Changes: Part Six
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).
SUMMARY: Thinking Alec, now her mate, betrayed her to Manticore, Max runs for her life, nearly dies and is saved by Manticore or rather their recoding of her DNA. Faced with continuing changes they find out the real reason for the misunderstanding. M/A
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiyamauimail.com
NOTES: My first attempt at a non – Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will.
An utter calmness fell upon me as I retreated back to that place in my mind where emotions couldn't hurt. A switch flipped and I was dragged out of my safe place. Consumed by anger borne of betrayal I put my shoulder behind my fist and drove it upward into his abdomen. I caught him before he flew backwards, claws ripping into his heavy leather jacket and punched him three more times. The speed of it amazed me but I didn't take time to revel in it; I was pissed to the nth degree.
He weaseled his way out of my grasp and tackled me to the ground. We upended furniture as we rolled around trying to pummel each other. More to the point, I tried to beat the crap out of him while he scrambled to detain me. In the back of my mind I realized Grandall was missing but I had my hands full at the moment. Take care of one problem at a time, Max.
Knuckles dug into my sides completely reopening the wounds and suddenly I was breathing acid. At the same time I embedded my claws into Alec's jacket lapels and hauled us to our feet. Upon touchdown I sent him sailing across the room and blurred to pin him against the wall. His neck fit neatly between my hands and I slowly let my claws pierce that smooth skin.
"You sold me out!" My voice cracked. Cue the flood of tears. My brain kept insisting there was a logical explanation for this. My broken heart told it to go to hell.
Alec seized both my wrists his claws resting against my skin in subtle threat. In response, my hands convulsed driving my claws deeper into his throat. If I had been calmer I would have seen the sheer reluctance he had for what happened next but that was a big if.
I was set to tear out his throat but I had forgotten about his claws on my forearms. Their assault was fast, cutting deep before my brain commanded my hands to pull back. At first there was no pain just three long white lines speckled with red on each arm. As they filled in with blood raw nerve endings screamed along my skin.
Hurt on multiple levels, I backed away and made for the door. Grandall appeared out of nowhere and blocked my way. 'How did someone that big move like that' I fumed. Fury drove away sadness, drying my tears, and I slashed violently at the living obstacle. Again if I was in my right mind, I would never have considered Grandall a target but my heart maintained control.
A ripped coat and a nasty stumble was all I managed to accomplish with that unfocused assault. Unable to regain balance I crashed into the wall to the right of the door. Damaged by years of harsh weather and termites, the wall crumbled. Large wood pieces accompanied me to the hallway floor and blanketed every inch of my body with termite dust. Luckily the wood was too rotten to cause splinters.
Dazed momentarily I cast glances about the hallway. Two figures stepped through the hole I just made. Actually they were running but my sense of spatial perception slowed their movements down. Their lips were moving their words lost to my thundering heartbeat. All I could hear was 'I love you, Max' mocking me. Then the camel's back broke.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I bellowed furiously. The last word drew out into a feline roar and I emptied my lungs. Brain functions narrowed down to animalistic reasoning.
Hunted now, must flee
Buildings moved out of my path and the ground flowed under my feet. Openings in fences presented themselves. The entire world seemed to rearrange to facilitate my escape. I blurred blindly not knowing where I was headed. It didn't matter because I didn't care. Only freedom mattered.
Little by little my limbs grew heavy and I dropped into a normal run. Muscle spasms along my ribcage hedged my progress and I was forced to slow to a walk.
Mate's deception unforgivable
An imaginary fist tightened around my heart and ruptured the temporary emotional dam. I threw my head up and keened my sorrow to the world. Seagulls called rancorously from their nests in answering cries. Why, why, why...they seemed to say.
SHUT UP!
Waves pounded into the pier I was standing on. Startled out of my personal misery I finally took in my surroundings. Huge tree-like structures loomed overhead and pierced through the layer of fog rolling in from the harbor. Long since abandoned, the container cranes of the Port of Seattle were a sad reminder of the prosperity the region – the nation for that matter – once enjoyed.
Over the sound of my labored breathing, I heard my name called on the wind.
Blood, scent trail: foolish
With little time or capacity to chastise my error in judgment, I snarled defiantly and made for one of the cranes. Alec rounded the corner and I scrambled up the access ladder, desperate to get to higher ground. Blood continued to cascade down my arm and I felt light-headed. A wave of nausea caught me unawares and I clutched the ladder so I wouldn't fall off. It shook under my grip and it took a few seconds for me to register that it wasn't vertigo that was causing the movement. Alec.
