Chapter 37
(Fang's POV)

Iggy had disappeared after we watched rent and we looked for him in the school yard for a bit before Jim said that he probably just went home so we went back to our place to think about the songs. Iggy wasn't home either, and I was beginning to worry and so were the others, but no one wanted to say anything.

It was near 5 o'clock and Jim and Casey were inside talking to Max and Alison. Lili was there helping Alison cook. I was sitting outside on the front porch and staring at the sky. I saw him, flying really high above the house, just going in circles.

I'd been watching him for a while before I jumped up and flew up there.

When I finally reached him I noticed a trail of tears trialing down his face as he flew.

"What's wrong Ig?" I asked gently and I flew up beside him.

He remained quiet for a while, not even acknowledging my presence. I was starting to get really worried when he finally let out a shaky breath and said, "Fang, I need to tell you something very important, and you have to trust me and promise me that you'll never, ever, ever tell a soul."

I nodded, "Ya, I promise Iggy."

"And you can't go crazy and go off and do anything about it," He added.

I nodded; I was starting to get really worried about one of my best friends, "Alright."

He looked me in the eyes and took a deep breath, "My… my dad…" he took another breath. He sighed and looked at the ground, "Fang, when I lived with my parents for that little while before all that craziness my dad would beat me because I wouldn't let them make money off of me."

I stared at him, "For real?" I asked in disbelief.

He nodded, "I'm sorry I never told you guys, but I… I just could do it." I nodded and he looked at me, "And Fang, please don't tell the others, and don't tell Max. You know what she'd do."

I nodded, if Max knew she'd go and kill them for hurting Iggy, and if we told anyone else, they'd tell Max.

"Don't worry Iggy, I won't, but promise me something," I said in a very serious voice.

"What?" He asked quietly.

"Never, ever stay with them again," I said staring him in the eyes.

He smiled slightly, "Don't worry; you don't have to make me promise twice."

I smiled at him, "Well, I'm proud of you Ig. You managed to tell me… but why now? What's got you so suddenly messed up about it?"

He looked at the ground, "Well… I met this girl," he looked up at me, and I could see it in his eyes. He was in love with this girl.

I laughed, "Really? I'm happy for you… but I'm not following as to what this has to do with your good for nothing parents hurting you…."

"Just listen," He said and he told me all about her. He told me about how he went to talk to her and he told me about her dad and how he'd gone to go spy on them and he'd seen them.

"Well we got to do something about that," I said at once.

He stared at me, I think he knew where I was thinking, and I was thinking along the lines of alerting the authorities. "No! Fang, listen to me, it's so much more complicated when you're the one who it's been done to. You can't think straight about it, even now I can't think straight about it. When it's just the two of you or whatever all you can think about is that if you say anything you'll get hurt, and that if you try to disobey them you'll get hurt. They control everything about your life and no matter how much you try to stop it and how much you try to change it you can't and you won't ever change it," He said and I could almost feel the pain and misery coming off him.

"So that's why you were so emotional about that one part in that rap," I muttered thinking back to Iggy's song.

He stared at me in confusion, "What?"

"Well when you rapped that one song to Jim and I… remember? Well there were a few lines in it and it sounded like you really meant it."

He nodded, "Ya, but Fang, we have to do this delicately, she's not just going to come out and say it if you ask her. She has to trust you with her life before that, and she isn't going to just let us in right away."

"Us?" I asked in surprise that he would involve me in this when this was his fight.

"Ya, us, aren't you gonna help?" He asked looking slightly disappointed.

"Ya, of course, but I didn't know if you wanted me to."

"Of course I want you to help. I need you to help; I won't be able to do this by myself. I'm not as… strong as you Fang." He looked at the ground as he spoke.

"Iggy," I said angrily and loudly, "I never, ever want to hear you say that again. You are a strong, intelligent, brave son of an asshole who is stronger than me in many, many ways, so if I hear you say that one more time I'll be the one to pop you in the side of the head." I almost was growling at him at the end. How could he think he wasn't as strong as me?

He nodded looking up at me, "Thanks Fang."

"No problem, so… what's first?"

"I don't know, I don't know how to tell the others without having to tell them about my family and I'm not really ready to tell them," He said looking at the ground that was so far below us.

I nodded, "Leave it to me." He looked up at me; he looked like he was going to ask about what I was going to say, but seemed to think better of it. "Just catch me."

