Author: Denise
Rating: R (I think - no more than that anyway)
Disclaimer: If I owned them do you think I’d be writing fanfic? The idea is all mine though.
Summary: M&M, AU. Maria, Liz, Kyle and Alex are alien hunters and are super strong and athletic – due to their genes and years of training. They are also able to walk around quite stealthily – like unusually quiet if they want, so people can’t hear them. Maria and Kyle are slightly stronger etc due to their full-bloodedness. All four of them are also quite skilled at watching people while doing other things without anyone else realising it.
And Michael, Tess, Max and Isabel are alien and therefore they have the typical alien powers like they have on the show. However Tess and Isabel can both dreamwalk, no one can mindwarp, and Max and Michael can both heal and blow things up – as well as the general ‘they can change things into other things’ powers.
And I can’t really explain much more without telling the story - so why don’t you just read it
Authors Notes: Well, I’m actually kinda writing 3 different m&m fics at the moment, but I decided to post this one seeing as it’s the one I’ve planned out the most (I might post another one as well soon). I got the idea for this while watching Buffy actually, but I have no idea how, ‘coz this is really nothing like Buffy so that’s kinda strange. But anyway, you don’t really care about that do you?
Also, you can find my other fic at www22.brinkster.com/bytesizecandy/

Oh, and feedback is greatly appreciated. Please!

Part 1

She descended from a long line of alien hunters. Her best friends were also alien hunters. And, unlike most people, she had grown up with the knowledge that aliens were not in fact five foot tall and green with antennas on their heads, but looked just like regular people. You never knew who was alien - it could be anyone. They may look like regular people, but they’re not. They have powers, and aren’t afraid to use them to kill humans.

Roswell was a small town, hardly a place you would expect an alien would want to live. But Roswell was different from most other small towns. It was the site of the famous 1947 crash.

That, however, was not the first time an alien spaceship had landed on earth. The first alien spaceship had landed on earth many centuries before that, and from then the first alien hunters were born. An elite group of people who were trained to capture and kill, if necessary, aliens. But it was the 1947 crash that brought four families of alien hunters to Roswell.

These four families were the Valenti’s, the Deluca’s, the Parker’s, and the Pearson’s. Four families tied together by a secret. Their children grew up and married, each telling their spouse their secret. And it was then that things changed slightly.

There were now only three families in the next generation of alien hunters in Roswell. They were the Valenti’s, the Parker’s, and the Whitman’s – Carol Pearson married a Whitman you see. However, it was when Amy Deluca married Jim Valenti, both of whom were alien hunters, that things changed, and their twin children became the first full blooded alien hunters and thus the leaders of their group.

The children, while knowing about alien’s their entire life, found out about their destiny of alien hunting when they were five. And, following the tradition, spent twelve years training as a group in secret before finally becoming actual alien hunters at seventeen years of age.

Their parents had retired from their hunting a few years back due to lack of alien activity. But, just one week ago, an alien occurrence had been reported, almost as if they knew the new generation of alien hunters were about to start hunting.

***

Maria Valenti glanced at her twin brother from her crouched position in the bushes, partly hidden by a car, and partly by the bushes. They were finally seventeen, and, after years of observing to see if people looked like they could be aliens the four of them were participating in their first alien stakeout.

Kyle was desperate to prove that he was an excellent alien hunter, and he wanted to find his first alien by the end of the first week – something that had so far never been accomplished in the history of alien hunting.

Due to their full-blooded status she and Kyle were the leaders of their generation of alien hunters in Roswell. The other two – Liz Parker and Alex Whitman, were half human. It was because Kyle suspected Troy Simpson, a senior at West Roswell High, to be an alien that the four of them were now watching his house for any signs of alien activity.

Personally Maria had never even considered Troy to be an alien, and she was worried that Kyle was just trying to convince himself that Troy was an alien so he could catch someone in their first week of hunting. Of course, she could be wrong about that. After all, Kyle did spend a lot more time with the guy as they were both jocks. But she was going to make sure they had definite proof he was one before taking the guy – what if he was human after all. The rules stated that you could never tell someone who you really were – or that aliens existed – unless you were marrying them.

Maria glanced around, feeling bored and hoping for some action of any kind. Countless hours of physical and mental training over the years had not prepared her for the tedious waiting. She longed for something physical to do to let her blow off steam.

The front door of Troy’s house opened and she crouched lower in the bushes. She watched as Troy ambled down the path, completely unaware of their presence, and got into his shiny new convertible. She watched, jealous, as the car sped off.

Once the car was our of sight she stood up stretching quickly and making her way across the road to where the others were gathering. They quickly confirmed that nothing alien had happened during their watch.

“He didn’t seem guarded or worried about people watching him,” Alex said, voicing what Maria had been about to say.

“Although there hasn’t been any hunting recently, so he may be less cautious,” Liz pointed out realistically.

Maria considered Liz’s comment. “You’re right,” she said. “But they may put us at an advantage. If they are less worried about hunters then they might slip up.”

They nodded in agreement. Damn, this alien hunting may not be as easy as we thought, Maria thought to herself.

“Should we follow him to the Crashdown for more surveillance?” Maria asked, knowing that was probably where he was headed.

“Sounds good,” Kyle replied quickly. She knew he was relieved that they hadn’t discounted his first alien suspect so quickly. It would be embarrassing for him, especially as a leader, for them to dismiss his first suspect so quickly. Especially on their first ever day of actual hunting.

Surveying Troy’s house one last time they headed to the Jetta that she and Kyle owned. They quickly piled in, heading for the Crashdown Café.

***

“Don’t you guys get sick of this place?” Isabel asked over the noise in the restaurant, eying warily the alien swizzlestick that came with her Crashdown Special Shake.

Tess shook her head. “Nope. I like the atmosphere, despite the overly alien theme. Although I know the guys just come to stare at the waitresses,” she joked.

Michael rolled his eyes at that. Like that was the only reason he came. Besides, the only waitress who even slightly interested him wasn’t even working today. And besides, she didn’t interest him because he liked her, she interested him because he enjoyed pissing her off.

“Anyway,” Max said, lowering his voice slightly. “This is where everyone else from school hangs out. I thought you wanted to be normal.”

Isabel rolled her eyes. “I never said I wanted the normal that involves hanging around in cheesy themed restaurants. I want the normal of every other town.”

“Yeah, but this is Roswell,” Michael said, enjoying the annoyed look on Isabel’s face. “We don’t get the average town normal here.”

“Pity,” Isabel replied, mumbling something about how pathetic it was for a town to name everything after a crash they didn’t even think existed. Michael tuned her out, noticing that the annoying waitress had just entered the Crashdown followed by her usual group of three. He watched as they sat down in a both, picking up menus that he knew they didn’t need.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Isabel had stopped talking and that the others were watching the four in the booth as well. They were talking to each other over their menus, but Michael, after years of people watching, could tell that they were subtly eying Troy Simpson who had arrived not long before.

“They worry me,” Isabel commented, tilting her head in their direction. “Look at the way they’re watching Troy.”

“Maybe one of them has a crush on him,” Tess suggested.

“I don’t know. They’re looking quite serious.” She lowered her voice, glancing around to make sure no one could hear. “I think they might be hunters.”

“Isabel,” Max’s tone was firm.

She turned to her brother. “What?”

“Look, there’s been a complete lack of hunter activity for a few years now. They’re just innocent people.”

Michael noticed Tess was nodding along with what Max was saying, but Michael wasn’t so sure. After all, just because they had never been hunted themselves, and they knew of no other alien hunting’s recently, it didn’t mean there were no hunters.

But, on the other hand, those four as alien hunters? They had never done anything out of the ordinary, and Michael had been watching. He was always more wary of others around him than the other three, and ever since the four of them had found out about alien hunters he had been constantly watching those around him for signs of anything suspicious. And he had never noticed them doing anything unusual.

And besides, there was no way she was an alien hunter, was there?

Part 2

Maria followed the others down the steps to the large basement located below the Crashdown. The Crashdown had been built by the Parker family in 1947 after they moved to Roswell due to the alien crash, and had been built above a huge secret basement used for training to hide the facility. Over the past twelve years Maria and the other three had spent many hours in the basement training. To prevent anyone else from finding it its only entrance was via a hidden elevator behind a bookshelf in the Parker’s home above the Crashdown Café.

Their parents, although retired from the actual alien hunting profession, spent many hours in that basement, watching and monitoring for alien activity. They even had sensors which went off if alien activity took place. Of course, they didn’t sense minor activity, like when an alien used their own powers, only if something major happened, like if an orb went off. They figured that was what had set the sensor off last week.

“Any luck?” her mother asked as they entered the basement.

Kyle shook his head. “No sign of anything alien. Either he was being careful or he wasn’t an alien.”

“Don’t worry,” their father told him, looking up from the sheets of paper he was looking at. “It was only your first stakeout. And it’s hard to tell who the aliens are. They’re just like us – extremely careful. A slip up in a hunter’s presence could cost them their life. Just like a slip up in their presence could cost us our life. An alien won’t hesitate to kill a hunter you know.”

Maria nodded, knowing it was expected of her. That rule had been drilled into her head her entire life. Like she was ever going to tell an alien she was an alien hunter anyway.

“So what do you do now?” Alex asked. “More surveillance? Training?”

Maria hoped it was the latter, she was sick of sitting and watching. They’d been doing that their whole lives, although never in the cramped, uncomfortable positions they had been stuck in during their stakeout today. But this was their first day as actual alien hunters, she wished they could have done something more exciting, something full of action, like the stories their parents had told them about alien hunting. Instead they had watched a jock eat at the Crashdown.

Her father glanced at them quickly. “I think training,” he said.

Maria jumped up smiling, racing over to the training equipment, her brother following. The other two weren’t so fast – although Liz did enjoy the physical aspects of their training almost as much as the two of them did, Alex preferred the non-physical side. Maria personally couldn’t understand that, but her mother had always stated that that was a good thing, because he could spend more time researching and thinking up ideas during a battle with an alien, leaving the physical side to the other three.

Maria grinned at Liz, whole smiled back as she stood on the opposite side of the mat from her. Their physical training consisted of many things, including mock fights with another person. They went all out in those fights, as this would help them more than gentle practice fights ever would.

“Ready?” she asked her friend.

Liz nodded. “Ready.”

***

Michael stood at the edge of the quarry, flinging rocks into the lake below while waiting for Isabel to say why she’d called the meeting. They always came to the quarry for group meetings as it was away from other people. You never knew if someone was a hunter or not.

“So what’s the point of this meeting?” Tess asked.

Isabel looked around to make sure no one was there, even though she knew the area was completely empty beside them. “I know you think I’m being stupid, but I have a feeling that they are hunters.”

Michael turned towards Isabel at that comment, he hadn’t realised she was still worried about that.

“You really think they are, don’t you?” Max asked, looking slightly concerned.

Isabel nodded. “I mean, I don’t know for sure, and it mightn’t even be all of them, just one,” she paused. “But I have this feeling. It wasn’t just today that I’ve noticed them watching people. I mean, subtly of course, and if people weren’t watching for hunters they probably wouldn’t even notice but…” she trailed off, biting her lip.

“They don’t seem like the type of people who would be alien hunters,” Michael commented.

Isabel looked at him. Her eyes flashed slightly and he knew she was annoyed at him. Although why he didn’t know, after all he hadn’t said anything that would offend her had he?

“They don’t look like hunters?” she said, eyes raised skeptically. “How do you even know what one looks like Michael? We’ve never seen one. So what if there haven’t been any hunter sightings in the seven years since Nasedo died. Have we even had contact with a single other alien in that time? They’re out there still, somewhere. And if they knew you and Tess were living with Nasedo they might come after us. Did you ever think of that?”

Michael glared at her. Of course he’d thought of that. He was the most wary of strangers of the four of them, and now she was suggesting that he thought there were no more hunters. That was insane. “All I said was they look like they wouldn’t be hunters. They’re our age.”

“So,” Isabel retorted. “Hunter’s don’t live forever, they grow old, have kids. They might be new hunters Michael. New hunters are more likely to take risks. We have to be careful of them.”

“God, all I said was that they didn’t look like they would be alien hunters, not that they weren’t,” he said, glaring at her.

“Guys, guys,” Tess broke in. “Look, does it really matter? We’ll just be wary of them and watch to see if they’re acting suspicious. That way we’ll know for sure.”

Isabel grinned at him as if she had won or something. He just rolled his eyes. She could be so annoying sometimes. If he didn’t have to put up with her due to the fact she was an alien, he wouldn’t.

Max, who had just been quietly watching the exchange, smiled at Tess. “Sounds good.” Noticing the looks exchanged between his sister and his best friend Michael momentarily wondered if there was something going on between them. He shrugged it off. If Tess wanted to get involved with Max that was her business, not his.

“So should we head back?” Michael asked.

“Sure,” Max nodded, turning towards the jeep. Michael watched as Isabel turned to him, giving him a self-satisfied smirk, before rushing to the jeep to get the front seat. He shook his head. Sometimes he really didn’t get her.

Part 3

Maria made her way quietly down the almost empty corridors to the Eraser room. The room was known for the unspeakable acts that went on in there, but Maria just used the room as a place to hide out while ditching class. In fact she had never been in the Eraser room with a guy, and today was no different. She just hoped it was free of any couples. After all, it was the best place to ditch if you couldn’t be bothered leaving the school.

Arriving at the door she quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching. Of course, she wasn’t actually meeting anyone in there, but other people didn’t know that, and she didn’t want her reputation tarnished by some idiotic gossip.

Pushing open the door she walked in, closing and locking it behind her. Turning around she was surprised to find that the room, although free of any couples, wasn’t empty. Damn.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

Michael raised his eyebrows. “I was here first. So what are you doing here? Hooking up with some random guy.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “No.”

“Then what?”

“I think I asked you first,” she retorted quickly.

“If you really must know,” he replied. “I’m ditching.”

“Oh,” she said quietly, surprised. “Same here.”

“Great,” he said sarcastically.

“Look pal,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him. “If it weren’t for the fact that I completely despise history there’s no way I would be in here with you. I may be stuck in here all period with you, but nothing’s going to happen.”

“Thank god,” Michael replied grinning. “I would hope not, blondie.”

She glared at him. Why did he have to be such a jerk? “God, I’ve known you how long and you don’t even know my name!”

He smirked. “I know more than you think, Maria ,” he said.

The way he said her name, all soft and gravely, sent shivers up her spine. “Oh yeah?” she challenged.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I know that you hate algebra and spend every lesson either writing notes or watching what everyone in the class is doing.”

So he was the guy who stared at her all through algebra every day. She had had a feeling it was him, but had never known for sure.

“And that you spend all your free time hanging out with your friends, usually at the Crashdown, where you also work,” he continued. “But do you know who I am?” he asked, smirking. He obviously thought she knew nothing about him. Well he didn’t bet on the fact that she was an alien hunter and knew lots of details about him, details he probably thought no one knew. Of course, the only reason she knew these details was to make sure he wasn’t an alien, no other reason. None at all.

“Well Michael ,” she said, stressing the name. “I know that you live with your sister Tess in an apartment, and that you live alone ever since your father Ed Guerin died seven years ago.” She paused, tilting her head to the side and looking at him. “Although why would the state let two ten year olds live by themselves?”

“They didn’t know,” he replied with a smirk, not wondering how she had known that.

“So do I know more than you thought?” she asked. He didn’t answer, just stared at her.

“Fine then,” she said, rolling her eyes and sliding to the floor so she was sitting on the ground, her back against the locked door.

She could feel Michael’s eyes following her movement from the lone desk he was perched upon. “Are you always like this?” he asked a curious tone to his voice.

She glanced up at him. “Like what?” she asked, confused.

“So defensive,” he replied. “I mean, you’re the one who comes in and locks the door behind you knowing that I’m already in here-“

“I didn’t know you were in here where I came in,” she interrupted, narrowing her eyes. “ Usually if the door is unlocked the room is empty.”

“Yeah. But then you stayed here with me didn’t you?” he said, smirking. “Telling me nothing’s going to happen when you’re the one who came in here while I was here anyway, so if anyone wanted something to happen, it was you.”

Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

“Look, you’re being defensive again,” he said, causing her to grimace with annoyance. “Why do you do it?”

“Why do you do it?” she retorted quickly. She sighed when he grinned at her. “Fine. I don’t know why. Maybe because you’re a jerk?” she asked, making a face at him.

He raised his eyebrows. “Maybe,” he said, smiling.

She sighed, dropping her head into her hands. Why was he doing this? Why was he analysing her and making her think that he wasn’t the complete jerk she’d always thought him to be? Why was he actually trying to have a conversation with her?

Didn’t he know it was easier for her to just hate him? That hating him made things simpler so that she didn’t have to wonder why he affected her so much.

***

“Where were you fourth?” Liz asked as Maria caught up to her.

“I ditched,” Maria replied as they made their way towards the courtyard that the seniors used as their lunch area.

Liz raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I mean, what’s the point in knowing history anyway? And it’s so boring. The only history I like is…” she trailed off, not wanting to mention it in public.

“Yeah, same here,” Liz replied.

“So did Mr Trevors notice I was gone?” she asked.

“He wasn’t there.”

She turned to look at Liz. “He wasn’t there? But he’s never not there.”

Liz frowned slightly. “I know, it’s weird isn’t it. So where were you?”

“Eraser room.”

Liz stopped in her tracks. “With who?” she demanded, her mouth dropping open slightly as she smiled.

“With no one,” Maria replied, grabbing her best friend by the arm and pulling her down the hallway with her. “Liz, if I was in the eraser room with someone you’d be the first to know.”

That was true. After all, she hadn’t been in the Eraser room with Michael, he’d just been there. And nothing had happened of course. She would never go to the Eraser room with him for the reason that every other person at school used it for. After all, he was Michael, the guy whose hair stuck up on its ends, and he wasn’t at all good looking. Okay, so maybe he was slightly . Well, maybe more than slightly…

Liz nodded, still looking slightly skeptical. “I guess.”

“Liz, have you noticed me liking anyone recently? And if I did and wanted to keep it a secret then I wouldn’t have told you I ditched to go to the Eraser room, would I?”

Liz sighed. “Yeah. Still, couldn’t you like someone so I could tease you about it?”

Maria laughed, shaking her head. “And now you expect me to tell you? Anyway, speaking about liking people, are you going to ask Kyle to the Halloween party next weekend?” she asked as they walked through the swinging doors and out into the courtyard. Liz had had a crush on Kyle for a while now, but Maria wasn’t completely certain whether it was based on the fact he was their leader – jointly with her of course – or whether Liz actually liked him.

Liz shrugged. “I’m not sure. Do you think I should? I mean…” she trailed off.

“What if he doesn’t like you?” Maria asked. Liz nodded. “Well, I don’t know about that, he doesn’t tell me that kind of stuff.”

“Right,” Liz agreed.

They continued walking, Maria keeping a constant watch on the people around her scanning for any aliens Her gaze stopped on Isabel for a moment, and she stopped dead still.

“Oh my god!” she exclaimed.

Liz stopped walking too, turning to look at her friend. “What?

“Did you see that?” she asked, lowering her voice.

“See what?” Liz asked, confirming that she hadn’t seen it.

“Isabel Evans,” Maria said. “She just waved her hand over her sandwich and it all of a sudden was toasted."

Liz raised her eyebrows. “Isabel Evans? Are you sure? Maybe her hand was hovering over it and the sandwich was toasted all along.”

She shook her head. “No, I know what I saw. We have to tell the others.”

***

Maria and Liz had spotted Kyle and Alex entering the courtyard and had run over to them before they could sit down, leading them away from the courtyard to a grassy area which, although other seniors ate there too, was more private than the courtyard and was an area where they knew they wouldn’t be overheard.

“So what’s the meeting for?” Kyle asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.

“I saw Isabel Evans toast her sandwich,” Maria told them, getting straight to the point. “With her hands.”

“Isabel?” Alex asked surprised. Both guys looked shocked.

She nodded. “I couldn’t believe it either,” she agreed. “But I’m pretty sure that we need to watch her.

“Did you see it?” Kyle asked Liz.

Liz shook her head. “No, I wasn’t looking in that direction.”

Kyle nodded. “I never thought Isabel would be…”

Maria turned to her brother, feeling slightly annoyed. Didn’t he believe her? Why would she make it up? “Yeah, well, I never thought Troy would be one either, but we spent the whole afternoon watching him yesterday even though you’d never actually seen him do anything. Besides,” she continued. “I’m a leader as well, and I know what I saw.”

Kyle opened his mouth to speak, but Alex quickly intervened. “We should definitely watch her,” he said, smiling at both of them. “Anyway, speaking of possible aliens, Mr Trevors wasn’t in history today.” He paused, turning to look at her. “But neither were you,” he said pointedly. She just shrugged. So what if she had ditched history. Big deal. The teacher wasn’t even there.

“As you all know Mr Trevors is never away,” Alex continued, “so I thought, although I could be wrong of course, that maybe we should check it out this afternoon. There is a chance he could be an alien or the fact that he wasn’t at school could be alien related.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Liz agreed. “Mr Trevor is always at school. He’s never had a day off as far as I know.”

“So it’s agreed then?” Kyle asked. “We’ll meet after school to see what’s going on at Mr Trevors.” They nodded. “Okay,” he said, turning to her. “So why weren’t you in history?”

Maria just shook her head, rolling her eyes. Her brother needed to learn to mind his own business.

Part 4

Once again Maria was spending her afternoon sitting outside someone’s house, her legs aching from being crouched in the same position for so long. She groaned softly. If she had known how boring surveillance was she wouldn’t have wanted to be an actual alien hunter as much as she had. She longed for action, for the thrill of the chase. Instead she got boredom.

Screw it, she thought, standing up from her crouched position. From where she was positioned nothing unusual was happening inside the house, and she was going to check to see for herself.

Ignoring the looks from the other three she silently made her way towards the house, glancing around her to make sure no one was watching. It wouldn’t be good to be caught out on her second day as an official alien hunter.

Carefully choosing her footsteps she rushed towards a window. She crouched below it for a moment before peering in.

Nothing.

Well, nothing except some furniture anyway.

Quickly glancing towards the others she shook her head. Kyle nodded to her, confirming that the coast was clear. She smiled back before silently creeping towards the next window, her eyes darting around for movement. She could feel three pairs of eyes staring at her as she did so, and hoped they were watching out for her as well as watching her.

The next window proved uninteresting as well. Continuing around the house she peered in every window on the lower floor, but there was nothing there. No signs of life, nothing. But she had a feeling there was something wrong with that. After all, if Mr Trevors didn’t show up for school shouldn’t he be at home?

Arriving back at the front of the house she quickly glanced around for any people. Noticing none she raised her arms in a shrug, palms upward, indicating that she’d found nothing. Biting her lip she looked up at the second floor windows. Maybe he was upstairs?

Satisfied that no one was watching she quickly shimmied up the post holding up the covered porch to one side of the house, landing on the roof of the porch in a cat-like motion. Looking down quickly at the others she could see Liz and Alex’s mouths both hanging open in surprise while Kyle’s eyes kept darting back and forth between her and the road.

Crawling along the roof towards the window she peered in. Involuntarily she let out a gasp as she looked in.

Lying there on the floor, obviously unconscious, was Mr Trevors.

She quickly pushed herself away from the window, gesturing to the others to come here. She knew that this was no ordinary person having a heart attack or anything like that. She could see the gold marks on his throat and knew immediately what it was.

Aliens.

Kyle and Liz were quickly running over to the porch while Alex stayed near the street keeping a look out. They both quickly climbed onto the roof of the porch, joining Maria. She pointed at their teacher through the window. “Look.”

They gasped in shock simultaneously.

“Oh my god,” Liz said. “Oh my god.” None of them had ever seen a victim of an alien attack up close before.

Maria swallowed hard. “I know.”

“It’s definitely an alien,” Kyle commented. “No one else attacks leaving gold marks.”

“Oh my god,” Liz repeated, reaching out a hand to touch the closed window. “God, Mr Trevors. What should we do?”

Kyle turned to her, and they silently agreed what to do. “We should go,” Kyle said. “There’s nothing we can do here. We’re obviously way too late. The alien came and went long before Mr Trevors even left to go to work this morning. We need to tell our parents what happened.”

Liz nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”

Taking one last look of Mr Trevors’ unconscious body the three of them quickly jumped of the porch roof, crossing the lawn to meet Alex. Quickly filling him in on what happened they raced to their car, which the had parked round the corner, and headed to the Crashdown.

***

Michael stared at the television, his eyes watching it but not taking anything in. Tess had left a few minutes earlier, leaving him home alone, his mind was a mess with confused thoughts, most revolving around Maria Deluca.

Something had happened today. Something that had changed her from the irritating waitress that he liked to annoy to someone he had actually wanted to have a conversation with. It was weird, and he didn’t understand it at all.

She was just like him in a way, he realised. She put up defences, stopping people from knowing who she really was. He knew why he did it. Because he was an alien, he couldn’t let anybody in. His life depended on it. If you told the wrong person they could end up telling a hunter, or even being a hunter, and no alien would want to risk their life like that.

Nasedo had done that, let in someone he thought he could trust. It had turned out that Atherton wasn’t a hunter, but let it slip to the wrong person, resulting with his death. Nasedo had realised that Atherton wasn’t trustworthy, and had killed him, leaving a silver handprint emblazed on his chest. But it hadn’t been in time. The hunter had come and killed Nasedo one night before disappearing forever. Michael had never seen or heard of Nasedo’s killer since.

