“Cal, I’m just not sure about this.”
“It’s a lot to take in, Sunshine, but it must be your decision. No matter how much I want to, I can’t make the connection to my heart for you. Only a willing mate can make it. It keeps one party from forcing the other into a bond that is not wanted.”
“Actually, I’m glad to hear that. I feel better knowing it really is my choice either way. Cal, are you sure you want to do this with me? What if I fail?”
“Paige, I choose you. From this day forward no one else will do. If you live so do I; if you die…so do I. Together.”
She wouldn’t die, there was no way she would let him throw away his life.
“What do we do next?”
“We leave our bodies. A soul bonding is a test. Not everyone who tries to soul bond will succeed. If the test is failed, the soul bond is refused and the potential mates are free to continue looking.”
“So after all of this we might not be able to bond?”
“Correct.”
“You didn’t think to tell me sooner?”
“Would it have changed your mind?”
“I don’t know, maybe, no, but that doesn’t matter. Cal you have to tell me everything or this won’t work. If I can’t trust you then I can’t work with you.”
“You’re right. I imagined meeting my mate differently. I thought I would have lots of time to explain my world to you. Things are not as I would have wished them to be.”
“Cal, I have a black snake like coil trying to drain my strength and then my life. Don’t talk to me about things not being as you wished them to be.” She laughed knowing it wasn’t his fault.
“You’re right. Victor would say I was whining like a child.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but I do need to know if you’re going to be honest with me, because Cal, I won’t spend my life with a male I can’t trust.”
“Paige, I was never trying to deceive you. There’s just so much information I wasn’t sure how much to tell you and when.”
“I get it, just make sure to tell me the relevant details.”
“You got it.”
She reached out and took his hand. The scene disappeared and they were now standing in front of an ornate silver door. There were words written in a foreign language and a glow coming from the perimeter of the door. The landscape was bleak as far as the eye could see. Nothing but reddish ground with a harsh sun beating down on them.
“Where are we now?”
“Behind that door is where the tests will take place.”
“Have you ever been here before?”
“No, Paige. You are the only female who is destined to be my soul bond. After today, if you live, I live; if you die I will gladly follow you to the next world. We were meant to be one.”
She quickly wiped a tear from her eye. Love or not, he was the only guy she knew who was willing to stand by her side. She had a few boyfriends in her short life. They cared, but not enough to deal with the fact she was different from your average girl.
Guess she didn’t have a choice about being different.
“When will the door open?”
“It opens when it’s ready, that’s all I know.”
“Where did you come from?” Paige frowned as she turned to see an elderly gentleman standing in front of them. He was leaning heavily on a gnarled cane made of wood. He was wearing a long purple robe with a hood making it impossible to see his features.
“You weren’t here when we came. I checked the area and I didn’t see you.”
“No one sees me unless I want to be seen.”
“Oh.” She turned her head to look at Cal who had been silent the whole time. “Then why are you here?”
“To look of course, Girly.”
“The name’s Paige.”
“Nice name, Girly.”
She stopped, she’d dealt with more than one ornery client. Nothing she did changed their mind once it was made up. She was going to have to deal with the name Girly for now.
“You like to see who is trying to soul bond?”
“I do, I always have a feeling about who will make it.”
“Really, what kind of feeling do you get about me?”
“You’re filled with too many doubts. Should I or shouldn’t I? Is this really the only way? You want to live, but at the same time you’re raging against a world that would do this to you.”
“What makes you think you know me or what I am raging about?”
“You wear your thoughts, emotions, and those all-important feelings on your sleeve for the whole world to tune into. You’ll have to learn quickly to walk on your feelings before they are used to deceive.”
“Tell me Mr.? What should I call you?”
“Call me Voyager.”
“Ok Mr. Voyager…”
“Just Voyager.”
“Tell me, Voyager, based on your experience will I fail or succeed?”
“You will fail, Girly.”
Chapter Nine
The door silently opened cutting off Paige’s reply. She followed Cal inside feeling small in the large space ahead of them. The terrain was bleak, the sky was cloudy, as if it were threatening to open up and spill its contents. The grayness of the air provided enough light just none of the warmth.
The door shut with a loud noise that reverberated through the space causing her to stop and look back. She shook her head not understanding how something that heavy could open silently but then close with such a loud force.
Turning back to look for Cal, she found him wrapped in vines while he hung over a pit in the ground.
“Cal!”
A vine covered his mouth preventing him from speaking. He squirmed trying to get lose. They released him, dropping him into the deep pit.
“What’s going on?” Paige asked as she ran to the pit stopping just in time not to fall in.
Cal was pushing against a smooth clear surface that reminded her of glass. She picked up a rock motioning him to move back, she would try and break it. After that she would find something for him to use to climb out.
