Yes, you read it right. I, the indestructible Maximum Ride fainted like an incredible sissy. I woke up and saw my flock, the teenager, and her grandmother leaning over me. My head was throbbing and everything hurt. "I feel like crap." I managed to get out. Wait? The whole flock? My eyes narrowed. "I told you guys to meet us at that park."

"We were worried." Gazzy says innocently, but I turned my attention to the girl and her grandmother.

"Who the hell are you?" I snarled, but the effects of it were ruined because of my weak posture on the ground. Not waiting for a reply, I pushed myself off of the ground and dusted myself off.

The teenager looked at me patiently. Ugh. I hate when people look at me like they know everything. "I'm Zoey Redbird." She smiled like we were friends or something. "I guess you know already, but you've been marked."

What the heck? Marked? Oh crap, my old tracking chip was out and they probably found out. Now they put a new one in. Listen to her. You must make connections, Maximum. The voice chimed in.

I love making friends with people who want me dead. I thought sarcastically.

The Voice sighed and if it had a head, it would be shaking it. Listen to what she has to say. Fine, but the Voice better have a good reason for this. "Max." I say curtly. "What do you mean by 'marked'?"

"I mean vamprye." She said gently. "Or more accurately, fledgling."

I snorted, "Vampryes aren't real. They're a myth." The teenager, or Zoey, looked shocked and a little pissed.

"Do you live under a rock?" she snapped. No, just in a dog crate.

Vampryes are real. Angel said in my mind. And she's the high priestess in training. She's right you've been marked. Even in my mind, Angel sounded sad.

That's why I told you to listen to her. The Voice sounded smug.

Get out of my head! I thought angrily. Everyone stared at me with identical looks of confusion except for Fang and Angel. Fang, because he knew me so well, and Angel because she's the mind reader. If you didn't catch on, I just answered the Voice out loud.

"Don't mind me folks." I said. "Just crazy." The flock's confusion went away because they understood that meant I was talking to the Voice, or Angel explained it to them in their heads. But the extremely annoying Zoey and her grandmother still seemed confused. Like I care if they understand or not. "Let's blow this popsicle stand." And I started heading out the door. But then a supernova of pain entered my skull and I crumple to the ground with tears streaming down my face. I bit my lip to keep from screaming in pain, the flock shouldn't see me like this. I'm their fearless leader, I need to seem in charge. Maximum! The Voice sounded panicked. I'm not doing this! What the heck? If it's not the Voice, what is it? Unlike the Voice's brain explosion, it was empty. There weren't flashes of images or random scrawls of writing.

Pain is only a message. I can ignore the message. Pain is only a message. I can ignore the message. I kept chanting those words in my mind, willing myself to ignore the pain. After what felt like hours, the pain slowly ebbed away. I carefully removed my hands from clutching my head and sat up. I met Fang's dark worried eyes and smiled sheepishly. "Brain explosion." Fang raised his eyebrow slightly, meaning he was totally and completely weirded out. "What's wrong?" I asked and looked around. My flock was still fine, not even a scratch. I stretched out my arms and legs testing for broken bones or bruises. None.

I turned around and bumped into Zoey. She stared at my forehead and gasped. "Close your mouth or you're gonna start catching flies." I glared at her until she closed her jaw. "Come on." I motioned for my flock to follow and headed out the door.

"Stop." Zoey said in a powerful voice.

I chuckled. "Like that ever stops me." Fang smirked and followed me.

"You need to go to the Tulsa House of Night." She said in the same even tone.

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