Thanks for the reviews guys!

But here's the deal. I'm starting to get writer's block, slowly but surely. I have a vague idea of what's going to happen but I'm not positive. So if you have any suggestions or requests, to like help me make character devolvement, I suggest you tell me!

Summary: Through an unfortunate turn of events, Max falls into the hands of a man who is not only evil in every sense of the word but hell bent on burning down the world if it meant keeping her safe. But all Max wants to do is get away from him. But will that change?

Disclaimers: I don't own Maximum Ride and this story in no way reflects the views of fanfiction or my religion and I'm not trying to offend anyone.

_Blind Prophet_

As hard as it is to believe, Valencia wasn't very pleased when she discovered her teenage daughter was missing through the eight o'clock news. After the initial shock and denial had worn off, she'd called Jeb up, while he was interviewing with the police.

"Excuse me, it's my wife," Jeb told the officer, in a hushed voice. "Val, I was in the middle of a conversati – "

"Jeb Batchelder! Don't you dare tell me you were in the middle of a conversation, when my baby is missing!"

"Val, this is why I didn't want to tell you – "

"You didn't want to tell me that my only daughter was missing!? That she was kidnapped?!" Valencia screamed through the line, and Jeb honestly believed if he weren't half way across the country, she'd be strangling him. "That she is out there right now, scared and alone, going through God knows what! And do you know that most kidnapped children are… are dead within the first eight hours!"

Max was certainly not dead. She may not be in the best hands, Jeb knew, but she wasn't dead. "Val, I'm interviewing with the police right now, I'm telling them everything I can."

"And just what exactly is that?"

Jeb rattled off the story as it had happened. Including the details of the miscommunications with dinner and the boy with the black hair. There was no point in lying, when the truth itself couldn't have Jeb pinned for the disappearance of his daughter. He was safe.

Valencia was sobbing now, sounding hysterical. "Oh, my God. Max. My poor, poor angel. She didn't even want to go – I shouldn't have forced her. It's my entire fault. My poor Maxie."

"Val – "

"Don't call me that! I swear to God, Jeb, if Max doesn't come home – "Val didn't finish the threat, her voice choked on the word 'home' and the line went dead.

A heart was strangling Jeb's heart. His poor Valencia. She was in so much pain. Jeb looked up from his phone, only to see everyone in the police department within ten feet staring at him. They had all heard the conversation with Val.

"Excuse me," A second police officer said to Jeb, "Did your wife say that you didn't tell her your daughter was missing?"

Jeb frowned. "Yes." What did that matter?"

The officer glanced at his partner. "D'you find that a little odd, Jim?"

"Looks suspicious to me." Jim said, watching Jeb as if he expected him to make a run for it. Please.

Jeb had expected this. He wasn't an idiot. Max had been obsessed with those CSI shows, and Jeb had seen enough of them to get a good idea of the way police men thought. Jeb was the last one to see Max. He brought Max miles away from home, where it was impossible for her to get home on her own. It was suspicious looking. And with good reason.

Though Jeb was the most likely suspect, he wasn't worried because technically he was not to blame. Fang, as far as the record shows, didn't even exist. He would be impossible to track, so Max would never be found. Valencia would be crushed, but Jeb would help her through it.

But Jeb had to play the part – he had to behave as though he were shocked, outraged, that they could think he had anything to do with his baby girl's disappearance. "You – you can't possibly think I had anything to do with this!"

"Sir, calm down. We're just going to take you in back for a little questioning." The first officer said.

Jeb feigned a look of regaining composure, and stiffly followed the policemen into a small room. They gestured for Jeb to sit in a small chair, where countless guilty parties had sat before him, and they sat in theirs across.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" This Jim fellow asked. He clearly had no intention of getting a possibly guilty murderer a bottle of water, so Jeb said no.

"Let's just get on with it," Jeb sighed.

And they did – asking him dozens of questions like, "You didn't think it was suspicious that your teenage daughter was going to a party with a boy you didn't know?" And, "Did your daughter mention any other details about what this boy looked like?" They had Jeb retell the story he'd told Valencia several times, checking for changes. But there were none. Jeb had it memorized.

"Alright." The nameless officer said finally. "We'll check over the security tapes at DuMort and get back to you."

"Thank you. Call me if you have any more questions, please."

"Oh, I will." He said, squinting at Jeb, making Mr. Batchelder pause.

After all that, they still thought Jeb to be guilty. He had to try and fix it. Had seemed sympathetic. "Do you…do you think Max is okay? Do you think she's still alive, I mean."

He was watching Jeb thoughtfully. "Sir, do you know what Du Mort means?"

"I don't," Jeb admitted, at a lost. "Why?"

"No reason. You have a good day now."

_X_

After being on edge for days, Max finally got bored. It sounded terrible, but it was true. How could she be expected to just lay around, with nothing to do but wait, while this psycho had her at his disposal? He never came for her, despite his promises, to hurt her or untie her or even feed her. Eventually her heart beat slowed, the adrenaline stopped, and she got tired of sitting in one position. She got used to it. She got bored.

