both would have landed on the floor if Michael and Trevor hadn't steadied them.
This is the way it should always be, she thought. All of us together. Then she glanced around, realizing someone was missing.
Where was Max?
'Max, come dance with us!' Isabel shouted.
'In a minute,' he called back. 'I promised I'd call Liz and give her a live report from the party.'
'Tell her we miss her,' Maria called.
Max nodded, then wove his way through the crowd and over to the spiral staircase. He took the steps two at a time. The apartment was empty except for a couple making out on Adam's air mattress. Max ignored them. It wasn't like they'd be listening in on his conversation. He could set off a grenade in here and they wouldn't notice.
He headed for a phone in the kitchen, then paused as he got a flicker of interest from the consciousness. He deepened his connection slightly, and a group of the beings began pulsing with the rhythm of the music from the party, their pleasure almost transcendent.
Max sank down to the floor and leaned his head against the wall, deepening the connection even further until he felt the pulsing begin in his own body and the explosions of pure glee go off in his head.
'Max, I need to talk to you.' Alex's voice sounded so far away, almost inaudible under the music. The music. The music that felt more a part of Max than his own heartbeat.
'Now, Max,' Alex insisted.
Reluctantly Max turned down the volume on his connection to the consciousness, and the music began to sound ordinary again.
But it was a different song than when he came upstairs, he realized. And the couple on the air mattress had disappeared.
'How long have I been up here?' he muttered.
'At least an hour,' Alex answered. He sat down next to Max. 'There's something I've got to tell you. I should have told you before, but I, stupidly, wanted to wait and try to get more info first.'
Max felt his muscles tighten when he took in the splotches of gray in Alex's aura. 'So what's the deal? Or should we get the others before you start?'
Alex shook his head. 'I was actually waiting until I had a chance to talk to you alone,' he admitted. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, opalescent stone that shone with a blue-green light.
A shudder ran through Max's body as a burst of joy and loss from the consciousness exploded inside him. 'It's another one of the Stones of Midnight,' he whispered.
'Yeah. This is what gave me the power to come through the wormhole.' Alex hesitated for a second, clenching his fist tight around the Stone, then rushed on. 'I don't think Trevor came to earth to have some family reunion with Michael. I think he came for the Stone. And I think he would have killed me to get it.'
Max's first thought was for Michael. If what Alex said was true, it would rip Michael apart.
'Wait-what makes you think it was Trevor?' Max demanded. 'You didn't actually see him or anything, did you? Couldn't there have been a third being in the wormhole?'
Alex closed his eyes and rubbed them with his free hand. 'Yeah, I guess it's possible.'
He opened his eyes, the gray spots in his aura darkening until they were almost black.
'But Max, when I'm near Trevor, I get scared. I feel like an idiot admitting it. But it's the truth. I get this physical fear response, and I'm sure it's because I'm picking up all these subtle, subliminal clues that Trevor is the one who was trying to kill me that night.'
Yellow lines of fear snaked across Alex's aura. Just talking about Trevor freaks Alex out, Max realized. And Alex didn't freak out all that easily.
'I was thinking maybe you could try and get some background on Trevor from the consciousness,' Alex continued.
'Maybe,' Max answered. 'I mean, it's not like I can type in his name and get a bio, but I might be able to get something. And I'd rather not talk to Michael until-'
'That's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you alone,' Alex agreed. 'And I thought you should be the one to have this.'
Alex gently placed the Stone in Max's hand. Max could feel the power churning under its smooth surface.
'Okay, just give me a minute.' Max closed his eyes and let his connection to the consciousness deepen until he almost couldn't tell where he left off and the other beings began. He formed an image of Trevor and sent it out in a wave that he hoped would ripple all the way through the ocean of auras.
Almost immediately the auras around him began to vibrate. Their hues changed rapidly in a cacophony of color that burned Max's eyes. Then the changes slowed down as all the auras got closer and closer to the same shade.
Red. The vivid bloodred of pure fury.
Max didn't know what the deal was exactly, but he knew that the rage was directed at Trevor.
And he knew that the consciousness believed Trevor was a danger to Max. To all of them.
EIGHT
'I can see you're having a wild Saturday night,' the scruffy twenty-something guy behind the counter of the minimart said. He dropped the bottle of vanilla in a little brown bag and handed Liz her change.
Oh, great, she thought. You know your life has hit a new low when the minimart guy finds you pathetic.
'I'm just about to head over to a party my friends are giving at the UFO museum,' Liz lied.
The guy gave her a knowing smile, and Liz felt her face get hot.
She didn't think there was any lower she could sink, but it turned out there was-trying to convince the minimart guy you had a life. And failing.
'Thanks,' she muttered. She snatched up her bag and got out of the place as fast as she could.
But as soon as she was clear of the guy's sight, she slowed down. She was in no hurry to get home.
I wonder if Max will have called while I was gone, she thought. She'd expected him to call hours ago, but nothing. Like it would have killed him to tear himself away from the party for a few minutes?
Liz knew she had entered the self-pity zone, but she just didn't care. She figured she should just move in-pitch a tent or something. It wasn't like her life was going to get better anytime soon.
She turned onto her street. When she saw the porch light on at her house, she tried to remember if she'd flipped on the light when she left. She didn't think so.
Just as Liz reached the sidewalk, her front door swung open. Her papa stood there, glaring at her. His arms were folded across his chest, blocking out most of the line of dancing teddy bears printed on the front of his T- shirt.
'You were told not to leave the house,' he said before she was halfway across the lawn.
White-hot anger erupted inside Liz. She strode up to her father and thrust the bag into his hands so hard, he almost dropped it.
'I was out scoring some drugs,' she told him. She'd never said anything like that to her papa before, but it just came spewing out. And she was glad it had.
Her father took a quick look into the bag. His grim expression didn't soften.
'That isn't funny,' he snapped.
'You know what else isn't funny?' Liz demanded, taking a step closer so she was right in his face. 'It isn't funny that my own father doesn't trust me enough to let me leave the house.'
The front door opened again, and Liz's mama appeared. 'I asked Liz to go to the store for me,' she said. 'I forgot I didn't have enough vanilla to finish my cake, and I have to deliver it first thing in the morning.'
Liz's papa jerked around to face her mother. 'I don't want Liz leaving the house except for school or work
