Blood Chapter 8

Somehow this chapter ended up as a page instead of a post…>_< so I’m reposting it.

—

Sanguis didn’t take much time moving into his room, since he didn’t have much. Obviously, it was a different one than the antimagic room he’d had before. After all, this wasn’t a prison cell, though it was near the same level of comfort. Rather than being an uncomfortable bedroom, it had been a comfortable containment cell.

He was glad he was provided some new clothes, since his had been slightly bullet hole-y. Also somewhat bloodstained. With a stab hole, as well. Before putting on his new clothes, he got proper stitches that actually stopped his bleeding, unlike the ones that Valerie had done. It was kind of nice to be not bleeding all over everywhere for the first time in about a week.

Other than clothes, his only real possession was the tome of blood magic, which wasn’t actually his. It wasn’t a very impressive start, to say the least. Still, he did discover that supernatural things were real, so this was a pretty good trade, in his opinion.

He’d have to go back to his apartment to get some things, before his rent was too expired and his things were removed. Too bad he didn’t have his keys. He’d probably been reported missing, but his things would stay the way they were for a while. Obviously he planned to go when nobody would be watching, to avoid awkward questions.

In addition to material possessions, he also had something else he wanted for his room. Reading the blood magic book over the last few days, since he’d had nothing else to do, he noticed a very interesting thing. It reminded him of a legend about vampires. In some versions, vampires cannot enter a house unless they are invited in. Using this magical array would allow him to do the same thing for his room, although it technically applied to everything with blood, and not just vampires. Sanguis hadn’t been particularly happy about being attacked, and while he didn’t think he would be attacked again, he’d rather regret wasting some time than not preparing.

—–

Shortly after he set up the magical array, Sanguis heard the sound of the doorknob. Then, a “Waaaaaaaah!” *Thump*. Well, it seemed to work, but it was a bit more of a forceful “repels intruders” than he had intended. Since he recognized the voice, he hurried out his door. He saw Valerie slumped against the wall. “Owwwwww.” Well, since she was complaining in such a way, he knew it wasn’t serious.

“Sorry about that. You should really knock, though.”

“Well, you’ve always been in my room, or in the cell, so there wasn’t much point in knocking.” Valerie stood up and dusted herself off. “What did you do to your door? Set up a taser?”

“Don’t be silly, where would I get a taser? It’s blood magic that keeps out people I don’t invite.”

“Uuuuugh,” Valerie groaned, “You could have told me about it.”

“I would have, if you’d knocked.”

“Haha. Yeah.”

“So,” Sanguis asked, “Why are you here?”

“Can’t I just come to hang out?”

“Sure you can. However, this time seems to be different. Well, first, come in.”

“Ooooo… It’s not gonna zap me again is it?”

“It shouldn’t, I’ve invited you.”

Valerie stepped in. “Whew. I wasn’t looking forward to doing that again. Umm, does that happen every time?”

“It shouldn’t. It’s pretty much a one-time deal.”

Valerie looked around, then at the ceiling where the array was. “Wow. Where did you get all the blood?”

Sanguis laughed, then he groaned because of his stitches. “Do you really need to ask?”

“Haha, right, sorry.” She sniffed the air. “This is the first time you haven’t been in a room completely filled with blood… ignoring that. It’s… different.”

“Well, want me to fill it? I can paint everything in blood.”

“Umm, please don’t. Also, you were kidding right?”

“Of course. I don’t even like red that much.”

“Right, well, anyway, I should probably explain stuff to you.” So, she did. Things such as the organization of their specific vampire group, and about vampires in general. Mostly, the myths were somewhere on the mark. Vampires were weak to sunlight and silver. Wooden stakes… were about as dangerous as anything else stabbed into anyone’s heart and left there. Some vampires might be strong enough to heal from such a wound after it was taken out, and some wouldn’t. Being older didn’t make vampires stronger, it was mostly inherent ability and training. Granted, older vampires had lived much longer, and thus had more chances to become stronger.

“Do you show up in pictures and mirrors?”

“I dunno, can you see me with your eyes?”

“Yep.”

“Well, looks like we interact with light, so what do you think?”

Sanguis grinned. He’d actually seen her in a mirror before anyway. In summary, they were pretty sensible for magical beings. The various powers related to bats and wolves, while almost all possible for vampires to learn, weren’t something that you could expect any individual to have. The same was true of other typical powers, it depends on what the vampires developed. In addition, some of those were just magic that “anyone” could learn to use, sometimes including blood magic.
On the subject of blood magic, most blood mages wouldn’t use their own blood. Except for in the cases of magical arrays that were very small but needed large amounts of power, it was a terrible idea. After all, blood was a limited resource. Thus, most of the negative side of blood magic appeared, such as human sacrifices. It was actually irrelevant whether the subject died, the only important thing was the quantity and power of the blood contributed. Sanguis was glad he didn’t have to deal with that, maybe. He’d probably still be cautious about using too much blood, in case he really could run out. Then he’d be dead, and that would be bad.