He stared at me, "What?"

"Catch me," I said and let my wings go limp and closed my eyes as I fell towards the earth.

"Shit! Fang," Iggy yelled and dove after me.

He caught me and we landed sloppily and Max noticed and ran outside.

"What just happened?" She asked looking confused and worried, "What happened to you?" She directed at Iggy, "Where'd you go?"

I groaned and Iggy watched me, "Max, I need to lie down." I groaned and she nodded and helped me inside. When Max wasn't looking I winked at Iggy and he shook his head with a smile.

I told Max that I'd seen a vision of a girl getting beat up and I didn't know who she was but I thought I'd seen her before.

"What did she look like?" Iggy asked me, as if he didn't know every freckle on the girl's face.

"Brown hair that has a little red in it," I rubbed my temples, "Blue eyes, boyish clothes. Freckles," I faked a groan that sounded real. I really should be in acting, I thought to myself.

"Oh my God! That's Kari Hennessey!" Casey half screamed.

"Who?" Max asked. Iggy went from white to red as Max noticed his face. "Do you know her?"

He shifted his feet, "I kind of like her…" he said scratching the back of his head, "I talked to her after school… I guess that's what he meant when he said boyfriend," He muttered. Wow, Iggy was good at lying, but then again, I guess he kind of has to be to keep that secret of his for so long….

Jim smiled at Iggy and Max patted his shoulder, "So you finally like someone, congrats." Casey looked extremely pleased about Iggy having a crush on Kari.

"She's a lovely girl, really reserved, but I guess I know why now…" She muttered.

Alison, who had been sitting on the couch next to me, said, "We have to do something. We can't just let her live life like this. No one deserves that kind of treatment, no one."

Iggy avoided my eyes, "Ya, no one deserves to be treated like that, exactly Alison." I said nodding my head fiercely and Iggy shot me a nasty look when no one was looking.

"So what are we going to do? We can't just alert the authorities because she could deny it and then she'd get into more trouble with her dad," Iggy said.

They nodded, "We'll have to just gain her trust," Max said.

We started to plan.

(Iggy's POV)

I was wound tighter than I'd ever been, other than the time before the surgery where I lost my sight. I had to thank my parents for one thing, getting my eyes back was like a gift from God.

We were waiting for Jake to come home for his opinion. We were just going to get to know her, but I knew what it was like to be on the other side of this fight… and by the time she trusted enough to let us do something to help… it would be far too late. Well, too late for my liking anyways.

Jake came home with a guy that was from that new group of wolves and told us that he was going to stay with us because everyone else had a place to stay except him.

We ate dinner and he seemed alright, I was secretly cautious, as usual, I couldn't trust anyone I didn't know anymore because of what my family had done.

The phone rang at 7:30 and Jake jumped up and answered it, "Hello?" He paused, listening to the person on the other line. He shot Fang a glare and said, "Hi Alice its Jacob," as nicely he could.

He suddenly dropped the phone in surprise and we could all tell that she was yelling into the phone, but not one could really hear that well.

He held the phone cautiously to his ear and said, "Alice, look, he's fine…. No there's no trouble," He shot Fang another look and went over to the white board that Alison had set up so that we could leave each other notes if we needed to. He scribbled angrily on it for a second before harshly underlining what he said and raised an eyebrow at Fang.

Why did you tell her we were having some trouble!?

Fang jumped up and wrote quickly, it slipped.

Jake rolled his eyes and listened to Alice for a second, "Hold on Alice, I'm just going to put you on speaker phone while I get him." He said and put her on speaker phone and leaned forward and whispered in Fang's ear and he whispered back.

Weird, was all I thought.

"Fang, if you don't pick up this phone this instant you'll have to deal with a tiny little vampire coming after you to kick your behind!" Alice's snarling words entered the kitchen.

Fang groaned softly and banged his head on the wall before grabbing the phone and saying, "Hi Alice."

(Fang's POV)

The guy that had stared at me the other time when we met them was over at our house and Alice was practically yelling at me over the phone.

"Alice, relax, it was just a misunderstanding. Everything is fine."

"Ya? What about Iggy, huh? You have to tell the others!" She said sounding upset.

"Alice, I have that under control." I said sternly and glanced at the others, especially Iggy. I couldn't talk to her about this if they were all here.

