Man and Beast. There was something in every transgenic, a primal thing, a dark thing, that each had to keep in check. The balance was fragile between that raw side of themselves and their more civilized natures. The beast within the man. So fragile was this balance that constant, iron control had to be kept, or else the least provocation might tip the scales.
For example, Alec didn't mean to ruin Logan's front door. Really, he didn't. He knew it wasn't the door's fault that Max had gone crazy, or that he couldn't seem to catch her, or that he was still wet from the rain and a tour of Seattle's sewers. His mind knew this. But, all through his journey across town to Logan's sector an unbearable tension had been building in him.
He'd been thinking about the events of the day, about Max's sudden change, about Logan's penchant for sending her into situations that she (and Alec, who couldn't stop watching her back) usually just barely escaped. He'd been thinking about the maddeningly fleeting memories he had of being at Logan's last week and his overwhelming but inexplicable reluctance to return to the man's apartment.
Tension. His body was practically humming with the tune of it – had vibrated in its key across the lobby of Logan's building and into the elevator. There wasn't much that Alec could recall from the day that White's drug had done a number on him, though snippets of memory were slowly emerging. And what he did remember were fragments of moments and feelings that left him more confused than anything. He remembered Max promising him ice cream and pizza, and he remembered kicking Logan, but he couldn't remember any other moments from his time in Logan's penthouse. Whenever he used the techniques he learned at Manticore to make himself remember all he got were feelings: frustration, fear, and an almost overwhelming sense of despair. All of this made him want to avoid Logan like the plague.
But, for Max's sake, Alec should have gotten in touch with Logan first thing, despite his confidence in his own ability to track her. He was wasting time chasing behind her – and at times being led on by her – when he still didn't have the damnedest clue what was wrong with her or what he would do with her once he had her in his grasp. He'd tried calling her again while on his way to the rich sector that Logan lived in, but she wasn't answering. He'd been berating himself for not having contacted Logan earlier, when he knew in his gut that the man might very well have the key to unlock the mystery of Max's behavior.
He was furious with himself and worried about Max. And he took it out on Logan's door.
The result was a noticeable fracture running from the top of the door to its bottom and a dent in the wall next to it where the knob ricocheted off. Well, at least the door didn't come entirely off its hinges. It could still probably be considered serviceable, since it closed well enough – slammed shut with a resounding crash, in fact. Alec marched on with single-minded purpose straight to the study, said crash echoing in his wake.
Sure enough, Logan sat at his desk. He'd swiveled his chair and was facing the entryway to the room, wearing an expression that changed from shock to exasperation once he saw who his visitor was. "What, destroying my windows wasn't enough so you have to go for the door too?"
Alec didn't answer Logan's question, instead asking one of his own. "What the hell happened last night?"
Logan's attitude transformed from exasperation to condescension. He leaned back in his expensive, ergonomic desk chair and folded his hands over his stomach. "Care to explain what you're talking about?"
The muscle in the X5's jaw twitched at Logan's arrogant tone. If I kill him, Max will kill me, Alec thought. Not really on his agenda for the evening, so he kept the urge in check. "Max," he bit out. "What happened to Max?"
A short bark of laughter preceded words practically dripping with glee. "I knew it. I knew you'd be jealous. You've wanted her all along. And now that the virus is gone and there's nothing standing between her and me you can't take it." He smiled and leaned forward. "It's eating you up inside, isn't it? That I finally have her and you have nothing. How's that feel, Alec?"
He stared at Logan for a moment. "Are you done? Good. Now, remove your head from your ass and listen to what I'm saying: something.is.wrong.with.Max."
Logan's face fell. "Something's wrong with Max?"
"Yeah, Cap'n America. Why else would I come here?" Alec indicated the cyber-journalist, the computers, the entire penthouse with a sweep of his arms and a roll of his eyes. Then he took a step forward, his eyes locking onto and holding Logan's gaze. "So, what the hell happened to her last night? How exactly did you cure the virus?"
She was standing atop the Space Needle. The pensive expression that usually graced her features when she looked over the Seattle skyline was nowhere to be seen. In its place, an untamed grin flashed white teeth at the darkness. Hot energy coursed through her veins, the air around her practically sparking with it.
