Chapter 21
Alex drove like a maniac, only encountering one other vehicle on the long stretch of desert road between Carlsbad and Roswell. He prayed he would be able to find help in time. This was the first big crisis their group had faced.
What the hell had happened? They’d been back for two weeks and, after that initial meeting between Khivar and Liz, things had more or less gone back to normal. Khivar had been watching them round the clock now, but they hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. The message he had sent to the resistance had gone via encoded e-mail to someone in Albuquerque who had printed out the message to leave it at one of the resistance’s dead-drops. Only one person knew the message came from him and that person was totally reliable.
No, it couldn’t have been the message. Khivar was raving about Max. It seemed incongruous that he had suddenly learnt about Max now, after two weeks back. The serum had worked as usual, so that avenue was closed. He shook his head in frustration. There were no answers, just more questions.
And even if Max Evans loved his friend the way Alex hoped he did, the alien prince was probably not the best person to save Liz. This was a job for “Andre” and their group. The group had people in place already and they were only an hour’s drive from Carlsbad.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A moan threatened to break into her blissful unconsciousness. No, Liz prayed, please don’t let me wake up. Another moan escaped and she finally realized it was coming from herself. They’d been at her for hours and the pain has become part of her now. For some reason, those brief flashes of Max had stopped and neither Khivar nor Nicholas had had any success in prying anything more from her mind.
That didn’t mean they had given up though. Something had spooked Khivar enough to order a continuation of her “interrogation”. Her body was battered and bruised from many minutes of hands sending the heat of the sun through her body. Her mind felt like it would turn to mush if just one more thought went through it. But still she hung on, afraid that if she gave in completely, they would find the group she worked for. And they would find Max.
“It was like something was activating those flashes I got from her,” Khivar mused from someplace else in the room. “Like the combined energy from me and whatever else was happening triggered them somehow…”
Her moan turned into a keening sound of pain as another attempt was made to find answers in her mind.
“Don’t kill her!” The harsh command came from her left. “She’s not worth anything to me dead.”
“Then maybe we should let up for a while.” Nicholas’ voice. “She’s not breathing too well.”
“Fine. But don’t give her time to recover completely.”
A small silence ensued. “I don’t think she’s ever recovering completely again.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
Please… It was a refrain in his mind as they drove through the darkness towards Carlsbad. Towards Liz. He never really got past the “please” phase of his silent begging—there was too much to beg for. Don’t let her die. Don’t let her suffer. Don’t let them take her away where I can’t find her. Don’t let me be too late. It was driving him quietly out of his mind.
Max had insisted that he wanted to drive when they had finally decided to hit the road. He was taking Doran and two other men with him, not having had the energy to argue when the plan was put to him. Besides, who knew what he’d be walking into? However, in spite of his good intentions, his attention hadn’t been on his driving and it hadn’t been long before his three passengers had forced him to turn the keys over to Doran.
Please… I can’t feel her. Now, he was staring out the window at the black night they were traveling through at high speed. Once they had left the desert dirt track, the miles went faster, but still not fast enough for Max. I can’t feel her. After those few precious flashes of Liz and his decision to go find her, the group had basically ordered him to take one of Liz’s injections in case he gets taken by Khivar. He only took half the dose, though, a fact he had hidden from a hovering Maria. I can’t feel her. It had still been enough to ensure that he couldn’t reach Liz again, the dose just enough to dull his powers.
“Don’t try to connect with her,” Doran said unexpectedly from behind the wheel and Max glanced at him in shock. “If you do, they might see your marks on her neck.”
Max felt his jaw and his gut clench in fear. If Khivar saw those marks he would know Liz was bonded to someone in line for the Antarian throne. And there was only one of those on this planet. Him. Max Evans. Crown Prince Zan. Khivar would never let her live.
An endless nightmarish reel of scenes was spiraling through his mind, each of them filled with visions of Liz being tortured, hurt… and worse. The only thing holding him together was the cold rage steadily building inside him, aimed at the person responsible for all the pain in his life. Khivar. If it hadn’t been for him starting a war on Antar, Max would have grown up as he had been meant to—in his parents’ house on his home planet. He would have known all along who he was, where he belonged and where he would end up, instead of being the loner in a small town in New Mexico, USA, too afraid to get involved with other people.
On the other hand, it was truly ironic that if Khivar hadn’t started that war, he would never have met Liz. Never have known what it felt like to look at someone else and see himself in their eyes. Never have known the ecstasy of kissing or of being close to someone else. Never have known what it felt like to love.
Please…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Being left alone in a dark corner of the warehouse where they’d taken her, Liz took deep breaths, forcing oxygen into her painful lungs. She only had a vague recollection of most of the hours she’d spent there, but the fact that they were continuing to question her, was some relief. It meant she hadn’t blurted out something important yet. It also meant the serum was still working. What had gone wrong then? Khivar had seemed most concerned about the implant in her neck. The serum hadn’t neutralized the implant before, could it be that her proximity to Max had somehow managed to do that?
Lord, but it hurts.
The only thing that kept going through her mind was that she needed to keep her hands away from her neck at all costs. Khivar could not see the signs of the Royal House of Antar on her—not even by accident.
And where was Alex? He should have noticed she was missing by now. Please don’t let him do something drastic and stupid.
Footsteps echoed hollowly across the concrete floor towards her. This time, she couldn’t stop the tears from leaking from beneath her tightly closed eyelids at the realization that more torture was on the way. Time had become meaningless, passing in a blur of pain and frantic, disjointed thoughts.
“Well, little Lizzie, the boss and I just remembered something we should have checked in the beginning… Have you been sleeping with someone then?” Nicholas sounded eager, gleeful. “If you have, we’ve been going about this all wrong.”
Mercifully, Liz blacked out as his hand trailed down her body.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“What the blazes?” Kyle stared blearily at Alex who had just woken him in the middle of the night with his loud pounding on the door. The sight of Alex’s worried face was enough to bring Kyle to immediate lucidity. “What happened?”
“Khivar is interrogating Liz.”
Too stunned to move for a moment, Kyle’s mind took giant leaps. They had contingency planning for this, but it had happened so much sooner than they had all expected. “Come in. We need to get to work.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A deep, numbing coldness took hold of Max as he stood in the middle of Liz’s living room and stared around him. It had taken more than an hour before Doran and the team had been satisfied that the apartment was empty and that no one was watching it before they allowed Max to go inside. There was no sign of a struggle, no sign of any violence. Only Liz’s purse, lying haphazardly on the floor.
Surprisingly, he felt nothing. It was as if a thick steel door had slammed on his feelings and Max was extremely thankful for that. He couldn’t allow himself to feel right now, or he would lose his mind. Only when Liz was safe again, would he open that door.
Gingerly he trailed his fingers over objects in the room, hoping against hope that he would get a flash—anything—that could give him a clue as to where she was.
No luck.
Then, from behind him, he heard Doran talking. “Alex? It’s your long lost buddy Dan!” Whirling around, Max watched anxiously as Doran talked to Alex, finding out that Alex was on his way back from a short business trip and would be there in half-an-hour. Doran lifted his eyes to his silent Prince. “We’ll be waiting…”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar was staring down at the unconscious Liz with a frown. Still a virgin—how was that possible? That momentary glimmer on her neck… could he have deluded himself into seeing it? Only one person in the universe could carry a mark below their ears like that, and the thought that Liz Parker had somehow become bonded with Prince Zan was ludicrous. He must have dreamt it. On the other hand, something was definitely blocking his signal. He had tested the little device himself a number of times and it functioned, but still no signal—no way to trace Liz’s whereabouts. Had she been duping him for a long time?
For the first time, Khivar wondered if he hadn’t been too complacent about humans. The majority of them had just accepted that he was a good guy, here to help them, and the resistance had seemed small and insignificant. Nothing had hinted at the fact that humans were a serious threat until now.
Nicholas’ throat-clearing broke into his reverie. “One of our soldiers was just killed in Albuquerque.”
Fear, something he hadn’t ever experienced before, tightened Khivar’s throat. “Killed? How?”
Nicholas looked very uncomfortable. “Energy bolt…” They both knew what that meant. The attack was from a soldier serving the Antar Royalty.
Spinning back to the prone form of Liz, Khivar barked an order born of desperation. “Wake her up and find out what she knows… now.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Alex and Kyle arrived with little fanfare and a short meeting later, they had decided on a plan. Introductions about Max and his team just indicated them as a group supporting “the cause” and that they were here to help Liz.
Kyle made a few calls and they determined that Liz had been taken to a warehouse on the outskirts of Carlsbad, near the caves. His calls also organized more support for the mission. Piling in the vehicles, Max ended up in Alex and Kyle’s car.
“We have to take her to the camp if we get her out of there,” Kyle stated firmly. “She won’t be of use to us near Khivar anymore and I really don’t need her in more danger. You guys have done enough.”
Throwing a look at Max, Alex wondered what he thought about this plan, but Max’s face showed no reaction. “If Liz agrees, I guess that’s okay.” He ignored Kyle’s strange look.
“I think we have enough on Khivar’s operation to neutralize him now. Those drugs Liz has been working on will help put his soldiers out of commission.” Kyle sighed deeply. “That leaves us wide open for the other bunch of aliens to take over, though. We will probably have to start over with them. I can’t understand why we don’t get any information on them! Surely their group must be as big as Khivar’s, at least!”
Another look to Max just showed a mirthless smile and for the first time, Alex gained an appreciation of how weird Max’s life must have been. “Let’s just get Liz out of there, then we can talk about the rest.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The warehouse was heavily guarded with both alien soldiers and human security troops. Kyle and Max would go inside to grab Liz and the rest of them, including some of “Andre’s” followers that had arrived on the scene, were in charge of taking out the guards.
Causing a diversion was easy. An explosion in the warehouse next to their target was created first and then it was all action. Doran and the other two royal soldiers were careful to only use their energy blasts when their human helpers couldn’t see them.
Max and Kyle entered the building from the back, carefully sneaking through the maze of huge bins littering the inside of the building.
The fight outside was intense, gunfire echoing through the night, but Doran could see that his group was not gaining the advantage. They didn’t know the area like the guards and soon bullets were flying to and from various hiding places. He prayed that Max and Kyle would at least have time to get Liz out in the confusion.
Stumbling to a halt just in front of Max, Kyle’s eyes widened in shock when he was confronted by a kid of around fifteen. A kid who was aiming a glowing hand at them. The next moment, he was shoved out of the way as the blast hit the wall next to his head. “Keep them busy, I’ll get Liz,” Max told him in a voice that rang with authority. Only later would Kyle wonder why he had summarily obeyed. Taking off in a random direction, he was pursued by the kid.
Max willed himself to calmness as he saw Khivar standing over Liz, obviously waiting to hear if the attack was repulsed. There was no way he could take Khivar on with the serum in his body. Slowly, he pulled the gun Kyle had forced on him from his belt—at least the bullet will slow Khivar down for a bit. And he was desperate enough to try anything.
Jerking around when he heard a sound behind him, Khivar saw a tall, dark-haired man walking towards him. He blinked, staring at the man’s amber eyes and in that instant he knew, this was no mere human facing him. Lifting his hand, he aimed it at the advancing figure. “Who are you?”
Max didn’t bother answering, he merely lifted his hand too, the glowing symbol of the Royal House of Antar appearing for a moment in his palm. The shock registering on Khivar’s face gave him the precious seconds he needed to fire the gun from close range, the impact flinging Khivar to the ground. Running over, Max gathered all his strength and pressed his hands around Khivar’s head, focusing his energy on knocking the other alien out.
Khivar struggled against him, trying to recover from the bullet wound to his chest and the heated hands against his head. In a desperate effort, he managed to send a bolt of energy at Max, cursing the frailty of the human husk he was confined to—it would take him a few minutes to regain his strength.
The bolt hit Max in his right side, burning a hole through his clothes and into his skin. It was too late, though, Khivar slumped to the ground, still conscious, but too weak to do anything but watch as Max stumbled over to Liz and scooped her up with one arm, the other cradling his injured side.
Don’t think, Max told himself as he literally dragged them away from Khivar. Don’t look at her and don’t think. Just move.
Outside, he found a Hummer and carefully placed Liz in the front seat before painfully climbing in himself. His head was starting to ring, but he had to get Liz as far away from here as he could. Ignoring the continuing battle around him, he held his hand over the ignition of the Hummer, needing three tries before the vehicle kicked to life.
Driving off into the night, away from the warehouse and the lights, Max finally spared a glance at Liz, lying so still on the passenger seat. Apart from a small trail of blood running from her nose, she seemed almost peaceful. Wincing, he slid his injured side’s hand over her thigh, feeling her warm skin with relief. “I’ve got you now,” he whispered huskily. “Just hang on… please…”
And for a second time that night, he was begging a higher power incoherently, not even noticing that tears had gathered in his eyes. Please… I’m too weak to heal her or myself, just let us get away from here.
Please…
Chapter 22
He was so damned tired and weak. It was pitch-black in the cave, but Max hardly noticed. He didn’t have night-vision, just a keen sense of where things were around him, something else alien that he’s just discovered about himself. His right side was on fire, the flesh burnt, but at least he wasn’t bleeding. I should have killed the bastard when I had the chance… If only I hadn’t had to save Liz—Nicholas could have come back any minute.
Normally, carrying petite Liz Parker would be no sweat for Max, but with his one side more or less useless, he had to half-drag her with his one arm around her waist. Her breathing sounded labored again and he felt a shiver of fear pass through him. He couldn’t lose her, not now.
They had ditched the Hummer a few miles back, with Max making a small attempt with his weakened powers to hide the vehicle. He hadn’t wanted to drain his strength totally, because every now and again he had had to place his hand on Liz’s chest, urging her suffering lungs back to life. He had found a desert survival pack and two bottles of water in the back of the Hummer and had slung that on his back, together with a blanket, to take along. The ringing in his head, a sure sign that he was in bad shape, got worse as the miles passed slowly. There were periods from his long difficult walk he had no memory of. Periods where only sheer will seemed to have kept him going.
Once, he had come back to consciousness to find himself on his knees, Liz still clutched to his good side. Hearing what had sounded like the engine of a vehicle in the distance, he had left her there for a few precious minutes, going back on their trail to hide his footprints.
Now, mercifully since dawn was creeping over the horizon, he had found a cave where they could rest and hide. Where he could try to heal some of the damage that has been done to Liz. The rage that swelled inside him at the thought of her body, bruised and burnt inside, nearly made him choke.
Setting Liz down carefully against one of the cave walls, he managed painfully to get the survival pack of his back and gratefully slid down to the floor. So tired. Max wanted to close his eyes and go to sleep, but a soft wheezing sound from Liz got him moving again. Finding the water, he drank a down a few gulps, while resting his hand on Liz’s chest to make sure she was still breathing. He needed his strength now.
A few deep breaths later, he was as ready as he could be under the circumstances. He opened the blanket on the cave floor and moved Liz onto it. He wished he could see her face, but there wasn’t time to start looking for wood for a fire right now. Placing his hands over her chest, he gathered his waning strength, sending all the healing power he could muster into her body. Her lungs were… cooked, as if they’d been in an oven… or as if a fiery hand had done it deliberately. My sweet Liz. All this because you know me. Max pushed the thought away, not wanting to get distracted.
He was trembling in a shockingly short time, even weaker than he had thought. But at least he felt her lungs heal, the burnt tissue slowly cooling down. Sweat and tears mingled on his face, but he didn’t notice. Please get better. Please. At last, when she drew a deep, shuddering breath, he let go, almost collapsing on top of her. Black spots swirled before his eyes and in the stillness of the cave, he could hear his ragged pants. Shivering, he fumbled to find her hand, lacing their fingers together.
“Max…”
It was a soft raspy breathy sound, but it was the sweetest he had ever heard. “I’m here,” he managed to whisper before the blackness claimed him totally.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Damn, that hurts!” Kyle muttered as Alex tried to stem the blood seeping from his arm. “I can’t believe we let those bastards get away!”
“They got reinforcements. We were outnumbered.” Alex sounded much calmer than he really was.
“We have to find my… Max and Liz.” Doran was pacing the small room where they had met again after being chased off by the guards.
Kyle grimaced when Alex tightened his bandage and then sighed. “They got away, don’t freak out.”
Doran felt like smacking the human. This was the first time in his career as the Protector of the Future King of Antar that he had no idea where Max was, or whether he was alive. “We have to find them,” was all he retorted.
“Have you seen a map of New Mexico? It’s miles of nothing, desert, mountains and more nothing.” Kyle got up to stretch his muscles. “Liz knows where to find us.”
All of them were too afraid to voice the possibility that Liz may not be in a position to tell Max where to find them.
After watching Doran pace for a few more minutes, Kyle grabbed Alex by the arm. “We need to talk, alone.” He dragged Alex outside of the apartment they had used as a base in Carlsbad before he spoke. “Right, now tell me who this Max is.” Seeing Alex’s eyes widen, he emphasized the important part. “Who he really is.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
If it hadn’t been for the warm fingers, Max’s fingers, curled around hers, Liz would have gone into a blind panic when she woke to the blackness around her. Lying perfectly still, she listened to the sounds around her, hoping they would give her a clue as to where she was. Max’s labored breathing was the first thing she heard, then there was a soft scurrying sound, like a small animal running across stone.
The excruciating pain in her lungs was gone! Tentatively, she took a few deep, experimental breaths and, apart from a few twinges, her lungs felt fine. Her head still ached, though. As well as a place deep down in her body…
“Max?” Liz moved closer to him, running the fingers of her free hand up his arm until she could reach his face. Beneath her hand, his face was scalding hot and damp with sweat—he was obviously running a fever. She trailed her hand over the rest of him, biting her lip in concern about the state he was in.
A moan of pain stopped her examination. The right side of his shirt had been burnt away and her softly testing fingers found the edges of the hole the blast must have made in his body.
A hand suddenly clamped around her wrist, dragging her fingers away from the wound, and making Liz gasp loudly.
“Liz…” His voice sounded weak. “God, you’re okay!”
“Max, what is wrong with you!” Liz cried, fumbling closer until she could press small, frantic kisses over his warm face.
“You’re better…” he mumbled. “Was afraid… not enough…”
“Max!” She turned his face towards her, even though she couldn’t see him. “How can I help you? Please tell me.”
“Burnt… pack against the wall…”
Feeling the small movement he made with his hand to a place above his head, Liz crawled there, ignoring the dizziness and lingering pain in her own body and felt around in the dark until her fingers found the survival pack. It took forever to open it by touch alone, and even more long minutes until she found what felt like a flashlight. She prayed it worked and flicked the switch, abruptly bathing them in a strong glare.
“Oh my God…” Max looked terrible. His right side was burnt from his ribs down to his hip, his shirt hung in tatters and he was bathed in sweat. Liz forced down the panic and unpacked the bag, finding a first-aid kit at the bottom. Gently rolling Max onto his good side, she got to work, bathing the burn and then dressing it efficiently. Then she lifted his head and made him swallow some water, fearing dehydration.
“Love you… Liz…” Max muttered after she took away the bottle, his eyes flickering open fleetingly. “So sorry…”
Impulsively, she leaned forward and pressed her cheek against his, cool skin against hot. “Don’t apologize, you saved my life. I love you so much.” She felt his small sigh flutter through her hair. “Rest now.”
She sat with his head on her lap until she was sure he was sleeping, bathing his face with a bandage she had wet with water from their bottles. He seemed to be resting easier now that she had dressed the wound, so she got up gingerly to do some exploring. With the flashlight in hand, she managed to find the entrance to the cave, now filled with the dull light of day.
She couldn’t go much further, though, since outside a fierce wind was blowing, whipping up sand furiously. The sight caused her to sag against the wall of the cave in relief. Nobody would be able to find them in this dust storm and their trail will also be erased.
There were several offshoots off the cave and she explored a few of them, finding a small pool of water, just enough to put her hands in up to the wrist, in one of them. She splashed water over her face and shoulders, before pressing a cool, wet hand into the top of her pants, where her womb was burning with heat. What did he do to me? A small sob escaped before she got control of herself again. Max needed her—this was not the time to fall apart.
Walking back, she drank the water left in the one bottle, and went back to get more. She would use the water in the empty bottle to bathe Max’s body and face, leaving the other bottle for drinking water. After wetting the bandage with new cool water, she placed it over Max’s forehead. “Come on, love, fight this,” she begged him, settling next to him for the long haul.
It took hours. Liz alternately bathed his face and torso and talked to him about her childhood, about being lonely, about her studies. She told him how it had felt like the breath had been knocked from her body when she saw him for the first time, how she had wished he would stay to talk to her after that first class.
Her headache eventually drove her to take some aspirin from the first aid kit, swallowing it down with a little water. She was afraid to drink too much, opting to give Max a few sips every few minutes. He seemed to be hovering in some kind of stasis, not getting worse, but not getting better either. Her headache didn’t get much better either. She had to do something.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Get Nacedo or whatever the hell name he uses in the resistance over here! I want to know why Crown Prince Zan is roaming around freely here, why he came for Liz and why we knew nothing about it beforehand!” By the end of the sentence, Khivar was screaming at Nicholas. Things had gone wrong incredibly fast. More of his soldiers had been killed throughout the night and Khivar still remembered the look in Zan’s eyes. He told himself he wasn’t afraid of the young Prince, but something had changed. Zan looked… complete somehow. His power was now equal to that of Khivar, which meant one thing—Zan had found a mate.
Liz Parker.
Khivar roared in fury again. He had been so sure that Zan would never get involved with a human—that he would remain vulnerable while he was on earth. A new strategy was needed. Urgently.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max mumbled something Liz couldn’t understand, lifting his hand, palm outwards, as if he was seeking something. He was starting to breathe harder again and the sound worried Liz. Tiredly rubbing her hand against her aching temple, she caught his searching hand, not sure what she would do with it. He calmed down immediately.
In the rushing silence, his eyes snapped open unexpectedly, staring up into hers intently, his eyes almost black. His fingers flexed in her grip and she realized that, as weak as he was, he was trying to move their hands in a specific direction. Curious, she pulled his hand towards her and he let her. He put up resistance when she moved to kiss his palm.
It was then that she saw the whirlwind symbol, glowing dully on his skin. Her gaze flew to his, still staring at her urgently. Liz… she heard in her head and abruptly she knew what he wanted. Tugging his hand higher, she placed his palm over the mark on her neck and watched in shock as his body jerked as if an electrical charge had gone through him. Liz! This time the call was more urgent and she scrabbled to find his other hand, lifting it to mirror the position of the first one, bending over him to allow him access.
He blinked once, his eyes going dark in reaction to the precious contact with her.
Then his whole body arched violently beneath her, his hands curling around her neck to hold onto her tightly. Vaguely, she heard him cry out something in an unknown language, a long, low sound of pain.
Liz felt a strange power run though her, zinging along all her nerve-endings, pulling all her muscles tight. The force of it seemed to gather in strength, tunneling upwards until it found Max’s palms. Tumbling onto him, Liz felt the shock of the power surge go through him, felt his body move beneath hers spasmodically. Her fear was short-lived—she could feel him heal as she clung to his shoulders. Images rushed through her mind, images of Antar, of his parents, of her.
Endless moments later, the power died down just as suddenly as it had sprung to life, leaving her lying along his length, listening to his gasps for breath as his thumbs caressed the soft, sensitive spots below her ears.
“Liz…” he whispered her name over and over, awe in his voice.
Pushing herself up on her elbows, Liz stared at the spot where the dressing of his wound had peeled away to leave smooth and unscarred skin open to her gaze. There was not a mark left on him! She jerked her eyes back to his in astonishment. “Max, what just…”
Max finally let go of her neck, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her higher against his body so that her face was right above his. He spoke against her mouth, his wide-open eyes, filled with love, staring into hers. “Mi Shanaya, you just saved my life…”
tbc
All for You - AU/FF/CC M/L MATURE/ADULT [COMPLETE]
Moderators: Anniepoo98, Rowedog, ISLANDGIRL5, Itzstacie, truelovepooh, FSU/MSW-94, Hunter, Island Breeze, Forum Moderators
23+24
Chapter 23
“I don’t buy that.” Kyle’s gaze bored into Alex’s, trying to see what he was hiding. “There was something about that guy…”
“He’s in love with Liz, that’s all,” Alex repeated, hoping he looked as nonchalant as he sounded. It was not easy lying to someone that has become a good friend in the past few years. Only for Liz would he do this. “Why? What did he do to make you think there’s something up with him?”
“It was like he knew Nicholas,” Kyle mused. “And why are those people in there,” he stabbed a finger towards the apartment they had just left, “panicking like there’s no tomorrow because the guy took off into the desert?”
“They’re his friends, Kyle,” Alex placated. He changed the subject. “I’m panicking about Liz too, are you sure Max got her out of there?”
“I told you, Nicholas chased me off and I ran into the middle of a gunfight. Both Nick-boy and I got shot, I went back to the warehouse, and Khivar was just getting up, all blood-soaked and spitting mad. Liz and Max were gone.” He fell silent, obviously contemplating something. “Max took on Khivar and got out of there alive…” He turned on Alex with fiery eyes. “Tell me again that this Max guy is normal! He took on the alien leader of this planet with a gun and got himself and Liz out alive! Alex, don’t make me throttle this out of you!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Alex held up his hands in defense.
“Who the hell is Max and what the hell is he doing with Liz!” By now, Kyle was yelling. “And does this have anything to do with that alien amazon-girl you brought into my house a few weeks back?”
“Kyle, buddie, calm down!” Alex was retreating in front of Kyle’s threatening pose. He was much taller than Kyle, but Kyle was a wrestler and all-American sports star. Alex was Mr. Computer Geek. No contest. “He loves Liz. He really does. Don’t worry.”
Kyle just kept staring at Alex, now more convinced than ever that Alex was hiding something. Something that had to do with Max…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The kiss was soft, gentle, a brushing of lips over skin. It conveyed so much—love, relief, tenderness, protectiveness... Liz felt tears pooling in her eyes at the careful way Max was holding her and kissing her. The issue of how he got to be healed was shelved for the moment as she let him caress the horror of the past night from her mind. He trailed soft fingertips over her face, handling her as if she was exquisitely fragile. His mouth feathered over her cheeks, brushing her eyelids closed, his tongue sneaking out to catch the moisture at the corners of her eyes. Liz sighed at the soothing gesture, snuggling closer to his warmth. She was still lying full-length on top of him, their legs tangled together and his half-bare torso pressing against her, the familiar feeling adding to her sense of safety.
Max needed to be gentle with her, and she needed to feel someone touch her without violence.
His hands stroked her hair back from her face, coming back to cup her cheeks and pull her lips back to his for another delicate kiss.
“I love you. I was so scared…” Max whispered into her parted mouth. “Are you okay now?”
“Yes…” He is treasuring me. Liz wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around Max’s neck, mimicking his caresses with her own. She let her mouth drift over his eyebrows, down the side of his cheek, hearing the small hitch in his breath when she moved over the sensitive place between his cheekbone and his jaw. Dragging her tongue over the stubble covering his face, she reveled in the male textures and taste of his skin.
He lay quietly beneath her, allowing her the freedom to love him back. His hands had slid to her hips, resting motionless on the smooth curves. Silently, he was telling her he was hers to do with as she pleased. She just wanted to bask in his love and tenderness. The burning in her womb was slightly better now and she successfully managed to push all thought of it away. It was over. Finally, it started to feel real. Khivar and Nicholas—Nicholas with his burning hand between her thighs and over her womb—were far away and she was safely back in Max’s loving embrace. “Oh, Max…” Her voice wobbled as she finally allowed the tears of joy to run down her cheeks. “You came for me!”
“I’ll always come, I told you that.” His quiet voice, filled with so much conviction, flowed through her, healing two weeks of loneliness.
As he hugged her closer, murmuring soothing, loving words into her hair, her tears turned into wrenching sobs. She cried for all the tension of the past few weeks, working with and lying to Khivar. She cried for all the pain and fear of last night. She cried because of her terror at seeing Max so hurt. She cried in relief because she had truly dreaded she might never see Max again.
He held her close and kissed her tears away, every single drop, removing them with his lips and tongue as soon as they spilled from her lashes. “I love you,” he kept repeating. “I love you.”
Finally, with the worst of the storm of her crying over, he rolled them to their sides, lifting her thigh over his hip and resting her head on his arm, her body curved as close to his as the positions allowed. Then he stroked her face with soft fingertips, smoothing away the last signs of her tears. “You’re not leaving my sight again,” he informed her firmly. “Not until… Don’t leave me again.” His hand cupped her chin, lifting her face so he could look into her eyes, letting her see the dark torture still lingering from worrying about her fate. “Please, Liz,” he begged urgently, his moment of macho domination passing quickly.
Her small nod led to more kissing, this time deep and intense, their lips clinging together. His hands molded her closer against him, willing her to feel his warmth.
Long moments later, he finally pulled back, leaving her mouth soft and swollen. Liz peeked up at him through her eyelashes as he rested their foreheads together. “Max, how did you know to find me? What happened just now?” she whispered, not wanting to be loud within the gentle bubble of peace that surrounded them.
“Mmmmm,” he rested his mouth briefly against hers again. “My little scientist.” Smiling crookedly, he curled a hand behind her knee that was resting on his thigh, pulling her tightly into his body, before sliding his arm around her waist. “Sleep first, Liz love, we need rest. Then we’ll talk, I promise.” His slurred words made her realize that she was fighting to keep her eyes open too. The bout of crying had left her drained, and now that she felt safe, her body was urging her to finally rest. Max’s hand was rubbing her back in a soothing way, sending warm tingles through her body and she gratefully snuggled against his chest, resting her face in his throat. “Don’t let go,” she mumbled, feeling his arms tighten around her, before she drifted off.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I think I’ve made some progress with the com link to your p—home,” Alex informed Doran quietly. They were driving away from Carlsbad, on their way to Roswell, since Kyle had been adamant that Liz would go to his house and not come back to her own apartment. Kyle was as close to a boss as Alex and Liz had, so his orders were followed. Doran had been very reluctant to leave the last place he had seen his Prince, but Alex’s confirmation that Liz would follow orders had swayed him. Now, Alex was driving with Doran and Max’s other men in one vehicle, while Kyle and some of “Andre’s” supporters brought up the rear.
Doran threw Alex an excited look. “You have?”
“Well, I’ve done something right, I’m just not sure who we’re going to reach. That would be up to you.”
Turning his face away, Doran stared at the dusty landscape speeding by outside the car window. “It should be up to my Prince,” he said softly.
The note of sadness in his voice did not escape Alex. This man—this alien—cared a lot about Max. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Doran laughed mirthlessly. “He will only be fine if she is fine.”
“Who? Liz?”
“Yes. He has given her his heart and she will forever be a part of the fabric of his soul.”
Alex blanched, this sounded serious. “Whoa, they’re in love, that’s all.” Casting a glance at Doran he saw the protector looking at him with pity. “You mean…”
“I mean, they are linked now. Take her away and only half of him will be left.” Doran turned to stare out of the window again. “Just like his father.”
“What about his father? Is he still alive? Is that why you call Max ‘prince’ not ‘king’?”
“Yes, his father is alive. But he is incarcerated on Antar. Our Queen was killed when she sent Max and Isabel away. The King and Queen had been separated earlier… Our King hid his sorrow, but Khivar knew he was vulnerable without his mate and children, so…”
“Does Max know all this?”
“Prince Zan knows his father is alive, yes.” Doran rubbed his face tiredly, wishing he could get hold of Isabel so she could find her brother.
Staring at a dust storm on the horizon, Alex pondered the life of Max Evans. Living a lie on one planet, all the while knowing you were destined to go fight a war on another planet, your real home. “Is this bonding thing and being so… linked… to someone else normal for your people?”
Another small mirthless smile creased Doran’s face. “No, it seems to be the fate of the royal males. Our people are much like yours, some couples are happy, some are not.”
“Why on earth did he choose Liz?”
“Do we ever really know why two beings love each other?” Doran answered wisely. Seeing that Alex was not too enamoured with that answer, he tried again. “Zan… Max has been a loner all his life. I thought it was because he wanted someone of his own kind. I never dreamt he would…” he trailed off, sighing.
“So what happened? Liz fell in his lap or something?”
Throwing him an exasperated look, Doran shifted in his seat until he could look straight at Alex. “The man is a prince, brought up to be one. He’s had girls falling into his lap all his life. They find him… attractive.” Doran grinned when Alex snorted. “He’s never paid attention to any of them. But after he met Liz, he was… thrown, I guess you could say. He told me he fell in love at first sight. And there she was, working for Khivar.” He grimaced. “No, she wasn’t the easy choice at all.”
“So, what happens when you guys go back to your planet?”
Doran shook his head, concern etching his features. “That is up to them.” And I pray they make the right choice…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring at the bleak world outside the tent, Khivar cursed the day he met Liz Parker. Things were going wrong rapidly and the only way his soldiers and followers could be picked off so easily was if someone had provided their locations to the enemy. And now he was confined to this primitive tent instead of the comfortable mansion he had gotten used to in the time he’d spent on earth. He was hiding. The thought increased his fury.
To add to his problems, Nacedo was still missing. The shape-shifter was his spy in the resistance, but no word had been heard from him in days.
And Khivar desperately wanted to know what the resistance knew and what they were up to.
Those damn royals! he swore silently. If only Zan hadn’t found someone on this godforsaken planet to fall in love with… If only the human he chose hadn’t been someone who knew far too much about my operation. Liz Parker with her innocent face, virginal body and huge guileless eyes. How she’s tricked me!
Whirling back to the com radio set up in his tent, he made a vow that he would make her pay somehow. Even if he lost the war…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They had woken up earlier and had talked softly ever since. Liz had laid on her back, staring up at Max while he had explained about the flashes that had alerted him to her distress. While talking, he had slid his hand to the back of her neck, painlessly removing Khivar’s tracking device from her neck. He had held it in his fist, changing the structure of the molecules until a small silver drop of liquid fell to the cave floor. “Never again,” he had promised her.
In turn, Liz had told him the bare facts about her torture at the hands of Khivar and Nicholas. The white line around Max’s mouth and the tenseness of his muscles told her she should not reveal all the gory details. Upsetting both of them again had no point, it was over now.
“What happened? How were you healed?” she finally asked him.
Max had threaded his fingers through her hair almost hypnotically while she talked, soothing both of them. He drew a finger over his mark on her neck, lighting it up immediately. “I remembered a story Doran once told me about my parents… my real parents,” he said with a smile. “They had been in an avalanche just outside our city and my father had been injured. Doran said that my father was healed when he linked himself to my mother again. That the link somehow produces a power of its own without weakening either of them.”
Liz touched her neck in awe. “But… I don’t understand.”
“I don’t really either. No one was really sure if the story was true and my parents never talked about it, but the legend goes that the link created a life force that healed my father.”
“Wow,” was all she could think to say.
He leaned closer, brushing her mouth with his. “Yeah, wow. You are one special lady, Liz Parker,” he told her and kissed her protestations from her lips. Then he had gone to fetch more water, bringing enough for them to wash themselves a little. In spite of all that they had shared before, Liz had been thankful that he had turned his back when she stripped off her clothes. It was bliss to wash off the majority of the dirt and grime from their ordeal.
The sharp pain shooting through her womb caught her unaware. She had been dragging on her underwear when it struck. Her gasp brought Max around in a flash.
“What is it?” he asked worriedly, hurrying to her side. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” she shook her head, dizzily aware of the fact that her underwear was halfway up her thighs. “I’m just…”
Max caught her panicked look at knelt down to finish dressing her. Her tank top did not cover the lower part of her stomach and Max impulsively leaned forward to press a kiss to her bare belly, just above the lace of her panties after sliding them into place.
Fire engulfed her immediately, ripping a long moan from her throat and startling Max.
He stared up at her in shock—her head was thrown back, neck arched in total abandon as her hands scrabbled to get hold of him.
“More…” she panted. “More!”
“Liz?” He had never heard her voice sound like that. It was gravelly… weird.
“Aaaaahh!” she cried out, sliding through his arms and tumbling to the ground.
“Liz!” Max caught her just in time and carried her back to the blanket. As he laid her down, her eyes flicked open. They were green—a vivid unearthly green.
Panic raced through his veins while Liz acted as if she wanted to draw him into her skin. Her hands kept pulling at his body, strange words tumbling from her mouth. Antarian words. She was begging him to have sex with her! Nothing sweet or romantic, but coarse, crude words Max had never thought he would hear from her lips. And still she was speaking in that terrible voice.
Abruptly, she let go of him, her hands going to her womb, her fingers clawing at her skin. Max grabbed her hands, pulling them away from her and laid his own hand on the abused lower part of her stomach. The first sensation was of fire, hot flaming fire coming from inside her. The second was even more shocking: he saw Nicholas bending over Liz, his hand traversing the space from her womb to between her thighs. I’m going to make you beg, you little bitch…
Noooo! his mind screamed in agony as he fought to get a grip over himself. Lying down next to her, he pressed his mouth against her neck, against his mark, and rested his palm, glowing with the symbol of her possession of him, over her womb. She was moving so much he had to throw his thigh over hers to hold her down as he tried to fix the chemical damage Nicholas had wrought inside her womb. All it had needed was the touch of someone other than Liz to the sensitive skin of her lower stomach to set the hormonal changes in motion.
Max wanted to die at the thought of someone else touching Liz so intimately.
He wanted to kill Nicholas for what he did.
And no matter how hard he tried not to see it, that image of Nicholas with his hands on Liz just didn’t want to go away while he healed her.
And neither did his tears at what knowing him was costing Liz…
Chapter 24
Swimming up through clouds of haziness, Liz finally came to. She was alone. With her eyes still shut tightly, she groped around to find Max and felt his fingers close around hers. Opening her eyes, she spied him sitting away from her, their only contact through their hands.
His eyes were wet.
The realization made her sit up abruptly. “Max?”
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out.
“What’s wrong?” Liz looked down at herself, she was wearing her tank top and a corner of the blanket was tucked around her hips. The expression on his face when she met his gaze again punched a hole of fear in her stomach. “Max!”
His fingers clenched around hers and then he let her go and jumped to his feet, a wild look in his eyes. As he stood over her, she noticed that his whole body was trembling. “Max, you’re really scaring me…”
“How are you feeling?” The words seemed to be forced through lips so stiff they hardly moved. His voice sounded raw, as if he was overwhelmed with some unidentified emotion.
“Fine…” But Liz wasn’t sure. Her body felt bruised and tired, and for the life of her she couldn’t remember anything other than washing herself. The time after that was a big blank.
“I have to…” He gestured vaguely over his shoulder before coming forward abruptly and brushing his lips over her forehead, not touching any other part of her.
He was almost out of the cave room before she found her voice. “Max!”
Freezing in the doorway, he bent his head, clenching his hands into fists at his sides. “I need a few minutes alone. Please…” he mumbled quietly before disappearing.
Liz clutched the blanket to her, wondering what had happened. And why she was so tired…
Arriving in the cave opening, Max swallowed again to contain the raging fury inside of him. He felt that if he let down his guard for one second, he would explode. Pacing around restlessly, he tried to keep the black tide of some alien reaction to what had just happened from taking him over.
The bastard had wanted to… The fury swelled a little more. It had been the equivalent of a date rape drug. Liz in the grip of her own stirred up hormones and very vulnerable to whoever had triggered the response. And she wouldn’t have remembered a thing. Only the serum had kept her from succumbing to the results of Nicholas’ tampering immediately.
He had wanted her willing for when he eventually got around to having sex with her.
Whirling around, Max punched his fist into the cave wall, not caring about the pain reverberating through his arm as he continued to pound away in helpless rage. What sort of a planet did he come from that could produce beings so sick and cruel? He had never hated anybody in his life, not even the misguided people whose hunger for power had caused his banishment to earth.
But he hated Nicholas now.
Finally realizing that he had managed to smash his hand raw and bloody against the unyielding rock, he sank to his knees, leaning his forehead against the cool stone in front of him as he battled more tears. He had been afraid to touch Liz after healing her, not sure if what he’d done had worked. He hadn’t wanted Liz to witness the violence of his reaction to what had happened to her—he had only held his alien part at bay with serious effort, containing the ever-growing pool of power inside him by sheer will.
If he hadn’t, he would probably have flattened everything around him.
Breathing deeply, he sat down with his back against the cave wall he had just tried to batter into oblivion. Leaning his head back against the cool stone, he closed his eyes, fighting off visions of Liz moaning so pitifully.
If he had had any uncertainties about how much he loved Liz Parker, they had been erased by his reaction to last night and this morning. He realized that he was obsessed with her happiness. He doesn’t just want her to be healthy and relatively peaceful, he wanted her life to be perfect—filled with love, with being cherished and with the fulfillment of all dreams she’d ever had. He wanted no one to ever touch her in anger or violence, he wanted her to feel secure and safe.
But most of all, he wanted to be the person to provide her with all this.
Max remembered asking Doran a long time ago if the link between him and Liz could be undone, whether they could “divorce” and there had been many occasions in the meantime when he had wondered if he shouldn’t lean on Doran to finally give him an answer about this. Letting Liz go, relieving her of his presence in her life would make her so much safer. But after these last few hours, he knew he wouldn’t be able to give up from his side. He would still give her the option to make her own choice, but even if the physical marks of their link were removed, his heart would still be hers.
Fleetingly he thought about the possibility that his people would demand he produce an heir when he gets back to Dendar. And if he had to leave Liz behind… Well, the thought of children without Liz seemed… unbearable.
A soft sound brought his head up. Liz was standing a few feet away, practically dwarfed by the blanket she had pulled around her body. She looked achingly tiny and vulnerable. The look in her eyes shook him—she looked ready to bolt. In his haste to get himself away from her and under control, he had made her feel unwanted. The thought sliced through him.
“Liz…” He held open his arms. “I’m sorry!”
She came slowly, watching him warily, but he held her gaze until she was within reach. Catching the ends of the blanket, he tugged her down into his lap. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.
“What happened?” she asked guardedly.
Hugging her close against his chest, he pressed tiny kisses against her cheek, fortifying himself and her for the upcoming talk. She listened quietly as he told her, with as little detail as possible, about what Nicholas had done to her.
The only sign that she had heard was the perceptible tremble that infused her body.
Liz was torn between being extremely angry, extremely afraid and extremely embarrassed about what happened. Max hadn’t said too much and she could only guess at what she had done while under the control of the chemical changes. No wonder he had stormed off as soon as he was sure she was recovering!
When she stayed silent he hugged her tighter.
“I’m so sorry, Liz. I wish you never had to cope with people like… him.”
“It’s not your fault.” Carefully, she buried her head into his throat, beneath his chin, still very wary of any sign that might show Max was upset with her.
Bringing his hand up, Max stroked gentle fingers over the sensitive spot below her ear, causing shivers of a different kind in her body. He said nothing, just held her like she was precious, quietly soothing away her fears of what her recent loss of control had done to his feelings for her.
“He’ll never touch you again, sweetheart.” I’ll kill him first.
“Did you… did you fix…?”
She felt him sigh against her. “I hope so.”
Slowly, he peeled away the blanket, finding her still in her tank top and panties. His first tentative touch against her stomach was feather-light, but Liz sucked in a breath in any event. At the sound, Max pulled his fingers away, dipping his head so he could see her face. “Okay?”
Biting her lip, she nodded, blushing profusely. “That was just… just you.”
Relief poured through him. Relief and giddiness. She was going to be fine! He splayed his whole hand against her warm stomach, feeling the small tremors just below her skin and knew they were there because of his touch. He couldn’t help grinning. “I love you!” he whispered in her ear.
A smile was creeping over her face too, lifting his heart even higher.
Only one thing would make this perfect, Liz thought as she lifted her face and stared up at Max. Covering his hand on her body with her own, she gave him a teasing smile. “Kiss me.”
His own smile vanished like morning mist before the sun and his eyes went dark. “I was hoping you would say that.”
He tugged the blanket away from her completely, throwing it open next to them with one hand while he kept his hold on her with the other. Still, when he bent his head towards her, he stopped. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Immediately, unequivocally.
