The Vampire Prince's Toxic Consort (bxb)

Chapter 38 Nothing Is What It Seems

Dorian didn't expect half of the royal court to suddenly fall into chaos in the few hours while he was busy replying to emails, researching the Aslani Sanctuary, and reading some reports from Central Intelligence Order. And not even five minutes after he set foot out of his study, a servant rushed to him, saying one of his valets, a neophyte, was caught making out with Princess Loretta by none other than Lady Devina. The Lady was infuriated that a lowly Neophyte dared dream of touching her daughter.

Dorian had to rush to Devina's apartment to settle the matter before anyone got killed. And before that was finished, two young viscounts were provoked for trivial rumors and fought like two mad dogs in the courtyard, and since not many neophyte guards dared to intervene in the fight of two apostles, Dorian had to go out to intercede.

Right after that, a clerk lost an important missive. And then, a secretary mistakenly sent a meeting summoning to one of the werewolf ambassadors one day earlier. Dorian had only half an hour to prepare for the misscheduled meeting and then had to spend the rest of the night in the meeting with them.

By dawn, Dorian was so exhausted that he slept in the lounge room adjacent to his study. And right before he fell asleep, he faintly wondered if the servants and personnel in the Citadel were competent enough to fulfill the most basic duties.

And none suspected a slave posing as a regular vampire servant by channeling the ruby ring's magic.

It gave Florian a surge of satisfaction watching the whole court go topsy-turvy because of him. All he did was spread some rumor with some factual basis, let the right people hear the right words at the right time, mess up some documents and change a meeting set up when the secretary left for a cup of tea. He wished Lucius could see how he played all those blood-drinking monsters like fools.

And just as he was about to shake Lucius awake, the latter suddenly jolted and yelped in fright, "Dorian!"

Lucius had a nightmare. However, it was not about Silvan nor what he did and planned to do to him.

He dreamed of Dorian knowing about the blood and all the insidious plans behind it. The realization, the shock and the disbelief pierced Lucius's heart, but none could compare to the hurt following after.

"How could you do this to me?" Dorian asked in wroth, and yet the light shattered in his eyes, and only a void remained.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..." Lucius kept repeating the same apologetic words over and over, but it all sounded hollow and pale.

And the hurt gradually transmuted into desperation and then...hate. Such dark, excruciating hate and disgust that tore Lucius into a thousand pieces.

But it didn't end there. Dorian opened his mouth again, but this time only blood came out. And as he blinked, two streams of blood tears oozed out of his eye socket and stained his sculptural cheeks.

"Are you happy now?" Dorian asked in a distorted voice.

"I did this to him." Thought Lucius, "I hurt him. I killed him."

How could he betray and hurt the man he loves?

And that was when he woke up, screaming his husband's name. He bumped into another pair of arms, and he saw Florian's worried face.

"Shh, it's ok. You are ok." Florian was holding his shoulder and speaking in a soothing tone, trying to calm him down, "it's just a bad dream."

"You are back." Lucius collected himself, rubbing his cold sweat covered face, "how was everything?"

"It all went as planned. The Crown Prince slept in his study after an exhausting day." Florian said sardonically and put the ruby ring into Lucius's palm. He leaned in to take a better look of the wound.