Morringan blinked again and again, "What?"
"That was only a fragment of his soul, of my soul, the one that's been missing, the one I've been looking for my whole like so I can be full again, so I can regain all of my memories and get to full power, regain control of myself. The Eldric you met is what I need to fill all the cracks in my soul," he clenched his jaw. "My memories of my life as Eldric Christoff Winterbourne is... in pieces, I don't remember I how I looked but I remember the ones around me. I also don't... I don't..."
He pressed his hands in his head as if in pain, "I don't remember how I died, the last thing I remember is asking for a girl's hand in marriage out of duty, and then I went inside of an office, saw the back of a tall men naked, fucking the woman I had just gotten engaged to, and that's all. Everything is black. I remember the pain, the agony, the feeling of betrayal, the desire for revenge, the thirst for blood, for mayhem and death, the cold touch of the shadows engulfing me. Then I was being born again."
Horror drowned Morringan and she felt dizzy.
"You can't be him!" She gasped, horrified. "No!"
He frowned at her, "Sorry to disappoint, but it's me."
"No! No, no, no, absolutely not," she cried. "No, I can't have... ugh, not with you. No!"
Draven blinked, "You... what did you do to me?"
"I didn't do it to you," she yelled, "he's not you!"
"Oh, hell no," Ronan gasped. "Did you talk dirty with a spirit? Girl, that's sick."
Her skin burned and she looked away from them.
"What did you do when you were able to touch me before the soul eater came to you, Morringan?" Draven asked, eyes narrowed on her, a mischievous grin curling on his lips as he saw the naughtiness on her body language. "Did you kiss me?"
"I did not kiss *you*!" She barked, glaring at him, but unable to deny it. "He's not you. He... he is himself, he is Eldric and you are Draven, you are two different people. You have no memories of what he's been for me, of what we shared all those years. Eldric would never be a piece of shit like you."
His grin widened, "You kissed me!"
"He is not you!" She yelled exasperated.
"You do understand that once we get their souls back from whoever the fucker Prince that stole them away, and I fuse back that fragment to all of me, all of the memories that part of me accumulated and has will be integrated with all the ones I have, and I will know every words you told that part of me, and everything you've been up to in that graveyard, right, Morringan? All of the feelings that part of me had, will be passed and expended to me, and I'll feel every bit of it."
Her skin went pale, eyes wide, especially when she remembered the kiss and the words they exchanged in the last instants before she lost consciousness and the soul eater took him away. It reddened worse when she realized Draven bloody Winterbourne will know all the shit she talked about him, but also all the things she confessed to Eldric, all the plans she made to try finding his reincarnated body to bring him back. He'll have the memories of all the alcohol she gave him, all of her sorrow, all the times she read to him, all the smut books she read.
Covering her face with her hands, she growled, "Oh no," she cried under her breath. "It's a nightmare."
More than anything, she hated how much that all made sense, and not just because Draven had been the only living person to make her feel things and burn for him in an embarrassing way, in the same way as Eldric had been the only one she ever loved. She had always loathed that, but now it made sense. Eldric had told her that if his incomplete soul had reincarnated it would be wounded, tormented, and broken, it would feel wrong, and that explained why Draven had always feel off to her.
"This can't be happening," she cried, laying down again.
"What have you been doing with Eldric?" Ronan gasped.
"It doesn't fucking concern you, Blackthorn!"
"Well, he's technically my best friend, I think it does."
"I am Eldric's best friend," she hissed, "and he is *mine,*" and her word came out way too much like a possessive and feral growl than anything. "He has no idea who you are, not *my* Eldric."
"*Yours?*" Draven purred amused and she instantly regretted that. "And I thought you hated me."
"I do hate you," she hissed defensively.
"Well, you seem to love that part of me," he chuckled.
She clenched her jaw, avoiding his eyes, "He is not part of you yet, you piece of shit."
"So... you do love me, uh?" He grinned widely.
"I don't love you, I love him, not you!" She barked and cursed herself again. "Fuck. This is madness."
He cackled, clapping his hands, "Are we dating?"
Her jaw dropped, "You are not him!"
"Are you dating Eldric then?" Ronan countered.
"No," she clenched her jaw. "I am not."
