James Patterson - Two Schools Out - Forever

The air was crisp and cool, near forty degrees, and felt like liquid oxygen in our lungs. I swooped in huge arcs, catching wind currents, coasting, feeling almost weightless. It was times like this that I felt the most calm, the most normal. As if I were just a normal part of the world and I actually fit into it.

You do fit into it, Max, said the Voice. You're part of everything, and everything is part of you. Everything should flow together. The more you resist, the more pain you'll feel. The more you go with the flow, the more whole you'll be.

I frowned. Was that a bumper sticker?

Don't resist the flow, Max, said the Voice. Become one with the flow.

Well, since I didn't have a single freaking clue about what that meant, I decided to go with the airflow right now and enjoy myself.

"Look, bats!" said Nudge.

As soon as I looked, I saw them, hundreds, if not thousands, of fluttering bats. They swept jerkily among the trees, odd little black quotation marks against the deep purple night sky. We'd flown with hawks before, but not bats.

"Hey, they're mammals, like we are," I said. Were they more like us than birds? Well, not the whole eating-insects thing.

"My ears hurt," Total complained.

"It's their echolocation," I heard Iggy explain. "It's way cool. Now be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate."

Total huffed and settled down.

Nudge, Angel, and I swung into a circle, each keeping one wing tip touching the others', and flew around like feathered spokes on a wheel.

Then Gazzy came up and whapped Nudge on the back with one wing. "You're it!" he cried, and darted away.

Fang was up high, doing steep circling moves, banking, practicing the techniques he'd learned from the hawks out west. It was hard to see him-except when he passed in front of the moon.

Then all at once I felt the all-too-familiar rush of heat flooding me, washing my face with fire. I began breathing fast, the adrenaline jump-starting my heart. Quickly I put my hand up to my face, hoping I didn't look like an Eraser now, in front of the others.

The next thing I knew, I was streaking into the sky like a rocket, my hair streaming in back of me, wind stinging my eyes. I was going incredibly fast, and I could hardly feel my wings moving. Oh, my God, what is this? I thought, seeing the earth blur beneath me.

The flock and I could keep up a steady pace of eighty miles an hour with no effort, and could sprint at a hundred and twenty. Dive-bombing, we'd hit speeds of a hundred and eighty.

I was going way faster than that now, straight out, by myself.

It so totally rocked.

A giddy joy rose up in me, but my laugh was snatched away, left far behind me as I shot into the night. Eventually I came back to myself, felt myself slowing.

I wasn't even breathing hard. Laughing again, I turned and headed back toward Anne's house. I figured I'd gone about... thirty miles.

The flock was where I'd left them. I saw them long before they saw me.

I slowed and coasted up to them. Five faces turned toward me, looking stunned. Six, if you count Total.

The Gasman was the first to speak. "You have warp drive," he said faintly.

"I want to ride with you," Total said, trying to escape Iggy's hold.

I laughed and held my arms out, and he leaped into them. In his excitement, he licked my neck, which I could have lived without, but whatever.

"What was that, Max?" Angel asked, wide-eyed.

"I think I just developed a new skill," I said, grinning big.

Take! Crack. That! Crack. Max! Crack.

So Max could fly at the speed of light, eh? Snarling, Ari leaped forward again, smashing the bo across his opponent's back. The heavy wooden stick, taller than he and as thick around as his wrist, made a dull, sickening thud.

The Eraser dropped to the mat and lay there, groaning thinly.

"Next!" Ari growled.

Another member of his team morphed and sprang into the circle with him, his own bo at the ready. Ari went into attack mode, the blows of the heavy staff sending shock waves up his arms.

He had clocked Max at more than two hundred miles an hour. He'd also seen the delight on her face, seen her hair whipping around her head like a halo.

Jeb just kept giving the flock more gifts. And what had he given Ari? Unnatural, painful, heavy wings. He'd thought he wanted to fly, to be more like the flock. But having wings grafted onto an Eraser's body wasn't even close to what the flock had. Gall rose in Ari's throat, burning him, and with a roar, he smashed his bo down on the other Eraser's head.

He would do that to Max, he thought. She was fourteen, and he was only seven, but he was three times as big as she was. He had huge muscles and a wolf's power-a wolf's nature too.

Jeb had said it was necessary. Jeb had said to trust him. And look where that had gotten him. He had huge painful wings. And Max was still laughing at him. Well, those days were over.

Soon he would be the golden boy, and Max would be a distant memory of an experiment gone bad.

It had been approved by the higher-ups.

It was a done deal.

"Next victim!"

The first two addresses in Washington hadn't panned out, but Fang's map code was still the only thing we'd been able to come up with. And we had found that photo of the Gasman at the second address. At least, I was pretty sure it was Gazzy. So maybe it hadn't been a complete waste.

At any rate, we had two more addresses to check out. No information about me or my possible parents had turned up yet. I tried not to mind.

"Wait, Total!" I said, as I pulled on my new jacket. It had big hidden slits for my wings, and I wondered where Anne had gotten it. Bird Kids "R" Us? Total kept trying to leap into my arms, determined not to be left behind.

"Total? Maybe it would be better if you stayed home," I said, zipping up. "You know, maybe guard the house or something."

Total stood still and looked at me. "That is so condescending," he said.

Angel went and put her arms around him. "She just meant because, you know, you're so fierce and stuff, and have great hearing and those big teeth," she said soothingly.

Inwardly I rolled my eyes. "Yeah-not just because you're a dog or anything."

Total sat down, looking just as stubborn as Gazzy did sometimes. "I want to go with."

Fang smirked at me over Total's head. I breathed out heavily.

"Fine," I said tightly, and Total leaped into my arms and licked my cheek. I was gonna have to talk to him about that.

Five minutes later we were airborne and headed to DC.

"So, Angel?" I said, looking over at her. She was gliding through the night sky, her eight-foot white wings looking like a dove's. "Have you picked up anything from Anne, about anything? Anything off?"

"Not really." Angel thought. "From what I can tell, she does work for the FBI. She does care about us and wants us to be happy. She thinks the boys are slobs."

"I'm blind," Iggy said irritably. "How am I supposed to make everything all tidy?"

"Yeah, because you're so handicapped," I said sarcastically. "Like-you can't build bombs or cook or win at Monopoly. You can't tell us all apart by the feel of our skin or feathers."

Gazzy giggled next to Iggy, and Iggy frowned.

I turned back to Angel. "Anything else?"

"There is something she isn't telling us," Angel said slowly. "But I don't know what it is. It's not even clear in her mind. Just something that's going to happen."

All my senses went on alert. "Like what? Is she going to turn us over to the whitecoats?"

"I'm not sure she even knows what whitecoats are," said Angel. "I don't know that it's something bad. It could be, like-she's going to take us to the circus or something."