Chapter 258: The First Taste of Truth II
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"The danger for a new vampire is confusion. Hunger does not arrive with clean labels. It can feel like a need. Want, Desire and Attachment. Even comfort. If you do not understand the difference, you become easier to control and easier to lose."
Lily’s throat moved once.
"And for me?" she asked quietly.
Sekhmet’s answer came without hesitation.
"For you, I will not let the first feeding become ugly."
The line entered her like warmth and fire at the same time.
Sekhmet’s expression remained steady, but his voice lowered.
"I will teach you properly. You will know what hunger is and what is not. You will know when you are being ruled and when you are choosing. You will not stumble into blood and call the confusion fate."
Lily held his gaze.
For one moment the whole Void Land seemed to narrow around that promise.
Then she asked the next question because of course she did.
"When I turn..."
Her voice almost caught, but she held it steady.
"Will you be the one I feed from first?"
That changed the air instantly.
Vera looked away for one second, a movement so small only Sekhmet and Lily noticed.
Vela did not move at all, which was somehow worse.
Sekhmet felt the tension in the question immediately.
Because this was no longer a theory.
No longer a lesson in ugly reality.
This was Lily placing herself directly into the shape of what came next.
And asking him whether the first blood in her changed life would be his.
"Yes," he said.
Lily’s pulse jumped.
Sekhmet did not let the answer sit unspoken.
"The first blood you take after the turning should be mine," he said. "It will stabilize the transformation. Strengthen the bond. Make the shift cleaner."
He looked at her more intensely.
"It is not optional."
That only made something hotter move through her eyes.
She asked the dangerous next thing anyway.
"And after that?"
"You will still need practice."
The answer cooled her by a degree.
Sekhmet saw it.
He continued before she could react poorly.
"Not because I intend to send you into the dark and let you lose your mind over strangers. Because control must be learned under different conditions. Hunger changes in the presence of your own bonded blood. If you only ever feed from me, then you will understand desire, stabilization, and bond reinforcement. You will not fully understand restraint with ordinary living targets."
Lily absorbed that.
Her voice, when it came, was quieter. "So I would have to feed on others too."
"Yes."
The words were simple. The feeling behind them was not. Something tightened in Lily’s face.
Not fear. Not revulsion. Something much more embarrassing. It was jealousy.
She tried to hide it. But she failed.
Sekhmet noticed at once. He said nothing. That made it worse.
Lily looked at Vera and Vela instead. "And you?"
Vera’s brow lifted slightly. "And us what?"
"Was he the first blood you took?"
The silence after that was extremely unhelpful.
Vera glanced once at Sekhmet.
Vela looked at Lily with the expression of someone deciding whether honesty would create fire and whether the fire might be amusing.
Sekhmet said dryly, "You do not have to answer that."
Lily turned on him at once. "That means yes."
Vela’s mouth twitched.
Vera, to her credit, answered plainly. "Yes."
Lily’s face changed.
Not enough to embarrass her publicly.
But it was enough.
Sekhmet watched the whole thing with dangerous calm.
Vela added with complete wickedness, "Stabilization matters."
Lily looked like she wanted to glare at all three of them at once and had not yet decided where to begin.
Sekhmet stepped in before the lesson turned into an emotional ambush.
"That is enough."
Vela’s expression became perfectly innocent in a way that proved she was not innocent at all.
Lily folded her arms and looked away for one second as if regrouping inside her own pride.
Sekhmet watched her with increasing interest.
She was jealous.
Openly enough that even in the dark stillness of the Void Land, he could taste the shape of it in the moment.
That should not have pleased him as much as it did.
He kept his face impassive.
Mostly...
Lily looked back at him.
"And you are very calm about this."
"I am teaching."
"You are enjoying it."
"No."
She narrowed her eyes.
Vera and Vela both wisely turned their attention elsewhere.
Lily huffed softly. "You are impossible."
Sekhmet tilted his head. "Because I answered honestly?"
"Because everyone here answered honestly."
"That is the rule you demanded."
She could not even disagree. That annoyed her further. She looked beautiful when annoyed.
Sekhmet dragged his mind back toward usefulness.
"You asked for the ugly truth," he said. "This is part of it. Blood and attachment do not stay separate just because people wish them to. That is why I am showing you all of this now instead of after."
Lily exhaled and nodded slowly. "All right."
Sekhmet watched her for a moment longer, making sure she truly meant it.
Then he said, "There is another difference you need to see."
He looked at Vera and Vela.
"Show her the difference between feeding for hunger and feeding through bond."
Neither twin looked surprised that he wanted this demonstrated.
That, perhaps, should have worried Lily more than it did.
Vera stepped closer first. "With an ordinary source, you watch the body. The pulse. The weakness. The collapse line. You measure." Her tone was clinical, cool. "You do not sink into the person. You treat the blood as a resource, not an invitation."
Vela added, "But with bonded blood..." She glanced at Sekhmet once, and the atmosphere changed instantly. "The body reacts differently."
Lily saw it. The shift was subtle but undeniable. Not hunger sharpening into violence. Something more intimate. More dangerous because it was desired.
Vera continued, "The first lesson of bond feeding is that your mind will try to call everything hunger. It is lying."
Vela gave Lily a slight look. "The second lesson is that if you are already emotionally compromised, the body becomes worse."
Lily stared at her. "Emotionally compromised?"
Vela’s mouth moved faintly. "In love. Attached. Or Possessive. Pick the word you like."
That sent heat straight into Lily’s face.
Sekhmet had to actively not react to that.