Unlike Max and Isabel, who had been adopted by the Evans’, Nasedo, or Ed Guerin as he had been called, had found him and Tess that morning in the desert. They had lived with him for five years – from when they had emerged from the pods at five years of age until Nasedo had been killed five years later. Ever since Michael and Tess had been living alone.

Michael was used to being alone anyway. Nasedo was often disappearing off for days at a time even when he was still alive, leaving the two of them to cope by themselves. But he wondered, would he ever not be alone? Would he ever know what it would be like to have someone else to turn to – beside the other three. Max and Isabel had their parents. But he and Tess had no one. No one but each other.

It was scary, but a part of him was hoping that maybe he could find someone. Someone to be with. Someone to make him feel less alone.

And as scary as it was. He had a feeling he wanted that person to be Maria.

***

Maria sat cross legged on the basement floor, leaning against the wall behind her. Liz lay next to her on her stomach, her head propped up with one hand, watching as the two guys practiced fighting while they waited.

Carol Whitman walked over to them while the other adults sat around the computers talking. Maria didn’t know what was taking so long. After all, they’d known about aliens their whole lives and had seen pictures of people killed by aliens before too. Maria could still remember the image of James Atherton, an innocent, lying dead on the ground, his lifeless eyes staring, the telltale marking of a handprint across his chest.

Carol cleared her throat and Alex and Kyle walked over to where they were, sitting down next to her and Liz. Carol crouched down in front of them, opting not to sit on one of the many seats littered around the room.

“This may come as a surprise to you,” she began, “but there is more than one type of alien. We neglected to tell you this because, well, firstly we weren’t told in training either. There has only been one type of alien in this area since the 1947 crash, so there is no point explaining that there are different species if you should only come into contact with one.”

Maria looked at her confused. There was more than one type of alien on earth? Why had they never been told that before? And why was it relevant now?

“Of these different species of alien located on earth,” Carol continued, “two of them kill with their hands, leaving a handprint. The only aliens that have been in this area in the past over fifty years, the ones that came from the crash, kill with a silver handprint.”

Liz gasped, and Kyle spoke up. “But Mr Trevors had gold handprints on his neck.”

Carol nodded slowly. “Then there’s a different kind of alien in town.”

***

The next day at school Maria opened the door to the Eraser room, praying that it would be empty. No such luck. Once again Michael was sitting on the only desk in the room, his eyes watching her as she entered the room. He smirked at her. “Stalking me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she retorted, slamming the door behind her and wishing there was somewhere else that she would go where she wouldn’t be caught. “Are you ever in fourth period?”

“Are you?”

She glared at him. “Yes.”

He smirked again. “So you only ditch when I’m here?” he asked.

Her mouth dropped open in shock. What was that supposed to mean. “No, I’ve ditched before when you haven’t been here,” she replied, eying him.

“Then I must have been in fourth period then.”

“Or maybe ditching somewhere else so you weren’t making me wish that I was actually in class,” she replied, making a face at him.

He smiled. “Come on, you know you’d be bored if I wasn’t here.”

“Unlikely,” she replied, walking over to him. “I see your unusually friendly demeanour from last time has vanished.”

“As has yours,” he replied, his eyes watching her as she moved closer to him.

“So I guess I have to spend the whole period sitting on the floor with the dust and grim while you occupy the desk again. You know, why don’t you sit on the floor, you’re as dirty as it is.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

He shrugged. “I was here first. Besides, what makes you think I’m dirty?” He raised his eyebrows at her.

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, firstly there’s the fact that you wear the same clothes for days at a time,” she began.

“I’m a guy,” he interrupted.

“Which explains it all?” she asked, laughing slightly while shaking her head. “Whatever. And then there’s,” she continued, placing one hand on the desk next to him and leaned in closer to get in his face. She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. She was completely unprepared from him to grab her arm.

“And then there’s what?” he asked, his voice soft, gravely.

Breathe, she told herself. There’s nothing special about him. Nothing that should make shivers run down her spine when she touched him. Nothing that made her want to… She didn’t want to finish that thought.

She glared at him, cursing him for taking her off guard like that, for making her feel this way. “What do you think?” she asked, having forgotten what she had meant to say.

“What do I think? I think that you’ve forgotten what you were about to say because you just realised how much you want in my pants,” he replied, a smirk once again crossing his features.

She snorted, shaking her head and pulled her arm out of his grasp, turning away from him. She had only made one step away from him when his hand was once again on her arm, pulling her back towards him.

Before she had time to think his lips were on hers.

Part 5

Her arms wrapped around his neck, pulling him closer as his lips pressed tightly against hers. Excluding one incredibly chaste kiss she had experienced with Alex it was her first kiss. And what a kiss it was.

His arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her closer to him so that she was positioned between his legs as they hung off the desk. His mouth opened hers, his tongue gently probing her mouth for a moment before plunging in, engaging in a battle with hers. One hand remained tightly wrapped around her waist while his other ran lightly up and down her back, the light touch of his fingertips made her want to melt. If his arm hadn’t been wrapped firmly around her waist she probably would have collapsed.

She was overwhelmed by the passion of it all. She had known that the time she and Alex had tried to kiss that it was supposed to feel better than that, but she hadn’t expected it to feel quite like this.

She moaned softly when they pulled apart momentarily, desperately gasping for air. She looked into his eyes, surprised by the passion and lust she noticed in them.

She gasped as his hand lightly trailed its way down her face, surprised by the tenderness. Especially after the rough passion of the kiss. She kept her eyes locked on his as he ran his hand through her long blonde hair, pulling it loose so that it flowed around her shoulders. His intense gaze locked on hers as he did so, watching her carefully as he slowly licked his lips. It was all Maria could do not to jump him. She had a feeling that he was testing her, torturing her with the light caress of his hand in her hair, wanting her to be the first to move this time.

She was about to give in, the need to feel his lips on hers again so great, when he grabbed her hips, pulling her onto the desk with him so that she was kneeling on it, her legs straddling his. She thanked God that she was wearing pants. She didn’t particularly want to be caught in this position otherwise. Not so soon.

His lips claimed hers again, his arms pulling her tightly to him as one hand entangled itself in her hair. She let her hands trail down his back from his neck and, reaching the bottom of his t-shirt, she ran one hand up his back below the material of his top, loving the feel of his bare skin against hers. He moaned into her mouth, his tongue dancing with hers.

Taking that as encouragement Maria let her other hand wander up his body below his t-shirt, this time trailing over his stomach and chest. He moaned again, his lips leaving hers and trailing down her neck to her shoulders, gently sucking on her skin at the base of her neck where it would be hidden by her clothes. She moaned in pleasure, her hands exploring his upper body as his lips lightly sucked on her skin.

They stayed there throughout fourth period. It was halfway through the lunch period when they realised the time. Pulling apart they straightened their clothes. Giving Michael one last look Maria ran out of the Eraser room, stopping off at the bathroom to straighten her clothes and hair before meeting her friends for lunch.

***

Halfway through lunch Liz noticed Maria walking across the courtyard towards them. Her best friend had been missing since third period – although Liz had a feeling she had been ditching again – but the fact that she wasn’t at lunch was unusual. They always had lunch together unless they were off investigating.

“Hey guys,” Maria said, sitting down at the table and pulling out her lunch. Liz looked at her, realising that her hair, which had been tied up earlier, was now lying in waves over her shoulders, tousled slightly. And the girl was almost glowing, a secretive smile playing at the corner of her mouth. Liz sure wanted some of whatever Maria had been having.

“Where have you been?” Liz asked.

Maria looked at her, a slight reddish tinge forming on her cheeks. “Sorry I’m late,” she said, glancing around the table. “I had to go get this book from the library for English, and it took ages for the librarian to find it for me.” She sighed exasperatedly. “They so need a better library here. One where you don’t have to spend half your lunch period waiting for them to find the damn book.”

Liz nodded, not quite believing her friends story. She didn’t know whether it was the way Maria said it, or the way she had looked when she said it, but it didn’t seem like Maria was telling the truth. “Then why are you so red?” she asked her friend.

“The heat,” Maria said quickly. “I know summer’s over but I don’t think that the weather’s realised it,” she commented.

Liz looked at Kyle and Alex, who both seemed to buy Maria’s story. She decided to drop the subject. After all, Maria would tell her soon enough if something was going on. And besides, they had more important things to discuss. Like aliens.

“Okay guys,” Liz said, looking round the table. “I’ve been waiting for Maria to come to suggest this, so since she’s here I might as well.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw the relieved look on Maria’s face when she realised that Liz was changing the subject.

“Yeah?” Kyle asked, grabbing a couple of chips from Maria’s lunch and stuffing them in his mouth.

“Well,” Liz said, continuing quickly before Maria could yell at Kyle for stealing her food. “Mr Trevors is in the hospital, and I was thinking that we should probably go pay him a visit. You know, find out what happened and stuff.”

“Sounds good,” Kyle said while the other two nodded.

“So this afternoon then?” Maria suggested.

Liz nodded. “Yep. Straight after school.”

***

Isabel watched as Liz, Maria, Kyle and Alex leant in closely to say something. She didn’t trust them. There was something about them, the way they always seemed so secretive, that she didn’t like.

The four of them didn’t seem to hang out with people outside their circle of friends. Of course, they didn’t either, but they had a reason for it. They were aliens. What was their reason?

“Isabel?” she heard Tess asked. “Who are you staring at?”

Isabel focused her attention back to Tess and Max, noticing Max glancing in the direction she had been staring at.

“Them again?” he asked.

She blinked at her brother. “What do you mean ‘them again’? Just because I’m the only person slightly worried about alien hunters. Geez, what is with you people. You and Tess are completely oblivious to the fact that there might be hunters out there-“

“No we’re not,” Tess interrupted, narrowing her eyes at her.

“And now Michael’s AWOL.”

“Yeah, where is Michael anyway?” Max asked Tess.

Tess looked at Max confused. “Why are you asking me? I’m not his keeper.”

“You’re his sister,” Max pointed out.

“And you’re his friend,” Tess retorted.

Isabel sighed. “See my point. You guys are paying more attention to the fact that Michael isn’t here, when he’s probably just ditching like usual, when there’s more important things out there. Like hunters.”

“Shh,” Max said, glancing around to make sure no one had heard. “Maybe there’s a reason we don’t talk about that kind of thing here. Maybe because we don’t want to be overheard.”

Isabel just shook her head at her brother, sighing. Fine, so they didn’t want to wake up to the fact that there might be hunters out there. She’d just find out for herself and prove them wrong.

Part 6

Maria and the others arrived at the hospital that afternoon. Walking straight past the nurses as if they knew exactly where they were going they silently made there way through the hospital corridors, looking for Mr Trevors room.

Locating it they briefly stopped outside for a moment, before knocking lightly and walking in. Mr Trevors looked up at them, looking surprised to see them. He was still hooked up to a few machines and the gold marks around his neck were fading. Seeing him lying there Maria suddenly felt bad for just barging in on him like that. Of course, by finding out what had happened it would probably give them an idea to who did that to him, and they could find whoever did that to him.

“Hi,” she said, smiling at him. “We just thought we’d come down and see if you were okay.”

Mr Trevors sat up slightly, smiling at the four of them. “Oh. Thank you. I didn’t expect any students to come.”

Liz stepped forward to stand next to Maria. “We just wanted to make sure you were okay. It’s not everyday a teacher’s in the hospital you know.”

“What happened?” Maria asked softly, remembering the way he was just lying there unconscious on the floor when they’d found him a day ago.

He shook his head. “I’m not exactly sure,” he replied, seeming uncurious to know why they wanted to know. “All I know is that a guy appeared in my room in the morning.” A strange expression crossed his face. “He was glowing slightly.”

“Glowing?” Maria asked.

He nodded. “Yeah… but that doesn’t make any sense does it. And I don’t know what happened. They think he must have had paint on his hands or something when he grabbed my neck. I don’t know. My head feels different.”

Maria and Liz exchanged worried looks. His head felt different? That couldn’t be a good thing.

Before they could ask any more questions a nurse came in. Seeing them there she gently told them they it might be a good idea to leave. Maria bit her lip, realising that they probably weren’t going to be able to find out anything else from Mr Trevors.

She smiled at him. “I’m glad to see that you’re okay,” she told him. The others nodded in agreement.

“Thanks for coming,” Mr Trevors replied, smiling back at them.

They turned to go, and, once in the corridor, they quickly made their way through the hallways and out of the hospital. Stopping in a nearby part Maria turned to look at her friends.

“What do you think?”

“The alien was glowing,” Liz commented, a thoughtful look on her face. “Have we ever heard of glowing aliens before?”

“Nope,” Alex replied. “But then, didn’t they say that this is a different kind of alien. You know, gold not silver markings.”

“And what do you think it did?” Kyle asked them. “I mean, it obviously didn’t want to kill him or else it would have. But he said his head felt different and there markings were around his neck.”

Maria nodded. “That worries me. His head feels different? What is that supposed to mean. What would it have done to his head?”

“I don’t know,” Kyle said sadly, shaking his head. “I just don’t know.”

***

Michael was lying on the couch idly flicking channels on the television when there was a knock at the door. He watched as Tess got up from the other couch, where she had been reading a magazine, and went to open it.

“Hey guys,” he heard her say, a surprised tone to her voice. He had no doubt to who it would be – after all, who else stopped by their apartment – but he wondered why they were just stopping by out of the blue right now.

“Hey,” he heard Max reply as he and Isabel entered.

“We have to talk,” Isabel said as she and Max sat on the other couch. Tess, after grabbing a drink from the kitchen, sat down next to Michael.

Once they were all seated Tess asked, “about what?”

“You know how I was suspecting that maybe Kyle and all them were alien hunters,” Isabel began. “Well, even though you guys don’t seem to interested in that idea, I decided to find out for myself.”

Michael stared at her in shock. That wasn’t a very Isabel thing to do. And by the way Max was staring at Isabel he had a feeling she hadn’t even told her brother what she was doing, which was incredibly unusual.

Isabel narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Like you’ve never gone off investigating by yourself.”

Okay, she had a point there. He nodded for her to continue.

“Anyway, I followed them to the hospital. Where they were visiting Mr Trevors.”

Mr Trevors? “As in Mr Trevors the teacher?” Tess asked.

Isabel nodded. “The very same.”

“But why would they do that? Why was he in the hospital?” Max asked.

“Because he was attacked.” She paused for effect. “Attacked by someone who left a gold handprint.”

Michael stared at Isabel, unbelieving. Tess and Max both gasped.

“Yep, a gold handprint,” Isabel repeated. “And think about it. Why would they be visiting him? It’s not as if they are model students or anything.”

Michael nodded. That was true. After all it was history that Maria had been ditching the last couple of days.

“So there’s obviously a reason they were there,” she continued. “And what reason can you think of?” Isabel glanced around at them, but no one said anything. She sighed. “How about the fact that it’s obviously something alien that got him in the hospital to begin with. And that’s the only reason they would be there… to find out what exactly the ‘alien’ thing was. Which proves they’re hunters.”

“Well, not exactly,” Max said. “I mean, maybe they were just visiting. Or maybe they just happen to be people who know about aliens but aren’t hunters.” Michael noticed Tess looking at Max skeptically and Michael had to admit they weren’t very valid reasons for them being there. But he couldn’t believe that she was an alien hunter. She certainly didn’t every act suspiciously or in any way that he would expect an alien hunter to attack.

“It’s not necessarily all of them,” he pointed out. “Maybe one of them is and roped all the others along for company. You know, saying that they were going to see if he was okay and not explaining why they wanted to. Did you hear what they were saying?”

Isabel shook her head, looking slightly annoyed. “No… But I still think we should watch them. Even if they’re not, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Michael nodded in agreement. “Good idea,” Tess added.

“Yeah…” Max said slowly. “But you guys are missing the point. Something attacked him. An alien who leaves gold markings. An alien who is not like us. There’s another alien out there, but we don’t know whether it’s on our side or not.”

***

Michael made his way towards the Eraser room as soon as the bell signalling the end of period three rang. He wondered if Maria would be there today, what with what had happened between them yesterday. As soon as she had realised the time she had run off, leaving him staring at the door that had banged shut after her.

He wondered if she regretted it.

Did he regret it? He didn’t think so. After all, she was gorgeous, not to mention amazingly passionate. Plus she was a great kisser. Not that he’d had much experience. Due to their alien status and rules he hadn’t even kissed a girl. Well, not until yesterday that was.

But then there was the fact Isabel kept stressing she was a hunter. But was she? After all, if she was actually an alien hunter why would she kiss him? There was no point.

And then there was the fact that Isabel could just be being paranoid. Or, maybe one of Maria’s friends was an alien hunter and she had no idea. Any of those ideas were plausible.

Glancing around the hallway he couldn’t see her anywhere. She probably wasn’t even going to show up anyway.

Stopping outside the door to the Eraser room he glanced around one more time and, seeing her nowhere, he opened the door, expecting to be ditching alone today.

He was surprised to find that she was already there, sitting cross-legged on the desk, a smile crossing her face as he entered. “Hey,” she said.

He walked closer, assuming that she didn’t regret it. He couldn’t help a grin crossing his face as he realised that. “Hey. So am I stuck with you again?” he asked.

She raised her eyebrows suggestively at him. “Well if that’s what you want to call it. I have a feeling that yesterday it was you who attacked me and didn’t want to let me go, not that other way around.”

He smirked, moving closer still. “So now you’re saying I attacked you?” he asked.

She shrugged at him, giving him an innocent look.

He felt anger rise within him and he wondered why this girl affected him so much. Why was she able to annoy him and turn him on at the same time? “Well I have to say that you-“

She grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling his lips down to hers, kneeling up on the desk to get closer to him.

Smiling against her lips his tongue entered her mouth, lifting her off the desk to pull her tightly to him. Her legs wrapped firmly around his waist, her fingers playing with the hair brushing against the back of his neck.

He sat her down on the desk, still kissing her, allowing his hands to roam her body. Pushing up her tank top slightly his hands brushed her now bare stomach.

Pulling apart for air she grinned at him. “We’re even now,” she said softly, before pulling his lips back to hers again.

Part 7

“Two galaxy subs and a men-in-blackberry pie,” Maria said, placing her order to the kitchen as her eyes roamed the café – not for people waiting to be served but for aliens.

Walking over to serve someone sitting at the counter she asked Liz quietly as she walked past her, “Any luck?” Liz shook her head, grabbing a tray and taking it to a table.

Maria sighed. They were always on the lookout for aliens, but now it was even more important. There was a different kind of alien in town. One who wasn’t afraid to harm innocent humans.

Handing the guy at the counter his cherry cola she looked up as the door jangled. In walked their number one alien suspect and her friends – including the guy she had spent practically the entire fourth period for the past two days making out with. Straightening her antenna headband she walked towards where they were sitting. “I’ll get them,” she told Liz as she walked past, feeling her cheeks heat up slightly.

“What can I get you guys/?” she asked, stopping in front of their table. She met Michael’s eyes briefly and looked away, not wanting anyone to realise. It wasn’t as if anything had happened between them. Nope. Nothing at all.

Besides, she was supposed to be watching Isabel for anything alien anyway.

“Space fries for me and Iz to share,” Tess said. “And-“ she gestured towards the guys.

“Galaxy sub,” Max said. She nodded, writing it down, waiting for Michael order. Which didn’t come.

“Michael?” she pressed, surprised he wasn’t ordering anything. He always had something to eat.

“Same thing,” he said finally.

She nodded. “Two galaxy subs then,” she said, writing it down. “Any drinks? Four cherry colas right?”

“Right,” Max agreed. She turned to go, feeling Michael’s eyes on her back.

“Don’t forget the tabasco,” Isabel called from behind her. Maria rolled her eyes. Liked she’d forget. Those guys always wanted tabasco.

As she placed the order she considered taking cold fries out to Isabel to see if she would do the hand toasty thing, but decided against it. After all, she didn’t want them to complain. And besides, Tess had always seemed cool, she didn’t deserve cold fries if in fact Isabel wasn’t an alien.

***

Michael watched as Maria walked towards the kitchen, her blonde ponytail swinging slightly as she walked. He grinned, congratulating himself for waiting to order. He loved the way she said his name. Although he had to admit her preferred the way she had moaned it in the Eraser room earlier that day.

He was happy that she didn’t seem to want to make what happened between them in the past two days a public thing. After all, he had a feeling that the others would freak when they found out he had disobeyed their ‘no hooking up with humans’ rule. A rule that he didn’t really understand the point of. After all, there were two reasons for it – one being that the human could actually be a hunter, but it wasn’t as if he was going to tell Maria he was an alien anyway, and the second reason being that they didn’t know what would happen. He really didn’t understand the point of that reason – how would they find out what might happen if they never tried?

But what was he supposed to do? He was a guy, he had urges. He had a feeling that there might be something going on with Max and Tess, but who was there for him? Tess was his sister and he would never even consider hooking up with Isabel. No way. And if Max got someone then he deserved someone too. Besides, it wasn’t as if he was going to tell Maria about them being aliens and endanger their lives anyway.

“Michael?” Max’s voice brought him out of his thoughts.

“What?” he asked him.

“I was just asking you if you’ve seen either Kyle, Liz, Maria or Alex acting unusually lately. You know, Isabel’s theory?”

“Not just a theory – they were at the hospital yesterday,” Isabel broke in.

Michael considered the question. Maria making out with him in the Eraser room for the past two days was definitely unusual, but not in a hunter related way.

“Nope,” he said, glancing at Maria and Liz behind the counter and realising that the other two weren’t there. “Kyle and Alex aren’t even here,” he commented.

“You just noticed that?” Tess asked, sounding surprised. She waved a hand in front of his face. “Michael, you’re usually more observant that that. What’s wrong with you?”

"Nothing,” he grunted, pushing her hand away. But she was right, he was always more observant than that. He couldn’t let that Maria girl occupy his thoughts so much. It could be dangerous.

***

Kyle and Alex sat at a table in the food court at the local mall idly eating fries while they watched the people around him. They had gotten stuck with surveillance at the mall because the girls were working, and Kyle wasn’t too happy about that. He hated the mall and didn’t see why he had to spend his afternoon there. He knew they were going all hard out with the people watching to make sure they weren’t aliens, and that the mall, being a busy people-filled place was a great place to do it, but he wished that he wasn’t the one stuck here. The two girls would have enjoyed it, floating around the stores while watching for suspicious people, but instead they were working while he and Alex got lumped with it.

Kyle turned to look at Alex, who gave him an ‘I’m bored’ expression before slurping on his cola. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything here today,” Alex said.

Kyle nodded. “I agree.” He lowered his voice so that only Alex could hear him. “Besides, I don’t think an alien’s going to be stupid enough to use their powers in a middle of a crowded shopping mall. I think if we just keep watching people as we go about out lives like we usually instead of actually planning to go places and watch we’re going to find out more anyway.”

“Yep,” Alex replied, standing up. “Anyway, the alien is going to be more careful now anyway. They’ve hurt someone, they’ll know that someone might be onto them, so I doubt they’re be so stupid to use their powers in public anyway.”

Kyle grinned at his friend, glad to have found a reason to get out of the tedious people watching at the mall. “So should we head to the Crashdown? See if the girls have noticed anything.”

“Sounds good,” Alex replied as they made their way out of the mall and towards the carpark.

***

His eyes darted from side to side as he made his way down the darkened alley beside the Crashdown. That teacher had been no help. He’d sucked his mind but the guy knew nothing.

Soon though, he told himself. Soon.

They were here. Both hunters and other aliens. They were both in Roswell.

And it was only a matter of time before he found them.

Part 8

“Halloween in two days,” Maria commented as she and Liz made their way through the halls of Roswell High on Wednesday morning. “So, got a date for the party Friday night? Did you ever ask Kyle?”

Liz shook her head. “No. I’ve been way too preoccupied with the whole Mr Trevors thing this past week,” Liz replied, lowering her voice slightly. “Doesn’t really give much of a chance to ask him you know? Besides, all four of us are going together as a group anyway right?” she asked, Maria nodded. “Well then there’s no point in asking ‘cause we’ll be going together anyway.”

Maria laughed softly, shaking her head. “Excuses Liz. Don’t you think that maybe you should let you know you like him?”

“Shh,” Liz replied, glancing around. “I don’t want the whole world to know.”

She grinned. “Well, I would think that the fact that you might like somebody would be less of a secret than other things we discuss.”

“True,” Liz replied, stopping by her locker to grab her books before homeroom. “Speaking of secrets is there a certain reason that you’ve ditched history every day for the past week and a half?”

Maria stared at Liz’s nose, avoiding Liz’s eyes but trying to make it not seem too noticeable. Of course there was a reason – the fact that she’d been meeting Michael there to, well, make out, everyday since they’d first kissed last Tuesday, but she wasn’t going to let that on to Liz. “Nope.”

“Nope?” Liz asked, her voice sounding suspicious. “Are you sure? I mean, I know you don’t particularily like history, but someone’s going to notice if you ditch every single day.”

Maria considered that. Liz did have a point, and she really didn’t want to get into trouble for ditching history all the time. But she also did want to spend time with Michael in the Eraser room…

***

Maria sat down in her seat in algebra, feeling Michael’s eyes on her as she did so. She didn’t think she could survive the day without meeting him in the Eraser room, especially if she had to sit through history, but she also didn’t want to be caught ditching. And, even more importantly, she didn’t want Liz to question why she was never in fourth period anymore.