The kiss started soft and felt like rain to the parched earth for her battered soul.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Yes.”
The unknown voice on the other side of the phone line just uttered one word and rang off. Doran looked at Alex and nodded his head. A message would be sent to the Royalists on Antar.
One of the soldiers had been dispatched to Michael and Isabel for a final decision on the message in the absence of their Prince. Still fearing that the phones are probably being monitored, the messenger had instructions to only say yes or no.
‘Yes’ meant that Alex would try to contact Antar and relay the message that their Royals were alive and were fighting against Khivar on earth. That Khivar hasn’t won here too. It was a long shot, but it was all they had.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Michael pored over Max’s carefully laid out strategy for attack. The news from Doran’s messenger – that Max and Liz had escaped Khivar but were now missing – concerned him. He was not used to making such big decisions on his own. He was a soldier first, then a politician.
Max’d better get back soon.
Isabel intended dreamwalking her brother tonight if there was still no news. The first wave of attacks against Khivar’s soldiers had gone well, but they had had the element of surprise. That was gone now, so things will get harder. Maria had been in touch with the resistance and had quickly gotten their agreement to help with the human supporters of Khivar. All over the country, a silent war had started.
But the two people that had started it all were missing in the New Mexican desert.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“We can’t stay here long,” Max whispered against Liz’s mouth.
Wriggling closer to his warm body, Liz arched her neck, telling him soundlessly to keep on caressing her. “I know.”
“Maybe…” his mouth drifted over her collarbone, “maybe we can find the Hummer again.”
Liz felt his hand slide over her hip to cup her bottom, lifting her into his aroused length. “Yes,” she sighed, not really talking about the vehicle. “Maybe…” Her fingers speared into his hair, urging his mouth lower. “I have to… find Kyle…”
Max pulled away immediately, pinning her with an intense look. “We’re going together.”
“Yes, Master,” she teased him, rubbing her hand down the side of his serious face. “We have to find Kyle.”
Kissing her hard, he got to his feet, lifting her up as well. Smiling ruefully into her surprised face, he smoothed her hair from her face. “If we don’t go now, we won’t go at all.”
She tugged at his hand when he started to move to the back of the cave. “Max… Are we ever…?” Going to make love?
Lord, I hope so! he wanted to say, but instead he hugged her again. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “There is so much we need to discuss first.”
Her head knew he was right, but her heart and body urged her to change his mind.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Alex’s message, dictated by Doran, traveled a much shorter distance than any of them had foreseen. Four soundless ships, on their way to earth, intercepted the message only hours after it left the atmosphere.
The message was played twice—Zan’s name echoing through the shocked silence on board. There was no decision to be made, the message was relayed without delay to the proper authorities on Antar.
And down on earth, oblivious to the reaction his name had caused among a group congregated above him in space, Crown Prince Zan took Liz’s hand firmly in his and started on a long walk through the desert.
tbc
“I don’t buy that.” Kyle’s gaze bored into Alex’s, trying to see what he was hiding. “There was something about that guy…”
“He’s in love with Liz, that’s all,” Alex repeated, hoping he looked as nonchalant as he sounded. It was not easy lying to someone that has become a good friend in the past few years. Only for Liz would he do this. “Why? What did he do to make you think there’s something up with him?”
“It was like he knew Nicholas,” Kyle mused. “And why are those people in there,” he stabbed a finger towards the apartment they had just left, “panicking like there’s no tomorrow because the guy took off into the desert?”
“They’re his friends, Kyle,” Alex placated. He changed the subject. “I’m panicking about Liz too, are you sure Max got her out of there?”
“I told you, Nicholas chased me off and I ran into the middle of a gunfight. Both Nick-boy and I got shot, I went back to the warehouse, and Khivar was just getting up, all blood-soaked and spitting mad. Liz and Max were gone.” He fell silent, obviously contemplating something. “Max took on Khivar and got out of there alive…” He turned on Alex with fiery eyes. “Tell me again that this Max guy is normal! He took on the alien leader of this planet with a gun and got himself and Liz out alive! Alex, don’t make me throttle this out of you!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Alex held up his hands in defense.
“Who the hell is Max and what the hell is he doing with Liz!” By now, Kyle was yelling. “And does this have anything to do with that alien amazon-girl you brought into my house a few weeks back?”
“Kyle, buddie, calm down!” Alex was retreating in front of Kyle’s threatening pose. He was much taller than Kyle, but Kyle was a wrestler and all-American sports star. Alex was Mr. Computer Geek. No contest. “He loves Liz. He really does. Don’t worry.”
Kyle just kept staring at Alex, now more convinced than ever that Alex was hiding something. Something that had to do with Max…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The kiss was soft, gentle, a brushing of lips over skin. It conveyed so much—love, relief, tenderness, protectiveness... Liz felt tears pooling in her eyes at the careful way Max was holding her and kissing her. The issue of how he got to be healed was shelved for the moment as she let him caress the horror of the past night from her mind. He trailed soft fingertips over her face, handling her as if she was exquisitely fragile. His mouth feathered over her cheeks, brushing her eyelids closed, his tongue sneaking out to catch the moisture at the corners of her eyes. Liz sighed at the soothing gesture, snuggling closer to his warmth. She was still lying full-length on top of him, their legs tangled together and his half-bare torso pressing against her, the familiar feeling adding to her sense of safety.
Max needed to be gentle with her, and she needed to feel someone touch her without violence.
His hands stroked her hair back from her face, coming back to cup her cheeks and pull her lips back to his for another delicate kiss.
“I love you. I was so scared…” Max whispered into her parted mouth. “Are you okay now?”
“Yes…” He is treasuring me. Liz wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around Max’s neck, mimicking his caresses with her own. She let her mouth drift over his eyebrows, down the side of his cheek, hearing the small hitch in his breath when she moved over the sensitive place between his cheekbone and his jaw. Dragging her tongue over the stubble covering his face, she reveled in the male textures and taste of his skin.
He lay quietly beneath her, allowing her the freedom to love him back. His hands had slid to her hips, resting motionless on the smooth curves. Silently, he was telling her he was hers to do with as she pleased. She just wanted to bask in his love and tenderness. The burning in her womb was slightly better now and she successfully managed to push all thought of it away. It was over. Finally, it started to feel real. Khivar and Nicholas—Nicholas with his burning hand between her thighs and over her womb—were far away and she was safely back in Max’s loving embrace. “Oh, Max…” Her voice wobbled as she finally allowed the tears of joy to run down her cheeks. “You came for me!”
“I’ll always come, I told you that.” His quiet voice, filled with so much conviction, flowed through her, healing two weeks of loneliness.
As he hugged her closer, murmuring soothing, loving words into her hair, her tears turned into wrenching sobs. She cried for all the tension of the past few weeks, working with and lying to Khivar. She cried for all the pain and fear of last night. She cried because of her terror at seeing Max so hurt. She cried in relief because she had truly dreaded she might never see Max again.
He held her close and kissed her tears away, every single drop, removing them with his lips and tongue as soon as they spilled from her lashes. “I love you,” he kept repeating. “I love you.”
Finally, with the worst of the storm of her crying over, he rolled them to their sides, lifting her thigh over his hip and resting her head on his arm, her body curved as close to his as the positions allowed. Then he stroked her face with soft fingertips, smoothing away the last signs of her tears. “You’re not leaving my sight again,” he informed her firmly. “Not until… Don’t leave me again.” His hand cupped her chin, lifting her face so he could look into her eyes, letting her see the dark torture still lingering from worrying about her fate. “Please, Liz,” he begged urgently, his moment of macho domination passing quickly.
Her small nod led to more kissing, this time deep and intense, their lips clinging together. His hands molded her closer against him, willing her to feel his warmth.
Long moments later, he finally pulled back, leaving her mouth soft and swollen. Liz peeked up at him through her eyelashes as he rested their foreheads together. “Max, how did you know to find me? What happened just now?” she whispered, not wanting to be loud within the gentle bubble of peace that surrounded them.
“Mmmmm,” he rested his mouth briefly against hers again. “My little scientist.” Smiling crookedly, he curled a hand behind her knee that was resting on his thigh, pulling her tightly into his body, before sliding his arm around her waist. “Sleep first, Liz love, we need rest. Then we’ll talk, I promise.” His slurred words made her realize that she was fighting to keep her eyes open too. The bout of crying had left her drained, and now that she felt safe, her body was urging her to finally rest. Max’s hand was rubbing her back in a soothing way, sending warm tingles through her body and she gratefully snuggled against his chest, resting her face in his throat. “Don’t let go,” she mumbled, feeling his arms tighten around her, before she drifted off.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I think I’ve made some progress with the com link to your p—home,” Alex informed Doran quietly. They were driving away from Carlsbad, on their way to Roswell, since Kyle had been adamant that Liz would go to his house and not come back to her own apartment. Kyle was as close to a boss as Alex and Liz had, so his orders were followed. Doran had been very reluctant to leave the last place he had seen his Prince, but Alex’s confirmation that Liz would follow orders had swayed him. Now, Alex was driving with Doran and Max’s other men in one vehicle, while Kyle and some of “Andre’s” supporters brought up the rear.
Doran threw Alex an excited look. “You have?”
“Well, I’ve done something right, I’m just not sure who we’re going to reach. That would be up to you.”
Turning his face away, Doran stared at the dusty landscape speeding by outside the car window. “It should be up to my Prince,” he said softly.
The note of sadness in his voice did not escape Alex. This man—this alien—cared a lot about Max. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
Doran laughed mirthlessly. “He will only be fine if she is fine.”
“Who? Liz?”
“Yes. He has given her his heart and she will forever be a part of the fabric of his soul.”
Alex blanched, this sounded serious. “Whoa, they’re in love, that’s all.” Casting a glance at Doran he saw the protector looking at him with pity. “You mean…”
“I mean, they are linked now. Take her away and only half of him will be left.” Doran turned to stare out of the window again. “Just like his father.”
“What about his father? Is he still alive? Is that why you call Max ‘prince’ not ‘king’?”
“Yes, his father is alive. But he is incarcerated on Antar. Our Queen was killed when she sent Max and Isabel away. The King and Queen had been separated earlier… Our King hid his sorrow, but Khivar knew he was vulnerable without his mate and children, so…”
“Does Max know all this?”
“Prince Zan knows his father is alive, yes.” Doran rubbed his face tiredly, wishing he could get hold of Isabel so she could find her brother.
Staring at a dust storm on the horizon, Alex pondered the life of Max Evans. Living a lie on one planet, all the while knowing you were destined to go fight a war on another planet, your real home. “Is this bonding thing and being so… linked… to someone else normal for your people?”
Another small mirthless smile creased Doran’s face. “No, it seems to be the fate of the royal males. Our people are much like yours, some couples are happy, some are not.”
“Why on earth did he choose Liz?”
“Do we ever really know why two beings love each other?” Doran answered wisely. Seeing that Alex was not too enamoured with that answer, he tried again. “Zan… Max has been a loner all his life. I thought it was because he wanted someone of his own kind. I never dreamt he would…” he trailed off, sighing.
“So what happened? Liz fell in his lap or something?”
Throwing him an exasperated look, Doran shifted in his seat until he could look straight at Alex. “The man is a prince, brought up to be one. He’s had girls falling into his lap all his life. They find him… attractive.” Doran grinned when Alex snorted. “He’s never paid attention to any of them. But after he met Liz, he was… thrown, I guess you could say. He told me he fell in love at first sight. And there she was, working for Khivar.” He grimaced. “No, she wasn’t the easy choice at all.”
“So, what happens when you guys go back to your planet?”
Doran shook his head, concern etching his features. “That is up to them.” And I pray they make the right choice…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring at the bleak world outside the tent, Khivar cursed the day he met Liz Parker. Things were going wrong rapidly and the only way his soldiers and followers could be picked off so easily was if someone had provided their locations to the enemy. And now he was confined to this primitive tent instead of the comfortable mansion he had gotten used to in the time he’d spent on earth. He was hiding. The thought increased his fury.
To add to his problems, Nacedo was still missing. The shape-shifter was his spy in the resistance, but no word had been heard from him in days.
And Khivar desperately wanted to know what the resistance knew and what they were up to.
Those damn royals! he swore silently. If only Zan hadn’t found someone on this godforsaken planet to fall in love with… If only the human he chose hadn’t been someone who knew far too much about my operation. Liz Parker with her innocent face, virginal body and huge guileless eyes. How she’s tricked me!
Whirling back to the com radio set up in his tent, he made a vow that he would make her pay somehow. Even if he lost the war…
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They had woken up earlier and had talked softly ever since. Liz had laid on her back, staring up at Max while he had explained about the flashes that had alerted him to her distress. While talking, he had slid his hand to the back of her neck, painlessly removing Khivar’s tracking device from her neck. He had held it in his fist, changing the structure of the molecules until a small silver drop of liquid fell to the cave floor. “Never again,” he had promised her.
In turn, Liz had told him the bare facts about her torture at the hands of Khivar and Nicholas. The white line around Max’s mouth and the tenseness of his muscles told her she should not reveal all the gory details. Upsetting both of them again had no point, it was over now.
“What happened? How were you healed?” she finally asked him.
Max had threaded his fingers through her hair almost hypnotically while she talked, soothing both of them. He drew a finger over his mark on her neck, lighting it up immediately. “I remembered a story Doran once told me about my parents… my real parents,” he said with a smile. “They had been in an avalanche just outside our city and my father had been injured. Doran said that my father was healed when he linked himself to my mother again. That the link somehow produces a power of its own without weakening either of them.”
Liz touched her neck in awe. “But… I don’t understand.”
“I don’t really either. No one was really sure if the story was true and my parents never talked about it, but the legend goes that the link created a life force that healed my father.”
“Wow,” was all she could think to say.
He leaned closer, brushing her mouth with his. “Yeah, wow. You are one special lady, Liz Parker,” he told her and kissed her protestations from her lips. Then he had gone to fetch more water, bringing enough for them to wash themselves a little. In spite of all that they had shared before, Liz had been thankful that he had turned his back when she stripped off her clothes. It was bliss to wash off the majority of the dirt and grime from their ordeal.
The sharp pain shooting through her womb caught her unaware. She had been dragging on her underwear when it struck. Her gasp brought Max around in a flash.
“What is it?” he asked worriedly, hurrying to her side. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” she shook her head, dizzily aware of the fact that her underwear was halfway up her thighs. “I’m just…”
Max caught her panicked look at knelt down to finish dressing her. Her tank top did not cover the lower part of her stomach and Max impulsively leaned forward to press a kiss to her bare belly, just above the lace of her panties after sliding them into place.
Fire engulfed her immediately, ripping a long moan from her throat and startling Max.
He stared up at her in shock—her head was thrown back, neck arched in total abandon as her hands scrabbled to get hold of him.
“More…” she panted. “More!”
“Liz?” He had never heard her voice sound like that. It was gravelly… weird.
“Aaaaahh!” she cried out, sliding through his arms and tumbling to the ground.
“Liz!” Max caught her just in time and carried her back to the blanket. As he laid her down, her eyes flicked open. They were green—a vivid unearthly green.
Panic raced through his veins while Liz acted as if she wanted to draw him into her skin. Her hands kept pulling at his body, strange words tumbling from her mouth. Antarian words. She was begging him to have sex with her! Nothing sweet or romantic, but coarse, crude words Max had never thought he would hear from her lips. And still she was speaking in that terrible voice.
Abruptly, she let go of him, her hands going to her womb, her fingers clawing at her skin. Max grabbed her hands, pulling them away from her and laid his own hand on the abused lower part of her stomach. The first sensation was of fire, hot flaming fire coming from inside her. The second was even more shocking: he saw Nicholas bending over Liz, his hand traversing the space from her womb to between her thighs. I’m going to make you beg, you little bitch…
Noooo! his mind screamed in agony as he fought to get a grip over himself. Lying down next to her, he pressed his mouth against her neck, against his mark, and rested his palm, glowing with the symbol of her possession of him, over her womb. She was moving so much he had to throw his thigh over hers to hold her down as he tried to fix the chemical damage Nicholas had wrought inside her womb. All it had needed was the touch of someone other than Liz to the sensitive skin of her lower stomach to set the hormonal changes in motion.
Max wanted to die at the thought of someone else touching Liz so intimately.
He wanted to kill Nicholas for what he did.
And no matter how hard he tried not to see it, that image of Nicholas with his hands on Liz just didn’t want to go away while he healed her.
And neither did his tears at what knowing him was costing Liz…
Chapter 24
Swimming up through clouds of haziness, Liz finally came to. She was alone. With her eyes still shut tightly, she groped around to find Max and felt his fingers close around hers. Opening her eyes, she spied him sitting away from her, their only contact through their hands.
His eyes were wet.
The realization made her sit up abruptly. “Max?”
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no words came out.
“What’s wrong?” Liz looked down at herself, she was wearing her tank top and a corner of the blanket was tucked around her hips. The expression on his face when she met his gaze again punched a hole of fear in her stomach. “Max!”
His fingers clenched around hers and then he let her go and jumped to his feet, a wild look in his eyes. As he stood over her, she noticed that his whole body was trembling. “Max, you’re really scaring me…”
“How are you feeling?” The words seemed to be forced through lips so stiff they hardly moved. His voice sounded raw, as if he was overwhelmed with some unidentified emotion.
“Fine…” But Liz wasn’t sure. Her body felt bruised and tired, and for the life of her she couldn’t remember anything other than washing herself. The time after that was a big blank.
“I have to…” He gestured vaguely over his shoulder before coming forward abruptly and brushing his lips over her forehead, not touching any other part of her.
He was almost out of the cave room before she found her voice. “Max!”
Freezing in the doorway, he bent his head, clenching his hands into fists at his sides. “I need a few minutes alone. Please…” he mumbled quietly before disappearing.
Liz clutched the blanket to her, wondering what had happened. And why she was so tired…
Arriving in the cave opening, Max swallowed again to contain the raging fury inside of him. He felt that if he let down his guard for one second, he would explode. Pacing around restlessly, he tried to keep the black tide of some alien reaction to what had just happened from taking him over.
The bastard had wanted to… The fury swelled a little more. It had been the equivalent of a date rape drug. Liz in the grip of her own stirred up hormones and very vulnerable to whoever had triggered the response. And she wouldn’t have remembered a thing. Only the serum had kept her from succumbing to the results of Nicholas’ tampering immediately.
He had wanted her willing for when he eventually got around to having sex with her.
Whirling around, Max punched his fist into the cave wall, not caring about the pain reverberating through his arm as he continued to pound away in helpless rage. What sort of a planet did he come from that could produce beings so sick and cruel? He had never hated anybody in his life, not even the misguided people whose hunger for power had caused his banishment to earth.
But he hated Nicholas now.
Finally realizing that he had managed to smash his hand raw and bloody against the unyielding rock, he sank to his knees, leaning his forehead against the cool stone in front of him as he battled more tears. He had been afraid to touch Liz after healing her, not sure if what he’d done had worked. He hadn’t wanted Liz to witness the violence of his reaction to what had happened to her—he had only held his alien part at bay with serious effort, containing the ever-growing pool of power inside him by sheer will.
If he hadn’t, he would probably have flattened everything around him.
Breathing deeply, he sat down with his back against the cave wall he had just tried to batter into oblivion. Leaning his head back against the cool stone, he closed his eyes, fighting off visions of Liz moaning so pitifully.
If he had had any uncertainties about how much he loved Liz Parker, they had been erased by his reaction to last night and this morning. He realized that he was obsessed with her happiness. He doesn’t just want her to be healthy and relatively peaceful, he wanted her life to be perfect—filled with love, with being cherished and with the fulfillment of all dreams she’d ever had. He wanted no one to ever touch her in anger or violence, he wanted her to feel secure and safe.
But most of all, he wanted to be the person to provide her with all this.
Max remembered asking Doran a long time ago if the link between him and Liz could be undone, whether they could “divorce” and there had been many occasions in the meantime when he had wondered if he shouldn’t lean on Doran to finally give him an answer about this. Letting Liz go, relieving her of his presence in her life would make her so much safer. But after these last few hours, he knew he wouldn’t be able to give up from his side. He would still give her the option to make her own choice, but even if the physical marks of their link were removed, his heart would still be hers.
Fleetingly he thought about the possibility that his people would demand he produce an heir when he gets back to Dendar. And if he had to leave Liz behind… Well, the thought of children without Liz seemed… unbearable.
A soft sound brought his head up. Liz was standing a few feet away, practically dwarfed by the blanket she had pulled around her body. She looked achingly tiny and vulnerable. The look in her eyes shook him—she looked ready to bolt. In his haste to get himself away from her and under control, he had made her feel unwanted. The thought sliced through him.
“Liz…” He held open his arms. “I’m sorry!”
She came slowly, watching him warily, but he held her gaze until she was within reach. Catching the ends of the blanket, he tugged her down into his lap. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.
“What happened?” she asked guardedly.
Hugging her close against his chest, he pressed tiny kisses against her cheek, fortifying himself and her for the upcoming talk. She listened quietly as he told her, with as little detail as possible, about what Nicholas had done to her.
The only sign that she had heard was the perceptible tremble that infused her body.
Liz was torn between being extremely angry, extremely afraid and extremely embarrassed about what happened. Max hadn’t said too much and she could only guess at what she had done while under the control of the chemical changes. No wonder he had stormed off as soon as he was sure she was recovering!
When she stayed silent he hugged her tighter.
“I’m so sorry, Liz. I wish you never had to cope with people like… him.”
“It’s not your fault.” Carefully, she buried her head into his throat, beneath his chin, still very wary of any sign that might show Max was upset with her.
Bringing his hand up, Max stroked gentle fingers over the sensitive spot below her ear, causing shivers of a different kind in her body. He said nothing, just held her like she was precious, quietly soothing away her fears of what her recent loss of control had done to his feelings for her.
“He’ll never touch you again, sweetheart.” I’ll kill him first.
“Did you… did you fix…?”
She felt him sigh against her. “I hope so.”
Slowly, he peeled away the blanket, finding her still in her tank top and panties. His first tentative touch against her stomach was feather-light, but Liz sucked in a breath in any event. At the sound, Max pulled his fingers away, dipping his head so he could see her face. “Okay?”
Biting her lip, she nodded, blushing profusely. “That was just… just you.”
Relief poured through him. Relief and giddiness. She was going to be fine! He splayed his whole hand against her warm stomach, feeling the small tremors just below her skin and knew they were there because of his touch. He couldn’t help grinning. “I love you!” he whispered in her ear.
A smile was creeping over her face too, lifting his heart even higher.
Only one thing would make this perfect, Liz thought as she lifted her face and stared up at Max. Covering his hand on her body with her own, she gave him a teasing smile. “Kiss me.”
His own smile vanished like morning mist before the sun and his eyes went dark. “I was hoping you would say that.”
He tugged the blanket away from her completely, throwing it open next to them with one hand while he kept his hold on her with the other. Still, when he bent his head towards her, he stopped. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Immediately, unequivocally.
The kiss started soft and felt like rain to the parched earth for her battered soul.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Yes.”
The unknown voice on the other side of the phone line just uttered one word and rang off. Doran looked at Alex and nodded his head. A message would be sent to the Royalists on Antar.
One of the soldiers had been dispatched to Michael and Isabel for a final decision on the message in the absence of their Prince. Still fearing that the phones are probably being monitored, the messenger had instructions to only say yes or no.
‘Yes’ meant that Alex would try to contact Antar and relay the message that their Royals were alive and were fighting against Khivar on earth. That Khivar hasn’t won here too. It was a long shot, but it was all they had.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Michael pored over Max’s carefully laid out strategy for attack. The news from Doran’s messenger – that Max and Liz had escaped Khivar but were now missing – concerned him. He was not used to making such big decisions on his own. He was a soldier first, then a politician.
Max’d better get back soon.
Isabel intended dreamwalking her brother tonight if there was still no news. The first wave of attacks against Khivar’s soldiers had gone well, but they had had the element of surprise. That was gone now, so things will get harder. Maria had been in touch with the resistance and had quickly gotten their agreement to help with the human supporters of Khivar. All over the country, a silent war had started.
But the two people that had started it all were missing in the New Mexican desert.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“We can’t stay here long,” Max whispered against Liz’s mouth.
Wriggling closer to his warm body, Liz arched her neck, telling him soundlessly to keep on caressing her. “I know.”
“Maybe…” his mouth drifted over her collarbone, “maybe we can find the Hummer again.”
Liz felt his hand slide over her hip to cup her bottom, lifting her into his aroused length. “Yes,” she sighed, not really talking about the vehicle. “Maybe…” Her fingers speared into his hair, urging his mouth lower. “I have to… find Kyle…”
Max pulled away immediately, pinning her with an intense look. “We’re going together.”
“Yes, Master,” she teased him, rubbing her hand down the side of his serious face. “We have to find Kyle.”
Kissing her hard, he got to his feet, lifting her up as well. Smiling ruefully into her surprised face, he smoothed her hair from her face. “If we don’t go now, we won’t go at all.”
She tugged at his hand when he started to move to the back of the cave. “Max… Are we ever…?” Going to make love?
Lord, I hope so! he wanted to say, but instead he hugged her again. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “There is so much we need to discuss first.”
Her head knew he was right, but her heart and body urged her to change his mind.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Alex’s message, dictated by Doran, traveled a much shorter distance than any of them had foreseen. Four soundless ships, on their way to earth, intercepted the message only hours after it left the atmosphere.
The message was played twice—Zan’s name echoing through the shocked silence on board. There was no decision to be made, the message was relayed without delay to the proper authorities on Antar.
And down on earth, oblivious to the reaction his name had caused among a group congregated above him in space, Crown Prince Zan took Liz’s hand firmly in his and started on a long walk through the desert.
tbc
25+26
Chapter 25
Reports of more deaths of soldiers had been arriving throughout the night and the mood in Khivar’s camp was muted. An alliance between the Royal Guards and the Earth Resistance was not something that Khivar had worried about yet, since he had never suspected that there were any Royal Guards on the planet. Instead, he had been searching for a few individuals: Zan, his sister and whoever had been sent to protect them.
Somewhere something had gone horribly wrong and suddenly all sorts of forces were uniting against him.
Striding outside to stare up at the stars dimming with the approach of dawn, Khivar grimly admitted that he had underestimated a number of people. Liz Parker was the most notable of these. How had she managed to get herself bonded to the alien prince? And why on earth had they bonded but not consummated? How had she duped me for so long?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
With Alex’s assistance, Michael had been able to set up a communications network with his soldiers that Khivar could not trace. Alex had made it his business to know exactly what Khivar’s capabilities in this sector were and his experience came in handy now.
It was early on the second morning of Max and Liz’s disappearance that Isabel knocked on the door of Michael’s room softly. Her heart sank at his hopeful look. “Nothing,” she admitted. She had been trying to dreamwalk Max for hours until deep into the night, but had had no success. “Either he didn’t sleep or the serum is still in his system and is blocking me.” Sighing, she sat down on the edge of Michael and Maria’s bed. “What are we going to do?”
Michael returned his gaze to the papers filled with battle plans that were laid out on the floor in front of him. “We are going to follow his orders, that’s what,” he said firmly. They’ve had amazing successes, but Khivar had warned his soldiers by now and they had been disappearing from all over.
“Have we heard anything resulting from that message yet?” Truthfully, Isabel wasn’t sure that she really wanted an answer—she had decidedly mixed feelings about Antar—she remembered nothing of the planet they had left when they weren’t much older than babies. Diane Evans had been more of a mother to her and Max, but especially to her, than anyone else in her life and it had been really hard to leave her earth parents when Khivar had taken over the planet a few years ago. On the other hand, she was so tired of living in the desert like this, of not having luxuries around her and of not being able to go shopping like any other normal young woman. And, on her home planet, she was a Princess.
“Not a thing,” Michael’s brusque tone interrupted her thoughts. “It will probably take a day or so before we get a response. If we get a response.” Michael did not believe in sugarcoating things. Sighing, he went back to studying Max’s plans, he would have to organize a meeting with the resistance soon, they couldn’t go on relying on Maria to ferry messages across. It was time the resistance knew who and what they were assisting.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Liz shot a glance up at the stars that were winking out one-by-one above them in the dawn-sky. How bizarre that the person holding her hand so warmly down here in the desert of New Mexico had been born on one of those shining planets so far above her!
Sensing her momentary lapse of attention, Max turned his head to look back at her. “Everything okay? Are you tired?” They had been walking steadily for most of the night, only stopping when Liz had really needed to rest her feet. Max hadn’t said a word of complaint about the fact that he had had to shorten his strides to allow her to keep up with him.
She smiled brightly at him, reveling in being in his presence, in loving him, and in his oh-so-obvious love for her. “I’m fine. I was just enjoying the view,” she teased, dropping her eyes to his backside. “Pity you fixed your shirt, though.” Max flushed in embarrassment, but his gaze darkened and Liz giggled at how easily she could get to him. She had been flirting with him all through their long trek and had alternately been scolded or kissed senseless. Whatever happened, she was enjoying herself and this precious time she had to be alone with him. Ruefully she shook her head at herself—she was enjoying herself in these circumstances? No wonder she had fallen in love with an alien so easily!
Their night trek had started with Max halting just outside the cave they had spent the last few hours in to stare at the desert stretching off in both directions. Then he had looked at her, quite sheepishly actually. “Do you have any idea which way we should go?”
Liz had laughed loudly at this. Firstly, here was a man, granted he was of the alien variety, but still a man, asking directions. And secondly, she had been unconscious when he had carried her here. They had eventually debated their options and decided on a course—Liz hoping that the landmarks that looked vaguely familiar to her, truly were the ones she was recognizing.
Max had amazing stamina and Liz began to understand how he had managed to drag her so far while he had been hurt. At some point during the night, she had been terribly tired and he had moved the emergency pack to his front and let her hop on his back, claiming she weighed as much as a feather. It didn’t last very long though with Max stopping at a small copse of trees to let her slide off. Her questioning gaze had found him flushed and he had mumbled something about her virtue being in danger if she stayed on his back.
It all made her love him more.
Now dawn was breaking and Max looked at the horizon, where the sun was just starting to rise, in speculation. “I think we shouldn’t keep walking now that the sun is up,” he informed Liz, stopping to pull her into his side. “We can keep going until we find a place with some shelter, but I don’t want us to dehydrate or get heat-stroke or something.”
Leaning against him, Liz just nodded. She was tired. An office-worker by profession, she was not terribly fit, so a reprieve would be welcome.
Kissing her forehead tenderly, Max hugged Liz for a few moments. She was even more courageous than he had thought, and had trudged through the thick desert sand for hours without complaining. If only they could find the damn Hummer he had ditched the other night! Surely everyone was panicking about them by now? And he was more determined than ever to finish this struggle with Khivar once and for all. It was time to get his life in order. Resting his lips against Liz’s warm skin, he sent a silent wish heavenward: to get this over with so he could talk to Liz about the future.
The thought of losing her made him panic, and he pulled her fully into his arms in reaction, finding her cheeks with his hands and tilting her face up for a rough kiss. Could he really ask her to stay with him? What if she said no? As her tongue touched his fleetingly, teasingly, his desperation increased. She belonged in his arms, in his life. Her body fit his, completed his. He changed the angle of his kiss, parting her lips with his tongue and sweeping inside. It was getting harder and harder to keep control over his physical need for her. Her merciless teasing and flirting had kept him at a slow simmer all night, but he still had visions of everlasting promises and a romantic room somewhere for their first time. She deserved it.
Feeling her step in closer, pressing herself against his length, he vaguely heard himself groan. Her hands were restless, sliding from his shoulders to find the hem of his shirt, plunging underneath until she could rake her nails down his back. His body jerked helplessly in response, the movement tearing their mouths apart. Max buried his face in her neck, too wrapped up in the sensations swirling through him and tightening his gut, to take any notice of the soft shimmer of his mark. “Liz…” He had no idea what he wanted to say to her—stop? Don’t stop?
His rough imprecation thrilled Liz. She wasn’t sure when she had turned into this wanton person, but his careful abstinence was increasing her hunger for him. Right now, with his breath on the skin of her neck, his fingers curled into the curve of her bottom, she wanted him more than ever before. Impulsively, she started rubbing her breasts against him, sucking in a breath at the wonderful sensations.
Max snapped his head up, one part of his brain scanning the surrounding desert frantically for a place to go—somewhere not so out in the open—the other soaking in the feel of those feminine curves against him. She was going to be the death of him! Curving an arm around her back, he pressed her tightly against his chest, stilling her movements. “Sweetheart…” he started cautioning her, but the desire in her eyes silenced him. Momentarily, he felt a lump in his throat at the thought that she felt this way about him—it was something he had never anticipated happening, certainly not on earth, maybe even never. “I want you to always look at me that way,” he blurted out recklessly. Just for now, he wanted to pretend that there was nothing standing in the way of a future for them.
“Only if you promise to always kiss me like this,” she threw back.
Was she kidding? If she ever did become his, he would make kissing her like this a lifetime occupation! “I promise,” he vowed, prolonging the enchantment.
Standing on her tiptoes to rub her nose against his, Liz played along. “So let’s find a place to rest, so I can start collecting on those kisses.”
“Yeah,” he breathed against her lips, unable to put an end to the intimate moment.
The soft whisper of his mouth against hers was intoxicating and arousing. Liz fumbled behind her until she managed to get hold of one of his hands. He put up only token resistance when she pried his fingers away from her behind and eagerly lifted his hand to press it against her breast. A soft moan slipped out when he instinctively cupped the small mound.
A rational part of his mind was amazed at what he was doing. He was in the middle of nowhere, having barely escaped a fight with his life, still being hunted by a power hungry dictator, and he was heedlessly allowing lust to rule his actions. Breaking their kiss, he trailed his open mouth over Liz’s cheek towards her ear.
“I want you so much…”
The words were ragged pants, but they shot fire through her veins, a rushing moistness to her core. His thumb was grazing the hard peak of her breast rhythmically and she felt her womb contract in desire.
Around them, the desert sand was being warmed by the sun, the cicadas taking up their song.
Max suddenly had a fleeting flash of him and Liz in a tangle of naked limbs and soft sheets, his name a soft cry on her lips. That was how it should be…
Catching her face in his hands, he gently pushed her back, smiling wryly at the confused disappointment in her expression. “Honey, you have me working on a hair-trigger here,” he told her, his voice husky. Just a slight movement of his hips against hers underscored his point. “Have mercy, please, I’ve… I’m not used to this. I don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Liz was biting her lip again, a sure sign that she was feeling uncertain.
Max angled her face up until she had no option but to meet his gaze. “Let’s find our way out of here and back to our friends and then we’ll… talk.” The way her eyes lit up nearly took his breath away. “But we have to find some shelter for today first.” Taking a deep breath, he laced their fingers together and started off towards a mountain ridge in the distance.
With that promise ringing in her ears, Liz would have followed him anywhere.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Are you sure the message said Prince Zan is alive?” The voice was deep and carried easily around the com-chamber on the ship.
“Yes, Sire.”
A long moment of silence stretched the nerves of the young man standing anxiously in front of the com-centre. If only he had known how to handle this himself, without needing some higher authorization…
“The previous message said Zan was dead… This is why you were sent, to retrieve his body.”
“Yes.” It was all very confusing. But they all knew which message they wanted to be true.
“Did the two messages originate from the same place?”
“No, Sire. But the origins were not far apart, the sender could have moved from one location to the other.”
“We need to verify both messages. There is no way we can… We have to be sure. This will change everything either way.”
“I know, Sire.”
“Send a message back—you know what to say. We have to find out where to strike.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Oh, Space Boy!” Maria came breezing into the cabin, having haphazardly parked the all-terrain vehicle she had used to make a run to the resistance in Albuquerque in front of the porch. Michael barely had time to move before Maria had whirled through the door of their room and flung herself into his arms, kissing him noisily. “Did ya miss me?” she asked with one of her trademark impish grins.
He shrugged, knowing it would make her mad.
She shoved him away immediately, planting her hands on her hips. “Why do I even bother? You are like the worst boyfriend in the universe! I really should trade you in for some other—”
He silenced her like he always did, with a hard kiss. “Damn, and it was so quiet here without you.”
Maria’s grin returned with speed. That had been Michael-speak for ‘I missed you’.
“Now tell me what happened in Albuquerque…”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hearing the buzz of the com-unit, Khivar hurried back to his tent. Seeing the caller’s identification sign, he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, Nacedo was checking in…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They had stumbled onto the small resort purely by accident. It was tiny, with only a few cabins and a few camping spots, none of which seemed to be occupied. As they approached the office, Max could only hope they didn’t look like escaped convicts or that the owner would be too desperate for cash to care about who they were. Whatever the case, Liz’s hopeful look at the cabins had made up his mind—they would stay here for the day.
Finding some crumpled dollars in his pocket, Max did some alien magic and turned them into hundreds. The owner gave the money one look and handed over the keys to one of the cabins without commenting on their lack of luggage or a vehicle.
Liz was grinning by the time they were walking down the trail to their cabin. “You come in real handy sometimes!”
But Max was too busy fighting images of a bed, a double bed with soft sheets, to pay too much attention to Liz’s compliment. He halted abruptly, pulling Liz to a stop through their linked hands. I should just turn around right now and go phone a cab or a car rental company or something…
“Max?”
Her big eyes were staring up at him, her face filled with a question mark. Behind her, the cabin loomed invitingly. The cabin with a shower, a kitchen and… a bed. The cabin that could soon hold Liz. A naked Liz in the shower. In the bed. Oh God.
“Max?” Liz was tugging on his hand now. “Is something wrong?”
“I…” His throat felt scratchy and he cleared it hastily. He tore his gaze from the cabin and tried to ignore the thoughts of being alone with her, with a bed near, for the first time since their bonding. “We should probably…” He couldn’t say it. Meeting her eyes, he knew he couldn’t tell her they should leave.
He was staring at her now, drinking in the sight of her, even as dusty and sweaty as she was, she was gorgeous to him. The ache to have her hadn’t gone away, it had just receded to the background. Now, with the heaven of a private room at their disposal, it had returned full force, slamming into his gut like a tidal wave. A small drop of moisture slipped from the hollow of her throat and ran lazily down to the valley between her breasts. He felt his breath literally stop before he managed to yank his eyes back to her face. Her gaze fairly scorched him.
Maybe that talk about the future should happen really soon—like the moment they stepped inside that cabin!
Chapter 26
Max was in hell. Finally having fled the small cabin after listening to Liz shower for all of two seconds, he had gone to the little office/curio shop/tuck shop and purchased Liz an oversized T-shirt, ‘Carlsbad’ emblazoned on the front, to wear so she could wash her other clothes. He had also bought them some colas and snacks to eat. Then he had stood staring at the map of the Carlsbad area that had been up on the wall of the shop, trying to see where they were. They seemed a long way away from the more visited tourist areas near the commercially utilized parts of the Carlsbad caves.
He had spent as much time as he could over in the little shop, but it still hadn’t kept him away from the cabin long enough. His feet had dragged as he had approached the porch, his mind filled with images of Liz wearing only the shirt he was clutching in his hand. How the devil was he going to do this without making a complete fool of himself? He didn’t have any experience either and his control over his body with Liz around was more or less zero at the best of times… and now that actual lovemaking was at hand, he was in even deeper trouble.
He desperately wanted to make this special and wonderful for Liz.
Liz had phoned Kyle from a pay phone shortly after they had arrived and Max had watched as she tried to talk calmly while Kyle had yelled into the phone from the other end about how worried they had been. The conversation had taken place in some kind of code that Max hadn’t understood much of—only figuring out that Kyle had wanted to meet them somewhere as soon as possible. His heart had stopped when Liz had looked right at him and informed Kyle that the meeting would have to be the following morning. Her eyes had told him that she had bought this time for them with a reason. The thought had made him dizzy.
Kyle had reluctantly agreed that they could make their way to the rendezvous point on their own tomorrow, ending the conversation by saying they could probably all use some rest before the next phase began since Khivar had disappeared anyway.
Then they had walked back to the cabin and towards the discussion that had been lurking in the wings ever since they had realized they were bonded.
Their talk about the future had taken less time than he had anticipated and had been filled with tears and firm stands from both of them. Decisions had finally been made and afterwards they had stared at each other with a new awareness—things weren’t perfect, but this time was theirs.
Liz took her time in the shower – the feeling was blissful after so long in the same clothes and without adequate water supplies. The resort was really basic – her parents would have been appalled at the place. The cabin had an ugly orange bedspread on the only bed and the cutlery in the kitchenette consisted of a diverse assortment of mismatched things.
She didn’t care one bit. The most important feature of the little place was perfect. His name was Max Evans.
No words had been spoken about the looming big step they were about to take. It hadn’t been necessary. They just knew.
There was another reason she was staying in the shower so long. Liz was nervous like she had never been before in her life. What if this was one big disaster? What if she did something wrong? She knew the scientific facts of course, she had studied enough biology for that. She knew what went where and more or less what he would look like without clothes. But the reality was so different from dry facts. She had no idea what her body would do under these circumstances. What had happened on the dream plane had been a perfect situation – just their minds had been involved. Now, things were up to her body too.
Stepping out of the tiny shower cubicle, she grabbed a towel and stopped in front of the mirror, clutching the coarse material to her breasts. What if he was disappointed by what she looked like? She bit her lip, telling herself she was being an idiot. This was the guy who’d held her through an orgasm, touched almost all of her and still wanted her.
And he loved her, of that she was as sure as she was of the earth orbiting the sun.
Pacing in the quiet bedroom did nothing to alleviate Max’s panic. The shower has been off for a long time now and he wondered what Liz was still doing in the bathroom. He stared around him. In desperation for something to do, he had ended up changing the awful color of the bedspread to a deep blue, softening the feel of the bedding in the process, and had proceeded to redo the whole room. It had started out as a way to keep his mind of what was going on behind that closed door to his right, not to mention what was going to be happening here soon, and had morphed into a urgent effort to make this room into something special. By now, the room looked completely different. For one, it was color-coordinated in blue and cream and what was more, he had added sprinkles of flower-petals fashioned from leaves all over the room. Was it enough? Would she hate him one day for taking her virginity in this dingy cabin in the middle of nowhere?
Suddenly, the bathroom door opened behind him and he swung around, swallowing anxiously. Her eyes were huge in her beautiful face, staring at him as if she feared he was going to take off or something. She was wrapped in a thin towel that had obviously seen better days too. Max could care less about the towel, his eyes were glued to what it revealed—the gentle upper slopes of her breasts, a generous portion of smooth thigh and a trembling, inviting mouth.
He was halfway across the room towards her when he caught hold of himself. If you touch her now, it’s going to be over, he cautioned himself, clenching his hands into fists at his sides.
They stared at each other for long moments, having so much to say and no words to say it with. Max thrust his hands into his pockets as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. If Liz only knew – he was trying to hide his all too obvious physical response to the situation—to her.
“I guess,” Max gestured vaguely towards the open door Liz had just come through, “it’s my turn now.” And I’m going to freeze myself to death in there before I come out again.
Liz was gaping at the room—the totally transformed room. Taking a step forward, she felt something silky and cool beneath the sole of her foot. Rose petals. White rose petals. “Max,” she breathed, abruptly feeling emotional as she met his amber gaze again.
Unexpectedly, he blushed, biting the corner of his lip as his eyes flickered away from hers. “I just wanted… I mean I don’t want you to feel… It was…” he stammered.
“You did it for me.” Not a question, a statement of fact. “Oh Max!” She walked over to the bed, touching the newly done spread with slender fingers before turning bright, happy eyes to him. “I love it! I love you!”
The words still knocked his breath from his lungs. “They’re my colors,” he blurted out. “From Antar, I mean. The colors of my family.”
Liz looked at the room with new eyes. The colors of the Royal House of Antar. “Thank you,” she whispered, not knowing how better to make him see how much the trouble he had gone to meant to her.
