Flocked in Forks

MAX POV

The flock was now settled at Mom's house for an in-between-missions-mini-break.  I was still waiting for our next assignment from the oh-so-convenient Voice in my head.  Yeah, you heard me right; I have a Voice in my head, besides my own.  You mean you don't have one?  Well, hey, lucky you.
I was pretty antsy about staying at my mom's for such a long time.  We had been here almost two weeks.  What if Erasers found us?  They would know where my mom was, and probably use it against me, since they're just nice little mutants that way.  
"Hey, Max, wanna go for a swim with us?" I heard Gazzy yell from the living room.  Mom had gotten an in-ground pool for Ella's thirteenth birthday.  She was currently at summer camp for a week.  Mom was gone, visiting some old friends.
"Yeah, come on, Max," the rest of the flock echoed.  Except, of course, Mr. Too-Good-To Say-Anything-Unless-He-Was-At-Freaking-Gun-Point.  I laughed to myself.
"Sure you guys.  Meet you out back," I yelled down the stairs.  They all screamed "YAY!" and I heard their feet pounding against the floor on their way out the back door.  I pulled on the bathing suit Nudge and Angel had forced me to buy, and threw on a tank top and some too-short swimming shorts over it (Nudge and Angel again).  I ran my hand through my short blonde-streaked hair and ran down the stairs.  
"Hey Max!" Gazzy yelled right before he landed in the water.  I smiled at him and settled on a lawn chair.  
"Aren't you swimming, Max?" Angel asked curiously.  
"Sure I'll come in in a second," I said.  I wanted to make sure everyone was situated and safe first.  Erasers hadn't attacked us in what seemed like forever and I was getting suspicious.
"Or you can go now," a voice said from behind me.  Fang suddenly materialized out of nowhere, using his new ability.  He could now stay invisible when moving.  Before I could make a run for it, he scooped me up and started running towards the deep end.  Despite my struggling and steady stream of threats, he didn't even relax his grip.
"Hey, Iggy, catch," he said.  My eyes widened.  Iggy?  Catch?  Fang flung me into the air and I screamed.  Suddenly I landed in Iggy's arms.  He was hovering twenty feet over the pool.
"Iggy," I said in a warning tone.  "Don't you dare-" He smiled at me, looking mischievous.  Without warning he let go of me, and I hit the water hard.  I came up sputtering, my face twisted in mock anger.
"You guys are so gonna get it!" I screamed.  I flew upwards and passed Iggy in a second.  Before he could get away, I came down on top of him, my feet colliding with his shoulders, and he went into freefall, straight into the water.  The rest of the flock was about to die laughing by this time.  
I turned in the air and found Fang.  He flashed me a grin and mouthed, "Bring it on."  I started for him when suddenly fireworks flashed behind my eyes.  I screamed bloody murder and dropped like a stone.  I plunged underwater, not even being able to react as water filled my lungs, blocking my airways.  I screamed underwater, making bubbles explode from my mouth.  Images flashed before my eyes:  A giant, open house in the middle of some woods, a tall black haired boy, a little older than me, several pairs of eyes, some yellow, some red, some black, and a huge wolf.  I think I was still underwater, but the pain was too intense for me to be able to tell.  Finally, from lack of oxygen and the extreme pain, I blacked out.  


FANG POV

I grinned at her as she glared down at me, her beautiful tan wings stretched out to their fullest.  The sun reflected off of the water on her skin, and she looked breathtaking.  I mouthed, "Bring it on."  It was all the invitation she needed.  She smirked, a devious gleam in her eyes.  Suddenly the smirk disappeared and her face twisted in pain.  She screamed the loudest, most blood-curdling scream I had ever heard.  It made my blood run cold and sent shivers up my spine.  She dropped immediately, sinking underwater, clutching her head.  I didn't stop to think before I dived in.  By the time I reached her she was unconscious.  Wrapping one arm around her waist, I surfaced.  The flock immediately helped me out and I laid her flat on the concrete.  
"Oh my gosh, Fang, is she okay?  Is she breathing?  What if she dies?  What will we do without Max?  I don't think she's breathing!  What if-" Iggy wrapped his arm around Nudge's neck and covered her mouth.  I put my ear next to her chest to check for a heartbeat.  Silence.  Panicking, I held her nose and blew air into her lungs.  Then I tried to get her heart pumping again.  I repeated this about five times, when she suddenly shot up, coughing up water.  The entire flock let out a breath at the same time.  
She curled up into a tight ball, leaning against me.  A low, horrible moan escaped her lips as she still held her head, her face scrunched up in what I could only imagine was horrible pain.  I felt myself tense in anger as I thought of who would keep doing this to her.  
Almost ten minutes later, Max's eyes fluttered open, and she released her head.  Tears stained her cheeks as she looked around at the flock, all of us staring anxiously at her.  She looked down and saw my arms wrapped around her waist and her body pressed against mine and the tips of her cheekbones turned a light pink.  I almost smiled.  
"I'm okay," she said in a small voice, her voice cracking.  
"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," Iggy said sarcastically.  She struggled to stand up, but I tightened my arms around her waist.  She let out a frustrated huff, but gave up.  
"We have a new location, guys," she said.  I watched the reaction of the flock.  Gazzy looked a little unsure.  Angel and Nudge looked rather excited.  Iggy looked…well, pretty neutral.  
"Where?" he asked.  
"Forks.  In Washington State," she said.  

