CHAPTER 152: AN ILLICIT MEETING, PERHAPS?

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-One week later-

-Lochxen-

As Caius knelt on a hard floor ground with his eyes closed and trying his best to relax, he couldn’t help but think of just how different an experience he was undergoing even though his current location was so similar to his location last week at this exact hour of the day.

Almost to the exact minute, last week, he had been holding on to Arlette tight, his cock wrapped up in the tight, delicious warmth of her pussy with his body cradled by the smooth, soft sheets of her bed.

Oh, how great that had been...

"Focus!" A voice said sharply and Caius was swatted on the shoulder.

It stung but he endured. In fact, he smiled.

"I am focused, Professor," he said and opened one eye to peek at the beautiful, glorious, bronze-skinned form of Professor Cynthia Kragsten.

She was dressed in a gown not dissimilar to what she usually wore in class but a bit more casual. However, considering how sexy she looked normally, her going for more casual meant even more of that sexiness.

She had one leg stretched out. She didn’t have her usual high heels on but only had her tip-toes touching the ground so she might as well have still been wearing them.

"No, you’re not," she said with a little sniff and folded her arms to eye Cakud with suspicion,

"You had that look

."

"Look?" Caius asked with his brows furrowed in confusion, "What ’Look’?"

"A sly, shifty, dishonest look. I don’t like it. Stop it," Cynthia said.

"Very well," Caius answered her easily but there was something about the look on her face that reminded him of Delia, her sister.

As he thought of Delia, Caius couldn’t help a smile. Over the past week, she had taken a very interesting approach to addressing the kiss she and Caius shared the week before the last. That approach was to become even more aggressive with him than always and, every time she flushed and he noticed it, she’d strike out with a spell.

Caius was usually the target. Fortunately, she always had a ’tell’ and he knew how to anticipate her spells and cast a defensive spell just in time.

The first few times it happened, Caius hadn’t known what to do about it and then he began to find it amusing. It was especially a bit of an ego boost to know he had affected her so much that she retaliated with violence.

Is that messed up? Probably. But Caius was coming to terms that he wasn’t exactly alright in the head.

Anyway, besides the ego boost, Delia’s impromptu spell cast had helped him hone his reactive instincts. It seemed like a good bit of practice and he was convinced it was helping him to become a better combatant.

"You’re doing it again," Cynthia said then, pulling him out of his reminiscence.

"Hmm?" Caiue said and now realized his lips had indeed formed that characteristic smile.

"Sorry, Professor," he said and cleared his throat.

Cynthia eyed him for a few seconds and then shook her head.

"No, you’re not," she said.

Today was their first day of the Combat Magic Extra Lessons. It should have been last weekend but Caius had had plans and he’d used her as a cover to attend Lochxen and spend the day with someone else.

"I haven’t forgotten about that, you know," Cynthia said then.

"What?" Caius asked.

"Last week.

Your little ploy to use my genuine interest in helping you do better in your Academics to gallivant all over Lochxen, doing gods know what," Cynthia said and tapped her foot against the ground.

"Oh," Caius said.

He would have been a fool to assume this wasn’t going to come up. But, considering how comfortable Cynthia was to call him to her office or even ask him to hang back after class for a quick chat, he expected she’d have made mention of it before now if it at all bothered her. When she did none of that, he assumed she had put it out of her mind.

Clearly, that was not the case.

"’Oh’?" Cynthia repeated and leaned back as though that one small word confirmed a guess she already had.

"Tell me, Caius," she said, "Who were you with, last week?"

Caius said nothing.

Cynthia’s eyes searched his purple eyes and then she furrowed her brows.

"A secret rendezvous with a classmate?"

Caius smiled lightly.

"Professor, questions won’t help with my meditations."

That was the task she had given him; To clear his mind and leave room for nothing more than a drive to perfect his Magic.

Cynthia ignored him.

"I’ve heard you’re close to quite a few students. There’s that talented one, Kaya Aeisling. There’s the Sound Mage, Eloise Nightingale. And apparently, there’s a third; Aylin Khione.

My, you do get around, don’t you?"

"I’m just very friendly, Professor," Caius answered.

"And it’s sapping your focus!" Cynthia said sharply.

"Actually, right now, YOU are," Caius said.

For someone who recently smacked his shoulder to encourage him to ’focus’, she was really making it difficult with all her yammering on.

Also, it was interesting how she didn’t mention Delia. Although, to be fair, that was a development that is easily overlooked. The most obvious thing about it was Delia’s recent outburst of lightning spells but that was actually not all that uncharacteristic. Not with the image Delia usually presented anyway.

Cynthia tapped her finger to her chin.

"Or maybe it wasn’t about a student at all," she mused, "An illicit meeting with a Professor, perhaps?"

She looked at Caius then and the two exchanged a long look before she parted her pretty lips to say slowly.

"Arlette Louvene..."

As she said the name, her stare became even more intense as though she was trying to burrow into Caius’s brain through his eyes to get the information she sought.

But there was something about those eyes. Like she wasn’t seeking confirmation for what sounded like an errant guess and more like she was searching for exactly what sort of relationship Caius shared with the Alchemy Professor.

It was like all her mentioning of the other girls had been an attempt to throw him off her true suspicion. She looked almost knowing. Like she had paid enough attention to be convinced that Caius and Arlette had been together last week but didn’t think it bothered her enough to question. Not by itself anyway.

Caius meeting up with Arlette last week could have been for an extra lesson and even if they wanted to keep that secret, it would raise an eyebrow or two but would still be fine. Sort of.

But... Cynthia doubted that was the reason.

And the fact that she doubted it caused her to have a moment of introspection.

How pure could her intentions to teach Caius be if she could not even consider it of another Professor without imagining something more sneaky happening?

After a minute of silence, Caius raised a brow.

"Are you going to ask me something, Professor?" He asked.

Cynthia let out a breath then and averted her eyes.

"No. It doesn’t matter anyway," she said but there was something about the way she said it that made Caius think it definitely mattered.

In any case, when Cynthia looked back at him, she seemed to have truly put the matter out of her mind as she gestured at him with a hand,

"Alright then. Back to your meditations and I implore you to focus."

Mediations were useless for Vampires. Enlightenment meant nothing so this was, quite literally, just a waste of time for Caius. He ordinarily would not have minded a waste of time since the whole point of his wanting this extra lesson was to get close to Cynthia Kragsten but this had to be the most boring way to do it.

He had no gauge of how long he’d have to do it. He’d simply have to stay still until she was satisfied. It felt like torture.

He hated it so much, he might even liken it to the burn of the Von Helsing Regimen his father was going to put him through again tomorrow.

That hurt his body.

This was breaking his mind.