He was suddenly standing close to her, his heat enveloping her. “On my planet, when… a bonding had taken place… there’s this room in the Ruling House—our house—with these colors. It’s for the—the first time between… For the wedding night.” Doran had showed him and Isabel pictures of all the rooms in their parents’ palace when they were little, telling them about each room. The blue and cream ‘Consummating Room’ had stuck in his memory. Many lonely nights while he had been in high school in Roswell he had wondered if he would ever get to use that room and if it would be with someone he loved.
They were staring at each other again and Max cleared his throat. His hands itched to touch her and he lifted one without thinking, sliding his fingers over her damp hair. Her soft sigh yanked him back to reality and he stepped back from her hastily. “Shower.”
She nodded and he fled into the bathroom.
After dressing in the T-shirt she found on the bed, Liz sat propped against the headboard, her knees drawn up to her chest and the shirt pulled over them. The morning sun filtered through the lace curtains in the window, dappling the rich blue cover she was perched on with patterns of light, highlighting some of the rose petals that were strewn on the bed. Picking one up, she rubbed it between her fingertips, listening to the shower run in the adjoining room. The scent of the flower felt especially aromatic—just like everything else seemed… more. She just knew she would remember every tiny detail of this moment for the rest of her life.
She was still sniffing the rose petal when she became aware of Max standing next to the bed, a towel wrapped around his hips. His tender smile made her heart beat faster.
“I thought that was the ugliest T-shirt I’ve ever seen in my life, but I was wrong,” he said in a husky voice, fingering the sleeve.
Struck speechless by the sight of all that bare skin in touching distance, Liz almost didn’t hear his compliment. Their previous moments alone when he had been wearing so little had been too intense for her to truly appreciate how gorgeous his body was. His arms were strong, his pectoral muscles strongly defined and his stomach ribbed. Her eyes widened when her gaze slipped lower.
Max dropped down onto the bed immediately, embarrassed about the obvious lack of success of his cold shower that the thin towel did nothing to hide. He was never going to make it inside of her before losing it, he just knew it!
“Liz, I—I really want to do this right for you, but I…” The heat and desire in her eyes caused him to stumble to a halt. A ringing started in his ears and he realized it was because he had forgotten to breathe. “Liz,” he groaned, leaning forward to kiss her, helpless to stop himself.
She was in his arms instantly, fitting herself against him urgently as he pulled her into his lap. The kiss was hungry and unrestrained, their tongues dueling, sliding against each other, their hands reveling in touching each other.
Sweet heaven, Liz thought, feeling the desperate way in which Max was trying to kiss all of her at the same time. His mouth had broken away from hers, traveling over her face to her neck, leaving a damp trail behind. A moan slipped from her when his fingers slipped beneath the hem of the shirt, sliding over her thigh to her hip. She wanted to touch all of him too. His skin was heated and silky, covering the hard muscles beneath it but not hiding their tiny movements. When she curled her fingers into the bulge of his shoulder, he groaned her name and his mouth covered hers again in a bruising, rough kiss.
Their connection opened with a rush, flooding them with images of their dream plane loving and their feelings.
Her nervousness brought Max back from the brink. He lifted his lips and rested his forehead against hers, listening to their labored breathing punctuate the stillness of the room. Silently he berated himself for falling on her like an animal—this was her, their, first time, for Pete’s sake!
Swollen lips and tangled hair evidenced his wild behavior with her. Touching her mouth gently, he tried to fight down his baser urges. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
She sighed with a small smile. “You think too much and you worry too much.”
“Tell me why you’re nervous?” He watched her blush and stroked her face again. “Please. Then I’ll tell you why I’m nervous.”
“I—I’m not sure what to do.”
“Me too,” he murmured, kissing her cheek.
“I’ve heard awful things about the first time.”
“So, we can only get better, right?” This won him a smile.
The peace lasted only a moment, then a horrible thought hit him. “Liz!” How could he have forgotten that he could get her pregnant? Her startled look had him taking a deep breath. “Honey, we need to think about—about birth control.” The shock on her face told him she had been just as carried away as he had been.
“But,” she looked alarmed, “I’m not using anything. What will we do?”
Liz felt sick. Surely fate couldn’t be so cruel to show her heaven and take it away. A soft touch on her cheek had her lifting her gaze to Max’s. He was looking at her anxiously.
“When I healed what Nicholas had done to you… I—I can change you inside. Will you trust me?” He rushed on. “It’s not permanent.”
She didn’t even need to think about the answer. “Yes.”
Overcome by her unquestioning trust, Max moved her onto the bed and onto her back carefully. He lay down next to her, but hesitated. “I need to touch your skin…”
Lifting her hips, Liz pulled the shirt up to just beneath her breasts, blushing profusely.
Max nearly passed out. She was gloriously naked. Knowing that there was no way he’d be able to concentrate, he yanked a corner of the bedspread over her hips, tugging it low so her womb was accessible.
“How do you know how to heal?” Liz asked in an attempt to diffuse the tension.
He glanced at her before spreading his hand over her stomach. “I just know. We are born with these powers—they differ from person to person. Doran showed me a few things, but mostly, it’s just instinct.” Taking a deep breath, he stilled the trembling in his hand and closed his eyes in concentration.
Barely breathing while she watched him, Liz took a moment to ponder the wonder of the situation. An alien was about to make love to her. Tracing the lines of the mussed black hair bent so close to her body, Liz corrected herself. Max Evans was about to make love to her.
A tingling in her womb made her suck in her breath. It felt warm and soothing, not at all like the burning that had plagued her after Nicholas—
“Don’t think about it—him,” Max’s quiet voice interrupted her near descent into darkness. He crawled higher on the bed until he could slide his arm beneath her shoulders. “I’m here.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re safe.” He kissed her nose. “I love you.” He kissed her mouth.
The kiss didn’t stay innocent for long. Soon, her arms were around his neck, holding him close as his mouth parted hers to taste her surrender. His arousal pressed into her hip, the towel only barely still there.
His fingers found her breasts, fanning over the aroused peaks and wringing a small cry from her throat.
“Tell me you love me, please Liz.”
Cupping his cheeks with her hands, she lifted her lips from his a fraction, far enough to see his vulnerable eyes, but close enough that he would feel every word she spoke. “I love you, Mi Shanaya,” she told him deliberately.
He sucked in a harsh breath at the endearment, the first time she’d spoken it aloud to him. Keeper of my Heart. It stunned him that hearing those words meant so much to him. He touched the hem of her shirt and she lifted her arms in silent permission.
A few seconds later, they were both naked. Max held her against him, afraid that she would be intimidated by his nudity. “Tell me what to do,” he pleaded. “I want to do this right.”
She pressed her face into his shoulder, luxuriating in the feel of his hard, warm body resting over hers. “Just love me. I’m sure we’ll get it right.”
Moving between her thighs slowly, Max kept his eyes on her face, watching for any sign that she was uncomfortable.
Liz closed her eyes, breathing in his scent, experiencing every little movement he made against her skin. He was holding most of his weight carefully off her, but the ache in her womb made her curl her legs around his hips, wanting to bring him closer to that place that was calling to him.
A rough sound escaped Max when his arousal slid against the scalding wetness of her core. He was shaking by now with the effort of keeping himself from just heedlessly plunging inside her. Instead, he kissed her again, his hand cupping her breast, kneading the small mound almost convulsively. He deliberately kept their connection open, straining to feel what she felt and to know what she needed. He touched her the way she wanted to be touched, the way her body told him to. Slowly, he began to rub his hips against hers, almost coming at the first sign of wet friction against his erection as the underside slipped through her folds.
Tearing her mouth from his, Liz arched beneath him and moaned long and low. Her hips found their own rhythm, bucking against him in an effort to increase the intense spasms that had started in her womb and had sent a fresh wave of warm moistness to the apex of her thighs. “Please Max…” She was panting harshly now, her nails digging into his shoulders, her legs holding him tighter and tighter. And still he was not where she wanted him to be—deep inside her. “Please!”
Max knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out long after entering her, so he needed her as close to the edge as he could get her. But her movements were driving him crazy. The scent of her arousal was around him, the hard peaks of her breasts brushed against him tantalizingly with every shift of her hips, and the small sounds she made deep in her throat sent a fierce rush of lust slamming into his gut.
Rearing back, he braced himself on his forearms, lifting his body away, from the clinging embrace of her legs. Liz whimpered in protest, her hands sliding down the damp curve of his spine. Max nearly lost it then. His body arched helplessly beneath her hands, his head going back as he formed a harsh, inarticulate sound of hunger.
“Max?” Liz was digging her fingers into the backs of his thighs by now, silently urging him on, urging him into her. She had had to force her heavy eyelids open, but it had been worth every effort. The sight of Max’s flushed face, the sheen of moisture on his skin, and the glory of his fully naked body poised to mesh with hers would stay with her forever.
Pressing closer, Max halted as soon as his body touched hers. They both watched as the tip of his erection slipped into her body—it was the only place they were touching right now.
“Say yes, Liz,” he prompted her hoarsely, his body shaking with the effort to control it.
She stared up at him through a haze of need, finding the strength from somewhere to wrap her legs around him again. “Yes! Only ever you, Max.” His eyes widened when she repeated the promise he had exacted from her in a moment from a dream so long ago.
Grabbing onto her thighs, he started pressing into her. “Tell me if I hurt you,” he pleaded, sweat forming on his forehead. He was killing himself to go slowly and gently. In a few short strokes, he had reached her barrier.
“Don’t stop!” she pleaded, urging him on with her legs and hands, hearing him call her name when her body gave way with a soft tug to allow his total invasion. “Don’t ever stop.”
Max clung to her, afraid to move a muscle. Liz was gasping in his ear, small spasms deep inside her body enveloping his throbbing shaft. “Sweetheart?”
She hugged him closer, not capable of forming coherent words. The pain had been so much less than she had expected and was dulled so quickly by other sensations—the frantic movement of his chest, the slide of his thighs against the insides of hers, the agitated sound of his ragged breathing, the delicious pressure of the base of his arousal against her pleasure point.
It took only a small shift of Liz’s hips to send them over the edge. Max felt himself lose control over his body, felt instinctive movement take over. He had so wanted to be able to watch her and guide her through her release, but only a few strokes was needed before he felt the jerk of his own orgasm racing though him, the hot spurts of it flowing from him and into her.
Liz had stared at him in amazement, never having seen him lose control like this before. He had gasped her name just before his climax overtook him, the sound whipping her own release closer. But it was the feel of his hot spill inside her, combined with the short strokes of his body into hers, that triggered her own explosion, arching her off the bed as her hips jerked against his, his name a cry on her lips.
Max collapsed against Liz afterwards, their still shuddering bodies pressed closely together. He stayed inside her—too many years of loneliness and too many months of wanting had preceded this moment for it to be just over in an instant. His body craved more.
When he finally moved, Liz saw that his eyes were damp. She had to swallow too when he caressed her hair reverently, as if she was too precious to believe. “Max?”
“I’m sorry I hurt you and that—that I couldn’t… wait for you.” He stared down at her, his wet eyes filled with love.
Liz reached up and pulled his mouth to hers, kissing him deeply. “I love you,” she told him gently. Immediately, the tears in his eyes welled up anew. “Max?”
He touched her lips with his fingers. “I never thought…” He met her gaze, breathing deeply. “I thought I would never experience love. I never belonged here on earth and… I never knew if I was ever going to go back to Antar. I was afraid of what people would do if they knew what I was. Sharing yourself with me like this… Liz, you don’t know what it means to me.”
He’s been so lonely, Liz realized. She kissed him again, concentrating on sending him her love through their connection. It was a long, slow mating of mouths.
“Are you really okay?” he asked against her lips, his hands drifting over her warm, damp skin.
“Wonderful. Perfect.” She interspersed each word with a brush of her mouth.
“Mmm,” he murmured, tasting her, feeling his body hardening inside hers. Cupping her cheeks, he lifted his head, looking down at her intently. “Are you sure?” Her nod made him smile slowly. “Because,” he nuzzled her face, “I need—”
“More?” she cut in. Shifting beneath him sensuously, she sighed. “Me too. Much more.”
This time it was slow, giving them time to savor each sensation fully. Max listened to her breath hitch as he slid in and out of her in steady rhythm. He stopped once or twice to fully experience the way her inner muscles gripped his shaft.
Liz closed her eyes, hearing the sounds he made as he moved inside her. The feeling of being filled by him was indescribable, the spasms of his body increasing her own excitement. She felt the rhythmic clenching of the muscles in his thighs and buttocks as he pumped into her, heard him whisper and groan her name, sensed his pleasure through their connection.
Their releases were slower in coming, but so worth waiting for. Max watched as she climaxed, drinking in the sight of her arched throat, her parted lips, the flush that covered the whole upper part of her body.
Liz watched him again too, timing the movement of her hips to the movements of his, fiercely happy to be sharing this with him. He shuddered above her, inside her, flooding her with more of his warm release. “I love you,” she whispered again, seeing his eyes snap open as a result.
U Shayna Min. You are mine.
They slept curled into each other, still loath to give up their newfound physical closeness. It was after two in the afternoon when Liz finally woke up to find Max watching her sleep.
“I love seeing you wake up,” he admitted. He leaned closer to murmur in her ear. “Especially with your body covered in glowing hickeys.”
At her shocked exclamation, he grinned. “I’m sorry, it seemed that I got carried away a little.” He placed his fingers on a few marks on her body, removing them. “I cannot think why,” he said with a contented chuckle.
“I’m hungry,” Liz admitted after they shared a few smiling kisses. “What did you bring us?” She was already scrambling from the bed, locating the resort T-shirt on the floor and pulling it over her head.
Max watched indulgently, knowing he was going to take that shirt off her again eventually. “Nothing wonderful. Some snack bars and stuff.”
Liz had already gone to the living room of the cabin and returned with the handful of snacks. She dumped them in the middle of the bed and climbed back on, sitting cross-legged next to Max and tucking into the first thing she could lay her hands on.
Staring at her, Max wondered if everything she does from now on would turn him on. His eyes fell on the stupid Carlsbad logo blazoned on the front of the T-shirt she wore. Grinning, he leaned over and swiped his hand over the picture, erasing it. Then he “wrote” with his finger over her chest, leaving blue lines forming the words: Property of Max Evans. That was true in all the ways there were now.
His show of possessiveness made Liz forget her food.
And their third time was even better than the first two.
tbc
Reports of more deaths of soldiers had been arriving throughout the night and the mood in Khivar’s camp was muted. An alliance between the Royal Guards and the Earth Resistance was not something that Khivar had worried about yet, since he had never suspected that there were any Royal Guards on the planet. Instead, he had been searching for a few individuals: Zan, his sister and whoever had been sent to protect them.
Somewhere something had gone horribly wrong and suddenly all sorts of forces were uniting against him.
Striding outside to stare up at the stars dimming with the approach of dawn, Khivar grimly admitted that he had underestimated a number of people. Liz Parker was the most notable of these. How had she managed to get herself bonded to the alien prince? And why on earth had they bonded but not consummated? How had she duped me for so long?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
With Alex’s assistance, Michael had been able to set up a communications network with his soldiers that Khivar could not trace. Alex had made it his business to know exactly what Khivar’s capabilities in this sector were and his experience came in handy now.
It was early on the second morning of Max and Liz’s disappearance that Isabel knocked on the door of Michael’s room softly. Her heart sank at his hopeful look. “Nothing,” she admitted. She had been trying to dreamwalk Max for hours until deep into the night, but had had no success. “Either he didn’t sleep or the serum is still in his system and is blocking me.” Sighing, she sat down on the edge of Michael and Maria’s bed. “What are we going to do?”
Michael returned his gaze to the papers filled with battle plans that were laid out on the floor in front of him. “We are going to follow his orders, that’s what,” he said firmly. They’ve had amazing successes, but Khivar had warned his soldiers by now and they had been disappearing from all over.
“Have we heard anything resulting from that message yet?” Truthfully, Isabel wasn’t sure that she really wanted an answer—she had decidedly mixed feelings about Antar—she remembered nothing of the planet they had left when they weren’t much older than babies. Diane Evans had been more of a mother to her and Max, but especially to her, than anyone else in her life and it had been really hard to leave her earth parents when Khivar had taken over the planet a few years ago. On the other hand, she was so tired of living in the desert like this, of not having luxuries around her and of not being able to go shopping like any other normal young woman. And, on her home planet, she was a Princess.
“Not a thing,” Michael’s brusque tone interrupted her thoughts. “It will probably take a day or so before we get a response. If we get a response.” Michael did not believe in sugarcoating things. Sighing, he went back to studying Max’s plans, he would have to organize a meeting with the resistance soon, they couldn’t go on relying on Maria to ferry messages across. It was time the resistance knew who and what they were assisting.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Liz shot a glance up at the stars that were winking out one-by-one above them in the dawn-sky. How bizarre that the person holding her hand so warmly down here in the desert of New Mexico had been born on one of those shining planets so far above her!
Sensing her momentary lapse of attention, Max turned his head to look back at her. “Everything okay? Are you tired?” They had been walking steadily for most of the night, only stopping when Liz had really needed to rest her feet. Max hadn’t said a word of complaint about the fact that he had had to shorten his strides to allow her to keep up with him.
She smiled brightly at him, reveling in being in his presence, in loving him, and in his oh-so-obvious love for her. “I’m fine. I was just enjoying the view,” she teased, dropping her eyes to his backside. “Pity you fixed your shirt, though.” Max flushed in embarrassment, but his gaze darkened and Liz giggled at how easily she could get to him. She had been flirting with him all through their long trek and had alternately been scolded or kissed senseless. Whatever happened, she was enjoying herself and this precious time she had to be alone with him. Ruefully she shook her head at herself—she was enjoying herself in these circumstances? No wonder she had fallen in love with an alien so easily!
Their night trek had started with Max halting just outside the cave they had spent the last few hours in to stare at the desert stretching off in both directions. Then he had looked at her, quite sheepishly actually. “Do you have any idea which way we should go?”
Liz had laughed loudly at this. Firstly, here was a man, granted he was of the alien variety, but still a man, asking directions. And secondly, she had been unconscious when he had carried her here. They had eventually debated their options and decided on a course—Liz hoping that the landmarks that looked vaguely familiar to her, truly were the ones she was recognizing.
Max had amazing stamina and Liz began to understand how he had managed to drag her so far while he had been hurt. At some point during the night, she had been terribly tired and he had moved the emergency pack to his front and let her hop on his back, claiming she weighed as much as a feather. It didn’t last very long though with Max stopping at a small copse of trees to let her slide off. Her questioning gaze had found him flushed and he had mumbled something about her virtue being in danger if she stayed on his back.
It all made her love him more.
Now dawn was breaking and Max looked at the horizon, where the sun was just starting to rise, in speculation. “I think we shouldn’t keep walking now that the sun is up,” he informed Liz, stopping to pull her into his side. “We can keep going until we find a place with some shelter, but I don’t want us to dehydrate or get heat-stroke or something.”
Leaning against him, Liz just nodded. She was tired. An office-worker by profession, she was not terribly fit, so a reprieve would be welcome.
Kissing her forehead tenderly, Max hugged Liz for a few moments. She was even more courageous than he had thought, and had trudged through the thick desert sand for hours without complaining. If only they could find the damn Hummer he had ditched the other night! Surely everyone was panicking about them by now? And he was more determined than ever to finish this struggle with Khivar once and for all. It was time to get his life in order. Resting his lips against Liz’s warm skin, he sent a silent wish heavenward: to get this over with so he could talk to Liz about the future.
The thought of losing her made him panic, and he pulled her fully into his arms in reaction, finding her cheeks with his hands and tilting her face up for a rough kiss. Could he really ask her to stay with him? What if she said no? As her tongue touched his fleetingly, teasingly, his desperation increased. She belonged in his arms, in his life. Her body fit his, completed his. He changed the angle of his kiss, parting her lips with his tongue and sweeping inside. It was getting harder and harder to keep control over his physical need for her. Her merciless teasing and flirting had kept him at a slow simmer all night, but he still had visions of everlasting promises and a romantic room somewhere for their first time. She deserved it.
Feeling her step in closer, pressing herself against his length, he vaguely heard himself groan. Her hands were restless, sliding from his shoulders to find the hem of his shirt, plunging underneath until she could rake her nails down his back. His body jerked helplessly in response, the movement tearing their mouths apart. Max buried his face in her neck, too wrapped up in the sensations swirling through him and tightening his gut, to take any notice of the soft shimmer of his mark. “Liz…” He had no idea what he wanted to say to her—stop? Don’t stop?
His rough imprecation thrilled Liz. She wasn’t sure when she had turned into this wanton person, but his careful abstinence was increasing her hunger for him. Right now, with his breath on the skin of her neck, his fingers curled into the curve of her bottom, she wanted him more than ever before. Impulsively, she started rubbing her breasts against him, sucking in a breath at the wonderful sensations.
Max snapped his head up, one part of his brain scanning the surrounding desert frantically for a place to go—somewhere not so out in the open—the other soaking in the feel of those feminine curves against him. She was going to be the death of him! Curving an arm around her back, he pressed her tightly against his chest, stilling her movements. “Sweetheart…” he started cautioning her, but the desire in her eyes silenced him. Momentarily, he felt a lump in his throat at the thought that she felt this way about him—it was something he had never anticipated happening, certainly not on earth, maybe even never. “I want you to always look at me that way,” he blurted out recklessly. Just for now, he wanted to pretend that there was nothing standing in the way of a future for them.
“Only if you promise to always kiss me like this,” she threw back.
Was she kidding? If she ever did become his, he would make kissing her like this a lifetime occupation! “I promise,” he vowed, prolonging the enchantment.
Standing on her tiptoes to rub her nose against his, Liz played along. “So let’s find a place to rest, so I can start collecting on those kisses.”
“Yeah,” he breathed against her lips, unable to put an end to the intimate moment.
The soft whisper of his mouth against hers was intoxicating and arousing. Liz fumbled behind her until she managed to get hold of one of his hands. He put up only token resistance when she pried his fingers away from her behind and eagerly lifted his hand to press it against her breast. A soft moan slipped out when he instinctively cupped the small mound.
A rational part of his mind was amazed at what he was doing. He was in the middle of nowhere, having barely escaped a fight with his life, still being hunted by a power hungry dictator, and he was heedlessly allowing lust to rule his actions. Breaking their kiss, he trailed his open mouth over Liz’s cheek towards her ear.
“I want you so much…”
The words were ragged pants, but they shot fire through her veins, a rushing moistness to her core. His thumb was grazing the hard peak of her breast rhythmically and she felt her womb contract in desire.
Around them, the desert sand was being warmed by the sun, the cicadas taking up their song.
Max suddenly had a fleeting flash of him and Liz in a tangle of naked limbs and soft sheets, his name a soft cry on her lips. That was how it should be…
Catching her face in his hands, he gently pushed her back, smiling wryly at the confused disappointment in her expression. “Honey, you have me working on a hair-trigger here,” he told her, his voice husky. Just a slight movement of his hips against hers underscored his point. “Have mercy, please, I’ve… I’m not used to this. I don’t want to embarrass myself.”
Liz was biting her lip again, a sure sign that she was feeling uncertain.
Max angled her face up until she had no option but to meet his gaze. “Let’s find our way out of here and back to our friends and then we’ll… talk.” The way her eyes lit up nearly took his breath away. “But we have to find some shelter for today first.” Taking a deep breath, he laced their fingers together and started off towards a mountain ridge in the distance.
With that promise ringing in her ears, Liz would have followed him anywhere.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Are you sure the message said Prince Zan is alive?” The voice was deep and carried easily around the com-chamber on the ship.
“Yes, Sire.”
A long moment of silence stretched the nerves of the young man standing anxiously in front of the com-centre. If only he had known how to handle this himself, without needing some higher authorization…
“The previous message said Zan was dead… This is why you were sent, to retrieve his body.”
“Yes.” It was all very confusing. But they all knew which message they wanted to be true.
“Did the two messages originate from the same place?”
“No, Sire. But the origins were not far apart, the sender could have moved from one location to the other.”
“We need to verify both messages. There is no way we can… We have to be sure. This will change everything either way.”
“I know, Sire.”
“Send a message back—you know what to say. We have to find out where to strike.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Oh, Space Boy!” Maria came breezing into the cabin, having haphazardly parked the all-terrain vehicle she had used to make a run to the resistance in Albuquerque in front of the porch. Michael barely had time to move before Maria had whirled through the door of their room and flung herself into his arms, kissing him noisily. “Did ya miss me?” she asked with one of her trademark impish grins.
He shrugged, knowing it would make her mad.
She shoved him away immediately, planting her hands on her hips. “Why do I even bother? You are like the worst boyfriend in the universe! I really should trade you in for some other—”
He silenced her like he always did, with a hard kiss. “Damn, and it was so quiet here without you.”
Maria’s grin returned with speed. That had been Michael-speak for ‘I missed you’.
“Now tell me what happened in Albuquerque…”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hearing the buzz of the com-unit, Khivar hurried back to his tent. Seeing the caller’s identification sign, he breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, Nacedo was checking in…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They had stumbled onto the small resort purely by accident. It was tiny, with only a few cabins and a few camping spots, none of which seemed to be occupied. As they approached the office, Max could only hope they didn’t look like escaped convicts or that the owner would be too desperate for cash to care about who they were. Whatever the case, Liz’s hopeful look at the cabins had made up his mind—they would stay here for the day.
Finding some crumpled dollars in his pocket, Max did some alien magic and turned them into hundreds. The owner gave the money one look and handed over the keys to one of the cabins without commenting on their lack of luggage or a vehicle.
Liz was grinning by the time they were walking down the trail to their cabin. “You come in real handy sometimes!”
But Max was too busy fighting images of a bed, a double bed with soft sheets, to pay too much attention to Liz’s compliment. He halted abruptly, pulling Liz to a stop through their linked hands. I should just turn around right now and go phone a cab or a car rental company or something…
“Max?”
Her big eyes were staring up at him, her face filled with a question mark. Behind her, the cabin loomed invitingly. The cabin with a shower, a kitchen and… a bed. The cabin that could soon hold Liz. A naked Liz in the shower. In the bed. Oh God.
“Max?” Liz was tugging on his hand now. “Is something wrong?”
“I…” His throat felt scratchy and he cleared it hastily. He tore his gaze from the cabin and tried to ignore the thoughts of being alone with her, with a bed near, for the first time since their bonding. “We should probably…” He couldn’t say it. Meeting her eyes, he knew he couldn’t tell her they should leave.
He was staring at her now, drinking in the sight of her, even as dusty and sweaty as she was, she was gorgeous to him. The ache to have her hadn’t gone away, it had just receded to the background. Now, with the heaven of a private room at their disposal, it had returned full force, slamming into his gut like a tidal wave. A small drop of moisture slipped from the hollow of her throat and ran lazily down to the valley between her breasts. He felt his breath literally stop before he managed to yank his eyes back to her face. Her gaze fairly scorched him.
Maybe that talk about the future should happen really soon—like the moment they stepped inside that cabin!
Chapter 26
Max was in hell. Finally having fled the small cabin after listening to Liz shower for all of two seconds, he had gone to the little office/curio shop/tuck shop and purchased Liz an oversized T-shirt, ‘Carlsbad’ emblazoned on the front, to wear so she could wash her other clothes. He had also bought them some colas and snacks to eat. Then he had stood staring at the map of the Carlsbad area that had been up on the wall of the shop, trying to see where they were. They seemed a long way away from the more visited tourist areas near the commercially utilized parts of the Carlsbad caves.
He had spent as much time as he could over in the little shop, but it still hadn’t kept him away from the cabin long enough. His feet had dragged as he had approached the porch, his mind filled with images of Liz wearing only the shirt he was clutching in his hand. How the devil was he going to do this without making a complete fool of himself? He didn’t have any experience either and his control over his body with Liz around was more or less zero at the best of times… and now that actual lovemaking was at hand, he was in even deeper trouble.
He desperately wanted to make this special and wonderful for Liz.
Liz had phoned Kyle from a pay phone shortly after they had arrived and Max had watched as she tried to talk calmly while Kyle had yelled into the phone from the other end about how worried they had been. The conversation had taken place in some kind of code that Max hadn’t understood much of—only figuring out that Kyle had wanted to meet them somewhere as soon as possible. His heart had stopped when Liz had looked right at him and informed Kyle that the meeting would have to be the following morning. Her eyes had told him that she had bought this time for them with a reason. The thought had made him dizzy.
Kyle had reluctantly agreed that they could make their way to the rendezvous point on their own tomorrow, ending the conversation by saying they could probably all use some rest before the next phase began since Khivar had disappeared anyway.
Then they had walked back to the cabin and towards the discussion that had been lurking in the wings ever since they had realized they were bonded.
Their talk about the future had taken less time than he had anticipated and had been filled with tears and firm stands from both of them. Decisions had finally been made and afterwards they had stared at each other with a new awareness—things weren’t perfect, but this time was theirs.
Liz took her time in the shower – the feeling was blissful after so long in the same clothes and without adequate water supplies. The resort was really basic – her parents would have been appalled at the place. The cabin had an ugly orange bedspread on the only bed and the cutlery in the kitchenette consisted of a diverse assortment of mismatched things.
She didn’t care one bit. The most important feature of the little place was perfect. His name was Max Evans.
No words had been spoken about the looming big step they were about to take. It hadn’t been necessary. They just knew.
There was another reason she was staying in the shower so long. Liz was nervous like she had never been before in her life. What if this was one big disaster? What if she did something wrong? She knew the scientific facts of course, she had studied enough biology for that. She knew what went where and more or less what he would look like without clothes. But the reality was so different from dry facts. She had no idea what her body would do under these circumstances. What had happened on the dream plane had been a perfect situation – just their minds had been involved. Now, things were up to her body too.
Stepping out of the tiny shower cubicle, she grabbed a towel and stopped in front of the mirror, clutching the coarse material to her breasts. What if he was disappointed by what she looked like? She bit her lip, telling herself she was being an idiot. This was the guy who’d held her through an orgasm, touched almost all of her and still wanted her.
And he loved her, of that she was as sure as she was of the earth orbiting the sun.
Pacing in the quiet bedroom did nothing to alleviate Max’s panic. The shower has been off for a long time now and he wondered what Liz was still doing in the bathroom. He stared around him. In desperation for something to do, he had ended up changing the awful color of the bedspread to a deep blue, softening the feel of the bedding in the process, and had proceeded to redo the whole room. It had started out as a way to keep his mind of what was going on behind that closed door to his right, not to mention what was going to be happening here soon, and had morphed into a urgent effort to make this room into something special. By now, the room looked completely different. For one, it was color-coordinated in blue and cream and what was more, he had added sprinkles of flower-petals fashioned from leaves all over the room. Was it enough? Would she hate him one day for taking her virginity in this dingy cabin in the middle of nowhere?
Suddenly, the bathroom door opened behind him and he swung around, swallowing anxiously. Her eyes were huge in her beautiful face, staring at him as if she feared he was going to take off or something. She was wrapped in a thin towel that had obviously seen better days too. Max could care less about the towel, his eyes were glued to what it revealed—the gentle upper slopes of her breasts, a generous portion of smooth thigh and a trembling, inviting mouth.
He was halfway across the room towards her when he caught hold of himself. If you touch her now, it’s going to be over, he cautioned himself, clenching his hands into fists at his sides.
They stared at each other for long moments, having so much to say and no words to say it with. Max thrust his hands into his pockets as if he wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. If Liz only knew – he was trying to hide his all too obvious physical response to the situation—to her.
“I guess,” Max gestured vaguely towards the open door Liz had just come through, “it’s my turn now.” And I’m going to freeze myself to death in there before I come out again.
Liz was gaping at the room—the totally transformed room. Taking a step forward, she felt something silky and cool beneath the sole of her foot. Rose petals. White rose petals. “Max,” she breathed, abruptly feeling emotional as she met his amber gaze again.
Unexpectedly, he blushed, biting the corner of his lip as his eyes flickered away from hers. “I just wanted… I mean I don’t want you to feel… It was…” he stammered.
“You did it for me.” Not a question, a statement of fact. “Oh Max!” She walked over to the bed, touching the newly done spread with slender fingers before turning bright, happy eyes to him. “I love it! I love you!”
The words still knocked his breath from his lungs. “They’re my colors,” he blurted out. “From Antar, I mean. The colors of my family.”
Liz looked at the room with new eyes. The colors of the Royal House of Antar. “Thank you,” she whispered, not knowing how better to make him see how much the trouble he had gone to meant to her.
He was suddenly standing close to her, his heat enveloping her. “On my planet, when… a bonding had taken place… there’s this room in the Ruling House—our house—with these colors. It’s for the—the first time between… For the wedding night.” Doran had showed him and Isabel pictures of all the rooms in their parents’ palace when they were little, telling them about each room. The blue and cream ‘Consummating Room’ had stuck in his memory. Many lonely nights while he had been in high school in Roswell he had wondered if he would ever get to use that room and if it would be with someone he loved.
They were staring at each other again and Max cleared his throat. His hands itched to touch her and he lifted one without thinking, sliding his fingers over her damp hair. Her soft sigh yanked him back to reality and he stepped back from her hastily. “Shower.”
She nodded and he fled into the bathroom.
After dressing in the T-shirt she found on the bed, Liz sat propped against the headboard, her knees drawn up to her chest and the shirt pulled over them. The morning sun filtered through the lace curtains in the window, dappling the rich blue cover she was perched on with patterns of light, highlighting some of the rose petals that were strewn on the bed. Picking one up, she rubbed it between her fingertips, listening to the shower run in the adjoining room. The scent of the flower felt especially aromatic—just like everything else seemed… more. She just knew she would remember every tiny detail of this moment for the rest of her life.
She was still sniffing the rose petal when she became aware of Max standing next to the bed, a towel wrapped around his hips. His tender smile made her heart beat faster.
“I thought that was the ugliest T-shirt I’ve ever seen in my life, but I was wrong,” he said in a husky voice, fingering the sleeve.
Struck speechless by the sight of all that bare skin in touching distance, Liz almost didn’t hear his compliment. Their previous moments alone when he had been wearing so little had been too intense for her to truly appreciate how gorgeous his body was. His arms were strong, his pectoral muscles strongly defined and his stomach ribbed. Her eyes widened when her gaze slipped lower.
Max dropped down onto the bed immediately, embarrassed about the obvious lack of success of his cold shower that the thin towel did nothing to hide. He was never going to make it inside of her before losing it, he just knew it!
“Liz, I—I really want to do this right for you, but I…” The heat and desire in her eyes caused him to stumble to a halt. A ringing started in his ears and he realized it was because he had forgotten to breathe. “Liz,” he groaned, leaning forward to kiss her, helpless to stop himself.
She was in his arms instantly, fitting herself against him urgently as he pulled her into his lap. The kiss was hungry and unrestrained, their tongues dueling, sliding against each other, their hands reveling in touching each other.
Sweet heaven, Liz thought, feeling the desperate way in which Max was trying to kiss all of her at the same time. His mouth had broken away from hers, traveling over her face to her neck, leaving a damp trail behind. A moan slipped from her when his fingers slipped beneath the hem of the shirt, sliding over her thigh to her hip. She wanted to touch all of him too. His skin was heated and silky, covering the hard muscles beneath it but not hiding their tiny movements. When she curled her fingers into the bulge of his shoulder, he groaned her name and his mouth covered hers again in a bruising, rough kiss.
Their connection opened with a rush, flooding them with images of their dream plane loving and their feelings.
Her nervousness brought Max back from the brink. He lifted his lips and rested his forehead against hers, listening to their labored breathing punctuate the stillness of the room. Silently he berated himself for falling on her like an animal—this was her, their, first time, for Pete’s sake!
Swollen lips and tangled hair evidenced his wild behavior with her. Touching her mouth gently, he tried to fight down his baser urges. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”
She sighed with a small smile. “You think too much and you worry too much.”
“Tell me why you’re nervous?” He watched her blush and stroked her face again. “Please. Then I’ll tell you why I’m nervous.”
“I—I’m not sure what to do.”
“Me too,” he murmured, kissing her cheek.
“I’ve heard awful things about the first time.”
“So, we can only get better, right?” This won him a smile.
The peace lasted only a moment, then a horrible thought hit him. “Liz!” How could he have forgotten that he could get her pregnant? Her startled look had him taking a deep breath. “Honey, we need to think about—about birth control.” The shock on her face told him she had been just as carried away as he had been.
“But,” she looked alarmed, “I’m not using anything. What will we do?”
Liz felt sick. Surely fate couldn’t be so cruel to show her heaven and take it away. A soft touch on her cheek had her lifting her gaze to Max’s. He was looking at her anxiously.
“When I healed what Nicholas had done to you… I—I can change you inside. Will you trust me?” He rushed on. “It’s not permanent.”
She didn’t even need to think about the answer. “Yes.”
Overcome by her unquestioning trust, Max moved her onto the bed and onto her back carefully. He lay down next to her, but hesitated. “I need to touch your skin…”
Lifting her hips, Liz pulled the shirt up to just beneath her breasts, blushing profusely.
Max nearly passed out. She was gloriously naked. Knowing that there was no way he’d be able to concentrate, he yanked a corner of the bedspread over her hips, tugging it low so her womb was accessible.
“How do you know how to heal?” Liz asked in an attempt to diffuse the tension.
He glanced at her before spreading his hand over her stomach. “I just know. We are born with these powers—they differ from person to person. Doran showed me a few things, but mostly, it’s just instinct.” Taking a deep breath, he stilled the trembling in his hand and closed his eyes in concentration.
Barely breathing while she watched him, Liz took a moment to ponder the wonder of the situation. An alien was about to make love to her. Tracing the lines of the mussed black hair bent so close to her body, Liz corrected herself. Max Evans was about to make love to her.
A tingling in her womb made her suck in her breath. It felt warm and soothing, not at all like the burning that had plagued her after Nicholas—
“Don’t think about it—him,” Max’s quiet voice interrupted her near descent into darkness. He crawled higher on the bed until he could slide his arm beneath her shoulders. “I’m here.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re safe.” He kissed her nose. “I love you.” He kissed her mouth.
The kiss didn’t stay innocent for long. Soon, her arms were around his neck, holding him close as his mouth parted hers to taste her surrender. His arousal pressed into her hip, the towel only barely still there.
His fingers found her breasts, fanning over the aroused peaks and wringing a small cry from her throat.
“Tell me you love me, please Liz.”
Cupping his cheeks with her hands, she lifted her lips from his a fraction, far enough to see his vulnerable eyes, but close enough that he would feel every word she spoke. “I love you, Mi Shanaya,” she told him deliberately.
He sucked in a harsh breath at the endearment, the first time she’d spoken it aloud to him. Keeper of my Heart. It stunned him that hearing those words meant so much to him. He touched the hem of her shirt and she lifted her arms in silent permission.
A few seconds later, they were both naked. Max held her against him, afraid that she would be intimidated by his nudity. “Tell me what to do,” he pleaded. “I want to do this right.”
She pressed her face into his shoulder, luxuriating in the feel of his hard, warm body resting over hers. “Just love me. I’m sure we’ll get it right.”
Moving between her thighs slowly, Max kept his eyes on her face, watching for any sign that she was uncomfortable.
Liz closed her eyes, breathing in his scent, experiencing every little movement he made against her skin. He was holding most of his weight carefully off her, but the ache in her womb made her curl her legs around his hips, wanting to bring him closer to that place that was calling to him.
A rough sound escaped Max when his arousal slid against the scalding wetness of her core. He was shaking by now with the effort of keeping himself from just heedlessly plunging inside her. Instead, he kissed her again, his hand cupping her breast, kneading the small mound almost convulsively. He deliberately kept their connection open, straining to feel what she felt and to know what she needed. He touched her the way she wanted to be touched, the way her body told him to. Slowly, he began to rub his hips against hers, almost coming at the first sign of wet friction against his erection as the underside slipped through her folds.
Tearing her mouth from his, Liz arched beneath him and moaned long and low. Her hips found their own rhythm, bucking against him in an effort to increase the intense spasms that had started in her womb and had sent a fresh wave of warm moistness to the apex of her thighs. “Please Max…” She was panting harshly now, her nails digging into his shoulders, her legs holding him tighter and tighter. And still he was not where she wanted him to be—deep inside her. “Please!”
Max knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out long after entering her, so he needed her as close to the edge as he could get her. But her movements were driving him crazy. The scent of her arousal was around him, the hard peaks of her breasts brushed against him tantalizingly with every shift of her hips, and the small sounds she made deep in her throat sent a fierce rush of lust slamming into his gut.
Rearing back, he braced himself on his forearms, lifting his body away, from the clinging embrace of her legs. Liz whimpered in protest, her hands sliding down the damp curve of his spine. Max nearly lost it then. His body arched helplessly beneath her hands, his head going back as he formed a harsh, inarticulate sound of hunger.
“Max?” Liz was digging her fingers into the backs of his thighs by now, silently urging him on, urging him into her. She had had to force her heavy eyelids open, but it had been worth every effort. The sight of Max’s flushed face, the sheen of moisture on his skin, and the glory of his fully naked body poised to mesh with hers would stay with her forever.
Pressing closer, Max halted as soon as his body touched hers. They both watched as the tip of his erection slipped into her body—it was the only place they were touching right now.
“Say yes, Liz,” he prompted her hoarsely, his body shaking with the effort to control it.
She stared up at him through a haze of need, finding the strength from somewhere to wrap her legs around him again. “Yes! Only ever you, Max.” His eyes widened when she repeated the promise he had exacted from her in a moment from a dream so long ago.
Grabbing onto her thighs, he started pressing into her. “Tell me if I hurt you,” he pleaded, sweat forming on his forehead. He was killing himself to go slowly and gently. In a few short strokes, he had reached her barrier.
“Don’t stop!” she pleaded, urging him on with her legs and hands, hearing him call her name when her body gave way with a soft tug to allow his total invasion. “Don’t ever stop.”
Max clung to her, afraid to move a muscle. Liz was gasping in his ear, small spasms deep inside her body enveloping his throbbing shaft. “Sweetheart?”
She hugged him closer, not capable of forming coherent words. The pain had been so much less than she had expected and was dulled so quickly by other sensations—the frantic movement of his chest, the slide of his thighs against the insides of hers, the agitated sound of his ragged breathing, the delicious pressure of the base of his arousal against her pleasure point.
It took only a small shift of Liz’s hips to send them over the edge. Max felt himself lose control over his body, felt instinctive movement take over. He had so wanted to be able to watch her and guide her through her release, but only a few strokes was needed before he felt the jerk of his own orgasm racing though him, the hot spurts of it flowing from him and into her.
Liz had stared at him in amazement, never having seen him lose control like this before. He had gasped her name just before his climax overtook him, the sound whipping her own release closer. But it was the feel of his hot spill inside her, combined with the short strokes of his body into hers, that triggered her own explosion, arching her off the bed as her hips jerked against his, his name a cry on her lips.
Max collapsed against Liz afterwards, their still shuddering bodies pressed closely together. He stayed inside her—too many years of loneliness and too many months of wanting had preceded this moment for it to be just over in an instant. His body craved more.
When he finally moved, Liz saw that his eyes were damp. She had to swallow too when he caressed her hair reverently, as if she was too precious to believe. “Max?”
“I’m sorry I hurt you and that—that I couldn’t… wait for you.” He stared down at her, his wet eyes filled with love.
Liz reached up and pulled his mouth to hers, kissing him deeply. “I love you,” she told him gently. Immediately, the tears in his eyes welled up anew. “Max?”
He touched her lips with his fingers. “I never thought…” He met her gaze, breathing deeply. “I thought I would never experience love. I never belonged here on earth and… I never knew if I was ever going to go back to Antar. I was afraid of what people would do if they knew what I was. Sharing yourself with me like this… Liz, you don’t know what it means to me.”
He’s been so lonely, Liz realized. She kissed him again, concentrating on sending him her love through their connection. It was a long, slow mating of mouths.
“Are you really okay?” he asked against her lips, his hands drifting over her warm, damp skin.
“Wonderful. Perfect.” She interspersed each word with a brush of her mouth.
