AN: Guess what? This is the official halfway point of the story. I started this two months ago (exactly!) and I have ten more chapters (and weeks) to go. Thanks for sticking with me through this all!
Ahem. So I just randomly decided to flip through my old Twilight fic CinderBella and I noticed that Blawwmkw stuck with me through that fic and many others. So, just for reading my stuff for the past three years, this chapter goes out to Blawwmkw! Enjoy!(:
The Battle of the Exes
Summary: Two years after Fang left, he's back, with his own flock, on Jeb's orders. Chaos ensues as Dylan fights for Max, Max wreaks havoc on Fang and his new 'girlfriend', and Fang attempts to execute his own plans without revealing his ulterior motive for returning.
Chapter Ten: Demonic Angels
Angel was already getting sick of the fighting, and Fang had only been at the Martinez house for twenty-four hours. After his and Max's talk, they blatantly ignored each other. After a week, Angel was just as mad as Max.
She turned to Lux, her now constant companion, and said not a word.
Lux grinned back at her, loving the idea. "When do we start?" she asked.
"As soon as possible," Angel replied.
"You want to split it?"
"Sure. Why don't you get her; she thinks you're utterly adorable. I'll get him; he can't resist me. And then tomorrow…"
The pair smiled with relish. "Tomorrow it happens," they said together.
{[(/*\)]}
Fang knew that Max hadn't really meant what she'd said. She had just been angry, and had acted and spoken according to that anger. Yes, it had hurt (still hurt, even after a week), as he knew was the desired effect. He knew Max. And he knew that there was still something, some hope for them.
Max had also always had a lot of pride. When someone messed with her, she didn't forget. When swords were crossed, she remembered. He'd hurt her, and she wasn't going to give in to him easily.
But he was positive that she still had some scrap of feeling for him. She did care, even if she hated him. That was still some feeling.
Fang sighed. He thought back to two years before, when he had had what he wanted, what he'd been looking for. And then things had gotten complicated. His very presence in Max's life had seemed to endanger it. He couldn't bear the thought that, if he'd been standing too close to her at the wrong moment, a bullet or something that had been intended for him would hit her and end the meaning for his existence. She could have died and he would've been at fault.
He remembered in the club in L.A., when Angel had pulled the gun and targeted Max. He had never known more fear than he had in that moment. One shift of Angel's little finger, one change in her unstable mind, and Max would've fallen, a bullet in her heart. And Angel had done it to protect the flock and…Fang.
Angel bounded in, her smile slipping away as she became serious and said earnestly, "Fang, that wasn't your fault. I made that decision for me and the four others that were under my protection at the time. You had nothing to do with that gun getting pointed at Max."
"But you can't deny that I was wanted. And that was putting Max in danger," Fang replied stubbornly.
"If you really believed that, then why'd you come back?"
Fang's face fell. Stupid mind reader… "I came back because Jeb convinced me to."
"And since when have you respected Jeb and his wishes?"
Fang said nothing, hoping that she might just go away.
"I'm not going anywhere, Fang. I know you didn't come back just for that. But what convinced you that you would no longer endanger Max?"
Sighing, he said, "Because they found me."
Angel nodded, waiting for him to continue.
"They found me and…then they let me go. I'm not sure what they did. Maybe they were just checking up on their little experiment, like when they took you. After that, though, I felt stronger. Replenished. And after that I could do this at any time."
"Do what?" Angel asked, but then she saw that Fang was no longer in front of her. "Fang…?"
He tapped her shoulder from behind.
Angel crinkled her eyebrows, trying to dig the answer from his mind, but he knew how to keep her out. "Teleportation?"
He shook his head. "No. I doubt they would actually give me something that useful. It's just the same old invisibility. I just command it now."
Angel laughed half-heartedly. "So all that time they were just looking to bring you in for a check-up?"
"I guess so. I mean, they let me out of there in one piece, didn't they? But it also means that they'll probably try to get the others in eventually. I just happened to be the first to disappear, the first…"
"The first to die." Fang looked at Angel strangely. "In a manner of speaking," she added. "It sure felt like you had died after you left."
He shrugged. "So I figured, since they'd already gotten me and wouldn't be searching for me anymore, that people would be safe around me again."
"When did that happen?"
"Um…maybe six weeks ago. I got Pepin out of that joint when they released me."
"So they took you when you had the others with you?"
"Yup. In the dead of the night. I was on watch. I was back before a week was up, found Izzy and the others, and introduced them to Pep."
"And then…?"
Fang frowned slightly. "And then Jeb found me. Told me he needed my help, that you guys would need the help of my flock very soon. I almost said he could forget it, but then I remembered what I left behind. And I told him to count us in."
"So why'd you really come?"
Running his hand through his hair, he sighed. "You know why I came back, Angel. You of all people know."
Angel nodded. "Well if that's why you came back, you're doing a horrible job of it."
"I know, I know. But it's just that Max has always been stubborn and even more so now. I didn't think I would do so much damage. I'm even starting to think that I hurt her more by leaving than I possibly could have by staying. She wants almost nothing to do with me, and what she does involves pain, revenge, and violence." He winced slightly.
"You know, last week, during your guys' fight, when she was yelling, that was the first time she's said your name since you left. Even mentally, she didn't like to."
This caught Fang's interest. "What'd she call me then?"
Angel grinned. "Either the asshole or the idiotic ex-boyfriend."
