Chapter 516: I’ve been busy, Caius
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-Two Weeks Later-
"Ahhnnghhh!!!"
A deep groan left Arlette’s lips as she arched her back against the bed, her hands thrust out, held by Caius, whose hips made synchronized jerks that thrust his cock repeatedly at a steady pace in and out of her gripping snatch.
Caius’s body was as toned as ever but was now brimming with more power than it had two weeks ago, as he had finally advanced to the Fifth Circle and achieved the next step in his Vampiric Evolution.
He had also spent so many hours in his Shifted State that he had grown more comfortable in it, giving him a better handle on his Feral State and thus reducing the risk of being carried away by it.
The Evolutionary charge boosting process had worked even better than Caius could have expected. By the time he had worked through all the canisters of Anne and Lea’s blood, he was well past the Fifth Circle and well on his way to the Sixth.
Of course, the requirement for the Sixth was about three times greater than that of the Fifth. Ordinarily, it could have taken him half a decade, even with the Arcane Circle-boosted Evolutionary charge from his lovers, but this process, which had already worked so well, promised to work just as well, and he could cut down that time by a lot.
But Caius put that aside.
The canisters were finished about two days ago, but he had spent all his time still in the arms of the trio of Arlette, Anne, and Lea, bringing them to multiple peaks of pleasure and reaching many peaks himself.
Like now, for example;
As Arlette arched her back, Anne Gilligan crawled over and soon had a hand grabbing the back of Arlette’s neck as they exchanged a passionate kiss. Lea came over too, and after a lot of kissing all round, they took their tongue tangling over to Caius, who was all too happy to entertain.
Throughout those two weeks, Caius hadn’t stepped outside of the Mansion. He never felt a need to and was far happier to be steeped in the presence of his lovers and the pleasurable, evolution-boosting delight they offered him.
But Caius hadn’t totally shut himself from the world outside this room—outside this Mansion—as he had been sure to assure his family at the Von Helsing Estate that he was well. The story was that he was in seclusion for Magical enlightenment.
Arlette followed Caius’s lead and never really left the Mansion either. She just couldn’t tear herself away from the merriment. Of course, whatever she needed to do, she could do from within the Mansion as she handled various ’Ophiuchus’ business still while relying heavily on delegation.
The one thing that definitely fell to the wayside, however, was her preparation for Lochxen. That was also the case for Anne and Lea, who convinced themselves that they would have time to get to it later and just let it remain ignored.
Caius had also kept up communication with his other partners. All of them were expressing their excitement to return to school to either study or teach. But the undertone of their claims was clearly all about Caius, who shared their sentiment.
The day before the Lochxen resumption, Caius and the trio of ladies—Arlette, Anne, and Lea—had a true sexual marathon. That technically didn’t really mean much because that was what they had been doing for two weeks, but it did mean something to them. The ladies did not let up on having a piece of Caius until they were truly too weak to continue.
They held on to each other on the bed in a tight embrace, held together by a bond fostered by a week-long orgy while wearing similar delighted smiles on their faces.
Caius stood at the foot of the bed, a proud smile on his face as he looked at them. He stretched his muscles— they weren’t sore, but the stretch did feel good. Everything felt good, actually.
Going from the physical peak of the Fourth Circle to the physical peak of the Fifth had come with a substantial and very evident boost of strength that Caius enjoyed. His mana and overall magical prowess getting increased was also an incredible feeling.
And finally, and really most notable and important, was how his Divine seed felt bolstered. When Caius harnessed his Divine energy, it wasn’t a weak, wispy thing but rather an actual, substantial bit of Divine Power. His muscles had also gotten so used to Divine Magic seeping into them that it wasn’t becoming something of a natural state of being for them.
Caius’s smile became deeper, and he closed his eyes to revel in it all when he felt something familiar: A sensation of his mind getting pulled deep within himself— into his blood.
"It’s been a while," Caius said, already knowing who he would meet in this shadowy space.
He turned around and sure enough, there she stood, beautiful and regal, her vampire red eyes glistening like rubies, her lips turned up in a smirk.
"My, my," Athenodora, Caius’s Vampire creator said, "The Fifth Circle? You’ve been working hard."
There was a hint of surprise in Athenodora’s tone, but also a hurry, as if it wasn’t at all what she wanted to discuss at the moment.
Caius was of a similar mind, as he had questions for her.
"Where have you been?" He asked, "I tried to ask you about Brogan—"
"You’ve met Brogan Kraxia?" Athenodora asked, her surprise not only in her tone but also on her face as well.
"Yes," Caius answered slowly, "He waged war. We battled... You didn’t know?"
It was Caius’s turn to be surprised. For some reason, he had just expected that Athenodora would have known about the incident.
Athenodora smiled wryly.
"I’ve been busy, Caius," she said.
"I’m sure you have," Caius said lightly.
"You wanted to ask me about Brogan?" Athenodora prompted him.
"Oh, never mind that," Caius said with a wave of his hand, "It’s been taken care of."
Now that he knew Brogan had been set on him by the Editors, Caius didn’t have any real questions for Athenodora anymore. At least not about that.
"Brogan is dead?" Athenodora asked, insinuating from his tone.
"Yeah," Caius answered, not too surprised by how quick she was on the uptake.
"My, you’ve been busy," Athenodora laughed and then winced hard.
For the first time, Caius noticed something about her was different; she wasn’t standing as confidently as she always did. She looked a bit paler than usual and was favoring her left side. In fact, if he looked closely enough, Caius could have sworn he saw perspiration on Athenodora’s forehead, as if she was struggling despite nothing about her tone betraying such.
"You’re hurt," Caius realised and took an instinctive step toward her.
"Hmm? Oh, right," Athenodora said in the tone of someone who had only just been reminded of something,
"Yes. Yes, I am. It’s why I’m here. Your thing was just so interesting, it distracted me. It’s amazing how much I’ve missed."
"What happened?" Caius asked, stepping closer to Athenodora, but even as he ran his eyes all over her, he saw no sign of injury.
That wasn’t too out of the ordinary, though, as this was a meeting of minds happening within their shared blood, and Athenodora could appear however she wanted, which meant not showing what her injury looked like. The fact that she couldn’t help but show her struggle, though, hinted at how serious this was.
"You’ll find out when you come to me," Athenodora said in a light tone that almost hid how much pain she was in. Almost.
"And where are you?" Caius asked.
"Before I tell you that, I must ensure you can’t betray me," Athenodora said with probably the first serious smile Caius had ever seen her wear,
"You will speak of none of this to anyone. Not one word. Nothing about where you are headed can leave your lips, not even to direct the one to drive your carriage.
You must find your way to me in absolute secrecy."