Chapter Twenty-One.

Cameron hovered nervously by the door to the study that the vampire had led him to. Seph was lounging on a recliner, a glass of a rich, red liquid in his hand. He was pretty sure the vampire was drinking wine, based on the bottle sitting on the table beside him, but since Seph was a vampire, he wasn't that sure.

"Come on in," Seph said. "I heard you'd moved. It's a pity, what happened Friday night. Fairies especially love mages, but a full-on attack like that is rare. Normally, they hunt specific individuals."

Cameron nodded, but didn't move, his gaze traveling to the brown-eyed, black-haired woman sitting in another recliner.

"Come in," Seph gestured. "This is Isabelle, and a human, as you can see."

The boy shifted uncomfortably, and Seph sighed.

"You made an agreement," Seph said. "Are you backing out of it?"

"No!" Cameron squeaked, then entered the room, taking a seat on the couch. "Um, bl-fee-"

"Lessons first," Seph interrupted, waving his hand. The door shut. "I'll feed after it's over. Now, to verify you understand the terms of the agreement, what are they?"

"Um," Cameron shifted around in his seat. "In exchange for protection by the coven while in the nearby area and lessons on magic, I'm required to allowed members of the coven to feed on me at least three times a week. The lessons are mandatory under the contract, and will last anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours, and will occur three times a week. I may also, at any time, move into the mansion. If I do so, physical combat training will also be added into my required lessons, and I'll be expected to serve the coven."

"Excellent," Seph smiled. "Now, do you know what the difference between a supernatural and a mage is?"

Cameron listened to the voices for a moment, then nodded.

"A mage," Cameron said. "Is someone who uses spells and weaves together magic, while a supernatural is a creature that has inherent magics and cannot learn spells under ordinary circumstances. Like vampires."

"Quite right," Seph nodded. "We vampires have three innate magics available to us, regardless of what we could do in life. Amanda – you briefly saw her on your last visit – was a mage in life, and quite a talented one, with six schools learned. However, she only has access to the magics we vampires have.

"The first of those magics," Seph said. "Is the healing magic I used to mend your flesh after I fed on you on Friday. We have the power to heal the flesh of others. The second of those is force magic. This one's the most expansive of our three magics, as it isn't limited to just telekinesis, though it does take time and age to move beyond that.

"Finally," Seph said. "The school that you have access to, mind, also grants us a spell. We have the compulsion trinity. Do you know what those are?"

"Um," Cameron screwed up his face, then made a disgusted one. "No!"

Seph chuckled, and Cameron realized he'd exploded at the voices verbally around others again.

"Well," Seph said as the woman looked at Cameron in confusion. "There is mind-control, which is you directly controlling someone else's actions. It generally requires you to control every single action, and is more intensive. Only very ancient vampires gain that ability among us. The victim is fully aware that it's in-use, and will often fight against it.

"Then," he says. "There is silkspeech, which influences one's thoughts and actions. It cannot work to make someone do something they normally wouldn't – so a true pacifist couldn't be forced to kill, for example. Silkspeech makes them think it's of their own accord, and much like mind control, it can't be resisted just by knowing about it. The best way to resist it is to stop it before it starts. It is what all vampires gain the ability to do early in their lives.

"Finally," Seph said. "There's true compulsion, rather than the term that encompasses all three. In this sense, compulsion is a mix of the two. They don't know it's affecting them – usually – and it can make them do things against their own nature, meaning you could make a true pacifist kill.

"Unlike the other two," Seph said. "Compulsion can be resisted and even ignored, if the victim is aware of it. Knowing that your thoughts and intentions are your own are the chief way of resisting all three, but most importantly, compulsion.

"Because it can be resisted or ignored if the victim is aware of it," Seph continued. "It's also considered the most dangerous during use. If the victim becomes aware that they aren't doing things of their own accord, they can easily turn on you and kill you. And be advised that anyone who truly hunts a vampire, succubus, or incubus will-don't ask what those are, you'll just flame again-will have a resistance to all three."

