Cass felt out of his element as Lucian helped him dress again, clean him up, and get him presentable so that they could have a ’talk’ with Edgar and Lord Ridgewood.
He was dazed, his lips tingled, and so did the new, rather strangely developed parts of his body. Lucian, however, was in a great mood. His eyes were bright, still completely reptilian, but he moved around the space like a man on a mission. He had a pep to his step that Cass hadn’t seen him have before.
He was in a good mood.
Cass didn’t want to know the answer for why he was in such a good mood. He had a feeling it might sour his own.
Eventually, Cass was ready to be escorted out of the bathroom, and the bathroom was completely put back. No one would be able to guess what had happened in there, but Cass would never forget.
He would be thinking about that every time he saw the bench tucked against the wall.
Lucian had his arm around Cass’ waist as he opened the door and strutted out, like a proud peacock with his tail feathers spread. Cass felt that his face had to be pink, even if he tried his best to seem normal. He swallowed thickly as he approached the others and it was clear that Edgar was pouting. He was on the couch, like Cass ordered, and Lord Ridgewood looked like he hadn’t moved a damn inch.
How...knightly of him.
Edgar had his arms crossed, and his expression was a cross between being rather upset, and looking like he had no right to be upset. Cass watched as he sniffed, and at first it was a sign of displeasure, and then he sniffed again. Cass watched as he sniffed a third time, and the anger slowly drained from him as he turned to look at Cass, rather confused.
Lucian let out a deep, deep rumble. It wasn’t the sound that he usually made when he was upset though. It was the sound he made when he was pleased.
"Eddie, that’s rude." Lucian reminded him, and Edgar’s mouth opened, closed, opened again and he made a soft squeaking noise. His face warmed as he closed his mouth, covering it with his hand.
"W-What am I smelling?" Edgar asked, glancing towards Lucian who clearly knew what the answer was. Lucian puffed up, his chest out as his grip tightened on Cass and he pulled him closer.
"That is the smell of our dear Cass changing." Lucian said, before a wicked grin touched his lips. "Be prepared to get used to it. I plan to make him smell like that often." Lucian said and Cass, knowing what that scent was because Lucian had been very clear about it, ducked his head. He wanted the ground to fucking swallow him whole. This was so incredibly embarrassing.
"You cannot be fucking serious right now." Cass whispered, more to himself than to anyone in particular. Lucian’s grip pulling him in tighter had him stumbling and flattening a hand against his chest to catch himself. He turned his head up to look at Lucian who had caught him, and he was all smiles.
"I am deadly serious. You need to learn more about yourself, and I am a very good teacher." Lucian told him, his voice dropping until Cass’ breath caught. He knew what that voice was, he remembered it when Lucian was ordering him around in bed. When he was asking Cass what he wanted.
Cass gulped and knew as Lucian’s nostrils flared that he smelt it again. This was horrifying. How were women able to hide this? Add to that, the weird feeling between his legs. Was he going to have to wear a diaper? This was humiliating.
"If you keep bringing this up, I am never talking to you or letting you touch me again." Cass knew his face had to be so bright it was glowing, but he was serious. He could not take much more of this humiliation.
Lucian, all cocky smiles and reptilian eyes, grinned and pressed a kiss against Cass’ forehead, much to his annoyance. Cass glared up at him without much force, but to get the point across.
"Alright, Cassy Baby. I’ll keep acknowledgement to a minimum." He said with a wink as he pulled away. "I wouldn’t want to lose my touching privileges, like someone." He said, giving Edgar a pointed look.
Edgar flinched.
Then, Lucian grabbed Cass and moved him to the couch, but sat down first and placed Cass in his lap. Cass went to protest immediately, but Lucian didn’t seem to care.
"Lucian, I am not-"
"Where else are you going to sit? In Eddie’s lap? You’re mad at him." Lucian pointed out and Cass blinked.
"Is standing not a damn option to you? Or, the spot in between you two." Cass pointed out and Lucian made a soft laugh.
"Yeah, and have you making a mess on the couch so that I could never forget about it? Absolutely not. I’d rather you make my clothes smell." Lucian said and Cass’ face flared.
"We just said-" Cass started and Lucian placed a finger to his lips.
"I’m being honest without trying to tease you. Plus, girls tend to dye things with theirs. Wouldn’t it be better not to do that with your inherited couch? My clothes? They don’t matter." Lucian said and Cass realised, with a startling horror, that he was right.
His sister had clothes that had been damaged just from her existing. He had never asked questions because, well, he didn’t need to know, but now that he was thinking about it...He’d folded her clothes before.
