I wrote this shortly after reading The Final Warning—it's set sometime after the third book, it doesn't really matter when exactly. Part of it is from Max's POV and part from Fang's POV—you'll know when is which because I switch from 1st person to 3rd person in the chapters just like Patterson does. I hope you enjoy it!! Please review!

Chapter 1

"Fine!" I screamed into his face. "Go, then! Leave! Get out of here!" Tears sprung to my eyes, and I angrily wiped them away with my sleeve.

"Gladly!" Fang snarled. He turned around and jumped off the roof, unfurling his dark wings with a snap that echoed in the silent night. I watched as he flew away from the cabin and began gaining altitude.

The tears came harder now, and I didn't bother to wipe them away as they coursed down my cheeks.

I skidded to the very edge of the roof. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I called, with as much contempt as I could, "And don't come back!"

And then I immediately regretted my words. I didn't mean it; that was furious, irrational, reckless Max talking. Not the calm, levelheaded, leader-Max that I was ninety percent of the time.

Fang didn't answer, and he didn't look back. I didn't expect him to. I knew he heard me. I also knew that he probably took my words seriously. Too seriously.

Much as I wished it wasn't, my heart was breaking as I watched him fly into the night, his shape silhouetted against the full moon like in that movie about the alien, E.T.

When Fang was just a tiny speck on the horizon, I turned around and walked back up the roof. I couldn't stop crying. I sat back down to finish the rest of the watch, but it was same as useless; I couldn't see anything through my tears anyway. I folded my arms across my knees and rested my head in the crook of my elbow. My entire body shook with sobs.

The intense despair thatoverwhelmed me then completely overshadowed my anger. There was no getting around it: I was miserable.

How could Fang do this? Again?Didn't he learn his lesson last time? He said he would never leave us again, would never leave me again. We work better as a team, a family, all six of us together—if even just one of the flock are missing, it screws everything up.

Fang knew that. Knew it from personal experience.

Some small part of me was hoping, praying that maybe, just maybe, by some stretch of the imagination, Fang would come back. Maybe he was just mucho angry with me (I have a knack for making people angry) and hadn't really meant what he'd said. He would come bursting through the front door in the morning laden with bags of fresh food for us, and we could pretend this silly little fight never happened.

Yeah, and then he'd dress in neon rainbow colors and Total would start eating Kibbles 'N' Bits.

2