((rggh, chapter 8 won't show up…. So I'll post this one and see if that helps… again, REVIEW. And the slithards are my creation ;) yay. They've got thin bat wings, too.))

Fang

I'm a bit worried about this whole Sam thing. God, she's hot, but she's really taking Max's place. And Max didn't seem a whole lot better today, so I wonder if Sam's really helping or hurting. Iggy is sick now, too, and it's freaking me out. I don't know who's next, and I know that there's no escaping it. Angel was looking a bit pale today, so I think she's next. She seems scared of Sam. Maybe it's cause she can't get anything from her. I should ask Sam what's going on. She just landed, and I saw her wings for the first time. Wow. She looked like the height of demons. Demon wings, dark eyes, the height of temptation. Wow.

Sam

When Gazzy asked me about my hand, I feel like I did pretty well hiding my fear.

"I was trying to get the bread with the longest expiration date in the back, and sliced my hand on a sharp bit under the shelf. I'm fine, though," I added. Inside, I was swearing a lot. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang walk over. Oh, crud, I thought, and smiled at him.

"Get much? And nice armband," he said, returning my crocodile smile.

Don't loose your head, Sam. You can't let them know that their leader was cutting themselves.

I held back a snarl. The voice always comes in at the worst times. I'm fine! Get out of my head! I can handle this! I practically screamed at it.

Fine. Oh, by the way, there's about twenty slithards coming at you right about... now.

I swore and spun around as the slithards jumped nimbly through the brush. I could take on about three on my own, five if I was pressured, and the others had no idea how to fight them.

"Aim for the eyes and the wings!" I shouted, leaping into the fray at super speed. They apparently had been trained about my Talents, and were smart. They waited for me, and when I kicked at one it used my speed against me. It let my foot hit its shoulder, and spun with it at about 150 mph, swinging a fist at me. But it wasn't smart enough. When it spun, it was going some 100 mph slower than me, so I had time to get behind it. I grabbed its tail, and spun it, smashing down about four others, two of which fell to the ground and didn't get up. Remind me to laugh later. The slithard that I was spinning grabbed a tree, jerking himself out of my grip, his feet slashing my arm. He launched himself off the tree, but was again too slow. I jumped into the air, my feet clearing his outstretched claws, and timing it perfectly. I landed on his spine, breaking it and killing him. Then I turned back to the battle. Three down, 17 to go.

Fang

I could easily tell when Sam lied about her hand. She was hiding something, but when she gave me a crocodile smile, I forgot what I was thinking about. Then, suddenly, her eyes switched out of focus. It seemed familiar how she did it, like I'd seen it happen before. Then she swore loudly and turned around. Then I think I lost my mind, because freakish snake-men were jumping out of the woods. About twenty of them. Sam shouted something about eyes and wings, so I snapped a kick at the nearest one's face. He just opened his mouth and snapped down on my foot, his fangs buried in my shoe but not touching my foot. I pulled my foot out of the shoe and kicked his chin. His head snapped back, and I heard his neck break. Then I moved to the next victim. I saw Sam kill about three of them in ten seconds flat, and Angel making two fight each other. Gazzy was defending Max and Iggy, who were weakly kicking at them. I killed the next snake dude and ran to Gazzy, helping him.

After a long time of fighting, (I'll spare you the gory details,) we were all standing, panting over about twenty lizard things.

"What were those?" I asked Sam quietly.

"Slithards. Snake men. They've got poisonous fangs, hard scales, thin wings, and claws. They're the new weapon for Itex, smarter, faster, more powerful." She answered, her soft velvety voice giving me new energy. She was like a drug to me, helping me survive. I couldn't live without her.