"God dammit!" He cursed and opened his mouth again, going to pull one of his fangs out, but to no avail.
He had no strength and as a result, he only managed to wound himself.
He only had a small window to lick his finger before it healed completely.
Luciel knew that he shouldn't go for a chance to get even the smallest drop of his blood.
He felt weird about it and he didn't want to develop a strange obsession. It also felt like it was helping himself get used to his new special diet which he didn't want to take part in.
He put both of his hands on the sink, taking a moment to calm down before taking one more look in the mirror.
His ears seemed to be fine, they weren't pointed luckily, and for his body… It was a definition of perfection unlike before.
All the numerous scars he used to have from vicious training and fights have completely disappeared, like they were never there.
Meanwhile, his muscles were well defined, but they didn't seem any bigger than before, just a little bit more visible.
Luciel went to pinch his abdomen, but all there was was skin, muscles, and bones, nothing more.
Not being able to believe it, he went to pinch other parts of his body, but there wasn't even a trace of fat left.
What he was seeing were muscles and skin. No wonder that he has yet to encounter a fat vampire.
After finally making sure that there are no more changes that he has yet to uncover, it's time to do some work.
He saw countless cases where vampires would walk around human society, with no one suspecting a thing, meaning that there is definitely a mechanism to hide all of these features.
He glanced towards his claws since those were the most annoying for now.
He already cut his palm numerous times when making a fist and even made small cuts on his clothes when taking them off.
First, he tried the most obvious thing, and that was to just imagine them retracting, slowly disappearing, but that did not work, they didn't budge.
'I can cross willpower from the list.' He frowned since he was sure that would work since everyone saw vampires more like mythical creatures than actual beings.
The only exception to that rule were scientists, but Luciel is a hunter, knowing all these tiny details was useless in his line of work.
He only needed to know what vampires can do and how to kill them.
Luciel tried all different chants and prayers in his head, but nothing seemed to work until he actually moved his fingers a little, playing a bit since he got bored of this madness, and that's when he could feel it.
Whenever his hand and fingers were in a certain position, it felt like there was something more to it, like five more different muscles under his skin.
Thinking about it, he tried to only tense his fingers and that's when he felt a different sensation in his hand.
The claws were still there, but now he was finally going somewhere since he could actively feel like there was something pulling on his claws.
He relaxed his fingers and went to only tense his wrist muscles and a similar feeling in his hand reappeared, but the claws were still out.
Letting out a sigh, Luciel went to try a few more things, he would always get this weird feeling, but nothing seemed to work until… He finally did it.
First flexing his wrist and then making a swing while tensing his fingers at the right moment did the trick.
Once his claws retracted, he could finally see his old fingernails, but they seemed a little shorter and like they were made from a different structure than before.
Luciel repeated the motion of extending and retracting his claws countless times until he got a feel for it and could do it as a second nature.
It was dangerous to walk around while having no clue how to control your own body, not to mention the present bloodlust that was still occupying his mind felt even stronger than the first time he tasted human blood, but while it was growing stronger, so did his resistance to it, bit by bit.
"Well then, time to figure out how those fangs and eyes work." He retracted his claws and went to stretch his body a little since it felt sore all over.
He looked at his reflection in the mirror, feeling like puking just at the sight of it, even if it was his own face.
Firstly, he went to touch his face and cheeks, he believed that if his claws were controlled by muscles, there was something similar for his fangs and eyes.
After touching his face all over, he started to slowly press random spots and lift them up while keeping his mouth slightly open, trying to feel and see any changes.
Doing multiple attempts, Luciel could feel the motion of his fangs retracting, he could even see it. It was an odd feeling to be honest, like smiling, except that he didn't move his lips.
He focused on this feeling and after a few attempts, he already got it under control and could extend and retract them at will, but even then his canines looked different from that of a normal human.
They looked way more pointed and sharp, but an average human shouldn't be able to notice it unless he would smile and the other party would stare at it, and even then this feature of a vampire might not have clicked in their head since it wasn't that obvious.
Lastly were the eyes. He leaned closer towards the mirror.
First, he had to get them to their normal color and just using his willpower did not work as expected.
Biting his lip, Luciel finally started to take a closer look at them, noticing that they weren't pure red, but also had a few black streaks in his iris, giving it a little bit more of depth.
Inspecting his eyes, Luciel noticed that the tiny part of the inner corner of his eyes looked different.
He tried blinking a few times, and then he finally squinted with his eyes.
Whenever he would activate the muscle right below his eye, there was one more weird feeling.
Luciel started to focus on this feeling until a thin membrane emerged from the inner corner of his eyes, reminding him of a third eyelid some animals have, except that this
ones didn't provide any protection, didn't clean the eyes or made sure that they stay moist. Instead, they only had one purpose - concealing his red eyes.
Instead of being happy for finally being able to cover up his appearance, Luciel was filled with sadness, grief, and anger as he extended his fangs and retracted the third eyelids.
He knew it or better said, he could feel that this wasn't a solution and that he couldn't keep up a mask forever. It felt extremely uncomfortable.
To keep his fangs retracted, it felt like he had to have a smile on his face all the time while for his eyes, having covered them only a few minutes, they already started to feel dry and itchy.
The third eyelid might remind many of contact lenses because it would cover the color of his red eyes, but they weren't the same at all, the comparison was like putting apples and pears together.
Having a third eyelid covering his eyes felt like he was not blinking at all, even if he was.
The only thing that felt manageable were his claws. It felt like there was still some kind of pressure in his fingers and tension in his hand, but nothing uncomfortable, just an odd feeling he needed to get used to.
"Forget about it." He clicked with his tongue and walked towards the living room.
What was even worse was that he stayed awake for what? Nothing!
Sure, he managed to figure out some stuff about a new body that didn't even feel like his to begin with, but it all felt useless.
Laying down on a sofa, he finally closed his eyes and immediately started to sleep, dreaming about his love until a smell of human blood woke him up and his eyes snapped open, having a gentle glow in them.