She looked into the night and could see everything with absolute clarity. There were no shadows, and the colors of the dingy city night were all so vivid that they seemed to her to breathe. Standing upon the height of Seattle was once a way for her to remove herself from the chaos, but now she didn't feel so removed - not when so many sounds were beating in her head and in her blood; not when the riotous smells from Seattle's depths rose and mingled with the chilly, damp air to swirl around her. The untamed night called to her, sang to her. Max turned and raced down the neck of the Needle, burning with the need to answer and to find those who would feel the same call and possessed her same ability to rise to it.
In a heartbeat, she was astride her baby. Her hands caressed the clutch and throttle. She leaned low, seeming to become one with the bike. Wild laughter trailed behind her, barely heard over the engine's roar, swept back by the same wind that forced her brown tresses from her face. The stolen NOS that she'd injected into her fuel system thrust the bike forward faster than she'd ever taken it. The rush was the purest elixir she'd ever tasted. Better than any sex she'd ever had, akin to the purest fight she'd ever been in. Her thighs hugged the gas tank as they would a lover, the engine rumbled beneath her, sending wonderful vibrations throughout her body. The wide grin that graced her face was ferociously joyous, and behind dark lenses her mismatched eyes reflected the sensation that was threatening to overwhelm her.
Freedom. She was finally free.
Almost. A shadow grew over her features. Almost. After a moment a slow grin dawned over the darkness and her fierce laughter echoed around her again.
There were a few moments of absolute silence that blanketed Logan's apartment in the wake of his explanation of the previous night's events. In that time Alec attempted to exert some control over his initial desire to throttle the man sitting on the other side of the room.
Easy. Easy. Just breath, man. Inhale. Exhale. Remember: you can't kill him. Calm, that's the ticket. Breathe. Fuck it.
"You trusted a Manticore doctor to inject Max with some concoction? A Manticore doctor who miraculously just happens to be hanging around Seattle when all the rest of his peers have fled for fear of losing their lives? Are you really that stupid? I mean, it's not like you're new. You've heard the stories. You know what they're capable of!"
"Alec," Logan tried to stave off the rant, "as I've said to Max in the past, not all people from Manticore are inherently evil - "
"Especially when they have something you want, right Logan?"
"It was an excellent lead. He contacted me through one of my most trusted resources in the Informant Net."
It was Alec's turn to let out a bark of laughter out. "The Informant Net? Oh yeah, 'cause that's an absolutely failsafe system."
"Hey!"
"Did you at least get sample of the serum?"
"He only made the one dose."
"How about the written formula for the cure?"
"I didn't ask for it." He saw Alec roll his eyes in exasperation and hurried on, "but the doctor assured me that the dose was strong enough to completely destroy the virus."
"Sure. Right. Of course. So, what you're saying is you had no back up plan whatsoever."
"That's not –"
"How could you dose her with any anything without testing it out on a sample of her blood first?"
"Please. I'm not a moron, Alec. I sent him a work up of Max's DNA and blood chemistry."
Alec blinked slowly. "Wait, wait, wait. I can't believe I'm hearing this. You sent the details of Max's DNA – her transgenic, utterly perfect, no junk, desperately wanted by the CDC and who knows what other government agencies DNA, not to mention the markers for a government-created, genetically-specific virus that would obliterate any doubt as to Max's identity – you sent all that out into cyberspace?"
Logan paled slightly. "Well, when you say it like that…"
"Never mind, I'll deal with that shit when it hits the fan. Let's focus on the present catastrophe. Did at least send him a recent blood chem, you know, post-dose of crazy cult's snake venom? Or hadn't you noticed that she still has their brand on her arm?"
"Her reaction to the snake venom was mild at best. Within an hour of exposure she was no longer symptomatic."
"That's all super, Logan, but who's to say that it hasn't had some unseen effect on her?"
"You guys are supposed to be resilient, immune to everything." He settled his eyeglasses higher on the bridge of his nose with a nervous gesture.
Alec threw up his arms. "She's a transgenic, not a fucking cyborg. We're immune to bio-warfare, but that doesn't mean that we can't be drugged, or that certain chemical agents can't do a number on our patchwork DNA. Or were you not paying attention to what happened to me last week?"
