Well, my guess wasn't that far off. We cruised in, landed in some forest, tucked our wings in tight, and walked into the tiny town. There, we got some chow from that little take out shop that we went to before.
"Nothing like a good, greasy, fatty, burger to start your day," Iggy said and I remembered that despite all of today's interesting events, it was still only about 10:30am. Cool, so, that left us a whole day with the werewolves. Gosh, what was I thinking when I agreed to this?
Max, Max, Max, Max, you need to do this. You need the pack's secrets, I think it was a good idea, the Voice said.
"Urgh. It was so not a good idea," I muttered.
"What wasn't a good idea, Max?" Gazzy asked.
"Nuthin' sweetie," I muttered. Stupid Voice.
Just go with the flow, Max. Ride the wind, the Voice said.
Ride the wind? I thought. Well, there's a new one. Really, I wasn't expecting an answer so I nearly jumped out of my skin when the Voice chuckled. It never chuckled. What had gotten into it? Where did its great mysterious, never-give-anything-away-that-might-be-helpful, all serious attitude go? God help me if my Voice started having mood swings. Urgh. It gave me shivers just thinking about it.
"So, what now?" Iggy asked.
I glanced at Fang and he raised an eyebrow at me. Urgh. Just cause I thought on my feet and never really planned ahead. Well, sometimes but that's not the point.
"We go find some werewo-" I started saying but was cut off by someone behind me saying. "Not in here!" I whipped around and saw a tall, buff, tan guy – your typical Indian werewolf.
"Err, right. Umm, hey?" I said.
"Hello. Sam's going to want to talk to you. He's been waiting for you to come back. You did just in time too – we were just about to send out some guys to search for you," he replied and sat down at our table. Uh, since when did we invite him to sit at our table? I don't remember saying anything like 'Take a seat, we can have a friendly chat about your boss wanting to see us'. Hell, no.
"Umm, excuse me?" I said, appalled.
"What?" he looked taken aback.
"Don't worry," Nudge said, cutting off my snide reply.
"Why don't you finish off you meal and come with me?" he asked hopefully.
"How about no?" I said before I could think. Nudge looked at me exasperated.
Hey, it's not my fault if I get defensive whenever someone tries to boss me around. "Umm. Okay, I guess," I said. I motioned for the others to be on guard with our hand signals, which got the guy's attention. He frowned at me but didn't say anything.
We finished our meal, aware of the guy watching, mouth hanging wide open when he saw Angel eat three cheeseburgers and a large fries then chug down a bottle of Coke by herself. What could I say? We were human avian hybrids who ate a lot.
"That's, uh, a lot of food, you know," he said when we'd finished. "Like, we eat a lot, but even we don't eat that much." He jerked his head towards the mountain of trash that was all that was left from our brunch.
"Okay, well, are we done guys? Anyone want anymore?" I asked, looking around at them all.
"Hmm, I dunno. I'll take another burger with me," said the Gasman. I ordered him his food and bought the others drinks with my Maximum Ride credit card.
"Okay, take me to your leader," I said when we were outside again. The Flock burst out laughing and the werewolf smiled.
Before he could answer, though, an Indian girl ran up. I recognised her as Leah, the only girl werewolf. "Paul! Sam wants to talk to you, you were late and he was worried, maybe there were some bloodsu-" she stopped and stared at us. "Oh," she sneered, "you found the bird children."
"You make it sound like we were lost," I snapped at her and she blinked. This girl just got under my skin. Urgh, she was nearly as annoying as me.
"Yeah, where's Sam?" Paul asked.
"Emily's," she said. "Now, I got to go, Jacob's waiting. See you." She ran off, back the way we came.
Emily's turned out to be a small house. We walked in and were greeted by the head honcho himself – Sam Uley.
"Hello," Angel said, bouncing her way through their front door.
"Be on guard, guys," I said under my breath. I knew they could hear me though. "The usual," I muttered. Which meant, literally, map escape roots, size up the opposition, look for possible weapons and memorize the lay out of the house. You know, being a mutant freak raised in a dog crate tends to make you a little bit paranoid. A bit untrusting. Wary. Just to let you know.
"Go get Billy and Sue," Sam told a young werewolf who looked like he was about thirteen.