Liz was already wondering what Maria was hiding from her, and she didn’t want to tell her best friend the truth. After all, the were alien hunters, supposed to be focusing on searching for aliens, not guys. And then there was the major fact that one of the people Michael spent the most time with she was sure was an alien. Of course, that didn’t make Michael an alien. And four of them hung out together, there wouldn’t be four aliens in Roswell would there? Aliens usually were more individual, liking to be alone, which made it harder for them to be caught. They wouldn’t hang around in a group of four.

Besides, they weren’t new in town, she’d known them ever since she’d started school, so it was highly unlike that Michael would be an alien just because Isabel was.

But that didn’t help her ditching problem though.

Thinking for a moment she quickly wrote Michael a note.

I’m ditching 5th instead today.


Subtly throwing it onto his desk so that no one noticed she turned back towards the front, waiting for him to read it.

She was surprised when he chucked it back onto her desk. Turning around she noticed him sneaking out the back door or the classroom. Opening the note it read::

Outside. Now.

She stared at the note for a moment, confused, taking in his messy scrawl. Why did he want to see her now?

Getting up from her seat she walked up to the front of the classroom. “Can I go to the bathroom?” she asked her teacher.

Mrs Wards nodded, apparantely not noticing that not only Maria’s seat was empty, but Michael’s too. Smiling slightly Maria walked out of the classroom, shutting the door behind her.

Noticing Michael leaning against a row of lockers down the corridor she walked towards him. “What do you want?” she asked quietly, so not to be overheard, nearing him.

He smirked at her. “This,” he said, grabbing her and pushing her against the lockers, his lips crushing against hers.

Maria smiled against his lips, returning the kiss.

He wasn’t an alien. He couldn’t be. There was no way an alien could kiss like this. There was no way an alien could make her feel this way.

Part 9

The four aliens sat in the jeep, staring at the lake below the quarry in silence. It was Tess who spoke first.

“Okay, so there’s another alien in town – maybe even more than one – but why would they have come here in the first place.” She shifted position, sitting up on the back, her legs dangling over the side. Michael grimaced, trying to push her away when she leant against him, but she wouldn’t budge.

“Maybe they’re after something,” Michael suggested.

Tess tilted her head to the side, and he knew she was considering it. “That’s probably it,” she said. “But what would they be after?”

“Who knows,” Isabel said from the front seat. “Maybe even us?”

“Us?” Tess asked. Her voice sounded shocked and she jumped out of the car, carefully glancing around them in all directions to make sure they weren’t being watched. “Why us?”

Isabel shrugged. “Well, they attacked but didn’t kill a teacher of ours, they might have been looking for information.”

“But who would know that we’re in Roswell? We haven’t seen any aliens for ages.”

“The orb,” Michael said quietly.

All three of them turned to look at him. “The orb?” Isabel asked.

“Yeah,” he replied, thinking back. “Nasedo told us that setting it off could alert other aliens and hunters to our location, remember?”

Tess bit her lip. “Oh no… So they may really be after us.” All eyes now turned to Isabel.

“What?” she asked, also jumping out of the car. “I didn’t mean to set it off. It was an accident.” Her hands were gesturing wildly as she spoke. “It had never been set off before, how was I supposed to know that knocking it slightly would cause it to?”

“It’s okay Iz,” Max said soothingly. Michael and Tess exchanged shocked glances. It wasn’t okay. Accidentally setting off that orb may have endangered their lives. There was already a new alien in town, who knew if there were hunters after them too.

Obviously sensing what he and Tess were thinking Isabel walked over to them, leaning against the jeep to glare at them. “You know, it’s strange that you are so worried about the orb being set off when you aren’t at all worried about hunters.”

Michael sighed exasperatedly. “What are you talking about Isabel? Of course we’re worried about hunters.”

Isabel bit her lip. “I’m sorry about the orb okay? And I think you might be right about the four of them. I don’t think they’re hunters.”

Michael looked at her skeptically. “Why the sudden change in mind?”

Isabel smiled sheepishly. “I dreamwalked them.”

“Isabel!” Tess looked mad, and Michael could tell that Max also looked angry too. But whether it was because of the dreamwalking or because he was left out of his sister’s plans Michael didn’t know.

“What?” Isabel asked innocently.

“I thought we agreed no more dreamwalking, that it wasn’t fair to the innocent people whose dreams we invaded. We agreed. And now you just went and-“

“I’m sorry,” Isabel said. “But-“

“But what? It’s not fair,” Tess interrupted. “It’s my power too! It’s not fair if you can go use it anytime you want when I held up to our end of the agreement and can’t.”

Isabel snorted. “Yeah whatever. Like you haven’t dreamwalked anyone since.”

Tess glared back at her. “I haven’t.” Michael knew she was lying, but didn’t want to give Isabel the satisfaction of being right. He knew that all four of them wanted to be the leader, despite Nasedo telling Max he was supposed to be it, and they didn’t like to give in to the others.

“Look, it’s not as if I went in there for fun,” Isabel explained. “I did it for research. I mean, yeah, they could still be hunters, but didn’t Nasedo once say something about how hunter’s minds are, kinda, what’s the word, darker than most humans. I didn’t see any of that in there.”

Tess tilted her head questionably. “Yeah… maybe. But if they’re the same age as us they probably haven’t been through as much as most hunters and maybe they don’t have it?” She turned to Michael for support but he just shrugged. How would he know anything about this mind stuff, it’s not like he could dreamwalk.

“That’s true,” Max commented slowly.

“What?” Isabel asked, looking annoyed. “So you’re saying that now that I am agreeing with you and not suspecting them quite as much that you think that they’re hunters?”

Tess looked surprised. “No.” She sighed. “Look, the way I figure it we don’t really know anything. After all, apparently they don’t have hunter-like minds, but then there’s the fact they went to visit Mr Trevors and didn’t seem to wonder about the handprint… so… I don’t know.”

“Maybe only one or two of them are hunters?” Michael suggested. After all he’d never sensed that Maria could even remotely be a hunter.

Tess shrugged. “Could be.” She smiled, leaning against the side of the jeep. “So, seeing as I’m not allowed to enter their dreams, tell us what they were like?” Michael shook his head at the eager expression on his sister’s face.

Isabel raised her eyebrows, laughing slightly. “Just normal dreams. Although,” she said, turning to look at Michael. “You might be surprised by Maria’s.”

Michael blinked, keeping his face expressionless. Did she mean what he thought she meant? Did Maria dream about him?

Taking in his lack of a response Isabel’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “Or maybe not.”

“What?” he asked quickly, not liking where she was heading with this. “What are you talking about?”

A slow smile spread across Isabel’s face as she tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. “Well.. you don’t seem surprised by that suggestion, and haven’t asked what I meant, so I’m thinking that maybe you know exactly what I’m talking about. That maybe there’s something go-“

“There’s nothing going on,” he replied forcefully. “And I didn’t ask what you were talking about because I knew what you were insinuating. I’m not stupid you know.”

Isabel nodded. “I know. But maybe there’s something you’re hiding… Maybe I should check your dreams too?” she suggested, raising her eyebrows.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said, suddenly angry. He didn’t want Isabel roaming around in his head. Didn’t want her to find out that he… well, that he probably had the same dreams about Maria that she had about him.

“Why? What’s in them that you don’t want me to see?” she asked teasingly, but he could see that she was also serious, wondering if he was hiding something. He mentally slapped himself for his aggressive reaction, but it was too late now.

“There’s nothing,” he told her, his eyes firmly on hers. “I just don’t want you wandering around in my dreams. Would you like me in yours?”

Isabel pretended to consider the question. “Well…”

He glared at her, narrowing his eyes at a largish rock lying on the ground near where Isabel was standing. After a few seconds it exploded, and he turned his head back to look at her, noticing her jump away from the direction the rock had been only moments before.

“Don’t even think about it.”

***

Tess waved goodbye to Max and Isabel, following Michael into their apartment and shutting the door behind them.

“What was all that about?” she asked him as he flopped down on the couch.

He scratched his eyebrow, giving her a confused look. “What was what all about?”

She snorted, hoping up on the counter and grabbing an apple. “Oh puh-lease, you gotta be kidding me? What was what all about? I’m not stupid. Why were you so uptight about Iz seeing your dreams?” She waved her hand at the fridge, opening it with her powers and looking in it for a moment. “Do we have anything to eat?”

Michael shrugged. “No idea. And with the Isabel thing, I wasn’t uptight – I just don’t want her wandering around in my subconscious. You don’t see me doing that to her do you?”

“That’s because you don’t have that power dear brother,” she replied, taking a bite of her apple. “Besides,” she continued, “there was more than that, I know. You were so aggressive about it.”

He rolled his eyes, leaning forward on the couch. “No I wasn’t.”

She shook her head, laughing slightly. Did he think she was stupid or something? It’s not as if she’d lived with him her whole life and knew practically everything about him. Well… almost everything anyway, he was still a private person, even with her. “Yeah, sure,” she replied. “I think there is something you’re hiding in your dreams. Maybe I should check them out. Maybe something to do with this Maria,” she teased, smiling at him.

He just glared at her, standing up. “I’m not hiding anything in my dreams! Maybe I just don’t want stupid girls wandering around in them for fun.”

Tess narrowed her eyes at him for that comment. “I am not stupid you-“

“I’m going out.” In a matter of moments he had grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Tess stared at it in shock. What was wrong with him lately. Sometimes he’d be so unusually… well, happy almost, and then other times he was more pissed off than usual. Like just moments ago for example.

She had just been joking about going into his dreams. But maybe she should. Maybe he was hiding something from them.

But what?

***

Maria entered her bedroom, absentmindedly running a hand through her hair as she turned the radio on. Her parents were still out, at some business dinner of some sort, and Kyle was watching some kind of sporting event on the television in the living room, leaving her pretty much alone as Kyle didn’t like to be disturbed at all while watching sports. She sighed, wishing it was a night she could take advantage of that opportunity. Unfortunately it was looking to be an uneventful evening ending with her going to bed early.

Flicking through the stations she groaned, giving up on the lack of music to choose from and turning the radio off. It was then she felt the hairs on her neck stand up and knew someone was watching her.

Turning around quickly she was surprised to see Michael standing in the garden only a few metres from her window. Walking over to the window she opened it.

“What are you doing here?”

Michael shrugged, walking closer. “I have no idea. I just didn’t want to hang out with Tess and all her questions.”

“Questions?” she asked. He just shrugged.

She moved back, allowing him to enter the room. She knew this was wrong. In the past two weeks the only person they’d suspected of being an alien was one of his best friends – someone he hung out with pretty much all the time. And there was obviously a reason she was hiding it from her friends, even though she didn’t like to think about it.

She pushed those thoughts aside. After all, even if Isabel was an alien it was unlikely Michael would be. Aliens usually travelled alone it seemed. And Michael had been in Roswell for as long as she could remember. And there was no reason to tell her friends. They’d just worry that she wasn’t focusing on looking for aliens, which completely wasn’t the case.

“Are you okay?” she asked, taking in his expression.

He nodded, moving closer to her. She backed away teasingly, smiling at him. Her legs came in contact with the bed and she fell onto it. In a matter of moments he was there next to her, his mouth only inches from her.

He shrugged. “I’m fine. Isabel was just being…” he sighed. “Isabel. But I don’t want to talk about that.”

She smiled seductively at him, running her tongue along her lips in anticipation. “What do you want to talk about then?” she asked, looping a finger in the collar of his shirt and pulling him even closer.

He grinned. “I don’t want to talk at all,” he replied, closing the gap between them. Within moments their legs were entangled with each others, hands running over each others bodies as their lips merged together, his body pressing hers into the bed.

She sighed with pleasure. She knew she should be worried. Worried about the way she wanted him so much. Worried about how, after almost two weeks of meeting once a day in the Eraser room, that she seemed so close to him.

She couldn’t get close to anyone like this. Not to someone who didn’t know the secret. She couldn’t tell anyone.

But somehow, without realising it, it had become more than just groping sessions while cutting class. She didn’t know what, but it was definitely more.

Part 10

He smiled to himself as snippets of teenagers’ conversations flittered around him, most revolving around Roswell High’s Halloween party in an old warehouse that night.

He congratulated himself on his choice. In this body he could envelop himself in the lives of the teenagers of Roswell, leading him closer to them.

The aliens were teenagers he knew, he’d heard the stories of the hybrid alien children destined to leave their pods at a certain time, and he had a feeling that the hunters were roughly the same age. He’d heard rumours about both species over the years, and knew which ones were true.

He decided to go to the party that night – in a different body of course – and see whether he could find the ones he was looking for.

***

The pulsing beat from the speaker greeted them as soon as they entered the warehouse on Friday night. The high school Halloween party was taking place in an old abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. Maria moved her hips in time to the music, eyes quickly scanning the area before deciding that either he wasn’t here yet, or was hiding in the shadows or the rapidly increasing group of people dancing close to the makeshift stage and speakers.

“Come on girl, let’s mingle,” Maria said, pulling Liz towards the refreshment table. Kyle followed while Alex disappeared to talk to some friends of his. She was relieved when Kyle stopped to talk to some jock buddies of his. She didn’t want her brother following her all night.

“What’s with you tonight?” Liz asked as they both grabbed a bottle each from the table. “You’re more hyper than usual.” She glanced at the bottle in Maria’s hand. “Maybe you shouldn’t drink that.”

“Excuse me?” she replied, staring at the alcoholic beverage tightly clasped in Liz’s hand. “I’m not going to get drunk off one drink. And besides, I want to have fun tonight. Hyper’s good. Especially after the stress of the past few weeks.”

Liz nodded. “Yeah… But look at you,” she said, gesturing at Maria’s outfit and hair. “You’re all out to impress. You want a guy, don’t you?”

“I don’t want a guy,” Maria lied, giving Liz what she hoped was an indignant look. “I’m perfectly happy guyless,” she said, feeling slightly guilty about lying to her best friend. “Unlike you,” she added, taking a mouthful of her drink. “You never asked Kyle despite the fact you really wanted to.”

Liz frowned. “Yeah, well, we all came together anyway, so what was the point, I’m sure to see him countless times during the night. And beside, as you said, these last week weeks have been stressful, not the best ‘asking someone out’ time.”

Maria sighed. “Liz you are hopeless.” She grabbed Liz’s arm, pulling her towards the dance floor. “Let’s dance.”

***

Michael entered the warehouse, followed by the other three. His eyes were immediately drawn through the crowds of people to Maria. She was dancing while laughing with Liz, her hands in the air while her hips moved to the fast beat. She looked gorgeous. And way too sexy. Groaning inwardly he looked away.

Unfortunately Isabel’s eyes were also drawn in the direction of the dance floor. Noticing Maria she glanced at Michael and simply commented, “look at her move,” before disappearing into the crowds. He glared at her back.

He knew what Isabel thought – that he liked Maria but didn’t want to admit it or do anything about it. Little did she know that it was more than that.

He didn’t know what had compelled him to go to her house last night, but he knew he felt close to her. He didn’t exactly know why, after all, apart from last night they had never hung out together except for in the Eraser room, and it wasn’t as if they’d slept together or anything to make him feel closer to her than he had when they were together in the Eraser room, but after last night he felt even closer to her than he had before. Like he could tell her anything.

Well… almost anything.

The feel of Tess’s hand on his arm pulling him jolted him out of his thoughts. He looked down at his sister. “What are you doing?”

“Dance with me.”

He raised his eyebrows, smirking slightly. “You know I don’t dance.”

“You do now,” came the quick reply.

“No way.”

“Michael,” she whined. “Please. Max abandoned me to talk to some people he vaguely knows and I don’t want to dance by myself.”

“No,” he told her firmly, his eyes scanning the room, seeing who else he knew who was at the party.

“Please.” She pouted.

His eyes fell on Maria, who was now dancing right up towards the stage. Realising he couldn’t just stand there all night and watch her despite his overwhelming urge to, he nodded. “Fine, but only one song.”

Tess grinned, throwing her arms around him. “Thank you. You are the best brother ever.” He laughed slightly as she pulled him towards the dance floor.

True to his word he danced with her for only one song, but she was fine with that, having found some friends of hers who were dancing in a group. Glancing at Maria one last time he left the dance floor.

He was fine, he told himself. He didn’t want her. Didn’t want to dance her, to kiss her, to touch her again...

If he could avoid her all night he’d be fine.

***

The song changed and Maria turned her head to say something to Liz only to notice that she was gone, swallowed up in the crowds on the dance floor. Shrugging her shoulders slightly, figuring that Liz had probably just gone to get something or had been caught by someone who wanted to talk to her, Maria continued dancing in a group with a few girls she knew from her history class.

She raised her hands in the air above her head, ignoring the fact that her spaghetti strapped tank top rose every time she did, revealing her bare stomach. Swaying her hips from side to side as she moved to the beat she was surprised to feel a tall body press against her back, strong arms encircling her bare waist.

She smiled, still moving her hips in time to the music, brushing across the lower body of the person behind her. Turning her head slightly to see who it was her suspicions were confirmed. It was Michael.

She lowered her previously waving hands around his neck, leaning backwards into his firm body. He pulled her swaying hips tight against his and she could feel his bodily reaction pressing into her lower back.

She almost moaned, but caught herself, remembering the other dancers nearby. Squirming slightly in his arms she turned around so that she was now facing him, her arms wrapping around his neck.

“Hi,” she whispered, her voice coming out breathy. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.” She pulled his head down towards hers. Not only was she wasn’t sure he would show, but she wasn’t sure if he’d talk to her. She was pretty sure that no one else knew about what had been going on between them in the past two weeks, and seeing as they were in a public place she had figured he would ignore her. She faintly realised that she should probably be ignoring him if she wanted no one else to know, but right now she didn’t care. And besides she doubted anyone would be watching them through the crowds of the dance floor anyway.

She stared up at him as his lips lowered to hers, hovering only millimetres away. She could feel his breath on her face as their bodies grinded against each other. Not able to stand the torture anymore she tried to lower his lips to hers, but he pulled back slightly.

She frowned in disappointment and confusion. What was he doing? Her frown soon turned into a smile as he pulled her off the dance floor and towards the shadowy area in the very back of the warehouse far from the entrance occupied only by a few scattered couples.

Pulling her into a darkened corner hidden from the rest of the warehouse by an old, wooden pillar he stared down at her, running his tongue slowly along his lips before leaning forward, his tongue then running slowly across her lips before finally ending the torture and crushing his lips to hers.


Part 11

Liz made her way back towards the front of the dance floor to where she’d left Maria not long before when Sarah Portman, a semi-friend of hers, pulled her away to go get drinks and ask about Kyle. She liked the girl, but it was obvious that she was just probing for information about Kyle because Liz was friends with him, and, liking Kyle herself, it wasn’t the best situation for her to be caught in. Luckily she’d made an excuse and was able to get away.

Arriving at the stage she glanced around for her friend. The front of the dance floor was crowded, but she couldn’t she Maria anywhere. Long blonde hair caught her eye, but it turned out to be someone else. Recognising the person Liz narrowed her eyes thoughtfully for a moment, then shrugged it off. It was Isabel, alien suspect number one, but she seriously doubted that she’d be showing off her alien powers at a crowded party. Besides, Liz was sick of watching people for signs of alieness, and this party was just about having fun. But where was her dance buddy?

Spotting Alex hanging by the entrance she pushed her way through the crowds towards him. Tripping over a bottle lying on the ground she fell into his arms.

“Hey Alex,” she yelled to him over the music, uprighting herself and smiling at him.

“Hey,” he yelled back cautiously. “You’re not drunk are you? I don’t think that’s a good idea seeing as we need to be alert-”

“I feel over a bottle on the ground,” she replied, frowning at him as she cut him off. “Have you seen Maria anywhere?”

Alex shook his head. “No. Why? Has she disappeared?”

“No,” Liz replied, shaking her head. “Actually I left her on the dance floor and now I can’t seem to find her.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “Hey, maybe you want to dance with me.”

A look of horror crossed his face. “No way. I can’t dance.”

She just laughed, pulling him with her towards the dance floor.

***

Time seem to stand still as Tess swayed slowly from side to side in time with Max, his arms wrapped firmly around her. She buried her head in his chest, oblivious to the fact that they were barely moving in a mass of dancing people.

She was annoyed when Isabel all of a sudden pulled them apart, talking a mile a minute. She glared at her friend. Isabel knew that Max and Tess were sort of together and was jealous because she had no one, unless she decided to hook up with Michael, which was pretty much a nonexistent possibility, but that didn’t give her any excuse to come rant at them for being together when she couldn’t be in the middle of a party. Sometimes she couldn’t believe her friend, she thought to herself, shaking her head slightly.

It was Max and Isabel’s horrified expressions as they stared at something behind her that made her realise that Isabel hadn’t pulled them apart because she was jealous, but for some other reason entirely.

Turning to look at what they were staring at Tess’s mouth dropped open. Despite the music still pouring out of the speakers they were sparking, flames rising from them and sneaking across the stage and burning it while most people remained oblivious. They were on fire!

“I think the speakers burnt out from overuse,” Isabel told them over the still loud music.

A few people were now backing away from the stage in fright, but most people continued dancing unaware of the flames growing in size near them.

“Can you… do anything?” Tess asked, staring at the stage in shock and disbelief. She couldn’t believe that this could happen. How had the speakers caught on fire in the first place? They must have sparked but… how?

Max shook his head. “It’s too late. It’s too big, and it would be impossible to do anything without revealing ourselves to the whole school.

Tess nodded, biting her lip. She gazed around the warehouse, realising all of a sudden that the entire place was wooden and highly likely to completely burn down if the fire spread anymore. “Well, we have to do something,” she told them seriously, her mind frantically working to figure out what they could possibly do. All she could come up with was just trying to get everyone out and hope that nothing bad happened before they did.

***

He watched as the blonde swayed her hips sensually, pressing herself tight against the male, grinding against each other. The male’s hands moved lower as their lips attacked each others, almost hidden in the shadows.

It was them. He knew it. They were either hunters or aliens, one or other. They couldn’t be the same, he knew it. Antarians believed that hunters were their enemies, and the Roswellian hunters believed that Antarians were their strongest and only enemy.

Neither realised that their deadliest enemy was him.

He smiled, backing away from the couple as their hands maddenly explored each other’s bodies. So human. But that didn’t help him. Hunters were human, and Antarians acted just like humans too.

He left the building, oblivious of the chaos about to take place, only one thought on his mind.

Soon. As soon as he figured out whether they were hunter or alien. Then he would do what he came here for.

Soon.

Part 12

“Fire!” Tess Guerin’s voice yelled out over the sound of the music. Liz turned to look in the direction of her voice and saw the large flames taking over the stage not far from where she stood talking to Alex and Kyle. She and Alex had given up on dancing when she’d realised he was hopeless, earning an ‘I told you so’ from Alex, and had ended up talking to Kyle and a few of his friends by the refreshment table.

People stopped dancing on the dance floor, realising what was happening and began running for the entrance as others frantically tried to alert others of what was going on.

“Oh god,” Liz said as the speakers finally gave up. Silence briefly filled the warehouse until shouts of ‘Fire!’ and ‘Get out’ began.

“We have to get out of here,” Kyle said, pulling on her arm and dragging her towards the entrance.

Masses of people were swarming towards the entrance, pushing frantically to get out before everyone else as they ran away from the stage. Liz quickly scanned the people, trying desperately to find a familiar blonde rushing out, but couldn’t see Maria at all through the crowds of people.

She tried to turn around to look behind her, where there were still some people, either oblivious to the fire or not in any rush to get out, but Kyle and Alex’s hands firmly grabbing her stopped her from being able to do so.

“What about Maria?” she asked.

A panicked look came over Kyle’s face, but he recovered quickly. “She’ll be fine, she’s probably already out,” he said, gesturing at the doors. The flames were now climbing the walls now and crawling along the wooden beams of the warehouse. “We have to get out of here before the place collapses,” Kyle shouted in her ear.

Liz stopped resisting and let herself be dragged with the crowds of teenagers towards the door. Maria would get out, she was probably already out. She knew it.

Then why was she having this sinking feeling?

***

Michael’s hands ran over the smooth expanse of Maria’s back under her top as they kissed, completely oblivious to whatever was going on in the rest of the warehouse. His mind was too fogged up with the feel of Maria with him, her lips on his, her hands teasingly running up his back and into his hair, to register that the music had stopped and that panic had taken over the rest of the building.

Maria moaned into his mouth as he pressed her against the wall, tightly against him. One hand leaving Maria’s back to tangle in her long blonde hair.

The pulled apart momentarily to regain breath, doing nothing but staring into each eyes for a moment, too involved in each other to register what was going on. Maria cupped his cheek, running her hand down his neck, trailing softly down his chest. He smiled as she kissed his nose and chin before their lips reconnected.

Passion, lust and desire raced through him as they kissed. She lifted one leg, wrapping it around his waist. He was about lift her up so that her other leg could too when he was roughly pulled away from her.

He turned sharply, about to pummel whatever idiotic person had tried to disrupt them, when he noticed the fear and panic in the guys eyes. The absence of music finally penetrated his passion-clouded brain as the guy told them, “the warehouse is on fire.”

