The Outsider (10 page)

“You can say it. A-li-en,” Max answered. “I don't think there's a politically correct term. We don't even know what planet we're from, so we don't know what to call ourselves. And yeah, Michael is one, too.”

He frowned a little. He hadn't meant to tell her about Michael. But somehow it just came out. He couldn't seem to keep any secrets from Liz.

“Are there more of you? Is it like this whole underground community” Liz asked.

Max scrubbed his face with his fingers. He knew it was normal for Liz to have a lot of questions, but he was starting to feel like some kind of freak. “Just the three of us. I think. We've never seen any indication that there are others.

“When we got older, we spent a tot of time talking, trying to remember everything we possibly could. We all had these memories of another place, a place like nothing we'd seen, even in books. I think they're shared memories that people on my planet are born with — you know, like humans have inborn instincts.”

“I think I saw a few of them when you let me connect with you,” Liz said, “I saw a sky with acid green clouds.”

“Yeah, Michael and Isabel and I all have that memory, even though none of us has ever seen anything like those clouds.”

Suddenly Max wondered what else Liz had seen during the connection. Did she know how he felt about her? He hoped not. He'd already had too many humiliating conversations with Liz. He never wanted to have the one where she said she liked him as a friend. That would make him want to shrivel up and die.

He cleared his throat. “We did some research and discovered where Michael had been found. Then we got a map and drew a circle that encompassed that spot and the place where our parents found Isabel and me. We started making searches of the area — first on our bikes and later in my Jeep. And we finally stumbled on the cave. Our cave. When we saw the incubation pods, we pretty much realized the truth about ourselves. By then we'd all heard the story of the Roswell Incident — so we knew that the silvery material of our pods matched the description of some of the material of the debris found at the crash site.”

“Do you know how the pods got to the cave?” Liz asked.

“We talked about that. We think one of our parents must have managed to hide the pods before they died.”

Max knew the aliens in the ship must have been badly injured from the crash. But someone had climbed out of the wreckage and done whatever it had taken to save Max, Isabel, and Michael. Whoever it was must have loved us, Max thought. He felt his throat tighten up.

“Valenti got the facts pretty much right. He said he thought an alien child had survived the crash,” Liz said. “I don't know how he knew that.”

Max felt stricken. Maybe the alien who moved them had tried to go back to the ship, tried to save the others. And maybe Valenti's organization had found that alien, captured it, tortured it, gotten information from it.

My parent, Max thought. Maybe Valenti's people hurt one of my parents.

“We've got to come up with a plan,” Liz was saying. “Valent is not going to give up. He's going to track you down, no matter how long it takes.”

“
You've
already done enough,” Max told her. “You kept our secret. Now you have to walk away. I don't want to put you in any more danger.”

“Look at me,” Liz said fiercely. Her hand touched his arm, and he could feel its warmth and smoothness. She was so beautiful, Max thought with a pang. “I am not going to just walk away You saved my life, and I'm never going to forget that.”

Relief flooded Max. He wanted Liz out of danger. He wanted her safe. But he also wanted her to help him, to understand him . . . to be with him. And she would. She wasn't going to just disappear.

“Then I guess we better go tell Isabel and Michael what you found out,” Max said.

“And Maria,” Liz told him. “She knows, too. We're all in this together.”

And that means we're all in danger, he thought.

“I feel like I've been in a tornado,” Max said as they pulled into the school parking lot. He exchanged a shy, tentative smite with Liz. Everything was still the same, but everything was different.

“I thought exactly the same thing when Valenti dropped me off after our little visit to the morgue,” Liz answered.

That happened to her a lot with Maria — they were always finishing each other's sentences and making the same associations and connections. But Liz had never felt such a connection to a guy before.

“Are you ready to go in?” Max asked.

Liz stared at Max's eyes, his face. How come she had never noticed how handsome he was?

“Let's wait until the bell rings, then we can blend better. We don't need to get busted for cutting class on top of everything else.”

“Liz Ortecho, outlaw,” Max teased. But he didn't look at her, and his voice sounded flat and lifeless. He picked up the empty cracker wrapper and smoothed it out. He folded it in half, then in half again, and kept folding until it was a tiny square.

The stuff about Valenti is all starting to sink in, Liz thought as she watched him. She wished she could come up with something to say that would make him feel better. But she knew there wasn't anything, so she just sat with him, hoping that at least helped a little.

