Zyxel

Now that she was awake, he withdrew his black feathered wings away from her body.

As his wings slid off her skin, she began to feel a slight chill in the air. She restrained from shivering, not wanting to show any sign of weakness in front of him.

'Was he trying to keep me warm with his wings?' Trinity thought to herself. She blinked in confusion as she continued to stare at him, not sure what to think. This was all too weird to wrap her mind around. 'Why would he do such a thing?'

The demon boy who stood before her now, was still the one with the dark tanned skin and ice blue eyes, like he had before when he wasn't displaying his demon form. But now he had a pair of giant black feathered wings attached to his back, that he didn't have before.

A demon boy who could choose to not look like a demon, made her head hurt just from thinking about it. Too many strange things had already occurred these past few days, she didn't want to have to deal with any more strangeness.

She raised her arm up slowly, to examine the gashes that those boys from the alley had cut into her skin. Aside from the splint that the demon boy had tied, her arm showed no signs of any cuts from their knives.

Following her eyes, the demon boy spoke up. "I'm not much of a healer. It's not really a skill that I have practiced very much. Truthfully I never thought I would need to know it at all. I was able to heal your cuts and bruises, as well as the minor internal bleeding. Although, mending the broken bones are outside of my healing capabilities, so they will need to heal naturally at your own human speed. The most important part is that you are no longer at any risk of dying now. It'll just take a bit of time to fully heal from the injuries that I am incapable of healing."

Again Trinity attempted to sit up, wanting to be able to keep a close eye on him, not allowing him to leave her sight. But as soon as he reached towards her, she recoiled from his touch and causing her to slide away from his grasp.

Too quick for her to notice he was standing at her side and caught her before her head hit the hard stone.

"Fear me if that's what you want, but you will not heal if you just cause yourself more injuries." Gently, he helped her to sit up, propping her against the corner of the carved stone bed, so she could still rest. He took a few steps back to give her some space after he was certain that she would not be in any danger of falling over. He didn't need her injuring herself more.

Trinity scoffed at his comment. "I don't fear you, that's the problem. You made certain of that with whatever spell you placed on me!"

The demon smirked and chuckled. "Is that so? That's pretty interesting that you would think so."

He ticked off with his fingers as he counted each of the spells he had previously used on her. "The first spell I placed on you, was to put you to sleep after you performed the spell that I taught you. A spell like that takes a lot of energy, and you needed the rest. The second spell wasn't really even much of a spell at all. It was just a simple location spell, telling you where to meet me. And the final two spells was a silence and protection spell."

Trinity glared angrily at him. "Silence spell. That actually makes sense. Is that why I couldn't speak anything against you when I was speaking with my father?"

He shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. "You didn't recall any of your memories, and I couldn't risk any chances of something going wrong while I was stone. Like I said before, humanity has progressed in a weird way these past couple thousand years. You don't remember your own history." He held a hand to his forehead as he shook his head in disbelief.

But as he went on with his explanation, he chuckled once more as he grinned. "But as for a spell to not make you afraid of me, I never cast. If you are not afraid of me, well then that's all your own doing. Then again, I have not done anything that should cause you to be afraid, either. Now have I?" He arched an eyebrow at her as he flashed a mischievous grin.

Trinity thought about what he had said. It was very possible that the reason she wasn't afraid of him had to do with whatever had happened while he had possessed her. But then again, how much of what he says could she really even trust?

"You're forgetting two spells." She finally replied back.

The demon boy smiled at her amused and chuckled softly. "Oh am I? Humor me and please tell me what might those be!"

Trinity snorted at his comment. How dense could he be? "The spell that you cast to force me to say that spell, of course! Why else would I have ever helped you? And then there is the fact that I was incapable of leaving your side while you were a stone gargoyle. Explain those!"

The demon boy burst out laughing. When he finally calmed down enough, he just grinned and shook his head. "You are very amusing! Honestly, I don't think you're ready to hear about the first accusation. As for the second, that was all your doing! I had nothing to do with that." He winked at her.

He turned and walked deeper into the cave and began to rummage around through a few items, until he found what he was looking for. He poured some liquid, then carried two items back over to her.

