"This is important," she insisted, getting that stubborn sound in her voice. "When you told me we had to be just friends, you said it was for my own protection."

"It was, it is," Max answered, without looking at her. "Getting too close to me can bring Valenti down on you-you know that. And you know what he's capable of. He killed Nikolas right in front of us."

"I know," she told him. "That's not my point. My point is that you've been keeping us apart because you wanted me to be safe. But it's you who… who are in danger right now. Not from Valenti. Not from anything you even knew existed."

"But what does that have-" he began to protest, finally turning to face her, struck as always by how beautiful she was with her sleek hair, perfectly formed lips, and dark eyes.

"I'm trying to explain. Just listen," she said.

Just listen. As though that was nothing. As though her words weren't slicing through his heart.

"We don't know what is going to happen to either of us," she went on. "You could get hit by a car before your akino even reaches its… conclusion. I could get leukemia or something. Neither of us knows how much time we have. I just want to know why you won't let us be together for whatever time we do have. Why, Max?"

Max tilted back his head and stared up at the stars. How could he answer that? How could he explain something that hardly made sense even to him anymore?

"I wonder which ones are pairs," he said, stalling.

"We are," she answered softly. "We shine with the same light."

He lowered his head and looked at her again. "You're right," he admitted. "But what if-"

"Shhh." Liz unfastened her seat belt and leaned toward him until her lips were just a fraction away from his. He could feel their warmth across the tiny distance.

All he had to do was make one infinitesimal move. How could he turn away from her? Max closed the distance with the softest kiss. Everything about this moment felt fragile, as if one wrong breath could shatter it.

Then Liz wrapped her arms around him, squeezing onto the seat beside him, and he realized he was wrong. There was nothing fragile here. Liz was strong, and warm, and vitally alive.

He wanted to get closer to her, even closer. He slid his hands under her shirt and ran them up the smooth skin of her back. Liz twisted around, trying to bring more of her body in contact with his. She deepened their kiss, inviting his tongue into her mouth, stroking it with hers.

A low groan escaped from his throat. Then Liz let out a yelp of pain.

Max broke their kiss. "What happened?" he exclaimed.

"I cut my hand. On the roll bar, I think. There must be a rough rivet or something," she answered.

"Let me see." He took her hand and studied it. "It's pretty deep. Let me heal it for you."

"It's like the day in the cafe," she said.

The day he had healed her gunshot wound. The day he had trusted her with his secret. The day everything had changed forever. Pretty much the best and worst day of his life. Until today. It was worse, but better, too.

Max took a deep breath and focused on making the connection he would need to heal the gash. Instead of the rush of images from Liz he expected, he got the same one again and again-the image of him with his eyes rolled back in his head.

Why wasn't it working? Why wasn't he in? Max took another breath. Think of Liz, he told himself. But he only got the same sickening image.

Liz eased his hand away from hers. "It's okay. It's no big deal. Do you have a handkerchief or something? We can just make a bandage."

Max ripped the bottom off his T-shirt and carefully wrapped it across her palm. "Will you be okay to drive?" he asked.

"Yeah." She slid back behind the wheel and pulled back onto the highway. The desert around them felt much darker and dangerous now, now that he knew he no longer had his powers.

"Looks like we're the last ones back," Alex commented as he pulled into the school parking lot.

Isabel didn't answer. He hadn't really expected her to. She'd been silent the whole drive back. So had he. Every time he thought of something to say, he remembered Isabel insisting that he couldn't understand. And whatever brilliant comment he'd come up with seemed way too lame to say.

He parked next to Max's Jeep, and they hurried over to the others. "We found the chicken rock," he announced. "But no sign of the compound," he added quickly before they could all start dancing and clucking.

"At least we're a little closer," Maria said. She pulled the sleeves of her sweater down over her hands, like she was freezing or something. Alex didn't think it was that cold out.

"If you want to assign us areas to search around the rock, I'm definitely up for going back out there," he told Michael.

Liz shot a look at Max. "Why don't we meet up here tomorrow morning instead?"

Alex took another glance at Max, trying not to be too obvious about it. Yeah, he looked about ready to topple. "Tomorrow's good for me," Alex answered.

"I was thinking we could hit the party at Corrine Williams's," Michael suggested. "It will have heated up pretty nicely by now."

"Do you want to?" Alex asked Isabel. He figured a little distraction might be good. He wondered if she was thinking much about what the akino info meant to her directly. Or if she was only thinking about Max right now.

Alex was definitely trying to keep his brain on the Max problem. If he started to think about Michael and Isabel… if he started to think about them dying, too, he'd end up getting himself locked in a loony bin somewhere.

Isabel also checked Max's face. "I think I'd rather just go home."

"You're all going to the party," Max insisted. "What, do you think I want you all sitting around staring at me?".

"I like staring at you. Please, please, let me come over and stare at you," Liz half teased.

"No, I want you to go, too. It sounds like fun," he told her. "I just want to go home and crash."

"Okay, then it's settled. We can all go in my car. Her whole street's probably going to be jammed," Alex said.

"I'll drop Max home and then meet up with you," Liz promised.

They all stood there for a second, then Michael started toward Alex's car and Alex, Isabel, and Maria fell in behind him. Alex blasted the radio the second he slid in the driver's seat so they wouldn't have to try and make conversation.

He was relieved when he parked at the end of Corrine's block. The party had spilled out onto the lawn. It was still in the packed, loud, noisy phase. Perfect.

Alex slid his arm around Isabel's shoulders as they started down the street. He felt her tense a little when he touched her. "You okay?" he whispered.

She nodded and slipped her arm around his waist, twisting her fingers around one of his belt loops. Alex got another one of those piggish bursts of look-at-the-girl-who's-with-me pride, especially as he cut across Corrine's front yard and headed inside.

He noticed that he and Isabel were getting quite a few looks. And it felt pretty good, he had to admit. "I'll get us drinks," he yelled in her ear. There was no point in both of them fighting their way into the kitchen.

She smiled at him, one of those full-out goddess-Isabel-is-smiling-on-you smiles. For one moment it pushed everything else out of his mind. Everything.

He started elbowing his way into the kitchen, unable to keep the big, dorky smile off his own face.

"Have I slipped into an alternate universe?" a guy yelled from behind him. "Because I just saw Isabel Evans walk in here with that guy Alex from gym. I thought she only went out with college studs and basketball stars.…"