by HP Mallory
Eilish makes her way over to me and walks beside me in silence for a few moments. It seems quite obvious that something has transpired between Dragan and her as she attempts to avoid him. Yet, the two of them constantly make eyes at one another.
“You won’t tell the rest of them about the vision you saw, will you?” she asks as she faces the ground and an attractive blush sneaks across her cheeks.
“No. It’s not my secret to tell.”
Eilish pulls the cowl of her overcoat lower on her head and I can tell she’s embarrassed. I want to tell her there’s nothing to be embarrassed about—that Variant forced her hand in the situation, but I know it won’t do any good. I’ve already said enough anyway.
Instead, I catch myself watching the way her corseted tunic hugs her curves and how the tight leather trousers cling to her shapely legs.
“I’m sorry, Cambion,” she says finally.
“Sorry?” I ask in surprise. I can’t imagine what in the world she could possibly be sorry for.
She nods and chances a quick peek at me before she drops her attention to the ground in front of her again. “I’m sorry for saying all those hurtful things.” I’m not certain to which hurtful things she refers, but I don’t interrupt her. “I don’t want to make you my enemy,” she continues, “but it seems that’s already the case.”
“We aren’t enemies,” I correct her. “And I’m uncertain which hurtful things you’re referring to.”
She looks up at me and there’s wonder in her gaze. “I shouldn’t have blamed you for our imprisonment. It wasn’t your fault.”
I smile. “There are those who would certainly argue that point,” I say as I turn to face Dragan. “Case in point.”
“You only did what you thought was right to do,” Eilish says. “We didn’t have many options and you made the decision you thought was the best one to make. You had no way of knowing Raflamir would turn on you. And, what’s more, no one objectively opposed your idea. Yes, there might have been disagreement, but in the end, we all willingly accompanied you to Earlann.”
“While I appreciate your words,” I start and weigh my own before continuing. “You would be correct to blame me. If not for my insistence that we trust Raflamir, we never would have been taken by Variant.”
She stops me from walking further. “If you hadn’t brought us to Earlann, we never would have met Pyre, Aima, and Kolvar. We have allies now because of you.”
“I doubt Revenant and Dragan would agree with you.”
She shakes her head and her hood falls back from her face, her beautiful white hair falling forward. I notice that one of the strands has turned black. I don’t know why, nor what it means. It flusters me though because it just somehow seems… wrong.
“Even if Revenant and Dragan blame you for our capture, I don’t.”
“You said you did,” I respond with a slight smile. I enjoy prodding her, just to see her reaction. I would far more enjoy prodding her in quite a different way though, it’s true.
“I said what I did in a fit of anger because you backed me into a corner.”
“Backed you into a corner?”
“Well, figuratively,” she corrects herself and then swallows hard before turning to face me. “When you saw the vision of me with Variant and Anona,” she starts and then loses her courage.
“Right, I recall,” I encourage her to continue.
“I didn’t think you were going to react the way you did. I thought you would blame me and use it against me. I thought you would believe the vision was proof I was allied with Variant, even though the truth was the opposite. I just… didn’t expect…”
“Me to defend you?” I ask with a smile.
She nods. “I didn’t expect you to defend me.” She takes a breath. “With regard to what happened with Raflamir at Earlann, I’m convinced it was meant to happen the way it did. Everything happens because fate designed it that way. We now have a chance to free the Midnight Queen and, in the process, get answers once and for all.”
“You think it’ll be that simple?”
“No,” she responds. “I know it’s not going to be that simple. Everyone knows it won’t be so simple. Pyre said something to the effect that he’s risking his very existence for us because setting the balance right is that important to him and to the realms.” She inhales deeply. “We just have to make sure all of this isn’t in vain.”
“Those are big words,” I say with a slight smile.
“I believe in them,” she responds, and her expression is a bit sad. I’m not certain why.
