Thaumatology 101 (11 page)

Carter watched her go until she was out of sight and then turned back to Ceri. ‘It would be nice to see you pick up your parents’ work,’ he said, ‘but I was rather surprised to discover you could suddenly work magic.’

‘Uh, yeah,’ she replied. ‘Yeah, “surprised” is a word for it.’

‘Have you any idea how it happened?’

She had several ideas, but only one she was willing to talk about. ‘No one’s ever survived being hit by that much thaumic energy before,’ she said. ‘I guess it… changed me.’

He nodded. ‘It’s a working theory. Hmm… perhaps you should learn to raise a circle as well.’

‘Huh?’

‘Well it was the other assistant who did that for Cheryl, wasn’t it? And he’s no longer with us.’

‘Uh, yeah…’ Ceri said. She was still trying to shake the image of Shane’s body flying backward propelled by a bolt of raw thaumic energy. ‘Good point. Well, I know the principles.’

‘I’m quite sure you’ll be better at it than Mister Walters was,’ Carter said. ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and… check on Cheryl.’ He turned and headed off in the direction the Doctor had taken.

‘He’s starting early,’ Lily said, coming up behind Ceri.

‘Cheryl went to the toilet,’ Ceri said.

‘Uh-huh,’ Lily said. Ceri looked at her. ‘You’ve seen the loos here, right? Plusher than a Persian kitten? Stall doors that don’t have those gaps at the top and bottom?’ Ceri’s jaw was getting a little slack as she connected the dots, but Lily was determined to ram it home. ‘Bet you she comes back after he does, looking all flushed.’

Ceri grimaced. ‘Isn’t that a bit… sordid?’

Lily giggled. ‘No, it’s exciting. Someone might hear you. Spices things up, puts a bit of an edge on things. And she’s kind of a control freak, right? Used to being in charge? People like that can get a big kick out of being
out
of control.’

‘You know way too much about stuff like that,’ Ceri commented.

Lily shrugged, her eyes scanning her tables. ‘Ex-prostitute,’ she said.

Ceri’s eyes followed Lily’s, trying to see what she saw. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that you’re just very perceptive. You see details and interpret behaviour from them. I mean, I have no idea what you’re looking for now.’

‘Empty glasses,’ Lily said. ‘People looking for me.’

‘It’s not just that though, is it? I’ve seen you go to tables when they seemed to be quite involved with themselves, but they always seem to need something when you get there.’

Lily looked at her briefly and then back to the room. ‘True Succubi are able to change and assume the form their subject desires,’ she said. Ceri nodded, she knew that. ‘Well, I can’t change shape, but I can still tell the needs and desires of anyone within my aura.’ She stopped and looked around at one of the other girls who was dressed in a bright blue version of Lily’s dress. ‘Sasha? Table fourteen, hun.’

The blonde waitress smiled. ‘Thanks, Lil,’ she said before strutting off across the room.

‘And my aura covers the room when I’m working,’ Lily added.

Ceri frowned. ‘I only feel it when you get close,’ she said.

Lily smiled a slightly mysterious smile. ‘I have more than one aura I use for work,’ she said.

Ceri narrowed her eyes. The half-demon was being sneaky. Well, Ceri had been practicing one thing since she had blasted Shane; closing her eyes briefly, she concentrated and let herself see the power in the room. As her eyes opened she let out a soft gasp; the Jade Dragon was humming with energy. Lines of force arced and curled around the room in such volume that she had trouble sorting through them. Lily watched her, almost as if she could sense the confusion as she worked through it all.

Sure enough, two different sets of energy traces billowed out from Lily. The smaller field seemed to originate in her groin, from the glowing pulse of energy which was the terminus of the Tantric Median. It was stronger and, given its origin, Ceri guessed that it was the source of the sensations which made her nipples tighten every time Lily came near. However, there was another field too. It spread out, tenuous, but very wide-ranging, from Lily’s head, from the Chakral Median point called Ajna. Ceri had made a bit of a study of it in her few off moments because that was the part of her head which seemed to sense magic. Mystics said it was responsible for intuition, and it seemed to be generating the field which presumably gave Lily her ability to sense the needs of her customers.

‘You’re seeing it, aren’t you?’ Lily said quietly. ‘What does it look like?’

