Influencing the Mind

Trinity wasn't about to end the conversation without at least getting a few answers out of him first. "At least tell me why! Why can I not touch the stone skin? Why do you even turn to stone in the first place? What is the purpose or reasoning behind it? You say you needed my help, but you won't answer any of my questions when I try to understand why?"

Zyxel continued to glare at her. "Because it is safer for you if you do not know these things."

Trinity scoffed at that answer. "Safe from what? You want to keep me safe? Tell me what I need to stay safe from so I know what to watch out for! Just telling me that I can't touch the stone, doesn't explain why I can't, and is only gonna make me want to do it to figure out what the reason may be!" She held her head high in defiance.

Zyxel growled, his eyes glowing red once more. "Stupid human! Can't you just accept that some things are beyond your understanding?"

Trinity grinned. "Nope!" she replied as she popped the "p" sound at the end, emphasizing her refusal to just blindly accept anything with no explanation.

"You are proving to be more annoying than you are worth." Zyxel growled in annoyance, as he paced back and forth.

"So let me go home! Find someone else to be tied to you!"

Zyxel growled again and turned away to look at the position of the sun while thinking silently to himself. 'Another person may not have your strange level of inner strength that you seem to possess.' But he couldn't explain this to her, since even he didn't understand the reason why.

Wanting to change the topic, he waved his red demon hand towards a specific tunnel in the cave. "I can tell that you haven't been awake long. Go ahead and grab your items that you will need. I'm gonna be gone for a while, so feel free to take your time. I will bring you back some meat to eat in an hour."

Trinity's eyes lit up with excitement. 'Meat!' she shouted in her mind, as saliva pooled in her mouth just from the thought.

Zyxel laughed quietly from her reaction.

That's when she stiffened her posture as she glared at him with suspicion. "Why are you suddenly being so nice?"

Zyxel scrunched his eyebrows together. "Have I not been nice lately?"

Trinity wanted to fall over from the absurdity of the question. "No! You've been a total ass these past three weeks! So why the change?"

Zyxel stared off into the distance as if he was deep in thought. "My sister came too close to our location last night. Had she gotten any closer, she would have sensed the barrier that is protecting our location, and you are not healed enough yet. She cannot know where you are."

"Your sister?" Trinity whispered. "There's another demon out there?"

Zyxel stared at her like she was crazy. "Of course not!" Then he shook his head and sighed. "I keep forgetting how ignorant humanity has become!"

"Hey!" Trinity shouted in defense, but before she could get another word out, he cut her off.

"My twin sister is not a demon, she is an angel. The same one who has been living at the church because that priest doesn't know his own history." He snarled as he spoke those last words.

Trinity took a step back. She wanted to lay into him about how he was speaking about her father, but hearing the relation between himself and the angel, took her by surprise. "Whoa! Hold on a second here, Amara is your sister? Wait, twin sister? But, how is that even possible? What?!"

Zyxel pursed his lips together. "Amara? Is that what she is calling herself these days? Figures she'd pick the furthest letter in the alphabet opposite my own name. She's always hated me!" Grinning his devilish grin, a laugh rippled from deep within him, as a spark of amusement gleamed in his eyes.

Trinity nodded, pretending to understand, while trying to avoid outwardly shivering from the expression he was showing. In his demonic form, that grin just looked too creepy.

On que to her thoughts, he began to shift his appearance back into his humanoid form, this time with no black wings protruding out of his back.

"Have you met my sister yet?" Zyxel asked as he gazed at Trinity with an amusing half smile on his face.

Trinity shook her head. She had been meaning to speak with her to figure out how to protect herself from Zyxel, before everything happened and she got stuck here. But no way she was gonna let him know that!

Seeing how her body was no longer tense after he switched to his human form, he grinned and strolled over to where she stood. Cupping her chin delicately between his thumb and index finger. Leaning in close, he whispered into her ear. "Is this body more appealing to you?" His voice was low and seductive, as he pulled his head back to stare into her eyes.

When their eyes locked, Trinity felt an intense pull that seemed to be luring her into his seductive gaze. She almost didn't want to resist. Wanting to give in to the charm that he was working on her.

She shut her eyes tight and shook her head to clear her thoughts. "You are the most bi-polar demon I have ever met!" She tried to push him away from her, but he stood his ground. Her heartbeat accelerated as she could feel just how close he was to her, and he seemed to enjoy her reaction.

Zyxel smirked and chuckled at her comment. "I'm the only demon you have ever met!" He took a step and leaned in closer to her until she could feel his breath on her skin. He waited until she opened her eyes back up as he re-locked the connection between them and continued to stare into her eyes a second time. His thumb began grazing against her cheek ever so softly.

"Now, answer my question. Does this body appeal better to you? Does it, excite you?" His right hand that had been brushing against her cheek, moved towards her left arm as he caressed down the surface of her skin lightly with the back of his fingers, causing goosebumps to form over her skin. "Your heartbeat is racing. I think you like my touch."