“I believe in them as well,” I answer with a nod and then move ahead, taking up the role as leader once again. As I do, I notice Dragan slows his pace and falls behind me. I’m not surprised—the entire time that Eilish and I were conversing, I noticed Dragan stalling ahead of us, his pace slowing and a few times he actually glanced back at each of us, clearly curious as to the nature of our conversation.
TWELVE
Cambion
The Forest in the Sky
I walk alongside Baron who looks back at Eilish and Dragan who falls in step beside her. Baron curls his lip. “I’m sick and tired of them,” he snarls.
“Why?” I ask, quite delighted I’m not caught up in this battle Dragan and Baron have over Eilish. As much as I want her, I’m glad I haven’t had her. Let them duke it out between the two of them. I’d rather watch from the sideline.
“Either fuck or fight, but I’m sick of the indecision.” The vampire looks up at the canopy of stars above us.
“What difference does it make to you what they do?”
He’s quiet for a moment as he weighs my question. Then he shrugs. “I suppose it doesn’t.”
We both walk in silence for another few moments before Baron pipes up again.
“It feels different in this fucking forest after being in the Veil, doesn’t it?”
“It does, I suppose,” I respond. “Perhaps the only true difference is that we were safe there and we aren’t here?”
“Maybe,” Baron says. “What do you think of Pyre?”
His question surprises me. “What is there to think of Pyre?”
Baron nods. “I’m missing that part of my memories of knowing Pyre before.”
“I wouldn’t say any of us truly knew him,” I correct. “Knew of him, perhaps.”
“Do you trust him?”
“I do,” I nod. “Pyre’s only motive in all of this is to restore the balance to the realms. Removing Variant from control would be restoring that balance. So, yes, I do trust him.”
“He’s dark, but in a way that none of us are,” Baron continues and seems quite puzzled by Pyre.
“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 you were Baron?”
“I do believe I was Baron,” 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 sta
le 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’s her. And it’s me. It’s us together. And the two of us together—it feels right.”
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 me he’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.”
“I’m listening.”
“There’s something missing between Eilish and me,” he says abruptly but then his voice dies down and he’s quiet for another second or so. “As much as her blood satiates me and provides me with energy as well as an abundance of other benefits, I can’t give the same back to her.”
“You appease the Succubus,” I point out with a shrug. What more could she want?
“That’s the point,” he insists, his eyebrows meeting in the center of his forehead as though he finds my company vexing. Ah, isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. “I don’t appease her.”
“If we are now voyaging into the realm of your impotence, I am afraid the conversation must end here, old chap, as I’ve no interest in discussing your male… issues.”
“I’m not impotent, you fucking twat!” he rails at me.
“Then what,” I start.
“If you’d just stop talking for a fucking second, I’d explain.”
“Very well, explain.”
He glares at me, but continues. “I’ve watched Eilish and by watching her, I’ve noticed that after I fuck her, she’s still in need.”
“Perhaps her appetite,” I begin.
“It has nothing to do with her appetite,” Baron interrupts rather rudely, I might add.
“Then what does it have to do with?”
He frowns and then drops his gaze to the ground as though he quite regrets the words that are ready to fall off his tongue. “As much as I hate to admit it, I believe you’re a necessary part of this equation.”
“Me?” I repeat and shake my head to make him understand I’m lost.
“Are you really so foolish?” he asks.
“I suppose with regard to this conversation, the answer would be ‘yes’.”
“Eilish isn’t just Succubus, Cambion, she’s also angel.”
“I’m not that foolish as to have missed that fact.” I glare at him. “I’m fucking aware she’s a fucking angel, for fuck’s sake!”
“So, if she’s angel, perhaps the problem is that I can only feed the Succubus inside her,” Baron continues. “It’s the same story with Dragan—the two of us can’t touch the angel, because we aren’t angelic. We aren’t born of light magic. Shadows animate us and those same shadows allow us to feed the Succubus side of her, but not the angel.”
Now I begin to understand. And as realization dawns on me, my interest in that realization begins to dwindle forthwith. “Ah, so you believe I need to feed Eilish’s angelic side with my light magic—light magic that travels through my magic cock, is that it?”