All the werewolves stared at us expectantly and I could feel the tension building in the air. I was wound tighter than a yo-yo and was about to grab the kids, jump put a window and do an up-and-away in about two seconds flat. Fang's stiff body behind me told me he was thinking the same thing.
"Who wants some cookies?" a lady asked, breaking the tension. She walked out with three plates of chocolate chip cookies and set them on the table and watched the werewolves jump on them and wolf them down like there was no tomorrow.
"Thanks Emily," they mumbled with their mouths full of the cookies. Yuck. I could see it all mashed up in their mouths. Talk about bad table manners.
Don't worry, Max, I'll make it better, Angel said in my head and I glanced at her suspiciously. I was about to tell her to no nothing when she looked at Sam and said, in a bleak tone, "Let's go sit outside."
He swallowed his cookie, blinked, then said, "Let's go sit outside." He got up abruptly and walked outside. The others looked confused but shrugged and followed him, taking handfuls of cookies on the way.
"Do you want any?" Emily asked and we all said no. They could be poisoned or something. I'd taught my Flock better than to accept food off strangers.
We all followed the werewolves outside and I felt myself unwind a bit. Here, we could make a nice, good, clean escape. I smiled and Angel and whispered "Thanks" in her ear. I'd tell her off for playing mind-puppet with the Alfa Wolf later. I was too grateful right now.
Nudge had a ball getting to know the wolves. She seemed to get along with Seth, the guy from the beach, a lot. Iggy and the Gasman were talking to a group of werewolves about bombs and gun types, totally rapped and Angel was helping Emily make another four batches of cookies.
Well, just cause they were cool with this situation didn't mean that Fang and I were too. Being near these wolves made me feel edgy. I would rather be anywhere than in this situation. Well, maybe not anywhere, like, I'd rather be here than in a freaking dog crate at the School, for example, but still.
Some old guy in a wheel chair rocked up with his son, the second Alfa Wolf, Jacob and some lady. When they got here though, I went on red alert. Sam, Jacob, Billy – the old yahoo in the wheel chair – and Sue – the lady – kept shooting me meaningful glances. When they called 'attention' to get our story out of us, it took all of my will to not jump out of there and tell them to shove it up their backsides.
"So, what's the story?" Sam asked.
Tell them, Max. Tell them everything, the Voice said.
I felt my mouth fall open and wouldn't do anything to close it. Tell them everything! Over my dead body!
Maximum, they'll never trust you otherwise, it said.
I weighed my options in my mind. The Voice had never told me anything to harm me and it had never lied to me. We needed to get these guys to trust us so how could it work better than to tell them our story? I mean, if I were in their shoes I wouldn't open my mouth until I had heard everything. Heck, I still probably wouldn't tell them then, since I'm just paranoid that way. On the other hand, I had never let anyone know our story apart from Mum and Ella. And that was after I had known they were my family for months. It was too dangerous. They could be working for Them. They could betray us to Them. I looked around at the werewolves' faces. I couldn't see anything, well, evil-ish in them. Then I looked at my flock. Nudge looked willing and so did Angel. No one else probably saw past Fang's expressionless face but I could see from the strain in his jaw that he didn't like this idea much either.
I sighed heavily. Pick anything up, Angel? I thought.
No. They just want to know what's going on. They want to know our story because they thought they were the only other part human part animal people. They want to know if we are a danger to their people. Nothing bad, Max. They're really curious, too, she sent back, looking at me with wide, innocent eyes.
Max, you really don't have a choice in this.
"I always have choices!" I snapped. All the wolves looked surprised and the Flock just looked . . . wary and knowing. As if they were used to me talking to no one in particular. Great. That made me feel so much better. "Don't worry," I said before anyone could ask.
Fang took my hand, making me feel a whole lot better. I guess I had to do this, no matter how much I hated it.
"You want to know everything?" I asked warily and Fang looked at me disapprovingly.
"Yes. We need to know," Billy said gravely, staring at me intently.
"I wouldn't go that far. Oh well, you asked for it. I'm not going to spare you the horrible, disgusting, gross details though. You want the full story, you get it. Agreed?" I said.
"Yes," Jacob said and the others nodded.
You're doing the right thing, Max, the Voice said. Did I hear an approving note in its monotone? Hmm.
