Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 610: The key...

”Philip,” Athenodora called and after giving Roxanne the evil eye, Philip turned around to face Athenodora who let out a breath and said,

”Come with me.”

Athenodora turned to walk back into the Palace.

Elena eyed Philip and then gestured for the Palace Militants to return to their positions as she hurried along after Athenodora. Philip followed with a frown.

Caius looked over at the Leopolds who didn’t seem at all delighted to see their attacker be invited into the Palace they had been laying their heads for a week now. But like Caius, they wanted answers— they wanted to know why this Emissary had come after them for their connection to Athenodora. They wanted to know what they could have very well died for if it hadn’t been for Roxanne’s ’Circle of Retribution’ trap.

...

The meeting took place in a Lounge. Athenodora sat on a comfortable sofa, her legs stretched across the seat as she lounged and looked perfectly at ease. Elena stood by her head, keeping her eye on Philip.

Philip sat in a comfortable armchair, but he seemed too agitated to truly indulge in the comfort; he sat on the edge of the chair and gave off an impatient air. He only looked away from Athenodora to glance over at Caius and the Leopolds when they walked into the Lounge.

”Why are you here, Philip?” Athenodora asked, calling Philip’s attention back to herself.

”You know why I’m here,” Philip said.

”I’m afraid I don’t,” Athenodora said, ”You will have to tell me.”

Philip furrowed his brows.

”Are you well?” He asked.

Athenodora smiled.

”Why do you ask?”

”The smack you gave me earlier... It lacked your usual sting. You also used your Noble Authority to deliver it. You never had to resort to that for something so trivial before.”

Athenodora didn’t speak for a minute and then, with her tone the same and her smile unchanged, her lips finally parted as she said.

”Yes, I’m not well. I’m dying.”

”Oh,” Philip said and leaned back, the way his eyes moved back and forth looked like he was truly coming to terms with this new information.

”You didn’t know,” Caius said.

Philip turned his head to look at him and sneered.

”Of course, I didn’t know.”

”So you didn’t do it then,” Caius said.

Philip just rolled his eyes and ignored Caius.

”No, Philip didn’t do it,” Athenodora said then, ”I believe I’ve told you I’d never met my attackers before their ambush.”

”Yeah, but you haven’t been entirely truthful so of course, I have doubts,” Caius said with a shrug.

”When was I not truthful?” Athenodora asked with a chuckle.

”When I described the one who attacked us, you said he was too generic for your brain to remember ever having seen. But that was a lie, wasn’t it? You knew it was him,” Caius said with a thumb gesture at Philip.

”Too generic, Dora?” Philip asked with a raised brow.

”Well, I didn’t lie,” Athenodora said to him and then looked at Caius, ”I didn’t lie. I truly didn’t know it was him. I’ve met hundreds that fit the description you gave. Without a name or actually seeing his face for myself, I couldn’t have identified him.”

”I offered to give a more detailed description and you shut it down,” Caius pointed out.

”Because I didn’t care to know who it was. Caius, I have too many enemies to be bothered that one of them happened to find you. You got here to me and that was enough.

Here, you and I were safe from whoever the attacker was,” Athenodora said.

”Except we weren’t,” Caius said with a glance over at Philip.

”Philip is most often... a friend,” Athenodora said with a sigh, ”Over the centuries, I must have handed him various bypasses through my Formations. He’s a fairly accomplished Formation Master himself so, given enough time, he was bound to devise a key through the dome.”

”But he’s not here as a friend today,” Caius said.

”Apparently, not,” Athenodora said as her eyes returned to Philip.

”I am sitting here, discussing with you rationally and you doubt my intentions?” Philip asked.

”You attacked us,” Caius said with a gesture at himself and the Leopolds.

”Yes, because I needed to find Dora, and you calling out her name was the best clue I had gotten in weeks,” Philip said but he kept his eyes on Athenodora as he smirked and added,

”You’ve always been very slippery.”

