The Bonding Ritual Ch 17 19

Chapter 17

I woke up with that weird feeling of exhaustion you get when taking a nap in the middle of the day. I wasn't tired enough to continue sleeping, but there was a heaviness that made every movement of my body feel like an Olympic feat.

The warm glow of sunset lit my apartment as I opened my eyes. I could feel Isadora's naked body against mine, her arms and legs wrapped around me as if she was afraid to let go despite her peaceful slumber. I could feel her slow and steady breath against my chest.

Despite feeling the need to relieve myself, I didn't want to disturb Isa's peaceful slumber. The day's earlier events crept into my consciousness. I couldn't help but imagine what life would be like if we didn't have to deal with the fucking Order. Even if we managed to solve our current problem of being hunted by them, how many other innocent lives would be destroyed by them?

My heart raced at the thought, but what could the two of us do against them? Maybe the best thing would be to just get as far away from here as possible and disappear. Just the two of us, living a happy life somewhere together.

What would happen to everyone I knew though? Would The Order track down Mark for helping us out at the restaurant yesterday? Would Sam be in trouble just by association? Not to mention my mom and sister.

I'm not sure how they tracked us down so quickly to that cafe, but there must have been someone capable of detecting the signal from the bots we placed. How were they even capable of masking themselves from the bots we placed? So many questions, but thankfully, no one was breaking down our door, so I had to believe we hadn't been identified yet.

Also, where did they take Celeste? I could still sense her weakly through the bond, but I couldn't detect her exact location, just that she was still in the city somewhere. I hoped the commands I placed upon her would be enough to stop them from finding any revealing information about us if they decided to interrogate her.

Isadora shifted, letting out a cute groan as her beautiful dark eyes fluttered open to gaze up into mine.

"Good evening, my love," I kissed her softly.

"Mmmm, did we sleep through the entire day?" she shifted, snuggling into my embrace.

"No, it looks like we only slept for about three hours. How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been sleeping for days," she pressed her supple naked body against my own even closer as she stretched, her hair tickling my nose. "Can we just stay in bed and shut the world out, master?"

"I'd love nothing more than to do that, but I do need to do a few things first. I've got school in the morning and we also need to go through the data we received earlier to see if we missed anything."

Isadora grumbled, "Fucking assholes. Can't they just leave us alone? I just want to stay right here in bed with you." Her arms and legs tightened around me, her thigh brushing against my swelling member. One of her hands drifted down, grasping my shaft. She looked up at me with hunger in her eyes. "Please master? I'll do anything," the word 'anything' emphasized as she stroked me, causing me to gasp.

I groaned, feeling my resolve melting as her soft hands slid along my cock, "I want nothing more than to keep you in bed, my love."

Isadora grinned as she slipped beneath the blankets. I could feel her breath against my hips and I knew if her perfect lips reached their destination, all self-control would go out the window.

I was also reminded about what I was protecting. This beautiful woman, whom I loved more than anything, "But..." was the only word I could utter as Isadora's lips parted, her tongue barely a hair's breadth from the tip of my cock. She halted as I uttered the word, looking up at me from beneath the blankets as she waited for me to complete my sentence.

I hesitated. A woman more beautiful than I'd ever seen in my life was a second away from plunging down on my throbbing member. It would be easy to ignore all our problems in favor of making love all night with the woman before me. Unfortunately, I knew what had to be done. Summoning up the courage, I continued, "But, some of this may be time-sensitive. We need to know more about these assholes."

Isadora was frozen in place as she contemplated what I said, a series of emotions I couldn't quite decipher flickering across her face. After a moment, she sighed, her hand releasing my cock as she sat up.

"I guess you are right. I keep thinking about the others who disappeared, and it just makes me so... so... angry," Isa's face intensified as she balled her fist, her whole body tensing up.

I sat up and wrapped my arms around her, "I know, and I plan on doing everything in my power to stop them." I wasn't sure if I could, but that wouldn't stop me from trying.