Cameron thought for a few moments, then nodded, looking at the woman uncomfortably. He knew she was supposed to be his training victim.

"Which are you teaching me?" Cameron asked.

"That depends," Seph told him. "I won't teach you mind control, as it's the most difficult of the three. Are you a telepath or empath?"

"Both."

"Then compulsion will work better," Seph told him. "Silkspeech requires speaking when starting out. Only advance silkspeakers can do it without a word spoken. Compulsion is purely mental. To use it, you touch upon someone else's mind and suggest actions for them.

"We'll use Isabelle today," Seph said. "She won't resist or fight you. Attempt to compulse her into picking up a glass."

Cameron's gaze traveled to the table between the two armchairs, where a glass of water was sitting. He shifted around uncomfortably while staring at the glass, then focused his mind on Isabelle.

Pick up the glass, he tried without projecting his thoughts.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"It won't work that way," one of the voices said. "You'll have to actually want her to do it, not just tell her to. Compulsion won't work if you don't do it with purpose or reason. Simply trying won't work. When you try, you must do so with the intent for results."

Cameron nodded, then tried again, Seph watching curiously. He'd seen the boy's ear twitch and eyes shift to the right, indicating the voices were talking to him. The ancient vampire knew they were the aether voices, and assumed it was the one who taught compulsion speaking.

Seph had done the ritual to learn from it many thousands of years ago, before he'd fled to Earth with his brothers and sisters. It was part of the reason they'd managed to succeed in escaping their hunters on their old world. Using a mixture of mind control and compulsion, he forced a spatial mage to open a gate to Earth, then commit suicide once it closed.

Watching Cameron, he knew the boy was trying by the concentration on his face, and the occasional twitch of his ear told the vampire he was receiving more advice. Seph hoped Cameron would one day lose the tell. He was sure the boy didn't always give those tells, but it was obvious that when he was actually listening, he did.

Movement to his right caught his attention, and Seph looked over to find Isabelle picking up the glass. She looked at it, then smiled at Cameron, who looked exhausted. It wasn't difficult for the vampire to guess why, as he'd been using compulsion on someone who knew it was being used.

No matter what anyone said, that made it much, much tougher, because the subconscious mind was ready to defend against it. Normally, Seph didn't expect anyone to actually succeed on the attempts with one of the usual donors.

He even had a fresh person off the street for Cameron to practice on after an hour passed. Seeing as the boy succeeded in only half an hour at making Isabelle pick up the glass, he decided to bring the victim out.

"Isabelle," Seph said as she set the glass down. "Would you mind fetching him?"

"Yes, Seph," she said, then left the room.

"Cameron," Seph smiled at him. "You did well, better than most. To be honest, I expected you to fail on her. She's now bringing us someone who isn't going to be aware that you're going to compel him."

Seph reached under his jacket and pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Cameron. The boy felt the paper around, it was thicker paper, like cardstock, and he unfolded it. An index card.

"On that card," Seph said. "Are a list of instructions. Use them on the person who comes in here. They will have no idea that they're being compulsed, which means there won't be a subconscious resistance to it."

"Subconscious resistance?" Cameron asked.

"Yes," Seph smiled. "The moment someone finds out someone is using or going to be using compulsion on them, they create a subconscious resistance to it that makes it harder to compulse them. It normally takes a month or two before my students manage to compulse someone with the subconscious resistance."

"Oh," Cameron shifted uncomfortably. "Do I have to make him do everything on this list?"

"In order," Seph nodded as the door opened up, a man in his late teens or early twenties entering, his hair scruffy and face with the start of a bear. "Come, sit down."

Seph gestured to the other seat, and Cameron sensed the young man's anxiety and nervousness. He felt uncomfortable, and the voices told him that Seph had kidnapped him off the street.

"You kidnapped him!"

