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Chapter 85; Threat

Max shook her wings, almost sneezing when a cloud of dust came from them... Fang was still asleep, lying curled on the couch under a pile of blankets. He'd refused to sleep on the mattress with her, and she'd almost punched him for it, but restrained herself... Barely...

The near purple blackness of his wings was dull with clumps of dried mud and as Max watched he twitched his left as if it itched.

She strode forward and flattened her hand on his forehead, checking his temperature, gauging it to be slightly elevated ... Warm enough to keep him in bed, but not so bad that she was thinking about stripping him naked and dousing him in cold water.

There was no way they were going to be able to continue the search for Angel, Iggy and Daisy-David now. She only hoped that either Nudge and Aaron, or Allan and Gasman found them because Fang wasn't in the shape to go anywhere but to sleep.

He twitched his wing again and shifted uncomfortably against the couch.

The dried mud was itching him too?

Max wasn't one to deny herself the odd dust bath when her wings got particularly itchy but all this dried mud was driving her crazy. It had dried around and in her feathers and every time she moved her wings it felt like her feathers were being pulled. And that made them itch even more.

"Fang," She put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a little shake, "Come on, step outside and let's shake some of this dirt out, you'll sleep better then."

He made an 'I'm still sleepy' noise and cracked his eyes open, staring up at her for a moment before he begrudgingly climbed to his feet.

"When are we leaving?" His hand went toward his bag but Max spoke before he could grab it.

"We're going to stay here for now. You went and got sick again so we're stuck here," That and she was absolutly SICK of the stupid hotel... Talk about cabin fever...

He winced, "I feel OK ... Just achy, I've flown when I've felt worse."

Max shook her head, "I don't want to risk it ... I'll call Allan's cell phone and tell him what happened."

"How are you going to do that?"

Max shrugged, "I'm going to fly into town and get some food, this place is empty, except for a jar of Pickled Pig's Feet and some bay leaves."

"Pickled Pig's Feet?"

Max wrinkled her nose, "It is an actual pig's feet, I've eaten my share of weird stuff, but that? I honestly thought I was going to blow chunks when I realized it was actually a pig's feet."

Fang gave a visible shiver, "Kind of makes Nudge's sewer rat joke tame, doesn't it?"

Max couldn't help but smile, "Come shake some of that dirt out of your wings, you'll feel better."

Fang stood and stared down at his bare feet a moment, swaying a little. Then he walked stiffly toward the door, all of his usual grace gone.

Max glanced at him from the corner of her eye, her heart aching...

Why hadn't he said anything? Didn't he care? Had it not meant anything to him?

She looked at the ground and let out a sigh, deciding she wasn't going to think about it. If she thought about it she would get sick... She was feeling sick to her stomach anyway... But that could just have been the residual shock from finding the pickled Pig's feet...

The silence was thick, just like the low hanging cloudcover. Thick and ominous...

Max thought she was going to go crazy from the quiet... It was terrible...

Her feelings for Fang had come to a head and now he was ignoring her again... Pretending that nothing had happened...

And it hurt...

Was she nothing more than another girl to him after all? Had she allowed herself to be used?

"Fang?"

He grunted and turned to her, his eyes distant...

She opened her mouth to speak, to ask him why... But nothing would come out... Her heart raced as she looked at him... Remembering the feel of his skin, the heat of him... The sound of his breath in he ear ... The taste of his mouth against hers...

Words failed her in the worst possible way. They had proven inadiquate ... There were were no words to describe what she felt... And no matter how she searched for them anyway, or begged them to come out, the silence remained. So she closed her mouth and looked away, shaking her head. Hoping he would draw whatever conclusion he desired from the sound of her brain rattling in her skull.

He stared at her ear for a moment, his lip between his teeth then he crossed his arms over his chest and looked away...

After a moment, in which the awkwardness solidified, Max cleared her throat and said the first thing that popped into her head.

"You should go back inside and get some sleep, I'm going to go get food."

He nodded, not really hearing or understanding what he'd just agreed to until Max had leap into the air and was flying away.

He stared after her for a second, feeling fear tearing at his insides. Fear and an overwhelming sense of sadness and betrayal...

Why hadn't he said anything? Why was he allowing it to happen like this?

There's a time for every purpose... And this isn't it... You know that...

He shuffled absently back into the cabin and sat heavily on the couch, his head between his hands, alien, uncontrollable emotions rushing and spinning thruogh him...