"Fang, I know you're flat out lying. You don't have any idea what to do about it." Alice knew me too well.

"Look Alice, it'll be fine. Everyone is fine. I take it you saw my vision of Kari right?"

She sighed, "Fang, this isn't going to work."

"It'll work… won't it? Why won't it work?" I asked getting annoyed with her lack of confidence.

"Relax Fang; I'm just saying that you won't be able to gain her trust in time."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean you have until the night of the talent show and after that she'll be dead!"

"Alice, the talent show is a week from now; we'll never have enough time."

"That's what I'm saying. I see her going to talk to Iggy tomorrow but she'll only talk to him if he's alone."

"Ok. Thanks Alice, I owe you."

"Ya, I know you do. This little vampire won't come after you this time. Keep an eye out for the Volturi if they plan to come after you for the Jane situation, and watch out for people from the school." Alice said sternly.

"Ya, I got it Alice, bye."

"Bye, Fang." I put the phone down and I realized that everyone but that new wolf guy that had stared at me the other day had left.

"Hey," I said cautiously. "I'm Fang."

He nodded, "I'm Emeric." (A/N: EM er ick)

I nodded, feeling kind of awkward.

"So… who were you talking to?"

"Uh, my aunt Alice," I said sticking my hands in my pockets.

"What was she going on about Vampires for?" He asked frowning slightly.

I shifted uncomfortably for a second, "Because she's a vampire…."

He nodded slowly, "So… why do you talk to her?"

"Because she's family, and I have none anymore," I said and checked the time, "I need to go do my homework," I muttered and walked out of the kitchen.

Awkward, I thought and shook my head as I walked into my room.

(Iggy's POV)

The next day at lunch I went outside with my MP3 Player and leaned against a tree. According to Fang, Kari would come around the corner in 3 minutes. I closed my eyes and made myself look like I was just relaxing with Eminem blasting in my left ear.

I could hear her approach me and I was rapping softly under my breath when she asked, "Can I sit with you?"

I opened my eyes, and my heart hurt to see her. She had probably covered up the bruise with makeup, but I knew skin and bruises, and I could see the slight change in colour there. I sat up straighter; I turned down the volume on the MP3 and smiled at her while nodding.

She smiled in thanks and sat down. After a moment she asked me how I was. I sighed, "I've been better, and worse I guess."

"I see you're not hanging out with you're friends…" she muttered.

"Ya I know… I had a fight with F-Nick," I lied quickly and I smiled at Fang's nickname.

"F-Nick?" she asked looking kind of confused and I could see something in her beautiful eyes that I didn't understand.

"Nickname thing…" I muttered.

"What did you fight about?" she asked, just being curious.

I sighed, "It's just a matter of opinion. He doesn't get my side that's all."

She nodded and we were silent for a minute "What are you listening to?" She asked conversationally.

I chuckled, "I think my daddy's gone crazy, Eminem."

She gave a short chuckle and said, "I love that song, his daughter's cute."

There was silent for a minute, "I wanted to apologize for yesterday…."

"Apologize? What for?" I asked in confusion.

"I should have told you that my dad was waiting, I shouldn't have kept you from your friends." She said looking down.

"Kari," She looked up at me, "I really could care less about keeping my friends waiting, and not telling me that you're dad was waiting was fine."

She smiled at me lightly, "Sorry."

I smiled at her, "No need to apologize."

We sat there talking for a while when Fang walked over to me. His black hair swaying slightly in the wind, "Hey Iggy," he said.

Kari looked up at him, and smiled slightly. "Hey Nick, this is Kari, Kari, this is Nick."

"Hi," She said waving slightly and he nodded to her.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Ya, talk."

"In private," I could see the serious look in his eyes.

"Oh, alright, I'll be right back, okay?"

Kari nodded.

We walked away slightly, "Dude, we have a problem," Fang hissed.

"What?"

"You're parents want to see you and since they think you haven't told anyone about how they… you know… they're just going to ask that you come home…. They'll ask Max, and you know she'll just be like 'ok sure.'" He was worried and I could see the slight panic in his eyes.

"Fuck!" I cursed louder than I should have, but fear was cursing through me, "What the hell am I going to do?" I said, again louder than I should have.

"Ig, just tell them. Max won't go crazy, I'll make sure. Please, they can help. We can do something about it. Please, we can't do this on our own." He had a desperate light in his eyes.

