Similar to the Fire Gift, this ability is generally acquired in one of two ways. First, if vampires reach a very great age, they develop within themselves the ability to levitate and fly. No specific age is determined as to exactly when a vampire achieves the Cloud Gift. Alternatively, vampires can acquire this gift by inheriting it after drinking the blood of a vampire already in possession of this gift. An example of this is when Lestat drinks Akasha’s blood for the first time, shortly after the concert of the Vampire Lestat in the mideighties. Because the Queen is six thousand years old at that time and has already naturally developed the ability to fly, her blood bestows it upon Lestat, who is only two centuries old, giving him the ability to fly over great distances in a short period of time. Without her blood, he would have needed to age for centuries before he could have naturally developed the Cloud Gift. The only known way to prevent vampires from using the Cloud Gift is to wrap them in iron binds.
The Cloud Gift is utilized in The Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned (1988), Memnoch the Devil (1995), Prince Lestat (2014), Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016), and Blood Communion (2018). For more perspectives on the Cloud Gift, read the Alphabettery entries Akasha, Blood Curse, Crippling Gift, Dark Gift, Fire Gift, Iron Curse, Lestat de Lioncourt, Mind Gift, and Spell Gift.