They stood there for a moment, trying to get their bearings as the guy left to go tell another couple the same thing. He could hear the crackling of the fire taking over the old wooden warehouse, see the flames on the walls and, god, even on the supporting pillar right in front of them.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” he told Maria. She just stood there, staring in shock at the burning building, so he grabbed her hand, pulling her out of there with him. A few more couples who had also previously taken advantage of the darkened area of the warehouse were also running towards the doorway at the far end of the building, avoiding the fire. He and Maria had only taken a few steps when he heard a loud cracking sound and felt her hand slip away from his.

Turning quickly he saw Maria lying under the now collapsed pillar, eyes squeezed shut in pain. Pushing the debris quickly away he tried to pull Maria away, but she wouldn’t move. Her hands clutched her right side as blood began to seep through her top.

“I think… the metal… cut me… when it fell,” she said, biting her lip from the pain.

Michael lifted her top up slightly, knowing immediately what he had to do, despite knowing that the others would hate him for it. Glancing around quickly he realised that the warehouse was now empty. They didn’t have much time.

Pulling the metal away from her he placed his hands over the large cut, knowing that if he didn’t do this she would probably bleed to death before she could get help. He couldn’t let that happen to her. Couldn’t let her die. He didn’t care what happened to him as long as he could save her life.

He concentrated hard on what he was doing, mending the internal injuries as well as the cut. She was gazing up at him in wonder when the unexpected happened…

***

He saw Maria, only three years old, blonde curls framing her face, laughing as she threw leaves at her brother. He could feel the emotions too… She was happy, feeling clever to have gotten back at her brother.

---

She saw five year old Tess, tears running down her face, as Michael hugged her. He was telling her that it would be okay, that Nasedo would be back soon. She could feel the emotions he was hiding deep inside him. Abandonment. Fear that Tess was right, that Nasedo had abandoned them for good this time.

---

He saw Maria pouncing on Alex from behind, laughing as they both fell to the ground. Happiness. Friendship.

---

She saw Michael and Tess, about seven years old, peering in at the Evan’s twins as they laughed and ate Christmas dinner with their family. Jealousy. Loneliness.

---

He saw a seven year old Maria running around her house wearing a long black cape proclaiming that one day she would be stronger than anyone else, even superman. Ambition. Determination.

---

She saw Michael, Tess, Max and Isabel at the Crash festival when they were eight. Staring through the fence as the spaceship zoomed downward from the trees, catching on fire as fake aliens came out. Knowing. Knowing that they were in that crash. Knowing they had powers they couldn’t control despite Nasedo’s teachings.

---

He saw Maria working out in some sort of gym, long hair pulled back in a ponytail which swished behind her as she moved. Determination. She was determined to train well and be the best.

---

She saw Michael and Tess, alone in the desert after the other two had left, staring at Nasedo’s dead body. Michael hugging Tess as she sobbed into his shirt. Fear of being all alone now. Sadness over losing the only person who had ever looked after the two of them.

---

He saw Maria at school, laughing with Liz over something she’d said. Happiness and laughter coursed through him.

---

She saw Michael leaning over Tess, running a hand over the deep cut on her forehead. Staring in his hand in astonishment when he realised that her cut had now disappeared. That he’d healed her.

---

He saw Maria in that same gym, years later, smiling with joy after defeating Kyle. Determined. Proud. Happy.

***

The flashes were coming more quickly now. Overcoming their minds as Michael’s hand mended Maria’s body.

***

She saw Michael sitting in a booth at the Crashdown with his friends, his eyes following the annoying blonde waitress that he loved to annoy so much. Confusion. Attraction.

---

He saw Maria laughing with Liz, complaining about the stupid antenna headbands they had to wear, her eyes uncontrollably being drawn to Michael. Wondering why she felt so confused around him, wanted to annoy him so much. Wondering why she was feeling all these confusing feelings towards him.

---

She saw Michael grabbing her arm, felt his surprise when he felt the tingles shooting up his spine as he did so, realising that all he wanted to do right now, all he ever wanted to do when he was near her, was kiss her.

---

He saw Maria staring down at him, desire in her eyes, that second day in the Eraser room. He could feel her telling herself that she didn’t want him, that she didn’t feel anything for him, when she knew deep down that was a lie.

---

She saw him kiss her for the first time. Felt his relief and joy as she kissed him back, her arms wrapping around his neck, her body tight against his. Passion. Uncontrollable desire.

---

He saw him smirk at her, heard her snort and shake her head at his comment even though it was true. She had only just realised how much she wanted him… The thought trailed off as she backed away, only to feel his lips on hers a few moments later. Want. Need. Passion.

---

She saw him as he opened the Eraser room door, questioning what had happened between them, whether it would happen again. Whether she would want it to happen again. The relief he felt when he saw her there, when she pulled him to her.

---

He saw her sitting alone in the Eraser room, wondering if he would come, or whether it was a one off thing, that he didn’t feel anything like he felt for her. She felt her relief when he opened the door. Her surprise at the lust she felt as she pulled him towards her.

---

She saw him watching her at the Crashdown, smiling when he remembered what had happened between them earlier that day in the Eraser room, and the past few days also. Waiting with anticipation for tomorrow to come so he could be with her in there again.

---

He saw them in the Eraser room again, pushed up against the wall, kissing fiercely as she ran her hands through his hair, her legs wrapped firmly around his waist. He could feel her desire, and her wonder at how he made her feel this way, more than anyone else had ever made her feel. More than she had ever wanted to feel for anyone.

---

She saw them lying together on her bed, his hand tracing her cheekbones as his lips sucked on her neck. She could feel the passion, the want, the need. She could feel a brief flicker of another emotion, pushed away because it was too much to even consider.

***

The connection ended as his hand left her body. He quickly pulled her to her feet, waving a hand over her top and ridding it of the bloodstains as she stared down at her nearly healed torso.

His hand tugging on hers pulled her out of her dazed thoughts. “We can’t talk now,” he told her. “We have to go.”

Maria nodded mutely, allowing herself to be pulled by Michael towards the entrance of the now empty warehouse. The avoided the fire and narrowly missed another collapsing pillar falling on them.

She heard the fire roar even louder as they reached the door, and she turned back for a moment to look. The fire was now taking over the place she had fallen, the place were he had healed her. Another few seconds there and they would have been burnt.

“Come on,” he said, pulling her out. They stopped outside of the warehouse where many people had gathered, not far from the entrance.

“I have to go find-“ he shrugged slightly. He bent down to quickly kiss her cheeks. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

She simply nodded as he left her side. She stared after him as he walked away, running a hand over her side.

Oh god. Oh no. It couldn’t be.

Michael Guerin was an alien.

****




Part 13

She found the others outside, still dazed from what had happened to her. She couldn’t believe it. He was an alien?

And not only an alien, but an alien who had saved her life.

Her world had shifted, leaving her perplexed. He was an alien. An alien. The thing she had been brought up her whole life to hate.

Aliens bad. Aliens kill humans without a second thought. Aliens especially kill alien hunters.

The things she had been told her entire life were wrong. If aliens were so evil then why hadn’t he killed her? Or at least left her lying there injured to perish in the fire.

No, instead he had saved her life. Saved an alien hunter’s life. Of course, he didn’t know she was an alien hunter, but still, aliens kill humans. She’d been taught that her entire life. Yet he had saved her life, risking the knowledge that he was an alien to her. A hunter.

And an alien had harmed Mr Trevors…

“Maria?”

Liz’s voice cut through her thoughts and she turned to look at her friends worried face.

“Are you okay?” Liz asked. “What happened in there?”

Maria blinked, trying to clear her thoughts. “Oh, I guess I just got kinda lost in the crowds, that’s why I took so long. Sorry.”

Liz shook her head, a confused look on her face. “No, that’s okay. You just seem kinda out of it.”

“Oh,” Maria said, trying to come up with a plausible excuse. She didn’t that that ‘the guy I’ve been secretly dating is an alien who just saved my life’ was going to cut it. “I think I must’ve inhaled some smoke,” she said, feeling slightly guilty.

Kyle wrapped an arm around her and she was grateful for the support. She turned towards the warehouse, watching as the flames completely overtook it. She could have still been in there, she realised, shivering slightly. If Michael hadn’t healed her she would have still been in there. Trapped in there, dying.

“You sure you’re okay?” Kyle asked, obviously feeling her shiver. She nodded silently.

They walked towards the Jetta. Kyle took the keys from her, opening the passenger door for her while Liz and Alex climbed in the back.

“We got out pretty quickly,” Liz said from the backseat. Maria turned to look at her, wondering why she was telling her this. “We were getting drinks when it started, so luckily we were near the entrance.” She paused. “You were dancing quite far in weren’t you?”

Not exactly dancing, Maria thought to herself, nodding anyway. “Yeah,” she said. “A beam, um, collapsed right near me.”

Liz mouth opened in shock. “Wow. No wonder you seem so, you know, dazed.”

Maria nodded mutely. Although it did have more to do with the fact that Michael was an alien who had saved her life than just simply a falling beam.

***

After pulling Maria out of the burning warehouse and making sure she was safe Michael left her to search for his friends, figuring she probably needed time to absorb the fact that he had just healed her.

Spotting Tess’s head through the crowds he pushed his way through towards them. As he did so he could hear the sirens of the approaching fire engines.

“Michael!” she said, launching herself at him as he reached them. “Thank god you’re okay. We didn’t know where you were.”

He returned the hug. “Are you guys all okay?” he asked when she released him.

Max nodded. “Yeah we – well Isabel actually – noticed what was happening. Unfortunately by then it was too late to do anything about it without revealing ourselves so we just tried to alert everybody before getting the hell out of there.” Max finished his story, scanning Michael’s body, and Michael knew he was looking for any injuries or burns. “How about you?” Max asked. “You came out a lot later than us.”

“I was quite far in,” he replied, not wanting to tell the others about his healing of Maria just yet. “It took me a while to get out.”

Max nodded. “Well I’m with Tess – thank god you’re okay.”

“Yeah,” Isabel echoed. “Thank god.”

“So what happened?” Michael asked. Despite being one of the very last people left in there he’d missed out on knowing the cause of the excitement.

“Speakers sparked,” Isabel told him. “I think they were overloaded.”

Michael nodded, watching as the firemen raced up to the warehouse, drenching it with water from their hoses. Looking in the other direction he could barely make out the back of Maria’s head through the crowd as she leant against her brother.

“So should we go?” he asked, knowing there was nothing else for him to do here tonight. Maria needed time for it all to sink in before he could explain it to her, and he knew she’d need time by herself, away from him.

“Yeah,” Max replied, taking one last look at the warehouse. “We should.”

***

“Good night,” Maria said to Kyle as soon as they arrived home. “I need sleep,” she told him. “It’s been a long night.”

Kyle nodded to her as she turned and padded down the hallway to her bedroom. “Good night,” she heard him call after her.

Entering her bedroom she shut the door behind her. Quickly ridding herself of her clothes so that she was only wearing her bra and panties she looked at her body in the mirror.

A silver handprint stood out against the pale skin of her stomach.

Silver.

Thank god. So he was a different kind of alien from the one that harmed Mr Trevors.

She ran her fingers lightly over the handprint that decorated the right side of her stomach. It was amazing. Amazing that he could heal her, save her life, just like that.

Amazing that he was willing to risk his secret to save her life.

Why did everyone claim that aliens were so bad? It was obvious that not all of them harmed. He had saved her life!

And then it hit her. He was an alien. An alien.

And she was an alien hunter.

What was she going to do now?

Part 15

Maria flopped back on a mat after training. She couldn’t wait until she could go home to bed. Maybe she’d wake up tomorrow to find this was all a horrible dream.

Opening her eyes she saw Alex peering over her. “Are you okay?” she heard him ask. “You’ve been acting strangely all day. Quiet even.”

She bit her lip, trying to come up with a good excuse. She couldn’t tell him the truth yet. Maybe not ever.

“Still in shock over what happened last night?” Liz asked.

“Yes, definitely,” she told them, glad to be telling them something true, even though they didn’t know exactly what it was about last night that had affected her so.

Liz nodded, holding out a hand. Maria took it, feeling guilty, and Liz pulled her to her feet.

“Do you want to just hang out and eat ice cream or something?” Liz asked her softly.

“Sure,” Maria replied, thankful for the distraction as she followed her friend out of the training basement. She didn’t think she could cope with thinking about it all anymore.

And it had only been a day. She didn’t think she could last like this, with all this guilt inside of her. Guilt about lying to the others… and guilt for Michael not knowing the truth.

***

Ding!

Maria sighed, making her way over to the kitchen to pick up an order, giving the guy a couple more orders as she did so. Ah, the perks of having an extraordinary hunter memory. It allowed her to remember orders completely by heart.

It also helped her remember, in excruciating detail, every one of the flashes she’d received from Michael.

There was one which wouldn’t stop running through her mind. The last one of them kissing on her bed. She had briefly felt another emotion there. It felt slightly uncertain and she wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but she had a feeling it was…

No, she couldn’t think about that right now. She couldn’t think about how he may or may not feel for her. She couldn’t feel anything for him. It was too dangerous. God, it was even forbidden.

But it was hard.

She had a feeling that he, like she did for him, held strong feelings for her. Exactly how strong she wasn’t exactly sure, and she didn’t really want to contemplate it right now, but she knew they were strong. She knew they were the reason he had saved her, the reason he had risked her knowing his secret.

Glancing at the counter she saw a guy waiting to be served, but whoever was supposed to be manning the register seemed to have disappeared. Sighing she made her way over towards him, plastering a fake smile on her face. So far today’s shift hadn’t been as bad as yesterday’s, but she still wished she could be anywhere but spending most of her Sunday working at the Crashdown.

“Hi,” she said to the man. “Would you like to pay now?”

He smiled at her, casually running a hand through his light brown hair. “Actually I’m new in town and was wondering if you would recommend anything on the menu.”

“Oh, um, I’d recommend pretty much everything on the menu,” she told him, smiling back at him, taking him in. There was something about him, something she couldn’t put her finger on, that she didn’t like. She couldn’t wait to get away from him, she didn’t like the way he was staring at her, his eyes probing hers. She didn’t trust this guy.

“So nothing you’d especially recommend?” he asked her, a strange smile on his face.

Realising that the quickest way to get him away from her was to recommend something she told him, “Well the Saturn Rings are exceptionally good.”

“I’ll have those then.” He grinned at her.

She grinned back weakly, turning to place his order as he sat down on a stool at the counter. “Wait,” she heard his voice behind her.

“Yes?” she asked, turning back to him.

“Do you deliver?” he asked, his eyes scanning her body. She almost shivered in his intense scare.

“No,” she replied, turning away from him again.

“Well, I’m Brody, the new owner of the UFO centre and seeing as it’s just across the road I thought-“

“It’s not up to me,” she said, walking away from him. She knew she was being rude to a customer, but she didn’t care. She didn’t like the vibes he was giving off, or the way he was staring at her.

***

“Did you see that guy?” Maria asked Liz as she walked into the backroom. “I think he’s an alien,” she told her quietly.

Liz looked up from her position on the couch in surprise. “Who?”

Maria pushed the door open slightly, gesturing in Brody’s direction as Liz came to stand next to her. “The guy at the counter. His name’s Brody and he owns the UFO centre and he’s new in town. As if that’s not suspicious.”

Liz nodded thoughtfully. “Could be. But I thought you were certain it was Isabel?”

Maria bit her lip slightly. With all her worries about falling for an alien she’d completely forgotten that because of her they all thought Isabel was probably an alien. Uh oh.

“They could both be,” she told Liz. “Or maybe they’re, um, different kinds of aliens. I mean, Isabel’s been here forever and never harmed anyone before-“

“That we know of,” Liz interrupted.

“And they did say it was a different kind of alien than ones that are usually in Roswell,” she continued. “So maybe Brody’s the one that harmed Mr Trevors and-“

“Maria?” Liz was staring at her, confused. “You were the one so certain that it was Isabel remember? What’s made you suddenly change your mind?”

“I, um, I haven’t,” she stammered. “But we can’t only just focus on Isabel you know.” She bit her lip, hoping Liz would buy it. Liz was actually nodding, so maybe it hadn’t sounded as pathetic as she’d thought.

“But the fact that he’s new in town and runs the UFO centre could all just be a coincidence,” Liz said, turning the conversation back to Brody.

Maria raised her eyebrows at the obvious dismissal of Brody as an alien suspect. “Did you see the way he was looking at me?” she asked. “It was unsettling. So intent. Probably trying to determine whether I was a hunter or not.”

Liz laughed slightly and Maria gave her a look. “What?”

“I think it was because, um, well from where I was standing it looked like he liked you,” Liz told her, smiling.

Maria’s eyes widened in shock. “No way!”

Liz gave her an exasperated look. “Maria he was totally flirting with you.”

She shook her head empathetically. “Ugh. No. And Liz, asking what I’d recommend is not flirting.”

“Well I didn’t actually hear what he was saying,” Liz admitted. “But it’s obvious that he was. And he did seem kinda cute.”

“Cute?” Maria stared at her friend in shock. “More like scary.”

“You wouldn’t even consider it?” Liz frowned when Maria shook her head. “Why not? It’s not like you like anyone else.”

Maria tried to keep her face blank at that comment.

A grin slowly crossed Liz’s face. “I was right,” she said triumphantly. “You do like someone. Who?”

She just shook her head, ignoring the question.

“Come on,” Liz pressed. “You know all about me liking Kyle.”

She just shook her head again. “I don’t like anyone.”

“Yes you do. And I know you’ll tell me eventually, so why not now?”

Maria just looked away. She could never tell Liz. She couldn’t.

How do you tell your best friend, an alien hunter, that you’re falling in love with an alien?

***

Maria was walking through the corridor to her next class on Wednesday when her gaze was drawn to the Eraser Room.

She had been avoiding both it and Michael ever since she’d found out that he was an alien, but it was hard, because all she wanted to do was be in their with him.

It had been over four days since she’d found out and she was still as confused as she’d been when she’d first found out. What should she do? Should she keep seeing him? Should she tell the others he was an alien? Should she tell him she was a hunter?

She still needed time to work it all out.

Averting her eyes from the door she walked past the Eraser room, intending to quickly get away from it and the memories of the past two weeks that it held.

However, that didn’t happen. The door opened and, within moments, she was suddenly pulled into the Eraser room, the door slamming shut behind her.

She turned to glare at whoever had pulled her in here, which quickly disappeared as soon as she saw the expression on Michael’s face. It was both angry and upset, and she had to admit that he had the right to feel that way. After all he had saved her life, and now she was avoiding him.

“You’re avoiding me.”

She groaned, for once hating the way he was so direct.

His eyes flashed angrily when she didn’t answer. “Aren’t you going to say anything?” She could hear the anger in his voice.

She bit her lip, hating the position she’d gotten herself into. “Sorry. Its just…” she trailed off. “I can’t explain it.”

Michael’s expression softened. “Look, about the other night, I need to explain. It’s just-“ He paused. “About me healing you… The thing is I’m… You probably won’t believe me but…”

“You’re an alien,” she finished for him. She closed her eyes, hating herself for knowing. Hating herself for being an alien hunter.

She opened her eyes again to see him staring at her in shock. “You know?”

“Yeah, I kinda realised when you saved my life,” she said weakly. “Thanks.”

“But… You know about aliens?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I didn’t know you were one but… I knew,” she finished quietly.

He nodded at her, taking it in. “You’re not a…?”

He trailed off and she knew what he had been about to ask. She couldn’t answer. She couldn’t tell him the truth, yet she couldn’t lie to him either.

He seemed to take her silence to mean that she had no idea what he had been about to say. He pulled her to him, squeezing her hand softly.

“So… are you okay with it?” he asked softly.

Oh god, she felt so incredibly guilty right now. “Michael-“ she began, but found she couldn’t tell him. “Yes.”

He pulled her to him, kissing her softly. She longed to kiss him, to stay in here with him all day, but she pushed him away from her as the kiss became more intense. She couldn’t do this. Stay here with him, kissing him, pretending everything was normal, when she knew almost everything about it and he knew almost nothing about her. It wasn’t fair.

She bit her lip as he stared at her and she knew he was wondering why she’d pulled away. After a few moments he wrapped his arms around her, leaning down to kiss her.

She gathered her willpower. “I can’t,” she told him, disentangling herself from his arms.

“Maria-" His voice was confused, hurt.

She reached for the door, opening it and racing out. She quickly ran down the corridor, trying to make it to the bathroom before the tears that were threatening to spill over fell.
Why did it have to be so hard?

Why did he have to be an alien and she an alien hunter?

Part 16

Maria sat in her history class, blindly staring at Mr Trevors as he lectured to the class, not taking in a word of what he was saying. Her thoughts were all focused on the major mess she had gotten herself into.

She knew that she had to tell Michael the truth if she ever wanted to have anything with him again, yet she also knew that she couldn’t tell him either. He would probably freak out about the fact that she was a hunter if she did, get mad at her for lying at him, or some other unpleasant prospect that would mean she would lose him anyway.

She also knew that her friends deserved to know why she was acting so strangely. She knew she was obligated to tell them if she ever found an alien – a promise she had always intended to honour… until Michael had saved her life that is.

And that was something that was confusing her. She didn’t know why, but Michael went against anything she’d ever heard about aliens. What happened to all the stories of them killing innocent humans for no reason? He’d saved her life! How did that make him an evil alien?

She had to get the others focus away from Michael and the others. Somehow as soon as she’d realised that Isabel and the others, although aliens, weren’t the golden handprinted kind who harmed Mr Trevors they had suddenly decided that Isabel was the only person worthy of alien suspicion – well, her and the other three. And they were completely ignoring her suspicion that it may be Brody.

And it’s not as if she was just making it up to lure their search away from the others, she truly suspected Brody of being an alien. All the signs were pointing in his direction – interest in aliens, new in town, his intense scrutiny of her – an alien hunter.

There was something suspicious about Brody, and they had no other suspect right now, so she had to get them to realise it before they found the wrong aliens.

***

Michael stared at his sandwich, which was sitting in front of him on a table in the lunch courtyard, completely and utterly perplexed. He definitely didn’t understand women. Or more specifically he didn’t understand one woman.

What was going on with Maria Valenti? Only last week she had been all over him in the Eraser room, and now, ever since he’d saved her life, she’d changed.

He didn’t think it was the alien thing, she’d said she was fine with it, and had kissed him back knowing he was an alien before something had happened to cause her to run, so why was she acting this way? He had never thought that him saving her life would result in her distancing herself from him – well, at least not after she’d come to terms with what he was, which she claimed she had.

Then why was she acting like this? Why was she avoiding him? Why-

“Michael?”

Tess’s voice broke through his thoughts. He hadn’t even noticed the other three joining him at his table.

“Are you actually going to eat the sandwich or are you just going to stare at it all day?” She smirked.

He scowled back at her, taking a bite of the sandwich.

“So, dear brother, what’s wrong with you today?” Tess asked.

“Nothing,” he replied abruptly, hoping she wouldn’t press the subject.

“Nothing?” Tess shook her head, laughing, before beginning to go on about how it wasn’t just nothing making him act even more antisocial than usual. He was thankful when Max interrupted her.

“Maybe we could talk about something more serious?” he asked, taking Tess’s hand in his, squeezing it slightly as he gave her a dreamy look. Michael rolled his eyes.

Isabel tapped her foot against the ground impatiently. “Well then?”

Max turned his gaze back to the table, lowering his voice. “We need to do something to find this other alien. We don’t know who he is, and that’s dangerous for us. He could easily be a threat to us. He hurt a human, something we would never dream of doing. He’s a different type of alien to us, and if he’s hurting humans he’s obviously not a good kind of alien.”

“Nasedo killed humans though didn’t he?” Isabel asked, now engrossed in the conversation.

“Hunters,” Michael replied. “He only killed hunters or those who could risk our lives by telling hunters. Killing a hunter is different, you know that. They’re our sworn enemies who would kill us if they found us. Besides, they know the risks of confronting aliens, it’s their choice. Innocent humans are a completely different thing.”

“Maybe Mr Trevors was a hunter?” Tess asked, but Michael could hear the doubt in her voice.

“I doubt it. He’s single and has no kids, all hunters have kids to keep the line going,” Max said. “Besides, in all the time he’s been teaching he’s never acted strangely. I think it was a random attack.” Max paused. “Or maybe someone harmed him to try and find something.”

Michael nodded, agreeing with Max. There was obviously a reason that the alien had only harmed Mr Trevors instead of killing him. And the hand marks were around his neck…

“Didn’t Nasedo said he thought he heard that the was a new generation of Roswellian hunters, and that they were about our age?” Isabel asked. “Have any of you seen people at school acting suspiciously lately? Apart from the four of them,” she gestured across the courtyard at Maria and her friends, “visiting Mr Trevors in the hospital?”

Michael looked around the table, noticing the others shaking their head. He had to admit that it was strange that they had gone to the hospital that day, but there was no way that Maria was a hunter, was there? He would have seen it in her memories, he knew he would have. If she was a hunter it would take up too much of her life to not be present in them, and he knew she wasn’t blocking anything.

“I don’t think they are,” Tess said quietly. “They don’t look like they would be hiding something like that, and apart from visiting a teacher at a hospital – which could have been completely innocent – we haven’t seen them doing anything else unusual.”