He glares at me and clearly doesn’t approve of my humor. Bloody bore. “Eilish needs lightness as much as she needs darkness. And in order to soothe both her appetites, she needs you as much as she needs Dragan and me. Were Variant still one of us, I would say the same to him, but clearly he’s not. And that just leaves… you.”
“I have no interest in feeding anything inside her,” I respond immediately, quite put off with this whole conversation. We have more important subjects to consider and Eilish’s sexual needs are not among them.
“Don’t tell me you aren’t attracted to her?” Baron asks in shock.
“Of course, I’m fucking attracted to her! I’m not blind, for fuck’s sake!”
“Then?”
“I just… I just don’t trust her.”
“When are you going to realize she isn’t what you think she is?” he demands, clearly perturbed with me. Well, let him be perturbed. When you speak sense to idiots, they quite often mistake you for the idiot.
“We don’t know anything about her or the consequences of giving in to her seduction,” I counter. Baron huffs and falls silent. “What happened before, with Dragan and Lamia, I can’t, and I won’t go through that again.”
“Lamia shouldn’t even enter into this conversation,” he grumbles.
“Easy for you to say as you clearly don’t remember the situation, but it was horrible. And to see that same situation repeating itself now worries me.”
“That same situation isn’t repeating itself,” he argues. “Eilish isn’t Lamia.”
“You don’t know that!” I fire back at him.
“Even without my memories intact, I can promise you they aren’t the same. Eilish is measured and balanced by her angelic side. Lamia was pure demon. It’s like trying to compare apples and oranges.”
“Both are fruit,” I answer immediately.
Baron frowns at me. “You know what point I’m attempting to make, you stubborn bastard.”
“Regardless, I don’t trust Eilish and neither should the two of you. Dragan has somewhat regained his senses and he attempts to keep his distance from her.”
“He’s failing,” Baron interrupts.
“Regardless, he’s changed his tune about her, and I can’t fault him for that.” I take a deep breath and exhale it. “I can’t allow myself to fall into her trap just as you and Dragan have already. If anything, one of us needs to maintain his head in all of this.”
“I am maintaining my head in this.”
“No, you’re not,” I argue but then quickly move on. “For all we know, our fal
ling for her seductive trap could be part and parcel of her grand scheme of plans.”
“Grand plans?” Baron repeats, shaking his head. “One of these days you will get it into your thick skull that Eilish is just a girl. She’s angel and she’s Succubus, yes, but at the end of the day, she’s nothing more than scared and lonely. She’s just trying to find a place to belong.” He falls silent for a moment. “And the sooner you realize she belongs with us, the better.”
###
We reach the edge of the forest by nightfall. I share a glance with Baron and we step away from the tree line.
Eilish sniffles from behind me and I turn to see her wiping her eyes. I try my best to avoid asking what the hell Dragan said that upset her so much. I’m irritated that she’s become my problem. But, thus is the nature of being a leader, I suppose. You have to deal with everyone’s shit.
“What is it?” I ask finally. The truth is that I can’t stand her sniveling any longer. Better to meet the situation head on and diffuse it so I don’t have to continuously listen to her sniffling.
“I hate him,” she responds as she swipes her eyes with her sleeve and looks down at the ground as she kicks a small rock out of her path.
“No, you don’t hate him,” I argue.
“He’s just so… so… he goes from hot to cold and back to hot again in the blink of an eye! It’s like he changes his mind in an instant and it makes absolutely no sense to me!” she rails and I suddenly wish I were not playing the part of best friend. It is a part for which I am sorely unprepared. I imagine in these types of conversations, I am most usually playing the role of the offending party!
“Because he can’t decide what to do with you,” I respond with a shrug. It’s so obvious to me, I don’t understand why it’s not obvious to her. Women are considered the weaker sex for reason, I suppose.
“One moment he’s jealous of Revenant and me, and the next minute he’s distant and cold. One second he’s joking with me and the next he won’t look at me.”