“Mmm,” he murmured, tasting her, feeling his body hardening inside hers. Cupping her cheeks, he lifted his head, looking down at her intently. “Are you sure?” Her nod made him smile slowly. “Because,” he nuzzled her face, “I need—”
“More?” she cut in. Shifting beneath him sensuously, she sighed. “Me too. Much more.”
This time it was slow, giving them time to savor each sensation fully. Max listened to her breath hitch as he slid in and out of her in steady rhythm. He stopped once or twice to fully experience the way her inner muscles gripped his shaft.
Liz closed her eyes, hearing the sounds he made as he moved inside her. The feeling of being filled by him was indescribable, the spasms of his body increasing her own excitement. She felt the rhythmic clenching of the muscles in his thighs and buttocks as he pumped into her, heard him whisper and groan her name, sensed his pleasure through their connection.
Their releases were slower in coming, but so worth waiting for. Max watched as she climaxed, drinking in the sight of her arched throat, her parted lips, the flush that covered the whole upper part of her body.
Liz watched him again too, timing the movement of her hips to the movements of his, fiercely happy to be sharing this with him. He shuddered above her, inside her, flooding her with more of his warm release. “I love you,” she whispered again, seeing his eyes snap open as a result.
U Shayna Min. You are mine.
They slept curled into each other, still loath to give up their newfound physical closeness. It was after two in the afternoon when Liz finally woke up to find Max watching her sleep.
“I love seeing you wake up,” he admitted. He leaned closer to murmur in her ear. “Especially with your body covered in glowing hickeys.”
At her shocked exclamation, he grinned. “I’m sorry, it seemed that I got carried away a little.” He placed his fingers on a few marks on her body, removing them. “I cannot think why,” he said with a contented chuckle.
“I’m hungry,” Liz admitted after they shared a few smiling kisses. “What did you bring us?” She was already scrambling from the bed, locating the resort T-shirt on the floor and pulling it over her head.
Max watched indulgently, knowing he was going to take that shirt off her again eventually. “Nothing wonderful. Some snack bars and stuff.”
Liz had already gone to the living room of the cabin and returned with the handful of snacks. She dumped them in the middle of the bed and climbed back on, sitting cross-legged next to Max and tucking into the first thing she could lay her hands on.
Staring at her, Max wondered if everything she does from now on would turn him on. His eyes fell on the stupid Carlsbad logo blazoned on the front of the T-shirt she wore. Grinning, he leaned over and swiped his hand over the picture, erasing it. Then he “wrote” with his finger over her chest, leaving blue lines forming the words: Property of Max Evans. That was true in all the ways there were now.
His show of possessiveness made Liz forget her food.
And their third time was even better than the first two.
tbc
27+28
Chapter 27
“Yes!”
Liz wasn’t too sure which one of them was panting this, but the sound accompanied the slowing of their breathing after another wonderful climax. Max was holding her tightly, his face pressed against her shoulder, his body still joined with hers, pulsing inside her, as they drifted down from their high.
Dawn was here. And with its arrival their time in the little cabin was at an end—they had to return to the real world now. Fear about this had haunted them throughout the night, leading to desperate attempts to make as much of their time together as they could. They had held each other, kissed for hours and made love as many times as they could manage.
This last time had been tinged with panic, giving the experience an edge that had led to a shattering release for both of them. Max’s chest was still heaving when he braced his elbows next to her head and lifted himself away. Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed deeply. “I don’t want to leave.”
In answer, Liz wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips, trying to envelope him with her love. “It’ll be okay.” But she didn’t sound sure.
Dipping his head a little, Max pressed soft kisses against her mouth. “We can handle this.” He seemed to be attempting to convince both of them. His hands caressed her hair, tangled around her face on the pillow. Finally, he lifted his head, staring down into her dark chocolate eyes. “Liz…” He searched for words momentarily. “This is where I belong.”
Liz waited for him to continue with baited breath, knowing this was an important moment for them.
“In your eyes. Inside your soul.” He swallowed. “With you. I belong with you.” His gaze was intense, serious, slightly sad. “I’m sorry we can’t—”
“Shh,” she halted his apology with her fingers. “No talk about the future. We’ll deal with when it comes, remember?”
“Yeah, but…” He looked doubtful, worried. “I love you, Liz Parker. You believe that, right?”
She tugged his head down, kissing him passionately in response. Yes, she knew he loved her, she had seen it in his heart and in his soul throughout the night, heard it from his lips, experienced it in the way his body had blended with hers.
But outside, a war was waiting for them.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Where the hell have you been?” Khivar yelled at Nicholas as soon as he entered his revered leader’s tent.
“Thanks for the concern, I was trying to heal myself after being attacked by Royal soldiers!” Nicholas knew he was on thin ice, no one talked to Khivar this way and lived. But he was past worrying. First of all, his boss had abandoned him at the warehouse, taking off with a care only for his own life. Secondly, he had been in pain for the past 24 hours after sustaining burn wounds from one of the attackers. Thirdly, he was incredibly pissed about not being able to get his hands on Liz—he had been so close and she would have begged him for it. But lastly and most importantly, the recent attacks had proven something: Khivar was fallible. Already there were murmurs among their formerly loyal human followers that Khivar’s end was near.
With Khivar in the tent was a stunning woman. Nicholas blinked at her, wondering how on earth Khivar could be thinking about sex at a time like this. The woman gave him a sly grin and winked.
“Who is this?” Nicholas waved at the woman.
“Don’t you recognize me?” The woman sounded smug and annoying. It cleared things up for Nicholas immediately. “Nacedo.”
“That’s Gloria to you, dear boy.” Nacedo obviously thought the whole thing was a huge joke. Khivar and Nicholas were not as amused.
“Nacedo was just telling me how pathetically he had failed to find out where the blasted royals are,” Khivar cut Nacedo’s little moment to the quick. He turned icy blue eyes on the shapeshifter. “You were saying?”
“I was saying, whoever this Andre is, he keeps things close to his chest. The group in Albuquerque only receives orders from him from time-to-time. And the orders are handled by the leadership of the group. The only new people I’ve seen around are two women and a guy, but they came from the Roswell group and only stayed a few days to help with assignments. Nothing weird about that.”
“You are telling me we don’t know a thing about the royals?”
Nacedo shook his head, the long blonde locks of his female body dancing around his face. “I’ve tried, but if the royals have any links with the resistance, they must be at the level of this Andre.”
“But you brought the names I asked for?”
Nacedo nodded and Khivar turned to Nicholas. “I want to wipe these resistance members off the face of the earth. Find each one of them, and take them out.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kyle was pacing around the small warehouse on the outskirts of Roswell—waiting for Liz and Max was driving him crazy. The sooner he can get Liz away from everything and back to their camp deep in the desert, the better. And this Max-guy will just have to fend for himself. Kyle was sure that Khivar was regrouping and he wanted to finish this with as little loss of life as possible. He grimaced at his bloodthirsty thoughts, but losing lives was inevitable—this was war.
Alex held his own council. He had kept in touch with Michael, who was still at the cabin, through Doran, but so far there has been no reaction to their message. Which either meant the message was not received yet, or it had gotten into the wrong hands. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, his fists tucked into his pant pockets, Alex hoped he hadn’t led the enemy right to Max. Boy, that would be ironic.
Doran was quiet, standing like a statue in the one corner of the room. Only Alex had any inclination of how emotional the big bodyguard was at the imminent arrival of his Prince. He was watching the door like a hawk.
Liz’s phone call yesterday afternoon had sent a wave of relief through the whole group. Her request for a night’s rest before they returned had had Alex and Doran look at each other with varying degrees of worry, amusement and silent approval. But they had said nothing. Max and Liz had had a rough time of it, and more was lying ahead, let them have this time alone.
The door opened suddenly, Liz and Max coming through it simultaneously, hands locked together. Doran sighed, if he had had any doubts about what had happened last night, they were gone now. Max looked… complete. While the bonding had done something to him already, Doran could see that his Prince was… whole for the first time in his life now. He exuded a quiet air of power, it seemed to hum around him, and finally Doran was a hundred percent sure about lying to his Prince. He had known that a bonding could be undone if it hadn’t been consummated yet on that day a long time ago when Max had asked him. There had been no need to study historical texts. But Max had needed someone to complete him before he could take on Khivar and win.
And Liz was that missing piece.
“Liz Parker! If you ever give me a scare like that again, I’m sending you to a prison camp!” Kyle was across the floor, throwing his arms around Liz in a bear hug, yanking her from Max’s grasp in the process. Max just smiled—secure in the love he shared with Liz and the knowledge that Kyle was her friend.
Doran was hard-pressed not to fall to his knees in front of Max. He was the Prince’s protector, but more than that, he felt like Max’s surrogate father in a lot of respects. “I’m glad you’re back,” was all he managed to say around the lump in his throat. “I’m glad you’re both okay.”
A tender smile creased Max’s feature as he watched Liz being hugged by Alex too. “Yeah, we’re both fine.”
“There is much we have to discuss, Max,” Doran got back into official mode immediately. “Michael is waiting at home.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“If we can just get rid of him finally, then we’re home free. The planet will be ours.” The voice echoed around a small conference room on the largest ship. “If he is alone, he will be weakened. And if we kill him now, his people on Antar will surrender too.”
The group around the table, solemn and serious, nodded their agreement, then turned at the uniformed man waiting at the head of the table.
“It’s all up to you, D’lor. Find out what is going on down there so we can act.”
D’lor bowed deeply and left the room, his heart beating wildly at the thought of the responsibility resting on his shoulders.
If he made a mistake, Antar would be lost.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“So,” Alex said to Liz with a wicked grin, “you are fairly glowing. Anything you want to share with the class?”
“Alex!” Liz blushed and smacked his arm. “Gentlemen don’t ask things like that.”
He hugged her to him with one arm. “Wow, you thought I was a gentleman all this time? I’m touched.” Kissing her on top of her head, he hugged her closer for a minute. “Are you happy?”
“Yes,” Liz answered immediately, her eyes glowing with inner-joy. “Oh Alex, I never knew love felt like this.”
Alex smiled crookedly. “It doesn’t for everybody.” Seeing Liz’s face fall, he grabbed her chin and forced her eyes to meet his. “What?”
“We will have to say good-bye again soon. I don’t think—”
Max and Liz caught each other’s gazes from across the floor of the warehouse. He immediately straightened away from his discussion with Doran and started walking over to Liz. By now, she had gone rushing to him too, falling against his chest and into his arms, while biting her lip.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He didn’t need to ask why she was sad. The ache was steadily growing in his heart too.
Several pairs of eyes watched the little exchange—Doran with a small smile of satisfaction, Alex with a frown of worry and Kyle with a look of speculation. It was clear that Liz was totally besotted with this enigmatic man. All Kyle had managed to weasel out of Doran was that Max was interested in getting rid of Khivar too and that he was thus prepared to support “Andre’s” efforts in this regard.
Tightening his hold on Liz, Max cursed the circumstances they were in. He had discussed with Liz telling Kyle who he was, but she had been adamant that if Kyle knew, he would tell “Andre”. It was better that they find out who Max was when he was on his way back to Antar and they could be convinced he had no designs on earth. Max had grudgingly agreed. In any case, he wanted Liz to be safe, and seemingly Kyle could ensure this. All Max could get out of Liz about the camp where she would be staying, was that it was a safe place where “Andre” was hiding some of the people they had saved from Khivar’s clutches.
Max had to go back to Michael and Isabel at the cabin to organize things with Michael, but he had promised Liz that he would come to find her as soon as he was sure of what their next move was going to be. Hopefully, the preparations to finally get rid of Khivar won’t take long.
“I’d like to talk to the rest of my group and meet again,” he now told Kyle over Liz’s head. He was keeping her tucked against him, trying to absorb as much of her physical closeness as he could before they had to say good-bye.
“That would be a good idea.” Kyle couldn’t stop staring at how Liz melted against this Max. She had been so strong during their battle to infiltrate Khivar’s operation. She had been through so many traumatic situations in that lab, that he had stopped counting. And here she was, nearly in tears because she was going to leave this man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere into her life. Kyle hoped the trust Liz and Alex put in this Max was well founded. On the other hand, Max did risk his own life to get Liz away from Khivar. Still, there was something different about Max Evans. “We should all regroup and meet here again in 24 hours. Would that suit you?”
“Sure.” Max nodded. The sooner they got this show on the road, the better.
“Right.” Kyle looked uncertainly at Liz. “Then we should get going. “Andre” would very much like to see you and hear what else you can tell us.”
“Okay.” Liz fisted her hands into the back of Max’s shirt.
“Just… give us a few minutes.” Max spoke quietly, but everyone immediately left the building. He framed Liz’s face in his hands. “I’m coming for you. As soon as I can.”
“I know. I’m just being silly.”
Covering her mouth with his tenderly, he stroked his tongue over her bottom-lip, slicking the sensitive skin before he deepened the kiss. Their connection opened automatically, letting them pour their feelings into each other.
“It’s just for a little while…” Liz breathed against his lips.
“Yes,” Max promised again. “Just a little while.”
“Or I’m coming to find you, Max Evans!”
He grinned against her mouth, kissing her once more, hard and desperate. It never felt enough.
“Take care of yourself, Max. I love you.”
“Be safe, Mi Shanaya.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Two convoys left in different directions. Kyle drove one vehicle with Liz in the front seat and Alex in the back, while some of their other men followed behind.
“You sure you’re okay, Parker?” Kyle sounded gruff, but he still couldn’t quite recover from the scare she’d given him.
“I’m fine. We were stuck in a desert dust storm and we walked for miles. But I’m fine.” Liz wished Kyle could just leave her alone for a while until she had her heartache under control. Leaving Max was never easy.
“Hmmm.” Kyle frowned, deep in thought. “It’s just… you sure didn’t look fine to me the last time I saw you in that warehouse…”
Thinking fast, Liz wondered what plausible excuse she could come up with to explain what had been happening. “Uhm, yeah… I was drugged,” she pounced on the explanation with relief. “Max carried me until I regained consciousness.” Well, that was pretty close to the truth.
“Hmm,” was all Kyle said again, leaving Liz uncomfortable. She would have to talk to Alex to find out what he had told Kyle.
“So, Parker,” Kyle seemed to have let the issue go. “What does Mr Evans have that the rest of us guys don’t?”
“Kyle!” Liz blushed again.
And all Alex could come up with in the silence of the back seat was… glowing hands.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The drive back to the cabin took much less time than Max had anticipated, probably because he fell asleep somewhere in the middle and only woke up when the car started bumping across the desert dirt track close to their destination. At this moment, sleep was a welcome respite from missing Liz.
The sun was beating down on the sand around the remote cabin, but Maria was waiting on the front porch, anxious to see Max. As soon as the door of the car opened, she rushed down to hug him. When they turned around, Michael and Isabel was on the porch too. “He will die before he tells you, but he was worried sick too.”
Max gave her a crooked grin and started up the stairs to meet his family.
Bursting into tears, Isabel flung her arms around him. “Don’t do that to me again, Max!”
All of them turned around when a weird screeching sound floated towards them from the desert. “What was that?” Max asked.
“I have no idea,” Michael responded, nodding to Doran to send some soldiers to check it out. “A message came back, but we couldn’t make head or tail of it. You need to look at it.”
Max sighed and followed Michael inside. There was no time to rest now.
The message was bizarre to say the least:
From a far horizon
A sign will be seen
Staring down at the words, Zan heard a refrain in his head.
A ruler of the Fifth Planet
Will rise and return.
Everyone looked at him strangely when he repeated what was whirling through his mind. “I think we should send it. I think it’s some kind of code to ensure that I’m the true Zan.”
Michael obviously thought Max was a few kittens shy of a litter after his ordeal, but he did it anyway. What the hell, the sender of the message didn’t sound too rational either.
Then Max appraised them of what had happened since he’s last seen them. Maria was the only one to catch on that something significant had happened between Liz and Max during this period too. She gave Max a big grin and a thumbs-up sign, making him blush.
The next moment, a yell was heard from outside the cabin. Michael was the first one out the door, his hand held in front of him defensively. The sight outside made him halt in his tracks.
A small group of men were standing very silently just below the porch, wearing what looked like full uniforms of blue and cream. Royal Guards of Antar—Michael would know, he was one.
“Err, Max?”
But it wasn’t necessary to call Max, he had appeared at Michael’s shoulder, causing a sharp in-drawn breath from the man heading the little delegation. D’lor stared at his young lord in awe. He had never met Zan, the royal twins had been sent to earth when he was still a young boy. But he had been King Aran’s personal guard for years now, and the man that had just stepped onto the porch was the spitting image of his father.
Gathering himself together, he silently praised the gods that the messages to Antar that Zan and Vilondra had been killed had been lies.
And then he bent his head and touched his fingers to his forehead. “Prince Zan,” he managed hoarsely. “We have come to serve you.”
Chapter 28
That night, in three different locations in New Mexico, three different meetings took place that would play a role in the future of Earth and Antar.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar met with some of his trusted people in his desert camp.
“So, as far as we know, King Aran thinks his children are dead?”
“Yes, Khivar, we sent the message months ago, like you instructed. The King was reportedly devastated, but he still hadn’t given up or divulged his place of hiding.”
“Then the war on Antar is still not won by us.”
“We are close, Khivar, very—”
“Silence!” Khivar was sick of hearing what people thought he wanted to hear. Look where it got him. “The truth is that we’re still not in control of the citadel. The King’s troops are. And they’ve hidden the King so well, we can’t find him.” His words were laced with contempt. He had come to this stupid little rock in the back of beyond of space to get rid of the heirs to Aran’s throne himself. It seemed that as long as Aran was clinging to hope due to the existence of his children, he fought on against Khivar’s total occupation of Antar. Khivar had wanted to break the spirit of the old King, but Aran wouldn’t believe his children were dead until he saw the bodies. The generals Khivar had left in charge of his campaign on Antar were ready to tear their hair out by now.
And Khivar could only be in one place at a time.
A soft throat clearing from outside the tent broke the tense silence inside. A nervous comms operator entered, looking anxious. “I have news Khivar.” His face said it all—it was more bad news.
“Our ships…” Ever since Khivar had arrived on Earth three years ago, he’d had four ships guarding space around them. “They’ve been attacked. We only have one left.” The operator rushed out the news, seeing no way for this to sound good.
Khivar came to his feet, pale. “How?”
The message-bearer shuffled his feet in fear. “Ships from the King—”
“Don’t call him that! To us, he is not the King.” A futile outburst, since whatever they called Aran, he had now managed to maroon Khivar on Earth. “And cease all communications! If they find us…”
The gathered group looked at each other uncomfortably and with more than a little fear. Khivar had seemed invincible before, but he was gradually losing stature as the hours passed. He hadn’t managed to get hold of the Prince and Princess, he hadn’t managed to keep control over Earth and now, they had lost almost all their ships and their way to communicate with Antar.
“Find Alex Whitman. His tracker will help us. I want to know where Liz Parker is, because my hunch is, wherever she is, our dear Zan won’t be far away.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Liz had arrived at the camp in the mountains, they told her to wait before going to see Jim, and as she walked past his cave, she heard arguing inside. This made her smile—some things never changed.
She had slept throughout the afternoon, deathly tired after her ordeal and the night spent in Max’s arms. Her body felt tender, reminding her of just how intimate she and Max had been. But she wouldn’t change a minute of it.
This is where I belong. The words had held so much meaning, because Max had never felt like he belonged before. He had been a stranger on this planet and for all intents and purposes he will be one again on Antar. It was so much more special that he had chosen to let her into his life, into his heart, into his soul.
“Hey, Lizzie,” Alex had entered her cave-room and saw that she was lying awake. “Feeling better now?”
She pushed her hair from her face as she sat up. “Yeah, I was kinda tired.”
This caused a smirk from Alex. “I’ll bet.” He leaned closer. “Do they have super-stamina too?”
“Alex!” Liz blushed to the roots of her hair. She was still not used to being a lover. No wait, that didn’t sound right. Max was her husband… she was a wife. She had had a long talk with Alex when they’d reached the camp, telling him exactly what had happened to her in that warehouse and how Max had rescued her while being hurt himself. And she had heard that Kyle was distinctly suspicious about Max, but hadn’t said a word about Max possibly being Antarian yet.
Alex hugged her again, so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. “When I see your alien prince again, I’m kissing him for bringing you back to us. Even if he did corrupt your virtue afterwards!”
“He didn’t corrupt me, Alex. He loved me. There’s a big difference.”
“But he’s still going back to Antar, right?” he asked quietly.
Liz just nodded, tears gathering in her eyes.
“What are you going to do?”
Swiping at her eyes, she turned away from him. “Say good-bye.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max was staring at Doran who was busy bringing the new group of soldiers up to date. Doran had grinned like a Cheshire cat when D’lor had introduced himself so formally to Max. His protector’s look had said it all: It was about time you get your due honor.
We have come to serve you. The words echoed in Max’s mind as he stared around the group congregated outside the cabin. He had known he was a prince all his life, but to experience it first-hand was strange indeed. He wished Liz were there to be his center. Missing her was like a constant ache in his gut. At various times throughout the day he had been haunted by snatches of memories from the previous day and night—the way she whispered his name, the look of wonder on her face when he loved her, the feeling of having her in his arms.
Seeing her wear that stupid shirt with his name scrawled on it.
It had been so much more he had ever dreamed of.
He had received feedback on the success of the campaign launched against Khivar’s people by Michael’s soldiers. Max had been proud when he learned how much Liz’s list of names and locations of the alien troops had helped them. And proud about the way Michael had taken charge in his absence. They had managed to decrease Khivar’s numbers already, but now he had gone into hiding.
“Tomorrow we meet with Kyle’s people and the resistance to finalize our plans. I want this over with,” Max had informed the group. And tomorrow, there was something else he needed to do – organize security for Liz. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if something happened to her again.
“Excuse me, my Prince, but… we have news.” It was D’lor that had come to find Max as he sat on the flat rock that still reminded him of Liz, staring up at the night sky.
“Our ships have managed to disable those of Khivar, only one escaped.” D’lor looked at Max closely. “This means that communication with Antar has become possible.” The soldier suddenly looked uncertain. “It would mean a lot to King—your father if you would contact him.”
Unexpectedly, a ball of fiery emotion erupted in his stomach. His father. His real father. Max felt momentarily paralyzed and all he could come up with was: Liz. She would have loved sharing this with him, would have made sure that he didn’t make a fool of himself and bawled in front of his father.
“Sire?”
Max jerked back to reality. “Yes,” he finally managed gruffly. “Please organize it.”
Then he went to tell Isabel.
The communicator included a holographic image—letting both sides see the other while talking. The old man, worn out by war and mourning a mate he had loved beyond all else, stared at his children, the ones he had been told were dead, as if he was afraid he was seeing ghosts.
“Vatresh,” Max finally whispered. Father.
Beside him, Isabel burst into tears, clinging to her brother while her eyes never left her father—her father who also had tears in his eyes by now.
“Your mother would have been so proud…” He told them what the situation was on Antar—that his soldiers had been withholding total control of the planet from Khivar for years. That they had hidden him, together with some ships and other essentials, away from Khivar. That his people fought on because of loyalty to him and because he had promised them his children would return one day to finally end the war. That he had sent all but one of the ships to earth when he got the message of their deaths—with the instruction of bringing back their bodies.
Max stared at him as he talked. His father was an intimidating man exuding power. How on earth was he ever supposed to follow in this man’s footsteps?
“You look just like your mother,” Aran eventually told Isabel.
The statement clinched it for Max. This was not about himself, or his future with Liz, it was about a cause so much bigger than that. “We’re going to defeat Khivar here on Earth, Father. Then we’re coming back.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Sheriff Valenti!” Liz ran over to hug the man that had been a surrogate father to her while she worked for “Andre”. Kyle’s dad had been the Sheriff of Carlsbad when he got involved in the fight and his expertise and wise council had helped the group a lot.
“Liz.” He hugged her back. “I hear you’ve had some excitement since I saw you last?” His voice was teasing. “I’m glad you’re alright, though. Many people here,” he waved his hand around the mountainous camp, “owe their lives to you and Alex.”
Indeed, many people were smiling at her as they walked through the camp. It was situated high in the mountains of New Mexico, utilizing caves and rock outcroppings to make it invisible from the air. And it housed a surprising number of people. People she and Alex had smuggled out of Khivar’s labs through tunnels and via various safe houses.
They entered a cavernous hollow in the mountainside – the “mess hall” of the place. Coffee was available and they sat down with a steaming cup each. Liz was glad for the diversion. If she had sat around any longer, staring up at the stars and wishing it was last night this time…
A blush suffused her cheeks at the thought of exactly what she had been doing last night this time—returning the compliment Max had paid her in that cabin of his so long ago.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Jim’s voice interrupted. He was grinning wickedly when she blushed even harder. “Or, according to what Kyle tells me, I don’t even have to pay to guess who you were thinking of.”
“No,” she bit her lip in embarrassment.
“Well, I want to hear all about this guy who managed to turn our Liz’s head, but first, tell me about Khivar. We need to get this over with.” Jim rubbed his jaw with narrowed eyes. “Although I don’t like that we are concentrating on Khivar so much. It leaves us wide open for those other aliens to take advantage.”
Liz bent her head. “What if—what if those other aliens weren’t what Khivar said they were. What if they were just living here peacefully?” Her voice shook as she talked.
There was a long pause. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Liz?”
“No—no,” she swallowed. “I was just wondering…”
“Well, don’t get confused, Lizzie. This is war and those aliens don’t belong here. We can’t allow even one of them on earth. What if they start breeding with us? What will become of the human race?” He paused when he heard Liz gasp. “Would you want someone you care about to sleep with the likes of Khivar? Have his kids?”
“No,” she whispered. “But…” But Max is different.
Jim touched her arm. “You are just like that darn infuriating woman… Too soft hearts. This is the right thing, Liz. None of them belong here. And when I see one, I’m not going to ask questions. This is war, my dear.”
And war never had a good side.
tbc
“Yes!”
Liz wasn’t too sure which one of them was panting this, but the sound accompanied the slowing of their breathing after another wonderful climax. Max was holding her tightly, his face pressed against her shoulder, his body still joined with hers, pulsing inside her, as they drifted down from their high.
Dawn was here. And with its arrival their time in the little cabin was at an end—they had to return to the real world now. Fear about this had haunted them throughout the night, leading to desperate attempts to make as much of their time together as they could. They had held each other, kissed for hours and made love as many times as they could manage.
This last time had been tinged with panic, giving the experience an edge that had led to a shattering release for both of them. Max’s chest was still heaving when he braced his elbows next to her head and lifted himself away. Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed deeply. “I don’t want to leave.”
In answer, Liz wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips, trying to envelope him with her love. “It’ll be okay.” But she didn’t sound sure.
Dipping his head a little, Max pressed soft kisses against her mouth. “We can handle this.” He seemed to be attempting to convince both of them. His hands caressed her hair, tangled around her face on the pillow. Finally, he lifted his head, staring down into her dark chocolate eyes. “Liz…” He searched for words momentarily. “This is where I belong.”
Liz waited for him to continue with baited breath, knowing this was an important moment for them.
“In your eyes. Inside your soul.” He swallowed. “With you. I belong with you.” His gaze was intense, serious, slightly sad. “I’m sorry we can’t—”
“Shh,” she halted his apology with her fingers. “No talk about the future. We’ll deal with when it comes, remember?”
“Yeah, but…” He looked doubtful, worried. “I love you, Liz Parker. You believe that, right?”
She tugged his head down, kissing him passionately in response. Yes, she knew he loved her, she had seen it in his heart and in his soul throughout the night, heard it from his lips, experienced it in the way his body had blended with hers.
But outside, a war was waiting for them.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Where the hell have you been?” Khivar yelled at Nicholas as soon as he entered his revered leader’s tent.
“Thanks for the concern, I was trying to heal myself after being attacked by Royal soldiers!” Nicholas knew he was on thin ice, no one talked to Khivar this way and lived. But he was past worrying. First of all, his boss had abandoned him at the warehouse, taking off with a care only for his own life. Secondly, he had been in pain for the past 24 hours after sustaining burn wounds from one of the attackers. Thirdly, he was incredibly pissed about not being able to get his hands on Liz—he had been so close and she would have begged him for it. But lastly and most importantly, the recent attacks had proven something: Khivar was fallible. Already there were murmurs among their formerly loyal human followers that Khivar’s end was near.
With Khivar in the tent was a stunning woman. Nicholas blinked at her, wondering how on earth Khivar could be thinking about sex at a time like this. The woman gave him a sly grin and winked.
“Who is this?” Nicholas waved at the woman.
“Don’t you recognize me?” The woman sounded smug and annoying. It cleared things up for Nicholas immediately. “Nacedo.”
“That’s Gloria to you, dear boy.” Nacedo obviously thought the whole thing was a huge joke. Khivar and Nicholas were not as amused.
“Nacedo was just telling me how pathetically he had failed to find out where the blasted royals are,” Khivar cut Nacedo’s little moment to the quick. He turned icy blue eyes on the shapeshifter. “You were saying?”
“I was saying, whoever this Andre is, he keeps things close to his chest. The group in Albuquerque only receives orders from him from time-to-time. And the orders are handled by the leadership of the group. The only new people I’ve seen around are two women and a guy, but they came from the Roswell group and only stayed a few days to help with assignments. Nothing weird about that.”
“You are telling me we don’t know a thing about the royals?”
Nacedo shook his head, the long blonde locks of his female body dancing around his face. “I’ve tried, but if the royals have any links with the resistance, they must be at the level of this Andre.”
“But you brought the names I asked for?”
Nacedo nodded and Khivar turned to Nicholas. “I want to wipe these resistance members off the face of the earth. Find each one of them, and take them out.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kyle was pacing around the small warehouse on the outskirts of Roswell—waiting for Liz and Max was driving him crazy. The sooner he can get Liz away from everything and back to their camp deep in the desert, the better. And this Max-guy will just have to fend for himself. Kyle was sure that Khivar was regrouping and he wanted to finish this with as little loss of life as possible. He grimaced at his bloodthirsty thoughts, but losing lives was inevitable—this was war.
Alex held his own council. He had kept in touch with Michael, who was still at the cabin, through Doran, but so far there has been no reaction to their message. Which either meant the message was not received yet, or it had gotten into the wrong hands. Bouncing on the balls of his feet, his fists tucked into his pant pockets, Alex hoped he hadn’t led the enemy right to Max. Boy, that would be ironic.
Doran was quiet, standing like a statue in the one corner of the room. Only Alex had any inclination of how emotional the big bodyguard was at the imminent arrival of his Prince. He was watching the door like a hawk.
Liz’s phone call yesterday afternoon had sent a wave of relief through the whole group. Her request for a night’s rest before they returned had had Alex and Doran look at each other with varying degrees of worry, amusement and silent approval. But they had said nothing. Max and Liz had had a rough time of it, and more was lying ahead, let them have this time alone.
The door opened suddenly, Liz and Max coming through it simultaneously, hands locked together. Doran sighed, if he had had any doubts about what had happened last night, they were gone now. Max looked… complete. While the bonding had done something to him already, Doran could see that his Prince was… whole for the first time in his life now. He exuded a quiet air of power, it seemed to hum around him, and finally Doran was a hundred percent sure about lying to his Prince. He had known that a bonding could be undone if it hadn’t been consummated yet on that day a long time ago when Max had asked him. There had been no need to study historical texts. But Max had needed someone to complete him before he could take on Khivar and win.
And Liz was that missing piece.
“Liz Parker! If you ever give me a scare like that again, I’m sending you to a prison camp!” Kyle was across the floor, throwing his arms around Liz in a bear hug, yanking her from Max’s grasp in the process. Max just smiled—secure in the love he shared with Liz and the knowledge that Kyle was her friend.
Doran was hard-pressed not to fall to his knees in front of Max. He was the Prince’s protector, but more than that, he felt like Max’s surrogate father in a lot of respects. “I’m glad you’re back,” was all he managed to say around the lump in his throat. “I’m glad you’re both okay.”
A tender smile creased Max’s feature as he watched Liz being hugged by Alex too. “Yeah, we’re both fine.”
“There is much we have to discuss, Max,” Doran got back into official mode immediately. “Michael is waiting at home.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“If we can just get rid of him finally, then we’re home free. The planet will be ours.” The voice echoed around a small conference room on the largest ship. “If he is alone, he will be weakened. And if we kill him now, his people on Antar will surrender too.”
The group around the table, solemn and serious, nodded their agreement, then turned at the uniformed man waiting at the head of the table.
“It’s all up to you, D’lor. Find out what is going on down there so we can act.”
D’lor bowed deeply and left the room, his heart beating wildly at the thought of the responsibility resting on his shoulders.
If he made a mistake, Antar would be lost.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“So,” Alex said to Liz with a wicked grin, “you are fairly glowing. Anything you want to share with the class?”
“Alex!” Liz blushed and smacked his arm. “Gentlemen don’t ask things like that.”
He hugged her to him with one arm. “Wow, you thought I was a gentleman all this time? I’m touched.” Kissing her on top of her head, he hugged her closer for a minute. “Are you happy?”
“Yes,” Liz answered immediately, her eyes glowing with inner-joy. “Oh Alex, I never knew love felt like this.”
Alex smiled crookedly. “It doesn’t for everybody.” Seeing Liz’s face fall, he grabbed her chin and forced her eyes to meet his. “What?”
“We will have to say good-bye again soon. I don’t think—”
Max and Liz caught each other’s gazes from across the floor of the warehouse. He immediately straightened away from his discussion with Doran and started walking over to Liz. By now, she had gone rushing to him too, falling against his chest and into his arms, while biting her lip.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He didn’t need to ask why she was sad. The ache was steadily growing in his heart too.
Several pairs of eyes watched the little exchange—Doran with a small smile of satisfaction, Alex with a frown of worry and Kyle with a look of speculation. It was clear that Liz was totally besotted with this enigmatic man. All Kyle had managed to weasel out of Doran was that Max was interested in getting rid of Khivar too and that he was thus prepared to support “Andre’s” efforts in this regard.
Tightening his hold on Liz, Max cursed the circumstances they were in. He had discussed with Liz telling Kyle who he was, but she had been adamant that if Kyle knew, he would tell “Andre”. It was better that they find out who Max was when he was on his way back to Antar and they could be convinced he had no designs on earth. Max had grudgingly agreed. In any case, he wanted Liz to be safe, and seemingly Kyle could ensure this. All Max could get out of Liz about the camp where she would be staying, was that it was a safe place where “Andre” was hiding some of the people they had saved from Khivar’s clutches.
Max had to go back to Michael and Isabel at the cabin to organize things with Michael, but he had promised Liz that he would come to find her as soon as he was sure of what their next move was going to be. Hopefully, the preparations to finally get rid of Khivar won’t take long.
“I’d like to talk to the rest of my group and meet again,” he now told Kyle over Liz’s head. He was keeping her tucked against him, trying to absorb as much of her physical closeness as he could before they had to say good-bye.
“That would be a good idea.” Kyle couldn’t stop staring at how Liz melted against this Max. She had been so strong during their battle to infiltrate Khivar’s operation. She had been through so many traumatic situations in that lab, that he had stopped counting. And here she was, nearly in tears because she was going to leave this man who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere into her life. Kyle hoped the trust Liz and Alex put in this Max was well founded. On the other hand, Max did risk his own life to get Liz away from Khivar. Still, there was something different about Max Evans. “We should all regroup and meet here again in 24 hours. Would that suit you?”
“Sure.” Max nodded. The sooner they got this show on the road, the better.
“Right.” Kyle looked uncertainly at Liz. “Then we should get going. “Andre” would very much like to see you and hear what else you can tell us.”
“Okay.” Liz fisted her hands into the back of Max’s shirt.
“Just… give us a few minutes.” Max spoke quietly, but everyone immediately left the building. He framed Liz’s face in his hands. “I’m coming for you. As soon as I can.”
“I know. I’m just being silly.”
Covering her mouth with his tenderly, he stroked his tongue over her bottom-lip, slicking the sensitive skin before he deepened the kiss. Their connection opened automatically, letting them pour their feelings into each other.
“It’s just for a little while…” Liz breathed against his lips.
“Yes,” Max promised again. “Just a little while.”
“Or I’m coming to find you, Max Evans!”
He grinned against her mouth, kissing her once more, hard and desperate. It never felt enough.
“Take care of yourself, Max. I love you.”
“Be safe, Mi Shanaya.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Two convoys left in different directions. Kyle drove one vehicle with Liz in the front seat and Alex in the back, while some of their other men followed behind.
“You sure you’re okay, Parker?” Kyle sounded gruff, but he still couldn’t quite recover from the scare she’d given him.
“I’m fine. We were stuck in a desert dust storm and we walked for miles. But I’m fine.” Liz wished Kyle could just leave her alone for a while until she had her heartache under control. Leaving Max was never easy.
“Hmmm.” Kyle frowned, deep in thought. “It’s just… you sure didn’t look fine to me the last time I saw you in that warehouse…”
Thinking fast, Liz wondered what plausible excuse she could come up with to explain what had been happening. “Uhm, yeah… I was drugged,” she pounced on the explanation with relief. “Max carried me until I regained consciousness.” Well, that was pretty close to the truth.
“Hmm,” was all Kyle said again, leaving Liz uncomfortable. She would have to talk to Alex to find out what he had told Kyle.
“So, Parker,” Kyle seemed to have let the issue go. “What does Mr Evans have that the rest of us guys don’t?”
“Kyle!” Liz blushed again.
And all Alex could come up with in the silence of the back seat was… glowing hands.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The drive back to the cabin took much less time than Max had anticipated, probably because he fell asleep somewhere in the middle and only woke up when the car started bumping across the desert dirt track close to their destination. At this moment, sleep was a welcome respite from missing Liz.
The sun was beating down on the sand around the remote cabin, but Maria was waiting on the front porch, anxious to see Max. As soon as the door of the car opened, she rushed down to hug him. When they turned around, Michael and Isabel was on the porch too. “He will die before he tells you, but he was worried sick too.”
Max gave her a crooked grin and started up the stairs to meet his family.
Bursting into tears, Isabel flung her arms around him. “Don’t do that to me again, Max!”
All of them turned around when a weird screeching sound floated towards them from the desert. “What was that?” Max asked.
“I have no idea,” Michael responded, nodding to Doran to send some soldiers to check it out. “A message came back, but we couldn’t make head or tail of it. You need to look at it.”
Max sighed and followed Michael inside. There was no time to rest now.
The message was bizarre to say the least:
From a far horizon
A sign will be seen
Staring down at the words, Zan heard a refrain in his head.
A ruler of the Fifth Planet
Will rise and return.
Everyone looked at him strangely when he repeated what was whirling through his mind. “I think we should send it. I think it’s some kind of code to ensure that I’m the true Zan.”
Michael obviously thought Max was a few kittens shy of a litter after his ordeal, but he did it anyway. What the hell, the sender of the message didn’t sound too rational either.
Then Max appraised them of what had happened since he’s last seen them. Maria was the only one to catch on that something significant had happened between Liz and Max during this period too. She gave Max a big grin and a thumbs-up sign, making him blush.
The next moment, a yell was heard from outside the cabin. Michael was the first one out the door, his hand held in front of him defensively. The sight outside made him halt in his tracks.
A small group of men were standing very silently just below the porch, wearing what looked like full uniforms of blue and cream. Royal Guards of Antar—Michael would know, he was one.
“Err, Max?”
But it wasn’t necessary to call Max, he had appeared at Michael’s shoulder, causing a sharp in-drawn breath from the man heading the little delegation. D’lor stared at his young lord in awe. He had never met Zan, the royal twins had been sent to earth when he was still a young boy. But he had been King Aran’s personal guard for years now, and the man that had just stepped onto the porch was the spitting image of his father.
Gathering himself together, he silently praised the gods that the messages to Antar that Zan and Vilondra had been killed had been lies.
And then he bent his head and touched his fingers to his forehead. “Prince Zan,” he managed hoarsely. “We have come to serve you.”
Chapter 28
That night, in three different locations in New Mexico, three different meetings took place that would play a role in the future of Earth and Antar.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar met with some of his trusted people in his desert camp.
“So, as far as we know, King Aran thinks his children are dead?”
“Yes, Khivar, we sent the message months ago, like you instructed. The King was reportedly devastated, but he still hadn’t given up or divulged his place of hiding.”
“Then the war on Antar is still not won by us.”
“We are close, Khivar, very—”
“Silence!” Khivar was sick of hearing what people thought he wanted to hear. Look where it got him. “The truth is that we’re still not in control of the citadel. The King’s troops are. And they’ve hidden the King so well, we can’t find him.” His words were laced with contempt. He had come to this stupid little rock in the back of beyond of space to get rid of the heirs to Aran’s throne himself. It seemed that as long as Aran was clinging to hope due to the existence of his children, he fought on against Khivar’s total occupation of Antar. Khivar had wanted to break the spirit of the old King, but Aran wouldn’t believe his children were dead until he saw the bodies. The generals Khivar had left in charge of his campaign on Antar were ready to tear their hair out by now.
And Khivar could only be in one place at a time.
A soft throat clearing from outside the tent broke the tense silence inside. A nervous comms operator entered, looking anxious. “I have news Khivar.” His face said it all—it was more bad news.
“Our ships…” Ever since Khivar had arrived on Earth three years ago, he’d had four ships guarding space around them. “They’ve been attacked. We only have one left.” The operator rushed out the news, seeing no way for this to sound good.
Khivar came to his feet, pale. “How?”
The message-bearer shuffled his feet in fear. “Ships from the King—”
“Don’t call him that! To us, he is not the King.” A futile outburst, since whatever they called Aran, he had now managed to maroon Khivar on Earth. “And cease all communications! If they find us…”
The gathered group looked at each other uncomfortably and with more than a little fear. Khivar had seemed invincible before, but he was gradually losing stature as the hours passed. He hadn’t managed to get hold of the Prince and Princess, he hadn’t managed to keep control over Earth and now, they had lost almost all their ships and their way to communicate with Antar.
“Find Alex Whitman. His tracker will help us. I want to know where Liz Parker is, because my hunch is, wherever she is, our dear Zan won’t be far away.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Liz had arrived at the camp in the mountains, they told her to wait before going to see Jim, and as she walked past his cave, she heard arguing inside. This made her smile—some things never changed.
She had slept throughout the afternoon, deathly tired after her ordeal and the night spent in Max’s arms. Her body felt tender, reminding her of just how intimate she and Max had been. But she wouldn’t change a minute of it.
This is where I belong. The words had held so much meaning, because Max had never felt like he belonged before. He had been a stranger on this planet and for all intents and purposes he will be one again on Antar. It was so much more special that he had chosen to let her into his life, into his heart, into his soul.
“Hey, Lizzie,” Alex had entered her cave-room and saw that she was lying awake. “Feeling better now?”
She pushed her hair from her face as she sat up. “Yeah, I was kinda tired.”
This caused a smirk from Alex. “I’ll bet.” He leaned closer. “Do they have super-stamina too?”
“Alex!” Liz blushed to the roots of her hair. She was still not used to being a lover. No wait, that didn’t sound right. Max was her husband… she was a wife. She had had a long talk with Alex when they’d reached the camp, telling him exactly what had happened to her in that warehouse and how Max had rescued her while being hurt himself. And she had heard that Kyle was distinctly suspicious about Max, but hadn’t said a word about Max possibly being Antarian yet.
Alex hugged her again, so tightly that she couldn’t breathe. “When I see your alien prince again, I’m kissing him for bringing you back to us. Even if he did corrupt your virtue afterwards!”
“He didn’t corrupt me, Alex. He loved me. There’s a big difference.”
“But he’s still going back to Antar, right?” he asked quietly.
Liz just nodded, tears gathering in her eyes.
“What are you going to do?”
Swiping at her eyes, she turned away from him. “Say good-bye.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Max was staring at Doran who was busy bringing the new group of soldiers up to date. Doran had grinned like a Cheshire cat when D’lor had introduced himself so formally to Max. His protector’s look had said it all: It was about time you get your due honor.
