hair sat in one of the chairs across from it.
Adam had led him right to the sheriff's office. He'd clearly been planning this all along. But why?
'I hope your sister is here, too. Not that it would be too difficult to run into town and get her,' Valenti said. 'In fact, I'd enjoy it. I've spent half my life looking for the two of you. Soon I'll have all my aliens safely tucked into their beds.'
Max couldn't answer. He felt a twisting in his gut. Valenti knew the truth.
Max grabbed Adam's hand and made the connection.
'Won't that be nice, Adam?' Valenti asked in a hideous kindergarten voice. 'You always wanted a bigger family than just you and Daddy.'
Max felt the power begin to grow inside him, doubling in size every second. Adam's getting ready to use it, he realized.
Maybe we could make a circle of fire around Valenti to trap him, Max thought. Or maybe with our combined power we can knock him out from here without touching him to make a connection.
Max turned toward Adam. Maybe he could signal him to-
His heart froze. Adam was smiling at Valenti. The same smile he'd given the rabbit.
'Adam, no!' Max yelled. He tried to jerk his hand away, but Adam's fingers were digging into his flesh.
Max twisted around and slammed his fist into Adam's side. Adam released him. 'I don't need you, anyway,' he muttered.
A flash of brilliant white light filled the room, reflecting off the walls, blinding Max. He blinked hard, trying to clear his vision. He thought he saw Valenti sitting behind his desk. But that was impossible. There was no way he could have survived.
Max wiped his running eyes with his sleeve and took a step closer to the desk. Valenti was sitting there, coated entirely in ash, not one speck of skin showing. He was absolutely motionless. What had Adam done to him?
He heard the girl in the chair behind him making these low moaning sounds deep in her throat. He knew he should go to her, but he couldn't stop staring at Valenti.
Adam moved up next to Max. He leaned forward, pursed his lips, and blew. With a soft whispering sound, Valenti crumbled into a pile of dust.
'Why did you do that?' Max shouted. 'There were other ways we could have dealt with him. We never use our power to kill. Never!'
Adam didn't respond.
Max felt a trace of power in the room. It was building fast.
Do you think there's any chance he could turn on us?
Max whipped his head toward Adam. Adam smiled at him.
'What the hell did you do to her?' Alex screamed at the doctor.
Isabel gave another jerk, her eyes wide and staring. Alex could practically feel the pain in his own body.
The doctor dropped to his knees next to her. 'I didn't mean to hurt her. I just gave her a shot of a fast-acting tranquilizer. It shouldn't have caused this reaction. I only wanted to detain you until I could call Valenti or one of the guards.'
Alex reached down and yanked the doctor to his feet. He wrapped his arm around the man's neck to hold him still. Then he searched the pockets of the doctor's lab coat, coming up with two more syringes. He threw them across the room.
'I'm going to let you go now,' Alex said into the doctor's ear. 'And here's what you're going to do-you're going to do whatever it takes to save her life. She dies, and I do to your head what I did to that door.' Alex used his free hand to point to the metal door Isabel had crushed open, then he shoved the doctor away.
'I may need to draw some blood to find out why she's having this reaction,' the doctor answered, his words tumbling out on top of each other.
'Fine. Stay in sight. And if you think about doing anything stupid, I want you to look at the door and think again,' Alex snapped. He sat downnext to Isabel and took her hand in his. At least she'd stopped spasming.
He reached out with his free hand and brushed her hair away from her forehead. He felt something wet under his fingers. Did she cut herself when she fell? Alex leaned close. 'Get over here and tell me what this is,' he ordered the doctor.
The doctor rushed to Alex's side and crouched down next to him. 'It looks like some kind of primitive gill,' he said.
'A gill?' Alex exploded.
'This happened to Adam once when he had a high fever,' the doctor answered. 'I don't know how much you know about your own physiology, but your body is designed to adapt to whatever environment it is in.'
My physiology? Alex thought. Then he realized the doctor must think he was an alien, too, since Alex had taken credit for the door.
'Occasionally it can malfunction and adapt when it isn't necessary,' the doctor continued. 'Look, the gill is closing already.'
Alex moved his gaze to Isabel's forehead just in time to see her skin smooth itself back into place.
'I think it will be safer if we just let this run its course,' the doctor said. 'I don't think it will take long. If I'd realized the tranquilizer could cause this reaction…' He let the sentence trail off.
'You're going to be okay, Isabel,' Alex promised. 'I'm right here with you. I'm going to be here the whole time.' Alex felt her hand move in his. 'Yeah, see, I'm here.' He squeezed her hand back. Her fingers felt… different. Alex opened his hand so he could see hers.
Her fingers had always been long and slender, but now they were almost twice as long and as thin as pencils. As Alex watched, one finger was absorbed into the side of her hand.
His breath started coming in harsh pants. Maintain, he ordered himself. This is just Isabel. He closed his hand around hers again and turned back toward her face.
He didn't recognize her. There was nothing that remained of the Isabel he knew. Her head was huge. So were her eyes. And they were completely black.
Alex took the Isabel creature in his arms and began to run toward what he hoped was an exit. Then-in an instant so quick that it seemed like a hallucination-Isabel morphed back into Isabel again.
'Put me down, you big goon,' Isabel said, smiling.
Alex set her down. Looking her straight in the eyes, he said, 'We've got to get out of here, Izzy.' Taking her cue, Isabel grabbed his hand and ran.
Michael had to get out of this cell. Now. Isabel needed him. He'd felt a blast of pain from her that had practically knocked him to the floor.
But Hubba and Bubba, his guards, were still out there. Still two of them. Still one of him. Right now they were sitting in a couple of chairs, facing Cameron's cell. They spent much more time with their eyes on her than on him, for obvious reasons, and they hadn't bothered to flip the chairs back around in his direction.
There's got to be a way to do this, Michael thought. If I surprise them, maybe I can manage to take them both out. Only there was this thing about glass cells. They made it hard to arrange any kind of surprise.
But he had to try. And he could think of only one possible way. He walked over to the wall behind the two guards and leaned on it with his hands pressed against the glass to either side of his waist.
Hubba-or Bubba, he still hadn't decided which was which-turned around. 'Miss your girlfriend?' he mouthed.
Michael gave what he hoped was a sheepish grin and stared longingly toward Cameron's empty cell. Hubba-or Bubba-turned back around, and Michael focused his attention on the molecules of glass beneath his hands. He nudged them apart gently, taking his time.
This actually might work, he thought as a hole began to open up underneath both of his hands. It would
