"I'm serious," Maria insisted. She had to make him believe her. She had to. She needed someone on her side.
"You're tweaking. I feel like I should be taking you to a rehab center or something," Alex said. "But I know you never put impurities in your body."
"So you believe me?" Maria asked. She tightened her grip on his hands. If she had to hold him here until she convinced him, she would.
"I don't know. Let's just pretend I believe you and go on." Alex pulled his hands away and shoved his hair away from his face. "You know, you're not the first person who's told me a story about aliens. A friend of my dad's, an air force pilot, swears he saw a UFO. Swears it. And he's a total by-the-book military guy."
He was willing to listen. That was as soothing as a good whiff of cedar oil. Maria took her time and told him the whole story as calmly as she could, with as many details as possible. Alex didn't interrupt with questions. He just concentrated on what she had to say, his green eyes locked on her face.
"After I left Max's house, I called you and came straight here," Maria concluded.
"Do you know what other powers they have-besides healing?" Alex asked.
Maria shook her head. "Valenti and Elsevan DuPris both said the power to heal and the power to kill went together, but I don't know if that's true or not."
"If I knew for sure what their powers were, I'd say we should just try to talk to them. It sounds like all of you are scared," Alex said. "But that's the problem. Scared and freaked out plus possibly lethal abilities that we have no way to fight-that's not a happy combination."
"Valenti is the one with the information we need. He knows more about the aliens than anyone else," Maria said. She caught a glimpse of all the little alien faces on the tabletop and covered them with her purse. "We have to go to Valenti. He's the only one who can protect us."
This was the right place to come, Isabel thought. The entrance to the cave was almost impossible to find if you didn't already know where it was. It wasn't in the side of a cliff or anything-it was more of a crack in the desert floor.
Yeah, there was no way Valenti could know about the cave. If anyone had ever known about it, she would probably be floating in a jar full of formaldehyde somewhere right now. She shuddered at the image that flashed into her mind.
But that's what would have happened, she told herself. If any human had found our pods while we were incubating, they would have ripped us out, killing us before we even had a chance to live.
Isabel spotted Michael's sleeping bag in the back corner. She picked it up and wrapped it around her shoulders. It was almost like having Michael's arms around her-the thick cloth was warm, and it smelled like him.
She wished Michael were here right now. It was easy to feel safe with Michael around. Besides, they needed to figure out what to do about Valenti-and they definitely needed to make their plans without Max and the humans. Max was totally worthless. Liz had him so turned around, he couldn't even see straight… He actually thought he could trust her.
I'll talk to Michael as soon as I get home, Isabel decided. But she couldn't go back yet. Valenti was out there somewhere. And this was the only place she was absolutely sure he wouldn't find her.
He doesn't know that Max is the one who healed Liz, Isabel reminded herself. And if he doesn't know about Max, he doesn't know about me. Nothing bad has happened. Valenti doesn't know anything.
But she didn't quite believe it. She'd always had the feeling that Valenti was moving closer and closer to finding out the truth, to finding her. When she was a little girl, she used to dream about him every night. Except in the dream he was a wolf, a wolf and Sheriff Valenti at the same time. In the dream he was always hunting her, sniffing and growling, and getting closer and closer to her hiding place.
Isabel sat down and leaned against the cool limestone wall. Maybe she could move in here. The cave was about three times as big as her bedroom. A portable CD player, a few pillows, her makeup drawer-it wouldn't be so bad. She gave a choked laugh. Stacey would love that. Isabel Evans living in a cave.
She wasn't going to let Valenti do that to her. She wasn't going to hide from him for the rest of her life-just for tonight. Isabel wished she could close her eyes and go to sleep for hours, the way humans did. She just wanted to blank out for a while. But she couldn't. It wasn't time for her to sleep yet, and her body simply wouldn't shut down until the right time.
Isabel sighed, then she reached over and pulled the treasure chest from the hollowed-out spot in the wall. It had been a long time since she'd looked at the objects she and Max and Michael had found in the desert. Maybe they would help keep her mind off Valenti.
She opened the lid of the battered wooden chest and pulled out the little square of plasticlike material. She ran her fingers over the purple markings. She'd spent hours trying to decode them. She'd never told Max and Michael, but she'd secretly hoped they were a message from her mother.
Isabel didn't think much about her real mother anymore, or at least she tried not to. A few years ago she had rented the Roswell Incident alien autopsy tape. She had only been able to watch a few minutes. The sight of the small body lying on the metal tables sickened her-even before the doctors made the first incision.
Max and Michael kept telling her the whole tape could be a fake. They didn't know what their real parents looked like. They weren't even sure what they looked like themselves. Maybe their human bodies were just a kind of practical adaptation to living on earth. Maybe on their own planet they would look completely different.
It didn't matter to Isabel if the tape was fake or not. From that night on, every time she thought about her real mother, that image had filled her mind, blocking out everything else.
Isabel's shoulders started to shake, and a hiccuping sob escaped her. That's what's going to happen to me when Valenti finds us. She could almost feel the cold metal underneath her, the cut of the knife.
She shoved herself as deep into the corner of the cave as she could. She pulled her knees to her chest and gathered the sleeping bag tight around her. "You're safe here," she whispered. But she couldn't stop another sob from ripping through her.
She heard a scrabbling sound. She jerked up her head and saw a pair of long, jean-clad legs sliding through the entrance to the cave. A moment later Michael jumped down onto the cave floor.
"Hey, Izzy Lizard," he said.
Michael crossed the cave with long strides and wrapped his arms around her. He rocked her back and forth, holding her tight against his chest.
Isabel clung to him. She finally felt safe. Safe… and kind of embarrassed. "I-I'm sorry," she stammered. "I c-can't stop crying."
"I've seen you cry before," he told her. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, soothing her with his touch. "You cried more than this that time I flushed your doll down the toilet."
"I'm getting your shirt all wet."
"You hate this shirt." Michael used the corner of his worn flannel shirt to wipe the tears off Isabel's face. "You can even blow your nose on it if you want to. That's how much I care."
"No thanks." Isabel grabbed a Kleenex from her purse and wiped her nose. Then she pulled out her compact and studied her face. Her skin looked red and blotchy. She brushed on a little powder.
"Feel better?" Michael asked.
"Feel stupid."
"Don't worry about it." He smoothed her hair away from her face, his big hands gentle. "You've done much stupider things."
Isabel slapped his shoulder. "Thanks."
Michael nodded. "Let's get out of here. Max must be flipping out."
"He deserves it. Can't we just stay here tonight?" Isabel didn't think she was ready to leave the cave, even with Michael.
"There's only one sleeping bag-and it's mine. Come on. I'll stay at your house tonight if you want."