"We need to talk about our next steps." Cass said, ignoring Lucian’s words and going for the main topic. Lord Ridgewood seemed thrilled to be speaking about it.
"Yes, I agree, Cass." He said. "We’ve lost both Ava and Fiona. I read your letter and she mentioned that the gods had something in the works. Do you have any idea of what that could be?" Lord Ridgewood asked and Cass took a steadying breath.
Speaking about something so serious was honestly making him feel...better. Grounded. Even as he sat in another man’s lap, sidesaddle, like a damn princess. Edgar even unfurled himself more, sitting less like a dejected prince moping, and more like a regular man who was going through a hard time.
His shoulders hunched, his head down, but his feet off of the couch and allowing for more space. Cass felt like he was sitting on a pillow, a firm pillow, while knowing full well he was in Lucian’s lap.
’My guess? I have a few." Cass said, glancing around the room. Then, he sighed, shook himself, and felt like he owed them a small explanation, but not a deep one. "Honestly, my anger at her actions also stems from the promise that the gods and I made." Cass admitted, drawing the attention of all three men. "The gods are basically giving Fiona my task, and that is rather infuriating since she doesn’t have the knowledge that I do." Cass said and watched as Lord Ridgewood and Edgar looked surprised.
Lord Ridgewood, a great deal, but Edgar? It was a rather mild reaction from him.
"I had a feeling." He admitted softly. "The gods have a little bit of a hard time doing anything original." Cass almost laughed at that. He was too damn right, and he would know if he’d had a vampire family member before him.
"I just am having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind it. While I know that Fiona is strong, very strong, they are still two women on their own traveling in countries that are very dangerous. There are so many bad people out there." Cass muttered, speaking to the other concern that he had. "Plus, they don’t even know if they’ll be supported outside of the country. We’ve only done a few trips outside." Cass said and Lucian gave him a squeeze.
"She can beat me up, freely." Lucian pointed out and Cass scoffed.
"You go easy on her." He argued and Lucian gave a laugh.
"Not when I first met her, I didn’t. She still put me in my place, and that was before she had her godly upgrade, Cass. While under normal circumstances, I would agree with you, they’ll be safe. She’s also smart, and used to traveling in the woods. I am more worried about Ava, honestly. She’s a damn princess compared to...the actual princess." Lucian gave a chuckle at his own joke. Edgar sighed.
"I agree. She’s been sheltered as a child, from our house and her previous one with her birth family. She might even try to stop by and visit them before they leave." That was when Cass remembered why Sir Forsythe was away from him at the moment and Cass flinched.
"Oh, I rather hope that they don’t." Cass said out loud and Edgar gave him a rather curious look.
"What? Why?" He asked and Cass looked mildly uncomfortable before he sighed and admitted it.
"Because she’s going to find a damn crime scene with no bodies." Cass said. The air froze.
"What?" Lord Ridgewood asked, and Cass, defending himself, raised his hands.
"It wasn’t me. Well, I didn’t kill them, I just had them stage the scene so that whoever wanted to kill them backed off." Cass admitted. Edgar looked ill again.
"Someone was going to attack her family? That’s impossible. Her family is supposed to be protected by the Vespertine family. Protected and cared for. Father said so.: Edgar said and Cass wondered if he honestly believed that, or was just repeating it because he’d had to say it so much to himself during his childhood.
"Edgar, you know what your father is like." It wasn’t said by Cass, but instead by Lord Ridgewood. His voice was soft, kind, and Cass thought that made it worse. Edgar flinched.
"While I do agree with Gideon, it wasn’t him." Cass said, clarifying. "It was my grandfather. They owed him a gambling debt, so he wanted to ’collect’ on it. He did it intentionally. He wanted to hurt Lady Ava." Cass said and he shrugged. "I owed her from an earlier behaviour, and I don’t go back on my debts. So, saved her family. They are currently at the estate." Cass said and watched as Edgar’s eyes watered, as and Lord Ridgewood looked guilty.
"She’s done so much to hurt you." Edgar whispered, emotional. "Thank you, Cass." Cass just shrugged. She had done a lot to hurt him, had even accused him of some pretty weird shit and been insanely jealous of him for no fucking reason.
However, he wasn’t going to abandon his morals just because of that.
"So, her family’s safe, they’re gone on a mission that was supposed to be yours, but that still leaves us here. What are we going to do?" Lucian asked, getting to the heart of the issue. "Without Fiona here, is the country even going to have us go and try to complete dungeons? Can we even do that?" Lucian asked and it was a good question. A question that Cass didn’t really have an answer to.