MAX POV

The flock was on the move again.  Fang and I figured it would be about a five-hour flight from Arizona to Washington.  He didn't want to leave so soon; he was pretty shaken up over my latest brain-attack.  I could have sworn this one was going to kill me, and if the pain wasn't enough to do it, I had been drowning at the same time.  I almost regretted waking up, until I saw the worried faces of my flock.  
Fang had insisted on carrying me back into the house.  He watched me for like an hour, waiting for me to collapse again from pain.  I finally kicked him out so I could take a shower, and I locked the door incase he decided to go invisible-stalker on me.  I went back into my room wrapped in a towel, and made sure Fang was in his room before I got dressed.  
Angel and Nudge must've been busy while I was showering, because I had new clothes lying out on my bed.  Jean shorts and a white and light blue tank top.  I smiled at their attempt, and headed for my closet for my regular jeans and t-shirt.  Shorts weren't my thing.  
Please, Max?  We worked hard to pick this out.  I heard Angel saying.  I sighed to myself.
Angel, you know I-
Please, Max?  You'll look great!
I sighed.  There was no use in arguing.  I sent her an image of me picking up the shorts.  
Thank you!  I heard her say.  I let my mind go blank, a technique I learned a while back.  If nothing was in my mind, there was nothing for her to hear.
The shorts were way too short for my liking, but I knew it would offend Nudge and Angel if I didn't wear them.  I finished tying on my converses and re-braided my hair.  I managed to get out of my room before I could glance in the mirror and just be like "to heck with that."
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, heads snapped up and jaws dropped.  Nudge and Angel gave me identical satisfied smiles.
"Wow, Max, you look HOT!"  Nudge said.  
"Uh, hello, blind kid, here," Iggy said.  Angel flashed him a mental picture of me.  I tried not to grimace.  
"Holy crap, Max.  You look sexy!" Iggy said like it was the surprise of the millennium.  I couldn't help but glance at Fang.  He looked a little awe-struck.  It was all I could do not to scream, "It's just a freaking pair of shorts, people."
Instead I said, "Alrighty then, lets get a move-on people."  Everyone grabbed their backpacks, and Fang tossed me mine.  I scribbled a note to my mom, telling her we were going on another mission.  We took off, headed for Forks, wherever that was.  My internal GPS was kicking in, so I just followed it and hoped for the best.  


