Colun's Passion (Alien Mates Book Four 4) (7 page)

A door opened, a memory from her childhood assaulted her. There was a girl; she was what her mom called a transient. Someone who was passing through. Her mom warned her not to get too close to her.

“Stay away, Sara; that girl will bring you trouble.” It was so easy to ignore her mom’s warning. She wanted a friend and the girl, Jillian was her name, wanted to play.

Every day after school she would meet with her. This day was no exception. She was skipping home delighted not to have to deal with the girls in school who taunted her, called her different, misfit, fat.

She snuck between two houses on her street because that was where they met. But that day there was a thing, a monster holding Jillian in its grip sucking on her. Sara screamed and screamed and ran to get help. When she got back, Jillian was dead, and Sara was grounded for six months, unable to do anything but go to school with an escort and come home to watch life outside her window go on without her.

Somehow she knew she was the reason Jillian died. She never played with someone she liked again.

The pain lashed out at her, and she fell to her knees acknowledging that her life had always been filled with monsters. Stay down, that malicious voice in her head whispered. Listen for once in your life or Colun will die just like Jillian.

Fright tightened her shoulders while her heart hammered in her chest. She didn’t want to be the cause of Colun’s dying. Better her than him any day, but how could he live without his power? Would it find him again if she died and it was still encased in her body? She didn’t think it would be able to find its way back. Power needed a living, willing host. She didn’t know how she knew that, but the answer was there for her as plain as daylight.

She stood and forced her legs to move. Jillian was a long time ago, and nothing she could do would bring her back. Colun was here alive, and she wouldn’t lose him. She blindly began to run down the corridors that shifted and turned like she was in the fun house of an amusement park. When the floor slanted, she cried out calling Colun’s name instinctively. She hit her rear and began to slide uncontrollably.

There was a cliff ahead. How could there be a cliff? Maybe it was done with fun house mirrors. She screamed as her body picked up momentum. She was going over the edge no matter how she tried to stop. She gave one big scream to let the world know how she felt about it as her body fell…

She wasn’t falling, Colun had snatched her up and was holding her trembling body close to him. Some male she never saw before was holding onto Colun as he dangled over a ledge.

“What are you waiting for, Joaquin. Pull us up.”

“Yes Sir,” he sneered. “Right away, Sir, because it's not like your heavy or anything.”

Sara giggled, it turned into full blown laughter because Colun saved her, because his friend was a smart ass, because she had to wait until she hit sixty to go on an adventure. Whatever the reason, at that moment she felt freer than she ever had before.

“Hi.” They were safe. Sara was standing well away from the precipice.

She had no idea where they were, but standing next to Colun gave her a feeling of peace and safety. He was close enough that the heat of his body was slowly warming hers. You’re too old for this, this feeling of being infatuated, every voice she had cried out, but she didn’t care. Being around Colun, feeling this good might never happen again, and she wasn’t going to throw it away because he had freaky abilities he used to keep her safe.

They were standing under the night sky. The stars lit the area making it shine with their beauty. There was the sound of running water in the distance and what looked like grass under her feet and trees surrounded them.

“I’m Joaquin,” he reached out his hand to shake hers.

She gave him a smile and took his hand in a firm shake. “I’m Sara, and I want to thank both of you for saving me. Do either of you know where we are?”

Colun gave her a weary look before answering her question. “Right now we’re in your mind, but unless I’m wrong, our bodies are probably laid out in my room.”

“I keep trying to believe in you. Then you say something stranger than the last thing you said, and I find myself once again doubting your sanity. Take a good look, Colun.” She slowly did her showgirl move as she indicated her body. Joaquin choked on his laughter, but she ignored it.

“This is my body and it came along for the ride.” He was ridiculously hot, why did he have to be insane?

“In life, we have more than one plane of existence. Each plane has a different set of rules. You’re used to dealing with the plane of the flesh, but on this plane, it’s so much different, and your body is reconstructed from your memory, how you perceive yourself.”

If that were true she thought, her body would be curvy the way she pictured herself in her dreams. She took a step back and looked down, this definitely wasn’t the body she saw in the mirror recently. She looked around with a frown on her face.

“All right, let’s assume for a minute we are in my mind. Why did I almost die and why are there stars in here along with grass and trees.” She wanted to go along with the story, call it food poisoning, enjoy herself, and wake up tomorrow with a bad taste in her mouth.

“Your mind is the most creative place on Earth. If it can’t happen here then it will never happen,” Colun gave her a sad smile for bringing her into his life like this.

Sara glanced up at Colun and then at Joaquin. She didn’t know what was happening, but they weren’t lying. She was someplace other than where she belonged.

“Is this because I took your power?” Out of the pan and into the fire. Why did she continue to cling to life when everything around her wanted her dead?

“In theory, yes, but none of us knows what would have happened if you didn’t reach for my power. We may have still ended up here.”

“Can I give it back to you and say I’m sorry? All I could think about at the time was that I didn’t want to die. Your power was inside of me like an ember, and I followed it back to you before I snatched it and wrapped it around me like a cloak.

“Sara, I want you to live. I could have stopped you, but I knew it was you, that’s why I did nothing.”

She smiled at him like a tiny flower bud beginning to uncurl when it realizes that nature isn’t tricking it, and the sun is here to stay. Jim had never done anything unselfish for her. He would have killed her if she tried to take anything away from him. Jim hated her, what a revelation it was for her to wake up and realize the man she married hated her.

“Thank you.” She cleared her voice afraid it was a little too soft and sappy. “How do we get out of here?”

“That’s where I come in,” Joaquin gave her a courtly bow. “Only I’m not leading you out. I’m leading you to the trials. Please, follow me.” He took off ahead not wanting to be in the middle of the conversation he knew was coming.