I spared a moment to look down. Hand-over-hand, he ascended without using his legs and made short work of the distance between us. Adrenaline glands shifted into overdrive, overriding the nausea. Since my body knew what to do, I let it take over.
He lunged; I dodged out of the way. I climbed higher; he followed. We wove in and out of the rusted beams that supported the loading boom not noticing the widening stress cracks spreading through the crane's foundation.
At the very end of the boom one of the three-inch thick cables snapped and fell away stripping the threads of the large pulley. On its way down it slammed into the crane. The aging structure couldn't absorb the impact and buckled. We hit the deck seconds before the boom support structure lost integrity and held on for dear life. My heart and stomach bottomed out as the loading boom we clung to bent towards the ocean.
We were spared from certain death when the tip of the boom splashed down in the ocean. It sent a bone-jarring shockwave throughout the entire structure. Already unstable from the cable, the structure finally gave up. Metallic whines announced the final collapse as steel girders fell like a card house around us. By dint of some small miracle, nothing hit the boom.
Spoke too soon. With the support structure gone the boom was free to continue is original trajectory.
Survival jeopardized, jump
Again I obeyed my body without my brain conferring with it and dove off into the biting cold water. Not even the strongest sunlight could penetrate the murky depths and I swam blind. I broke surface for a much needed breath of air. Oh shit! Dive, dive I urged my tired, injured body as the boom crashed into the ocean.
Water churned viciously making it harder to dodge the rest of the debris. Something hit my shoulder and my arm went numb. Another piece narrowly missed my face and I kicked desperately back to the surface.
"MAX!" Alec screamed and caught my shirt.
A deafening crack drowned out what he said next. Cables still attached to the pulley now deep under surface snapped taught. Bolts anchoring the cables down sheered off. Loose cables whipped around forcing Alec to take evasive action, which meant he had to let go of me.
They settled down and began to sink into the water. Suddenly one jerked and wrapped around my ankle. Alec returned in time to catch my hand but he couldn't hold on to my wet skin. I stared into his horror filled eyes with the knowledge that I was going to die as I slipped out of his grasp and was pulled under the surface.
How long does it take for a transgenic to drown? I thrashed against the pull on my leg but the pulley was too heavy. My tears salted the ocean and I despaired. My neck began to burn and I screamed my last defiance to an unfeeling dead ocean. Asphyxiation would soon set in as water filled my lungs.
Relax, breathe now
I blacked out before I realized my body was right...again.
Heaven was made out of water? I opened my eyes and found I was surrounded by clear salt water. Glass and metal encased the water. Hey wait a minute, this isn't heaven; hell, I'm in hell where they keep you in your worst fear. I was in the tank.
Panic pumped adrenaline through my aching body and I surged up and out of the top onto the adjoined platform. Then I was drowning...in the air. My lungs wouldn't expand and the burning sensation in my throat intensified. They must have placed the tank in a vacuum-sealed room but I couldn't focus. Everything appeared to be distorted as if I was looking at the world through bubbled glasses.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Grandall's voice grated behind me. Large hands wrenched my arms back painfully and locked the elbows just shy of breaking point. I tried to scream but you actually need to breathe for that. Blackness ate at the edges of my impaired vision. Chains clinked and I felt cold unyielding metal surround my wrists.
"Sorry luv, but this if for your own good," Grandall whispered into my ear, fastened a weight belt around my waist and threw me back into the water. Without the use of my arms, kicking wasn't enough to keep me on the surface. The added weight was too much to bear and I sunk straight to the bottom.
As soon as the water closed over my nose I stopped gasping for air. When I completely submerged, I could see. Confusion must have shown on my face because Grandall reappeared at the foot of the tank and he was laughing.
Yep hell on Earth; I was back at Manticore, I just knew it.
Sticking out my tongue at him was normally not my style but I didn't really have a choice. He laughed even harder and disappeared from view.
I was effectively left alone with my thoughts. Anger, hurt, betrayal boiled to the surface and I flailed around the bottom of the tank shoulder mashing into the triple thick glass till I felt Alec's seals on my ribs crack. Blood clouded the water but I didn't care. I didn't want help from him. I had a lapse of sanity when I had taken his help at the pier.
