Chapter 9
"Running away?"
I turned, facing silhouette-Fang, "No," I said slowly, "I wouldn't do that to them,"
The corner of Fang's lips tweaked into an ironic smile, "No, not to them," he agreed softly and I flushed, glad for the moonless night.
"Gazzy is dead," I was proud and a little disappointed when my voice remained steady, I heard Fang's sharp intake of breath.
"I know," he said shortly, his voice darkening. I felt a wave of regret at his tone. Why was I doing this? Emotional distancing, keep our grief apart, share nothing – I suppose my early years hadn't made me one for sharing; it wasn't as if the scientists told us to play nice or share our dog crates.
I cleared my throat and pushed away the urge to apologize, "Did you see the shooter?" There'd been several large trees towards the far end of the park and I'd caught Angel whispering that she hadn't heard the birds.
No bird minds meant either there were no birds – we knew that wasn't true – or it was beyond her range of 'hearing'. How could the sniper have known? Even we'd never considered how far exactly Angel could pick up minds from.
Fang shook his head, "Max, please… just let it go," he said, then added, "I didn't see anything," as if he'd thought better of ignoring my question.
That didn't stop me from going right ahead and ignored his answer.
I glared at him, "Let it go? Like you made me let Gazzy go?" my voice broke then and I gulped, feeling my eyes grow hot. I folded my arms around myself and drew my wings in tight holding back from completely breaking down and sobbing.
"Max," Fang started his voice softer and understanding, "Please, you know we had to leave him – there was nothing we could do." He sighed and I imagined he closed his eyes, or maybe I could see a small glimmer of reflected light where his eyes were, "We cannot take these people on, they warned us away, they use deadly force and they don't miss," he shook his head as if willing me to understand – but I already did.
Revenge was stupid. It wouldn't bring Gazzy back and it would most likely lose another one of us. But letting him go… it didn't seem possible, like there might be some way to get him back, some way to bring him back. If they could bring back Ari, why not Gazzy? Of course, I knew the answer to that one, I killed Ari, Gazzy had been killed by them – they didn't want him alive.
"What do we do?" I whispered feeling more lost than ever. Before there had been living – finding food, finding shelter, staying safe, but now? Now there was nothing, the bad guys had won, there was no living.
"We survive," Fang said, moving closer and breaking through my thoughts, "We do what we've always done and when, someday, we find out who gave the order, we come back, we find them and we destroy them,"
We said nothing for a long moment, letting his short speech sink in, side by side.
"Revenge is stupid," I said, not looking up at him.
Fang turned his head to stare down at me, "Yes, but we're mostly human – emotion rules us, not practicality or even reason, so we'll bide our time awhile. Recover a little from the shock. Then we'll get our revenge,"
I hate to admit it but I liked his plan. I'd never been a very patient person, but for this I could wait. We'd find whoever did this to Gazzy, to us, we'd find them and we would utterly destroy them. And maybe then the world would stop feeling so threatening.
