Melinda Metz - The Vanished

Then he realized that Liz's lips were pressed against his own. He didn't know why. He didn't know how it happened. All he knew was… soft. Liz's lips were so soft. He'd thought about Liz's lips a lot, but he'd never realized how soft they would feel.

How would they taste? Would they taste the way he'd imagined? He flicked his tongue across her bottom lip, and Liz pulled away, startled.

Adam sat up dizzily, not ready to give up the contact with Liz. She leaned forward, hugging him tightly. "I thought you were dead," she said softly.

Adam buried his face in her hair and hugged her back. "Are you okay?" Liz asked, pulling back to look into his eyes.

Adam tried to nod, which wasn't a great idea. His head was flooded with darkness the moment he moved, but it faded. Through his shaky vision he could see Max, Isabel, and Michael struggling to their feet behind Liz. "What… what happened?" Adam asked.

Liz smiled and rubbed his arm gently, which made Adam feel like curling up against her warm body and going to sleep.

"My guess is that you guys got a good dose of that chemical weapon you read about in the Major's files," she answered.

"That's a good guess," Max added softly.

Michael stood up, rubbing his temples. "Well, we've found out that the weapon works," he said ruefully. "I was out before I even knew what hit me."

Isabel coughed harshly. "Ugh!" she cried. "That's a taste I could do without."

Adam still felt pretty ill himself, but his head was starting to clear. "You saved us?" he asked Liz. His heart lurched. "You pulled us away from the gas?"

"Well, Maria and I did," she said, her eyes meeting his quickly, then flicking away.

Max shuffled over to Liz and wrapped his arms around her. She clung to him, closing her eyes tightly. Adam forced himself to look away. He didn't need to torture himself.

"What now?" Max asked the group.

"We go home, right?" Maria said. "You beam us out of here, and we all go home until you've recovered enough to try again."

"I say we keep going," Isabel countered. "This might be our only chance to get to DuPris. We have to do this for Alex."

"You almost died," Maria reminded her.

"Not for the first time," Isabel shot back. Her words sounded tough, but Adam could see from the bleached white squiggles in her purple aura that she was terrified of what lay ahead.

"And probably not for the last time, either," Michael added. "I, for one, want Alex back here as soon as possible. I say we go ahead."

"I'm with you guys," Max said. "That gas is quick, but its effects don't seem to linger very long. I say we go for it."

"Yeah," Liz said. "Let's get this over with."

"Adam?" Max asked. "What do you want to do?"

A shot of guilt struck Adam like a shovel. Max was treating him like an equal, and all Adam could think about was getting him out of the way. At least far enough out of the way that Adam could taste Liz's lips again.

"Let's go get DuPris," Adam said, looking Max in the eye. "And the Major. They've gotten away with enough."

"Fine," Maria piped up. "I'm not going to be the only holdout here. Let's go get Alex back."

Adam led again as they searched for another, untainted passage through the jagged maze of hollowed-out, intertwined tunnels. Maybe it was because he'd spent his life wandering down the labyrinthine corridors of the Clean Slate compound, but Adam didn't hesitate as he forged ahead.

As Adam scrambled over a wide, convoluted mass of hardened limestone deposits, he felt it again-the violent surge of power that had knocked him senseless back in the Painted Grotto. But this time he was prepared for the torrent of energy and closed his mind to it before it could hurt him again.

He glanced back to see how the others had fared. Isabel, Max, and Michael looked pained and weakened, but they had weathered the intense flood.

"It's close," Adam said.

"Very close," Max agreed.

Once he had cleared the deposit of limestone, Adam ran toward the source of the surge, the others keeping close behind.

Then he stopped in his tracks. He'd hit a dead end.

"It's this way," Adam said. "I know it is."

"We need to go through the wall," Michael said. "You guys feel strong enough?"

"Let's connect," Isabel suggested.

Adam held out his hands to Max and Isabel, and Michael took Isabel's other hand. Their connection was forged as easily as if they'd been doing it their whole lives.

Ready? Adam asked.

Ready, came the reply.

They had to be careful not to blast away too much, or the cave ceiling would come tumbling down and bury them all. Adam used his trained skills to focus their energy down to a single beam of pure force. They collected their power for a moment, building up a reservoir.

Now! Adam ordered. They released the built-up beam at the center of the cave wall.

The explosion was deafening. Clouds of dust and debris billowed around them, and for a second the only sense of his surroundings Adam had was the pressure on his hands from Max and Isabel.

Finally Adam's ears stopped ringing and the dust settled.

"The ship," Isabel exclaimed.

And there it was. The ship was docked directly in front of them, its otherworldly metal hull shimmering and rippling. It looked as unreal and out of place as an animated cartoon character walking down the main strip of Roswell.

Adam dropped Isabel's and Max's hands and started toward it. But then he saw something that made his heart freeze in fury and fear.

Elsevan DuPris was standing across the room, glaring at them. The Stone of Midnight was glowing in his hand.

"Mr. Manes!" Liz shouted.

"What?" Adam asked. He turned around to see what Liz was talking about.

It was the man from the hologram-the Major. Adam watched in horror as Liz hurled herself at him and grabbed the Majors arm, struggling with the man, who was twice her size.

Adam didn't hesitate. He ran straight toward Liz.

"Adam, no!" Liz screamed as the Major pushed her out of the way.

It was only then that Adam noticed that the Major was pointing a laser at Adam's chest.

A bright flash of white light blinded Adam just as he realized that Liz had been trying to save his life-again.

And then everything went black.

Michael watched in shock as Adam crumpled to the ground, smoke rising from his chest. Slowly he raised his chin to glare at his two greatest enemies, wondering which to go after first.

DuPris, an alien like himself, with no sense of decency or honor, or even right or wrong.

Or the Major. An agent of Project Clean Slate, dedicated to eradicating alien life on earth.

He wanted them both. But Adam was down. For now that was all that mattered. Michael rushed over to Adam and knelt beside him. He had to connect now.

Confused shouting filled the large cave, but Michael blocked it all out and concentrated on joining himself with Adam. He felt the pulse of Adam's blood, and he shifted his energy to match Adam's aura.

He was in; he and Adam were one. Now all Michael had to do was repair the damage the Major's laser had done to Adam's body. Their body.

And hope Mr. Manes didn't decide to fire that laser at him.

The collective consciousness roiled with venomous rage at the sight of DuPris. For a moment Max was scared that the consciousness would surge forward in his mind and take control of him once again… like the time he'd encountered DuPris in their cave.

Max waited for the overwhelming rush of force of the consciousness taking him over, but it didn't come. For whatever reason, they remained separate. Although they still filled Max's mind with furious, violent images that he was afraid to inspect too closely.

Isabel stepped up behind him. Max knew she was ready to join powers with him. But it wouldn't be enough. With Michael, Adam, Liz, and Maria it might be enough. But just him and Isabel. Forget about it.