Page 17 of Cloak of the Vampire
As I was thinking about all the possible horrible things that could have happened to Cassidy, a man who was probably in his late twenties walked into the classroom. He hadn’t spoken a word yet, but his thick eyebrows, black eyes, mocha skin, heavy beard, and thick ebony hair drew me in immediately. The expression on his face was light, but the overall look was very intimidating.
By now, all of us were seated in our places, and the man addressed the class as he leaned back against the front of the wooden desk and crossed his feet. “The name’s Abe,” he said, “and I’m going to be your teacher. If you’ve found yourself here, you are a Common. I’ve already memorized your names, so if you expected an icebreaker, you’re in for a disappointment. You will, however, have time to socialize with one another outside this classroom.”
A few students in the front rows mumbled something inaudible, making Abe smile.
“No, the Gifteds have a different kind of course. Who can tell me the difference between Common and Gifted?”
Zoey’s hand shot up to the sky, a predatory, excited look on her face. Abe glanced at her and said, “Yes, Zoey?”
She flushed as though his knowledge of her name was special despite what he’d just said. “Gifted vampires had talents while human, and once they were given the Imprint, that talent transitioned into some sort of magical ability.” Zoey paused as if she’d just shared some deeply intelligent revelation. Though, for me, this was new information. Margarita hadn’t mentioned anything about being Common or Gifted.
When no one reacted, she continued. “Common vampires do not have extra powers but will acquire the acute sense and formidable strength of a full-blooded vampire within a year of their Imprinting.”
Zoey sat back in her chair, looking smug and satisfied.
“Correct.” Abe nodded. “I’m a Common vampire such as yourself. I’m fifty years old in vampire years, and I grew into my full vampiric potential after a few months of hard work. You can do so in as little time, too, if you’re as determined as I was.”
He started pacing, locking his hands behind his back. “There are some rare cases when Commons develop certain abilities that turn them into Gifteds, but that can only happen when you’re far older in vampire years. So for now, you’re all Commons, and you’ll probably remain that way.”
Zoey shot her hand back up, and Abe gave her a nod. “There’s also the Sacred, right?” she asked, eyes shining with curiosity.
Abe grinned. “You’re an inquisitive one,” he said. “Yes, that’s true. In addition to Common and Gifted, there are the Sacred. Do you know what it means, Rittman?”
Zoey flushed with pride. “Yes, Margarita told me,” she said, almost puffing out her chest. “Sacred are the oldest vampires in the world. They have certain abilities. Much like ...magic.”
“This is true.” Abe nodded, then turned to look at us. “But in order to explain it better, let’s go back to the Gifted.”
Leaning against his desk, he said, “Gifted vampires make up fifteen percent of the vampiric population. They are ones who excelled in a particular area back in their human life—it could be artistic or even scientific—and when they were given the Imprint, that talent of theirs adjusted to their new state in certain ways.”
Cassidy came to mind with her magnetic stage presence and ethereal voice, and I was suddenly cold, bile rising in my throat.She wouldn’t,I thought almost desperately.
“Let me give you an example,” he said. “One of our vampires is a man who’d been a talented gardener back in his human life. When he was Imprinted on, he gained a certain affinity with the plants he tended to, an affinity that allowed him to somehow communicate with the plants and understand what they needed in order to grow healthy and strong. You won’t get a better harvest than what he provides. That’s just one example out of many, and each case of a Gifted vampire is individual and depends on the person’s talent and sometimes personality. Two talented musicians won’t necessarily develop the same Gift as vampires—take pianists, for example. One might develop a keener hearing, but nothing more, while another might be able to enchant people with their playing.”
The bad feeling in my stomach grew stronger.
“Then we have the Sacred,” Abe said, face turning serious. “The Sacred are rare; there are only about ten of them in the world at the moment. They are very old vampires, as Rittman said, and very powerful. They possess magic—not something like it, but actual magic that turns them into something close to gods.”
Unsurprisingly, Zoey raised her hand again. When she got Abe’s approval, she said in a quiet, reverent voice, “The Lord is Sacred, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he is,” Abe said quietly, giving us an alarming look, as though he was telling us to watch our backs.
He straightened and resumed his pacing. “I’m here to teach you everything you need to know about your new existence,” he explained, changing the subject so quickly I got whiplash. “You’ll study Vampire–Human History, Vampire Biology, Vampire Physics, Physical Education, and Personal Development.
“You’ve been waiting for a long time to be here,” he continued, and for a fleeting moment his eyes met mine, “butpatienceis key. We have three months to cover everything, and you can rest assured you won’t be lacking in knowledge once the course is over.”
He paused and gave us all a small but confident smirk. “Let us begin.”
For two hours, Abe talked about our new biology. As Margarita had already explained, the water that made up around seventy percent of our bodies had been replaced with blood. And like the water that we needed to drink as humans, we now needed to drink blood. The surprising thing was that we could choose which type of blood to drink, meaning we could drink from animals as well as humans. And apparently, the older you were in vampire years, the thirstier for blood you would get.
We then proceeded to talk about our fangs. We could show and hide our fangs at will. “Since we don’t need to hunt for blood anymore,” Abe explained, “evolution allowed nature to help us hide our identity.”
Abe then made us practice extending and retracting our fangs until it became second nature. It was freaky feeling my fangs grow long and pointy, their sound like the unsheathing of a sharpened blade, then returning back to normal, but it was even freakier to see and hear all the vampires in the class doing the same.
If I had any lingering doubts about the existence of vampires, they were gone after that little exercise.
Afterward, Abe launched into a scientific explanation of vampire anatomy, but by that point, I had lost focus. Science had never been my favorite subject, and while it was interesting to learn about it in a vampiric context, I got lost in the terms and descriptions.
When it was time for the ten-minute break, Abe left the class, and Zoey jumped to her feet. “This is so exciting!” She beamed. “We’ll never be sick again! Think about it—so long, runny nose!”
