Convergence (CC,M/L,ADULT) [WIP]

[Caelan]

I just want to thank everyone for the wonderful responses that you left. I was really a little hestant about the last chapter so thank you to everyone that dropped me a line. It meant alot.

Elle & Majesty ~ Thank you!!!!!!

I am a Dreamer

but i think i figured something out. remember this is all pure speculation.
Daddy= Good
Tess= Bad
Daddy + Tess = Seth
Good + Bad = Seth
max's + seth's energy = green energy. max is good, like has a good soul or is good, so his energy is green. and seth's energy is also green. so is he classified as being good too? or is he going to be evil, like other characters have said?
tess' energy= red energy. we all know that she is evil, so her energy would reflect her soul, or her evilness. so it's red.
it could be like a colour-coded system for aliens goodness or something.
and in the last part, max says that liz's energy should have been green, but it was red. so something is wrong with liz. probably caused by her "encounter" in vietnam or because of her meaglan status.

You're right. The color of the blasts and power are very important.
Your spec about the glove and Liz's anger is absolutely on target as well. Liz is anger is like a major key to everything.

seth sees his father as being good, while everyone tells seth that he is evil. so he's trying to not be evil by acting like the person he sees as having the most good in them, that means max. which makes me feel really sorry for him, because he's trying so hard to be good, and it could turn out that he might not have a choice in the matter, like he gets turned evil or something by circumstances that he could't control.

That's a very distinct possability. He already feels that he's heading down the road as is. It's why he feels he needs his sister so she can save him.

Smac~

Seems he senses things that are going to happen, like Tess showing up and that's why he wanted to sit up front with Liz.

Yep. He's kind of like a seer. Where he know things, but doesn't really know why he knows them.

When Liz was thinking she was going to kill Tess for trying to kill her with Seth present, I was hoping she would get the opportunity to do so, so Seth would see that Liz would come through for him. Too bad she didn't get the chance but maybe later huh?

Liz vs. Tess. Battle for the Ages. It's down the line, but it's gonna be good.

Lolita Behrbuns ~ You win the best line award.

Doesn't Max know that you never f*ck with a woman?

I loved it!!!

Aurorasky~

i totally agree- i mean it seems that the Evans men just screw around with liz and with what has been going on she SHOULDN'T have to take it!

She's going to be putting the Evans men in their place very shorty. MUAHAHAHAH!!!

Roswell Dream Girl

You so did not just leave it there? Ok so I'm a little confused is Brian Max or was Brian just Max when him and Liz made love?

An answer to that question is coming as I type.

Kath 7

Tess is a psycho. What is her glitch anyway? I really want to know what th heck happened back on Antar.

A lot.


Woodwinds

You know, ending a part like that is considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Therefore, to remedy the situation, you need to get back here ASAP with a new part.

What can I say? I'm a very evil woman.

So I'm just going to assume that Tess was mind-warping Maria and Liz. But since Seth is her son, he can see through her mind-warps? He knew Tess was coming.

Yep.

There is something extremely important about Seth, but I still can't put my finger on what it is. He's trapped between good and evil... constantly battling his own nature to remain good. And somehow Liz plays into this whole things as well. Leaving this topic now because I haven't figured it out.

There's some kind of control factor going on here. Kind of a "whoever controls Liz controls the power" thing. Liz is the key to everything. But what IS "everything?"

Thank you SO much for the new part! This story is absolutely AMAZING and most definitely has to be one of the best I have ever read. I love the fact that it's not predictable. Every time I think I might have figured something out, there's a new twist and I hav to rethink everything!

Thank you so much. I just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy reading your responses. They're always so insightful.

Doublestuf~

Yay for Tess' entrance, though general booing for Tess who would risk her own kid.

I loved this line. It made me

Thanks for the part on genogram. I never even knew one of those things existed. I went to google it find out more. It's very interesting. As for Seth and Liz using math to solve their emotional problems, the question is why do their train of thoughts mirror each other.



Livia~

Gosh Caelan. Do you know that this fiction is the reason why I miss this fanfiction site when it was down thank you for another animated part that was a rousing delight.

Wow!!!Thanks. I was going nuts when fanatics went down. I'm a huge PEACELOVESHEEP fan. It was murder.

Thumbelina~ Good luck back at the university. Can I come with you? I just graduated from college, and I miss school so much. I'm a dork. I hope this chapter clears up what Max has actually been doing.

however im sure, know max loves her to the point of madness, tp the point of pretending to be someone else just to be close to her and to be allowed to love her. the violation, in my opinion, he commits is not rape but emotional theft

A huge word on everything but like with anything else there are some underlining circumstances.

Begonia 9508

I'm really asking myself if Seth isn't in some mysterious way Liz's son?

Exstingman

I can't believe Tess tried to kill Liz when her son was with her. WTF is wrong with that picture? Is she dead now or just stranded?

She is very much alive. Of course, I'm not making any promises as to what her condition when this story finishes.

Max has one solid kid and a possible unsolid one floating around. I know kind of weird, but stick with me.

The glove, is it an entity of its own? What I mean is, she took it off and when she look back down, it was back on her hand. Did she put it back on or does it find her hand all by itself?

It comes to Liz.

And Liz surely doesn't want him, not after that little display in the bathroom. Who the hell wants to get beat up, I am sure that is not her idea of foreplay.

He He He.


Lelea~

I sort of wish Liz's blast would take his head right off and I'm not talking about the one on his neck. Hit'em where he lives.
HA HA!!! I'm sorry. I really liked that line.

Gigo~ The Seth and Liz relationship is really pivotal. Together, they can do some really good things or some really messed up things.


Angel Eyes (thanks for the bumpage), BehrObsession, Awakeneddreamer, Tina N Blair, Roswellluver, BelevnDreamsToo ( You're very close with your spec loved your comment about Max resembling a short fat bald woman), Dreamchaser, Babylisou, Crashdown_51, Nitpick23, (thanks for the bump) Alma (thanks for all the pretty colors. I like that.) Venus2_star.com, Cherryflavoredchica, Shelly 2, Tinkerbell_luvs_Roswell, RaeRae, Qbon ( very good questions, I promise the answers are coming). Realistic Dreamer, Kath7

Again, I just wanted to thank everyone. Here we go with another chapter. OLE!!!!!

__________________________________________________________

Chapter Eleven: Silence



Robert Frost once asked if the world would end with fire or ice. While I can’t answer that question, watching my blast whiz across the room, I can surely tell you how Max Evans’ world is going to end. My fiery orb is just milliseconds from melting his inhuman face right off his alien body when a bright light engulfs him. Green like the sky prior to a tornado, he disappears in one pulse. Seeping into my eyes, it eats away at everything else. Shapes, textures and other points of reference become meaningless against the brilliant unearthly color that pulsates before my eyes.

I’m drowning in it.

I’m drowning in him.

Nervously, I shift my weight. “I can do this. It‘s the right thing to do.” My knuckles brushes against the door but refuse to the strike the wood. “Whom am I kidding? I can’t do this,” I breathe taking a couple of steps back. Clutching a box of Men in Blackberry pie, I stare at the latticed door. “You have to do this.”

I raise my trembling hand and knock at his door. A slight shuffling noise comes from the other side as I try to steady the shaking box in my hands. The door opens, and my stomach dips.

“Hi Kyle. I brought you your favorite. I was just wanted to come by and see how you were since they…Tess.. left.. and..and .and..…um…” God, I sound like Porky Pig. I shake the box up and down trying desperately to put into words all that I need to say to him. Yet, like with everything else the beginning is always the most difficult.

My thoughts drift back to the night of the Crashdown Festival when I stood at this very doorstep and lied and manipulated my very ass off all to protect Max. Day after day, I would go home and do the very same thing to my parents. I was his puppet. I crush the box’s corners in my hands.

“Kyle, I’ve done some things that I’m not proud of. I want to think that it was, because I was in love. But, love isn’t supposed to hurt everyone around it. I just got lost, or I was obsessed.” A bad taste fills my mouth as I remember the day I accused him of stealing my journal. “I believed in the wrong person. I wanted to thank you for defending me that day at…Al..Alex’s.” For the first time, I feel my nerves lessen enough to look up at him. At the sight of his stoic face, I jerk the box up hard and watch the bottom and pie drop on to the ground. “I’m so stupid.” I stoop and begin to pick up the blood red covered pieces.

His warm hand reaches out and covers mine own. “Don’t worry. I’ll get a broom.”

Not looking up, the two words that sum up everything I’ve been trying to communicate in the past five minutes comes tumbling out. “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are.”

With a suddenly new found courage, I meet his eyes. “I’m sorry for everything. You never once deserved how I treated you.”

“It’s in the past. Buddha teaches that to hold a grudge expels too much energy. I let go of whatever I was feeling for you a long time ago.”

I flinch. Letting go of Liz Parker seems to be quite an easy thing to do nowadays. “Good. okay,” I nod jerkily.

“It doesn’t mean I don’t miss being friends with you Liz, because I do.”

My lips form a shaky smile.

“Just promise me one thing.”

“Yes.”

“When Prince Valiant comes back, stay away from him, because he’ll drown you if you let him,” he says bitterly looking past the screened door.

Following his glance, I can barely make out his father asleep in an easy chair.

“He did it to my dad, and he did it to Tess. Max destroys people, Liz. ”

“Even if he ever was to come back, I’d never let him get that close to me again,” I vow.

“Good, because he’s coming back Liz.”

“How do you know?”

“Because things between you two aren’t over yet,” he says grimly.

Whether it’s mind or matter or my powers trumping his, the green curtain over my eyes lifts. With my human eyes, I scan the room for Max, but he isn’t here. Yet, my sight isn’t the only thing to reawaken. Moving restlessly inside of me, it wants out of the dark womb that is my body. I stiffen. The skin in the center of my palms is puckering. Oh God. I spin around to Maria and Seth intending to tell them to get the hell away from me. However, an entirely different plan springs to mind when I see Max’s mirror image looking back at me.

“It would be so easy,” I hear Khivar’s voice echo in my ear.

I advance.

A green shield shoots out from Seth’s outstretch hand and surrounds him and Maria.

“Liz,” Maria says finally moving her mouth from its perpetual o shape position. “Your eyes are glowing.”

“It happens.”

“No, it doesn’t just happen except if you’re Homer Simpson and take a bath in a nuclear reactor.”

Reaching out, I skim my fingers across Seth’s shimmering shield. At my touch, the color dims and fades away.

His eyes grow large. “I know you‘re good.” he whispers harshly as if trying to convince himself.

I trail my hand down his cheek spreading little green sparks over his skin.

“You loved that little girl, and she didn’t even come from your tummy.”

“You look too much like your father.”

He grabs my hand. Around our grasp, small green swirls of light come from both of us. “I don’t like Tess, Liz.”

I jerk away. Grabbing the edges, he pulls off my glove.

“That belongs to me.” Red sparks replace the green ones while I ignore the little voice that tells me that I should just blow him away and take it back.

“You have to believe in me,” he pleads. “I get that now.”

“It doesn’t matter what I believe.”

Something sharp jabs against my neck. “May I suggest if you want to live that you kindly remove your hands from my son’s face.” Max hisses.

“Where the hell have you been?” Maria demands. “What’s up with acting like a glow worm and going AWOL when Liz is definitely going through...I‘m not really getting what she‘s going through, but it’s definitely is your fault. So I suggest you fix it.”

“Oh, I plan to.”

“Not before I fix you first darling,” I purr.

“Seth put the enrinye on the table right now,” Max says with an edge to his voice.

Seth touches the glove with an almost reverence. “You don’t have to worry. It isn’t calling to me. It belongs to Liz.”

“Yeah and maybe you should be a good boy and give it back to me,” I say.

Max increases the pressure of whatever he has against my neck.

Seth shakes his head. “You’re very confused. Dad, let me keep it. I’ll give it back to Liz when she needs it.”

“Put the enrinye on the table Seth.”

“Okay,” he lays it down. “It’s just going to go back to Liz. It likes her.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Just because you want things to be a certain way doesn’t mean that there really that way,” he answers Max.

“That was really profound junior.”

Max lets out a harsh breath. “Now, both of you out. Liz and I need to talk.”

Talking is the last thing on my mind right now.

“Oh hell no,” Maria answers folding her arms across her chest. “Whatever twisted alien voodoo you’re going to do on her, you can do it in my presence.”

“Maria, you and Seth are going to wait for me in the lobby,” Max says as his voice takes on an almost hypnotic like quality.

“That’s a wonderful idea, Max. You’re such a genius. Yes, we’re going to wait in the lobby. Come on Seth.” She heads to the door, but Seth lags behind her.

“Great you’re like an evil Jedi. Get out of her head,” I shriek.

“I’m not hurting her.”

“Are you planning to use that on me?”

“It doesn’t work on you, dear.”

“That was what all that 'you’re not going to the counsel meeting crap' was, wasn‘t it? And don’t call me dear. I’m not your dear.”

“Well, I’m not your darling.”

“Just so you know, I’m planning on pulling an Uma and murdering you Kill Bill style,” I answer in my best peachy accent. “Considering what you’ve done to me, I think it should make us even.”

Seth looks on at us rather strangely. “What is she talking about? What does murder mean?”

“See, I do this very interesting thing with my hands. There‘s blood, guts, puss, coughing. You could say that I have people literally drop dead at my feet. It’s rather ironic in a way.”

“Seth, go with Maria.”

“Dad, Liz made…”

“Now.”

“Okay.”

The door closes behind them.

“I wasn’t going to hurt him.”

“Why do you think you’re still breathing?”

“Oh, I don’t know, because you thought I was a good lay.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

The same chill from before drips down my back. I feel myself slip from his hands. I pause in front of the mirror and stare at my missing reflection. Dracula eat your heart out.

“Could you stop schiening every five seconds?”

Hoisting myself up on to the dresser, I watch the King of Antar turning around the room trying to get a gauge of my location. A flustered look takes root on his usually unreadable face. Some things never change. This is almost too easy. “Here you said you let me be in control,” I chide him.

“You can be in control Liz when you stop acting out of it.“ Walking around several of my shirts towards the sound of my voice, he stops right in front of me.

My legs under their own volition wrap around his. I close my eyes as his warmth seeps into me. Leaning closer, his alluring scent surrounds me. I breathe him in to me.

He is everywhere, but I’m now drowning again.

Lifting my hands off the dresser, I frown. My glove is back on my hand, but the fingers have been cut at the knuckles, and the puckering in my palms have stopped. Damn alien powers. I don’t think Max is going to be giving me a manual on how to use them anytime soon. “You were always a killjoy. That should have been my first clue, because Brian is a thrill seeker.”

“What?” Alarm enters his amber eyes.

Green and red sparks swirl around my waist. Pooling my anger, my hurt and my rage, I’m going to blow his freaking head off. It happens so fast. I barely have time to register it. One moment, I’m slamming my burning hands into his chest. The next moment the mattress creaks as he pushes me down on it. Pinning my wrists over my head in an iron grip, my breasts heave up and down as my heart threatens to burst right out of my chest. Enraged, I try and kick him in the groin, but he captures my thigh.

His controlled movements counterpoint my angry thrashings.

"What is a meaglan?”

"Power and weakness, destruction and life, yin and yang.”

From my pinned hands, a series of red blasts shoot erratically. Nicking the wall, they have no real intensity behind them. My energy is spent. Fear trickles into to me, but it makes no dent in my growing anger. “Was Vietnam not good enough for you? You want to try raping me in your own body. How could you do that to me?”

The moment the words leave my lips I feel the iron grip holding me dissolve. Abruptly, he sits up. With his back turned toward me, I watch his muscles tighten as he focuses on some spot on the floor.

Clinching my fist, a small red light sputters from my fingers.

“You’ve shorted yourself out.”

I try again.

“You keep doing that you‘re going to give yourself a bad headache.”

“Then I’ll take some Advil.”

“Tylenol works better.”

“You raped me and you’re concerned if I have a headache.”

He whips around to me.

I scoot away from his face that is covered with so many emotions it almost hurts to look at it.

“How could you ever accuse me of that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, because it happened.”

“No, it didn’t.”

“LIAR,” I scream.

“I‘m not lying,” he whispers as soft meets loud in opposition.

My harsh breaths weave around his even ones. I struggle to remain calm.

“Why would I do that? When every kiss and every caress you gave me would be for him. Not me,” he answers bitterly. “After all, I’m the evil alien king that broke your heart.”

“Don’t you dare use my words against me.”

“Then stop reacting to everything and think for a change. You never used to be so impulsive.”

“You son of…”

He holds his hands up to silence me. “If I had kissed you, you would have gotten a flash from me.”

“It wasn’t your body.”

“No, but it was still my mind. There’s no way I could have covered that up in a kiss especially with you.” Getting up, he moves to the window and looks down at the city.

I blink.

Seconds elapses but to me it feels like hours. While I suspected, suspecting and knowing are two different things. Rubbing my temples together, bits and pieces from a nearly seven year relationship flash through my mind.

“I think I could love you maybe.”

I cover my hand with my mouth. It was Max that night.

He twirls the curtains around his wrist. “You should know I never once deluded myself into thinking that you cared Liz, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I kissed him…you that night. I didn’t get a flash.”

“It was hardly what one would consider a kiss. You were scared when you did it, and it has to be a little more intense than that.”

Yet, I felt whole. My face blanches. “How long have you been doing this to him?”

He answers only with the bobbing of his Adam’s apple.

“Answer me, damn it.” I order getting off the bed. “ Do you think you can just leech off Brian and me and not be held accountable? What if you had hurt him?”

He whips away from the window and grabs my shoulders. “It was never my intention to hurt him or you. You go on and on about how I abandoned you. Well, it turns out. I didn’t entirely. You’re going to sit here and berate me for it.”

“Hmm, I don’t recall you ever saying ‘Hey, Liz guess what?’”

He lets go of me and collected alien Max returns. Picking up my shirts, he starts folding them.

“So you got horny and thought you might take trip down here to feel me up?”

“Did I ever make a pass at you?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?”

“You’re life hasn’t been entirely easy the last couple of years. You may not want to admit it, but you needed me to talk to.”

“I don’t need you for a damn thing. I have Maria.”

“Things between you and Maria haven’t been right since Alex.”

“You’re certifiable.”

”She didn’t support you when you thought,” he stops folding as an almost sick expression crosses his features. “When you thought aliens had killed him, she shot you down. It‘s why you keep her at arm‘s length.”

“My relationship with her is fine. You’re the one that shot me down. You ended our friendship, because I had the audacity to go against the King of Antar,” I snit.

“That’s my point,” he answers sadly. “The two most important people in your life...”

“You were never important to me,” I interrupt.

“Alright, two people who you thought you could trust didn’t support you when you needed them to. It kind of makes it difficult to let others in or commit to them, doesn‘t in?”

You have no idea.

Bending down, he pulls a box from underneath the bed.

Beside me, a lamp starts to brighten. “Will you stop with the breaking of the bulb bit already.”

He tosses the box to me.

Catching it, I realize it’s my box of condoms.

“So you and Brian are serious?”

“It’s none of your business what we are.”

“True. You know I like him. He cares about you a lot.”

A fluttering feeling takes flight in my chest.

“I hope things work out with him.”

“I want your word it wasn’t you that night.”

“You have it,” he answers with hesitation.

Yet, I still don’t know if I can believe him or not.

“You don’t trust me do you?”

“You haven’t been too forthcoming in the information department.”

“The choices I make aren’t exactly the ones that I would choose if I was free to, but I don‘t have any other recourse.”

“Despite everything, you have free will so don't give me that crap.”

“I haven’t been free in very long time,“ he muses more to himself than to me. “He remembers that night, right?”

“Yes.”

“If it had been me,” his eyes lock with mine. “I wouldn’t have shared those memories with anyone Liz.” As if he has said or showed me too much, he grabs a bunch of scattered papers and starts to sort them.

Feeling suddenly very vulnerable myself, I revert back to sarcasm. “You wreck my room and now you’re helping me clean it up. Here, I didn’t think you had any manners at all.”

“I didn’t wreck your room.” He hands me a shirt covered in a strange yellow goop. “It’s Scion blood. When I got here, I found a pod in here tearing your room apart.”

“Or you decided to spray mustard all over it in keeping with your wonderful lies based around food condiments.”

“The ketchup thing would have worked if you had burned your uniform.”

“So it’s my fault?”

“I was just stating a fact,” he says in the same strained voice I’ve heard him use with Michael time and time again. “Could we not fight right now? I‘m a little freaked that someone sent a hit team after you and Maria.”

“Maybe, it’s Khivar’s way of showing he cares.” The overhead light strengths in intensity. “God help me if you break another bulb.”

The light returns to normal. “Since you’re the new love of Khivar’s life, I don’t really think it was him.”

“Maybe, you should talk to your darling destiny about that.”

He flinches. “Tess isn’t a player in this.”

“Well, your destiny tried to run your progeny off the road tonight.”

“WHAT?” he snaps looking very distressed.

I feel a pang of guilt for breaking it to him like I did. “It’s what Seth was trying to tell you before you made him leave.”

“Did he lose focus? Zone out?”

“Yeah.”

“Fuck. He looked fine. Do you think he‘s fine?”

“It was only for a couple of minutes. He’s got a real grace under fire. He’s going to make an excellent king.”

Max grimaces. “He won’t ever be king, Liz.”

“I know Sinon said something, but you’re the king. Isn’t it up to you?”

“Sinon thinks I’m going to leave it all to his little shmuck of a son.”

“Why don’t you leave it all to Seth then?”

“I don’t want to talk about this.” Grabbing my bag, he starts to stuff my clothes into it.

I cover my stomach. “I don’t get it. It’s why your future self came back, isn’t? Maybe, we couldn’t have children, and you needed to have Seth with Tess. He said you needed to be with her.”

“I’m not.”

“I sort of figured that out when she tried to kill her son.”

“My son,” he corrects rather testily.

“I’m just trying to understand,” I whisper. Why he made me give you up? I finish silently. What was the point to it all? I plop down on to the bed and watch him move around the room with a grace that is all his own. While most men barrel, Max glides. It must be an alien thing. Shifting on to my side, I prop my head up onto my elbow. “You know your whole little search could go a lot faster if you told me what you’re looking for.”

“They were interested in this area.” With his hands, he makes a circle around the dresser.

“How do you know?”

“Scions emit an oily agent from their feelers. It’s all over everything here.”

I sit up. “I don’t see anything.”

“Humans can’t see it.”

“Obviously, you haven’t gotten the memo. I’m not exactly human anymore.”

He stops searching and looks over his shoulder at me. “I’m sorry for that. I didn’t know that would happen.”

“It beats being dead.”

“Does Kyle have powers too?”

“Yes, mine have always been stronger when they actually decide to work. Look, you don‘t want to tell me why Tess is trying to kill me or why Khivar sees me as some baby maker...fine. But, you need to tell me how my powers work.” My eyes drift to his chest where my attempts to burn a hole in him seem to have been for naught. “I’m in danger. I’m a danger to others. I nearly blew Maria’s head off in the car. You need to be straight with me and tell me what a meaglan is and why I’m connected to your son.”

“Why would you say something like that?”

“We’re both broken. I’m getting flashes from him, which is rather funny considering he doesn’t strike me as the most open child. Throw in the fact, I want to murder his mother for him.”

“Tess isn’t his mother.”

“Alright, you and she went to the cabbage patch and picked him out.”

He’s staring at me with that same infuriating unreadable expression.

My patience snaps. “Screw it. I‘m done trying to understand you.” I grab my bag, and my newly sorted files. I’m opening the door when his arm loops around my waist while over my head he pushes the door shut.

Try as I might, I can’t ignore the delicious feel of his body pressed against mine, or the tremors he’s causing to race through me.

“It’s all my fault. I let it happened. I should have been there to stop it, but I wasn't,” comes his hurriedly whispered confession.

The sexual haze I find myself in dissipates at the pure torture I hear in his voice.

I press my lips together.

To stay or go.

It’s a rather interesting debate, since I’ve turned going into an art form. I close my eyes. I can’t get sucked back into him again. I won’t survive it.

“Parker,” a knocking sounds on the other side of the door.

My eyes snap open.

His arms fly off me.

The moment has passed.

Turning around, he’s reverted back to pod person Max. He motions for me to open the door.

I point to the ransacked room.

He points to his eyes.

He wants to mind warp Brian. “Hell no,” I mouth.

“Come on Parker, I know you’re in there.”

“Just a second. I just got out of the shower, and I have to get dressed,” I call telling him my second lie for the evening.

“Or you could just come to the door as is?”

The lamp shatters next to me.

Looking at Max, I smack the air. “Hurt him,” I whisper, “and I’ll hurt you.”

How do I get myself in these situations? I’m just about to open the door when Max pulls me back.

“Your hair isn’t wet,” he mummers releasing it from my ponytail. Resting his palms on the side of my face, his fingers slowly travel down the slope of my head.

I shiver as strand after strand dampens, but my shivering turns to trembling when I feel his lips graze my ear.

“I think you should tell him.”

I shake my head and push him away. Grabbing the knob, I thrust the door open. “Hey, sorry I just got out of the shower.”

He’s leaning against the wall regarding me with a thoughtful expression. “You know you look just like that night when you were on the balcony in Vietnam, and you wouldn’t come in from the rain. I remember thinking then that I hadn’t seen anything more beautiful.”

Only it wasn‘t you thinking it. I bite my lip.

“I wanted you so badly that night. It took everything I had to leave when you kissed me.”

“What?”

If those are Max’s feelings that would mean…

Ruthlessly, I squash that train of thought.

“I’m sorry. Here you told me you wanted to go slow, and I’m spouting stuff at you. I’m just a little philosophical right now.”

“How’d the meeting go?”

“Don’t ask? We’re leaving for Chiapas at ten. Lena Cruz is coming with us. Her family is from the area.“

“Lena Cruz, I don’t think I know her.”

“She‘s been working with me in Guatemala for the last month. Nice woman, she doesn’t say much though. I think it’s, because she‘s always getting shit for being part Mayan that and you can never get her away from her I-Pod."

He makes a move to enter, but I block him. “Why don’t we go to your room?”

“Because the Mani Express has left the station, and it doesn’t appear he’s going to be coming home any time soon.” He looks down the hall. “I’m surprised you can’t hear him down here.”

I smile.

“He’s been out all night. It‘s the last time I‘m letting them put me in a room with him. So please have some sympathy for me, Parker. Let me in, I promise no funny business, scout‘s honor.”

“You got kicked out of the boy scouts.”

“What I can I say. I’m not really a rules oriented person.”

Slowly, I enter the room. Max isn’t in here. Great, he’s mind warping me to. A white piece of paper ripped off the hotel pad catches my attention. Picking it up, it’s written in his familiar hand.

Liz,
Somewhere along the way my life became filled with smoke and mirrors. The people that I thought were true were far from it, but instead of recognizing it I kept pushing away the very people that I needed the most. I don’t want to see that happen to you. Please, tell Brian. Tell him everything.
Max

That’s brilliant coming from you who reveals nothing. My eyes scan the room. Though he could be hiding in plain sight, somehow I know he isn’t here.

“What’re you reading?” Brian asks me from the bed.

I scrunch the paper up in my hand and throw it into the wastebasket. “A note from a really irritating acquaintance who should probably keep his advice to himself.”

He pats the side of the bed next to him. “I think you need a nap. You know how you get when you’re sleepy.”

“This is coming from the man who couldn’t stop talking about injecting Mani with the Bubonic Plague after he ate all your Twix bars.” I say sitting on the bed and untying my shoes.

