Page 57 of Claiming Demons

“You’re as brave as your mother,” Raphael said with a sad smile.

“Inanna?”

“Yes. I’d ask how you know,” he said, “but that’s a conversation for another time.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “And you’re not going to stop me from going back in there?”

“I couldn’t stop your mother, so I’m assuming I can’t stop you.”

A man who knew his place, I liked that in a father.

He motioned to the various injured humans, daemons, and gods all around us. They were laid out in the street or staggering to get farther from the damaged building. “I’ll stay here and heal those I can.”

I looked at the sea of bloodied and wounded people and my heart clenched. I had the aspect of healing, too… I should help them.

But that would take too long and I needed to get back inside. I had to pick one or the other.

Or maybe not? Maybe I could do both?

I’d just healed Ramsey from a distance… but I was pretty sure that had been because I’d been connected to him through my aspect of love.

Could I do that with others?

Fuck it, I had to try!

First, I summoned my love, reaching out with sympathy and caring to all of the wounded around me. I felt their spirits, felt the love within them, and connected to that.

Then…

I gathered my healing aspect and let it flow through that connection to everyone around me. It took more energy to heal someone if you weren’t touching them — as I’d discovered with Ramsey — but I pushed myself, in hopes of healing as many as I could.

And mending the wounds for the dozens of people around me did indeed drain me. I stumbled, falling to my knees, unable to stay standing…but also unable to stop.

I reached out with love, connecting to more, pouring my healing into everyone I could, the need to healallof them compelling me to test my limits. I put everything I had, everything I was, into healing these people.

But too many were hurt. I collapsed to my hands with the strain, crying out, then gritted my teeth and forced myself to keep going.

It was too much, and for a moment, I felt all of their pain, every injury lancing through me, and nearly passed out. Only then did I release my power and collapse, tears streaming down my face as I sucked in heavy breaths.

I couldn’t believe it. I’d healed hundreds of people at once, but I’d still not been able to reach everyone, and more were coming out of the hotel as the fight raged inside.

I needed to stop Erini. Put an end to this fight before she caused more damage.

“Anais?” Raphael whispered beside me as he placed a hand on my back, sending his soothing healing into me and restoring part — but not all — of what I’d lost.

I pushed myself up, then sat back on my heels. “I’m… good.”

I dragged my attention to the hotel and saw Aphrodite helping someone I didn’t know escape from the wreckage.

“What’s it like in there?” I asked her as she drew near.

“Chaos,” she said. “A few gods and daemons are trying to stop the two destroyers, but their attacks are only adding to the devastation and collapsing the building faster.”

“Great,” I said with a grimace. If I was going back in there, I’d need some way to keep myself from being crushed. I turned to my father. “What did you do to keep the ceiling from squishing us in there?” I asked.

“I used my aspect of peace to create an area of stillness around us. It kept most, but not all of the debris from falling on us.” I’d seen his wings after, torn and bloodied, but I guessed that was better than crushed and dead. Also, he could heal and…

Wait…