Everything he'd ever wanted was falling away through his fingers and he was standing there watching it blow away like dust in the wind...

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Max came back about an hour later, her eyes bloodshot and red rimmed, lip between her teeth. She tried to put on a brave smile when she came inside, but Fang could see right through it...

He wanted to go to her... To pull her into his arms, but he didn't... If he did, everything would go up in flames... He had to curl his fingers around his arms to keep from reaching for her.

He hated it... He hated everything he was feeling because he knew it could never happen again...

She made sandwiches and he ate, just so there'd be a reason not to talk and when she started packing he did too... Pulling on his jacket and shoes... Not even bothering to speak or even look at her...

If he did he'd end up doing something stupid...

But he didn't know how long he could keep himself from touching her... Or saying her name... Saying anything so this horrible feeling between them would go away...

He wanted everything to go back to the way it was... But he knew it never could... Not now, not ever...

"Come on, we'll make it back to the hotel by six if we leave now..."

He nodded and followed her in silence. Her emotionless right hand man...

"You're awful quiet," She said as they left the cabin.

He shrugged.

"Not this again..." She looked up at him mournfully. "Fang, please, don't hide from me..."

"I'm not hiding."

"Bull crap... Please, please, just tell me what's wrong..."

"Nothing's wrong," He licked his lips and motioned toward the clouds. "I thought you wanted to leave?"

She stared at him for a minute, tears forming in her eyes. Then she turned and took a running leap, shooting directly into super speed and zooming off into the clouds. Fang followed her, cursing himself, scanning the sky for her, but his eyes felt gritty, not wanting to focus on anything farther than thirty feet away.

It was frightening, suddenly not being able to see anything past thirty feet. The trees looked like a dull gray-brown smear below him. The sky naught but a cold gun metal blue smudge. Something was wrong...

Why couldn't he see right?

"M-MAX!" He hovered, for the first time in his life afraid of the world above the ground... She'd left him, and he didn't know where to go... He couldn't remember any of this landscape. Nothing was familiar. His internal sense of direction was spinning... Making him unbelieveably dizzy...

"MAX!"

He frantically swiped at his eyes, hoping to clear them, but it didn't work.

His heart hammered in his chest. Had she left him? Had she really, honestly left him?

What was he supposed to do now? There was something wrong with his eyes, there was something wrong with him and he was alone.

Why hadn't he just told her why he was staying away? That every time he looked at her he felt the smoothness of her skin, smelled her hair. And thinking of it hurt... Knowing hurt...

He couldn't get her out of his head, she took away all his control. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her face... Heard the sound of her wings-

He wiped at his eyes again, hoping this time that they would work and he realized he really could hear her wings...

"Max?"

He turned around, looking for her and saw her shape materialize out of the fog off to his left...

"What's wrong? I was halfway to the hotel!"

He scrubbed his face again, too frustrated to speak.

"What is it?"

She inched closer and he was able to locate her face.

"There ... There's something in my eyes..."

She squinted at his face, staring at his eyes, but the only thing unusual she could see about them was that the color looked blurred and it was almost as if he couldn't focus on anything...

"It's probably just dust from your wings, ignore it..." She turned to leave again but he called out.

"Don't go..."

"What?" Her nose wrinkled.

What was he playing at. One minute nothing was wrong, the next he was all 'oh, don't leave me, oh!'

She wanted to punch him...

"Please, Max..."

"If there's something you want to say, Fang, then say it. I'm tired of all this. I thought that you actually meant what you said the other night, but I guess I was wrong."

"What?" His eyebrows rose in shock.

She shook her head, "Let's just go, alright?" She wiped at her face, smearing tears that were threatening to fall. She flew away, just fast enough that Fang couldn't get any closer than sixty or so feet and she ground her teeth, wishing she'd just kept flying and left him there... Although she would have regretted it afterward...

It really didn't mean anything to him, did it? It had just been a game...

"Max... Max, stop..."

His voice came to her above the wind and she turned her head, seeing him decending quite fast toward a parking lot, the same parking lot where hours ago she'd stollen food and supplies from a pharmacy.

She watched him land and he stumbled, almost pitching forward onto his face. She landed beside him, considerably more graceful... and put a hand on his arm. "Are you OK?"

He shook his head and plopped down heavly on the curb his head in his hands.

