Don't Label Me! (14 page)

Did you think about asking? I mean really!
Of course I’ll do what is required to protect this place and its
beings. Are you always this slow?

Orea?
He’d
never heard her voice in his head before. Not like the others who
had met their mates in their dreams. He’d guessed he just wasn’t as
open to that kind of communication but maybe being this close to
her she could bridge the gap.
I’ll have
you know there is nothing wrong with my mind. I’m an engineer. It’s
just the warm and fuzzy emotional stuff I’m not sure of. You’ve
never met me. Why would you want a stranger?

Ah duh! You’re my mate. Okay, I didn’t know
until recently that I had one. But obviously Simon knew. You know
he has visited me many times over the years. He told me last time
that you’d be coming soon. I trust his judgement. If the seer says
you’re my mate then you're my mate. Though you might have at least
tried to contact me before now. Either way, I know better than to
argue with the wisdom of the all-spirit. Now put your head against
the damned stone so I can at least pick your brains and get an idea
of where things are at, who you are and how you are going to get me
out of here.

Feisty, wasn’t she.
George, that’s my name.
He rested
his head against the stone and visualised opening his mind to her.
He had no idea if that was how it was done but he hoped she’d know
the rest. As he pondered whether he was doing it right he was
suddenly blown away by the stream of images coming from her mind.
Life among the Malakim. Her early training. Joining Thex’s team.
Their capture. Her demise. The long expanse of time learning to
connect with the environment that surrounded her prison. His mind
baulked, trying to grasp the immensity of that time, and awed that
she’d used it to commune with her very essence in the all that was
around her.

Orea laughed when she got to the
images of Ally in George’s head.
Oh well
that explains why you took your time. I can see how she might have
appealed. So that was why we didn’t come up on each other’s mental
radar.

A wave of guilt washed over George. He
should have been here sooner.
You’re not
mad at me or jealous then?

No George. It is not our way. I am glad you
have others you love. I will be sure to build a friendship with her
and her mates, even if I am not overly comfortable with what they
are. Hybrid Din-humans? How’d they manage that?

A little help from Simon’s mum.

The earth’s
protector?
Excitement edged her thoughts.
Is she here?

George turned around to survey the
crowd who were watching him attentively. He knew they’d need the
goddess to perform the sacrifice. An elegant woman standing beside
Melissa smiled back at him. She hadn’t been there a moment
ago.
Yeah she’s here
. But he
wasn’t looking forward to when she took his offering of heart’s
blood. All the others who’d made the sacrifice had survived but he
still cringed when he tried to imagine how it would feel when the
goddess spoke the ritual words, plunging her hand through flesh
like putty, to take the blood from his heart that would seal Orea’s
freedom. Yeah, Tyra had shared that particular tale with him. Ew!
No matter, if it was what was needed he’d do it.

Well let’s do this then.

He could understand her impatience.
She wanted out of her millennia old prison but he wasn’t sure of
the how of it all.
That’s easy enough for
you to say. I’ve never done this tantric stuff. How the hell am I
supposed to bond with you if I don’t know how?

Orea groaned.
Well if you hadn’t’ve been chasing after a certain blond
electrician for so long you might have bothered to learn.
Fortunately I know how and can do this for both of us. Which I
guess Simon knew since he sent you here unprepared.

Damn right.
He wasn’t sure there was much, if anything, that Simon didn’t
foresee.

So sit will you. Rest with your back against
me. Close your eyes. Stay linked with my mind. But you’re going to
need to give me permission to take control.

Yeah, George remembered the cosmic
trouble Kiana had gotten into for controlling Boswell’s cop.
You have my permission
. He settled
himself at the base of the stone. He knew he didn’t need to tell
the others they were ready. His friends from Boswell were all
telepathic enough these days they would have gotten the spill over
from his conversation with Orea. Doc smirked, confirming his
suspicion. He nodded back and closed his eyes.
I’m all yours Orea.

About bloody time.

But despite the growl of her words he felt
the wave of love as she meshed her mind more deeply with his. This
bit he did know how to do. He merely needed to step aside and
become the observer of his own mind. Simon had taught him the
practice long ago as a way to unblock his mind when it was clogged
with thoughts about some engineering problem he was trying to
solve. Instead of watching his thoughts this time he watched the
connection he had with Orea. He became the empty space that
surrounded that connection. An empty space filled with limitless
light and warmth.

As George stepped aside from his mind Orea
stepped in. Drawing the light of the infinite down through his
crown chakra, down into his third eye. Orea stopped for a second to
marvel at the mental clarity there. The highways of his mind were
like razor sharp crystal, vibrant and complex. She shook herself
from her momentary awe and continued with her work, mentally
chanting the ancient syllables of the Malakim as she drew the light
down further into his heart. She cleared the blockage that was
there. The pain and loss of his family. She released it with her
compassion and non-judgement. At his solar plexus she found a
strong will, a will to survive, a will to contribute and most of
all a will to protect and serve those he cared about. She wondered
if he even knew yet that he was perfect for her. They were two
matched parts of a whole that would be stronger than either of
them. She felt his strength but also knew he used it to aid others.
At his base chakra she found a deep connection with the earth. His
mind was vast yet his people were of the earth, she felt its rhythm
there. Orea synced with that rhythm, the heartbeat some called the
Schumann Resonance. Its beat filled their combined soul. Harnessing
it she entwined it with the light she had pulled down from above.
Touching the crystalline iron core of the earth she found the
amplification she needed. She let the energy build until she could
hold back the dam no more. The light and vibration released in a
great outpouring of love, spreading not only back upwards but
radiating outwards as well. It poured out towards those gathered in
the sink hole. It touched the goddess and amplified again,
spreading out like a diamond encrusted net, weaving with a finer
energy. The threads wove and wormed their way through reality,
inexorably touching the very portal to the protected space her and
her protected people called home and then she felt it. Another
layer of energy, finer still, vibrating higher than even her realm.
She’d always thought her forest home sparkled with a better energy
than the world that surrounded it yet this was something more. As
she’d fed it with her love and protection over the millennia it had
grown even brighter. Her will whispered to this other dimension,
offering a thread of energy, tentatively stroking and caressing it.
And it answered her. Its threads grasped hold of her threads and
they wove together before their boundaries dissolved into oneness.
As she yielded to limitless light she had a fleeting moment of
lucidity, wondering what she had just done and then she lost
consciousness.

