"Excellent!" David opened his eyes to see Aidan's familiar toothy grin. "You'll want to learn to do it faster, and to counter-attack as soon as you're free, but doing it on the first try was really quite good of you, mastering it entirely shouldn't be hard at all!"

David nodded. Then he thought of something. "Hey, if you could take over my mind that easily, why didn't you make Raven do what you wanted that way, when you first met me?"

Aidan grimaced. "The mental ability of a vampire is a little different for me. For you, you're just going to sense a sort of..." he trailed off and shrugged. "A sort of formless power, for lack of a better way to put it. But I'm a lot more sensitive. I can actually tell what a vampire is thinking, when I touch their minds. I avoid mental combat as much as I possibly can. The thoughts of Raven and her type really aren't that pleasant. And the fact that I once thought similar things myself tends to make it worse. Too many bad memories. I use it when I must, but generally I can get that sort to back down without having to resort to it."

"Oh."

Aidan grinned. "But enough of that. Time for more practice!"

"Ugh," said David.

"Come on! You must master the mysterious and mystical art of ceasing to exist! Very useful! And," he added, his expression turning serious, "Once you've mastered that, that's it. There's nothing else I can teach you."

David nodded soberly. "Then it will be time for me to hunt."