51

"Without hesitation, and with all of the love that I possess, I accept my bond mate Kelli from now and for all of time."

I was not sure where the words came from, but they flowed from my heart, and that was all that mattered. At a slight gesture from Millicent Kelli reached up to my neck with the now open metal collar and fastened it to me as she kissed me with utmost tenderness, and I could see her love for me burning in her eyes. Millicent then turned to Kelli and it was her turn to answer.

"Kelli. Bond mate to Myka. Neko of the Aspect of Love. Do you understand and accept the binding of yourself to your mate, and all things that that entails? Knowing that acceptance of this binding is from now and for all of time, do you still accept Myka as your bonded mate?"

"Without hesitation, and with all of the love that I possess, I accept my bond mate Myka from now and for all of time."

At a similar gesture I reached out to Kelli's extended hand and I fastened the bracelet portion around her wrist, and returned her kiss with a heat and a passion that burned like fire inside of me. Millicent, however was not done and softly cleared her throat to get our attention.

"Having witnessed these two bond mates, and their willing acceptance of the binding between Neko and mate, we as sisters of the craft, servants of the great goddess, seal this binding for now and for all of time."

Having said the final words of the ceremony, Millicent and Penny again took up their chanting of what I can only assume was the spell that activated our bond, and within seconds I felt a burning in my body that seemed to well up from my very bones. As they chanted I could not tear my eyes away from Kelli's, and the feelings that I could get from the cord of love that ran between us increased until I could barely stand because of the emotional overload. The love that was flowing back and forth from Kelli to me dwarfed anything I could think of, and in that instant we were gifted with a near perfect understanding of the other.

As the two witches continued the spell Kelli began to glow with a soft golden light that increased in intensity very rapidly, and I noticed that I was surrounded by a similar but silver glow. As the moments passed, and as the power of the spell continued to build, the auras that surrounded Kelli and I began to mix, and in no time we were both covered in gold and silver light. The chain that ran between my collar and Kelli's bracelet had also started to glow with a white hot luminescence. And still the chant went on.

Winds swirled around us, and it felt like we might even lift off of our feet in complete defiance of gravity, and sense of pure joy permeated everything. I then felt a burning near my most sensitive spaces, and I looked down to see that the butterfly of my tattoo was glowing with its own heat now too. My eyes found the imprint I had left on Kelli's breast during Valentine's and it was also burning as bright as a sun making it hard to look at. The final piece that fell into place was when our anklets, the ones that I had given for Valentine's as well, began to burn along with the collar, the bracelet, and the tattoos.

The witches' chant seemed to reach a crescendo, and I felt a flood of power unlock inside of myself as it did, and I was sure that Kelli was experiencing the same. The middle of the chain that had linked our bonding totems sparked with an extra bright light which moved to both of the main pieces as if it were a fuse lit in the center. Finally the burning ends reached our individual totems and for a moment all of the heat, light, and power we were experiencing increased in intensity one last time. A pulse of power that caused my legs to tremble, and put me on the verge of collapse, completed the spell and we were suddenly left with only the darkness of the cold Scottish night.

Kelli and I both sank to the ground before either of us lost the ability to stand on our own, and as we sat there recovering we embraced as if we would be separated at any moment. She was in my head now, and I was in hers. This wasn't what we had had up to now, where we had a general idea of the other's emotions. It was now far deeper than we could have imagined.

I now had a perfect and immediate knowledge of all that Kelli was feeling, and I was sure that I was just as open to her. I still felt her love for me, but it was like the difference between seeing in black and white and then suddenly seeing a world filled with brilliant color. I felt everything about me that made her weak in the knees, everything that irritated her, what made her want to protect me, and the things that made her want to leave me to my own devices so that I would eventually learn. All of it rolled together into one complex knot of feeling that was her love, and I nearly wept to feel it all.

We now shared our hopes, our dreams, our fears, and our petty jealousies, and we did so without the filter of trying to protect or deceive the other. For the first time in our shared history Kelli and I were completely honest with each other, and would be forever more. My next random thought made me giggle in amusement.

"What? What's so funny," Kelli asked me because I couldn't stop or hide my mirth.

"I was just thinking. Now we can play Hot or Not without having to speak to each other," and both of us burst out in laughter. "God I love you."

"I know, I mean, I actually do know. And I love you."

"Well now," Millicent smiled at us, gaining our attention. "The binding is almost complete. It has been a great number of years since we have welcomed a Neko fully to this world, and I do not need my gifts to know the two of you, being thrice marked and thrice bound, will do great things."

