SSS Awakening: Rebirth of the Strongest Vampire God-Chapter 65: The second follower

Kate stared at him like he’d just told her the moon was made of cheese.

"No," she whispered.

"Yes," Damon said cheerfully.

"NO."

"Yes." Damon was clearly enjoying this far too much.

Kate clutched her stomach, her face frozen in a mixture of disbelief and horror. "Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?! I thought I was just craving burgers or something after that hospital visit! I was gonna get the Big Mac!"

Damon burst out laughing. "Big Mac! Oh my god!"

"Don’t laugh at me, you idiot!" she growled, baring her fangs, which, now that she noticed, had gotten sharper. "How am I supposed to get blood?! I’m not going to... bite someone! That’s insane!"

"You’ll learn to control it," Damon said, his tone calming now. "At first, the hunger’s overwhelming. But after your first real feed, you’ll stabilize. Come on. Let’s go and find something for you to eat."

Kate looked reluctant, but when Damon’s shadow clone dragged a half-dead wolf to them, she instantly jumped on the beast. One whiff of the blood and her eyes changed, darkened, deepened, turned feral.

Without a word, Kate lunged at the wolf, fangs bared. She didn’t bite like a person would. She bit like a starving animal, desperate, instinctual, wild. The moment her lips touched the creature’s neck, a shiver ran down her spine, and she started sucking.

Damon watched silently. Mark had a complicated look on his face.

A few seconds later, the wolf let out a faint whimper before falling silent. Kate’s shoulders trembled, then gradually stilled as her breathing deepened. A flush of crimson spread across her cheeks, and her hunger began to fade.

Finally, she pulled away, blood smeared across her mouth, her chest rising and falling like she’d just surfaced from underwater. She blinked, dazed, then looked up at Damon.

"...That was disgusting," she said. "But also..." She paused, licking a spot off her lip. "Really, really good."

Damon chuckled. "Told you. Big Mac just got dethroned."

Kate wiped her mouth on her sleeve and stood. "I’m still not biting people."

"You say that now," Damon grinned. "Give it time."

Kate huffed and dramatically turned away. She was about to say something in protest when suddenly a system screen flashed in front of her.

[Ding! Your transformation is complete.]

[Ding! You have been sired by the touch of a primordial bloodline. Do you wish to accept your God’s blessing?]

Kate looked at Damon for a moment and then selected ’Yes’. All the joking aside, she knew that the man standing in front of her had saved her from definite death. After all that, she was not going to reject his good intentions by being some prude who couldn’t handle being a vampire.

Besides... Damon had always been...

Kate shook her head. There was already so much going on, and she did not want to dredge up some old feelings and make everything messier.

She selected [Yes], and instantly her face changed.

Both Mark and Damon rushed to her. "What happened?"

Kate couldn’t answer. A look of pain filled her face as her body arched slightly, and her chest lit up with a deep crimson glow, the mark of her bond with Damon’s bloodline igniting like a rune etched in flame.

Symbols not from any known language shimmered around her, orbiting her body like satellites, then, just as suddenly, were sucked inward and vanished beneath her skin.

[Ding! You have accepted the Blessing of a Primordial.]

[Ding! The grade of your blessing is Minor.]

[Ding! All your stats are increased by 50.]

Kate collapsed to her knees, panting, her hands clutching at the glowing mark over her chest. The runes had disappeared, but the heat still lingered in her bones.

Damon reached her side in an instant, crouching as Kate tried to catch her breath. Mark hovered behind, panic flickering in his eyes. But Damon wasn’t panicked, he recognized this. If he was not wrong, then this was a sort of Awakening.

The next second, his suspicions were confirmed. A system screen flashed in front of him.

[Ding! K8 has accepted the blessing.]

[Ding! A bond has been forged through the blood pact, and K8 has become your first Bloodbound follower.

[Ding! She has received Minor Blessing. All her stats are increased by 50]

[Ding! The stronger the blessing, the stronger the bond and the influence. Bloodline stabilization is required before altering the grade of the blessing.]

Damon stared at the cascading system messages, each one more unexpected than the last. Bloodbound follower...

