Right when Ocelio woke up from his meditation, someone knocked on his door. This time he appeared to have sensed the presence of the person before she had even reached his door.

Even though he had no control over his vampiric abilities, his physical senses were fully awakened and had proven on many occasions to be superior to even adult vampires.

[You can come in.]

Ocelio only locked the door at night or when he went out, otherwise he would have a hard time opening whenever someone knocked on his door, in particular, if he was in his bed.

Eribea entered his room dressed in a cream coloured skin-tight trousers showcasing her long legs and a sleeveless white blouse with straps that revealed her shoulders.

Her red eyes examined his room before stopping on her little brother’s head.

[Mom asked me to come get you, you’re ready? We’ll have lunch with the allied bloodline that came to visit us.]

Ocelio moved his wheelchair to look at her face, he was frowning as he asked:

[An allied bloodline? When did they arrive?]

She shrugged her shoulders at his question, her nose inhaled in a rapid rhythm, her eyes skimmed through the room, stopping on his bed.

A wide smile surfaced on her face as she gave Ocelio a playful wink.

[Who knows, I didn’t hear anything about it last night so I guess this morning. Little brother, I’m saying this for your benefit but you should really ventilate your room more often. The evidence of your last session is still hovering in your room.]

[What are you talking about?]

He sniffed the air, sensing his sister’s perfume and a faint odour of sweat. He turned his head toward his bed, before blushing and shaking his head.

[You misunderstood, it’s not what you think.]

[It’s alright, I don’t really care about it. The scent of sweat never bothered me.]

Of course, he knew why. All her free time was spent working on her techniques and training her physical aspects such as fitness, strength training, hands coordination…

Ocelio had a bit of understanding on why she trained so much. He asked her in the past if she was training not because she wanted to but because there was nothing else to do.

At that time, she had looked in his eyes with an indescribable expression, then left without answering his question.

[Rather, I would like you to do me a favour.]

He gave a tired smile, he appeared to already know what she was going to ask him.

[Let me guess, there are young men among them and mother asked you to get this opportunity to get to know them. And now you want me to do the work in your stead to find you a suitor.]

[No! I just want your opinion, talk a bit to them to see whether they've got a high-quality bloodline, just like you.]

He sighed. It wasn’t the first time he was put in this position. And once again he spoke the same words as the last time.

[Eribea, I already told you, there’s no way to evaluate the bloodline quality of a vampire without obtaining a drop of his blood. Unless you punch their nose and gather a drop of their blood, there’s no way to tell how much potential they have. Anyway, they’ll still be Amister, potential or no potential they’ll be restricted to the same limit.]

She stared at him with a determined expression, her pink lips pressed against each other in a stubborn manner.

[I only want the strongest.]

He shook his head; his index finger tapped on his leg as his eyes fell on the floor.

[What’s the point of having power in a world dominated by humans. There are so few vampire bloodlines remaining, with all of them restricted by the Amister limitations. We have no chance of winning if we oppose the humans. Even the Prosapia Heres couldn’t keep the leashes on them. Rather, it was bound to happen…]

Eribea seemed irritated by the way her brother was speaking; it was as if he had lost his will to survive. She bit her lips as she reached her hand to lift Ocelio’s head.

His dark eyes stared back at her red orbs with a listless expression.

[Why are you telling me this. As long as we keep trying there’ll be a way. Aren’t you a proof of that, you have the same Amister parents as I and yet you obtained a higher bloodline purity. Maybe there’ll come a day when a higher rank vampire is born in our shelter. You never know.]

Seeing no reaction out of him, she moved behind him to push his wheelchair out of the room. He appeared accustomed to her assertive behaviour and didn’t oppose her.

He placed his hands on the armrest pads and stared ahead in silence.

Eribea was an energic girl whose only interest laid in training and socialising with fellow female vampires.

It was due to her lack of interaction with males that she always came asking for her brother’s help in finding a suitor whenever strangers entered the shelter.

As they moved to an empty corridor, Ocelio opened his mouth to voice his thoughts.

[I admit that I am a unique case, but look at my legs. I didn’t obtain a special bloodline, only an Amister bloodline with higher purity. Even then, it’s wasted on me. I can’t feel half of my body, even my vampiric powers are unusable. If my last name wasn’t Enigma, I would be more human than vampire.]

Eribea looked at her hands with an awkward expression. Her lips moved but no sound came out. She released a sigh before focusing on pushing her brother to their destination.