Michael nodded. “I agree with Tess.” He looked around the table and, sensing that the conversation wasn’t over, decided to go. He didn’t think he could handle a conversation about how they could be alien hunters. That would only make him suspicious of her, and he didn’t need that. Not when she was already acting strangely.

***

Tess watched as Michael stood up and walked away from them without a word. She stared after him as he crossed the courtyard. What was wrong with him? He’d been acting even more antisocial than usual since the party on Friday night.

“What’s with him?” Isabel asked, frowning slightly at Michael’s retreating back. “Weren’t we right in the middle of a conversation here?”

Tess shrugged her shoulders as the other two directed their attention towards her. She hated this. Why, just because he was her brother, was she expected to know what was going on with him. “I don’t know, he’s been acting weirder than usual ever since the party.”

“Do you think something happened there?” Max asked, concern evident in his voice.

She exchanged a look with Isabel. “I don’t know. He would tell us if it was, you know, something important” Tess said. “So if anything did actually happen it couldn’t have been something major.”

“Maybe something happened with that Maria girl,” Isabel suggested. “I mean, I went into her dream and she was dreaming about him and there was definitely some passion there.”

“Please do not go into the details,” Tess said, placing her hands over her ears. “He is my brother, you know.” Once it was obvious Isabel wasn’t continuing with the dream she looked at her seriously. “Do you think there is something going on?”

Isabel shook her head. “No. She’s a human, and Michael knows the rules. Besides Michael’s never paid any attention to her that I’ve noticed.”

“Then what’s going on with him?” Max asked.

Tess just shrugged her shoulders. “Who knows? Maybe he’s just being exceptionally moody for no reason. After all, he is Michael.”

The others nodded in agreement, but Tess wasn’t so convinced. There was something going on with Michael, and she was determined to find out what it was.

***

Maria could tell by the way Kyle was looking at them all that this wasn’t going to be a typical lunch, but one focused on aliens. She sighed inwardly. Just what she needed, a lunch long discussion on aliens when they, or one specific alien anyway, were already screwing up her life.

“Okay,” Kyle began once they had all settled and turned their attention to him, picking up on his ‘leader’ vibe. It was obvious that Kyle wanted to discuss something serious. “There have been no more attacks since Mr Trevors two weeks ago – that we know of anyway,” Kyle told them. “Of course, if Mr Trevors hadn’t been our teacher we wouldn’t have known about that either. But we have to do something, we can’t let the alien – or aliens plural – get away with this. We have to start finding out the truth. We have to start investigating Isabel, and her friends too of course.”

Maria glanced around at the others, who were nodding. She agreed, they did need to start investigating – but not Isabel. She wasn’t the type of alien they were looking for, but if the others found out she was an alien they wouldn’t realise that and would automatically assume she was guilty.

“Wait, what about Brody?” Maria asked, silently begging them to start focusing on him instead of the others.

“Well, you haven’t had any proof about him about from the fact he’s new in town, and that doesn’t show anything,” Kyle pointed out.

Maria almost groaned in frustration. “And he was staring at me.”

“Because he likes you,” Liz added. Maria turned to glare at her best friend. Liz definitely wasn’t helping.

“But…” But what? But she knew Isabel and her friends were aliens, and she’d fallen in love with one who’d saved her life. She couldn’t say that, but she had to say something. The others were looking at her, wondering what she had been about to say.

“But?” Alex asked, obviously waiting for her to continue. She could see the others sharing suspicious glances.

“Look, I know I said that I thought I saw Isabel using her powers, and yes she may be an alien. But what if she’s the wrong one?” Maria asked.

The others glanced skeptically at each other. “You think there’s more than one kind of alien in town?” Kyle asked.

Maria nodded. “Yes! Look, maybe Isabel is an alien, maybe not, the only thing I know is that I don’t feel threatened by her, not like I am by Brody. So even if Isabel’s an alien she mightn’t be the only kind. There’s something about Brody I don’t like, and I have a feeling he’s the evil alien in Roswell. I mean, didn’t our parents say that the alien was different from the usual Roswellian aliens, which means it’s unlikely that someone whose been in Roswell for as long as we have is going to be the one whose suddenly attacking now. My instincts are telling me that it’s Brody, not Isabel.”

She saw the others exchanging glances, and Liz was even nodding.

“Look guys, I’m the leader here too, and I’m all for hunting aliens, I just don’t think we’re on the right track investigating Isabel.”

“You’re right,” Liz said. “I mean, when you told me at first I didn’t buy it, I thought there was no way possible that Isabel was an alien – if she was she’d done a terrific job of hiding it throughout her life. And, no offence Maria,” Liz added. “But I think you probably just saw her doing something completely innocent and, trying so hard to find an alien, just jumped to conclusions.”

Maria almost narrowed her eyes angrily at Liz. How dare she doubt her instincts? She was the full-blood, not Liz. But then, she realised, if she let them believe they were mistaken they would turn their investigating away from Isabel and the others.

“Yeah,” Maria said slowly. “You’re right, I think I was mistaken.” She turned her gaze to the guys, hoping they were seeing it Liz’s way, especially after all her persuading that Isabel was an alien.

The guys exchanged a glance. “You know, I never thought Isabel was an alien either,” Kyle commented. “And you’re right, you’re the leader too, and you did help investigate Troy when I thought he was one, so if you’re suspicious of Brody then we should all be.”

Maria beamed at them. “Thanks guys.” She was almost overflowing with happiness. Somehow she’d got them to turn their suspicions away from Michael and the others and convinced them that Brody wasn’t trustworthy. Finally things were looking up.

Part 17

Alex turned to Kyle as they walked from school to the Crashdown. They’d let the girls take the car, claiming they needed exercise. Alex had almost laughed at that excuse, after all they got enough exercise with all their training, but the girls didn’t seem to question it, probably relieved to have time to talk with each other without the guys anyway.

“What’s going on with Maria?” Alex asked Kyle, figuring that if anyone knew it would be Kyle, after all they were related.

Kyle stopped, sitting down on a low wall lining the footpath. Alex sat beside him, hearing Kyle’s sigh. “I have no idea. She’s been acting strangely ever since Friday and I have no idea why.”

Alex sighed. So not even Maria’s own brother had any idea what was going on, and Alex knew for a fact that Liz didn’t either. “Do you think it’s got something to do with Isabel and them?”

“It might.” Kyle turned to Alex, an almost suspicious look in his eyes. “What else would explain why she would suddenly be telling us to disregard a suspect that she’s been going on and on about for the past two weeks?”

“What she said today did make sense,” Alex said slowly. “But if that’s the only reason she wants to stop investigating them it makes no sense – we can investigate both the four of them and Brody at the same time.”

“Do you think Brody’s an alien?” Kyle asked.

“I don’t know,” Alex replied. “I mean, Liz said that Maria wasn’t looking too happy after talking to him, but she also said that he seemed harmless and that the only thing that Maria didn’t like was that he seemed interested in her.”

Kyle nodded. “That makes sense, but we are talking about Maria here. Have you ever known her to act all bizarrely just because someone seemed interested in her?”

“So are you saying he could be an alien?” Alex asked, not entirely certain what Kyle meant by that.

Kyle shrugged. “He might be. I believe Maria when she says that she is getting bad vibes from him, but I also think we shouldn’t discount the fact that it could be Isabel either.”

“So what should we do?” Alex asked.

Kyle stood up. “I say we investigate Isabel tonight.”

***

“What’s going on with you?”

Tess’s voice hit him as soon as he walked through the door of their apartment. Looking over to the couch he saw her staring at him, an angry expression on her face. He was confused, why was she angry at him?

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked, closing the door behind him. Grabbing a soda from the fridge he flopped down on the couch unoccupied by Tess.

“What do you think I’m talking about?” Tess asked. “Michael I’m not stupid, I know there’s something going on, something you’re not telling the others.”

He watched her as she sat on the other couch, wringing her hands in her lap. He sat up so that he was facing her, scratching his eyebrow nervously. What exactly did she know?

“Well?” Her voice was soft, and he could tell that she was more upset than angry.

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” he told her honestly.

Her head whipped up and she glared at him. “Michael what is going on with you?”

He paused. “Nothing.”

He watched as she buried her head in her hands for a moment, exhaling loudly. He couldn’t remember a time when they’d ever been like this before, he didn’t think he’d ever hidden anything major from her, ever, but he didn’t know what to do about it, it wasn’t as if he could tell her about Maria.

“I went into your dream.”

Her voice was soft and he wasn’t sure if he’d heard right. “What?”

She lifted her head to look at him. “I saw her there Michael. She was in your dream. I’m not stupid, there’s got to be a reason why you’re dreaming about Maria and she’s dreaming about you.”

He leant his head back against the couch, relieved that she didn’t know more. “Why does it matter?” he asked.

“Why does it matter?” she looked at him in shock. “Michael, she’s a human, of course it matters. We have rules.”

“Like you follow the rules all the time.”

She glared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We have rules about dreamwalking people and you’ve broken them,” he pointed out.

“That’s different. I only dreamwalk people I don’t know now. Well, except for you, but don’t you think I have a right to know what my brother’s hiding. God Michael, in our whole lives I don’t think I’ve kept anything from you and now-“ she broke off, staring down at her hands. “Now-“

He reached for her, tilting her head up to look at him. He was surprised to see the tears running down her cheeks. He hadn’t realised how upset she was about this. “Tess-“

“Michael I know there’s something going on between you and that Maria girl, and I don’t care. Unlike the others I don’t think she’s a hunter. But why didn’t you tell me?”

He blinked, wrapping an arm around his sister. “Do you trust me?” She nodded, her curls bobbing as she did so. “Look, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you, but I didn’t think you’d understand. I mean, you have Max – which you didn’t tell me about at first either may I remind you – and I have no one. Why should I have to be alone?”

Tess sniffed. “You’re right, you should have someone. But I still think you’re hiding something. What is it Michael? Why can’t you tell us? Why can’t you tell me?”

He shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

She just looked back at him for a moment before squeezing his arm slightly. “You’re not alone Michael,” she told him. “You’ll always have me.”

***

Kyle crouched in the garden outside Isabel’s room, hearing Alex do the same beside him. They’d told the girls they were leaving training early to investigate, not telling them who exactly they were investigating.

Kyle completely didn’t understand the way his sister was acting right now. What had happened to make her change her mind about everything? He knew how sure she had been that Isabel was an alien only days ago, and now she was saying she’d made a mistake. He didn’t think so. He had a feeling she was hiding something, but what?

He crawled closer to the house, sitting up on his knees so that he could peer through the half closed blinds. Inside the room he could see Isabel and Max sitting on her bed talking. Unfortunately they were talking too quietly for him to hear what they were saying.

He watched for a few minutes as the two of them talked. By now Alex had crept towards the window too and was kneeling next to him. They waited there in silence, hidden in the shadows on the garden in the evening light, hoping something would happen to make their investigating worthwhile.

It was quarter of an hour later when it happened. Both he and Alex were getting restless, wondering whether their suspicions had been completely off, when Isabel casually walked over to her desk, picking up a jar of nail polish. They watched as she sat down on the bed next to Max again, and, still talking to him, changed the nail polish from bright pink to the blue of her top.

He heard Alex’s gasp beside him, as if he hadn’t wanted to admit that Isabel was an alien. Max was still calmly talking to her, proving the fact that not only Isabel was one, but Max was one too. Without speaking they both crept away from the house, disappearing into the darkness.

So Maria had been right all along, Isabel was an alien.

All Kyle had to do now was figure out why Maria was suddenly protecting the aliens instead of turning them in.

******

Part 18

By Friday morning Maria was still no less confused about what to do about the whole Michael thing and was dying to kiss him, or at the very least touch him again, an urge that wasn’t at all helped by the fact she could feel Michael’s eyes staring at her back at this very moment as they had been doing throughout the whole algebra period.

Luckily, despite her confusion, things were looking up. Kyle and Alex had gone investigating the day before and, according to Kyle, had found out something important which he said they would discuss at lunchtime today. Knowing that they seemed to have finally given up on Isabel Maria was assuming that they must have found some evidence of Brody being an alien, news that Maria was looking forward too.

Even though she knew keeping the fact that Michael and the others were aliens wasn’t harming their investigation as she knew that Michael wasn’t the kind of alien they were looking for she still felt guilty over it, and the fact that she had gotten the suspicion away from them and found the actual alien was making her feel a lot better.

She smiled to herself, the guilt she had felt for the past week lifting slightly. She closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly realising that although she still didn’t know whether or not she should tell Michael that she now had no reason to feel guilty about knowing he was an alien as no one was suspecting him of it anymore.

Glancing down at the book in front of her she quietly ripped out some paper, writing a few words on it asking Michael to meet her in the Eraser room after lunch. She quickly threw it onto his desk behind hers.

She knew that this wasn’t the smartest idea, asking him to meet her in the Eraser room, especially since everything was still up in the air. But right now she didn’t care. All she wanted was to feel his lips against hers again.

***

Maria quickly made her way to the grassy area where they had planned to meet for lunch, noticing with surprise that the other three were already there. She briefly wondered how they could have found out so much about Brody so soon, as she’d only found out that Isabel was definitely an alien by noticing her using her powers in public, but brushed it off, knowing that they were about to tell her exactly what had happened.

She flopped down on the ground next to Liz, completing their little circle. She smiled at them, marvelling at how much better she felt today now that things were going better. “Hey guys.”

She noticed Kyle and Alex exchanging a look and she was suddenly, inexplicably nervous. Turning to Liz it was obvious that she hadn’t noticed anything unusual about it and she took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. This had nothing to do with Michael, there was no need to feel so worried.

Kyle cleared his throat and Maria focused her attention on him, noticing all of a sudden how serious he looked. She hadn’t seen him look this serious since… well, ever. His eyes gazed at them for a moment, stopping on her before he began speaking to her and Liz.

“As you know Alex and I investigated Isabel last night,” he began, his eyes still focused on hers. She felt her heart drop to her feet at his words and realised that he was focusing on her to see her reaction. She tried to keep her face blank as her heart twisted.

Out of the corner of her eye Maria saw Liz glance at her, confused. She knew Liz was just as surprised as she was that they’d investigated Isabel, especially after their conversation the day before. “What happened?” Liz asked. “Is she actually an,” she paused for a moment, lowering her voice. “An alien.”

Alex nodded, and Maria was worried as to why both he and Kyle were staring at her. Were they suspecting her? Of what? It wasn’t as if they knew anything… did they?

“We saw her changing the colour of nail polish by just using her hands,” Alex told them. “And seeing as Max was calmly watching her as she did so we’re also assuming that Max is definitely one too, especially seeing as they were both adopted together.”

Maria let out her breath slowly. Okay, so they were suspecting Isabel and Max only, that wasn’t too bad. At least they weren’t suspecting-

“And as they’re always with Michael and Tess they’re probably aliens too,” Alex added, completely destroying Maria’s hopes.

“Are you sure?” Maria asked. “Maybe you’re mistaken?”

Three sets of eyes turned to look at her, two pairs of them accusingly. She bit the inside of her lip when she saw Kyle’s eyes narrow as he stared at her.

“No…,” Kyle said slowly. “We know what we saw. And combined with what you said you saw I’d say she’s an alien. Both those things couldn’t have been nothing, you know that.”

Maria nodded slowly. She knew that. Of course she knew that. God, she knew they were all aliens, but how was she going to convince the others that they were the wrong aliens?

“What’s wrong with you?” Kyle asked. “You were the one who suspected them in the first place, and now you’re saying we might be wrong?”

“I-“ Maria began, knowing he was right. She realised how bad this looked, like she was actually protecting the alien who had harmed Mr Trevors which was completely not what she was doing. “No, I believe you. Its just…” she paused, trying to come up with a plausible excuse. “It’s just I didn’t want to believe it, you know?” She smiled reassuringly at her brother. “So what are we going to do now?”

She tried to take part in the conversation as the others discussed what they were going to do, but it was hard. She had no idea what to do. Should she tell them that she already had known, risking them hating her and disbelieving her anyway, or should she keep quiet?

She kept quiet, providing suggestions so that they wouldn’t realise what was going on. Just when she had thought things were going right again everything had just gotten so much worse.

Finally the bell rang. Grabbing her things quickly she said goodbye, relieved to finally be getting away from the conversation. At least she would be able to have one great period in the Eraser room before having to go home and decide what to do.

***

Liz watched, surprised, as Maria took off as soon as the bell rang. “Maria wait,” she called after her friend. “We have-” class together next, she finished silently.

“What’s wrong with her?” Alex asked. Liz knew that he was just as confused as she was about the way Maria had been acting, both today and the last few days. She didn’t understand the way Kyle was acting though, almost as if he was accusing her of something – but what, Liz had no idea. After all Maria hadn’t done anything wrong when she’d decided Brody was a more important subject. So she had been wrong, why was Kyle so annoyed about that?

Alex looked at the two of them. “She’s been acting strange-“

“Ever since the party,” Liz finished for him. “Do you think something happened there? She was acting strangely afterwards.”

“Then let’s find out,” Kyle said.

The three of them quickly grabbed their things, heading in the direction that Maria had left in. Entering the building Liz led the way to the class they had next. Rounding the corner they saw Maria’s back disappearing into the Eraser room. Rushing towards it Liz was positive that she heard the lock click after Maria entered. Super strong hearing could come in handy sometimes.

Kyle raised his eyebrows suspiciously, looking towards the door through which his sister had just passed. “Liz…”

Liz shook her head. “She hasn’t mentioned a guy to me.” Kyle reached for the doorknob but she grabbed his arm. “It’s locked.”

“How do you know?” She just nodded at him. “Oh.”

“I say we wait,” she told the others. “See who else leaves.” She walked across the hallway, peering into the classroom opposite. The bell had rung yet no one had entered the room. “I’m thinking that there’s no class in here next so we can keep watch from here,” she told them.

Kyle nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Yeah,” Alex echoed.

They walked into the classroom. “Oh,” Liz said, turning back to face them. “We’re all in the same class now. Maybe someone should cover so…”

Alex nodded. “I will.” He left the room.

Liz and Kyle both sat on the desks, watching the Eraser room door through the windows opening from the classroom into the corridor.

“I can’t believe she never told us,” Liz began.

Kyle was about to reply when Mrs Wallace entered the room. “Liz Parker, Kyle Valenti – what are you doing here?”

Liz smiled at the teacher, trying to appear innocent. “Mr Coolrick said we could practice our debate for English in here,” she lied. “Seeing as the classroom is empty this period.”

Mrs Wallace looked skeptical. “Don’t you need three people for a debate?”

Liz nodded. “Oh yeah, but Chris Watkins is sick and he’s our third so,” she tilted her head, shrugging her shoulders. “We just, you know, thought we might as well work on ours anyway,” she finished.

Mrs Wallace nodded, seeming to believe the story. “If you’re sure.” Seeing their nods she smiled. “Good luck with it,” she told them, leaving the room.

“Good one,” Kyle told her, seemingly impressed.

She grinned. “Thanks. I just came up with it – I can’t believe she bought it.”

He grinned back at her. “Well she did.” He turned back to watch the Eraser room door. “So now what? You seem to have all the plans.”

Liz shrugged a shoulder, relived that Kyle seemed to be less annoyed now. “We wait to see whose in there with her.”

***

His arms were around her the moment the door slammed shut. There was no time for pleasantries as Maria wrapped her arms around his neck, eagerly lifting her lips to his, only just remembering to lock the door as she did so.

“Michael…” she murmured softly as their lips touched. She pressed herself fully against him, all other thoughts quickly vanishing from her mind. It had been too long since she’d kissed him last. Too, too long.

She felt his tongue swipe at her lips and opened her mouth to him. She wrapped her arms even tighter around him, burying one hand in his soft hair. She smiled against his lips as she took in the familiar feeling of him against her. She didn’t know how she’d lasted a week without this.

His lips disentangled themselves from hers as his mouth lightly trailed down her neck to her shoulder as his hands crept up higher under her shirt. Following suit she let her hands leave his hair and let them wander up under his shirt, revelling in the feeling of his bare chest under her fingers.

She moaned as he lightly bit her shoulder, drawing him closer still. His lips rejoined hers again as they kissed furiously, breaking apart only when they desperately needed to catch their breath.

Her eyes meet his and she could see the lust in them. She reached to bring his lips down to hers again but he stopped her. She looked at him, confused.

“Why…?”

He trailed off but she knew what he’d been about to ask. Why was she here with him today when she’d pushed him away only two days earlier? What had changed?

“I want you.”

As soon as the words left her mouth his lips were back on hers. She closed her eyes, taking in the sensation.

That was true. She did want him. More than she’d ever wanted anybody actually.

She just wished he didn’t have to be an alien.

Part 19

Do you think she’s ever going to leave?” Liz asked Kyle from her position on the desk, her eyes still focused on the door to the Eraser room.

“Hopefully it’ll be soon,” Kyle replied as the bell rang. “Okay they’ve been in there one period so maybe-“

“Shh,” Liz said, cutting him off, watching as the door to the Eraser room slowly opened.

“Holy sh-it!” Liz exclaimed, almost falling off the desk at the sight of a slightly dishevelled Michael Guerin leaving the Eraser room.

“You got that right,” Kyle agreed. His voice was calm but she could hear the anger laced through it. He pounded his hand into the wall, cracking the plaster slightly but not breaking though. “She’s f-ucking around with an alien.”

Liz bit her lip, worried. The anger that had been sitting just below the surface ever since lunch was back. “Kyle…”

He ignored her, his gaze still focused menacingly on the Eraser room door. “She’s betrayed us! God, I knew she was acting strange trying to convince us to stop focusing on Isabel when it was her who first suspected her, and then today at lunch, I had a feeling she already knew but wasn’t telling us but I pushed it aside because I didn’t want to believe it. F-uck. She knew all along. She’s on their side. She’s a hunter – a full blood for gods sake – and she betrayed us!”

It did seem that way Liz had to admit, but she doubted if Maria would actually betray them, and Kyle had seemed to be wound up all day.

“Kyle…”

This time Kyle looked at her, waiting for her to speak. At that moment Liz noticed Maria leaving the Eraser room out of the corner of her eye. Kyle saw it too, grabbing her hand and pulling her off the desk and out of the classroom, following Maria.

Catching up to Maria Kyle let go of her hand, roughly grabbing Maria, who whirled around, struggling to get free. “What are you doing?”

Ignoring the curious looks from other students in the hallway Kyle dragged Maria outside, Liz trailing behind them.

Once reaching the grassy area in front of the school away from anyone else Kyle let her hands go.

***

Maria turned around to face her brother, hitting him across the cheek, smiling briefly when he winced.

“What was that for?” she demanded. “Trying to make a huge spectacle and draw attention to ourselves? Good one!”

What had just happened she wondered? One minute Michael had been kissing her and now her brother was dragging her around the school acting like a crazed lunatic.

Kyle glared at and her for a moment she wondered why. Then he uttered the words that made her heart drop. “We know.”

No. He couldn’t know, not really. “Know what?” she asked weakly.

He stepped closer to her, levelling her with a glare filled with disgust and revoltion. She almost recoiled in fear, but she stood her ground. She had never realised he was so intimidating. Never known what it was like to have him, her own brother, completely hating her.

“Know what?” He laughed bitterly and Maria turned to see Liz watching them worriedly.

“We know about Michael,” Kyle told her. “We saw him leaving the Eraser room. Doesn’t take a genius to know what was going on in there.”

She bit her lip. So they really did know. “Kyle I- It’s not what you think.”

Kyle ignored her. “He’s an alien. An alien. A f-ucking alien,” he repeated, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. She had to admit she was scared of him right now, scared of her own brother.

“So what you’re all on their side because that way you get to have a quickie with Michael in the Eraser room?”

His words stung. “No, it’s not like that,” she said pleadingly. She turned to look at Liz, her best friend in the whole world, but Liz just bit her lip and looked away, not wanting to get involved. Maria understood that, but it still hurt. She was all alone.

“So you’re saying you didn’t betray us?” Kyle glared at her, daring her to deny it.

“You don’t understand,” she yelled, getting right into his face. Lowering her voice, her eyes never leaving his, she told him. “He saved my life.”

Silence. It was eerie almost. Liz’s mouth dropped open. Kyle just stared.

Maria raised her shirt, showing them the now fading silver handprint. “I know he’s an alien,” she told them quietly. “I know because he saved my life. The night of the Halloween party he saved my life.”

Lowering her top she turned and walked away, leaving them standing behind her.

******

Part 20

Liz leant back against the wall, watching as the others flitted around the basement. They’d filled Alex in on the way over there and the three of them were still in shock over Maria’s revelation.

Maria wasn’t there, most likely avoiding Kyle – and her too – after the scene at school only a few hours ago. They hadn’t told their parents about it, opting instead to tell them that Maria was watching for aliens this afternoon. It was to remain between them, at least until they’d figured things out. Besides she had a feeling that their parents would freak if they found out what had happened.

She had a feeling that Kyle felt bad about what he’s said earlier. Of course Maria had betrayed them and kept this from them, but she had a good reason for this. An extremely good reason Liz had to admit. Michael had saved her life. Liz had a feeling that if the same thing had happened to her she would have kept it a secret too.

Her life. Liz felt her knees go weak and she stumbled slightly as she sat down at the table.

“Are you okay?” Alex’s mother asked, concerned.

She nodded. “Yeah.”

Getting comfortable Liz replayed what Maria had told them. Michael had saved her life. That meant that Maria had almost died. That without Michael Maria would have died.

