Page 1 of Bonding Beasts (Bonding: The Ultimate Guide #3)

I hop the fence without a second thought and kneel beside Mal’s spasming form. The spark is just in front of me, panicking just like I am.

Wings erupt from his back and begin twisting in a painful display, knocking into my stomach and knees to unbalance me.

With a woof sound, I land on his upper abdomen and put my hands on his body. Instead of zipping directly to the source of Mal’s problem, the spark spreads out to coat an area several feet around me to create a warning zone. If someone comes inside it I’ll get the heads up.

I’m already doing everything I can to keep Mal stable but I can’t find a source for the sudden seizure. If I don’t hurry he might swallow his own tongue and I don’t think I have the strength to roll his massive body to his side.

I absently feel a body where Mitri is standing.

I know when Ben jumps the fence and blocks him from reaching me.

Like tiny stars, several life forms sparkle just out of my sight, and another full-sized figure is approaching.

I have to trust that Ben has things in hand as Sparky circles back to me, shedding miniature sparks in its wake to land directly on Mal’s forehead.

Brain damage? His synapses are firing rapidly, trying to overcorrect an imbalance that looks like it’s been happening for a while.

Whatever was clogging his brain just dropped suddenly, and his body is fighting to make up for lost time.

It’s flooding him with his natural thought processes and getting caught in a million snags.

Unfortunately, the brain can only take so much stimulation before shutting down entirely. I don’t know enough about what goes on in a brain, and I hope the spark knows what it’s doing as it settles into him.

His seizure stops suddenly, and he’s lying very still.

It scares me because, for the first time, I don’t know exactly what I’m doing to fight the damage that’s been done.

There are wrinkles in the brain that control a lot of different issues, including memory, and I don’t want to just traipse through there and wing it.

Unless I want to watch him die, I have to.

Please be doing this right . I beg the spark, and it flares in response before it gets down to business.

I get a mental image of a cinder block maze with several routes blocked off by thick black vines that writhe in place. Some look burnt away, leaving scorch marks on the cement. Others are alive and thriving.It’s fighting to regrip him and coat all of the paths.

Inside the picture, my spark appears and begins flowing down a section.

It multiplies when it reaches a fork in the maze, so it’s going down both at once.

Every time a mass of vines comes, they wilt and shrink back, leaving everything sparkling and clean in its wake.

When it passes the scorched section, the sparks clean up the mess and carry on.

I’m stuck following along and repairing the cracks in the bricks.

It’s like watching a side-scrolling video game happen while someone else has the controller.

In other words, you can only sit back with your rising anxiety and yell things like “No, not there” and “Stop. Now go!”

I lose track of anything happening in the background as I focus intently. I don’t dare take my attention away from him in case I screw something up. Ben’s officially tagged in for protection duty .

Everything narrows down to the maze and repairs. I don’t know how long it takes but when I come back to myself, the maze is spotless.I sag in relief.

“You’re ok,” I whisper to him weakly.

Mal is breathing softly as if he’s asleep.

My body aches from laying half on top of him with my hands braced, one on his chest and the other low enough on his abs that I’m in danger of copping a feel.

Somehow my weight has pushed my hand until my fingers are just under his gold belt against overheated skin.

I snatch my hand away in a panic with a squeak.

Let’s not unintentionally feel up people we’re helping. Consent is a thing.

Mal’s eyes snap open, his pupils thin slits that slowly begin to expand. He stares at me with surprise, but whatever he says is lost as the spark bounces on his chest.

I sit up, trailing my fingers over his pec as I focus on what it’s trying to show me.

I see a glowing red ribbon tied securely around his heart and trailing into the night. An image of Mal and King standing face to face with the ribbon attaching them together, heart to heart.

Where Mal’s side is vibrant and glowing, King’s side is dull and tattered. The spark shows me a rain cloud over Mal’s head that childishly displays how upset Mal is at the circumstances.

Sparky starts drawing a soft gray string out of my chest and building a support network underneath the line. It’s bracing it up in the weakest spots.

I’m shoring up a broken marriage. What am I, an undercover councilor now? Whatever. Do your thing you sappy fireball.

The mental picture is wiped away to reveal Mal’s beating heart with thick, rusted chains binding it tightly and a lock with a symbol on it that I can barely make out .

“What is that ?” I wonder out loud. It looks painful. He lives with this daily? Tough guy.