Damn why can't I just forget about him. That special smile he reserves only for me flashed in my mind. It was followed closely by a replay of our day together. Every caress burned into my skin every word etched into my heart, every kiss drank my soul.
Fresh hot tears spilled into the water and I curled into a ball to try to ease the pain. I could hear a pulsating sound thrumming in time with my sobs. Gills, courtesy of my shark DNA. Another lovely gift from Manticore's tinkering.
Three short, piercing sonic booms brought my attention to the front of the tank. Alec tapped three more times on the glass and the sound bounced of the glass and seemed to amplify ten fold. Furious I bellowed at him to stop and continued to curse him even after the excess air in my lungs ran out. Soon the glass started to vibrate the water bubbled out of the tank.
Alec doubled up in pain and fell against the tank. His naked back was bleeding along the spine and a forgot my misery all together. Six fingernail-like plates about 3 inches square overlapped each other and covered his spine like armor. As soon as the glass stopped vibrating his body relaxed. Vibrations and his pain; was there a connection?
Alec's back plates twitched seconds before Grandall reappeared in the room. Alec stiffened momentarily, but Grandall said something I couldn't make out and Alec forced himself to relax. By their body language I could tell that they were talking about me. Their movements became increasingly curt; now they were arguing. Grandall folded his arms across his chest and his face closed down. Alec shifted uncomfortably under that blank stare. When his shoulders sagged in reluctant submission, he faced the tank
The look in his face sucker punched me in the gut and made me forget I should be 'spitting nails' mad. Liquid emerald pools captured my gaze and mesmerized the fight right out of me. He pressed his hand to the glass and thumbed a button I hadn't noticed earlier.
"You may hate me, but I'm not giving up on you," his voice rumbled through the water from a hydro-speaker at the top. "Whether you remain in there is up to you. Agree to hear me out and we'll release you from the tank, continue to be unreasonable and I'll leave you in there with no choice but to listen."
An ultimatum, how dare he! Okay, Max, play along now, escape later; I nodded and pointed my chin up.
Another chain with a hook at the end lowered into the tank. It slithered down my back and snagged the weight belt. My nose broke surface and I immediately began to gag. By the time I was hoisted completely out of the water the need to breathe outweighed all common sense and struggled myself right off the hook.
After a few terrifying moments of falling, Grandall caught the back of my shirt before I made an interesting impression on the ground. He set me on an old padded shipping pallet and swatted my back a couple of times.
"Relax and they'll close. Your body will remember." Grandall stepped back and ushered Alec forward. He held my hair as I coughed buckets of water from my lungs. The gills sealed and I drew in a deep breath of fresh air. Two hard blinks helped me draw back the nictating membranes and I was able to see but my arms remained bound. Escape wasn't possible.
Alec eased down to the ground in from of me and placed my face between his hands. I stared at his full lips afraid to meet his eyes lest he steal the rest of my anger away. Pride kept me from giving into the instinctive urge to snuggle in my mates embrace.
"Max, please look at me," he pleaded thumbs stroking my cheeks insistently.
Of their own volition my eyes flicked up to his. They were incredible really; sort of storm tossed sea combined with bejeweled flecks of amber and sapphire and they were leaking. "I. Did. Not. Sell. You. Out," he drawled out.
The absolute truth held in those eyes was too much to bear. Relief crashed down upon the fragile lock I had on my emotions. I fell forward into the nape of his neck crying harder than I ever had in my life. Strong arms supported my sob-racked body. He rocked and murmured soothing noises until I was cried out. When I lay quite against his chest he began to speak.
"I thought I'd lost you." His breath hitched and I felt moisture drip into a palm of my still-bound hands. Restrained cries escaped his throat his chest heaved as he struggled to calm down. I couldn't comfort him and my heart bled, so I did what I thought would be the next best thing; I purred.
Alec's arms convulsed and his whole body went taut. For a brief moment I was fighting to breathe. Something poked my side seconds before a cloud of pheromones assaulted my senses. A puff of his breath hit the ultra- sensitive edges of my gill flaps at the junction of my jaw and throat and sent a jolt of pleasure that had possibilities. Well that was interesting.
"Oh god. Don't do that again Max, not until I get a handle on this." He gulped down a huge amount of air breathing rhythmically. Little by little his scent returned to normal and his growing desire subsided.
"Handle on what?" Now I was totally confused.