He began screaming, his mouth opening wide, but no sound escaped the space; he was locked inside. When she cocked her arm he began to frantically wave his hands over his head and point upward. Looking up, she realized the vines were gone. In their place were more blades than she wanted to count, all poised to fall into the pit. Between the blades and the glass he would never make it out alive if they dropped.
Could she climb down there and look for an opening or a tunnel that would lead her to him? Picking up the smallest pebble she could find, she allowed it to roll into the pit. When it hit the clear surface a hairline fracture ran through it. It was definitely glass and it was pressure sensitive. She watched as the glass lowered a little. As it lowered so did the blades above Cal. It was only then she saw the orange band that circled the pit under the glass.
Coldness crept up her spine as she understood what it meant. When the glass finally reached the orange surface, the blades would drop. She didn’t know how much time she had, but her inner voice told her it wasn’t long.
“What do I do?” She turned to face Voyager who was sitting on a large boulder she would have sworn wasn’t there when they came in.
“You fail.”
Turning around she walked the perimeter of the circle looking for a way to descend safely. There was no way. She dropped to the ground and started digging, looking for a hidden lever. It was taking too long, she got up and began to stomp hoping to find a spot that sounded hollow. Nothing. She meticulously covered the space of several yards around the pit.
She bent over the pit to see Cal on his knees, the glass ceiling lowered to the point where he could no longer stand. It was also much closer to the orange band. She couldn’t let him die, he didn’t deserve that.
Having no other choice she expanded her search looking for anything, an invisible door, a key, at this point she would take a leprechaun if he could get the job done. There was
nothing, no way to stop his fate.
Knowing she had been gone too long, she ran to get back to him.
“You never run for anyone,” her snarky inner voice said.
“He’s worth running for.”
Now I’m talking to myself and answering myself. Maybe she was delusional and didn’t know it. She knelt at the edge of the pit looking down. Cal was now lying flat on the ground, the edge of the glass was touching the very top of the orange band. She sat down and put her head on her knees as she rocked back and forth. She lost, Cal would die.
Stiffening her spine she went to stand in front of Voyager.
“Tell me what to do to save his life,” her voice came out in a deadly rasp.
“I don’t know what you should do, Girly. I suggest you give up, at least that way you will get to leave alive. But I do have a question for you. Why are you looking for a physical answer when you’re in a spiritual place?”
“But…” She sputtered, then closed her mouth. “I don’t have any talents.”
“Don’t worry it will be over soon and then you won’t have to try anymore.”
Paige walked back over to the pit. She didn’t want Cal to suffer death by blades, no she wanted to wring his neck for being foolish enough to get trapped by vines! What was he thinking?
She looked up at the blades. If she could, she would build a cage, a Plexiglass cage around them to keep them from falling. Then she would slide that glass into an invisible track in the pit. Next she would place a ladder there for Cal to climb out.
She stopped, her head bent with silent tears flowing down her cheeks, he died because he put his faith in her.
Warm arms slid around her picking her up before his lips met her in a blazing kiss. She opened her wet eyes to find him alive and whole. She held onto him tightly, the tears of pain turning into tears of joy. She ran her hands down his arms and across his back, the miracle of life making her laugh in joy.
“You’re alive!” She planted kisses on his brows, cheeks any place she could reach. A lightness she never felt before almost losing him reminded her just how special he was. She kissed him again.
“Are the two of you going to stand around kissing all day or make a plan for your next step?”
“How did you manage to escape?” she asked, ignoring Voyager.
“You did it.”
“Did what?”
“Look up.”
Above their heads the knives were hanging having dropped several feet before being caught in a rough looking material. It wasn’t the smooth clear Plexiglass she wanted, but it was doing the job. She looked into the pit to find a ladder, if she could call it that, leaning against the side. She grimaced when she saw it before looking back at Cal.
“Don’t worry, Sunshine, I’ve climbed things a lot worse than that.”
“I’m not sure I did this.”
“You did it, you were the only one capable of doing it.”
“But I don’t know how I did it.” Was she whining? She hated whiners.
“One step at a time, Paige. You found a way to tap into your talents, right now we celebrate that and keep moving.”
She nodded her head before throwing a glare at Voyager who was standing on unsteady legs.
“You look tired, Voyager, maybe you should go home, get dinner.” She added a smile to take the sting out of the comment. The tension of the last minutes and then the relief were making her unbalanced.
“Are you telling me eating is more important than watching to see how you do in your trials? I’m disappointed in you, Girly.”
“I’m really not that interesting,” she mumbled.
He gave a rusty laugh, “Where to now?”
“Cal?” Paige turned to look at him.
“Pick a direction, Paige. I don’t really think it matters what direction we go in.”
“I say straight ahead then, at least we will be able to back track if we need to.”
They moved on with Paige staying close to Cal. The landscape became bleaker.