"It's what I do sometimes," Seph's lips twitched up a little at the sudden and unexpected telepathic message. "I didn't realize you were a two-way telepath."

"The voices taught me how," Cameron nearly nodded. "But why'd you kidnap him?"

"You needed a victim," Seph responded. "And he was on the streets. I'll compensate him well for his services tonight."

"I don't believe you," Cameron said, not entirely without reason.

He suspected that Seph and he had different definitions of 'compensate'.

"He'll be fine," Seph told him. "Now, get to work. You agreed to this, Cameron, and breaking a contract with me isn't the best of ideas."

Cameron sighed, then looked at the list. The first item on it was to pick up the glass of water, and it only took him a minute to succeed in getting the man to do it. The next was to drink it, which wasn't hard, either. He could tell the man was thirsty from the relief in his mind as he drank, and the voice teaching him while the others quieted down mentioned that the more someone wanted to do something, the easier it would be to compulse them into it.

The next few items on the list were to fill the glass and drink it, having him make the man do it three times. As he did, the man apologized, saying he was really thirsty and sorry for drinking so much. Seph assured him it was fine, and made small talk with him.

Then the man asked if he could use the restroom, and Cameron hesitated. His next thing was to keep the man from leaving, suggesting he could hold it.

"Seph's trying to get your attention."

Cameron looked up at Seph, who was rubbing his temple while looking at the boy.

"What?"

"You don't have to force him to pee himself, just have him hold it as long as he can before he absolutely needs to run."

"I don't feel comfortable doing that."

"We have an agreement, kid."

Cameron huffed, but complied with the vampire's instructions. He really didn't want to piss off a vampire much older and much more powerful than him. For the rest of the training, Cameron barely managed to perform all of the tasks assigned to him without passing out from exhaustion, and Seph dismissed the man they'd been using.

"Time for the feeding," Seph said, and Cameron shifted uncomfortably. "Come on, Cameron."

The boy pulled off his hoodie, and Seph moved over to move his collar away from his neck before biting down into it. After he drank his fill, the vampire healed his donor, returned to his seat and looked at the boy.

"Don't sulk so much," Seph told him. "You did agree to the contract. I'm not going to make you use your powers for nefarious purposes, and that young man will be back to what he was doing in the morning, and will be given ample compensation for his service."

"Yeah, whatever," Cameron muttered, then stood up, just in time for Eden to appear in the room. "See you Tuesday."

Eden placed a hand on Cameron, and the two of them vanished from the room. Seph stared at the spot, his lips curling down in a frown.

No one should be able to teleport in and out of his masnion, he had it enchanted specifically against that. When the older boy had dropped him off, he was redirected outside the gates, as everyone who tried to teleport onto the property was.

Had the boy figured out how to bypass the wards somehow? Seph checked over his wards, and finding no flaws or weaknesses in them, he shrugged and buffed them, then poured himself another glass of wine.

It seemed his newest student would be more resistant to his normal teaching methods than the rest. A lot more resistant. The kid didn't have a speck of cruelty in him, from what the vampire could tell. His bouts in the arena didn't make sense.

At least, not until Seph thought about it more, and realized that the boy – like most of the mages and brawlers – probably saw it as nothing more than training against people who thought the same way.

Sighing, the ancient vampire drained his glass, then stood and left the room, licking his lips. The boy's blood was the most delicious he'd ever drunk, though he could sense another strong power around, one that might be almost as delicious.

Turning down the hall, Seph slammed into the source of said power, a fair-skinned, black-haired, green-blue angel with black wings tucked behind him, a sword strapped against his waist. Angels, too, would need to enter through the gates, and his coven would have alerted him if there was an issue. So, naturally, he came to the only conclusion he could think of.

"Hello," Seph smiled. "Are you here for-"

The angel grabbed Seph and lifted him with one hand, cutting off his words as his electric-blue glare pierced the vampire's, sending a chill down through the ancient being's soul.

"You're coming with me."