“Never get between me and my chocolate bars especially when I’m out in the rainforest.” He lifts up the sheet, shooting in I lay my head on his chest even though I shouldn’t considering the very twisted circumstances.

“Joking aside, what’s really wrong?“ He asks playing with the ends of my hair, “and don’t tell me it’s nothing. You’re really upset about something.”

I‘m part alien. My ex alien boyfriend has been using your body for God knows how long.

He’s going to get angry, and then he’s going to leave. I’ve already been down that road. I’m not particularly itching to revisit it.

“You can tell me Parker.”

“I’m going to tell you, but I just can’t right now. I’m just really…” I pause not knowing what word to fill in the blank.

“Scared.”

“Yes.” In this instant, I understand Max the man more than I care to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Caelan]

Liz Parker Evans- White all the way

Arrianneleigh~ I loved those lyrics. I'm a huge idiot, but I'm not familar with Seethers. What is their music like?

Doublestuff~

Okay, so my brain is a little on the drained side (major, future-career-making-or-breaking-exams on the horizon, thus massive studying and tired brain)

Good luck!!!!!

So, Max has been Brian during emotional intimacy, not physical... You know, I actually think that maybe worse. Because now Liz can’t be quite sure if what she thinks and feels about Brian is actually about him or about the times when Max was him. That’s just got to cloud this messy situation up even more. And so when she slept with Brian, assuming he was Brian, after talking with Max... I think Max may have gotten it wrong, those kisses and caresses would have been for him, Liz just wouldn’t have known that they were.

Poor Seth really needs himself some therapy. Wait, everyone here needs some therapy. They could look up Max’s old therapist or find someone new. Maybe they could get a discount rate. What kind of health insurance do you have as the king of Antar anyway?

I love your responses. They always make me laugh.



I want to thank everyone for their responses. My net connection isn't working so I have to do this through AOL and it doesn't seem to like fanatics very much so I have to make the thank you extremely short. As always, thanks for reading and living feedback because it keeps me writing

____________________________________________________

Chapter Eleven: The Walking Wounded


My sweaty, trembling hand flips on the bathroom switch. Squinting against the sudden change in light, I grab my toothpaste and toothbrush out of my night bag.

His warm hand takes mine as I step on to the stool. Lifting me up, I tower over the shiny, white sink.

“I’m big like you now daddy,” I giggle.

“Yes, you are Lizzie. You know one of these days you won’t even need the stool or daddy to help you.” He hands me my pink Barbie toothbrush.

“Daddy, I’ll always need you to help me.”

Pressing on the toothpaste, I coax a miniscule amount out.

I frown at the toothpaste. “It’s all gone. I can’t make it come out. This is dumb.”

“You have to fold back the edges, like this.”

“You’re so smart daddy.”

Folding back the edges, a generous helping of green paste coats my brush. I move the brushes up and down over my teeth.

“Lizzie always up and down never side to side.” He fills up my cup with some water.

Pooling the water in my hand, I take it into my mouth and spit. From the cartoon, I punch out one white birth control pill.

“Daddy, my vitamins.”

“Almost forgot.” From the medicine cabinet, he pulls down a white bottle and hands me a red one.

Happily, I chew it down.

Lifting me off the stool, I link my arms around his neck. “I love you daddy.”

“I love you to Lizzie Bear.” He answers carrying me to my room.


Twisting the bottom of the tube, I move the lipstick over my lips.

“Now you have to pucker your lips like this,” my mom makes a face.

I try to mimic her gesture. I feel the soft lipstick slide across my lips. With my new red lips, I smile at myself in the mirror. “I look like you now mommy.”

She smiles and tears off a section of the toilet paper. “Now you always need to blot.”

I press my lips against a tissue. Throwing it into the basket, I open my compact up and start to apply a thin sheen of blush to my cheeks.

“Liz don’t walk away from us.”

“I told you. I’m going to Maria’s.” I grab hold of the door.

“What did that little shit Max Evans do to you?”

I stop dead in my tracks at the mention of his name. Slowly, I turn around to regard them.

“Jeff,” my mother warns.

“She hasn’t been the same since he took off for God knows where.”

“Liz,” my mom begins tentatively. “We’re worried about you. You’re grades are dropping.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t be your perfect little daughter anymore,” I snit.

“We never expected you to be perfect. We just want you to be happy again. You’re sleeping all the time,” my dad joins in.

“I’m tired,” I roll my eyes.

My mom presses her lips together. “Did you and Max you know have sex?”

“We were close, but then I had to save the world.” I choke hating myself immediately for sounding vulnerable and wanting nothing more than for them to hold me. It isn’t like they can fix it anyway.

“You used to be able to tell me anything. Lizzie, talk to me.”

“That’s just it dad. I don’t want to talk to you or anyone else for that matter.” I slam the door hard behind me.

The brush drops from my hand leaving a bright red trail in its wake. Running a bit of water over it, I scrub at it viciously. My eyes drift to the mirror, and I stiffen. “How did you get in here?”

“Through the door.”

I don’t need this right now.

His small hand tightens around the handle of an airplane-covered suitcase.

“Seth, it isn’t safe for you to be running off like this all the time.”

“It isn’t safe for you to be having strangers in your room either,” he says with distaste. “What’s that man doing sleeping in your bed Liz?”

Yawning, I cover my mouth. “He’s a friend.”

“So you let all of your friends sleep in your bed?”

“Did I miss something? When did you become my mother?”

His eyes flash. “Mothers are stupid. You should be glad that yours went away.”

“Go back to your dad or Serena or someone. Just get out now.”

“I’m sorry. I guess your mom was nice,” he mumbles.

“She was. She and my dad always made me feel...” safe, secured, loved, full. I tuck some hair behind my ear.

“What did they make you feel like?”

“It’s not important anymore. What do you want?”

“I’m going with you,” he lifts up his suitcase. “Serena packed all my stuff for me. She wasn‘t mad at me for mind warping her. She said that sometimes you have to be a little sneaky to help people.”

“Sounds like her.”

“But my dad is going to be mad at me. I had to mind warp him to get away.”

“You mind warped your father. How did you do that?”

Something akin to terror appears in his eyes. “I don’t know. I just did.” He whispers.

“I need to call him then.”

“No, you can’t. He wants to send me home. I have to stay with you.”

“Your dad knows a lot more about what’s going on than I do,” I tell him bitterly.

“I can help you find out what’s going on just let me stay with you.” He pulls out Larek’s disk. “There’s stuff on here, but there’s more stuff. I’ll show you how to get it all, but you can’t call my dad.”

He’s seven years old, and he’s blackmailing me.

“He’s really busy, and he probably doesn’t even know that I’m gone.”

“I doubt that. I can‘t keep you safe if something happens.”

“Yes, you can,” he says with an adamancy that frightens me. “You call him now. You end up in the water. He gets you out, but you’re blue like a Popsicle. He breathes into you and pushes on your chest and nothing happens. Then he leaves me, because of you.”

I cringe at the anger. I hear in his voice.

“He leaves me. I’m all-alone. There’s no sister, and there’s no daddy. There’s only Tess,” he rambles ominously without taking a breath. “I can’t be left alone with Tess.”

The floor starts to rumble.

“I do bad things then.”

“Alright.” The movement underneath me ceases. “If I don’t call him then everything is okay.”

“No.”

I’m going to die soon. That’s a rather uplifting thought. “Do you know how I get into the water?”

“No.”

“When?”

“No, everything is always moving. It’s hard to keep up with it. If I wasn’t broken then I’d be able to do it.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask him to explain this very stupid and asinine broken concept, but he’s way too agitated.

“Alright, we’re going to go back out there. You’re going to wait for me in the hall. Brian is sleeping so he won’t see you.”

“It would be easier to mind warp him.”

“No more of this mind game stuff.”

“Okay.”

I open the door but stop just as I fast at the now dimly lit room.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” I tell Brian‘s bare back. “I couldn’t sl…” the words nearly die in my throat as he slowly turns around to me. Pure terror swims in his usually carefree gaze. “What is it?”

Seth‘s head peaks around me. “He’s had a bad dream. You should get him some water. My dad always gets me some water when I see scary things.”

“Brian?” I ask again stopping in front of him.

Almost immediately, he wraps his arms around my waist and presses his head against my stomach.

“Fine, if you’re not going to get him some water then I’ll do it.”

I run my fingers through his disheveled blonde locks. “Brian, What happened?” I can feel my panic growing every second as his silence elapses.

When he finally speaks, his once mercurial voice sounds strained and broken. “I heard you get up. I was asleep, but I heard you. You were next to me then there was nothing.”

“I was in the bathroom.”

He shakes his head against me. “That’s not what I mean. You were with me,” he covers his heart, “but then you weren‘t.”

I kneel down beside him. “It’s okay now.”

“No, it’s not Parker. You were in trouble. I was trying so hard to get there to stop it. I’d never been so scared in my whole life. It was all my fault.”

I kiss his forehead. “It was just a nightmare see I’m fine.”

He shakes his head. “It was hot so hot that….”

“You can’t breathe,” Seth finishes besides me his voice sounding strangely far away.

“I couldn’t breathe.”

“The laughing,” he places his small hands over his ears.

Flicking my attention to him, Seth looks almost dazed.

“Then there was the laughing. It was shrill. All I wanted to do was to shut it off.”

“You can’t turn it off. It never stops,” Seth adds.

“I stepped on a piece of a glass. It’s when I saw it all and realized what had happened.”

All three of us jump as Brian’s cell phone begins to ring.

He grabs if off the nightstand. “Yeah,” comes his soft reply. “Mmmhm. I agree with you.”

The color seems to creep back into his face at every word he speaks to the person on the other line while Seth undergoes a similar metamorphosis.

“You shouldn’t be looking at me. He’s going to wonder why you’re looking at nothing," he tells me, but his voice no longer holds that fragility to it of before. “You know the scions were all over this thing.” Diving underneath a nook in the dresser, his father’s eyes stare out from it at me. I may have no idea what that was, but I definitely know who was behind it.

“Alright thanks. I’ll see you soon Lena.” He folds up his phone.

“Feeling better.” I hand him his shoes and shirt hoping to get him away from the mind warping seven year-old.

“Yeah, I can’t even remember what had me so spooked. I guess I just needed to focus on something else. Sorry for behaving like such a whack job.” Leaning down, he gives me a peck on the lips.

From the corner of my eyes, I see a dark head slide out from underneath the dresser. “Would you like to tell me what you’re really doing with your friend? I have friends that are girls, and I’m not going around kissing them.”

I ignore Seth. “You’re sure you’re alright?”

“Yes, I can think of something else that we could do that could make me feel even better.” He winks.

“You’re incoercible.”

“I’m a guy. It’s like a loop in our brain.”

I smack him.

“God, woman you’re vicious.”

“You should just blast him. He needs to leave. We have work to do.”

I glare at Seth.

“Sorry.”

Brian glances down his watch. “I have some things I need to take care of. How about breakfast in a hour?”

“Only if I can have macaroni and cheese,” comes a muffled answer. “What’s this?”

I give Brian a forced smile. “Sure, I’ll meet you at that little restaurant across from the Zocolo.”

“I’ll see you then.”

“Brian.”

“Yeah,” he pauses in front of the door.

“It’s nothing.”

He gives me one of his hundred-watt smiles and shuts the door.

“Brian, I’m part alien. There’s an alien plague out there, and my ex boyfriend has been using your body for who knows how long. His son is mind warping you.” I tell the wooden door. “You may not even actually like me at all.”

“You know you’re very weird,” Seth says joining me.

“I’m practicing. What was with that thing with the hot place and the laughing?”

He looks confused.

“The two of you were going on and on like you shared the same nightmare.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Seth.”

“Liz. Why do you keep rubbing your head like that?”

“Because you’re giving me a giant headache. What if Brian had seen you?”

“Humans can’t see through mind warps, Liz. I would think you should know that by now.”

He pulls a vial out from his pocket.

I snatch it away from him. “Where did you get this?”

“I found it underneath the dresser when I was sploring.”

Turning the tube upside down, I watch the particles slide to the other side.

“What’s in there?”

“My childhood.”

“What do you mean?”

Glancing up at him, it feels like someone has reached into my chest and given my heart a little squeeze. He’s looking at me with the same mixture of concern and empathy his father used to give me all those years ago. I tear my eyes away. “It’s not important.”

“Now you’re lying,” he answers sounding slightly miffed. “If you don’t want to tell me fine, it’s not like I care.”

“Have you ever had things happen to you that hurt too much to talk about?”

He nods his head.

I bet you have. I’m going to make Tess pay for it as soon as I get the chance.
“This hurts too much to talk about,” I answer dropping my little morbid keepsake into my bag.

“Then why do you keep it?”

“I don’t know. I need it. I guess. Let‘s go.”

He throws the suitcase on to the bed and pulls out a red raincoat.

“What’s with the coat?”

“It’s going to rain. I don‘t like being cold.”

“We’re in the desert. It doesn’t rain that much.”

“You get that I tell the future don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Just checking.” He closes the suitcase back up.

I stare down at the B-52 bombers on it. “So you like airplanes?”

“I’m going to be a pilot when I grow up just like my dad.”

“Your dad flies?” Max flying a plane. That’s a weird thought.

“When he doesn’t have to work, we fly all over Antar. You know,” he turns serious. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about my dad.”

“That’s what scares me.”

“Is that all you’re going to wear? You’re going to get cold.”

“No, I’m not. You’re like a mother hen.”

“I’m a father hen,” he corrects.

“Technically boys can’t be hens.”

“Whatever, I hate this stupid language. Can we go already?”

I grab the disk and my purse. “Yes, your majesty.”

He stops and spins around.

The mixture of emotions on his face breaks my heart.

“Liz don’t ever call me that please.”

“I’m sorry.”

He shrugs. “You didn’t know.”

Staring at the damaged little boy in front of me, I know I’ve only reached the tip of the iceberg of what is really going on here. Maybe, it’s his resemblance to my dearly departed lab partner. Perhaps, it’s because he’s a broken seven year-old, and I’m a broken twenty four year-old, or the more likely reason is that I’m over romanticizing this entire thing. Yet, I feel a kinship to him.

“Are we going to go or are you’re going to stare at me all day?”

Scratch that I want to throw Mini Max out the window. “I’m coming,” I answer in an overly saccharine voice.

“You scare me when you talk like that.”

“You should be scared. I’m a very mean woman.”

“No, you’re not. You just pretend so people will stay away from you.” He tells me before opening up the door and running down the stairs.

Shocked, I pause on the stairwell.

“Liz come on.”

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I call taking the first step.

[Caelan]

Again, I just want to thank everyone for their awesome feeback. I got to make this quick, because little sis wants the computer

Smac~

And every time I think Seth is going to give up a little info you just cut it short. It is driving me crazy. Like him telling Liz there's a lot she doesn't know about his dad. I'm going, so tell us something already, and then...nothing! SO frustrating!

You're getting some answers in this one. Well sort of.


Taffy Cat~ You're really close with your spec.

Chosen Now~ I was really freaking about writing a kid. I don't really like small children either. They annoy me, but my sister was cute so that's what I think of when I'm writing Seth.

Doublestuff~

Excuse me? Excuse me?!? A is not an answer. No, I reject your winky and command you to tell me what's going on. Now missy. Mush, mush!

Without fail, you always crack me up with your responses. You're too funny.

Brian... poor guy. Maybe they can clone him a nice Liz to take home as a the consolation prize.

I'm going to see what I can do for Brian. He does deserve himself a nice woman. I think he's going to be meeting some along that vein very soon.

Oh, and the vial - you're not going to go all Billy Bob Thorton/Angelina Jolie on us, are you? Because that might be a bit much for me.

Well actually

Evelynn~
I just wanted to say thanks for reading my story. I worship the Denial Game. The complexity and the characters you created were simply wonderful. The whole story blew me away. I'm on pins and needles waiting for the next chapter.

Raven Sprite~ Thanks for reviewing. I'm having so much fun reading Shattered Pieces.

They're so in love still... and just can't see it, or bring themselves to admit it... both were aways too stubborn for their own good.

You hit the nail on the head with that. But never fear. I'm going to put them into a situtation where they're going to have to admit it.

BelevnDreamsToo

Brother!! This little boy still gives me the willies!! There's something right under the surface! He REALLY seems to want to help Liz...but he's such a little shit to her at the same time!!

He does have agenda. The thing about Seth is that he can go either way. During the majority of the time, he does act like Max, but he can also channel Tess. Pinning him down, it going to be rather difficult.

I'm really torn about the Brian/Max mess too!! You're not making this easy for us, are you??

I'm evil This is majorly of topic, but who did your avatar. Is it a picture? It looks like it's made of cray pod. It's very pretty.





____________________________________________________

Chapter Tweleve: Lazarus


Water rivulets rush down the cab’s window while people hurriedly cross in front of us. Wind flips a young woman’s black umbrella inside out. She brings the handle down several times trying to flip it back. On her third attempt, the gust snatches it from her. Raising her head to the sky, she watches it float away while the rain seeps through her bright red coat.

I look up as a bolt of lightening crackles across the sky.

I glance up from Harry Potter and cast a wary glance through the plastic covering at her vacant almond eyes. “It’s just thunder. It‘s nothing to be afraid of.” I tell Sierra loosening my death drip on the book’s sides.

“But it scares you.”

“Yes, when my parents died, I remember this noise. It sounded like thunder, but it was inside of me. It was bouncing around in me, and it just wouldn’t stop. I was so scared,” my voice hitches.

“It’s okay.”

I stiffen as I feel her hand brush mine. I jump back. “What are you doing?” I nearly shriek at her. My mind is on overdrive. “You can’t touch me. We talked about this.”

“I know. You can make me sick, because my body is too tired to stop stuff.” She rolls her eyes.”

Antiseptic. I can clean her hand off. That should work. Bending over, I start pulling things out of a drawer.

“Brian isn’t here to make you feel better, so I wanted to do it since you’re sad.”

“Brian is in the lab honey.” I yank out a large bottle and read the label. What the hell is this? I put it down behind me.

“Liz he is, and he isn’t the lab.”

I stop in my mad search and turn to look at her. “What do you mean?”

She frowns. “I don’t know. My head is all funny.”

“It’s the medicine. I‘m going to make you better.” I stare at my palms.

“You can‘t make it better Liz. ” She says with a maturity way beyond her years. “The little girl keeps trying to help me, but she can’t either. Dying doesn‘t scare me anymore.”

“Liz you’re scaring me.”

Fiercely, I pull the curtain around us closed. “This is going to be hard for you to understand, but I’m not like other people. I just have to figure out how to make it work then you’re going to be fine.” I wipe my eyes. “Then you can come home with me.”

“And be your little girl,” she adds with a ghost of a smile appearing on her lips.

“You’ll be my little girl.”

“We’ll be a family.”

“LIZ,” Seth yanks on my arm hard.

“What?” I snap wanting nothing more to be left alone with my memories. What was it about her? She wasn’t the first child I ever took care of, but she grabbed me from the very first moment I saw her. My clinical detachment went straight out the window where she was concerned.

Clad in his red rain coat, Seth looks at me curiously. “I called your name like a thousand times. You went on vacation.”

“So,” I mumble.

“I was afraid you weren’t going to come back.”

“People don’t go on vacation for forever Seth.”

“I went on vacation for a year once when I was little. My dad would sit with me and talk to me, but I wouldn‘t leave her.”

My eyes snap back to him. “You’re telling me you didn’t talk for a year.” Max must have been beside himself.

“Look at those drops. They’re like dinosaurs. The Weather Channel says it‘s going rain for the next three days.”

“Why didn’t you talk for a year Seth?”

“It’s none of your business Liz,” he answers angrily as he crosses his arm in a defensive posture.

“You’re impossible. You know that?”

“Daddy says the same thing about you. He says you never listen to anyone.”

“Daddy tried accommodating and look where that got him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing.“ Through the rain spattered windshield, I stare at the massive structure and parking lot that is gradually coming into view. “You have to be kidding me. There has to be some mistake.” I say in Spanish leaning up to talk with the cabbie while watching the small dashboard Hula dancer’s green skirt move back and forth.

“This is the address your son gave me,” he answers over the squeaking of the windshield wipers.

“He’s not my son.” I turn to Seth. “You do realize that I have things that I have to do, important things.” I add. “And coming to Wal-Mart isn’t one of them.”

“Could you please not talk to me like I’m a child?”

“I hate to break this to you, but you’re a child and a rather annoying one. I don’t appreciate being taken on a wild…” I stop abruptly as one of his father’s expressions surfaces in his face. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Could you turn around in the parking lot and take us back please?” Annoyed, I stare out the window. “What the hell?” With my hand, I wipe away the fog building up on the glass and can clearly make out the girl standing underneath the dark green awning covering the garden section. My stomach lurches at the white sundress I buried her in. “STOP THE CAR.”

The driver puts the taxi into park. Grabbing a wad of cash, I give it to the driver and throw open the door. I splash through the puddles as I run into the lawn section. “Vi una muchacha morena? Tiene diez anos.” I ask frantically one of the workers.

“No, senora.”

“But I saw her, she was standing right here.”

“There hasn’t been a girl,” the man shrugs before walking way.

“You know I think my dad would be really upset with you for leaving me in the taxi,” Seth answers. “Something could have happened to me. I could have gotten run over by a car. I would have been smashed on to the payment and my blood would have..”

“Be quite.” I cover my mouth totally overwhelmed by the situation. “She was here. I saw her. Did you see her?”

He shakes his head and hands me back a couple of pesos.

“What’s this?”

He doesn’t answer.

“I’m not telepathic. Speak.”

“First you don’t want me to talk and now you do. Could you please make up your mind?” He sighs. “You’re a very frustrating lady.”

I’m going to hit him. Taking a deep breath, I crouch down beside him. “I’m sorry for losing my temper with you. I had a very rough day yesterday, and today isn’t looking any better.”

“Because of my dad.”

“Among other things.”

“He acts very funny when he’s around you.”

“He hates me.”

Seth hands me the bills. “You gave the driver too much money. I don’t think my dad hates you.”

“But he never loved me, right?”

Seth studies his tennis shoes.

I glance down at my watch. “I have to meet Brian in forty five minutes other than the fact that Wal-Mart has great sales and pays their female employees nothing, why are we here?”

“Grey lives here.”

“I think I read a book like this before.”

“Liz, I told you a lie.” He lifts his father’s amber eyes to me. “My dad loved you. I think he loves you now, but I don’t really get why.”

“You don’t have to tell me that to make me feel better. This Grey guy where does he live?”


“But he carries…”

“Seth it isn’t…”

“We’ll you let me finish?”

“Fine.”

“He has a picture of you. He carries it with him all the time. Your hair is longer, and you’re not old like you are now.”

“Thanks,” I answer dryly while I can feel my throat closing up.

“I didn’t mean it like that. The edges are folded up. There used to be writing on the back, but the picture got wet, and it’s all bleed together. You’re wearing…”

“A pink shirt.”

“Once, he thought he lost it, and he got really upset until Miranda found it for him. Why would he do that?”

I wet my suddenly very dry lips. “I can’t begin to understand your father.”

“I do. He lov….”

I grab his shoulders. “Don’t finish that sentence. We’re not talking about this anymore.” I nudge him forward through the doors.

“Sometimes you have to talk about hard things.”

“You sound like my therapist.”

“Look fish,” and before I can stop him he takes off for a wall of tanks. “Look at these ones they glow.”

“They’re neon tetra. Seth where is this Grey?”

“What’s a tera---therapist?”

“Someone you talk about sad things with.”

“Do you feel better when you talk to this tera---therapist?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you could take my dad to this? He has sad things he needs to talk about or better yet you could be his therapist.”

“I’m not going to be your father’s therapist.”

“Why not? He’d listen to you talk about things.”

“Hey, look at the Angel fish. Those are my favorite.”

“My sister is going to have one in her room. She names it Einstein, but then it dies so we flush it down the toilet and get her a new one, and she never knows the difference. She‘s little, and daddy doesn‘t think she should know about death right then.”

Great, I drown and Max goes off and starts a new family. At least, I’ll be dead and he won’t be parading all of his obnoxious kids around. I make a forced smile at the thought.

A light pops over our heads.

“Now you’re doing it to.” Seth grumbles. “It not nice to use your powers to break things.”

“I don’t want to talk about your sister anymore.” My eyes drift up to the shattered light. “
I’m sure your dad will find some woman. Heck, he probably has one at home as we speak.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“She’ll be nice,” I carry on refusing to get sidetracked. “You’ll get your sister, and you’ll have a nice little family. It doesn’t concern me so let’s not talk about it.”

“But I need your help. I have to find my sister’s mommy for my dad, because daddy is not very good at picking out mommies.”

“That’s the understatement of the year.”

“We need to go now. “ He threads his small fingers through mine. At the touch of his skin, my hand stiffens. Almost immediately, he yanks his hand away from mine.

“Whatever,” he fumes. “Grey is this way.”

“Seth.”

“I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m tired of being nice to you.”

Uncurling my fingers, I stare at my palm. “Don’t do this,” I mutter.

“She caught the infection from me.” I breathe into his chest. “There was a storm. You know how I get with thunder.

His arms tighten around me. “You don’t like the noise.”

“She touched me.”

“Parker, the possibilities are numerous with her T cell count being so low. It could be anything. You did everything by the book. You know that.”

I lift my head up from his chest. “Kyle pulled some strings for me with the State Department. Sierra’s citizenship papers came today. I can’t lose her Brian. There’s something inside of me. It’s dark, but when I’m with her, she holds it of, but if she dies, all bets are off.”

I lurch forward as someone pushes me from behind.

“Will you come on already? You’re worse than my dad.”

I finger my cell phone. I really need to talk to Brian or is it Max I need to talk to?

“We don’t have time for you to being going on vacation every five minutes,” Seth snipes behind me.

“I thought you weren’t talking to me.”

“I’m allowed to change my mind, aren’t I?”

I yawn.

“You know you’re supposed to say something back to me.”

“I’m too tired to do that right now.”

“Why? You just got up.”

And now it’s my turn to dodge his question. “Where’s this Grey guy?”

“Back here, he lives in the freezers, because he likes to be cold.”

I grab his shoulder. “We can’t just go in there.”

“Why not? They all know me.”

“Are you telling me that all the people that work in here are aliens?” I ask looking around the store.

“Most of them. They came to Earth a long time ago when my daddy died the first time. See he was alive but then he died and they brought him back.”

“I know all I want to know about that.”

“A lot of people were sad, so they came here, but I don’t know why anyone would want to do that. It smells funny here, and the food is disgusting. It’s got all these things in it. People just throw everything away.”

“Remind me to sign you up for Green Peace.”

“What’s that?”

Grabbing the knob, an immediate feeling of cold alarm rushes through me. I let go. Grabbing Seth, I pull him to me. “We need to get out of here.”

“I want to see Grey,” he insists pushing open the door.

“Are you nuts?” I hiss following him.

“Grey, are you in here? It‘s Seth. I brought Liz to see you.”

I stop him from proceeding into the next room. “Look, I go first.”

“Boys are supposed to go first to make sure there’s nothing scary for the girls.”

“Adults go before children,” I answer pulling him behind me staring at my naked hand. “Where’s the glove?”

“The Enrinye, she got hungry. She’ll be back.”

“Great.” Sighing, I part the plastic curtain and walk into a room lined with freezers. I rub my arms together.

“This is where they keep all the meat.” He motions to the silver walk in freezers. He pulls open the door. “He’s not in there.”

