Celestial Fragments

His inhuman mate

With heaviness surrounding her eyes and tugging at her chest, Angelique sank in the armchair, in front of the fireplace, watching the coals burn slowly, leaving only ash behind. The image of a destroyed, rumbled, crumbled to the ground Earth sprung to mind, only adding to the heaviness of her chest. Her head leaned back and she found herself dozing off.

Outside, the moons had gone to sleep, but the light of the sun was hidden by a thick layer of clouds. Would it rain?

Soon enough, the pitter patter of the rain started to be heard against the windows of the room. In the hallways, she could hear distant voices, echoing throughout the castle, but her room was still. Not even the dust dared to move right now.

But the stillness was soon broken by someone entering the room. Angelique did not bother to turn around and see who it was, she simply made herself a little more comfortable and continued to doze off, trying to get some sleep to make up for last night.

Aellioah walked to the chest and opened it as he stripped his leather armor, dropping it in without a care if he was too noisy or not. He was tired, pissed, and his mind was heavy with thoughts he really did not want to deal with right now. There were more urgent matters to attend to than to deal with stupid sentimental bullshit. With the corner of his eyes, he peeked towards the arm chair, staring at the cocoon of blankets Angelique was snuggled into, in a strange, very uncomfortable looking position.

His stomach twisted in repulsion at the memory of her words and he pulled his eyes away, staring at the opened chest for a few moments. Inside the lid of the chest, a very old image of a long gone kingdom laid, painted by some artist he had forgotten the name of by now.

Home....soon.

After a few moments of hesitation, he grabbed a spare change of clothes and headed for the bathroom, to wash off the stench of his war horse, the stench of blood, death, sweat and what not that by now felt like it was etched into his skin.

Angelique remained in her spot, half asleep, half thinking about what she should say or do to make it just a little better. There was tension between them, and it bothered her. It bothered her that she managed to anger him. Because he did not deserve to be angry at her! He was the one to kidnap her, imprison her in this room, planet and - a shiver ran down her spine when she remembered the mark he left on her shoulder. With shaking fingers, she touched her already healed shoulder, feeling the thick white scars of his bite on her skin, her eyes fluttering open, her lips parting with a silent sigh. Anger turned to bitterness. Bitternes because after all this time, she still had no idea what or who this man is, and yet, she had spent more than a couple of weeks worrying about him and over the fact she might never see him again. She had spent more than that, with a hollow feeling in her stomach, from the moment he left. Terrible, hollow loneliness.

With her fingers still stroking and following the contour of the mark she wore, she shuffled in her spot and looked around the room, following him entering the bathroom and leaving her alone once again. The hollow bitterness in her stomach returned and she mentally cursed herself for starting all this.

Maybe you should apologize... a familiar voice echoed in her mind.

Maybe you should apologize for getting us stuck in this so deep! If you hadn't f****d him, it wouldn't have mattered! she immediately replied to the voice, her eyes narrowing and her hand moving swiftly away and dropping into her lap.

WE both enjoyed it! the voice laughed, a dark laughter that echoed strangely in her head.

I walked like I had been on horseback for three days! she mentally slapped herself before deciding she was not going to have this conversation with her again.

As the sooth of the war washed away from his body, Aellioah's raging thoughts started to calm and steady themselves slowly. There was another fragment in his possession and they were one step closer to their lifelong dream. His lifelong dream.... Home. As his thoughts drifted to home, the image of the glass castle appeared again in his mind, with the green trees and colorful birds, with the shining golden roofs of the castle and the utterly blissful life he had as a child, the white-haired woman he called mom and- Angelique's image suddenly distorted the whole image his mother. The white hair was immediately replaced by long dark one, the soft pink eyes by deep blue ones, and the sharp features by round, feminine ones. In way too many ways, Angelique was similar to her. Her feisty temper, her drive to be useful and not just sit around, her loving and caring side that she showed countless times towards those she cared and the absolute hate and hostile behavior she showed when something was not right for her.

He had never pictured himself taking a better mate for himself than Angelique, but the fact that their relationship was nowhere near perfect made him want to toss her back on that puny planet he brought her from.

His mate.... his humanly inhuman mate.

A gentle sigh escaped him as his thoughts drifted back to the water that was hitting against his body.

He turned off the tap and squeezed the water out of his hair, before stepping out of the tub and drying himself with one of the clean towels. He took a long look into the mirror, at his figure, and pictured her small frame in front of him. She barely reached his stomach ... and this made him wonder if she didn't feel comfortable with him because of their immense height difference.

He took a long look at the closed door before looking at himself again.

For f**k's sake... he thought to himself, eyes narrowed.