“Luke, you’re usually doing your very best to tease me and piss me off. Something in your thoughts?”

Baal tugged on my arm making me snap out of my daydreaming session. Somehow I had managed to doze off for the entirety of our walk to Cordelica’s center. I was surprised we hadn’t gotten lost to begin with.

“Oh! I’m remembering how this place looked like two hundred years ago.” Half accurate, I was going through my biography’s strong points. My absent mindedness wasn’t a good thing for a first date, I would have to cross my fingers Baal didn’t take it the wrong way.

“Huh, two hundred years ago? That’s good to know, you’re old.” Baal clicked his tongue and tightened his grip on my hand. “Experienced and sexy, definitely just the way I like it.”

We had already arrived at the center square, the Temple of the Ancients stood in the middle of it in all its granite glory. The tall building had four towers and an enormous hexagon shaped window with the picture of a star in smoked glass. The doors were plain in comparison to the angel adorned ledges and balconies. It looked more like a small palace if it weren’t for the colorful stained glass windows in my opinion, it always did have that air as well. A huge statue stood in front of the cathedral and I couldn’t help but laugh in an outrageous manner once I took it in. The statue hadn’t been there two hundred years ago. I guessed that after I saved Cordelica from northern were-breeds some sort of commemoration had to be done.

“What on Iris is so funny Luke?” Baal looked at me with a funny face and I simply snorted out it was the statue. “Okay… why is it so—”

Baal stepped closer to the tall, stone man dressed in only a tunic, his feet bare to a granite stand. Baal’s eyes rose to meet the statue’s face. Although it had long hair and wings, Baal recognized me almost instantly.

“What the hell?” He looked from the statue to me and backwards, he couldn’t quite believe the similarity. “That can’t be right…?”

“I didn’t think they’d go ahead and make a statue, that wasn’t there two hundred years ago. Someone clearly took up poetic license to etch me like that. I’ve never let my hair grow longer than my ears, and I’m definitely not an angel geesh.” I snorted while Baal just rose an eyebrow in confusion. “If you’re going to be traveling with me I can’t keep who I am a secret from you. Not unless I want it to backfire all over my face in the future.”

“Your blood isn’t red, right?” Giving me a shy grin, he walked over to me and held my hand again. “You’re a lot older than you let on… even for a vampire, aren’t you?”

“Let’s go inside and sit for a while? Let me tell you everything.”

We left Ion tied to a post made exactly for these situations and made our way inside the cathedral. The place was much like I remembered it, quiet and peaceful. The air smelled of incense and it felt warm compared to the wintery coldness outside. A shrine lied at the end of the main hall, it was decorated with gold and silver ornaments. Angels occupied most of the upper areas in the church, benches with red cushions were placed looking towards the altar. Some pilgrims prayed on the smaller shrines at the sides of the hall.

Baal looked at the altar before he did a small bow and said a few words under his breath in another language I didn’t, surprisingly, understand. I smiled knowing well the Goddesses could see us clearly, I wondered how long it had been since I had talked to them to begin with. We sat on one of the benches closest to the back, I took a big breath of air before I started talking.

“As you might’ve guessed… I’m an Ancient.” Baal nodded his hands crossed as he faced forward staring at the altar. “I’ve lived for over five thousand years, fought in most of the great wars and traveled the world before Old Iris was barren. There’s very little I can’t talk to you about our world’s past.”

Eager to listen to more, Baal grinned giving me his absolute attention. Good, he wasn’t freaking out.

I took yet another deep breath. Now I’d talk about the events I hated the most in my life. It was best to get done with the worst as quickly as I could after all…

“I once had a younger brother and a younger sister. We used to be close and very powerful together, at one point we managed to unite all of Iris under our reign. Unfortunately, something happened to my brother, something that changed who he used to be. He became obsessed with power and carnage. Lost in his obsession, he tried to destroy the world we had worked so hard to unite. He used my sister to achieve this and I gladly helped him. His charisma is something else, he can be very convincing … yet I’m sure I could’ve fought his logic off, much like my sister did to the bitter end.”

I took a pause as an image of my sister’s final moments flashed through my mind. Her frail, broken body drained of life, her eyes still looking at me with all the little light that remained inside her. It had been a long time since I dared remember her, the memory was fresh despite all those years of trying to forget.

“I killed her as the last thing I did for my brother’s ambition.”

I looked down at my hands as I turned them into fists. Maybe Baal would hate me now, I know I did. It’d be irrational to think I wasn’t a monster. One of the tyrants who tried to destroy the world and murdered his own sister for the sake of that goal had been me. That the world had forgotten our tale was only an undeserved mercy.

“I took her life, regained my sanity, and defeated my brother. Now, after two thousand years, my brother has returned to end what he couldn’t back then. I need to stop him, the last thing I want is for my sister’s death to have been in vain.”

“Luke…”

Baal wasn’t pitying me but he didn’t sound afraid either. His voice carried sympathy, understanding.

My chest tightened, a knot weighting heavy in my throat. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t dream of telling someone about my past from the get go. I would never try to have anyone accept me for the person I was and used to be. It hadn’t happened with the Princess or her allies, why did it seem like it was happening with Baal?

“You may have a terrible attitude, but you’re not a bad person.” Baal took one of his hands to my back, he was doing his best to express his support. The pink haired man wouldn’t leave my side. It didn’t matter how much I’d try to drive him away, right?

Why?

“Last night you were having a nightmare, you kept saying how much it hurt. I refuse to believe someone who keeps punishing himself like that can be anything close to bad.” Baal reached for my hands and took them into his.

I turned to see him and his eyes were so kind and sympathetic. I wasn’t sure how anyone could feel that much for a stranger…

“You’re good, Luke.”

Pain strained my chest and butterflies fluttered in my stomach. How could such simple words make me so weird? I looked away as I tried to calm myself down. I was impossible to look at him feeling the way I did. If this continued then my whole world, my centuries old façade, would come apart all because of this simple human man.

“Luke?” He called for me, I supposed he might’ve been worried with the amount of silence I was keeping. “Don’t be a child and at least look at me.”

Baal’s hand cupped my chin and he softly pulled my face to see him.

Goddess I liked this man so much, I’d sooner die than upset him. When did I even get the time to fall for him? If he had done this to me in the short amount of time we’d known each other… just how much more would he do to me in the future? Augh, this was getting annoying.

“Thank you for telling me the truth.” he chuckled playfully. “Although, honestly, you shouldn’t worry so much about me. It might not compare to yours...but I’ve got a share of skeletons in my closet too.”

Not knowing what else to do, I did what my messed up heart told me was right. I hugged Baal tight, he froze in my arms awkwardly in response. It took him a full minute to process what I had done and hug me back. He ran a hand down my back, he hesitated to do it at first, but in the end did it anyways. Pleased by his touch, I purred.

“Goddess, I’d do anything to never see you cry again. Fucking asshole, giving me hopes like this. If I ever get the chance, I’m going to kick your ass, pretty boy.”

I heard his thoughts, by now I didn’t mind it or find it weird, but rather comforting. Even if I was being delusional, hearing his voice in any way made me feel all tingly and fucking dumb.

“The you from the past doesn’t exist anymore…” he spoke with a caring tone. “The you now is a kind, caring and loving man, and honestly that’s all that matters to me.”

Did…did he like me back seriously? Because the way he spoke to me didn’t sound as if he was talking to a simple crush.