25.

MAXIMUM RIDE

I sat in my seat—second class—with my hands clenched into fists in my lap. I couldn't believe that I was in a plane on the way to Italy to save Angel from evil vampires; it was unreal. That combined with the fact that there were good vampires in front of and behind me was enough to make me think that I was still dreaming. It was like teen novels of some kind; meant to make the reader keep turning pages, want to know what would happen to Angel, if she was going to be a blood-sucking bird-kid by the last chapter.

I took in my surroundings in silence. Nessie sat on my left, Fang on my right; Edward, Bella, and Alice behind us; Rosalie, Jasper, and Emmett in front of us. It was early, and anything partially human was asleep, which included Ness, whose head rested against my shoulder and chest rose and fell gently. I could tell she was taking this as hard as I was, her eyes were slightly puffy which made me guess she'd been crying when I thought she'd been staring out the window. Angel and Renesmee had to be best friends at this point, they were so similar and they had connected like circuit when they'd first met.

"You can do it, too!"

The image of that moment popped into my head as Ness hugged my arm like a pillow. Oh, yeah, she let you see what she was thinking…she must've been dreaming about when they'd first met. Or when we'd let the Cullens know what we were. Only it was from her point of few. Angel looked so much younger and vibrant through Ness's eyes.

She sighed a little in her sleep and turned over, releasing my arm and resting her head on the window, causing the vision to vanish. I stared at her for moment, feeling kind of awestruck at her ability. I still didn't get the whole half-vampire-half-human thing, but this put some of the situation into my head. I should probably have gotten some sleep before our first flight landed in New York and waiting for our connecting flight to Italy.

"Max?" Alice whispered, putting her head in the gap between Fang's seat and mine. "How're you holding up?"

I blinked, pulling myself out of the pressing urge to fall asleep like Fang and Renesmee had. "I'm okay. Tired, but okay."

"Oh, did I wake you?"

I shook my head, rubbing my arm over my eyes. "No. I haven't slept since before we left for the airport."

"Nightmare still bothering you?"

I nodded.

"Don't sweat it. I get scary visions like that a lot; I just try and make them not come true. What with the future only based on current plans, it's easy to change it."

I couldn't deny the smirk that crept across my face, thinking of what Nudge would say, 'you mean like that one girl from Push? She could see the future too and she said that she was going to change the grim future she'd seen for herself…' and then I'd cover her mouth and tell her to be quiet so the other passengers didn't wake up. "I wish you could see our future."

"I could guess if you'd like," Alice offered, "I know I can't be totally sure on it, but it'd be fun to get back together in a few years and see how I did."

I gave a weak smile, "Okay, give it your best shot."

"You're going to be really pretty when you're sixteen," she began, "and you'll care about how you look more than you do now."

Keep dreamin', Alice.

"Angel will be with you and the Flock, and she's going to look angelic, I think. Her cute little golden curls all grown out…she'll look like a teenaged Shirley Temple. None of you will be vampires."

I chuckled, "Good."

The pilot came on over the speakers, "Good morning, everyone. This is your pilot speaking, we will be making our landing at JFK in a few minutes, so please get your seats into their upright positions and your tray tables up. The current time on the ground is 3:15 a.m."

Renesmee jumped awake next to me, a motion copied a few seconds later by Fang. I couldn't help but laugh a little. But the happiness soon died. In a few short hours we would be in Italy, facing the Volturi to get my Angel back.

And we were going to get her back, even if it took taking them on in hand-to-fang combat.