“Ms. Parker. I'm pleading with you to reconsider.” The coroner says standing in front of the silver drawer.

“I have to see them.”

“Alright, I'm just warning you that the damage was extensive.” He pushes open the first drawer marked Jeffery Parker on it.

“Daddy, oh God,” I cover my eyes against his charred remains.

“Liz look at this.” Stooping, he picks up what looks to be some silver torture device. "This shouldn’t be on the floor. Grey is going to be really mad. He’s very neat."

Seth grimaces. " It has the cow‘s blood all over it.” He hands it to me.

The flash that rips through my mind is of pure and unadulterated fear.

I see the metal glint in his hand. “I’m not going to ask you again. I want to know what happened that night, so you better tell me.” Khivar tells a man who looks exactly like Alex crouching in the corner.

“I’m telling you I don’t know. Max had everything erased to protect the woman. If she remembers, there’s no telling what she’ll do.”

“Wrong answer Grey. The next thing I’m cutting off isn’t going to be something that grows back.”

He takes a step forward.

“I’m telling you I don’t know.”

“Then I’ll settle for knowing who the charge is. Which one of us is she going to choose Max or me? She is going to want someone who has power.”

He spits out a stream of bloody slaver. “Sometimes the weakest people have the greatest power, but you were always too narcissistic to get that and that is your greatest weakness.”

“I had the power to make you and your brothers, didn’t I? You want to talk about weak. Look at you hiding away in here in a store for plebeians denying your true purpose.”

“I’m not a killer.”

“Your brothers are.”

“But Liz can put a stop to them.”

“Not if I turn her dear boy. There’s an anger inside of her just waiting to be let out. All the love she felt for Max had turn into something now, didn’t it?”

“You don’t understand her at all.”

“You were always the odd one out Grey,” he frowns. “I gave you a chance to live again. To get back what that blonde bimbo took from you, but do you give me your loyalty? No. Now I’m forced to exercise my privilege to take back what I gave to you,” he answers thrusting the device into his stomach.

“You think you had problems with Max,” he coughs. “When he reunites with Liz, they’re going to rip you and Tess apart. Angry or not she belongs to him, and he belongs to her. Not all the manipulation in the world can change that.”

The thing drops from my fingertips as the large freezer door in front of us begins to open.

[Caelan]

Hi!!! I want to apologize for the lapse. I've just started my first big person job and it sucks. It's exhausting so I think we're going back to expect an update once a month. I know that stinks. I'm sorry. I'm very a slow writer. Heck, I'm very slow in everything I do

This hasn't been beta, I got to excited. I have impulse control problems As such, I'd say read at your own risk. I've gone through it a couple of times but I stink at proof reading so yall been warned.

Guess what -- no you'll just have to read to find out.

If you're looking for a good tv show, watch Lost. That's my plug for the day. I love that show. It better not get cancelled anytime soon.

Nitpick23~ Hopefully this chapter explains when Brian is Brian and when Brian is Max If not, I just spill the big clue next chapter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Chapter Thirteen: Getting Out of Reverse


As the silver door swings open, I yank Seth behind and watch a green force field shoot out of my outstretched hand. A little jolt of alarm races through me at the sight, but those feelings only intensify when I take in the ghost standing before me, a face no longer frozen in time, but one that has seemed to age along with the rest of us

His face has grown longer while muscles have filled out his once lanky frame erasing his slight boyish look of long ago. My eyes land on the five o’clock shadow covering his chin.

"Look, Liz, it’s a hair, and it’s on my chin,” Alex says staring at himself in my locker mirror.

“Yes, it’s in your chin Alex.” I repeat having no idea where this conversation is going. “I hope you and your hair will be very happy together.”

“You are such a smart ass. You do not understand the significance of the situation. This is entrance into the world of men. I man,” he beats his chest but stops abruptly as Isabel walks by surrounded by her cohorts. “Hey, Isabel.”

She doesn’t even acknowledge him.

“Bitch, sometimes I can’t even believe she and Max are related.”

“What am I thinking?” he grumbles staring at his Sketchers. “I’m always going to be the dork, aren’t I?”

“You are not a dork.”

“Really.”

“I mean it.”

“Who else do you know that can speak Klingon and has read the Lord of the Ring twenty five times. Hell, you were beating Ricky Kessler up for me when we were in the fourth grade.”

“I didn’t touch Ricky Kessler.”

“So he just slipped after he hit me in the head on purpose with the dodge ball.”

“I have no what idea you’re talking about.”

“That’s why he tripped you out by the buses,” leaning in he traces the scar just above my eye. “You were bleeding all over the place. Max stayed with you until your mom came. I always wondered why he did that. You guys weren‘t really friends.”

“I asked him to. He‘s kind has this calming presence to him.” Looking into the classroom, I can see him sorting our supplies out in front of him.

“The point is that I should been able to take him.”

“You’re time will come.”

“Right.”

I draw closer to him. “Tell you a secret. One of these days Isabel and all of her very obnoxious friends are going to grow up and see what I’ve seen all along.”

“What is that?”

“You’re one of the best people I know,” I answer punctuating my statement by kissing him on the cheek.

A slight blush colors his cheeks. Turning my head, I catch Max glaring at Alex. What? No, I’m imagining that.

“Liz,” he whispers.

“Yeah.”

“When I’m old and studly and running around with a thousand blondes, we’ll still be friends, right?”

“Always,” I answer.

Overwhelmed by the situation, I place my shaking hand over my mouth.

Max can do it. He’ll do it. Alex will be fine and we’ll have to make up a story about what happened. It will be okay. Everything will be okay. What’s taking so long?
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Tess studying me. Unnerved, I step back so Michael blocks me from her view.

We could say that it was comma. I read about something about that in American Journal. Yeah, that could work. There’s that part in the Shipping News when the fisherman wakes up. Of course, that’s a movie but maybe there’s some scientific fact behind it. I’ll goggle it when I get home.

The ambulance’s doors open. Max emerges. He closes the door behind him.

I take in a shallow breath. Why isn’t Alex with him?

Dejected, he stops in front of Tess, but looks at me. “Liz,” he says my name with so much heartbreak it takes everything in me not to bury myself in his arms.

Isabel sobs something inarticulate before taking off down the street.

“Max go after her,” Tess tells him.

“Liz,” he asks again.

“Yeah, Max go after her.” I shake my head. No, that’s not what I mean. Please come back. Don’t leave me. I can’t do this alone, but the words don’t come out. No, this is better. I can’t want him anymore. I’m not supposed to want him anymore.

He moves away while I just stand still.

We’re always in opposition and never in sync anymore. I sit down on the curb and stare at the wet ground alone.

Propping himself in a way that obscures the rest of the freezer, Grey seems just as intent at studying me as I am of him. I can literally feel his gaze travel down the planes of my face.

Yet, there’s something not right. A slight discomfort starts again in my palms. Looking down on my left hand, the glove is back, but instead of being silver the color has changed to that of midnight blue.

A rustle of movement comes from my side, and I feel Seth’s finger slip from mine. Balling his fist up, he bangs on the force field. “You’re not being nice.”

Alex’s eyes move nervously around the room as a large blue vein bulges out in his forehead.

I bite my lip as I see her small figure clad in her sundress step out from the corner with clear alarm painted across her face. Grabbing hold of Seth’s coat, I begin to back up stopping his attempts to wiggle furiously out of my grasp. “His father and Michael are parking the car.”

“Maybe, you should go and help him with that,” Grey suggests.

“Dad’s not…” I cover his mouth, but he pulls my hand away. “Stop telling lies Liz. We came by ourselves.” Almost instantly, the freezer door is shoved open to reveal a large translucent creature holding Grey. With snow white tentacle cascading down his head, he looks like a Gorgon come to life. Six nearly identical figures rise up from the floor around us with a strange sulfur smell accompanying them.

“Daddy told me never to tell lies to my friends.”

I swallow down the bad taste of guilt.

“They hurt people,” Seth tells me while his hold on my hand seems to be cutting off all my circulation.

Through the shield, I watch a small whole open in the largest one, and a small red feeler emerge. Snaking out of what I think is its mouth, the red tentacle moves back and forth before my eyes like some charmed cobra. I can feel Seth tugging at my waist and hear both him and Grey telling me to look away, but it does no good. Instead, my attention stays riveted to the back and forth motion. As it swings to the new position marking its future and back to it’s old position marking its past.

New becomes old.
Future becomes past.

Everything happens in a line. What happens when you cut yours up and start a new line?

I rub my arms against the cold before ducking underneath the yellow police tape. Standing on the inside, I feel closer to what’s left. Stop kidding yourself, there’s nothing left. It’s all gone. They’re gone and by some wicked chance you’re still here.

Getting angry at the open space that used hold so much for me, I kick a pile of ash while something shinny catches my attention. Bending down, I pick it up and close my eyes. “Out of all the things to survive,” I whisper. “It’s ironic considering we had a shelf life of three months. I bet you’re stinking happy,” my eyes drift upwards to the stars, “with your wife and your son.” Angrily, I fling it away from me, but the moment I let it go. I feel its loss. I have nothing of before nothing except it. Racing to where I think it has landed, I fall on my knees and start digging through the dirt, but the bandages on my hands get in the way. Furiously, I try and tug them off. They don’t budge. With my teeth, I create a seam. I’ve got the ones off my left hand when a light falls on me. Squinting my eyes, I can barely make out three blobs.

“There she is.”

“Maria it’s condemned. That’s what the tape is for.”

“Screw the tape,” she answers while another figure totally disregards the conversation completely climbing over it.

I blink once, and I feel his arms around me. Turning to him, I bury myself in his embrace and let his strength wrap around me.

“You really had me frightened Liz. You said you were going back to Maria‘s to rest.” He coughs and clears his throat.

I break away from him. “Are you okay Brian?”

“Just been feeling a little funny lately.”

“Because you’ve been too busy taking care of me.” I frown.

“Well, I couldn’t ask for a more prettier patient Parker.”

“But your dissertation?”

“My dissertation can wait. Now what’s up?”

“I have to find it.”

“Find what?” Maria asks hugging me from behind.

“The necklace.”

“What necklace?” Kyle says joining.

“You finally decided to be rebellious and cross the line.”

“Give me a break woman, as a rule enforcer it behooves me to I don’t know follow the rules.”

“You know ever since you got on this I must be in the FBI kick you’ve become a real drag.”

“What do you think Parker?” Brian whispers into my ear. “I think they must be secretly doing it.”

I smile a small smile.

He smoothes the hair away from my face. “Now about this necklace.”

My ex boyfriend gave it to me. I haven‘t looked at it in five years but since it‘s the only thing that wasn’t blown apart. I kind of like to have it. I finally settle on the basis. “It’s silver, and it has an eye on it.”

“Oh, you so you do not need that. It’s from,” Maria waves her hand in the air.

“The asshole,” Kyle finishes. “Where do you think it is?”

“Here somewhere.” He and Brian join me on the ground.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Maria says seconds later as she starts digging through the ash. “What the hell is this? It looks like,” she pauses, “macaroni and cheese. Gross,” she flings it behind her.

“There’s been some squatters,” Kyle answers.

I stare at the four of us huddled over the dirt. I feel the tears start to form again. “Thanks,” I tell each one of them. “Thank you for being my friends. I couldn‘t have gotten through this without you all,” I wipe my eyes while the pedant catches my attention but this time I don’t pick it up alone. Both my hand and Brian’s wrap around the smooth medal.

“Beat you to it Parker,” he coughs. Grabbing the flashlight, he holds it up to the light. I see him frown. “Here Liz,” he drops it into my hand like he can’t get rid of it fast enough.

I shiver at the sudden distance between us. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s the only thing that survived. It’s not like I’m keeping it, because I still have feelings for him or anything.”

“You know it’s not really my business,” he says getting up. “I’ll meet up with you guys later.”

“Did I do something wrong?” I ask after he’s left.

“No, honey he’s a man,” Maria says ushering me back on to the sidewalk. “Kyle please translate what the hell that was.”

“Hell if I know.”

“He calls me up literally freaking out, because you’re not at my house. He made it sound like that you were in mortal peril.”

“It’s just when I woke up in the hospital. He seemed different just the way that he held me. It‘s like he hadn‘t seen me in a very long time or our whole relationship had changed.”

“Not to over state the obvious, but you did almost die again.”

Maria smacks Kyle on the arm, “That’s really crass you know that.”

“It’s okay. I’m sort of like Cat Woman when it comes to the whole dying thing.”
I slip the necklace into my purse. Crouching down, I scoop up a bit of ash into my hand.

“Liz?”

“It’s just a thing I need to do.”

“Alright,” she pats my shoulder.

“WAKE UP,” Sierra’s voice screams in my head. A high pitched wail begins like a tea pot screaming to be taken off a stove’s burning eye. Pulsing erratically, I cover my ears. Rising higher and higher, I feel it splitting me right down the center when my eyes spring open to the shadows playing across the walls and to the comfort of quiet.


Where am I again? I think I’m sitting on the floor. Great my ass has fallen asleep.

A water bottle is thrust into my hand. “Now I want you to drink this all, I don’t want hear any complaining from you Liz,” a small voice orders.

“Seth,” I say groggily. “Grey?”

“He’s went to go and see something.”

“What?”

“I’m not answering anymore questions until you drink.”

“You know you’re very pushy.”

“You’re not very smart. You never supposed to let Scions feed on you Liz.”

“What?”

He presses on my forehead.

“Stop that. It hurts,” I wince.

“I can’t heal it, daddy could if he wasn‘t sick.”

“What do you mean your dad is sick?”

“Drink.”

I take a sip.

“Khivar made him sick. He made Grey do it, but Grey didn’t want to do it. He had to.”

I try and get up but the floor begins to move. “Help me up.”

“Nope, you need to rest.”

“We have to get out of here. Grey’s a---.” I pause as at his figure standing in the doorway. I smack the back of my head against the wall. “Oh hell just kill me now. I’m tired of all this crap.” Another unsettling thought comes to me. “Where did the things--.”

“The scions,” Seth adds.

“Yeah, where did they go?”

“Don’t you remember?”

“Should I remember? It’s this thing isn’t it,” I say lifting up the pedant. “Great, it’s glowing again.”

“It believes you to be in a danger,” Grey answers from the doorway.

“Being in danger is sort of old hat for me.”

He takes a step forward and a shield rises up around Seth and me.

“I’m not going to hurt you Liz.”

“Not this again,” Seth hits his head in frustration.

“I need you to trust me. We need to get out of here. Khivar is going to sense what happened. He going to be here eventually.”

“He’ll take the little girl away from you,” Seth adds.

“Little girl?”

“She helps you. Please Liz, we need to go.”

I nod my head. “I don’t know how to make it go away.”

“Can I do it?”

“Yeah.”

Gently, he grabs my hand. Closing his eyes, the shield dissipates while I watch Grey look on at us curiously.

“We can go out the back.”

He pulls out a large black duffle back from under a desk and slings it over his shoulder. Throughout the whole exchange, I can’t stop staring at him. I know he’s not Alex, but I have to try and make amends. It’s the only way that I can ever move on.

He nudges me to the door, but I don’t move. “I need to know or to say something before we go anywhere. I’m sorry for taking your life. It was..”

He puts his finger to my lips to silence me.

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I gave you back what that bimbo took from you.”

“All this time, I thought it was me,” barely keeping my emotion in check. “That it was my fault that you died that when I changed everything. I gave him life and cost you yours. But, it wasn’t me, was it? I need to know.”

“It wasn’t you. If he had known, how much this weighs on you he would have told you years ago.”

Seth yanks on my arm.

“Why?”

“It was an accident, or she claims it to be.”

“Do you believe her?”

“Liz.”

Irritated, I look down on his suddenly very pale face. “What is it?”

“I’m seeing things,” he says dazed before falling in my arms.

“What the hell?” While I seem to take on killer aliens, his limp body appears to be a completely different scenario. Looking at him, another small body appears before my eyes, but where his is warm. Hers is cold and hard. A memory begs for an audience, but I refuse it. I’m not losing another child.


Taking off my over shirt, I wad it into a ball and place it underneath his head. “Tell me, this is normal.”

He doesn’t answer me.

“Alex,” I demand. “Talk to me. Oh God, I should have called his dad. He told me not to but, I shouldn’t have listened. I’ll call him.”

He grabs my purse away from me.

“If he told you not to call Max, then you need to do what Seth says. He’s not some fluke or amateur Liz.”

“Is that’s why he’s passed out on the floor?”

“He’s having a vision luckily this isn’t a bad one. He shouldn’t have any seizures, but we can’t move him until he wakes up.”

“Seizures?”

“He has epilepsy. It‘s sort of a by product of the visions and having the ability to communicate with Nessa.”

“Then she needs to stop chatting with a seven year old and start talking to me,” I roar.

A slight smile curves on his lips.

“What?”

“You’re very protective of him.”

“No, I’m not.”

Seth face contorts into a grimace, and his head lurches up.

Feeling completely helpless, I lean down over him. “You’re going to be alright. I won’t let anything bad happen. Just go see what you have to but come right back.” A strange idea grips me and brushing away his hair. I kiss his sweaty forehead and watch a trail of green sparks flow down his face.

Beside me, Grey inhales his breath.

My eyes shoot up. “I just did something bad, didn’t I?” my voice hitches.

“No, you‘re aligning with him.”

“What?”

“Antarian mothers do it when they’re children are in distress.”

My hands jump back from his body. “I’m not his mother,” hatred creeps into my voice. All I can see is Max holding Tess alternating with their child laying on the floor at my feet. Backing away from Seth, I have to get out of here.

I’ll go back to Brian. I don’t even have to understand the alien connection. I can solve this without Max. Hell, he didn’t even finish high school let alone college. He wasn’t even smart enough to use protection, because he wanted Tess so badly.

You’re my destiny Liz. I want to be with you. Crap Crap Crap.

A small gasp from Seth sends me diving onto the floor next to him. With out any coherent thought, I pull his head onto my lap. “Shh, you’re okay.” I tell him smoothing away his sweaty hair as more green sparks float down his face. His once tense body grows slack in my arms. “I don’t understand what I’m doing.”

“You’re telling him that you’re out there for him.”

“He has his father.”

“That’s different. Maternal bonds are very important in male Antarians' development.”

“Well, you stop saying that. I’m not his mother.”

“I’m living proof that genetics means nothing in the scheme of things. He trusts you, which is nearly miraculous considering.”


“You can’t trust someone you’ve just met.”

“Are you sure about that?”


“He doesn’t even like me.”

“You should see what he does to the people he doesn’t like,” he answers ominously. “You see the light that spirals down your skin when you touch him.”

“Yes.”

“That shows he’s open to you. That shows a connection.”

“When I touch his father it’s red.”

“That’s the convergence.”

“Which is what exactly?”

“I don’t think you’ll like the implications of that.”

Opening his bag, he pulls out several small black inhalers. Putting one to his mouth, he takes a puff. “Why did you come here really?”

I bite my lip.

“I know it’s your job to kill my kind.”

“Then you are a virus?”

“Yes,” he says softly.

“A carrier?”

“No, I’m a living organism designed with one purpose to enter and destroy. I do not sleep, or eat. Normal human drives mean nothing to me.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“There are four others like myself. You need to be able to see them as the enemy and not as your friend.”

“If you are my enemy, why did you try to warn us?”

“In the two years that Max was held hostage, I tortured him. I was a master at turning his own body against him.”

“Yet, he allows his son to know you.”

“Stop trying to see the good in me.”

“Then you stop acknowledging only the bad. You want to talk about bad. Who do you think sent him to the hell hole? If I’d been honest with him, he would have never ended up there.”

“If you had been honest with him, he would had never had a son he adores.”

I clinch my fists.

“That bothers you, doesn’t it?”

I tuck my hair behind my ear. “He’s going to have a daughter to. I’m sure he’ll adore her just as much.”

“And you?”

“And me what?”

“Children?”

“No… I um… don’t want them.”

“Why?” he says abruptly in a way that is certainly not Alex. “You seem to be good with them.”

I meet him straight in the eye. “ I can’t bury another person that I love. I won’t survive it.”

“So you’re going to cut through the red tape by not loving anyone? Mind if I tell you that the plan sucks royally.”

“This is coming from the person…”

“I’m not a person.”

“A virus that is overwhelmed by thoughts of self loathing.”

“I guess it has everything to do with perspective.”

“We’ll your perspective is faulty.”

“So is yours.” Reaching for my hand, the connection that stirs between seems almost instant.

Darkness is his first memory. Stretching out in a thick silent void, he is unmade and unformed. Suddenly, there is a flash of light, a burst of pain, and a myriad of memories from another that converge all together. Pulled from some unnatural womb, he opens his eyes to him, his creator and father, the man who holds his purpose in his hands.

“Hello, Alex. I’ve been waiting a long time for you.” Khivar says triumphantly.

Khivar’s words are gibberish to his newborn mind, but he feels alarm all the same. Lifting his hand upwards to study it, one thought rises above all others. He shouldn’t be here. This is wrong.

The picture shifts and where there was once darkness and fear. Light and dull ache fall into place. Standing before her, he covers his heart. For the nearly hundredth time, he wonders why she impacts him so. Did she have the same power over his predecessor? It is he she wants not him. Tearing his gaze away from her golden hair and her bottomless eyes, he struggles to keep his voice firm against her onslaught. “Isabel, I’m not Alex Whitman.”

“You are,” she says in her soft, vulnerable tone she only seems to use with him.

He pulls away from her. “Alex died. You know that.”

“You have his strength. It’s what used to scare me so much about you. You knew what I was and you loved me for it. I spent my entire life hiding and pretending. You saw through it all. It scared me to death. You love me. Not some fantasy but me. It’s why I tried everything in the world to push you away. It’s why I flaunted Grant in your face.”

He frowns. Grant? A wisp of a memory floats by but he’s unable to catch it.


“I wanted you see that I didn’t deserve you, and I wanted you to leave. If I hadn’t been so busy plotting and driving you away, I would have seen what Tess was doing.”

He clinches his fists.

“I need you to forgive me for not being there Alex.”

Turning to her, try as he might he can’t ignore the anguish that rips through him at the sight of her tear stained face. With the light shinning down on her golden hair and slight tint of her cheeks, he knows he has never seen anyone more beautiful. In this instant, he makes the choice to pretend briefly and play the role he has denied her up to now. Using the trickery of words, the he that is Alex Whitman converts into an I, because somehow he knows that the real Alex Whitman would do the same thing. “I forgive you.”

“Thank you,” she breathes licking her lips. He knows what she wants, but he will not cross that line. He pats her hand and stands up. “I have to go.” Walking away, he looks slightly over her his shoulder at the angel that does not belong to him and will never belong to him but whose purpose seems to torment him all the same.

“Interesting,” Khivar says coming around the corner and falling into step with him. “Here I thought you would have put up more of a fight. She after all did ignore you and use you.”

“She did it to Alex not me,” he corrects. “I have a feeling your purpose for bring me back wasn’t so I could reduce Isabel Evans to a guilty quivering mass.”

“Your purpose will become clear to you soon enough dear boy.”

“You should have left me where I was.”

He smirks. “What would the fun of that have been?”

“I’m not supposed to be here.”

“You think too much.”

He frowns as a strange look comes over Khivar’s face. If he didn’t know Khivar any better, he would think that it was an expression of concern. Following his line of sight, he sees the small red cloaked figure moving down below as a dark shadow trails along at her feet. Spreading across the once sunny courtyard, a sudden chill cuts through the balmy air. The bright yellow heads of flowers wither and turn a deadly black as she passes.

“You would think she would cut the dramatics after all of this time. I did her a favor.”

“I don’t think she sees it that way.”

“Joining herself with inbreed, no matter how alluring his mother was unacceptable of someone with her breeding.”

“She was in love.”

“In lust, that’s all it was. Keep an eye on her for me.”

“Don’t I always.”

“If you would do a little more than just looking, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

“It isn’t like that. We‘re friends.”

“So tell me is she the young king’s friend as well?”

He fights back his irritation.

“Always going to his aid.”

Could he be anymore arrogant? Paging Emperor Palpatine and Saurman anyone, watching him fall was going to be the pleasure of a life time.

“Nicholas thinks they’re plotting something, but my dear daughter has to many bats in her belfry for that. He is too weak to go anywhere let alone with an infant.”

These one way discussions are always so entertaining just keep nodding and smiling. Why does he even ask for my opinion?

“It’s your turn with him.”

His eyes gaze down at the stone tiles as the bulging begins in his palm. Yes, it was his turn.


Grey lets go of my hand and gets up. “Stay here.”

“Grey.”

“I’ll be fine just stay here.”

“God, when did I become the bimbo from a James Bond movie?” As the flashes recede, sadness takes it place. I’ve gotten flashes from Seth, Grey and even Khivar, but from the person I want desperately to see again. There’s been nothing. Maybe, I never saw him correctly in the first place, and he never saw me. I sigh.

“Don’t be sad.”

I jump as Seth’s warm fingers trace my cheek.

“You’re okay.” I say relieved, but my relief is short lived as I look at his face. The expression is softer than Seth’s customary harden ones. Who ever this is? It isn’t Seth.

“You look so much prettier in person than you do in your pictures. You have to help him. It’s gotten all messed up. She said she would make it so I was never born, and she has.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He’s doing things. I’m not there anymore to make him stop anymore. If I was there, he would listen to me. He always said that we were the only two that could make him see reason.”

The hell?

“Please talk to my dad, you don’t understand what will happen if you don’t. He can do so much good or hurt a lot of people. She‘s coming. She won‘t ever leave me alone. It‘s why I came to visit you all those times. I just wanted to get out of the dark. The cell is so small,” she says desperately. “I know Seth is coming to get me, but I’m not going to be here when he comes. I’m disappearing,” she says with an underlining fear in her voice. “Please talk to my dad.”

“Wait. Who’s doing this to you? Whose your father?”

Seth's eyes flutter close.

“I can’t fix this if you’re going to speak to me in pronouns. I need some proper names here.” I pat his forehead and more green sparks erupt. “Come on, talk to me.”

“Get away from my son.”

My head flicks up at the sound of his low and threatening voice to a rather pissed off Max, no pissed isn’t the right word, let’s try enraged. He looks at me and then Seth and back to me again. “What happened to your head?” he asks but it sounds more like a demand.

“I thought I try Chinese suction therapy since it was such a big hit with Gwyneth after she had Apple.”

“That supposed to be funny?”

“I thought it was naming your daughter after a fruit. Tell me, you have any names picked out for your future offspring?”

A groan from Seth tears me away from the current staring contest that I’m having with his father. “Shh, it’s okay.” Running my fingers over his temples, a line of green spreads across his face silencing him.

“I’m not going to tell you again,” Max says but this time he’s behind me somehow. He’s close. Close enough for me to smell him.

“Let go, Liz.”

Why does he have to smell so good?

“Now.”

“Fine, I can’t help it if he wants me to play mommy for him, because you did such a wonderful job picking her out.”

“No, that would be you who picked her out. The last thing he needs is another woman running off on him and since running off seems to be your specialty.”

It happens so fast. I can barely account for it. One second, I’m sitting on the floor and the next I’m on my feet. My hand railing back to slap him. While I may be fast, Max is faster.

He stops my wrist right before it connects. His eyes ablaze, they smolder right through me. “What do you see when you look at him?” he demands.

