Liz saw Max's hands curl into fists. She knew he was going to launch himself at DuPris any second. She grabbed his arm. "Remember the compound, Max. Adam was being controlled by him." She jerked her chin toward DuPris. "It was his power that killed Valenti and started the fire."
"You understand me," DuPris told Liz. "I could use a girl like you, a human girl. I suspect that you would be easier to keep in line than those two." He gestured at Isabel and Adam. "They managed to slip away from me a few times before I got a firm enough grasp. But you, I'd like to see what I could do with you."
Quick as a snake striking, he grabbed Liz's wrist. "No!" she screamed.
Liz's scream echoed endlessly through the cave. The sound paralyzed Max, freezing his muscles. He had to get between DuPris and Liz, but he couldn't move.
No, that wasn't true. He could move-he was moving-turning toward DuPris, but so slowly, it was almost impossible to perceive. Liz and DuPris-they were caught in the same phenomenon. Liz's mouth was still open in the same scream. DuPris hadn't tightened his grasp on her wrist.
Max felt a drop of sweat begin to trickle down his cheek, slowly… absurdly slowly. Time, he thought. The movement of time has been altered.
At least his mind hadn't been affected. At least he had the ability to realize what had happened. Was slowing down time something DuPris had done to stop Max from interfering? Had DuPris already made a connection to Liz? If his brain was working as quickly as Max's, DuPris could be turning her into his puppet right now.
Max couldn't take this. It was making him insane. Liz was right next to him, and he couldn't do anything to help her.
Pressure began to build up behind his eyes, penetrating deep into his brain. He knew that sensation. It came from the collective consciousness, a call for him to connect.
He continued his minuscule movements toward DuPris, the drop of sweat maddening him as it slid another fraction of an inch. Maybe he should connect to the consciousness. Maybe then he'd find a way to manipulate time himself. He concentrated and soon felt himself expand outward-beyond the cave, beyond the realms of Earth.
This time there was no warm ocean of auras waiting to embrace Max. He felt as if he'd been hurled into the core of a volcano, lava boiling around him. Every being in the consciousness was seething with hatred and fury, all directed at Elsevan DuPris. They spewed out emotions they had been holding in for all the years since he escaped from their planet.
Traitor, they called him, although not in words but in rushes of jagged feeling that Max felt in his blood and bones. Traitor. Liar. Thief. Every being joined in the chant. Betrayer. Soulless. Murderer.
Max's mouth stretched open, and a howl of rage escaped, the beings of the consciousness using his voice as their own. Time rushed forward, and instantly Max was in the air, throwing himself at DuPris.
As soon as they hit the cave floor, Max rammed his fist into DuPris's abdomen. His hand sank in so deep that he could feel DuPris's stomach under his fingers. A wave of revulsion swept through him. DuPris's body was as soft as clay-or else connecting to the consciousness had given Max incredible strength.
A burst of power struck Max's temple, but it was as soft as a cotton ball. He had the strength of millions, DuPris the strength of one.
Pain. The consciousness wanted the traitor to feel pain. Suddenly Dupris's face twisted in agonized terror and Max could see inside him. He could see DuPris's insides being ripped apart, could feel DuPris's organs moving beneath his fingers.
Liz let out a long, shrill scream. Max felt like screaming, too. What was he doing? It took every ounce of his strength, but somehow Max pulled his hand away from Dupris's convulsing form. Immediately DuPris started to heal. Max could feel him growing stronger.
"Nooo!" the beings of the consciousness roared.
Max again had no control. He reached in, holding both hands over DuPris's heart. "You're killing him!" he heard Liz scream.
He knew it was true, but he couldn't stop. He was an instrument of the consciousness.
Please, no, he silently begged. He used all his will to squeeze his eyes shut, but he couldn't stop himself from feeling DuPris's heart beneath the skin, fighting against him. Pounding, then slowing, then slamming, then stopping.
"Max! Max!" Liz shrieked his name again and again, her voice vibrating with terror.
He couldn't answer. Dizziness and nausea swirled inside him. He felt as if the cave floor were spinning beneath him. When would it end? When would they let him stop?
He felt his eyelids twitch. He fought to keep them shut as the spinning sensation intensified, but a moment later they sprang open, DuPris's body becoming just a blur of color. "The Stone, the Stone, the Stone, the Stone," the beings of the consciousness shrieked.
Max could see a speck of purplish green in the blur. His hands jerked out. They came back with the ring-and DuPris's finger.
"Do you want some antistress tea?" Maria asked. "After that, I think you could definitely use some antistress tea." She got up and rushed to the stove. "Oh, and thanks for meeting here. My mom has a date, one of those critical third dates, and it's not like she'll ever hire a babysitter for Kevin as long as I'm alive because it's not like I have a life."
Michael wished he could reach over and grab her and pull her down on the chair next to him. She was so clearly terrified by Liz's description of what had happened in the cave, and he had this tremendous urge to just hold her and try to make it better somehow. But he and Maria were in a place where holding her would only make things worse.
Maria pulled in a gasping breath. "Babysitting. Yeah, that's a very big problem," she rushed on. "Why don't we discuss that? Hey, I know, maybe we could form a club. A babysitters' club. That would be something fun for us all to do together."
"Let me help you," Alex said. He jumped up and took the teapot out of Maria's trembling hands.
Michael saw him whisper something in her ear, something that helped her get a grip. He looked away, forcing his attention back to Liz. "So when Max passed out, DuPris just took off?"
Liz nodded. "He used Adam and Isabel to help him out of the cave."
"One of them's probably already healed him," Alex said.
"Yeah," Max agreed.
Michael whipped his head toward the kitchen door and saw his friend slumped against the door frame. "You shouldn't have gotten up," he said. Max looked horrible. His skin had a grayish tint, and there was a strange withered spot on his throat. "Had to," Max answered. He crossed the kitchen and dropped down into the chair next to Michael's.
"We were just about to come up with a plan to deal with DuPris," Alex told him. He started setting down mugs of tea on the table. "Liz… got us up to speed."
Michael was glad that Max hadn't had to relive what had happened. He knew Max had to be torturing himself for what he'd done. That's how he'd think of it-what he'd done.
Michael wasn't looking forward to the day when he went through his akino and made his own connection to the collective consciousness. They'd used Max like a puppet today. It didn't seem all that different from the way DuPris was using Isabel and Adam.
"I know what I need to do to deal with DuPris," Max said. "I got instructions, actually more like a blast of knowledge, from the consciousness before the connection broke." He looped his fingers around the handle of the mug and turned the mug in a slow circle. "Do you know what a wormhole is?" he finally asked.
"There's a theory that says that the gravity of black holes pulls on more than just the objects around it, that it actually pulls on space and time, and that it can create a tear in the time-space continuum. A wormhole is the passageway made by the tear," Liz answered.
"You forget who you're talking to here," Alex told her.