"Don't blame me if I corrupt your minds then," I said. Well, it wasn't my fault I was a science experiment who lived in a dog crate next to half mushroom half human recombined life forms. And worse.
Basically, I told them everything. In some places I needed the Voice's urging and some places, like the Red-Haired Wonder and what happened between Fang and me on countless occasions, I left out completely.
There was silence for a few minutes after I'd finished talking. Finally, though, Seth broke it by turning to Nudge and asking, "Can you really attract metals and feel emotions through stuff?"
"Yeah, it's really cool, I could show you," she said and looked around for something magnetic. She held up her hand and a spoon flew to her.
"Awesome!" Collin exclaimed. Man, this was getting sad. I knew their names. Normally I didn't get a chance to know people. It was more like 'hello, goodbye,' cause there was some crazy Eraser or Flyboy or M-Geek out after me. See how anti-social my life is?
The next hour passed with us showing them our powers. Everyone got a little freaked out when Angel turned into a bluebird and Fang disappeared all together.
Sam, though, was all business. "You won't harm anyone?" he asked, frowning.
I laughed, surprising everyone. I'm pretty sure they thought that the only thing I could do was scowl. "Of course not, idiot. Jeez, so I'm going to save the world but harm everyone in the process? Butcher your town for fun? No," I said, shaking my head, "I'm not Itex."
He looked relieved.
Well done, Max, the Voice said. I know how much that took for you to share your story with them.
I was oddly pleased in some weird, un-Max like way. I shook off the feeling and returned to the conversation.
"So, what are you doing here anyway?" Jacob asked.
"We're going to train with vampires," Nudge said happily. "And we're meant to-" I cut her off, screaming, "Nudge!"
Everyone looked startled. "The Cullen's?"
"Who?" I asked. Then I remembered them mentioning some 'vegetarian' vampires before when we first got their story, after we fought the M-Geeks together.
Speaking of which, where were the M-Geeks? I had expected them to rock up and crash our party before this. I would have to figure that out later.
"Hey!" Angel exclaimed, cutting off whatever one of the wolves were saying about these Cullen's. "That's the girl from Seattle!"
"What!" I demanded. This girl kept showing up everywhere and I didn't like it. Not one bit.
"The pixie girl. Alice. She's a Cullen, a vampire and a future teller," Angel explained.
"Stop reading our minds," someone snapped. Someone else muttered, "Edwards enough."
"Oh, yeah? The one who saw us today?" Gazzy asked.
"Yes. She was hunting then," Angel said matter-of-factly.
"Not humans?" Sue asked, speaking up for the first time.
"No. Animals, in the forest near Forks." I saw the wolves visibly relax and wondered what that was about.
"The Cullen's have a pact with us wolves. As long as they don't hunt humans and come onto our land, we won't bring them down," Sam explained, seeing our looks.
"Right. So, she won't turn us over to Itex or tell someone that she saw us?" Iggy asked.
"No, the opposite, I think you'll find. The Cullen's need to stay inconspicuous."
"Why do you need to train with them though?" Jacob asked, frowning. "That's what I don't get."
"Remember Max's Voice?" Iggy said and I scowled. "It said we had to."
We had to explain why we listened to a Voice inside my head then. Not very fun, trust me. While we had been talking I had begun to relax and I had felt Fang do the same. We were still on our guard but we weren't on red alert anymore.
"Well, in that case, if it's got to do with your mission and everything," Jacob's voice trailed off and we all looked at him. I nodded and he continued, "I better introduce you guys."
"Introduce us?" I said, frowning. This wasn't making sense. "I thought you guys were, like, at each others throats."
Seth laughed and Jacob smiled, "Not quite. We haven't told you everything," he said. Oh, I know that, I thought sourly.
"Well, I'm on friendly terms with the Cullen's. Mainly cause of Nessie," he said. He then went on to explain what had happened to the Cullen's and the packs in the last couple of years. Bella, a human and Edward, a vampire falling in love, the couple breaking up, a couple of vampire wars as a result, their marriage, their half human half vampire child and then another vampire war. And I thought our lives were messed up. Who the hell falls in love with a vampire?
"So, how's about tomorrow I'll take you over there?" he offered.
I looked at the Flock. This was our chance. I didn't like it much but I couldn't see how this could be done any other way.
Say yes, Max.
