Chapter Four

It took me a second to register what happened. Okay, I was plummeting to my death with a massive Eraser on my back. Fang was falling down below me and I was trying my hardest to get to him. I threw my elbow into the nose of the Eraser on me. It broke his hold and now I was nose-diving after Fang and the other Eraser, who were still trying to beat the crap out of each other. I was almost to them when rough hands caught my feet, its claws digging deep into my skin, making me wince.

I was pulled outwards and held at arm's length away from an Eraser, forced to stare at him upside down. I looked down and saw Fang and his Eraser disappear into the trees, branches snapping and crashing loudly after them. I felt my tears come instantly.

"Fang," I said quietly.

"Oh, your little friend hurt?" the Eraser holding me chuckled, looking down into the trees. "Isn't that a shame."

I swung and punched him . . . right in between his legs. He winced and immediately started to drop. Unfortunately, one of his hands didn't release my foot. I started to fall with him. I flapped my wings desperately, hoping to either hold both of our weights or shake him loose, but it was useless. I clawed at the air as we started down at a steady speed. I was trying to kick him away as I saw the treetops coming toward us quickly.

I tucked my wings in, knowing there was no way I could keep them out, unless I wanted them ripped off, basically. At the last second, the Eraser grabbed me and pressed me against its body, as if in a bone-crushing hug. I was shoving him away when it squeezed me even tighter. Then, he smacked into the ground with a dull thud. I had my eyes closed tightly, expecting to be dead or at least seriously injured.

After a few seconds, I slowly opened my eyes and looked around. I felt no pain, which was definitely a shock. I sat up and moved away from the Eraser. Obviously, he was dead, a small line of blood trickling down the side of his mouth. I stared at him, dumbfounded. Did he just . . . save me? I stood up and moved away from the body, remembering Fang somewhere in this forest.

"Fang!" I called. "Fang, where are you?"

I walked through the forest cautiously. I knew I should have gone and got the others. I should've woke them up and had them help me look. But there was no way I was going to put them through finding Fang if the worst happened. I wasn't sure if I wanted to . . . but I had to know. I stopped when I heard movement to my left. I froze, trying to figure out who it was.

Instinctively, I ducked. Massive claws whipped past my head, gouging nasty cuts out of the tree trunk I was standing by. I punched the Eraser in the stomach as hard as I could, then jumped up and round-house kicked him across the jaw, again hearing the hard snap of the bone. It fell backwards, knocked out. I mentally tried to make a count of the Erasers I had encountered. Okay, there was 18 when I took off into the air the first time. Then six were left when Fang popped up, he took out two more and then dropped with another one . . . One grabbed me, but I knocked it out before the other caught me and fell with me. I just took out one more. I was pretty sure all of them were taken care of. All of them that came, anyway. I was sure more would be appearing before we even knew what was happening.

"Fang!" I called again, more desperately. "Fang, say something, please!"

"Something please."

I heard it just a bit to my right. I sprinted over and stopped short. I looked up to see the gapping hole in the canopy, afraid to look down. I finally forced myself to and saw Fang down on the ground, the large frame of an Eraser laying beside him. He looked up at me painfully, but he seemed okay. Only minor cuts and scratches, bruises were already forming on his face, but he was okay.

"Are you all right?" he asked immediately.

"I should be asking you that," I answered weakly, tears already streaking down my cheeks. "I'm not the one that dropped out of the sky with an Eraser like an idiot."

He started to laugh, but stopped immediately, inhaling painfully. "Don't make me laugh. I thought I heard some more dropping. Are all of them taken care of?"

"Yeah, I think so." I walked over to him and knelt down. I reached out to touch him, but stopped short. "Oh my God, Fang."

I noticed his jet-black wing stretched out to his side . . . disappearing underneath the body of the Eraser. Fang looked to where I was staring. He winced as he tried to laugh again.

"Oh, yeah. I thought maybe you could help me out with that . . ."

"Oh, God, Fang . . . Oh, God . . ."

I walked over to the other side of him and pushed the Eraser away slowly. Fang cried out every inch I moved the body, but I eventually managed to get it away from his mangled wing. It was broken . . . about everywhere.

"Oh, God, Fang," I said again, unable to say anything else.

He held out his hand and I gently helped him up. He winced painfully, his wing fall useless, limp to his side. I started crying harder, just looking at him.

"Why did you do that?" I cried quietly. "It should have been me . . ."

He shrugged and then hissed in pain. "That's exactly why I did it."

"You're an idiot, Fang. A complete frickin' idiot."

He forced a smile. "Yeah, I know."

"What happened?"

"Well, we were fighting and I managed to get him under me before we landed. But I couldn't get my wing out before he hit."

"Oh, God, Fang. How could you? Your wing is totally . . ." I stopped, looking away from his wing with a fresh wave of tears coming on.

"Demolished?" he finished.

He turned my face to face him, which I almost couldn't handle. He kept his face blank, but his eyes showed all of the pain. I leaned forward and kissed him quickly, barely brushing his lips because his lower one was starting to swell to no ends. He tried to smile again, but only one side of his lips would move.

