UST BETWEEN YOU AND ME and the lamppost, Dylan could easily be any girl’s perfect other half. If I didn’t already have a perfect other half, I might have been thrilled with the gift of my very own gorgeous mutant.

The moonlight glinted off Dylan’s dark blond hair, which dipped in a wave over one eye. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, and I could see the tops of his wings, a warm chocolate brown, darker than mine or Nudge’s.

For no reason I could think of, my heart seemed to thud to a halt. Somehow I hadn’t expected to see Dylan again, no matter what the Voice said. I’d left him behind in Africa. Now here he was, at my home. Looking at me intently.

Almost as if I were prey.

One by one, the rest of the flock fluttered down from the roof to stand with me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Jeb curtly. “And how did you get hold of him? Are you best buds with Dr. Gunta-Hubunka?”

“I wanted to come see you,” Jeb said. “Wanted to make sure the house was okay, that you were settling in, that it seemed safe.” He beckoned to Dylan to come closer. “Dr. Gunther-Hagen works in the same field of science as I do. We’ve crossed paths.”

I thought about how the good doctor had said he didn’t know Jeb. Did anyone ever just tell the truth anymore?

“Hi, Jeb,” said Angel. “Hi, Dylan.”

Everyone except me said hi. Not warmly or welcomingly — we’re too naturally wary for that — but somewhat civilly. Angel actually smiled.

Having Jeb here was bad enough — a violation of our privacy. And he’d had the gall to bring Mutant-Freak 2.0. Don’t be scared of possibilities, Max, the Voice said now, just to piss me off. Don’t close any … escape routes.

Huh? Escape routes? How could Dylan be an escape route?

“Dylan, you remember the flock,” Jeb said, pointing at each of us in turn. “Angel, the Gasman, Nudge, Iggy, Fang, and Max.”

Dylan nodded. “I’m really glad to see you again,” he said, not smiling. “You’re the only ones who are … like me.” His eyes focused on me again. I looked away.

“Maybe we can come in,” said Jeb. “Get caught up.” There was no way I was letting them in our house. It wasn’t that I automatically assumed Dylan was evil. The jury was still out on that. But I just didn’t get the point of his being here.

And he bothered me. He bothered me a lot.

“Sorry, no can do,” I said, just as Fang said, “Sure, what the hey. Come on up.”

I looked at Fang. His dark eyes questioned me.

“Yeah, okay, whatever,” I agreed ungraciously. I felt as taut as a bowstring and wondered how soon I could get rid of them both.

“Dylan, you can just fly up, like the rest of us,” said Fang. “Jeb, we’ll put down the ladder for you.”

Dylan glanced up at the house’s doorway, frowning. Angel and Nudge jumped up and were through the door with a couple of wing strokes. Dylan looked at me again, then at Jeb. “Yeah, okay,” he said finally.

He set his jaw, rolled his shoulders a couple times, then gave a jump into the air and tried to flap hard. But he hadn’t given himself enough room, and he just thunked back to the earth again, his wings whapping painfully against the ground. Typical newbie.

I heard barely suppressed snickering from Gazzy and Iggy as they flew up onto the porch.

Dylan’s chiseled face flushed as he let out a controlled breath and shook his head. “Not as easy as it looks,” he said wryly. “I’ve been trying —”

“Max taught the younger kids to fly,” Jeb said. “Max, why don’t you take a minute, give Dylan some pointers?”

My jaw all but dropped open. “Oh, he’ll get it soon enough,” I said, glaring meaningfully at Jeb.

“Yeah, it’s okay,” said Dylan, acting casual. “It’ll just take practice. Max doesn’t need to waste her time on this.” I wondered if he didn’t want a girl teaching him.

Incidentally, other people not wanting me to do something has often been Step One in making sure I do something. Plus, for a minute I actually felt a little sorry for him. It’s one thing to be a three-year-old with baby wings and learning how to fly. But this guy was … almost … a man. A little pathetic.

“Well, whatever. I can take a minute,” I heard myself say.

“Yeah?” Dylan raised an eyebrow and looked at me. He seemed to be trying not to look too eager.

“Yeah, sure, why not?” I said, making a mental note to get a good look at his wings. For all I knew, they were remote-controlled and duct-taped to his back.

“Have at ’im,” Fang said easily, and he was on the front porch with an almost silent flutter of his wide deep-black wings. God, Fang’s wings were gorgeous. They looked like they belonged on the Angel of Death.

“Good — thanks, Max,” said Jeb, climbing the ladder Fang had just lowered, and I indulged in a moment’s fantasy about someone slamming the trapdoor on his head.

Then it was just me and Dylan alone out here in the canyon, in the moonlight, and I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin.

“Okay,” I said, but my voice came out weird. I gave a little cough. “Let’s do this thing.”