The Vampire King's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 48 The Devil's Advocate

Dorian didn't come back until five in the morning. By then, Lucius was already back and clasped the collar back on his neck.

After eavesdropping on Zephyr, he followed the maid and watched her inquire about Dorian's whereabouts with the guards. The guards told her that the Queen and Dorian had gone out earlier that night, and they weren't sure if they had returned. As the maid headed back, Lucius transformed himself into Dorian and let her spot him walking in from the courtyard, pretending he had just come back. As Lucius had planned, she curtsied at him and slipped him the note with a connotative smile.

Lucius glanced at the note and returned an ambivalent grin. The maid interpreted it as tacit consent and left with a jolly gait.

Zephyr implored Dorian to meet him at the arboretum at 7 in the morning. One hour earlier than the time Asmodian instructed. He would have to keep Zephyr there for an hour.

But how did Asmodian know Zephyr was going to invite him to the arboretum? And how would those assassins know Dorian would be in the arboretum at the time?

The maid...she would be the only one other than him, and Zephyr knew about their little tryst. Would she tell it to someone else, or was she The Master's spy?

Lucius wanted to transform into a bee again but was poohed after performing prolonged metamorphosis magics in three different forms consecutively. He destroyed the note, went back to Dorian's room to pack several pieces of Dorian's cloth and stashed them in a storage room near the arboretum, returned, put on the collar, and fell back to slumber until the noise of the door woke him up.

Dorian poured himself a glass of whiskey and sat on the couch in the living room. He appeared to be tired, despondent, and gravely troubled by something.

"What did she want?"Lucius leaned on the bedroom's door frame and asked.

"She accompanied me to their Disease Control Center to collect my blood samples. And then she asked the Chief Healer to give me a tour."

"A tour in a Disease Control Center? Isn't that a bit dangerous?"Lucius asked worriedly.

"They let me see the patients infected by the most recent mutated variant of the regression virus."Dorian paused momentarily and continued solemnly, "It began to spread between vampires now. If an infected vampire bites you, you will catch it, too."

"What?!" Lucius paled. The virus had always been passed from humans to vampires so far. Such mutation would be disastrous as it would make containing the spreading much more difficult.

Dorian continued, "Those neophytes...Their bodies are falling apart. Every cell in their body is slowly decomposing. Some of them don't even have eyes anymore. It's not just regressing to the lower class anymore. It's killing them directly."

Lucius was petrified, "how about infected apostles?"

"Apostles are slightly better. They are not dying like the neophytes, but they can burn into ash under the sun within seconds. A simple silver bullet to the heart can kill them. And they are also infectious."

Lucius noticed that Dorian never looked in his direction throughout the entire exchange, and a chilling revelation dawned on him.

The Queen was trying to get Dorian to see the damage Lucius had done, planting the seed of alienation between them.

She wanted to turn his husband against him.

If it was before Dorian lost his memory, Lucius was confident it wouldn't get to him too easily. But now...now Lucius was just someone he had only known for barely more than a month and claimed to be his consort.