Chapter 3

-Max's POV-

There was this strange kid I saw for the very first time. He was thin, but muscular. He looked about 6 feet tall, about 170 lbs. He had very pretty dark brown hair and had these dark, mysterious eyes, almost cold and emotionless. He had pasty white skin. His jeans were battered and worn and his black, sleeveless shirt was torn at places. Man, it looks like this kid's been through hell! But, he still looked very cute. What the hell am I saying; I don't even know the kid! Of course, when he woke up in his cage, he freaked out.

"What the- NO!"

He smashed his fists into the cages bars. Dummy, he must've felt that. But, he didn't; he ignored the pain completely, like it never happened. Holy crap! I heard the bones in his hands crumble as he struck the bars.

"You really shouldn't do that."

The boy looked at me with the most hateful glare I've ever seen.

"Leave. Me. Alone!"

I turned away from him and he gasped. I guess he saw my wings for the first time. I heard him gasp again. I'm guessing that he saw the other fix of my flock: Fang, Iggy, Gasman, Nudge, and Angel. Then, Jeb walked in.

"So, Max, you got to meet the new guy."

Jeb turned and faced the new kid.

"Hello, Nick."

"I'm Nightsbane now."

"OK…Nightsbane…as you may have already seen, these six have been genetically altered." He was referring to us and our wings. Nightsbane…what a strange name; I'll remember that forever.

"We've been working on this for awhile, but the only success has been through pre-creational genetic engineering"

"Excuse me?"

What? Was this kid stupid? So, of course, being me, I explained it to him.

"Changing the DNA before they're born." The kid, Nightsbane, gave me another angry look, so I turned away. What's this kid's deal? I try to help him out, and he looks at me like he wants to kill me. It can't be that bad. It's not like his family got killed recently or something. For a minute, I forgot they were there, so I turned around. I saw Nightsbane being held by two guards and Jeb had a syringe.

"Jeb, are you sure this is who you want to try it on?"

It couldn't be. Jeb was gonna try to use the A2014 serum on him. It's never been successfully tested. All previous test subjects died from the pain.

"Why not? He has no family anymore."

Jeb laughed at his comment.

"Yeah, because you killed them in cold blood!"

No. not Jeb. Jeb wouldn't do that. He wouldn't kill someone's family. He injected the syringe into Nightsbane's neck. The horrible scream came next. It was…inhuman. I could almost feel the boy's pain. I wanted them to stop. Couldn't they see they were hurting him? Little did I know, I was actually screaming it. Then they threw Nightsbane back into the cage. He was almost motionless, only small shaking, most likely an effect from the serum. I reached out and touched him. He was cold, except for his back, which was burning, also an effect from the serum. I just had to comfort him in some way.

"Don't worry, you'll live."

I could tell Nightsbane struggled to say this:

"I don't want to live."

God, what a negative person, but, he did lose his family; so I let it go. I just stroked his back until he became still. Then, my flock and I slowly began to sleep, hoping that all seven of us will see tomorrow, especially Nightsbane.

I was woken to see the innocent-looking face of Jeb. I stretched to choke the life out of him.

"Settle down, Maximum."

"You monster! How could you kill that boy's family?!"

Jeb just took my hands in his soft ones.

"Max, I'm doing the right thing; even if it doesn't look like it."

"You murdered him!"

"Shh."

Jeb motioned to the boy's cage.

"He doesn't look dead to me."

All I could do was gasp as I saw Nightsbane lying there, breathing. OK, so breathing isn't that shocking, but the fact that I saw what was on his back was. He had these big, black wings, darker than Fang's, and they were about twenty feet long. I had to admit, they looked beautiful. Jeb opened my cage door.

"Come on, Max, we're going to another room, along with the others."

I turned to the new kid.

"What will happen to him?"

Jeb could only sigh.

"My dear, not even I know what will happen; we can only wait."

So, Jeb took the flock and me to a sealed room. All six of us we're confused about the new kid. Why was he able to survive what other's died instantly from? What was so different about him?

"Who was that kid?"

Not even the usually quiet Fang could resist asking about him.

"Angel, honey, did you get any information from his mind?"

Angel paused and then nodded.

"Most of what I got from him was how painful the serum was, but I got some other information, too."

"Tell us, sweetie."

"Well, he hates Jeb,"

Fang scoffed.

"I don't blame him, we all do."

Thanks for stating the obvious, Fang. Man he never says much, but when he does, it's not anything we don't know.

"Hush, Fang; go on, Angel."

"He was unsure of what we were, but whatever we were, we were the most beautiful things he's ever seen in his lifetime. Then, it stopped; he somehow blocked me off, like he knew I was reading his mind."

This kid's becoming very interesting. How would he be able to know about angel and her mind-reading capabilities?

"All right, thanks, sweetie."

"Max?"

"Yeah, Sweetie?"

"What happened to Nightsbane?"

"I don't know, Angel."

"I hope he's ok."

"So do I."

Then, as if he was waiting on the other side of the door, I heard a slam on the door and Nightsbane's voice.

"Max! I'm gonna get you out of there! I'll get you all out! Just wait for me!"

Oh, his voice sounded so handsome. Wait, the what heck is a matter with me? He was gonna get us out? This kid's not very smart. We heard another slam and the door opened. The guards threw Nightsbane's body in. There was no movement.

"Do you think he's dead?"

"Nudge, don't talk like that!"

Being the caregiver of the flock, I had no choice but to try to wake Night. I'm deciding to call him just Night because Nightsbane is just too long.

"Night, can you hear me? Wake up."

I shook him, hoping that would wake him, but it didn't seem to work.

"Night, you need to wake up."

"Are they gone?"

Night opened his eyes.

"Holy crap! Are you ok, Night?"

Night sat up and began to stand.

"Slow down, Night, you were knocked out."

Night continued to stand.

"No, I wasn't; I faked it."

What? He faked it? How can he fake something like that?

"Why?"

"It was the only way of getting in here."

Smooth, Max, why didn't you think of that. Boy, Night was impossible to figure out. I couldn't help to realize that when I grabbed him to wake him up, his body was ice cold, like the other dead experiments I've seen.

"So, Night, how do we get out of here?"

"You'll find out soon enough…uh…"

"Gasman"

"Gasman?"

Oh, right. Night never met us.

"Long story short, stay upwind."

"Oh, I see."

Night looked at the others.

"Oh, and this is Fang, Iggy, Nudge, and Iggy."

They all motioned when I said their name.

"Everybody, this is Night."

"My name's Nightsbane"

"Nightsbane's too long so we'll call you Night."

"Fine."

Gasman approached Night.

"I'll ask you again, how you do plan on getting us out?"

Night chuckled.

"You'll find out soon enough, Gazzy."

"Hey, only my flock can call me that."

"Whatever you say,"

Night made eye contact with Angel.

"And trying to read my mind won't help you."

Night laughed as Angel's eyes widened.

"Ok, let's get to work."