Chapter 287: Hunger and Half-Gods III
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Natasha hissed through her teeth, her body jolting against him. Her blood was different from Sofia’s. It was colder in sensation. More sharper. Less velvet, more like steel. It carried an old killing instinct and a kind of blood discipline he could almost taste. Not stronger than Sofia’s. But different.
And just as useful.
He drank deeply enough to make the fear in her become real.
Because yes, that was there now.
Not only hatred.
But Fear.
She knew he had already drunk too much from them. It will make them weaker for a long time. She knew what repeated blood taking could do. If Sekhmet continued feeding on them. She knew that if he ever fully decided that Sofia and Natasha were more useful as blood stores than prisoners, then sealed half-gods could still die by inches.
The system rang again.
[Ding! SYSTEM Notification: Blood Proficiency increased by 50%.]
Sekhmet pulled back before the line tipped too far.
Natasha stumbled half a pace and then caught herself with sheer spite. She pressed one hand over the bite at her neck and stared at him as though deciding whether she hated him more for feeding or for not feeding far enough to end the uncertainty.
Behind him, he could hear the distant sounds of Vera and Vela feeding on the captives in turn. It was controlled. It was quick. It was efficient.
"Good. They got proper control." He thought.
The hunger in him had eased substantially now. More than substantially. The world had stopped sharpening at the edges. The thick pressure in his pulse had settled into something cleaner.
And then the system spoke once more.
[Ding! SYSTEM Notification: Blood Proficiency has reached 100%.
The host may upgrade one skill.]
Sekhmet went still for a second.
One upgrade available. Useful. Especially when he got a genius from the middle after him.
He let the notification remain in the back of his mind without touching it. Too much was happening. Lily still floated in blood. The twins needed to return. The prisoners remained dangerous. Skill choices made during emotional strain often turned cleverness into regret.
He needed some thinking before upgrading one of his skills. He can wait a bit longer.
Sofia, still one hand at her neck, watched his face change slightly and said, "Did you gain something? You look like you gained something."
Sekhmet looked at her.
"Both of you are enough to calm my hunger," he said.
Natasha laughed softly, though there was no strength in it. "See? We are useful after all."
"For now."
That line did not comfort either of them.
He looked toward the holding grounds and sent for the twins through the bond.
They returned a short time later, both fed, both steadier, and both carrying the scent of fresh blood and disciplined violence with them. The captives behind them had quieted into frightened obedience again. Excellent.
Vera’s eyes moved once over Sekhmet’s face and the two bite marks now healing on Sofia and Natasha.
"You are done?"
"Yes."
Vela looked toward Lily’s sphere in the distance. "Any change."
"No."
The answer settled over them. No panic. No relief. Just waiting.
Sekhmet looked at the twins. "Back to duty."
Both women nodded.
Vera moved first, retaking her place between the central grounds and the sealed pair. Vela settled slightly wider, giving herself angle on both the prisoners and the sphere. Good. No wasted motion.
Sekhmet paused near them before moving away.
"You fed enough."
"Yes, Master," Vera said.
"No one collapsed," Vela added.
He nodded once. "Good. Hold them there."
Then he turned away from Sofia and Natasha and crossed the dark ground back toward Lily.
Auri remained exactly where he had left her.
She had changed position only enough to sit more comfortably on a low stone, but not so far that the sphere ever left her full attention. Loyal in the practical way, not the dramatic one.
Bat Bat had returned too, though no one had noticed precisely when. She now hovered just above Auri’s shoulder, muttering to the spirit leaf as if the tiny patch of green near it had opinions worth consulting.
When Sekhmet approached, Auri rose at once.
"Master."
Her eyes went to his face, then briefly to the blood still fresh at the corner of his mouth before he wiped it away.
"You fed."
"Yes."
"Did it help."
"Yes."
That answer pleased her. Not because she enjoyed the act. Because he looked steadier. Less strained. Less sharp at the wrong edges.
Sekhmet stopped beside her and looked up at Lily’s sphere. The red glow remained deep and constant now, not flaring wildly, not dimming. The silhouette inside remained curled. Still womb-like. Still wrong by all previous expectations.
"Any change," he asked.
Auri shook her head. "No. She keeps pulsing, but the shape stays the same."
Bat Bat jumped in at once. "I told the spirit leaf to help, but it is just being green."
Sekhmet ignored that and kept his eyes on the sphere.
Inside him, hunger had quieted. In its place now sat two different weights.
The first was Lily.
The second was the skill upgrade waiting in silence, a promise he could reach for later.
First the sphere.
First the waiting.
First understanding whether his wife would emerge from that blood-red shell whole.
Auri looked at him from the side. "Will she wake soon."
Sekhmet answered honestly. "No."
"How long."
"Maybe by tomorrow."
Auri nodded slowly, accepting what she did not like because there was no use arguing with time.
Bat Bat, who was incapable of accepting anything quietly, made an outraged sound. "Tomorrow is very far away."
Sekhmet almost smiled.
Almost.
Then he looked at Lily’s suspended form again and let the silence of the Void Land close around him.
For a while, he did nothing. He simply stood there and watched the sphere.
The red light kept pulsing at a slow, steady rhythm, not violent enough now to suggest danger, not gentle enough to feel safe. Lily remained curled within it, suspended in that impossible womb-like shape, wrapped in blood and becoming.