Chapter 19 BITE BY A TRUEBLOOD
Lilian — POV
The night felt different after feeding, it's not lighter, nor softer just quieter. Like the world was holding its breath around us.
Seraphine walked beside me, silent, her boots tapping lightly against the pavement as if she weighed nothing. The street stretched ahead had empty sidewalks, dying streetlights flickering like they were afraid of the dark.
Everything smelled sharper now and cleaner. The metallic taste still lingered at the back of my throat, warm and wrong and definitely addictive but who cares ?.
I hated that I felt better, Hated the fact that my hands had finally stopped shaking.
Hated the calm that came after the storm in my veins.
Seraphine exhaled softly. “Stop looking like someone forced you to swallow a ghost.”
I shot her a glare. “Maybe I did.”
She chuckled under her breath. “You fed okay, You didn’t die and you didn’t cause a scene this time That’s a little improvement apart fro. tripping on air though.”
“I’m not proud of it.”
“Not yet,” she said.
There was something unsettling about the way she said it as if she expected the pride to come on its own, like a habit waiting to be picked up.
We turned down a narrow street that led toward my apartment complex. The night breeze carried the faint smell of oil and rain, the kind of scent that usually made me feel grounded. Now it just reminded me that normal was slipping further away.
Seraphine walked with her hands in her coat pockets, her posture relaxed but her eyes constantly scanning the behind us. I tried not to notice how graceful she looked doing it like danger itself shaped her spine.
She finally spoke again. “How’s the hunger?”
“Manageable,” I muttered.
“Lies,” she said easily.
I paused. “How do you know?”
“Because you sound like I did at your age.”
I snorted. “You make it sound like I’m some newborn puppy you’re trying to train.”
“Not a puppy actually,” she corrected with a faint smile. “Something with sharper teeth.”
I wrapped my arms around myself. “I don’t want to be like this.”
“I know,” she said softer this time way too soft. “I remember that feeling.”
“You don’t act like someone who regrets anything.” I told her with a shrug.
“Oh, I regret plenty.” She stepped around a broken bottle on the sidewalk. “I just don’t let it slow my stride.”
We walked in silence for a bit. Cars hissed by on the far end of the road, but here in this in-between stretch, it was just us and the sound of our footsteps.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “uhh.. That man… the one of the other hunt that I killed unaware… he didn’t deserve it.”
Seraphine didn’t look at me when she answered. “Most don’t.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No.” She shrugged. “It’s supposed to tell you the truth, monsters don’t get the luxury of choosing moral meals.”
A sick twist curled in my stomach. “I’m not a monster.”
“Then what are you?” she asked not mocking, just curious.
I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out.
She glanced at me. “Exactly.”
I shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket, trying to keep my breath steady. My apartment building was now only a few blocks away, the pale gold lights in the lobby window glowing like distant safety. Except nothing felt safe anymore.
Seraphine suddenly asked, “Have your senses sharpened fully yet?”
“Define fully.” I said with a straight face.
She grinned. “Can you hear that cat snoring two houses down?”
I blinked. “wait, that’s a cat?! I thought it was a broken generator.”
“No, that’s garfield some lazy asshole.”
Despite myself, a small laugh escaped me. She raised her brows triumphantly like she won an award.
“See? Your hearing’s improving.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Now I can hear cats sleeping.”
She nudged my shoulder lightly. “One day you’ll be grateful for that.”
“Why?”
“Because predators survive by paying attention to everything. Even sleeping cats tell a story.”
I frowned. “What story is a cat telling me?”
“That someone fed it, That someone loves it. That there’s life happening in houses you’ll never enter. That the world keeps moving, even when you think you’ve stopped.”
That startled me a lot, the softness in it, Seraphine rarely talked like that.
“If you want to say something deep,” I said, “maybe warn me first.”
“Why? You’d walk into traffic from shock?” she said with a snort.
“Probably.”
She laughed and for a moment, walking next to her didn’t feel like drifting toward danger. It almost felt normal, whatever normal meant now.
But then her laughter faded, Her eyes shifted sharp again, calculating.
“We need to talk about something,” she said.
I stiffened and shook my head. “Every time you say that, my night gets worse.”
She stopped walking and istopped with her, almost against my will.
The street was quiet and empty. A lone streetlamp buzzed overhead like it was struggling to stay awake. Seraphine turned to face me fully, her silver eyes piercing through the dim light.
“You’ve been asking who turned you,” she said. “And I’ve been avoiding the answer quite well.”
My heart rate kicked up. “Yeah, i noticed.”
She stepped closer, her shadow merging with mine. “I didn’t avoid it to be cruel to you... you know, I avoided it because I wanted to see what kind of instincts you’d develop first.”
My voice came out shaky and I shrugged my shoulder. “And?”
“They’re strong,” she said simply. “Stronger than they should be for someone your age.”
I swallowed. “So… what are you trying to say?”
Her expression changed not out of pity, not concern but of something heavier, then she took a slow breath.
“The man who bit you… he wasn’t just random. He wasn’t weak, He wasn’t hungry or careless.”
Her voice dropped into something colder.
“Lilian, he was a True Blood.”
The world went still like sound forgot how to exist.
My lips parted, but nothing came out except air.
Seraphine watched me, her eyes not blinking. “Now you understand why you’re changing so fast.”
My pulse thundered in my ears. “N-no… no, that... that’s impossible. True Bloods don’t bite humans according to what I read. They don’t just... they’re myths... you know stories.”
“They’re stories because people like me keep it that way,” she said. “But they’re real. And one of them chose you.”
I stumbled back a step. “Why? Why me? What the fuck did I do?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
I shook my head violently. “No...
No, you’re lying, You got to be lying.”
Seraphine stepped forward, her voice like a blade brushing my neck.
“You think I’d lie about something like this?”
I couldn’t breathe or think.
My legs felt weak, too weak as if the truth itself had weight.
Seraphine reached out, gently grabbing my wrist before I could completely fall apart. Her grip was cold but steady.
“I told you I want you to survive,” she murmured. “You can’t do that in the dark.... So here’s the truth, Lilian you’re not turning into a regular vampire.”
My voice broke. “Then what am I becoming?”
She held my gaze not flinching a single bit
“Something rarer,” she whispered.
“Something far more dangerous.”
I stared at her, chest tight, throat burning, the night pressing in.
My next breath felt like it was made of glass.
And somewhere deep inside me, I knew something old and hungry had been stirred.