Oh god. Liz swallowed hard at the thought.

She didn’t understand it though. Aliens bad, hunters good. They hunted the evil aliens who killed the innocent humans without a thought. That’s what she had been told her whole life.

But… if aliens were really that evil then why did Michael save Maria’s life? Maria, a human.

Maria, a hunter.

Although Liz doubted that Maria would have told Michael that. But still… he had saved her life. An alien had saved a hunter’s life.

And what exactly was going on between them?

***

Maria bit her lip, staring at her reflection in the mirror. The red eyes. The determined set jaw.

She was all alone. Her best friends thought she had betrayed them.

Of course, she guessed that in theory she had betrayed them. Falling for an alien. Lying to them. They had every right to feel betrayed she reasoned.

She was surprised when a tear trickled down her cheek. She’d thought her eyes had dried up from all the crying she’d done earlier.

She had wanted to tell them, but she hadn’t known how. They knew now though.

She wondered what they thought now that they knew the truth. Did Kyle still hate her? Did they still think she’d betrayed them?

She hadn’t stayed around long enough to find out. She’d ditched the rest of her afternoon classes, unable to stay there any longer. Not after what had happened.

She’d driven to the desert, allowing herself to take out her frustrations by chucking rocks against boulders so that they broke apart. Attacking rocks was a good way to vent your frustrations. At least as far as she was concerned.

And then she’d attacked the punching bag in their garage for a while before her anger had finally disappeared, leaving her sad and alone.

That was when the tears had started.

But all this made her realise something. That hiding the truth would only hurt people in the long run.

She just hoped it wasn’t too late.

***

She turned off the engine, opening the door and getting out of the car, thankful it was she who was carrying the keys to the Jetta and not Kyle when the whole alien thing had blown up in her face.

Not that she could really blame him. If their positions were reversed she would have probably done the same.

She entered the building, glancing at the doors she passed for the right number. She knew where he lived, she knew where everyone lived, she had to. Luckily hunter genes included an incredible memory.

Arriving at the right apartment she knocked on the door. Michael answered not long after, smiling at her. She grinned back weakly.

“Can we talk?” she asked, glancing around the apartment to make sure that Tess wasn’t here to hear it.

Michael nodded, leading her over to the couch, taking in her expression. “This is serious isn’t it?”

Maria nodded, sitting down next to him. She glanced around the room, having never been in his apartment before. She was impressed, especially seeing as it was occupied only by two high school seniors. Although Maria had a feeling that the cleanliness was Tess’s doing.

“Well, what is it?” Michael asked.

Maria bit her lip, looking down at her hands. “God, this is so hard to say,” she told him, taking in his slightly worried expression. “I don’t know how to say this right so I’ll just get straight to the point.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Michael, there’s a reason why I wasn’t surprised to find out you were an alien,” she told him, watching his reaction. She closed her eyes momentarily, opening them to tell him what she had come there to say.

“I’m a hunter.”

Part 21

She squeezed her eyes shut as soon as she got the words out, not wanting to see the expression on his face, not wanting to see the disgust, anger and betrayal she knew would be evident there.

An awkward silence had come over the apartment and she opened her eyes slightly, surprised to see Michael staring at her, his mouth opened in shock. “What?”

“I’m sorry…”

“You’re a hunter?” His voice was low, unemotional.

She bit her lip. “Uh, yes.”

“A hunter?”

She nodded. The disbelief was evident on his face.

“I… Why are you telling me?” he asked her.

“Because you deserved to know the truth,” she told him honestly, hoping he wasn’t taking this to badly. He seemed calm on the surface but she knew there were emotions raging just below. “I wanted to tell you sooner but I just couldn’t.”

“What changed?”

She bit her lip. She didn’t want to tell him this, didn’t want to tell him that the others knew, but what other choice did she have? “The others know. Kyle, Liz, Alex – they know.” She saw anger flash in his eyes and continued quickly. “I didn’t tell them. I tried to stop them but they saw Isabel use her powers.”

He nodded mutely. She was confused by his calm reaction. Was it shock? Or something else?

“Michael.” He didn’t answer. She placed a hand on his arm. “Michael?”

He pulled away, turning away from her. “Just go.”

She drew her arm back, standing up. She bit her lip as her eyes welled up. She’d expected him to be mad, but it still hurt.

Silently she let herself out of his apartment.

***

Michael stared at the door as it closed behind her. He couldn’t believe it. After all that, after him saving her life, she was a hunter.

Why had he let himself let his guard down?

She wasn’t anything special. How could he have let himself feel something for her. She was just a girl.

No, she wasn’t just a girl. She was a hunter.

A hunter. He’d fallen for a hunter.

God, so it turned out the others had been right to worry about how he was acting. Once again he’d screwed up.

Only this time it was worse. He’d exposed them to the hunters.

Wait a minute. She’d said that they saw Isabel use her powers and that she’d tried to stop them, so maybe-

He shook his head. It didn’t matter. No matter what she was still a hunter.

His enemy.

The door opened and for one unreasonable moment he thought it might be Maria coming back to tell him that she wasn’t a hunter and that he’d imagined the whole thing.

No such luck. It was Tess, bouncing in from what had obviously been a great evening with Max at the Crashdown. She paused when she saw him, the smile on her face being replaced with a look of concern. “What’s wrong with you?

He sighed. “Nothing.”

She gave him a ‘Yeah right” look as she landed next to him on the couch. “Michael, what’s wrong?”

He sighed again, realising that Tess’s life was in danger too so she did deserve to know. “As long as you swear you won’t tell Max and Is.”

Her eyes widened. “Of course I won’t. I didn’t tell them about Maria did I?”

He groaned.

“This is about Maria isn’t it?” she asked.

He groaned again, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily. “Maria’s a hunter.”

Tess’s mouth dropped open as she stared at him in shock. “You’re kidding. Maybe you’re wrong? How did you find out?”

“She told me.”

“She told you?” He could hear the surprise in her voice. He nodded.

“She just came out and told you she was a hunter?”

“Yep.”

“Oh wow, that’s-“ Tess broke off. “Are you okay? Why did she tell you?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Tess tilted her head, giving him a puzzled look. “Okay then. Well… What are you going to do now?” She paused for a moment, a concerned look crossing her face. “Wait, does she know…” she trailed off.

“She knows we’re aliens,” Michael told her quietly.

A look of shock crossed her face. “You told her?”

“No.” He paused. “I saved her life.”

“Oh,” Tess said. “Ooh. So that’s why she told you?”

Michael sighed. He wasn’t good at this kind of thing. “Yeah… But also,” he stopped momentarily, taking in Tess’s expectant face. “She said the others saw Isabel use her powers.”

Tess gasped. “They saw Isabel…” she trailed off. “But they’re hunters, they’re our enemies. Why did she tell us? Are they going to… do something to us?” Tess’s voice was weak, scared.

Michael just shook his head. “Right now Tess I know just as much as you.”

***

“Liz,” Maria said, startled to find Liz waiting at her front door when she returned from Michael’s. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to apologise for earlier,” Liz replied, to Maria’s surprise. “I shouldn’t have been suspicious of you. I know you would never betray us.”

Maria smiled with relief, unlocking the door and inviting Liz into the empty house. So not everyone was against her, thank god for that. Although she couldn’t believe Liz was actually apologising to her after everything.

“You don’t need to apologise you know,” she told Liz. “I did hook up with the enemy, and I didn’t tell you they were aliens when I found out.”

“I would have done the same thing,” Liz replied honestly, to her surprised. “He saved your life, you owed it to him to keep his secret. I shouldn’t have doubted you – it’s just I knew you were hiding something and then… with Michael...,” Liz paused, catching her lip between her teeth. “I think Kyle’s regretting what happened too.”

Maria just shrugged. She really didn’t care much about her brother right now. He hadn’t been interested in hearing what had happened, hearing her side. All he’d been focusing on was accusing her. She may be being paranoid or something but she actually felt like he had been glad to have a reason to put her down. She knew he was her own brother and that she shouldn’t be thinking like this, but she had a feeling that he resented her for being his equal and wanted to be the leader by himself.

“What happened?” Liz asked. “How did he end up saving your life?”

Maria swallowed. “Promise you won’t get mad?”

“Mad?”

She nodded. “Yeah. For not telling you.”

Liz looked at her curiously. “Okay.”

Maria took a deep breath. “Okay, well, that day I skipped history Michael was in the Eraser room.” Seeing the look on Liz’s face at that comment she continued quickly. “It was just a coincidence he was there too and nothing happened, we just talked. And then he was there the next day, and the next and so on, and somewhere along the line it changed from meeting there by coincidence to going there to see each other.”

“You hooked up with him.”

She nodded. “Yeah. So that’s why I was near him at the party. We were… you know?” Liz nodded. “So then when we went to leave a support pillar fell on me and the metal on it cut me – pretty badly I think, I couldn’t really move – so he healed me. He saved my life Liz.”

“Wow,” Liz commented. “I had no idea. No wonder you were so out of it afterwards.”

“Yeah… and I didn’t know he was an alien ‘till then so I was pretty much in shock. And even before then I didn’t know how to tell you guys about him. I mean, none of us have ever dated a human before.”

“Yeah,” Liz agreed. “Of course he’s not human.”

“He’s not the alien we’re looking for, none of them are,” Maria said, surprised by the pleading tone to her voice. “When he healed me it was silver, not gold like Mr Trevors.”

“I know,” Liz told her.

“They’re just like us,” she continued. “They’ve never harmed anyone.”

Liz nodded. “I know. I believe you. I know you would never purposely hide an evil alien.”

Maria nodded too, relieved her best friend believed her. “I wouldn’t.”

Part 22

Michael tuned out Max as he spoke, gazing around the Crashdown for any sign of Maria. She obviously wasn’t there though, because in the entire time he’d been there he hadn’t seen her once, and he knew even if she was avoiding him after what she’d told him last night there was no way she’d be hiding in the back this long if she was working.

He sighed, catching Tess’s eye as he did so. She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly at him. So it seemed that even now they were dating Tess still couldn’t stand Max’s long speeches. He wondered if Isabel actually listened or just tolerated them for her brother’s sake.

He and Tess had decided not to tell the others about the hunters just yet, figuring they probably weren’t in any imminent danger if Maria had actually told him she was a hunter and hadn’t tried anything on them in the time she knew they were aliens. But they didn’t know how to explain that to the others. Besides, it wasn’t as if the Evans’ hadn’t ever kept anything from them.

He didn’t know what to do about Maria. Talking to Tess last night had put things into perspective but he was still hurt it had taken her a week after knowing about him to tell him, and she only had because the others knew. But then he guessed if he’d found out she was a hunter he would have been in no rush to tell her he was an alien either.

He was worried she thought he was mad at her or something though, just by the way she’d acted last night. It wasn’t as if he meant to give her that idea, but he’d been in shock, he’d needed time for it to sink in, he hadn’t known what else to do.

The only thing he knew was that he still wanted her.

The word ‘hunter’ brought him out of his thoughts to pay attention to Max. As he turned towards his friend he noticed Tess giving him a panicked look. Oh no, what had Max said?

He cleared his throat. “Sorry, what?”

Max gave him his patented ‘frustrated leader’ look and it was all Michael could do not to roll his eyes. “I said that we have to find the hunters before they find us, especially with another alien stirring up trouble in Roswell which we don’t want to be accused of. Since we have no other suspects I say we start investigating Kyle and the others like Isabel suggested.”

Michael fought the urge to groan. Great, so now Max decided that the hunter threat was serious and to follow Isabel’s idea of suspects. Did he have bad timing or what? He could see Tess mouthing something at him and he knew she wanted him to tell Max right now, but he knew that he couldn’t right now. He had to figure out how he was going to tell Max. He didn’t want it to come out wrong and have Max going after the hunters knowing for sure they actually were hunters. “Didn’t Isabel say she thought she was wrong about that?”

Max cast a look at Isabel, who shrugged. “Maybe, but still they’re the only suspects we have,” Max told him.

“I don’t think…”

“Michael you’re not the leader here,” Max said. “And it’s not your decision. Isabel and I have come to the decision that we would rather have a known enemy than an unknown enemy, I thought you would too.”

Great, not the whole leader thing again. He didn’t know why Nasedo had even told Max he was the leader to begin with, it wasn’t as if it had helped Max any, all it had done was given him a reason to decide rules and think he was above the others.

“I do think that, I just don’t think we have the right people. We’ve never seen them acting suspiciously, except for that one time that was probably completely innocent. We have no proof and we can’t go round accusing innocent people of being hunters. It’ll draw attention to ourselves and the fact that we are aliens.” Michael stared at Max, hoping he was buying it. He was going to tell Max, just not right now, not when Max was all gung ho about finding the hunters. He’d never understand.

“Michael…” Max began.

He shook his head, standing up and moving out of the booth. “No Max, you don’t get it.” He looked at the others, not in the mood to sit through another conversation about hunters with them. “I’m going home.”

***

Kyle slumped against the wall of the Crashdown’s training basement, looking at Liz and Alex. Apart from the three of them the large room was empty – their parents were elsewhere and Maria had refused to come, opting to spend her entire Saturday in her room.

She was avoiding him he knew. And he couldn’t blame her, he had acted badly the day before. But then again, didn’t he have a right to? After all they’d caught her with an alien and he had had no way of knowing that said alien had saved her life.

So yes, he knew he’d acted unreasonably, but Maria had also been hiding things from them too.

Focusing on the other two he realised they had been sitting waiting for him to talk the whole time he’d been going through the events of the day before in his head. Clearing his throat he began.

“Okay, so we’ve established that Isabel, Max, Michael and Tess are all aliens, and therefore we should do the whole hunter thing and capture or kill them.” Looking at the other two he saw their shocked faces and quickly continued. “However, Michael saved Maria’s life and is therefore not the ‘evil’ alien we’ve been told all our lives to hate.” He exhaled sharply. “So what do we do?”

He hated to admit it, being the leader and all, but he had no idea what to do right now. And they couldn’t go to their parents for advice because they wouldn’t understand.

“Well one thing’s for sure,” Alex said. “We can’t do anything to them, not after he saved her life. And they’ve never done anything dangerous. All we’ve seen Isabel do is heat up food and change the colour of nail polish.”

“So what do we do?” Kyle asked. “Just go on with our lives pretending they’re not aliens?”

“Mr Trevors was harmed by a different kind of alien,” Liz said slowly. Kyle and Alex both turned to look at her. “That left gold marks, not silver like Michael. Maybe-“ She paused, giving the others a tentative look. “Maybe if we tell them we know they’re aliens and that we’re hunters we can get them to help us find the alien who harmed Mr Trevors.”

Kyle considered the idea. “But what if they’re involved with this evil alien but just aren’t evil themselves?”

Liz shrugged. “Could be. But to find the alien who harmed Mr Trevors I’m willing to take that risk.”

“It’s a good idea,” Alex said slowly. “But the I don’t particularly like the idea of joining forces with aliens, good or not.”

“I know,” Liz agreed. “I’m not thrilled with the idea of working with aliens either. But Michael saved Maria’s life and she wants to be with him… I say we do this for Maria.”

Kyle didn’t particularly like the idea of optionally associating with aliens either but Liz had a point. Looking at Alex he could see that he was agreeing too.

“Okay then. For Maria.”

***

Maria sat on her bed thinking, her legs pulled up to her chest as she stared out the window at the light rain that had started only minutes ago.

She’d spent pretty much her whole day in her bedroom, the primary reason for that being that she was avoiding Kyle. And, to her relief, it seemed like he didn’t want to talk to her right now either. After all he hadn’t appeared at her door, wanting to talk. While she wasn’t really mad at him anymore she still wasn’t in the mood to talk to him either.

Her eyes flickered to her closed bedroom door for a moment. He wasn’t here anyway, he was training with the others. He’d asked her if she wanted to come but she’d said ‘no’ and he hadn’t pursued it any further.

Her parents were out too so the house was empty, but she was content staying in her room pondering how she’d managed to screw up her life so much.

Michael didn’t want to see her – or so she’d assumed after last night, Kyle was avoiding her and she him, she’d lied to her best friends, there was still an evil alien out there, and, to top it all off, she’d fallen in love with her enemy. Could her life get any worse? At least Liz didn’t hate her.

Suddenly something appeared outside her window. Disbelieving she shut her eyes, sure he’d be gone when she opened them, but to her surprise, when she opened them again, there he was.

Michael. Standing in the rain, staring in at her. The previously light rain was steadily increasing, plastering his short hair against his head. She stared back at him for a few moments before opening the window to let him in.

Grabbing the towel that had been sitting in a heap on the floor ever since she’d dropped it there after her shower that morning she reached up to towel dry his hair, face and bare arms. “What are you doing here?”

He shrugged, letting her dry him. “I don’t really know.”

She took a deep breath. “Do you hate me?” she asked quietly.

“Hate you?” Michael took the towel out of her hands, giving her a confused look. “Why? Because you’re a…” He trailed off.

She nodded.

“No. I’m… I don’t know what I’m feeling. This whole thing is just-"

“Surreal. I know.” She’d known that ever since she’d found out.

“You’re not going to… capture us or anything?”

“No, of course not.” She sighed. She didn’t know what to say, what to do. “Look, it’s exactly the same for me you know. I’ve been told my whole life that aliens are evil and kill innocent people for no reason, but you don’t do that.” She paused. “Do you?”

“No,” he said, and she let out a sigh of relief. She’d been right in thinking they weren’t evil. Then his brow furrowed. “But Nasedo-"

“Nasedo?” she asked. Was he the alien who’d harmed Mr Trevors?

“Yeah. He was our protector. He called himself Ed Guerin. He died when Tess and I were ten.”

“Oh,” she said softly. So that was why Michael and Tess had been living alone since they were ten and no one had known about it – well, no one but her and the others. He obviously wasn’t the alien who’d harmed Mr Trevors then.

Michael swallowed audibly. “Nasedo killed someone,” he said softly, so softly that she had to lean in closer to him to hear. “But not someone innocent – someone who knew what he was – what we were – someone that Nasedo trusted, someone who turned out to have told hunters about Nasedo, but it was too late. Nasedo was killed also.”

“Atherton,” she breathed. She’d heard about Atherton. Her parents had been good friends with him when she was younger and he’d informed them that there was one alien in Roswell, only to be killed before her parents had killed the alien.

Oh god. She flopped down on her bed when she realised. Her parents had killed Nasedo.

Her parents had killed the only person who had ever looked after Michael.

Part 23

Michael’s eyes had widened as soon as she mentioned Atherton. “You knew him?”

She nodded slowly, the realisation that her parents had killed Ed Guerin weighing down on her. “He knew about you?” she asked, sitting up. “Knew that you were aliens?”

“Yes,” he asked, giving her a confused look.

She bit her lip. So Atherton had betrayed Nasedo yet he had still protected Michael and the others that was strange. “He told our parents about Nasedo but he never mentioned any other aliens.”

Surprise crossed Michael’s face but he didn’t say anything. Nervously chewing on her lip she realised she owed him the truth.

“Our parents killed Nasedo.”

Michael simply nodded, unsurprised, and she realised he’d been expecting that to be true ever since she’d mentioned Atherton.

“I’m sorry.”

He shook his head at her, taking her hand in his. “It’s okay. It was nothing to do with you. Besides he wasn’t around much anyway.” His voice was bitter. She remembered the flashes she’d gotten from him, remembered how upset he and Tess had been when Nasedo had disappeared again. They had only been five years old then, only just come out of the pods, yet he had left them for days at a time.

“But he was your family,” she said softly, knowing that even though he’d go away a lot that they still were upset by his death. Of course Michael wouldn’t have known she’d seen that from him. She briefly wondered what flashes he’d received from her.

“Tess is my family,” he said, his voice also soft. “She knows you’re-“

Maria nodded, she’d expected that. She was surprised he hadn’t told the other two as well but realised that him telling the other aliens was probably just as hard for him as her trying to tell the other hunters. Of course she’d never actually been able to tell the others.

“So what happens now?” she asked. “With us?”

“I don’t know.”

“I mean… I want to be with you. But…”

“But what?” his eyes were probing hers. She bit her lip.

“It’s just complicated.” She lightly trailed her hand down his chest.

“Doesn’t have to be,” he told her, leaning in so that she could feel his breath on her lips. She closed her eyes for a moment, savouring the feeling. When she opened them he was closer still.

She groaned. “But it is…”

They both moved at once. Their lips met desperately as she wrapped her arms around his neck, one hand lightly running through his hair. He pulled her into his lap, his hands creeping up under the back of her top. She moaned, taking in the sensation of his hands against her skin again. It had only been a day since she’d last seen him in the Eraser room but it felt like it had been a lifetime.

She lowered her hands as their tongues fought for dominance, running her fingers down his back until they reached the bottom of his shirt where they rested for a few moments. She disentangled her lips from his as her hands ran up the bare skin of his back. She heard him moan as she kissed the corner of his mouth, moving her lips over his nose, forehead, cheeks and chin before travelling down his neck, sucking furiously against his skin, intent on leaving a mark.

“Maria…” he gasped out as she pulled away, silently examining her work. Keeping her eyes focused on his she slowly licked her lips.

Within moments his lips were on hers again, his arms crushing her to his body as she rubbed against the bulge in his pants causing him to groan.

Her fingers fumbled with his buttons, placing light kisses on the newly exposed skin of his chest as she did so. When, finally, they were all undone she pushed the shirt back off his shoulders and down his arms, her fingers lightly trailing over his bare skin as she did so. Leaning forward she ran her tongue over his chest and stomach, loving the sounds she received from him as she did so. Pulling back she gazed into his deep brown eyes, which were now darkened with lust. “Michael…”

“Maria.” The word was breathed out. She leant in to him, intending to catch his lips with hers, but he stopped her. She pouted for a moment, but then his hands reached the base of her top and began running up her sides, bringing her top with them. Pulling back slightly she allowed him to pull her top over her head.

His eyes ran over her body and she squirmed in his lap, feeling self-conscious due to the fact that now she was topless except for her bra. He groaned and she allowed a grin to cross her face, loving the effect she had on him.

“You’re beautiful,” he told her, his voice husky. She felt her cheeks heat up slightly as his gaze never wavered from her. Moaning softly she reached to bring his lips back to hers.

***

Michael’s tongue ran over her lips as he pulled back slightly. She moaned at the loss of contact, sighing with pleasure when she felt his lips make their way down her neck, stopping at her shoulder before continuing down her front, planting light kisses between her breasts. She gripped his shoulders with one hand, the other running through his hair, loving how soft it was under her fingers.

She gasped when his mouth moved to one of her breasts, replacing the hand that had previously been caressing her breast through her bra. “Michael,” she moaned. “Michael…”

She never felt like this in her life before, it was amazing. She wanted him so much.

She shifted in his lap, trying to push him back onto the bed. Sensing what she was trying to do he lay down, pulling her with him, before flipping them over so that he was on top.

“Michael,” she murmured again, wrapping her legs around his waist, arching her body towards him.

“Maria…” His voice was low and gravely as he moved up her body so that his lips were level with hers. Her eyes fluttered closed as their lips met and they kissed furiously, passionately. She was surprised when the flashes hit her.

---

She saw Michael and Tess sitting at a table after sneaking over to the Evans’ to see how they were spending their Christmas. She could feel his sadness. Feel him wondering why the others got the special Christmas dinner while they were stuck with leftovers as Nasedo had disappeared again.

---

She saw the four aliens sitting in what had been Nasedo’s bedroom, discussing what to do now that Nasedo had died. She could feel his sadness, feel his anger at whoever had taken away the only person who had ever cared about him, and his anger at Max for trying to take charge when it was he and Tess who were more affected by his death. She could feel his confusion at why Nasedo told Max he was their king in their past life if all it had done was given Max a reason to lord over them.

---

She saw Michael watching her at lunch the Monday after he’d healed her. He wanted her so much but didn’t know why she had been avoiding him ever since he’d saved her life.

---

The realisation that Michael was sliding down the zipper of her pants brought her back to reality. She opened her eyes, blinking furiously, trying to clear her brain of all the flashes, thoughts and emotions swirling round in it. Reality crashed down on her and she pushed him away.

“We can’t.”

He ignored her, pulling her to him again and burying his head in her neck. She moaned as his lips teased her skin. She knew they shouldn’t, not right now, but it just felt so good.

“Michael,” she said, trying to push him away from her as she did. But instead of coming out loud and forceful her voice came out as a soft moan, causing Michael to suck even harder.

She pushed him away from her, moving off the bed and standing up, trying to get distance between them as she tried to catch her breath. “Michael.” It came out more forcefully that time, but there was still a husky quality to it. Damn.

She saw the hurt and confusion flash in his eyes. “We have to stop.”

“No we don’t,” he said, sitting up and reaching for her. She moved backwards.

“Yes we do,” she told him, trying to ignore how totally gorgeous he looked with his mussed hair, thoroughly kissed lips and bare chest. Right now she just wanted to-

She cleared her throat. She couldn’t think of that right now. Seeing that he was about to protest she continued. “Michael we don’t know what will happen. And then there’s the whole hunter-alien thing to consider. And besides we’re rushing it. Yesterday you were telling me to leave and today-“

“I was in shock, I still wanted you.”

He moved to reach for her again but she put her hand up. “Don’t.”

“Maria.” She let him take her hand, trying to ignore how much she just wanted to throw herself at him and rip all his clothes off right now. “Look, we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to today, but we don’t need to stop right now either.”