"When you didn't resurface at the pier and I dove in after you but the water was too murky. I tried shifting but by that time you were at a depth where even that didn't help." He faltered the pain of that memory evident in his expressive eyes.
"But you still found me," I prompted hoping to shake him from the past.
"And I have Manticore to thank for that." Bitterness dripped from that statement. That could only mean one thing, a secondary mutation. Why not? I had one.
"Your back?" I asked and he nodded.
"Seismic detection plates amplify and transmit vibrations through my spine. I 'saw' you because your gills gave away your position."
I got it now. I remembered reading from his file that his 'cocktail' had scorpion DNA. Since the harbor was essentially dead it hadn't been hard for him to pick my vibrations up. Purring is pure vibration; no wonder he reacted the way he did. The sensory overload must have been hard to sort and it translated to pleasure. A grin spread across my face. Definite possibilities.
"You see, little spit fire, I was the one who provided Alec with those research notes, but they weren't complete," Grandall piped up and undid the shackles.
Absently I rubbed feeling back into my wrists and half listened to Grandall's speech. Remnants of Alec seals sloughed off. I watched the white fluff float in the air and realized Grandall just got through telling me that I had agreed to meet with both of them to discuss the contents on that disk I delivered.
"Hold it," I blurted out confused. "I agreed to meet with you? How the hell can I do that when I didn't know about the meeting?" Something was terribly wrong here.
"You knew!" Alec accused hotly. "Stop pretending. Logan said he passed you my message a week ago. When I asked you this morning at Jam Pony if you were still with me for it, you said okay." He repeated the hand gestures he did a Jam Pony. "See."
Oh no. Please let me not be wrong. This can't be some stupid misunderstanding. "That means 'status report'?" His face fell. Apparently it wasn't the answer he was looking for. Good ol' Max, I chided, react first think later. "Okay so I got the signals wrong but you know I would have bugged you about the reason for the meeting if I'd known about it."
"You really didn't know. But then..." Suddenly Alec's face transformed. Passive hazel eyes gave way to angry red. Normally full lips stretched thin over bared teeth. His low menacing growl deepened his voice. "Logan lied!"
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything in relation to Dark Angel. No money is involved (story of my life).
SUMMARY: Thinking Alec, now her mate, betrayed her to Manticore, Max runs for her life, nearly dies and is saved by Manticore or rather their recoding of her DNA. Faced with continuing changes they find out the real reason for the misunderstanding. M/A
FEEDBACK: Please send feedback of any kind (praise, flaming, constructive criticism, etc.) to naiyamauimail.com
NOTES: My first attempt at a non – Xmen fanfiction. Please be patient with me. Any questions see feedback for my email address and I'll answer as best as I can. Archive at will.
An utter calmness fell upon me as I retreated back to that place in my mind where emotions couldn't hurt. A switch flipped and I was dragged out of my safe place. Consumed by anger borne of betrayal I put my shoulder behind my fist and drove it upward into his abdomen. I caught him before he flew backwards, claws ripping into his heavy leather jacket and punched him three more times. The speed of it amazed me but I didn't take time to revel in it; I was pissed to the nth degree.
He weaseled his way out of my grasp and tackled me to the ground. We upended furniture as we rolled around trying to pummel each other. More to the point, I tried to beat the crap out of him while he scrambled to detain me. In the back of my mind I realized Grandall was missing but I had my hands full at the moment. Take care of one problem at a time, Max.
Knuckles dug into my sides completely reopening the wounds and suddenly I was breathing acid. At the same time I embedded my claws into Alec's jacket lapels and hauled us to our feet. Upon touchdown I sent him sailing across the room and blurred to pin him against the wall. His neck fit neatly between my hands and I slowly let my claws pierce that smooth skin.
"You sold me out!" My voice cracked. Cue the flood of tears. My brain kept insisting there was a logical explanation for this. My broken heart told it to go to hell.
Alec seized both my wrists his claws resting against my skin in subtle threat. In response, my hands convulsed driving my claws deeper into his throat. If I had been calmer I would have seen the sheer reluctance he had for what happened next but that was a big if.
I was set to tear out his throat but I had forgotten about his claws on my forearms. Their assault was fast, cutting deep before my brain commanded my hands to pull back. At first there was no pain just three long white lines speckled with red on each arm. As they filled in with blood raw nerve endings screamed along my skin.