"Have you talked about dating?" Ronan tried again.
She sucked on her cheeks, hating how they were cornering her, "We don't know if alpha-hole here will actually regain Eldric's memories when they fuse," she avoided their eyes. "You could be lying to mock me about this, I don't trust you. Draven is the dominant part of the soul, he could just consume Eldric and all that my Eldric is would vanish. I'm not giving you munition to use against me, so, I will not talk about whatever happened between me and him."
"That's a yes, then," he purred and she glared at him.
"You are lucky my sister loves you, Blackthorn, or I would fucking kill you for your audacity," she hissed.
"What are you going to do when I fuse and regain all of my memories and all that the part of me you love is, Morringan?" Draven taunted her, a shit-eating grin dancing on his lips. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
She froze, her eyes meeting his, and she could help herself from taking in every bit of what he is, of how big his is, how painfully hot, and the idea of the Eldric she loves fusing into the Draven that she's been thirsting for ages despite her hatred for him, made her throat dry, it made her dizzy.
Would she be able to handle Eldric in Draven's body? Or worse, Eldric and Draven's fused personality in Draven's body? Even if she promised herself to kill Draven one day?
As she stared at him, lost in her own thoughts, her eyes darkened, devouring every inch of Draven's body, thickening the tensing between them. When she blinked, looking away as if she hadn't just shamelessly undressed him with her eyes, she crossed her arms over her chest, "I'll never be anything to you, Draven Winterbourne, definitely not your damn girlfriend. I'm offended that you even suggested such discrepancy, it disgusts me."
She knew he could tell she was lying, that Ronan also could, in fact, she was aware that even the walls and the couches knew of it, but still, she was unable to bring herself to say, because Draven isn't Eldric, and saying she could possibly date Draven felt too much like a betrayal, and it felt wrong. It felt wrong as much as it felt right, and she hated it.
"Nothing is never going to happen, Winterbourne, because you are not the one I love, Eldric is, and no matter what happens, you will never be him to me, I'll never be able to associate him with you," she snapped, lying further, unable to help it, desperate to fill the suffocating silence that followed her words before.
"What if I make you fall for who I am?" He chanted.
She cringed, "That's never going to happen. I know you, I hate what I know, the only way I like you is with my dagger buried in your fucking chest and I paint us both in your blood."
"I kind of like the stabbing," he purred.
"Have you gone mad?" She snapped in dismay.
"I haven't *gone* mad, Morringan, I was reborn mad. There's literally a piece of my soul missing, I am unable to control any part of myself, I'm unhinged, I'm broken, I'm haunted, I hear and feel shit I shouldn't, I'm volatile, traumatized by my own mistakes, I crave for shit I shouldn't, and I've been after the missing part of me my whole life with no results. Now I hear that you, Morringan Der Meer Ravenstone, who's been a thorn in my life for years, has known my lost soul for just as long as you've known me, and not only you and that part of me have been intimate, but now it's out of my reach because it protected you. So, yes, I am mad."
She moved on her seat, uncomfortable, "Can't you stop referring to him as yourself? It's not like you've fused yet, he isn't Draven, you are, he's solely Eldric."
"I am Eldric, Morringan, can't you understand," he growled.
"He's more Eldric than you," she snapped.
"And how is that possible?"
"He has all of his memories of himself as Eldric, though he failed to mention to me that the one Orion cheated on your mother with, was none other than Evangeline, that bitch. You want to know how you died? I'll tell you, because he told me. You found your stepfather cheating on your mother, seemingly with the one you were supposed to marry, and he made me think he loved her, then you fought him, but he overpowered you with his light magic, as he had way more control over it than you had over your shadow magic, and he murdered you. Then, he buried you in the graveyard, tied what was left of your soul as the graveyard guardian, and named your grave Eldric Vega instead so no one could ever find your remains ever again. Satisfied?"
She wanted to push Draven out of his high horse with her words, but when she saw him flinch with all she had just told him, she didn't feel good. No, it sickened her, not with him, but with herself. Suddenly, Morringan felt like she had hurt Eldric and not Draven.
"Orion killed me?" He clenched his jaw.
"That's what Eldric told me," she averted her eyes from him.