She wondered if her friends new she was missing yet. Probably. What had it been, a week now? The police had to be tracing Max. They had to have solved this crazy teleporting hotel mystery, and when Max was found she wanted to know how Fang had done it.

If she was found, that is. Max wasn't deluded; people went missing every day and were never found. Mom would say most kidnapped children were murdered in the first twenty-four hours. But Max hadn't been. She was still alive. If Fang hadn't hurt her yet – seriously hurt her, that is – then he wouldn't.

Which brought Max to another problem; motive. Why was he doing this? It wasn't a desperate beg anymore, at least not in Max's mind; it was a just a question. Why go through the trouble of kidnapping her if he didn't seem to be interested in her or her wellbeing in the slightest? It was baffling.

She wanted to ask him, but he never showed. Whether it had been twenty hours or twenty days, her kidnapper didn't return. This seemed especially cruel, because now Max was bored and without anyone to talk to.

Because think about it; Max couldn't leave. Being still tied up, she wasn't even allowed to roam throughout the room. She was isolated from her friends and parents - Fang had taken her phone and there was no TV in the room. No contact from outside these four walls. Because of Fang, Max's world was entirely centered around him.

And he couldn't even be bothered to visit her. Rationally, she knew this was a good thing. If he wasn't here, it gave her time to think of an escape. If he wasn't here, he couldn't hurt her. But still.

Max snorted, without humor. How screwed up in the head was she?

When Max woke, Fang was leaning over her reaching towards something above her head. And there was a knife in his hand.

Max screamed. Surprised, Fang drew back quickly. He'd thought she was asleep. He raised an eyebrow at her shaking form, and seeing the familiar look in his eye Max snapped. "I'm not scared!"

"Really. You could have fooled me." Fang carefully reached for her fastened fists again, knife in hand. She let out a strangled cry as the blade brush against the blue veins on her wrist when he jerked the knife, cutting away the ropes.

"Relax, okay? I'm done with it. I'm putting it away."

She didn't wait a second more, sitting up as much as she could and cowering to the farthest side of the bed opposite him. Her hands ghosted over the pattern the ropes and traced through her skin, watching him and looking defiant.

"You act like I'm going to eat you alive."

"I wouldn't put cannibalism past you."

Fang smirked, looking her up and down in a single swipe. "Tasty."

Her nose wrinkled, scooting further away. "You're disgusting."

Fang frowned. "I'm not going to hurt you, Max."

Max didn't like the way he said her name. Soft and familiar, like he was trying to help her. Was that what he believed? The two were staring at each other, very different emotions being felt, before Max finally couldn't take not knowing.

"What happened to those guys?"

"What guys?" He paused.

"You know. From before." They both knew that before meant, From when I tried to escape. Fang didn't answer her, and her suspicions were half confirmed. "…Did you kill them?"

"No." It was the truth, but not the whole truth. Fang wished he could kill them – seeing what they had tried doing to her. It was disgusting. Fang was no angel, but he would never do that. – But once you're in hell, you can't actually re-kill them. It was a flaw, but Fang managed to work around it. "But there are worse things than death."

She was quiet again, but Fang could practically feel all her questions surfacing through her mind from where he stood. "I know you've got more questions for me."

Max did. But she didn't want to talk to him anymore. How was it possible she was able to actually carry a conversation with this…demon? There were no awkward pauses, only cautious ones. "How long have I been here?"

"How long has it been since I stole you, you man? Five days."

"How are you able to do all this?"

"What? Be this sexy and terrifying at the same time? I've had a lot of practice."

"I mean," Max said angrily, "In what world are you living that you have freaking bodyguards parading throughout a hotel? How do you even have your own hotel?"

In what world? In my world, babe, Fang was tempted to say, just to get her angry that was too close to the actual truth. He had to lie. "My dad owns a line of hotels. He owns millions."

If this was Gazzy or Sam or one of Max's other guy friends, she would have smirked and said, So basically you're like a lame Paris Hilton. But Fang was far from that, so she asked another question. "What city are we in? I know it's not Vegas."

"I can't answer tell you that one. It's a secret."

"I've had enough of your secrets," Max snapped, remembering what he'd said to her when they'd first met. "And why are you keeping me here? And don't give me some shitty answer like 'just because I can.'"

"Why? It's the truth." Well, part of the truth.

Max growled. "You can't keep me here."

"Because…?"

"Because it's illegal! Because I have a life, and you can't just take it from me! I have family and friends back home! They've got to be going crazy looking for me!"

Fang did not look unsympathetic. And Max could guess only one reason why. "They…they are looking for me, aren't they?"

"No, Max. They aren't." Her eyes were getting shiny and wet. Fang continued. "They haven't even noticed you're gone."

_X_

"Hey have you recovered that security footage yet?" Officer Everett asked his partner.

Jim spun around in his chair. "From the Batchelder case? Yeah. Come watch."