“Do you think night is approaching? Do they have night and day in this inner space?”
“Not sure. Voyager, did you hear Paige’s question?”
“I heard her. They have what you need here, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Do you think you could be less vague?” She stopped to glare at him.
“No, Girly, I’m sure I can’t.”
“You might want to stop watching me and try to catch your male.”
Cal was in the claws of the biggest bird she ever saw. It was black with a red beak and yellow beady eyes. Its wings looked like they covered ten feet, she hoped that was her imagination. It was flapping its huge wings trying to lift him, while he twisted and turned, doing his best to break free.
“Cal, I’m coming to help you.”
“Stay away from its beak, Paige, it’s poisonous,” he called down to her.
The bird gave a massive flap of its wings, the wind knocking her off her feet. It rose swiftly in the air taking Cal with it. It flew off into the sun heading for a distant mountain peak.
“Where did the mountain come from?” she asked in a slow measured voice.
“I told you, this place gives you what you need.”
She turned on him. “I didn’t need a huge bird to carry Cal off and I definitely don’t need a long arduous walk to a mountain.”
“Maybe you should find your male and tell him that. He’s the one who brought you here.”
“He’s not my male,” she ground out between her teeth.
“Then why are you here?”
Turning she began stalking across the land thankful the sun wasn’t out making her thirstier than she already was.
“Do you know anything about that bird?”
“It was big?”
“Let me rephrase, do you know anything helpful about that bird?”
“Why didn’t you just say that in the first place? When he gets hungry he’s going to take a big chunk out of your male. That poison he told you about on the beak, it’s going to run through his system in no time and paralyze him. That bird likes his food living when he eats it. Your male will die a slow painful death.”
“His name is Cal, you could use it.”
“I thought you didn’t care about him.”
Clamming up she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other.
“You know we’re not going to make it at this pace”
She wanted to scream at him, she was biting her tongue to hold back the words, but he was right. The more she walked the further away the mountain got. It made no sense, either she was walking away from it or it was moving away. Either way she wasn’t going to get there in time.
She dropped to the ground panting, she felt like she had been walking for hours. There was a stitch in her side and her legs ached. If she ever got them out of here…she dashed a tear from her eyes…she promised him she would prevail. The most important thing to her was saving him like he tried to save her.
What was it Voyager said? Why was she trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical tools?
When Cal pulled her into her body he didn’t use a long process, one minute she was in her reality, the next she stood in her abdomen. It was even faster when they traveled to her heart. She never physically moved. Cal was actually the one doing the transporting, but why couldn’t she do it. It really would have helped if he told her how he did it.
Standing up, she threw Voyager a frown for good measure and then started to think about how she could transport herself to the top of that mountain. Maybe if she pictured where she wanted to go, except she had no idea what that mountain peak looked like. She tried anyway. Nothing.
Next she went over everything she ever read looking for a clue. Some people claimed they could levitate. Think light thoughts, she told herself. Nothing. Maybe she just needed to find her center.
“Are you going to stand there all day humming, Girly? Or are you going to tap into your talent? It’s
getting hot out here.”
“If you’re hot you should leave,” she snapped.
Reaching inside, she wrapped her hands around a glowing light she could see in her mind and looked at the mountain top.
“I was beginning to think you’d never get us here.”
Chapter Ten
Getting to the mountain top may actually have been the easy part. Paige stopped breathing for a moment as she caught sight of Cal trapped in a corner of the bird’s huge nest that was filled with baby birds with poisonous beaks. This bird definitely brought Cal home for dinner and the diners would be its children.
Cal was hopping around avoiding their beaks as the mother blocked any chance he had at freedom. The look on his face was one of terror. Paige felt the grip of desperation clinging to her as she looked around for a weapon.
She ran to pick up the biggest stick she could find in the nest, it was long and thick but she managed to lift it. Swinging at the mother bird, she jumped back ready for it to attack. It never even turned its head. The bird acted like it didn’t even feel the strike. The thought of failing hit her like a tree branch, she had to save him.
Stepping back, she picked up several rocks throwing them trying to redirect the bird’s attention. Sighing, she stopped. Of course it wouldn’t work. She may be stubborn, but she was getting the picture. If she wanted to save him it would come from the inside. Closing her eyes she imagined them on the ground far away from the nest. The light she saw earlier was a little brighter, a bit more tangible; she reached for it hoping that it would take them out of the nest and far enough away to be safe.
Opening her eyes she realized it worked, sort of. She was now standing next to him with several small birds trying to take a bite out of her.
“Paige, can you get us out of here?” Cal dodged another hungry bird.
The look of tiredness on his face had Paige snapping out of fear.
“I’m trying, why don’t you just teleport us?”
Soul-Bonded to the Alien Page 6
