“Max!! What is it?” Tess shrieked kneeling beside the now catatonic Max lying on the floor.

Kyle rushed to help, not really sure what he could do. Max sat up slowly and held his head in his hands, shaking violently. His head was splitting and he felt extremely nauseous, then suddenly it passed.

“I…I don’t know…suddenly I felt like I had been hit by a truck.” His whole body was exhausted from the sudden onslaught of pain. Kyle helped him to his feet and he stood shakily looking around feeling extremely disoriented.

“I think you should sit down Max.” Kyle offered as they led him back to the couch. Tess put a hand on his forehead, checking for fever, but found none.

“Has this even happened before Max? We don’t normally get sick. Are you sure you feel fine?” Tess’ hovering only made Max nervous but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings any more tonight.

“No, I can’t remember anything like that before, but it seems to have passed. Maybe it’s something about our physiology Nasedo hasn’t told us about.” He tried to smile up at them, but the muscles in his head just wouldn’t seem to work properly.

“I sure hope not,” Tess answered. “I really don’t want to find out we suffer from debilitating migraines without warning from time to time.”

Kyle didn’t know what to say, he slumped back against the wall and thanked whichever god was listening at the time that he was human. They all nearly jumped out of their skins when the phone rang. Kyle leaned over to answer it.

“Yeah, he’s here…O.K. O.K. calm down, I’ll put him on.” He handed the phone to a surprised Max as he mouthed ‘It’s Maria.’

“Maria, what is it.”

“Max, what the hell are you doing over there? I’ve been… I’ve been trying everywhere! With Tess I suppose.”

“I came to see Kyle, Maria, now what’s wrong?” He could hear her hyperventilating on the other end and could feel the fear knotting in the pit of his stomach. It had to be Liz. “It’s Liz, isn’t it?”

“She’s… she’s gone Max. I came up to see her after my shift and she’s gone.” Maria was on the verge of tears.

“She left?” The though of Liz leaving was almost more than he could bear, especially now he knew the truth.

“No. She… she was… taken. There’s…there’s blood Max.”

“I’ll be right there, don’t move Maria, everything will be O.K.” He hung up. ‘It had to be.’ Before he put the receiver down he dialed another number from memory. After two rings Max was met with a groggy “Yeah?”

“Michael, it’s me. I … I need your help. Someone’s taken Liz.”

“How do you know?”

“Michael, I just know.” He answered thinking back to the blinding pain. It had been Liz’s pain. It had to have been. He could feel her. “Maria called from Liz’s room, there’s no Liz and she said there was blood.”

“I’ll meet you there, Max.” and he hung up before waiting for an answer.

Max swung around to face Tess and Kyle who had figured out the urgency of the situation from the phone call and the obvious fear in Max’s eyes. He was fighting his utmost to keep from falling apart in front of them.

“What can we do?” Kyle offered.

"We’re meeting Maria at Liz’s place. I just have to call Isabel.” Max answered as he picked up the phone again, grateful for his friends’ support. He was sure he couldn’t take this fear alone.

***

Isabel had been lying on her bed staring at the ceiling for about an hour and a half now. She had left Max at the Crashdown, telling him she was going to take a shower and go to bed early and she really did try, but sleep just wouldn’t come. She couldn’t get rid of the worry that was threatening to consume her. She desperately wanted to tell Max was she had been told about her past, but she felt sure that he would never trust her again. I mean, how could you trust someone who had betrayed you in your previous life? Tears slipped from underneath her lashes and found their was down her cheeks to her pillow which was already wet. ‘I have to talk to somebody!’ she though and just as quickly as that though has entered her head she knew who to call.

She twisted the cord anxiously in her fingers as she waiting through the fifth and sixth ring. She was just about to give up when she heard a quiet “Hello” on the other end.

“Hi Alex.” Isabel stammered.

“Oh, hey Isabel.” She cringed; his voice sounded bitter and why shouldn’t it? She had been avoiding him for weeks no, months while she tried to deal with her newfound heritage and she pushed away any attempts he made to be there for her. Now here she was turning to him for help. If she were Alex, she’d be bitter too. She took a deep breath and plunged in.

“Alex, just let me get all I want to say out before you rightfully berate me for the way I’ve treated you. I know I’ve been awful and you have every right to hate me, even hang up on me, but I’ve had a lot dropped on my shoulders these last few months and I’ve been trying to deal with it without dragging other people into it…”

“Isabel…”

“Please let me finish Alex. I thought I could handle things on my own, but I’ve just realized that I can’t and I don’t know who else to turn to. I really need to talk to you Alex, but I completely understand if you want to have nothing to do with me…”

“I’ll be right over.” He was about to hang up.

“What? Why are you doing this for me?” She felt her heart swell with the hope that she might still be able to salvage their friendship.

“Because it’s you Isabel” and he hung up.

The phone rang as she placed it back in its cradle, startling her.

“Alex?”

“Isabel, it’s me.” She felt her face heat up at the thought that her brother knew what she had been thinking about, but the tone of his voice quickly brought her back to reality. He sounded shaken.

“Isabel, I need your help. Someone’s taken Liz from her apartment. I’m meeting Maria and Michael there.”

“I’ll be there as fast as I can.” She could hear the fear in Max’s voice and wanted to comfort him, but she knew all she could do at the moment was help. As she hung up the phone she heard a voice behind her.

“I came as fast as I could Isabel, you’re mom let me in…” Isabel swung around to face Alex, her face grim. Her eyes full of fear stopped him in his tracks.