We landed in some woods outside of La Push, which was right next to Forks, and settled in some trees for the night.  For some reason I was extra tense that night, so I took the first watch.  Fang seemed to pick up on my mood, and stayed up with me, working on his blog.  We talked and laughed for a few hours.  Suddenly my ears twitched back almost the same time Iggy woke up.  
"You guys up?" he whispered.
"Me and Fang," I whispered back.  "What was that?"
"I don't know.  Something big.  And it had friends," Iggy said, sounding worried.  And let me tell you, it gets a lot to get us worried.  Years of experiencing your worst nightmares, times ten.  
We woke up the rest of the flock and motioned for them to be silent and on guard.  We all fanned out in the tree branches, watching for what might emerge.  Suddenly four of the biggest wolves I've ever seen stepped out of the shadows.  They surrounded the tree we were in.  
Ange, you picking up anything? I thought.  She was silent for a second.  
Yeah.  They're just…werewolves!  Not Erasers.  And when they're in wolf form, they all think as one, and can hear each other's thoughts-it's kind of cool to listen to.  They don't want to hurt us, just see who we are and make sure we aren't gonna cause trouble.  
I let out a breath.  Motioning for the flock to stay in the tree, I jumped down, landing in a crouch to absorb the impact.  The wolves backed up a step or two as I straightened up.  I stared at them for a second, talking in the details.  They had to be extremely strong, and powerful.  We knew the basic structure of your average Eraser, and they were packing some serious muscle.  These guys were even bigger, like the size of a horse.  
"Uh, hi," I said, breaking the silence.  They looked at me for a second and suddenly backed into the shadows again.  Two seconds later, four of the tallest guys I've ever seen emerged from the woods, all of them wearing nothing but some cut off shorts.  No shirt, no shoes-just shorts.  
"Hey," the tallest said.  I guessed he was the leader.  He had that kind of vibe coming from him.  "I'm Jacob," he said, smiling.  It wasn't one of those I'm-gonna-kill-you-and-enjoy-it kind of smiles, but an honestly-nice-to-meet-you kind of smile.  
I smiled back.  "Max," I said.
"Mind if I ask you what you're doing here, Max?" he said calmly.  
"Just stopping for the night," I said, trying to keep an edge out of my voice.  Just because they were being nice didn't mean they weren't evil.  His mouth turned down the slightest bit at my tone, and I tried to look as apologetic as possible.  
"Why the trees?  No vacancy in the bat caves?" he pushed, grinning.  I was about to answer when I noticed one of the guys on the side was tense as heck, and getting red in the face.  Jacob followed my gaze and frowned.  
"Settle down, Paul, they're not against us," he said in a bored voice.
"You don't know that!" he half-yelled.  I raised an eyebrow.
"Whoa-down, boy, we're just stopping by," I said, putting up my arms.  He balled his fists and stepped forward, and I heard Fang snap a branch off above me.  Jacob grinned at my comment.  I decided I kind of like him.  Unless he was evil, of course.
"Paul.  I said settle down," Jacob said firmly.  
"You know what, we'll just leave," I said suddenly, backing up a few feet, my arms still raised.  
"You can't," Jacob said quickly, almost automatically.  Probably because we knew their secret and they can't let the world know-yada, yada, yada.  If anyone knew about keeping secrets, we did.  I immediately dropped the nice act.
"Wanna bet?" I said threateningly, tensing for a fight.  As low as I could get my voice to go, I whispered directions to the flock.
"Guys, left.  Girls, right.  I'll cover Escape Plan D.  On the count of three," I said softly, not talking my eyes off the guys.  I realized they heard me, because they tensed, waiting for the "three".  "Plan D" meant "distraction."  I was going to try and lead them away while the flock escaped.  
"One," I said, and the flock was gone.  I stayed one second longer, making sure they noticed.  Then I took off.  I ran as fast I could through the trees, zigzagging through the maze.  Just like we planned, I heard five pounding footsteps behind me.  Yikes, they were gaining on me.  They were fast.  I could outrun any human or Eraser, but these guys had to be built tough.  I noticed one set of footsteps was going faster than the rest, and realized there was one guy going faster than the others, and was getting way too close.  I poured on the speed.

