The Living and the Dead (Tyler G Book 3) (14 page)

Ginger sighed, and sounded a
little sad.

"What a good idea. Thanks
Tyler, we needed to arrange entertainment for her anyway."

He rolled his eyes.

"We could sing. Or turn on
the television? Marissa is a doll, and has been really polite. I doubt she'd
insist
on that kind of thing. Not that
I'm
saying no, but seriously, we
shouldn't underestimate her. I'll see you in the morning? I have to work
tomorrow night."

"Yup. Thanks for being
understanding about this. This is... I'd say it was stupid, but both sides
kind
of have a real point. Conflicting world views, more than anything. It's a pain
in the rear, but we'll get past it."

That was probably the truth, and
while he wanted to get more information about the problem, everyone seemed to
be trying to keep him from learning about it. In the end that probably meant
that he needed to be suspicious of them all.

Almost like they were being cute
about it, his band mates all started to sneak out of the room. It was noticed,
but they went anyway, heading to their own bedrooms to hide. Ginger hung up
after a while and Eve beamed at him.

"I get to be on top. Called it!"
She said it like it was funny, but he shook his head.

"We'll take
turns
. We
can use your room, Marissa? We should get some oil. I have some in my
room." Mineral oil worked best for that. Vampires didn't lubricate
themselves, so it was kind of needed, regardless of what you were doing with
them.

Eve snorted a bit.

"Wait, you're really going
to do it? I was just teasing you."

He made a face and sighed, then
turned to Marissa.

"
See
how she is?
Teasing us like that. But to answer the question, yep. Let's go." He
wasn't particularly horny at the moment, but they were both attractive enough,
and it had been a while since he'd done anything sexual.

It took a few hours, and while
his right leg wasn't perfect yet, it was close enough that no one mentioned it.
It was fun, and kind of interesting, since Marissa was very different than he
would have thought. She wasn't just both genders, but was pretty free with what
she was willing to do that way, and seemed to actually enjoy herself. They did
some things that he'd never gotten to with a man for instance. It was, he
realized, fun. The whole thing was, for him at any rate.

Then they cuddled for a while
after it ended, until Eve dragged him away, laughing.

"I want to practice now.
Fighting, not love making. Tyler is pretty good, actually. Slow, but he doesn't
whine when he gets hit." That was all she shared with Marissa, who let
them go, not all that interested in seeing what they were really getting up to.

Which was actually fighting. Just
like she'd said.

For her it had to be like working
in slow motion, but it was good to move again. It felt
right
, more than
pleasurable. He tried out a variety of new moves, working out patterns to try
and catch her off guard, even though she could see everything he was doing. It
worked more often than not, because she let it, and didn't speed up to beat him
with raw power. That one was a known thing. If she used her full powers, she
would win, every time. The point was to use her skills though, and they pushed
each other to do that as well as possible.

Finally she stepped back and
looked around the back yard where they were standing.

"So, now that I have your
interest, using two of your favorite things, I was thinking that we could get
together? Make an alliance?"

Tyler snorted, "you mean be
friends? I
think
I've heard of that before."

She gave him a look that was a
bit stern for a second.

"Sure. If you want to label
the awesome relationship we
could
have. Zack called and told me we
should hook up. Not in a sex way either. I think... He wants me to help you
with magic. He didn't know if The Rotted would be good with that. It could be
dangerous, if she doesn't want it to happen."

"Ah. I
asked
. I didn't
know
you
could teach me that kind of thing. That one really hadn't even
occurred to me. She likes the idea, as long as we don't use too much energy? I
can eat more and help offset it a bit, I guess. She said that won't be enough
though, if I do too much?"

Eve seemed happy to hear it.

"You just
asked
her?
That's hard core. I thought that we'd be sneaking around trying to hide it for
months. Great. Want to start now?"

He nodded, not certain what it
would really be all about.

"Do we need to make a
circle, or learn a spell?"

"Nooo. This is Demon magic.
It's done differently than that. At least the kind I'm going to teach you. It's
a lot more like meditation. Actually, come over here and sit down. Cross
legged. That isn't part of it, we might as well not be standing, is all."

She sank down onto the soft, well
trimmed grass. It was a well cared for lawn, though so far he hadn't noticed
anyone doing the work. He'd been around day and night too, but gone enough that
he might have simply missed when it had taken place. It was about four inches
long, and there were flowers planted around the edges. Toward the back there
was a pond, too, near the little house that held the hot tub. So far he'd never
used it, but that was going to change soon, he decided.

Not right then. He'd already seen
Eve naked, and while it was worth doing again, magic seemed a lot cooler. Not
knowing what to expect, he sat, if with less grace than a Vampire could pull
off, and tried to pay attention.

"Demon Magic, the kind I
know, is basically just holding an idea clearly and adding power to it. The
first thing to learn is how to form a concept in your head. You don't need, or
want
to chant words, or even to see it in your head. Just
know
it. If a
person can master that part, even a Human, they can learn to do magic that
works. It's the base level interface with reality. Adding power makes it
stronger, but the real magic is more than pure power." She had to describe
it about five times before he got the idea.

Then she started in on exercises.
They were interesting because they were hard, but they didn't seem all that
magical to him. Then, this wasn't about doing anything, other than thinking.
Probably in a way that wouldn't do anything to the world. That made sense, to
him, on a deep level. You didn't want some newb going and controlling things by
accident. That would end up being a mess.

Eve looked at him placidly.

