Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 480: Private Function

Caius was so wrapped up in his realization and in staring at his cousin after it that he lost track of the meeting. He only got pulled back into it when a topic of interest piqued his attention somewhat;

"... And of course, there’s a matter of the Task Force," Lucian said with a serious expression.

Alexia immediately let out a scoff.

"You don’t like it?" Lucian asked her.

"They’re amateurs," Alexia answered with a bit of an exasperated tone of voice.

"Oh, I’m sure they all have experiences doing battle," Divon, Leader of the Mid-tier Hellsingers voiced quietly but clearly.

"Maybe but to do battle with a Vampire is predicated on actually finding it. That’s not something their skills will allow for. I expect them to bumble about for a while before finding success. If ever," Alexia said, pushing away from the desk to fold her arms with her frown.

"You are referring to the Von Helsing Monster tracking arts," Ceron, the severe woman who was the leader of the Highest-tier Hellsingers said with a nod of understanding.

She had been privy to her Lord’s tracking skills and as a master of the Von Helsing Regimen, she was a capable tracker herself.

"But, it’s not fallible, is it?" Divon insisted, "I mean no offense Lady Alexia but you crossed paths with those ’Gold-black’ Vampires, did you not? How goes your tracking of them?"

Alexia’s eyes flashed as Divon hit a sour spot. In a flash of rage, her Magical energy exploded from her in a powerful torrent that took Divon so much by surprise that he flinched but then, he smirked.

"Alexia, calm yourself," Lucian said in a level tone, "Divon might be pushing his boundaries but he isn’t wrong. The Von Helsing Arts are incredible but they are not infallible. Normal humans can excel at Monster hunting.

You might be forgetting that once upon a time, we Von Helsings didn’t have the Arts and were once simply... human."

Alexia didn’t look convinced. Or maybe what Divon said was still picking at her. She had spent the better part of the first few days after the battle against Brogan trying to get a lock on the signature of any of the Gold-black vampires. She focused especially on their leader who she had more direct contact when she slammed his back against the wall and almost sliced his throat with her sword. But she hadn’t had much luck.

It was as though their energy signature, their very scents had simply vanished.

This was, of course, by design. The Gold-black cloaks and masks were not a last-minute resource the Leopolds had to gather. They were long-standing uniforms— enchanted items meant to erase or at least scramble scents and make one harder to track.

The Leopolds—actual Leopold family members turned vampires—had had very little contact with Vampire hunters for over centuries since the Coven was established. This was partly due to them hardly ever leaving their underground base but also because they had long made preparations for times when they had no choice but to exit.

Anyway, there is much that isn’t known about how the Von Helsings, and their Von Helsing Arts, operate, but erasing scents and energy signatures seemed the best bet for the Leopold Coven. Not just to be safe against vampire hunters but really any enemy—vampire or others—with great sensory abilities to attempt to track them down.

Now, of course, the cloaks and the masks were not infallible tools for protection. Really, if Alexia had spent an extended amount of time with any of the Leopold Vampires and maybe drawn their blood in a fight, no amount of shielding by the cloaks would have erased their scents so easily.

Caius was a bit of an interesting one because if Alexia had caught on, she would have simply known it was him. Yes, his shifted vampiric state was a slight variation from his human state but not enough to be an entirely different identity. Scent or energy signature-wise.

In any case, Alexia’s inability to track the enemies down had really bothered her and left her in a foul mood. All of which Caius was really only learning about today.

Lucian continued.

"The human spirit is nothing if not resourceful and adaptable. I believe the Task Force could succeed. Especially if they had some help..."

Lucian trailed off here and he was so suggestive that Alexia caught on to his meaning instantly.

"Nuh, uh," she said, "Uncle, you cannot seriously be suggesting I help them."

"And why not?" Lucian asked lightly.

"I—" Alexia started and stopped short like she didn’t want to say her reason out loud.

"You consider it a personal vendetta, don’t you?" Lucian said, accurately deducing what was going on in his nephew’s mind.

Alexia just hung her head.

Letting the Gold-black Vampires get away was her blunder. She felt she hadn’t been thinking clearly at the time. She hadn’t been strategic enough. Just imagine what she could have learned if she and Arlette had just waited in that Formation Dome quietly.

And to be used as some bargaining chip... weak and helpless to even do anything as her men were made to surrender. It was all just too much bile for her to swallow.

"I have been informed of how hard you’ve been working. Relentless tracking, investigations all over Capital City. I commend your diligence but I advise you not to be blinded by a desire to settle a score.

You need to keep your mind calm. You need to keep your heart steady. Only then can you hope to see the way forward," Lucian said.

Caius found that ironic because when it was about Athenodora, Lucian could never be bothered to take his own advice. Even now, he was still working to track her down and should he ever find her, Caius knew, from the canon text, that Lucian would be anything but calm in battling her.

Alexia had no idea of Lucian’s possible hypocrisy though. She took calming breaths and her fists relaxed until she just grabbed her shoulders lightly now instead.

"Thank you, Uncle," Alexia said and managed a little smile. Words of wisdom like those were why she had left home to come here in the first place.

Lucian gave her an acknowledging nod,

"And on the matter of the Task Force, I am not ordering you to help them. I think it would be better if you had assistance in tracking down your targets but that is your choice.

However, I have received an invitation from Leonce Duval, head of the Task Force for an Event. I will not be able to attend so I’d like you and Caius to attend in my stead as representatives of my house."

"Me?" Caius blurted out like he was truly taken by surprise. The conversation so far had just focused almost entirely on Arlette that Caius had not expected it to swivel his way.

"Of course you," Lucian answered like he found Caius’s surprise insulting,

"You are my son and heir. Who else should be expected to attend?"

"I mean, I suppose..." Caius said, sounding like he was still unsure.

Lucian frowned.

"You ’suppose’?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"Uncle, I’m not sure about this," Alexia said.

Lucian reluctantly turned his eyes away from Caius’s unsure expression to look at his nephew reassuringly.

"From the details on the Invitation, Leonce Duval wishes to bring the Noble houses of the Capital up to speed on matters of the Task Force.

Most likely it’s a pitch for support to keep it going. I want you to attend because you can learn a lot from it. Even the wrong way to do things can provide valuable insights."

Alexia sighed like she couldn’t think of a reason to say no anymore.

"Alright, Uncle."

"Good," Lucian said with a twinkle in his eyes behind his glasses,

"And if it helps, you can think of it as you being Caius’s Chaperone. It’s his first Private Function. Or any type of Function for that matter. He is still but a boy."

"Hey—" Caius voiced then.

Alexia managed a more natural smile now as she interrupted Caius’s protest.

"You know what, Uncle," she said in a teasing tone,

"That does help."