Logan took a deep breath in an attempt to stay the better, more rational man. "So, if Max has regressed, we just need to find her and keep her somewhere safe until the effects of the cure wear off."
"I never said she was regressing."
"Then what, exactly, is wrong? And where is she?"
"She's on the move," was the very clipped answer Alec gave to Logan's second question. To answer the first, he shared some of the conclusions about Max's state that he'd come to over the course of half a day spent tracking her. "It's like she's tapped into her animal instincts on a cellular level. And not just her instincts, but those parts of her genetic makeup that are other than human. The change is both physical and mental. Even her scent has changed."
"Maybe it's not even Max, it could be a twin," Logan said, grasping at the possibility that Alec was totally of base, that nothing was wrong with Max.
"Chances are Max does have a clone out there somewhere," Alec acceded. "But the one wreaking havoc today is Max. I'd know the difference." He ignored Logan's skeptical look and began pacing. "No, it's almost like…like she's going primal…" Alec frowned and his voice lowered, as if he were talking to himself, "…I need to figure out exactly what was in that damn cure."
Trying once more to discount the transgenic's theory that the cure was the cause of the changes in Max, Logan said, "Maybe her state doesn't even have anything to do with the cure. Maybe she's just in heat."
"She's not in heat. I'd know it if she were. I would have smelled it on her yesterday, possibly even the day before." And I sure as hell wouldn't be standing here talking to you. Alec didn't share that sudden train of thought with Logan and tried not to examine it too closely himself. "Whatever's going on with her, it isn't normal or natural."
Logan's voice dripped with condescending sarcasm, "Oh, like her heat cycle is?"
"For our kind, yeah." Alec smiled at him then – not the usual cocky grin, but a smile of all teeth and cold eyes. Logan was reminded of a great cat or a wolf, and the hair on the back of his neck rose as a instinctive warning of danger went off somewhere deep in his mind. Then Alec looked away, and, just like that, the moment was gone. He could breathe again. He swallowed to ease his heart back down his throat.
Alec continued on as if hadn't noticed Logan's reactions, "She's attacking ordinaries and fighting other X5s." He didn't mention how Max threw Joshua in the basement and destroyed his home. It was a family matter, and one Alec would be sure to sort out once Max was back to her usual self.
"I can't believe that any part of Max could be that violent, not without extreme provocation." Logan caught Alec's incredulous look. "Okay yes, Max does have the same genetics as the rest of you, the same skills and training and the same survival instinct – but she's not bloodthirsty. What she did while at Manticore…well, that was then. Those were things that they made her do. It's not who she is."
"Keep telling yourself that," mumbled words made their way to Logan's ears. It was really irking him how casually and how often Alec kept implying that he knew and understood Max on a level to which Logan was not privy. Logan had known Max twice as long as the other man. Besides, Max had barely tolerated Alec's presence for the better amount of time that the X5 had been a part of her life. True, Max did seem to care somewhat for his well being, but that was just because she was much more sensitive than her bitchy attitude let on. It didn't mean that Alec was special in some way.
"I need the name and contact information of the scientist who came up with this cure."
Logan turned back towards his terminals, but said, "He's probably no longer at the original address he gave me. He's trying to stay below the government's radar, remember?"
Alec shrugged. "That won't be a problem. I have a lot of practice finding ordinaries who don't want to be found."
Twenty minutes later, Alec was well on his way to the good doctor's last known residence, a slummy suburb just outside of Seattle. While he deftly maneuvered his bike through the congested streets he thought about what he'd said to Logan about how Max's animal DNA seemed to be taking over. What was the nature of her animal side? Like all of the X5 series, she had a lot of feline DNA, but she also had some shark genes mixed in there.
Right now every reaction Max had was connected with violence, with survival – physical and emotional. She was a predator. She was territorial. As such, her every encounter meant figuring out where people fit in the order of dominance – if they were predators or just there as prey.
