The Vampire King's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 38 The Gift

Dorian sat on the leaves bed, eyeing Lucius with suspicion and weariness. And Lucius sat in the other corner of the grotto, despondent and quiet.

"So you are saying my father killed my mother, and then I killed my father and took his throne, but then lost my kingdom to my best friend and was captured by humans?"Dorian summarized what Lucius had told him in the past couple of hours with an air of absurdness.

Lucius didn't expect Dorian to be this calm and collected after hearing what happened in the past decade. He shrugged and replied dryly, "Yup. That's pretty much of it."

"And it was mostly because of you?"

"Not all of it. I didn't tell your dad to exile you and your mum."Lucius protested bitterly, "And I'm trying to fix the parts that were my fault."

Dorian squinted his eyes, "And you were my consort?"

"Still is..."

Dorian looked Lucius over scrutinizingly, trying to find signs of deception as well as attempting to determine if it was possible for him to even love someone like the man before him so much that he walked into a trap voluntarily like a moron.

Dorian's analytical gaze made Lucius uneasy and self-conscious. He realized that he was not in his best state. The clothes on him were threadbare, two sizes too big, and stained with blood. Luckily, he bathed in the lake after the killing, and since he had turned into a vampire, the stubbles that used to return to his chin every couple of days disappeared completely without shaving, so he was not entirely a trainwreck.

"I have no reason to lie to you. You can easily find this information from anywhere."Lucius tried to break the other vampire's silent stare, "You can even take a look at your arm. Those wounds are still healing, I suppose."

Dorian pulled up his right sleeve and saw the gaping, half-healed holes, and he scowled in indignation.

Crucifixion was the most humiliating and excruciating way that the hunters used to torture or even kill a vampire for many centuries when vampires were still hiding in the shadows like monsters and rats. Dorian had never thought it could happen to him.

"How are you feeling? Can you access your power?"Lucius decided to press down the bitter and stifling sensations welling up in his chest.

But Dorian didn't give him a straight answer, possibly because he didn't trust the stranger who claimed to be his consort, "I'm feeling as good as a crucified vampire can be."

"Your body may need more time to heal. And...the memory loss may also be temporary." Lucius muttered. He could only hope Asmodian was telling the truth about the temporary part.

Dorian continued to stare at him with those deep, unreadable eyes, then patted the side of the leaf bed and commanded regally, "Sit closer. I won't bite."

Lucius blinked a few times, realizing Dorian just said something similar to what he had said on their wedding night. He pressed down the wistfulness and compiled. He sat next to Dorian nervously, unsure how to behave. The vampire maintained their eye contact and abruptly leaned closer, sniffing around his neck. He was so close that Lucius could feel his breath fall over his skin like a light feather. Dorian squinted as he noticed the House of Roses branding scars on Lucius's neck, and he touched it as if to check if it was real.

Lucius shivered a little.

"So you were indeed kidnapped and branded by House of Roses..." Dorian remarked matter-of-factly, "Someone was audacious enough to touch the Royal Consort. It's unsettling."

Lucius still remembered the first time Dorian set eyes on the mark. The devastation, regret, and tenderness used to brim those eyes. But now they were all too...indifferent.