Isadora buried her face into my shoulder and I could feel tears streaming down her face. I held her there for several minutes, feeling the weight of emotions spill from her. Her nails dug into my back as she sobbed against me.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that," she sniffed, trying to hide her face. Her eyes were red and slightly puffy.

I held her face in my hands, "Look at me, you have nothing to be sorry for." I looked into her eyes as she tried to pull away, but I held her there. I leaned forward and kissed her cheek, feeling the salty tears against my lips. "We are in this together, got it?"

She nodded as I reached over, grabbing a tissue from beside my bed and handing it to her. She wiped her tears and looked at me with renewed determination.

"We'd heard stories and warnings about The Order, but actually dealing with them is so much worse. They're horrible, and I'll never forgive them for what they've done," I could tell there was more to what Isadora was going through, so I sat there, giving her the space to let it all out.

"You know how I told you about the roommate I had in college?" I nodded as she took her time. "Her name was Veronica, although we all called her 'V'. She couldn't wait to go on her mission. We'd stay up talking for hours about everything. We talked about all the wonderful adventures we would go on. We talked about finding a place where we could raise our daughters together. How we would support each other during our pregnancies."

She paused again. I could see more tears about to come. I held her hand in mine to give her my support as best as I could, "I watched her walk through the portal when it was her time. She was so happy." her face got dark, "That was two years ago, the last time I'd seen my best friend. All I was told was that she was lost to The Order. I don't know if she is alive or dead. Part of me holds onto hope that she is out there and that she'll find her way home, but after facing them myself, I can't help but feel my hope diminish," her voice trailed off as she gazed into the distance.

"Do you think she could be here?" I asked, hating to see her in this depressed state. I would do anything to make this woman feel joy.

"I don't know..." her voice was somber. "From what I've pieced together from her school notes that she left behind and what she told me before leaving, we were studying similar cultures, but there are many identified universes similar to this one that our kind is sent to."

"I think that is all the more reason we need to gather as much information as we can about them. Not just for us, but for Veronica and all the other women stolen away from your homeworld," I squeezed Isadora's hand in mine, wanting to convey some amount of assurance even if the task seemed insurmountable.

"Thanks, James. I love you," she leaned into me, and I wrapped my arms around her, holding her protectively.

"I love you too, Isa," I kissed the top of her head, feeling her silky dark hair against my lips.

The minutes trickled by, but I would not let go until she was ready. Eventually, as dusk set outside, Isadora finally lifted her head, looking into my eyes with burning determination, "Let's find these fuckers."

I rolled out of bed, grabbed my backpack, and pulled out Isadora's laptop, handing it to her. She settled in as the glow of her screen came to life, reflected in her eyes. I turned toward my own workstation, my screen displaying the strange bouncing icon that we decoded from Aurora's hard drive. Another puzzle that needed to be solved. I kept a small window with its display to the side of my screen on the off chance that an idea about this mystery sprung up.

My first step was to check on the status of the bots we placed at the restaurant. However, I didn't want anyone tracking us again, so I booted everything up through a remote VPN and obfuscated our signal just to be safe. If anyone was still tracking the bots, they would be sent on a wild goose chase all over the city as it bounced off several different encrypted servers.

"Huh, that's strange," I said, looking at the signals displaying the status of each bot.

"Find something?" Isadora asked, her fingers a blur as she typed away, analyzing the data from earlier.

"Well, most of the bots are still live at the restaurant. Looks like maybe some of them got swept up and are in the trash in the alley behind it. However, one of them is up by my university," I scrolled in on the map overlay that displayed each of the tiny dots onto a single blinking yellow dot right in the middle of the quad between the science and engineering building.

"Maybe it got stuck in someone's shoe?" Isadora asked.

"Maybe, although it is no longer moving," I began scrubbing backward through the timeline, watching the small dot blinking in the same location for quite some time. If it was stuck to someone's shoe, that was no longer the case. I determined that whoever picked up the small bot did so shortly after we were chased out of the cafe.

We could eliminate Mark as a possibility as the movement occurred after the meeting. Also, it probably wasn't one of the employees since the bot left the restaurant minutes after we were running for our lives. That left Celeste, our mystery man, or the ghost from the meeting.

