His talent was in manipulation of the mind but such manipulation does not happen easily. The only way to get into someone's mind was to find someone who was filled with anger and resentment, with frustration and even hate, such strong emotions churning like butter in an old fashioned urn. All he needed was enough violent emotion in a mind to create a small crack, what he called the wedge. Once he had the wedge in, he could begin and even then it was a tricky, time consuming process. There was another way he had used when he was younger but it oftentimes destroyed the person, left them with only a shell of a mind and terribly unhappy.
Ian liked to leave his women happy.
Of course Ian was a good looking man with a hint of an Irish brogue, silver haired and blue eyed and wealthy enough to have plenty of companionship even without using the wedge. But sometimes he looked at some young woman and saw the blackness and unhappiness of her soul, and he took pity on her. She might not have made a choice to be with him until he slipped in the wedge, but her life was guaranteed to be better once he was done with her.
Samantha Davis wasn't the usual type he found interesting. For one thing, she was very intelligent, not that he had anything against intelligent women but they usually had too many mental blocks for him to find a place to put the wedge. And she wasn't all that attractive. She was rather plain and a bit plump for his taste. Of course, if she lost about ten pounds and coloured her hair, tried a change of clothes and a bit of makeup, she might be striking.
Not that he was interested. He had noticed her when he walked into the restaurant, dismissed her just as casually, and had his usual wine and pasta at his favourite table overlooking the street. It was not until he heard her voice loud in anger that he raised his eyes to her again. She was having an argument with a young man. Ian immediately recognized the resemblance between the two. The young man was obviously her son and she was loudly berating him for something he had done. The young man looked miserable and he seemed to sink deeper into his chair as she berated him. Ian noticed a waitress hovering nervously nearby and she moved closer and Samantha Davis turned on her with the same ruthless fury, and Ian accidentally slipped a wedge in.
It had never happened to him before. At the last minute he tried to pull back it was too late and the wedge was firmly planted and it caused Samantha Davis to stop and stutter for a moment and then she regained control of herself.
But the damage was already done although she didn't know it.
Ian sat thinking about it for a moment. There was no rule about him going on with it except the wedge sometimes worked in strange ways. Without his manipulation, anything could happen and it was just possible Samantha Davis's personality would deteriorate to the point of madness.
Ian sighed. He reached over and mentally urged the wedge in deeper and slipped between the cracks to explore. There was a lot of rage and unhappiness in Samantha Davis. She was divorced. Her husband cheated on her. She felt inadequate in many ways and she made up for it by belittling others. She owned her own bank investment company where she hired bright young people out of college, used them and then discarded them on a regular basis. Ruthless in business and in her personal life, she constantly reduced secretaries and her only son to tears.
Her only son was about to cry now, and she was still giving him a hard time. Ian gave a push but it only stunned her for a moment and then she continued.
Samantha Davis was very strong willed.
There was a great deal of work to be done.
The offices of Samantha Davis's investment company looked much as he expected...dull. The colours on the walls were subdued. There were a couple of potted plants in the hallway. A few lifeless looking paintings. Her secretary was a mousy looking young brunette, who looked brisk and professional and afraid of her own shadow. She was sure Ms. Davis couldn't see anyone today. Her schedule was very busy and it took all of his charm to get the secretary to even call her boss on the intercom. Through the intercom he pushed Samantha a little and she agreed to give him ten minutes of her time but no more. The mousy secretary, Betty, looked amazed that her boss had agreed.
Inside the tiny, oppressive office, with no windows, Ian went to work on Samantha Davis. Mind manipulation is exhausting work. Ian thought of it as creating a work of art. He had to first create a place to work, a studio in her mind, and the he had to discard those unpleasant edges of her personality, trimming them away from a butcher trimming ugly fat. All the time he worked in her mind, he had to continue to make conversation, most of it nonsensical but enough to keep her from realizing what was being done to her.
He stayed thirty minutes the first time and it tired him as nothing had in a long time. He understood the concept of getting older because there was a time when it didn't tire him as much. He slept for twelve hours that night and the next morning, he appeared at Samantha Davis's office once more. This time it was not a problem getting into see her. Samantha looked tired. Her eyes were red and flushed and somewhat confused. Her appearance showed that the first steps were becoming deeply rooted.
He stayed an hour this time and for the next three days, he returned every day. The edges in Samantha were growing softer, she was becoming easier to manipulate. By Friday he asked her out and she agreed immediately.
He took her to dinner in another of his favourite restaurants. For two hours he had her alone, except for the waiters, and he plunged into her mind easily, manipulating, changing, caressing, creating and cutting away. By the end of the meal, she was practically blank and ready for his suggestions. He drove her home in silence. No need for conversation. All the way back he played in her mind, creating in her the kind of personality he liked and teaching her to like herself.
When he turned into her driveway and parked the car, he released her mind.
He kissed her on the lips and she didn't pull away but there was no response.
He expected that. It would take time for the suggestions to take hold, for the fires to grow.