Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 576: Captain Zaila (2)

Captain Zaila scoffed.

"You don’t think sinking your fangs into them counts as hurting them?" She asked.

"A little pain for a lot of pleasure," Caius shrugged, "A fair exchange, I think."

"For who?" The Captain asked, "You or them?"

"Both," Caius answered easily, "Take away the threat of being drained of all blood, and it goes from a threatening act to a gentle, even loving one. The action itself already seems so close to a kiss, don’t you think?"

Caius had dropped his voice to a low velvety thrum that made his already silky and ensnaring voice all the more potent. This wasn’t something he usually did consciously but as his face was hidden behind a mask, he needed to rely on his other charms.

"I wouldn’t know," Captain Zaila smiled and she truly looked amused, "I’ve never been taken by the perverse desire to be bitten by a vampire."

"Oh, you would love it," Caius said smoothly.

"I would?" Captain Zaila asked, almost intrigued.

"Oh, yes. Of course, you would need a partner you can trust. Someone who wouldn’t get carried away by your, no doubt, appetizing blood. Someone..."

"Like you?" Captain Zaila cut in to say and when Caius went silent, she chuckled,

"Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing."

"What am I doing?" Caius asked and thought his voice remained alluring, he genuinely sounded innocent.

’Must be a great liar,’ Captain Zaila thought in assessment of him, ’Makes you wonder if anything he’s said so far is true.’

Outwardly, she scoffed.

"Please, I know when I’m being seduced."

"I wouldn’t dream of it," Caius said, still sounding innocent, "I think you misunderstand me, I wasn’t suggesting myself. And even if you asked, I wouldn’t do it."

"Now you’re playing hard to get when I’m not even trying to ’get you’?" Captain Zaila said and now, her amusement was palpable.

Caius sighed and shook his head.

"You really have me all wrong," he said, "A shame. We might as well drop the topic lest you misunderstand me even more."

There were a few seconds of silence that Caius wasn’t impatient to break. He kept a good poker face behind the mask because even just his eyes—the only part of his face visible to the Captain—could betray how he was biding his time and letting Zaila’s mind work.

Had he done enough to spark a strong sense of intrigue in her?

Apparently yes, because the Captain narrowed her eyes and asked,

"What did you mean, you wouldn’t do it even if I asked?"

Zaila would have loved to just push on, but she had to know what his explanation would be for his planned rejection. She was sure it was all part of his seduction tactics and felt questioning him on it would throw him off.

Caius allowed himself a tiny smile behind the mask as he then answered in a very composed tone.

"Because, for one, trust goes both ways," he said, "To do that with anyone is to make myself vulnerable."

"Vulnerable," Captain Zalia repeated with her icy blue eyes clouded and Caius visualized a bait dangling and her inching closer to take a nib of it.

"Yes. Vulnerable."

"You’d be feeding. How would you be vulnerable?" Zaila asked, "In what world are you in any danger compared to the one you have sunk your fangs into?"

"Hmm, this is a very sensitive subject for me," Caius said then like he was reluctant to share any more.

"Oh, you can’t stop now," Zaila said and she leaned forward. A lock of her grey-white hair swayed to the front of her face.

"I really think we should leave the matter as is," Caius said, knowing he had Zaila right where he wanted her.

"Finish. What. You. Started." Zaila said with each word enunciated.

Caius allowed himself another little smile.

"Fine," he sighed, and then, with the most authentic air of reluctance he could muster, he said,

"For a successful hunt, a Hunter must be dominant over their prey. My feeding is different... There is no prey. There are, instead, two equally participating parties. This creates a change in the way the mind functions.

Sure, the urge to feed with fervor remains but it is tempered—even if just on a subconscious level—by the knowledge that the one I’m feeding on is offering themself to me... That grows a rapport, a give and take, a passionate dance— a connection of two bodies and even two minds."

"You describe it... like it’s sex," Zaila said.

"It’s similar," Caius admitted alluringly, "Just like sex, the good kind anyway, there is consent and there is mutual pleasure."

