Colun's Passion (Alien Mates Book Four 4) (8 page)

“I wish I had a blanket and a picnic basket. I could see spending time here.”

“It’s beautiful,” but he wasn’t staring at the waterfall or the flowers. Colun was watching Sara and how her eyes glowed at the unexpected treat. “One day, after this is all over, you should go to Hawaii, rent a bungalow, and enjoy the exotic landscape. Maybe we could go together.”

Her eyes left the waterfall behind to look at him. She took in his face; he wasn’t laughing at her, and he didn’t have that look that said he was just waiting for a moment of weakness to pounce on her.

“That might be nice.” She had been alone so long now that the thought of linking her name up with another, of becoming the official we instead of me was foreign to her. Although the more she thought about it, the more she thought she might like it.

“What do we do now that we are here?”

“We need to find the door to get into the trials.” They linked hands again and started walking through the lushness of the trees.

“So we go in, they ask us some questions, and then they determine whether we live or die.”

“Sara, you know nothing is ever that easy or straight forward. The trial varies from couple to couple. It’s something you can’t prepare yourself for. All you can do is be you.”

“That doesn’t give me a sense of comfort, Colun; I have failed miserably at being me during my life. I was my mother’s daughter, then my husband's wife, and then I became my daughter's mother. When all that was gone, when those people were no longer in my everyday life, I sat still and waited for them to call so I could once again slip into the roles that defined my life. I don’t know who Sara is and if I don’t know how will your trials know?”

“I don’t know, but I can understand a little how frustrating this must be to you. I have to believe that the trials see more than the outside persona. I believe they see us soul deep, which may not be comforting to you.”

“How do you prepare for death, Colun?”

“You don’t, you fight tooth and nail to survive.”

The sound of clapping made them turn around to find a large flat area where they just were. There was a large boulder with someone sitting on top of it. And a door that went high into the sky. It looked ancient, giving off the impression of great power.

“I am with your male, never prepare for death, instead fight to live. Although death is inevitable, it comes for all of us and you should be prepared for the fact that one day you will die. Never let it catch you unaware.”

He stood and jumped from the boulder landing in front of Sara.

“What are you,” she asked as she stepped closer to Colun.

“What am I or who am I? My name is Voyager; I like to hang around these trials. I come for the amusement and the blood.”

“The blood?” Her body pressed against Colun, his arm wrapped around her giving her security.

“Yes, the blood,” He pulled back his teeth exposing sharp canines. “Many couples come here thinking they can get out of their current situation by soul-bonding. The trials are not happy when that happens, and they kill them. The blood and gore are fantastic. If your still around, I’ll take you to a couple marked for death.”

“We’ll pass.” Colun was holding onto Sara tight as her body began to shake the more Voyager talked. “How do we get inside?”

“I have not finished answering your potential soul-bonded questions. I am a Matra the other side of the Arbrin you are snuggled up against.” Voyager stood in nothing but a pair of jeans.

He was tall, coming in at the same height as Colun. His chest was wide with ropes of muscle, hair covered him. The hair looked soft and fine; it was short; she bet just long enough for her fingers to play with. His canines were long, and his nails and toes were claws, but he could talk. His face was perhaps the most alien thing about him if you discount the nails and canine teeth.

He was not human, but he wasn’t unattractive either. He had two eyes and ears; it was the shape of his head that made her hesitate. It brought back to memory the chart they used to show in school with man evolving from monkey to human. He could have been on that chart more advanced than anything they had when she was in school.

Voyager was obviously intelligent, maybe even witty with a bizarre taste for blood. She gave a shrug at that, everyone liked different things. If she saw Voyager in a dark ally she’d scream and run like the devil himself was after her. If she saw Colun like this, she’d be intrigued.

“No. no, no,” she whispered to herself. All aliens were off the menu, so why was she still wrapped in Colun’s arm? “Is that what you look like?”

She looked up at Colun waiting for him to say no.

