Dawn Walker

Chapter 276: The Time Arrived II

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"Not because you are emotional from today event. The honeymoon."

"No."

"Not because you think becoming a vampire will make everything suddenly easier."

Lily’s eyes sharpened a little at that. "I am not foolish."

"I know."

"Then stop asking me like I am."

He exhaled slowly through his nose.

She was right to be angry at that one.

Lily stepped back just enough to look at him properly while still staying close enough to make retreat impossible to pretend.

"You told me the danger yourself," she said. "You told me what the prisoners said. Other vampire groups will come. The sovereign sent people already. That means time is not our friend." Her breathing had changed again, steadier now, as if saying the truth out loud had made it stronger. "If I am going to stand beside you, then I do not want to stand half outside your life any longer than necessary."

(Note: In case you are wandering when sekhmet tell her everything. It happens in the few hours of time skip of honeymoon.)

Sekhmet’s gaze lowered for one brief second to where her hand still rested against him.

Then back to her eyes.

"You really thought this through."

"Yes."

"When."

She almost smiled. "While you were kissing me, among other times."

That nearly got him.

Nearly...

He let his hand slide from her back to her waist and simply held her there while he thought.

Not to keep her from moving. But to feel her warmth while deciding.

His mind ran across the logic again, it was hard and clear.

The Void Land would trap the blood resonance. The veil would hide the transformation.

Vera and Vela were already inside.

Auri was inside too.

Sofia and Natasha remained guarded.

No one outside would know if it happened now.

No one except those already trapped in the circle of his hidden life.

And Lily...

She was looking at him without wavering.

He recognized that too. It was not desperation. It was a commitment stripped clean of delay.

"Do you understand what happens once we begin," he asked quietly, "that there is no stepping back for breath because the room feels wrong, no pause because fear arrived late, no childish regret because the first pain is sharper than expected."

Lily swallowed once. Then answered him with exactly the seriousness he needed.

"Yes."

He watched her for another moment. Then nodded once.

"All right. Let’s do it."

For the briefest instant, relief hit her face so openly it almost made his chest ache.

He wanted to be the reason that expression existed.

Sekhmet stepped back then, not far, only enough to put action where feeling had been.

"We do it in the Void Land."

Lily nodded at once.

"I know."

"You will keep your voice steady."

"I will try."

"No." His eyes met hers. "You will."

That sent a different kind of warmth through her than the kisses and honeymoon had.

"All right," she said more softly.

He crossed toward the side table and began gathering what he would need. Not much. The veil, still in bracelet form. A clean glass. A narrow ceremonial knife sharper and smaller than the broader one used earlier for the vow. A folded dark cloth. A stabilizing vial from the few blood resources he kept near his room now that his life had become a catalog of unnatural logistics.

Lily watched him move.

There was a calm in him now that had not been there earlier. Not softness. Not distance. Decision. He became even more dangerous once his mind settled on a path. Every motion lost excess. Everything narrowed.

She loved that about him too.

That thought startled her enough that she had to look away for one second just to keep from showing it too openly.

Of course, he noticed anyway.

"You are thinking too loudly."

Lily looked back at him. "That is not possible."

"It is with you."

"That sounds arrogant."

"It is accurate."

She should have rolled her eyes. Instead she smiled faintly and moved closer again. "Do I need to change my clothes?"

He looked at her clothing once, measuring practicality.

"No. Not yet." Then, after one extra second, "Keep the sleeves loose."

Lily nodded.

He had just set the glass down on the table when someone started knocking at the door.

It was not polite knocking. It was rapid, indignant knocking.

The sort of knocking that was less request and more announcement of moral grievance.

Sekhmet closed his eyes for one heartbeat.

"Bat Bat," Lily said.

He looked at her. "Yes."

The knocking came again.

"SEKHMET," Bat Bat called from the other side of the door with all the volume of a creature one tenth the size of her self-importance. "Why is the door closed? Why is Lily still here? Why do you both smell strange? Why does the air outside your room feel like a dramatic poem? Open this door immediately."

Lily pressed her lips together.

Sekhmet went to the door and opened it.

Bat Bat shot inside like a tiny lord accusation with wings.

She circled once around Lily.

Then once around Sekhmet.

Then hovered in the center of the room, tiny ears up, eyes narrowed, nose twitching with exaggerated suspicion.

"Aha."

Sekhmet folded his arms. "Aha what?"

Bat Bat pointed at both of them with one tiny wing. "You smell funny."

Lily’s face warmed instantly.

Sekhmet’s expression remained flat. "That is not a useful report."

"It is a very useful report." Bat Bat zipped closer to Lily’s shoulder, sniffed again, then jerked back in dramatic triumph. "You smell like him. And he smells even more like you. And both of you smell warm. Also embarrassed. Also pleased. Also—" She froze midair. "Wait."

Her eyes widened.

Then narrowed even more.

"What did you do all day inside a closed room?"

Neither of them answered.

Bat Bat’s tiny jaw dropped. "You did something weird."

Sekhmet pinched the bridge of his nose once. "Bat Bat."

Lily, unfortunately for her dignity, was now trying not to laugh.

Bat Bat wheeled around toward her. "You laugh because you are guilty."

"I am not laughing," Lily said, which was a terrible defense because she very clearly was.

Bat Bat gasped. "You even sound different."

She spun back toward Sekhmet. "This is what Elena meant by ’do not disturb them.’ What did that mean? Why did no one tell me anything? Why are there secrets in this house that do not include Bat Bat, who is clearly the most trustworthy person here."

"That," Sekhmet said dryly, "is a very weak argument."

Bat Bat ignored him completely and moved in even closer, lowering her voice dramatically. "Did you kiss? Did you did what the maids were talking about?"

Lily coughed.