by Melinda Metz
Isabel grabbed her backpack. Forget this. She would just reel in Nikolas the next time she saw him. It’s not like she was at all worried about Stacey. Even if Stacey got to Nikolas first, Isabel would have no problem winning their little contest.
She climbed down from the bleachers and headed across the polished wooden floor. Before she reached the door, two strong hands slid around her waist and pulled her back against a rock-hard chest. She felt warm breath against her ear. Then she heard a low male voice. “Looking for me, Isabel?”
Isabel gasped. It was the voice from her dream. The same voice, the same words. The sound of it sent heat spiraling through her body. Her throat went dry.
Isabel slowly turned around—and saw Nikolas Branson staring down at her. I thought his eyes were brown, she thought, her mind spinning. But they aren’t. They’re golden. Like tiger eyes.
“Who are you?” she breathed.
He didn’t answer. Isabel pushed herself away from him and half stumbled. Her legs actually felt trembly. Get a grip, she ordered herself.
“I was in your dream last night, wasn’t I?” she asked.
The corner of his mouth turned up in a half smile, but he still didn’t answer. Who did he think he was? “If you don’t give me some answers, I’m out of here,” Isabel snapped. Even though the last thing she wanted to do was walk away.
“I never answer questions,” Nikolas told her. “They bore me.” He stepped around her and headed for the gym doors. “So are you coming?” he asked without even turning around. He didn’t wait for an answer; he just pushed through the double doors and let them slam behind him.
Isabel hesitated for about one second. I can’t believe I am chasing after a guy, she thought. But she had to know who he was. She had to find out why sense memories of her planet were in his dream. And admit it, she told herself. You can’t wait to feel him touch you again.
Isabel caught up to Nikolas as he pushed his way out of the big side doors. They headed out to the parking lot in silence. Nikolas swung onto a wicked-looking motorcycle. This time Isabel didn’t hesitate at all. She climbed on behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Nikolas gunned the engine, and they roared out of the parking lot. He drove straight out of town and into the desert. Isabel threw back her head and gave a howl of pure delight.
Maria studied the jumble of vials on her dresser. Each was filled with one of the essential oils she used in her aromatherapy She plucked out six vials—cedar, ylang-ylang, cinnamon, almond, eucalyptus, and rose—and carried them over to her bed.
She wanted to re-create the blend of scents she’d smelled the night Max formed a connection between the six of them. The memory of that evening made Maria smile. She’d been terrified that Isabel and Michael would use their alien powers to kill her, and they’d been terrified that she would tell Valenti the truth about them. So Max had brought them all to the aliens’ secret cave, the place where they had broken out of their pods as children.
And he formed a connection between them. Maria had no idea how, but she’d felt as if she could suddenly see inside the others’ minds. For a brief moment she knew what it felt like for Michael, Max, and Isabel—what it felt like to feel someone else’s emotions. The connection allowed each of them to see the essence of the others. Well, not just see. That made it seem as if it only involved sight. But it was nothing that simple. Nothing that ordinary.
Once the connection was formed, she could see the auras of each of the others—Max’s clear emerald green, Isabel’s deep purple, Michael’s brick red, Alex’s screaming orange, Liz’s rich amber, and her own a sparkling blue. And there was music, too. Each of them somehow produced a note of music that combined into a symphony, sweeter than anything she had ever heard.
But it was the perfume that affected Maria the most. During the connection the cave filled with a blend of scents that made her feel completely at peace, connected not just with the others but with the whole universe. Maria realized that each of them contributed one fragrance to the perfume, the same way that they each added one note to the symphony.
Ever since that night Maria had been trying to blend her essential oils in a way that would re-create the perfume of the connection.
She rubbed a few drops of the eucalyptus oil on her wrist and sniffed it. Yeah, that was definitely the scent Michael gave off. Tangy, sharp. It almost burned if you breathed it in too deeply.