Hurt on multiple levels, I backed away and made for the door. Grandall appeared out of nowhere and blocked my way. 'How did someone that big move like that' I fumed. Fury drove away sadness, drying my tears, and I slashed violently at the living obstacle. Again if I was in my right mind, I would never have considered Grandall a target but my heart maintained control.
A ripped coat and a nasty stumble was all I managed to accomplish with that unfocused assault. Unable to regain balance I crashed into the wall to the right of the door. Damaged by years of harsh weather and termites, the wall crumbled. Large wood pieces accompanied me to the hallway floor and blanketed every inch of my body with termite dust. Luckily the wood was too rotten to cause splinters.
Dazed momentarily I cast glances about the hallway. Two figures stepped through the hole I just made. Actually they were running but my sense of spatial perception slowed their movements down. Their lips were moving their words lost to my thundering heartbeat. All I could hear was 'I love you, Max' mocking me. Then the camel's back broke.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!" I bellowed furiously. The last word drew out into a feline roar and I emptied my lungs. Brain functions narrowed down to animalistic reasoning.
Hunted now, must flee
Buildings moved out of my path and the ground flowed under my feet. Openings in fences presented themselves. The entire world seemed to rearrange to facilitate my escape. I blurred blindly not knowing where I was headed. It didn't matter because I didn't care. Only freedom mattered.
Little by little my limbs grew heavy and I dropped into a normal run. Muscle spasms along my ribcage hedged my progress and I was forced to slow to a walk.
Mate's deception unforgivable
An imaginary fist tightened around my heart and ruptured the temporary emotional dam. I threw my head up and keened my sorrow to the world. Seagulls called rancorously from their nests in answering cries. Why, why, why...they seemed to say.
SHUT UP!
Waves pounded into the pier I was standing on. Startled out of my personal misery I finally took in my surroundings. Huge tree-like structures loomed overhead and pierced through the layer of fog rolling in from the harbor. Long since abandoned, the container cranes of the Port of Seattle were a sad reminder of the prosperity the region – the nation for that matter – once enjoyed.
Over the sound of my labored breathing, I heard my name called on the wind.
Blood, scent trail: foolish
With little time or capacity to chastise my error in judgment, I snarled defiantly and made for one of the cranes. Alec rounded the corner and I scrambled up the access ladder, desperate to get to higher ground. Blood continued to cascade down my arm and I felt light-headed. A wave of nausea caught me unawares and I clutched the ladder so I wouldn't fall off. It shook under my grip and it took a few seconds for me to register that it wasn't vertigo that was causing the movement. Alec.
I spared a moment to look down. Hand-over-hand, he ascended without using his legs and made short work of the distance between us. Adrenaline glands shifted into overdrive, overriding the nausea. Since my body knew what to do, I let it take over.
He lunged; I dodged out of the way. I climbed higher; he followed. We wove in and out of the rusted beams that supported the loading boom not noticing the widening stress cracks spreading through the crane's foundation.
At the very end of the boom one of the three-inch thick cables snapped and fell away stripping the threads of the large pulley. On its way down it slammed into the crane. The aging structure couldn't absorb the impact and buckled. We hit the deck seconds before the boom support structure lost integrity and held on for dear life. My heart and stomach bottomed out as the loading boom we clung to bent towards the ocean.
We were spared from certain death when the tip of the boom splashed down in the ocean. It sent a bone-jarring shockwave throughout the entire structure. Already unstable from the cable, the structure finally gave up. Metallic whines announced the final collapse as steel girders fell like a card house around us. By dint of some small miracle, nothing hit the boom.
Spoke too soon. With the support structure gone the boom was free to continue is original trajectory.
Survival jeopardized, jump
Again I obeyed my body without my brain conferring with it and dove off into the biting cold water. Not even the strongest sunlight could penetrate the murky depths and I swam blind. I broke surface for a much needed breath of air. Oh shit! Dive, dive I urged my tired, injured body as the boom crashed into the ocean.
Water churned viciously making it harder to dodge the rest of the debris. Something hit my shoulder and my arm went numb. Another piece narrowly missed my face and I kicked desperately back to the surface.
"MAX!" Alec screamed and caught my shirt.
A deafening crack drowned out what he said next. Cables still attached to the pulley now deep under surface snapped taught. Bolts anchoring the cables down sheered off. Loose cables whipped around forcing Alec to take evasive action, which meant he had to let go of me.