"And you can’t do it with me, because?" Zaila asked, her eyes a bit unfocused.

Caius chuckled.

"Is it not obvious?" He said, "We don’t know each other enough to cultivate that kind of trust. I’m a very committed person, Captain.

Besides, I would also be subjecting you to a high you would chase for God knows how long."

"Please," Zaila scoffed in disbelief, "I’ll be chasing the high of being bitten by a vampire?"

"You’ll be chasing the high of being bitten by me, yes," Caius answered.

"You really think highly of yourself, don’t you?"

"I do," Caius said, "But that doesn’t change what I know to be fact."

"No one is too special to be gotten over," Captain Zaila said, "Especially not with something as perverse, and unnatural as bloodsucking."

Caius shrugged.

"Well, what does it matter what permanence my effect on you may or may not have when nothing is going to happen anyway?"

Zaila looked like she was about to say something more and then she stopped herself. Caius’s smile got wider. He could tell her mind was swamped with questions that would remain unanswered, and with intrigue that would remain unsatisfied. And he knew he had succeeded.

Zaila was no longer in the mood to press the topic of his and the Leopolds’ persecution. At least not for now.

Caius believed he had worked his ’magic’ so well that even after the Captain had slept and woken up the next day, any decisions relating to him—and by extension, the Leopolds—would be clouded by the questions he had inspired in her head.

And just like that, Caius was sure he had secured his party’s safe exit from the Khione Duchy.

He stood up and Zaila made no move to stop him, bolstering his confidence.

"Well, as already said, we will pay for the damages we caused. Simply tell us how much and we’ll settle it before we leave in the morning."

"In the morning?" Zaila said then.

"Yes, as I said earlier, we have somewhere important to be and we really must be on our way. Will you have us remain in the Garrison or can we leave?"

Zaila’s eyes moved like she felt there was more to do but was struggling to remember what it was.

"I think you should remain at the Garrison. We don’t trust you not to wreak any more havoc," she said.

"Fair enough," Caius acquiesced, "Thank you for your hospitality then."

And so Caius walked toward the door, glancing over at Zaila who seemed to still be sorting through her thoughts. With his smile growing wider for how successful his ruse had been, Caius grabbed the doorknob and made to turn it.

But suddenly, Zaila’s hand was pressing against the door preventing Caius from pulling it open.

"What?" Caius asked, confused at this turn of events.

"You can’t pull the door open, can you?" Zaila asked slowly.

"Yes, because you’re keeping it closed," Caius said and then froze because he felt he had revealed something he shouldn’t have.

Understanding dawned in Zaila’s eyes.

"Fight me," she said with an amused smile.

"What?"

"I said, fight me," Zaila repeated.

Frowning, Caius released the doorknob and eyed the Captain.

"Why would I?" He said, "I seek peace..."

"Of course you’d seek peace when it’s all you have," Zaila said tauntingly, "It’s not as though you can defeat me even if you tried, is it?"

"Captain—"

"Fight me!" Zaila said again but this time, an icy blue spell circle appeared and a barrage of hail, accompanied by chilly winds surged from it and flew at Caius.

Caius was ready.

He slid back multiple steps, putting distance between himself and Zaila as he cast a dark purple spell circle.

~~

Obsidian sleets formed of mana, appeared and combined to form an ugly wall that gave an air of death. This was a Fifth Circle Dark Magic defensive spell Caius had created. It was his first, admittedly poor, attempt at tapping into the Death aspect of Dark Magic.

The barrage of hail and chilly winds struck the ~~ spell, breaking pieces of it off but ultimately it held and Caius didn’t have to deploy a second spell. Still, he kept the second spell at the ready as he had no way of predicting what Zaila was going to do next.

’Clearly, I read her wrong,’ he thought with gritted teeth.

"What the hell is this?!" He yelled at Zaila out loud.

The Captain didn’t look at all put off by the fact that he survived. She didn’t attempt another attack. Yet.

"If, with your life in danger, that was what you came up with, there can be no doubt," she said,

"You are at the Fifth Circle."