Orea awoke to the wholly strange but welcome
feel of a large man cuddled up against her. Okay this was nice. She
closed her eyelids, full of wonder at the novel feel of even that
small action after so long as stone. She let herself sink into the
feeling of being spooned against the man who now had her back in
more ways than one.

A hour or so passed that way. Orea just
floated in the joy of the simple act of breathing and hearing her
heartbeat but not just hers. She found herself enjoying the
protection and comfort of being wrapped in George’s strong arms.
Damn, had she changed so much? She’d never been interested in
having a mate. Sure she’d had friends and lovers she’d played with
but no one she’d ever considered forming such a deep bond with. Yet
she’d seen into his very mind and soul. She wondered what he’d look
like. She looked down at the large hand firmly grasped around her
right breast. Wow! Ebony. She’d never seen another sentient being
with ebony skin. Pushing up on an elbow she turned for a better
look. A magnificent and very large male smiled warmly back at her.
He was obviously well-fed but it did nothing to hide his muscles or
his height. She blinked somewhat embarrassed when she realised she
was staring at him, rudely assessing him.

“
Hello beautiful.”

“
Hello George.” Then she remembered
the sacrifice he’d thought he’d have to make to free her. “Are you
okay?”

“
Thanks to you. Yes. Who’d have
thought you could release yourself all on your own. You didn’t
really need me after all.”

Oh no, she was having none of that. She’d
seen George’s need to be needed. She wasn’t about to have him
believing that. “I needed you. You’re connection with the earth was
the amplifier I needed. The goddess fed that. Whatever dimension
the energy touched did the rest, although I’m not sure what that
was.”

“
I’ve got a connection with the
earth?” Sounded a bit too new age to him.

Orea chuckled at his lack of awareness of
it. “You’re that grounded and practical, you’re in sync with it so
much, I doubt you can even distinguish it as separate from
yourself. And that’s a good thing. It was your unity with it that I
harnessed.”

“
I still don’t understand why the
blood sacrifice wasn’t necessary. The prophecy spoke of humans
evolved enough to have the compassion to release those imprisoned.
You might say I was necessary but I made no sacrifice, no act of
compassion.”

“
Silly man. I’m the human. It was my
compassion for you that freed me.” She kissed him on the lips
then.

When she finally broke away he looked at her
quizzically. “You’re human?”

“
Okay not earth-born human, obviously.
I’m from a similar planet to yours, a place half-good, half-bad
where we could evolve and learn compassion. I was a renegade
amongst my kind. I left my work, my home and my family to study
with a renowned spiritual teacher, Thex’s father, Meta. He’d come
to our planet to teach and guide us but few would listen to his
wisdom. I did. I stayed with him as one of his students. When my
time finally came to die of old age he walked the realm of the dead
with me and opened my eyes to the even greater truths of reality. I
could have remerged back with the all-spirit there and then but
Meta told me I had a choice. I made that choice to become a part of
Thex’s team, doing what I could to help others who were still
evolving.” She tapped the piece of turquoise that hung at her
throat. “This keeps me anchored in the relative world.”

George looked at her in absolute awe.
“Bloody hell! You’re like John, you died and came back. You’re a
Meta being. How did you even get caught by the Din? I thought you
special guys were above the laws of physics of something.”

So there was someone else like her on the
planet. She looked forward to meeting this John. Although as she
skimmed the Akashic for information she discovered his name might
also be ‘The Major’. “I chose to let it happen.”

“
You chose?”

Orea had no difficulty interpreting the ‘why
the fuck would you do that’ look on George’s face.

“
It was necessary to how things would
work out and I didn’t think it was fair that I should escape while
the others couldn’t.”

“
But eons in stone!”

“
As you said, as a Meta being I am
above the laws of the relative world. Time means nothing for me. I
experience what I choose to experience. And if I hadn’t allowed it
to happen then this piece of rainforest and its precious people
would have disappeared long ago. Oh no, don’t you go giving me that
look. I don’t need your worship, just your love. A friend and
companion is what I need. Please!”

George seemed to take that on board. “Ok
don’t worship you. I’ll restrain myself then. It’s going to be
tough but I can understand you want a friend and equal.”

“
See it this way George. There are two
identical twins. One’s just waking up for the day and is still a
little groggy from too much sleep. The other woke up at dawn and is
wide awake. As twins they are equal in every way except for how
awake they are. Does how awake they are change that?”

“
No it doesn’t. So I guess that means
that among the Malakim you are treated no differently because you
ascended straight from human form to Meta being status.”

“
There is no such thing as status
among them because, let’s face it, they are truly egalitarian. They
respect those who are closer to the truths of the universe but they
do not see them as better. All that aside, I am still the same
person who sought out my teacher. The Malakim don’t expect me to be
like the other Malakim. I’m what they call an evolved Malakim, not
a born Malakim. So I’m a little more emotional and a little more
possessive than they are. Remember that George. You’re mine
now.”