“I see a little boy that desperately needs something, and sometimes I think that’s me and it scares the shit out of me. And other times, I see you the way you were before or maybe it‘s the way I wanted you to be,” unable to keep the torture out of my voice. “It breaks my heart. Is that what you want to hear or do you want to hear that I’m sorry for sending you to God knows whatever I sent you to, but I didn’t have a choice.”

He lets go of my wrist and practically pushes as if he can’t get me away from him fast enough.

“I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, because you’re not human enough to understand any of it anymore.”

“You could have come to me,” he says with an underling fury in his voice. “We would have worked it out, but instead you took me completely out of the loop.”

“You were in the loop,” I laugh bitterly pressing my hand to my aching head as my vision starts to blur. Great, I’m going to faint in front of him. This is just freaking fantastic.

“He wasn’t me.”

Unable to look at him anymore, without seeing his phantom doppelganger, I turn my face away. “What was I supposed to do? There was you. You kept telling me how much you loved me and you just wouldn’t listen and then there was him, you.” I correct. “He was so broken and weary. I didn’t want that for you.”

“That wasn’t your decision to make.”

“Maybe not, but tell me would you have ever recovered from losing Michael and Isabel? Could you really go on without them?”

He doesn’t answer me.

“You knew them in two lifetimes while we had only been together for a couple of months. It wasn’t meant to be, and you know it. We had to grow up sometime one of has to be realistic about the situation.”

“Now you’re just coping out.”

I shake my head. “You said it yourself after Michael got sick.”

“Interesting how you recall things. I was asking for a break not a break up.”

“We’re too different. You remember saying that to me to?”

“I remember telling you that I loved you and then watching as you ran down a hill.”

“You never loved me.”

“Now, you’re going to tell me how I felt.”

“Did you think about how much you loved me when you and Tess made love? Where was your love for me then?”

“You’re always going to put her in the middle, aren’t you? Is that why you ran from me that day at the pod chamber?”

I turn my back on him. “Why are we even talking about this like it matters? I’ve moved on with my life. I’ve been with men.”

“I’ve been with women.”

Something bites into my heart at his confession. I picture myself clawing their eyes out. Stop it, I do want him to be happy. Why is this so hard? “Right. We‘ve both moved on.”

“Have we?” He whispers. Fingers skim across my hips and lightly turn me to him. Leaning in to me, his lips are so close to mine. I wonder if he still tastes the same after all of these years.

“Why did you leave?”

“I would have been in the way.” There is so much more, but it’s all I can get out right now. Please don’t push me Max. He demands no further information. I’m grateful for it. “Did you love her?”

His Adam‘s Apple bobs jerkily. “No, I did care about her though.”

I cringe. A fuck, a mindless screw would have been so much easier, but when did we ever go for easy. My gaze falls on their son who appears to be resting peacefully on the floor. I take a step back from the intimacy that threatens to ensnare me.

Max lets out a sigh.

I blink.

“Liz, what is it?”

“I don’t feel very well.” The room swims. I’m about to take a spill onto the cold floor, but instead I spill into something warm and strong. Catching me, it lowers me downward. I struggle to open my eyes, but the light is unbearable. I wince before a large bronze hand blocks it out.

He whispers something, but I’m unable to make it out. Closing my eyes, I stop fighting against what I wanted to do all those years before and settle down into the comfort of his embrace. God help me, I can’t get hurt again I think before the darkness finally takes me.

[Caelan]

I just want to thank everyone for all their nominations. I was really blown away by it. It was a really nice surprise so muchas gracias.

This has not been beta. I felt bad for going over my month promise so again read at your own risk. I went through it a couple of times, but I'm a terrible proofreader so it's safe to say this isn't going to make any sense at all.

Quotes: Pilot & Heatwave

Because this cracked me up Doublestuff, I'm actually going to try and give you honest answers.


Caelan's Answer Sheet


The mystery behind/in the vial is:_in chapter thirteen. She picks up the ash then.

Seth and Liz have this interesting connection because: I'm not answering this one, because I'm being bratty. I'm an evil writer. Feel free to throw things at me.


Brian is going to end up: with Liz of course. Just kidding. He's going to end up with a very nice but rather twisted young lady who likes knives. One hundred points if you can tell me who this maybe.

Max and Liz lovin' is coming in this part: down the line. It's coming. They must converge back to each other first. I must get over my phobia of writing love scenes.

The kid sister's story is: She's hungry and she want's some macaroni and cheese pronto.

Other things I think my readers want to know: Fun Fact, Seth is patterned off of my baby sister. Weird, I know.


I will update Surfacing: That's a tough question. I have ideas but Convergence is sort of majorly in my head. I don't think many people like Surfacing, because it's way too hard to follow. I'll see what I can do.


I am a dreamer~

when I read this bit, I could tell that it is SUPER important, but of course, I have no idea what it means. but I looked up convergence in a thesaurus and some of the words listed was union and junction ( like a crossroad or CONNECTION ). I think, this is a big guess btw, that max’s and liz’s energy are 2 completely different things, but the convergence is the bridge or something like that between their 2 energies that lets them mix or merge of whatever it would do and that would make liz become a lot stronger. ( think about how it said somewhere along the line that the king ( hopefully max ) would throw the meaglan's switch and liz'll become

You are burning up here. This is the whole essence of the story.


Rosie~ You crack me up. I really wish that I could go out and the wood and vedge and do the whole Thoreau thing.

Norma Bates~ You're spec is right on. Of course, I'm not going to post it because I'm trying to be sneaky.

I wanted to also say that I am a big fan of your stories. We are only getting bits and pieces of the puzzle revealed and we are trying to put them together without knowing what the overall picture looks like. A small mention in one chapter might be a huge hint that isn't realized until much later.

Thank you so much because that is exactly what I'm trying to do. It's my gimmick so to speak.

LTL

It's as if the three of them are wading toward each other through some slimy swamp, where scary things under the water grab their ankles and hold them back, but they still trudge on.

I love this. It's a wonderful metaphor.

For Elle~ Because she likes me even if I did go to UGA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Fourteen: Mnemosyne’s Trap





Disjointed snippets of dialogue float through me. Cut and out of place, their source is unknown to me. Yet, they play over and over trying to make a whole out of only a fraction.

“Parker come on. I don’t see why you can’t come to Boston for just a week. I’m bored.”

“Welcome to the Crashdown Cafe.”

“He’s hungry.”

“You could stay with me Parker if your dad with get off his I’m trying to seduce you crack.”

“I’ll be right back with two cherry cokes.”

“You could just admit that you’re after my body.”

“Liz look at me. Open your eyes and look at me. It‘s not ending like this. I won‘ t let it end like this.”

“After your body, you‘re practically jailbait. If I ever brought your home, my mother would have me arrested. I‘m just trying to help expand that very lovely mind of yours. What’s really wrong Parker? Something is going on. You and Kyle are doing that cagey thing you do every time September rolls around.”

“I was scared daddy. I was scared daddy. I was scared daddy.”

“Nothing is going on. . I have to go. I’ve got two customers.”

“What the hell are people coming in to eat at ten, right? Are you there alone?”

“Brian, it just a mother and her child. I’ll be fine. Welcome to the Crashdown Café. Our specials today are Predator Tentacle Macaroni.”

Instinctively, I cover my ears against the noise that I know is coming. Low and rumbling, it rips through me looking. It’s always looking for what I don’t know. If it would just tell me, I would give it anything it wants. Anything to make the rising laughter stop.

“You’ve always had everything. Let’s see how you enjoy having nothing. Maybe we won’t be so different after all.”

“ NO!! STOP!!! PLEASE!!!!”

Glass snaps. He’s here. Oh, God he’s here. Help me, I want to scream, but my mouth won’t move. He won’t help. He never loved me.

“I tried daddy, but she was just too big.’

“Shh, Liz’s it’s okay. You’re okay now.”

At the honey-toned sound, the tangled cacophony that threatens to drive me mad dissolves away right along with my rage. “Mmm,” I mumble snuggling up to the source that is so very warm, but the closer I bring myself to it the farther it moves away from me. Shifting on to my side, I greedily find myself pressing harder against it cajoling and begging for it to share just a morsel of heat with me.

Yet, there is no response.

For some reason, this indifference does nothing to sway me. Rubbing my cheek up against cotton, I feel muscles tighten underneath my assault, but still no warmth wraps around my icy being. Fingers uncurl at my side and snake their way upwards to rest on a powerful slope. With my hand, I pull ignoring the alarm spreading in the back of my mind, because I need what I need. There is no question in my heart I need this, but it doesn’t move. It is being stubborn. It doesn’t know that I can be even more stubborn.

“We’re just too different.”

“I don’t care.”

So, I pull again.

“Why is it okay for Michael and Maria, but it isn’t okay for us?”

This time I feel air brush the wisps around my face while against my lids the light turns dark. Hands cradle the side of my face dancing delicately over my jaw. My neck arches up into the embrace wanting nothing more to get closer to my goal.

“I suggest you open your eyes before you do something you’ll regret.” His lips tell me. They’re so close. I swear they touch my own as he speaks.

Oh God, what was I doing? Correction what I was trying to do with Max? I was sleeping, and I didn’t know. I throw in a little sigh for good measure, and he says nothing. He’s so buying this. Heck, I’ve made an art form out of pretending. Everyone falls for it.

“I know you’re awake,” he murmurs.

He sees through me.

The faint impression of fingers start to travel up the back of my arm. Skating up over goose bumps and tensed muscles, they stop to play with the straps of my tank top.

“Ssttt…sttt..op.” .

Two heated digits slip underneath the strap.

“Stop that.” I finally get the words out.

“Why?” he puffs against the back of my neck.

“I don’t want you to.” Yet, I find myself leaning over and stretching my neck to the side to give him better access.

“MARIA,” Taking the hook, I pull another piece of her hair through the plastic hole.

“Ouch, are you trying to rip my hair out?”

“I don’t see why you can’t just pay to get your hair highlighted.”

“One word. Free. At the saloon, it’s a hundred bucks nuff said”


”So I’m just like slave labor to you?”

“Yep.”

“At least you’re honest.”

“So do me a favor and throw some honesty my way babe. You can’t tell me you haven’t thought what it would be like to be with Max.”

“Yes, I’ve thought about it,” I whisper.

“Out of the two of them, he would be the better person. I see Michael as being a wham bam thank you kind of man, which I wouldn’t mind. I’m not much into the preliminaries, but Max. He seems very hands on. He works you up by the time it comes to it your practically begging him for it.”

“Stop it right now,” I hiss.

His movements halt. “So let me get this straight, it’s okay for you to maul me, but I can’t touch you.”

“I wasn’t mauling you. I was cold and scared.”

“Why?” his voice turns suddenly from the playful to the serious.

“I had a weird dream.”

“Do you remember it?”

“I was suffering from amnesia. Tess was my best friend, and Serena was a ten-foot snake living inside of me. Unfortunately, you still were king. Can‘t seem to really get away from that little tidbit.”

“You know just once I would like to have a honest conversation with you. I ask you a question, and you actually answer it.”

“What would the fun be in that?”

He lets out a sigh. “We used to be able to tell each other everything.”

“I don’t remember them. I never remember them. I just wake up scared. I had a terrible one last night.” I start confessing before I can stop myself.

“I could help you work it out if you wanted,” he ventures. “There could be reasons behind them.”

“I don’t need your help. They’re just dreams. Everyone has nightmares.” I have to get out of here. Gingerly, I try to open one eye, but the stinging sensation puts a halt to the idea.

“The light still bothering you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I open them again just enough to see underneath my lashes. The light filtering in is a brilliant and painful crimson.

His lips brush against the lobe of my ear. “I can’t help you Liz if you don’t tell me what’s wrong so please just stop fighting me and talk to me.”

“Talk?” I squeak imagining his lips on entirely different body parts doing way more than just talking.

“Yes, talk. That’s what friends do.”

“So we’re friend again?” I feel him swallow behind me. “I love it how you get to decide when to be friends and when not to be. When were you going to tell me about Alex? Must have been really been hard when you realized I was right, and you were being lead around by your lower anatomy.”

He moves out from behind me and takes his warmth with him.

I hug my knees against the loss while I hear him breathing harshly in front of me.

“I need to feel needed. I thought Tess needed…”

“I don’t want to hear what Tess needed from you.” I snap my eyes open, and it takes all my might not to cry out from the intense throbbing the light causes, but my pride keeps them open. If I’m going to face him, I’m going to do with my eyes open both figuratively and literally. I’m not getting fooled again.

The light dims from above, and the pressure that threatens to pop my eyes out of their sockets diminishes somewhat.

“Better?”

Now of course, this should be the part where I say thanks. However, the slightly smug looks he’s sending my way puts the kibosh on any good will.

“You’re impossible, you know that?” The humor behind his words makes me feel even more irate

Looking for a distraction, I start pulling at a hole just above my knee.

One blue thread.
Two blue threads.

I’m really quite efficient at this. I’m on my way to making my own very nice pair of stressed jeans when a bronze hand stills my own.

“Will you just listen to me Liz?”

Drop dead.

“Please.”

My head snaps up on its own volition . “I don’t want to talk about her. It’s in the past. She was there when you needed her.” I glance over at her sleeping son. “I wasn’t. That’s all there is to it.”

He nods and clears his throat and then does it again. “Every month, I address the Kronae, and its nearly three hundred Thebians. During the Eritrea Conflict, they called me in as a negotiator. I brokered a peace plan, and they’ve been fighting longer than anyone can remember. When I retook the capital, I led over ten thousand. Nothing and no one fazes me.” He looks up at the ceiling before settling down on me. “No one but you. There are things that I need to tell you, so you could stop looking at me like you despise me for five seconds.”

What? Despise him?

“I wasn’t ever supposed to see you again.”

“Really?” I ask dryly.

“In the conventional way,” he adds quickly. “ I thought the least that I could do is to stay out of your way. Then I open the door, there you are standing next to my son. You couldn’t even bring yourself to look at me.”

I was too scared, too embarrassed, too hurt, too everything.


“ I know that I messed up. I know that I hurt you and that you still carry the scars from it.”

My attention lands on the large silver line etched deep into his cheek. Raised and slightly faded, it is by no means new, but I have no doubt that its birth was an extremely painful one. A need for vengeances bursts in my chest. Potent and raw, it wants only to hurt the responsible party. I duck my head. I was the responsible party. I did this to him.

Gently, he lifts my chin upwards. “Stop it,” Max chides. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“It wasn’t yours either. We were just children, stupid, careless children.” I answer meeting his gaze, but I can tell my words have no impact.

“You still to need to know why. I owe that to you so you can move on and find someone that makes you happy and gives you everything your heart desires,” his voice chokes, “ someone that completes you.”

Ah, Max is ever the romantic even after all this time. “Love isn’t like that. It’s not like there’s one person out there that makes everything worth it. There’s just people that you fit better with than others. If you go looking for a soul mate, you’re not going to find it. They don’t exist.”

“Do you really think that? Do you?” He repeats.

I shrug my shoulders.

“I did this to you, didn’t I?” He doesn’t wait for me to answer. Tucking his hair back behind his ears, he looks nervous, uncontrolled, and all too human for the very first time “Since as long as I remember, I’ve taken care of people. It was just something that was in me. Something I knew I needed to do just like with anything else. It was up to me to look out for Michael and Isabel. It was in my head even though I didn’t know at the time where it was coming from.”

“Do you know now?” I ask dreading the answer.

“It was Zan’s fault they were killed. He didn’t protect them like he should have.”

“Or he had a guilt complex a mile long, one you somehow inherited.”

“I doubt that,” he mumbles. “I doubt that a lot. You see. In order to have a revolution, you sort have to piss off the majority of the population, don‘t you? Content people don‘t usually murder their leaders.”

“Whatever he did, you’re not him.”

“I’m more him than I would like to be. There’s a ruthlessness in me. Don’t shake your head. You got to see it up close and personal before I left. You see I never felt like I belonged on Earth, and I never felt human until you,” he rushes through as if my connection to him is almost repellent. “ That was the difference between Zan and myself. He never knew what it was like to have someone love him.” His gaze meets mine, “even if it was for a short time.”

I press my lips together. There’s nothing short about it Max.

“After Pierce, you left, but Tess was always there.”

“I’m glad she was.” I whisper feeling the bile rise in my throat. “She could understand you in ways that I couldn’t then. She knew what it felt like to have to hide and to be different.”

“Liz, I’m not telling you this to blame you. It‘s just how I felt then.”

“Mmmhm,” is all I can get out as my heart feels like its breaking all over again.

“I’m not getting this out right. This is a mistake.”

“No,” I reach out to grab his wrist. “Tell me, I want to hear this.”

His eyes sweep down me in concern as if looking for some sign. Not finding it, they settle back on my face. “ While my life became less human, Michael and Isabel’s became more. I hated them for it. They were the ones that were always trying to limit me. I was going to go after you that day at the pod chamber, but Michael stopped me.”

What?

“I should have never let you leave the way you did. Why could he be with Maria, and I couldn’t be with you?” He asks more to himself than to me.

A warmth spreads over me. He wanted me.

I never loved her.

No, I was the distraction until Tess came. That was all I was.

“Isabel was going to go to college. College was never going to be in my future when I was too busy going off to alien summits. But most all I hated them for not needing me anymore. How dare they for actually going after things that made them happy?” he rolls his eyes. “I was an idiot and to top it all off I was being played by one of the best. She knew how to feed my insecurities and my ego. She..”

“Does being king make you happy?” I interrupt needing to change the subject,. When it comes down to it, I don’t want to know why he slept with her. Screw it, a little stupid and masochistic part of me does.

“Yes, it’s what I’m supposed to be. I’m a good at it. Khivar ran Antar into the ground. Bit by bit, I‘m making the parts I control better.”

My stomach drops. “I knew you would be a good king,” my voice struggles to remain neutral.

“But being a father makes me even happier. There’s so much destruction out there and so much evil. I know you’ve seen your fair share of it. It’s hard no to let it change you, but at the end of I day, I have this little person who is excited about discovering pickles for the first time, or he finally learned how to tie his shoes without any help. Seth, he amazes me. I’ve learned so much from him. He has your knack of just seeing the world so differently than others do. I don‘t know what I would have done without him.”

“Then everything turned out the way it was supposed to be.” I say in a tight voice. Pushing myself off the floor, I lean against the wall for support.

“I didn’t mean it like that Liz. I didn’t,” he whispers as he tries to reach out to steady me, but I shoo his arms away because having him touch me right now is the last thing I want.


“ It’s a scientific fact that members of the same species seek each other for reproduction and for other needs. It’s basic Darwinism. Biologically you don’t want what your not supposed to have. You were compatible with her. You have a son and a family. I’m happy that you have that. I know what it’s like now to be different and alone. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” I whisper harshly seconds away from breaking down completely.

He opens his mouth to speak but closes it as a slight whimper from Seth becomes his new focus. Almost wearily, he leaves me and lowers himself down to him placing his hand on their son’s forehead.

I look away, but not before, I catch him looking at me with so much emotion. It’s literally pouring out of him as if he’s almost willing me to fill in the blanks or to understand a prospective that I’m at a loss to grasp or am just unwilling to see. However, like with anything else, the expression fades as he shrugs off his humanity in favor of his patented control.

Nine years ago, I would have fought the change tooth and nail, but Elizabeth Parker is nowhere as tenacious as her younger counterpart was. Fighting against the norm never got Liz Parker anywhere so I curl up into myself while he seems to be doing the same. What a wonderfully dysfunctional pair, we are. The past is dead and so is Max and Liz. Another groan from Seth breaks me from my reverie as a primordial need passes over me. After years of evolving, its message is instant, undeniable, and extremely frightening. Yet, I don’t question its impetus that drives me to ignore my hurt and disregard my vertigo completely. I go where it beckons me to their little boy, a little boy that in a different lifetime could have been ours. Dropping down next to Seth, I am so entrenched in my feelings that I’m shocked when my hand gets pushed away by his father. Skin collides with skin while two streams of light burst into the air. One red and one green, they coil tightly around each other. Sparking on contact, the mutual storms of my passion and his control whip back and forth between us. Locked in a never-ending battle, there is no defeat. There is no compromise. There is only emptiness.

“I said no,” his voice tells me low and threatening.

He will not share his warmth with me.

“He isn’t your concern. I won‘t let you hurt him like you did with me.”

Dumbly, I stare at his lips as they give full range to his feelings. Angry, hurt words tumble out of them. Nicking my heart, I say nothing. What does someone says to another who will not grant her even the slightest reprieve?

Staring down at Seth‘s pain contorted face, the medallion begins to burn hotly against my skin while something very nasty and violent breaks in me. A fierce possessiveness cuts away at my usual calm temperament. Snapping my head back up, a dark satisfaction starts to simmer as his father’s eyes grow larger.

In the back of my mind, fear begins to take hold, because I am no longer guiding my actions. Opening my mouth to speak, a harsh, staccato, gibberish comes out. Papers fly off the table while the freezer’s doors open and close over and over, but my ranting does not cease. I am lost. Max won’t or can’t help me find my way back, so I return to the only thing I know. “Why did you trick me? I loved you so much. You never did.”

When he finally answers me, he sounds raw and broken. “We‘re going to be going in circles for forever, aren‘t we?” Taking my hand, Max places it on his son’s forehead. Green sparks move peacefully back and forth between Seth and me. The panic and despair that just seconds ago was everywhere is washed away by a curious energy that already seems as familiar to me as his father’s once was.

Dusting off his pants, he gets up. “I want you to remember one thing. When this is over, Seth is going back home with me.”

“I know.”

“If you hurt him Liz, if you hurt him, there is not a place I won’t look for you,” he threatens.

“I won’t.”

“As for forgiving you, for lying to me for making me think that you slept with the one person that I could never be for you. I did that a long time ago, so the ball is in your court.”

Men and their sport’s analogies.

“After eight years, I think it’s time.”

“For what?”

“For you to forgive me, for sleeping with Tess,” he says passing underneath the plastic awning. For seconds or maybe minutes, I stare at the doorway. From outside, I can hear Max speaking to someone in a quick rabid succession of Antarian firing off orders no doubt to someone.

Playing with a lock of Seth’s hair, I lean down and kiss his newly cooled cheek. Against my skin, I feel his lashes tickle as they open.

“Hey, you kissed me.”

The sight of his alert eyes and ruddy face is a strange comfort. There is no greater torture to a parent than a sick child Winnie used to tell me. Let this virus bring its full brunt on to me, but not on to my little Sierra. “Feel free to wipe it off if you like.”

He makes a big production of wiping his cheek against my shirt. “I’m too old for kisses Liz. ” he tells me before pausing and grabbing at my shirt. “Daddy, is here, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” I answer.

“We’re on the wrong track again,” he says thrusting his thumb into his mouth.

“Everything is going to be okay.”

He takes his thumb out of his mouth and shocks me completely by wiggling on to my lap. “It’s not okay Liz,” he says seriously before pressing his head into the nuke of my neck.

I start stroking his tensed back. “Seth, do you want to tell me what you saw?”

He shakes his head against me.

“It might not be so scary if you talked about it.”

“Daddy is always saying the same thing,” he grumbles. “Getting scared is for babies, I’m not a baby. So don‘t treat me like one,” he orders.

“Okay.”

“Fine,” he sighs looking at me. “I’ll tell you if you’re going to make me.”

I smile against his forehead at his petulant nature that seems so different from both his parents.

“I saw you die again. You can‘t die. If you die, it messes everything up.” He rushes out before burrowing his head back into me.

How do you comfort a seven year old who has predicted your own demise? I could tell him that death has never been a stranger to me. It tried to take me eight years ago and four years after that, but it got diverted and settled for my friend, my family, and a little girl. I was lying to Larek. I do feel guilty. I shouldn’t be here when they’re not. In the end, I settle and tell him nothing.

Seth’s arms wrap tighter around my neck. “I throw white roses on the box they put you in. I don’t want them to put you in the ground because that’s not what we do at home, but daddy says that how you do it here.”

“He‘s right.” I should certainly know.

“I put my favorite stuffed animal in there, so she’ll have something to play with.”

‘So who will have something to play with, honey?”

The rustle of plastic sounds, and his father appears in the doorway.

“The baby,” is all Seth says as he turns to look at Max. “Daddy you have to save Liz’s baby.”


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I promise that this is going somewhere. I just needed them to have a somewhat decent talk before they running off into danger and Liz goes off and kicks Tess ass, but of course that's further down the line.

[Caelan]

Quotes: Sexual Healing, Heart of Mine,


Chapter Fourteen: Forward Movements

Baby," I ask panic starting to churn within my stomach.

"Baby, " Seth repeats rather happily.

"Baby," I say again lifting Seth off my lap. I'm single. I'm twenty-four. I have no money. I don't even own my home. What do I even know about babies? Hell, half the time I can't even take care of myself. We used protection. "How could this happen? " I ask the other adult in the room whose expression looks far away and very detached. A slight grimace of pain forms along his mouth.

I scoot forward to him hating the feeling that is taking root in my heart. After all these years, it still breathes into being this need or insanity to protect and keep him safe. My body literally burns to cross the space between us, to trace my hand down his scarred face, anything to take that look away from him, but what could I do really. I'm just a human woman, a slightly bruised one at that, so I stay put. I have enough problems as is.

"You see, men put babies inside ladies' tummies, but sometimes, they get lost and they have to be put in other ladies' tummies. You're a little old not to know where babies come from. I read all about it in a book, and then daddy explained it some more for me. I love science, so dad buys me lots of books about it. He reads them to me, because I can't read very good, but he says that if I keep trying I'll get better. He said he couldn't read very good, but he used to practice reading with some girl. "

"Aaaa...re...r," Max frowns shifting in the beanbag chair. "I don't know what it is."

"Are, it's a very hard one to get. It took me and Maria forever."

"Then why isn't it the letter r?"

"Don't know. Maria wanted to write the dictionary people and tell them they were spelling it wrong. We just have to practice a little more then you'll get it."

"Thanks for helping me." He looks glumly around the library. " It must suck having to be in here with me instead of being outside playing, because Mrs. Kelley is making you."

"No, I asked her to let me help you."

"You did?" his face brightens.

"Yep, until Maria comes back then I'll have to help her catch up."

"She must have a very bad cold. She's missed a lot of days."

"She doesn't have a cold Max."

"What is it? Is she okay? Maybe, I could help."

I lean in closer to him. "If I tell you something, you can't tell anyone," I whisper.

"I promise."

"Pinkie swear."

"What's a pinkie swear?"

"You do like this with your little finger and say pinkie swear."

"I pinkie swear," he answers me. "I'm very good at keeping secrets. You can tell me Liz. I won‘t tell anyone."

"Her dad left, and he isn't coming back. He hasn't called her at all. Why would a dad do that?" I rush out.

"I don't know. I won't ever do that when I'm a dad."

"I won’t ever do that if I was a mom either.”

“You’re sad for her.”

"Yes, people aren't supposed to say I love you and then leave. He was always saying he loved her, and now he's gone."

"My mom and dad say that all the time."

"Mine too."

"What if they went away Liz and never came back?"

"You could come and live at my house. We have a lot of rooms."

"Okay," he nods.

"Or you could call me, and I would come and get you."

"Pinkie swear," he smiles.

"Pinkie swear," I answer.

"You're not listening to me, are you Liz?" Seth frowns.

"No, I got it. Men puts babies in ladies' tummies, and you like to read science books."

"And Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl," Seth pipes in. "You could read me some books sometimes to if you wanted to. Hey, where are you going?" he grabs my wrist.

"Something is wrong with your dad. I think he needs me."

"He's on a trip. You shouldn't touch him when he's like that.”