“What are the trials?” She looked up at Colun, his gray eyes captivating her making her forget to breathe.

Colun lowered his eyes breaking the connection between them and leaving her feeling bereft for a moment.

“The trials are where my people go when they wish to become soul-bonded.”

“Colun, say what? No, Colun, I honestly have no idea what you just said.”

“You already know that aliens exist.”

“You’re talking about that monster that hovered over the grass and tried to kill me.”

“That’s the one. He’s an alien, and he’s not on this planet alone. They look like that because they were caught up in the backlash of their destructive behavior, but we can talk about that later. They are here because they followed a group of survivors to this planet, a different alien race.”

“Do we have a cosmic sign welcoming all strays?” She smiled up at him, but he wasn’t smiling at her.

“Your planet is isolated; it’s the perfect place to hide out if needed.”

She could see that. Earth was the only planet with life on it and you had to travel deep into their solar system to get to Earth, most beings probably just passed them up.

“So we attract the desperate.”

“It’s more like you attract those who are running from war and simply want peace, but in the case of the Sudir, sometimes you attract the evil ones, too.”

“So you’re an alien?” That was the real question. The only question that mattered right now.

“Yes. I’m an Arbrin/Matra. They use to be two different species on my planet. In the Sudirs greed to have our world, they fused two independent species into one. Fortunately, for us, we work well together and can coexist in one body. I was young, but I am still the product of the fusing. The shock, the pain of being unable to separate struck me on a physical and mental level. Some of the fused ones didn’t make it; they couldn’t accept being one. Maybe I survived because I was so young, or maybe because the Arbrin and the Matra were the best of friends it was already like we were one. Either way, the aftermath of what happened wasn’t easy to live through.”

“What does being Arbrin and Matra mean?”

“It means I can change my shape.”

“Like turn into a cat or a dog?”

“No, the Matra looks different from the Arbrin. You’re seeing the Arbrin now because this form blends in well with your Earth forms, but I can change into my other shape also.”

“Alrighty, then.” She wasn’t ready for the fact that he turned into something else. “What are the trials for?”

“When we find our soul-bond, the one we wish to spend our lives with, we come to the trials. Almost like getting married except there is no divorce. We become united on a spiritual level as well as a mental level. This allows us to talk to each other mentally and to feel the other person.”

“And when you soul-bond with a lying cheating bastard?”

“That’s why we come to the trials. It prevents what you are saying from happening.”

“Colun, why are we here?”

“Because we are dying, Sara. When you took my powers to save your life, you weren’t able to deal with them. They’re killing you and if you die so do I.”

“We either soul-bond or die?”

“That’s the bottom line, but it’s not that easy. The trial doesn’t care if we live or die. It only cares about one thing, approving unions that are meant to be. If we are not compatible, if we were never meant to be, then we will die, and the trial will give its blessing to our death. There are no tricks, and you can’t fake it. You have to be who you are one hundred percent of the time and either it’s good enough or it’s not.”

“I’m not sure I like your world.”

“I’m not all that enthused about the world you were living in either.”

She reached out and placed her hand in his. Why? Because it didn’t matter anymore. They were going to die here so she might as well do all the things she wished she was brave enough to do. Like, hold his hand.

Joaquin gave them a look over his shoulder. “How are the two of you doing?”

“I don’t know about Colun, but I’m dealing with my imminent death remarkably well.”

Joaquin just blinked at her before laughing. “Colun, I think she’s a keeper.”

They smiled and walked on.

“So if this is my brain, shouldn’t I see things I remember? People, places, and things I miss and wish I could visit again.”

“They’re in here along with all the things you’ve tried for years to forget,” Colun told her.

“Stop,” she pulled on Colun’s hand. “That’s my mom.”

“How old was she there?” Joaquin asked.

“She was over a hundred. I think it was her hundred and eighth birthday party.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure she was my mom. I gave her the party. She died two years later.”

Her mother was giving her birthday speech. She gave one every year telling the world how proud she was of her daughter and granddaughter.

“What do you hear, Joaquin?”

“I don’t think Sara’s mother was one hundred percent human. She was human enough to fool the scans and the test, but I believe she had some alien DNA within her.”

“That’s foolish, my mom was human just like I am.” She looked at both of them daring them to naysay her.

Joaquin started walking again taking her past the memory of her mom. She walked past more of her childhood memories and laughed at the moments in her life that were fun and passed up the ones that caused her heartache.

“Who is that?” Colun asked, staring at the memory trapped in a cell.

“That’s my ex; I put his memory here so it wouldn’t hurt me.”

“He isn’t a very nice man.

“No, he isn’t, he comes back around every couple of years to see if I’m still alive and if I’m ready to invite him back into my life. My answer is always the same. Yes, I’m alive. No, you will never reenter my life.”

Joaquin stopped before a door. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for trying Joaquin travels. This is where we must part ways. The trials await you through this door. Have a safe and happy trip, oh and die well.” With a flourish of his arm followed by a bow the door opened, and he turned and walked away.

“Shall we?” Colun gave her a smile, and they walked through the door together.

The area around them was beautiful, reminding Sara of the exotic locations she loved to watch on television. There was a waterfall with lush flowers all around. She expected to see a beautiful woman with a grass skirt and a lei welcoming her.

“I’ve always dreamed of taking a trip to a paradise that looked like this.”

“Why haven't you gone?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have an excuse. Every time I thought of going something came up. It wasn’t the right time of year. My funds were low; I didn’t want to go by myself. The crime rate was ridiculous. It was one excuse after the other, and that’s what they were excuses. I used them to keep myself in my comfort zone. I was so busy living life that I forgot to live life.”

She stood taking in the clean air that was slightly moist indicating that it was summer. A cool breeze ruffled her hair while the sounds of the natural inhabitants came to her from a distance.