They settled down and began to sink into the water. Suddenly one jerked and wrapped around my ankle. Alec returned in time to catch my hand but he couldn't hold on to my wet skin. I stared into his horror filled eyes with the knowledge that I was going to die as I slipped out of his grasp and was pulled under the surface.
How long does it take for a transgenic to drown? I thrashed against the pull on my leg but the pulley was too heavy. My tears salted the ocean and I despaired. My neck began to burn and I screamed my last defiance to an unfeeling dead ocean. Asphyxiation would soon set in as water filled my lungs.
Relax, breathe now
I blacked out before I realized my body was right...again.
Heaven was made out of water? I opened my eyes and found I was surrounded by clear salt water. Glass and metal encased the water. Hey wait a minute, this isn't heaven; hell, I'm in hell where they keep you in your worst fear. I was in the tank.
Panic pumped adrenaline through my aching body and I surged up and out of the top onto the adjoined platform. Then I was drowning...in the air. My lungs wouldn't expand and the burning sensation in my throat intensified. They must have placed the tank in a vacuum-sealed room but I couldn't focus. Everything appeared to be distorted as if I was looking at the world through bubbled glasses.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Grandall's voice grated behind me. Large hands wrenched my arms back painfully and locked the elbows just shy of breaking point. I tried to scream but you actually need to breathe for that. Blackness ate at the edges of my impaired vision. Chains clinked and I felt cold unyielding metal surround my wrists.
"Sorry luv, but this if for your own good," Grandall whispered into my ear, fastened a weight belt around my waist and threw me back into the water. Without the use of my arms, kicking wasn't enough to keep me on the surface. The added weight was too much to bear and I sunk straight to the bottom.
As soon as the water closed over my nose I stopped gasping for air. When I completely submerged, I could see. Confusion must have shown on my face because Grandall reappeared at the foot of the tank and he was laughing.
Yep hell on Earth; I was back at Manticore, I just knew it.
Sticking out my tongue at him was normally not my style but I didn't really have a choice. He laughed even harder and disappeared from view.
I was effectively left alone with my thoughts. Anger, hurt, betrayal boiled to the surface and I flailed around the bottom of the tank shoulder mashing into the triple thick glass till I felt Alec's seals on my ribs crack. Blood clouded the water but I didn't care. I didn't want help from him. I had a lapse of sanity when I had taken his help at the pier.
Damn why can't I just forget about him. That special smile he reserves only for me flashed in my mind. It was followed closely by a replay of our day together. Every caress burned into my skin every word etched into my heart, every kiss drank my soul.
Fresh hot tears spilled into the water and I curled into a ball to try to ease the pain. I could hear a pulsating sound thrumming in time with my sobs. Gills, courtesy of my shark DNA. Another lovely gift from Manticore's tinkering.
Three short, piercing sonic booms brought my attention to the front of the tank. Alec tapped three more times on the glass and the sound bounced of the glass and seemed to amplify ten fold. Furious I bellowed at him to stop and continued to curse him even after the excess air in my lungs ran out. Soon the glass started to vibrate the water bubbled out of the tank.
Alec doubled up in pain and fell against the tank. His naked back was bleeding along the spine and a forgot my misery all together. Six fingernail-like plates about 3 inches square overlapped each other and covered his spine like armor. As soon as the glass stopped vibrating his body relaxed. Vibrations and his pain; was there a connection?
Alec's back plates twitched seconds before Grandall reappeared in the room. Alec stiffened momentarily, but Grandall said something I couldn't make out and Alec forced himself to relax. By their body language I could tell that they were talking about me. Their movements became increasingly curt; now they were arguing. Grandall folded his arms across his chest and his face closed down. Alec shifted uncomfortably under that blank stare. When his shoulders sagged in reluctant submission, he faced the tank
The look in his face sucker punched me in the gut and made me forget I should be 'spitting nails' mad. Liquid emerald pools captured my gaze and mesmerized the fight right out of me. He pressed his hand to the glass and thumbed a button I hadn't noticed earlier.
"You may hate me, but I'm not giving up on you," his voice rumbled through the water from a hydro-speaker at the top. "Whether you remain in there is up to you. Agree to hear me out and we'll release you from the tank, continue to be unreasonable and I'll leave you in there with no choice but to listen."
An ultimatum, how dare he! Okay, Max, play along now, escape later; I nodded and pointed my chin up.