"I think we need to make a rule about not going on any more vacations."

"No, he's not on vacation. He's on a trip."

"The difference is what?"

"I don't know. Ask him when he gets back? You can't ever touch him, or he might stuffhacate you."

"But, he looks like he's hurt or something."

"Don't touch him," Seth repeats. "He's always telling me not to."

"Okay," I grab the straps of my purse and pull it out from underneath the table.

"You're acting funny Liz."

Funny is falling for your best friend who happens to be your boss who happens to be possessed from time to time by the ex alien boyfriend scum who broke your heart and finding out you might be pregnant and not being able to know which one of them actually attracted you in the first place. That's funny. HA HA HA!!! It's official. I've turned into Maria. I close my eyes to try and calm the raging spiral that is currently my brain.

Focus. Gather facts and form a hypothesis and reach a conclusion. I dump the contents of my purse out onto the floor.

"You don't seem very happy about the baby. Mommies are supposed to want their babies. You want your baby, right?"

Endless howling, diapers, carrying around an extra thirty pounds, yeah, I want a baby right now as much as I want a bullet to the head.

My hand drifts down to my abdomen.

I bite my bottom lip. Considering Seth's own origins, I choose my next words very carefully. "I don't know. I'm just very confused."

"My dad was to when he found out I got put in Tess' tummy. That's why he doesn't want to have any more kids. He doesn't think he's a very good dad."

"Why does he think that?"

Seth shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know. I tell him he's the best dad all the time, but he never listens to me. If I didn't like him, I wouldn't want to be around him all the time. Kids want to be with people that like them. They can tell when people don't like them,
like Tess," he says with distaste.

"That sounds logical." I flip open my pocket calendar looking for the tell tale red x.

Seth sticks his dark head in front of my view. "What are you doing? Why are you counting?"

"We have to go," a now coherent Max announces rather testily.

Both Seth and I look up over the edge of my calendar. "I'm a little busy here your highness."

"Yeah, we're counting dad. I don't know why we're counting, but we're counting. It's very important that we keep counting, and then I have to help Liz put all of her stuff back into her purse and that might take a while."

"Seth," comes Max's stern rebuff.

"Daddy, I'm sorry I had to mind warp you," he apologizes in a rush, " but I have to stay with Liz, and you weren't listening to me. It just happened, and Miranda says sometimes you have to be your own person, and do things that other people don't understand. Serena says you have to be sneaky to help people. I'm just trying to help Liz and get my sister born and and... Liz had a man in her bed, and he didn't have a shirt on so please don't be mad at me dad. You should be mad at Liz."

Little shit. My eyes shoot up from my calendar with a semi answer to my current fertility state in mind.

I watch the tendons bulge in Max's neck as his face struggles to remain his patent alien self. He doesn't want me, but no one else can have me either.

Men.

They don’t want anyone playing with their discarded toys no matter the species.

He looks away from me, and back at Seth. "Liz is an adult. She can do want she wants. You need to take responsibility for your own actions instead of trying to hide behind others.”

“Sorry.”

"Don't say sorry to me. Say sorry to Liz."

"Sorry Liz,” he grumbles.

"It isn't safe for you to be running around Seth, and it makes even worse when I don't know where you are."

"I know dad," Seth answers.

"I wasn't listening to you and that made you mad." He rustles his son's hair, but he's looking directly at me when he says his next words, "that was my mistake." Switching over into Antarian, I lose complete track of the conversation. For some reason, I'm grateful. The two of us seem to be dancing to a one step forward and three step back beat that I'm terrified of changing, because there's safety in never touching or meeting in the center.

I've betted and lost too much on him already. I decide picking up the dull pocket knife from the floor and wondering at the perversion that causes me to carry it still. Acting on some masochistic necessity, my finger's swirl over the hokey inscription burned into the medal body. Its words a warning against forgetting life's most crucial rule. Nothing ever lasts.

"But, Max I gave this to you last Christmas."

"And I'm giving it back to you."

The knife falls back into my bag. Looking down into it, I can't help but read the taunting words.

Max & Liz 4-Ever.

"If you go now, our friendship is over."

"Hmm," my eyes snap up to see Max's figure crouching in front of me. "What did you say?"

"It's nothing," he tells me while his attention seems to be glued to my bag. "Can we go?"

"Sure," I mumble. The fact that he's making a request and not a command isn't lost on me, or the way his arm naturally falls around my waist to support me as I stand. I swallow.

"You don't have to worry," he whispers over my shoulder .

"About what?" I turn around in his hold. I'm close, close enough to be reminded of the golden specs in his eyes. Needing some sort of barrier, I place both my hands on his chest only to have his warmth seep up through my icy fingers.

This time, Max, is the one who swallows as he looks up from where my hands are. "I um..," he stutters as a pink shade tinges his cheeks. "This isn't any of my business," he pauses as I'm reminded of the boy that getting to talk to me was like pulling teeth. I guess some things don't change.

One hand leaves my waist and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, but not before he presses the lock between his fingers . Then there's that.

"Seth sometimes gets confused."

"I do not," Seth says behind us.

I jump having literally forgotten that he was in the room. This isn't good. I try and back out of Max's hold, but he doesn't let me.

"You're not pregnant Liz."

Strangely enough, I feel my face fall. My movement backwards halt as I say goodbye to the prospect of tiny baby feet and a little warm bundle of life to hold and take care of.

"I never said she had the baby inside of her right now," Seth adds.

"Could we have silence from the peanut gallery?"

"Sorry dad."

"I'm sorry if he got your hopes up. Did you want to be pregnant?" Max probes gently.

I scrunch up my face. "Of course not, I'm only twenty four." It should feel like I dodged a bullet, but it doesn't. "I want to go to med school, and I don't even have any money."

"Dad has lots of money."

"I don't know anything about being a mom. I probably screw the kid up royally.

"No you wouldn't," two small arms wrap around my legs. "You would be the best mom ever."

"Seth."

"What dad? Everyone is hugging. I wanna be in the hug to."

To my horror, I realize we are in fact hugging. Casually, I try and withdraw, because these two will never belong to me. They don't even live in my solar system. While Max lets go, his son only holds on to me tighter, balling the fabric of my shirt up into his fists, letting go doesn't seem to be an option for Seth.

"What's wrong, honey?" I lay my hand on the back of his neck intending to stroke it, but the moment my skin touches his something opens up between us.

There's fear so much fear. Rocking back and forth, all he wants is his daddy, because his daddy would stop her from being bad and make the sad lady stop screaming. He stops rocking and uncovers his ears. Peeking out from underneath a table, he listens for the sad lady, but all he can hear is a thumping in his ears. Turning his head, he hears something, a slight mummer, and he shoots back underneath the table top.

They scream.

They moan.

They get really quiet just like the sad lady. He doesn't ever want to get quiet. He likes being loud, but now right now he has to be very quiet. He's safe under here, but the sad lady is most certainly not. Gazing upwards, he pulls something sticky off the top and watches as it comes down on his head in long thin strings. He's pulling another string off when the table is ripped away from over his head.

A pair of blue eyes finally find him.

I suck in my breath as the flash dissolves prematurely. Not surprisingly, I find Max's hand over mine.

"What did she do to him?" I demand, because so help me I'm going to find Tess Harding, and bash her perky little face in. She's his mother for God sakes. I take a breath trying to erase his terror that I now feel coursing through my own veins.

"Could you be a little more specific?" Alien Max asks.

Five minutes, he's already back to that. "I'll be specific." I'm about to give a play by play when I see Seth looking up at the two of us rather confused. Angrily, my gaze falls back on to Max. I can't confront him with Seth here, and he knows it. It takes an almost super human strength to hold back the heat of my words. "You said you wanted to be friends. You don't even know the meaning of the word. It must be to much of a human concept for you to grasp."

"Then why don't you go back to your human friends, Liz?" he sneers.

"Fine, I'm out of here." I grab my purse. I don't need this shit. I definitely don't need Max Evans. There's not a single thing that could ever bind me to him.

"What did you see inside of me Liz? Am I bad inside?" a suddenly very unsure Seth asks me.

Like a band being stretched to the limits, it snaps back into place and so do I. I almost have to laugh at the irony that a child that he had with another woman is the single thing keeping me from walking out the door. A wave of guilt flashes through me. What must Seth be thinking? I used to hate it when my parents fought, but you're not his parent a little voice reminds me. He's got a psychotic killer for a mother and a repressed liar for a father.

Turning around, I'm surprised to find him already at my side. I kneel down to him. My heart clinches at the expression on his face. Soft and vulnerable, his eyes look the same way his father's did the day I took my infamous trek down that hill. They are just a shade softer than the color they were when he stared through my window as I shattered his dreams once and for all. Stonily, Max looks at me. I can see the certainty in his face that I'm going to do it again, but this time to his child. He's hovering close by waiting to jump into action, to pick up the pieces. For a moment, I wonder how many times he's had to during Seth's very short life.

I bite my bottom lip and fight the water building in my eyes. I almost did it to. I almost walked, because I was angry. I have to stay still now. I'll stay still for Seth even though he'll never stay still for me. Reaching out, I run my thumb down his cheek and watch as a green spark spreads over it, marveling at the power I have. This time I won't run from it, because its intensity defies all logic, or because I know sooner or later I'm going to have to give it back. I press my lips together. "I didn't see anything bad inside of you. You were very small, three maybe four." I curl his hair around my finger. "You were very scared and that upset me." Sliding my finger out of the loop, the hair falls straight around his face. Why is his hair straight? It should be curly. Curly hair is a dominant trait. Mothers aren't supposed to yank their children out from under tables. Length could pull curls out. Nasedo was definitely not the most loving of role models.

"I don't remember that." He turns to his father. "What's Liz talking about?"

I can literally see the conflict on Max's face, because whatever that was is definitely something he doesn't want to be talking about. Yet, he doesn't want to lie to his son either.

Ah, the no win situation of trying to protect someone you love. I want to say to him, 'see what's it's like. Do you think I enjoyed lying to you over and over? Because a little part died of me each time I did it.' But, I say none of those things. They would only fall on deaf ears. For all his words, Max hasn't forgiven me at all. Yet, I bail him out with a question whose answer I dread. "Did you see bad things in me Seth?”

At the sound of his name, Seth turns away from his father. "You're not bad. You're just very, very sad. Your feelings got broken because of that you could be very bad if you wanted to even badder than Tess. You could be the worstest." He turns back to Max, "Daddy, they're here."

"Come on," Max nudges me.

"Who's here?"

The plastic parts as a very controlled Alex enters. Grey, my mind corrects. He's Grey. Not Alex. Alex is dead. "They want to see her."

The frowns on Max's face only intensify. "That's out of the question. How do they even know about her?"

"Someone must have leaked it from the council coupled with the scions she nuked that much psychic activity in one sitting is bound to cause ripples not to mention she being reunited with the charge. You have to see what’s happening.”

"He is not her charge. If you’re asking me to believe in a bunch of hocus pocus, I won’t.”

"Hey, I may have no idea what you are talking about, but I'm still in the room."

"We'll you're leaving the room," kicking away a rubber matting his actions reveal an iron man hole cover in the floor. Unscrewing the top, I see him cringe as he looks down into it.

"Oh, no I'm not. I came here for answers about the virus," I demand. There's a hole in the floor. I'm wondering why this all strangely makes sense to me. My fingers curl around the plastic body of my cell. I need Maria.

"Let us handle it."

"Because you've done such a great job with it back home," Seth squeezes my hand. A jolt of his energy travels up my arm at contact. Settling down within me, it's message is clear, back off. For some inexplicable reason, I do. "Fine," I smile in feigned sweetness.

Grey thrusts a pair of sunglasses into my hands. "For when you get outside. Your eyes are going to be extremely sensitive to the light."

"Go with them," the king commands.

"Don't you think I should stay?" he asks.

"I'm technically one of them all things considered."

"They want their mother not their father in this situation."

What the hell are they talking about?

"It's the novelty of the situation that they want," Max adds. "Nothing more and nothing less."

"If you say so, you already know where I am on the equation." Grey says before dropping down into the darkness. Leaning over, I watch a dim light sprout out of the black.

Max leans down to Seth. "I want you to do everything Liz tells you. That's the deal we made, remember?"

"I'll be good dad."

"You're always good Seth," he brushes his hair. "You need me to help you down?"

"The spaces, you don‘t like looking at them." Seth reminds him.

"I know, but I can," Max pauses once again over the mouth before backing away.

"Don't worry, I'm big. I like it down there anyway," Seth answers before being grabbed from below by Grey.

"This is insanity. You want me to run around in a cave."

Max looks up at me, and I jump back.

"Your eyes are glowing."

"Which means you need to get yourself down there."

"Or what?"

"Have you ever been in love?" her childlike voice asks from my left.

"Sierra."

"Up and down never side to side," his deeper one weaves into hers.

"Daddy." I flick my head to the right.

"Never grow up. Never have sex. Never stop being my baby girl."

"Mom. They’re here. I can feel them." A tantalizing warmth hovers just beyond my reach one that I just have to touch. Moving my hand forward, I'm shocked when I'm grabbed roughly from behind and go tumbling down into Grey's arms. Dazed, I watch as the black cover is moved back into place blocking the feeling from me.

I wiggle out of Grey's arms. "NO," I stand frantically on my tiptoes intending to bang on it until my knuckles bleed if I have to.

"They're dead Liz," Grey says.

"I heard them."

"They're not real," Seth adds. "They just want to eat your energy like the scions did. They like you like I like macaroni, because I can't get macaroni at home."

"I don't understand," I stare hopelessly up at the cover as a mildew smell overcomes me.

"Come on Liz," Alex wraps his arm around my waist.


"I just don't understand Alex."

"In time, you will," he answers.

"Dad is going to help you."

"Right," I snort seeing nothing behind but dark rock, which seems like a rather nice metaphor for my life as of late. I trip.

"If you keep looking behind you all the time, you're never going to get anywhere," Seth advises me.

"But the only problem is I'm afraid to go anywhere," I whisper.

[Caelan]

There's an implied UC for Liz in this chapter. I know some people might have a problem with that, but it's how I've seen Liz from the start just warning you all.


Quotes: Pilot, It's Too Late It's Too Bad
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Fifteen: Signs

Moodily, I squeeze through the tight passage and scrape my thighs in the process. I mumble several colorful obscenities that barely put a dent in the silence that seems to exist here. Though I don’t know how long we’ve been walking, the earthen tube encasing us never seems to change. It’s a picture of stagnancy where light and sound ceased long ago from
visiting. If life is about changing, evolving and growing, this place is its antithesis. This place is about death.

In the back of a mind, I feel guilt try and chime in with his opinions. I hold him off by focusing on the faint mildew smell, counting my steps, any other little thing I can think of to keep my mind busy.

I glance up at the ceiling curving just over my head and bite down on my bottom lip. Within my mind, the door springs open and guilt ambles right through it.

Two years is my first thought followed by the look on Max’s face when he gazed down into that hole picturing whatever monsters that run rampant in his head.

Needing something to shove, I smack my hand hard against impenetrable rock.

Don’t do this.

I lift my left and right foot up and down and count off two hundred and two hundred and one. I try with all my might to push guilt out, but his lips turn upwards in a devilish, undeniable smile.

For two years, I can’t stop thinking. They had Max in something like this. Or was it smaller? I imagine a dozen torture devices. Images of hanging whicker basket prisons, pits, the wrack, and the ending scene of Braveheart string together into a morbid montage. If these devices were human ingenuity at its best, what was Antarian ingenuity like?

This simple question lights a fire in my imagination. With no other barrier to hold me back, I dive head first bringing together the worst my mind can conjure. I see knives, needles and fire.

“Grey, something’s the matter with Liz.”

“Your memories of her hardly do her justice.”

Of course, Khivar mind raped him. You already knew that.

“Liz?” Reaching through the space, Grey holds his glowing red hand up to my face.

I am reminded of the Red Tide I saw with Brian off the Gulf of Mexico.

“You’re burning up.”

“I’m fine.” I grit not wanting his concern or comfort. No one comforted Max when he was down in God knows where having God knows what done to him. Why the hell did it take them two years to get him? He was their king for crying aloud. They should have helped him. To live all those days in fear, a boom echoes from outside the chamber. “Is that thunder?” I ask Grey grabbing on to my medallion, but I never hear his answer.

“They’re going to come for me Kyle. It’s only a matter of time before the Special Unit is knocking down my door. I did something really stupid just now. I wasn’t thinking. I just acted.” My heart races while I try to pinpoint why upsets me the most the prospect of my impending dissection or the fact that Brian could have actually really seen me when we kissed and that’s why he bolted.

“You need to calm down Liz,” Kyle’s tells me smoothly. Even from a thousand miles away, I can hear the subtle rise in pitch in his voice and feel my adrenaline lessen as a result. “Are you using your powers on me?” I demand.

“They’re not going to come for you Liz,” he answers side stepping my question. “ No one can link you to the event. You were just a scientist that got nabbed by some extremists. It’s what Ho Chi Minh City thinks. It’s what Washington thinks.”

“How much did it cost for you to clean this up for me?” I touch my lips. How careless can one person be?

“Don’t worry about it. You‘re safe. I won‘t let anything happen,” he vows.

I frown wondering how a junior FBI agent has as much power as Kyle seems to exert, but something holds me back from asking the obvious question. Curiosity killed Liz Parker, and Elizabeth Parker isn’t going to make the same mistake twice.

I flinch at the noise. There it goes again. You’re being childish. It’s nothing more than air expanding and being compressed by heat.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s a thunderstorm.” I draw the curtains against the offending clouds.

“Where’s Brian?”

Well, Kyle I decided to be carpe diem woman, so I kissed my boss who ran off because he knows I’m actually four feet tall and green with five hundred eyes. No, I shake my head that sounds neurotic.

“Liz, where is he?”

Calling the special unit right now to take me away. No, I frown now you’ve left neurotic for down right paranoia. Finally, I settle for honesty. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? He’s leaving you alone in this.”

“He’s not my guardian Kyle.”

“We’ll he could have fooled me. The guy definitely has a thing for you.”

“He does not.” I lick my lips trying once again to pick out his taste, but there isn’t any.

“Liz, you never think anyone has a thing for you.”

“He would be in the definite non thing having category.”

“Since when?”

“Since I made a pass at him, and he made quite a speedy exit out the door to the nearest phone to call...”

“First off, he wouldn’t do that,” Kyle interrupts. “Is this why you’re freaking out about the special unit?”

“It was stupid of me.”

“You’ve kissed other guys, and nothing remotely weird happened?”

My face flushes. “Yes, but this felt different. I don’t even know why I did it.”

“Do you think it was the alien…”

“I have to jump someone now syndrome,” I finish. “No, it’s definitely a human thing, but there was just something different about it, something familiar and intense.”

“Like when we,” his voice softens.

I twist my hair around my finger.

“Do you ever regret being with me?”

“No.”

“If you hadn’t changed things, you’re first time would have been with Max.”

Why in the hell did I even tell him about that? Way to play on his insecurities. “I never thought of him, never once.” Kyle will never know how afterwards my mother found me on the bathroom floor mourning the final break in the chain that was Max and Liz.

From the silence on the other end, I can tell Kyle isn’t buying my explanation. “I wouldn’t have stayed with you, Kyle if I didn’t want to be.”

“Then I left you.”

“We grew apart.” I state bluntly no wanting to revisit this little part of our history together.

“I always felt guilty for leaving you. You realize nothing ever happened between Hannah and I until I ended things with you.”

“Don’t,” comes my blunt response, but Kyle seems to be content to keep going on his merry little way.

“It’s how I know about Brian. When I saw him at the hospital Liz, he just took control of everything. Maria and I were so out of it. He just stepped in when he was definitely hurting more than the two of us combined. It was so clear to me then.”

“What?”

“He was going to take care of you.”

I don’t need to be taken care of. I can take care of myself. My eyes drift to my blotchy face and sunken features in the mirror.

“I didn’t feel guilty anymore.”

I whimper and cover my ears against the sound outside.

“Liz?”

“I should really go,” I answer feeling like a complete child. “I can handle it, and Brian just came in, so it’s fine.”

“Liar.”

“You have work tomorrow.” I gaze at my watch. “It’s like two o’clock, and there’s no telling what Hannah is thinking.”

“Hannah understand about us.”

“Kyle, I really like her and having your ex girlfriend call you up two o’clock in the morning isn’t really a good thing. It’s on the same level as having your reincarnated wife running around. Thank you for listening, I’ll talk to you later, bye.”

From outside, another peel of thunder crackles, and my cell phone falls to the floor. At the same time, the lights over my head cut off taking with it the buzz of the fan.

I take a shallow breath as the non descript hotel room becomes something dark where even the body of my cell phone looks sinister.

I can’t stay here.

“Liz, what’s wrong? You shouldn’t be going on trips. Vacations are fine, but not trips.”

I’m conscious of Seth yanking on me, and yelling for his daddy to make Nessa stop, but my grip on the medallion only tightens.


I am laying on something hard. From the tingling sensation in my butt and legs, I’ve been lying here for sometime. Liquid soaks my clothes while an itch begs to be scratched on my heel, and then I feel it. The deep pounding resonate through the floor. I try to curl up into a ball, but my body won’ t move. It can’t move.

“SOMEBODY HELP ME,” I shriek.

Almost immediately, a force takes me away from the unknown tormentor. Wisps of unincorporated thought tunnel into my head.

A knife whose blade burns a bright orange.

“Dadda,” a small voice says for the very first time.

Fingertips tuck a strand of dark satin hair behind a ear.

A warmth eats away my fear. I imagine his hand in my hair stroking up and down my head like he used to do. The way he would cup my face before his mouth would lean down to tease mine by sucking my bottom lip in and out of his mouth.

“Hija, you need to open your eyes,” a familiar accent tells me while two fleshy hands pat my cheeks.

Don’t wanna. I’m quite happy right here thank you very much. Every adage against having too much of a good sounds as I see Max cupping Tess’ face at prom. Did he stroke her hair the same way he stroked mine?

My eyes snap open freeing up my tears to fall.

I groan as sixty pounds of boy jumps into my lap. “Don’t ever do that again. You scared me. You scared daddy. That’s not nice at all,” Seth admonishes before strangling me with a hug, but he pulls away just as fast. “Her eyes are bleeding. Her eyes are bleeding. Why are her eyes bleeding Serena?”

Grey pulls Seth unceremoniously from my lap, and they continue in our present direction. “Where are we going? I can’t leave Liz. This isn’t fair. You need to put me down right now Grey, or I’m going to tell my daddy on you. I‘m supposed to stay with Liz. That‘s the rule.” Gradually, Seth’s protests fade into the distance.

For the first time, I realize that air tight tunnel has now expanded into a rather wide cavern. Picking up some rocks, I start piling them on top of each other.

A slight shuffle sounds. My head jerks up to see Larek’s emissary white faced and staring down at me. For a moment, we just gaze at each other.

“Are you alright?” we both ask in unison.

“Fine,” we answer together.

“So you’re sure you’re okay now?”

A flush creeps into my skin. “I was just doing my hysterical female impression.”

“I don’t really think that hysterical and Liz Parker belong in the same sentence.”

“You should have been here when Pierce took him. I had never been so scared in my entire life, but Tess knew he was okay.” I look downwards while a weird energy seems to hover between us, one I can’t really pinpoint. “She could always sense things about him that I couldn’t.”

He inhales a shallow breath before passing me and taking up a position at Serena’s side.

“Isn‘t cute how protective Seth is of you? ” Serena finally says in attempt to cut through what Maria would deem distorted vibage.

I wipe my eyes. “Seth will get tired of that soon enough. I‘m just a novelty to him”

“Why do you think that?” Larek asks.

“He takes after his father, doesn’t he?”

“You weren’t a novelty to him.”

“Seth’s existence disproves that, doesn’t it?” I snap feeling immediately guilty for the comment. Larek has been nothing but kind to me. Here I’m acting like some preteen queen. “I mean…” I gesture. “What does it matter what I mean? This doesn’t concern me at all.”

“You’re wrong there. Everything about this concerns you. You‘re the half backer in all of this.” Serena explains.

Halfbacker. I frown waiting for Larek to correct her, but he doesn’t. “Quarterback,” I finally figure.

“That to. The first Antarians came from the ground.” She goes on to give me what might be a rather interesting summary of Antarian evolution, but I’m not listening.

I don’t want a history lesson on Antar. I want to know why Max took the time to possess Brian. Why can he be gentle and kind to me as Brian but not say a nice word to me as Max? He had a planet to rule and a son to raise. There had to be some nefarious reason for him to be spying on me.

Arching my stiff neck backwards, I see for the first time a weird etching behind me. “Serena, what is this?”

“You can see it?” Larek asks sounding surprised and little dismayed at the prospect.

“Of course, I can see it.”

“The number of people that can actually see those drawings hija numbers a finger full,” Serena explains.

“Huh?“

“You say that a lot. What does that really mean?”

“You want me to define huh for you?”

“I’m just curious.”

“It’s like oh.”

“Oh?”

“The letter?” she asks sounding generally interested. “While you’re at it explain to me this um bit. What is um?”

“Can we do this some other time?” Larek snipes.

“It will serve you right if you never get hatched,” she flicks him in the arm.

Hoping to halt the progression of another one of their more colorful mother and son dialogues, I ask about the particulars of current location.

“You see hija this an fifteenth century aqueduct used to divert water from the city.”

“An unofficially?”

“It‘s a holy site for a sect of Antarians. Those drawings indicate an energy unification," she says.

“I don’t get it Serena.”

“I’m not a follower of Nessa, so my knowledge is very limited.”

“You’re implying what that I am?” I flip up my necklace. “He gave me this as some love token thing. I must have tried every way I could think of to destroy it.”

“No one asked you to keep it,” Larek snaps.

I blink in surprise.

“Larek, darling, if you’re going to be a donkey’s behind maybe you should take this nice boy’s body back to the surface and leave Liz and me here to have a little girl talk.”

He grumbles an apology.

“Before I was rudely interrupted by the most stubborn, pigheaded, unyielding, controlling, twit….”

“Are you done yet?” Larek demands.

“Hija, it’s a shame you don’t know Antarian. There’s just so many adjective to describe this dear boy before me. However, I think ah-ti-lan does it with the most justice.”

“Serena please,” the agitation in Larek’s voice has diminished to an almost pleading that somehow has the power to sway Serena from her current path.

“Like, I was saying The problem is Nessa doesn’t want to be rid of you. It’s why she allows you to see her message. A kinship exists between the two of you that she finds to be pleasing.”

“What sort of kinship?” I ask chewing on my lip.

“I don’t know. I can just sense it.” Her meaty hand takes mine. “Now put your hand over where you see the drawings and tell me what you see.”

“I can’t if I’m covering it.”

“Close your eyes and try and let your mind blank out,” Larek says resting his hand on my cheek as a strange feeling of deja vous starts to form.

On contact, words tumble out of my mouth. “An eye is split in half. There’s a lot of distance between the two parts. They’re both so hurt. The funny thing is that they would still risk everything to keep the other safe. How can you be at such odds and still feel that?” I ask turning to him.

“Intense feeling has a tendency to rise above petty disagreements when needs be.” Serena answers for him. She mumbles something under her breath about stubborn people.

“They’ve loved each other,” I begin again, “for what seems like lifetimes. The people around them change. Brothers become sisters. Sisters become best friends. Best friends become parents, but the two of them are always connected, and are always looking for each other. Sometimes they never find each other, but other times they do and other times they lose each other completely.”