From the evidence that Alec had seen, her encounters with ordinaries had been more in the nature of her swatting away annoying insects than launching focused attacks. The people were in her way. Sketchy, Normal, and that guy at the motorcycle shop, they had all gotten in the way of whatever Max had been doing at the time. And, instead of lashing out with her tongue or with a relatively minor slap as she usually would, she had casually employed the brute strength that every transgenic possessed to channel her irritation. She had lost any kind of standard, yardstick, check, ….ability to gauge what was an appropriate physical response by human standards and replaced it with the laws of jungle and ocean. She hadn't hurt any of the humans in the club because they meant nothing to her and didn't pose any sort of inconvenience. They'd just been scenery.
Her conflicts with other transgenics were an entirely different story. Biggs had said that Max attacked Cece first. Alec thought that might have been a dominance play and an instinct to claim her territory. Any X5 female would be seen as a rival, there could only be one queen. Both predatory felines and sharks are extremely territorial. And sharks, combative by nature, tend to go in for surprise attacks and hit and run tactics.
Joshua was a different story. His injuries had resulted more from rough handling than from a direct attack. He'd told Alec that Max flipped out when she realized that he'd had contact – had actually made friends – with an unknown ordinary. She'd wrecked the house and specifically the paintings for lack of a better target. If she'd been herself it wouldn't have been anger that she'd have expressed – or, more likely, repressed – it would have been fear over Joshua's safety, concern for his heart. She always felt like she needed to control the situation, as if that control could keep them all safe. It seemed to Alec that she had been displaying dominance and a need to protect. Max threw Joshua in the basement so that he would learn that she was the dominant in their family relationship and so that he would be somewhere the outside world couldn't get to him.
Her wilder instincts might be taking over, but beneath all that was Max – not the persona that she showed to the world at large, but her true self. Alec needed to figure out what drove Max in her heart of hearts, what she needed, what she feared, what would give her peace.
But there was only one thing that he was absolutely sure of: Max wouldn't leave her family behind. She wouldn't leave without Josh. And, based on the time that they'd spent over the past week and the vague memories he had from his day as a man-sized child, Alec knew that Max wouldn't leave without him either. She wouldn't.
She won't.
Flicker. Flicker.
"Oh great., another brown-out." Logan heaved a great sigh as he pulled matches from the drawer of his desk. "Just what I need." His exo whirled softly as he stood up to light the candle that sat on the shelf above his monitor. He turned intending to light the other candles around the room and jumped a little at the shadow standing in the doorway.
"Hi, honey."
"Max," Logan sighed in relief. "It's you." After a heartbeat, the slender figure stepped forward until the soft, fluttering light of the single flame fell softly across the exotic beauty of her mouth, leaving the rest of her face shadowed. Her full lips were wrought in a mocking smile.
"Were you expecting someone else?"
Logan was struck dumb by her outfit and mesmerized by the sultry movements of her body. The candlelight lay golden across what flesh was revealed to his starving gaze: her midriff, her neck, her hands, her thighs. She was a vision in her miniskirt, high boots, and long leather coat. Her small, red shirt hugged the curves of her chest in a way that made Logan's mouth go dry. He swallowed before trying to answer her. "Just you, Max."
"So, what was so important that you've been blowing up my pager all afternoon?"
"We did have dinner plans, right?"
"We did." She turned her face toward the kitchen. "But you didn't cook."
"Well, I got a little distracted. Alec came over babbling some nonsense about how the cure made you sick."
"Ah, yes. Alec." Logan could make out her small smile in the shadow.
"Yeah, he just left not too long ago."
"I know," she paused to sniff delicately. "I can still smell him."
"Oh." He remembered Alec saying he knew Max by her scent. His brow furrowed. "I didn't know you had an enhanced sense of smell."
Max smirked. "I'm just full of surprises today."
Logan began lighting the candles that were set at regular intervals throughout the study. "I'm so glad you're here. Clearly, Alec was wrong. You look perfectly normal to me."
Max laughed – a lot harder than he thought his comment warranted. "Logan, don't you know that I'm beyond normal?"
