Gnomes of Suburbia (9 page)

His grin was devilish. “Done. The instant that you are firmly in control of the power, we have a date."

She extended her hand and he shook it. “We have a deal. What is your official job title by the way?"

He was escorting her out and he gently pinched her backside as he gave her a light shove out the door. “I am the Safety Warlock. Do you feel safe?"

"Nope, and I can't wait for our date.” A wink and a quick peck on the lips and she was skipping back to her house. This place was definitely becoming more and more like home.

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Day one of her official Nexus training was not off to a great start, for Xander. He really should have asked her how early she liked to wake up before pounding on her door with a cheerful, “Abby, it's time to start your training."

Even her gnomes looked at him with horror as she struggled down the hall and into the bathroom for a shower.

Then he decided to pound on the bathroom door. “We don't have time for you to take a shower. Come on and let's get started."

Bastard. Apparently the thought of her naked under all that hot water, soaping herself slowly was an image that he didn't entertain. Bastard.

Her ablutions took their regular amount of time, but by the scowl on his face, Xander had been waiting two eternities for her. “Abby, I wanted to get started this morning."

She tucked her towel firmly around her and pattered back to her bedroom, “Xander, morning lasts until eleven fifty-nine AM. Chill. And tomorrow, tell me what time you want me there and you won't have to come get me.” She turned just as she was entering her room to get dressed. His eyes did not meet hers, they were fixated somewhat lower. Huh, he was an ass man. Handy to know. “Oy. Move the eyeballs higher, Safety Warlock. You might get a crick in your neck if you keep staring at my ass."

His blush was cute but it was paired with a knowledgeable gleam. “You have four minutes to get dressed and then I am coming in after you."

As tempting as that was, she shut the door behind her and slid into the clothes that she had put out the night before. She had a feeling that Xander would be an early riser and she didn't want to be caught unprepared. He still managed to surprise her though.

Her sports bra was yanked unceremoniously over her head and, with a practiced shimmy and a few good adjustments, she was tucked in nice and tight. Just what she wanted if she was working with a hottie. The pressure cut down on the obvious nipplage.

A baggy sweatshirt guaranteed her lack of noticeable arousal and her jeans snapped and zipped with the finality of a chastity belt. No nooky today. She was declaring her body a nooky-free zone. But just today.

At the four-minute mark, Xander opened the door and was treated to the sight of her in the most saggy, shapeless clothing that she owned. Down to the trashy sneakers and slouchy socks.

"Good lord. What happened to you?"

"I got dressed.” She fought her smile.

"It looks like your clothing ate you."

"I am just trying to keep my mind on the task at hand.” She sashayed out of the room and slapped his tush lightly as she passed. “You may want to try it."

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"I want you to concentrate. Focus on your energy. Look with your inner eye."

She was currently squinting at him with the one eye she had open. “I can see it. What next, oh Sensei?"

"Do you know how to trigger a burst of magic? How to fill your body with the charge until it is overflowing?"

"That sounds like an orgasm."

"Hush. Be serious."

"Yep. I am at the ninety percent mark now."

"Can you discharge the magic in the air around you?"

"Now you are getting kinky.” She was in the lotus position and had a great view of his thighs as he concentrated on watching her magic ebb and flow in the air around her. He was seated on an elevated dais in front of her, which put his crotch right in her line of sight. Wasn't a bad view.

"Do you think you can be serious for just a moment?"

"Okay, but make it fast."

"I want you to release your energy into the room in a violent burst."

She took a deep breath and another to inhale his scent. One hundred percent charge and here she blows.

The next thing she knew she was on her back and Xander was slapping her in the face lightly as a pool of his energy swirled inside her where hers was supposed to be.

"Abby, pull your energy back. I kept it in the room, just pull it back into you. Please, Abby, just do this."

"Okay.” Relaxing into the nice supportive floor, she found all of her energy and put it back into her body until she was at fly-apart stage again. Xander's energy went back into him. He was a little pasty.

The jolt of his own energy hitting his body surprised him, but the color immediately returned to him. “Why did you do that?"

She sat up and propped herself on her hands. “I didn't need it anymore and I thought you may want it back."

"A better question for you. How did you do that?"

"No idea. I pushed it out of me, wadded it into a ball and shoved it at you. Your body seemed happy to have it back. Did I die?” She finally put two and two together. He had had to give her something to keep her alive because she had blown hers around the room. Stupid. Like a bad insulation job.

"Almost. You became drained. For a Nexus, that is pretty close.” He was sitting back, kneeling and fighting the urge to do something...

She had no idea what. Kiss her? Kill her? Throw her back onto the floor and have his way with her? Nah. He was still in instructor mode.

"We need to keep you healthy and in control of your powers. I should have started with core training."

"Pilates?” She sounded hopeful, even to her own ears.

"No, but you may wish it was.” He stood and began to lecture her on the methods of protecting core energy. The energy that her body needed to keep at all times.

He ran her through seventeen exercises and finally had to resort to charades to get the point across.

He held up two fingers in front of her. “This is your core energy. It swirls around you at all times, even when your talent is at rest. Can you identify that power?"

Sulking, she nodded. She perked up at his next demonstration. He made a tube with the fingers of the other hand and lowered it around the two fingers. That was too suggestive and she burst out laughing.

"Quiet. I know how this looks. But you have to do this. You need to create a barrier between your core energy and your working energy. If you don't, the first time that you purge excess energy, you will die."

She sat through his description of the variety of ways that she could change her magic to incorporate a personal permanent barrier. Then it was test time. She had to concentrate, explode, pass out, concentrate, explode, pass out, and finally she didn't pass out in between. “Ta-da! I still have it in me and my energy is spattered in here like a Jackson Pollock painting."

