Soul-Bonded to the Alien (7 page)

Of course there were other aliens on her planet. One race of aliens came and now the rest of them think its open season on earth.

“Paige?”

“Nothing, it all seems so surreal. I’m ready if you are.”

“Let’s go into the bedroom where the two of you can lie down.” Victor ushered them into the other room and waited for them to settle. Cal and Paige were side by side on their backs.

“Cal, if there’s a problem there will be a guide. I asked a friend to keep an eye on you.”

“We’ll be fine, Victor, thank you.” Cal reached over and took Paige’s hand. “Paige, it’s easier than you think. Since this is your first time I will reach out for you. Your physical body will remain on the bed but your essence, the part of you which makes you uniquely you, will come with me. Your talents will allow this to happen.”

Having no other choice, Paige closed her eyes and sank down into her memories. She could see herself crying on her bed wishing her parents would come for her. Then she was at her high school graduation watching all the parents take pictures with the graduates. She watched the happy families even as she knew she would soon have to leave the only home she knew.

She survived, adaptability became her middle name. No matter what life threw at her she conquered it and she would conquer this too. She was ready. Reaching out mentally she felt a hand grab hers.

“Cal?”

“I got you, Sunshine.”

“You look different.” He stood taller than she remembered, his tanned skin held a more golden appearance with bronze lines dissecting it making her want to trace each one.

“You look different too.”

She looked down to see she was radiant, almost as bright as the sun.

“I was right, the sun is your power.”

“What does that mean?”

“You have the potential to be powerful, if you can tap into that you may be unstoppable in the light of day.”

“So all I have to do is fight him during the daytime. Seems simple enough.”

“Nothing’s ever that easy, Paige.”

“How are we talking?” Although she felt like she was in her body she knew it was just an illusion. So how was she communicating with him? Was he reading her mind?

“In this space we can’t speak words but we don’t need to. Your desire to communicate with me allows me to hear what you’re saying or more correctly want to say. It’s not mind reading because only what you want to say comes to me.”

“How does it work?”

“I have no idea, Paige. I just know it does.”

She nodded her head, she would take him to task about not knowing as soon as she figured out how her cell phone worked.

“Where are we?”

“Right now we are inside your body, we’re standing in your abdomen. I am going to take you to see your heart but I don’t want you to materialize there.”

“I’m not sure I like the thought of us playing with my internal organs. Where to next?”

“Your heart, take my hands. Paige, this is important, one wrong move and you will die.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything stupid.”

There was no real movement, one moment they were standing in a large cavity, the next she was watching her heart pumping blood.

“What is that?”

There was a black cord wrapped around her heart. It looked more like thick metal than a snake she might see slithering across the ground. There were little tendrils that came from it and expanded and compress with each heartbeat.

“That’s the venom snake. The slivers of darkness you see tunneling through your heart is where the venom will be released. It’s not sentient, simply a tool of the Sudir. It’s more like a plague they devised to use against humans.”

“How do we stop something like that? There are hundreds of those black strands drilling into me.”

“For now we only have to stop this one.”

The strand he showed her was larger than the rest. It throbbed with a substance inside that made her cringe.

“What’s that one?”

“It controls all the other strands. They will be dormant until this one starts to function. Once that happens there is no way that we know of to stop the others.”

“How do you know all of this?”

“We are taught from a young age the tricks of the enemy, how to spot them, avoid them, and deal with them.”

“You’re not making this sound easy, Cal.”

“I don’t want to lie to you, Paige. It won’t be easy.”

“Explain to me what bonding is again.”

“The venom snake has bonded with you. I want my bond to be everywhere his is. In order to do that I need your bond to run through my heart. If it is done correctly the three of us will be connected. I can’t connect to you without being connected to whatever is affecting you.

“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.