With one hand, he handed her a cup containing whatever drink he had poured, and with the other hand he handed her what appeared to be some very thin shavings of some type of tree bark.

"Now that you're awake however, you will want to take this. This here is willow bark," he replied as if reading her mind. "Chew thoroughly then swallow and it will help you with the pain. The herbal tea will help you with your bone healing. It's not hot anymore, but it has been thoroughly infused with the herbs, and will still help."

Trinity hesitated as she took the tea and the bark from his hands, but she was too suspicious to consume either of them. She just continued to stare at him, making sure to keep him in her sights at all times. She still had no clue how much she could trust for anything that he said.

He sighed at her hesitation and shook his head. "The choice is yours, I won't force you to take it." He walked away from her as he headed to the front of the cave. He stood there at the front of the cave, just staring at the view outside.

Trinity stared back and forth between him and the items he gave her. She wasn't sure what to think. This wasn't how she expected a demon to act. Not only had he saved her from the street thugs in the alley, but he had also healed her cuts, and splinted the bones that were broken. She found it hard to believe that he really was even a demon at all.

"What is the tea made of?" Trinity asked quietly.

Briefly the demon turned back towards Trinity, but he stayed at the front of the cave. "The tea is a mixture of comfrey, horsetail, and nettle which should help you with the bone healing, since it is out of my league to assist with. I gathered the herbs while you were sleeping and infused them over a fire. There is plenty more available if you choose to accept it." He turned back to staring outside.

Trinity looked back down at the cup of tea, before finally deciding to take the plunge and just risk it. 'If he was planning on killing me, he would have done it by now, rather than bandaging me up just to poison me.' she thought to herself. She took a sip of the tea then placed a few thin strips of the bark shavings in her mouth to chew.

The two of them remained quiet for a while. After some time went by, she finally gathered up the courage to say something she never imagined she would be saying to him. "Thank you, for saving my life!" She whispered, barely even able to hear herself as she said the words.

Yet the soft spoken words still managed to reach the ears of the demon. He smiled at her words. Without turning around, he replied back to her. "You're welcome. They will not be bothering you again!"

Trinity had been pretty out of it and dizzy by the time he had shown up, so she wasn't quite sure what she had seen, or what she had imagined. "You killed them, didn't you? All of them?" She glanced up, waiting for him to look at her. She wanted to look into his eyes as he answered.

Hearing the seriousness in her voice, he turned to face her again. "I did." he replied without hesitation. He expected her to reply back, but when she never did, he began to wonder what was going through her mind. He studied her facial expressions, attempting to figure out what she was thinking or feeling. "Do you feel remorse for the people who tortured you?"

Trinity thought about those words. She wasn't sure what she felt at the moment. Anger and hatred at what they had done to her, for sure. Fear that she had almost died at their hands. Worry for how her friends must be dealing with everything that happened. But did she feel any guilt or remorse over his actions? She wasn't sure.

Not knowing how to answer his question, she looked back into his eyes again. "Why did you kill them? What I mean is, why choose to kill them over just stopping them instead? What was the reason behind it?"

He stood there for several minutes, debating as to how much he should tell her. Finally, he began to walk over to where she sat. Staring deep into her greenish colored eyes, he grazed the edge of her soft cheek with his thumb. Something about her eye coloring seemed off to him.

He decided to explain only the details that she needed to know. There was no reason to go into full detail. "Because they hurt you, and I cannot have that happening. We are now linked, you and I. If you die, the spell that allows me to stay in this realm unharmed becomes broken, and I cannot have that happen until I figure out what my demented sister is planning, and send her back to the void."

He grinned as he studied her. "Also, there's just something about you that I can't quite put my finger on, and it intrigues me."

His eyes sparkled with interest, and her heart pounded at his delicate touch on her skin.

"What's your name?" She found herself asking, without even thinking. She wasn't even sure why she was wanting to know.

The demon boy just smiled his mischievous grin again that made her heart race even faster. "My name is Zyxel!"

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Books I am currently writing:

- The Forbidden Luna

- Divine Banishment