiercely. The emptiness wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be, and as for the aches, they would be gone in an hour or two.

A fire crackled, and I scooted closer to its warmth. The desert was chilly at night. A girl with tawny wings and mocha-colored skin sat next to me, nearly bouncing with contained energy. Her hair bounced with her, wild caramel colored curls around her face.

"Hi. I'm Nudge. You're Raven, right? Like the bird, huh? What's your birds' name? He didn't let anyone but Ig ¾ that's Iggy. He's the tall one with reddish-blonde hair. He's blind, but don't act like he's any different from the rest of us. He hates that ¾ come near you. I guess it's because he can like, speak to birds now, you know? What's your favorite color? I like all of them. Why are your wings different, like all covered in spikes, you know? Your like, a shadow manipulator, right? And a healer? What other powers do you have? You look a lot like Fang, don'tcha think? Exactly the same, except you're pale. Well, and sort of… I don't know ghost-looking, all translucent."

She paused, taking a breath to continue, but I jumped in before I forgot the questions she had already asked me. "He's not my bird. He stays with me because he wants to, and his name is Hunter. My favorite colors are red and black. My wings are like this because they used a type of bird DNA from something that doesn't exist anymore, and mixed it with raven DNA. I can show people their worst fears, and I can take on certain animal traits, control the weather, sort of see the future, and talk to the dead."

"Wow, you're like, really powerful," Nudge said, her eyes wide on my face. "Do you have ¾ "

"Nudge!" Max called. "Come over here. We need to vote."

Nudge looked annoyed at being interrupted, and rolled her eyes, but looked back at me and said, "We're all voting to see if you can stay. I want you to stay, and so does ¾"

"Nudge! Now!"

"Coming," she called back. "I'll be right back," she said, and scurried away.