"Fang, don't make me regret telling you about my parents." I hoped my eyes held the pain and fear in them, "I can't let them know, my parents won't care if you all know. They'll come and take me anyways!"

I glanced over at Kari who was sitting and looking in another direction. I hoped she couldn't hear us but I wasn't sure.

Fang groaned and hissed a bunch of swear words, "Fine, but I can't keep this cover for long, Alice already saw us talking and Max is getting suspicious."

I nodded, "I just need till the end of school Fang, that's all I need."

He looked away from me, "Ya, Alice saw something by the way."

I looked at him in shock, "What did she see?"

He leaned in and whispered, "You have until the night of the talent show… and after that…." He trailed off sickeningly.

"After that…." I prompted.

"She'll be dead," he said and nodded to me and walked away. I nodded and took a deep breath, I could do this.

I went back to sit with Kari and get to know her better before it was too late for me to help.

"Did you fix your misunderstanding of opinion?" She asked lightly.

"Not really, he just had some news that my parents might come see me…" I said suddenly getting an idea.

"Oh, that's good," She said smiling at me.

I chuckled, "Not really, I hate my parents."

She looked surprised, "Why?"

"My mom's an ignorant bitch who doesn't give a shit about me and my dad's a stupid son of a bitch and I could care less what they think of me, but they keep trying to get me to see their way, and that's why I'm here… to get away from them." I said playing with some grass. I looked up at her surprised and shocked face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to swear."

"No, it's fine." She said smiling at me, "I completely understand Iggy." We looked at each other for a second, "So, is that what you're different opinion is about? You're parents?"

I paused, "Ya, kind of, I don't think he gets why I hate them so much. He liked his parents a lot. I'd give anything to be in Fang's position… you know, no parents, but he'd probably murder me for saying that to him."

She nodded, "Ya, I'd do anything to get my dad out of my life, he's really strict."

I nodded, "Ya, I can tell. It seems your dad and mine have a lot in common…"

She nodded and looked away. She suddenly turned to me and grinned a huge smile, "I knew it."

"Knew what?" I asked and I felt instantly nervous, had I let too much slip….

"I knew it was you," She said grinning like a mad woman.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, "What?"

"You said Fang."

Shit.

(Fang's POV)

I went back to the others. What Alice had said about me telling the others about Iggy was getting to me, and I was going to explode at some point. I mean, I knew I could keep this secret for a relatively long time… but eventually people, aka Max, were going to get suspicious and God knows I couldn't lie to Max over long periods of time to save my life.

I mean, she's still clinging to me over the whole Jane thing.

Why the hell did I just get thrown into all this? I asked myself, because one of your best friends needs your help to save the girl of his dreams and if you don't he'll be really upset.

"Nick!" I heard Iggy yell.

"Huh?" I muttered and turned, Iggy and Kari were there.

"She knows…" Iggy said meaningfully.

I gave him a serious look and looked between the two of them, "Knows what exactly?"

Kari giggled, "I knew it was you, but I wasn't sure, but when Iggy and Max showed up it made so much sense. Do Jim and Casey know?" she asked with an excited look in her eyes.

"Huh?" I asked feeling even more confused.

"She knows about the flock."

I cleared my throat, "Say what? Get over here." I said and pulled them into a corner that was out of the way and no one around it. "Would one of you explain how Kari found out?" I asked sternly looking between them.

"I didn't know he was so strict… you wouldn't think so from the books or the blog…" Kari whispered behind to Iggy who sniggered.

"Well I said your name instead of Nick and she figured it out," Iggy muttered.

"Christ Iggy, enough people know…. Whatever, whatever, it's fine." I was flipping out now. "Fuck Max is going to kill us. Do you realize how angry she's going to be? Do you realize how angry at me she's going to be?"

"You don't think she'll like… hit me or anything, do you?" Kari asked biting her nail.

"No, you'll be fine. She'll just be shocked and annoyed that we let yet another person knows about us."

"Hey, this is the first I've told, you told Jim and Casey."

"Hey, Casey was an accident."

"Well so was Kari."

"Shit, we might as well get this over with. Kari, may I ask you to keep your mouth shut about the flock?"

"Ya, course." She answered looking slightly offended that I had to ask her.

I groaned, "I hate my life, let's go."