Selena continued working in the kitchen with slow, almost ritualistic movements. The knife sliced the shallots into perfectly uniform pieces, the rhythmic sound echoing through the wide space like a metronome trying to impose order on the chaos inside her. But something was changing.
It started subtly: a cold tingling that rose from her thighs to her belly, then to her chest. It wasn't the same cold as Ludivine's — that one was piercing, alive, possessive. This was quieter. Deeper. As if her own blood were slowing down, growing thicker, reluctant to circulate.
She stopped cutting. She looked at her own hands.
The skin on her palms, which only minutes ago had been flushed from the hot bath and intense pleasure, now seemed… clearer. Not porcelain yet, but translucent enough for the blue veins to appear beneath the surface like fine rivers of ice. The warmth she had always carried was fading.
Selena brought her hand to her face, touching her cheek. Cold.
Not frozen, but definitely colder than usual. The blush that appeared when she was nervous or aroused had disappeared. Her skin seemed to absorb the kitchen light instead of reflecting it, taking on a pearlescent, almost supernatural glow.
She took a deep breath — the air entering more slowly, as if her lungs were learning to exist in a different rhythm.
Not pain. Not fear. It's… change.
Odette remained at the back of the kitchen, watching silently, her green eyes fixed on her. She didn't need to step closer, didn't need to touch. Her mere presence seemed to amplify everything happening. The elegant silence was enough for Selena to feel each change more intensely, every inch of her body more awakened, more aware of itself.
Selena looked at her hands again. The skin, once warm and golden, was now cold, satiny, almost translucent. The blue veins ran like delicate lines of ink. Her chest, her thighs, her neck — everything was changing before her eyes.
She raised her gaze and met her reflection in the polished copper pot. The woman in the reflection was still her — the generous curves, the heavy red hair, the white apron — but something had changed: her skin was luminous and pale, her lips a soft violet, and her golden eyes shone with an almost supernatural intensity.
— I'm… changing… — she murmured, her voice deep, firmer, more musical. — I am no longer just human.
Every breath, every heartbeat seemed synchronized with something greater, something eternal beginning to pulse inside her. The cold spread across her body, but there was no discomfort — only clarity, an intense sense of awakening.
She returned to slicing the shallots, each movement more deliberate, more conscious, as if the kitchen had shrunk for her, as if every gesture were part of a silent ritual. The pale, cold skin reflected the kitchen light, turning Selena into something hypnotic.
Vivienne watched from the corner, a shiver running down her spine — not Ludivine's supernatural cold, but a human, instinctive chill that whispered: this is not ordinary.
She's… transforming. But how? Vivienne thought, her heart racing. There was no bite, no blood. Nothing beyond herself… and yet…
Her mind tried to make sense of the impossible: the pearlescent glow of the skin, the violet hue of the lips, the golden eyes catching the light differently. Every gesture of Selena seemed measured, deliberate, almost ritualistic. Every movement, every breath, radiated power and delicacy at once.
Is it pleasure? Vivienne thought, blushing as she realized the transformation had started from what Selena had felt before entering the mansion. Not vulgar, not explicit. Refined. Absolute. Biological. And fast.
Selena breathed again, slower, deeper, feeling her body accept the cold, the glow, the change. Every fiber, every vein, every cell seemed to awaken to something beyond human, something eternal.
She lifted the knife and resumed cutting, precise, deliberate, ritualistic. The cold, luminous skin shone under the kitchen light as if it already belonged to the night.
Vivienne kept watching, fascinated and apprehensive. She was no longer just the cook who had entered the mansion. Something else had begun inside her… something that could no longer be ignored.
Selena cut, breathed, existed in a new state. The cold didn't diminish her beauty; it elevated it, making her magnetic and impossible to forget. Every movement said, without words: I am changing… and I am ready for eternity.
Odette stood at the kitchen entrance, her green eyes fixed on Vivienne. Her voice, soft but firm, broke the silence like a sad, enchanting melody:
— Do you see, Vivienne… my beloved? — she said, each word laden with desire and reverence. — I want to become a vampire… so we can live together forever.
Vivienne stepped back slightly, feeling a knot form in her chest. Her amber eyes met Odette's, and the human warmth she still possessed seemed insufficient against the intensity of the elf's gaze.
— But… I am human — Vivienne murmured, almost a whisper. — And you… you are an elf. I cannot… I do not want this.
Silence spread through the kitchen, heavy with promises and impossibilities. Odette took a step forward, but did not touch her. Her mere presence seemed to wrap Vivienne in a delicate cold, an irresistible, almost painful tension.
— So… you would leave me alone with eternity? — Odette continued, her voice low, soft, almost musical. — I would choose immortality… but without you, it would mean nothing.
Vivienne swallowed hard, feeling the weight of truth. Every gesture of Odette, every word, made her human heart beat faster, mixing desire, fear, and a longing she hadn't realized she felt.
— I… — she began, but her voice faltered, lost between reason and the intensity of the moment.
Odette only smiled, a melancholic smile, yet full of promises.
— It is a choice you will have to make, my dear… — she said, turning her eyes toward Selena, whose pale, luminous skin already seemed to belong to eternity. — But know this… the human heart may resist, but the will to surrender… is irresistible.
Vivienne felt the cold crawl up her spine, mingled with a curiosity and fascination she could not deny. She looked at Selena, then at Odette, and realized that at that instant, something inside her was beginning to change.