Chapter 26

I drove to the park near school. There were people, especially other teenagers that were with their boyfriends. I told myself Fang would take care of Bridgid and that I had nothing to worry about, but it didn't hurt to be vigilant.

Of course, deep inside, I knew Bridgid wasn't my biggest worry. Sooner or later Fang was going to figure out I wasn't at Delphic. Based on past experience, I didn't have any illusions about being able to hide long term from him. He would find me. And then I'd be forced to confront him with the question I was dreading. More specifically, I dreaded his answer. Because there was a shadow of doubt at the back of my mind, whispering that Bridgid had been telling the truth about what it would take for Fang to get a human body.

I walked around, usually looking over my shoulder, making sure the coast is clear. I sat down by a bench, near a tree. I looked around, hoping Nudge would be here. She likes coming to the park sometimes, when she's not at the mall.

This whole night felt like a dark fairy tale I'd strayed into and couldn't find my way back out of. A fairy tale with fallen angels, human hybrids, and sacrificial killings. I rubbed my thumb over my birthmark. I especially didn't want to think about the possibility that I was descended from one of the Nephilim.

I pulled out the emergency cell phone and checked for missed calls. None.

"Expecting a phone call?" asked a voice behind me. I stiffened. His voice was not happy.

"Stand up and walk to the car. I'll be right behind you."

I didn't move.

"Walk," he said. "We need to talk."

"About how you need to sacrifice me to get a human body?" I asked, my tone cold and hard.

"That might be cute if you thought it was true."

"I do think it's true!" Sort of. But the same thought kept returning—if Fang wanted to kill me, why hadn't he already?

The couple that walked in front of me stared at me if I were crazy.

Fang said, "Walk or I'm going to carry you."

I flipped around. "Excuse me?"

I stood up and speed walked to the nearest bathroom. Fang caught my arm, and led me to a tree that had a wide trunk. My back was against the trunk. Damn, no escape. Even if I did try to escape he'd catch me and bring me back.

Fang's eyes were all over me. And they showed every sign of wanting to rattle me to death. "You're mad because I didn't go to Delphic." I raised one shoulder. "Why Delphic, Fang? It's Sunday night. Delphic will be closing soon. Any special reason you wanted me to drive to a dark, soon to be deserted amusement park?"

He walked toward me until he was standing close enough that I could see his black eyes beneath his ball cap.

"Bridgid told me you have to sacrifice me to get a human body," I said.

Fang was quiet a moment. "And you think I'd go through with it?"

I swallowed. "Then it's true?"

Our eyes locked. "It has to be an intentional sacrifice. Simply killing you won't do it."

"Are you the only person who can do this to me?"

"No, but I'm probably the only person who knows the end result, and the only person who would attempt it. It's the reason I came to school. I had to get close to you. I needed you. It's the reason I walked into your life."

"Bridgid told me you fell for a girl." I hated myself for experiencing irrational pangs of jealousy. This wasn't supposed to be about me. This was supposed to be an interrogation. "What happened?"

"She grew old and died."

"That must have been hard for you," I snapped.

He waited a few counts before answering. His tone was so low, I shivered. "You want me to come clean, I will. I'll tell you everything. Who I am and what I've done. Every last detail. I'll dig it all up, but you have to ask. You have to want it. You can see who I was, or you can see who I am now. I'm not good," he said, piercing me with eyes that absorbed all light but reflected none, "but I was worse."

I ignored the roll in my stomach and said, "Tell me."

"The first time I saw her, I was still an angel. It was an instant, possessive lust. It drove me crazy. I didn't know anything about her, except that I would do whatever it took to get close to her. I watched her for a while, and then I got it in my head that if I went down to Earth and possessed a human body, I would be cast out of heaven and become human. The thing is, I didn't know about Cheshvan. I came down on a night in August, but I couldn't possess the body. On my way back to heaven, a host of avenging angels stopped me and ripped out my wings. They tossed me out of the sky. Right away I knew something was wrong. When I looked at humans, all I could feel was an insatiable craving to be inside their bodies. All my powers were stripped, and I was this weak, pathetic thing. I wasn't human. I was fallen. I'd realized I'd given it all up, just like that. All this time I've hated myself for it. I thought I'd given it up for nothing." His eyes focused singularly on me, leaving me feeling transparent. "But if I hadn't fallen, I wouldn't have met you."

My conflicting emotions weighed so heavily inside my chest, I thought they might suffocate me. And yet, I forged ahead. "Bridgid said my birthmark means I'm related to Hans. Is that true?"

"Do you want me to answer that?"

I didn't know what I wanted. My whole world felt like a joke, and I was the last one to get the punch line. I wasn't Maximum Ride, normal kick-ass girl. I was the descendant of someone who wasn't even human. And my heart was smashing itself to pieces over another nonhuman. A dark angel. "Which side of my family?" I said at last.