“That’s me. I have some silver hair, and I’m a bit older than Voyager but he looks a lot like I do in my Matra form. It's rather uncanny the resemblance.”

Voyager threw him a smile but refused to comment on why he looked this way.

“You switch forms often?”

“I do. Both of my sides need to come out and breathe. In the B&B we usually can be found in either form when we don’t have guests. You never know who will be sitting at the dinner table the Arbrin or the Matra. The soul-bonded don’t blink an eye. The children are used to it. We don’t hide who we are, just like I’m not asking you to change who you are.”

The back of her neck itched with the need to apologize to him for her reactions in the parking lot. He didn’t deserve that. That little voice in the back of her head that was screaming caution kept her from apologizing, she needed to be sure about him before she was all in.

“Now about when that door will open.”

“I want to thank you for explaining the Matra to me. It was helpful.” She gave Voyager a smile that set Colun’s teeth on edge. She could see him bristle, and she liked it.

“You do not want to thank me yet. I come to these trials to have fun not to make your lives easier. The door is opening; I suggest you do not hold hands when you go through, it will hurt less. That one is on the house.”

He climbed back on top of the boulder and watched the door with vivid interest as they walked through shoulder to shoulder.

*~*~*~*

A claw reached out and grabbed her leaving thin ribbons of red on her arm and her leg. The animal that grabbed her threw her against a wall; the breath knocked out of her. Where was she?

“Colun? Colun, are you here?” Her voice echoed around the large space, but there was no responding echo. She was alone in the trials and clueless. She stood to realize she was limping a little from the claw marks on her leg, and her arm ached something fierce.

She looked down the walkways seeing breaks that went off into random directions. The walls were concrete and so was the floor. She looked for a handhold to climb the wall, but there wasn’t any. When she craned her head back as far as it would go and looked up, she realized she couldn’t see where the walls ended. She was in a maze, it was the only thing that made sense.

What was the trick to getting out of a maze? She read it some time ago and stored it in case she needed the knowledge. At the time she laughed thinking of how highly unlikely that would be. Now she couldn’t remember, it was like cotton was covering the answer she was seeking. Picking a direction she started to walk.

Maybe this meant she had flunked the trials already, and they brought her here to kill her. Was Voyager sitting up high preparing to see her blood and guts over the walls of the maze? One wall blended into another as she made random turns hoping the opening was just ahead of her. It was the sound of barking that made her stand still. It wasn’t sweet, like a pug or even a pit bull. Maybe what she thought was barking at first was growling, and it was getting closer to her.

Fear pumped adrenaline into her veins the minute she saw a large shadow on the wall. Her feet flew as she ran, they were getting closer to her. She took a precious minute to look behind her, the yellow eyes of the animals following her were visible. She could see the sharpness of their teeth as drool came out in abundance. They were huge, some form of animal she never saw before. Whatever it was was deadly and coming after her.

“Please, please, please,” she begged anyone who was listening as she ran. Her leg ached and throbbed. Fire ran through it and still she ran. Her arm hung almost useless at her side, and her breath came out in pants that suggested any minute she was going to fall flat on her face.

She slowed down, and the animals kept pace with her. They never came close enough to take a bite out of her, but they never let up their pursuit. When she slowed down, they came closer making her run faster, demand more out of her body. This wasn’t her she cried out in her head. She was used to not doing anything. Her house cared for her, how was she supposed to care for herself, to fight off what was coming for her, had always been coming for her?

She wanted to fall, admit defeat, and accept that death awaited her. And she would have, but her core was solid and strong, and it pushed on declaring she was stronger than she thought. It made her believe she had a fighting chance, so she continued to put one foot in front of the other, but eventually no matter how hard or valiantly she fought, she would have to rest.

Her legs were rubber, and her heart hurt in her chest. She couldn’t do it any longer. She fell against the side of the wall thinking death was imminent.The wall gave way, and she fell threw it onto a grassy surface. It was the sound of water that made her turn her head. She clawed her way to her hands and knees and crawled until she found a small river running through the land. The claw marks on her arm, and leg were an angry bright red, a small voice told her she was going to lose her limbs. Answering herself, she said if she didn’t get any water it wouldn’t matter because she’d be dead.

