Looking over she saw him, there was a thin barrier dividing them. She stretched her hand until she was pushing against it. It had the consistency of gelatin bouncing when she touched it. She added more strength and pushed through reaching for Cal’s hand.
He reached back to clasp her hand allowing her to pull him inside.
“You did it.”
“Uh huh, but why do I think that was the easy part? What do we do next?”
He ran his hands through her hair. “We take the fight to the source. Lead us to your heart.”
“Like I said this was the easy part.” Stilling herself, she moved them to her heart where the Venom snake was rearing its ugly head.
Her heart reminded her of the cave she visited in the amount of space there was. It was cavernous with a huge red throbbing ball in the middle, must be how she was symbolizing her heart. This time the Venom snake was a snake with razor sharp deadly fangs and the thread like tentacles from earlier moved like vicious limbs. Great, she hated snakes in the worse way.
“Should it look like this?”
Cal shrugged, “You’ve grown and matured, and its body would grow and mature with you.”
“Cal, why don’t you try using a couple of these lines. No! Paige I’m just as surprised as you, but don’t worry you will defeat the icky snake. Or you could try, yes, Paige this is normal and a sign of how powerful you’re becoming. But shrugging and giving me that luke warm answer—not good.”
“Yes, Paige…”
She reached out to hit his shoulder, “You feel solid even though you don’t look that way.”
Cal was a sea of color starting with the deepest red along with the palest white she ever saw. In the midst were shades of gray. He reminded her of the sun peeking out on a stormy day.
“You’re solid too even though you’re so bright you almost hurt my eyes.”
The Sudir joined them. “Ahh, how wonderful, are you saying goodbye to each other?”
“We’ve been waiting for you,” Paige’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“I wouldn’t want to disappoint,” he said as he tossed a black web at her pinning her against a wall.
Cal lifted a hand sending a bolt her way cutting her out of the webbing.
“You’re really beginning to irritate me.” The Sudir lifted both hands shooting two webs at Cal. They interlocked knocking him into the wall with a jarring thud, for good measure he shot one covering his mouth.
“Now that we’re alone, Paige, or at least mostly alone…” He wrapped her hands in webbing before she was able to rescue Cal. “I thinks it’s time for us to talk.”
He floated up bending his legs in a macabre twisted position as if he were sitting at home relaxing.
“I’ve been watching you since you were a little girl. Who knew you would net such a prize? Dead or alive he’s a prize; of course he’s worth more alive. That’s where you come into play. I will give you his life, all you have to do is serve me. He will still be alive and breathing with the asinine hope that he may one day get free.”
He floated closer to her. “What, you ask, has moved me to such a generous offer? The thought of you on your knees serving me as I feed from you. You’re probably wondering if there’s another choice. Glad you asked! Your other option is to watch me kill Cal slowly and then make you serve me anyway. If I were you, I’d choose option number one.”
The Sudir looked at his nails removing imaginary pieces of dirt from under them as he gave her time to think.
“I’ve come to a decision.”
“I hope it’s the right one. You are rather smart for a human.”
“I guess that’s better than being rather smart for a female.”
“Humans and their difficulty with sexes. Everyone knows the female is the deadliest creature alive, next to me of course. What have you decided?”
“While thoughts of serving you on my knees is intriguing…” Paige’s stomach rolled and her throat quivered as she spoke, “keeping Cal alive is the goal. I am going to have to reject your offer.”
She spun as her hands became light. Dissolving the webbing, she threw several beams of light at Cal freeing him. He hit the floor of the cave with a thud that made her wince in sympathy.
The Sudir roared throwing his web again missing them as they dodged it.
“I’m done playing with you, Paige. I will make you regret every moment of your life.” The Sudir turned to the venom snake, “Come to daddy and destroy them.”
The venom snake uncurled its massive body from around her heart. She dropped to her knees feeling the pain in her physical body.
“You should have chosen me, Paige.”