A tear falls down my face.

“We need to stop this now,” Larek says tensely over my head.

“I can do this,” I assure him as the puzzle starts to become even clearer in my head. “Does this mean we’re predisposed to love who we love? It’s like an infection. Once infected they never really leave us.”

“How very romantic hija?”

“I am a scientist. Logic dictates that…”

“The heart isn’t exactly logical,” he interrupts. “Few things are. Sometimes you just want…” he stares at me.

“What do you want?” I ask him.

“Forget it.” He fidgets nervously before withdrawing his hand. With the loss of contact, I lose all connection with one half of the eye.

I frown.

“What else do you see Liz?” Serena prompts.

“There’s a circle that binds the two eyes together.”

From the corner of my eye, I watch Larek perk noticeably up. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about the circle?”

“She is lively and energetic, but even she has great trials to face.”

“She,” he repeats.

“I don’t how a circle is female, but that’s what I feel.” I trace the line as it starts to grow erratic as it reaches one of the eyes. “She loses this part of the eye.” I press my forehead against the stone.

“How? When?”

“I don’t know.”

“There has to be something,” he demands.

“There’s isn’t anything.” I tell him.

“Is it decided?” he asks Serena.

“You know the answer to that.” She tells him.

I smile as my finger tips drift to the other half of the blue eye and to the green triangle just above a mass of scrapping. “They adore her. They spoil her.”

“What else do you see?” he whispers now directly behind me.

“Towards the bottom, there‘s just a mass of scrapping. It doesn‘t form anything. It’s angry. It was denied what it thought it deserved, so it blasted the eye apart. It wanted what they had, but what it got was something entirely different. It was her price for stealing something that wasn‘t ever hers to begin with,” my voice turns bitter.

He winces.

“Just above it, there‘s a triangle coming out from it, but it doesn‘t belong with the scrapping. It wants to belong with this part of the eye here.”

“The part that dies?”

“Yes, it needs to belong with it, but it’s being pulled back to the scrapping, but the circle keeps it from going all the way. When it comes down to it, the circle can give him what the scrapping can‘t.”

“What?”

“Her love. He may turn his back on everything else, but he will never do it to her.”

“Why?” he asks.

My fingers travel up the circle to the squiggly eye. “She’s his connection to the part of the eye that is lost.” I blink and the circle disappears along with one of the blue eyes. The picture reforms itself before me leaving the remaining eye to look weak and defeated while the green triangle sits ominously at the center of the dark markings. Expanding and growing larger, both the scrapping and triangle eat away at the entire picture. “No,” I whisper. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.” A violence and a cold angry rage replaces the warmth and serenity of before. My legs give out from under me.

A sturdy arm keeps me from following on to the dust floor. “There’s bodies, and death. so much death” I cry into Larek’s shoulder. “It’s in my head, and it won’t get out.”

He rocks me back and forth. “It’s just some hocus pocus Liz nothing more than a parlor’s trick.”

“Nothing more than a parlor’s trick.”

Over his shoulder, I see a large blue eye enter the cavern. I jerk away from him.

“Liz what is it?” He asks.

“You were supposed to be down in Chiapas.” A rather testy Nessa tells me. “Instead, you’re reading things and rolling around in the dirt with him,” she huffs.

“Larek was just..”

“Larek,” she quips. “You were supposed to be one of the more smarter members of your species.”

“Look, I’m under a little pressure right now. My dead best friend is now a virus. My ex came back with his kid. His wife tried to run me down. I have an alien king out there who wants to be breed with me so excuse me if I’m a little scattered at the moment. If you’re some great goddess, why don’t you give me some wisdom?”

“For future reference, I am not a goddess. I am an enlightened being. I didn’t spend a millenniums learning the secrets of the galaxy to be called a goddess.”

“Touchy much.”

“Alright you want wisdom, I’ll give you wisdom. I don’t want it getting around I’m not a very good patroness.” A tuff of blonde hair appears over her one eye. “Look Liz, I’m Brian.” Dark long strands replaces the blonde one. “Look, Liz I’m Max.”

“I already figured that out,” I tell her dryly.

“Not done yet.” The strands shorten. “Guess who I am now?”

“Huh?”

“What is this huh? Your education cost what most people spend on a modest house and you answer my counsel with huh. How he begged for my help. I had never seen anyone so torn up over another being before him. That was a novelty,” she muses. “You’re lucky that he was cute and that I have special place in my optic nerve for him despite the fact he has to be the most arrogant individual I have ever gazed upon, or you would have been dust by now Liz. So get down to Chiapas, before I lose my temper with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Behave yourself little girl and I must just show you. When you get down there tell the blonde hobbit if she thinks she can come down here and infect my house she has another thing coming?”

“Tess is down there.”

“Give the girl a golden star.”

“She’s working with Khivar.”

“Yes and no.”

“Either she is working with him, or she isn’t.”

“She has side projects that he is as yet unaware of. Feel free to use that information with him either way you see fit. You are going to find another message from someone one quite special to you once you reach Chiapas, so don’t read it to anyone please.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re the first meaglan I’ve had in fifty years, so I’m a little rusty in the instructional department.” She laughs.

“What?”

“The shock of you going under kicked him out of the vessel. Larek is going to have a field day with his highness. Open your eyes Liz. Open them large and wide because your prospective is no where close to being the full picture of what is around you. There is almost so much jolting I can do here,” she says as her voice fades away and another angry one takes precedence.

“I’m going to kill him. When he comes back to Antar, I’m going to cut off his head and find a very pointy stick to put it on.”

“Hijo, let‘s be reasonable.”

“Don’t hijo me.”

“I’m the one who taught him to do this. I pictured Yvonne going through something like that alone, and I couldn’t say no, but I should have.”

“It was all the boy that night.”

“How you do know mother?”

“I had never him seen him look so devastated than he did that night. In not all of his days with Khivar or when Seth was missing and Liz was sick did he ever look that way. It wasn‘t him.”

“Maybe, he was feeling guilty.”

“Or maybe he realized what his little plan had cost them.”

“Then you tell me why their connected. There’s a bond there. It’s why she was able to call him as Brian.”

“He’s hiding. You of all people should understand that.”

“He’s twenty five years old. It’s time he grows up.” Larek turns towards me and realizes that I’m back from my little chat with Nessa. He falls to his knees down beside me. “How are you?”

“It depends if I’m really talking to you Larek. Do you think he lied to me? That we were actually…together.”

“Larek is just being moody.”

I don’t listen to Serena who has already established a reputation for bending the truth.

“You know him better than I do,” Larek answer diplomatically.

“I don’t know him at all. He was Brian for I don’t know how long. I never noticed it. He was you just now. How could he come here and not be scared?”

“He tapped into the vessel. The vessel isn’t claustrophobic so by extension he wasn’t either.” Purposely, he yanks me off up to my feet.

“This bond you were talking were about. You think we slept together?”

“Larek is paranoid hija.”

“You’re freezing Liz,” he takes his coat off and drapes it over my shoulders. “We’re almost there.”

“You’re not answering my question.”

“What did Max tell you Liz?” he sounds strained.

“He said it wasn’t him. It wouldn’t be real and that’s not something he’s interested in it.”

“Then I would believe him. He may do a lot of things, but lying is one of them.”

“I love it how you listen to my pessimistic son and not me,” Serena huffs beside me. “Hija, if I had any suspicion that Max had done something so odious, I would take him and do bad things to him, scary things, things that I can’t even tell someone so young as yourself.”

“Then I would finish wherever, she left off,” Larek adds.

“Then Miranda would take up with the leftovers. She can be very scary, takes after her father in that department. I’ve got chills just thinking about what she would do.”

Strangely, I find myself smiling in this very weird situation that requires my sex life and two aliens that are willing to torture for me. “Miranda doesn’t even know me.”

“Our family has a thing for humans? We love even the odious ones. While she’s technically not one of us, she is in all the ways that count. That’s something you should remember hijo.”

“Mother, she’s fifty years old. She doesn’t need me.”

“A hug and phone call, a little apology would make a world of difference for her.”

I tense being in the middle of an oncoming Serena and Larek smack down.

“I think you underestimate my significance in the situation.”

“Hmm, see Liz you need to watch yourself with Larek, because he can be rather cold. Picture this. He rescues this darling, innocent little girl from certain death.”

“Darling,” he scoffs. “She was a hell raiser just like her mother. She was always getting into everything,” he says with a faint smile on his lips.

“You loved her for that. He raises her and for all purposes is her father. He marries Yvonne. They have Seth. ”

“Seth,” I cough.

“Seth is named for my son Liz,” Larek tells me with voice strained. “Mother, she isn’t interested in learning our family’s background.

However, Serena has other ideas. “They fall in love,” she coos. “After much deal making with Dr. Phil here, they have a beautiful wedding. The weather was beautiful. Miranda was the most gorgeous bride ever. She just radiated. It was all for Seth. Five years down the road, she watches an animal slit his throat right in front of her face. What does my charming son do? He blames her for surviving.”

“That isn’t the case. I‘ve tried so hard to tell her,” Larek says in a faint whisper.

This isn’t good. Think of something to distract her with.

“You’re going to have to speak up Larek. I can’t hear you.”

“Well maybe if you would shut up for a moment Serena, Larek would be able to make himself heard over your nagging,” a familiar voice adds.

Squinting my eyes, I can just barely make out Max and Seth’s standing at the opening.

“You,” Serena rushes at him in her characteristic fury. “You could be a little nicer to me. I was actually defending you.”

For the second time today, I am body slammed by sixty pounds of all boy. “I was so worried. Grey made me come with him. I didn’t want to leave you Liz. I really didn’t.” He says with so much earnestness. “So don’t think I left you.”

“Seth, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay.” He frowns looking down on the ground. “I saw in your head that you‘re sad about people leaving you all the time and I…”

“You’re in the clear okay,” I choke.

“Cool, I have to show you something,” he runs excitedly back out of the cave.

I look over my shoulder to see Larek lagging behind. “Are you alright?” I say softly.

“I’ve never been really good with words,” he starts thoughtfully. Khivar and Zan were brilliant speakers. They could seduce any listener with just the power of their voice. I used to watch them and wonder how they did it. I was always the shy one. The thing about words are that if you don’t say them the opportunity passes you by, and you might never get to say them.”

I squeeze his hand.

“You’re kind to listen to an old man ramble about nothing.”

“I don’t think you’re rambling.”

“After Seth died, Miranda left Yvonne and me. For us, it was like losing a son and a daughter at the same time. She kept up contact with my wife, but I barely saw her for the next thirty years. She can’t forgive herself for what happened, and she thinks I can’t forgive her to, but there was nothing to forgive her for.”

I nod my head not understanding any of this but knowing that’s not the point. Larek has things to tell and he’s chosen me to listen to his telling.

“My wife got sick three years ago. Miranda came back to help me care for her. Yvonne begged me to say something to her. I tried so many times. I would find her in the library reading. I’d open my mouth to tell her how glad I was that she had come back, but a reminder about not folding back the pages of my books back would come out instead. She has a terrible habit of doing that when she reads. It was just little stupid things like that. I didn’t mean anything by it, but she was taking it to heart anyway. She always feel so much more than she shows. It must be the Antarian in her.”

“What if you called her and just told her what you told me?”

“It wouldn’t work. I don’t know how to talk to her anymore.”

Looking forward, I see Serena launching in some tirade against Max and all but forgetting the one she was going to start with Larek, which was Max’s point after all.
“I don’t know how to talk to him either. He‘s always hiding from me. The funny thing is that I miss talking to him. I miss it a lot. He would always listen to me even if I was talking about how interesting the life cycle of a fruit fly is.”

“Your passion would appeal to him, because his people get passionate about very few things. I was wrong to doubt him,” Larek muses. “He may be controlling, and he may be as stubborn as a mule, but there’s one thing about Max that never changes. He’ll go out of his way to protect his friends and to keep them safe. Healers can’t stand for their love ones to be hurt whether it’s the slightest of nicks. It’s even worse when they’re the ones guilty of the hurting.” He smiles sadly.

“What are you saying?”

“He’s hidden things to protect you and I imagine you’re going to be angry when you find the scope of it out.”

I open my mouth.

“I don’t know what it is. I know bits and pieces even those are just things that I’ve put together over the years, but there’s one thing you have to remember. He did it all to so you could have something he won’t ever have. It looks like all the work he put into was for nothing anyway.”

“What did he want me to have?”

“A normal life.”

A lump forms in my throat. “I’m not a child Larek.”

“No, but your knowledge of our world puts you on the same level as an infant. You have my disc.”

“I’ve been running around all morning trying to get some answers about it.”

“You were being guided by mother and here lies your little problem. Her agenda is different from mine. It’s formatted for any laptop.”

“I don’t have a laptop.”

“Brian does.”

“ Brian. Breakfast.” I can’t let this happen again. One day with Max and I’m already shitting on my friends. “I’m sorry Larek. I have to go out.” I rush out and nearly stumble back into the darkness at the pain the light causes. “It’s cloudy outside. There’s barely any light. What’s going on?”

“Take deep breaths Liz,” Max says pressing the palms of his hands against my eyes. “Where are the sunglasses Grey gave you?”

“My purse.”

I hear him fumbling with my things followed by him slipping the frames over my eyes.

“You need to wear sunglasses for now on until your eyes adjust.”

“What are my eyes adjusting to?”

“You are going to be able to see special things,” Seth pipes in. “My eyes used to hurt all the time when I was little. Why is she changing now daddy? She’s a little old to be doing that. No, we‘re not doing this again. Larek put me down. Why does everyone carry me around? I have to stay with Liz. This is getting so frustrating.”

Carefully, I open one eye a bit and gaze out from underneath my lashes. Finding that there’s no knives jabbing into my eye sockets, I open them further to see Larek and Serena carrying Seth down a hill.

Looking up, a branch of some wild red flowers nestled within an electric green leaves blows in the wind. Curious, I reach up to bring it closer but am stopped.

“The thorns will cut you,” Max warns.

I strain to see them but can make nothing out.

“Are you feeling any better?” A face asks me that for the moment is not wearing his patented mask. Concern weaves into his creased brow and the frown lines of his mouth.

I lick my lips.

His whole being seems to redirect to that part of my body.

“You did a nice thing for Larek back there.”

“Serena doesn’t understand the situation. It causes her to jump to conclusions that are not accurate.”

“Keeping her in ignorance does what exactly?”

“It protects her from certain truths that she would find upsetting.”

“I’m a grown woman.”

“I know you are.” His eyes do a quick sweep down my body that turn my inside into liquid.

I hug my legs to my chest attempting to cover myself from his gaze. Yet, there’s some rebellious vestige left over from the love sick Liz Parker that isn‘t looking for control. It is this that compels my glove covered hand to snake up into his long hair and bring his face down to meet mine. Like some kitten, I contently rub my cheek back and forth against his stubble enjoying the roughness. I could do this forever. Against my skin, I feel his lashes as his eyes close. “Stop playing with me,” I whisper into his ear.

“I’m not,” his husky voice tells me.

“I’m giving you one chance to be upfront with me in your own body for a change. I suggest you take it, because after this there won’t be anymore opportunities. Tell me why you‘re down here?”

“I’ll tell you what I can.”

Somewhere, he probably has some nondescript blonde stashed away that knows all of his secrets. Hell, he’s a king. He probably has fifty of them. From somewhere I didn’t know existed, a possessiveness over him takes hold. I may be part of his past, but I want my place in it. I want him to damn well remember me and what we could have had when it’s cold and late at night. Taking a deep breath, I drag my trembling lips down his jaw. My kisses are soft and tentative. They hide the heat I currently feel.

“What are you doing?” he demands. His hands grab my shoulders forcefully as if he wants to push me away but just can’t seem to complete the action fully.

Burying my face in the warm column of his neck, his peppermint aftershave, and a scent all of his own making assail me. Slowly, my mouth opens spurned on by the culinary of smells laid out before me.


“Liz,” comes his strangled voice, but he doesn’t stop me as my mouth latches on to the side of his neck. I am afforded one loving taste before the ice leaning over me comes to life.

He grabs me eliminating the distance between us in one fluid motion. Lowering me down the ground, hands find their way underneath my tank top. Starting just above my stomach, he slides them up the contours of my body like no time has passed at all. He still knows exactly where he wants to go. I’m still arching and doing anything possible to help him along his way.

We let out a shared hiss as his right hand presses lightly down on his handy work of nine years past. Within the space, he trails his thumb over and over in a small circular pattern until I yank him towards me.

He gives me a boyish grin as he cups my breasts as if saying in his mind’s eye, ‘are you happy now Liz?’ Purposely, he flicks one bra strap down south to get better access.

He isn’t doing anything that any man before him hasn’t, but there’s a world of difference in the results. I hear it in my moans and feel it in the wetness starting to pool between my legs. I want him. I want him now.

Roughly, I pull him more firmly down over me. His weight on top of me feels heavenly. My nails sink into the hard muscles along his back savoring the raw power that emanates from them.

Power, he could use to rip me in two.

“If you leave now, our friendship is over.”

I buck.

Once. Twice.

As he finds a particularly sensitive spot on me.

My neck falls back as he sucks down on my pulse point. Pressing with a barely contained fury, he seems just as content to be marking me as I am to him.

I frown at the thought and the bug tickling its way down my back. Don‘t flake out. This is Max. I’ve fantasized about being with him more times than I could count.

Reaching down, I run my fingers lightly over the bulge in his jeans ready to explore areas that little Liz Parker never got around to, but I’m denied as Max pins my hands over my head. For his part, Max starts to sneak his way down to a place that Max the boy never ventured in his lifetime, but he hesitates just below my bellybutton.

I lick my lips that feel strangely left out of the situation. “Oh hell,” I curse pushing him off me and yanking my shirt down over the mess that is my stomach.

“What?” he answers with something I like to think akin to desire in his eyes but at this moment I can’t be sure of anything

“Did that seem strange to you?”

“Hmm,” he continues to look like a child that has just been told that Santa Clause doesn’t exist.

“You and me rolling around in the great outdoors when it‘s only been a day since I knew you were back.” I sound scared. I feel scared. “You didn’t kiss me once. You seem to be interested in some of the sights.” I wince at the nearly exquisite pleasure and pain now coursing through my breasts. “Which is rather strange considering, Tess has much larger breasts than I’ll ever have.”

“Yours fit in my hands.” He rolls over, so his face is away from me.

A jolt of something shoots through me at the comment. “I’m glad that they pass your muster,” I croak, “even though my lips don’t.”

“You’re different.” He says propping his head up on his elbow with his mask firmly in place. “I’m different. Nine years ago, I wouldn’t have grabbed you and forced you down on the ground like some animal. It won‘t happen again.”

“What do you mean it won’t happen again?” I tear my face away from him and relieved that when I turn back that he is in fact wearing the face of no emotion. “ I mean. You weren’t forcing me.”

“Did you ever imagine what our first time would have been like?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think you imagined this.”

“I was sixteen. I was rather of the imaginative and romantic persuasion.”

“But you’re not now?”

“No.”

“Why did you stop me then?”

“Well in nature…”

“Don’t hide behind science” his eyes flash in annoyance. “Tell me, what you feel?”

“You didn’t kiss me,” I accuse.

“It takes two to kiss. You didn‘t try to kiss me either.” he says softly in the same vulnerable way the boy used to use with me all those years ago. Damn him for getting the same result with it.

Kisses mean flashes.

“Did it seem different to you?” he asks.

“We’re not as awkward. I mean I went straight for your balls, and you swatted my hands away.”

He looks taken aback by my language.

“You have a problem with me being sexual.”

“No,” he says holding his head as if he’s developing a major sized headache. “Not when I was going straight for your…,” he doesn’t finish his sentence.

Max Evans is a prude.

“Before we wouldn’t have done that.”

“We would have worked our way up to doing it eventually if…”

“My future self hadn’t come back.” He rolls his eyes.

I cover my mouth. “You weren’t ever supposed to know about that.”

“You’ve been talking around it in just about every conservation we’ve had,” he says gently.

“No, I haven’t.”

He grabs my hand. “Your loyalty to me defies logic. I think you‘ve kept that secret for me and from me long enough.”

“Is that your way of telling me that I’m silly?”

“It’s my way of telling you that you have to be the most loyal person I know. Considering my track record with women, the fact that I don’t trust any of them. It means a lot.”

“What happened with Tess? The two of you were supposed to be happy together. I know she was in love with you.”

“She was in love with the idea of me while I was too busy channeling my very caring and loving alien self to notice.”

“That’s impossible.” I scoff standing over me.

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve got your mother giving edicts on how you married her.”

“Zan never..”

“I’m not finished. Then there’s your future self coming back to tell me, ‘hey Liz. Guess what? We were married, but I want to change things, because in the end you just didn’t do it for me, and you’re not alien enough to help with what needs to get done.”

“You being alien or not had nothing to do with anything.”

“It had everything to do with it. I tried so hard to get Isabel to like me, but she hated my guts, but immediately she was all buddy buddy with her good friend Tess. Michael well.. Michael never really gave a shit about me..”

“He gave enough of a shit to go with you to the university where both you, and Maria could have been blown to bits by a blasbong. While I was off doing…”

“Doing Tess.”

“We were only together once,” he barely whispers.

“I’m sure she rocked your world.” I swallow the bad taste in my mouth.

He snorts. “ I’m only just now beginning to realize the full scope of what I’ve lost, because I didn’t wake up sooner from the whole thing.”

“So let me get this straight. Because of Tess, you don’t kiss women at all?” I cringe at the inappropriate timing of this question, but Max can kiss. I’m going to cry for my entire gender if he’s not bestowing this gift on someone.

“No.”

Cue the tears.

“Kissing is an entirely human custom. The Nausicans do it, but they’re practically human anyway.”


“The flashes?”

“Left over from the Autheriens. They were the original inhabitants of Antar. We intermarried with them.”

He pats the ground still in an obvious state of shock from whose origins I can‘t decipher. “We just went at it.”

“You’re upset because we’re not fumbling around like a pair of teenagers?”

“Yeah, I am, because it’s just one more thing they took from us. It brings into prospective that I don’t really know you at all.”

“Huh?”

“I know aspects of you from when I was Brian, but I don’t know this side of you. I don’t know where you had your first Long Island Tea. I don’t what you were thinking when you got your tattoo or what possessed you to jump off that cliff in Thailand? Because those things the Liz Parker I knew would never do.”

I frown.

“I’m not trying to insult you. It’s just you grew up. I’m trying to piece together what I can on how you came to be who you are, since I wasn’t here to see it personally.”

“I’ve never tried this before, but maybe I could reverse the connection. So then you could see that I’m still me.”

I can’t do that. Maybe someday, I’ll be able to, but today is not the day, so I offer him what I can. The beginning he asked for, and I refused him this morning.

“Hi,” I hold out my hand.

Confused, he takes it.

“I’m Elizabeth Parker.”

“I’m Max Evans,” he answers catching on.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you Liz.. Elizabeth.”

“You can call me Liz.”

“No, I mean if you’re going by Elizabeth,” the name sounds funny coming from him. “I can do that.”

“But since you knew me in my glory days, you get the special privilege of calling me Liz.”

“Thanks,” he looks relieved. “It sounds weird calling you Elizabeth.”

“So what brings you to Mexico?”

“I have to save the world.”

“Me to.”

“There’s another reason why I am here though.”

“Really,” I answer feeling stupid for the way my heart has sped up.

The ringing of his cell phone interrupts our play acting. Human Max retreats into Alien Max as he answer in his language and not my own.

I’m not like him. I need to stop this right now. “I’m going to go and wait with the others.”

He doesn’t hear me, or if he does, he doesn’t acknowledge it.

I move to take a step away from him, but I’m stopped by the muscular arm that wraps around me.

“Two minutes,” he mouths.

I spend the next two minutes studying the arm around me that doesn’t appear to be letting go and wondering where the hell this is going.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If your a lurker or a regular please leave a comment. Because I'm a little unsure about this chapter for obvious reasons which is why it took me so long to post

[Caelan]

Guess who back?
Back again.
Guess who back?
Tell a friend.

It's me.

I must apologize for my long absence. This chapter has been rather blah for me. I've been in a rather mood, which doesn't bode well when your writing, but I'm in a better mood. It's spring. It's warm. So here's hoping things come more quickly next time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Sixteen: Filibuster

“Two minutes my ass.” I grumble scrapping my spoon against my plate while the din of several conversations play out behind me in the same guttural language I’ve become strangely accustomed to during the last day in a half.

A once active anticipation settles like a dead weight inside of me. No longer the product of my excitement, it finds a new purpose as the vessel for all of my doubts. Spinning my chair around from the bar, I stare as a mother levitates a piece of French toast off her plate into her toddler‘s waiting mouth. Clapping his chubby hands together, he opens his mouth and a string of gibberish tumbles out. My eyes snap back to the cooks behind the counter as they stuff a purple squealing creature into a pot. Once again, I question why am I even here in what Serena tells me is one of the most exclusive Antarian meeting clubs in the city surrounded by members of various diplomatic entourages.

As in answer, my hand wanders aimlessly down to the spot that not thirty minutes ago Max held me by, claimed me, I correct wondering at the peace that this thought brings, but I immediately dismiss it. He didn’t claim me. He promised to talk to me, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get anywhere on that agenda. I’m not that high on the King’s list.

Leaning back, I can barely make out Max and Serena having conference with several entities that look strangely like Charlie the Tuna behind frosted glass. How they’re going around looking like giant walking, talking fish, without arousing any attention, I don’t know. It’s just one more strange occurrence that knowing Max Evans has afforded me. One, I can do without.

Dialing his number, I try to reach him again. “Pick up Brian.” Pulling up my falling tank top strap, my fingers pass over an angry hickey. I’m grateful when the signal is lost delaying our inevitable conversation of ’ I’m sorry I ditched your for breakfast but I’m was too busy rolling around with my ex high school alien king boyfriend.’ That should go over well, I imagine. I bang my head on the wooden counter as my life seems to be slipping gradually out of my control.

“You need to learn to be patient,” Seth advise beside me. His fingers clicking furiously at some sort of alien video game he’s been playing. A plate lies untouched by him because macaroni and cheese and Granny Smith apples are the only things worth eating on this planet and eating Antarian food when you’re not Antar is stupid.

“I am patient.”

“Then why are you tapping your fingers against the counter? It’s starting to annoy me.”

“I’m not tapping…oh..I guess I am.” I lift my nails off the wood and go back to spinning around in my chair.

Placing his foot on the bar underneath me, he stops my spinning as well.

“Hey, I was having fun with that.” I tell him rather annoyed to be interrupted in my twirling.

“Adults aren’t supposed to spin around in their chairs. Everyone is looking at you.” He informs me rather crisply while glancing over his shoulder at a waitress and a customer who appear to be just staring at each other. He frowns.

“Fine, you spin.”

“I don’t spin. I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you,” he huffs. The fact that I’m getting read the riot act by a seven year for not acting my age highlights certain issues that I intend to correct.

“Spin,” I order.

“Liz, my dad..”

“I’m not listening to you until you spin,” I interrupt.

“I’m not spinning.”

“Fine,” I pull out my phone and start to dial.

“Alright,” he snaps. “Just please stop calling him,” he begs before pushing off the floor and twirling around once.

“Wasn’t that fun?”

“Nope. Are you going to listen to me now?”

“I guess.”

“My dad is a very busy person. Things come up. I’m always waiting for him,” he says much softer.

