New Powers

New Powers
The bloody writing on the wall was gone in a puff of smoke. Viv let out a gasp and moved away. A car engine roared in her ears, and she quickly turned her head toward the window. But the road was only half a mile away.

Viv whispered, putting her hands to her temples, "What's going on with me?"

Before Damien came in, she could smell him. Not just his perfume, but also his skin, which had a faint coppery blood smell. She turned to face the door seconds before it opened.

"You heard me coming," Damien said, his eyes getting extra big. "From down the hall."

Viv nodded and shook. "I can hear everything. The guards talking outside. A mouse in the walls. Your heartbeat." She swallowed hard. "It's slow. Much slower than mine."

"Your hunter blood is fully awake now." Damien approached carefully, as if she might bolt. "How do you feel?"

"Strong. Scared." Viv clenched her hands, watching blue light pulse beneath her skin. "The message is gone, but it was here. Erebus wants me to come alone."

Damien's face darkened. "That's not happening."

"We don't have a choice! He has my father. The missing people." Viv's voice cracked. "They'll die if I don't go."

"And you'll die if you do," Damien countered. "Erebus needs both of us for his ritual, but he's hoping your new powers will make you reckless."

A sudden wave of anger swept through Viv, so strong it made the lights flicker. "Don't treat me like I'm weak! I'm tired of being protected, of being lied to." She stepped toward him, blue light now glowing from her eyes. "My whole life has been other people deciding what I can handle. Not anymore."

Damien didn't back away. "I'm not underestimating you. I've seen what new hunter blood can do — it's powerful but wild. Unpredictable."

As if to make his point, the glass of water on the nightstand suddenly shattered. Viv jumped, looking at her hands in shock.

"I did that?" she whispered.

"Your emotions are linked to your powers now." Damien's voice softened. "You need to learn control before facing Erebus."

Viv took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm inside her. "We don't have time for training. The ritual starts at dawn. I saw it in my vision."

"Then we have three hours." Damien held out his hand. "Let me show you what you can do."

The basement training room was lined with weapons Viv had never seen before — silver knives, stakes made of strange wood, and things that looked ancient and dangerous.

"Focus," Damien said, circling her. "Feel the power in your blood. It's not just strength — hunters have gifts unique to their bloodline."

Viv closed her eyes, trying to feel the energy flowing through her veins. It felt like lightning, wild and dangerous.

"My grandmother always knew when someone was lying," she said suddenly, a memory emerging. "She could feel it, she said. Like a bad taste in the air."

"Truth sensing. A rare gift." Damien nodded. "What else did she do that seemed strange to you?"

Viv thought back to her childhood. "She could touch objects and know who they belonged to. And she was never surprised by visitors — she always knew who was coming before they arrived."

"Psychometry and presence sensing," Damien said. "Your bloodline specialized in detection abilities. Useful for hunting our kind."

"Can I do those things?" Viv asked.

"Let's find out."

Damien gave her a silver dagger. The moment her fingers touched the handle, images flooded her mind — blood, fights, a woman with fierce eyes gripping the knife as she faced down a snarling vampire.

"This belonged to a hunter," Viv gasped. "A woman. She killed dozens with it."

"My sister," Damien said quietly. "Five hundred years ago. She turned hunter after I became vampire."

Viv nearly dropped the knife in shock. "Your sister hunted vampires? Her own brother?"

"Family is complicated." Damien's eyes held centuries of pain. "Try the presence sensing next. Close your eyes and tell me who's approaching the door."

Viv did as he asked. At first, there was nothing. Then she felt it — a strange pressure in the air, like the weight before a storm. A figure, familiar yet not.

"Lilith," she said, just as the door opened.

Lilith's eyebrows shot up. "Well, well. The hunter awakens."

"What do you want?" Damien's voice was cold.

"To help." Lilith held out a small vial of red liquid. "Blood of the First. It will stabilize her powers temporarily."

Viv stepped forward before Damien could object. "Give it to me."

"Vivienne, no—" Damien began.