Maybe I should hold his hand or something, thought. She stared at his hand on the seat. The hand that had touched her wound, that had healed her. Could she help him feel better by holding his hand?

“Did you have a nice talk with my dad” a loud voice called, jerking her out of her thoughts.

Liz looked toward the voice and saw Kyle Valenti heading for Max's Jeep.

The bell rang, the shrill sound blasting through the school doors. “Let's get out of here. I don't want to deal with Kyle right now,” Liz said, keeping her voice low.

“Should I get rid of him?” Max asked.

“No, let's just go.” They climbed out of the Jeep and started across the parking lot. Liz walked fast, but not too fast. If Kyle thought she was scared, it would only encourage him.

She heard Kyle's boot heels thumping against the asphalt as he followed them. “Interesting” he called in a snide voice. “You get pulled out of school for questioning, and then you and Max Evans take off together. This is very interesting. I bet my dad would think so too.”

Kyle's right, Liz thought. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out Liz might try to warn the alien she was protecting. And if Valenti heard about her cutting school with Max, he would at the very least be curious about Max — who he was, why Liz would run to him after the trip to the morgue.

Liz turned to face Kyle. Max moved in protectively, standing close beside her — and that gave her an idea.

“Why? Is your father some kind of pervert or something?” she asked Kyle. “Does he like to hear all the details of who is making out with who” Liz slid her arm around Max's waist. She could feel the tension in his body, every muscle tight.

I hope he's not too freaked to go along with my story, she thought. Then she felt Max's arm loop around her shoulders. Good. “I talked Max into cutting class. We wanted to have some time alone,” Liz added.

Kyle wasn't nearly as icy and controlled as his father. If she pushed him just a little harder, she could probably make him forget all about his suspicions. She'd just give him something more interesting to think about.

“Sometimes you just can't wait for school to end, you know? And both my parents were out all afternoon, So . . .”

“You and Evans — right. I believe that,” Kyle said sarcastically.

Liz raised her eyebrows. “Well, I guess guys don't really notice other guys' bodies.”

She let Kyle figure that one out for himself. She knew he got it when an angry flush colored his face. He pushed his way past Max and Liz without another word.

“I hope I didn't damage your little male ego,” she called after him. She wanted Kyle to stay mad. It would keep him from thinking too much.

Max started to move away, but Liz wrapped her other arm around his waist and pulled him closer. “I have a feeling Kyle will be watching us. He's not as dumb as he looks,” she told him quietly “We should kiss or something.”

“Um, if you really think we should,” Max answered. His voice sounded lower than usual, huskier.

Liz understood why actors always said doing love scenes wasn't sexy. It was like she'd forgotten how to kiss. She couldn't decide what to do with her hands. All she could think about was Kyle watching them. If this didn't work . . .

Max tilted her chin back with his thumb, and she found herself staring up into his eyes. Suddenly it was a lot harder to think about Kyle. Max lowered his head, and she closed her eyes, expecting to feel his lips brush against hers. Instead he kissed the side of her neck. The unexpected sensation sent a shock through her.

His hands moved to her waist, pulling her tighter against him. Liz felt a low tremor coursing through him. Or maybe it's me, she thought. Maybe I'm the one trembling

Max kissed his way up to her earlobe. “Do you think he's gone?” he whispered.

Who? she thought. Then she remembered. Kyle. This was all a show for Kyle. Her heart was thudding crazily. And Max' was, too. She could feel it through his shirt. His warmth, his strength.

Liz reached up and wove her fingers through Max' hair, holding him close. “Maybe we should wait another minute,” she whispered. “Just to be sure,”

“This is your fault, Max.” Isabel' voice shook with anger.

Max knew it would be tense with Isabel, Michael, Liz, and Maria in one room to talk about the Valenti situation. But he hadn't expected it to be this bad. He felt as if he were sitting in a minefield instead of his living room. The wrong word from any of them could cause an explosion that would destroy them all.

“If you hadn't healed her, this wouldn't have happened,” Isabel cried.

Max knew she was terrified. He wanted to tell her that he would protect her from Valenti no matter what it took. But that would only make things worse. Isabel hated to admit that she was scared — it made her feel even more vulnerable or something. If he tried to reassure her, he knew she'd totally go off on him.