Fang glared at her, knowing she was probably telling the truth. "So what did you come here for, to tell me it's hopeless?"
"No. To tell you that if you're seriously serious, you're going about this all wrong."
"How do you figure?"
"Max was healing. But your coming just ripped open all her old wounds, and not just wounds. She's glad to have you back, she really is. But she resents the fact that you can still bring out those feelings in her, that you still have control over her heart. That's why she's working so hard to shut you out. And if she succeeds in scaring you off, she'll regret it the moment you leave again, but she won't go after you. She hates looking weak. You know that."
"But then how am I supposed to show her that I'm not going anywhere until she cracks, until she accepts me or truthfully tells me that she doesn't care about me?"
"You keep pushing."
"I've been pushing, Angel! And I always get punched or slapped or shut out for it!"
"Maybe you took it a bit too fast. Now she's had a week to fume. She won't be so totally upset. You might be able to get through to her."
Fang opened his mouth to speak, but his mind was also open. Angel answered his question before he could ask it.
"As for your other…dilemma, I'm sure Lux and I could find a way to clear some time when Izumi and the others won't be around. It'll just be you and Max, here, all alone."
Fang narrowed his eyes. "You and Lux?"
"My new partner in crime." Angel grinned, looking totally unlike an angel.
"I don't know…"
"Oh, come on, Fang! We can all go to the movies. Max hates the movies, Dr. M is still at work, and everyone else would jump at the chance to get out of here. All you would have to do is say you don't feel good and stay home."
"But then wouldn't Max just go to avoid me?"
"We'll ask her first and she'll tell us to find out if you're going and say then she'll make her decision. We'll just conveniently 'forget' to check back with her. And then it'll just be you two."
"Do I really have any say in the matter?"
Angel shook her head vigorously, her curls flying. "Nope."
{[(/*\)]}
I jumped about ten feet when I saw Lux standing in my shared room. The door had been closed and I'd had a book open in front of me, but I'd been dozing off. Then she'd suddenly been inside. I hadn't heard the door open or close, hadn't noticed her step inside.
"Hi, Max!" she said brightly. For all her adorableness, she scared the hell out of me.
"Hi, Lux," I replied cautiously.
She bounced over to my bed and sat down on the end. I didn't let my gaze leave her.
"Don't worry, I'm not here to kill you or anything silly like that." Her grin made me think otherwise.
I sighed. "If you say so."
She looked around the room for a bit before blurting, "Do you like Fang?"
I sat up quickly, my book flying out of my hands in surprise. Where the hell did she get the idea to ask me that question?
"What?" she asked innocently.
I narrowed my eyes. "Nothing."
"So do you like him?"
Involuntarily, my mind flashed back to more than two years earlier. I was with Fang, and I mean with him. He was kissing me and it felt amazing. I could almost feel it and clearly picture it and from the look on Lux's face, so could she.
That dirty rotten mind reader.
I immediately slammed the image out of my mind, hoping that she wouldn't be able to read the emotions that accompanied the image as well.
"You do. I knew it," she said.
Damn it. I couldn't lie to a mind reader. It was practically impossible. "What business is it of yours?" I retorted.
"None. It's just curiosity."
"Curiosity killed the cat," I warned her.
"But satisfaction brought it back." She smiled at me.
I was about to say she wouldn't be satisfied when she cut me off.
"So why is it that you're so mean to him?"
I felt my cheeks flash scarlet. "Because I don't want him here. I never did."
Again, I found myself seeing Fang in my mind's eye. He was smiling at me, his hair brushing against his eyelashes. His perfect lips were pulled over his teeth in what I had considered to be my smile. His eyes were full of emotion, this one love. Caring.
And I felt myself smiling at the memory of those days.
"Yeah, you do," Lux protested.
I glared at her. Was she a mind reader or a mind controller?
"A little of both, I suppose," she answered. "But you're definitely right: you can't lie to me."
"Why are you so interested anyway?" I challenged, sitting up a little taller. I wasn't about to be outsmarted by a ten-year-old, mind reader or not.
She grinned again and I almost shivered. "Because. You're screwing yourself over. Fang's a great guy and he likes you, if I'm not mistaken."
I pursed my lips. I didn't want to hear this. "Then you must be mistaken."
"No, I'm not. Mind reader, remember? Besides, even the blind guy can tell."
"Doesn't matter," I argued weakly.
"Yes it does! If you guys don't fix things, you'll end up with the desperate dude! It's like Juliet giving up on Romeo and settling for Paris!"
"Yeah, 'cause when she chooses Romeo they end up killing themselves," I mumbled.
"Okay, then it's like Cinderella not trying on the glass slipper and getting stuck with her stepsisters while Prince Charming goes off to marry some other girl."
"You see too much truth in fairytales. More truth than there actually is in them."
"Come on, Max. Just think about it."
I shook my head. "No, I've made up my mind and some little kid, no matter how much she pesters me, is not going to change my mind!"
Lux looked straight at me and she suddenly seemed much older than ten. "You're right there, Max. Only you can change your mind."
And then she left.
Sheesh. Kids these days…. They knew way more about romance than should've been legal…
AN: Don't you just love Lux? I do. And besides that, I think she's just about the only redhead Max doesn't hate...hahaha.
So...REVIEWS are like CHOCOLATE, which I have been craving as of late. REVIEW!