With another month or so before he would need to go out again, David set himself to learning every trick Aidan could teach him. Mostly that meant practicing mental combat, and learning how to fight physically while still attacking with his mind.

"You're getting good at this," said Aidan, ducking a sword swing as he also countered David's mental pressure. David had no idea how Aidan could manage to fight, concentrate mentally, and still speak all at once, it was all David could do to manage the two tasks at the same time, and his physical reaction speed wasn't nearly as good as when fighting had his full attention. "Which is," he paused as he slashed at David, "A very good thing indeed. You have ," he blocked another strike, "More chance of pulling this off than I thought. Your mental combat is even better than I'd hoped," he ducked, "And given the fact that vampires mostly posture and seldom" he lashed out with a quick jab that got through David's defenses and pricked his arm, "Actually fight each other, you should do quite well indeed." He lowered his sword, having won this particular round, and grinned. "In fact, I think there's just one more lesson I need to give you. Vampires are fundamentally selfish, and nearly always cowards, which means they're weak minded, by and large. And you're anything but! But there are a few exceptions, and it's possible that eventually you're going to run into somebody who is stronger than you are. There is one little trick that may still allow you to get the upper hand." Aidan sheathed his sword, and David did likewise.

"Make a mental attack. I'm going to let you 'win' and then I'll show you the trick."

David nodded, and with the ease of nearly two month's familiarity he reached out mentally, applying pressure to Aidan's mind. There was much less resistance than he was used to, and soon he had the other vampire very firmly under his control. And then suddenly he didn't, because Aidan had vanished, and there was nothing there to grab. He gave the older vampire a startled look. He was still standing there, but mentally David sensed nothing, nobody. If he closed his eyes, he would have assumed he was completely alone. Then Aidan reappeared and attacked in the same instant, and still surprised and confused, David wasn't able to mount any kind of resistance. Aidan released him a moment later and stood there, grinning.

"What the hell was that?" said David.

"Meditation," answered Aidan, and grinned wider.

"What?"

"Meditation. Well, sort of. If you stop fighting, and blank your mind completely, think of nothing at all, then you suddenly aren't 'there' any more, and the person who has you is going to be overbalanced. It's the mental equivalent of letting go of the rope during a tug of war. It's useful for other things too, though close to impossible to do while you're moving. But you can sit down and vanish to the mental senses of your opponents, which means you can set ambushes, or lose pursuit, because they won't know you're there at all. It's a really helpful trick, and given your strength of mind it shouldn't take you long to learn at all. Here, we'll give it a try."

And without further warning Aidan attacked mentally again. David had been expecting it though, and countered. But this time was different from the other occasions when he and Aidan had sparred. This time the older vampire's mind grabbed and overwhelmed David's quickly, easily, and David suddenly realized that Aidan had been holding back before. With a thought Aidan held David in place, frozen physically as well as mentally.

"All right. Now you just have to stop fighting and blank your mind."

David relaxed and stopped trying to break free of the mental hold, closing his eyes to try and concentrate. Every time he thought he'd cleared his mind, some thought would pop back up. He would have said something in frustration, but Aidan's hold wouldn't let him.

"You might find it helpful to concentrate on a visual image," said Aidan in a conversational tone, his mental grip not weakening an ounce despite the distraction of speaking. "If you can picture a single object in a white room, and then it dissolves and there's nothing but white, or a flame in a black room, which goes out, leaving the black, I find that helps, to focus on a single thing and then when you've blocked out all other thought, let that thing go."

David, his eyes still closed, pictured the white room. An empty white room with just his sword leaning against the wall. It was much easier to avoid other thoughts, as Aidan had said. Soon the room was all that existed. He felt very calm and still, and he realized somewhere at the back of his mind how busy his thoughts usually were. Then, when there was nothing else in the universe but the room and the single sword, he pictured the sword dissolving, leaving just the empty white. And with a kind of mental snap, like a rubber band under tension springing away when you let one end go, Aidan's hold on him was gone.