Trinity could tell he was doing something to her mind, but she couldn't figure out how he was doing it. Her head felt like it was in a fog, preventing her from thinking straight. She felt compelled to keep locked with his gaze, unable to turn away. Every fiber of her being, screamed at her to give in to him.

She gathered every bit of mental strength that she had within her and shook her head once more, trying to clear her mind from whatever he was doing. Flicking his hand away, she pushed with all her strength to push him away. "No, no! You are not gonna do this! You cannot be nice to me on the first day, then ignore me for three weeks, and now suddenly be all seductive and... all the rest of this." She shivered at the emotions and thoughts he had caused her to feel. "I cannot deal with these bi-polar mood swings of yours! Also, I have no clue what the hell you were just trying to accomplish there, but it's not gonna work!"

Zyxel laughed deeper, as if he found her reaction amusing. He backed away with a satisfied smile. "Good! You aren't easily influenced. You're gonna need that if you encounter Amara."

The fog that clouded in Trinity's mind suddenly cleared, and she could finally think semi-straight again.

"Wait, what?" Trinity stood there dumbfounded and breathing heavy. Her heartbeat was still racing from all the emotions and confusion he had caused her. 'Was all of that just now, some weird test? It felt so intoxicating and hard to resist.'

Zyxel walked towards the cliff. "Go take your bath. I'm going hunting." And with that, he dove off the cliff.

Trinity wanted to rush to the edge of the cliff, but she still couldn't run yet, so she limped closer to make sure he would be ok. He had jumped off without his wings. However, just a few seconds later, she spotted him gliding along the current, his black feathered wings glistening in the sunlight.

With a sigh of relief, she muttered, "Showoff!"

She went over to her bed and grabbed her "pillow" which was actually a rolled up towel, then grabbed a fresh change of clothes; both of which Zyxel must have stolen from somewhere. As horrible as she felt about it at the time, she wasn't about to complain. Just the mere fact of being able to change into clean clothes was a luxury to her right now.

Next she grabbed a glass jar of a light brown liquid. There was only about a quarter of the jar left, so she would have to boil some more of the soap nuts later, after they ate. Soap nuts, also called soap berries, was the shell of a dried berry. Before meeting Zyxel, she had never heard of soap nuts before, let alone would she ever consider using them to wash with. However, his knowledge of how humans lived thousands of years ago definitely came in handy.

At first, she didn't believe that it would work. How was a shell of a berry supposed to clean? But after he demonstrated how to boil it down to release the natural saponins that were found inside the inner lining of the shell, she was shocked. The saponins acted as surfactant, which helped to lift and wash away dirt and oils, just like regular soap did. The small amount of lather that was produced wasn't what she was used to, but she couldn't deny that it was still effective.

Navigating down one of the tunnels, she walked through the dark passageway until she reached the small pool of water. Zyxel had spelled this area to emit a soft glow of light, as well as ensured that the water would always stay warm.

Trinity sat down at the edge of the water. Straightening out her left leg, she untied the ties that kept the fabric from unraveling. Next she began unwrapping the strips of fabric that Zyxel had wrapped around her brace. After finally reaching the end, she grabbed the two wooden boards that kept her leg straight so it could heal properly. This was the last of her bones that was still healing from the break.

Since she had landed on the ground on her right side back in the alley, most of her bones on that side were not as damaged or broken as the bones on her left side had been, which had received the brunt of the beatings and kicks from those five guys.

Gently she lifted up her left leg with both hands and guided it into the pool of water, before taking off her clothes and sliding down into the warm water. She lay back and allowed the heat from the water to work its magic to help relax her muscles.

After relaxing in the water for a while she grabbed the glass jar and shook it up as hard as she could to activate the lather. Pouring some of the liquid from the boiled soap nuts into her hair, she began massaging her scalp and washing her hair.

Once her hair and body were cleaned, she grabbed her dirty clothes and pulled them down into the water. Using the rest of the soap nut liquid, she worked the soap into the clothes by folding and rubbing the clothes against itself to force the agitation. She wasn't the best at hand washing like this, but it was better than nothing, and at least it got her clothes clean. That's all that really mattered.

After rinsing the clothes clean, she pulled herself out of the water and patted her leg back dry with the towel so she could wrap it back up. Climbing to her feet, she dried the rest of her body before putting the new set of clean clothes on. Slipping into a black and red dress, she grabbed her walking staff and all of her items that she needed to carry back, then walked back through the tunnels until she reached the front entrance of the cave, only to see Zyxel already back and in his demonic form, using his long claws to slice the meat from the deer that he had killed. A fire was already burning bright as he prepped the meat.

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Books I am currently writing:

- The Forbidden Luna

- Divine Banishment