"No freaking duh," I snapped at the Voice. "Voice," I muttered when I saw everyone looking.
"How's about it guys?" I asked, looking at my Flock.
They all agreed enthusiastically and Fang shot me a look that said 'You must be joking'. I shot him one back that said 'Oh yeah? You got a better idea?'
"They do this all the time," Angel explained. "They talk in glances."
"Seriously?" Paul asked, staring at us.
"No," I snapped at him. Angel giggled and said, "Yeah, they do. I don't know how and they can only do it with each other."
"Yeah, we'll come. I don't like it but between Angel," I said, glaring at her. "And the Voice, I don't really get a choice."
"Right then. I'll see you around 10:00am at the Thrifty Way," Jacob said.
I looked at my flock and noticed how late it was. Time to go. "C'mon guys," I said, standing up and brushing my hands off on my tattered jeans. "U and A."
Angel went first, white wings standing out beautifully against the grey sky. Then Nudge, tawny wings wide and amazing. Then Gazzy, Iggy and Fang. I went next, letting my wings snap out behind me, catching the wind. I heard the gasps.
"Go super fast!" someone shouted and I laughed. Heck, I wanted to, too. May as well give them a show. We all surged upwards, me leading the way by miles because of my super speed.
I had given the Flock strict instructions. Be on guard. Map escape routes. Don't start any fights. Until we know more about them, don't go near the vampires.
Now we were flying over the forest, towards the vampire lair. Jacob's wolfy body shot through the trees below us, leading the way. Angle and Nudge kept musing about what was going to happen. Iggy and Gazzy were organising something – most probably their newest explosive. I'd have to have a word with them about that. Fang keep looking around and I could tell he'd rather be doing anything then doing this. I totally agreed with him.
Hey. I was flying into a vampire lair. I had a right to be a little nervous, anxious, paranoid, etc. The usual feeling you get when you were flying towards people who would most probably suck your blood. I know what you're thinking though, they're vegetarian vampires, right? They only hunt animals? Yes. That was what was on my mind, too. I bet you don't have a problem with that since you're almost definitely fully human. I'm not. The Flock isn't. We're 2% bird. Birds are animals. See the problem? They might bet the munchies for some good Avian-American bird kids. Not good.
"We're almost there," Angel sang happily.
This is it, Max. Try not to do anything too rash, my Voice said.
Oh, you call me rash. I can be rash all I want to be, thankyou very much. I was flying into a house full of vampires. That's not rash. If I had any common sense I'd turn around now and get my Flock's butts out of here. But you, Voice, are making me do this, I thought back.
No reply. What a surprise.
"You guys, wait out of harms way until I say so, okay?" I said. They all nodded.
"How come Angel's the only one who can go with you? I'm older, I should be allowed, too," Gazzy whined.
"Because Angels a mind reader and I need her. Also, she can control minds which might come in useful, Gazzy," I explained for the thousandth time.
"I don't like it either," Fang said, gliding closer to me so our wings touched on every downstroke. "I want to go with you."
"Fang," I began, ignoring the random butterflies that just happened to erupt in my stomach when his feathers touched mine, but was cut off by Nudge shouting, "There it is! Look! It's a mansion! Max, oh Max, I want to live in a house like this. This is the best house ever. I wonder if they built it. If I could build my own house it would be pink and I'd have a farm like at Anne's and lots of little animals. Oh and baby sheep-"
"Nudge," I said, massaging my temples. "Do us a favour and shut up, please."
A white mansion shot up out from the forest in front of us. Crap! No one mentioned the vampires were rich. Man, that was an understatement. They were filthy rich. They'd give Bill Gates a run for his money. Haha, run for his money . . . their rich . . . Oh well, you don't get me. I could see what Nudge meant though, it was awesome.
"Stay, till I know it's safe," I said and scanned the ground, found a suitable landing runway and dived down, fast. I landed running, wings out stretched for balance. A soft thump announced Angel's landing behind me.
"C'mon, honey," I said and took her hand.
"Jake!" said someone and a little girl about eight rushed forwards and leapt into Jacob's arms.
"Nessie!" he said and started talking to her. I hadn't seen him change back human, but my attention was on the vampires. Werewolves were old news here, people. So yesterday.
