Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire-Chapter 42: If I have to, I will

Caius just frowned, not sure what to say to that.

He remembered how much Athenodora had drained him that night five years ago but he had just assumed she had done that to cause him as much pain as possible and make him feel like he was truly going to die better giving him a sliver of life with her blood. When he read [To Kill A Demon Lord...] as Kevin and it explored Caius’ backstory, that was also what he’d thought.

Realizing now that the reality was even worse for him than that was chilling.

To realize his life had hung in the balance and on the whim of this aged Vampire who had never shown restraint for once in the over 1000 years she had been alive, caused his heart to leap up to his throat.

Athenodora saw his expression and it was like she could tell exactly what he was thinking. Her grin was too knowing.

"But we made it.

And it might have taken five years but your father’s cowardly and hypocritical decision not to kill you can finally be our gain.

I wish I could be there to tell you all this in person but I think this medium got the message across clearly enough.

How clear was it for you?"

She gave Caius an imploring look like she were waiting for an answer. There was an intensity in her voice and an urge in her blood flowing in Caius’ body that made it so he couldn’t just keep quiet and had to answer.

"Crystal." He said through gritted teeth.

Athenodora gave him another one of those smiles she had in spades that melted his annoyed heart as she said,

"Fabulous.

We’ll talk again soon, Caius Von Helsing.

I hope it’ll be in person.

Goodbye... For now."

Her voice sounded so longing like it hurt her to let him go. Her tongue trailed across her lips and one hand touched lightly to her throat, caressing it like she could still feel the warmth of his blood running down and into her stomach.

With her free hand, she pushed Caius lightly on his chest and he felt himself fall into the darkness as it swarmed around him and absorbed him before he got the chance to make an indignant sound.

•••

*GASP!*

Caius came up like someone taking a deep gulp of air after being submerged underwater. And that was exactly how he had felt. Excluding the water, of course.

The shadows had held him for a minute longer than they had to and that minute had been spent reliving every experience he had ever had with Athenodora until that very moment. He kept recollecting even this very recent meeting as well as every change in her ever-smug but agelessly beautiful face until he knew it better than he knew himself.

It took him a second to realize he had been freed and that he was staring at a familiar ceiling above his head.

’Oh right,’ he thought, ’I’m in Arlette’s office.’

It felt like so long ago that he was here before Athenodora yanked him away into that shadowy scape. Speaking of that scape, Caius could tell with certainty now that it had been inside him. Or at least, it had been a representation of some connection that he and Athenodora shared because of her blood that was running through both their bodies.

"Gods, you’re awake," Arlette said in a voice of concern and Caius saw she was sitting in a chair right beside his head on the sofa she had laid him on. She had readjusted her gown.

For a moment, his brain recognized how this was a very similar situation to what happened to him two days ago after he got knocked out in Mage-Knight Training Class. The tone and look of concern Arlette had was different from the expression Cynthia had had back then though.

"How are you feeling?" Arlette asked.

’Same question too,’ Caius thought still wrapped up in the feeling of deja-vu.

"I’m fine, I think," he said slowly, "Why, was I dead for a while?"

He actually was curious. Who knew what getting dragged into that Scape had done to his body out here?

"What? No, no. Nothing that serious. You just collapsed and went stiff for a while. I couldn’t tell if there was anything wrong with you. No matter how I checked, you seemed fine and that only made things worse. You can’t be treated if you can’t be diagnosed." Arlette explained. She had calmed down and looked relieved now.

Caius looked around.

"What time is it?" He asked.

"More than a third of the way through the final class of the day. School will soon be over," Arlette told him.

"What happened to Break?" Caius asked with wide eyes.

That actually got Arlette to crack a smile,

"It’s been over for a while now. You’ve been out for hours."

"And you never thought to take me to the Infirmary," Caius said slowly as it dawned on him just how long Arlette had been watching him unsure if he’d ever wake up.

"Well..." Arlette said and gestured at him.

Caius looked down at his body. He was still dressed in his uniform and it didn’t have a claw tear on it so things within that Shadowscape had not affected the physical world. But then he looked past his shirt and off to the side to see one of his hands pressed against the sofa. It had claws.

"Oh," Caius said and for the first time, he realized his teeth were still fangs. He had remained transformed even while unconscious and taking him to the infirmary would only have caused problems.

His fangs retracted and so did his claws. His eyes also turned back to their normal violet color as he laughed a little with a hand raised to his forehead.

"We have Theory of Magic. Professor Melvin will be pissed if I showed up now." He said remembering how annoyed the Male Professor had been with him for being much less late to his class on the first day of school.

"Don’t worry about that. I sent him a note saying you had an emergency and won’t be able to make it," Arlette said.

"Thank you," Caius said truly grateful that she had thought to do that for him but still pessimistic enough to add,

"I know he’ll still be pissed though."

Arlette smiled,

"You’ll survive, I’m sure," she said and then her expression became serious,

"What happened with you though?"

"I met my Creator again after five years. We had a nice little chat."

Arlette looked a little confused as she said slowly,

"By your creator, you mean..."

"I mean the one who turned me. I’m not talking about God," Caius clarified knowing what the word ’creator’ likely had her thinking of.

’Oh, alright. I should have known that," Arlette said with a little laugh before looking serious again,

"And what did your creator want with you?"

"She honestly just wanted to ramble a bit. Nothing important. Nothing for me to worry about right now anyway," Caius said brushing it off.

"Caius," Arlette said in a slightly grave tone, "I know enough about Vampires to know the relationship between them and their Spawns can never be equal and is never in favor of the Spawn. Are you sure it’s nothing to worry about?"

"Why?" Caius asked with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips,

"Will you hunt her down for me? To free me?"

He was just making a joke but Arlette’s grey eyes suddenly got darker and her posture in her chair became stiff as she stared hard into Caius’ eyes to say in a voice steep with conviction.

"If I have to, I will."

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