“You think he should have let her die?” Maria demanded. “Do you think that, too, Michael? Do you think Max should have let Liz bleed to death?”

Maria's aura usually reminded Max of a lake on a summer day — sparkling blue. Now it was more like an ocean before a storm — murky green and churning, potentially lethal.

“Do you think Liz's life is more important than the three of ours? Because it could come down to that,” Michael answered calmly. Way too calmly. Michael wasn't a calm guy. He had himself under control — barely — and if he lost it, Max didn't know what he'd do.

“Look, even before Max healed me, Valenti knew aliens existed. He doesn't know anything more now,” Liz said. She glanced from Maria to Michael to Isabel, making eye contact with each of them.

Max could tell she was trying to do some damage control, but he thought it might be too late. He should have told Isabel and Michael about Valenti alone. Being around humans who knew their secret was too much for them.

“Valenti does know something more now,” Isabel insisted. “He knows that you know who the alien is. He's just going to keep hammering at you until you tell him.”

“Liz would never do that!” Maria exclaimed.

“Liz would never do that,” Michael repeated in a shrill voice, mocking her. “You only say that because you're too innocent to think of all the ways someone as twisted as Valenti can come up with to make someone talk.”

“It's not Liz I'm worried about,” Isabel told Maria. “It's you. You want to tell Valenti the truth, don't you?”

“We both promised we wouldn't — ,” Liz began.

But Maria interrupted her. “Yes! I want to tell him. I won't — not unless we all agree. But think about it — it would solve everything. He told Liz he just wants to track aliens to make sure they aren't a danger to humans. Once he finds out you're not going to hurt anyone, he'll leave you alone. He'll leave all of us alone.”

“I have three words for you —
Project Clean Slate.
Does that sound like some Welcome Wagon to you?” Michael demanded. “It's more like the politically correct way to say
death squad.
”

“Michael's right,” Liz said. “We can't — “

“I don't care what you have to say about it. You're not one of us.” Isabel pushed herself out of her chair and strode over to Maria. She leaned down until they were eye to eye. “If you take one step toward Valenti, I'll know about it, and I'll kill you. I can do it, and you won't even see me coming. You'll go to sleep one night and never wake up.”

“Shut up and sit back down!” Max exploded. “No one is killing anyone. You're acting as cold and vicious as Valenti.”

Isabel straightened up and stared at Max. He could see tears shimmering in her eyes. “I'm sorry, Izzy,” he said immediately. “I didn't mean it to come out like that.”

“Don't even bother,” she answered. “I knew you would side with them.” She ran out of the room. A few seconds later Max heard his Jeep squealing out of the driveway.

“Nice going, man,” Michael muttered as he went after her.

Max was glad Isabel wouldn't be alone. There was no way she would let him explain or apologize or anything for a while. But she would talk to Michael, and he'd stop her from doing anything stupid. Unless she convinced him to do something stupid.

“I have to go, too. I can't — ” Maria's voice broke. She grabbed her purse and her jacket and bolted.

Max moved over to the couch and sat down next to Liz. “I think that went well,” he said sarcastically.

“I'll talk to Maria,” Liz said. “I know I can convince her not to go to Valenti. She's just so scared that she wanted to believe we could tell him and he would fix everything.”

“Isabel's scared, too — more than scared. She's been terrified of Valenti since we were little kids. He was like the bogeyman to her back then. She used to have nightmares about him and wake up screaming,” Max answered. “But she won't hurt Maria. Isabel isn't that crazy.”

Liz didn't answer. She just studied his face, her dark brown eyes intense. “What?” he asked. “You risked everything when you healed me, didn't you” Liz said. “Putting Michael and Isabel in danger must have really torn you up.”

“I knew I could trust you,” he murmured, staring at her. He could almost taste her skin under his lips. He could almost feel her body pressed against his. Without even thinking about it, he leaned toward her.

What are you doing? he thought. She let you kiss her today to get rid of Kyle. Period.

Then why did her eyes keep drifting down to his lips? Did she want him to kiss her again? It sure seemed that way But if Max were misreading her signals, if she only let him touch her to throw Kyle off track, Max would look like a jerk. Worse than a jerk.

“Uh, I should go after Isabel and Michael,” he said.