Maria pulled the top off the vial of rose oil and smelled it. Rose, that was her scent. Her contribution to the perfume that filled the cave. Soft and sweet. Maybe a little too sweet?
She sighed. She wished her fragrance was more exotic, like the ylang-ylang Liz gave off. Or more spicy, like Isabel’s cinnamon scent.
Maria added a few drops of the rose oil to her wrist, blending it with the eucalyptus. The combination was … unique, that was for sure. But she liked it. The sweetness of the rose took the edge off the eucalyptus, and the eucalyptus made the rose a little more interesting.
Hmmm. She wondered what Michael would think if she explained how their scents complemented each other. It would probably go right over his pointy little head. Guys were so literal. He could totally miss the fact that she wasn’t really talking about perfume at all.
Maria heard a rustling sound outside her window. “Kevin, you’re supposed to be in bed,” she yelled.
Her little brother, Kevin, had just entered a particularly annoying stage. He liked to pretend he was one of the Hardy Boys or something. He was always snooping around, spying on her. She had started changing her diary’s hiding place every day just to be on the safe side. If Kevin ever got his hands on it, he’d be spouting off the juicy parts to anyone who would listen. Not that there were as many juicy parts as she would like, but still.
Her window slid open. “Who’s Kevin?” Michael asked as he climbed inside.
“My brother. What are you? doing here?” Maria blurted. She hadn’t even thought Michael knew where she lived.
“I figured you might be nervous. You know, because of the whole weird power thing going on,” Michael said. He flopped down onto her bed, looking totally out of place on her flowered comforter. It was like G.I. Joe had stormed a Barbie Dream House.”
“So are you?” he asked.
“Am I what?” Maria was having a little trouble concentrating.
“Nervous,” Michael said.
Well, my heart is pounding a couple hundred miles an hour, Maria thought. But it had nothing to do with the whole weird power thing. It had to do with Michael.
Liz would probably have some scientific reason for why Maria’s heart was doing a slam dance in her chest and for why the little spaces between her fingers were suddenly all sweaty. Something about hormones or pheromones or whatever. But Liz would be wrong. There was nothing clinical or scientific about the way Maria felt when Michael was around.
“Did I wake you up or something?” Michael asked. “You seem sort of out of it.”
Oh, God. I’ve been standing here staring at him with my mouth hanging open, she realized. “Um, no, I just—,” she stammered. She took a deep breath and started again. “Nervous? I wasn’t really nervous. Should I be?”
Michael grinned at her. “Not with me around.”
Maria giggled.
Michael sat up. “What?”
Maria laughed louder.
“What?”
“Not with me around,” she repeated in a deep, gruff voice. “Why don’t you …” Her words dissolved in another burst of giggles. “Why don’t you … just flex your muscles and call me babe and get it over with.”
“How about missy, or little lady, or … or princess.” Michael cracked up.
“Princess Maria. I almost like that,” she answered. She wiped her face with the neck of her T-shirt. Her T-shirt.
Maria’s heart stopped. Oh no. She’d been having this whole conversation dressed in one of her dad’s old T-shirts and a pair of panties. And that’s it. She felt her cheeks turn red.
At least the T-shirt was long. As long as some dresses—some very short dresses.
She jerked open the middle drawer of her dresser and pulled out a pair of sweats. Should she take them into the bathroom and put them on or just put them on right here or what?
“Uh, it’s cold in here. I’m just going to—” She yanked the sweats on, feeling totally self-conscious. Why did it feel weird to put on more clothes in front of a guy?
She took a quick peek at Michael. He wasn’t even watching. He was checking out all the aromatherapy vials on the bed. Maria frowned. It’s not like she’d wanted him to be staring at her. But it would be nice if he noticed that she’d been standing in front of him half naked. Like, hello. She wasn’t his little sister.
“So, uh, since you’re not nervous about the weird power thing, I guess I should just take off,” Michael said.