“Yes we do,” she said. “Michael if you don’t leave right now I don’t think I’ll be able to stop. I don’t want to stop,” she added quietly.

“Then why-“

“Why?” She pulled her hand out of his grasp. “Because you’re an alien and I’m a hunter and I think we need to sort this whole thing out before we-“ she paused, lowering her voice. “Before we sleep together.”

“I know,” he said regretfully, standing up. She had to clasp her hands together to prevent herself from reaching for him. “We do need to sort this out, but still…” He looked at her hopefully.

She shook her head. “We can’t. Not now. Not while everything’s all up in the air.”

He sighed, reaching for his shirt and shrugging it back on. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to say anything. She was surprised when he pulled her to him, crushing his lips to hers in an urgent, grasping, tangled kiss.

And then it was over. Licking his lips he gave her one last look before disappearing out the window.

Maria groaned, sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, staring at the window. How dare he do that to her, kiss her like that, leave her wanting more. Wanting so much more.

She hated this. Why couldn’t it just be simple? She had wanted him so much then, she still wanted him so much, but she knew she couldn’t sleep with him. Not with the others knowing who he was and Kyle still avoiding her because of it.

Not here, where the rest of her family could have arrived home and caught her making love with an alien.

Part 24

Maria groaned, burying her head in her pillow, cursing herself for being so preoccupied with thoughts of Michael last night that she’d forgotten to close her blinds, causing the early morning sun to stream in on her. It wasn’t fair. No one should be awake this early on a Sunday.

She closed her eyes, trying to get back to sleep, but as it was unsuccessful she opted to focus on Michael instead.

He was amazing. Last night was amazing. She had a feeling that if he wasn’t an alien and she wasn’t a hunter that she probably wouldn’t have woken up this morning a virgin.

She sighed, snuggling into the covers as she remembered his kisses, the way his hands felt against his body. His hands. He had quite large hands. She grinned at the thought.

Was she really considering having sex with Michael? She’d always thought it would happen with someone she’d been dating for ages, not someone she’d secretly hooked up with only three weeks ago. It was insane.

But good. Michael made her feel things she’d never felt before. Ever. She sighed, if only they could be normal people in a normal relationship. If only her brother didn’t hate her for being with him. If only she didn’t have to worry that there was an evil alien out there and the fact that her own parents had killed the person he had considered his father.

She groaned when she heard someone knocking on her bedroom door. She wanted to spend more time thinking about Michael. “Yes?” she called out.

“Can we talk?” replied Kyle’s voice.

Sighing Maria got out of bed and walked over to the door, opening it. Why did Kyle want to talk now, this early, when her thoughts were occupied with something – or more specifically someone – else.

“Now?” she asked, taking in how awake he looked. He was dressed and everything.

“We really need to talk.”

She sighed. “Fine, can I have a shower first though?”

***

After she’d showered and dressed Maria made her way to the kitchen, noting the fact that her parents were already out. Of course she hadn’t expected Kyle would want to discuss this when their parents were home anyway.

Popping a few slices of bread into the toaster she turned to face her brother who was lounging on the couch in the adjoining living room. “So what did you want to talk about?” she asked warily. It was the first time she’d had an actual conversation with Kyle since he’d blown up at her two days ago.

“What do you think?” His reply was short. Harsh almost.

She rolled her eyes. Okay, so he was still pissed at her. Then why did he want to talk? “Great,” she muttered sarcastically.

“You know I can hear you,” he commented.

“Good for you. You know, you’re the one who wanted to talk so I don’t know why you’re acting like this. If anyone should it’s me. After all I’m the one who got dragged out of school and yelled at.”

Kyle stood up, walking over to her and levelling her with a glare. “You do realise you have no reason to act all high and mighty. Let me remind you that you hooked up with an alien. Our enemy.”

She returned his glare. “You hooked up with Liz. She’s my best friend, I have a right to be annoyed at you about that. Haven’t you heard the rule about brothers and best friend’s dating?”

Kyle snorted. “That’s completely different and you know it. We’re all on the same side, she’s not our enemy. Unlike Michael.”

She bit down hard on her lip to prevent herself from yelling at Kyle. She wanted to so much but knew it wouldn’t help her at all, if anything it would probably make Kyle ever angrier with her. “Michael’s not our enemy,” she told him calmly, but she had a feeling some of the anger was seeping through. “Do I have to spell it out for you? He. Saved. My. Life.”

Something flickered in Kyle’s eyes and the anger dissipated from them. “You know this isn’t how I wanted this to happen.”

She regarded him warily. What did that mean? Was he not angry with her anymore? “How did you want this to happen?”

Kyle sighed. “Look, I know why you did what you did. You still betrayed us, I know that, but I understand why. He saved your life, we have to be grateful to him for that.”

She nodded. “Yes, you do. Without him I would have died in the fire Kyle. He’s not our enemy if he saved my life.”

“I know he’s not evil,” Kyle began. Maria looked at him in surprise. “It’s just… he’s an alien. And how do we know he’s not associated with the evil alien? And if we do what Liz said and-“

“Wait, Liz?” Maria interrupted.

Kyle looked blankly at her for a moment then seemed to remember she wasn’t present for whatever Liz had said. “She said we should work together with the others to find whoever harmed Mr Trevors.”

Maria was surprised. “Really? And you- you all agreed?”

Kyle nodded slowly. “Yes.”

“Oh.” Wow. So they did believe her. This was good news.

“But still, it’s risky, we don’t know-“

“Yes we do,” she interrupted. “Michael told me they’ve never
harmed anyone. And the only other alien they’ve ever known was Nasedo and he’s dead now. They don’t know anyone else, they’re not siding with this evil alien, whoever he is, I know they’re not.” She left out the fact that Nasedo had in fact killed someone. Atherton.

“Are you sure?” She could tell by the eager tone in Kyle’s voice that he did believe her and was willing to work with the other aliens to figure out who the evil alien was.

“I’m positive,” she replied, reaching to grab her now cooked toast from the toaster quickly adding some jam. “He told me so himself and I know he was telling the truth.”

“How?” Kyle asked.

She shrugged. She wasn’t going to mention the flashes to anyone, they were too private, something just between her and Michael. “You trust me right? You just do, no matter what?” she asked Kyle, who nodded. “Well I trust Michael.”

“If you’re sure,” he said skeptically.

She nodded emphatically. “I’m sure,” she replied, taking another bite of her toast.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door and she and Kyle exchanged confused glances. Who would be calling round here this early? It’s not as if they’d asked the others to come by. Maria headed towards the door, toast in hand, Kyle following her. She was shocked to find who was standing there.

“Tess?” she said, staring at the blonde. What was she doing here?

Tess glanced at Kyle momentarily, her eyes running over him before returning to Maria. “Can we talk please?” She glanced back at Kyle. “Alone.”

“Sure,” she replied, wondering why suddenly everyone was wanting to talk to her this morning. She walked down the front steps to join her, aware of Kyle’s eyes on her for a few moments before he closed the door, heading back inside.

They walked to the park at the end of the road before stopping to sit on the swings there. Luckily the park was deserted so there was no chance of them being overheard.

Maria twisted her swing to turn and look at Tess, briefly wondering when the last time she had sat in one was. “So what do you want to talk about?”

Tess laughed, her words echoing what Kyle had said earlier, only they were in a light, friendly tone. “What do you think?” She paused. “I know you’re a hunter. Michael told me after you told him.”

She nodded. “Yeah, he told me you knew.”

Tess looked at her, obviously surprised. “Really? When?”

“Last night,” she replied softly, trying to keep her mind from wandering back to what happened last night as it had been doing so often since.

“Oh, so that’s where he disappeared too after he said he was going home.” Tess kicked her leg lightly. “So is it all good now?”

Maria was unable to keep the grin from crossing her face. “I think so.”

Tess nodded knowingly, raising her eyebrows. “Right then, I don’t think I want to know any more.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway I didn’t want to talk to you to find out all about your relationship with Michael anyway.”

She sighed with relief. She didn’t think she wanted to be discussing it with anyone right now, much less his sister.

“So you’re probably wondering why I wanted to talk to you then, am I right?”

Maria nodded. “Yep.” She had a feeling it couldn’t be too bad. Tess was being so friendly and pleasant that Maria didn’t know how anyone could not like her.

“I just, well, I wanted to get to know you.”

“And make sure I’m not about to hunt you?” Maria added, a slight smile crossing her face.

Tess grinned, raising her eyebrows at her. “Well can you blame me?”

She shook her head. “No. I would have done the same thing.” A thought quickly crossed her mind. “Wait, you’re not planning to use your alien powers on me are you?” she asked.

“No.” Tess shook her head, her curls bobbing around her face, but Maria could tell she was smiling too. She trusted Tess. Why she didn’t know, after all she barely knew her, but she did. Probably because she trusted Michael and she was his sister. Besides she’d seen Tess in the flashes and had seen how close they were. She trusted Tess, she had no reason not to.

“So,” Tess began, a serious look crossing her face. “You’re a hunter, we’re aliens, what are you going to do?”

Maria shrugged. “I don’t know. We haven’t really been taught what to do if we find out that in fact aliens are good not evil you know.”

“You thought we were evil?” Tess laughed. “I guess that changed when Michael saved your life huh?”

Maria raised her eyebrows, surprised. She hadn’t realised that Michael had told Tess that. Did that mean she knew about the flashes? “Pretty much. How much did he tell you anyway?” she asked curiously.

“Oh, just the basics,” Tess replied, leaning her head against the chains holding up the swing. “You’re a hunter, he saved your life and the others know because of Isabel.” Tess made a disgusted sound. “Good to know that Isabel, while thinking she’s above everyone, would probably resulted in getting us killed if you and Michael hadn’t hooked up.”

Maria just nodded, unsure how to respond to that. She had never thought of that, but it was probably true. If she had never hooked up with Michael and if he hadn’t saved her life they would have probably thought that Michael, Tess, Isabel and Max were the evil aliens.

“I think the others want to get to know you guys,” she said. “Maybe you could help us.”

Tess nodded. “Hunters and aliens working together huh? That should be interesting.” She paused, swinging back and forth for a few moments. “He really likes you, you know,” Tess said softly. “I’ve never seen him this way about anyone.”

Maria bit her lip, dropping her gaze to her lap. However she was unable to keep the grin from spreading across her face.

She could feel Tess staring at her. “And you really like him too.”

***

Tess jumped out of the car, sitting down on the uneven ground of the quarry, the sun heating her skin. The others followed suit, sitting next to her.

She and Michael had called this meeting. They’d decided this morning that they definitely needed to tell the others about the hunters as soon as possible. Tess just hoped they took it okay.

“We need to talk,” she began, glancing round the circle at the others.

Max nodded. “We do. And at least this time Michael can’t just up and leave whenever we bring up hunters,” he said, looking pointedly at Michael. Tess furrowed her brow as she watched Max. Why was he acting like a jerk? Sure, when they were alone he was sweet, but he was treating Michael like crap for no reason.

Tess took a deep breath, glancing quickly at Michael. She had to get this over with. “We know who the hunters are.”

She heard Isabel and Max gasp in surprise while Michael’s face remained the same. This wasn’t how they’d planned to tell them but she knew dragging it out any longer would just make it worse.

“You know who the hunters are?” Isabel asked slowly, her voice almost disbelieving. “Are you sure?”

Tess nodded, seeing Isabel’s face fall. She knew that despite all Isabel’s searching for hunters that deep down she’d hoped that there were none in Roswell.

“Well, who are they?” Max asked, glancing back and forth between her and Michael.

“Not just yet Maxwell,” Michael said. They were the first words he’d spoken since they’d left the apartment.

“Well the hell not?” Max asked. “You know who the hunters are. We better go get them and take care of it.”

Tess eyes widened at Max’s words. “You’re not taking care of anyone,” she told him forcefully.

“What?” Max asked, his eyes darting from Tess to Michael and back again while Isabel just watched the whole thing, a worried expression on her face. “Why are you protecting them?”

Tess sighed, looking away from Max momentarily, sharing a quick glance with Michael. This wasn’t going the way they’d hoped. But then it was doubtful that Max would just accept the whole hunter thing.

“Because they’re on our side.” Michael’s voice was emotionless.

“They’re on our side?” Max laughed. “They’re hunters! Of course they’re not on our side.”

Isabel, who, like Max, had been watching the two of them, spoke up. “Maybe we should just listen to them?”

Max was about to retort when he saw the determined expression on Isabel’s face.

“They are on our side,” Tess repeated. “You may not want to believe it, but it’s true.” She was positive it was true. She could tell how sincere Maria was being today. She knew the girl was in love with Michael and wouldn’t consider turning him in.

“How do you know?” Isabel’s voice was quiet, unsure. Tess wasn’t sure she’d ever seen her like this.

“Because I talked to one of them this morning,” Tess replied, ignoring the shocked look Michael was giving her.

“Talked to who?” Isabel asked.

“Maria,” she replied softly.

“Maria?” Max asked, raising his voice. He gave Michael a suspicious look. “Maria Valenti?”

“Yes,” Tess replied, levelling Max with a glare, daring him to say more. “She’s on our side. She’s just like us, she doesn’t know what to do either. But she told me she knows we’re not evil and that her and the other three are on our side. She said that the others were hoping that we would work together with them.”

“There’s four of them?” Isabel asked, worried.

“And just how does she know we’re aliens?” Max asked, turning his attention to Michael. Michael just glared back.

“Maybe you should ask your sister,” he said. “After all she was the one they saw using her powers.”

Isabel gasped while Max looked at Tess for confirmation. “It’s true,” she told him quietly. She then turned to Michael. “But you have to tell them…”

“Tell us what?” Max asked. Tess could tell that he didn’t like being left out of all of this.

Michael glanced at her and she nodded. “You have to. That way they’ll understand that they’re definitely on our side.”

“Why?” Isabel asked. “What happened? Why are they definitely on our side?”

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Michael told Max. He then turned to Isabel. “I saved her life.”

“You saved her life?” Max exploded. “How is that not doing anything?”

“Max. Shut up!”

Tess and Michael exchanged a shocked glance before turning to Isabel. Tess almost had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. Had Isabel Evans really told Max to shut up?

“Don’t you see?” Isabel continued. “Michael saved her life. He saved a hunters life. Think of it from their point of view. He saved one of them so they can’t hurt him. And then there’s the fact that we’re not even the so-called ‘evil’ aliens they think we are, shown by the fact that Michael was willing to save her life, so they are on our side. In fact they’re indebted to us.”

Tess smiled, glad that at least one of the Evans’s was picking up on what was going on. “Exactly.”

She could see the conflicted emotions crossing Max’s face. “I guess you’re right,” Max admitted slowly. “But-“

“I say we go talk to them,” Isabel interrupted. “Figure out exactly what’s going on.”

They stood up, heading towards the car. Max still seemed pretty confused right now but Tess didn’t care. For once in their life they didn’t have to worry about hunters trying to kill them.

“See,” she said quietly to Michael. “I told you that we should tell them.”

Part 25

The lunch rush at the Crashdown had just ended when the door jangled and Michael walked in. Liz watched as he made his way over to the counter where Maria was standing.

“What do you want?” she could hear Maria ask over the noise in the café. Liz knew she should probably work instead of just staring at them but she had never actually seen Maria with Michael before and was curious as to what was going on between them.

As she watched Maria leant her arms on the counter so that her face was level with Michael’s. She watched in awe as Michael whispered something in Maria’s ear, causing her to laugh.

“I’m serious.” Liz could hear the laughter in her friend’s voice.

“So am I.”

Her shock at seeing them together increased even more as she saw the tender way in which Michael smoothed a few loose strands of Maria’s hair behind her ear, their lips touching in a kiss as he did so.

Liz turned away, feeling not only stunned but slightly jealous too. She had never realised that what Maria had with Michael was more than making out in the Eraser room, despite the fact that he’d saved her life, yet what she had just witnessed was more than just two people who’d casually hooked up.

She headed to the kitchen, dropping off some dirty dishes as she picked up some orders. When she returned to the main area Michael was gone and Maria was making a beeline for her. As soon as she’d delivered her orders Maria was pulling her in the direction of the backroom.

“We need to talk.”

The door of the break room closed behind them and Liz turned to Maria, giving her a questioning glance.

“They want us to talk to them this afternoon – all of them.”

Liz stared at her friend in shock. What? Did all the aliens know? She had never thought that Maria had told them already. Despite her plan to work with them the idea of them knowing that they were hunters made her apprehensive. Before Liz could voice her thoughts Maria continued.

“I told them to meet us when our shift finished at four. We should probably tell Kyle and Alex, but I doubt they’ll have anything on right now anyway. They’re sitting in a booth out there.”

Liz just stared at her friend, unable to find the words. The idea of having to talk to them so soon was unsettling. But she knew she had to do it. She had to do it for Maria’s sake, and for theirs too.

They had to convince the aliens to work with them and help them find the evil alien before it was too late.

***

He made his way through the crowds in the UFO centre, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of hunters or aliens. He knew they were in Roswell, he could sense them. He just needed to find them.

He knew for sure that the two he’d seen at the party were indeed what he was looking for, but he was still unsure as to whether they were alien or hunter. He’d hoped that maybe they were around here somewhere so he could find out for sure they. He needed to know so he could find the others.

He’d already spoken to one of them but they had given him no indication of what they were. Of course he hadn’t expected them to come out and tell him, but a slight hint would have been nice.

It didn’t matter though, he still had time.

Time to observe them some more. Time to watch and be certain who they were before he made his move.

***

Maria stared out the window as she sat in the backseat of the Jetta, watching the familiar desert scenery go by. Kyle was driving, his eyes focused on the Evans’s Jeep in front of them and Alex and Liz were chattering on happily about something or other.

“You know,” she heard Alex say, turning to look at her from the passenger seat. “If you had never got to know Michael we would have never realised that they would be able to help us find the person who harmed Mr Trevors,” he said, grinning broadly at her. She grinned back weakly at Alex. She knew he was just trying to make her feel better about the whole thing but he was trying too hard. She just wished he would treat her the way he always did.

Focusing her gaze at the Jeep in front she noticed that it was turning off the side of the road. They followed, driving a short way up a narrow road before stopping in an open area that dropped down into the lake. Glancing at the loose rocks scattered around Maria assumed they’d arrived at ‘the quarry’.

Kyle turned off the engine and they all got out, joining the other four. Maria stood next to Michael, smiling quickly at him before turning to the others. Everyone seemed to be staring awkwardly at each other waiting for someone to speak. Maria was just about to open her mouth when Tess beat her to it.

“So, Maria says you guys were thinking of working with us,” she said, getting straight to the point.

“What? Do you tell them everything?” Kyle asked her suddenly, and she could hear the annoyance in his voice.

“No,” she retorted angrily. “Besides we were thinking of working with them.” She glanced at Liz. “Weren’t we?”

Liz nodded. “Yes.” She gave Kyle a concerned look, placing a hand on his arm.

“Okay then,” Maria said, giving her brother a frustrated look. What was wrong with Kyle? Why did he say tell her that they wanted to work with the aliens if he was so annoyed about it?

“So.” Isabel said slowly, glancing at them. “I take it you guys aren’t planning on hunting us or anything?” she asked.

“No,” Maria replied.

A grin crossed her face. “Great. I didn’t think you would, especially after Michael saved your life, but then you are hunters…” she trailed off.

“We’re not going to do anything to you,” Liz told her. “Your secrets safe with us. Actually we were hoping that maybe you’d help us.”

A look of confusion crossed Isabel’s face. “Help you? How?” Maria thought it was strange that Isabel seemed to be so accepting of the fact that they were hunters. Of course Michael and Tess were already okay with it, but she hadn’t expected Isabel to be. She had always seemed so cold and uncaring, but now she seemed to be trying to be friendly and Maria had a feeling she was slightly scared of the fact that they were hunters.

Of course Max didn’t seem okay with the whole thing. He was watching them all warily, a look of distaste on his face. She knew from the flashes that she’d received from Michael that he was their leader, but right now he didn’t seem to be acting like one. Of course neither her nor Kyle were taking charge now either, but at least both of them had spoken and actually seemed to care about what was going on.

“Well,” Liz began slowly. “Firstly do you know of any other aliens in the area?”

“Nope, none at all,” Isabel replied. Of course Maria already knew that. She turned to Michael, smiling at him, and was surprised when he wrapped his arms around her so that she was leaning against his back. She couldn’t help a grin cross her face as she snuggled into his arms, barely noticing Tess raising an eyebrow in their direction.

“That’s what we thought. Anyway it doesn’t matter,” Liz added with a shake of her head. “But we do know there’s another alien in Roswell, one who harmed Mr Trevors leaving a gold handprint, and we were wondering if you could help us find him.”

Maria waited for Isabel’s answer, knowing instinctively that Michael and Tess would help, but she wasn’t so sure about the other three.

“So they weren’t just visiting him,” Isabel said triumphantly. Maria was thoroughly confused by her comment but Michael and Tess seemed to get it.

“So, um, was that a yes?” she asked.

Isabel nodded. “Sure. Besides, just because he’s an alien that doesn’t mean he mightn’t be our enemy too.”

Part 26

Maria had barely been home half an hour when Michael appeared outside her window. She opened it, smiling at him. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he replied, moving to climb in. Quickly glancing at the bed and remembering what had almost happened there only a day ago she realised that being in a bedroom with Michael right now probably wasn’t the smartest place to be. Every time she was near him she had an overwhelming urge to jump him, and she was sure if she wanted to take that next step quite yet.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” she suggested.

His eyes quickly flicked to the bed before meeting hers and she could tell he knew why she’d suggested it, but he didn’t comment on it. “Sure.”

They walked down the street to the park where she and Tess had talked that morning, but opted to sit against a tree so they were hidden from the road instead of on the swings. She leant against his chest, her legs intertwining with his.

“So I think it went well today,” she commented, turning her head to look at him. His lips were so close and she realised that if she moved hers a fraction she could capture his with hers. But she wasn’t going to, not now. She was going to have a conversation with him. They needed to have an actual conversation. There was no way she was going to kiss him right now. No way at all.

She swallowed hard, turning her face away from him so she wasn’t staring right at him.

“Yeah,” he replied, his arms wrapping around her waist, his hands resting on her stomach. She placed her hands on his, idly playing with his rings.

“Max didn’t seem too thrilled though,” she commented. “But Isabel was,” she added. “So I guess that’s three against one huh?”

Michael nodded, his chin lightly brushing against her hair causing tingles to run up her spine. “Yeah,” he said softly. “But then he thinks his opinion should matter more because he’s the leader.”

“I know how that feels,” she replied, turning her head to meet his eyes. “Kyle’s the same way. To me even, and we’re supposed to be equals so…” She rolled her eyes. “I know how you feel. Unfortunately.”

Michael’s brow furrowed with her words. “So you and Kyle…” he trailed off confused.

“We’re both the leaders,” she explained. “It ended up that way because we’re full-blooded. Both my parents were hunters.”

His eyebrows raised at that. “Really? So you’re full-blooded? Does that mean you have extra powers?”

She shook her head, laughing slightly. “I wish. That would be cool, wouldn’t it? We just have stronger powers than the others.” She tilted her head to the side, thinking. “Although I guess you wouldn’t really call them powers, not like yours, we just have greater strength, hearing, and all that.”

Michael scratched his forehead. “Oh, okay then.”

She elbowed him playfully. “Don’t sound so disappointed.”

He looked at her for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. “But if you and Kyle are both leaders then why does Kyle annoy you?”

She sighed, snuggling closer into Michael. “I think he hates the fact that he has to share the leadership with me. Usually there’s just one leader in a group of hunters based on their strength, but seeing as we’re equals and the first full-blooded hunters ever we both ended up being joint leaders.” She paused, biting her lip for a moment. “I think he hates that my hooking up with you meant we could work with you guys to find the aliens. I may be being paranoid or something but I think he was happy to find out about us because it meant I’d screwed up, you know?” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m being stupid aren’t I?”

His fingers lightly trailed down her cheek, cupping her face. “That’s not stupid. He probably does wish that he was the only leader. Don’t you wish you were?”

“Yes,” she admitted slowly. She looked up at him. “Oh I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be complaining about this should I? I mean you’re stuck with Max as a leader and aren’t even a joint leader with him. I shouldn’t be complaining. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your problem. Besides it would be worse to be leader and have the other leader taking charge over you than to not be one.”

She shrugged, gazing into his eyes. She really wanted to kiss him right now. So much. But she’d promised herself that she was going to take things slow with Michael. After all despite the others willing to work with the aliens she still had no idea what they thought about her and Michael together.

She lowered her gaze to his lips, watching as he unconsciously licked his lips, unaware of her focus on them. The movement stirred something in her and her willpower ran out. In one quick move she crushed her lips against his, wrapping her arms around his neck.

His tongue lightly probed her mouth as she closed her eyes, loosing herself in the feeling. His hands were rubbing against her back as she pressed herself closer to him. Their lips didn’t leave each other’s until breathing became a necessity.

“God, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to do that,” he breathed out as she lightly kissed her way over his face.

She pulled back to look at him. “Then why didn’t you?”

“Because you said you wanted us to slow down.”

She stared at him, a look of surprise on his face. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I, um, I still think we should though. I mean, we don’t know what will happen… All I know is that when I’m with you…”

“I know exactly how you feel.” His eyes probed hers.