"Start with the number
three. Think about it for a bit. Now, think of it again, without saying the
word in your head." That took a few tries, and he was
still
seeing
it behind his eyes. Looking blue to him. Then she had him do it differently,
hold the idea, without seeing that. Stripping away everything but the basic
essence of that number.

Which got him to immediately
start chanting the word in his mind.

Smiling he finally got it, about
ten minutes later.

"There. I think I had it
for, like ten seconds?"

Eve reached out and touched his
leg. It was reassuring.

"Great! Now, practice that.
Not just with three, but with everything you can. Hold the concept of cheese,
or warmth, or an emotion. A warning on that one; if you do it right, even
without adding power to it, you'll find that your mood changes. Like I said,
the power itself makes it work better, but it isn't the magic. Holding the
concept is. Even sigils and spells are all about getting you to keep a single
idea in mind. You don't need them."

Then the slave driver that was
kind of his friend now, had him do it again, with more and more abstract
concepts. They kept at it until the sun started to get light, which had her standing.

"Don't stop. Try to hold the
concept of concentrating and things like that. Don't add power to it. I know I
haven't gone over how to do that yet, but you were warned not to. Anne said
don't over-do it, right? I didn't work out training for that yet, starting with
the idea that this was going to be a secret project from her. This is easier,
but I'm not ready for it. So if anything starts to work too well, stop doing it,
until we meet again. Are you free tonight?"

"Nope. Order night at the
bookstore. Call it night after next?" That seemed like she was in on the
real training thing. Then, a bit surprising, she leaned down and kissed him.
Okay, they'd done a lot of stuff earlier, but he'd figured it was just about
entertaining Marissa and having some fun. For him, anyway.

That she bothered was nice of
her. It was
probably
about manipulating him to her own ends. Tarsus had
told him that she was basically a Greater Demon, so he had to be careful of
that kind of thing with her, too. Why that would be he didn't know, but Greater
Demons had said she was about as close as a non-Greater Demon could be to being
one of them and not be. Zack had even sent her along to teach him magic, if he
could learn it. Sure, that could have just been about him not wanting to waste
his
time and not caring if Eve did. So he kissed her back. She probably wouldn't
care anyway.

Sex just wasn't a thing for her.

"I'll try to do that.
Practice, I mean. Hold concepts as often as I can." He stood, and tried to
hold the concept of the letter X. It was harder than it seemed like it should
have been. When he thought about it, he kept noticing that he was seeing the
shape behind his eyes.

"Later Ty. I need to go
collect my new daytime cadre, before they crawl off to bed. That's the hard
part, not letting them give in to bad habits for long enough to break the new
good ones. Night after next. At midnight. Right here, unless I call to say
otherwise. I want at least ten hours a day of practice between now, and then.
Make sure to eat. I know it's hard, since it doesn't do anything for you
directly, but I get the idea now. There's an open channel between you and The
Rotted. You're able to basically be a battery for her, just like she's doing
for you. If you can give her enough energy then it will make you worth keeping
around, if she gets annoyed with you, later. So
do
it." Then she
was gone. It wasn't like a bullet leaving a gun, because you could kind of see
that, if you knew to watch. Especially if the bits of lead were coming right
for you.

Ty had learned that one the hard
way.

For a while he just sat, thinking
of different things, trying to simply hold the knowing of them. The idea behind
the words and visualizations. Even the feelings of a thing. Most of the time he
had to think about whatever it was for a while, and then remove the other
factors from the picture. It was a lot harder than it sounded like. Mainly
thanks to how the visualizations kept coming back. It was worse than the words
sounding in his head for him. Harder to get rid of.

Then as the sun came up, actually
making a line of orange and rose on the slightly cloudy horizon, Tyler climbed
to his feet and went inside. He was supposed to be eating more, so he made
frozen waffles and covered them with real syrup. The expensive kind that he
probably was going to have to replace. It was a
lot
better than the corn
syrup with maple flavoring he was used to. He ate an entire box of the things,
which was eight. That was a lot, but he didn't feel full. He wouldn't though,
would he?

As he started to wash the dishes,
Tina and Darren walked into the room. They'd been sent off to nap the day
before, and were just now risking coming back. He would have said
oopse
,
but they looked a lot better. Like they'd gotten enough rest to be useful for
them.

"Hey people! What would you
like to eat for breakfast? I can do... Well, a lot of stuff, actually. I had
frozen waffles, but I can do real pancakes, or eggs? I don't eat meat, but I
can make it, if you want? Cereal?"

Both of the people stood there,
looking at him openly. Tina took a deep breath, and let it out in a slow
shuddering hiss.

"Is there anything like
fruit? I haven't had any in a long time."

Tyler tried not to react to her
taking that much initiative with surprise. It took some doing, so he tried to
hold the concept of feeling calm. Eve was right. It worked.

"We
do
have some.
There was a nice looking watermelon and some fresh cherries. Darren? What would
you like?"

He didn't expect anything, since
as far as he knew the man didn't speak.

"Cereal, please." The
words were soft, almost not being spoken out loud.

"We have several kinds to
choose from. Let me see..." He got four boxes down, so the man could pick
one, or even more than that, if he wanted.

Tyler served them, dashing around
and setting it all up. A bit like they were guests, or maybe family. Darren
first, since it took less time for him to set that up than the fruit. That was
drawn out, since he didn't want to serve the cherries with the pits. It meant
hustling though, to get that on the table in any kind of timely fashion. It was
the right move though, serving them like that, it seemed.