We have come to serve you. The words echoed in Max’s mind as he stared around the group congregated outside the cabin. He had known he was a prince all his life, but to experience it first-hand was strange indeed. He wished Liz were there to be his center. Missing her was like a constant ache in his gut. At various times throughout the day he had been haunted by snatches of memories from the previous day and night—the way she whispered his name, the look of wonder on her face when he loved her, the feeling of having her in his arms.
Seeing her wear that stupid shirt with his name scrawled on it.
It had been so much more he had ever dreamed of.
He had received feedback on the success of the campaign launched against Khivar’s people by Michael’s soldiers. Max had been proud when he learned how much Liz’s list of names and locations of the alien troops had helped them. And proud about the way Michael had taken charge in his absence. They had managed to decrease Khivar’s numbers already, but now he had gone into hiding.
“Tomorrow we meet with Kyle’s people and the resistance to finalize our plans. I want this over with,” Max had informed the group. And tomorrow, there was something else he needed to do – organize security for Liz. He wouldn’t be able to stand it if something happened to her again.
“Excuse me, my Prince, but… we have news.” It was D’lor that had come to find Max as he sat on the flat rock that still reminded him of Liz, staring up at the night sky.
“Our ships have managed to disable those of Khivar, only one escaped.” D’lor looked at Max closely. “This means that communication with Antar has become possible.” The soldier suddenly looked uncertain. “It would mean a lot to King—your father if you would contact him.”
Unexpectedly, a ball of fiery emotion erupted in his stomach. His father. His real father. Max felt momentarily paralyzed and all he could come up with was: Liz. She would have loved sharing this with him, would have made sure that he didn’t make a fool of himself and bawled in front of his father.
“Sire?”
Max jerked back to reality. “Yes,” he finally managed gruffly. “Please organize it.”
Then he went to tell Isabel.
The communicator included a holographic image—letting both sides see the other while talking. The old man, worn out by war and mourning a mate he had loved beyond all else, stared at his children, the ones he had been told were dead, as if he was afraid he was seeing ghosts.
“Vatresh,” Max finally whispered. Father.
Beside him, Isabel burst into tears, clinging to her brother while her eyes never left her father—her father who also had tears in his eyes by now.
“Your mother would have been so proud…” He told them what the situation was on Antar—that his soldiers had been withholding total control of the planet from Khivar for years. That they had hidden him, together with some ships and other essentials, away from Khivar. That his people fought on because of loyalty to him and because he had promised them his children would return one day to finally end the war. That he had sent all but one of the ships to earth when he got the message of their deaths—with the instruction of bringing back their bodies.
Max stared at him as he talked. His father was an intimidating man exuding power. How on earth was he ever supposed to follow in this man’s footsteps?
“You look just like your mother,” Aran eventually told Isabel.
The statement clinched it for Max. This was not about himself, or his future with Liz, it was about a cause so much bigger than that. “We’re going to defeat Khivar here on Earth, Father. Then we’re coming back.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Sheriff Valenti!” Liz ran over to hug the man that had been a surrogate father to her while she worked for “Andre”. Kyle’s dad had been the Sheriff of Carlsbad when he got involved in the fight and his expertise and wise council had helped the group a lot.
“Liz.” He hugged her back. “I hear you’ve had some excitement since I saw you last?” His voice was teasing. “I’m glad you’re alright, though. Many people here,” he waved his hand around the mountainous camp, “owe their lives to you and Alex.”
Indeed, many people were smiling at her as they walked through the camp. It was situated high in the mountains of New Mexico, utilizing caves and rock outcroppings to make it invisible from the air. And it housed a surprising number of people. People she and Alex had smuggled out of Khivar’s labs through tunnels and via various safe houses.
They entered a cavernous hollow in the mountainside – the “mess hall” of the place. Coffee was available and they sat down with a steaming cup each. Liz was glad for the diversion. If she had sat around any longer, staring up at the stars and wishing it was last night this time…
A blush suffused her cheeks at the thought of exactly what she had been doing last night this time—returning the compliment Max had paid her in that cabin of his so long ago.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Jim’s voice interrupted. He was grinning wickedly when she blushed even harder. “Or, according to what Kyle tells me, I don’t even have to pay to guess who you were thinking of.”
“No,” she bit her lip in embarrassment.
“Well, I want to hear all about this guy who managed to turn our Liz’s head, but first, tell me about Khivar. We need to get this over with.” Jim rubbed his jaw with narrowed eyes. “Although I don’t like that we are concentrating on Khivar so much. It leaves us wide open for those other aliens to take advantage.”
Liz bent her head. “What if—what if those other aliens weren’t what Khivar said they were. What if they were just living here peacefully?” Her voice shook as she talked.
There was a long pause. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Liz?”
“No—no,” she swallowed. “I was just wondering…”
“Well, don’t get confused, Lizzie. This is war and those aliens don’t belong here. We can’t allow even one of them on earth. What if they start breeding with us? What will become of the human race?” He paused when he heard Liz gasp. “Would you want someone you care about to sleep with the likes of Khivar? Have his kids?”
“No,” she whispered. “But…” But Max is different.
Jim touched her arm. “You are just like that darn infuriating woman… Too soft hearts. This is the right thing, Liz. None of them belong here. And when I see one, I’m not going to ask questions. This is war, my dear.”
And war never had a good side.
tbc
29+30
Chapter 29
Liz had dreamt of Max. She had slept in the shirt that declared her his property and dreamed of him touching her all over again. Sleep had been a welcome relief after some of the conversations she had had last night. The disturbing one with Jim, another one that had left a mother with tears in her eyes and one with a very suspicious Kyle.
Kyle knew something was up with Max and only his inability to grasp that Liz could betray their cause was keeping him from making the final connection to who Max was. Liz’s heart ached because she was torn in so many directions at once. Torn between the man she loved and the men to whom she owed her life and her loyalty.
But now all her worries paled beneath her excitement at the prospect of seeing Max again. Max had asked that only Kyle and Alex of “Andre’s” group come to the meeting, so Liz felt safe to show the extent of her joy while they traveled in the car to the meeting point. Alex kept grinning at her as she fairly bounced in the backseat, but Kyle was quiet.
Members of the Albuquerque resistance group will also attend and Liz felt sure it was going to be an interesting morning. If only there was some way she could make sure she had more time to spend with Max. That would make her really happy.
The meeting point was halfway between Roswell and Carlsbad, since this was closest to the locations of two of the hideouts.
Everyone but Maria was quiet in the vehicle ferrying Max, Michael and Doran. Maria was excited to see Liz again, not to mention some of her old friends from the Albuquerque resistance who were coming to the meeting too. She had been moving around with Michael so much during the last few months, that she was afraid of losing touch with some of these people. Also, she had Michael with her and Max back safely, so her life was as good as it was going to get under the circumstances.
Max, when he managed to stop thinking about the fact that he was going to see Liz in a few minutes, was busy drawing up strategies in his head. He was convinced that they would need a number of teams to accomplish a victory. If he could get the other groups to agree on letting his people handle Khivar and his soldiers, then the human groups could handle the human element of the enemy.
How strange it felt to be sitting here in the middle of a desert, making plans to destroy the alien leader of your own alien planet. Sometimes fate dished out strange destinies indeed! Fate had decreed that he be born to parents that ruled another planet. Fate decreed that he be born in a time of war. Fate decreed that, of all the available planets in the universe, he had ended up on Earth. And fate decreed that he would meet his other half at this highly uncomfortable time in history.
It all just made him more determined to make this end as soon as possible. He wanted to be able to make his own decisions about his future. He wanted to stop living in fear that someone will make an attempt on his life at any given time. He wanted to be free to plan a life with Liz.
The closer the car was getting to their destination, the more Max could feel Liz’s presence. It felt like slow champagne bubbles drifting through his consciousness, making him feel more alive. He started smiling unconsciously. Never mind the terrible circumstances they were meeting in, he was going to see Liz!
And hopefully she won’t throw a fit when she heard his plans for her.
The meeting took place in an abandoned old farmhouse, a few miles off the main road between Roswell and Carlsbad. It was surrounded by desert, providing ample space for the security crews to make sure that no one unauthorized observed the gathering.
Drawing up outside the building, Max got out of the car and immediately his eyes scanned the porch running alongside the front of the house. A few men stood around—obviously guards of some kind—but there was no sign of Liz. Irrationally, he felt a little stab of disappointment that she hadn’t come rushing out to meet him.
Inside, Liz was chewing her lip in an effort to not interrupt Kyle’s monologue and run outside. She knew Max had arrived, but she couldn’t let Kyle find out about this strange link between them. He was already suspicious enough. But it was taking all her strength to keep her face impassive and her body calm.
It was a strange moment when Max entered the building. As Liz stood watching breathlessly, he came striding in, an entourage following him, staying respectfully a step behind. Darting a glance at Kyle, she saw him watch this procession with narrowed eyes. Turning back to Max, she found his warm eyes caressing her and she forgot about wondering if Max had any idea just how revealing his entrance had been.
While everyone else was busy with hellos, Max covered the ground separating him and Liz with long strides until he could sweep her into his arms. He hugged her close, resting his cheek on the crown of her shiny hair and breathing in deeply. “Hi.”
Liz didn’t even answer, just snuggled closer and tightened her hold around his waist. Only their audience kept them from kissing desperately—Max settling for brushing his lips over her forehead before turning back to the group that was by now waiting for their attention. The greeting was supremely unsatisfying and Max decided that he would have to make sure he had a few minutes with Liz after the meeting was concluded. In the meantime, he kept her firmly anchored to his side.
“Right,” Kyle came forward, “let’s get this show on the road.”
The main decision-makers converged in the center of the room, while the others moved to line the walls. It started out with an information session, including all they knew about Khivar’s operations. They still lacked the vital details about the exact location of his secret refuge, though. All Liz and Alex knew what that the camp could not be too far from Carlsbad, since Khivar had always managed to visit his hiding place and return in the space of a day.
Teams were made up to seek and eliminate the remaining alien soldiers supporting Khivar as well as find the human collaborators among the security forces. This last project was given to the Resistance since it was something they had been working on for years in any case.
Max and Kyle had a disagreement about how they would handle searching for Khivar. Kyle wanted to use some kind of trap to lure Khivar into the open or to get Khivar to take a hostage that would be taken to his camp, but Max opposed this, knowing that the only two people that could be used would be Alex or Liz.
The worst of it was that he couldn’t tell Kyle the whole story of what had been done to Liz while Khivar had interrogated her last time, since he would then have to explain how she had gotten healed so miraculously.
“I still have that thing in my neck,” Alex announced from the sidelines suddenly, halting the disagreement. “If I stop taking the serum for a while, they might be able to track me.”
Everyone stared at the ground. No one was willing to ask Alex to make this sacrifice.
He waited a few breaths, then continued. “I’m probably the best person to use in any case.” This gained everyone’s attention. “I can fashion a tracking device for you guys to use to find me or, if that fails, I can figure out how to work their comms to contact you.”
“Alex…” Liz didn’t know what to say. This was dangerous to say the least. “What if we can’t find you in time and the serum wears off? Khivar would find out everything about us.”
“We’re going to have to take that risk,” Kyle jumped in. “Unless someone has a better plan. This is all we can do. That alien isn’t going to come out to meet us on his own.”
“Tell me again how the serum impacts on this marking device of Khivar’s?” Max’s quiet question brought a few heads around.
“It seems to inhibit the range of the thing. When we are close to him, like in the same town, it works and this has kept him happy mostly since we tried to stay close to him until now.”
“So we hope you are out of range now.” Michael’s brusque interruption silenced the group again. “Or we might be providing the bastard with a nice little opportunity to get rid of all of us in one foul swoop.”
Kyle immediately got irritated by the sarcastic tone of Michael’s statement. “In case you haven’t noticed, the cause is bigger than the bunch of people in this room. Our fight will be continued with or without us.”
Michael was just opening his mouth to say that at least one group in this room would be more or less devastated if their leader was eliminated, but shut up after a warning glance from Max.
“I would like to have one of my people close to Alex at all times,” Max announced. If he could keep D’lor or one of the Royal Guards close enough, that might improve their chances of not losing Alex.
“Fine, we’ll have a couple of people close to him,” Kyle agreed.
“The rest of us should also work in groups to find out what we can about where Khivar might be hiding. Maybe we can find him before he…” Max was hoping that they could avert Alex’s possible abduction.
“I’m coming with you,” Liz whispered to Max when the others started planning for their missions.
Looking at her in alarm, Max took her arm and steered her away from the main group. “You know I would love that, sweetheart, but I think you’ll be safer in the camp.”
“Please, Max.” She looked at him pleadingly, her hands clutching at his arm. “I would go crazy sitting in that camp wondering what is happening to you and to Alex. And,” she stepped closer to him, “no one would look after my safety better than you.”
Max was still unsure. He desperately wanted more time with Liz, but he intended taking on Khivar as soon as they knew where he was and he wasn’t sure he wanted Liz around for that. On the other hand, Khivar might already have found out where “Andre’s” camp was.
“Max?”
He sighed. Like there had been any real chance of him telling Liz no. Any moment they could be together was one sent from heaven. “Only if you promise to listen to me when things get hairy. And if you don’t say a word about the bodyguard you’re going to have from now on.”
Liz’s beautiful eyes were shining as she threw her arms around Max. “I promise.”
Kyle took the news better than Max expected. He just invited himself along into Max’s team, which was fine by Max. This would mean they would know what was going on in “Andre’s” head all the time too.
And he got to keep Liz around.
The groups broke up after that, all going back to their own places to gear up for what Alex was silently terming ‘The Final Battle’. At least he hoped so. And lord, he really hoped he would get out of this alive. He had wondered after his offer if he had temporarily lost his mind, but he was doing this for Liz. For Liz and for all the people he had been trying to help from the beginning. They needed to get Khivar off their planet. The sooner the better.
Max had taken Liz aside when the meeting ended, moving into another empty room to steal a few minutes of alone time for them before they had to leave. “How are you feeling?” he asked, cupping her face in his hands tenderly.
“Empty,” she told him. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” he whispered back before settling his mouth on hers for a breath-stealing kiss.
Immediately they were assailed by images from their lovemaking—soft moans, harsh gasps, promises of love and commitment. The kiss was too short to be enough, but Max felt his body start heating up at a rapid pace and he broke away from Liz to rest his mouth against her hair. She tasted so sweet to him, like all his tomorrows wrapped together. He told her quickly about seeing his father for the first time and her reaction confirmed his thoughts of yesterday: she was his balance. She was so happy for him and so worried about how he handled it.
“I love you,” he murmured into her hair, knowing it was even truer because she had effortlessly realized how big the moment with his father had been to him.
They couldn’t stay too long, so Max pressed one more hard kiss on her already puffy lips before he steered her outside. There he ignored all the interested stares and brushed his mouth over Liz’s lingeringly before he helped her into Kyle’s car. Even though he knew he would be seeing her again in a few hours, he still hated to watch the car drive off.
“Let’s go, Maxwell,” Michael called from their vehicle. “The little wife will be around to drool over again tonight.” Michael was not happy with Max. He couldn’t understand why they were letting that girl be part of their team. She would just get in the way or get in trouble and make Max lose his head. No, just like he was leaving Maria out of harm’s way, Max should have done the same. Michael came from a race where the women warriors were truly fierce, but they had been trained into the job. Neither Liz nor Maria was ready for trouble in his opinion, so they belonged away from the action. But as usual, Max wasn’t thinking with his brain.
Michael watched Max ignore him as he got into the car, turning to Doran instead. “I want you to organize a guard for Liz with D’lor. Bring them to me and I’ll explain how important she is to me.”
Doran’s nod was overridden by Michael’s loud snort. “You know, Max, I haven’t said a thing before, but what the hell are you doing?”
“Michael—”
“You can play house here on earth, but what happens when we go back? Have you forgotten which group she belongs to? They won’t allow her to stay with you if they knew—”
“Thank you for your opinion, but this is my decision.”
Pausing, Michael stared at his Prince in amazement. “You’re just going to tell those guards of yours that you have a wife they need to watch over? Don’t you think you should talk to our King—your Father—about this first?”
Max hesitated before answering. “I think this is my problem. And I’m going to handle it my way.” In truth, he was too scared to tell his father about Liz and frankly he hadn’t thought of the possibility that the guards could tell the King. Gritting his teeth, he decided he would just have to tough this out. Liz was his wife according to Antarian customs and as a result she was a prime target for Khivar. Not even his fear of the repercussions of his father finding out would stop him from ensuring her safety at all costs.
She was too important to him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar’s pacing outside his tent was interrupted by a breathless soldier. “We have located Alex. He is moving at the moment.”
Finally, some good news! “Have him followed. I want to find out where he is hiding.” And in the process, we may even find the elusive Ms Liz Parker and her pet alien prince.
Chapter 30
“We need to talk, Sire.”
Max stared at Doran in surprise at his sudden reversion to formality and his humble manner. They had arrived back at the cabin an hour earlier, where Max had given out instructions to Isabel and the rest of the soldiers. As expected, Isabel had also not been impressed with the fact that Liz had become a part of Max’s group and was going to stay with him… and she had said so loudly. It was only after the argument that Max had realized that D’lor had been staring at them in shock.
And now Doran was acting strangely.
Still frowning, he followed Doran to the flat rock in the little copse of trees close to the cabin.
Waiting until they were out of earshot of the others, including the two guards that had followed them at a respectful distance, Doran turned on Max with fiery eyes. “Max… Zan, it is time you start acting like the Prince you are!”
Max’s eyes widened at the sudden vehement statement.
“I know you grew up in a place where your station wasn’t an issue, but now you have to make a choice. If you are planning to follow in your father’s footsteps, then you are the Prince of every single one of us gathered in this cabin. And that means you are the person with the final say.” Doran took a deep breath and clasped his hands behind his back. “I know that ever since Michael has come to earth, you have felt like he was the teacher in a lot of ways… well, that time is past now. You need to tell him that you are the leader now, and he should not talk to you the way he did while we drove back here. Especially not in front of your soldiers. The same with Isabel.”
Speechless, Max stared at the wizened man that had been like another father to him for as long as he can remember.
“I’m just saying, Max, that what was fine when you were younger, is not fine now. You need to tell these people where they stand with you. And where they stand with Liz. She is your wife, Max, not some bimbo you picked up and couldn’t care less about. She is more important than Isabel in our hierarchy—third after you and your father. And if you intend to stay bonded to her, as it looks like you are, they need to start showing both of you the respect your positions deserve, whether Liz stays here or goes with you doesn’t matter.”
The last statement made Max look away, his heart twisting painfully.
“And there is something much more important you need to know. Bonding with Liz has made you stronger—it vastly increased your power. For the first time, you are Khivar’s equal in ability. While the linking has done some of it, the… consummation of that link has finalized this. I admit that I’d always assumed it only happened between male members of your line and another Antarian, and I wasn’t sure it was genetic. But I can now see you are changed. Having Liz near you, preferably touching you, will make you the best weapon we have against Khivar…”
Max had still been stuck on the increase of power due to his new sexual status, but the last statement jerked his head up. “You mean I have to have Liz near me when I face Khivar? I don’t think so!”
Doran’s eyes narrowed. “You mean you haven’t felt a difference when she is near you?”
Abruptly, a flash of his miraculous healing in the cave raced through Max’s mind. Liz had done that by just touching him and concentrating on him. He gaped at Doran.
“I can see you have. I’m not propagating taking her into the middle of battle. For that matter, I’m not saying you should be in the middle of battle. I am saying that if you ever get in a situation where you are have meet Khivar, you should know that you are his equal.” Doran gave Max a direct and urgent look. “It’s time to take charge and be Prince Zan now, Max.”
And with that, he bent his head and touched his fingers to his forehead.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Everyone got out of Khivar’s way as he stormed through the camp cursing a blue streak. They had lost Alex. He had somehow gotten out of range before they could get a clear hold on where he was and where he was going.
So now it was back to waiting again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They met again at a small motel at the edge of Carlsbad. Liz had arrived with Kyle before Max had, and she had proceeded to book a double room, trying hard not to blush too hard while doing this. She shouldn’t have worried, the hotel manager hardly gave her a second look. As long as the money came in, he didn’t care who slept with whom under his roof.
Surprisingly, Kyle hadn’t said anything either, just organized himself a room so that it didn’t look like they had arrived together. She was profoundly thankful to Kyle for another reason too. Jim had been very unhappy when he had learned that Liz intended being with Max for the duration of the campaign against Khivar, but Kyle had told his father that he would keep an eye on her since he was going along too. Liz felt terrible about lying to all of them. They had done so much for her during the last three years of working for Khivar. She wondered if Jim would ever forgive her when he found out she had deceived them all about Max.
And she worried about Alex. He had bravely left the camp not long after they had arrived back from the meeting to head for his apartment in Carlsbad. With him had been one of Kyle’s most trusted people while the guy Max had ordered to keep Alex under surveillance would be waiting at the apartment. It was a huge gamble—one Liz hoped would not cost her her best friend in the end.
The motel room door opened so quietly, she missed it completely. She had been sitting on the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, deep in thought when the shadow suddenly fell over her.
Her little yelp of fear almost made D’lor keel over in shock. Hastily he backed away from the bed and bent his head to touch his fingers to his forehead. “My Lady! I apologize! I did not mean to startle you.”
By now, Liz was standing upright on the bed, her back pressed to the wall. “Who—who are you?”
D’lor just kept his eyes lowered and his fingers where they were. “D’lor, My Princess.”
That was all he said and Liz wondered wildly if the man was delusional or just plain batty. What was with all the references to royalty? Why was he standing there looking like he was awaiting his execution? And what sort of a name was D’lor?
“Uhm… I think you’ve made a mist—” It was then she noticed the faint sign on the back of his hand—the swirling mark of the House of Antar. “Oh!” she cried in relief, finally allowing herself to move away from the wall, “you’re with Max!”
Nodding vehemently, D’lor risked a peak at his new princess. “Yes, Prince Zan sent me. To see to your safety.”
“Oh well…” By now Liz was starting to feel truly foolish for her cowardly behavior. She climbed off the bed with as much dignity as she could muster and approached the soldier with an outstretched hand. “I’m Liz Parker, nice to meet you.”
D’lor had no idea what to do. Touching the hand of his Prince’s mate was not the done thing where he came from. And she hadn’t given him permission to stop standing at attention either.
This was the strange tableau that greeted Max when he arrived in the room. For a moment, he was too surprised to speak. He had told D’lor to meet him at Liz’s room, but he hadn’t meant the man should go inside! Quickly, he rushed forward, putting an arm around Liz and telling D’lor to stop saluting. He had to fight to keep a grin from his face—obviously Liz would need a few pointers in Antarian customs.
Deciding D’lor could wait a few seconds, he turned to Liz, cupping her face to smile down at her. “Hi Sweetheart.” He brushed a gentle kiss over her smiling mouth, wishing they were alone so he could kiss her properly. It had been an unsettling afternoon—the conversation with Michael and Isabel about not going against his commands had been awful. They had been shocked and outraged and he was hoping that giving them space would give them all time to calm down.
“Max!” Liz promptly forgot about the hovering guard. She lifted up on tiptoes and kissed him back, lifting his spirits immediately.
D’lor was going to turn away, but then he saw the marks start to glow when Max’s hands curled around Liz’s neck and he stared unashamedly. How many nights had he listened to his King talk about his children—lamenting the fact that he might never see them again and that his line was going to end with him. But here were the visible signs that the Royal House of Antar lives on and has a future!
Finally breaking away from a pouting Liz, Max took a deep breath and turned to D’lor. “I want you to meet my… my Liz,” he informed the soldier. His gaze went back to his love and his fingers tightened around hers. “Guard her better than you would guard me,” he said gruffly.
“Yes, Sire,” D’lor returned eagerly. He would do this for his young Prince, but he would also do it for the King he had served for many years.
Max and Liz were staring at each other intensely, their eyes clinging and slowly heating up with need. It had been a long time since they had been alone together last. Two days and a night, in fact.
It felt like years.
Hunger to share that oneness with Liz again that he had first tasted two nights ago was curling through Max. He could literally feel it start to unfurl in his stomach, sending arrows of sensation to all the parts of his body. He had already taken a step towards Liz when he remembered that D’lor was still there.
He spoke without looking at the guard. “D’lor, don’t take this the wrong way, but,” he pulled Liz closer by the hand, “go away. Just come and tell me when there’s news about Alex…”
The guard hastened to comply with the order… and only started grinning when he was safely outside. Yes, Zan was his father’s son, there was no question about that!
Staring down at Liz, feeling the heat of her body all along the contours of his own, Max wondered at his own control. He wanted to haul her off to the bed and love her long and hard. He wanted to bury himself so deep in her that they blended into one being. He wanted to tell her he loved her until his throat was raw.
But the faint shadows in her eyes stopped him.
Liz closed her eyes and breathed deeply when Max’s fingers brushed her hair behind her ear and drifted down her cheek tenderly. Against her eyelids she could still see the dark leashed hunger that had lurked on his face and she wanted that. She wanted him to be demanding tonight—to make her feel so much that she forgot the realities surrounding them. Realities such as the fact that all over the country there were teams getting ready to eliminate kingpins of Khivar’s power right now. That her best friend was patiently sitting at home, waiting to be abducted.
Opening her eyes again, she found all her answers in the warm amber gaze watching her so lovingly.
“They’ll be fine,” he promised her now in a tender voice. “We’ll all be fine.”
It wasn’t really something he could predict, but still, it made Liz feel better.
“Love me, Max…” she whispered.
“I do. So much. And I’m going to.” He crushed her to him then, fisting his hand in her hair and dipping his head to bring his mouth down on hers. Her lips parted immediately and he delved his tongue inside, tasting her, filling her with a small part of him.
Liz was back on tiptoes, her hands clutching at the hair at the nape of his neck, her slender body straining against his. When he shifted his hips, sliding a thigh between hers to get even closer, she made a small sound of passion into his mouth at the feel of his arousal pressing into her stomach. It drove him even wilder.
They kissed hungrily, greedily, their open mouths crashing together repeatedly as they fanned the flames of their desire higher and higher.
Max was barely keeping himself in check. He itched to just wave his hand and let their clothes disappear before tumbling Liz onto the bed, but the joy spearing through him at the abandon with which Liz was giving herself over to their embrace held him in thrall.
He trailed his lips down to her chin before tilting her head with his hands to reach her throat.
“Oh, Max…” Liz heard herself moan his name as the trail of fire his tongue was making reached the deep V of her shirt. Her fingers unconsciously dug into his shoulder blades, trying to convey without words that she needed more.
His fingers trembled when he undid the buttons that hid her breasts from his gaze. Even though this wasn’t their first time, he was still overcome by the fact that she was allowing him this intimacy. Pulling away slightly, he watched her face as his hands moved lower. They were both breathing unsteadily, sometimes taking deep breaths, sometimes forgetting to breathe at all.
Finally he could spread the sides of her shirt open, pushing it slowly from her shoulders until it slid down to the floor in an untidy heap at their feet. Her breasts, still encased in a plain cotton bra, were heaving, the peaks already hard in response to his kisses. The sight made his mouth water. Glancing at her flushed face once, he slowly turned her around in his arms, enfolding her in an embrace from behind. Nudging her with his thighs, he walked her over to the dresser mirror, halting in front of it so they could see their reflections.
His skin was so much darker than hers—the tanned tone of his arm contrasting shockingly with the milky white of her stomach. Nuzzling her hair away from her nape with his face, he pressed feather-light moist kisses on her neck. Still keeping one arm securely around her middle, he used his free hand to undo the button of her jeans and languidly slide the zipper open.
“Don’t move,” he instructed softly and used both hands to push her jeans over her hips, letting them settle around her thighs, just above her knees. Then, abruptly, his hands were back on her, one cupping her breast and the other sliding between her legs, grazing the damp material of her underwear.
Liz let her head fall back against his shoulder, but she fought to keep her eyes open, to watch as he touched her body, his fingers weaving magic over her sensitive parts. She heard herself sigh, saw her body arch towards his hands, shamelessly begging for more. Her fingers found his hard thighs, digging into the muscles beneath his jeans.
Her clothes soon became an unbearable obstacle and she helped him get it all out of the way before they stumbled over to the bed. If she weren’t so aroused and desperate herself, she would have grinned at the haste with which he yanked his own clothes off.
Coming over her, he settled between her thighs and rested his forehead against hers as he gave them time to bask in the sensations of their bare skins sliding against each other. “I love you,” he murmured, his mouth hovering a scant breath above hers. He moved his hips once, sliding his arousal against her slick folds.
“Max,” she pleaded then, lifting her hands to cup his rear and push him closer.
But he had other ideas, trailing kisses and nips over her neck, spending long moments lighting up his marks below her ears and listening to the sounds she made when his tongue traced the swirling designs, before moving lower until he could caress her breasts.
Liz arched helplessly beneath him, her hands clutching his head against her as his tongue flicked against the stiff peaks.
Her whimpers spurred him on. He gloried in the little sounds she made when he loved her—loved that they told him what she liked, what made her even hotter. And she tasted like sweet heaven, her essence beating through him, whipping his blood into a frenzy until even the tips of his fingers experienced little pinpricks of sensation.
But he couldn’t hold out forever, his body’s cries for fulfillment getting more urgent by the moment. He felt himself tremble in reaction—tremble at the awe of the moment as he hesitated just short of entering her.
Her eyes were staring wildly up into his, the faint sheen of sweat on her skin telling its own tale. “Sheyleth,” she breathed. Lover. Keeper of my body.
Surging into her with a fierce groan, Max halted again as soon as they were completely one. “Yes,” he told her huskily, “but so much more, Liz.” He framed her face with unsteady hands as she wrapped her legs around his thighs. “My wife.”
The words made her suck in her breath sharply, the effects of them reverberating to the place where he filled her. “Max… Yes!”
Their movements were fast and urgent, he pushed into her deeply with every thrust, until it all just became a blur of pleasure interspersed with the soft sounds of their enjoyment. He drove her on until she climaxed in a blinding rush, her neck arched and her lips parted in a soundless scream. A moment later he shuddered against her uncontrollably, a muffled sound tearing from his throat as he buried his face against her neck and the warm spill of his release filled her deep inside.
Afterwards his arms stayed wrapped around her, his hips resting in the cradle of hers until their breathing returned to normal.
“I love you, Max,” she murmured against his hair.
Lifting his head, he captured her gaze, his own filled with determination. “My wife,” he repeated. It sounded like a vow.
A vow for when, not if, Khivar was out of their lives.
tbc
Liz had dreamt of Max. She had slept in the shirt that declared her his property and dreamed of him touching her all over again. Sleep had been a welcome relief after some of the conversations she had had last night. The disturbing one with Jim, another one that had left a mother with tears in her eyes and one with a very suspicious Kyle.
Kyle knew something was up with Max and only his inability to grasp that Liz could betray their cause was keeping him from making the final connection to who Max was. Liz’s heart ached because she was torn in so many directions at once. Torn between the man she loved and the men to whom she owed her life and her loyalty.
But now all her worries paled beneath her excitement at the prospect of seeing Max again. Max had asked that only Kyle and Alex of “Andre’s” group come to the meeting, so Liz felt safe to show the extent of her joy while they traveled in the car to the meeting point. Alex kept grinning at her as she fairly bounced in the backseat, but Kyle was quiet.
Members of the Albuquerque resistance group will also attend and Liz felt sure it was going to be an interesting morning. If only there was some way she could make sure she had more time to spend with Max. That would make her really happy.
The meeting point was halfway between Roswell and Carlsbad, since this was closest to the locations of two of the hideouts.
Everyone but Maria was quiet in the vehicle ferrying Max, Michael and Doran. Maria was excited to see Liz again, not to mention some of her old friends from the Albuquerque resistance who were coming to the meeting too. She had been moving around with Michael so much during the last few months, that she was afraid of losing touch with some of these people. Also, she had Michael with her and Max back safely, so her life was as good as it was going to get under the circumstances.
Max, when he managed to stop thinking about the fact that he was going to see Liz in a few minutes, was busy drawing up strategies in his head. He was convinced that they would need a number of teams to accomplish a victory. If he could get the other groups to agree on letting his people handle Khivar and his soldiers, then the human groups could handle the human element of the enemy.
How strange it felt to be sitting here in the middle of a desert, making plans to destroy the alien leader of your own alien planet. Sometimes fate dished out strange destinies indeed! Fate had decreed that he be born to parents that ruled another planet. Fate decreed that he be born in a time of war. Fate decreed that, of all the available planets in the universe, he had ended up on Earth. And fate decreed that he would meet his other half at this highly uncomfortable time in history.
It all just made him more determined to make this end as soon as possible. He wanted to be able to make his own decisions about his future. He wanted to stop living in fear that someone will make an attempt on his life at any given time. He wanted to be free to plan a life with Liz.
The closer the car was getting to their destination, the more Max could feel Liz’s presence. It felt like slow champagne bubbles drifting through his consciousness, making him feel more alive. He started smiling unconsciously. Never mind the terrible circumstances they were meeting in, he was going to see Liz!
And hopefully she won’t throw a fit when she heard his plans for her.
The meeting took place in an abandoned old farmhouse, a few miles off the main road between Roswell and Carlsbad. It was surrounded by desert, providing ample space for the security crews to make sure that no one unauthorized observed the gathering.
Drawing up outside the building, Max got out of the car and immediately his eyes scanned the porch running alongside the front of the house. A few men stood around—obviously guards of some kind—but there was no sign of Liz. Irrationally, he felt a little stab of disappointment that she hadn’t come rushing out to meet him.
Inside, Liz was chewing her lip in an effort to not interrupt Kyle’s monologue and run outside. She knew Max had arrived, but she couldn’t let Kyle find out about this strange link between them. He was already suspicious enough. But it was taking all her strength to keep her face impassive and her body calm.
It was a strange moment when Max entered the building. As Liz stood watching breathlessly, he came striding in, an entourage following him, staying respectfully a step behind. Darting a glance at Kyle, she saw him watch this procession with narrowed eyes. Turning back to Max, she found his warm eyes caressing her and she forgot about wondering if Max had any idea just how revealing his entrance had been.
While everyone else was busy with hellos, Max covered the ground separating him and Liz with long strides until he could sweep her into his arms. He hugged her close, resting his cheek on the crown of her shiny hair and breathing in deeply. “Hi.”
Liz didn’t even answer, just snuggled closer and tightened her hold around his waist. Only their audience kept them from kissing desperately—Max settling for brushing his lips over her forehead before turning back to the group that was by now waiting for their attention. The greeting was supremely unsatisfying and Max decided that he would have to make sure he had a few minutes with Liz after the meeting was concluded. In the meantime, he kept her firmly anchored to his side.
“Right,” Kyle came forward, “let’s get this show on the road.”
The main decision-makers converged in the center of the room, while the others moved to line the walls. It started out with an information session, including all they knew about Khivar’s operations. They still lacked the vital details about the exact location of his secret refuge, though. All Liz and Alex knew what that the camp could not be too far from Carlsbad, since Khivar had always managed to visit his hiding place and return in the space of a day.
Teams were made up to seek and eliminate the remaining alien soldiers supporting Khivar as well as find the human collaborators among the security forces. This last project was given to the Resistance since it was something they had been working on for years in any case.
Max and Kyle had a disagreement about how they would handle searching for Khivar. Kyle wanted to use some kind of trap to lure Khivar into the open or to get Khivar to take a hostage that would be taken to his camp, but Max opposed this, knowing that the only two people that could be used would be Alex or Liz.
The worst of it was that he couldn’t tell Kyle the whole story of what had been done to Liz while Khivar had interrogated her last time, since he would then have to explain how she had gotten healed so miraculously.
“I still have that thing in my neck,” Alex announced from the sidelines suddenly, halting the disagreement. “If I stop taking the serum for a while, they might be able to track me.”
Everyone stared at the ground. No one was willing to ask Alex to make this sacrifice.
He waited a few breaths, then continued. “I’m probably the best person to use in any case.” This gained everyone’s attention. “I can fashion a tracking device for you guys to use to find me or, if that fails, I can figure out how to work their comms to contact you.”
“Alex…” Liz didn’t know what to say. This was dangerous to say the least. “What if we can’t find you in time and the serum wears off? Khivar would find out everything about us.”
“We’re going to have to take that risk,” Kyle jumped in. “Unless someone has a better plan. This is all we can do. That alien isn’t going to come out to meet us on his own.”
“Tell me again how the serum impacts on this marking device of Khivar’s?” Max’s quiet question brought a few heads around.
“It seems to inhibit the range of the thing. When we are close to him, like in the same town, it works and this has kept him happy mostly since we tried to stay close to him until now.”
“So we hope you are out of range now.” Michael’s brusque interruption silenced the group again. “Or we might be providing the bastard with a nice little opportunity to get rid of all of us in one foul swoop.”
Kyle immediately got irritated by the sarcastic tone of Michael’s statement. “In case you haven’t noticed, the cause is bigger than the bunch of people in this room. Our fight will be continued with or without us.”
Michael was just opening his mouth to say that at least one group in this room would be more or less devastated if their leader was eliminated, but shut up after a warning glance from Max.
“I would like to have one of my people close to Alex at all times,” Max announced. If he could keep D’lor or one of the Royal Guards close enough, that might improve their chances of not losing Alex.
“Fine, we’ll have a couple of people close to him,” Kyle agreed.
“The rest of us should also work in groups to find out what we can about where Khivar might be hiding. Maybe we can find him before he…” Max was hoping that they could avert Alex’s possible abduction.
“I’m coming with you,” Liz whispered to Max when the others started planning for their missions.
Looking at her in alarm, Max took her arm and steered her away from the main group. “You know I would love that, sweetheart, but I think you’ll be safer in the camp.”
“Please, Max.” She looked at him pleadingly, her hands clutching at his arm. “I would go crazy sitting in that camp wondering what is happening to you and to Alex. And,” she stepped closer to him, “no one would look after my safety better than you.”
Max was still unsure. He desperately wanted more time with Liz, but he intended taking on Khivar as soon as they knew where he was and he wasn’t sure he wanted Liz around for that. On the other hand, Khivar might already have found out where “Andre’s” camp was.
“Max?”
He sighed. Like there had been any real chance of him telling Liz no. Any moment they could be together was one sent from heaven. “Only if you promise to listen to me when things get hairy. And if you don’t say a word about the bodyguard you’re going to have from now on.”
Liz’s beautiful eyes were shining as she threw her arms around Max. “I promise.”
Kyle took the news better than Max expected. He just invited himself along into Max’s team, which was fine by Max. This would mean they would know what was going on in “Andre’s” head all the time too.
And he got to keep Liz around.
The groups broke up after that, all going back to their own places to gear up for what Alex was silently terming ‘The Final Battle’. At least he hoped so. And lord, he really hoped he would get out of this alive. He had wondered after his offer if he had temporarily lost his mind, but he was doing this for Liz. For Liz and for all the people he had been trying to help from the beginning. They needed to get Khivar off their planet. The sooner the better.
Max had taken Liz aside when the meeting ended, moving into another empty room to steal a few minutes of alone time for them before they had to leave. “How are you feeling?” he asked, cupping her face in his hands tenderly.
“Empty,” she told him. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” he whispered back before settling his mouth on hers for a breath-stealing kiss.
Immediately they were assailed by images from their lovemaking—soft moans, harsh gasps, promises of love and commitment. The kiss was too short to be enough, but Max felt his body start heating up at a rapid pace and he broke away from Liz to rest his mouth against her hair. She tasted so sweet to him, like all his tomorrows wrapped together. He told her quickly about seeing his father for the first time and her reaction confirmed his thoughts of yesterday: she was his balance. She was so happy for him and so worried about how he handled it.
“I love you,” he murmured into her hair, knowing it was even truer because she had effortlessly realized how big the moment with his father had been to him.
They couldn’t stay too long, so Max pressed one more hard kiss on her already puffy lips before he steered her outside. There he ignored all the interested stares and brushed his mouth over Liz’s lingeringly before he helped her into Kyle’s car. Even though he knew he would be seeing her again in a few hours, he still hated to watch the car drive off.
“Let’s go, Maxwell,” Michael called from their vehicle. “The little wife will be around to drool over again tonight.” Michael was not happy with Max. He couldn’t understand why they were letting that girl be part of their team. She would just get in the way or get in trouble and make Max lose his head. No, just like he was leaving Maria out of harm’s way, Max should have done the same. Michael came from a race where the women warriors were truly fierce, but they had been trained into the job. Neither Liz nor Maria was ready for trouble in his opinion, so they belonged away from the action. But as usual, Max wasn’t thinking with his brain.
Michael watched Max ignore him as he got into the car, turning to Doran instead. “I want you to organize a guard for Liz with D’lor. Bring them to me and I’ll explain how important she is to me.”
Doran’s nod was overridden by Michael’s loud snort. “You know, Max, I haven’t said a thing before, but what the hell are you doing?”
“Michael—”
“You can play house here on earth, but what happens when we go back? Have you forgotten which group she belongs to? They won’t allow her to stay with you if they knew—”
“Thank you for your opinion, but this is my decision.”
Pausing, Michael stared at his Prince in amazement. “You’re just going to tell those guards of yours that you have a wife they need to watch over? Don’t you think you should talk to our King—your Father—about this first?”
Max hesitated before answering. “I think this is my problem. And I’m going to handle it my way.” In truth, he was too scared to tell his father about Liz and frankly he hadn’t thought of the possibility that the guards could tell the King. Gritting his teeth, he decided he would just have to tough this out. Liz was his wife according to Antarian customs and as a result she was a prime target for Khivar. Not even his fear of the repercussions of his father finding out would stop him from ensuring her safety at all costs.
She was too important to him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar’s pacing outside his tent was interrupted by a breathless soldier. “We have located Alex. He is moving at the moment.”
Finally, some good news! “Have him followed. I want to find out where he is hiding.” And in the process, we may even find the elusive Ms Liz Parker and her pet alien prince.
Chapter 30
“We need to talk, Sire.”
Max stared at Doran in surprise at his sudden reversion to formality and his humble manner. They had arrived back at the cabin an hour earlier, where Max had given out instructions to Isabel and the rest of the soldiers. As expected, Isabel had also not been impressed with the fact that Liz had become a part of Max’s group and was going to stay with him… and she had said so loudly. It was only after the argument that Max had realized that D’lor had been staring at them in shock.
And now Doran was acting strangely.
Still frowning, he followed Doran to the flat rock in the little copse of trees close to the cabin.
Waiting until they were out of earshot of the others, including the two guards that had followed them at a respectful distance, Doran turned on Max with fiery eyes. “Max… Zan, it is time you start acting like the Prince you are!”
Max’s eyes widened at the sudden vehement statement.
“I know you grew up in a place where your station wasn’t an issue, but now you have to make a choice. If you are planning to follow in your father’s footsteps, then you are the Prince of every single one of us gathered in this cabin. And that means you are the person with the final say.” Doran took a deep breath and clasped his hands behind his back. “I know that ever since Michael has come to earth, you have felt like he was the teacher in a lot of ways… well, that time is past now. You need to tell him that you are the leader now, and he should not talk to you the way he did while we drove back here. Especially not in front of your soldiers. The same with Isabel.”
Speechless, Max stared at the wizened man that had been like another father to him for as long as he can remember.
“I’m just saying, Max, that what was fine when you were younger, is not fine now. You need to tell these people where they stand with you. And where they stand with Liz. She is your wife, Max, not some bimbo you picked up and couldn’t care less about. She is more important than Isabel in our hierarchy—third after you and your father. And if you intend to stay bonded to her, as it looks like you are, they need to start showing both of you the respect your positions deserve, whether Liz stays here or goes with you doesn’t matter.”
The last statement made Max look away, his heart twisting painfully.