Dropping at the edge of the river bank, she cupped her hands, forcing her arm to move, and drank greedily of the water. When she had enough, she turned over on her back and watched the sun slowly descend over the land. Knowing she shouldn’t, she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

“Sara.” Colun shook her trying to wake her. “Sara?”

Her eyes opened, blinking like she couldn’t see for a minute. Where am I? She looked up to see Colun’s gray eyes; the comfort in them, the warmth, pulled her to him like a magnet.

“Colun.” She threw herself into his arms shaking as her time in the maze came back to her. “Hold me, please, hold me.”

He picked her up and started to carry her. It never dawned on her to ask him where they were going because she trusted him. Instead, in a ragged voice, she told him about the maze, about her fears, and the wild animals with yellow eyes chasing her.

“I almost died. I can die here.” The reality that she may never leave this place was punching her in the gut. This might be the end for both of them. The last chance they had to be together, and if it was, she didn’t want to waste it.

“Where are we?” She looked around at the landscape; it was wild and beautiful, something she never saw before. Were they on a different planet? She looked up into the night sky. It looked like Earth, but she didn’t recognize the stars in their familiar orbit.

“This is the Earth we landed on so many centuries ago, wild, beautiful, and dangerous.”

He sat her down on a pile of animal furs; they were soft and warm. He had a large fire going and food slowly cooking over it.

“We have to be careful with the fire. It can attract predators I don’t want to encounter. Some of your most ferocious species died out over time; I don’t want to meet up with them again.”

She couldn’t help looking around, “What’s that?” She pointed to a flower.

“This flower has a healing property in it. One that modern medicine would kill for, but it's been extinct for ages now.” He walked over to the flower and picked it, carrying it back to her.

“Are you sad over a flower?” He looked at her face, and she looked crushed as if she wanted to replant the bloom.

“I'm just being silly. It’s so beautiful it makes me sad to think that we won’t get to enjoy it.” The flower was so unique; it had a brown stem with blue and green petals on the bloom. It always amazed her the things you could find on Earth that looked like they should be on some futuristic planet.

“There’s a field of them through the trees to the left. It won’t matter if I pick it or not, it will not survive long enough to make it back to your time.”

“I know.” She gave him a smile. Her heart fluttered as his gray eyes smiled back at her. If they had a chance to get to know each other on a date, maybe they would have ended up here one day on their own.

He took the petals off; the blue ones dripped a red sap while the green ones dripped a yellow sap. There were three of each petal in his hand.

“I want you to put these in your mouth on your tongue and suck on them but don’t swallow.”

“All right, why?” She opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue. He placed them on it, and she closed her mouth and began to suck cautiously.

“This is the treatment for the poison that is running through your body. Those claw marks on your arm and leg are lethal and left untreated they would kill you. This flower is the one natural antidote on the planet.”

She nodded, her eyes watered, and her body curled away from his as he gently checked the marks on her leg. His fingers touching the area made tears spring to her eyes the pain was so intense, but she refused to holler because she didn’t want to spit the leaves out.

He went to finish cooking the food; it smelled so good, and she was hungry. He took it off the fire and wrapped it in leaves.

“The leaves will keep the food, and it will be good for us to eat later.” Then he dug a hole in the ground and placed branches and twigs over it. He looked over his shoulder and grinned at her. “Think of it as a twenty-four-hour refrigerator.” He turned to the fire and put it out.

He stood and came over to her. Picking her up, he spread out the fur and laid them both down on it. He covered them up and rocked her gently as she continued to suck on the leaves.

Her body was sore, pain racing through her veins like it was a drug. Her mind was in fragments as she tried to understand everything that was happening to her, but her heart was at peace for the first time in her life. When he finally told her it was time to take the petals out, she did. Then she snuggled up against him and fell asleep like they had been doing this all their lives.