JACOB POV

I had to give that chick some credit; she was fast!  There was no way she was normal.  No human can go that fast.  But I was still faster.  I added a little more power, and was immediately only a few yards behind her, and she knew it.  Suddenly I realized how close we were to the vampire-werewolf boundary line.  I had to catch her before then.  
With a burst of insane speed, I caught up to her.  I gave a wild leap and tackled her to the ground.  She turned at the last second, so that when I hit her, she landed on her back.  Her eyes squeezed shut as her hand slammed into the ground, and then they flew open again.  Her short brown hair had blonde streaks and was blown all over her face and her eyes were a beautiful soft brown.  
She glared up at me, her brown eyes practically spewing sparks.
"Get the freaking heck off me!" she snarled.  I smirked down at her.
"Why would I do that?" I said.  She scowled.  Just then, Quil, Embry, and Paul emerged from the woods.  She saw them, too, and angrily blew a lock of hair out of her face.  
"Way to be, Jake!" Quil said, jealously eying my position.  I rolled my eyes.  What a pervert.  I slid off of her, and she immediately dove to the side, faster than I thought possible, trying to make a run for it.  I immediately caught her around the waist and dragged her back to me.  She struggled and fought, but I didn't budge.
"So help me, if you don't get your freaking paws off of me, I'll kick your hairy butt into next Tuesday!" she threatened.  We all smirked at the threat, knowing how likely that was.  
"Feisty, eh?" Quil said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.  She gave him a murderous glare, and I immediately thought of the phrase "If looks could kill."
She slung her foot into my shin, hard enough for it to actually hurt.  I cursed and accidentally let go.  Immediately we surrounded her, and she tensed, ready to fight.  Paul, naturally, was the first to lunge.  She dodged him and took a chop at his collarbone.  He hit the ground, which surprised us all.  No human was strong enough to take us down in one blow.  
Next, Embry and Quil both jumped her from opposite directions, but at the last second she jumped ten feet in the air and they both missed.  It was just me and Max left.  I circled around her, trying to find a weak spot.  I noticed she was covered in faint scars, not noticeable at first glance.  Even as faded as they were, she still looked like she'd been through Hell and back.  Suddenly Paul leapt to his feet and surprised her.  He punched her-hard-in the face, making her head snap back and blood begin gushing out of her nose.  She fell to the ground.  
"What the heck was that?" I yelled at him.  
"She was kicking our butts!  What did you want me to do?" he yelled back.  He had a point. I walked over and scooped her up off the ground.  She was unconscious.  
Out of nowhere, Embry, the farthest from me and the girl, hit the ground, unconscious.  Quil went to see if he was okay, and just seemed to collapse for no reason.  Suddenly one of the kids that had been with Max materialized out of nothing, right in front of us.  The other four kids emerged from the woods.  
"Let her go," the first guy snarled.  He was dressed in all black, with jet-black hair to match.  He looked pretty dang ticked, and his anger increased as he saw the blood on her.  
"It was an accident," I said defensively.  
"Yeah, sure looks like it," he said sarcastically.  Just then, Max moaned and stirred in my arms.  Immediately the entire group of kids looked at her, worried expressions on their faces.  I noticed  how much the kids cared about her.  Max's eyes twitched, then opened completely.  Immediately she saw me looking down at her, and started struggling.  I didn't let her go, but she managed to wriggle into a standing position.  The dark kid took one step forward, clenching his fists.  
"You hafta talk first.  Who are you?" I said threateningly.  He glared at me.
"I'm Fang," he said slowly.  He was looking at Max, who I had in an arm lock in front of me.  She was shaking her head furiously.  I tightened my grip a little, and she winced.  Fang looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel.
"And the others?" I said, referring to the rest of the kids.  He pointed to a kid about his age with blonde hair and foggy blue eyes.
"He's Iggy.  That's Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel," he said, pointing to the different kids.  I studied them.  They looked way too young to be on their own.  
"How old are all of you?" I asked suspiciously.  Fang sighed impatiently.  
"Iggy, Max and I are fourteen.  Nudge is eleven.  Gazzy is eight, and Angel is six," he said finally.  The little blonde-headed girl, Angel, suddenly looked mad.  
"Stop!" she yelled at Quil.  He looked confused.
"What?" he asked.  
"I can read minds, you idiot!" she said furiously.  She looked surprisingly dangerous for a girl her size.  Quil began to blush furiously.  I would've bet my car that he had been thinking about Max.  I rolled my eyes.  
"Please excuse him and his perverted thoughts," I said, glaring in his direction.  Just what we need.  Another mind reader.  The little girl cocked her head to the side, and I mentally kicked myself, forgetting how annoying that was.  She smiled, looking, well, angelic.  
"You've got the info you wanted; let Max go," Fang said threateningly.  
"Or what?  You and your band of preschoolers will kick our butts?" I challenged.  
"I'm considering it," he snarled back.  Angel stepped forward.
"Let.  Her.  Go," she said slowly.  I was about to laugh, when suddenly I felt my consciousness being pushed back, to make room for something else.  The words I'd just heard entered my brain as a command, and I felt my arms relax their grip.  Max immediately tore away from me, and took a fighting stance beside Fang.  She rubbed her nose on her gray hoodie, wiping the blood off her face.  
"Aw, nice going, dimwit," I heard Embry say.  I whirled on him.
"Like you did any better!" I yelled at him.  He looked confused.  
"Alright Gazzy!" I heard the blonde kid, Iggy, say.  Him and the Gasman high-fived, laughing.  
"What the he-did he do that?" I asked.  Max's mouth twitched.  
"Aren't you a smart one," she said sarcastically.  I glared.  
"Are you done yet?" she said angrily.  "We'll just freaking leave if you want us to.  You didn't have to follow us and attack me!"  She stood up straight and crossed her arms.  The kid named Iggy suddenly cocked his head to the side.
"Hey, Max," he began.  She looked at him.
"What's up, Ig?"
"More company.  They're weird though.  I can barely hear them running this way, but I'd give it three seconds before they show," he said.  I grimaced.  Dang leeches were coming.  Now we were screwed for sure.