Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 605: Failed to Connect

•••

Caius spent hours in the throes of passion with Roxanne and Meline. The day ended and even past midnight they remained at it. At the Eighth Circle, despite their need for breaks, both women were full of energy and could exert themselves for far longer than should be humanly possible. Still, they had to tire out completely eventually and once it was at an end, Caius also became tired and proceeded to fall asleep with his arms wrapped around them both, hugging them close.

At dawn, Caius woke up. A quick peek out of the window showed the sun had yet to make an appearance. He went to the bath and basically continued what the ladies had interrupted when they knocked on his door.

But Caius couldn’t just relax there. Now that sex was out of his mind and he was thoroughly satisfied, his mind couldn’t help but dwell on the situation at hand.

A decade...

”Really, what the fuck was I expecting?” Caius mumbled to himself.

Maybe he had been hoping this would be an overall quick trip where he’d get to Athenodora, help her, and promptly get back to his life in the Acheron Empire. But even then, he had to admit that, in some part of his mind—a small part—he had known things wouldn’t be so simple.

”I should call them,” Caius thought then.

As flimsy as it might be, Caius’s biggest excuse for not contacting his partners back home was that he was bound by Athenodora not to reveal where he was headed. He had already toed the line on how much he could share when he amassed the group of Leopolds here with him. He did not want to contact anyone else without being able to tell them anything concrete.

It was a stupid and flimsy excuse but it was enough to allow Caius to keep his partners at length. Simply worrying and hoping all had been well since he had been away. And he had no reason to believe otherwise.

Some dangers could occur whether he was at the Empire or not, namely; Aurelius’s trials to do battle with representatives of Hell. But those had schedules and by what Caius knew of the original canon, the next one was months away.

Other dangers were matters of the Task Force and he hoped Kerwin had the good sense to keep the Coven safe and secret as he had been doing for centuries so far. And on that front, Caius even believed this journey was a good thing; News of the Gold-black vampires being at the Khione Duchy had to have reached Capital City and could potentially reduce suspicion for that particular group of vampires a little.

Caius dialed Arlette’s Loqui-Link and waited to connect only to receive a [Failed to connect] holographic display. With a frown, Caius tried again and only after the fifth failure did he try the Loqui-links of the others one after the other and the results were the same.

•••

Caius didn’t go back to sleep after that even though he went back to bed and lay between Roxanne and Meline who wrapped themselves around him immediately.

When they woke up, Roxanne and Meline prepared to head for the baths. Caius asked for their Loqui-links and they looked at him with similar confused expressions because throughout their journey here, Caius had impressed on them how important it was that they didn’t contact anyone.

”Here,” they both said soon enough and held their Loqui-links out to Caius.

He only tried contacting Kerwin with them because he wasn’t trying to actually make the call and only wished to confirm the issue wasn’t just with his Loqui-Link. Lo and behold, the same holographic message appeared;

[Failed to Connect]

”That’s not right,” Meline said with a frown.

”Yeah, my Loqui-Link’s never done that before,” Roxanne said as she reached out and took the device out of Caius’s hand, trying the other contacts she had on the device to check if she would receive the same notification. She did.

”Can you reach out to Kerwin mentally?” Caius asked the two ladies. As their creator, even at a distance, Kerwin should remain connected to them.

Meline shook her head.

”Kerwin usually makes contact first,” she said, ”And even that’s very rare.”

”Hmm,” Caius mused, ”Well, we can’t know for certain if that particular chain of communication has been cut off since I essentially told him we were not to be disturbed.

If only I could reach out to them from this distance...”

Caius trailed off then and there was a sound of something sliding into the room. The three turned their eyes to the door where an envelope had just been slotted in.

Roxanne went for it, her hips swaying as she went. It was a natural motion, done unconsciously, and was simply the way she walked but Caius’s eyes were drawn to her shapely ass still.

Roxanne picked up the envelope, broke its seal, and unraveled it into a note that she read out.

”’Her Ladyship wishes to relay to you her most sincere greetings. She hopes accommodations have been to your liking and that the yells that were heard from your room through the night were not those of distress. She trusts you had a restful sleep and cordially invites you to breakfast.

A palace worker will be at your door, ready to lead you once you are ready.’”

”Very formal,” Caius said with a smile.

”Sounded a little passive-aggressive,” Meline said.

”Sounds a lot passive-aggressive,” Roxanne amended with a smirk, ”Think we made a lot of noise last night?”

”I don’t think it matters,” Caius said.

”Why not?” Meline wheeled around at him.

Caius shrugged.

”’Cause we’ll be making a lot more this very morning,” he said.

Meline grinned. Roxanne tossed the note aside and sauntered over. The two women grabbed Caius’s arms, pulling him off the bed so he could accompany them to the baths where they would wash up and hopefully get even more dirty.

Perfectly balanced.

•••

By the time he was able to pull away from Roxanne and Meline and the two could resist his presence long enough to put on clothes, it was properly morning. Caius wondered if they had kept Athenodora waiting at the breakfast table but then decided he’d get to make it up to her once she sank her fangs into his neck and sucked him dry again anyway.

Properly dressed with Meline and Roxanne by his side, Caius opened the door and there stood the palace worker but also Nadine, Kyre, and Hugo.

”Morning, my lord,” the trio said as one, none looking at all surprised that Roxanne and Meline had gotten here before them.

Caius paused and then stood aside so the way into his room was clear.

”Come in, we should talk before we leave,” he said.

The trio exchanged looks and then hurried in while Caius addressed the palace worker.

”We’ll only be a while,” he said.

”Yes, honored one,” the worker bowed.

Caius closed the door and turned to address the trio who had been joined by Roxanne and Meline who stood attentively like they were about to be briefed like the others even though they definitely knew whatever Caius was about to say.

So Caius began and filled them all in on why he—they—were here. And what his task was about to be for the next supposed decade if they couldn’t find a permanent fix to Athenodora’s problem.

”Wow... that’s a—” Nadine started.

”A lot?” Caius supplied and they nodded so he smiled, ”You don’t have to stay here with me. Barring Athenodora draining me for all I have running in my veins, I’m not in any danger.”

”We’re not leaving,” Roxanne said. Caius hadn’t mentioned this to them yesterday so she and Meline were truly hearing something new.

”I appreciate the zeal—”

”We volunteered to be here. We want to be here. I know I do,” Nadine said.

”So do I,” Hugo said.

”I don’t buy that there’s no danger here,” Kyre said, ”Nowhere is ever truly safe. And you need protection, My Lord.”

”And even if it was safe, we have a chance to be in a region other than the Empire where there’s a task force and money-hungry bounty hunters who want our heads,” Meline said, ”I see no reason to be in a hurry to leave.”

”There’s no reason not to stay,” Roxanne added.

”Very well,” Caius said.

”Still...” Kyre said slowly.

”Yes?” Caius prompted him.

”It’s just, do you plan to live like that for a decade?”

”Of course not,” Caius said, ”Only until Athenodora is cured.”

”Do you have a plan, Lord?” Hugo asked.

”I will,” Caius said, ”Hopefully.”

The Leopolds simply nodded and by their expressions it was clear that as far as they were concerned, Caius’s hadn’t said ’hopefully’ and was fully confident he’d come up with something. And if he was that confident, so were they.

”Another thing,” Caius said, ”Roxanne, Meline and I have discovered our Loqui-Links cannot contact home. You three can try but I’m willing to bet the result will be the same.”

They did try and Caius was right.

”What’s causing it?” Nadine asked.

”I have a guess,” Caius said, ”But there’s no need to be throwing out theories when we can just ask.

Let’s go have breakfast.”