Chapter 259: The First Taste of Truth III
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Vera spoke again, mercifully calmer. "Bond blood feels warmer. Richer. More stabilizing. More satisfying. It can create calm after panic and hunger after calm. It can make you think the blood itself is the reason you feel close to someone, or make you think closeness is only blood. Both mistakes are dangerous."
Lily listened with full attention now, her embarrassment forced aside by the seriousness underneath it.
Sekhmet took over the explanation.
"That is why your first feeding after turning will be from me," he said. "But not your only education. If you only ever learn bond feeding first and nothing else, your instincts will become too attached to one shape of relief. That makes future control worse."
Lily nodded.
Then asked, "Will it hurt?"
He looked at her.
"The first time?"
"Yes."
Sekhmet considered the question honestly.
"Yes," he said. "And no."
Lily looked deeply unimpressed by that answer.
He continued, "Transformation itself will hurt more. Hunger will hurt more. The first blood may burn, may soothe, may overwhelm, may feel like all three in the wrong order. It depends on how your body accepts the shift."
Lily was silent for a few seconds after that.
Then she asked, very quietly, "Will you stay with me through all of it?"
That question reached him more directly than any of the others.
His answer came without even the smallest pause.
"Yes."
Something in her face eased.
Good. It should. Because that had never been negotiable.
The lesson might have continued longer if the emotional pressure in the moment had not already climbed high enough to risk turning education into something else entirely.
Sekhmet decided that was enough for one day.
He looked at the twins. "We are done here."
Vera and Vela inclined their heads at once.
The captives were already shrinking deeper into themselves now that the feeding demonstration had ended. Dickon glared. The others avoided Sekhmet’s gaze wherever they could.
Lily stood very still for one extra moment before turning away from the holding ground with him.
As they walked back through the silence of the Void Land, she was quieter than before. Not broken. She was thinking.
Sekhmet did not press.
A few paces later, however, he said, "Well?"
Lily glanced up at him. "Well what?"
"You have seen it. You have heard the ugly parts. You know more than you did before." His eyes held hers. "Do you still want this?"
Her answer came at once.
"Yes."
No hesitation.
No performance.
Just yes.
Sekhmet felt something deep in him settle.
Then Lily added, because she was still herself, "I am still angry about the twins."
Vera looked away again.
Vela almost smiled.
Sekhmet let out a slow breath through his nose. "Of course you are."
Lily did not deny it. "I did not say it changed my mind. I said I am angry."
"That sounds manageable."
"It will become less manageable if you keep sounding amused."
He looked at her and, for perhaps the first time since this part of the lesson began, let the faintest real smile appear.
That only made her more offended. He liked her best when she was brave, honest, and slightly furious with him.
By the time they returned to the entrance point of the Void Land, Lily’s composure had fully returned. Not because what she had seen had become easier. Because she had integrated it. She placed it somewhere inside her mind and heart. Chosen to remain standing with it instead of hiding from it.
Sekhmet noticed that.
And admired it.
They stepped back into the ordinary house.
Light changed. The sound returned. The world became smaller again.
Elena and Lady Seraphiel were waiting.
Of course they were.
Elena looked first to Lily’s face, then to Sekhmet’s, and she understood immediately that Lily had not retreated.
Seraphiel understood too, and her smile deepened with dangerous amusement.
"Well," she said. "No tears. No screaming. No dramatic declaration that everyone here needs therapy. A very successful outing."
Lily gave her a look. "I considered the screaming."
"Healthy," Seraphiel said.
Elena ignored Seraphiel completely and focused on Sekhmet. "And?"
He answered simply. "She understands more now."
Elena’s gaze shifted to Lily.
Lily held it without wavering. "I am still here."
Elena was quiet for a long second.
Then she nodded once. That was enough from her.
Seraphiel, however, was not finished. "So when is this quiet little catastrophe happening?"
Lily actually looked a bit pleased to be asked that.
Sekhmet did not hide his answer behind vague language.
"Soon."
Seraphiel arched one brow. "That sounds very decided."
"It is."
Elena folded her arms. "Then do not drag it out so long that all of you become more foolish from anticipation."
Lily blinked. "That is your supportive advice?"
"It is practical advice."
Seraphiel laughed softly. "You see? This is why I missed her."
Elena did not honor that with a response.
Sekhmet looked at Lily once more. She had seen blood taken from screaming throats. She had learned that feeding was not romance made elegant. She had learned that the ugliness was real, the bond was real, the jealousy in her was real, and the future she had chosen would ask things of her no ordinary future would ask.
And she was still here.
"Good."
Later, when the house grew quieter again and he finally had a brief moment alone, Sekhmet stood by the window of his chamber and looked out over the fading light.
The next steps arranged themselves in his mind one by one.
The vow. The witnesses. The concealment artifact. The attunement. The hidden turning.
The lie they would have to live until the right truth could be spoken.
Lily as his wife.
Lily as a vampire.
Lily standing inside his bloodline and inside his danger both.
It should have felt impossible.
Instead it felt inevitable.
He rested one hand against the window frame and let the thought settle fully.
Once Lily stepped onto this path, when Sekhmet became strong enough, he would not let anyone take her from it.
Not fear. Not her family. Not old noble rules. Not the city lord’s house. Not even the gods, if they reached too far.