Along the way, whenever they met male residents, they would stick close to the wall in a hurry to make way and lower their head in fear.

Eribea had quite a reputation in the shelter, everyone was aware of her strength and what triggered her anger.

When she was near her brother, nobody dared to get close. It was as if rather than a vampire she was a tigress looking after her cub, she became hostile to all adult and teenage males.

Her eyes sent threatening glares at those who dared to look their way and whenever someone was slow in getting out of the way she would grit her teeth, the strident sound produced could be heard through the corridors, alarming the vampires who hadn’t realised they were blocking the way.

All of a sudden, Ocelio turned his head to look at her.

[You said something about having a higher rank. I know you are just as aware as I am that there are only 3 ranks above Amister. With the Progenitor bloodline being unique and impossible to obtain. The rank of Patriarch is tied to the Progenitor bloodline and a Prosapia Heres has never appeared in the last five hundred years. Who knows the requirements to obtain that bloodline but it seems impossible to rank up, at least I’ve never heard of this happening in our History.]

She chucked, her gaze became warm when she noticed with how much passion his eyes light up when he talked about the Vampire hierarchy and their History.

She glanced on her left as if she was looking in a direction beyond the wall, before focusing back on pushing her brother’s wheelchair.

[I’m just saying, life can always surprise you. Maybe my descendant will have an even better bloodline than you, then discover the secret to become an Heres and lead our people outside, into the free wilderness.]

Ocelio smirked but didn’t voice his thoughts.

When they reached the reception hall, they saw their parents already engaged in discussion with the guests.

Both of them examined the strangers with curiosity, a visit from an allied bloodborn was rare as travelling outside was life-threatening for vampires.

Four men and one woman dressed in human clothes sat together at one end of the table. When the siblings entered the hall, their eyes met for a brief instant before one of the vampires, a middle-aged man with short white hair gave them a nod of his head in greeting, a smile etched on his face.

Ocelio appeared to have sensed the stares from the guests as he made his way to the table. However, he seemed to be indifferent to their existence, he looked ahead with a nonchalent face.

After greeting their parents, the siblings remained silent until they received the cue from their father to start eating.

It wasn’t the first time so they knew what to do. They were used to this as it was part of the etiquette their mother taught them when they were young. Whenever they received guests, their lifeblood always had to stand together in a show of respect and strength.

His parents and the guests exchanged small talk about the situation above the ground and how life had changed in recent years with the constant reduction of supplies due to the wars that had made most of the lands infertile…

Ocelio only focused his attention on his food. His interest in the visitors seemed to have been quenched by the way they had looked at him.

Eribea, on the other hand, appeared to have her attention divided between the dishes of sweet potatoes, edridon’s steak, frost gelly and the 2 men sitting on the far right of the table.

Thelma, seeing her daughter’s strange behaviour sent a warning glance her way.

Once everyone started eating, nobody spoke one more word. It seemed to have been a shared tradition to focus on eating when eating and discuss when their mouth was void of food.

After they finished their lunch, Ocelio’s parents guided the guests out of the reception hall. His sister soon followed them out as she had training lessons from her instructor early in the morning and free training during most of the afternoon.

Ocelio pushed his wheelchair across the corridors. From time to time he would meet vagrants who had arrived in the shelter in recent months but did not own a designated living space yet.

All of them were vampires who could no longer survive in the outside world.

They walked with their heads low, their clothes hugged their bodies in an attempt to cover as much skin as possible. Their spirit seemed to be stretched taut, about to rupture. This was the effect loneliness for an extended period had on vampires without a lifeblood. It would require at least 1 year of societal services for them to obtain their own living space and be allowed to search for a new lifeblood in the bunker.

As the son of their benefactors, Ocelio was well-known here. Every time he met those vagrants, they would greet him with respect then hobble away.

He never spoke to them, he treated them like the other residents. Since he was small, he only showed his true self to his family.

As usual, he came to his father's office. After knocking and making sure there was no one inside, he took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door.

He pushed his wheelchair inside before closing the door behind him.

He came to the tall bookshelves standing majestically on the side of the office. His eyes wandered through the two shelves with satisfaction, he stroked his father's book collection with affection and care, a smile made its way to his face as the unique smell of books entered his nostrils.

Through the years, he had almost read every book his father owned, but every time he got close to completing the task of reading them all, a few new books would appear on the shelves. He would always notice them when his eyes wandered through the two bookshelves, he knew the emplacement of every book so an unfamiliar cover would draw his attention in an instant.