"I meant every word I said the other night, Max. You know that."

She stared at him for a moment before she spoke, "Then why have you been ignoring me again, huh? If you love me so much then why have you been ignoring me?"

And when he looked up at her Max felt her anger beginning to fade, but she crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hold it in. She should be mad at him... Not wanting to pull him into her arms.

"Because it just happened so fast, okay? I mean, we went from friends to ... to THAT in one night!" He rubbed his eyes again, grinding his teeth.

"You didn't seem to care then... And it was considerably shorter than one night, Fang... If I remember correctly IT was only about thiry seconds!"

He scowled up at her, visibly hurt. "Fine... All hail Fang and his ability to last thirty seconds!" He threw up his hands and pursed his lips tightly together, a bright reddish color rising to his cheeks. "But, my God, Max, don't you understand what we did?"

"More so than you apparently!"

He didn't seem to be angry, in fact, to Max, he seemed to be more... hurt and sad than anything else, as if she'd broken his heart...

"Fang, do YOU understand what we did? Do you understand that WE made a decision? WE chose ... Do you understand that there is actually a WE now?"

"Yes!" He hissed between his teeth, a forlorn expression coming over his face. "Yes, I understand that... And I understand that WE didn't use any protection, Max, okay? I understand that the world is ending and I could have just knocked up its only chance of surviving!"

And his words hit her like a blow to the stomach... Along with a distant roll of thunder...

"How the hell are you supposed to save the world if you're pregnant, Max? I can't live with the idea that not only could I have cost you your life but the life of a baby, okay? Now do you understand? I can't think of 'US' because when I do ... Jesus, Max ... 'WE' could have condemned the world to oblivion!" He raked a hand through his hair and continued speaking, his voice shaking, his eyes telling her that he hated saying the words.

"Max, I love you, alright? I love you, but there can't BE a 'WE' right now... 'WE' need to save the world... 'WE' can't be worrying about things like this, okay?" He paused taking a deep breath, and spoke as if he were trying to convince himself of it also. "Sometimes... Sometimes there are more important things than love..."

She stared at him... Hurt. But at the same time knowing that he was right.

The idea of fighting for the world's survival with a huge pregnant belly made her sick. She couldn't bear the thought of possibly harming an innocent baby. She couldn't handle it...

But, how could there be anything more important than love? Love was the only thing she could think of that was important enough to fight for...

She wiped her eyes and after forcing herself to choke down her tears and protests, she nodded. "You're right..."

And he flinched...

A cold shard of ice started to build in Max's chest and she wished it would hurry up and stab her heart so it wouldn't hurt so much...

Fang let out a sigh and laid his hand on her leg, looking up at her apologetically. "Max-"

She shrugged him off. "There's a sporting goods store two doors down."

He stared after her... Feeling a cold hollow sensation enveloping him, and slowly, he climbed to his feet, dusting off his behind. Knowing that he'd done it... He'd told her why he was worried... And now he wished he'd just kept his stupid mouth shut...

"What do you need with 'sporting goods', Max?"

Max turned and looked at him solemnly "I need you to teach me to use a gun."

Fang stopped beside her, itching to take her hand... "You want to use a gun? Since when do you allow guns?"

"Since I saw how a Wizard catches its prey. You can't kick a Wizard to death when it's thirty feet from you. But it can grab you with that tongue, and by the time you're close enough to kick it, it's already bitten you."

Fang nodded, "You still don't like guns, do you."

"No, I don't. You don't have to be brave to use a gun, you just have to be able to lift it."

Fang stopped her before they got to the sporting goods store, still feeling cold and hollow, and pointed into the seemingly untouched store between it and the pharmacy. "That right there seems more 'Maxish' than any gun."

Max didn't even look, "Fang, I need a gun," She walked to the sporting goods store and peered inside, realizing too late that the store had already been emptied, leaving only a few stray shells and nothing else. "Well, this SUCKS!" She kicked the door and crossed her arms over her chest, feeling rage bubble in her chest... Nothing was ever easy, was it...

She heard glass shatter and her head whipped to the right staring at Fang. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

He had picked up a sand filled ashtray and thrown it through the front door of the untouched store. "Just trust me," Was all he said before he disappeared inside.

Max couldn't believe it. What was he expecting to find in there? It was a junk store! A flea market! They sold secondhand clothing and badly made tablecloths!

