Chapter 258: 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 Attachnt. Even comfort. If you do not understand the difference, you beco easier to control and easier to lose."
Lily’s throat moved once.
"And for ?" she asked quietly.
Sekht’s answer ca without hesitation.
"For you, I will not let the first feeding beco ugly."
The line entered her like warmth and fire at the sa ti.
Sekht’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 mont the whole Void Land seed 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 movent so small only Sekht and Lily noticed.
Vela did not move at all, which was sohow worse.
Sekht felt the tension in the question imdiately.
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 ca next.
And asking him whether the first blood in her changed life would be his.
"Yes," he said.
Lily’s pulse jumped.
Sekht 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 sothing 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.
Sekht 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 , then you will understand desire, stabilization, and bond reinforcent. You will not fully understand restraint with ordinary living targets."
Lily absorbed that.
Her voice, when it ca, was quieter. "So I would have to feed on others too."
"Yes."
The words were simple. The feeling behind them was not. Sothing tightened in Lily’s face.
Not fear. Not revulsion. Sothing much more embarrassing. It was jealousy.
She tried to hide it. But she failed.
Sekht 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 extrely unhelpful.
Vera glanced once at Sekht.
Vela looked at Lily with the expression of soone deciding whether honesty would create fire and whether the fire might be amusing.
Sekht said dryly, "You do not have to answer that."
Lily turned on him at once. "That ans 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.
Sekht 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.
Sekht stepped in before the lesson turned into an emotional ambush.
"That is enough."
Vela’s expression beca 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.
Sekht 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 mont.
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."
Sekht 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.
Sekht dragged his mind back toward usefulness.
"You asked for the ugly truth," he said. "This is part of it. Blood and attachnt 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."
Sekht watched her for a mont longer, making sure she truly ant 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 asure." 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 Sekht once, and the atmosphere changed instantly. "The body reacts differently."
Lily saw it. The shift was subtle but undeniable. Not hunger sharpening into violence. Sothing 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 becos 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.
Sekht had to actively not react to that.
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