Chapter 8: Tulips and Truths

Victoria opened the door, and Kael was standing there with a bundle of red tulips in one hand.

"For you," he said, holding them out with an easy smile.

Victoria didn’t take them.

She coughed once, delicately, and pressed a hand to her chest. "Tulips. I’m allergic."

Kael blinked. "I didn’t know that. I’ll get something else next time."

"You don’t have to."

"Why not?" He was already stepping past her before she could answer, glancing around the entryway like he had every right to. "Can we talk inside for a minute?"

Victoria frowned, but let him in.

---

Kael settled onto the sofa without being asked twice.

"So. Why’d you suddenly show up here?"

"I saw you climbing into an ambulance at a dungeon gate last week," he said. "You never came by the guild after that either. I got worried."

"I’m fine," Victoria said evenly. "A friend of mine got hurt. I helped him."

"Him?"

"Yes."

Kael’s eyebrow lifted, something calculating behind his easy expression. "Who is he?"

"Someone you don’t know."

"Fair enough." He stood, stretching. "Mind if I use your restroom before I go?"

"Upstairs," Victoria said.

---

Kael climbed the stairs and shut the bathroom door behind him.

Then he let his ability unfold.

*Pulse Sense.*

It wasn’t flashy. No light, no sound anyone else could hear. Just a wave of vibration rolling silently outward from his body, threading through walls and floorboards, bouncing back the shape of everything it touched — furniture, empty rooms, the faint rhythm of a house settling in the afternoon heat.

He was listening for a heartbeat that wasn’t Victoria’s.

He found nothing.

*Empty. The whole house is empty except her.*

He frowned, let the pulse fade, and went back downstairs — unsatisfied, but with nothing to hold onto.

A few minutes later, he was gone.

---

Once his car pulled away, Victoria climbed the stairs again.

"Daemon."

A few seconds passed. Then the window at the end of the hallway creaked open, and Daemon slipped through it, grinning sheepishly, brushing dust off his sleeve.

"Turns out I’m a decent burglar," he said, nodding at the latch he’d forced open earlier to slip out unseen. "Window’s a little worse for it, though."

Victoria didn’t laugh.

She just looked at him — really looked — and something in her expression had gone quiet and unhappy.

"I don’t like this," she said. "You climbing out of windows. Hiding in your own house. This is my fault. I should have announced our marriage properly from the start, so you’d never have to do this again."

Daemon chuckled softly. "Okay. Let’s do it, then."

He hesitated, then added, quieter, "Honestly — I didn’t love watching another man hand you flowers at our front door."

It was the first time he’d said anything like that out loud.

Victoria felt the warmth of it settle somewhere in her chest before she could stop it.

---

"So you were jealous," she said slowly, a small, teasing smile pulling at her mouth. Before he could answer, she stepped forward and wrapped both arms around him.

Daemon froze.

He tried, briefly, to pull back — but Victoria’s grip was iron, and he already knew he’d lose that fight if he actually tried.

*Fine. If I can’t win, I won’t lose either.*

He wrapped his arms around her instead, pulling her in properly.

She went still against him, her cheek resting near his shoulder, her breathing slow and even. He could feel her heartbeat where she was pressed close, steady at first — then just a little quicker.

"Of course I was jealous," he murmured. "So what?"

Victoria didn’t answer right away. For a moment, neither of them moved, the two of them just standing there in the hallway, sunlight falling soft through the broken window, nothing between them but the quiet.

"When are we going to announce it?" he asked eventually, voice low near her ear.

"Soon. I need to talk to my mother first." She finally pulled back — though not quickly, not like she was eager to. "Then we tell everyone. I have to go."

She turned and headed for the stairs.

Daemon watched her go, a small smile tugging at his mouth.

*She could have broken that hug in half a second if she wanted to. She let it happen instead.*

*I really like that about her.*

---

He was still standing there, replaying it, when the sound came.

Ding!

[Reward Unlocked.]

[Condition Met: Deepened Emotional Bond]

[Your wife felt cherished, protected, and truly at ease in your arms — a warmth she hasn’t allowed herself to feel in a long time.]

[Bloodline Growth +1%]

[New Reward: Solitary Trial Key]

Daemon’s eyes widened as the description unfolded beneath it.

[This key opens a private dungeon gate accessible only to you. It exists apart from the outside world — no civilians, no other Hunters, no risk to anyone but yourself. Its difficulty rises to match your own growth, floor by floor, and fully clearing it will grant a significant boost to your Bloodline Growth.]

*A dungeon just for me. A place to actually get stronger, without anyone else in danger if I mess it up.*

Then, beneath it, something new appeared — a feature he hadn’t seen before.

[New System Feature Unlocked: Affection Meter]

[Tracks emotional bond strength between Host and each connected woman. Rising affection accelerates Bloodline Growth and may unlock deeper rewards.]

**Victoria Hale — 55%**

**Kassia — 92%**

**Roxana Sterling — 24%**

Daemon stared at the second name for a long, frozen moment.

*Kassia.*

*Ninety-two percent.*

His chest tightened, confusion twisting sharp and sudden through everything he thought he understood.

*That doesn’t make sense. She’s the one who left. She said she didn’t love me anymore — no hesitation, no explanation, nothing.*

*So why does the system think she still...*

The thought didn’t finish.

Somewhere, buried under three years of memory he’d tried hard to bury with it, a question he’d never let himself ask out loud finally cracked open.

*Kassia. What actually happened to you?*