Chapter 28: Leaving
Max PoV
We stood staring at each other for what felt like an eternity.
I was torn between running away, and helping her find her brother. Even if he might terrify me.
Sometimes our dreams tell us things we do not understand.
Yeah, and always you tell me things I don't understand. I thought grumpily.
After staring at the girl for another little while I gave in.
Okay, so what's it telling me?
You remember the explanation of the wolves?
Uh-hu.
About imprinting.
Imprinting.
I searched my brain. From what I knew already, imprinting was to do with birds. They saw something and loved it. It usually happened with baby birds and mothers. Well for all I knew.
But what does that have to do with Seth... Oh.
Seth was turning into a wolf.
Bella had said the wolves imprinted on the people they love.
"So who's he imprinted on?" I whispered.
Every head in the whole drive snapped towards me at the same time. Seriously, do they rehearse or something?
"What did you say?" Sam, the guy from the cliff and apparent leader of the Pack, asked.
"I think Seth has imprinted on someone..." I drifted off. Ripping wings. "Someone from my Flock."
But who?
I looked at my family, all standing within arm's reach. Presumably it had to be a girl.
I glanced at the other people in the drive and found them all staring at me in horror.
"What?"
"Seth has imprinted on you." Jacob said, wonderment colouring his voice.
"On me!" I frantically looked at Fang, and my heart almost broke at the look on his face.
I felt myself starting to panic. He was going to rip my wings out. Oh jeez.
There were too many people watching me about to break down for my liking so, being me and a complete drama queen, I snapped my wings out, took a running start, and flew onto the roof at the other side of the house.
I lay flat on my back, my brain working overtime to process everything.
I ran through my plan, the revised version.
1. I was going to go off, with the pretence of looking for Seth, and then leave. Simple.
2. Next I would go to the Volturi people and give myself up. Simple.
3. Finally, and probably the final act in my entire life, I was going to release all my memories and touch Arrow at the same time, thus killing us both. Not so simple.
Before I could do that though, I needed to fight with Fang so that he wouldn't miss me when I was gone.
"Hey."
I jumped and almost fell off my perch but was caught by Fang's strong arms in plenty of time. He pulled me back to safety with his arms around my waist, placing me so I was sitting in-between his legs with my back against his chest. Being Fang and amazingly thoughtful, when he wanted to be, he was very careful not to crush my wings.
At first I sat stiffly, but began to relax as he rested his chin on my head.
We sat enjoying each other's company, a silent conversation flowing between us. By the time he moved his chin to my shoulder to talk, I already knew what he was going to say.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"Not really, no." But I also knew I was going to have to. I took a deep breath, "Seth is the 'he' from my dreams."
Fang tensed, his arms tightening round me. His reply was a strained whisper. "How do you know?"
"The last dream. When I killed him. His sister came in. It was the same girl as on the drive."
Fang exhaled slowly. "They want you to go look at the beach where he took you."
I twisted to look at him. His face was a mixture of pain, protectiveness and anger. Sighing, I rested my head on his chest.
"You don't want me to go." It wasn't a question. I looked up at him. "I'll take Angel if it makes you feel better."
I could see him battling with himself. He wanted to come with me, but also knew that if he did, Seth would run as soon as we found him.
"Okay." He sounded resigned.
"Thanks." I smiled at him.
I relaxed again and closed my eyes.
I had a problem. There was no way I could hurt Fang. I lo- cared about him too much.
"We should go back down." He whispered.
Sighing again, I stood and jumped down, using my wings to gentle my fall. I turned to Fang as he dropped next to me and made one of my split-second decisions. I waited until he turned to look at me, and then I hugged him.
He stilled for a second, then hugged me back. Remaining within the circle of his arms, I looked up at him. Warmth filled his eyes as he stared back down at me. His head slowly moved towards mine, giving me plenty of time to pull away.
For once in my life I ignored the fight or flight reaction, and let myself feel vulnerable.
Closing my eyes, I leant up and met him halfway.
I'm going to say one thing, and one thing only. Wow. And that has nothing to do with the fact my brain went on vacation as soon as his mouth touched mine.
When we broke apart to breathe he grinned at me and my head spun even more. I looked away, blushing, and saw Seth's sister standing on the back porch giving us very impressive daggers.
Fang glanced at her then, as if to spite her, tilted my chin up and kissed me very softly, before pulling me past her and into the house. We walked into the kitchen, hand in hand.
Still in a daze, I saw Nudge's eyes widen at the sight of us, Angel grinned and the Gasman completely ignored it.
Laughing, I hugged Nudge. She stood still for a second, then shrugged and hugged me back. Gazzy was next and he squeezed me eagerly, always happy for some love. Iggy ruffled my hair and received a punch on the arm. Angel looked up at me sadly. She knew I was saying goodbye.
"Where did you go?" Bella asked as she walked through from the living room, interrupting the hug-fest.
"She was on the far side of the roof." Iggy stated.
"How did you know?" I asked indignantly.
"Same way Fang did. It was far enough away so you could get peace, but near enough so that if there was any trouble you could come back instantly." He shrugged, "You're very predictable."
I rolled my eyes before taking Angel's hand and going through to the main room, leaving Fang in the kitchen.
"Me and Angel are going to look for Seth at the beach where he took me." I announced.
Quite a few mouths opened to comment or protest, but we were already out the door. I hated goodbyes.
I would say the rain started about halfway there, but I couldn't swear on it.
Just before the trees ended, I stopped and got on my knees in front of the little girl who was my greatest confidant and ally.
"Thanks Kiddo," I whispered, hugging my baby for what could be the last time.
I love you. I thought, And tell Fang...
Tell him so many things.
"I will." She whispered, her tear stained face breaking my heart as it looked up at me.
I gave her one more squeeze before taking off into the rain and shooting towards my destiny. Shooting towards pain and suffering. Shooting towards...
Hang on.
Where am I going?!
