Lucius felt Dorian was slipping away from his grasp like sand. The more he tried to hold him tight, the faster he seeped away between his fingers.
After Dorian left the Marfont Mansion for the Angel Reef Celebration, Lucius wandered around the dark corridors alone like a lost ghost, sulking in self-pity and indignance. The passing servants often surreptitiously threw him some curious or frightened glances as if he was some sort of ticking time bomb. However, Lucius didn't see many human slaves in the house, perhaps because most of them were sent to the quarantine camp.
He entered every unlocked room, hoping to find some evidence that tied Marfont to the Master. He didn't really expect to find anything, as no one would be stupid enough to leave incriminating evidence in an unlocked room. It was more so that he had something to do rather than letting the troubling thoughts consume him.
Lucius eventually gave up and opened the vine-covered balcony door to breathe some fresh air. The sweltering, unsettled feeling still clung to him naggingly, and the heavy, stygian style of the mansion's interior suddenly felt too suffocating.
As he drew in the cool night air, a waft carried a strand of almost inaudible sound into his ear.
Someone was singing, but it was a mournful, weeping singing.
Who was it?
Most vampires in the mansion left for the celebration at this hour. Only a few servants, several guards, and the human slaves remained behind. And the melody sounded similar to a well-known Anthor lullaby.
Lucius left the mansion from a side door and ventured into the misty grove behind the estate, chasing after the singing.
The quivering lyrics echoed in the dappled shadows like banshee wailing were ladened with soul-touching pathos, and it grew stronger as Lucius reached the lake.
In the wispy mist, a shadow was slowly moving toward the center of the lake. And at the exact moment, a beam of moonlight poured down from the interstices of the cloud and revealed the singer.
It was a human woman in tattered clothes, perhaps a slave. And in her arms was a little girl, probably no more than seven years old judging by the size.
She was trying to drown herself and the kid.
Lucius shouted, "Hey! What are you doing!"
Hearing his voice, the woman trembled. Yet she didn't stop or turn back. On the contrary, she moved faster.
Lucius jumped into the water and dashed forward, catching up with the woman. He grabbed her arms tight, overbearing her frantic struggle. She was weak from malnutrition and was no match for Lucius's power, and he soon took hold of the little girl.
The little girl was burning up with some red blisters on her face and neck.
The girl woke up from sleep and began to cry in fright, and the woman stopped fighting, whimpering in fear and desperation.
"Please..." She begged, "Please master...don't hurt her..."
"I'm not the one trying to hurt her!" Lucius exclaimed angrily, "You were trying to drown her!"
"It's better this way! Please leave us be!"
It was complete chaos. The girl was crying. The woman was also bawling. Lucius carried the girl in his arms and waded back to the bank, with the woman following and begging behind him.
Eventually, he managed to make sense of the woman's devastated gibberish. The girl was her daughter, Freya, and she was infected by the virus. The mother, Julie, had been hiding Freya away in the slave pen as she knew that if the vampires found out, they would take Freya away and either throw her into a death pit or they would do experiments on her to try to develop the cure until her body gradually disintegrated by the virus and reduced into a puddle of blood and gore.
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The Vampire King's Toxic Consort (bxb)
FantasyLucius, the less favored twin brother of Prophet Julian, was forced into marrying the Vampire Crown Prince Dorian under his brother's name as part of a truce and subsequently fell in love with his enigmatic husband. After helping Dorian claim the th...