Chapter 250: Questions and Answers VI
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"That is the same thing in prettier clothes."
Sekhmet almost said yes. Almost... Then he decided not to reward the accuracy.
He said instead. "Do you understand what kind of future complications that creates? If you vanish into my bloodline, if your body changes, if your personality changes, if your hunger changes, then it is not just about us. It reaches your parents. Your house. Their standing. Their trust in me. Their right to know what is happening to their daughter."
Lily looked at him, very still.
"Ah," she said.
The sound was quiet. It was not mocking. It was not angry. It was something else.
Sekhmet knew that tone. It was recognition. He had finally put his finger on the real center of his refusal.
Then she asked about it. Quietly and Directly.
"Do you love me or not?"
He coughed.
This time the question simply hit him so cleanly that his body went still around it.
The room lost all softness.
There was no argument left in the world clever enough to move around that sentence.
Lily watched him with the kind of courage that only looked effortless from the outside. He could see her pulse beating in her throat. It was quick. It was very alive. She was not as calm as she wanted to appear. But she stood there anyway.
Waiting... For him.
Sekhmet let out a long breath and finally gave up on all the lies that had not been spoken.
"Yes. I love you."
The word dropped between them like an oath.
Lily’s lips parted slightly, but she did not look away.
Sekhmet’s voice lowered.
"Yes... That is exactly the problem."
She stared at him.
He slowly stepped toward her now.
Not in a rush. Not with tenderness soft enough to weaken the moment. With intention.
First one step.
Then another.
Until only a breath of space remained between them and Lily had to tilt her face up slightly to keep looking into his eyes.
"If I make you like me," he said, "it is not some passing favor. It is not some accident of hunger. It is not something I do because you are standing here being brave and reckless and impossible."
Lily’s breathing changed.
Sekhmet noticed. Of course he noticed.
"It changes everything," he said. "Your body. Your blood. Your instincts. Your future. The way I touch you. The way you answer me. The way the world answers you." His gaze sharpened. "You do not get to walk that back after."
Lily swallowed once. But still she did not retreat.
"Good," she whispered.
That made something dangerous flicker across his face.
"Good?"
"Yes."
Sekhmet’s voice roughened. "You should not say that so easily."
"I am not saying it easily."
"Then why do you look so calm?"
Lily gave the smallest shake of her head. "Because if I let myself look exactly how this feels, you will refuse me just to protect me from my own heartbeat."
That answer hit much harder than it should have.
He looked at her for a long second and realized she was right. There was fear in her. Heat too. Shock and Hope too. All of it tightly held. She was not calm. She was simply refusing to let her fear speak louder than her will.
Sekhmet stepped back half a pace.
Not because he wanted distance.
Because if he did not create it himself, he might lean down and take what she was offering before he had decided whether he had the right.
That thought alone made him angrier with himself than the argument had.
He turned away from her and began pacing once across the room.
Lily watched him carefully.
Sekhmet’s mind moved too fast now.
One free slot. She offered willingly. What should I do?
True vampire conversion possible at his current level. But if he turned her now, what then?
A city lord’s daughter who no longer aged the same way. Whose blood changed. Aura changed. Hunger changed. Presence changed. Someone would notice. Elena might help hide it, but hidden changes had a way of leaking through domestic life. Servants saw everything. Nobles smelled weakness and difference like wolves smelled blood.
And when Lily returned to her mother’s house like that—
"No. Impossible. Unless it can be hidden."
That thought hit him and made him stop moving.
If she stayed. If I made her like me.
Not a secret lover drifting between two households.
Not a hidden feeding wound.
Not a fragile arrangement.
If she stayed. If she belonged at his side openly, at least within the boundaries of those who mattered.
The shape of the problem changed immediately. Still dangerous. But no longer directionless.
Marriage.
The thought did not enter his mind because it was sentimental. It entered because once he stripped away the decorative words, turning her meant binding her life to his in a way deeper than vows anyway. If he was the kind of man who would change her blood forever, then what excuse did he have to pretend she should remain separate in every other meaningful way?
He stood very still. The system rang inside his mind.
[Ding! SYSTEM Notification.]
Sekhmet’s eyes narrowed slightly.
[Host inventory review update available: Items recovered from dead half-god true vampire Alex and captives half-god true vampire Natasha and Sofia contain one concealment artifact suitable for masking bloodline transition.]
His pulse kicked once. That was enough to drag every racing thought into a cleaner line.
"Show me."
A translucent panel opened in his sight.
[Item: Veil of Crimson Silence.
Grade: Nightmare level 3.
Origin: True Vampire noble concealment artifact
Effect: Suppresses and masks bloodline alteration, chaos energy deviation, hunger signature, and transitional instability.
Use Case: Suitable for newly created true vampires requiring hidden integration into mortal society.
Limitations: Requires attunement. Can be pierced by direct inspection from sufficiently (high level god) superior beings.]
Sekhmet stared at the lines. His mind moved again, but now with a path under it.
The item could hide her.