"I'm going to go get the others, okay?" I said. "I don't think I'll be able to carry you on my own, so I'll have Iggy help me. All of the Erasers should be gone. Will you be okay for just a few minutes?"

He nodded. I kissed his forehead and straightened up. I was still crying as I launched myself into the air through the hole Fang and the Eraser had left. I flew as fast as I possibly could up to the cave, landing heavily. The others jumped awake, Iggy first and then the others.

"Iggy, you have to come with me," I ordered. "Gasman, watch Nudge and Angel. We'll be back in a minute."

"Max, what's wrong?" Nudge asked. "You're bleeding . . ."

Angel brought her knees to her chest, squeezing them against her tightly. She already saw what was wrong as she read my thoughts. Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge starting exclaiming in unison, demanding to know what happened..

"We'll deal with it later!" I shouted over their continuing exclamations. "Iggy, you have to come with me right now. The rest of you stay here."

Gasman and Nudge immediately stood up with Iggy, defiant looks on their faces.

"You said we always stick together," Gasman said seriously. "We're coming, too."

I shook my head. "No, you two stay here with Angel. We'll be back in a minute."

"Where's Fang?" Nudge wondered out loud. "Are you going to get him? We're coming, too!"

"No, you're staying here . . ."

Nudge shook her head stubbornly. Damn, I hated it when they used my own attitude against me. "No, we are–"

"JUST STAY HERE WITH ANGEL!!" I screamed, silencing her and Gasman.

I almost never yelled at them, even when I was in a rage about something they did. But this time, I wasn't going to let them see what happened. Nudge and Gazzy immediately sat down beside Angel, unsure of how to react to my outburst. I sighed heavily, feeling my tears coming back once again. I tried to keep my voice from shaking as I spoke again.

"Just stay here with Angel, please," I said quietly. "We'll fly back by the cave and tell you when to follow us. Get the packs ready for me, okay? Iggy, come on, just follow me."

I went off with Iggy behind me. I didn't speed up, knowing it would be almost impossible for Iggy to even hear me, let alone follow me. He flew up so he was flying beside me. I knew he was burning to know what happened, but I couldn't talk about it. Not right now. I just had to get Fang help and fast.

I told Iggy to drop down with me into the hole I at first launched out of before. Fang was still slumped forward, his wing hanging limply at his side. His eyes were closed tightly. I was worried he had passed out, but he snapped his head up when he heard us land. I took Iggy's hand and led him over to where Fang was sitting.

"Be careful, okay?" I said quietly as I guided Iggy's hands to just barely touch Fang's wing.

Fang twitched from a shot of pain, but didn't make a sound. All of us were quiet as Iggy ran his hands lightly over all of the broken bones and bent feathers. I took Fang's hand worriedly. He raised my hand to his lips and kissed it quickly, which almost made me cry again, feeling his swollen lips on my skin. Iggy shook his head sadly.

"Wow, Fang," he said. "Every bone is broken in your wing, except where it meets your shoulder. What happened?"

"I was fighting an Eraser and he landed on top of it," Fang explained.

Iggy's clouded eyes widened. "You fell out of the sky? You're lucky you're alive!"

"Well, he broke my fall, I guess."

"We have to get him to Arizona, back to my mother's," I explained to Iggy. "She's the only one that can heal it right . . ."

Fang shook his head. "It'll heal fine on its own. We're quick healers, remember?"

"If you want to be able to use that wing again, you have to go get it mended, Fang," Iggy said. "The bones won't set right if you just leave it. You have to have all of them put back into place and splinted . . ."

"Do you think the two of us can carry him, Iggy?" I asked before Fang could start arguing again.

"We should be able to. We'll have to take more breaks than we usually do and you'll have to be really careful guiding me so we don't hurt him more."

"Okay, can you stand, Fang?"

Fang got up on his own stubbornly, tears welling in his eyes. I could tell any movement would hurt him . . . Iggy and I each took one of his arms over our shoulders and launched up together. We flew up by the cave and called out Angel, Nudge, and Gasman. As soon as they saw what Fang looked like, they were completely silent, not even bothering to ask what had happened. They all knew.

"We're off to Arizona to Dr. Martinez's, okay?" I explained. "We're gonna try to take as few breaks as we can, so eat while we fly if you can and we'll try to stop occasionally for rest."

"We can make it that far without sleep," Gasman said. Angel, Nudge, and Iggy all nodded in agreement. "We can make it."

I nodded solemnly, doubting it was possible, but hoping not to waste time arguing with them. We took off, Iggy and I especially carefully with Fang dangling between us. Fang's head was lolling to the side. He was ready to pass out.

"Go to sleep, sweetheart," I said quietly. "We'll get you better before you know it."

Fang smiled weakly, going in and out of consciousness. "Sweetheart? You never . . . called me that . . . before. I . . . kinda like it."

With that, he passed out, his head dropping to his shoulder.