"Your dad is with Project Clean Slate," she blurted out.

Alex felt like he was crashing through another wormhole.

"We found out because he was trying to get you back, too," Max explained, shooting a fast glance over his shoulder.

"Wait. My dad was looking for me?" Alex asked. He found that sort of hard to believe. Maybe the garage needed cleaning or something.

"Yeah," Max answered. "Your dad had tracked down DuPris to try to suck up some power from the Stone with a Clean Slate device, and we'd tracked down DuPris to try to steal the Stone. We sort of ran into each other."

"But he didn't find out the truth, obviously," Alex said. He leaned forward, bracing his hands on the roll bar, and turned to Max. "I mean you, Isabel, Michael, and Adam are all still walking around free."

He couldn't imagine anything worse than his own father holding his friends captive, the way Sheriff Valenti had imprisoned Adam.

"Actually, he does know," Liz replied. "It was pretty much unavoidable. But he helped us escape from DuPris."

"Yeah, you missed out on DuPris's latest attempt to kill us all," Max said as he swung the Jeep onto Alex's street.

"And your dad said we were wrong about what Clean Slate's agenda was," Liz explained.

The shreds of Alex's brain that remained were screaming from information overload. "So, then, what is its agenda?"

Max pulled into Alex's driveway and parked. "We don't know," he admitted.

Great, Alex thought. One more thing to worry about. What a homecoming.

"Doesn't Doug Highsinger realize that he has a better chance of getting his precious Mustang dinged when he takes up two parking places?" Max muttered as he maneuvered the Jeep into a tight space in the school parking lot.

Liz muffled a sigh. Max wasn't in one of his deep connections with the consciousness, but he wasn't exactly focused on her, either. It's not that she expected him to worship her and never think of anything except her. She didn't expect him to be Adam or anything, but-

Whoa. Where did that thought come from?

It comes from the fact that when you're in a room with Adam, you're his whole world, answered the obnoxious little voice that seemed to have taken up residence inside Liz's head.

Liz ignored it. She reached into her backpack, pulled out a brown paper sack, and thrust it into Max's hands..

He opened the top and gave a long sniff. "Blueberry and jalapeno. You made them just for me?" Max said, sounding like it was this big deal.

Liz got an unexpected burst of what-an-excellent-girlfriend-I-am pleasure. It was only marred by the fact that she knew she'd made the muffins as soon as she got home from visiting Adam yesterday, in a session of somewhat guilt-induced baking. "You're pretty much the only one who'd eat them," she reminded him.

Max wrapped her ponytail around his fist and gently urged her head back. Then he leaned over and kissed her, kissed her in a way that made her feel like she was his whole universe.

Now that Alex is back, everything's going to be different, Liz thought when Max lifted his lips from hers. Max wouldn't have to connect in that deep way anymore.

"I always thought that saying 'the way to a man's heart is through his stomach' was sexist propaganda," she said, still a little breathless from that amazing kiss. "But I guess not."

"I do love the taste of those muffins," he teased. He paused, then added, "But I love the taste of you more."

Liz grabbed Max's T-shirt and pulled him back toward her, and they were kissing again. It felt so good. So right. As if some missing piece of herself had miraculously been found.

Liz slipped one hand around to the sweet spot at the back of Max's neck. He gave her bottom lip a playful nibble.

Then his lips went slack.

Liz pulled away slowly. When she looked into Max's eyes, they were blank. Her stomach dropped down to her toes, a wave of revulsion sweeping through her.

He'd gone into a deep connection right in the middle of kissing her. Had the beings been able to feel the kiss? Feel the sensation of her lips and tongue?

Liz yanked the neck of her T-shirt up until it covered her mouth, then she scrubbed, and scrubbed, and scrubbed. When she finished, the top of the T-shirt was stained with plum lipstick, and her lips felt raw.

She shot a glance at Max. At the Max thing. Because it definitely wasn't Max over there, not entirely, at least. It wasn't the guy who'd just made her feel like they were the only two people alive, living in their own Garden of Eden.

Liz reached for the door handle, then hesitated. "I can't just leave him here like this," she muttered. "There might be something really wrong."

She'd never seen Max have quite that reaction to connecting before, not that sudden clicking off. She forced herself to watch him until she could see his awareness of his surroundings, of her, return.

That little episode had nothing to do with Alex, Liz told herself. She had to accept that Max had changed after he went through his akino. His connection to the consciousness was the most powerful, intense thing in his life now.

"Sorry," he said. "I just got this massive flood of… of emotion, basically, from the consciousness. I couldn't control it at all. It just took me over."

"Are you okay?" Liz made herself ask.

Just say yes so I can get out of here, she thought, shocking herself with the strength of her desire to get away from Max.

"Yeah," he answered, his voice a little thick, as if he'd been asleep. "I wish I knew what was going on. I think maybe it has something to do with one of the Stones of Midnight. But that's all I got. None of the beings have really taken the time to explain things to me." He angled his head so he could see her watch. "Was I out long?"

"Less than a minute," Liz said. She smoothed a stray section of hair back into her ponytail and reached for the door handle again.

"So we still have a little time to…" Max smiled as he slid one arm around her shoulders.

Another wave of revulsion rose up inside her, and Liz gave an involuntary shudder. "Actually, I have to go to the library before class." She climbed out of the Jeep, gave Max a quick wave, and bolted.

It wasn't that she didn't want to kiss Max again. Kissing Max was what she wanted more than anything.

But it hadn't been Max sitting next to her. Not really.

Alex heard a key turn in the lock. A moment later he heard the sound of his parents' voices, and something inside him twisted.

He stood up from the kitchen table. Before he could reach the kitchen door, his parents walked in, each carrying a couple of bags of groceries.

His mother looked up, and both bags slipped out of her hands. "Alex?" His name came out in a long quaver.

"It's me, Mom," he answered, his own voice not completely steady.

"Alex?" she repeated. She stumbled toward him, her heel catching on a box of cookies that had fallen out of one of the bags. Alex reached out and grabbed her by the elbows to steady her, and her hands locked on his arms as if she never planned to let him go.

"I'm okay. Don't worry. I'm fine," he told her.

"Where were you?" she cried. Her fingers dug so deeply into his skin that Alex was sure they'd leave bruises. But he didn't try to pull away.

"I… I took a hike into the desert, and, I don't know, I think I got lost," Alex said, his explanation sounding even more lame than it had when he'd made it up. "I came to this cave. I don't even remember going in there."

"Heatstroke," his father said in his most authoritative I-am-the-Major tone.

"Yeah, maybe," Alex agreed, glancing at his father. "I don't think I brought enough water. Stupid, I know. And… and it took me a while to find my way back."