Chapter 33: Who is She?

The daemon started changing. I didn’t even have time to understand the domain.

Its skin tightened over its frame. Muscles pushed outward like something inside was forcing its way out. The sound it was making just stopped. The silence that followed felt wrong. Then it burst.

Blood hit everything at once. It was warm, immediate, and smelled like copper.

I waited for my eyes to clear.

When they did there was a woman standing where the daemon had been.

Red dress. Dark hair falling over one shoulder. She looked at me like she’d been expecting me for a long time, and wasn’t surprised I was finally here. Then she started walking toward me, calm and unhurried, like there was no version of this moment that ended differently.

Every instinct I had screamed to move. I didn’t.

She stopped in front of me and put two fingers under my chin and lifted it. Her eyes at close range had no category I could fit them into. Not the danger of a weapon. The kind of certainty that didn’t leave room for you saying no.

She kissed me.

It was not a normal kiss. Something transferred through it warm and metallic, moving through me along channels I had not built, reaching the cracked ribs the Remis had been working on and finishing the job in seconds. Reaching the empty reserve in my chest and filling it with something. Older and Thicker.

Her blood.

When she pulled back, her eyes stayed on mine. Close enough now that looking away felt strangely difficult. She said something softly in a language I didn’t recognize, like she was finishing a thought meant only for herself. Then she turned my head slightly and I felt her lips against my neck.

The bite was not painful the way I expected. It occupied the same location as pain without being it, and whatever she had given me through the kiss accelerated through my system and the domain around us started dissolving at the edges and my vision went with it.

My knees gave out..

She caught me before I hit the ground.

The domain was breaking apart. Red drained from the sky. Trees came back in pieces. Afternoon light replaced everything else.

Then I blacked out.

***

I woke up in my bed.

My ribs didn’t hurt anymore.. My mana reserve was full in a way that felt different from normal recovery.

I turned my head.

She was sitting in the chair beside the bed. Same red dress and dark hair. She looked at me like she had been there a while, just waiting for me to wake up/

She looked at me like I was already hers.

"You were in the cave," 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

She smiled.

That didn’t help at all, but it made sense anyway.

Then the system flickered.

[God of Thunder has sent a super chat.]

[Amount: 400 PS.]

[Message: Kiss her back.]

I stared at the screen.

[Goddess of Envy has sent a super chat.]

[Amount: 200 PS.]

[Message: Do not.]

[Goddess of Love has sent a super chat.]

[Amount: 300 PS.]

[Message: She is right there.]

[God of Thunder has sent another super chat.]

[Amount: 100 PS.]

[Message: What are you waiting for.]

I closed the notifications.

The woman in the chair was still watching me. She hadn’t moved. She had, if anything, the expression of someone who was also waiting to see what I was going to do and found the waiting entertaining.

Then the last notification arrived.

[System Message.]

[Host. You are completely and thoroughly cooped up.]

I read it twice.

"The word is cooked," I said, out loud.

[Host. You are completely and thoroughly cooked.]

I looked at the ceiling.

I looked at the woman in the chair.

I looked back at the ceiling.

"Yes,"... "I am aware."