Page 54 of Fallen Angels

“He’s death, such as you’re death.”

“True but while I might not have a life force inside me, at least I’m not tethered to a realm that feeds off my soul. That... that’s dark shit.”

“It is dark.”

We walk in silence for another few minutes, both of us absorbed in our own thoughts. Baron is a difficult person to read—sometimes he seems forthcoming with his thoughts and feelings and other times he’s completely caged and inaccessible.

“Why do you insist on going by Revenant and not Baron?” I ask, wondering if I’ll be lucky and he’ll answer my question. “Don’t you believe you and Baron are one and the same?”

“No,” he answers almost at once.

“You don’t believe youwereBaron?”

“I do believe IwasBaron,” he responds and lifts his attention from the rocky path before us to the never-ending treescape in front of us. “But I’m not Baron any longer.”

“How do you figure?”

“I was reborn a different man. My experiences over the last hundred years have shaped me in a way that ultimately changed me. I’m not the same man I was when Variant killed me. But, strangely, it feels like each day brings me closer to him, to Baron. And then I get visions of waking up six feet under. I can feel the dirt weighing me down and the stale air in my lungs as I try to claw my way through the splintered, wooden coffin and through the wet dirt.”

“Is there anything so wrong with allowing Baron to resurface within you?” I ask. “Just so you’re aware, of all four of us, Baron was the most noble. He was the most just and the fairest. When Dragan, Variant, and I were imprisoned by our own sense of self-importance, Baron was usually the peace maker among us.”

He nods but doesn’t seem impressed. “I’m not that man anymore.”

“You are, but you either don’t want to acknowledge it or you don’t recognize the traits within yourself that haven’t changed.” I take a breath. “You are still the same creature of darkness. You are who you always were, just a little more jaded than you used to be.”

The vampire gives me a puzzled look and it forces a tendril of laughter from my lips. I shake my head and continue weaving through this seemingly unending forest.

“You have a gift of oratory, Cambion,” Baron says, his voice low. “You say the right words and you’re able to deduce the right direction, yet you’re miserable.”

“Miserable?”

He nods. “I’ve died and come back, but even I know how to live.”

“What are you getting at?”

“You walk around more blind than Pyre, for fuck’s sake.”

“More blind than Pyre?”

“Cambion, can’t you see that Eilish wants you? And it’s not just because she’s Succubus. There’s something going on between the four of us and I’m apparently the only one who recognizes it.”

“I have no idea what you’re trying to tell me,” I answer, rather staunchly.

“When I feed from Eilish, her blood satiates me in a way I’ve never experienced before.”

“No doubt it’s the angel or perhaps the demon within her?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “It’sher. And it’s me. It’s us together. And the two of us together—it feelsright.”

I instantly feel jealous although I’m not sure why. Then I find myself irritated—both with myself for my silly reaction and with Baron, as I’m really not in the mood to listen to him tell mehe’s in love with Eilish. It appears that’s where the conversation is headed and I can’t help but ask myself what is wrong with these two morons, Dragan and Baron, that they’ve allowed this woman to get under their skin to such an extent. The call of the Succubus is strong, yes, but I appear to be the only one who still possesses his fucking wits!

“I suppose I’m happy for you?” I grumble.

Baron shakes his head and it appears my irritable mood has spread. “I don’t want your congratulations, you fool. That’s not what I’m asking for.”

“Then what the hell are you asking me for?”

“Not your happiness,” he spits back. “I want you to listen to me.”

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