I reach for a small red bottle and pour it over my eggs. Taking a bite, I realize that it isn’t ketchup but Tobasco sauce and that I should be reaching for my glass of water. Only I’m not. The fork slips from my grasp before I pick it up again.

“You always need to have entertainment bag.” He points to a red book bag next to him.
“But sometimes,” his eyes light up. “We have daddy and Seth time. Maybe you and daddy could do that because then if people show up, he won’t talk to them. He tells them to go and talk to Michael or Isabel. I like those times, but I like it when we going flying the best. Then they really have to leave him alone, so I never take my bag then.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What’s there to be sorry about?” he snaps. “Before my dad came home, everything was messed up. He’s fixed a lot of it, and my sister is going to fix the rest. That’s why she has to get born, because if she doesn’t it’s all going to go back to the way it was before,” he tells me looking very distressed.

“Seth, I don’t understand any of this.”

“I’ll make you understand,” he promises ominously before his hand encompasses mine.

An angry static, like a television set trapped in between stations fills my head. Losing my hearing, I turn to my sight to grapple what is happening to me, but the same void greets me. Just before a scream starts to form in my throat, an unseen artist, trained in the school of Pollack, flings several brown droplets onto the colorless palate. Swirling around, the rich color gives birth to two stick figures.

Sound soon joins with the picture. The whirling of some mechanical machine echoes from outside while the cloth ceiling over me flaps back in forth in wind, but these sounds give way to the more personal sound of a female’s voice, a very bad speaking voice to be exact.

The woman paces with her back to me. “People of Autherien, I am here to enlist your help against a shared enemy that has cost both our lands so much. The history between Antarian and Autherien has been contentious… this is going to be part where Sinon interrupts me to say what does a eighteen year know about galactic politics? Why can’t you do this? You’ve always been a much better speaker than I am,” she tells a man sitting in the shadows.

“Throw the speech away, you don‘t need it.”

“What? You’ve got to be kidding. It’s custom to open up negotiations with a summary of intent. You and dad always have done it that way. I‘m not ready to do this. I‘m not a politician. I‘m always flying off the handle,” she sounds on the verge of tears.

He sighs before leaning into the light.

Something jolts in me at the sight of my necklace hanging from his neck, and the familiar look of turmoil that shines in his honey eyes. Time has transformed the soft curves of his face into angular lines, but I can still see the boy in the man. “Seth,” I whisper unable to take my eyes off his figure.

“You don’t believe in a word you’re saying,” he clarifies. “Say what’s in your heart.”

“We need their help. Our father is dead and now you‘re abandoning me when practically every vulture is swirling around waiting for me to mess up. That‘s what‘s in my heart.”

“I’m not abandoning you. I’m always going to have your back no matter what and you‘re not going to mess up.” Standing up, he nearly dwarfs the woman in a hug. For minutes, they just hold each other. Her small body shakes with the force of her tears while Seth looks stoically over her shoulder. Wrinkles in his forehead are the only signs of his distress.

“Why can’t you come with me to the meeting? You‘ve always come before.” She sniffs.

“I just can’t. We don’t need to confuse the issue as to who is in power now.”

“We can do it together. We’ve always done everything together. I don‘t understand why everything is changing.”

The pain only increases on his face. “Because it has to.”

“You’ve seen something.”

He breaks their hug. “You’re going to be late,” his voice wavers.

“Will you be here when I get back?”

“You don’t need me for this.” He holds her shoulders. “Every emotion you feel, you show it. You’re real. You don’t need to hide behind words like me or dad did that‘s why they‘ll listen to you.”

“No, they won’t. I don‘t have any real powers. I might as well be human.”

“You have the power to move people and bring them together. They’re going to believe in you. In the end, you will have the ability to exert your will on the whole galaxy, but you never use it for evil. Those are things you shouldn’t hold in such low esteem.”

“I rather be able to blast Talyn when he’s looking down my shirt.”

“What do you mean he’s looking down your shirt?” he demands protectively.

“Come to the meeting and see for yourself,” she counters.

“I can’t,” he says defeated.

“I know you‘re leaving,” she sighs. I don‘t have to have your power to feel that, but just remember one thing. You have a place here. This crown is yours just as much as it is mine.”

“No, it was never meant to be mine. I would have destroyed everything its supposed to represent. It‘s who I am even if you don‘t want to see it.”

“Don’t you ever say that. I‘ll never stop believing in you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my brother,” she says without missing a beat.

“You’re so much like your mother.” He smiles. “I was so lost and angry when I met here. I knew something was missing, but I couldn’t figure it out. It was just this illusive entity until she came, and it only became clearer for me when you were born.”

“What?”

“Family. I used to lie in bed between them, and she would have you on her stomach. There was this energy. It comforted me. ”

“I wish I could remember what it was like.”

“You and her both saved me. Without the two of you, I would be everything I fear. That’s why I have to go. I have to protect you. We can never be free and have that again with our own families’ until it’s over.”

“You‘re going after Tess.”

A shadow darkens his face.

“I’m going with you. She has taken just as much from you as she has from me.”

“Out of the question, you’re the Royal Queen of Antar now. You’re place is here. I have to do this on my own.”


Someone makes a sniffing noise. “Would that be plotting I smell? Four days in power, you’re already breaking the rules little one going after your father‘s true love and your brother‘s mother.”

Seth flinches but the woman shows no signs of discomfort.

“Sinon, this is Antarian diplomatic space which under Code A3A a non Antarian can not enter unless being formally invited, which I don’t recall doing. Now I‘m willing to have a open mind and consider that you and my father got off on the wrong foot, but keep this up I will be forced to settle on the conclusion that you‘re nothing but weak little man who is envious of Antar‘s place in the universe so get out.” The woman turns.

I see a flash of raven hair before the scene is rudely yanked away from me I find myself back in the restaurant as Seth continues to explain the importance of his sister and how she has special abilities that make her different from any Antarian that has ever existed before. He frowns. “You’re not listening to me are you?”

“What did you do?” I yank my hand away from him.

“I didn’t do anything.” His eyebrows arch in concern. “Do you need me to go and get my dad? I’m not supposed to go in there when he’s working, but…”

I place my hands over my aching eyes. “You said you were going to make me understand about your sister. Then I…I can’t remember. It’s right there.”

“Have you been broken to?” he asks much softer.

“I don’t know what that means Seth.”

He inhales sharply.

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“It means something very bad happened to me and now I’m stupid, wrong, and I’m not supposed to be here.” He chest heaves. I wasn‘t here before and, and it‘s messing everything up.”

“Come here,” I croak at one more victim of Future Max and mine plan. If there’s anyone that shouldn’t be here, it’s me. Everything would have gone as planned if Max hadn’t healed me that day. “Please come here,” I whisper again to Seth.

Slowly, he crawls on to my lap but makes no effort to get closer to me.

Leaning into him, I wrap my arms around him. “You’re supposed to be here Seth. Your supposed to be here, because your daddy loves you. He would be so lost without you.” Draping my head over his shoulder, I frown at his stony look, an expression I’ve seen way too many times on his father’s face. It’s a look that tells me that he’s not listening to word that I’m saying.

Pulling a strand of his silky hair, I tuck it behind his ear.

“Dad would be very sad to if you weren’t here either.”

“Things would have been easier for you if he hadn’t chosen to heal me.”

His head snaps up. “My dad can’t heal Liz. I‘m the only one that could do that. If he’d been able to do something like that he would have told me. You‘re not very smart about my dad,” he surmises before settling back down in my arms.

“I guess you’re right,” which is another reason I don’t belong here. Moving Seth to the side, I try and dial Brian’s number, but Seth yanks the phone out of my hand.

“Give it back.”

“Stop calling him,” he demands. “You shouldn’t be calling him. You don’t belong to him.”

“He’s my friend.”

“My dad is your friend.”

“If you leave, our friendship is over.”

“No, he isn’t.”

“You’re a liar,” he snipes right back in a way that reminds me so much of Tess that makes me want to throw up.

“I’m sorry.” He grabs my shirt to keep me from pulling away from him. “I’m not like Tess.” He shakes his head adamantly. “I can be good. Sometimes I don’t want to be, because I can get what I want faster if I’m not, but I’m not like Tess. You have to believe that. Please Liz,” he begs with so much anguish that no one so young should have to bear.

“Can you read people’s thoughts?”

“No,” he grumbles telling me that he is far from happy about this discussion.

“Can you read my thoughts?”

“Some of em.” He presses his face against my collar bone.

Lovely.

“I’m not doing it on purpose,” he adds quickly. “That’s something Tess would do.”

“You’re not Tess.” He head shoots up from its position as he nods empathically, “but you’re not your father either.”

His face falls.

“You’re Seth. That means that you have things that are like Tess and, your dad in you, but the majority of it is all you and that what makes you special. You decide what’s important and who you’re going to be. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“Yes, but you’re forgetting the sad lady.”

“The sad lady?”

“She lives in here to,” he touches his heart, “but her voice is very quite, but it’s getting louder. So,” he plays with the medallion around my neck. “You think I’m special?”

“I wouldn’t have told you that if I didn’t believe that.”

He lets go. “Then why would you want to be around your friend, when you could be around me and my dad? We‘re more specialer than he is. We can do things. He can‘t.” Seth says in a feigned sugar coated sweetness that he somehow pulls off very nicely that now reminds me much more of his aunt that of Tess. “You really should stop calling him.”

“No.”

“No,” he repeats in an obvious state of shock.

“No.”

“But…but you like me.”

I lift him off my lap. My need to comfort him having evaporated rather quickly.

“You like my dad to. I know you do.”

I roll my eyes.

He lays his head down in my lap. “Don’t you feel it?”

“I don’t feel anything Seth,” I lie fighting with everything I have to stop from reaching out to cover his cheek with my hand.

His head snaps up quickly, and he angrily slides back into his chair. “I don’t like liars. Bad things happen to liars. You should talk to Tess. She knows all about that.” He kicks the frame of my chair.

“Fine, I’m terrible. Tess is terrible. We’re both terrible.”

“I didn’t say that,” he answers staring at the waitress and the man who seem to be still locked in some weird alien ritual. “I have to go the bathroom,” he grumbles at me sliding off his stool.

I motion for the check.

“Es gratis.”

“Por que?”

“Eres la mujer del Rey.”

“No,” I wave my hands. “No soy su mujer.”

“Lo siento, la reina,”

“No, no soy la reina tambien.” From the corner of my eye, I watch Seth run straight into the waitress knocking her hand away from the man. Nostrils flaring the man glares at Seth who casually takes his place back at my side.

“What did you do?” I ask.

“Why is it always my fault?”

“You did…” I close my mouth as a chair in front of me spins powered by two pink jelly clad feet while her long black braid whips around with her.

I close my eyes. She’s not real. This is in my head. Sierra is gone. Yet, this thing with her face will not stop haunting me.

Grabbing my purse and Seth by the shoulder, I take off for a long dark corridor. We’ve gone several feet before Seth complains that his legs are too short to keep up with me that we really must stop now.

“What’s wrong Liz?”

“I need to ask you question. I need you tell the truth.”

“I always tell the truth,” he pauses “unless I’m being sneaky, but I‘m trying very hard not to be sneaky anymore.”

“Are you mind warping me?”

“Why would I do that?” he sounds offended. “Just because I was in Tess’ tummy doesn’t mean I go around doing that to people. I thought you understood me, but you‘re just like everyone else.”

I grab him by the coat before he can run away from me.

“Look, I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to think that. It’s just I’m seeing things I shouldn’t be seeing. I was looking for a reason.”

“What are you seeing?”

“It’s not important,” I lie not wanting to divulge anything further. My eyes flick nervously to the picture hanging on the neighboring wall as a large lump forms in my throat. “Is that… your… It can’t be?” Driven by the need to reinforce it existence, I reach to touch the swirls of paint that construct a face that eight years ago I would have been so certain that I knew of every expression that played on it. But like with anything else concerning him, I find that I was rudely mistaken. Clothed in a strange golden silk material and heavily made up, he is completely unrecognizable with his expression that speaks of ferocity and none of the softness that I used to be so certain he possessed. Whether by the artist’s omission or time having not yet bestowed him its gift, his cheek lies noticeably bare of its silver marking. Strangely enough, it’s absences bothers me more than anything else.

Behind me, I hear doors open, and Max’s voice speaking in yet another language that sounds nothing like Antarian.

I swallow suddenly feeling like the small time girl from Roswell is way over her head in more ways that one.

He’s a seasoned politician who speaks a trillion languages, and I only speak two. Retreating into the corner, I watch Max and several creatures with large thin bodies and giant heads spill out from the room. He shakes the largest being’s flipper before they both spit three times into a golden vase, which somehow seems to signal whatever discussion they’ve been having is over, because only then does Seth launch himself at his father.

“Where’s Liz?” he asks lifting him up in his arms.

Seth buries his head in Max’s neck and mumbles something .

“You know I can‘t hear you when you do that.”

“I’m sorry daddy,” he says in a rush. “She sheining again.”

I lift my hands to my face. Great, I’m invisible on top of everything else.

“We were having nice talk about how she shouldn’t call her friend anymore.”

“She has every right to do that.”

“Liz belongs to us. She is yours and mine. Why aren’t you fighting for her?”

Leave it to Seth to cut right to the point of the matter of something.

“Dad you haven’t answered my question.”

I never loved her.

But the answer is simple. Max isn’t going to fight for something he doesn’t want.

“Then don’t be upset when she marries Brian,” Seth tells him

“What do you mean she marries Brian?” Max asks. His voice is tight.

“Sometimes you get her out of the water in time, you leave. She marries Brian, but then he dies.”

I sink to the ground unable to breathe.

“Brian dies. How does he die?”

“Why should we care about that? We get Liz back then.”

“Seth, do you know what something like that would do to Liz?”

He frowns. “I didn’t think about that. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn‘t.” He tries to reassure him.

“Like me getting her out of the water.”

“Yes.”

Max rubs his temples. “Where is she? Can you see her?”

“My sister happens all the time though.”

“That’s great Seth,” Max deadpans.

“But sometimes she dies. You know she’s starting to get really mad that you’re not helping in getting her born. She can be really scary when she wants to be.”

“I have a lot of things on my mind and getting her born isn’t one of them. “

The sound of my cell phone rises briefly over their conversation. Fumbling through my purse, I fish it out.

“Where are you?” a testy Maria demands.

“Maria, this isn’t a good time.”

“I don’t really care about whether it’s a good time or not. I have bone to pick with you missy. Now where are you?”

“ A kind of alien club I think. I needed some coffee but now I‘m all jittery and Brian is….”

“Who are you getting this coffee with Liz?” she interrupts.

I cringing being well versed in her philosophy about coffee getting.

“You’re there with Scarface, aren’t you?”

“Hey,” I snap. “You’ve got problems with him. I get that, but you can leave that out of it. You have no idea what‘s he gone through.”

“And you do? I bet he‘s all full of stories. He’s just after a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.”

“No, he isn’t.” Why isn’t he doing that?

“Liz, are you listening me?”

“You could a least try and be sensitive to what he’s been through.”

“Why? When he clearly has an agenda?”

“Maria,” I warn.

“He didn’t get to sleep with you before and now he’s back to finish the job,” she says with an uncustomary vehemence. “Do I have to remind you what actual coffee getting with a member of the opposite sex means? It’s an act you do to make sure the guy can actually eat like a civilized person, and he doesn’t drool when he talks. He checks out the size of your breasts. It‘s like--- ”

“I know he can eat already. He knows that I’m about four sizes from having a flat chest. This is a business arrangement. I‘m with his son and Serena. It‘s not like he‘s going to grab me and take me on the table in front of them.”

“There’s nothing business about the two of you. I’m sure that Kyle is going to have the same opinion.”

“Kyle, what did you do?”

“How could I keep the good news about Max’s return a secret from Kyle? I left a little message about it on his voicemail.”

“Are you nuts? Kyle hates him. He‘ll be down here on the next plane.”

“This concerns me why?”

“Maria.” I roll my eyes.


“We have to look out for your Liz. You’re too forgiving. You’re probably letting Max waltz right back in with stories of how he didn‘t know what he was doing and evil slut Tess was leading him around by his dick.”

“Well, I let you waltz right back in.”

“What?”

“Forget it. We just disagree about him alright. I am trying to act like an adult here and let it go”

“No, say what you were going to say?”

“It’s not important.”

“Now you’re running.”

“I do not run.”

“Do you know what it feels like to be told by Michael that there was some little girl in Africa that you loved like a daughter, and because she died you’ve turned into some avenging harpy or that you used some serious alien vodoo in Vietnam and now the whole damn galaxy is after your ass because of it? I am your best friend, and you didn’t even think that this was something I needed to know about. Does Kyle know?”

I don’t answer.

“Of course, he does. Maybe I can get myself shot and healed, so I could join your little club.”

“I am in a public place, and I’m not having this conversation with you right now.” My cheeks feel like they’re on fire.

“This is about Alex. You’re still mad at me, aren’t you? What you were doing was morbid looking through his things Liz, so I called you out on it?

“Then don’t expect me to include you in the morbid happenings of my life. All you had to do was support me Maria, we could have figured it out. Instead, you sided with them. You thought my investigation was nuts. Do you have any idea how much that hurt? We have been friends since we were seven, but you ditched me for Michael. I had to literally twist your arm to get you to even entertain going to see Leanna.’

“I went didn‘t I and that was a lot better than Max ever did. He was too busy rolling around with Tess somewhere.”

“They were only together once.”

“Do you really believe that? You want to talk about being there,” she chokes out. “Where were you when I was doing the yearbook spread. You get so locked up in this tunnel , and it causes you to shut everyone out when all we want to do is help you. I don’t understand it Liz. You never used to be like this.”

“You’ve always had everything let’s see how you enjoy having nothing.”

I shake my head to block out the annoying voice.

“I know it’s hard for you, but Alex is gone. It was an accident,” she says patronizingly.

“No, it wasn‘t” I growl as the lights flicker overhead.

From behind him, I’m aware of his fingers prying the phone out of my hand.

“Liz is going to have to call you back Maria,” Max tells her before hanging up. “You alright?”

“I thought I was invisible.” I bite not appreciating his intervention.

“Sheining is a passive defense tactic. It only lasts while you feel threaten when you start to undertake offensive actions you become visible again.”

“Is Brian going to die?”

“Eventually, we’re all going to die.”

“That’s supremely comforting.” I lean up against the wall feeling too exhausted to stand up. My eyes roll open at the touch of his hand along the small of my back.

“Have you been sleeping well lately?”

“No, I don’t know what’s happening to me. Maria and I never fight. She just pissed me off. She just demands things from me. Things I don’t want to give,” my voice quivers turning around to him.

He regards me with the same gentle countenance that I’ve seen painted in the face of another for so many years.

I want nothing more to bury myself in his embrace.

If he had been Brian I would have by now no questions asked, or he would have wrapped his arms around me, but there’s a hesitancy that surrounds us. I feel it in the awkward way he pats my shoulder.

“I accused her of never being there when she’s always there. It’s just this feeling in my head that won’t stop.

“What feeling?”

“That I’m alone, because I deserve to be.”

The crevasses along his mouth deepen. “When did you start thinking this?”

“I don’t know,” I answer ducking away from him as he tries to touch my forehead. “I rather we not talk about this anymore. The whole thing just makes me feel stupid.”

“We‘re the two of you fighting because of me?” he says softly as his fingers brush back and forth over my glove covered knuckles while I try to ignore the flutter in my tummy.

“No.”

He quirks his eyebrow at me.

“A little.”

“That’s a bridge that’s going to take some time to rebuild. I plan on doing that, but don’t fight with her on my account. I don’t want you to.”

“ She‘s hurt, because I don‘t share certain things with her. I’m trying to protect her,” I pause, “or maybe I’m trying to protect myself.”

“ I think it’s a little bit of both.”

“There’s just some things I don’t want to talk about. Does that make me closed off?”

“No, Isabel was after me for years to talk about what happened in prison. I used to get furious with her every time she mentioned it. I mean if I wanted to talk about it I would. What’s the use of talking to people about things they have no comprehension of? I can list off every single thing Khivar did to me, but what’s the point? People are always getting pissed at me for holding back when I’ve made it quite clear that is all they’re going to get from me.”

“People or women?”

His eyes find a particularly interesting spot over my head to study.

“I’m just teasing you. It‘s none of my business either way.”

“I’m sorry.” There’s so much emotion in his eyes that it unnerves me.

“For what?” I whisper. “For moving on? It’s not like we have a claim on each other any more. I want you to be happy. I certainly didn‘t do a very good job of making you feel that way.”

His Adam’s Apple bobs jerkily.

Suddenly, all I want to do is break into hysterical tears. I snap away from the man to lose myself in the picture to remind myself of yet again of who he is now. “You look really impressive there.”

“That isn’t me,” he answers wrapping his arm around my waist to turn me back to him. “It’s just something I do. It’s not who I am. You have to understand Liz,” he begs cupping my face. “There’s like only a handful of people left that just see me as just a regular guy. I need you to see me that way.”

“When was this done?”

He drops his hand from my face. “My coronation,” he grinds out. “Look, do you want to talk about the virus or not?” He asks holding the door open for me.

I blink at his tone before looking him straight in the eye. “Just so you know, I don’t know you either and starting over goes both ways.”

I am rewarded with a mild flinch of concession as I pass by him.

Propping myself up on the wooden table, I wait staring at his tensed back.

He sighs before turning to me. “We fought for two in half years before we regained the capitol. I sent nearly three thousand men and women to their deaths and injured nearly five thousand more to achieve that.” He swallows.

“They wouldn’t have followed you if they didn’t believe in you.”

“Why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Defend me. Kyle and Maria used to rip into me, but you never did.”

“You were never supposed to hear that. They were just blowing of steam.”

“ What they accused me of was the truth, wasn’t it? I got the Sheriff fired, and I took Michael away from Maria.” He plays with the silver ring on his finger.

“Laurie Dupree got the Sheriff fired, and Michael has his own free will, doesn’t he? He could have come back at any time. He choose to stay with you.”

His eyes shoot up to mine. “I broke your heart.”

“Why do you want to do this, when it upsets you?”

“Why do you want know about my life back home, when it upsets you?” he counters.

“I want to know you again.” I say simply and somehow that’s enough to cut through his arguments.

“My coronation wasn’t lavish. The treasury was nearly depleted and having something overdone when the costs had been so incredibly high to achieve it didn’t really appeal to me. Most of it was rituals I didn’t understand, but my supporters needed it be done all the same. After it was over, I went home and read a story to my son. I‘m just like anyone else.”

“So do you have a crown?”

“Liz,” he snaps. “I have a crown, palaces, money, women throwing themselves at my feet so they can become my queen. Is that what you want to hear to make it all right for giving me up.”

“Fine.”

“Don’t go,’ he pleads softly catching my wrist. A laser light show breaks out from where we touch. “I’m sorry.”

“Why don’t you want to talk about this.”

“Because it’s what cost me you in the first place. The alien part never phased you other than the first day that I told you. You would have stayed, and we could have been happy together despite it. It was the royalty part you couldn’t deal with it. Politics is a strange life for someone not born into it. It‘s lonely and isolated.” His warm fingers twine with mine sliding back and forth in between the slits.

Touching.
Caressing.
Joining.

Our hands playing out what we will not let our bodies do.

His head leans into mine. “It’s not all bad Liz. You have the power to change things. ” His voice is barely a whisper of sound that tickles my face.

I breathe in sharply as his thumb slides down my life line. Wrapping his hand around my wrist, he turns the soft underside upward and presses an agonizingly chaste kiss to my pulse point.

I’m tired of chaste.

Not acting coy about my motives, I lick my lips waiting for him to take control.

Only he doesn’t. He continues to stare at me with that same infuriating confusion he wore for nearly five years before we actually kissed. He rules an entire planet, but he can’t take the initiative here.

Fine.

I am Elizabeth Parker alien sex magnet extraordinaire. I give my hair a good shake.

Alright, still no movement on his part.

Maybe, he’s just not into me. Of course, he’s into me. Hell, he married me once. Screw this. I bridge the gap between us only to have my confidence shatter as he pulls back. Needing a cover story, I slide off the table on to the floor. “Sorry, my heel broke.” I mumble. Only I’m not wearing heals. Why am I lying anyway? I have nothing to be embarrassed about.

I pop back up. “What’s your problem?”

“My problem,” he crosses his arms.

“You were flirting with me…”

“I was not flirting with you,” he interrupts as if I’m tiring his patience.

“Then what the hell was that hand thing you were doing?”

“It is how we say hello on Antar. I’m sorry if you misconstrued it as something else.”

“No more alien things alright. I’m human girl. I like human things. I like Calla Lilies, lotion and kissing.”

A blue vein stands out in relief on his forehead. “Then why don’t you talk to Brian about that.”

I swallow. “I plan to the next time I see him. He thinks I‘m hot. I think he‘s hot.”

“Great the two of you should be able to build quite a relationship around mindless sex,” he deadpans lying down on the top of the table.

“Well according to Seth, we’re getting married in Vegas.”

I get barely a response from him. Instead, he turns on to his side totally uninterested in the fact.

Disgusted, I stop in front of a bookshelf and began pulling out books. Leafing through them, I see they’re written in the same pictograph writing that graced Tess’ Destiny Book and the cave wall. I roll my eyes wanting nothing more to be back in my own element where people actually write in a language I understand.

“Do you want to talk about the virus?”

“No, I’m busy Your Highness.”

“Looking at books, you don’t understand.”

A red bound book slides out from the shelf and falls to the floor on its own accord. The sound of her childlike giggling follows. Quickly, I hide the book in my purse before her giggling breaks into full blown laughter.

The once non touchy Max becomes very touchy. He practically drags me from the room.

“Did you hear that?” he demands once we’re in the hallway.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cut the crap Liz. Are you going to act like some teen princess because I can’t kiss you?”

“Can’t?”

“Won’t,” he corrects.

“But you said can’t.”

“You’re impossible.”

“At least, I’m cute.” Leaning into him, I find his ear. “And my breasts fit in your hand.”

He shivers as I pull away.

I smile confident in my triumph when he pulls me roughly to him. Eyes blazing, he looks like he wants to ravish me right here in the hallway for everyone to see. “Say my name,” he demands.

“Let go,” I pry at his fingers.

“Just say it, Liz,” his command seems to have turned more into a plea. “Why can’t you forgive me? I’ve paid for it. God, Liz I‘ve done nothing else these last eight years.”

“You haven’t changed a bit. How you can you come down here expect me to immediately be able to process everything I feel about you in day when you had who knows how long to come terms with what you were feeling masquerading as Brain. Why do we always have to be on your time table?”

“Then don’t get pissed at me if I’m not sticking my tongue down your throat.”

“Drop dead, because you’re never getting presented with an opportunity again. I must be insane to think this could ever work.”

He lets go of me. A green glow has taken up residence in his eyes. “You can see yourself out Miss. Parker.”

“What?”

“There is no benefit for Antar in maintaining a relationship with an individual who is unable to compromise.”

“But the virus?”

He snaps his fingers, and a man walks out of the wall. Silently, he hands me a pile of folders.

“You will find everything you need here.”

“I thought that we were going to do this together.” A bad taste fills my mouth.

“The virus is not my primary concern.”

“It’s killing people. How can that not be your primary concern? I’m sorry if I was being unreasonable. I do that sometimes. I can behave. I will behave,” I promise.

“Your human quibble over giving up control to another does not concern me.”

“Human quibble. When did you ever talk like that? What‘s wrong with you?” I try and grab his arm, but he stops me.

