The transition was instantaneous. One moment, Leon was breathing the dusty air of the high school gymnasium; the next, he was inhaling the scent of ancient incense and cold stone.
They stood in the heart of the Crimson Spire. The architecture was a nightmare of gothic arches and flowing blood-red tapestries. Carmilla didn't release him. Her hand remained locked around his waist, her body pressed flush against his.
"Welcome home, my King," she whispered.
Leon pushed her back, his golden eyes burning with a mix of fury and the newly awakened power surging through his veins.
"You have your contract," Leon rasped, his voice sounding deeper, layered with a strange resonance. "The school is safe. Now tell me—what is this 'Consort' nonsense? You want my blood? Take it and be done with it."
Carmilla laughed, a melodic sound that lacked any of the cruelty she had shown at the school. She looked at him not as a predator looks at prey, but as a woman looks at a miracle. In this timeline, Carmilla was barely eighteen by vampire standards—an "Origin" whose power had peaked before her emotional maturity could catch up.
"You think so little of yourself," she said, stepping closer and tracing the black crest on his throat. "I didn't bring you here to be a larder, Leon. I brought you here because I have spent centuries in the dark, and your soul... it shines like the sun."
Before he could retort, she flicked her wrist. The heavy oak doors of the bedchamber slammed shut and locked with a finality that echoed through the room.
The room was dominated by a massive bed draped in black silk. The moonlight filtered through a rose-shaped window, casting crimson patterns across Leon's skin.
"The contract is simple," Carmilla said, her voice trembling slightly with an emotion Leon didn't recognize. "To seal the 'Forbidden Territory' spell, our lifelines must be tethered. Blood to blood. Soul to soul."
"You said I had to be your Consort," Leon said, his jaw tight. "I didn't agree to—"
"You agreed to save them," she interrupted, her eyes glowing with an intense, obsessive heat. She wasn't just a Queen; she was a girl who had found the only thing in the world she couldn't immediately break. "And this is the price. I will not have a King who stands apart from me. I want all of you."
With a speed that defied his Level 15 senses, she lunged. But she didn't bite. She tackled him onto the silk sheets, her weight pinning him down. Leon struggled, his Strength of 85 flaring, but against an Origin in her own seat of power, it was like a mortal fighting the tide.
"Stay still," she commanded, her voice dropping to a sultry, dangerous silk. "The more you fight, the more it will hurt when the bond snaps into place."
She leaned down, her lips brushing against his. Leon's mind flashed to Elena—her sobbing face, her unspoken confession. He felt a surge of guilt, but as Carmilla's hands moved over him, the [Covenant of the Blood Moon] on his throat began to glow.
The System sparked in his vision:
[Warning: Physical Synchronization Initiated.]
[Authority 'Ruler' is resonating with Authority 'Origin'.]
The Forbidden Union
Carmilla wasn't just performing a ritual; she was claiming him. She moved with a desperate, frantic hunger, her fingers tearing at his clothes. For the first time, Leon saw a flash of vulnerability in her eyes—a terrifying loneliness that she was trying to drown out with his presence.
"You are mine now," she whispered against his skin, her breath hot. "The world can burn outside these walls. The monsters, the hunters... let them have the earth. I have the King."
As the moon reached its zenith, the room was filled with a blinding red light. Leon felt his consciousness fragmenting. The physical act wasn't just a union of bodies; it was a violent merging of their magical circuits. He could feel her memories—centuries of cold isolation—and she could feel his—the trauma of a future he shouldn't remember.
Outside the door, her generals knelt in the hallway, sensing the raw power radiating from the room. Their Queen was no longer alone.
Leon closed his eyes, his hands gripping the silk as he succumbed to the overwhelming sensory assault of the Origin's embrace. He had saved his friends, but as he felt Carmilla's heart beating against his own, he realized that She didn't want a puppet. She was making him her world