Eachtrannach

Twenty Six

He was back to the corner he was huddled in and Sophie had finally manage to move her sore muscles and grab a t-shirt and panties.

"I am not true Mironian. Only half therefore my mating is different. I always assumed I had lost the right to a mate due to my being a mix between worlds."

    Sophie narrows her eyes at him, "So- what are you exactly?"

   "Think of one of the most powerful creatures on you planet. Multiply that by ten and you have an ancient race called the Salm. They have died out now but my father was the last. Evil fucking beings."

   Sophie slips off the bed and walks towards him, "Why would any female willingly mate with an evil being?"

    He turned away, "I never said my mother was willing, Sophie."

    Her mouth drops open, "I-m I'm sorry...Raph I didn't-"

   "Sh." He hushes her and pulls her on-top of his lap.

"I knew my mating would be different...difficult. And it was. You died."

   "I died." She nods numbly hating reminder of the cold emptiness that follows death.

    "I... preformed an old ritual unsure of what it would do but I thought you to already be dead. I hoped it would just somehow bring you back but it did something else entirely." He trailed off.

   "The ritual fed you half my soul. You are half of me. Half of my strength, half of my being, half of my heart. Wherever you go, you'll feel me."

   Raphael wouldn't look at her. Too afraid of what he'd see on her face. Shock certainly, anger? Definitely, but she was also grateful. She now had an entire lifetime with her friends even if it meant being bound to him.

"Isn't that the same as the claim?" She whispers, her now sharpened claws scrape against herself as a new reminder that she will never be the same.

He shifts looking unsure about how to proceed. "It's... deeper. More catastrophic in some ways. We will feel each other always. You will feel my presence with you even if I'm not there physically; even if I die."

Sophie sucks in a deep breath, "and that is why it's catastrophic.."

He nods keeping his hard stare on her face, "Love drives beings crazy Sophie. Especially when you feel them there but always just out of your reach, I've seen it kill many. This bond must be nurtured always, both halves have to be near one another."

"So these ancient beings... like your father; they'd mate with whoever knowing it would likely kill them without his constant attention, and then he'd disappear?" Her voice didn't hide the disgust she was feeling.

"He stayed until they birthed him a child and then he'd leave. Most of them were born too weak due to his despicable treatment of the mothers while they were with child. In the end only two of us survived past childhood but my brother died as soon as he reached adulthood."

Sophie's mouth was dry. She didn't know what to think of it all; the fact that all he'd have to do to kill her, is disappear, is terrifying. But that goes both ways.

"What will happen to you after I die? Mortality is a frail thing."

"Your mortality died with you. I told you we are now one; you will live as long as I do." His hands grip her waist.

"How long will you live?"

"It's uncertain. The Mironians live well into the thousands in your human years. The Salm can live triple that."