An image appeared against the dark screen of her eyelids. A child with bright eyes ripping free of something that looked like a cocoon. Another image quickly replaced the first. A Mr. Wizard junior chemistry set. The images came faster and faster. A sky filled with acid green clouds. A bowl with two turtles sunning themselves. A pair of almond-shaped eyes without whites or irises, just pure black.

Then Liz in the elementary school library, her dark brown braids touching the page of her book. Liz, a little older, swinging at a baseball. Liz standing proudly in front of her ninth-grade science fair project. Liz dressed up for the junior prom. Liz smiling, frowning, giggling, crying. Liz lying on the floor of the cafe. Liz staring at Max with an expression of horror on her face.

Liz opened her eyes and found her gaze locked with Max's. She reached up and slid his hands away from her face. She pressed her fingers together to keep them from trembling.

"Did it work?" he asked. "Did you see anything?"

Liz nodded, not trusting her voice. She'd seen everything. She knew everything.

Max was in love with her. He had always been in love with her.

Liz read the question for the third time. "What were the benefits of the gold standard?"

I did study for this test, she thought. I looked at my notes and reread the key parts of the chapters. So why do I have no memory of what the gold standard even is?

Liz skipped down to the multiple-choice section and sighed. A, B, C, and D all sounded like reasonable choices. But even E, none of the above, was a possibility.

Where was her head? Yeah, like I haven't had any distractions lately, she thought. I only almost died. And then found out a guy I've known half my life is an alien. And then found out that this alien guy loves me.

Max Evans loved her. Liz was still trying to wrap her mind around that.

She glanced at the clock. Only twenty minutes left. Maybe she should flip a coin-if she could figure out how to flip a coin for multiple-choice questions. Maybe heads on the desk-A, tails on the desk-B, heads on the floor-

Liz felt a tap on her shoulder. "The principal needs to see you right away," Mr. Beck said softly. "Take your things."

Liz grabbed her backpack. She knew everyone was staring at her as she made her way to the door. They were probably all trying to figure out why honor student Liz Ortecho was getting called to the principal's office.

Why would Ms. Shaffer call her out of class? she wondered as she hurried down the hall. It had to be something big. She swung open the office door-and saw Sheriff Valenti lounging against the long counter that divided the room. His mirrored sunglasses hid his eyes, and his face was expressionless as usual.

"Sheriff Valenti needs to ask you a few questions," Ms. Shaffer said.

Liz jumped. She hadn't even realized the principal was there. The second Liz entered the room, her eyes had locked on Valenti.

"Let's go." Valenti pushed himself away from the counter and headed out the door. He didn't say a word as Liz followed him down the hall, out the main doors, and over to the parking lot. He didn't say a word as he opened the back door of his car for Liz or as he slid behind the wheel and started to drive.

Liz stared at the back of Valenti's head through the metal grill separating the front and back seats. She knew he was playing some intimidation game with her-and it was working. He was freaking her out. Had he found out what really happened at the cafe? Did he know Max healed her? Did he know everything?

Make him tell you what he knows, Liz coached herself. Don't volunteer anything. Don't start talking just to fill the silence. That's exactly what he wants. She leaned her head against the seat, trying for a bored expression. She felt as if any word she said, any tiny gesture she made, could put Max in danger.

The air in the car smelled like cigarettes, and plastic, and sweat, and something medicinal. She wanted to crack the window, but she doubted that windows in police cars rolled down.

Valenti pulled into the parking lot of a small mustard yellow building near the edge of town. He got out of the car and closed the door with a quiet click. Liz almost wished he'd slammed it. At least then he'd seem human. Instead he was an ice man, totally in control. She knew she couldn't play him the way she had Elsevan DuPris.

He opened her door and started across the parking lot. Liz scrambled out and caught up with him. She lengthened her stride until it matched his. They walked across the parking lot and through the building's glass double doors side by side. She wasn't going to walk three paces behind him like a pathetic little puppy dog.

As they walked down a long hallway covered with ugly specked linoleum Liz tried to remember every detail of the story she told him at the cafe. She needed to be able to repeat it back to him today without slipping up.

Valenti stopped abruptly and swung open a door on the left. He stood back and let Liz enter the room first, then closed the door behind them.

Liz couldn't stop herself from giving a tiny gasp as she stared around the windowless room. A morgue. She was standing in a morgue. Liz had seen way too many cop shows not to recognize the stacked rows of metal drawers along one wall.

Oh, God. This wasn't about Max. She was here to identify a body. Who? her mind screamed. Who is it?

Valenti brushed past her and strode along the wall. He grabbed the handle of one of the drawers and slid it open. The sound of the tiny metal wheels rolling in their tracks sent a chill through Liz.

"I want you to see this," Valenti said, his voice calm and cool.

There was a body stretched out on the cold metal of the drawer. A plastic sheet covered it from head to toe, but Liz knew if she walked over there, Valenti would pull back that sheet, and she would have to look. She didn't want to. She didn't. If she looked, it would be real. It would be someone she knew.

Tears filled her eyes. When Rosa died, Liz had never seen her body. She could never bring herself to look, even to say good-bye. Now she had no choice. Whose body was this? Why wouldn't Valenti just tell her what had happened?

Who is it? Liz's feet moved toward the drawer. Papa? Mama? She couldn't stop herself from going over there. She couldn't stop herself from looking down at the body She couldn't see much through the plastic, but she could tell that the corpse wasn't anyone she knew.

White-hot fury ripped through her. She whirled toward Valenti. "How could you do that to me? You let me think that…" She couldn't finish. If she said one more word, she knew she would start crying. And she wasn't going to give Valenti the satisfaction.

Valenti didn't answer. He took the top of the plastic sheet in both hands and pulled it halfway down. "What do you make of the marks on this man?" He sounded as if he were just making casual conversation, as if he had no idea he'd just put her through the most terrifying moments of her life.

Or as if he didn't care.

Liz stared at Valenti. She saw her own face staring back at her from the mirrored lenses of his shades. She felt as if she had fallen into some strange dream. Nothing made sense. Valenti was asking her to help him study a stranger's corpse? Why?

"The marks," Valenti repeated.

I have to do this, she thought. It's the only way I'm going to get out of here. She slowly lowered her eyes to the corpse. The first thing she saw was two handprints on the man's chest-iridescent silver handprints. She knew that if she placed Max's hands over those marks, they would be an exact match.

If he can heal with a touch, can he kill with a touch?

I guess I have the answer to that question, she thought. Sour bile rose in her throat.