Chapter Nine

Max had fallen asleep about an hour into driving. She still had Angel protectively curled up in her lap, but she herself was curled up against the door, her head resting lightly on the window. Fang's had his sweating hand resting on the clutch and the other loosely dangling on the steering wheel. He could just barely see Rae's SUV about a mile or so ahead of them.

He hated the whole situation they were in. He couldn't describe how much he wanted to go back and never leave her so she wouldn't be in that kind of danger. Sure, her life was on the line everyday back when they couldn't stay in one spot for five seconds without being attacked by erasers, but never like this. This time she couldn't fight them off, couldn't survive one of their blows. If one of them got to her…he wouldn't and couldn't let that happen.

Angel suddenly stirred beside him. Her eyes snapped open, wide like saucers, and she dug her fingernails into Max's arm, making her yelp and bleed. Max snatched her arm away, putting a hand over the tiny cuts.

"What's the deal, Angel?" Max scowled out of reflex, then stopped when Angel went rigid.

She started wheezing and coughing, like someone was strangling her. Max shook her, saying her name over and over again. She screamed at Fang to pullover and he did so compliantly. He threw open the door to his truck and rushed over to Max's side. He helped Max lay Angel down on the side of the road in the grass so they weren't close to traffic.

"Angel, Angel baby breathe." Max held Angel's head in her lap and forced her to look at her. "You have to breathe. Why isn't she breathing?" she stared, panicked, at Fang.

Angel ripped and pulled at the grass with her fists, arching her back to try and get a little air into her lungs. Fang radioed Iggy, telling him to keep on going, but they had to stop, then hurried back over to Max. She looked up at him with blank eyes, clearly not knowing what to do. Fang leaned his ear down to Angel's chest, listening to her breathing, while Max tried to hold her still.

"I think she's having an asthma attack."

"She doesn't have asthma!" Max wailed, growing panicked.

"You got any other ideas?" he snapped. He put Angel's back to his chest, his hand on hers. He leaned down to her ear. "Breathe with me, Angel. Come on, breathe." Angel fisted his jeans in her sweaty palms as she tried to stay with the rhythm of his slow exhaling. Max felt a lump in her throat watching Angel struggle for breath. She didn't know what to do, or what was happening to her baby, but she had to figure it out and fast.

"That's it," Fang said softly in Angel's ear. "Almost there."

By the time Angel's breathing had slowed to normal, she burst out in choking sobs, frightened and weak. She turned around and buried herself in Fang's chest, sobbing so hard she shook herself as well as Fang. Max just sat on the ground, not knowing what to say or do. Fang kept his eyes on her as he clutched Angel tightly, comforting her. She couldn't break his gaze, so they just sat, on the side of the road, staring at each other, Angel crying her eyes out between them.

An hour later, they were on the road, Angel once again asleep in the tiny back seat. Max stared out the window, holding her head in the palm of her hand. They were silent until Fang felt the need to break the ice.

"It's not your fault," he said quietly. "You couldn't have done anything."

"It is," she whispered. "She's hurting and I don't know how to help her."

"Max," he pulled her wrist so she was facing him. "You don't know what's going on with her, none of us do, so how could you possibly know how to help her?"

"Because it's my job!" she insisted. "I'm her leader, her mother, the only thing she has! I should know how to take care of her and now I can't!"

"Max, stop."

She stopped her rant and looked back to his eyes. "It's not your fault, so quit blaming yourself, okay?"

She took a deep breath, but didn't say anything, just stared on out the road. A chill shot up her spine when she realized Fang was still holding her wrist in his warm hand. Politely she pulled back and retreated inside herself, curled up against the car door.

"Why did they make the Shadows, Fang?" she asked quietly, taking him by surprise.

"Why?" he furrowed his brow. "I don't know. How? I don't know that either. Their purpose? To kill and conquer. I failed to grasp the concept of why or how they were created. Their creator…he's the definition of pure evil. By explanation he thinks he's God and all that that entails. He's bad news. Far worse than we have…we had ever encountered."

Max noticed the past tense he was using and groaned. She didn't want to be reminded of Fang's absence any more than necessary. It was hard enough that she had that reoccurring dream every night, even though he was already back.

"What is she doing?" Fang muttered, leaning forward to get a better glance at Rae's car. The dark SUV was swerving all over the road. Max grabbed the walkie-talkie before Fang could.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" she asked Iggy, watching the car jerk to the right, then to the left and then back again.

"There's a bee in the car," Iggy sounded bored and annoyed.

For the faint second he was on the frequency, they could hear Gazzy laughing his head off just barely behind of the bloody murder screams of Nudge and Rae. Fang gave a pointed look to Max who couldn't stop laughing. He grabbed the walkie-talkie from her hand.

"Iggy, tell your girlfriend to get over it and stop swerving before she kills somebody or we get pulled over."

"Trust me," Iggy radioed quietly back to him. "I've tried."

This made Max laugh even harder. Fang smirked and set the walkie-talkie in the ashtray and smiled over at Max who was just grinning ear to ear now. When she saw him smiling at her, her smile widened.

"So Iggy and Rae are engaged?" he asked when things were calmed down.

Max nodded. "That they are. They've been dating for a few years, since a little bit after we got here and he finally popped the question."

"She obviously knows everything, correct?"

"Well," she shrugged. "Yes, I guess you could say that. Iggy told her about our past, about where we came from, the gory details of our life on the run, but she doesn't know any specifics. She doesn't know that the man that helped create us is also my father and the kid that tried to kill us numerous times was also my brother."

"That's understandable."

"We thought so."

"How much does she know about us?" he was hesitant to ask this.

"She knows enough."

"How much is enough?"

"Enough." She met his eyes with a look that said 'drop it.'

"How far to the next town?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know," she looked around at the scenery. "Probably not very long. We've been driving for hours. Iggy will tell us when he sees anything."

He nodded, letting her know he heard her, but said nothing else. An awkward silence enveloped the two, making Max a little uneasy. Angel shifted, grabbing Max's attention. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Max smiled up at Fang in relief and pulled Angel into a hug.

"Max?" she coughed and sat up in the middle seat. "What happened? My head hurts."

She dared a glance at Fang. "We were hoping you'd tell us, sweetie. What's the last thing you remember?"

Angel squinted, concentrating. "I saw Total, in the forest. I swear I saw him, Max! I swear!"

"Angel," Max sighed. "Tell me exactly what happened before that."

"I couldn't sleep, and I had to go to the bathroom, so I got out of the car and walked towards the forest and he was staring right at me. I called to him, but he didn't say anything, just smiled, then turned and ran. That's when you came over to me. I heard his thoughts…but it didn't sound like him. It was a lot of voices coming from one mind. I couldn't understand what they were saying."

"What else after that?" Max edged.

"That's it."

"That's it? Nothing else?" Fang finally spoke up.

"No," Angel shook her head, slightly wincing, which didn't get by Max.

Her worried gaze met Fang's, which he returned with a reassuring smile that had a surprisingly calming effect on her.

"How's your head?" he asked the ten-year-old. "Does it hurt?"

"No," Angel smiled up at him, wincing again. "It feels fine."

Her answer irked Max. Clearly, Angel was in pain, her face showed that plain and clear. Her eyes though…she meant what she said when she was fine, she wasn't lying or exaggerating. She was fine. Or she thought she was fine. Something had happened to her. Max knew that much. She also knew for a fact that Total was dead. She knew whatever happened to Angel, affected her somehow. What she didn't know was what it was or what exactly it did to her baby.