Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire Chapter 590: And there it is

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Van Kroon left the North-Western Garrison feeling irate at Zaila’s stubbornness. He sat in the back seat of his carriage, flanked on both sides by two of the Mages with him. The third took the wheel and drove the carriage.

"Myopic bitch!" He snarled as he pulled out a Loqui-Link.

He activated it and spoke harshly.

"How goes it?"

"We’re on their tail, Sir," the responding voice came from the Loqui-Link, sounding hurried but a tiny bit excited.

"And do you have an idea of their destination?" Van asked.

"They seem to be heading toward the border, Sir," the voice answered.

"The Khione border," Van mused, "So they’re leaving the Duchy."

"Well, the Acheron Border actually," the voice said, "They seem to be heading out of the Empire."

The Khione Duchy was situated at the very edge of the Empire and technically, depending on what direction one was turned toward, crossing the Khione border was the same as crossing the Acheron Empire Border. The Northern-most one anyway.

Van’s eyes widened.

"Out of the Empire..." he mumbled and then, he brightened up, "The Border guards. At the Fortification along the border. Oh, screw Zaila Khione, the border guards are all we need!"

"Sir?" The voice said, cutting into Van’s moment of excited epiphany.

Van wasn’t daunted.

"Do not engage them," he said, "I’ll send word to the Border, tell them they are expecting dangerous criminals trying to flee the Empire. Together with them, I fail to see how those bloodsuckers could escape."

"Sir, the Border guards..." the voice started uncertainly.

"You think they won’t trust us?" Van asked.

"No, it’s just... Well, the bounty..." the voice said, sounding unsure how to proceed.

Van rolled his eyes.

"Work on capturing the bloodsuckers first. The bounty is the least you stand to gain if you succeed," he said.

That perked up the voice considerably.

"Yes, sir," it said.

The communication ended and Van let out a sigh while shaking his head. It was such a shame how limited some people’s thinking could be. Their sights focused on the least important things like some money when there was so much more at stake.

Activating his Loqui-Link, Van Kroon placed another call and he only had to wait a minute or so before there was a response.

"Yes?" Came a dignified voice.

"Lord Leonce Duval?" Van said.

"Speaking."

"This is Van Kroon."

"What do you want?"

"We have our sights on your targets. The Gold-black Vampires," Van said.

"And you told me you had them yesterday but evidently, you don’t. So why should I believe you now?" Leonce asked coolly.

"There was a complication but now we really do have our sights on them and a plan to get them.

The band is heading for the Acheron Border," Van said.

"The Acheron Border?" Leonce paused and then continued, "So they’re leaving the Empire."

"We believe so," Van said, "We’ll make sure they don’t get away, Sir."

"Contact me when you have them," Leonce said, "And do try to keep at least one of them alive? It would go a long way in rooting out their infestation for good."

"Yes, Sir," Van said, "You can count—"

The communication cut off from Leonce’s end.

"— on me," Van completed his sentence lamely.

With a sheepish smile, he stored his Loqui-link away and then squared his shoulders.

"Head for the border," he said to the one driving the carriage.

"Yes, Sir," the Mage answered and the carriage turned and began to head for one of Northern-Star’s gates.

As they moved, Van’s expression was focused. He meant what he told Leonce Duval and now he was heading to the Capital to make sure he made good on his word.

***

Caius had been driving for a day—give or take a few hours—since he and the Leopolds left Northern-Star, when he felt Athenodora’s presence nudging him mentally until he could almost hear her voice once again for the first time since before they stayed at Revron County.

’Finally!’ He thought toward the presence, ’I have questions for you.’

The presence didn’t react so Caius pressed on.

’I was attacked by some Emissary. But I doubt that’s his name. Which brings me to my question; who the hell was he and why did he want to know where you are?

Exactly how much danger are you in?

What exactly is going on?!’

He waited a second and then, he heard Athenodora’s voice in his head.

"You’ll need this," she said and it sounded like she hadn’t heard everything he had been thinking.

So he tried to withdraw into himself, into the internal space where he usually had his conversations with her—a dangerous thing to do while driving a Carriage—but Athenodora’s presence was already gone.

