The Vampire King's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 65 The King's Cavalier

Anton punched the heavy bag incessantly. Each hit was fast and vicious, full of rage. Sweat drops trickled down his bare upper body and drew long, tortuous lines along the shape of his sinewy muscles.

The heavy bag couldn't withstand his raw, uninhibited power and began to leak sand, but Anton didn't care. He kept punching and punching as if the bag had wronged him somehow.

"Wow, easy." A bright voice interjected, "I'm afraid if you keep breaking things, the facility manager will ban you from all the training rooms."

Anton's heart quivered. He hesitated briefly and turned around, yet his eyes evaded Lucius's searching gaze.

"You are back. How did it go?" Anton said as he grabbed a towel and wiped the perspiration off his forehead.

"Better than I thought. But the Churches will attack us soon to reclaim their authority. There will be a fight soon." Lucius sighed wearily and sat on a bench nearby. He tilted his head a little and studied Anton curiously, "How are you holding up? I haven't gotten many chances to talk to you privately."

Anton squeezed out a smile and said, "I'm fine."

"You are quieter than I remembered." Lucius frowned, "Is someone giving you trouble? It's not Adrian or Freya, right?"

"No, no." Anton asked reluctantly, "Um...so Adrian is your son?"

"Yeah."

"I just...I can't believe you have a grown-up son! Who is the mother?" Anton scratched his head in confusion, "And what happened to you and Dorian?"

"We separated," Lucius answered the second question with a nonchalant shrug. He admired himself for his impeccable facial management.

"Separated?! After you sold your soul to the devil to revive him?!"

"And you." Lucius corrected him, "And I would have done it again. It was a good deal."

Anton gaped at him as if he couldn't understand Lucius. He sat next to Lucius, staring at a spot on the floor, struggling to make sense of everything.

"I felt like I skipped my whole life, and the past two decades were a long dream," Anton said with a vacuous voice, his still youthful and handsome face overcast with doubt and turmoil, "And now half of my life is a big lie. Twenty years cheated away, and nothing is the same anymore."

"Even though you lost your memory and lived under another name, it didn't make your life, the new memories, and your feelings any less real."Lucius said softly, "Have you spoken to Florian after you remembered?"

Anton shook his head as wroth and something more profoundly complicated flashed across his countenance, "I don't want to look at his face right now. He lied to me for twenty fucking years after he betrayed us! If not for him, King Dorian and I wouldn't have died, and you wouldn't have had to sell your soul for us!"

"I hated him for a very long time, too, especially after I had to leave Dorian. For a while, I felt like I lost everything, including myself, because of him. But then...after Adrian was born, the hatred faded. I still cannot forgive him for what he had done, but it's no longer a fixation in my life." Lucius put a hand on Anton's shoulder, "perhaps it's time for you to go home. Your real home, The Guardian. Your parents and your uncle still think you are dead. It devastated them."

The Guardian.

Anton had been thinking of home, too. But...he didn't want to leave Lucius's side again.

He had lost two decades, and now, with everything going on and Lucius doing Asmodian's bidding and challenging the Churches, he didn't want to leave Lucius to face it alone.