Page 46 of Craving Demons

“Oh… wow… okay.” She blew out a breath. “Well let’s try this. I’m going to remove the calming block I’ve put in place and when I do, see if you can feel where in your body your power is strongest. For me, it’s always here,” she said putting a hand over her heart, mid-chest. “I’ve heard that Grey feels his in his head, behind his eyes and through his senses. Krystal feels her fire in her abdomen, higher when she’s angry, lower when she’s… ah… aroused. Make sense?”

I nodded as she moved around behind me. “Okay, I’ll remove the block in just a moment. Close your eyes and just feel with your body, see what you notice.”

I focused on my body as my powers returned, a heat seeping into me, infusing my skin and tingling over every part of me, but then… it sunk and pooled low in my belly. I moved a hand over the spot, low on my abdomen, pressing down into my lap a little. I supposed that shouldn’t have surprised me too much. But then… I felt something else, something… more.

“I can feel it in my ah… lady parts,” I said just a bit awkwardly. “But also… I feel something, not quite as strong, near my heart.” I raised my hand, fingers coming to my sternum between my breasts.

“I see, and—”

But I wasn’t done. “I also… I think I feel it everywhere, it’s like my skin tingles with it.” I sat with that for a moment and Harmonia was silent, letting me take it in. I nodded. “Yeah, it’s sort of everywhere, but on the outside, like a shivery-warm blanket all around me and… and I think I feel it a bit more over my palms and in my fingers.” Those areas seemed extra sensitive.

Harmonia waited a moment, but that was it. She put my block back in place and I tried to feel my power still.

I felt something, not as strong, but only at my core and on my hands and fingers. Odd.

“Well,” Harmonia said, moving around from behind me to sit on the desk again. “I… I don’t know what to say to that.” She pursed her lips for a moment.

“What is it?” I asked. Clearly, she’d had a thought she wasn’t sure she wanted to share.

“Well, I think… and it’s only a theory mind you, I can’t be sure, but…” She hesitated again.

“What?” I was drop-dead curious now.

“I think, given the multiple locations you mentioned that one of two things is possible.”

“Oh?” I prompted.

“Yes, either your power is more than just sex, but maybe something around how sex makes you feel in your heart and the sensations on the skin?” She didn’t seem certain of that. She sighed. “Or… you are more powerful than the average daemon.” She wet her lips and nodded. “That seems the more likely possibility to me. I think what you were feeling were multiple powers — multiple aspects — but if that’s the case, then you’re on a level with Grey and Ramsey and other daemon lords. You… you may even surpass them.”

Stronger than them? Really? “What would that make me?” I asked softly.

“A goddess.”

Fuck me.

I thought I’d said that internally until Harmonia responded with, “Yeah, I know.”

I’d only just accepted I was a daemon, but a goddess?

“Can we ah… Can we just assume that’s not the case for the moment? I was just barely coming to terms with not being human. I’m not ready for godhood yet.”

Harmonia laughed. “Yeah, sure. And it doesn’t really matter in terms of taking control of your power.” She knelt next to my chair and took my hand. “Don’t worry Ana, we’ll figure this out.” She smiled and her deep brown eyes danced with light. “Now, let’s start with the basics, breathing.”

We spent some time practicing several “control” techniques. The first was breathing, which felt like a Lamaze class, only I was focusing on the place in my body where I felt my power, not the pain of childbirth. Slow breaths, holding and focusing, then releasing “the power” as I exhaled and calmed it.

Then we did a bit of meditation and even some yoga-like poses, which I could do if I was on my own. They’d be a bit too odd to do in public. Mostly this was to focus my mental control and claim my power.

Power.

I kept calling it that, but the others called it an aspect, something I should probably start doing.

Aspect.

Aspect.

And all too quickly it was time for my shift. I asked Harmonia to loosen hersuppressiona little so I could practice my control as I worked. But given how many men came to me that evening with bulges in their pants, I didn’t think I was controlling things well.

Still, these men weren’t trying to tear my clothes off, so that was something. But whether that was from fear of Grey and Ramsey or Harmonia’s remaining blockage, I didn’t know.