Another chain with a hook at the end lowered into the tank. It slithered down my back and snagged the weight belt. My nose broke surface and I immediately began to gag. By the time I was hoisted completely out of the water the need to breathe outweighed all common sense and struggled myself right off the hook.
After a few terrifying moments of falling, Grandall caught the back of my shirt before I made an interesting impression on the ground. He set me on an old padded shipping pallet and swatted my back a couple of times.
"Relax and they'll close. Your body will remember." Grandall stepped back and ushered Alec forward. He held my hair as I coughed buckets of water from my lungs. The gills sealed and I drew in a deep breath of fresh air. Two hard blinks helped me draw back the nictating membranes and I was able to see but my arms remained bound. Escape wasn't possible.
Alec eased down to the ground in from of me and placed my face between his hands. I stared at his full lips afraid to meet his eyes lest he steal the rest of my anger away. Pride kept me from giving into the instinctive urge to snuggle in my mates embrace.
"Max, please look at me," he pleaded thumbs stroking my cheeks insistently.
Of their own volition my eyes flicked up to his. They were incredible really; sort of storm tossed sea combined with bejeweled flecks of amber and sapphire and they were leaking. "I. Did. Not. Sell. You. Out," he drawled out.
The absolute truth held in those eyes was too much to bear. Relief crashed down upon the fragile lock I had on my emotions. I fell forward into the nape of his neck crying harder than I ever had in my life. Strong arms supported my sob-racked body. He rocked and murmured soothing noises until I was cried out. When I lay quite against his chest he began to speak.
"I thought I'd lost you." His breath hitched and I felt moisture drip into a palm of my still-bound hands. Restrained cries escaped his throat his chest heaved as he struggled to calm down. I couldn't comfort him and my heart bled, so I did what I thought would be the next best thing; I purred.
Alec's arms convulsed and his whole body went taut. For a brief moment I was fighting to breathe. Something poked my side seconds before a cloud of pheromones assaulted my senses. A puff of his breath hit the ultra- sensitive edges of my gill flaps at the junction of my jaw and throat and sent a jolt of pleasure that had possibilities. Well that was interesting.
"Oh god. Don't do that again Max, not until I get a handle on this." He gulped down a huge amount of air breathing rhythmically. Little by little his scent returned to normal and his growing desire subsided.
"Handle on what?" Now I was totally confused.
"When you didn't resurface at the pier and I dove in after you but the water was too murky. I tried shifting but by that time you were at a depth where even that didn't help." He faltered the pain of that memory evident in his expressive eyes.
"But you still found me," I prompted hoping to shake him from the past.
"And I have Manticore to thank for that." Bitterness dripped from that statement. That could only mean one thing, a secondary mutation. Why not? I had one.
"Your back?" I asked and he nodded.
"Seismic detection plates amplify and transmit vibrations through my spine. I 'saw' you because your gills gave away your position."
I got it now. I remembered reading from his file that his 'cocktail' had scorpion DNA. Since the harbor was essentially dead it hadn't been hard for him to pick my vibrations up. Purring is pure vibration; no wonder he reacted the way he did. The sensory overload must have been hard to sort and it translated to pleasure. A grin spread across my face. Definite possibilities.
"You see, little spit fire, I was the one who provided Alec with those research notes, but they weren't complete," Grandall piped up and undid the shackles.
Absently I rubbed feeling back into my wrists and half listened to Grandall's speech. Remnants of Alec seals sloughed off. I watched the white fluff float in the air and realized Grandall just got through telling me that I had agreed to meet with both of them to discuss the contents on that disk I delivered.
"Hold it," I blurted out confused. "I agreed to meet with you? How the hell can I do that when I didn't know about the meeting?" Something was terribly wrong here.
"You knew!" Alec accused hotly. "Stop pretending. Logan said he passed you my message a week ago. When I asked you this morning at Jam Pony if you were still with me for it, you said okay." He repeated the hand gestures he did a Jam Pony. "See."
Oh no. Please let me not be wrong. This can't be some stupid misunderstanding. "That means 'status report'?" His face fell. Apparently it wasn't the answer he was looking for. Good ol' Max, I chided, react first think later. "Okay so I got the signals wrong but you know I would have bugged you about the reason for the meeting if I'd known about it."
"You really didn't know. But then..." Suddenly Alec's face transformed. Passive hazel eyes gave way to angry red. Normally full lips stretched thin over bared teeth. His low menacing growl deepened his voice. "Logan lied!"