“And there is something much more important you need to know. Bonding with Liz has made you stronger—it vastly increased your power. For the first time, you are Khivar’s equal in ability. While the linking has done some of it, the… consummation of that link has finalized this. I admit that I’d always assumed it only happened between male members of your line and another Antarian, and I wasn’t sure it was genetic. But I can now see you are changed. Having Liz near you, preferably touching you, will make you the best weapon we have against Khivar…”
Max had still been stuck on the increase of power due to his new sexual status, but the last statement jerked his head up. “You mean I have to have Liz near me when I face Khivar? I don’t think so!”
Doran’s eyes narrowed. “You mean you haven’t felt a difference when she is near you?”
Abruptly, a flash of his miraculous healing in the cave raced through Max’s mind. Liz had done that by just touching him and concentrating on him. He gaped at Doran.
“I can see you have. I’m not propagating taking her into the middle of battle. For that matter, I’m not saying you should be in the middle of battle. I am saying that if you ever get in a situation where you are have meet Khivar, you should know that you are his equal.” Doran gave Max a direct and urgent look. “It’s time to take charge and be Prince Zan now, Max.”
And with that, he bent his head and touched his fingers to his forehead.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Everyone got out of Khivar’s way as he stormed through the camp cursing a blue streak. They had lost Alex. He had somehow gotten out of range before they could get a clear hold on where he was and where he was going.
So now it was back to waiting again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They met again at a small motel at the edge of Carlsbad. Liz had arrived with Kyle before Max had, and she had proceeded to book a double room, trying hard not to blush too hard while doing this. She shouldn’t have worried, the hotel manager hardly gave her a second look. As long as the money came in, he didn’t care who slept with whom under his roof.
Surprisingly, Kyle hadn’t said anything either, just organized himself a room so that it didn’t look like they had arrived together. She was profoundly thankful to Kyle for another reason too. Jim had been very unhappy when he had learned that Liz intended being with Max for the duration of the campaign against Khivar, but Kyle had told his father that he would keep an eye on her since he was going along too. Liz felt terrible about lying to all of them. They had done so much for her during the last three years of working for Khivar. She wondered if Jim would ever forgive her when he found out she had deceived them all about Max.
And she worried about Alex. He had bravely left the camp not long after they had arrived back from the meeting to head for his apartment in Carlsbad. With him had been one of Kyle’s most trusted people while the guy Max had ordered to keep Alex under surveillance would be waiting at the apartment. It was a huge gamble—one Liz hoped would not cost her her best friend in the end.
The motel room door opened so quietly, she missed it completely. She had been sitting on the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, deep in thought when the shadow suddenly fell over her.
Her little yelp of fear almost made D’lor keel over in shock. Hastily he backed away from the bed and bent his head to touch his fingers to his forehead. “My Lady! I apologize! I did not mean to startle you.”
By now, Liz was standing upright on the bed, her back pressed to the wall. “Who—who are you?”
D’lor just kept his eyes lowered and his fingers where they were. “D’lor, My Princess.”
That was all he said and Liz wondered wildly if the man was delusional or just plain batty. What was with all the references to royalty? Why was he standing there looking like he was awaiting his execution? And what sort of a name was D’lor?
“Uhm… I think you’ve made a mist—” It was then she noticed the faint sign on the back of his hand—the swirling mark of the House of Antar. “Oh!” she cried in relief, finally allowing herself to move away from the wall, “you’re with Max!”
Nodding vehemently, D’lor risked a peak at his new princess. “Yes, Prince Zan sent me. To see to your safety.”
“Oh well…” By now Liz was starting to feel truly foolish for her cowardly behavior. She climbed off the bed with as much dignity as she could muster and approached the soldier with an outstretched hand. “I’m Liz Parker, nice to meet you.”
D’lor had no idea what to do. Touching the hand of his Prince’s mate was not the done thing where he came from. And she hadn’t given him permission to stop standing at attention either.
This was the strange tableau that greeted Max when he arrived in the room. For a moment, he was too surprised to speak. He had told D’lor to meet him at Liz’s room, but he hadn’t meant the man should go inside! Quickly, he rushed forward, putting an arm around Liz and telling D’lor to stop saluting. He had to fight to keep a grin from his face—obviously Liz would need a few pointers in Antarian customs.
Deciding D’lor could wait a few seconds, he turned to Liz, cupping her face to smile down at her. “Hi Sweetheart.” He brushed a gentle kiss over her smiling mouth, wishing they were alone so he could kiss her properly. It had been an unsettling afternoon—the conversation with Michael and Isabel about not going against his commands had been awful. They had been shocked and outraged and he was hoping that giving them space would give them all time to calm down.
“Max!” Liz promptly forgot about the hovering guard. She lifted up on tiptoes and kissed him back, lifting his spirits immediately.
D’lor was going to turn away, but then he saw the marks start to glow when Max’s hands curled around Liz’s neck and he stared unashamedly. How many nights had he listened to his King talk about his children—lamenting the fact that he might never see them again and that his line was going to end with him. But here were the visible signs that the Royal House of Antar lives on and has a future!
Finally breaking away from a pouting Liz, Max took a deep breath and turned to D’lor. “I want you to meet my… my Liz,” he informed the soldier. His gaze went back to his love and his fingers tightened around hers. “Guard her better than you would guard me,” he said gruffly.
“Yes, Sire,” D’lor returned eagerly. He would do this for his young Prince, but he would also do it for the King he had served for many years.
Max and Liz were staring at each other intensely, their eyes clinging and slowly heating up with need. It had been a long time since they had been alone together last. Two days and a night, in fact.
It felt like years.
Hunger to share that oneness with Liz again that he had first tasted two nights ago was curling through Max. He could literally feel it start to unfurl in his stomach, sending arrows of sensation to all the parts of his body. He had already taken a step towards Liz when he remembered that D’lor was still there.
He spoke without looking at the guard. “D’lor, don’t take this the wrong way, but,” he pulled Liz closer by the hand, “go away. Just come and tell me when there’s news about Alex…”
The guard hastened to comply with the order… and only started grinning when he was safely outside. Yes, Zan was his father’s son, there was no question about that!
Staring down at Liz, feeling the heat of her body all along the contours of his own, Max wondered at his own control. He wanted to haul her off to the bed and love her long and hard. He wanted to bury himself so deep in her that they blended into one being. He wanted to tell her he loved her until his throat was raw.
But the faint shadows in her eyes stopped him.
Liz closed her eyes and breathed deeply when Max’s fingers brushed her hair behind her ear and drifted down her cheek tenderly. Against her eyelids she could still see the dark leashed hunger that had lurked on his face and she wanted that. She wanted him to be demanding tonight—to make her feel so much that she forgot the realities surrounding them. Realities such as the fact that all over the country there were teams getting ready to eliminate kingpins of Khivar’s power right now. That her best friend was patiently sitting at home, waiting to be abducted.
Opening her eyes again, she found all her answers in the warm amber gaze watching her so lovingly.
“They’ll be fine,” he promised her now in a tender voice. “We’ll all be fine.”
It wasn’t really something he could predict, but still, it made Liz feel better.
“Love me, Max…” she whispered.
“I do. So much. And I’m going to.” He crushed her to him then, fisting his hand in her hair and dipping his head to bring his mouth down on hers. Her lips parted immediately and he delved his tongue inside, tasting her, filling her with a small part of him.
Liz was back on tiptoes, her hands clutching at the hair at the nape of his neck, her slender body straining against his. When he shifted his hips, sliding a thigh between hers to get even closer, she made a small sound of passion into his mouth at the feel of his arousal pressing into her stomach. It drove him even wilder.
They kissed hungrily, greedily, their open mouths crashing together repeatedly as they fanned the flames of their desire higher and higher.
Max was barely keeping himself in check. He itched to just wave his hand and let their clothes disappear before tumbling Liz onto the bed, but the joy spearing through him at the abandon with which Liz was giving herself over to their embrace held him in thrall.
He trailed his lips down to her chin before tilting her head with his hands to reach her throat.
“Oh, Max…” Liz heard herself moan his name as the trail of fire his tongue was making reached the deep V of her shirt. Her fingers unconsciously dug into his shoulder blades, trying to convey without words that she needed more.
His fingers trembled when he undid the buttons that hid her breasts from his gaze. Even though this wasn’t their first time, he was still overcome by the fact that she was allowing him this intimacy. Pulling away slightly, he watched her face as his hands moved lower. They were both breathing unsteadily, sometimes taking deep breaths, sometimes forgetting to breathe at all.
Finally he could spread the sides of her shirt open, pushing it slowly from her shoulders until it slid down to the floor in an untidy heap at their feet. Her breasts, still encased in a plain cotton bra, were heaving, the peaks already hard in response to his kisses. The sight made his mouth water. Glancing at her flushed face once, he slowly turned her around in his arms, enfolding her in an embrace from behind. Nudging her with his thighs, he walked her over to the dresser mirror, halting in front of it so they could see their reflections.
His skin was so much darker than hers—the tanned tone of his arm contrasting shockingly with the milky white of her stomach. Nuzzling her hair away from her nape with his face, he pressed feather-light moist kisses on her neck. Still keeping one arm securely around her middle, he used his free hand to undo the button of her jeans and languidly slide the zipper open.
“Don’t move,” he instructed softly and used both hands to push her jeans over her hips, letting them settle around her thighs, just above her knees. Then, abruptly, his hands were back on her, one cupping her breast and the other sliding between her legs, grazing the damp material of her underwear.
Liz let her head fall back against his shoulder, but she fought to keep her eyes open, to watch as he touched her body, his fingers weaving magic over her sensitive parts. She heard herself sigh, saw her body arch towards his hands, shamelessly begging for more. Her fingers found his hard thighs, digging into the muscles beneath his jeans.
Her clothes soon became an unbearable obstacle and she helped him get it all out of the way before they stumbled over to the bed. If she weren’t so aroused and desperate herself, she would have grinned at the haste with which he yanked his own clothes off.
Coming over her, he settled between her thighs and rested his forehead against hers as he gave them time to bask in the sensations of their bare skins sliding against each other. “I love you,” he murmured, his mouth hovering a scant breath above hers. He moved his hips once, sliding his arousal against her slick folds.
“Max,” she pleaded then, lifting her hands to cup his rear and push him closer.
But he had other ideas, trailing kisses and nips over her neck, spending long moments lighting up his marks below her ears and listening to the sounds she made when his tongue traced the swirling designs, before moving lower until he could caress her breasts.
Liz arched helplessly beneath him, her hands clutching his head against her as his tongue flicked against the stiff peaks.
Her whimpers spurred him on. He gloried in the little sounds she made when he loved her—loved that they told him what she liked, what made her even hotter. And she tasted like sweet heaven, her essence beating through him, whipping his blood into a frenzy until even the tips of his fingers experienced little pinpricks of sensation.
But he couldn’t hold out forever, his body’s cries for fulfillment getting more urgent by the moment. He felt himself tremble in reaction—tremble at the awe of the moment as he hesitated just short of entering her.
Her eyes were staring wildly up into his, the faint sheen of sweat on her skin telling its own tale. “Sheyleth,” she breathed. Lover. Keeper of my body.
Surging into her with a fierce groan, Max halted again as soon as they were completely one. “Yes,” he told her huskily, “but so much more, Liz.” He framed her face with unsteady hands as she wrapped her legs around his thighs. “My wife.”
The words made her suck in her breath sharply, the effects of them reverberating to the place where he filled her. “Max… Yes!”
Their movements were fast and urgent, he pushed into her deeply with every thrust, until it all just became a blur of pleasure interspersed with the soft sounds of their enjoyment. He drove her on until she climaxed in a blinding rush, her neck arched and her lips parted in a soundless scream. A moment later he shuddered against her uncontrollably, a muffled sound tearing from his throat as he buried his face against her neck and the warm spill of his release filled her deep inside.
Afterwards his arms stayed wrapped around her, his hips resting in the cradle of hers until their breathing returned to normal.
“I love you, Max,” she murmured against his hair.
Lifting his head, he captured her gaze, his own filled with determination. “My wife,” he repeated. It sounded like a vow.
A vow for when, not if, Khivar was out of their lives.
tbc
31+32
Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to post the next chapters! I've been away from home for a few weeks. Things will be back to normal now, I hope!
Chapter 31
The waiting was excruciating. Alex couldn’t decide if he should pace around or just sit and twiddle his fingers. Whatever he did, he wished his would-be captors would get on with it. Instead, he sat down in front of his computer and worked on the communicator he was carrying a little, testing and re-testing it to make sure it was working. It would not be funny if he got captured and no one could find him!
Surely Khivar would have people searching for him in Carlsbad. Even with the serum still in his body, the tracking chip in his neck could be found if they were close enough…
Sighing, he got up to find himself a soda. He hoped that all this worked out in the end. If Max had somehow managed to con Liz into believing him… No, that probably wasn’t possible. Alex had seen the look on Max’s face when he was around Liz a few too many times to think he would have been able to fake that depth of emotion. But was he sincere about leaving earth? Alex had spent way too much of the three years working for Khivar, dodging life-and-death situations, to be happy about the possible colonization of earth by another alien race. Even if they do seem to be different from Khivar. And Max had a powerful reason to want to stay behind now.
Her name was Liz.
And if Max—Prince Zan—stayed, then who knew who else would follow.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Morning came too soon.
Liz had woken up early, but stayed in the warm embrace she’d shared all through the night, her body curved into a much harder one. Smiling, she had snuggled closer to Max, not wanting the magic moment of peace and togetherness to end too soon.
But, with the gray light of dawn starting to color the sky outside the window, the world was bound to intrude soon enough.
Max’s one arm was draped over her hip, his forearm lying gently against her lower stomach. She was using his other arm as a pillow, feeling the hard steel of his muscles just below the heated silk of his skin. His lightly curled fist rested on the sheet a short distance from her face. Fascinated, she moved her own hand until she could measure her fingers against his, tenderly uncurling them to press their palms together. The contrast was stark—her own hand looked puny in relation to his. Tracing the contours of his hand, she marveled that such seemingly innocent digits could wield so much power. It was a hand that could alternately kill and heal.
And a hand that could caress her soul from her body.
Max lay quietly behind her, having woken up when she started stroking him. Already, he could feel his body come to life, wanting more of her, knowing that they were on stolen time. But he wanted to let her do this—let her learn the tiny details of his body. He listened to the sounds of her breathing, hearing the small changes as she concentrated. The satin wave of her hair slid against the rough skin of his cheek. He memorized the scent of her, traced the exact contour of the hollow behind her ear with his eyes, felt the flatness of her belly against his arm.
As she studied him, he studied her.
And all the while, he tried to ignore the dark premonition that had settled uncomfortably on his shoulders.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran was watching Alex wander through the streets of Carlsbad. Alex looked as tired as Doran felt. He had been on guard all through the night and will be relieved soon so he could go report back to Max. It was mid-morning by now, why on earth was Khivar’s minions taking so long to pick him up? Alex had had breakfast at McDonalds, and had followed that up with a stroll in the mall. Not many people were around yet, and this worried Doran. Would it make it easier for any potential abductors to see that Alex wasn’t alone?
Doran had to respect these humans. Not only had Liz amazed him with the way she accepted Max and the way she put herself on the line for him, but now this Alex was doing the same. It was truly something that Antar should thank them for.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Michael stared sullenly at the group that assembled around him, waiting on instructions.
“Thank you for what you’ve done for me so far, but it is time to let me be your Prince now.” Max’s words from yesterday kept haunting him. At first, he had been annoyed, even irritated when Max demanded his presence in the cabin, leaving everyone else but Isabel outside. Then, when he realized what Max was talking to them about, he had alternated between anger and chastisement and reluctant respect. He had become so used to knowing more than Max, to telling Max how things should be. But this Max had been a new experience. Instead of being slightly unsure and apologetic, he had stood quietly but firmly in front of them, looking them in the eye as he talked. “Michael, this means you will never talk to me again the way you did today in front of the other soldiers. If you disagree with me, you come talk to me privately.”
Michael had seen that Isabel had been just as shocked at he was. Her quiet brother, who had always tried to blend into the background, had come out fighting. Although, even as he spoke to them he kept his quiet manner. “Liz is my wife. Accept that, both of you. No matter what happens, I made this choice and nothing is changing it.” Isabel had opened her mouth as if to protest, but Max had cut her to the quick immediately. “From now on, you two will both treat me and especially Liz with respect. She deserves none of what you two have been throwing our way. She’s done too much for us—for me.”
Isabel had gotten a word in anyway. “But I’m still her Princess, even if she is your wife!”
She and Max had stared at each other in silence for a few moments and Michael could see that Max had been reluctant to say what he then said. “No, Iz, she is your Princess.”
The shock on Isabel’s face had been clear. Max had squeezed her upper arm in silent apology for what he’d had to do, but he hadn’t said anything more. Just left the room and went about packing for the today.
And, for the first time, Michael felt he was serving the true heir to Antar’s throne.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Finally, paydirt. The woman observed the Antarian Royal Protector from a safe distance. Wondering if the man knew how obvious his heritage was. Probably not, he had been around these puny humans too long.
They had been watching Alex Whitman ever since he came to Carlsbad and, as they suspected, he was not alone. His marker had suddenly been picked up late last night and Khivar had sent a team to the town immediately. Only, Nacedo had been more interested in the men tailing Whitman than the human himself.
The Protector was talking with another man—another Royal Guard. And then he turned to leave. Nacedo threw another look at the human the Protector had been watching so closely, debating whether he should stick around to see what the human was up to.
But, no, it would be much more interesting to find out if the Protector was on his way to his Prince. Finding the Prince of Antar alive would be a much better prize than this girl Khivar was going on about so much. Nacedo had only seen Liz Parker a couple of times.
But he’d seen enough to enable him to recreate her visage. And once they’d figured out which on the Prince was, good old Cal can step in to do the rest.
Maybe, at last, they could end the miserable life of the last male heir to the Antar throne himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They’d had breakfast together in a small, basic diner across the road from the motel, but Max had enjoyed every moment anyway. He had sat across from Liz on the cheap vinyl seat and stared into her sparkling eyes. She was so happy. And all because she was with him.
After showering together for the first time earlier, a session that had taxed his self-restraint severely, he had left her to dress and went to check on progress with all the teams. Kyle had been waiting for him outside in the parking lot, and together they had made a few cryptic calls.
The bottom-line was that so far nothing strange had happened. Doran was coming later to give a full report.
It was supremely frustrating. Max was itching to get a move on and finish this. He wanted to find Khivar and make sure that the rebel alien would not be presenting any more trouble to either Antar or Earth. But mostly he wanted to find Nicholas—Nicholas who had planned to use Liz’s body…
“That’s a frightening look,” Kyle’s voice interrupted his violent thoughts. “Is there something I should know before we go into battle together?”
Max forced himself to calm down. He needed a clear head for what was coming. “No. Just thinking I want this over with.”
“So who are you really, Max?” Kyle did not believe in beating around the bush.
Max’s hesitation was telling. “A friend.”
“See, this all seems very convenient to me. Too convenient.” Kyle folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the car. “You suddenly pitch up to save Liz from Khivar. She is obviously head-over-heels in love with you, but we haven’t known you that long. Either you move incredibly fast, or I don’t know all there is to know.” He pinned a narrow-eyed look on Max. “Are you not telling us everything?”
“All you need to know is that I have my own reasons for wanting to get rid of Khivar.” Max paused. “And that I would do anything for Liz.”
“And when all this is over. What then?”
“Then I will go back to where I came from,” Max answered quietly.
“And where is that?” Kyle wasn’t giving up.
Catching sight of Doran approaching them, Max turned away from Kyle. “You won’t have to see me again, Kyle, don’t worry.” He nodded at the motel, his eyes on Doran and went inside to check on Liz.
D’lor had trouble not saluting as his Prince strode up, but instead, he just stepped aside and opened the door to the room.
Liz bounced up from the bed where her laptop still sat open and came into his arms. Wearing a pair of jean cut-offs and a tank-top, she was looking incredibly cute. A tight ache settled in Max’s heart. Would they ever get to the point where this would be a regular occurrence?
“Hi, sweetheart.” He brushed his mouth over hers tenderly, hugging her against him. “What are you up to?”
“I’m checking out some of those names of the soldiers I’ve gathered. I’m hoping I might hit something on the police sites.”
The silent concern in her eyes made him reassure her quickly. “Alex is fine. They haven’t made a move on him yet.” He brushed her hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger in the silky tresses before dropping them to her bare shoulder, stroking the skin absently. “I have to go talk to Doran for a few minutes, will you be okay without me?” He was only half-joking, hoping she’d tell him to stay.
Instead, she grinned up into his face. “I’m sure I can manage to entertain myself for a little while. If you leave me with some seriously good memories.” Already she was moving her body against his in an arousing rhythm. Fire shot through his blood immediately.
“You are a witch, Liz Parker,” he muttered before swooping down to take her mouth with his hungrily. Her lips parted beneath his without bidding, and he plunged his tongue inside, stroking it against hers until she moaned softly. She made him ache without trying, made him tremble with need with a mere brush of her hand over his stomach. Eventually he had to step back from her or completely lose his head. “I won’t be long.” His voice was hoarse and he cleared his throat before continuing. “I just… I really need to talk to Doran and then… I’m coming back here.”
Liz looked dazed herself, still clinging to his shoulders even though she’d allowed him to put a few inches of space between their bodies. She sighed blissfully, testing his resolve to finish business first.
Groaning, he pressed a few hard kisses on her mouth. “I love you.” He backed away, only to come back immediately for more kisses. “Hold that thought,” he told her, seeing the look of longing and hunger in her eyes that he’d grown to crave.
“I love you!” Liz finally found her voice as he was halfway out the door. Wow, time with Max was never boring.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran was waiting in a little lounge area off the office of the motel’s manager. He almost smiled when he saw his Prince’s distracted rush towards him. It was clear that Max would want to hear the necessities, but not a long, detailed story about his night spent watching over Alex.
He got it over with quickly, sharing his suspicion that Khivar has somehow realized that Alex was being used as bait. This made Max sigh. He had wondered if Alex’s sudden appearance in Carlsbad would not be a dead give-away that something was up. “We have to keep trying, we don’t really have many other options.”
As he spoke, Max caught sight of Liz entering the little diner across the street. Was it time for lunch already?
“That’s all I can tell you for now,” Doran realized he didn’t have Max’s full attention and decided to call it a day.
“Okay, keep me posted,” Max instructed him, already getting to his feet to go after Liz.
Nacedo was stunned at how fast someone came running from the motel where the Protector had disappeared into when he lingered outside the diner looking like Liz Parker. As soon as he saw the face of the man on the way, he sucked his breath in.
His pursuer had “Son of Aran” stamped all over him.
After everything, it had been as easy as this.
So he put on his happy Liz-smile and waved at the man, surreptitiously looking over the Prince’s shoulder to see if anyone else was following. Only the Protector watched with an indulgent smile from inside the motel. Nacedo was hard-pressed not to smirk—how these people had managed to keep the Royal twins alive until now was a mystery…
Now he needed to get the young Prince away from prying eyes, and then he was taking him down.
Max faltered when he got near—something was wrong here.
“Liz” smiled and stepped closer, curving her hand around his neck. “Come with me or she dies.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran shook his head at the speed with which Max had rushed off towards Liz—the man sure had it bad for his wife. Then, as he stood watching, he realized something: Liz was alone in front of the diner, not one of her two bodyguards in sight. Frowning, he stepped closer to the window.
“Doran?” a husky voice called his name from behind… Liz’s husky voice. In horror, he wheeled around, seeing D’lor hovering a scant few feet behind his Princess. As his eyes swung back to the diner, he saw “Liz” wrap an arm around Max’s neck and start into an alley.
“Doran, where did Max go?” Liz was suddenly afraid at the pallor of Max’s friend.
“Oh my god…” He whirled around, his eyes searching for D’lor’s frantically. “Someone has the Prince! Liz… She looks like Liz.”
Utter chaos broke out. Liz ran to the window, just too late to see Max disappear around the corner. Doran and D’lor were moving across the street already, having taken off after Max and whoever had him.
Liz was being held back forcibly by her other guard from following them. How could Max not know it wasn’t her? And how was it possible that they had found someone that looked just like her to con him with. “How…”
“Shapeshifter, my Lady,” the guard murmured. “They can look like anybody.”
Kyle arrived too. “What the hell is all the yelling about?” He sounded irritated. “I thought we were trying to be inconspicuous.”
“Kyle!” Liz cried. “They have—”
But Max had appeared behind Kyle, looking concerned. He gave the scene an all-encompassing look and moved towards Liz immediately. “Baby? What is wrong?”
“Max!” Liz flung herself at him, rushing past a stunned Kyle to fall against Max. “We thought—” But even as his arms enfolded her, she knew it wasn’t him. And he had never called her “baby” before. She watched in horror as he lifted his hand and a bright beam of energy knocked her guard to the ground.
“Evans!” Kyle roared, already pulling out a gun. “I knew we couldn’t trust you!” The energy wave hit him before he could even lift the weapon.
And only then did “Max” let Liz struggle free from his hold. She stumbled away from him, lifting her chin in defiance.
“Nice show, my dear,” he sneered. “No wonder you managed to become the Prince’s bedmate so quickly.”
It was horrible seeing Max’s beloved face and hearing such callous words come from his mouth. “Stop being him,” she ordered, sounding fiercer than she felt.
His mocking smile disappeared immediately. “Let’s go, I wouldn’t want you to be late for the execution.”
Chapter 32
Pain. Excruciating pain.
The world around him was hazy, it felt like his whole body was on fire, the skin so hot that he was perversely glad that his arms were being held away from his sides.
Max lay still, his eyes closed, unable to move, his mind sluggishly trying to cope with what had happened to them. “Come with me or she dies.” One look into those familiar wide eyes that had shone with pure malice had made him want to rip himself away and run to find Liz. He knew he could overpower the shapeshifter. But then he had felt a… presence with Liz—his Liz—and he knew this man wasn’t bluffing.
It had just taken that split-second of hesitation and the shapeshifter was touching him, making defense impossible—his shield would surround them both. And if he killed the Liz-imposter, she was going to die too.
He had been afraid for a fleeting moment, but then rage had rolled though him in a crushing wave and he knew that if anything happened to Liz, he would hunt them all down for it until his dying day.
Around the first corner there had been more of them.
And everything had gone black in an instant.
He had no idea where he was now. Only that his body was hurting.
Between the moments of dizziness he tried to reach for Liz with his mind. Prayed that she was near and he could at least make sure she was safe. Or unharmed. Nausea, something he had never experienced before, plagued him now. Intermittently he would have to fight bouts of gagging and he numbly wondered what triggered these. Were they still touching him? Hurting him? He had no idea, his skin unable to cope with more sensations than the fiery burning it was already relaying to his brain.
“Liz…” He heard his own muffled mumble as if from far-off, at first not realizing he had actually spoken aloud. Sucking in a painful, ragged breath, he strained again to feel her, his hands curling into tight fists at his side.
“Don’t even try,” a mocking voice instructed him. “Don’t you think we know by now how to keep you helpless?”
Max didn’t react, he couldn’t. Inside him, a howling had begun.
“And don’t worry about the little traitor, we’re taking good care of her.”
The internal howl burst from him unchecked, rage managing to do what the pain hadn’t—make him fight against his bonds.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Liz shivered, folding her arms protectively around her middle. She was in a stark room of what looked to be an old bomb shelter. There was only one tiny air opening high above her, the sunlight it allowed in just lifting the internal darkness to hazy gloom. She hadn’t cried. Not when that “Max”-monster dragged her over the unmoving bodies of Kyle and her guard to get her out of the motel. Not when she realized they must have Max too. Not when the shapeshifter had pressed his fingers at the back of her skull and plunged her into unconsciousness.
The tears had flowed while she had remained vulnerable in that nether world. She had woken up with a wet face, knowing that she had dreamed that Max was already dead.
She had screamed at her captors, banging futilely on the thick steel door until someone had finally answered. "Don’t worry, we won’t let you miss his demise.”
And then, a few minutes ago, it had started—little flickers of light that she had ignored at first, too immersed in her sorrow and fear to pay attention. One particularly bright glimmer had brought her head up and abruptly she remembered waking up in the cell on Max’s ship, the glow of his silver handprint slowly dying away against the mirror, while on her neck the signs of the Royal House of Antar had still shimmered. Tentatively, she touched her neck, waiting for the next flash of light. It seemed to take forever, but it came.
Max was reaching out to her.
And his marks on her skin were confirming this.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar watched from the entrance of the cell where his nemesis was being held to a sterile table by energy shackles. So this was the man he had come here to kill. If he had known that all it would take to make the young Prince play right into his hand was to tempt him with some pleasures of the flesh, he would have done so a long time ago.
He didn’t want to think about what Liz had done to him, but as his glance slid to the holographic image of the cell where she was kept he felt fury burn like acid in his stomach. Not only had she sold him out, but she—a human—had sold him out to another Antarian.
“Get him to talk,” he ordered the shapeshifter that still hovered close-by, a gleeful grin about his success on his face. As Khivar watched, Nacedo morphed into the image of Liz again before moving closer to the table.
At least Zan had stopped that awful howling and thrashing. Now he was lying quietly again, sweat pouring from his body. Khivar’s eyes narrowed when he saw the slight frown marring Zan’s face. What the hell—? Jerking his gaze over to the image of Liz’s cell, he saw her huddled in one corner of the room, her hands cupped around her neck and her eyes closed. But something strange was—
“Enlarge image.”
As the picture zoomed closer, a chill ran through his body.
Because Liz Parker had a glow spilling from beneath her fingers.
And this time he was sure he wasn’t hallucinating.
Cursing, he stormed over and shoved Nacedo out of his way, removing the obstruction from his view. Grabbing Zan’s wrist, he forced his fist around. Sure enough, a glow was just visible between his tightly clenched fingers.
The implication hit him like an avalanche. And with it came a small flicker of fear.
Zan had found himself a mate.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Liz!” His throat felt raw from all the calling out. Was she never going to hear him and come to him? Falling to his knees, weak and almost out of his mind with worry, he finally realized that he was on a beach.
Wearily he lifted his head, staring around himself numbly. It wasn’t just any beach, it was the beach from Antar, the place on the dream plane where he had taken Liz on that night so long ago.
High above him in the night sky, the three moons again made the rippling water sparkle, but this time there was no vision in white waiting for him at the water’s edge.
Despair flooded him and he bowed his head again. “Please, sweetheart…” It was a whisper that drifted away on the night breeze.
Moving his hand to in front of his face, he saw his fingers spread and then disappear, before re-appearing a few seconds later. He was losing his hold over this world, fading—
“Liz!”
She was suddenly standing in front of him, looking bemused, her hands covering his marks on her neck. He didn’t even bother standing up, just scrambled forward on his knees through the soft sand and grabbed hold of her.
She tumbled against him. “Max,” she muttered into his throat, her arms coming around him convulsively. “I don’t care if this is a dream, just don’t go!”
The moment he touched her, it felt like a current going through his bloodstream, charging him and increasing his power.
“Are you alright?” he asked anxiously, running desperate hands over her body in spite of the fact that his mind told him this was the dream plane and her real injuries would not necessarily be visible.
“Y-yes.” She was crying against his skin, holding him as if her life depended on it. “They’re hurting you, Max, I can feel it.”
“Don’t talk about that now,” he soothed her, not wanting anything to disturb their precious time together. “I love you,” he promised urgently, afraid that he wouldn’t get the chance to tell her again. Framing her face, he pulled back so their eyes could meet. “You changed my life, you know that, right?”
“Oh Max, don’t talk like—” Like we’re never going to see each other again, she had wanted to say. But the need in his eyes silenced her. “I love you too, more than I can ever show you.”
“Do you know where you are?” He looked down at her anxiously. “Maybe if we can find out I can tell Isabel. She’s bound to try and reach me.”
Liz shook her head, looking distressed. “It looks like an old bomb shelter, but I can’t tell… I’m sorry!”
“Shh, sweetheart.” He pulled her closer again, wrapping trembling arms around her. “I’m sorry for getting you into this.”
Liz jerked away, pressing fingers over his mouth. “Let’s stop apologizing. We can’t change what happened.”
Kissing the fingers covering his lips, he made her a promise. “As long as there’s breath in my body, I’m going to keep trying to find a way to get us out of here.”
“Me too.”
He kissed her tenderly then, leaning closer and sliding his mouth over hers softly before gently probing between her lips with his tongue. Fighting the urge to crush her against him and love her roughly, he kept his caresses light and sweet, wanting to make her forget about the harshness of their circumstances. His fingertips slid along her jaw while they kissed, tracing the silken line from her ear to her chin and back again slowly. Giving in to the need, he splayed his fingers and speared them into her dark tresses, trembling slightly when he felt the satin caress against his skin. How he loved having her hair in his hands! Oh God, what if he never—
Ruthlessly he squashed the thought as he registered her small whimper and felt her press closer to him. He wished he could take her into his own skin, take her in there and never be apart from her again.
Liz kissed him back desperately, gathering fistfuls of his shirt to make sure he couldn’t leave. Her mind was singing and crying at the same time—singing about her love for this amazing being and crying because he might be ripped from her life before she had a chance to truly love him.
“Max…” Her lips throbbed from his kisses, but it hadn’t been enough. “I need—” She needed him to make love to her, to make her feel part of him.
He was panting against her, their foreheads resting together even while their hands continued to touch and memorize. “Be careful,” he told her. “Don’t make them angry, promise me.” He sucked in a harsh breath and jerked in her arms. Something was happening to him. “I don’t have long.”
“Max, what are they doing to you?” His flesh was slowly heating beneath her questing fingers, heating until it burnt where she touched him.
“It’s not important.” But he was gasping now. He let his hands drop from her and moved back a pace, his eyes searching hers intently.
Khivar was almost beside himself as he watched Nacedo and Cal, the other shapeshifter, work Zan over. He had yelled at them to stop the linking between Zan and Liz as soon as he had realized what their glowing marks represented. Zan would be stronger while he was mentally linked to his mate—not as strong as when they were physically touching, but it was still dangerous to let it continue.
The shapeshifters had started to sweat themselves from the heat they were generating. It had taken an effort from both of them before Khivar could see an impact on Zan. He had started shivering and his fingers had unclenched, making the palms clearly visible. And slowly, too slowly for Khivar’s taste, the glowing sign of the Royal House of Antar had started to diminish, started to stop mocking him.
His vision was blurring and Max wanted to break something at the unfairness of what was happening. He wanted to see Liz, wanted to keep her in his sight for as long as possible. He felt her hands clawing at him, trying to overcome the heat that was engulfing his body as she attempted to hold him here on the dream plane.
“Stay alive,” he managed to whisper. “Stay alive so I can find you.”
“Max!” she cried and he heard the tears in her voice. “Nooo.”
The sound ripped at his heart, tearing terrible wounds into his soul that hurt more than the physical torture of his captors ever could. But when he tried to speak again to promise her he won’t give up, he couldn’t make a sound or move.
And in front of his eyes the world—their world—dimmed into an indistinct gray mist.
He came to with a hoarse sound, his eyes snapping open to find Liz bending over him. “Liz!” he cried, happiness momentarily overcoming him. How had she gotten here? As another wave of dizziness passed, his mind cleared. “Liz” was bathed with sweat. And she had a cold glint in her eyes.
“Oh Max!” she cried, touching his face. “You have to help me! We have to contact your sister so she can help us out of here!”
Jerking his head away from her, he stared at the Liz-imposter with venom. “I’m not telling you anything.”
A silence, only interrupted by Max’s painful breathing, hung in the cell for a few endless minutes.
Then another voice spoke from the doorway. “I suppose we’ll just have to go ask your Princess then, won’t we?”
tbc
Chapter 31
The waiting was excruciating. Alex couldn’t decide if he should pace around or just sit and twiddle his fingers. Whatever he did, he wished his would-be captors would get on with it. Instead, he sat down in front of his computer and worked on the communicator he was carrying a little, testing and re-testing it to make sure it was working. It would not be funny if he got captured and no one could find him!
Surely Khivar would have people searching for him in Carlsbad. Even with the serum still in his body, the tracking chip in his neck could be found if they were close enough…
Sighing, he got up to find himself a soda. He hoped that all this worked out in the end. If Max had somehow managed to con Liz into believing him… No, that probably wasn’t possible. Alex had seen the look on Max’s face when he was around Liz a few too many times to think he would have been able to fake that depth of emotion. But was he sincere about leaving earth? Alex had spent way too much of the three years working for Khivar, dodging life-and-death situations, to be happy about the possible colonization of earth by another alien race. Even if they do seem to be different from Khivar. And Max had a powerful reason to want to stay behind now.
Her name was Liz.
And if Max—Prince Zan—stayed, then who knew who else would follow.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Morning came too soon.
Liz had woken up early, but stayed in the warm embrace she’d shared all through the night, her body curved into a much harder one. Smiling, she had snuggled closer to Max, not wanting the magic moment of peace and togetherness to end too soon.
But, with the gray light of dawn starting to color the sky outside the window, the world was bound to intrude soon enough.
Max’s one arm was draped over her hip, his forearm lying gently against her lower stomach. She was using his other arm as a pillow, feeling the hard steel of his muscles just below the heated silk of his skin. His lightly curled fist rested on the sheet a short distance from her face. Fascinated, she moved her own hand until she could measure her fingers against his, tenderly uncurling them to press their palms together. The contrast was stark—her own hand looked puny in relation to his. Tracing the contours of his hand, she marveled that such seemingly innocent digits could wield so much power. It was a hand that could alternately kill and heal.
And a hand that could caress her soul from her body.
Max lay quietly behind her, having woken up when she started stroking him. Already, he could feel his body come to life, wanting more of her, knowing that they were on stolen time. But he wanted to let her do this—let her learn the tiny details of his body. He listened to the sounds of her breathing, hearing the small changes as she concentrated. The satin wave of her hair slid against the rough skin of his cheek. He memorized the scent of her, traced the exact contour of the hollow behind her ear with his eyes, felt the flatness of her belly against his arm.
As she studied him, he studied her.
And all the while, he tried to ignore the dark premonition that had settled uncomfortably on his shoulders.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran was watching Alex wander through the streets of Carlsbad. Alex looked as tired as Doran felt. He had been on guard all through the night and will be relieved soon so he could go report back to Max. It was mid-morning by now, why on earth was Khivar’s minions taking so long to pick him up? Alex had had breakfast at McDonalds, and had followed that up with a stroll in the mall. Not many people were around yet, and this worried Doran. Would it make it easier for any potential abductors to see that Alex wasn’t alone?
Doran had to respect these humans. Not only had Liz amazed him with the way she accepted Max and the way she put herself on the line for him, but now this Alex was doing the same. It was truly something that Antar should thank them for.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Michael stared sullenly at the group that assembled around him, waiting on instructions.
“Thank you for what you’ve done for me so far, but it is time to let me be your Prince now.” Max’s words from yesterday kept haunting him. At first, he had been annoyed, even irritated when Max demanded his presence in the cabin, leaving everyone else but Isabel outside. Then, when he realized what Max was talking to them about, he had alternated between anger and chastisement and reluctant respect. He had become so used to knowing more than Max, to telling Max how things should be. But this Max had been a new experience. Instead of being slightly unsure and apologetic, he had stood quietly but firmly in front of them, looking them in the eye as he talked. “Michael, this means you will never talk to me again the way you did today in front of the other soldiers. If you disagree with me, you come talk to me privately.”
Michael had seen that Isabel had been just as shocked at he was. Her quiet brother, who had always tried to blend into the background, had come out fighting. Although, even as he spoke to them he kept his quiet manner. “Liz is my wife. Accept that, both of you. No matter what happens, I made this choice and nothing is changing it.” Isabel had opened her mouth as if to protest, but Max had cut her to the quick immediately. “From now on, you two will both treat me and especially Liz with respect. She deserves none of what you two have been throwing our way. She’s done too much for us—for me.”
Isabel had gotten a word in anyway. “But I’m still her Princess, even if she is your wife!”
She and Max had stared at each other in silence for a few moments and Michael could see that Max had been reluctant to say what he then said. “No, Iz, she is your Princess.”
The shock on Isabel’s face had been clear. Max had squeezed her upper arm in silent apology for what he’d had to do, but he hadn’t said anything more. Just left the room and went about packing for the today.
And, for the first time, Michael felt he was serving the true heir to Antar’s throne.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Finally, paydirt. The woman observed the Antarian Royal Protector from a safe distance. Wondering if the man knew how obvious his heritage was. Probably not, he had been around these puny humans too long.
They had been watching Alex Whitman ever since he came to Carlsbad and, as they suspected, he was not alone. His marker had suddenly been picked up late last night and Khivar had sent a team to the town immediately. Only, Nacedo had been more interested in the men tailing Whitman than the human himself.
The Protector was talking with another man—another Royal Guard. And then he turned to leave. Nacedo threw another look at the human the Protector had been watching so closely, debating whether he should stick around to see what the human was up to.
But, no, it would be much more interesting to find out if the Protector was on his way to his Prince. Finding the Prince of Antar alive would be a much better prize than this girl Khivar was going on about so much. Nacedo had only seen Liz Parker a couple of times.
But he’d seen enough to enable him to recreate her visage. And once they’d figured out which on the Prince was, good old Cal can step in to do the rest.
Maybe, at last, they could end the miserable life of the last male heir to the Antar throne himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They’d had breakfast together in a small, basic diner across the road from the motel, but Max had enjoyed every moment anyway. He had sat across from Liz on the cheap vinyl seat and stared into her sparkling eyes. She was so happy. And all because she was with him.
After showering together for the first time earlier, a session that had taxed his self-restraint severely, he had left her to dress and went to check on progress with all the teams. Kyle had been waiting for him outside in the parking lot, and together they had made a few cryptic calls.
The bottom-line was that so far nothing strange had happened. Doran was coming later to give a full report.
It was supremely frustrating. Max was itching to get a move on and finish this. He wanted to find Khivar and make sure that the rebel alien would not be presenting any more trouble to either Antar or Earth. But mostly he wanted to find Nicholas—Nicholas who had planned to use Liz’s body…
“That’s a frightening look,” Kyle’s voice interrupted his violent thoughts. “Is there something I should know before we go into battle together?”
Max forced himself to calm down. He needed a clear head for what was coming. “No. Just thinking I want this over with.”
“So who are you really, Max?” Kyle did not believe in beating around the bush.
Max’s hesitation was telling. “A friend.”
“See, this all seems very convenient to me. Too convenient.” Kyle folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the car. “You suddenly pitch up to save Liz from Khivar. She is obviously head-over-heels in love with you, but we haven’t known you that long. Either you move incredibly fast, or I don’t know all there is to know.” He pinned a narrow-eyed look on Max. “Are you not telling us everything?”
“All you need to know is that I have my own reasons for wanting to get rid of Khivar.” Max paused. “And that I would do anything for Liz.”
“And when all this is over. What then?”
“Then I will go back to where I came from,” Max answered quietly.
“And where is that?” Kyle wasn’t giving up.
Catching sight of Doran approaching them, Max turned away from Kyle. “You won’t have to see me again, Kyle, don’t worry.” He nodded at the motel, his eyes on Doran and went inside to check on Liz.
D’lor had trouble not saluting as his Prince strode up, but instead, he just stepped aside and opened the door to the room.
Liz bounced up from the bed where her laptop still sat open and came into his arms. Wearing a pair of jean cut-offs and a tank-top, she was looking incredibly cute. A tight ache settled in Max’s heart. Would they ever get to the point where this would be a regular occurrence?
“Hi, sweetheart.” He brushed his mouth over hers tenderly, hugging her against him. “What are you up to?”
“I’m checking out some of those names of the soldiers I’ve gathered. I’m hoping I might hit something on the police sites.”
The silent concern in her eyes made him reassure her quickly. “Alex is fine. They haven’t made a move on him yet.” He brushed her hair behind her ear, letting his fingers linger in the silky tresses before dropping them to her bare shoulder, stroking the skin absently. “I have to go talk to Doran for a few minutes, will you be okay without me?” He was only half-joking, hoping she’d tell him to stay.
