•••
It was another hour or so before Caius and Arlette pulled away from each other long enough to get out of bed and wash up in the bath. There, they couldn’t help but keep at it for another half an hour where Caius helped himself to more of Arlette’s Arousal-charged blood, progressing ever still in filling up his Evolution ter.
It needed to be said that despite how ’slow’ Caius’s advancent had beco while away from the rest of his partners, he was actually progressing at a steadier pace than any Vampire could ever hope for given the circumstances.
With the Arcane Circle bolstering Arlette’s Evolutionary charge, every tiny sip of her blood was contributing more than ten tis the normal amount it would without the Arcane Circle. It just so happens that the gulf between Magic Circles is always large and only gets larger the more one advances.
It’s why soone like Kerwin Leopold after centuries of existing as a Vampire was still at the Tenth Circle. It’s a very impressive level of magical and physical strength but for soone like Kerwin who had his eyes set on the ultimate goal, the Twelfth Circle, he couldn’t help but be frustrated.
Of course, while Caius definitely had it better than other vampires, slow was still slow regardless. He had no real desire to go seeking out other partners because it would take ten of them, at Arlette’s level or beyond, to compare to what he was getting from her.
Unless he began to do it the traditional vampire way, which is to drain kill after kill, securing partners he could advance his Evolution with, required a level of investnt. It wasn’t sothing he could be cavalier about.
Arlette understood this and that was why, even as she reminded him of the danger of being at a low Magic Circle, she didn’t suggest he go rutting about. She just suggested that he drink more from her than he normally would, risking her life if need be.
But as Caius had said to her, that was out of the question.
For one, he felt she was letting her worry get the better of her because even if he did as she suggested, it would still take a long ti to advance. And really, what difference would it make whether he was at the Fourth or the Fifth Circle when the Task Force was made up of Seventh Circle Mages/Mage-Knights at a minimum.
’Ah,’ Caius let out a sigh when his thoughts reached this point,
’The Task Force.’
It had been over two weeks since the battle against Brogan Kraxia and his Vampires. Two weeks since a horde of newborn vampires was let loose on Capital City, creating enough panic to require a Task Force to root out all Vampire existence in the Capital.
The past two weeks had passed quickly and had been very eventful. Caius spent as much ti as he could at the Leopold Coven, strategizing on how to deal with the issue.
The most logical thing was to lie low and to be honest, that wasn’t even difficult. The Leopold Vampires had existed in the Capital, underneath their territory, for centuries. Any vampire existence known of had never had anything to do with them and in fact, they quelled it all as quickly as possible to keep the denizens of the Capital unaware of their existence.
Had it not been for Brogan and the havoc he wreaked all over the Capital leading up to his release of the newborn horde, Vampire activity and knowledge of its existence in the Capital would be at its lowest.
In any case, as they had lived that way for centuries, lying low was easy for the Leopolds and they simply hoped the matter would eventually die down.
Alas, the fact that barely any vampires were attacking since the incident only made the Task Force more antsy, thus remaining convinced of Vampire existence in the Capital for so reason and getting more aggressive with their ’investigations’.
Caius and the Leopold Council agreed that the higher-ups were just in need of results and didn’t actually have any leads. Still, they didn’t feel any calm. After all, a bubbling idiot can always stumble upon truth while likely ruining so much on the way.
But Caius had another pressing concern besides the Task Force, and while he spoke of it to no one native to this world, he had a feeling Arlette’s insistence that his advancent get sped up was related to it.
After all, she was there when he questioned Brogan on how he knew to bring an army and wage a war against him. Arlette felt sure that there was a mastermind behind it and whoever it was, who also knew enough about Caius to give the Brogan confidence to attack, was insidious and dangerous.
Of course, although Brogan hadn’t known how he knew, Caius now did; It was the Editors.
Caius had clarified this with Samantha two weeks ago;
"So, Brogan," he said to Samantha with a contemplative tone,
"How exactly were they involved in that?"
"The Editors can make changes to the story," Samantha answered.
"What?"
"Well, I guess that’s a very simple way of putting it. And not entirely accurate either," Samantha mused with a finger stroking her full lips before she explained further,
"Technically, only I, the Author can change the events of my story. I negotiated my contract well enough to retain that ability. However, Editors are ant to be advisors. They help keep things in line because Authors tend to get carried away at tis.
And to be capable advisors, Editors can ’suggest’ changes to the story."
"Only suggest?" Caius pressed.
"Yes," Samantha nodded, "They can make tiny little notes in the story for to look at and then add if I so wish. That’s all they should be able to do, as per my Contract.
But sotis..."
"Sotis?" Caius said, hinting that she should continue when she suddenly stopped.
"Sotis they cheat," Samantha said with a deprecating sigh,
"They offered a lot of suggestions while I was writing;
- No R-rated content.
- A streamlined storyline.
- The killing of Caius. And other little things here and there.
I guess when I accepted those, I technically didn’t say I was done allowing their ideas into my book.
I assu they’re taking advantage of that loophole.
They slipped in a note suggesting that maybe one of the Vampire Nobles—Brogan Kraxia—just happened to know he had what it takes to take on the new Vampire Count and win.
As a suggestion, it doesn’t even have to make sense to the story as you saw with how Brogan had no idea how he knew. He just did because soone essentially broke the fourth wall to give him that information."
"Is that allowed?" Caius asked.
"I can push against it," Arlette answered, "I can ask them to stop and reverse the changes."
"But?" Caius indicated with a wave of his hand knowing a ’but’ was coming.
Samantha let out an even heavier sigh.
"But to do that would be to admit I’ve been looking into the story recently. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be an issue but considering they already suspect that I’m changing a completed work without permission, confronting them would be as good as admitting what I’ve done."
"What we’ve done," Caius anded with a smile.
Samantha glowed.
"You’re sweet," she said and then frowned with worry, "And are being strangely calm about this. This is your life now. Your old one is gone and if this world is destroyed, you get destroyed with it."
"Thank you for that bolstering pep-talk," Caius said sarcastically.
Samantha laughed.
"Sorry."
Caius shrugged.
"They haven’t destroyed the world yet," he said, "I think that’s enough reason to be calm and a little optimistic."
According to Samantha, an investigation was taking place and at the mont, the editors will be paying closer attention to Caius. She also said she’d be staying away for that reason as his getting caught with her would be disastrous for any chance they have at hiding what they were up to.
And so, even as calm as Caius had been when he talked to Samantha about it, that issue was the most prevalent on his mind. Compared to that and the doom that could occur if things went south, the Task Force was a piece of cake.
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