The flock silently watched as Aro conferred with Marcus and Caius, the volturi guard surveying the proceedings. I know, I said silently. If you're wondering how they managed to get us to shut up with our insults, smart retorts, and sarcastic comments, let's just say Cauis flatly threatened to Change anyone who talked into a vampire.

We sat on the floor, leaning onto a cold, stone wall. Angel, my baby, who hadn't been a baby in a long time, sat in my lap, pressing herself against me.

"They're thinking such awful things, Max," She whispered, and I wished (for not the first time) that she didn't have her powers.

Especially since I was pretty sure that she was cross-examining that conversation that Fang and I had in the cell. . .

Fang sat next to me, his face stone. I wondered how he felt about this whole vampire business, if such a straightforward person as him could possibly wrap his mind around vampires, and werewolves, and deep dungeons full of thousand-year-old creatures.

I wondered if becoming a vampire was inevitable for us. I mean, look at us. Our wings, our strength, our speed, our powers. The Volturi must be hungry for such an addition to their ranks. Uh, sorry, but I personally liked my mortality. Who knew how the vampire venom would react to our bird DNA? I'd already heard about the toxin it was to werewolves.

I shivered. The volturi were talking too low and too fast for me to make out their conversation, although, judging from the frown on Iggy's face, he could detect some of the words. He stroked Nudge's hair, and she whimpered into his shirt. Was this comforting relationship more than just friendship? Oh, god, no, I don't need that kind of drama. Fang and I were already screwed up enough as it is. . .

Gazzy was fumbling with something is his hands-the light was too dim for me to see-and he bit his lip as he worked.

Angel?

Yeah, Max?

What's Gazzy doing?

Her reply took a few seconds. He asked me not to tell you.

I gnashed my teeth. Angel, who's the flock leader? Me, or Gazzy?

Her voice was reluctant. He's working on a timer on a few bombs. He wants to make a ton, then use them on the volturi.

My bad-idea alarm started ringing like crazy, but then I remembered how helpful they'd been against the vampires we'd fought earlier. It seemed to be the only thing that really worked against them.

I sighed inwardly.

Angel? Tell Gazzy to keep making bombs.

Fang's right hand moved slightly, so that it touched my left one. I glanced down at it, startled. His face remained passionless, emotionless, but his hand was warm and rough. I slipped my fingers around his.

Fang and I held hands.

With my silent conversation with Angel, Gazzy possibly blowing up the underground cave-though I wasn't certain we were underground anymore-and Fang weirdness, I hadn't been paying attention to what the Volturi had been doing.

"We've come to an agreement," Aro announced like he'd just discovered the secret to immortality. Oh, wait, he had. The three volturi turned to face us, their black cloaks still in the nonexistent breeze. He clasped his shale hands.

"I have not yet been able to read your memories," He continued on. "Because of the little one blocking you," He smiled at Angel. She smiled right back, in her I'm-going-to-patronize-you-and-let-you-pretend-you-can-beat-me-to-mush-when-we-both-know-that-I'm-the-cool-one-and-deserve-to-be-the-supreme-ruler-of-the-world kind of way.

"So, I would like to read the memories of you, Max," He said, looking directly at me.

I gritted my teeth, and Angel clutched my shirt. Fang's fingernails dug tightly into my skin, but I didn't mind, "So you can do what?"

He arched an eyebrow, "Why, determine whether or not it is safe to change you into a vampire."

Fang growled. Angel whimpered. Iggy hissed. Gazzy let out a yelp of indignation. Nudge started into a rant, "What? That's so not fair. You can't change us into vampires. We don't want to be vampires! Just leave us alone and we'll all go along happily with our normal lives umph!" Iggy covered her mouth with his hand.

Me? I said, "What will you do if I don't let you?"

Aro shrugged, "We will have to use Jane and Alec to incapacitate Ariel."

I clenched my fists, "Fine."

"Max, no," Fang said quietly.

I stared at him, "I have to protect my flock, Nick"

He nodded reluctantly, and let my hand go. My hand felt cold at the loss of his touch. Angel crawled out of my lap and I walked across the room to Aro.

He touched my hand.

~DDDD

"Are you sure about this?" Rosalie demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

"It's perfectly safe, I've done this thousands of times," Jeb assured her. "Now, Carlisle, are you sure this is the area?"

Carlisle nodded, "Yes, the holding cells should be right under here."

"Don't worry, Rosalie," Emmett said comfortingly, "There isn't much that can't be solved with a couple blocks of C4."

DDDDD

Aro released my hand, "Ah," He said with a sigh, closing his eyes.

I drew my hand back and tucked it under the sleeve of my jacket; I felt ice-cold from just his touch.

"That's interesting," Aro mused.

He turned to Cauis and Marcus, "They are close enough to human," He said in a somber tone, "It is safe to turn them."

As you might imagine, the flock reacted in a not-so-docile-sheep fashion.

A/N:

Again, I am sorry for taking such a freaking long time to update. Especially during summer vacation, when there's plenty of time to do whatever. My only excuse (and a really bad one, at that) is that I'm working on my own project. You might see it in a couple years in bookstores. . .he heh. Anyway, thank you everyone who reviewed, read, and story alerted this story. I'm almost done. . .but the ride's not over yet.

You might have noticed that I seem to be adding a little bit of Niggy. Sorry if you're not a Niggy fan, but it won't influence the story much in any way and will be just a side story.

And, as always, please review. I love reviews. I love hearing about my good stuff, but I also love hearing about my bad stuff. Am I making the same grammar mistake over again? An OOC characters? Something you want me to change? Please say so in your review. If there's something you're not comfortable with, I will make sure to amend it in the next chapter.