“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.