‘It’s… kind of hard to describe,’ Ceri said. ‘Your… well, the aura I
feel
is a deep red.’ She lifted her hand and watched the strands of force wrapping around it. ‘It kind of
clings
to the flesh… caresses it… really kind of beautiful…’ She shook her head. ‘The other one is a delicate blue, very thin, almost invisible.’ She looked out at the room. ‘It just sort of drifts out like a blanket, touching everyone…’

‘Everyone I can see,’ Lily corrected. ‘Well, everyone I could see if I could see out the back of my head. I have to see them to know what they want.’

Ceri’s thaumatologist instincts were kicking in. ‘Really? Cos it extends out all around you, right through the walls. Could be it needs a visual focus to interpret, or maybe it’s a limitation of your human side…’

Lily giggled. ‘Stop…
theorising!’
Ceri blushed and then frowned. Following her gaze, Lily asked, ‘What is it?’

‘Don’t know… Suddenly there’s a shower of… kind of undirected energy coming from, uh… from one of the werewolves.’ Ceri’s frown deepened. ‘It’s focussing… Oh my God, Lily, I think he’s going to change!’

Lily’s lips drew back into a snarl. ‘Alec!’ she said, but the barman had obviously already heard and was vaulting the bar. ‘If he changes,’ Lily said, ‘we’ll have hell’s own job controlling him and it could cause a cascade. The other weres’ll change and we’ll have a riot on our hands.’ She moved forward, and Ceri watched her aura expand and intensify.

The cascade of force lines around the wolf-man were contracting. Ceri had never seen a werewolf transform before, and even if she had it would not have been like this, but it looked to her as though the man was generating thaumic energy, and that energy was concentrating. She imagined that, when the sphere of thaumitons she was seeing radiating out from the man like the magnetic field around the Earth finally collapsed, it would trigger the transformation. Lily’s aura fell across his three friends like a seething, sensuous blanket, calming them and stilling the bursts of thaumitons which had started from them. Alec was there, trying to calm the Dog Boy down by force of will. Neither seemed to be having the desired effect on the transformation process.

Ceri slipped off her stool and walked toward table four. Alec and Lily, engrossed in their desperate attempts to calm the were, did not see her until it was too late. Ceri stood behind the shape-shifter and placed her hand on the top of his head. His body stiffened. Her eyes closed, and she could still see the field of thaumic energy flowing through his body, up from the base of his spine, along the Chakral Median, out through the Crown, blooming around his body, and back in at the Base. She focussed on it, trying to remember the feeling she had used to attack Shane, but with more control. She heard Lily gasp. The room became hushed. All Ceri could think of was drawing out the power building in the Dog Boy’s body. There was a moment of resistance and then…

Ceri opened her eyes. Her right hand was now palm up, held a few inches away from the were who was breathing hard, but still human. In her hand, a ball of sparkling blue energy sat, surrounded by two darker bands which slowly revolved around the ball. They looked a lot like containment circles.

The entire club had gone quiet and the sudden intrusion of a voice into the silence came as something of a shock. ‘Well, that was exciting, wasn’t it?’ Carter’s voice was ebullient. ‘Alec, a round of drinks on the house.’ The noise level suddenly increased again at the thought of free drinks and the realisation that their host was there and in charge. Ceri almost did not hear Carter speaking to Lily. ‘Get these four out of here right after their drink.’ And then he was beside Ceri, her hand still holding the ball of energy. ‘What do you need?’ he said.

‘Water,’ Ceri said.

Despite the lack of humour of the situation, his lips quirked. ‘You want a drink of water?’

Ceri giggled. ‘No, a bucket… no, make that something like a bath. Need to sink the energy.’

Carter nodded and looked up at Lily. ‘Take her through to the bathroom back of my office.’

Lily nodded and started back toward the bar, Ceri following after. As they started into the back rooms, Cheryl appeared from the toilets looking flushed and straightening the hem of her dress. ‘Did I miss something?’ she asked, her eyes on Ceri’s hand. Ceri and Lily looked at her, and started giggling.

Kennington, September 25
^th

Ceri’s bare feet slapped on the slate floor of the kitchen as she headed for the coffee machine. Twill had obviously filled it when she heard people starting to move about; it was full of beautiful, brown wakefulness, and she poured herself a mug, turning around to lean casually against the counter. The coffee tasted like liquid gold.

Lily walked into the kitchen looking about as awake as Ceri felt. She brushed tousled hair out of her face and said, ‘Is there coffee?’

Ceri nodded. ‘Fresh,’ she said.

Lily took a mug, filled it, and took a drink, settling against the counter beside Ceri. She let out a contented sigh. ‘You’re naked,’ she said.

