The Vampire King's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 15 Interrogation

Lucius heard the car arriving after midnight.

He was so used to vampires' living schedules that it was hard to fall asleep during the night. He heard flustered footsteps and hushed murmurs rolling along the hallways, and he had a vague idea who the midnight guest might be.

He didn't move, didn't even turn when about fifteen minutes later, someone gently opened the door.

Lucius didn't say anything until the person soundlessly skulked across the room and sat on the edge of the bed. He hesitated for a second and then laid down next to Lucius.

"We've talked about this many times. You should knock before you enter." Lucius remarked languidly.

"And you should lock your door."The other voice, which was very similar to Lucius, rejoined.

"Dad will be pissed if he knows you are in the same bed with me. He forbade me to enter our room because it's not good for your reputation."

"That's stupid."

"Yeah...tell me about it..."Lucius turned around and looked into Julian's bright hazel eyes, identical to his own. The twin brothers stared at each other for a long, comfortable, nostalgic moment.

When they were kids, Julian often sneaked into Lucius's bed like this. They were born with the same soul, but Julian was a timid boy and was easily spooked, and somehow only Lucius, who was not bigger nor stronger than him, could make him feel safe.

"You dyed your hair?"

"Yeah. Thought I'd change my style once in a while." Lucius bantered, "But the dye quality was not so good, probably gonna wash off in a couple of weeks."

"I like your natural hair color better." Said Julian.

"So that we can look exactly alike?" Lucius scoffed, "Aren't you tired of having a doppelganger all your life?"

"I will never be tired of you. Are you tired of me?"

"Can we not have these chick flick moments tonight?" Lucius chuckled, "Not that I have anything against it, but I'm too exhausted to do all those self-reflection and self-introspection kinds of stuff that usually come with it."

"Just humor me one bit longer then...cause I missed you." Said Julian quietly, "I thought you were dead. And then, when I knew you returned from death, I was so happy. But my happiness didn't last for a few months, and I heard you were exposed...I've been scared to hear another news about you ever since, terrified if it's going to be that you were executed..."

And then Julian's gaze fixed on the branding mark on Lucius's neck, and his expression frozen.

"What had they done!" Julian whispered in disbelief, "Did Dorian do this?"

"No. Of course not. Dorian would never. Someone else had been trying to take me out of the picture. I still don't know who was plotting against me." Lucius found himself partially and morbidly relieved that, finally, someone in the family was shocked and angered by what he had endured, but also partially dread that he had to recount what happened. He replied flatly as if he was talking about someone else's misfortune so that he could disassociate himself from the feelings, "This person, for whatever reason, wanted me to suffer first. But after I was rescued, they wanted me dead."

Julian stared at him with so much pain in his eyes, as if he was the one who got branded. He struggled to find the words, "Were you...how long..."

Lucius grimaced and tried to downplay the whole thing to get it over with, "Don't worry, I was only trapped there for a week, and before they could do any real damage, a friend saved me."