”Not slippery enough if you found me here,” Athenodora said.

”Yeah, but you’re not making a point of being hidden while in this country, are you? Every citizen of this nation knows of the all-powerful patron who watches over them and keeps all evil from their borders. They speak of you like their goddess. And of course, they know where you reside so they can direct their worship to it,” Philip said.

”You sound disapproving,” Athenodora noted.

”Why would I? You have something good here. Something you’ve built over centuries and I somehow never knew. You’re a woman of secrets, you’ve always been,” Philip said and he definitely sounded annoyed but then his voice gained a hard edge as he said,

”Dora, tell me where it is.”

”I told you I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Athenodora said calmly.

”Please, don’t lie to me. Your love for secrets will do you no good here. He wants it by any means necessary—”

”Who wants it? Whatever it is,” Caius asked.

”My Lord,” Philip said, annoyed, ”Now do stay out of matters that are not of your concern.”

”You nearly killed me for this ’thing’ and under the directives of this Lord so I think that makes it my concern,” Caius retorted.

Philip looked over at Caius and exuded a threatening aura that made the Leopolds shift into combat stances. Paying them no mind as he felt his threatening presence had gotten his point across, Philip returned his attention to Athenodora.

”I’m not returning to him with nothing. My directives leave me no room to disobey. So Dora, tell me where it is or—”

”Or what?” Athenodora asked with a scoff, ”I’m already dying. You can’t threaten me with speeding up the inevitable. Or is it torture you have planned?”

”Dora—”

”Try it. I dare you,” Athenodora said, ”I intervened earlier not to save my Militants but to save you. I was perfectly fine staying away and letting them handle the threat but I sensed something familiar so I intervened.

Even now, they are ready to continue.”

Elena shifted having never stopped glaring at Philip. The Leopolds tensed even more like they were readying themselves to pounce.

Philip frowned and his eyes darted from Elena to each of the Leopolds before landing briefly on Caius and then rolling to Athenodora who remained perfectly at ease.

”Dora, you know he won’t rest until the Blood is his—”

”The Blood?” Caius blurted out, ”You mean the Blood of Strigoi?”

It couldn’t be the Blood of Strigoi. Surely not. They shouldn’t be discussing that now. Not at this point in the story. And to be discussing it when he was just now feeling conflicted about letting Athenodora have it or keeping it to himself. What manner of coincidence was that?

Philip ignored Caius but Athenodora seemed unable to take her eyes off him. Even when Philip engaged her in conversation again, Athenodora continued to study Caius who seemed to sense her eyes on him because he rearranged his expression as best as he could.

”The Blood of the first vampire, the progenitor of our race,” Philip started to say in an awed voice.

”Simply a legend. You know that,” Athenodora said casually with her eyes still on Caius.

Philip continued.

”The key to ultimate vampiric evolution. It’s said that whoever claims it becomes invincible,” He said.

”Bunch of nonsense, Philip. Descendants of the first vampire existed and they bore the ’blood of strigoi’. But they died still. Because no one is ever truly invincible. No one except the gods,” Athenodora said.

Philip pressed on.

”For thousands and thousands of years, the blood has been sought after. History tomes have been scoured. The legend has been interpreted in every which way and yet, no one has yet learned where it is,” he said.

”Yeah, because it doesn’t exist,” Athenodora said.

”Oh, but it does,” Philip said with a grin and a wild and reverent look in his eyes.

’It sure does,’ Caius thought, ’But why are you so certain?’

The Blood of Strigoi was a very sudden addition to the original canon. Until then, its legend didn’t even exist and then suddenly, on the whim of the author Sam_Ellis, it was all any notable character could talk about. It became something vampire covens killed each other en masse for and something the ’good guys’ had to ensure no one got their hands on.

At this point in the story, when the events that led to the blood being important had not taken place, it shouldn’t be discussed. And no one should be so certain another person could at all know where it was.