Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 577: This feels like Foreplay

Caius frowned.

"What?" He asked.

Captain Zaila chuckled and walked toward him. Caius stayed in place thinking stepping back right now would be a sign of weakness he could not afford to show. He was already reaching for his connection with the Leopolds, which was a little difficult given the distance now between him and them.

"All that swagger, and you’re only at the Fifth Circle," Zaila said eyeing him up and down, "Though it does make me wonder..."

Zaila trailed off.

"Wonder what?" Caius asked to prompt her to speak while still trying to connect his mind with Roxanne’s.

"How you lead your little pack," Zaila said, "I chose to meet you and you alone because I got the sense you were the leader and I had no patience for underlings. Was I wrong?"

"You weren’t," Caius said.

"But how...?" Zaila asked in a low and intense voice.

From what she had sensed from the others, Zaila put at least one of them at the Eighth Circle. It hadn’t inspired worry in her but she did acknowledge that level of Magical might as substantial. She hadn’t gotten a measure of Caius’s strength and seeing as he felt like the leader, she simply assumed he was on that level or beyond it.

"I have a charming personality," Caius said in a deadpan, almost sarcastic tone.

"Takes more than a charming personality to lead," Zaila said.

"I don’t think it does," Caius said, "But let’s agree to disagree."

Zaila began to pace around Caius now with her eyes raking all over his form throughout.

"So I can safely dismiss all your bold claims as bravado," she said, "An act to make yourself seem more than you are."

"If I didn’t reveal my Circle, it’s because I saw no need and I’d rather keep my cards close to my chest," Caius said.

"What cards, you’re at the Fifth Circle!" Zaila said and cackled.

"I have never presented anything falsely. Not here, not today, at least. You inquired into my feeding habits and I—very reluctantly, might I add—obliged. It’s not about whether you believe me or not because what you think doesn’t change reality," Caius said.

He truly hadn’t been trying to convince Zaila he had been telling the truth. In fact, the fact that she wrestled with believing him only served his goal better because it would keep her distracted enough that he and the Leopolds could leave by morning.

’Oh well, I tried to be amicable, at least,’ he thought as he felt his plan was heading to a sure failure.

He was finally getting a feel of Roxanne’s mind from here and in a few more minutes he was sure he could tell her to implement Plan B. At the same time, he got ready to defend himself.

With a flick of his wrist, Caius had a vial of Trait Acquisition Potion in his hand. To drink it would likely involve lifting the mask but keeping his identity secret was less important than surviving the coming fight.

"Alright," Zaila said and stopped pacing right behind Caius, "Prove it."

Caius was just about to flick off the top of the vial in his fist when he paused with confusion.

"What?" He asked and wheeled around to face Zaila while allowing himself one step back.

"All what you said... all that talk of vulnerability, of an experience that can’t be ’gotten over’, prove it. Right now."

Zaila said with a smirk.

"You can’t be serious," Caius said and he actually laughed now.

"You bet your ass, I am," Zaila said.

"You’d let me, a Vampire, bite you," Caius said and his tone made it clear he thought she was nuts.

He was not new to ladies wanting him to bite them but this was the first time it was happening because someone wanted to prove a point; The point in this case being that he was a liar.

"Why not?" Zaila shrugged and laughed heartily, "You can’t kill me."

"I can’t?" Caius said with a raised brow.

"You can’t," Zaila said with confidence.

"Because I’m at the Fifth Circle?" Caius said, "Have you not heard to never underestimate a vampire— to not let one get close regardless of their circle?"

Zaila rolled her eyes.

"Why, because your claws and fangs are very dangerous?" She asked.

"Yes," Caius said in a laughing voice, "Exactly that."

Zaila waved him off.

"I’m aware. You’re not the first vampire I’ve met. Your claws and fangs are not an ’Instant kill’ tool. To defeat me with them, you’d have to get me good and weakened first and I like my chances.

Even if you do bite me, I am damn sure I can get you off me before you actually kill me because, no matter what, I’ll still be faster and stronger than you. I don’t fear you."

Caius frowned at that. He was fine with being underestimated but it annoyed him that she was dismissing his attempts to let her see how careless she was being just because he was at the Fifth Circle.

"And now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way and ascertained I have no reason to be worried, let’s get back to why you seem so against this. You’re about to get a taste of my, how did you put it, ’no doubt appetizing blood’?

The only reason you’d have to resist is if it was all bullshit which really makes me question any of the other things you have told me today."

’Surely there are other ways to find out if I’m a liar than surrendering yourself to my fangs, but you do you, I guess,’ Caius thought with a mental shrug.

Caius was starting to wonder why he was so averse to this. Even if it hadn’t been his goal, wasn’t this fortuitous?

Caius narrowed his eyes and then gestured at Zaila’s armor.

"If we’re doing this, you’re overdressed."

The Captain smirked and then raised her hand to begin undoing the straps and clasps and rivets and everything else that held her armor as it was, taking off piece by piece and sending them to her storage ring.

In a couple of minutes, she was dressed in a shirt that seemed molded to her skin, highlighting the wraps she used to press down her breasts and hold them in place. The wraps probably succeeded in holding her assets in place but they certainly didn’t ’flatten’ them. Not in the slightest. There was too much to be flattened.

Below the waist, she wore skintight leggings that framed long shapely legs and the mouthwatering curves that Caius eyed with apathy.

With her hands on her hips, Zaila announced proudly that she was done.

"Begin!" She ordered.

Caius wasn’t moved by her order. He just gestured at her chair behind her desk.

"You should probably be seated for this."

With an eye-roll like she wasn’t impressed by his theatrics, Zaila walked away and took her seat, crossing her legs as she leaned back, her arms on the armrests as she regarded Caius who turned away from her. With his back to Zaila, Caius took off his mask and replaced it with one that left his mouth bare.

Unless forced to, he really would prefer to keep his face covered. There was always a chance he’d visit the Khione Duchy again as Caius Von Helsing and not a member of the Gold-Black Vampires and his human identity had to be protected.

Zaila chuckled when he turned to face her.

She didn’t ask him to take off the mask. She quite liked the mystery of it all. Because, despite her outward skepticism, the Captain of the North-Western Garrison was intrigued by the things Caius had told her, and faced the chance to know if it was true with more anticipation than she would ever care to reveal.

Caius walked toward the chair and held out his hand. Zaila placed hers on it and Caius closed his fingers around her hand, stroking the back lightly before he then raised his other hand and traced a feather-light touch across her arm.

Zaila glanced down at what he was doing and then looked up into his face. When she saw his eyes weren’t looking at her but rather at her arm, she dropped her gaze a little and it fell on his fangs.

"How about—" Zaila started to say but Caius cut in.

"I ask that you don’t interrupt me," he said gently.

"What?"

"Don’t interrupt me," Caius repeated, "If this is to work, I need free rein."

Zaila paused.

"Go ahead," she said and then barely kept from making a sound when Caius pulled her hand toward himself, pulling her forward in her chair.

He lowered his mouth to her hand and kissed it gently, trailing his lips across it. He kept tracing his touch, even when it reached the barrier of her sleeves, he continued and Zaila was surprised to find that the touch felt the same as it had when it was against her skin. It sent thrills through her.

From her arm, Caius continued to her shoulder and then down her side, his touch always light, always inspiring a thrill that kept the Captain’s heart skipping the occasional beat.

’This doesn’t feel like a preamble to a bite,’ Zaila assessed,

’This feels like foreplay.’