"Almost complete," Kelli asked in confusion.

"Thrice marked, thrice bound," was my question, and both caused Millicent to chuckle.

"I will answer you both," she replied. "As with most ceremonial spells that bind a soul to a soul, they are not considered complete, and can still fade, until they are consummated. Under normal circumstances, this spell, this binding, would be a wondrous celebration of life and love. The participants usually sealed the rites on an altar in a place of magic, like this one."

Once both of us realized what she was talking about, Kelli and I blushed in complete embarrassment.

"But, with what has happened here, I would find it distasteful to even think about in this place. It is probably best that it be completed before you sleep this night. I am sure that Aliara and her friend can stand as witnesses of your sealing."

"Wait? You mean they have to watch us," I cried in astonishment.

"For the magic to be binding, yes. With the research she has done, I am sure Kelli could explain it to you. As for being Thrice Marked, Thrice Bound, it has to do with how the magic that has brought you two together in its binding web. Remember that three is one of the most powerful numbers in magic."

Millicent then indicated the collar and bracelet that were now a part of us. She indicated the tattoo of the butterfly that was on the both of us. And she pointed out the anklets that we wore, which held symbols of who we were for the other person. All things that we had chosen to mark ourselves with for each other.

"You've both been marked by the other three times, and when the spell accomplished its work those markings burned with binding fire. They cannot be removed, and they will forever symbolize the attachment you have forged between yourselves. The use of the three marks this binding is especially powerful."

"Myka," Cassandra called out to me from across the clearing, and I could not help but hear the panic in her voice. "Come here! Quickly please! She is awake."

She must have meant the sisters. The Neko twins, who had been forced to do the bidding of Mathias for an unknown number of years, were now free and wanted to speak with me. I ran to them as quickly as I could, but as I approached, the look that was in Cassandra's eyes caused my heart to fall. Something was terribly wrong.

"I believe that they were waiting for your binding, Myka. There is nothing more that I can do for them. I'm sorry," and with those soul crushing words, and a comforting embrace, Cassandra left me to be alone with the twins.

I had been right when I thought that the two Neko seemed even more gaunt and wasted when Mathias was trying to break through the ward to bind me. Now, up close, I could see that there was little left of the two but skin and bones. They were smaller than me to begin with, but when their power was drained in the attempt to break me it left them in such a state that they looked like pictures you see of dying children in famine blighted countries. My heart felt like it was being shredded and I could feel Kelli's pain in response to my own. One of the twins opened her eyes, and through all of the suffering I knew she must be feeling, I could see the joy that had returned to her soul. Her sister's eyes remained closed, and she was barely breathing.

"Sister. We are free now, and we thank you so much for this gift," the gaunt little Neko said to me as she reached up to lay her weak and bony hand on my face. "I speak for us both now. She is not strong enough to do so anymore."

"Shh," I replied in a choked whisper. "We can get you some help. You can get better. There is so much I need to ask, so much I need to learn. Please just..."

"There is little time left sister," she breathed, as she interrupted me. "Because of you we go to our rest, free. It has been so long, and we miss James."

"James? He was your mate! The one Mathias took you from?"

"He was," she nodded and the weak grip she now had on my hand brought tears to my eyes. "We get to see him now, after all this time. Please don't weep for us, for you have given us the greatest of gifts."

Her hand slipped from mine as her eyes closed for the last time, and the tears were now flowing from my eyes in a torrent. And then her sister's eyes shot open for a moment and looked at me with both longing and a touch of fear. Her tiny, wasted hand tried to grip mine but she didn't have enough strength to do even that, because she used the last of it to speak.

"Mama," she whispered to me in a barely audible voice. "I don't want to go."

And moments later they had both breathed their last and my heartbroken wail sang its pain to the deep and unfeeling sky. I held their tiny hands as I wept over the senseless loss of two of my own. As I grieved, Kelli slipped in behind me and wrapped me in her arms. She held me silently and allowed me my sadness, and the tears I felt falling on me from her eyes reminded me that it was her sadness also. What had been done to these sisters had been a grave injustice, and I silently railed that there was nothing that I could do for them now.

Deep inside of me, however, something tied to my power had heeded my desire to help the sisters in some way. I felt it as I cried over them, and I gasped when it eventually reached out and latched onto their bodies. The two Neko began to glow with a soft light, one of them green, and one of them blue, and the pulsing of the light was in rhythm with my own heartbeat.