"Your dad's."

"Where's Hans now?"

His boots were flush with the toes of my sneakers. "I'm not going to kill you, Max. I don't kill people who are important to me. And you top the list."

My heart did a nervous flip. My hands were pressed against his stomach, which was so hard even his skin didn't give. I was keeping a pointless safeguard between us, since not even a towering electrical fence would make me feel secure from him.

"You're too close. I need space," I whispered.

What I needed were boundaries. I should have been bolting for the car, and yet…I hadn't. I tried convincing myself I was staying because I needed answers, but that was only part of it. It was the other part I didn't want to think about. The emotional part. The part that was pointless fighting.

"Are you keeping anything else from me?" I wanted to know.

"I'm keeping a lot of things from you."

"Like?"

"Like the way I feel about being here with you." Fang braced one hand against the trunk behind me, his weight tipping toward me. "You have no idea what you do to me."

I sucked in some air. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a police department. If I ran there, I'd be safe. And that's what I wanted…wasn't it?

"Not a good idea," Fang said with a soft shake of his head. I ran toward it anyway, but the farther I ran, the farther the police department would move.

I swiveled around to face him. "Get out of my head." I stormed back and shoved hard against his chest.

Fang took a step back, steadying himself.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"For this whole night." For making me crazy about him when I knew it was wrong. He was the worst kind of wrong. He was so wrong it felt right, and that made me feel completely out of control.

I might have been tempted to hit him square in the jaw if he had not taken me by the shoulders and pinned me against the trunk. There was hardly any space left between us, just a thin boundary of air, but he managed to eliminate it.

"Let's be honest, Max. You've got it bad for me." His eyes held a lot of depth. "And I've got it bad for you." He leaned into me and put his mouth on mine. I wound my arms around his neck and pulled him closer to me, as he walked me backward toward the tree. We kissed for an eternity, he bit my bottom lip, and I sighed, running my hands through his shaggy hair. I pulled away.

"I'm not finished. What happened to Bridgid?"

"All taken care of."

"What exactly does that mean?"

"She wasn't going to keep her wings after plotting to kill you. The moment she tried to get back into heaven, the avenging angels would have stripped them. She had it coming sooner or later. I just sped things up."

"So you just—tore them off?"

"They were deteriorating; the feathers were broken and thin. If she stayed on Earth much longer, it was a signal to every other fallen angel who saw her that she'd fallen. If I didn't do it, one of them would have."

I dodged another one of his advances. "Is she going to make another unwanted appearance in my life?"

"Hard to say."

Lightning quick, Fang caught hold of the hem of my sweater. He reeled me into him. His knuckles brushed the skin of my navel. Heat and ice shot through me simultaneously. "You could take her, love," he said. "I've seen both of you in action, and my bet's on you. You don't need me for that."

"What do I need you for?"

He laughed. Not abruptly, but with a certain low desire. His eyes had lost their edge and were focused wholly on me. His smile was all fox…but softer. Something just behind my navel danced, then coiled lower.

"Can we continue?" he whispered. I slid my hands up his chest and wrapped one leg around his hip. He ran his hand up and down my leg, and growled low in his throat. The he crushed his lips down mine. My pulse pounded, but I didn't mind one little bit. His hands touched everywhere. I moaned a bit when he moved his lips down my neck, pulling my sweater off my shoulder so he could kiss it.

Then my phone rang to life. I answered as Fang continued kissing my neck.

"H-hello?" I said. Fang bit my neck slightly, making me jump a bit and sigh happily.

"Max! Where you at girl?" chirped Nudge. I was not going to say, making out with Fang how about you?. Fang bit onto my shoulder. With my free hand, I cupped the back of his neck and pulled his closer.

"Where are you? Are you still with the nimrod and his sidekick?" Fang snorted and nuzzled my neck, planting kisses along my throat. I gasped when he moved down and hit my sweet spot.

"We're at school. We broke in," she squealed. My jaw dropped and I stumbled back. Nudge always follows rules. She always goes by the rules. This was…unexpected. Then again, she's with Dylan and Hunter.

"Are you crazy!?" I shouted. Fang pulled away and looked at me with worry in his eyes.

"Relaaaax. We want to play hide and seek but don't have enough people for two teams. So … do you know of a fourth person who could come play with us?"

An incoherent voice mumbled in the background.

"Dylan wants me to tell you that if you don't come be his partner—hang on—what?" Nudge said into the background.

Dylan's voice came on. "Max? Come play with us. Otherwise, there's a tree in the common area with Nudge's name on it."

Pure ice flowed through me. I stiffened and curled my hands into tight fists.

"If you touch her, you son of a bitch I'll kill you. I swear I'll kill you."

I heard him laugh and then I heard a beep. The connection died.