"Err...quick question." Ezra raised a hand with hesitation. "How do I compress my blood?"
"You control it, move it to your heart, and compress it." Gen drawled. "Easy peasy."
"Yes, easy peasy. But...how?"
"You're still thinking like a human." Olivia spoke up. "You're a vampire now. You're no longer subject to the laws of nature. You're alive in a dead body. You should be able to feel the blood within you. It should be easy. Your body is cold, yet the blood radiates heat from the vitality trapped in it."
She's right. I shouldn't be thinking like a human. Just this night alone, I've seen black boxes capable of isolating a small zone from the world, a flaming sword that should have burnt down everything around it just by existing and other vampires materializing shit out of thin air. The same laws should apply to me.
Ezra closed his eyes and focused his attention inward. At first, he couldn't feel a thing, but slowly, he began to feel a certain heat, tracing a map throughout his body. Before long, he could feel every drop of blood present in his body.
"Don't compress all the blood you have," Olivia's voice filtered into his ears. "That remaining bit of blood is what keeps us from looking like actual corpses."
"Oh! Forgot about that. Yeah, what she said." Gen giggled.
Ezra began to pull the blood towards his heart, taking advantage of the veins and arteries already present in his body. Defying both logic and biology, the blood compressed into his heart, filling more space than should be possible. He did remember to leave a tiny bit of blood out.
Don't want to look like I just stepped out of a morgue, even if I'd look good. Being a vampire sure is bullshit.
After compressing the blood, Ezra recalled the second step. Ignition. Intense emotion. He tried to call up happiness, but he couldn't summon enough of it to make it intense. His life so far hasn't been anything to write home about. When you're trying to survive, there's little room for happiness.
Ezra strained, trying to summon intense happiness, joy, before giving up. Well, that didn't work. Should I try sadness? Nope. Never been one to stay sad for too long. His mind wandered around before he recalled a certain recent intense emotion. That should work.
He took a deep breath before summoning rage. The hot rage he'd felt when he faced Mr. X. The rage rose up like an old friend. As the rage bubbled within him, he could feel heat building up in his chest. More. More! MORE!
Whoomph!
The blood in his heart ignited and transformed into an ethereal mass of energy that rushed out of his body, spreading into an invisible cloud around him.
"Yes! That's it! An Aura!" Gen pumped a fist, celebrating his accomplishment.
Ezra opened his eyes in wonder. He could feel the aura like a sixth sense, providing him with a 360-degree vision of everything within a two-meter radius. He could even see under the seat of the hover car!
"An Aura is one of the most important tools of a vampire. It gives a large range of vision, effectively giving you eyes at the back of your head. It is the source of every vampire's psionic powers. Best of all, it grows stronger as you age."
That was when Ezra noticed something incredible. "How is it broadcasting my emotions?" His sense of wonder felt palpable. It was like a weight in the air! He'd felt something similar before! When Sarah wanted to kill Gen, a sense of certainty had enveloped her sword! It was similar.
"That's one of the aura's psionic powers." Olivia glanced at him through the rearview mirror. "You can radiate certain emotions or feelings you choose. You can even imbue those feelings onto objects."
"You can even use your Aura to enchant and hypnotize humans. It doesn't work that well on other vampires though." Gen sighed in disappointment before she perked up. "You do get telekinesis even if it's pretty weak. Only those crusty old vampires who have lived long enough develop decent telekinesis."
That's pretty amazing! "Do we get telepathy?"
"Hah! Unfortunately, no." Gen snorted. "Just telekinesis, extrasensory perception and good old fashioned empathy."
"Pull your vitality back in." Olivia spoke. "This isn't the time to waste it. We have more pressing matters."
Ezra reluctantly pulled the aura back into his heart. It was intuitive, like he'd been doing this for decades, not minutes. I'm a real vampire now. To other vampires, it's just an everyday power. To me, it's hypnosis, telekinesis, and emotion imbuing. And there's even more!
"What's the second major vampire power?" He asked eagerly.
"Tattoos."
"Say what now?"
"Vampire tattoos." Gen smirked before she toyed with the zip of her leather jacket. She pulled it off to reveal toned abs and lithe arms. Her breasts were held back by a crop top that was at least a size too small. Ezra's eyes were glued to them before she snapped her fingers in front of his face.
"Huh? What? Huh? You said?"
"You can stare at my boobs later. For now, stare at my tattoos." Gen's smirk widened.
Ezra shifted his gaze sheepishly to the tattoos that covered her body. Her stomach was covered by two colorful tattoos. The first one which was just above the navel was of a chameleon. The chameleon looked incredibly life like with its skin shimmering with different colors. Ezra could swear he just saw it blink.
He looked at the other tattoo which was above the chameleon. It was a dark spider. The spider was just as life like as the chameleon. He could make out each individual strand of hair on the completely black spider. It was like someone took a HD picture of a spider and placed it on her body as a tattoo.
"This is..."
"Blood tattoos." Gen flexed her biceps. Her biceps were covered with the dark web coming out of the spider's legs. The web coiled all over it, making her arms look like it was covered in solid black ink.
"This is the power that all vampires use. By mixing blood and ink, the resulting blood ink is used to create blood tattoos. When infused with vitality, the tattoos are then activated." Gen explained. "However, you can only tattoo a monster. Anything else and it won't work. Not a weapon, an alien, some gold or even a fireball. But you can tattoo a monster that shits gold."
"Wait what?" Ezra's jaw dropped. "Shit gold?!" If that was true, his money problems were a thing of the past.
"Yes. Every monster you tattoo can manifest only one ability of your choice. Like the chameleon here, every vampire has it. It's the one responsible for the black zones."
Damn! Where have vampires been all my life?
"Of course, there are limitations." Gen ruthlessly bursts his bubbles of fantasy. "Each monster only gets one ability and you can't change it later. You can get more tattoos and monsters but the more you get, the harder it becomes. There's more but that's all you need to know for now."
"For example," Olivia interrupted, gesturing to the glowing red chain on her neck. "Mr. X's chains are not directly from him but from whatever monster he possesses. The chain prevents us from using vitality and I'm sure that is not the only thing it can do."
"She's right." Gen continued. "Of course, the more powerful the monster is, the more vitality it needs. There is a way to mitigate this, though. If the monster is destroyed, it's gone forever. But when its within you, you can make it grow stronger by feeding it vitality. This makes it easier to manifest, and it uses up less vitality."
"Can I tattoo a monster that creates blood?"
"Yes, but the created blood won't grant you new vitality."
"This is...this is crazy."
"Wait till you meet an old vampire. Those dudes are badass."
"We're here." Olivia announced as they pulled into a parking lot.
Ezra stopped and stared at the building in front of them. That can't be right.
"Quick question, what are we doing at the T-Max building?"