"What if it's a trap?" Isadora asked. "Someone obviously detected the signal coming from the cafe. Maybe they took one in the hopes that we would go looking for it?"

"That's possible, but why the university of all places?" I pondered.

"Maybe they thought we looked like students and they hoped our curiosity would draw us out to investigate?"

"Or maybe they are sending us a message, that they know who we are," I was disturbed by the fact that it showed up so close to the building I spent a great deal of time in at school.

"If they knew that, why would they go to such an elaborate ruse? Wouldn't they just show up at our place like Celeste did?" Isadora asked.

"Yeah, I suppose," I stared at the screen, staring at the little blinking light as if that would somehow reveal if this was planted or accidental.

"Did you find anything?" I turned to Isadora.

"Not yet, but I think I might be able to clear up the image of our mystery man. It'll take some time to run the process. It looks like maybe he was wearing some sort of device that distorts vibrational waves. First, I need to isolate the data of just the man from the entire meeting. Then, I will run each frame of data through a filtering process, comparing it to previous frames to adjust the points," Isadora explained.

"Anything I can do to help?" I asked.

"Nah, I'm almost done isolating the point cloud. The first couple of passes will take a while, looking for any distinguishable patterns. Hopefully, I'll be able to start working on the rest of the program tomorrow."

"Tomorrow is Monday, I've got classes," I looked back at my screen. I was going to bring Isadora with me, but that little blinking dot located at my school made me hesitate. Still, I wanted her close just in case something happened. "Do you feel comfortable hanging out at Sam's shop while I'm at school? I don't want to draw any unnecessary attention to you just in case someone from the Order is at the school."

"What about you?" Isadora seemed concerned.

I contemplated several scenarios, "I think skipping class might be more problematic. I've never missed a class before. If someone at the school is looking for anything out of the ordinary, my absence might seem suspicious."

"Will Sam mind me hanging out at the shop?" Isadora asked.

"Nah, he won't mind. He'd probably be grateful for the company."

"Okay, I guess I can use the time to work on finding our mystery man," Isadora said. She seemed a bit nervous. It'd be the first time we were apart for any amount of time since she got here. I'd be lying if I didn't feel apprehensive myself.

I spent a few moments wrapping up some homework that was due. It wasn't my best work, but I had a lot on my plate these days. Before long, night set in and we settled into bed, drifting off into sleep shortly afterward.

Chapter 18

"Morning Sam," I called out as Isadora and I pushed through the door of The Timeless Relic. Sam looked up from the book he was reading titled Atlantis Rising by Ray Evans. The cover showed an expansive island rising from the depths surrounded by waves crashing against the shoreline with alien buildings dotted along its landscape along with a giant statue of a man that rose out of the center holding some sort of oil lantern. On the back was a picture of the author, dressed as an exaggerated archeologist posing stoically with arms folded across his chest, various pitons and brushes strapped to his belt, and a massive pick axe leaning against the rock he was standing on as he stared into the distance.

"Oh, hey guys!" Sam set the book down on the counter as he stood up.

"Whatcha reading?" It wasn't uncommon to catch Sam reading something when I came by. He was fascinated with history, so I was a bit surprised to see him reading a fantasy book.

"Oh, that? It's nothing. The author was a close friend of mine back at university. If I hadn't met Ashley and settled down here, that might've been my adventure," he chuckled to himself.

It dawned on me, that was Dr. Ray Evans, the one who discovered Atlantis a few years ago. I remember reading some articles about the famous discovery, "Wait, you knew Dr. Evans?" Sam didn't really speak much about his life before his late wife.

"Oh yeah, we spent many wild nights discussing how we would be the ones to discover one of the great lost cities: Atlantis, El Dorado, or Lyonesse. After we graduated from university, one of our professors recommended us for an expedition in the Mediterranean. I had a tough choice to make and ultimately chose love over adventure," Sam looked over at the picture of his wife he had hanging behind the counter, looking at it longingly.

"Ah, how sweet!" Isadora chimed in.