“What is what?” Mal’s voice is faint as if he’s talking from the other side of a tunnel.

“The lock on your heart. Is it hurting you?” It can’t be comfortable.

“Can you fix it?” Mal’s voice is louder this time.

“I don’t know. I don’t know this symbol.” I trace the mark over his skin with my nail as I study it. The spark pokes and prods it for a minute but gets no response before returning to me.

“That can’t be right,” I mutter as my eyesight returns to normal, and I see ordinary reality around me. “What does that mean, Ben?”

I notice that Ben is distracted by growling back and forth between two people. One is Mitri, and the other is Kimi.

I suck in a sharp breath at his appearance. He isn’t the Kimi I met years ago. This is the Kimi from my nightmares. The one with long canines and a sharp smile that spreads before he eats my heart.

Her heart. I’m not her!

His skin is the same gold, with a tail undulating behind him. He’s wearing the same silky cloth over his groin that bears his thighs and ends above his knees. He’s missing his shoes, which is good because the sharp talons he has for toenails would rip them apart.

What doesn’t jive is the jacket he wore when we met. The clash of the nightmare version mixed with my version is jarring.

A ball of silver tape is tucked under one arm with a smiley face drawn on it with the words ‘Mitri the Second’ written on what would be its forehead.

My seesaw struggles, fluctuating wildly as I stare at him in horror .

“You put a ring on it, and now you have to marry him,” Kimi says in an aside to Mitri. “When do we make us official?”

Mitri doesn’t answer as he inspects Mal’s form on the ground.

I snap my other hand away from his chest to put it on my head. Like that’s going to help my sanity stay inside.

Mal’s body temperature is high enough that I feel like I was holding a hot stone. It’s soothing on my scalp, but no help otherwise. No wonder he doesn’t wear a shirt. I’d be covered in sweat.

Mal sits up and stares at me with his eyebrows drawn low. A one on the scowl meter. “I don’t know what you did, but I feel amazing.”

I can’t respond to his subdued, happy response to the healing. I’m too busy trying to keep my sanity balanced in an earthquake.

“Keep your tail in your pants,” Kimi laughs and begins tossing the ball back and forth between his hands.

The scowl turns to a level three as Mal looks at the golden-skinned male. “Where have you been?”

“Here,” he shrugs.

Ben’s growl gets a little louder.

“Sugartits, I appreciate you adopting us a dog, but I think he needs training,” Kimi smirks as Ben continues to rumble.

I can’t work up a reply, so I busy myself standing just as Mal does. Panic is beginning to try and overtake me. They’re all too close and they’re a threat.

The fence is close to me, but it seems too far away for me to reach safety right now. Plus, I don’t want to leave Ben to face them alone. After all, I’ve done what Mitri wanted, and now he has no use for me.

Hello, being set on fire. Again .

The seesaw slams down hard enough to leave a dent in my brain matter.

“So, you really can heal people?” Kimi takes a step forward, and I narrow my eyes on his approach. “I thought it was a myth. I never saw you heal anyone before.”

To the rest of the people around us, it would seem like he’s discussing me . Only he and I know what he’s commenting on is the Goddess .

He’s right. In my nightmares, she starts off healing people, but it’s only to gain followers. The rest is pain and death. In a flash, I recall some of the other random things he’s said that seemingly made no sense.

“ I didn’t think you would value any life form.”

“... this is my wifey …”

“I have to make sure that this reincarnation becomes good.”

“I was hoping that just once she’d be a good little wifey and behave.”

The dreams of the other people the Goddess has taken over are less invasive for me. I’ve mainly gotten a weird kaleidoscope of random realities that are too vague to take first place in my memories.

He was never speaking about me or to me. He was talking about her. All the versions of her.

And they all became evil.

Fuck.

Does that mean….

The realization gets swiped left as the crazy takes over.

“I have a question!” I throw a hand up like a student waiting to be called on in class.

They all turn to face me in confusion. Ben looks dismayed at my behavior, which is a bad sign for my prognosis of being sane right now.

Oops.Sorry, sunshine .

“Pick me,” I whisper to Ben and nod encouragingly.

“What is your question,” Mitri says with a head tilt of curiosity.

“I’ll get to you, backstabber two ,” I snap and jab an angry finger at him with a scowl. His eyes narrow dangerously on the motion.