She shifted her body slightly so that she was facing him, her legs straddling him, attaching her lips once again to hers as her hands ran down his back and up under his t-shirt, her nails lightly grazing his skin. She moaned into his mouth as he kissed her fiercely before pulling back, his eyes dropping to where one of her hands had moved to caress his bare chest under his top.

“I thought we were going slow.”

She just sighed as her tongue trailed down his neck. “Michael I think we’re incapable of going slow.”

***

Maria pushed open the doors to the Crashdown on Monday morning when she and Kyle arrived to drive the other two to school. Kyle was right behind her and she had to admit she had no idea what was going on with him right now – he’d barely said a thing in the car on the way over. Of course she’d barely said anything either, which was unusual for her, but what was the point in talking if he wasn’t going to answer?

Alex was already sitting at the counter waiting when Liz suddenly burst through the doors of the back room backpack in hand. She waved to them as she made her way towards them.

“What’s the rush to get to school today?” Maria asked, taking in her friend’s overly awake and eager mood. “And how are you so wide awake first thing on a Monday?”

Liz just shrugged, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. The others turned to leave the Crashdown but Maria stood in place, realising she needed to ask the question that had been plaguing her all night.

“Wait,” she said, causing the other three to turn and look at her. “Are you guys okay with Michael and I being together?”

“Sure,” Liz said, nodding. The look in her eyes was almost one of envy and Maria suddenly realised that Liz envied what she had with Michael especially seeing as all that Liz had with Kyle was a couple of brief hook ups plus a whole lot of Kyle focusing on himself being a leader.

Alex just smiled saying, “Well he did save your life.” Whereas Kyle didn’t look too pleased but grunted a ‘yes’.

“Are you sure?” Maria pressed, making sure that they were actually fine with it. Despite the fact that she had kept the whole Michael thing from them now that they knew she wanted them to be okay with it. After all she spent most of her time with them and didn’t want them holding grudges against her for hooking up with Michael.

“Yes,” Liz said while the others nodded. “You’re happy, that much is obvious. And the rest of us are happy for you.”

***

“Maria told me that she and Kyle are both full-blooded,” Michael commented at lunch that day.

Tess and Isabel both looked at him with interest. Max however hadn’t arrived at their table yet and Michael was unsure as to whether he was avoiding them or he was just late.

“Full-blooded,” Tess breathed out, a look of awe on her face. “Wow. So does that mean they have extra powers?”

Michael shook his head, frowning in confusion. So Tess had heard about that too. He had been seriously wondering if he’d made that idea up. “No. She said they just have stronger strength and all that, but no extra powers.”

Isabel frowned at him. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Tess put in. “Didn’t Nasedo tell us that the legend was that if a full-blooded hunter was born they would not only be stronger and smarter but have extra powers different from any that other hunters possess?”

“That’s exactly what I thought!” he exclaimed, relieved that he wasn’t the only one who had heard that. “But she told me she definitely doesn’t.”

“Well that’s weird,” Isabel said thoughtfully. “Of course it was only legend, no full-bloods were ever heard of – until Maria and Kyle of course – so maybe that’s just what the aliens thought would happen but as legends aren’t always true it just didn’t happen. I mean how would any alien know that anyway?”

Michael had to agree with that. How would an alien have known that if a full-blooded hunter was born it would have extra powers? It wasn’t as if aliens and hunters were on close terms. Well, not usually.

“Yeah…” Tess said slowly. “Anyway it doesn’t really matter does it? Maria obviously doesn’t have extra powers otherwise she would know about them so there’s no point in wondering how aliens way back came up with that theory. Anyway,” she added, looking first at Isabel and then at him, “What’s happening? We’re working with the hunters right?”

Michael nodded. “Yep.”

“So what’s happening?” Tess asked, giving him a questioning look.

Michael shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure. They want us to help them so I guess we’ll just wait and see how they want us to help.”

“I think I heard something about a meeting tomorrow at lunch,” Isabel commented. Both he and Tess looked at her in surprise.

“How do you know?” Tess asked curiously.

Isabel shrugged. “Alex told me this morning. I thought you guys would have already heard – Michael anyway. Haven’t you seen Maria today?” Michael just nodded. Sure he’d seen Maria, but seeing as their ‘seeing’ of each other had involved the Eraser room there hadn’t been much talking going on.

“Well,” Isabel continued. “Apparently the girls are working after school today so it can’t be today so they figured tomorrow lunch everyone would be free.”

Michael nodded. “Great.” Tess murmured her agreement.

At that moment there was a sudden clearing of throat behind them and they looked behind them, surprised to see Max standing there. Why he hadn’t just sat down without alerting them of his presence by throat clearing Michael didn’t know.

“Hey,” Tess said, smiling at Max. Taking that as encouragement Max sat down. There was silence as the three of them waited for Max to say something.

“Well?” Isabel pressed.

Max cleared his throat again, looking nervously at them. Nervous was a new thing for Max. Since finding he was king and assuming that he had the final say in everything Michael hadn’t seen Max nervous.

“So I take it you’re helping them out.”

Tess nodded. “Of course we are. They’re not going to harm us and they’re on our side so why not? We have nothing to lose by helping them and everything to gain. Besides I don’t like the idea of another alien wandering around and harming people that we don’t know about. What if someone finds out and we get nailed for it?”

“I doubt that’s going to happen,” Max commented.

Isabel shrugged. “Still she has a point.”

Michael watched as an internal battle seemed to wage inside Max before finally he seemed to give in.

“Okay,” he sighed. “I guess I’ll help.” Max then turned to Michael, giving him a steady look. “But I’ll just let you know that this doesn’t make your hooking up with a hunter any less wrong.”

“Wrong?” Isabel asked confused, voicing what he was feeling. “How can it be wrong? It may have just saved our lives.”

Part 27

Maria and Michael sat together and the otherwise unoccupied table. They had, as usual, ditched fourth period to spend time in the Eraser room, which they had left as soon as the lunch bell rang not wanting to be late to the meeting and annoy the others, which seemed pointless as none of the others had arrived yet.

“Strange how we’re actually the earliest,” Maria commented. “Where are they?”

“No idea,” Michael replied. “But I know why we’re so early. Because someone was paranoid about being late,” he said teasingly. “I told you we could have stayed one more minute,” he continued, placing a hand on her knee.

“Yeah, and one minute would have led into ten which would have led into-“

“I’m not complaining,” he interrupted, smirking.

“I know you’re not,” she replied, trying to hide a smile. Kneeling on the bench she leant over and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Where are they?” she asked again, sighing.

His eyes probed hers, his lips forming a smirk. “Why are you so worried they’re not here? Feeling frustrated that you rushed to leave when we’re been sitting here ten minutes and they still haven’t arrived?”

Maybe. Yes. But she wasn’t going to admit that to him. “No I just-“ She broke off when she realised Liz was heading over to them. Finally. If it had taken them any longer Maria would have probably ditched the meeting and hauled Michael back to the Eraser room.

“Where have you been?” she demanded as soon as Liz was in hearing range. While she didn’t mind being left alone with Michael normally right now being alone in him in a student-filled courtyard in front of everyone was hell. Especially after their no-taking-off-clothes make out session in the Eraser room – they were trying to go slow. All she wanted to do right now was rip off Michael’s shirt and run her mouth all over his chest. Not the ideal mood to be in for a serious ‘evil alien’ discussion.

“Where have I been?” Liz asked. “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you guys ever since the bell rang.”

Huh? “What do you mean? We’re right here.”

Liz gave her a puzzled expression. “Yeah, I can see you’re here. But didn’t you remember we had a meeting?”

“Yeah,” Maria replied, wondering what Liz’s problem was. “Here.”

“No, not here. On the grass where we can’t be overheard. You know that.” She paused, giving them a relieved look. “Well thank god you’re here. I was worried I was going to have to pull you out of the Eraser room.”

Another few minutes and she would have. “Liz, the Eraser room?” she asked in an indignant tone. “We don’t spend all our time in there you know.” Out of the corner of her eye she saw Michael giving her a disbelieving look.

“You don’t?” Liz asked. “Then where were you all of fourth period?”

Maria shrugged. Oops. Probably not the best thing to say when in fact she had just ditched a class with Liz to be with Michael in the Eraser room. “Just around.”

“Yeah, in the Eraser room.”

Maria just rolled her eyes at her friend, turning to look at Michael who was watching the two of them with an amused look on his face. “What?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Nothing. Just don’t we have a meeting to go to?”

Liz nodded, taking of in the direction of the field. She and Michael followed.

“Why were you so annoyed about her thinking you were in the Eraser room?” he asked softly.

“I don’t know,” she replied, stopping to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’d just like her to not know everything about me you know? I like it when it’s just you and me who know about our time in there.”

He smiled at her. “Yeah, good point.”

***

“Where were you two?” Kyle asked as soon as they reached the others, a suspicious look on his face.

“In the courtyard,” Maria replied, frowning at him. “Which was were you said we were meeting.”

“No I didn’t,” Kyle said, frowning back at her. “I specifically said we were meeting here.”

“No,” she said slowly. “You specifically told me the courtyard. I know you did. I do have a good memory you know.”

“If your memory’s so good then why is everyone else here?” Kyle retorted.

Maria just glared at him. He had a point with that but she was positive he had told her the courtyard.

“Okay guys,” Liz interrupted. “As much as I’d love to see you two arguing out your sibling angst and leadership issues I’d rather we’d focus on something that’s actually important.”

Maria nodded, casting one last glare at her brother. “So true. So,” she said, leaning forward on the grass. “Whose our main suspect? Brody?”

“He’s our only suspect. All we had was Brody and Isabel, and now-“ Alex broke off, smiling at the aliens. “Well we can safely rule out that possibility.”

“Do you really think Brody’s an alien?” Liz asked her. “I just thought he liked you.”

“He liked you?”

She turned to look at Michael who was sitting beside her. “Shh, that’s not the point. And no he didn’t like me,” she continued, staring pointedly at Liz. Where was she getting these insane ideas from? “And come on. The guy owns the UFO centre. What kind of person owns a UFO centre? And he’s always over at the Crashdown – a place where he can watch many high school students unnoticed. We don’t know what he’s looking for – maybe us, or maybe you,” she said, gesturing at the aliens, “and the Crashdown is the perfect place for him to do that.”

“Yeah…” Liz said slowly.

“I think it makes sense,” Isabel said, nodding at Maria. “Of course you probably shouldn’t rule out anyone else, but seeing as he’s the only suspect we have right now we should focus on him.” She smiled at them, her gaze slowly sweeping over the circle. “So what do we do?”

Maria smiled back at her. “We investigate him.”

***

He watched through the glass as the two of them sat down at one of the few empty tables. The blonde glanced around, leaning in to kiss him quickly on moments later.

He knew who they were now. The beautiful blonde’s name was Maria Deluca, and the male’s was Michael Guerin.

He watched their exchange for a few moments longer before heading back to his office, once again congratulating himself on his clever choice. His proximity to the teenagers of Roswell was helping him greatly.

Of course, he had to admit as he sank into his desk chair, he still had no idea whether they were hunter or alien. Their vibes were mixed and confusing him, probably to do with the closeness of the other species, and he couldn’t decide which they were.

But alien or hunter he was ready.

He knew if they were aliens they would have powers, and if they were hunters they would have powers too – the typical extraordinary senses, strength, agility and intelligence hunters had. But… he knew that there may be unexpected powers too.

He knew the stories. The legend that a full-blooded hunter would have special powers exceeding those of a normal hunter, it was buried in their genes. The hunters didn’t know this fact – it was a part of alien legend – but what if one of the pair was a full-blooded hunter? He’d heard that two of the Roswellian hunters were. And what if that hunter had figured out their special powers?

He knew how to fight against normal hunter and alien powers, he knew what to expect, but what if one or both were full-blooded hunters?

He had to find out. And then he could make his move.

Part 28

Michael smiled as Maria lent over towards him on the counter her eyes quickly glancing in Brody’s direction before focusing fully on him.

“Is he acting strangely?” he asked, straightening her antenna headband, his hand running through her ponytail afterwards.

Maria sighed, leaning forward to give him a quick peck on the lips. “No.” She pouted and Michael couldn’t help but lick his lips as he shifted in his seat, his gaze focusing on her lips. “I hate this. I wish we had a definite yes or no answer. Why can’t he be as considerate as Isabel who had no problem with flaunting her powers in public?”

Michael made a mental note to talk to Isabel about that. “You don’t like waiting?” he asked.

“Hell no,” she replied, grinning at him. “I like action.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him suggestively.

“Do you now?”

“Yes.” Michael stifled a groan as she pouted again. “I mean I thought being a hunter would focus on the hunting you know. Getting out and chasing some evil alien. But instead all I’ve seemed to have done is just sit and watch.” She glanced at Brody again, rolling her eyes when she turned back to Michael. “Nothing.”

“Don’t stare at him too much,” he warned. “The others are watching him too. Besides you don’t want him thinking you like him.”

She laughed at that. “Yeah right. Like I’d be interested in him.” She smirked at him. “I mean imagine if he actually was an alien.”

“Hey!” he protested.

Maria laughed, leaning in to kiss his… nose? He moved to catch her lips as she pulled away but she dodged him.

“So who would you be interested in?” he asked.

She raised her eyebrows. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Maria!”

“What?” She flicked her eyes towards Brody again.

“Do you have to keep looking at him?” he asked. “It’s hard to have a conversation with someone when they keep glancing at someone else.”

“It’s my job.” She smiled. “Why? You jealous?”

“No.” She just smiled at him. “Well I hope you do a better job at hunting than at this one,” he said, gesturing at the counter.”

“Well I would be doing a better job if someone wasn’t distracting me.” She glared at him for a few moments before breaking into a grin. “Besides Liz is waiting my tables.”

He grinned. So she didn’t even have to be pretending to work huh? “Why don’t you take a break then?” he suggested, leaning in to attach his lips to her neck, sucking lightly.

“Michael!” She pushed him away. “We are in the middle of the Crashdown!”

“Don’t have to be.”

She sighed. “But I’m working.”

“You said Liz was doing your job for you.” He grabbed her hand, kissing it lightly, his tongue tracing patterns on her skin. He pulled away smiling when she moaned. “So what do you say?”

“Fine.” She glared at him again but he could see in her eyes that she wanted him as much as he wanted her right now.

He stood up and they headed in the direction of the breakroom, but before they could get there they were intercepted by Liz.

“Where are you going?” she asked them, a confused look on her face. “Nevermind. We have to go now. Brody’s leaving.”

Michael sighed, turning to see that indeed Brody was definitely leaving right now. Damn. Did the guy have bad timing or what?

“Come on,” Liz said, grabbing them both and pulling them away from the breakroom. Turning to Maria he saw her mouth the word ‘later.’

***

Max sighed as he watched Michael disappear around the corner of Brody’s house with Maria. He was stuck watching Brody’s house with the hunters and Michael, who was so preoccupied with Maria that he barely noticed him, while Tess and Isabel were off investigating the UFO Centre while Brody was at home.

And now Michael and Maria had the job of watching from the backyard while the four of them were situated around the rest of the house. He didn’t like the idea of those two disappearing off together out of sight. They always seemed to be touching or staring at each other when they were around others, he didn’t trust the idea of them being alone when they were supposed to be investigating.

Max didn’t know what to think of Michael’s relationship with Maria. He didn’t support it, obviously. Despite deciding that they should work with the hunters – after all it meant the hunters were indebted to them and were on their side – he still wasn’t happy that they knew about the four of them being aliens. And then there was the fact that Michael had hooked up with Maria. There were many things to consider there. Not only to do with the hunter-alien thing but the fact that Michael was an alien. Who knew what would happen if they got too close to a human, hunter or not.

But he also had to admit that Michael seemed to be in a better mood ever since. But was that really important? He’d gone against them, willingly endangered their lives – how could the others forgive that so quick? Tess he could understand, after all she was his sister and tended to take his side, but Isabel supporting Michael’s relationship with anyone, much less a hunter, was insane. She was as against the alien-human thing as much as he was.

He settled into his position not far away from the other girl – Liz. Why was he stuck watching with three hunters while Michael and Maria had disappeared and the other two aliens got to do actual investigating instead of watching? He was the leader after all, shouldn’t that mean something? Instead he was being bossed around, and he didn’t like it at all.

Surprisingly Kyle seemed fine with working with them this afternoon and following what the others had said. The past few days he’d been as unthrilled as Max, and while Max wasn’t willing to bond over him due to the fact they were both against working together he had been happy to know that not everyone was for it. But now today Kyle was cooperating, having decided that they should in fact work with the aliens.

And it seemed that Kyle was being allowed a lot more input than Max was. Why was that? Max was a leader too. Just because they didn’t spend their time hunting aliens it didn’t mean he wasn’t as good a leader.

The rustling of bushes beside him alerted him to the presence of someone else. Turning to his right he saw Liz had shuffled over next to him. Leaning towards him she whispered in his ear.

“I can see him in the far left window. How ‘bout we move closer?” Max turned to look, glancing in the direction of the other two hunters as he did so. It seemed he and Liz were situated nearby, as were the other two.

“Are you okay?” she whispered again when he didn’t respond. He turned to her, nodding slightly. Taking that as a yes she asked again. “Well then don’t you think we should move closer so we can see better?” she asked, giving him a frustrated look.

Max realised he probably should have been paying more attention to what was going on instead of dwelling on the fact he was dumped here with the hunters. “Sure,” he replied, and they shuffled quietly closer to the house.

***

The lock clicked, the door sliding open. With soft feet Tess and Isabel made their way into the UFO Centre, making sure the door closed securely behind them.

They made their way down the entrance stairs, guided only by the emergency lights that lit the Centre, and into the main area. They disregarded the main room. They’d investigated it before and knew for a fact there was nothing containing any truth in any of the displays there.

Tess climbed the stairwell, hearing Isabel’s light footsteps behind her. She reached forward, placing her hand on the lock for a few moments before being rewarded with a ‘click’. They glanced around for an alarm system and Isabel, having spotted it, quickly disarmed it before entering the room.

The entered Brody’s office taking in the computers and filing cabinets. In all of them there must be something factual about aliens, but any proof that Brody was actually one? Who knew? Still it was worth a shot at investigating.

Bypassing the filing cabinets – it would take too long to search them all – Isabel headed straight for the computers, quickly logging on, while Tess searched his desk and drawers.

“Nothing obvious,” Isabel commented as the computer booted up. But what were they expecting anyway? A file on his computer saying ‘I’m an alien’? She didn’t think so. As Isabel clicked around the computer Tess rifled through the drawers.

Papers. Papers. Papers. That’s all it seemed to be. That and stationary. The papers seemed meaningless, just random ‘alien’ reports that didn’t seem interesting – why they weren’t in the filing cabinet Tess didn’t know, maybe he was working on something? – and letters from some doctor. They didn’t seem interesting, apparently whatever they had been testing for wasn’t there and Brody was all healthy, so Tess pushed them aside.

She sighed as she opened the bottom desk drawer. Was there nothing here at all, she wondered. Had they been completely wrong about him?

She pushed the papers around and her hand hit something hard. “Isabel…” she murmured softly as she moved the papers out of the way.

Her eyes widened in surprise. A-ha.

Part 29

Maria settled back into Michael’s arms under a tree in the shadows of Brody’s garden. There was no sign of him anywhere so at least there was no chance of them being caught right now. She cursed the fact that Brody had no good places to hide in his backyard. She hoped that the others were having better luck and that Brody was sticking to the front of the house.

She laid her hands down against Michael’s, which were resting on her waist, sighing contentedly as she leant back. She was surprised when she felt his lips lightly brush her neck before attaching themselves there, licking and nipping at the skin.

“Michael!” she exclaimed quietly, regretfully pushing his head away from her. “We’re supposed to be watching.”

“I am watching,” he mumbled against her skin, his lips reattaching themselves to her neck.

“No,” she said firmly, pushing him away again. “Michael.”

“Maria,” he replied, giving her a pleading look. She smiled at the expression.

“No. We are supposed to be watching. Don’t you think this is more important?”

“No,” he replied, and at this moment she had to admit she agreed. “Besides you did say later.”

She rolled her eyes. “Later meaning when we’re not supposed to be investigating someone.” She turned to him, raising her eyebrows meaningfully.

He just stared back. They remained there a few moments before Michael leant in, catching her lips with his.

Their tongues met, fighting for dominance as their hands wandered each other’s bodies. She sighed, running her tongue along the inside of his mouth as she pulled him closer to her, too caught up in the moment to realise what she was supposed to be doing. His hands were rubbing her back in slow circles over and over again. Then one travelled down before creeping back up again, this time beneath her shirt.

No. She pulled away, breathing deeply. “No,” she said. “Remember? And we’re supposed to be watching. Watching. Watching. ” She repeated it, trying to drill the thought into her own head. She sighed. “Why is this so hard?”

“It doesn’t have to be.” His lips brushed against her ear as he said it.

“Yes it does. What if the others come back to see how we’re going and catch us? Or what if Brody comes into this side of the house and uses his alien powers and we miss him because we’re too preoccupied. Or even worse, what if he comes to this side of the house and catches us in his garden doing god knows what. I don’t think he’d be too impressed Michael.”

“Yeah…” he replied softly. “But-“

“No.” She shook her head. “If you can’t keep your hormones in control I’m going to go swap places with Max.”

He glared at her, settling back into the position they were sitting in before. “Fine.”

“Fine,” she echoed, hoping that she could keep her own hormones in control too.

***

The eight of them sat around Michael and Tess’s apartment after leaving Brody’s house, waiting to hear what the other two had to say. Alex smiled when he noticed that Maria was wrapped up in Michael’s arms, a contented smile on her face as she leant against him. He was glad that despite Michael being an alien everything had worked out for her.

“So what happened?” Michael asked. “What did you find?”

Alex flicked his eyes towards where Tess and Isabel were sitting. The two girls hadn’t told them anything except that they needed to have a group meeting back at the apartment right away. Alex assumed by that that they had indeed found something. But what?

“Nothing at first,” Isabel said slowly. “We were thinking that he probably wasn’t at all an alien, just an alien enthusiast or something.” She paused.

“But?” Kyle prompted.

“We found something,” Tess said softly. “An orb.” She turned to Max and Michael. “An orb identical to the one Nasedo left us.”

Alex let his breath out slowly. So Brody was an alien – why else would he have the same orb? He had to admit he was surprised though, he had never thought Brody was actually an alien, just a guy who liked Maria who happened to run a UFO Centre. Of course he’d never expected the others to be aliens either. Especially Isabel. She’d always seemed so normal, popular… beautiful.

“So he is an alien,” Maria said, voicing everyone’s thoughts out loud.

“He has to be, right?” Isabel said. The others nodded in agreement.

“So, what do we do?” Tess asked, looking towards the hunters.

“Well,” Kyle said, taking charge. “We bring him in.“

Alex brow furrowed and he saw Maria look at Kyle in annoyance. “No we don’t,” she told them. “We watch him a bit more to make sure he is in fact an alien and it’s not just a whole bunch of coincidences – which by the way I don’t think it is, but that’s procedure – and then when we’re certain we bring him in. We don’t want to accidentally capture innocent people you know.”

The group nodded in agreement while Kyle glowered in Maria’s direction. There were major leadership issues flying around, Alex noticed. He’d thought Kyle was okay with it, but it seemed he was still slightly annoyed. Although, Alex had to admit, he was still acting way better than Max was. Alex glanced in Max’s direction, taking in his impassive face. The guy was following what they were doing but didn’t seem to be interested in it at all. Alex wondered what his problem was.

“Well,” Kyle said, seeming fine again. “I say we go now, it’s getting late.” Liz and Kyle made a move to go for the door and Alex stood up to follow them, noticing as he did so Maria disentangling herself from Michael. He watched as Michael tightened his hold, obviously unwilling to let her go until she whispered something in his ear, ending with something that sounded suspiciously like ‘Eraser room, tomorrow, third period,” before leaving. Seeing the smile that crossed Michael’s face Alex just rolled his eyes and followed the others out.

***

Maria reluctantly pulled away from Michael as the bell rang. “I have to go,” she told him regretfully. “If I ditch History one more time Mr Trevors is gonna be annoyed. I shouldn’t have ditched third either,” she added. “But I just,” she kissed him, her lips lingering on his, “wanted to see you.”

“I’m glad you did,” he murmured in reply, kissing her passionately as his hands ran up her side and into her hair.

She let herself enjoy the kiss for a moment, letting Michael’s tongue dominate as her fingers trailed over his chest. She pulled away, trying to catch her breath. “I honestly do have to go.”

“Maria.”

“Michael.” She sighed. “You know I’d rather be in here with you than in History.”

He smirked at her. “Of course. But can we go somewhere after school? I have something I want to show you.”

She nodded. “Sure. But I really have to go now.”

Michael nodded at their lips met in a long, slow kiss before she turned to go. The corridor was empty when she left the Eraser room, proving that despite the fact that she was making the effort to show up she was still going to be late.

“What are you doing?” A voice startled her and she was surprised to see Principal Andrews looking down at her. “Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” His eyes looked over her suspiciously.

She nodded. “Yes, but I left some of my things in my locker so I had to go get them. I’m on my way back to History now,” she added, smiling at him.

He didn’t smile back. “Well you should hurry then.”

She nodded. “I will,” she said, making her way towards her History classroom, leaving him staring behind her.