"Congratulations! Now I know you won't die when we keep training."

She crossed her arms and glared at him. She was exhausted, hungry and really wanted a cup of coffee.

"Well, I think you have gone far enough today. Do you have any questions?"

She grinned from ear to ear. “As a matter of fact I do.” She took a wrinkled piece of paper out of her pocket and read off her question. “Do angels and demons really exist in some form or is that all fiction?"

"Angels are ethereal beings that rarely directly involve themselves in the daily operations of our world. They are quite pretty, if a little taller than the stories say. The average angel runs close to seven and a half feet tall. Women can't resist them."

"What about the demons? If angels are real, then the demons have to be, don't they?"

He handed her a glass of water from a tray on the table near where he had been perched. “Demons are very real and are very active in the mystical circles. They regularly interbreed with other beings, humans or not, and have wicked but not necessarily evil personalities."

"The angels keep to themselves?"

"As far as we know. The few children born in the past were ... unpredictable.” He sipped at his own water. “They don't talk about them, but they were described as beautiful and terrible."

"Ah, the Nephilim of the bible."

"Indeed. Any other questions?"

"No. I need to pace myself, don't you think?"

He helped her to her feet and she stretched. His eyes immediately found the tiny sliver of naked skin bared by the hiked sweatshirt. He didn't touch so she lowered her arms and headed for the front door.

"See you tomorrow, Teach.” The bolt on the door had been drawn so she unlatched it. It snapped back into position and she began to guess that he had it magically booby trapped. A look with her tired inner eye showed her that his energy was in it. She simply moved his aside with some of her own and the lock snapped open. She turned the handle and was out the door in an instant. “Bye!"

Walking down his well-manicured lawn was relaxing, but what she really needed was a good coffee.

Montrose's Munchies called.

She had to answer.

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Day two of training started better. Abby got out of bed on her own when her alarm rang, showered and was waiting with a thermos of hot tea in her hand when Xander knocked at the door.

"Greetings oh great and wonderful, Safety Warlock.” He seemed taken aback by her mood. “If you are wondering about my chipper attitude, I have been up for two hours and have had breakfast, a shower and watched morning television.

"Excellent. Shall we then?” Xander took the thermos from her and escorted her gallantly to his home. “I will have to admit to a certain amount of disappointment to not seeing you in your towel again. You have a great ass by the way."

A wash of heat worked its way through her face. “That was very frank."

"I am attracted to you, but I am going to try and keep it in my pants until we get you trained."

"Why wait?"

"Because I have no idea what that much energy will do to me if you come while I am inside you. I would rather you didn't blow my balls off. Well, not with magic anyway."

She laughed all the way to the training room. Today she admired the thought that went into the arrangement of the room. The walls were bare and, using her new senses, she could find the barriers that ran under the drywall and kept energy contained. It was designed for someone like her to blast the hell out of. Well, she would try. “Okay. I am fully charged, coach. What are we doing today?” She sat in her spot and took up the lotus position again. This time with her tea near at hand.

"Today, I want you to learn to hold your power in your hand."

She would rather hold his ... “What? It's all over me, all the time."

"I know. But I want you to focus it on one point in your hand and force the power to make a physical appearance.” He took up his own position and showed her what he meant. He held out his hand and looked down at his palm.

Abby couldn't help but notice that his nails were neatly trimmed and his hands were large. Oh goody. She jumped in surprise when a ball of power flared in his palm. She stared as she could see it whether she looked with her inner eye or not. It threw light into the semi-dark room and the colors of his magic took her breath away.

"All right, Abby. It's your turn.” He closed his hand and the lightshow winked out.

"Good. Fine.” Her chest expanded as she took a deep breath and she couldn't help but notice that Xander's gaze followed her breasts. As an experiment, she inhaled deeply once again, only to watch a dark flush cross his cheekbones. Aha.

Play time was over, it was time for training. She wrapped up her core as he had taught her yesterday and viewed the energy coating her. It was quite pretty, flowing with the oil-on-water iridescence that she loved. Abby could not just blow apart the magic as she had done the day before. This necessitated peeling the magic off and wadding it into a ball. Tricky.

One hand would not contain her full charge. She extended both hands and focussed on them. Mentally, she skinned the magic off her body and into her hands. It formed a shapeless mass the size of a half-filled hefty bag. Time to make a ball.

This was the truly tricky part. She wrapped strands of energy around the mass and wound it up like a ball of yarn. Her hands remained steady, but her mind was spinning. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Abby was looking at a bright and shiny mass of power the size of a basketball. Glowing with pride, and not a little sweat, she looked over at Xander. “Look what I made!"

His mouth opened and closed in shock. “Holy shit.” He stood and moved to watch her holding the giant wad of power. “Is that an exceptionally large bundle of energy for you?"

"No. It feels about average.” She suddenly had a bad thought. “You aren't upset because mine is bigger than yours, are you?"

He looked at her and gave a sharp bark of laughter. “I will beg to differ on that point, but you do hold more energy than I do. Can you re-absorb it now?"

"I would rather have somewhere to put it, but since I have filled all the pearls that you have, I think I will have to try and wear it until I can get to the rock.” Lifting the ball, she put it on her head and let the strands fall around her body. It fell back into place easily. “Okay. So I have balls. What is next?"

He grabbed her hands and lifted her to her feet. “Nothing more today. You have been at that for hours."

So the time she felt passing had been real. Neat. She had been so focussed on getting it right that time had ceased to be important. “All righty. Can I ask you another question?"

"Shoot."

"Elves. Legolas or those little guys who made shoes? Are they a dignified race or tiny pervs who work for clothing?"

Another bark of laughter. “Somewhere in between. They are a race that varies in height and attractiveness. The elves are a little snotty, but basically good hearted."