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“What is your name?”
She stepped back, her eyes widening, but then she smiled. “Its Raesha. The name my parents gave me was Raesha.”
“I will remember your name, Raesha.” I will remember you.
* * *
“You know her,” the woman remarked. “Who is she to you?”
The man of shadows laughed. “Why? Feeling jealous?”
“Why should I fear the impossible? I merely wish to know everything.”
“She was the first of my teachers.” He spoke so matter-of-factly, it was downright anti-climactic.
Chapter 2
Blood is Death, Blood is Suffering, Blood is Life
The Incomplete
Thump. Thump. Thump.
I released my fingers from the pulse on my wrist. Each vein was the same as before. Yet inside of it were secrets which made the scientist in me question what I knew to be true. My fingers returned to the thin veil of skin mere milliseconds after.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
On average the human heart beat sixty to a hundred times per minute. A mated Strigaix’s heart in human form held more or less the same average. I regulated my breaths, counting them, but it did not drive away the thoughts plaguing me.
I grabbed a scalpel, cutting into my flesh with the same precision I did the blood slaves I experimented on. I paused for a moment, watching my blood flow down. The color was much closer to crimson than to the brown I had grown accustomed to. Yet my brother’s voice attempted to impede on this joyous occasion.
To distract myself, I recited facts.
I am a Strigaix. Then like I was back in the Academy, I said aloud, “What is the biological nature of the Strigaix?”
We are a living contradiction.
“Be more specific.”
We Strigaix were the beloved of the Gods, each gifted with a power most other species could only dream of, but without our preordained life-partners, our bodies and minds would slowly deteriorate, becoming akin to the living dead. In dire situations, the nutrients found in food could be replaced by blood, but like any medicine it would take at least an hour if not more for the effects to be felt.
“And what is the flaw of so perfect a species?”
We were not a self-producing species.
“Explain.”
Since our creation, no records of female Strigaix exist. It was medically impossible for a Strigaix to be anything other than male at birth. We were the strongest of all the creatures of the planet of Maretz, but when it came to preserving our bloodlines, the Gods had made it so we may not choose who would be our life-partner.
“Is the purpose of love merely procreation?”
Although rare, there are those whose beloveds are male because the Gods do not wish for them to continue their bloodline.
“And what does that mean.”
The beloveds the Gods bestow us with are as they will it.
“Then why haven’t They given you one yet?”