She left only one thing behind; a circle of Arcane Symbols. But they weren’t arranged in the way of a spell so Caius’s Mana didn’t react to it.

"What—" he started, confused while mulling the circle over.

He was forced to stop when he sensed Roxanne draw close to him.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," he answered.

"You should rest," Roxanne said.

"It’s only been a day," Caius said, "I can keep going."

"I can take over, My Lord," Kyre piped.

"No," Caius said firmly, "We’re almost there anyway."

"Almost where?" Roxanne asked.

"You know—"

"You can’t tell us, yes, I know," Roxanne sighed and it sounded like she had forgotten that detail for a bit.

"Well, we’re definitely heading for the border," Meline said, now beside Roxanne, "What we’re after must be there."

She said it like a question and waited for an indication from Caius and when there was none, she pressed.

"Or maybe beyond it?"

"I saw a twitch," Roxanne announced.

"I didn’t twitch," Caius argued.

"No, I saw it too," Meline said, as if her question had been answered, "We’re leaving the Empire."

Caius said nothing.

"Oh, I’ve never been outside Acheron in all my life," Roxanne said.

"None of us have," Nadine said from the back of the Carriage.

"We’d have to leave the Coven once in a while to manage that," Hugo said in his deep, calming voice.

"How long till we reach the border?" Meline asked.

Caius didn’t answer but that was fine because Meline wasn’t really asking him. Kyre retrieved a map and scrutinized it.

"Maybe a day," he said with his eyes narrowed, "But I could be way off—"

Kyre stopped talking suddenly and froze. As did the rest of the Leopolds.

"We’re being followed," Nadine said.

The others, having sensed the same thing, agreed silently.

"For how long, you think?" Kyre asked.

"What do you mean?" Hugo said.

"I sense purpose in their trajectory. They’re here for us. We’ve come so far from Northern-Star and even though the Lord may not be driving at Eighth Circle speed, we have made too much progress for them to just catch up without knowing where we’re headed. Especially not when our cloaks erase our energy signatures," Kyre explained.

"They might have just recognized the carriage," Hugo pointed out.

"There are many gates out of Northern-Star and many carriage tracks leaving the City. Recognizing our carriage won’t help them unless they get close enough. And with all those tracks and so many gates to choose from, they can’t get close enough unless they knew exactly what path we took.

I say we were followed," Kyre surmised.

"Aye, I say you’re right," Hugo admitted.

"And I ask, does it matter how they found us?" Nadine asked.

"I think it does," Meline said, "If they’ve followed us all this while, why haven’t they attacked yet?"

"You’re right," Roxanne said, "Even now they’re not coming too close. And if they’re the same group as the bounty hunters from Northern-Star, we know they can drive fast."

"Do we attack?" Nadine asked, her hand already on her sword.

"They’re too far away," Caius said after a few seconds of silence, "Your spells won’t reach them. And I think that was the intention. They’re staying just out of range of our attacks. They’re content to just follow."

A few hours passed...

"Should we slow down and fight?" Roxanne said, formation scrolls at the ready, "I think we can take them."

"Too risky," Caius said, shaking his head.

"But, this feels like a trap," Meline said.

"Oh, it definitely is," Caius said, "But we keep going still."

And so, more hours passed.

A day and a half after leaving the Northern-Star, the border lay ahead.

Behind them, the Carriages of those following them picked up speed. It was all calculated, as far as Caius could tell, so that he and the Leopolds would reach the border right as the pursuers caught up.

"We’re here," he called to the Leopolds but there was really no need because they had remained alert all the while, "Get ready."

There were sounds of wheels ploughing through snow from up ahead and heavy-duty carriages began to drive toward Caius and the Leopolds from the border.

"Border Guards," Kyre said.

Even though they had never felt the Empire, certain basics of the Acheron Military were known all the same such as the name of the branch of the military force charged with safeguarding the Empire’s borders and dwelling in Fortified strongholds that were the Empire’s first line of defence against possible invasion.

"And there it is," Roxanne said,

"The trap."