He took a book titled: “farming on fertile ground”, he moved his wheelchair to leave his father’s office when he noticed a lone dark yellow book sitting on his father's desk from the corner of his eyes.

His expression betrayed his curiosity at the unfamiliar cover. He moved closer and opened the book to the first page. At first, he skimmed through the text for information on the content, however, he soon took the book in his hands to as his attention was sucked into the book. His dark eyes shone with excitement, the rapid reading speed revealed his impatience and interest in its content. It was a rare scene; it hadn’t happened in years since most of the books in his father’s study could only sate his curiosity but not spark a passionate fire of this amplitude.

On the first page, the image of a Gargoyle was drawn.

Below it was small words with almost no separation between them. Ocelio devoured the words with greed as if he wasn’t aware of the difficulty in understanding the cryptic meaning of the sentences. His fingers flipped to the next page and before he realised it, he became so engrossed in the book that he lost his sense of time.

The book described the History of the Vampire race in an ancient form of the English language. Inside were described the periods during which the different vampire factions reigned on the world and fell, replaced by one of its concurrent. There was also a long description of the hierarchy of the vampires, the creation condition for each rank, their abilities, the distinctions between the natures and other specificities.

Ocelio’s eyes almost never blinked, this was the most detailed record of the Vampire race he had ever read. His eyes studied the content with many different emotions shifting through his face, for hours he remained in the same position until he heard someone enter the office.

The door was unlocked and even if it wasn’t, the chance was, Ocelio wouldn’t have heard the key turning in the door lock.

Thereus entered his office with an impassive expression. His short-trimmed beard and black hair gave him an elegant appearance. Coupled with the stern aura he exuded, it made him look stoic and dangerous.

He didn’t appear surprised to see his son there. However, when he noticed the book in Ocelio’s hands, shock and anger emerged on his face.

[How did you get this?!]

Thereus made large steps toward his son, seeing this, Ocelio quickly shut the book and placed it back on the desk. Yet, it wasn’t before Thereus noticed that he had almost finished reading it.

[It was on the desk, I wanted to borrow this one but I couldn’t help but give it a glance since it was left on your desk and not on the shelves.]

Ocelio spoke in a hurried manner, guilt and fear made him cower in front of his father as he seemed to have realised how important that book was and how he had read it without permission.

His father once told him that during the day, in particular in this office, he was no longer his father but the Lifeblood Lord.

And right now, it was no longer the patient father he was faced with, but the dignified Lifeblood Lord.

Thereus scrutinised his son’s face for traces of falsehood.

A sigh came out of his mouth as his expression turned into helplessness.

[This girl…She’ll cause my doom.]

He came to sit on his chair, he stared at the book for a few seconds before glancing at Ocelio.

[This is what my father gave me, and what his father gave him before that. Every Lifeblood Lord receive it when he inherits his position. Forget it, one day you will inherit my mantle, so it's okay for you to read it sooner than later. You are my son after all.]

Thereus then asked him to leave as he had work to do.

Ocelio left the office, closing the door behind him then moved at a slow pace in the corridor. His hands appeared to move out of reflex, pushing the wheels forward as his mind was filled with countless thoughts, still trapped within the book he had read. It was only when his father interrupted him and he closed the book that he noticed the title: Book of Ancestry.

He made his way back to his bedroom with a dazed expression.

When he reached his residential area, he noticed the group of foreign vampires were also there, they seemed to have been housed near his lifeblood’s quarters.

His mother and some servants were also present, Thelma entertained her guests in an experienced manner. He could hear them chat in a casual tone and make jokes about the humans living above them as if they had already become acquaintances.

In the safety of his bedroom, he grabbed his wheelchair with force, using the strength of his arms to drag his body atop the bed before shifting into a more comfortable position.

His eyes closed shut, his face relaxed, he seemed to have entered deep sleep, ignoring everything that was happening around him.

A faint undulation of spiritual power emanated from his body, centring on his head. Then, his mind entered the white world once again.

With a thought, a table, paper, a pot of ink and a quill appeared in front of him.

His first action was to record what he remembered from the Book of Ancestry and write down his conjectures.

He seemed to have many questions and he seemed to believe the answers were within the content of that book.

He wrote down a sentence before pausing, underlining it with thick blue ink.

“Maybe…there’s really a way to rank up, like the first Progenitor, mutation may be the key.”