“No!” Maria exclaimed. “I mean, I, um … I do have a need for a big strong man. My morn? She’s out on a date, if you can believe that. And I rented this old movie that’s supposed to be really creepy. But if I watch it with only my little brother in the house, I know I’ll get all freaked out and start hearing noises and stuff.”
“That won’t happen—not with me around.” Michael smirked at her.
Maria felt another bout of the giggles coming on, but she managed to restrain herself. “So you’ll stay?” Maria asked.
“Why not?” Michael answered. “I like scary movies.” He pulled off his boots and dropped them on the floor. Then he shoved a couple of pillows against the headboard and leaned back.
This was so weird. Michael was acting like they hung out all the time. But they’d never actually been alone together. Maria was glad he felt so comfortable around her, except the fact that he felt so comfortable sort of reinforced the feeling she had that he saw her as a little sister/buddy/nothing remotely romantic.
“Do you want to call your parents? My phone’s right over there,” Maria told him.
“Nah,” he said. “They don’t care what time I get home. It’s sort of like how teachers don’t really care about homework the last week of school.”
“I don’t get it.” Maria shook her head.
“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting to tell everyone.” Michael suddenly got very busy moving her aromatherapy vials from the bed to the nightstand. “I’m going to be moving foster homes in a couple of days.”
“Oh.” That seemed like a pretty major thing to “forget” to talk about. Maria wondered what the story was. But if Michael wanted her to know, he’d tell her, right? She grabbed the movie off her desk and popped it into the VCR. The first of the billion previews came on.
She sat down on the bed next to Michael. Then she grabbed a pillow and stretched out. If he was going to be totally casual about lounging around on her bed, she wasn’t going to act like it was a big thing. Even though being so close to him made her body feel like there was a big spring inside it, all tightly wound.
“So are you packed and everything?” she asked.
“I will be. I know the drill. It’s no biggie.” He stared at the TV as if the preview were the most interesting thing he’d ever seen.
No big deal. Right. I believe that, Maria thought. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like moving from home to home, new “parents” at every stop. She was living in the house where she grew up. Her room and her brother were right there with her, same as always. Although it still felt horrible that her dad wasn’t there with them. After the divorce he’d only moved across town, but it felt as if everything in her life changed.
“It hasn’t even started, and I’m nervous already,” Maria said. “If my mom isn’t home when it’s over, do you think you could crash here? I have a sleeping bag in the closet.”
Maria knew for a fact her mother wouldn’t be home when the movie ended. Which meant Michael wouldn’t have to spend a night in a place where he obviously didn’t want to be.
“Sure. You don’t have a thing to worry about, missy,” he answered. He gave a loud sniff. “Do you smell something funny? Like cough drops and flowers?”
“Yeah,” she answered. “I think it smells good. It’s a weird combination—but it works.”
Isabel tightened her arms around Nikolas and pressed her cheek against his back. She had no idea where he was taking her, and she didn’t care. She knew she should care, but she just didn’t. She closed her eyes and lost herself in the sensations—the smell of Nikolas’s leather jacket, the heat of his body soaking into hers, the warm desert air blowing her hair away from her face.
Max would have a fit if he knew she was out riding around in the desert with some guy she barely knew. Michael would, too. Actually, so would Alex, but for a whole different reason.
But there was no way she could have let Nikolas just walk away from her. From the second she’d gazed up into his golden eyes, she felt drawn to him. As if she’d been looking for him her whole life, even though she hadn’t realized she’d been looking for anything at all.
Isabel couldn’t believe she was having all these gooey, mushy thoughts. She was starting to sound like Tish, the girl who thought that Certs commercials were romantic. She reminded herself that Nikolas was just a guy and that all guys were basically alike. Totally predictable. Totally easy to manipulate. Fun to play with, yeah. But nothing to get all in knots about.
There was only one little problem with the speech she had just given herself. Isabel had gone out with a lot of guys and flirted with a lot more, but none of them had made her feel the way Nikolas did. None of them made her knees go all soft just by looking at her. And that meant Nikolas was different from any guy she’d ever met.