Ceri looked down at herself. ‘Um, yeah,’ she said. ‘Sorry. Long night, y’know?’

It had, in fact, been a long night. After boiling an entire bath of water with the energy she had pulled out of the werewolf, a trick which had had Lily watching with an awed expression, Ceri had been plied with drinks until closing time. Getting home was a bit of a blur. She
thought
Carter had driven Lily and her home, and then driven off with Cheryl. She vaguely remembered giggling with Lily about what they would be getting up to. Carter had a reputation for sleeping with a different woman every night, but they both had a suspicion that Cheryl was going to get a weekend.

‘You don’t have to apologise, y’know?’ Lily said. ‘I like it.’ Ceri’s cheeks coloured. ‘Though, if I’m honest, you’re sexier when you’re wearing one of those shirts, or a one of those teddy things.’ Ceri’s cheeks considered bursting into flame. ‘You looked
really
sexy last night.’ Ceri took a nervous drink of coffee, which did still her breathing some. ‘So are you going to start work on the house enchantments today?’ Lily glanced at the clock and added, ‘In what’s left of today.’

The sudden change of topic left Ceri floundering. She looked at the clock; it was after three. ‘Well damn,’ she said. ‘Uh, no, given the time. Carter suggested some reading. I think I’ll call today on account of sleeping through most of it, and take a look at that.’

‘Cool,’ Lily said, checking the weather through the window. It was overcast and looked like it might rain. She sucked on a fang. ‘I’ll hang around looking pretty and being a nuisance,’ she said.

A ball of glittering fairy-light whisked in through kitchen door, materialising into Twill’s normal shape and skidding to a stop in the air. ‘Oh, you’re both up,’ she said. She put her tiny hands on her hips. ‘I suppose you’ll want some breakfast? Or should I say tea?’

Ceri shook her head. ‘I’ll wait until dinner,’ she said. ‘My stomach is slightly delicate.’

‘How did you manage to escape a throbbing hangover?’ Lily said. The half-succubus
never
got hangovers.

Ceri shrugged. ‘Just lucky, I guess. I’m going to put something on and find my tablet.’

‘One of your teddies,’ Lily said. ‘That black one with the leaf pattern in the mesh.’

‘Uh, sure,’ Ceri said, heading for the door.

‘You look
edible
in that,’ Lily added. Ceri fled.

~~~

The documents in the “Psychology” directory consisted of various e-books and papers, mostly on the psychology of demons, but there were also a couple on werewolves and a single one on werefoxes. People had a tendency to discount the fox shape-shifters; they were largely solitary and, frankly, not very interesting. Ceri looked through the titles as she sat in the study. Twill had chased them out of the kitchen so she could cook.

Lily strolled into the room and Ceri glanced up, flashing her a smile. Lily smiled back and continued walking to the chaise longe. Even though she knew her friend was using her aura, Ceri could not take her eyes off the slowly moving figure. Lily sank onto the seat, lying back and stretching. Ceri let out a whimper which she really hoped Lily did not hear.

‘Thank you,’ Lily said.

‘Uh… what for?’

‘For wearing what I asked.’ Lily favoured her with a long, sweeping look and Ceri hid her embarrassment by looking down at the tablet.

‘Uh, well… had to wear something.’ A file caught Ceri’s eye and she clicked it. The title page popped up; it was a semi-academic document written in the late sixties entitled
On the Care and Control of Your Succubus.
Back in the sixties and seventies it had been all the rage for wizards to summon and bind succubi. A few still did it, but it had gone out of fashion a bit as the demonologists tried to gain a better reputation. Ceri flicked to the first page and started reading through a slightly rambling discussion on the benefits to be had from a sexual partner who happened to be a demon. When the author started describing some of the interesting things he had got up to with his own pet succubus, she decided to skip ahead; he had a very descriptive writing style and she was feeling hot enough already. Thankfully, things settled down when he actually started describing the psychological precepts behind successfully handling his demon.

The first thing to remember about succubi,
she read,
about all demons in fact, is that they seek power above all else. Demons dwell in a dimension steeped in magical energy, or so we believe, and they are constantly vying for control of that energy. When they cross over, they seek instead those who are powerful, in magical ways, here. Succubi, therefore, are attracted by power and the more powerful a wizard is, the more a succubus will be drawn to him, seeking his patronage. When a succubus behaves submissively toward you, this is a sure sign that she is seeking to make you her Master.