Kate, his first.

He looked at Kate again. Her aura had changed. She was a lot stronger now.

Mark, watching silently, asked the obvious question. "Is she okay?"

Damon didn’t answer right away. He stood slowly, offering Kate his hand. She took it, rising to her feet with effort, her expression a blend of awe and confusion. "She just became my first follower."

For a second, he was worried about how his friends were going to react. After all, becoming a follower was just a polished way of calling someone an underling. However, the two of them simply nodded. It looked like they had already expected something like this to happen.

"Sweet. I got a big stat bonus." Kate grinned, checking out her newly modified body. She could zoom and run a lot faster now, and she was sure as hell enjoying it.

Kate dashed forward suddenly, zipping between two trees before flipping off a low-hanging branch and landing beside them with a grin that screamed trouble. "I think I could race a car now," she said, eyes gleaming. "Or run one over."

Mark looked at her, half-impressed and half-terrified. "I don’t know whether to be proud of you or scared."

Kate smirked. "Both. Definitely both." She continued enjoying her new body when Mark turned to Damon. "There is something I need to ask you."

"Hmmm?" Damon raised a brow. "Sure, anything."

"I want to become your next follower."

Damon froze. He studied him for a moment, trying to read beyond the words. "You know what that means, right?" he asked quietly. "It’s not just a power-up. It’s a bond. A tie. You’ll be tied to me and to the bloodline. Forever. There’s no going back."

"Ya, I know."

"I had to do that to Kate because she was dying or already dead. There is no reason for you to-"

"What about the reason that I want to?" Mark responded, firm and steady.

Damon blinked, surprised not just by the interruption, but by the steel in Mark’s voice. There was no hesitation, no joking mask to hide behind. Just raw conviction.

Mark stepped closer. "I want to do this. I want to become your right-hand. I want to stand by you and support you when you need me, and watch your back when you don’t need me."

Damon stared at him for a long while. Then, slowly, he let out a breath. "You really mean that," he murmured. "You’ve already made up your mind. Are you doing this to repay me?"

Mark nodded. "Maybe I am. Maybe I am not. You both are my only family. I don’t want to become something different than both of you. If you are becoming a monster, then I will become one too."

Damon looked a little surprised.

"I know I might be asking too much, considering you are a primordial and whatnot. But I will make sure you don’t regret this decision. I’m not the strongest. Not the smartest. But I’m loyal. I’ll never betray you. You said the world’s about to change? Then I will stand by you when it changes and fight right beside you." Mark’s words were clear. He was determined.

Damon knew he had made up his mind, and Damon was more than okay with it. He was about to open his mouth to respond when Blood Reign’s voice sounded in his mind. "Stop. The sister did not have any unique bloodline, and probably the brother doesn’t either. You are not strong yet. You cannot afford to hand over freebies left and right."

"If I am not wrong, you can only give out five blessings before you unlock more of your bloodline. I suggest you save it."

Damon smiled. Blood Reign might be right, but he did not care because she did not know his friend as well as he did. Mark was one of the most grounded people he knew. He might not be a genius or something, but there was no one as hardworking as him.

Having Mark by his side could only become his strength. Never his weakness. He was sure of it.

Damon’s smile deepened, slow and certain, even as Blood Reign grumbled in his mind.

"You know, for a guy who was already betrayed once, you are way too trusting." She was definitely against this decision. "You’re making a mistake," she hissed.

"No," Damon replied silently, "I’m making a choice."

Damon nicked his thumb and used a potion vial to drain some of his blood into it. He handed it over to Mark. "You’re sure?" Damon asked one last time.

Mark didn’t even blink. He drank the blood in a single swig. The next second, he clutched his heart, dropped the vial and doubled over, a hoarse scream ripping from his throat.

The transformation hit him harder than it had hit Kate. Mark’s body convulsed violently, like it was rejecting the very essence now flooding his veins. His fingers clawed at the dirt, breath catching as if something primal had seized his lungs and refused to let go. Blood pulsed at his temples, veins darkening beneath his skin as the transformation tore through him like wildfire.