"I would make the same decision every time if I had to do it over again," Sam quickly changed the subject, "So, don't you have classes today?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if it was okay if Isadora could use the workspace while I'm at school," I wanted to keep things as vague as possible.

"Of course! Mondays are always slow here. Make yourself at home," Sam smiled.

"Thanks! I've only got two classes today, so shouldn't be long," I turned to Isadora. "Anything else you need before I head out?"

Isadora wrapped her arms around me, "I'll be working on the project I started last night, but I'll miss you. Hurry back!" She squeezed me tightly before giving me a long kiss. I could tell she was reluctant to let me go. I felt the same way.

"I'll be back before you know it!" I reassured her.

Sam smiled from the back of the back of the store, "Ah, young love. See ya later James."

I waved to Sam and headed out the door, casting a quick glance at the old robotics factory before setting off toward school.

My first class was English Literature, which was on the other side of campus away from the science and engineering buildings. I entered the auditorium and took my usual place in the center of the class, preparing my space when I sensed someone drop their backpack into the seat next to me.

"Hey, James, how's it going?" I recognized April's melodic voice immediately. Usually, she sat with her friends during the lecture toward the back of the auditorium, so I was surprised to see her settling in next to me.

"Oh, umm... hey April!" I turned to see her smiling at me, which threw me off. I reverted to my usual nervousness around her even after spending so much time around Isadora. "Things are good, and you?" I never responded to the picture she sent to me the other day of Isa and me kissing at the park.

"Just good? Seemed to be going more than good last time I saw you," April's smile widened as she probed for more details.

Why'd I have to get so damn nervous around her? I could feel my cheeks burning as I fidgeted with my pencil, trying to find something to concentrate on. "Erm... Yeah..." was all I was able to summon up in this situation.

"You never told me you had a girlfriend!" she continued to press, obviously hoping for more details.

"It's... something new. We haven't been seeing each other long," I tried to focus on the piece of paper in front of me, but the sound of April shifting caused me to look over just in time to see her leaning across her desk, her breasts pressed firmly against the surface causing them to almost to burst from her top. I quickly turned my head away hoping she didn't think I was staring.

April giggled, "She's really pretty! I was going to say hi when I saw you at the park, but you guys seemed to be in a bit of a hurry."

I laughed nervously, unsure how to respond. Thankfully, the teacher interrupted us, which gave me the excuse to pay attention to something else. I let myself get absorbed into the lecture despite how boring it was. I always focused my energy on classes that supported my interests in robotics. I just couldn't muster much enthusiasm over old Victorian-Era authors, which was the topic of the lecture today.

Occasionally, I would see April out of the corner of my eye glancing at me curiously. I wasn't used to getting this much attention from her.

The class ended, and I rushed to pack my things, hoping to avoid continuing the conversation we started before class. Unfortunately, April had a different idea as she joined me in the throng of students exiting the auditorium.

"So... when are you going to introduce me to her?" strangely, I sensed hesitation in the way she asked the question. Was she nervous? But when I turned toward her, she radiated her usual brightness. Maybe I just imagined it.

"Oh, umm... you'll probably meet her tomorrow when you come over," I would usually tutor April at my place. I regretted saying that almost immediately as April looked intensely at me as if she was contemplating some hidden meaning about what I just told her.

"Oh, you guys must be pretty serious then," her voice trailed off slightly, deep in thought.

"Hey April, you coming?" a group of her friends called out to her as we reached the quad.

"Yeah, I'll be right there!" April yelled back before turning to me, regaining her typical composure. "I've got music next. I'll see you tomorrow," she said with a wink and a flick of her hair as she turned and jogged away.

I watched her for a moment, trying to process what just happened. As she reached her friends, she glanced back with another one of her signature smiles as if to say she caught me looking. I quickly turned away, embarrassed that she had once again caught me staring.

The science and engineering building came into view as I crossed the campus, and part of me wanted to hazard a look at the small patch of grass between the buildings. However, something else caught my eye. As I looked up at the engineering building, Miss Carrington stared down at me with her usual scowl. Thankfully, I didn't have her class today, so I buried the feeling of anger and dread I was feeling as I made my way to my next class, System's Design.