CHAPTER 117: TERRIBLE SINGING VOICE BE DAMNED!

At some point, Eloise could go no more. She rested her head against Caius’s chest, one hand around his waist and the other above his head. Caius had one hand on her back, stroking as they both just lay in silence.

"You know I didn’t want to come here," Eloise said suddenly.

"Hmm?" Caius asked.

Eloise laughed once—a cute sound.

"Not here, in this closet, by the way," she clarified, "I mean, here. As in Lochxen."

"I got that," Caius said laughing a little too before he asked, "Why not?"

"My family is obsessed with Combat strength. It’s always about learning all that Sound Magic can do. If you hear them talk about it, it’s the greatest thing to have ever been invented and has yet to reach its true potential," Eloise said, ending her words with a scoff.

"You don’t agree?" Caius asked.

"Yes and no," Eloise answered with a sigh, "I agree Sound Magic has a lot of potential... To touch people’s hearts.

When Seline Nightingale invented Sound Magic, it was about music for her. It was about the joys of rhythms. Not about how to manipulate frequencies to kill people the most silently.

My family doesn’t get that."

"So instead of being at Lochxen, you’d rather..." Caius started and trailed off.

"Sing," Eloise completed with a sigh before she continued,

"I have this dream of going all over Lochxen, filling up the largest Arenas not to showcase my Combat Magic but to dazzle everyone with my songs.

Like Seline Nightingale did. Like many others currently do."

Eloise paused and laughed a little now before she continued with yet another sigh,

"I sometimes think how great it would be to one day be known as one of the Empire’s greatest musical artists in centuries.

But, whenever I bring it up, I always seem to sound like a fool. Or at least like I don’t have my priorities straight."

"Not to me," Caius told her gently, "I think you make perfect sense. Hell, I’ll join you. Throw in some back vocals. My terrible singing voice be damned!"

Eloise giggled. In his tone of jest, she could hear a fairly serious desire to commit to her support.

"Thanks."

A few seconds of silence passed again before Eloise broke it.

"For the record, I don’t hate the idea of being at Lochxen anymore. I haven’t hated it since Orientation when I told you they were calling your name. Or since I met Kaya..."

She snuggled up even closer to Caius now like she was trying to burrow into him.

"And certainly not now when we’ve become so... close."

"I’m glad to hear that," Caius said.

Eloise raised her head then and they joined their lips in a gentle kiss. Not to start something back up and not really to put a final full stop to it either. It was more like placing a comma in it. Signaling that it was still to be continued.

•••

They somehow made it to class on time.

Everyone else was already seated. On the walk through the corridor on the way to the classroom, Caius and Eloise had held hands and now, the golden-brown haired beauty reluctantly let it go so she could take the empty seat Delia had reserved for her by her side.

Delia had a curious brow raised and Eloise blushed seeing it. Caius wondered if she would break and chat about what just happened or if she’d wait to talk about it with Kaya after school instead.

Speaking of Kaya, she had a seat open for him to take as they waited for Professor Melvin to arrive and start his lecture.

Kaya had a look in her green eyes. It was a knowing, shrewd but also curious look.

As he sat down Caius saw her mouth open and wondered if she was about to ask for confirmation on what he and Eloise had just done. Her question was similar to what he expected but also different.

"So did you tell her?" Kaya asked. The question was vague enough that she could ask it out loud without them being bothered about getting overheard.

Caius understood the question quickly enough.

"No," he answered.

"Why not?" Kaya asked.

"I don’t know," Caius answered with a shrug.

Why hadn’t he shown Eloise he was a Vampire? He wasn’t sure. It had certainly crossed his mind sometime during their pleasure throes. Her blood had certainly been charged with arousal but he had put that off his mind.

Kaya studied his eyes.

"Did you think she wouldn’t be able to handle it?" She asked.

Caius looked back at her.

"Maybe. I think she could do with a little more time getting eased into it," he said with a nod and then smiled as he asked,

"Why? Is it starting to get difficult being the only one who knows?"

Kaya shrugged.

"Eh, it’s fine. I’ve kept my mouth shut about it so far, haven’t I?"

"And I’m proud of you for that," Caius told her and he sounded like he really meant it. Kaya’s cheeks flushed at the praise.

"What made you tell me?" She asked him.

Caius paused and then raised a brow.

"I couldn’t help it. Remember?" He pointed out.

Kaya scoffed.

"Please. You don’t have to lie. You could help it just fine."

"What—?" Caius started to say, looking taken aback but Kaya interrupted quickly and continued,

"You held back with Eloise, didn’t you? You’ve spent as much time with her as you spent with me that day and you managed just fine."

Caius paused and then smiled but didn’t say anything.

Kaya took that as confirmation that she was right.

"So what made me different?" She asked, leaning in very close now.

Caius’s eyes held her in place and made it difficult and near-impossible to look away but considering how much she wanted to keep eye contact, she didn’t mind it.

Just then, an adult male voice came from the front of the classroom.

"Settle down, Students. Let us begin."

Professor Melvin was in class.

Theory of Magic started but Caius and Eloise’s eyes remained locked until Caius leaned in about an inch closer which was a significant distance because their faces were almost touching already.

"I think, I just couldn’t go on keeping it from you," he said in a musing tone, "You felt... special."

Kaya’s eyes went wide. Her ears twitched like they were searching for falsehood in his words and when she found none, she blushed hard and likely would have closed the inch distance between them for a kiss the suspicious Professor at the front of the class was surely not going to ignore.

Fortunately, Caius looked away then and freed her from his imprisoning stare.

He hadn’t exactly lied. He did think Kaya was special even if that was not really why he had revealed himself to her back then.

The actual reason was that, when he had been with Kaya last week, he had truly wanted her on board with his Vampirism so he’d have one more person to feed on because he was all too eager to leave the moniker and status of ’Vampire Spawn’ behind.

Now, even though being a True Vampire he still needed to feed massively, he was a bit calmer about it. A bit less urgent and just overall more open to easing his partners into his secret. He had done this with Professor Lea Gilligan thus far. And now, he was doing it with Eloise.

His half-truth sounded better though.

Kaya was on a high throughout Theory of Magic. She answered Professor Melvin’s questions as quickly as they were asked and was constantly drawing the attention of the ill-mooded Professor over to where she and Caius were seated.

Professor Melvin would smile at Kaya for answering his question correctly and frown at Caius in an instant change of expression. If any of the Academy Professors were distressed about Caius getting attacked on his way home from school, this one Professor was not one of them.

And the thought that a lateness to class one time and complete absence another time (on the day he became a True Vampire) caused this brought a dry smile to Caius’ lips.

When class ended, Delia stuck around. She didn’t get the memo that Eloise and Kaya wanted a moment alone with Caius so eventually, the ladies left the class with her.

Caius followed behind and just as their paths separated, Delia called back to him.

"Tomorrow Caius," she said, "By the gods, I hope you don’t stay home again."

"I’ll certainly try my best," Caius said as he walked down the corridor, heading to Arlette’s office for his usual feeding and words of knowledge... among other things.