“I’ve asked you once to leave Miss. Parker,” before motioning to the man.

“I need to talk to Seth.”

“The boy will be told of your concern. Take care of yourself Miss. Parker.”

“No, you promised. You promised me.” I’m aware of the man dragging me down the corridor towards the doorway away from Max. SETH, I NEED YOU.” When I don’t see him appear, I start screaming for Serena.

But no one comes. I am nearly blinded by the light as the man opens the door and pushes me outside. “Autherien nutcase,” he adds before slamming the door in my face.

I bang on it.

Once.
Twice.
Three times.

I’m not leaving until they let me back in, but the door does not spring open with Max behind it.

“Fine, this is for the best. I didn‘t like it in there anyway.”

I take one more look at the building, and the small contorted face pressed up against a two story window. A red glow emanates from where he touches the glass.

Red spirals snake down my skin in response. Unable to look at him at him further, I turn away. With each step, the throb just below my breasts only intensifies. I feel like I’ve been shot all over again. Only Max Evans isn’t here to heal me this time around.

I’m three blocks away when I feel her hand wrap around mine.

I give her ghost or whatever she is a forced smile.

That’s when I notice the tear tracks.

[Caelan]

Michelle- I have to say that your take on the Future Max and Liz debacle has to be the best explanation I've ever read. For a while, I was in the Max is schmuck club considering his little roll in the hay with Tess. However, a friend explained to me it in a way that had me really pissed of with Liz. I'm a gemni. I have tendency to flip flop back in forth, but your explanation is by far the best. I was wondering if I might incorporate a little bit of into the story. Just wanted to get you premission first

In other news, I'm tried of the cold. When is it going to be spring? If you have U2 tickets and will take me along, I will gladly explain every plot point in the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Seventeen:In Walks the Meaglan


Large droplets fall as I cross the secluded Santa Maria runway and make my way to the small outcropping of buildings that surround it. While the others run, I leisurely stroll over the drowning concrete. I stop to watch a red beetle spinning its feet wildly trying to escape the death that awaits it in a puddle. Bending down, I scoop it up into my hand. It doesn’t move.

Soaked hair sticks to the side of my face. Liquid slides down the small of my back in a steady caress. A touch meant to bring warmth but only brings cold, because any scientist worth their salt knows that heat only comes through the exertion of energy. It is the breakdown of a weaker force by a stronger one.

Two yellow bolts chase each other across the black sky.

I cover my ears as the low rumble echoes in its wake. My heart hammers against my chest.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve dreamed about blotting you out completely. You will be nothing, but a footnote when I‘m done with you. I‘m tired of living in your shadow.”

An intense throbbing begins in my head. Wet fingers touch my stomach as they turn me around.

“Pain compromises a major component of a body’s alarm system. This applies to mental just as much as physical. The key is to always listen and not to push Liz passed this threshold and to make sure that you‘re there once she starts to explore this issue further. Failure could result in a disastrous side effect.”

“Define disastrous side effects?”

“Another broken child but only this one will not be nearly as well mannered as the last. It will have to be eliminated of course.”

“There has to be another way. I can't do that to her. I won't do that to her.”

“This child has the power to damn Seth if she so chooses. In the end, she will be a product of the frame of mind her mother chooses to exist in.”

“Why are you looking at me like I have in impact in any of this?”

“Liz.”

“Flash.” It’s all I get out before an inky, sleepy feeling settles over me. Dazed, I look up at the rain coat he’s holding over our heads. “It’s raining.”

He coughs. “That it is Parker. Why don’t we go inside?”

“Okay.”

“We have to get rid of your friend first.”

“What?”

He points to the beetle.

“It was drowning.”

“I’m going to put it down over here in the grass.” It’s red body disappears into the green grass.

I let Brian guide me into the small radar station.

“Sit, I’m going to get you some coffee.”

“No , it makes me nervous.”

“You need something warm to drink. You’re freezing.” He rubs my goose flesh covered arms.

“Alright.”

Turning towards the window, I watch the chaotic scene unfold outside.

The bitter smell of nicotine takes up residence beside me. From the corner of my eye, I watch Mani nervously puff on his cigarette. “So what do your witch’s powers tell you about this Isabella?”

“What did I tell you about calling me that?” The tip of his cigarette flares a bright orange before returning back to its more sedated color.

“It won’t stop raining.”

“We‘re in a tropical rainforest.”

“In Mexico City, they’ve gotten more rain in the last couple of hours than they’ve gotten in nearly two years. The city is flooding. Something isn‘t right. I can feel it. My wife even told me to be careful. She never does that. Then we have that one with us. ” He casts a sideways glance to Lena Cruz sitting quite contently alone in the corner reading a book. “We don’t need her kind here. She‘s probably one of those leftist rebels who wants to bring the government down. Brian says she‘s some kind of leader in her field. You tell me how an Indian could get that far.”

“So not only are you’re sexist, you’re a racist now to?”

“I‘m talking about the particulars. With what money did she finance an Oxford education.”

“She went to Oxford? How did you find that out?”

“Looked her up on the internet,” he shrugs. “She did her undergraduate at the University of Chicago.”

“I don’t know maybe she like the rest of us with student loans up to here.”

“Or she’s a sleeper agent.”

“Planted to help facilitate a global epidemic that could potentially wipe every man, woman and child from the face of the Earth.” I frown.

“I was just kidding. I’m not a sexist.” He says in after thought. “I like you. You’re a woman.”

“Do you remember the first thing you asked when we met?”

“I was a perfect gentleman.”

“You wanted to know what kind of man my husband was for letting me work.”

“Well, you should be married and at least have a child by now.”

“Ha, have a child that he could just cut me off from when he wants to? How dare he do that to me? Does he have any idea what that felt like? What it feels like? I have nothing. I am nothing. At least, he can do is share him with me. I don‘t think that‘s asking too much.” The lights overhead blink once. I get the hint and shut my mouth. “Excuse me, I need to get some fresh air.” I tell a confused Mani.

An arm captures me by the waist just before I reach the doors. “Okay, I get you like the rain because it wasn’t something you saw a lot of in New Mexico, but could you do me a favor and stay inside. I promise to keep Mani away from you.” Brian slips a cup of steaming liquid into my hands. “They don’t have coffee. It’s like it though Lena says.”

I take a sip, and warmth breathes it way back into my cold body. “It’s good. I like it.”

“I thought it was too bitter.”

“So you’re telling me this now.”

“It’s not something you preface the tasting with Parker.”

I lean back into his hard chest and stare up at him strangely content except for the sick part inside of me that is calling for another. I will ignore it. I am ignoring it. “I’m sorry about breakfast this morning.”

“You’ve already said that.”

“I’m still sorry.”

“What do you think of Lena?” He ask changing the subject rather abruptly.

I let it slide knowing his hatred of confrontation and regard the woman curled up with her book. “I don’t think she likes me.”

“She doesn’t like anyone. That’s what fascinates me about her.”

“Mani hates everyone to, and you’ve never said anything about him being fascinating. “

“Mani hates everyone because, he’s a snob, but with Lena, there’s something definitely there.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty.” I cross my arms in front of my chest.

“You’re prettier. Just hear me out Parker. We all come into this world as innocent little trusting babes until something happens that forces us to hide all of that away. Suddenly, it’s not about showing the world who you are but being who the world wants you to be. It’s the only way you are fully protected from getting caught with your pants down again. It’s happened to her, and it has happened to you.”

I stare down at my wet shoes. “I thought we were talking about Lena.”

“Now, we’re talking about you. I thought that was a brilliant segue. “His liquid blue eyes narrow.

“Your father would be proud.”

He covers his heart in mock agony. “Now, you’re hitting below the belt.”

I thread my hand through his much large one. “I’m going to tell you. You need to know. I just can’t do it here.” I stare over his shoulder at Mani and Lena.

“So we need to ditch the children to have a little alone time? I’ll see what I can do?” he winks.

“God,” I drop down on to my knees in front of him.

“If that‘s what you have in mind, we really need to get with the ditching immediately.” He grins.

I swat his legs. “You’re bleeding, you pig.” Rummaging through my purse, I pull out some napkins.

“Damn it,” he mutters. “My stitches must have come undone.”

I start hitching up his pant legs. “Why do have stitches?”

“I nearly got ran over in Guatemala City. I stepped out into traffic. I wasn‘t looking.”

“Ran over?” I repeat.

“Car came out of nowhere, and we kind of collided.”

“Kind of collided,” I breathe. “Did you see the driver?”

“It all happened rather quickly. I’m perfectly fine. I didn’t even feel it when I hit the ground. The doctors say it was just a miracle that my knee got busted up.”

I grab his hand looking for an isolated place. “We need to talk. We need to talk right now. I can’t believe I was so stupid. How could not telling you be helpful? I was scared. I didn‘t know how you would react. I…”

The glass doors open as the baggage carriers deposit our stuff onto the floor. My eyes drift to my bag and to the files inside of them, but it’s the tall older man that sweeps in behind the bags that becomes my new focus. Throwing back his rain soaked hood, his steel colored eyes tell me all I need to know about his identity. Father and son seem to have shared that one attribute, but it’s the other possible commonalities that twist my insides up into knots. If Pierce knows about me, he can take me anytime he wants. There’s no one here to stop him.

Behind me, I feel Brian’s arm tighten.

“Mr. Erickson and Miss. Parker I presume. You are definitely a hard woman to get in touch with always in motion.”

“I don’t like staying in one place for too long.”

“Which poses the question as to what you’re running from? “ Taking a white handkerchief out of his coat pocket, he proceeds to dry the lens of his wired rimmed glasses. “Still smoking Mr. Sanchez, I see.”

Mani takes a puff in response.

“I see there’s been a new addition to our party. Daniel Pierce,” he holds out his fish belly white hand to Lena.

“Lena Cruz,” she answers before going back to her book.

“I was under the impression that the Minster of Health had requested you stay in the capital Pierce. What did you do? Charter your own plane down here?”

“I’m barely off the plane and already with the questions Mr. Erickson. Tic Tac,” he shoves the clear bottle in my direction. “I just love peppermint.”

I shake my head.

“In answer to your question, the Minster of Health thought someone with my expertise would be greatly needed after I better acquainted him with the situation.”

“What situation would that be?” Brian continues.

“Here, I would think that Miss. Parker would have bothered to tell you considering she spent nearly the whole morning with the terrorist in question. What was his name again? I‘m afraid in my old age things seem to slip my mind. Oh yes, Max Evans. A native son depending on your point of view that has turned against us all.” He leans forward to Brian. “But here is not such a place to speak of such things. I can see that our transportation has arrived. Shall we?”

Like some fury confident in his work, he picks up his black attaché case and sweeps back out through the door.

Face frowning Brian turns to me. “Was any of that true? Were you with him this morning?”

“Yes, but it isn’t what you think. I was going to tell you. I was just scared. Please, I need your help. Things are really out of control. I don’t..” I stop as he backs away from me.

“I need to,” he scratches his head “ to think,” he picks up his bag and follows Pierce.

“Okay,” I press my lips together. “Okay,” I tell myself again slinging my bag over my shoulder.

“So let me get this straight Max Evans is back?” Mani ask coming up beside me. “He’s spreading the virus.”

“He’s back, and he has nothing to do with the virus. Mani give me one of your cigarettes.“

“No.”

“Yes,” I snap.

“Smoking is bad Isabella.”

“You smoke.”

“Yes, but it’s not a nice habit you need to take up. Right Lena?”

Lena nods her head before slipping out the doors.

“Does the woman ever talk? We should get her drunk. She’s probably one of those types. Get a little Vodka into her, and she won‘t shut up.”

“We’re not getting her drunk.” I tell him.

“Then she could tell us about the track marks on her arms.”

“What do you mean she has track marks?”

“Apparently, our little Lena likes to take her drugs syringe style.”

“You’re making that up.”

“Saw it with my own eyes.” Mani clears his throat.

“You need some water?”

“I got something in my throat. I think.” He coughs a wheezing smoker’s cough.

I smack him on the back. “Better?”

“He really needs to quit the taste alone is going to kill me.”

I back up. “Alright who the hell are you? If you’re who I think you are that you can go to hell your pompous arrogant bastard and where’s Seth because I have a right to talk to him. And….”

He holds up a hand to stop me. “Not him Liz.”

“Larek?”

“Yes.”

“That‘s what you meant about being shut out of your regular vessel. You‘ve used Mani.”

“Yes.”

“So do I need to give everyone who gets to know me the general warning that you may at various times be taken over by various aliens that want to…” I pause. “What are all of you doing watching me anyway?”

He starts to pick up my things and Mani’s. “I’m going to have to give you the short story for now. I won’t be able to keep this body for long. Things are in motion back home.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Seth sent me.”

“He did?”

“You sound surprised.”

“He’s a child. They have very short attention spans. I just figured he would be on to the newest thing.”

“Then you really don’t understand Seth. He’s very focused in getting you back.”

“I had to leave. There was nothing I could do.”

“I am sure he will be giving his father hell for it when he returns.”

“Returns?”

“ Max didn’t really have you escorted out. Zan takes control from time to time when he feels threatened. Miranda believes it‘s a way Max used to bury his personality during the mind rapes.”

“Sort of like a split personality?”

“In a way.”

“A split personality he had to revert to because he’s afraid of me.”

“No, more like the topic you were discussing he found to be displeasing.”

My cheeks flush. “I was telling him we were never going... to.. you know” I add feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed about discussing the subject with Larek.

“Never going to what?”

“Have intimate relations.”

His face wrinkles. “I don’t think I understand.”

“Sex,” I say exacerbated.“ I feel like I’m talking to my dad.”

“Then you have just paid me an extremely high compliment.” He bows his head and mutters what sounds to be some kind of prayer before returning to our conversation. “Now, if only this thing could be made to go away.” He presses his hand on to my forehead.

“I forgot about that. Ouch.”

“Sorry, it’s not safe for you to be sporting that down here.”

“No one’s said anything about it.”

“Humans can’t see it. Our kind can.”

“What is it showing?”

“It means different things to different people. To me, I see evidence that you were attacked by a scion. He attempted to extract your energy.”

“Seth said something about me being novelty or something to them.”

“He must feel the pull then. Does he ask permission before he connects to you?”

“Yes.”

“Good, your energy is very chaotic. All meaglans are. They are created out of chaos so connecting to you could be a very dangerous endeavor if there is not a hundred percent trust on both parties’ part. Yet, it’s that danger that will entice every one of us you meet. There is a halo of gold that surrounds you Liz. It’s your thelius. I wish you could see it. It’s breathtaking. But like with anything else, different people want different things from it.”

“What do you want?”

“To admire it, for the work of art that it is. I am old, and the whispers of power that it offers does nothing for me. It will not bring back my wife, my son, or heal my estrangement with my daughter. Since I know you, it’s very easy for me to shut it out, but the true danger comes from the those who listen to these whisperings and deem both you and Seth to be figures of annihilation.”

“How is Seth connected to this?”

“I don’t know. The two of you have always been grouped together by everyone for as long as I can remember. It’s why I don’t think you’re Max or Khivar’s meaglan. I think you’re Seth’s. Somehow I think you might even be his m…”

The car honks.

“His what?”

“His what what Isabella?”

“Nothing.” I repress the urge to scream in frustration. “Come on.”

“Do me a favor.”

“What?”

“Please don’t ever leave me alone with the scary gringo. He reminds me of my grandfather. Bastard used to beat me with a belt.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“He was from the old school. I was kind of bad. I liked to steal the hubcaps from people‘s cars.”

“That’s not being bad. That’s being a boy.”

“I would catch things on fire.”

“Boy again,” I answer stepping out in the rain.

“I got in fights.”

“Boy.” I pause to take a mental note of who is where in the van before sliding in.

“So you’re saying that every stupid thing I ever did was because I was boy.”

“Yes,” I grin, but it fades quickly with Brian’s uncustomary silence.

“What do you think boss?” Mani ventures.

“Whatever Parker said,” he gestures before going back to his study of the world outside his window while Lena continues on her merry little way with whatever book she is reading.

I tuck a strand behind my hair and catch Pierce’s eagle like gaze on me. A satisfied smirk plays on his lips. I know if Max was here he would be telling me to lie low, and Seth would be reminding me the importance of being good. However, I’m up for neither at the moment. “Tell me Pierce? How was Danny Jr. in the discipline department? I imagine he was a handful. Did you ever cure him of his need to cut up other living things? According to Dr. Phil that‘s one of the first signs of a serial killer?”

The smirk moves south to be replaced by a non descript facial expression that I find to be extremely intimidating.

Note to Self: Impulse control is a must when dealing with the fathers of psychopathic bad guys.

Mani leans over to whisper in my ear. “Maybe, I shouldn’t leave you alone with him.”

“That would probably be a good idea,” I nod reaching for the bulging Marlboro box peeking out of his shirt pocket.

He slaps my hands away. “I said no.”

I pout.

“I’m starting to see what kind of girl you were always going after things you were told you weren’t supposed to have.”

“No, that would be Tess.”

In front of me, Lena’s head snaps up from her book.

This time I wisely keep my mouth closed and observe the little bookworm for the duration of our journey.

[Caelan]

I'm back.

I am a dreamer--Who did your signature picture? It's beautful.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Eighteen: Still

My eyes snap open and fix on the windshield wipers as they beat furiously against the rain. Their high-pitched wine forms a rhythmic pattern that almost covers the sounds of the tires tumbling over the uneven road and the low, deep roll of thunder pounding across the night sky.

I bite down hard on my bottom lip as another rumble crashes above us. My attention shoots in front of me to Brian’s rigid figure expecting him to reach for my hand like he’s done so many times before. Fingers intertwined, he would squeeze my hand gently and say something along the lines of ‘I’m here Liz. It’s okay,’ and that would be enough to ease the unbearable pressure building in my lungs and the cold sweat trickling down the back of my neck.

I never had to ask or admit that I was scared.

Another burst of energy sounds from above.

Turning a page of the report, Brian shows no sign of acknowledging my distress.

Why isn’t he helping me?

He maybe angry with me, but he’s not a cruel person by nature.

Renewed clatter sends my flying attention to the window, and the reflection of two icy blue eyes.

Rearing back, I smack into Mani’s flabby stomach. The press of my body barely rouses him from his snoring.

I take a deep breath to try and slow my rapidly beating heart.

“Thunder always scared me to as a child,” the bookworm says over the seat sans her book. “It’s estimated to be the fifth most popular phobia.”

I resist the urge at pulling both of her long black braids and telling her to mind her own business while the melodic sound of Lena Cruz’s voice rouses Brian from his reading. “Parker isn’t afraid of anything. She’s fearless,” he offers before returning to his work.

“No, I’m not.” I sink back into the van’s seat and press my hand to my eyes giving anything to erase this sudden new insight, but the harsh truth of it is still there when we pass through the army checkpoint. As the rain gives way to a sticky a heat, the unformed idea has worked its way into a concrete fact. Brian Erickson doesn’t know me at all, because Max Evans never gave him the opportunity to. Yet, a more alarming theory soon replaces this one. Maybe Brian doesn’t know me, because I never needed him to.

Angrily, I fish out a piece of gum in an attempt to stop where my thoughts seem to be heading. Needs like anything else can be adjusted and fine-tuned. Species survive through the shedding away of frivolous behavior. Survival is the key. I must survive. There’s no way I can do that if I allow myself to need Max Evans.

I never loved her.

But I still love you. I still need you.

I close my eyes and keep them close as the van starts to work its way up into the rainforests. During this time, I allow the fantasy to bloom within me. The sweet scent of passion and love swirl in and out of nights of lovemaking and days of me doting over his son. In return, I feel my loneliness fade away as a family starts to take shape for me for the very first time in years. The life I imagine seems so real and tangible until I remember. My eyes open as the car stops. “I’m not one of them,” I whisper. “I’ll never be one of them. They’ll never belong to me.”

“Did you say something Isabella?”

“No,” I force a strained smile at Mani.

Sliding out of the van, I stretch my cramped legs and get my first look at the city of Villa Flores. Red shingled roofs and white wall homes stand guard against a hungry green mouth of trees waiting to engulf them.

Stooping down, I pick up a large flat shaped leaf from the dusty ground before dropping it again. The resemblance is too much and I am not content until I’ve reduced the leaf into several shreds underneath my shoe.

“We might want to get going Liz. Rogelio should be starting the briefing soon. It would probably be best to get a local prospective on everything. ”

My eyes snap up from current act of retribution. “Lena,” I squeak. Blood rushes into my cheeks as I realize the others have already gone inside. She has been watching me from her perch on top of the stairs for who knows how long. “You must think I’m insane.”

“Insanity takes many forms,” comes her illusive answer as she pulls her headphones out from her ears and stuffs her Ipod back into her satchel.

“There’s a good explanation for all of this.” I say waiting for the follow up question of what, which never comes. Instead, she looks moodily east at a ray of light coming from a high point overlooking the city.

I flip up my sunglasses for a better look until the excruciating pain in my eye sockets reminds me why that isn’t such a good idea. “What’s causing that?”

“Candles.” She clasps at some object hanging beneath her shirt. Something raw and potent shines in her very black eyes, which causes me to debate whether to continue this conversation.

However, the scientist quickly triumphs over my qualms. “Why are there candles?”

“You do ask a lot of questions, don’t you?” She comments in what can be construed as either in a teasing or critical nature. I go for the latter.

“Have I done something to offend you?”

“Not today no.”

“What..what are you doing?” I stutter as her arm wraps around mine, and she yanks me up the stairs.

“Being static is not a decision,” she tells me before looking over her shoulder. I follow her gaze to an older man who appears to be leering at us. He licks his lips, and his familiar stone colored eyes narrow in on me as a cold presence opens up in my mind.

“How did he find me?”

“Because you’re mine Liz, You’ve chosen me.”

An unwanted energy roams down my skin and finds its way underneath my shirt. I brush at my stomach as Lena leads me passed the glass doors, but the space does nothing to eliminate the persistent voice in my head. “Make him stop please.”

“I know what you did. You think Max could get ever support you after something like that. He’s always been so by the book. It’s strange how both his women have to go off their kilter from time to time. Tell me, what was better the thrill of the kill or smelling their fear as they begged for their lives?”

“That’s not how it happened. They were going to hurt me.”

“Really,” he drawls. “Here, I was under the impression that you didn’t remember how it happened. The human mind is such an interesting thing on how it can cut and weave together entire stories that it finds much more pleasing than actual truths.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Walk away from the prey when I’m so close to the kill. Here, I would have thought that the boy king would have exerted just a little more energy to protect the love of his life. It’s kind of disappointing considering all that has been made of you back home, but I guess he never loved you.”

“He never loved me.”


“But don’t worry my sweet. I’ll make up for it, because when the time is right I’ll keep on loving you to the very end.”

I gasp at the unmistakable press of his lips against me. The accompanying heat they trigger makes me nauseous. My hands meet only air as they try to fight him off. “I don’t want you. I don’t want you.”

“Oh, but you will Elizabeth. I don’t expect us to be successful on the first try dear. It might take many tries not that I’ll be complaining.”

“What are you talking about?”


“A child to end all children, a child you will be giving me. See for yourself.”

Through fire and destruction, I see her face start to take shape. With a cruel mouth and two deadened eyes to match, her lust for power knows no limits. She takes and takes because it’s her right. One night, she takes my necklace from a dying young man who had refused to join her.

“I’m glad your mother never lived to see what you’ve become,” he coughs.

For a moment, she feels strange but can’t put her finger on the exact emotion for she has never entertained guilt long enough to be able to identify it by name. “My mother would be proud of me. I am taking control and doing what other didn’t have the compunction to do themselves. You were supposed to be my ally. We were supposed to do this together.”

“Maybe in another lifetimes, maybe if my father had gotten to the two of you in time.”

“DON’T TALK TO ME ABOUT YOUR FATHER.” In her anger, she plunges a knife into his side.

The barrages of images send me crashing to the ground. Underneath my burning palms, the bright colors of a giant Mayan calendar swirl, but something has been inserted into this version. Tucked away to the left of the sky god’s face, five points form the unmistakable symbol of the Whirl Wind Galaxy.


“You see the little spitfire our little girl is going to be.”

My hands on their own accord reach out for the middle star in the Whirl Wind Galaxy almost immediately Khivar’s disgusting presence shrinks away.

I’m aware of someone trying to lift me up, but I resist. “No, Antar keeps him out of my head. I don’t want to see anymore. She’s a monster.”

“You’re making a scene Liz,” Lena warns in perfect English as she pulls me up from the floor. “It’s just food poisoning.” She continues on in Spanish to a crowd beginning to form around us. “You know Americans, and their weak stomachs. I told you not eat that salad.” She says loudly before pushing me into the bathroom.

I close my eyes against the bright lights as I hear her turn on the tap. Seconds later, she presses a damp towel to my forehead.

“Who are you?”

“And here I already thought I had introduced myself.”

“You are one of them, aren’t you?”

“What would you mean by one of ‘them’ Liz?”

“I’m not in the mood to play games.”

“Good because neither am I. The people out there are scared. Scared people aren’t usually your most rational. One more little display like you did outside, they will lock you up so fast.”

“How would I have contracted the virus, since I just got here?”

“When fear is involved people don’t ask how or why, it all about when can the object be eliminated.”

“Well, aren’t you just full of sweetness and light?”

“ I really do not have time for your sarcasm. The briefing should be beginning shortly. It would not be prudent to miss it,” she advises before I hear the door slam behind her.

“Thanks for all of your help alien bitch,” I mumble before pulling myself up. I feel around on the wall for the lights and flick them off. Opening my eyes, the room is pitch black. I don’t bother to think about why I can function without any difficulty in this environment. Instead, I wet another towel but notice the goose bumps starting to rise along my skin.

“HELP ME MOMMY, SHE’S TAKING MY BREATHS AWAY,” a young girl’s voice cries behind me.

I drop the towel and spin around to the empty wall.

“WHO ARE YOU?” I demand, but the only answer I receive is a gasping sound, which I am unable to tell if it comes from me or her. “Okay, you have to go to this meeting, so let’s forget about alien kings and murderous offspring. Shit,” I drop my bag as it begins to buzz.

Fishing out my cell, I answer it. “Liz Parker.”

“You alright?” Max asks softly from the other end.

“No,” I answer sinking down the wall. “No, I’m not alright.”

“Would you like to talk about it?” he asks hesitantly. “I mean you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I mean..”

“Yes,” I interrupt.

“There’s a small café across from the hospital.”

“I saw it when we came in.”

“I’ll be there in forty five minutes.”

“You’re coming here. I thought you didn’t care that you weren’t going to help me.”

“What Zan feels and what I feel aren’t necessarily the same thing. I’m sorry to confuse you like that. My head and everything isn’t… I’ll see you soon,” he rushes as if he can’t get off the phone fast enough.

“No, wait Pierce’s father is here. The special unit could still be active. He could have guys with guns…”

“ I can handle the guys with guns Liz.”

Suddenly, I feel very stupid. “You’re not sixteen anymore. I keep forgetting everything has changed.”

“I guess it has.” His voice is barely perceptible as I wipe away the tear from my cheek.

“So, I’ll see you.”

“Okay, take care.” I smile sadly. “You know there’s one thing that hasn’t changed.” I hitch. “Are you still there? Guess not.”

“No, I’m still here Liz.”

“That’s precisely what hasn’t changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I promise this is going somewhere. They will be making out like crazy as some have requested. All the indgredients have been added the pot so we should be boiling pretty soon.