The Strangling

His talons burrowed into her flesh; his hand closed on her heart and he wrenched it from her chest. His eyes rolled back into his head, showing only the whites as he lifted her still beating heart to his mouth and bit into it.

Her vision began to fade. As her blood spilled from his mouth, her final breath furled from her lips and into the night air, passing over him and the ghostly creatures beyond him. It carried her own promise. “Never."

* * * *

In the dead of night, she cried out. Bron tightened his arms around her and blinked into the gloom. The light from the glowing embers of the fire reflected on the walls of the cave, and he could see by its dim light that she was still sleeping. He sensed no other being in the room, but in Maerose there was fear, a presence manifest within her.

Her head rolled against his shoulder, her lips opening and closing, her hands struggling against the covers. He bent to kiss her, waking her gently.

She gasped, her eyes flashing open. She darted a glance around the place in fear, then clung closer to him, her body shivering.

He felt her drawing comfort from him, and from the embers of the fire. She was unaware that she had done so, but he sensed that her inner magic was surfacing and growing. “What is it, what frightened you?"

She shook her head. “Bad dreams."

"Tell me what it was."

"Nothing, just a dream."

She was so brave. He lifted her chin with one finger. “It might be important, my love."

She gave a weak smile at his term of endearment. “Veldor. It was as if he...” She sighed. “...he touched my thoughts. Altered them somehow, threatening me."

"He is trying to reach you, focusing his mind and projecting it to sense where we are, or perhaps he wonders what you know of the task ahead."

"I had hoped he would be gone.” She swallowed.

He wished it were true.

"He..."

"What?"

"He was like a serpent, his eyes turned red, and he told me he was the one, that you were wrong.” She shuddered.

He held her tighter still. “His soul was always troubled, and now the underworld lures him with its dark forces."

She sighed deeply and her fingers clutched at his shoulder. He kissed her forehead. After a moment she leaned back in his arms and looked up at him. “It's as if some sort of madness grips him. He is evil, inside, isn't he?"

He sensed there was more than she had already told. “Was there something else in the dream?"

"Yes, he attacked me. I was back in cellar, he had me in chains, and he reached into my chest and pulled my heart out of my chest."

He gritted his teeth to hold back the curse he wished to cast upon Veldor, unwilling to feed into her discomfort. Instead he stroked her dark hair back from her face, sending healing magic into her soul. “Let me worry about Veldor."

She nodded and he felt her relaxing in his arms, but not completely. “Bron, how is it that we will use this magic that you showed me, when we ... mated,” she smiled, “to push back such evil?"

She had asked the biggest question of all. “There are other aspects of the prediction, aspects that we do not understand fully, but we know that they will play their part.” He did not want to say, but he suspected now that this had something to do with the relationship between her, Veldor and himself. He stroked her face, soothing her. “The power that arises from our mating is the key and it will grow, we must believe in it. It's the ultimate power, the elders most guarded secret.” He smiled. “I believe in it. I had my doubts, but now we are together, I know it to be true."

"It is ... overwhelming, powerful."

For a fleeting moment, the look in her eyes made him feel he could fight back all the demon hordes single handedly.

"But it's hard,” she continued, “to trust that the power could be ... enough."

"Hush now. We'll talk again on the morrow.” He sent more pleasant emotions through her, soothing her to sleep again.

In time she grew heavy against him, her breathing even. At the shutters, light was beginning to eke through the cracks. When he was sure she wouldn't wake he eased out of the bed and walked quietly to the door, picking up his cloak as he went. Wrapping it around himself he stepped out into the night, leaving the door ajar in case he heard her wake.