But that didn’t mean she had to let him know that. She opened her eyes and sat up a little straighter. She left her arms wrapped around Nikolas’s waist. That was okay. That was necessary. She didn’t want to go tumbling off the motorcycle or anything.
Isabel tried to focus on the scenery flying by. She wanted to get her mind off Nikolas for a while. The cave! she thought, realizing where they were. Nikolas is heading right toward the cave.
Suddenly Isabel remembered Max and Michael saying that someone on a motorcycle had been following them a few nights ago when they were doing one of their searches for their parents’ spaceship. Was that Nikolas?
Why would he follow them? Who was he?
This was so stupid, Isabel thought. What if Nikolas is working for Project Clean Slate? What if he’s working for Valenti? What if he knows the truth about me? Her heart began to pound. She could feel it beating in her throat, hear it thudding in her ears.
Nikolas sped right up to the crack in the desert floor that opened into the cave. He brought the motorcycle to a squealing stop. He climbed off the bike and lowered himself into the cave without even glancing at Isabel.
She thought about taking the motorcycle back into town and telling the others what had happened. All she had to do was just rev it up and go, leaving Nikolas far behind.
But that would be giving Nikolas way too much power. Besides, if he worked for Valenti, he wouldn’t leave her up here by herself, giving her the chance to escape. Right?
Isabel jumped off the motorcycle and swung herself into the cave. When her toes hit the big rock she used as a stepping-stone, she let go, caught her balance, then hopped down to the cave floor. She crossed her arms and stared at Nikolas. “I’m waiting.”
He laughed. “Does that usually work for you?” he asked. “Do the human guys quiver in their sneakers when you give them a little of your attitude?”
Isabel did not believe this. Didn’t Nikolas know the rules? Didn’t he know he should be trying to impress her? Didn’t he know that she could have any guy she wanted and that it was his job to make her want him?
Wait a minute, Isabel thought. Did he just say human guys?
Nikolas crouched down and ran his hands over the metallic surface of the incubation pod Isabel and Max had shared. “Bigger than mine,” he muttered.
“Than yours?”
she repeated. Nikolas was trying to get her to believe he was an alien, too. But that was impossible. There were no other aliens. She struggled to act calm. She needed to think. She needed to figure out what was going on here.
Could this all be a big setup? she thought wildly. Was Nikolas working for Project Clean Slate? Was his assignment to pretend to be an alien so that he could get information out of her?
Isabel took a few steps toward the mouth of the cave, ready to bolt. But that would look totally suspicious if Nikolas was some kind of agent trying to figure out if she was an alien. Just act like you have no idea what he’ talking about, she ordered herself.
Nikolas straightened up. He studied her coolly. “I can feel the fear pouring off you. I’m disappointed, Isabel. I thought you’d be someone worth my tame. Not a scared little mouse.”
Could he feel her fear because he was another alien? Or was he just guessing?
“No, I’m the one who’s disappointed,” Isabel shot back. “Like I’m supposed to think this is fun. If you want to hang out with me, you have to do better.”
She stared right at Nikolas, meeting his gaze directly. No matter what happened, she wasn’t going to give him any clue that she knew about the cave or the pods or anything else.
Nikolas raised his eyebrows. “That was almost convincing. Except, like I said, I can feel your fear. You really should learn to block your emotions. I bet you can’t feel a thing coming off me.”
“Isabel’s bored. Isabel’s leaving.” She turned away from him. She had to get out of there. She needed to go home and discuss this with Max, Michael, Liz, Maria, and Alex. They would help her figure out what Nikolas’s game was. And then they would come up with a plan to deal with him.
“What about all your questions?” Nikolas asked. “Didn’t you want to ask me something about my dream? You know, the one you just walked into, uninvited.”
The dream. It was the dream of another alien. Isabel hesitated.
