The Vampire Prince's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 2 Choice

Lucius woke up to a knocking sound on the door. He rubbed his eyes, feeling disoriented and nauseating from all the wine he had consumed the night before.

"Lu, open the door!"Came a contralto female voice.

Lucius knew the voice. It was his big sister, Amelda. She moved out of the manor after married Marquess Sheridon, and Lucius hadn't seen her for almost a year.

Amelda was ten years older than him and Julian, and sometimes she was like a mother more than a sister to the twins. Growing up, she was the only one in the household that Lucius was willing to confide in because she cared about him. His parents probably called her here to talk some sense into him since the day for him to depart was getting closer, and they couldn't risk Lucius blowing their truce with Eternia.

Lucius didn't answer. Did she come to persuade him into "performing his duty and sacrifice for the country" as well? The thought gave him a bitter taste of betrayal in his mouth.

"Lu, I swear if you don't open the door I will kick it down!"

Lucius groaned in annoyance and dragged himself out of bed and opened the door. Amelda was two steps away from the door about to give a roundhouse kick, and she gasped as she saw the state Lucius was in.

"My goodness! You look like shit!"

Lucius rolled his eyes, "good, then Ashdown can just dissolute the engagement and send me back."

Amelda's expression softened, and Lucius saw pity in her eyes. She passed him and entered the room. Lucius glanced venomously at the two guards standing outside, sent here to prevent him from escaping, and shut the door forcefully.

Amelda was in her mid-30s and yet still looking in her early twenties. She had the same strawberry blond hair color as their mother, porcelain skin and blue eyes, and a covetous body accentuated with a tight red blouse and black leather pants. She settled on the couch, lighted her cigarette, and drew deeply, exhaling a long white mist, "I didn't know about this until last week."

"So? Don't act as if you were going to be against it. It's too good a deal."Lucius poured himself a cup of water and gulped it down, feeling slightly less miserable.

Amelda gaped at him, "it pains me that you think I would choose to sacrifice you over the so-called peace. This is not peace. This is surrender. And now we will have to pay tribute to those sadistic monsters, sending defenseless people to them as pets or blood bags and watching them enslave humanity."

Lucius scoffed bitterly, "it's all settled. Did you know our mother came to see me the other day, begging me to do my part perform my aristocratic duty and pretend to be Julian and be a pliant sweetheart so Ashdown would be pleased? She said it in a very compassionate way, as if she felt sorry for me, but still, she chose to send me so her precious Julian won't be defiled. And father...he got angrier as time passed, and one day he just yelled at me that I should be happy about the arrangement since I like cocks more than vaginas anyway, that I can finally go somewhere I belong to."

Amelda was quiet for a long moment, and then she said, "it's not your fault, Lucius."

And that broke the young man's barely keeping veneer. Lucius buried his face into his hands, "I kept wondering if I'm more like my brother, would they still agree to this?"

"But you are not. And you shouldn't be. "

"But you still agreed to come and talk me into it."

"No. I agreed to come because I want to ensure you are not doing stupid stuff, like shutting yourself in and not eating, which is exactly what is happening."