Eight people – no, vampires – stood on the front porch. They were all stunningly beautiful with golden eyes. A sign they were vegetarians, according to the wolves. They looked at us with interest.
I can't read their minds, Max, Angel said, looking startled. Well. There goes that plan. Its okay, sweetie, I thought back to her.
I'll try again; her voice spoke in my mind.
She stared ahead with concentration written all over her tiny little face. "Sorry, Max. Can't get through," she said.
"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault," I said and gave her hand a squeeze.
"My name is Carlisle Cullen," said a blonde supermodel stepping forward and holding out his hand to me. "And I presume your Maximum?"
I looked at his hand then stared at him. He acted like he was a normal human being. Like he wasn't a vampire and probably thinking about how tasty my blood would taste like. He dropped his hand and a bronze haired guy snorted.
"Yes. I'm Max. You're the vampire," I said bluntly. "The vegetarian vampire." I put a lot of emphasis on the word vegetarian.
"Yes. Well, we all only drink animal blood," he said looking confused.
"That's my point. I'm part animal."
His eyes widened. He glanced up at the Flock who were hovering in the sky above us.
The pixie girl, Alice, skipped forward. "No, you needn't worry," she said looking up at me. "You really don't smell that nice."
I looked at Angel then I remembered she couldn't read their minds. Not something I liked very much. Who knew what they were planning? They were probably going to lure us in, strap us to a gurney and suck our blood out.
"Hardly," a velvety voice said and a bronze haired guy stepped forward. I went on hyper alert, ready to jump into the air with Angel in about two seconds flat. There were way too many vampires in my personal space-bubble now. "You'd never get away from us that fast," he said again and I got a little freaked. It almost, almost, sounded like he was reading my mind. "Not almost," he said again, staring at me.
"W-o-w," Angel said slowly. "I thought the wolves were joking!" Everyone looked at her, wondering what she was going on about. "Max! He can read minds like me," she said and started bouncing up and down on the spot.
"You never mentioned this before," I said, frowning. I was a bit distracted by the gut instinct that came to me when the vampires were close. It screamed at me saying: 'Run! Fly! Get outta here fast!'
"I thought they were joking when I heard what they were thinking. Besides, I was looking for bad stuff. Like if they worked for Itex or the School, like you told me too," she said.
Okay. Point taken. "If I can deal with you, I can deal with him," I said jerking my thumb at Edward.
"Bella? Are you shielding them?" Edward asked suddenly.
"No, just us and Jake," a brunette said.
Edward looked at Angel. "I can't read your mind. Can you block?" he asked.
"I dunno. I guess, maybe. I just made my mind all smooth and hard so you wouldn't be able to read me. Like how Jeb does with me," she said innocently. So that was how Jeb blocked his mind. Useful tip, I'd have to try it out some time.
Thump, thump, thump, thump, announced the Flock's landings behind me. I wanted to rip their throats out. I told them to stay up there! I didn't though, because that meant turning my back on the threat – on the vampires.
"What do you think your doing, Fang?" I hissed.
"Joining the party," he said.
"Yeah Max! I want to meet the vampires; they look really cool and pretty. I wonder if I'll ever look that pretty. I hope I do. If I did then I could be, like, a model. I'm tall enough and skinny enough for it, don't you think? And I could try on pretty clothes all the time and go shopping. Oh Max, you still haven't taken me shopping. I still want that girls shoes. Oh yeah. That was the pixie one right? Alice, I think it was," Nudge babbled. She spun around and faced Alice. "Where did you get those shoes from? They were so awesome. The ones you wore when we saw you in that little coffee shop in Seattle. Were they expensive? I hope not because we don't have much money. Wait, we have Max's bank card-"
"Nudge! My ears are going to explode!" moaned Iggy, clamping his hand over her mouth. Thank god, I thought.
"You liked my shoes? They were pretty cool, weren't they? They cost about a $180 but they were marked down. We should go shopping or –" Alice said.
"Alice," a pretty caramel haired motherly lady said.
"Sorry Esme," Alice said but she was still bouncing.
Right. Training with vampires was okay – just.. We needed to do this to save the world. Going shopping with vampires on the other hand was an entirely different matter. There was no way in hell I was going shopping with a vampire. I tend to usually avoid both dangerous mythical creatures and shopping malls. Put them together and there's no hope.