I am seriously thinking of never writing fanfiction again, this is such crap. Oh well. Never mind that. I still want to know what happens. So I will continue writing. The insanity is showing through. I fear I will have to kill Mr. Patterson before the day's end. WOW. Long chapter. -nod, nod- Good for business.

Disclaimer: James Patterson is the most wonderful writer in the world and I love him, if only for the fact that he wrote this fantastic story so that I could ruin it. (I secretly hate him, but he's promised not to tell the police about the kidnapping if I said this publicly) I turn to him as he opens his mouth. "Shut up. You're my prisoner. Now put those shackles back on. It's bad for my publicity!" Turn back. Smile I mutter out of the corner of my mouth. "Sell or die, wench!"

Picnic

Chapter Fifteen

We headed out the door, picnic baskets in hand. Nudge was even allowed to go. We walked until we found a nice clearing, well in the sun.

Food was set out. Sandwiches, melon, and snacks.

There were fights over who got the egg salad sandwiches, the turkey, ham, and even the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But soon enough we figured out we were just going to pick out sandwiches at random.

Gazzy and Iggy were sitting off to the left of the clearing, steadily eating and talking about bombs. Nudge, Max, and Angel were eating over in the center. I sat in a tree, higher than all of them, petting Splash.

I ended up getting egg sandwiches, all four of mine. Fang was sitting on the ground beneath me, leaning on the tree.

"Hey! What'd you get? You want one of my ham?!" He yelled up at me, waving sandwiches in the air.

I had already eaten three of my sandwiches and was already hoping I never saw an egg in my life again. So I decided to trade.

I grabbed the rest of my lunch and dropped to one hand on my branch, checking below me. I dropped and my knees shuddered with the impact. Bad idea, it was, dropping from four or five stories.

I closed the distance between us with a few clunks of my boots and dropped down next to him.

"I will never get used to that, you know that right?" He told me, trying to look like he didn't care but I saw shock in his eyes.

"I'm still not used to it either, it's kind of a trial and error thing right now."

"Aaah," he nodded knowingly. Like a monk that had just been told that God was wonderful.

I traded his sandwich for mine. "So, when are you going to give Angel her snowglobe?"

"Soon," bite, chew, swallow.

My sandwich was gone in a minute. I don't take my time often when I eat.

He raised an eyebrow. "What, you want me to give it to her now?"

"I dunno, whenever," I shrugged. I didn't care much, just as long as she gets it.

I heard a scrape above us in the tree. Then came the sound of bark ripping and I saw Splash racing away, hugging the tree trunks and scattering leaves as he went.

Fang looked at me, alarmed, "What the heck was that?!"

I gave him a shut-up-and-be-quiet glare.

"Shut up," I got up and grabbed a branch. I swung myself up and over, landing next to the trunk and lodging my boots in the crook where branch meets tree.

He stood up and brushed crumbs from his hands and lap. He grabbed the same branch and hauled himself up. He stood on the branch next to me, hands shoved casually in his pockets.

"We going to go look for your insane kitty?"

"Not insane, me not 'we'," I stated simply, digging my claws into the rough evergreen bark. Needles showered down as I clawed my way up the tree, using branches for launch pads when I had to get up farther.

Fang was right beside me, using branches as foot and hand holds. As much as I wanted him to be with me, I had to check things out fast. Splash had never done this before, not after years of me teaching him to let me know where he was if I didn't already know.

It was like an automatic switch. He told me when I asked, and it stayed in the back of my mind like I didn't really notice, but registered it anyway.

I sped up, leaving Fang about eight feet below me. I jumped higher, putting more space between us.

I heard his wings come out with a feathery whisper and he was flying to the top of the tree, twisting to avoid all the snarly branches. He landed at the top and needles fell, pricking me through my clothes. I climbed until I was under his shadow and reaching for a branch that was too high for me.

Fang dropped his arm, leaving it there for me to grab. I grabbed his forearm with one hand and hauled myself up.

The sun was setting, giving off an orange tinge to the trees and it was colder than normal.

"It'll freeze tonight," I said, thinking with horror of long nights spent with sinks running, dripping onto the metal. That horribly repetitive plink, over and over.

I shivered.

I cocked my head, listening intently for anything to show me Splash's whereabouts.

I heard yowls, the crash of metal, and voices like a whisper. I heard a whimper that seemed never to end and satisfied sighs.

Trees rustled as something, or someone took off, speeding through the trees.

Fang looked at me.

"I'm coming with you."

"No, I can do it alone."

I let my wings out, starting to run across the treetops toward the movement.

Fang's wings beat furious and hard, catching up to me slowly.

"No. I am," he looked at me with steel eyes, I saw the fear in them again.

"Fine, but hurry," I gestured for him to get on and he jumped on me piggyback style, pulling his wings in. I ran again, the trees barely rustling as I adjusted my feet placing for Fang's added weight.

We got closer and I heard faint wing beats, light as a tear. My forehead wrinkled, confused.

I knew of no animal that had wings this light, and it could only be wings from the push and pull of air vacuumed around it.

Yet it sounded familiar. Like I had dreamt of it last night. I remembered, it was the sound my mother's wings had made. But this was not her set of wings. They were larger and more powerful.

I scraped my boots to a halt as quietly as I could and let Fang down. He wobbled a second, unsteady, and I gave him my arm to hold for balance. He stayed quiet as I dropped down a branch and crouched, looking about me in the light gloom.

I saw four people coming, as they came closer I recognized the wings one of them had. They looked slightly like my mother's, but only in shape. These were bigger and black-blue as a fresh bruise.

Faeries.

Fang started to lower himself down carefully and I shoved him back up quickly. I had no idea if they were dangerous or not. My hands glowed dimly as I started to form magic, weaving a spell of quiet and stealth. I was better in healing arena than fighting and defending, but it would help.

I heard the leaves flutter as Fang shoved his head down again and saw the faeries. He let out a gasp. I covered his mouth with my hand and yanked him down sharply, letting him dangle before I dropped him on the branch.

I let go of him and whispered.

"Shut up, you idiot!"

I let the spell go, rippling into the air and surrounding us like a shield.

Fang sat quiet by my side, staring at my face. His was sad, and he abruptly turned to look at the foreigners.

They were wearing strange clothes, simple, but they would have been elegant if they didn't have tears and holes in them. The blue and purple blood stains were another hint that they were faerie.

They floated and flew, Splash bound up and carried along invisibly. The one with the wings stopped suddenly a few hundred yards from our tree. He flung out a hand to signal the others to stop and turned around, talking in a low voice I could barely hear over our breath. I slowed mine further to listen better.

"Someone's here," the speaker said, tilting his head.

"How far away, boss?" This one trembled as he spoke, a quaver in his voice.

"Half a mile. But I can smell human blood," he sniffed hungrily, swiveling his head left and right.

"I smell faerie…."one of his friends said. The faerie had a mean grin tilting his voice.

"Okay, fan out and search, up high, too. Catch them, fast!" He flew off in one direction, while the others went out and started to search. They weren't going in our direction, yet, but with their speed, they'd find us if we didn't move.

I stood up quickly, balancing on the tip of my boots. I yanked Fang up by the hand none too gently and he took the hint.

The chase began.