"Of course you are, Max. Of course you're amazing. I mean, you look," he glanced over his shoulder and swallowed audibly, "you look fantastic tonight. Not that you don't always." Logan felt heat creep up his cheeks as he realized that he was rambling like a fourteen year old virgin. He'd been waiting for this moment for so long, the moment that she wouldn't kill him upon contact. Now that she was finally there in front of him and so touchable, he was overwhelmed. He focused on lighting the last candle in an attempt to compose himself.
"What else did Alec say?"
He cleared his throat. "That he was going to find you." He watched her walk over to one of the scented candles and run her hand swiftly through the flame. Confronted with just her back, Logan finally noticed her long, wild hair blending in with the black of her coat as it fell in thick waves almost to her tiny waist. "Are you going to call him and tell him everything is alright?"
"Why would I do that?" She laughed again. "Alec will figure out the rules of the game. And there'll still be plenty of time to play." She turned then and walked out of the study.
Logan couldn't decipher what she meant by that last statement, but he decided that he would rather not try. He grabbed the nearest candle and followed her into the dark living room. "You know, I knew last night that Alec would be jealous when he found out about the cure. Maybe you should just stick to dealing with him on a strictly business level."
"You think?" She stood at his brand new windows, staring out into the blackness of Seattle as if she could see everything.
Logan was silent for a moment. Max kept her back to him as he lit the candles around the room. He took a deep breath before he crossed into uncharted conversational territory. "Alec wants you, and…I know you feel some sort of protective instinct for him. You see him as family. But that's not the way he sees you, Max. He sees that verbal sparring you two do as some sort of foreplay, I'm sure of it."
"Are you standing in an X5's way, Logan?" There wasn't any emotion in Max's voice when she asked the question. It was more as if she were curious about rather than invested in the Logan's answer. She didn't even turn away from the windows.
"I just don't want him trying to take advantage of you. I'm not so sure he really knows right from wrong. I mean, just think of how he behaved with me last week."
"Don't worry Logan, I know just how to handle Alec."
He put down the candle and walked over to her. She was acting so distant. He needed to get closer to her, to reassure them both that they belonged to each other. "I'm not worried, just concerned."
She turned towards him with her head bowed, her face hidden by all those beautiful dark tresses. She took his hand in hers, skin to skin. Logan's heart soared at that simple touch and he closed his eyes. Her hand slid up his arm slowly and she stepped close, so that her body was molded to his side. The fragrance of her hair, some untamed flower, was the only reason he remembered to breathe.
"Aren't you sweet," her words were as soft and warm as her hand that hand that finally came to rest on his neck. He opened his eyes and looked down, but all those waves were still hiding most of her from view. He could only catch a glimpse of her golden cheek and the passionate red of her full lips. His head dipped with the need to taste her, but she was already sliding around him.
There was something about the way she moved. The thought brought to mind what Alec had said, and he imagined the sensual glide of jungle cats. Max was standing directly behind him, he knew this. But he couldn't hear her, couldn't sense her at all. Humans didn't stand so still. Suddenly, Logan was no longer feeling as amorous. He couldn't stop the fine trembling that momentarily overtook his body. She paused in circling him and sniffed at him. When she spoke her warm breath raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
"Logan, you're not scared of little ol' me, are you?" She made her way around his body until she stood in front of him, her head barely coming to his chin as she rested her cheek against his chest.
His forced laugh was as rigid and tense as his spine. "No. No, of course not. I love you, Max."
She wrapped her arms around his waist. He could feel the heat radiating off her through his sweater. It was the first time in almost a year that he'd been this close to her exposed skin and not had to fear poison in her touch.
Yet, some instinct was screaming that he should be.
Her laughter was husky and filled with promises of silk sheets, sweet wine, sweat, and scream-filled nights. "I bet you say that to all the girls who could kill you with a snap." She snuggled further into his stock-still body. "Your heart is beating so fast. Sounds like a rabbit thumping inside your ribcage." She laughed again. "Maybe I'll call you 'Thumper.'"
She tilted her head looked up at him, shaking her long hair back so that nothing veiled her beauty from his view. For the first time he light from the candles fell full across her face to illuminate her alien eyes.
Logan jumped back. "Christ!" The word that was so loud in his mind was barely a breath on his lips. He was so fixated on Max's eyes and her maniacal smile that he never saw her fist coming.
TBC