Everett did, leaning over Jim's shoulder and squinting and the fuzzy black and white picture. There was forty eight hours' worth of footage, and him and his partner would have to sort through every second of it.

The glories of policing! The action filled work he had dreamed of as a child. Bah. More like a whole lot of paper work and a whole lot of cases that were often inconclusive.

But Everett refused for that to be the case for this girl.

He'd seen a copy of a photo of the girl the mother had faxed over, the most recent one – taken just the other day at her sixteenth birthday party. She was young and she was pretty and miles away from home. A likely target for any number of criminals outside of bars.

Vegas could be a dangerous city.

And besides that, Everett did not trust the father, that Jeb Batchelder. He knew something, something that could crack this case wide open, and he was hiding it. Of that much, Everett was sure. Jeb was the most likely suspect, the only suspect as of yet, but that might change after watching these tapes.

"Alright," Jim said, breaking his partner away from his plans of justice and the mystery of a life time. He pointed at the tiny screen, his fingers tracing two figures. "Here we have the father and daughter just arriving at the hotel. Daughter goes off, dad checks in." Jim narrated it just as it happened.

"Maximum walks around the hotel for a bit, doesn't speak to anyone for what seems like a good hour or two. Until, this guy." Jim paused the screen. The missing girl had turned, looking surprised and facing a boy about her age. A boy who had black hair. "Think that's him?"

Yes, Everett did. He hit the play button. "Let's find out."

Everything seemed normal. Just two kids flirting, young love and all that. But then the boy got closer, and Max started to bolt. That's when things started looking bad.

The boy was gripping her arm now, keeping her there. Foul play. They were speaking again, Max seemingly cautious now, but there was no way to tell what was being said.

God, Everett wished these tapes had sound.

They fast forwarded through the tapes of Max wondering her way to the restaurant. She stayed there a while but never ate. The dinner Batchelder had missed with his daughter.

Max then, looking furious and tired, stormed back to her hotel room, but left again soon after making her way to the ballroom party.

The security footage of the room's inside showed some definite illegal activity. He would have to look into that later. Max looked like she was watching some bizarre sort of ancient ritual, a scary one at that. Everett narrowed his eyes as she sipped on some kind of beer; she should know better. Then she and surrounding kids were doused with some suspicious looking liquid that rained down from the ceiling.

After plunging into the swarm of people with a dazed and goofy smile on Max's face, the black haired boy approached her, leading her from the room.

"This is it." This is here they find out if Max Batchelder was dead or simply missing. This was where they find her or her body.

"Okay…he's taking her to the elevator." The door closed, and they could both hear the ding of the elevator inside their minds.

"Find out what floor it goes to." Everett demanded, caught up in the anxiety.

"I am! I just…Okay. Here."

Neither of the police blinked, even though what they saw made no sense to them. Because the tapes showed two teenagers getting onto an elevator. But neither of them getting off.

_X_

"What do you mean she's still in danger?"

"I didn't say that. I said she might – "

"It doesn't matter! She's here; in my domain. Nothing should be able to hurt her if I don't want it too." And Fang didn't want anything hurting her.

"You're domain? Jeez, Fang. What next? An evil laugh? A cape and eye patch?"

The glare Fang sent was lost on him. "Okay. I know you're glaring at me." Maybe not.

"I thought bringing her here would keep her safe. You told me bringing her here would keep her safe."

"Hey, don't blame this on me! I just told you what I saw that night." Fang scowled. "Figuratively speaking, Fang. C'mon. You know what I mean. So don't shoot the messenger."

"Right. Of course. But if bringing her here kept her safe, then why is she still…" Fang couldn't finish his thoughts.

"You know the future changes," His friend told him. "Nothing is definite until it's already happened."

"I know!" Fang's temper flared, and with it so did the blames at his fingertips. He took a breath. "I know. I'm just trying to think of what she's in danger from…"

Fang heard his friend's thoughts, and though the possibility saddened him it didn't faze him. Maybe you're what she's in danger from.

"You know I wouldn't hurt her. I would never let anything or anyone hurt her. "Irony's a bitch. Fang continued his thoughts aloud. "If I would never hurt her, she can't be in danger from me. If no one else here is able to hurt her, she can't be in danger from them either…If nothing here can hurt her, and she's in danger… that means in the future she isn't here. It means she's going to leave."

_X_

Answering questions! Yes, Max will fall in love with Fangles. It's a romance for a reason; I just have to be subtle and sneaky about how I do this so give me time. And a friend? I'm working on it. Can you guess who it is? And the entire flock is…existing in this mythical world. Some are Max's friends from back home, but others might be in Hell. I haven't decided yet.

Any suggestions, please put it in the review box.

REVIEW PLEASE.

P.S. Do you know what the name of the hotel means? I do. Can you guess who's Fang's friend is? I can. But to the first person that can guess which mythology this story is based off of, I'll give them a sneak peak at upcoming chapters. Deal?