Instead, she grinned up into his face. “I’m sure I can manage to entertain myself for a little while. If you leave me with some seriously good memories.” Already she was moving her body against his in an arousing rhythm. Fire shot through his blood immediately.
“You are a witch, Liz Parker,” he muttered before swooping down to take her mouth with his hungrily. Her lips parted beneath his without bidding, and he plunged his tongue inside, stroking it against hers until she moaned softly. She made him ache without trying, made him tremble with need with a mere brush of her hand over his stomach. Eventually he had to step back from her or completely lose his head. “I won’t be long.” His voice was hoarse and he cleared his throat before continuing. “I just… I really need to talk to Doran and then… I’m coming back here.”
Liz looked dazed herself, still clinging to his shoulders even though she’d allowed him to put a few inches of space between their bodies. She sighed blissfully, testing his resolve to finish business first.
Groaning, he pressed a few hard kisses on her mouth. “I love you.” He backed away, only to come back immediately for more kisses. “Hold that thought,” he told her, seeing the look of longing and hunger in her eyes that he’d grown to crave.
“I love you!” Liz finally found her voice as he was halfway out the door. Wow, time with Max was never boring.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran was waiting in a little lounge area off the office of the motel’s manager. He almost smiled when he saw his Prince’s distracted rush towards him. It was clear that Max would want to hear the necessities, but not a long, detailed story about his night spent watching over Alex.
He got it over with quickly, sharing his suspicion that Khivar has somehow realized that Alex was being used as bait. This made Max sigh. He had wondered if Alex’s sudden appearance in Carlsbad would not be a dead give-away that something was up. “We have to keep trying, we don’t really have many other options.”
As he spoke, Max caught sight of Liz entering the little diner across the street. Was it time for lunch already?
“That’s all I can tell you for now,” Doran realized he didn’t have Max’s full attention and decided to call it a day.
“Okay, keep me posted,” Max instructed him, already getting to his feet to go after Liz.
Nacedo was stunned at how fast someone came running from the motel where the Protector had disappeared into when he lingered outside the diner looking like Liz Parker. As soon as he saw the face of the man on the way, he sucked his breath in.
His pursuer had “Son of Aran” stamped all over him.
After everything, it had been as easy as this.
So he put on his happy Liz-smile and waved at the man, surreptitiously looking over the Prince’s shoulder to see if anyone else was following. Only the Protector watched with an indulgent smile from inside the motel. Nacedo was hard-pressed not to smirk—how these people had managed to keep the Royal twins alive until now was a mystery…
Now he needed to get the young Prince away from prying eyes, and then he was taking him down.
Max faltered when he got near—something was wrong here.
“Liz” smiled and stepped closer, curving her hand around his neck. “Come with me or she dies.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran shook his head at the speed with which Max had rushed off towards Liz—the man sure had it bad for his wife. Then, as he stood watching, he realized something: Liz was alone in front of the diner, not one of her two bodyguards in sight. Frowning, he stepped closer to the window.
“Doran?” a husky voice called his name from behind… Liz’s husky voice. In horror, he wheeled around, seeing D’lor hovering a scant few feet behind his Princess. As his eyes swung back to the diner, he saw “Liz” wrap an arm around Max’s neck and start into an alley.
“Doran, where did Max go?” Liz was suddenly afraid at the pallor of Max’s friend.
“Oh my god…” He whirled around, his eyes searching for D’lor’s frantically. “Someone has the Prince! Liz… She looks like Liz.”
Utter chaos broke out. Liz ran to the window, just too late to see Max disappear around the corner. Doran and D’lor were moving across the street already, having taken off after Max and whoever had him.
Liz was being held back forcibly by her other guard from following them. How could Max not know it wasn’t her? And how was it possible that they had found someone that looked just like her to con him with. “How…”
“Shapeshifter, my Lady,” the guard murmured. “They can look like anybody.”
Kyle arrived too. “What the hell is all the yelling about?” He sounded irritated. “I thought we were trying to be inconspicuous.”
“Kyle!” Liz cried. “They have—”
But Max had appeared behind Kyle, looking concerned. He gave the scene an all-encompassing look and moved towards Liz immediately. “Baby? What is wrong?”
“Max!” Liz flung herself at him, rushing past a stunned Kyle to fall against Max. “We thought—” But even as his arms enfolded her, she knew it wasn’t him. And he had never called her “baby” before. She watched in horror as he lifted his hand and a bright beam of energy knocked her guard to the ground.
“Evans!” Kyle roared, already pulling out a gun. “I knew we couldn’t trust you!” The energy wave hit him before he could even lift the weapon.
And only then did “Max” let Liz struggle free from his hold. She stumbled away from him, lifting her chin in defiance.
“Nice show, my dear,” he sneered. “No wonder you managed to become the Prince’s bedmate so quickly.”
It was horrible seeing Max’s beloved face and hearing such callous words come from his mouth. “Stop being him,” she ordered, sounding fiercer than she felt.
His mocking smile disappeared immediately. “Let’s go, I wouldn’t want you to be late for the execution.”
Chapter 32
Pain. Excruciating pain.
The world around him was hazy, it felt like his whole body was on fire, the skin so hot that he was perversely glad that his arms were being held away from his sides.
Max lay still, his eyes closed, unable to move, his mind sluggishly trying to cope with what had happened to them. “Come with me or she dies.” One look into those familiar wide eyes that had shone with pure malice had made him want to rip himself away and run to find Liz. He knew he could overpower the shapeshifter. But then he had felt a… presence with Liz—his Liz—and he knew this man wasn’t bluffing.
It had just taken that split-second of hesitation and the shapeshifter was touching him, making defense impossible—his shield would surround them both. And if he killed the Liz-imposter, she was going to die too.
He had been afraid for a fleeting moment, but then rage had rolled though him in a crushing wave and he knew that if anything happened to Liz, he would hunt them all down for it until his dying day.
Around the first corner there had been more of them.
And everything had gone black in an instant.
He had no idea where he was now. Only that his body was hurting.
Between the moments of dizziness he tried to reach for Liz with his mind. Prayed that she was near and he could at least make sure she was safe. Or unharmed. Nausea, something he had never experienced before, plagued him now. Intermittently he would have to fight bouts of gagging and he numbly wondered what triggered these. Were they still touching him? Hurting him? He had no idea, his skin unable to cope with more sensations than the fiery burning it was already relaying to his brain.
“Liz…” He heard his own muffled mumble as if from far-off, at first not realizing he had actually spoken aloud. Sucking in a painful, ragged breath, he strained again to feel her, his hands curling into tight fists at his side.
“Don’t even try,” a mocking voice instructed him. “Don’t you think we know by now how to keep you helpless?”
Max didn’t react, he couldn’t. Inside him, a howling had begun.
“And don’t worry about the little traitor, we’re taking good care of her.”
The internal howl burst from him unchecked, rage managing to do what the pain hadn’t—make him fight against his bonds.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Liz shivered, folding her arms protectively around her middle. She was in a stark room of what looked to be an old bomb shelter. There was only one tiny air opening high above her, the sunlight it allowed in just lifting the internal darkness to hazy gloom. She hadn’t cried. Not when that “Max”-monster dragged her over the unmoving bodies of Kyle and her guard to get her out of the motel. Not when she realized they must have Max too. Not when the shapeshifter had pressed his fingers at the back of her skull and plunged her into unconsciousness.
The tears had flowed while she had remained vulnerable in that nether world. She had woken up with a wet face, knowing that she had dreamed that Max was already dead.
She had screamed at her captors, banging futilely on the thick steel door until someone had finally answered. "Don’t worry, we won’t let you miss his demise.”
And then, a few minutes ago, it had started—little flickers of light that she had ignored at first, too immersed in her sorrow and fear to pay attention. One particularly bright glimmer had brought her head up and abruptly she remembered waking up in the cell on Max’s ship, the glow of his silver handprint slowly dying away against the mirror, while on her neck the signs of the Royal House of Antar had still shimmered. Tentatively, she touched her neck, waiting for the next flash of light. It seemed to take forever, but it came.
Max was reaching out to her.
And his marks on her skin were confirming this.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar watched from the entrance of the cell where his nemesis was being held to a sterile table by energy shackles. So this was the man he had come here to kill. If he had known that all it would take to make the young Prince play right into his hand was to tempt him with some pleasures of the flesh, he would have done so a long time ago.
He didn’t want to think about what Liz had done to him, but as his glance slid to the holographic image of the cell where she was kept he felt fury burn like acid in his stomach. Not only had she sold him out, but she—a human—had sold him out to another Antarian.
“Get him to talk,” he ordered the shapeshifter that still hovered close-by, a gleeful grin about his success on his face. As Khivar watched, Nacedo morphed into the image of Liz again before moving closer to the table.
At least Zan had stopped that awful howling and thrashing. Now he was lying quietly again, sweat pouring from his body. Khivar’s eyes narrowed when he saw the slight frown marring Zan’s face. What the hell—? Jerking his gaze over to the image of Liz’s cell, he saw her huddled in one corner of the room, her hands cupped around her neck and her eyes closed. But something strange was—
“Enlarge image.”
As the picture zoomed closer, a chill ran through his body.
Because Liz Parker had a glow spilling from beneath her fingers.
And this time he was sure he wasn’t hallucinating.
Cursing, he stormed over and shoved Nacedo out of his way, removing the obstruction from his view. Grabbing Zan’s wrist, he forced his fist around. Sure enough, a glow was just visible between his tightly clenched fingers.
The implication hit him like an avalanche. And with it came a small flicker of fear.
Zan had found himself a mate.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Liz!” His throat felt raw from all the calling out. Was she never going to hear him and come to him? Falling to his knees, weak and almost out of his mind with worry, he finally realized that he was on a beach.
Wearily he lifted his head, staring around himself numbly. It wasn’t just any beach, it was the beach from Antar, the place on the dream plane where he had taken Liz on that night so long ago.
High above him in the night sky, the three moons again made the rippling water sparkle, but this time there was no vision in white waiting for him at the water’s edge.
Despair flooded him and he bowed his head again. “Please, sweetheart…” It was a whisper that drifted away on the night breeze.
Moving his hand to in front of his face, he saw his fingers spread and then disappear, before re-appearing a few seconds later. He was losing his hold over this world, fading—
“Liz!”
She was suddenly standing in front of him, looking bemused, her hands covering his marks on her neck. He didn’t even bother standing up, just scrambled forward on his knees through the soft sand and grabbed hold of her.
She tumbled against him. “Max,” she muttered into his throat, her arms coming around him convulsively. “I don’t care if this is a dream, just don’t go!”
The moment he touched her, it felt like a current going through his bloodstream, charging him and increasing his power.
“Are you alright?” he asked anxiously, running desperate hands over her body in spite of the fact that his mind told him this was the dream plane and her real injuries would not necessarily be visible.
“Y-yes.” She was crying against his skin, holding him as if her life depended on it. “They’re hurting you, Max, I can feel it.”
“Don’t talk about that now,” he soothed her, not wanting anything to disturb their precious time together. “I love you,” he promised urgently, afraid that he wouldn’t get the chance to tell her again. Framing her face, he pulled back so their eyes could meet. “You changed my life, you know that, right?”
“Oh Max, don’t talk like—” Like we’re never going to see each other again, she had wanted to say. But the need in his eyes silenced her. “I love you too, more than I can ever show you.”
“Do you know where you are?” He looked down at her anxiously. “Maybe if we can find out I can tell Isabel. She’s bound to try and reach me.”
Liz shook her head, looking distressed. “It looks like an old bomb shelter, but I can’t tell… I’m sorry!”
“Shh, sweetheart.” He pulled her closer again, wrapping trembling arms around her. “I’m sorry for getting you into this.”
Liz jerked away, pressing fingers over his mouth. “Let’s stop apologizing. We can’t change what happened.”
Kissing the fingers covering his lips, he made her a promise. “As long as there’s breath in my body, I’m going to keep trying to find a way to get us out of here.”
“Me too.”
He kissed her tenderly then, leaning closer and sliding his mouth over hers softly before gently probing between her lips with his tongue. Fighting the urge to crush her against him and love her roughly, he kept his caresses light and sweet, wanting to make her forget about the harshness of their circumstances. His fingertips slid along her jaw while they kissed, tracing the silken line from her ear to her chin and back again slowly. Giving in to the need, he splayed his fingers and speared them into her dark tresses, trembling slightly when he felt the satin caress against his skin. How he loved having her hair in his hands! Oh God, what if he never—
Ruthlessly he squashed the thought as he registered her small whimper and felt her press closer to him. He wished he could take her into his own skin, take her in there and never be apart from her again.
Liz kissed him back desperately, gathering fistfuls of his shirt to make sure he couldn’t leave. Her mind was singing and crying at the same time—singing about her love for this amazing being and crying because he might be ripped from her life before she had a chance to truly love him.
“Max…” Her lips throbbed from his kisses, but it hadn’t been enough. “I need—” She needed him to make love to her, to make her feel part of him.
He was panting against her, their foreheads resting together even while their hands continued to touch and memorize. “Be careful,” he told her. “Don’t make them angry, promise me.” He sucked in a harsh breath and jerked in her arms. Something was happening to him. “I don’t have long.”
“Max, what are they doing to you?” His flesh was slowly heating beneath her questing fingers, heating until it burnt where she touched him.
“It’s not important.” But he was gasping now. He let his hands drop from her and moved back a pace, his eyes searching hers intently.
Khivar was almost beside himself as he watched Nacedo and Cal, the other shapeshifter, work Zan over. He had yelled at them to stop the linking between Zan and Liz as soon as he had realized what their glowing marks represented. Zan would be stronger while he was mentally linked to his mate—not as strong as when they were physically touching, but it was still dangerous to let it continue.
The shapeshifters had started to sweat themselves from the heat they were generating. It had taken an effort from both of them before Khivar could see an impact on Zan. He had started shivering and his fingers had unclenched, making the palms clearly visible. And slowly, too slowly for Khivar’s taste, the glowing sign of the Royal House of Antar had started to diminish, started to stop mocking him.
His vision was blurring and Max wanted to break something at the unfairness of what was happening. He wanted to see Liz, wanted to keep her in his sight for as long as possible. He felt her hands clawing at him, trying to overcome the heat that was engulfing his body as she attempted to hold him here on the dream plane.
“Stay alive,” he managed to whisper. “Stay alive so I can find you.”
“Max!” she cried and he heard the tears in her voice. “Nooo.”
The sound ripped at his heart, tearing terrible wounds into his soul that hurt more than the physical torture of his captors ever could. But when he tried to speak again to promise her he won’t give up, he couldn’t make a sound or move.
And in front of his eyes the world—their world—dimmed into an indistinct gray mist.
He came to with a hoarse sound, his eyes snapping open to find Liz bending over him. “Liz!” he cried, happiness momentarily overcoming him. How had she gotten here? As another wave of dizziness passed, his mind cleared. “Liz” was bathed with sweat. And she had a cold glint in her eyes.
“Oh Max!” she cried, touching his face. “You have to help me! We have to contact your sister so she can help us out of here!”
Jerking his head away from her, he stared at the Liz-imposter with venom. “I’m not telling you anything.”
A silence, only interrupted by Max’s painful breathing, hung in the cell for a few endless minutes.
Then another voice spoke from the doorway. “I suppose we’ll just have to go ask your Princess then, won’t we?”
tbc
33+34
Chapter 33
Blinking fuzzily, Kyle heard loud voices close by. It was those people that always congregated around Evans and they were all talking at once.
“We’re going back to the cabin and I’m calling Isabel so she can start trying to contact Max!” Michael sounded incredibly angry. “What the hell is wrong with you people? How can you let Max go off alone like that!”
Silence descended after that statement and Kyle heard footsteps storming off. He stumbled to his feet, just in time to see a dejected little group look at each other and break up. He waited until only the one new guard was left. The one with the weird name. The one who had obviously been told to wait around to make sure he was okay.
Kyle was absolutely furious. How the hell had this Max person managed to dupe the levelheaded Liz Parker? Things had gotten very confusing just before he was… knocked out, or whatever, but he could have sworn Evans was the one that had hit him with an alien energy bolt. There was no way Liz could have gotten involved with an alien and not known it… was there?
Well, he was going to find out what the hell was going on, or die trying!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They were on their way to Liz! Max felt blind panic sweep through his body, totally overwhelming the other aches and pains they left him with. They had wanted him weakened so they could work on Liz without his interference. If only there had been a way to kill them without putting Liz in more danger he would have done it—there was no way her guards would let her live if anything happened to Khivar.
Desperately he tried to contact Liz again. Come on, Sweetheart! He fisted his hands—holding tightly onto the marks that identified him as her property. Damn him for being so weak!
Liz had been waiting for another sign and, at the first slight flickering of the signs on her neck, she closed her eyes and rushed to meet Max on the dream plane.
He was shivering when she saw him, looking pale, barely standing up straight. “Max!” she cried, rushing into his arms.
His arms wrapped around her feebly and he whispered in her ear. “They’re coming to you. Have to heal me so I can help…”
Not knowing what exactly he was talking about, Liz focused on the ‘heal me’ statement first. Finding his hands, she placed them against his marks on her neck and concentrated like she’d done once before in that cave.
And in his cell, a 45-minute drive from where Liz was, Max arched as if electrified.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar’s short-range comm receiver blinked to life. “Something weird is happening to the girl,” the guard reported.
“Drive faster!” Khivar yelled at Nacedo. If only they hadn’t had to keep the two so far apart, then we wouldn’t have been wasting precious time now.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran drove fast, still keeping an eye on Kyle that was sitting in the passenger seat. Michael had ordered that Kyle be kept with them, fearing he would report everything that had happened to his people. And Michael wanted the Resistance and “Andre’s” group to continue with executing their part of the plan.
“Who the hell is Max Evans?” Kyle burst out. “Are you lot all working for Khivar or has he betrayed us all?”
“He hasn’t betrayed anyone,” Doran answered calmly. This was the time for truth.
“Are you kidding me?” Kyle was a breath short of losing his temper completely, until the slight glow of Doran’s hands on the steering wheel caught his attention. “You’re all aliens aren’t you?” he managed.
“Yes,” Doran answered. “But not in the way you mean. We don’t work for Khivar. Max certainly doesn’t work for Khivar.”
“How deluded are you? Do you not know that Evans was the one that nearly blew me to Kingdom Come and then made off with Liz?”
Doran sighed. “That wasn’t Max. It was a shapeshifter. We have those on our world—beings who can look like anyone else.”
This was news to Kyle. In all their time of studying the aliens, they hadn’t learnt about this little detail. “Who the hell is Max Evans?” he now repeated angrily.
Doran’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “He is Crown Prince Zan of Antar. The one Khivar is here to kill.”
And finally Kyle had to face what he had been denying to himself all along. So many little things had just not made sense, but he had refused to believe that Liz would do this to them. Or... “How did he get Liz to betray us?” He wondered if he sounded as sick as he felt.
“They fell in love.” Throwing Kyle an imploring look, Doran pressed on. “If you believe nothing else, believe that.”
Kyle was silent, trying to assimilate all he’d heard. “How many of you are on earth?”
But Doran understood what he was really asking. “I know you won’t believe this either, but we’re all leaving. As soon as we get rid of Khivar, we’re going back to our planet. Max is needed there and he’s going. We don’t want your planet, we just want our own one back.”
“And what about Liz? He’s just going to take off after using her and leave—” Doran’s angry look stopped his words.
“What they do is up to them. But he loves her more than you could understand.”
“Hmpf,” Kyle snorted. “I doubt that. He got her in the sack—”
“He married her,” Doran interrupted again, shocking Kyle. Looking back to the road, his voice softened and filled with worry. “He married her and what happened today was because he was trying to keep her safe.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring down into Liz’s eyes, always so luminous, Max marveled at the wonder of their link and the power it generated. His body was growing stronger by the second, and with that, his power spiked.
He was going to need every ounce of it if he wanted to keep Liz safe from Khivar. If only they didn’t realize that he was the origin of the power and that if they weakened him enough…
“Max?” It was a soft call that barely registered with Max.
A tentative hand touched his shoulder, almost causing him to snarl at the interruption. Then, Isabel stepped into view. She had opened her mouth to speak, but now she was just standing there, slack-jawed at the sight of Max and Liz so wrapped up in each other.
Knowing this was important, Max gently removed his hands from below Liz’s ears, but wrapped her hands firmly in his. “Isabel, there’s not much time.” He spoke still looking at Liz.
“Where are you?” Isabel had obviously gotten the message that there was only time for business now.
“We’re not sure. But Liz thinks she is in an underground bomb shelter. I’m also being held in what looks like a military facility. I heard a helicopter earlier.”
“That’s all you can give me to work on?” Isabel sounded panicked.
“Ask Alex to help,” Liz told her quietly. “He’s great at this type of thing. And we’ve tried to pinpoint possible locations for Khivar’s secret camp in this area before.”
“Okay,” Isabel looked uncertain and anxious. “Max…”
“Go, Iz,” Max urged her. “We’re okay for now.”
Nodding, she left them alone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kyle watched with trepidation as Isabel lurched into the lounge of the cabin, looking disheveled and worried. “We need Alex,” she announced without preamble. Right, Kyle thought, she was the amazon girl Alex had brought to Roswell with him once. Lord, was Alex in on this too?
Whirling towards her, Michael frowned. “What can he do? What did Max say?”
“Max was…” she darted glance at Kyle. “He was with Liz. On the dream plane,” she finally rushed ahead. “They’re not sure where they are and Liz said Alex might be able to use the clues they can give us.”
That was all that was needed. “Go get him,” Michael told Doran. “And make sure you disable all his tracking devices.”
By now, Kyle was speechless. These people truly seemed worried about Max. And about Liz. The guy with the weird name, who had remained standing in one corner the whole time, had only spoken once. “I failed her.” He had obviously been talking about Liz.
And what the hell was the “dream plane”? Why was no one surprised that Liz was there too?
“I can start searching so long,” Maria said from the sidelines, gently laying a hand on Michael’s arm. He nodded and she moved off with Isabel.
Kyle wondered if he had somehow stumbled into a nest of aliens. Did they have breeding spaces in a cellar below the cabin? Where did they all come from suddenly?
The next moment, Michael was in his face. “You will help Alex find where that bastard is keeping Max and Liz. And then you will convince your people to let us go back to Antar without trouble.”
Kyle just stared at him. Yeah, right, he thought.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Full power. Max felt light as air, but filled to the brim with energy. His body was healed, the horrible heat gone. Thank goodness it had obviously taken Khivar a while to get to wherever Liz was. He should take note of how much time elapsed, maybe it could help them figure out where they were later.
For now, he needed to make sure that not one finger was laid on Liz. Framing her face in his hands, he spoke urgently. “Honey, listen to me, whatever happens, don’t let go of me. I’m going to protect you, I promise.” And hope they leave me alone while I do it.
“How Max?”
“I—I’m working on that.” He didn’t want to worry her further.
Her hands moved over his shoulders, his chest. “Are you alright now?” she asked in wonder, her trust in him total.
“I’m better than alright.” He could feel another presence with Liz and he leaned down to kiss her. Come inside me, he told her without words, inside where it’s safe.
Khivar swore when he drew near Liz and she was suddenly enveloped by a green, shimmering shield. Angrily, he sent a bolt towards her, only to have it repelled.
Max felt the efforts to break down the shield and, once again, he was stunned at how easily he withstood it. How easily they withstood it. With Liz in his arms, they could go a long time like this.
Fitting herself closer to Max, Liz teased his attention back to her and away from the attacks. “I love you,” she whispered to him, her lips brushing his. How many times has she said those words to him, but never had they been truer than right now, while he was protecting her.
Giddy with relief at their success, Max grinned down at her. “So, my alien powers turn you on, huh?”
“Oh yeah,” she flirted back. But then she felt a moment of panic again and her brow furrowed, causing Max to tighten his arms around her. “How long can you…?”
“I don’t know,” he told her. “This is new ground for me too.” They kissed again, this time with more urgency.
“This can’t last forever,” Nacedo panted at Khivar. They’d been combining their blasts. “We just have to keep going.” But they were starting to get tired too.
Max had no idea how long the attacks lasted. He only knew they were slowly starting to impact on the shield. And on his power. So he’d drawn Liz down onto the sand with him, cradling her against his chest as she sat between his legs. He hoped that if he enveloped her with his body, his essence, here on the dream plane, it would keep the shield going for longer.
“Liz,” he said urgently, “if we ever get the chance, if we could physically touch, it would multiply the power we have right now even more. Remember that, sweetheart, for when we get out of these cells. We’re going to have to do this together.”
Nacedo and Khivar looked at each other and aimed together, each one of them with both hands. They were running out of steam.
Liz was ripped from his grip as if by a strong wind, and moved to just outside his reach. “Liz!” he cried in panic, scrambling closer with an outstretched hand.
He felt the shield flicker and seized hold of her fingertips frantically to haul her back again. “Hold on!”
Clinging to his hand with a death grip, Liz fought to get closer to him, but it felt like she was in quicksand and she had trouble moving. At least they were touching again, but Max had started trembling and she felt faint too.
“Hang on,” he pleaded, his eyes begging and she tried harder. For him.
Sweat was pouring off Khivar and Nacedo when they stopped the blast. Khivar stared at the sight of the stupid human girl who had betrayed him, huddled on the ground and surrounded by the presence and power of the Antarian Royal Heir, and he snapped.
“I’m not playing this game anymore. We’re killing them both.” He looked frightening. “And I want them to watch each other die.”
Chapter 34
“Max! They want to kill us!” Liz cried as she tumbled back into Max’s arms when the attacks on the shield stopped. Max was breathing hard, like he’d run a marathon, but he held her to him convulsively.
“I know,” he soothed her. “We need to make it look like their plan will work. If we can only get to touching distance, then I can protect both of us and get rid of them.”
“You can’t protect both of us when we’re apart?”
He shook his head. “But I don’t think he knows that.”
“Take them to the camp, but don’t let them touch each other,” Khivar told Nacedo. “The two of us have to recharge and Cal is the only other one with enough power to help us. I want us all to work on one of them at a time. I’m thinking we kill the Prince first.”
Nacedo eyed the girl, who still had the shield around her, with worry. “How do I move her if the shield is still there?”
“Sweetheart, I’m going to drop the shield now. Go with them and get as close to me as you can.”
“This is a huge gamble, Max.”
“I know, we don’t have any other choice. They can’t work up the energy for blasts right now, so you’ll be safe for a while at least.”
And in the real world, Liz’s shield flickered out.
“Get her!” Khivar yelled immediately, impelling Nacedo forward to grab hold of her arm. “And get little Nicholas in here, I’m going to let him take her to her husband.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“There are only two places that have the kind of cells or bunkers you described in this area,” Alex told Michael who was hovering over his shoulder. He pointed to two places on the map visible on his laptop screen. “This one seems the farthest away from civilization, so it is probably the place he would have chosen."
Alex had arrived with Doran an hour earlier and had gotten to work immediately. That he had been shocked about the events that had taken place in his absence was an understatement. Liz was captured? By Khivar? And he knows she’d betrayed him now! Alex was too scared to think about what could be happening to Liz right now.
And then he had arrived at the cabin to find a sulking Kyle there. Kyle had thrown him a withering, accusing look, scaring Alex witless. Kyle was way too close to “Andre” and this would mean that Alex’s final hours as an employee of the infamous Resistance leader had arrived.
“What is it?” All Michael could see on the map was a bunch of little dots.
“It’s an old army facility—a training camp. They had these bunkers built to withstand a nuclear attack. It consists of the actual camp,” he pointed to a large congregation of dots, “which houses a jail, and some bunkers surrounding the camp.” There were little dots placed at intervals circling the camp. “I think there used to be tunnels that linked the camp with the bunkers, they would have made them big enough to drive a jeep through. But I’m not sure if those are still usable.”
Michael stood staring at the map silently, contemplating their options. They didn’t really have any. “We should go there, we don’t have a choice.”
“I agree,” Alex piped in immediately. He wanted Liz out of there as soon as possible.
Michael turned to Doran. “Get a group together, we’re leaving in fifteen minutes.” His eyes fell on Kyle. “And bring him along, I don’t trust him here.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Shivering, Liz held herself reined in tightly as Nicholas arrived to accompany her to wherever they were taking her. He was leering lewdly at her, something that looked incredible horrible on a teenage face like his. They bundled her into the jeep unceremoniously, but Liz couldn’t help seeing their puzzlement at the absence of another shield.
She hoped Max knew what he was doing.
And that he was alright.
The sun was shining down on them brightly and only a few slabs of concrete with slits gave away the existence of the facility where Liz had been held. “Alone at last,” Nicholas told her as he started the vehicle. Technically, it wasn’t true, they had a soldier in the backseat, but apparently the guy didn’t count with Nicholas. “I’m sorry you abandoned me so abruptly last time,” he grinned, “we could have had some fun.”
Liz ignored him, not wanting to provoke more conversation. Tentatively, she reached for Max with her mind, just to make sure he was still there and ready.
“Don’t, Liz!” Max cried in alarm. “The signs on your neck!”
Belatedly she jerked her mind away from his, sneaking a sideways glance at Nicholas to see if he had noticed anything weird. He was looking at her speculatively. “It’s a pity we don’t have time…”
Shuddering, Liz turned her face away. Max had been trying to keep his fury about the presence of Nicholas from her, but it was too intense to hide.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They heard the jeep before they saw it and everyone dropped down to the ground before Michael could even give the command. Creeping closer to the top of the small hill, Michael managed to get a glimpse of the vehicle, apparently on its way to the same destination as them. A flash of long auburn hair made him suck in his breath. “Bingo.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They were standing in a wide clearing in what looked to be the center of a military camp. This might have been the parade ground once. Around them, most buildings were in ruins, with only the jail, where they had just dragged him from, having some semblance of its earlier purpose. Behind some of the broken walls, Max could spot tents.
Khivar had arrived in his cell in a rage earlier. “I’m not even going to bother anymore. I just want you dead. You and that bitch that betrayed me. Your death is enough to change the course of the war on Antar. Your sister was always too vain to be a good Queen.”
And, just because he was frustrated, Khivar had Cal hurt Max, burning two handprints into the skin of his chest. Max had pretended to be more hurt than he was, trying to lull Khivar into a false sense of security.
So, here he was standing, waiting for Liz to arrive and fighting to keep the pain contained so he could see this through. If only he could connect to Liz now, but he didn’t want to risk her while Nicholas was with her. Come on, Sweetheart. It had become a refrain.
Khivar was pacing up and down like a caged tiger and Max could visibly see him charging his power—his hands starting to glow with contained energy. It was a frightening sight. All Max had to go on was Doran’s word—that together he and Liz could overwhelm Khivar.
This was either going to work, or they were dying together here today. My Liz. So brave.
Max sucked in his breath when the jeep finally came into view. He felt a strange alien thing wake up inside him when he saw Nicholas pull Liz from the jeep, keeping her in his grasp. It was the same feeling that had nearly made him pound the cave wall into oblivion after he had realized what Nicholas had done to her earlier.
Her eyes melded with his, telling him she trusted him. Asking what to do. Just get as close to me as you can, he urged her wordlessly.
“Finally,” Khivar hissed, striding to stand between Max and Liz. He gave Max a long look, a glint of malicious satisfaction in his eyes. Then he turned to Nicholas, who had steadily been moving forward, seemingly following Liz. “Search her mind, let’s see if we get lucky this time.”
Max saw Liz’s eyes widen in fear—she doesn’t have the serum in her system anymore. He strained uselessly against the hands that held him imprisoned. He could only do one thing at a time with their link. And he needed his power for what was coming.
His eyes pleaded with her to understand why he was letting this happen and Liz braced herself, keeping her gaze on Max.
Nicholas dug his fingers into her skull needlessly, making her wince, before he started the mind rape. The pain was excruciating and Liz bit her lip until she tasted blood. Dimly she heard a harsh sound from Max, but her vision had gone blurry and she couldn’t see what was happening to him.
Nicholas saw, though. Max’s eyes had gone totally black as the rage built up inside him, and with a powerful energy shove, he managed to fling the guards holding him away and came running, flashing past a surprised Khivar at speed. The sight made Nicholas hesitate, dropping his hands from Liz, who promptly stumbled to the ground. Before anyone else could move, Max had sent a blinding blast at Nicholas.
Liz fought her way to action while this was happening, struggling to stand up and go towards Max. Khivar was not having that and he aimed a blast at her, only to find it repelled by the shield that divided Max and Liz from him. Liz flung herself against Max, holding on as multiple blasts buffeted their shield. She pressed Max’s one hand against her neck, starting the healing without even being asked.
It took only seconds. Then Max shoved her behind his back. “I’m going to have to drop the shield to do this, stay behind me.” Taking extra seconds to harness their combined power, Max watched the crowd blasting at them. The blasts from the soldiers were puny, but those from the shapeshifters—who had traditionally been the guards of the Royals until they changed loyalties—and Khivar were very strong.
When he raised his arm, he could see Khivar blanch and the sight provided him with almost as much satisfaction as getting rid of Nicholas. Khivar’s sudden silence confused his men enough to give Max the opportunity he needed.
As the shield dropped, a huge wave of energy pulsed from Max and Liz, racing outwards and disintegrating anything living in its path.
It only took seconds.
A great hush descended upon the area, Max and Liz standing in at the center of it, staring around them in shock. Never had they expected this to happen.
Dragging big gulps of air, Max scooped Liz into his arms. “Are you okay?”
She nodded into his chest, to complain about a headache seemed so incongruous right now. “I didn’t see Khivar—”
“He took off before I could drop the shield.” Max kissed her hard, relieved to have her with him again. “I’m sorry about not getting to you soon enough.”
But Liz’s attention was snagged by something else. “Max, we’re glowing!”
They were. Their bodies shimmered lightly in the harsh desert sun.
“Zan!” A shout from what sounded to be Michael broke into their absorption with this new development.
Still holding onto Liz’s hand, Max took off running in that direction. He found Khivar surrounded by a group led by Michael, all holding up defensive hands towards Khivar. But he was holding Kyle. There was amazement in Michael’s eyes as he looked at his Prince, what he’d seen today just could not be described. If only Kyle hadn’t tried to sneak away from them… right into Khivar’s path of flight.
Khivar looked like a desperate man. The kind of power this Prince had managed to create—with the help of a mere human—was overwhelming. “I’m taking this… human with me. And you’re going to let me go.” He didn’t even notice that his hand was glowing against Kyle’s head.
“There’s no place you can hide from us,” Max told him quietly.
“Max,” Liz interrupted softly and imploringly. Khivar was busy killing Kyle without knowing it. Max squeezed her hand in understanding.
Giving Michael a glance, Max started speaking, inciting the desperate rebel alien to further rage. “Where will you go? You will be reviled here on earth and on Antar. You couldn’t even defeat humans—” As he continued talking, Michael circled around and nodded at Max.
It all happened in a blur. Michael jumped forward to yank Kyle away from Khivar the same moment Max aimed a glowing hand at him, enveloping the alien in an energy field. Kyle slumped to the ground and Liz itched to run over to see how he was, but she sensed that Max needed her now so she kept their hands linked.
“Your time is over, Khivar,” Max told him firmly.
And used the energy field to force him slowly to his knees in front of the future King and Queen of Antar.
“And ours have come.”
tbc
Blinking fuzzily, Kyle heard loud voices close by. It was those people that always congregated around Evans and they were all talking at once.
“We’re going back to the cabin and I’m calling Isabel so she can start trying to contact Max!” Michael sounded incredibly angry. “What the hell is wrong with you people? How can you let Max go off alone like that!”
Silence descended after that statement and Kyle heard footsteps storming off. He stumbled to his feet, just in time to see a dejected little group look at each other and break up. He waited until only the one new guard was left. The one with the weird name. The one who had obviously been told to wait around to make sure he was okay.
Kyle was absolutely furious. How the hell had this Max person managed to dupe the levelheaded Liz Parker? Things had gotten very confusing just before he was… knocked out, or whatever, but he could have sworn Evans was the one that had hit him with an alien energy bolt. There was no way Liz could have gotten involved with an alien and not known it… was there?
Well, he was going to find out what the hell was going on, or die trying!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They were on their way to Liz! Max felt blind panic sweep through his body, totally overwhelming the other aches and pains they left him with. They had wanted him weakened so they could work on Liz without his interference. If only there had been a way to kill them without putting Liz in more danger he would have done it—there was no way her guards would let her live if anything happened to Khivar.
Desperately he tried to contact Liz again. Come on, Sweetheart! He fisted his hands—holding tightly onto the marks that identified him as her property. Damn him for being so weak!
Liz had been waiting for another sign and, at the first slight flickering of the signs on her neck, she closed her eyes and rushed to meet Max on the dream plane.
He was shivering when she saw him, looking pale, barely standing up straight. “Max!” she cried, rushing into his arms.
His arms wrapped around her feebly and he whispered in her ear. “They’re coming to you. Have to heal me so I can help…”
Not knowing what exactly he was talking about, Liz focused on the ‘heal me’ statement first. Finding his hands, she placed them against his marks on her neck and concentrated like she’d done once before in that cave.
And in his cell, a 45-minute drive from where Liz was, Max arched as if electrified.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Khivar’s short-range comm receiver blinked to life. “Something weird is happening to the girl,” the guard reported.
“Drive faster!” Khivar yelled at Nacedo. If only they hadn’t had to keep the two so far apart, then we wouldn’t have been wasting precious time now.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Doran drove fast, still keeping an eye on Kyle that was sitting in the passenger seat. Michael had ordered that Kyle be kept with them, fearing he would report everything that had happened to his people. And Michael wanted the Resistance and “Andre’s” group to continue with executing their part of the plan.
“Who the hell is Max Evans?” Kyle burst out. “Are you lot all working for Khivar or has he betrayed us all?”
“He hasn’t betrayed anyone,” Doran answered calmly. This was the time for truth.
“Are you kidding me?” Kyle was a breath short of losing his temper completely, until the slight glow of Doran’s hands on the steering wheel caught his attention. “You’re all aliens aren’t you?” he managed.
“Yes,” Doran answered. “But not in the way you mean. We don’t work for Khivar. Max certainly doesn’t work for Khivar.”
“How deluded are you? Do you not know that Evans was the one that nearly blew me to Kingdom Come and then made off with Liz?”
Doran sighed. “That wasn’t Max. It was a shapeshifter. We have those on our world—beings who can look like anyone else.”
This was news to Kyle. In all their time of studying the aliens, they hadn’t learnt about this little detail. “Who the hell is Max Evans?” he now repeated angrily.
Doran’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “He is Crown Prince Zan of Antar. The one Khivar is here to kill.”
And finally Kyle had to face what he had been denying to himself all along. So many little things had just not made sense, but he had refused to believe that Liz would do this to them. Or... “How did he get Liz to betray us?” He wondered if he sounded as sick as he felt.
“They fell in love.” Throwing Kyle an imploring look, Doran pressed on. “If you believe nothing else, believe that.”
Kyle was silent, trying to assimilate all he’d heard. “How many of you are on earth?”
But Doran understood what he was really asking. “I know you won’t believe this either, but we’re all leaving. As soon as we get rid of Khivar, we’re going back to our planet. Max is needed there and he’s going. We don’t want your planet, we just want our own one back.”
“And what about Liz? He’s just going to take off after using her and leave—” Doran’s angry look stopped his words.
“What they do is up to them. But he loves her more than you could understand.”
“Hmpf,” Kyle snorted. “I doubt that. He got her in the sack—”
“He married her,” Doran interrupted again, shocking Kyle. Looking back to the road, his voice softened and filled with worry. “He married her and what happened today was because he was trying to keep her safe.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Staring down into Liz’s eyes, always so luminous, Max marveled at the wonder of their link and the power it generated. His body was growing stronger by the second, and with that, his power spiked.
He was going to need every ounce of it if he wanted to keep Liz safe from Khivar. If only they didn’t realize that he was the origin of the power and that if they weakened him enough…
“Max?” It was a soft call that barely registered with Max.
A tentative hand touched his shoulder, almost causing him to snarl at the interruption. Then, Isabel stepped into view. She had opened her mouth to speak, but now she was just standing there, slack-jawed at the sight of Max and Liz so wrapped up in each other.
Knowing this was important, Max gently removed his hands from below Liz’s ears, but wrapped her hands firmly in his. “Isabel, there’s not much time.” He spoke still looking at Liz.
“Where are you?” Isabel had obviously gotten the message that there was only time for business now.
“We’re not sure. But Liz thinks she is in an underground bomb shelter. I’m also being held in what looks like a military facility. I heard a helicopter earlier.”
“That’s all you can give me to work on?” Isabel sounded panicked.
“Ask Alex to help,” Liz told her quietly. “He’s great at this type of thing. And we’ve tried to pinpoint possible locations for Khivar’s secret camp in this area before.”
“Okay,” Isabel looked uncertain and anxious. “Max…”
“Go, Iz,” Max urged her. “We’re okay for now.”
Nodding, she left them alone.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kyle watched with trepidation as Isabel lurched into the lounge of the cabin, looking disheveled and worried. “We need Alex,” she announced without preamble. Right, Kyle thought, she was the amazon girl Alex had brought to Roswell with him once. Lord, was Alex in on this too?
Whirling towards her, Michael frowned. “What can he do? What did Max say?”
“Max was…” she darted glance at Kyle. “He was with Liz. On the dream plane,” she finally rushed ahead. “They’re not sure where they are and Liz said Alex might be able to use the clues they can give us.”
That was all that was needed. “Go get him,” Michael told Doran. “And make sure you disable all his tracking devices.”
By now, Kyle was speechless. These people truly seemed worried about Max. And about Liz. The guy with the weird name, who had remained standing in one corner the whole time, had only spoken once. “I failed her.” He had obviously been talking about Liz.
And what the hell was the “dream plane”? Why was no one surprised that Liz was there too?
“I can start searching so long,” Maria said from the sidelines, gently laying a hand on Michael’s arm. He nodded and she moved off with Isabel.
Kyle wondered if he had somehow stumbled into a nest of aliens. Did they have breeding spaces in a cellar below the cabin? Where did they all come from suddenly?
The next moment, Michael was in his face. “You will help Alex find where that bastard is keeping Max and Liz. And then you will convince your people to let us go back to Antar without trouble.”
Kyle just stared at him. Yeah, right, he thought.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Full power. Max felt light as air, but filled to the brim with energy. His body was healed, the horrible heat gone. Thank goodness it had obviously taken Khivar a while to get to wherever Liz was. He should take note of how much time elapsed, maybe it could help them figure out where they were later.
For now, he needed to make sure that not one finger was laid on Liz. Framing her face in his hands, he spoke urgently. “Honey, listen to me, whatever happens, don’t let go of me. I’m going to protect you, I promise.” And hope they leave me alone while I do it.
“How Max?”
“I—I’m working on that.” He didn’t want to worry her further.
Her hands moved over his shoulders, his chest. “Are you alright now?” she asked in wonder, her trust in him total.
“I’m better than alright.” He could feel another presence with Liz and he leaned down to kiss her. Come inside me, he told her without words, inside where it’s safe.
Khivar swore when he drew near Liz and she was suddenly enveloped by a green, shimmering shield. Angrily, he sent a bolt towards her, only to have it repelled.
Max felt the efforts to break down the shield and, once again, he was stunned at how easily he withstood it. How easily they withstood it. With Liz in his arms, they could go a long time like this.
Fitting herself closer to Max, Liz teased his attention back to her and away from the attacks. “I love you,” she whispered to him, her lips brushing his. How many times has she said those words to him, but never had they been truer than right now, while he was protecting her.
Giddy with relief at their success, Max grinned down at her. “So, my alien powers turn you on, huh?”
“Oh yeah,” she flirted back. But then she felt a moment of panic again and her brow furrowed, causing Max to tighten his arms around her. “How long can you…?”
“I don’t know,” he told her. “This is new ground for me too.” They kissed again, this time with more urgency.
“This can’t last forever,” Nacedo panted at Khivar. They’d been combining their blasts. “We just have to keep going.” But they were starting to get tired too.