After a few seconds Fang stuck his head out the door, "Come on, you'll like it, I promise."

Max rolled her eyes. The only thing she would like at this moment was to cry and tell Fang that right now she didn't want to save the world. All she wanted was him... And possibly some chocolate, but that was beside the point.

She heard the glass crunching beneath her shoes and she walked to him her arms crossed over her chest so she wasn't tempted to touch him. "What am I going to like?"

Fang was standing over a glass case. He pressed the tip of one finger against the glass and looked over his shoulder grinning. "This is definitely your style."

Max stared down into the case with a sigh. "It isn't very practical ... I mean, a gun is going to do more damage at a greater distance than that."

"Yeah, but you have to have guts to use this ... And you've got guts, I know that for a fact. Any teenaged girl who can take on the responsibility of saving the world has either got guts or the crazies ... With you, it's both, but, yeah."

Max wiped at her eyes, "You're crazy, you pig ... Finding weapons in flea markets..."

He shrugged and tried not to look at her. Forcing himself to focus on the task at hand and forget his feelings. Forget they even existed... Which was harder than anything he'd ever done...

"Were there any guns in the other store?"

Max shook her head.

"Then this is the best option we've got for the moment."

Max shook her head and walked around the counter, sliding open the little door on the back and taking out the sword. She stared at it for a minute. Feeling absurd. "What kind of sword is it, Oh, Great Fang?"

Fang took hold of the tag and stared at it, "Well ... It says that it's full tang."

Max giggled.

"Shut up," He felt himself grin, "Tang means-"

Max giggled again.

"Shut up or you'll make me laugh!" He glared at her and cleared his throat, "It means the metal the blade is made of goes all the way to the end of the hilt."

Max pulled the sword out of its sheathe, "It isn't even sharp."

"Well, we'll find a way to sharpen it then ... There, hand me that one," He pointed to another sword at the very front of the case. "They may turn out to be junk, but I'd rather be armed with junk than nothing," He wiped his sleeve across his forehead, for the first time noticing the sweat dripping into his face.

Max pulled this sword out also and handed it over. "You feeling OK?"

He nodded, "I'll be alright," He took the sword from her and gave his head a shake. "I'm just tired... Are you ready?"

Max shook her head and quickly turned, jerking a blanket off a nearby shelf and spreading it out on the counter. "I'm taking a few more of these, so we'll all have one," And she started going through the swords. Testing their weight and inspecting them before making a decision on weather or not she liked it. "You ... You lay down somewhere and rest, OK? I'll wake you up when I'm ready to go."

Fang, sighed and planted himself in the corner on top of a stack of 'hand made' quilts his head on the pillow of his right arm. Feeling the beginnings of another headache building behind his eyes.

For a few moments a harsh ringing invaded his senses and he felt crazy because of the shrill sound of it and then-

"Fang? Fang, put this on, you're shivering."

He opened his eyes just in time to see Max kneel before him holding something black with a hole in it. She shoved it over his head and helped him get his arms into the sleeves.

"I already cut slits in the back, so don't worry."

He glanced down beside him, squinting because the ringing sound made his eyes water, and noticed a large bundle of what he guessed to be swords and knives. "Jeez, you're done quick."

"Quick? We've been here for two-and-a-half hours! No, don't look at me like that, just lay back down and get some rest. Do you feel OK?"

He nodded, "Yeah, it just got cold all the sudden, didn't it..." He wrapped his arms around his middle, feeling the bite of the cold for the first time.

Max hesitated then sighed and leaned her back against the wall beside him. "Just rest for now. I want to leave soon."

He nodded and rested his head on his arm again.

"Max?"

She turned and looked up at him again, "Yeah?"

He still looked exhausted but his color was returning, "Are you OK?"

She nodded, "Just worried about you..."

He smiled, "Worried about me?"

"You over did yourself, you need to rest, go back to sleep."

He shifted his head against his arm and was quiet for a few minutes, just looking up at her mournfully.

"Max?"

"Fang."

He hesitated, wanting to tell her that as soon as the world was safe he'd be happy with the 'we' arangement, but thunder rolled from outside and he glanced toward the entrance. Trying to block out that intolerable ringing noise, and noticed that it had started raining quite heavily again. He thought he saw something move, like a shadow, but before he could say anything, his eyes closed, his body went limp, and for a while he had only dreams to talk to...

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