"That's not possible," Michael said breathlessly, still staring intently at the woman he believe was Maria, his Maria.
"Listen Michael, it's her, plain and simple. And, she wasn't at that meeting we just had. That was someone else, not Maria DeLuca." Kyle said irritably on the phone.
Michael didn't say anything else, not one word. Silently, he put the phone back in it's cradle. He stared at it for a moment, then turned to the girl. Smiling, she ran her hands up his bare chest, which was smooth and unyielding. With one hand, she reached over and took the phone off the hook. "No more interruptions," she purred.
"Maria," Michael choked out the word.
"Yes?" she said, kissing the nipples on his chest.
"Remember that time we doubled with Max and Liz? It was such a big disaster?" Michael asked abruptly, fighting the urge to shove her off him.
"I remember that," she said, but her voice wasn't quite steady. Her smiled now seemed forced, and her eyes were looking at him calculatingly.
"What was it I got you for a present? I can't remember," Michael lied through his teeth. "Max got Liz, bubble bath, but I can't remember what I bought you."
"Why is that important?" she asked quizzically.
"I just want to know," Michael said, keeping his voice light.
She seemed to be considering for a moment, remembering what Max bought and trying to go along the same lines. Besides, he had said he didn't remember. "Body lotion," she said confidently, "You bought me lilac-scented body lotion."
*************
A mere minute later, the girl was tied to a chair from Michael's kitchen. Her hands were bound behind her back, and her feet, ankles, waist and legs were tied to the chair as well. She was pissed off.
"What are you doing Michael?" she shrieked as he pulled the rope around her ankles tighter. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Sorry buddy, but I'm not into this type of sex. I demand you untie me this minute!"
"I'm not into this type of sex either," Michael said firmly, as he finished tying her up.
"Well then what the hell is going on?" she demanded. "Why are you tying me to a chair. For God's sake Michael, as soon as I get out of this you are one dead alien?"
"Don't you mean Czechoslovakian?" Michael said with a smile. But it wasn't a real smile, even by Michaels standards. It was cold and hard.
"Who are you?" he asked forcefully as she struggled against the ropes.
"Your girlfriend you idiot!" she shrieked.
He shook his head, "No, my girlfriend was lying tied up in a hospital room, courtesy of you. Now, I want to know who the hell you are, and what the hell you are doing."
She finally dropped the charade, her face turned into a sneer. "I'm here to kill you," she snapped, her voice completely unlike Maria's. "You and your little friends, their dead."
Michael was taken aback. Not by her words, so much as they were coming from Maria's mouth. Well, he knew it wasn't her, but that didn't stop the feeling.
"You're an evil alien?" he asked, checking to make sure she hadn't managed to loosed the ropes at all.
She shrugged, "I'm not evil, nor are my compatriots. But, I suppose you view us that way. After all, we are enemies."
"How many of you are there?" Michael demanded, when he was satisfied she was still tied tightly. "I mean, after the ones we killed."
"You think I'm going to tell you?" the woman scoffed, "God you are stupid."
Michael leaned over her threateningly, "Obviously, you were there when I described our plan. You know I'm going to torture you, and then you are going to spill everything."
"You know you won't," the woman said laughing, then said in a voice like Maria's, "You wouldn't help your girlfriend would you Michael?"
Michael wanted to hit her across the face, wanted to get her to tell him something. He wanted to wipe that smirk off her face, and get revenge for all she and her kind had made him do, made him suffer for. But even as he raised his hand, all he saw in front of him was Maria's face. His Maria.
Lowering his hand slowly, he knew she hadn't missed the gesture, and it killed him to let her think she was winning. "How do you look like Maria?" he finally asked, "I knew you were that doctor in the hospital, but you didn't look anything like Maria, let alone her identical twin."
She looked at him pityingly, shaking her head. But,she seemed to see no harm in telling him. "We're shape-shifters Michael, in case you couldn't tell. All of us, the ones who are against you. That doctor at the hospital is real, I just borrowed her face for awhile, just like I borrowed Maria's, and I don't plan on shifting to something else just yet." The woman kept talking in Maria's voice.
She kept talking. "Nasedo, that man. He was one of us, at least at the beginning, before he developed that damn conscience. Of course, the fact that he's been helping you means nothing now."
"What are you talking about?" Michael said in a low voice.
She shrugged, "We discovered his placement in the FBI as agent Pierce. Right now, he's lying dead 20 feet under the ground. No stones are healing powers can save him."
Michael's hands were shaking behind his back. "You bitch."
She made a tsk-tsk noise, then continued in Maria's voice, "Michael really, such language. Now, if we don't kill you, the FBI will take care if it for us."
Michael closed his eyes tight. Just so he didn't have to see the face of the woman he loved, no matter who lay behind it. Slowly, he raised his shaking hand. He turned his head, making sure he couldn't see what was happening. He let the power flow through his hand. He heard the cry as she was slammed against the wall.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. The chair had held, and she was still tied tightly to it, but she was lying on her side after his power had slammed her hard against the wall. Slowly, she forced her head up, moaning from the pain. "Michael," she said in a hoarse voice, and all he heard was Maria. All he heard was the pain in that voice.
"Are you going to tell me how many of you there are now?" he asked, unable to hide the tremors in his voice.
"No," she said in a weak voice, but none the less determined.
He raised his hand to hit her with the force again, but he couldn't do it.
"I knew you were weak," she said in a hoarse voice. "I knew you couldn't do it."
"I may not be able to do it," Michael said, ignoring the comment about him being weak, "But I'm going to get someone who can. You are going to tell us everything, one way or another."
TBC.......
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