Max had no idea how long the attacks lasted. He only knew they were slowly starting to impact on the shield. And on his power. So he’d drawn Liz down onto the sand with him, cradling her against his chest as she sat between his legs. He hoped that if he enveloped her with his body, his essence, here on the dream plane, it would keep the shield going for longer.
“Liz,” he said urgently, “if we ever get the chance, if we could physically touch, it would multiply the power we have right now even more. Remember that, sweetheart, for when we get out of these cells. We’re going to have to do this together.”
Nacedo and Khivar looked at each other and aimed together, each one of them with both hands. They were running out of steam.
Liz was ripped from his grip as if by a strong wind, and moved to just outside his reach. “Liz!” he cried in panic, scrambling closer with an outstretched hand.
He felt the shield flicker and seized hold of her fingertips frantically to haul her back again. “Hold on!”
Clinging to his hand with a death grip, Liz fought to get closer to him, but it felt like she was in quicksand and she had trouble moving. At least they were touching again, but Max had started trembling and she felt faint too.
“Hang on,” he pleaded, his eyes begging and she tried harder. For him.
Sweat was pouring off Khivar and Nacedo when they stopped the blast. Khivar stared at the sight of the stupid human girl who had betrayed him, huddled on the ground and surrounded by the presence and power of the Antarian Royal Heir, and he snapped.
“I’m not playing this game anymore. We’re killing them both.” He looked frightening. “And I want them to watch each other die.”
Chapter 34
“Max! They want to kill us!” Liz cried as she tumbled back into Max’s arms when the attacks on the shield stopped. Max was breathing hard, like he’d run a marathon, but he held her to him convulsively.
“I know,” he soothed her. “We need to make it look like their plan will work. If we can only get to touching distance, then I can protect both of us and get rid of them.”
“You can’t protect both of us when we’re apart?”
He shook his head. “But I don’t think he knows that.”
“Take them to the camp, but don’t let them touch each other,” Khivar told Nacedo. “The two of us have to recharge and Cal is the only other one with enough power to help us. I want us all to work on one of them at a time. I’m thinking we kill the Prince first.”
Nacedo eyed the girl, who still had the shield around her, with worry. “How do I move her if the shield is still there?”
“Sweetheart, I’m going to drop the shield now. Go with them and get as close to me as you can.”
“This is a huge gamble, Max.”
“I know, we don’t have any other choice. They can’t work up the energy for blasts right now, so you’ll be safe for a while at least.”
And in the real world, Liz’s shield flickered out.
“Get her!” Khivar yelled immediately, impelling Nacedo forward to grab hold of her arm. “And get little Nicholas in here, I’m going to let him take her to her husband.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“There are only two places that have the kind of cells or bunkers you described in this area,” Alex told Michael who was hovering over his shoulder. He pointed to two places on the map visible on his laptop screen. “This one seems the farthest away from civilization, so it is probably the place he would have chosen."
Alex had arrived with Doran an hour earlier and had gotten to work immediately. That he had been shocked about the events that had taken place in his absence was an understatement. Liz was captured? By Khivar? And he knows she’d betrayed him now! Alex was too scared to think about what could be happening to Liz right now.
And then he had arrived at the cabin to find a sulking Kyle there. Kyle had thrown him a withering, accusing look, scaring Alex witless. Kyle was way too close to “Andre” and this would mean that Alex’s final hours as an employee of the infamous Resistance leader had arrived.
“What is it?” All Michael could see on the map was a bunch of little dots.
“It’s an old army facility—a training camp. They had these bunkers built to withstand a nuclear attack. It consists of the actual camp,” he pointed to a large congregation of dots, “which houses a jail, and some bunkers surrounding the camp.” There were little dots placed at intervals circling the camp. “I think there used to be tunnels that linked the camp with the bunkers, they would have made them big enough to drive a jeep through. But I’m not sure if those are still usable.”
Michael stood staring at the map silently, contemplating their options. They didn’t really have any. “We should go there, we don’t have a choice.”
“I agree,” Alex piped in immediately. He wanted Liz out of there as soon as possible.
Michael turned to Doran. “Get a group together, we’re leaving in fifteen minutes.” His eyes fell on Kyle. “And bring him along, I don’t trust him here.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Shivering, Liz held herself reined in tightly as Nicholas arrived to accompany her to wherever they were taking her. He was leering lewdly at her, something that looked incredible horrible on a teenage face like his. They bundled her into the jeep unceremoniously, but Liz couldn’t help seeing their puzzlement at the absence of another shield.
She hoped Max knew what he was doing.
And that he was alright.
The sun was shining down on them brightly and only a few slabs of concrete with slits gave away the existence of the facility where Liz had been held. “Alone at last,” Nicholas told her as he started the vehicle. Technically, it wasn’t true, they had a soldier in the backseat, but apparently the guy didn’t count with Nicholas. “I’m sorry you abandoned me so abruptly last time,” he grinned, “we could have had some fun.”
Liz ignored him, not wanting to provoke more conversation. Tentatively, she reached for Max with her mind, just to make sure he was still there and ready.
“Don’t, Liz!” Max cried in alarm. “The signs on your neck!”
Belatedly she jerked her mind away from his, sneaking a sideways glance at Nicholas to see if he had noticed anything weird. He was looking at her speculatively. “It’s a pity we don’t have time…”
Shuddering, Liz turned her face away. Max had been trying to keep his fury about the presence of Nicholas from her, but it was too intense to hide.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They heard the jeep before they saw it and everyone dropped down to the ground before Michael could even give the command. Creeping closer to the top of the small hill, Michael managed to get a glimpse of the vehicle, apparently on its way to the same destination as them. A flash of long auburn hair made him suck in his breath. “Bingo.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
They were standing in a wide clearing in what looked to be the center of a military camp. This might have been the parade ground once. Around them, most buildings were in ruins, with only the jail, where they had just dragged him from, having some semblance of its earlier purpose. Behind some of the broken walls, Max could spot tents.
Khivar had arrived in his cell in a rage earlier. “I’m not even going to bother anymore. I just want you dead. You and that bitch that betrayed me. Your death is enough to change the course of the war on Antar. Your sister was always too vain to be a good Queen.”
And, just because he was frustrated, Khivar had Cal hurt Max, burning two handprints into the skin of his chest. Max had pretended to be more hurt than he was, trying to lull Khivar into a false sense of security.
So, here he was standing, waiting for Liz to arrive and fighting to keep the pain contained so he could see this through. If only he could connect to Liz now, but he didn’t want to risk her while Nicholas was with her. Come on, Sweetheart. It had become a refrain.
Khivar was pacing up and down like a caged tiger and Max could visibly see him charging his power—his hands starting to glow with contained energy. It was a frightening sight. All Max had to go on was Doran’s word—that together he and Liz could overwhelm Khivar.
This was either going to work, or they were dying together here today. My Liz. So brave.
Max sucked in his breath when the jeep finally came into view. He felt a strange alien thing wake up inside him when he saw Nicholas pull Liz from the jeep, keeping her in his grasp. It was the same feeling that had nearly made him pound the cave wall into oblivion after he had realized what Nicholas had done to her earlier.
Her eyes melded with his, telling him she trusted him. Asking what to do. Just get as close to me as you can, he urged her wordlessly.
“Finally,” Khivar hissed, striding to stand between Max and Liz. He gave Max a long look, a glint of malicious satisfaction in his eyes. Then he turned to Nicholas, who had steadily been moving forward, seemingly following Liz. “Search her mind, let’s see if we get lucky this time.”
Max saw Liz’s eyes widen in fear—she doesn’t have the serum in her system anymore. He strained uselessly against the hands that held him imprisoned. He could only do one thing at a time with their link. And he needed his power for what was coming.
His eyes pleaded with her to understand why he was letting this happen and Liz braced herself, keeping her gaze on Max.
Nicholas dug his fingers into her skull needlessly, making her wince, before he started the mind rape. The pain was excruciating and Liz bit her lip until she tasted blood. Dimly she heard a harsh sound from Max, but her vision had gone blurry and she couldn’t see what was happening to him.
Nicholas saw, though. Max’s eyes had gone totally black as the rage built up inside him, and with a powerful energy shove, he managed to fling the guards holding him away and came running, flashing past a surprised Khivar at speed. The sight made Nicholas hesitate, dropping his hands from Liz, who promptly stumbled to the ground. Before anyone else could move, Max had sent a blinding blast at Nicholas.
Liz fought her way to action while this was happening, struggling to stand up and go towards Max. Khivar was not having that and he aimed a blast at her, only to find it repelled by the shield that divided Max and Liz from him. Liz flung herself against Max, holding on as multiple blasts buffeted their shield. She pressed Max’s one hand against her neck, starting the healing without even being asked.
It took only seconds. Then Max shoved her behind his back. “I’m going to have to drop the shield to do this, stay behind me.” Taking extra seconds to harness their combined power, Max watched the crowd blasting at them. The blasts from the soldiers were puny, but those from the shapeshifters—who had traditionally been the guards of the Royals until they changed loyalties—and Khivar were very strong.
When he raised his arm, he could see Khivar blanch and the sight provided him with almost as much satisfaction as getting rid of Nicholas. Khivar’s sudden silence confused his men enough to give Max the opportunity he needed.
As the shield dropped, a huge wave of energy pulsed from Max and Liz, racing outwards and disintegrating anything living in its path.
It only took seconds.
A great hush descended upon the area, Max and Liz standing in at the center of it, staring around them in shock. Never had they expected this to happen.
Dragging big gulps of air, Max scooped Liz into his arms. “Are you okay?”
She nodded into his chest, to complain about a headache seemed so incongruous right now. “I didn’t see Khivar—”
“He took off before I could drop the shield.” Max kissed her hard, relieved to have her with him again. “I’m sorry about not getting to you soon enough.”
But Liz’s attention was snagged by something else. “Max, we’re glowing!”
They were. Their bodies shimmered lightly in the harsh desert sun.
“Zan!” A shout from what sounded to be Michael broke into their absorption with this new development.
Still holding onto Liz’s hand, Max took off running in that direction. He found Khivar surrounded by a group led by Michael, all holding up defensive hands towards Khivar. But he was holding Kyle. There was amazement in Michael’s eyes as he looked at his Prince, what he’d seen today just could not be described. If only Kyle hadn’t tried to sneak away from them… right into Khivar’s path of flight.
Khivar looked like a desperate man. The kind of power this Prince had managed to create—with the help of a mere human—was overwhelming. “I’m taking this… human with me. And you’re going to let me go.” He didn’t even notice that his hand was glowing against Kyle’s head.
“There’s no place you can hide from us,” Max told him quietly.
“Max,” Liz interrupted softly and imploringly. Khivar was busy killing Kyle without knowing it. Max squeezed her hand in understanding.
Giving Michael a glance, Max started speaking, inciting the desperate rebel alien to further rage. “Where will you go? You will be reviled here on earth and on Antar. You couldn’t even defeat humans—” As he continued talking, Michael circled around and nodded at Max.
It all happened in a blur. Michael jumped forward to yank Kyle away from Khivar the same moment Max aimed a glowing hand at him, enveloping the alien in an energy field. Kyle slumped to the ground and Liz itched to run over to see how he was, but she sensed that Max needed her now so she kept their hands linked.
“Your time is over, Khivar,” Max told him firmly.
And used the energy field to force him slowly to his knees in front of the future King and Queen of Antar.
“And ours have come.”
tbc
35
Chapter 35
“You’re killing him, Liz.”
Kyle’s soft words in her ear tore at Liz’s already shaky self-control. Her jaw ached from clenching it so tightly to stop the tears from flowing. They were standing to the side of the group that had converged to see Max and his people off. The ship was waiting silently in the background—an inanimate observer to one of the biggest moments in Liz’s life. Max was finally leaving, just as they had planned, but still…
His eyes kept coming back to her, just as hers was unable to leave him. Max and Isabel were standing with his earth parents, Philip and Diane Evans, whom Liz had met during the past week—a week during which she and Max had hardly spent a minute apart.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
**A Week Earlier**
“Respectfully, Sire,” D’lor was hovering beside Max as they waited for the ship to come take Khivar away. Max had sealed him in an energy field that would need Max’s own effort to release him again and then he had been made unconscious. He had decided that Khivar needed to be taken back to Antar under arrest—that it would be more effective than just telling his followers he had perished.
Max had also healed Kyle and in the process made sure Kyle knew exactly how he felt about Liz. He could see a new respect in Kyle’s eyes now and the thought pleased him. Kyle meant a lot to Liz and his help would be needed to make sure they could get off Earth without interference from “Andre”. On the other hand, he had learned nothing from Kyle, who had been full of Liz’s serum.
“Yes, D’lor?” Only then did Max notice that Michael was watching the scene intently.
“We should probably leave the planet as soon as possible, Sire,” D’lor wasn’t looking him in the eye, but staring at his feet, sounding hesitant. None of them knew for sure what their Prince’s plan for his human mate was, but it was bound to be an emotional issue. “May I suggest you join the ship—”
“No.” Max did not elaborate immediately, but waited until he could fold Liz under his arm. Dropping a soft kiss on her bent head, he sighed deeply. “There are some things we need to finish before we can leave.” He cleared his throat and hugged Liz closer. “Some people we need to say goodbye to. We’ll leave in five days.”
It was as close to a royal command as Max had ever issued and D’lor had no recourse but to touch his forehead in agreement. Thankfully, no one else said another word.
Liz fisted her hand in Max’s still-torn shirt and pressed her face into his warm throat. The next few days will be some of the hardest in her life.
The ship was an awesome sight to Liz. Naturally it was the first real spaceship she had seen in her life and the size of it amazed her. But what outdid all of the other things, was the sight of a column of soldiers disembarking in what seemed to her to be full official dress—all wearing the royal blue and cream colors of Antar. Their faces were flushed with excitement at seeing their Prince and Liz could sense that Max was no less affected.
“I wish Isabel was here to share this,” he whispered to her hoarsely.
Not knowing how to make that up to him, Liz just nodded.
After the group had born off the still unconscious Khivar, D’lor came over to Max again. “Sire, the ship can’t stay long, but we thought you might want to be the one to share this news with the King.”
Overcome with emotion, Max could only swallow and curve Liz even more fully against his side. “Yes, I would like that.”
Liz wondered if other people could also hear how much emotion Max was hiding beneath his relatively calm veneer.
“Come with me?” he asked her then, his eyes pleading for her to share in this significant moment.
“Of course,” she promised him, sliding her hand into his. “Lead the way.”
This made him smile and Liz felt immeasurably lighter. The day had been wearying and frightening, filled with moments when she hadn’t been able to stop herself from fearing that she was never going to see Max again. As they prepared to walk on board the ship, she saw D’lor whisper something into one of the guards’ ears and that his eyes turned to her, filled with shock. Biting her lip, she lifted her head and stared back. I know I’m not what you would have wanted for your Prince, but he wanted me and to me that is all that counts.
Max had felt her slight hesitation and turned to her. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I know the last time you were on a ship wasn’t exactly—”
“I’m fine, Max,” she assured him, wondering if he was blind to the shock waves rippling through his soldiers as one-by-one they learnt who this woman was he kept so close to his side.
They formed a guard of honor in any case.
Inside the ship looked a lot like Liz remembered from her last time. She hadn’t seen much that time apart from her wanderings in Maria and Michael’s apartments. Her heart was in her throat by the time the group had assembled in a large room with comfortable seats. For the most part the soldiers remained outside, but D’lor, Doran and Michael were inside and waiting to the side. Michael had quietly taken Liz’s arm and escorted her to stand with them and away from Max.
His full attention had been on a flickering image that was starting to form in the middle of the room, so Max had allowed Liz to drift from him and now she watched with baited breath for her first view of the King of Antar.
He seemed like a very distinguished man, this father of Max’s. He spoke quietly, his eyes trained on his son with that unique intensity that Liz had always associated with Max. They spoke in Antarian, with Max relating haltingly in a language he hadn’t used much before that Khivar was now in their hands.
She didn’t understand what they were saying—her few uttered words of the language having resulted from being linked to Max—but Liz could read his body language and see the confidence that shone through. Somewhere between all that had happened, her Max had turned into Prince Zan.
The King seemed overwhelmed at the news. He stared at his son for long moments as Khivar was brought and lain out at Max’s feet.
“Te banum shollom,” King Aran whispered. ‘It is over.’
Max felt pretty emotional himself. “Yes, Father,” he affirmed the statement. It truly was over.
“When are you coming home?”
His gaze sought and found Liz’s across the room. “In about a week. We need to finalize some things here first. I need to say goodbye to my par—the people who looked after Isabel and I.”
Aran nodded solemnly. “I understand. I just can’t wait—” He cut himself off. “I understand. Do what you must.”
“Father, I—” Max halted, staring at Liz. Maybe some things were better said in person. He tore his eyes away and met his father’s slightly worried look. “We’ll see you soon.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nobody had asked why Kyle had agreed so quickly to allow Max and his people the five days requested to get their things in order for leaving. He had booked himself into a hotel, the money provided by Doran, and promised to stay there until the ship returned to take Max away. Max had asked Kyle to come around to see them off, knowing that Kyle would have to report this to “Andre”.
“Dad? I’m just calling to say I’m fine and I’ll be around in a few days.” Kyle grinned at the angry retort from Jim.
“Yes, I know I went missing for a while… No, Khivar is out of the picture, Dad, I promise. We managed to get the best of him finally.” Kyle sighed. Jim was going to be so mad when he finally learned the truth. “Max disappeared Dad. No, Liz is with me.”
And so it went.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After the ship with the soldiers and Khivar had left, Max and Liz returned to the cabin to inform Isabel of all that happened. She was pretty quiet through it all, merely giving Liz a quick glance when it became clear that the only thing that saved them all from Khivar was Max’s link to Liz.
Max and Liz cleaned up hastily, dragging on fresh clothes before appearing in the lounge area where a silent Isabel was waiting. Giving her a hug, Max told Isabel to go back to Roswell, to Philip and Diane and that he would meet up with her there later. For now, he wanted time alone with Liz.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
By unspoken mutual consent, they drove back to the motel outside Carlsbad where they’d first made love—Max holding her hand the whole time. Neither of them spoke, but they could feel each other’s emotions close to the surface.
Max had stopped in Carlsbad itself on the way, where they’d stocked up on food, clothes and toiletries for their stay. The owner of the motel became effusive when he saw the amount of money Max was prepared to spend and he immediately gave them the keys to the cabin they had shared last time. It looked exactly the same, still in the blue and cream colors Max had created during their last stay.
They worked silently to put away all their shopping and then, finally, they stood on opposite sides of the bed, staring at each other.
“Liz…” Max’s voice was thick with emotion.
“Don’t say anything, Max,” she halted him quickly, a desperate tone in her voice. “We’ve talked about this already.”
Swallowing, he nodded. “I can’t believe it’s finally over.”
Smiling slightly, Liz moved to kneel on the bed. “Yes, it is.”
Max copied her action, crawling forward until he knelt in the center of the bed. “Come here,” he urged softly, holding out his hand.
Obediently, she closed the gap between them, with Max hauling her the last few inches until she was flush against his chest, straddling his powerful thighs. Instead of kissing her, as she had expected, Max held her close with one arm and lifted his right hand to lovingly trace the features of her face. So much love shone from his gaze that Liz felt a lump forming in her throat and tears well in her eyes.
“Don’t cry,” he admonished her tenderly. “I’m trying to make you happy, not sad.”
“You are making me happy!” Liz swiped at her wet cheeks angrily, irritated by the fact that her vision was blurring and she couldn’t see him properly. “I just…” she faltered, then took a deep steadying breath. “I know you said… But Max, whatever happens in the future, I want you to know I’ll be okay with it.”
“Liz!” he said alarmed. “There is no way—”
She kissed him hard, stopping the flow of his protest with her lips. “Just know that I’ll be okay.”
He stared at her a long time, his honey-dark eyes searching hers intently. “Yes,” he said finally, “you will be okay.” Then he bent his head and kissed her, parting her lips with his tongue and starting a gentle dance with hers.
Liz felt light-headed, her body heating up immediately as his hands drifted over her hair and back before cupping her rear to fit her more firmly against his lower body.
He made love to her slowly, taking his time to slide their clothes off and to caress every inch of her body with his hands and mouth. A stillness permeated the room as if every object knew that this was a moment of reverence. Even Max and Liz were quiet while they loved each other.
Only when at last he pushed inside her, did Liz make a sound—a breathless, hitching sigh escaping her as her back arched in tandem with his thrust. Her mind was filled with images from his—fleeting flashes of the dark hours that had preceded this moment interspersed with memories of her.
Tightening her inner-muscles around his shaft, she held him inside her for as long as she could. Max sucked in a harsh breath, before expelling it again in a rush. The sound made her eyes snap open, finding him staring down at her with fierce yearning.
“I wish…”
“Oh Max!” She didn’t have to tell him she wished too—he knew all her feelings by now.
They rocked together slowly, rhythmically, all the while staring into each other’s eyes. But trying to prolong the intimacy didn’t work—they’d been wanting this too much. Max clutched her tightly to him, pressing his mouth against her neck as he felt the spasms of a climax start deep inside her body. She murmured his name on a broken hitch and he let his control fly too, spilling warm release into her body.
Afterwards, they clung to each other, both of them with tears in their eyes.
“I thought he was going to kill you,” Max finally voiced the dark fear that had haunted him while Khivar had had them both. “I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”
Liz touched his face tenderly, her fingertips lightly caressing. “I wasn’t afraid for me, I knew you would protect me, but I worried about you.”
Max kissed her again then, a wild, savage, fierce kiss that emphasized his ownership of her and his relief that they were safe and together. When he lifted his mouth, hers was swollen and moist. Immediately contrite, he leaned down, laving soothingly at her lips with his tongue. “I’m sorry… sorry.”
Later, Liz clutched him to her when he started moving away, keeping him in her arms and inside her body. “Don’t go, not yet.”
Leaning on his elbows, he stayed, brushing her hair from her face. “When are you going to tell Maria?”
“Soon.” Liz bit her lip, remembering the day she had arrived at the desert camp filled with people “Andre” had saved from Khivar.
“Amy?” She had found the woman Jim was involved with now in the cave room they were sharing. Liz felt her heart beat crazily in her chest as Amy DeLuca turned around and flashed her a big smile.
“Liz, honey, you’re back!”
They hugged warmly with Liz fleetingly remembering how she had stormed out of the room where Khivar had tortured Amy to retch in the nearest bathroom, thinking Amy dead. It had been Alex who had had the guts to go over and check the pulse of the woman lying so still on the ground. He had come running to Liz then—Liz who had medical training—telling Liz that Amy was alive—barely—and that they needed to save her.
It had been a nightmare and Amy had taken a long time to recuperate, with Liz spending frantic days running herself ragged in the lab and then hurtling through the dark tunnel that linked their safe house and the small cabin where they’d been treating Amy.
“We missed you,” Amy said with a grin now. “Jim always starts grumbling when you stay away too long. I think he wanted a daughter like you.”
Amy and Jim were involved, but Amy had never fully gone over to his thinking that all aliens were bad. Although she had never met any of the others, she had remained firmly sure of the position of the Resistance that only Khivar was to be eliminated while this Prince he had come to seek was a good person.
“Thank you.” Liz had swallowed. “Amy, I have something to tell you. I—”
Having learnt a long time ago that many unexpected things happened around this camp, Amy had remained silent, waiting for Liz to speak.
And Liz wanted to tell Amy, but she wasn’t sure what was going to be worse for Amy—continuing to believe her daughter was dead or finding out Maria was alive but that she couldn’t see her. “Maria, your daughter… I saw her, Amy.”
Liz watched anxiously as Amy’s face froze for a moment, before it started shining. Then, she had had to field all the questions Amy fired at her.
Until Jim had come to whisk her away for the meeting she had been dreading.
The group calling itself “Andre” met in a large cavern in the mountain camp although not all of them actually lived there. They had done a lot for her through the years, but Liz always felt slightly nervous when she had to face them. They were hard men. And now she had something to hide—she loved the alien prince they were trying to capture and kill.
Jim stood behind her as she settled herself in a chair in front of the four men, all of whom had worked for the FBI’s Special Unit responsible for the Control of Alien Life on Earth.
“So, Liz,” the man called Pierce said with a smile, “we hear you have news about Khivar…”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now, as she stood here watching Max preparing to leave the planet, Liz clung to the memories they’d made during the last five days. They’d made love as often as they possibly could, even when Max had taken her with him to his parents’ house in Roswell to say goodbye.
Diane had taken to Liz immediately, telling her with tears in her eyes that she had wished so hard that her lonely son would meet someone like her eventually—someone that loved Max as he deserved to be loved. In turn, Liz was amazed by the two wonderful people who, a long time ago, had listened to what must have sounded like a crazy story, and took in two alien children and treated them as their own. They loved Max and Isabel and Diane had moved Liz into Max’s room without saying a word.
“Liz? Did you hear me?” Kyle asked.
“Yes,” she croaked and Kyle decided not to push things when he saw how pale she was. Hell, he couldn’t believe he was worrying about the obvious distress of Evans either, but the man looked positively miserable.
Michael suddenly appeared at their side. “King Aran wants to say a few words to all of you.” He gestured at the ship and to where Diane and Philip were already moving through the doorway. Max stood waiting for them silently, hugging Liz against him as soon as she drew near.
Inside, they were taken again to the room where Aran had learnt of Khivar’s capture, but this time his image was already filtering from the communications-link. Max gathered his parents in front of the flickering beam and folded Liz into his arms, holding her so tightly Liz had trouble breathing.
Doran translated as Aran spoke.
“Diane and Philip, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for my family. I know that it must have been a big sacrifice to take my children in. As I watch them now, I can see that you have done a fine job of raising them—their mother would have been so proud. I also want you to know that you will always be welcome here in our home on Antar and I’m sure my children would want to come and visit you often. Thank you seems like so little to say, but… thank you.” The King bowed his head to the two people to whom he owed his beautiful grown-up children.
“And for the rest of you…” The King faltered slightly when he finally laid eyes on his son and the girl he was holding as if his life depended on it. “I hear that we owe much of our victory over Khivar to members of the human race. My wife was right to send my children to your planet, you are a remarkable race. I thank all of you too.”
King Aran’s gaze went from Max to Isabel and returned to Max, turning measuring. “My children, I wish you a safe journey.”
And just like that, it was over.
The group was ushered outside again and emotional hugs and kisses were shared between the Evans’ and their children, as well as the other humans staying behind.
Max had trouble letting go of Liz. He pulled her off to the side and kissed her desperately, crushing her body to his. “Liz,” he breathed against her mouth. “I promise—”
“I know,” she told him through her tears, her throat aching so much she could hardly speak. Raising up on tiptoe, she gave him one final sweet kiss. “I love you, Max Evans.”
His eyes were as wet as hers when he jerked himself away from her with effort and shoved his hands into his pockets to walk away with a bent head.
Liz was crying so much she could hardly see him, but she stayed where she was, hugging herself and blinking furiously to clear her vision. Max faltered at the top of the ramp leading into the ship, turning around to give Liz one last look.
“Mi Shanaya, always.” His whisper drifted through her mind as their connection flooded her with his love.
Then he was gone.
And Liz barely registered when Alex and Maria put their arms around her trembling body in comfort.
tbc
“You’re killing him, Liz.”
Kyle’s soft words in her ear tore at Liz’s already shaky self-control. Her jaw ached from clenching it so tightly to stop the tears from flowing. They were standing to the side of the group that had converged to see Max and his people off. The ship was waiting silently in the background—an inanimate observer to one of the biggest moments in Liz’s life. Max was finally leaving, just as they had planned, but still…
His eyes kept coming back to her, just as hers was unable to leave him. Max and Isabel were standing with his earth parents, Philip and Diane Evans, whom Liz had met during the past week—a week during which she and Max had hardly spent a minute apart.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
**A Week Earlier**
“Respectfully, Sire,” D’lor was hovering beside Max as they waited for the ship to come take Khivar away. Max had sealed him in an energy field that would need Max’s own effort to release him again and then he had been made unconscious. He had decided that Khivar needed to be taken back to Antar under arrest—that it would be more effective than just telling his followers he had perished.
Max had also healed Kyle and in the process made sure Kyle knew exactly how he felt about Liz. He could see a new respect in Kyle’s eyes now and the thought pleased him. Kyle meant a lot to Liz and his help would be needed to make sure they could get off Earth without interference from “Andre”. On the other hand, he had learned nothing from Kyle, who had been full of Liz’s serum.
“Yes, D’lor?” Only then did Max notice that Michael was watching the scene intently.
“We should probably leave the planet as soon as possible, Sire,” D’lor wasn’t looking him in the eye, but staring at his feet, sounding hesitant. None of them knew for sure what their Prince’s plan for his human mate was, but it was bound to be an emotional issue. “May I suggest you join the ship—”
“No.” Max did not elaborate immediately, but waited until he could fold Liz under his arm. Dropping a soft kiss on her bent head, he sighed deeply. “There are some things we need to finish before we can leave.” He cleared his throat and hugged Liz closer. “Some people we need to say goodbye to. We’ll leave in five days.”
It was as close to a royal command as Max had ever issued and D’lor had no recourse but to touch his forehead in agreement. Thankfully, no one else said another word.
Liz fisted her hand in Max’s still-torn shirt and pressed her face into his warm throat. The next few days will be some of the hardest in her life.
The ship was an awesome sight to Liz. Naturally it was the first real spaceship she had seen in her life and the size of it amazed her. But what outdid all of the other things, was the sight of a column of soldiers disembarking in what seemed to her to be full official dress—all wearing the royal blue and cream colors of Antar. Their faces were flushed with excitement at seeing their Prince and Liz could sense that Max was no less affected.
“I wish Isabel was here to share this,” he whispered to her hoarsely.
Not knowing how to make that up to him, Liz just nodded.
After the group had born off the still unconscious Khivar, D’lor came over to Max again. “Sire, the ship can’t stay long, but we thought you might want to be the one to share this news with the King.”
Overcome with emotion, Max could only swallow and curve Liz even more fully against his side. “Yes, I would like that.”
Liz wondered if other people could also hear how much emotion Max was hiding beneath his relatively calm veneer.
“Come with me?” he asked her then, his eyes pleading for her to share in this significant moment.
“Of course,” she promised him, sliding her hand into his. “Lead the way.”
This made him smile and Liz felt immeasurably lighter. The day had been wearying and frightening, filled with moments when she hadn’t been able to stop herself from fearing that she was never going to see Max again. As they prepared to walk on board the ship, she saw D’lor whisper something into one of the guards’ ears and that his eyes turned to her, filled with shock. Biting her lip, she lifted her head and stared back. I know I’m not what you would have wanted for your Prince, but he wanted me and to me that is all that counts.
Max had felt her slight hesitation and turned to her. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I know the last time you were on a ship wasn’t exactly—”
“I’m fine, Max,” she assured him, wondering if he was blind to the shock waves rippling through his soldiers as one-by-one they learnt who this woman was he kept so close to his side.
They formed a guard of honor in any case.
Inside the ship looked a lot like Liz remembered from her last time. She hadn’t seen much that time apart from her wanderings in Maria and Michael’s apartments. Her heart was in her throat by the time the group had assembled in a large room with comfortable seats. For the most part the soldiers remained outside, but D’lor, Doran and Michael were inside and waiting to the side. Michael had quietly taken Liz’s arm and escorted her to stand with them and away from Max.
His full attention had been on a flickering image that was starting to form in the middle of the room, so Max had allowed Liz to drift from him and now she watched with baited breath for her first view of the King of Antar.
He seemed like a very distinguished man, this father of Max’s. He spoke quietly, his eyes trained on his son with that unique intensity that Liz had always associated with Max. They spoke in Antarian, with Max relating haltingly in a language he hadn’t used much before that Khivar was now in their hands.
She didn’t understand what they were saying—her few uttered words of the language having resulted from being linked to Max—but Liz could read his body language and see the confidence that shone through. Somewhere between all that had happened, her Max had turned into Prince Zan.
The King seemed overwhelmed at the news. He stared at his son for long moments as Khivar was brought and lain out at Max’s feet.
“Te banum shollom,” King Aran whispered. ‘It is over.’
Max felt pretty emotional himself. “Yes, Father,” he affirmed the statement. It truly was over.
“When are you coming home?”
His gaze sought and found Liz’s across the room. “In about a week. We need to finalize some things here first. I need to say goodbye to my par—the people who looked after Isabel and I.”
Aran nodded solemnly. “I understand. I just can’t wait—” He cut himself off. “I understand. Do what you must.”
“Father, I—” Max halted, staring at Liz. Maybe some things were better said in person. He tore his eyes away and met his father’s slightly worried look. “We’ll see you soon.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nobody had asked why Kyle had agreed so quickly to allow Max and his people the five days requested to get their things in order for leaving. He had booked himself into a hotel, the money provided by Doran, and promised to stay there until the ship returned to take Max away. Max had asked Kyle to come around to see them off, knowing that Kyle would have to report this to “Andre”.
“Dad? I’m just calling to say I’m fine and I’ll be around in a few days.” Kyle grinned at the angry retort from Jim.
“Yes, I know I went missing for a while… No, Khivar is out of the picture, Dad, I promise. We managed to get the best of him finally.” Kyle sighed. Jim was going to be so mad when he finally learned the truth. “Max disappeared Dad. No, Liz is with me.”
And so it went.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After the ship with the soldiers and Khivar had left, Max and Liz returned to the cabin to inform Isabel of all that happened. She was pretty quiet through it all, merely giving Liz a quick glance when it became clear that the only thing that saved them all from Khivar was Max’s link to Liz.
Max and Liz cleaned up hastily, dragging on fresh clothes before appearing in the lounge area where a silent Isabel was waiting. Giving her a hug, Max told Isabel to go back to Roswell, to Philip and Diane and that he would meet up with her there later. For now, he wanted time alone with Liz.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
By unspoken mutual consent, they drove back to the motel outside Carlsbad where they’d first made love—Max holding her hand the whole time. Neither of them spoke, but they could feel each other’s emotions close to the surface.
Max had stopped in Carlsbad itself on the way, where they’d stocked up on food, clothes and toiletries for their stay. The owner of the motel became effusive when he saw the amount of money Max was prepared to spend and he immediately gave them the keys to the cabin they had shared last time. It looked exactly the same, still in the blue and cream colors Max had created during their last stay.
They worked silently to put away all their shopping and then, finally, they stood on opposite sides of the bed, staring at each other.
“Liz…” Max’s voice was thick with emotion.
“Don’t say anything, Max,” she halted him quickly, a desperate tone in her voice. “We’ve talked about this already.”
Swallowing, he nodded. “I can’t believe it’s finally over.”
Smiling slightly, Liz moved to kneel on the bed. “Yes, it is.”
Max copied her action, crawling forward until he knelt in the center of the bed. “Come here,” he urged softly, holding out his hand.
Obediently, she closed the gap between them, with Max hauling her the last few inches until she was flush against his chest, straddling his powerful thighs. Instead of kissing her, as she had expected, Max held her close with one arm and lifted his right hand to lovingly trace the features of her face. So much love shone from his gaze that Liz felt a lump forming in her throat and tears well in her eyes.
“Don’t cry,” he admonished her tenderly. “I’m trying to make you happy, not sad.”
“You are making me happy!” Liz swiped at her wet cheeks angrily, irritated by the fact that her vision was blurring and she couldn’t see him properly. “I just…” she faltered, then took a deep steadying breath. “I know you said… But Max, whatever happens in the future, I want you to know I’ll be okay with it.”
“Liz!” he said alarmed. “There is no way—”
She kissed him hard, stopping the flow of his protest with her lips. “Just know that I’ll be okay.”
He stared at her a long time, his honey-dark eyes searching hers intently. “Yes,” he said finally, “you will be okay.” Then he bent his head and kissed her, parting her lips with his tongue and starting a gentle dance with hers.
Liz felt light-headed, her body heating up immediately as his hands drifted over her hair and back before cupping her rear to fit her more firmly against his lower body.
He made love to her slowly, taking his time to slide their clothes off and to caress every inch of her body with his hands and mouth. A stillness permeated the room as if every object knew that this was a moment of reverence. Even Max and Liz were quiet while they loved each other.
Only when at last he pushed inside her, did Liz make a sound—a breathless, hitching sigh escaping her as her back arched in tandem with his thrust. Her mind was filled with images from his—fleeting flashes of the dark hours that had preceded this moment interspersed with memories of her.
Tightening her inner-muscles around his shaft, she held him inside her for as long as she could. Max sucked in a harsh breath, before expelling it again in a rush. The sound made her eyes snap open, finding him staring down at her with fierce yearning.
“I wish…”
“Oh Max!” She didn’t have to tell him she wished too—he knew all her feelings by now.
They rocked together slowly, rhythmically, all the while staring into each other’s eyes. But trying to prolong the intimacy didn’t work—they’d been wanting this too much. Max clutched her tightly to him, pressing his mouth against her neck as he felt the spasms of a climax start deep inside her body. She murmured his name on a broken hitch and he let his control fly too, spilling warm release into her body.
Afterwards, they clung to each other, both of them with tears in their eyes.
“I thought he was going to kill you,” Max finally voiced the dark fear that had haunted him while Khivar had had them both. “I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”
Liz touched his face tenderly, her fingertips lightly caressing. “I wasn’t afraid for me, I knew you would protect me, but I worried about you.”
Max kissed her again then, a wild, savage, fierce kiss that emphasized his ownership of her and his relief that they were safe and together. When he lifted his mouth, hers was swollen and moist. Immediately contrite, he leaned down, laving soothingly at her lips with his tongue. “I’m sorry… sorry.”
Later, Liz clutched him to her when he started moving away, keeping him in her arms and inside her body. “Don’t go, not yet.”
Leaning on his elbows, he stayed, brushing her hair from her face. “When are you going to tell Maria?”
“Soon.” Liz bit her lip, remembering the day she had arrived at the desert camp filled with people “Andre” had saved from Khivar.
“Amy?” She had found the woman Jim was involved with now in the cave room they were sharing. Liz felt her heart beat crazily in her chest as Amy DeLuca turned around and flashed her a big smile.
“Liz, honey, you’re back!”
They hugged warmly with Liz fleetingly remembering how she had stormed out of the room where Khivar had tortured Amy to retch in the nearest bathroom, thinking Amy dead. It had been Alex who had had the guts to go over and check the pulse of the woman lying so still on the ground. He had come running to Liz then—Liz who had medical training—telling Liz that Amy was alive—barely—and that they needed to save her.
It had been a nightmare and Amy had taken a long time to recuperate, with Liz spending frantic days running herself ragged in the lab and then hurtling through the dark tunnel that linked their safe house and the small cabin where they’d been treating Amy.
“We missed you,” Amy said with a grin now. “Jim always starts grumbling when you stay away too long. I think he wanted a daughter like you.”
Amy and Jim were involved, but Amy had never fully gone over to his thinking that all aliens were bad. Although she had never met any of the others, she had remained firmly sure of the position of the Resistance that only Khivar was to be eliminated while this Prince he had come to seek was a good person.
“Thank you.” Liz had swallowed. “Amy, I have something to tell you. I—”
Having learnt a long time ago that many unexpected things happened around this camp, Amy had remained silent, waiting for Liz to speak.
And Liz wanted to tell Amy, but she wasn’t sure what was going to be worse for Amy—continuing to believe her daughter was dead or finding out Maria was alive but that she couldn’t see her. “Maria, your daughter… I saw her, Amy.”
Liz watched anxiously as Amy’s face froze for a moment, before it started shining. Then, she had had to field all the questions Amy fired at her.
Until Jim had come to whisk her away for the meeting she had been dreading.
The group calling itself “Andre” met in a large cavern in the mountain camp although not all of them actually lived there. They had done a lot for her through the years, but Liz always felt slightly nervous when she had to face them. They were hard men. And now she had something to hide—she loved the alien prince they were trying to capture and kill.
Jim stood behind her as she settled herself in a chair in front of the four men, all of whom had worked for the FBI’s Special Unit responsible for the Control of Alien Life on Earth.
“So, Liz,” the man called Pierce said with a smile, “we hear you have news about Khivar…”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now, as she stood here watching Max preparing to leave the planet, Liz clung to the memories they’d made during the last five days. They’d made love as often as they possibly could, even when Max had taken her with him to his parents’ house in Roswell to say goodbye.
Diane had taken to Liz immediately, telling her with tears in her eyes that she had wished so hard that her lonely son would meet someone like her eventually—someone that loved Max as he deserved to be loved. In turn, Liz was amazed by the two wonderful people who, a long time ago, had listened to what must have sounded like a crazy story, and took in two alien children and treated them as their own. They loved Max and Isabel and Diane had moved Liz into Max’s room without saying a word.
“Liz? Did you hear me?” Kyle asked.
“Yes,” she croaked and Kyle decided not to push things when he saw how pale she was. Hell, he couldn’t believe he was worrying about the obvious distress of Evans either, but the man looked positively miserable.
Michael suddenly appeared at their side. “King Aran wants to say a few words to all of you.” He gestured at the ship and to where Diane and Philip were already moving through the doorway. Max stood waiting for them silently, hugging Liz against him as soon as she drew near.
Inside, they were taken again to the room where Aran had learnt of Khivar’s capture, but this time his image was already filtering from the communications-link. Max gathered his parents in front of the flickering beam and folded Liz into his arms, holding her so tightly Liz had trouble breathing.
Doran translated as Aran spoke.
“Diane and Philip, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for my family. I know that it must have been a big sacrifice to take my children in. As I watch them now, I can see that you have done a fine job of raising them—their mother would have been so proud. I also want you to know that you will always be welcome here in our home on Antar and I’m sure my children would want to come and visit you often. Thank you seems like so little to say, but… thank you.” The King bowed his head to the two people to whom he owed his beautiful grown-up children.
“And for the rest of you…” The King faltered slightly when he finally laid eyes on his son and the girl he was holding as if his life depended on it. “I hear that we owe much of our victory over Khivar to members of the human race. My wife was right to send my children to your planet, you are a remarkable race. I thank all of you too.”
King Aran’s gaze went from Max to Isabel and returned to Max, turning measuring. “My children, I wish you a safe journey.”
And just like that, it was over.
The group was ushered outside again and emotional hugs and kisses were shared between the Evans’ and their children, as well as the other humans staying behind.
Max had trouble letting go of Liz. He pulled her off to the side and kissed her desperately, crushing her body to his. “Liz,” he breathed against her mouth. “I promise—”
“I know,” she told him through her tears, her throat aching so much she could hardly speak. Raising up on tiptoe, she gave him one final sweet kiss. “I love you, Max Evans.”
His eyes were as wet as hers when he jerked himself away from her with effort and shoved his hands into his pockets to walk away with a bent head.
Liz was crying so much she could hardly see him, but she stayed where she was, hugging herself and blinking furiously to clear her vision. Max faltered at the top of the ramp leading into the ship, turning around to give Liz one last look.
“Mi Shanaya, always.” His whisper drifted through her mind as their connection flooded her with his love.
Then he was gone.
And Liz barely registered when Alex and Maria put their arms around her trembling body in comfort.
tbc
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out of this world
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
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Roswelladdict
- Enthusiastic Roswellian
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2001 4:58 pm
- Location: The Precipice of Roswell oblivion
Finally, I remember why I was having so much trouble remembering who "Andre" was, I was blocking it and all the horrible things Pierce did to Max. But what an amazing twist you added with the Special Unit serving as "Andre" you are brilliant!
The last section was so sad, ripping our two lovers hearts to shreds. But alas, I do have faith in dreamers and know that no matter what Liz and Max will always find each other.
COme back soon with the rest, I loved this the first time and adore it more this time.
The last section was so sad, ripping our two lovers hearts to shreds. But alas, I do have faith in dreamers and know that no matter what Liz and Max will always find each other.
COme back soon with the rest, I loved this the first time and adore it more this time.
Nina
Dreaming of Candy in the Stars.
"It was you...."
Dreaming of Candy in the Stars.
"It was you...."