"We don't have time to argue!" Viv took the vial from Lilith's hand. As their fingers touched, a vision hit her — Lilith bowing before Lord Erebus, but with a knife hidden in her sleeve.

"You're playing both sides," Viv whispered.

Lilith's face drained of color. "How did you—"

"Truth sensing," Damien explained. "Vivienne, what did you see?"

"She's working with Erebus, but planning to betray him." Viv stared at Lilith. "Why?"

Lilith looked away. "Erebus killed my maker. This has been five centuries in the making." She nodded at the vial. "That will work. I wouldn't poison the key to my revenge."

Viv uncorked the bottle and drank the blood in one gulp. It burned going down, but then a wave of clarity washed over her. The chaotic energy in her veins steadied, focused like a laser.

"I can control it now," she said in wonder, holding up her hand where blue light now pulsed steady rather than wildly. "I can feel everything."

"The effect won't last long," Lilith warned. "Dawn to dusk, no more."

"It's enough." Viv turned to Damien. "We need a plan. I won't go alone, but I can pretend to."

"Erebus will sense me if I'm near," Damien said.

"Not if I mask you." Lilith pulled a black stone from her pocket. "Blood obsidian. It hides vampire energy."

"Why are you really helping us?" Viv asked, her new senses looking for lies.

"Because Erebus wants to enslave humans and rule vampires. Because he's a monster in ways that make even me look kind." Lilith's eyes flashed red. "And because five hundred years ago, he took everything from me, just as he's trying to take everything from you."

Viv sensed no lies this time. "Then let's go kill a monster."

The abandoned pharmaceutical building rose against the fading night sky. Viv approached alone, her hunting blood glowing beneath her skin. Each step felt electric as new power hummed through her blood.

Behind her, hidden by Lilith's magic, Damien and a team of his most trusted vampires moved quietly. The plan was simple but dangerous: Viv would distract Erebus while Damien freed the prisoners.

The building's doors swung open before she reached them. A voice called from the darkness inside.

"Come in, granddaughter. We've been waiting."

Viv froze. That wasn't Erebus's voice. It wasn't her father's either.

An old lady stepped into the doorway, her white hair glowing in the dim light, her eyes the same bright blue as Viv's.

"Grandma?" Viv whispered in shock. "You're dead. You died when I was fifteen."

"Did I?" Her grandmother smiled, but something was wrong about it—too wide, too sharp. "Come see what I've become."

As Viv stepped closer, her truth sensing screamed a warning. This wasn't her grandmother—not really. Something was using her face, her thoughts.

Behind the old woman, in the dark hall, Marcel hung from chains on the wall. Blood dripped from cuts across his chest, making a familiar pattern on the floor.

"Dad!" Viv rushed forward.

Her grandmother's hand shot out, incredibly fast, gripping Viv's wrist where the blue mark glowed.

"Blood calls to blood," the thing wearing her grandmother's face hissed. Its eyes changed, going black as night. "And yours has been calling for centuries."

The floor beneath Viv suddenly glowed red, matching the pattern of her father's blood. Too late, she realized she'd stepped into a trap. The building's doors slammed shut behind her.

"Damien!" she screamed, but her voice died as phantom hands squeezed her throat.

Her grandmother's face melted away, showing Lord Erebus's ancient features.

"Welcome home, little hunter," he said, putting a blade to her marked wrist. "Your blood is the key. And now, we have both halves of the lock."

From the shadows, Damien emerged—not sneaking in as planned, but walking forward freely, his eyes empty and glassy.

"What did you do to him?" Viv choked out.

Erebus smiled. "Nothing. He came willingly." He gestured to a large container filled with red liquid. "You see, I have something he wants very badly. The only cure for his fading powers."

Damien stopped beside Erebus, his face expressionless.

"Tell her," Erebus ordered.

Damien looked at Viv, and for the first time since they'd met, she saw no feeling in his eyes at all.

"I'm sorry, Vivienne," he said simply. "But I've made my choice."