Page 19 of The Demigod

A whimper escaped me as my hand went to the aching in my chest.

How, I wondered—not for the first time—could I be related to such monsters? How did they find enjoyment and amusement in the pain and suffering of others, while it made me feel sick just to think of it?

The crackers from the vending machine that I’d shoved in my mouth in the moment or two between dropping into bed and passing out soured in my stomach, threatening to make their way back up.

I reached for the water on the nightstand, taking slow sips until the nausea subsided.

Every muscle in my body ached, my very bones ached, as I pulled myself up against the headboard, blinking at the time on the clock across the room from me.

Three-thirty.

I’d slept nearly eight hours but felt like I’d just barely managed a catnap.

It was getting worse.

The feeling of being drained when using my powers.

Sure, I was using them for more than just myself. But I felt like there had to be some secret to using them without it feeling like it was literally stealing my life force each time.

The problem was, I had no idea what my powers meant, where they came from, or how to replenish them.

So they did what they needed to do, it seemed.

Take it from me.

I imagined that taking better care of myself would help. I’d noticed when I first started deliberately using my powers that they worked better on a full night of sleep, well-rounded meals, hydration, and inner peace.

But I was living in a crappy motel in the middle of nowhere, surviving on sustenance made more of preservatives than actual food, never getting enough rest, and worrying myself to ulcers about the torture of innocent humans by my half-siblings.

At least I was getting the hydration thing right, I thought as I picked up the water bottle and took another long sip. Even if it was a bottle being refilled by questionably clean water from the motel tap that had a sort of strange scent to it that I couldn’t identify.

What can I say? Trying to save the world didn’t exactly pay. And I was counting every penny I spent. So funky tap water wasjust going to have to do. Even if my soul was crying out for a soda. Or a nice, hot cup of tea.

A comfortable bed.

A week of sleep.

A clear conscience.

At least the muscle strain in my shoulders from sleeping on a cheap, lumpy, ancient mattress was gone.

Even just remembering Daemon’s expert fingers massaging me had a warmth creeping across my skin, chasing away the chill of the room with the shoddy heat vents that puffed out semi-warm air every so often. Enough to keep me from freezing to death, but not much more than that.

I was getting used to the cold, though, I guess.

Though I had to admit that being pressed up against Daemon had been like hugging a furnace. It warmed me from the outside in. But by the time it got down deep, I swear it became a different kind of heat. A fire that started to blaze through me, making me overly sensitive, aching for more than the chaste touch he’d been offering me.

If we’d stood there a moment longer, I might have let my own hands start exploring, taking, teasing. I might have heard my own voice, whimpering, pleading.

“Enough,” I grumbled to myself, throwing off the covers and grumbling as the cool room air nipped at my bare skin. I didn’t have a lot of clothes with me, and I’d spent a precious few moments before sleep washing everything I had in the tub, then hanging it all to dry around the room.

It meant I slept naked and exposed and cold, but I would have fresh clothes for a few days, at least. Which suddenly mattered a lot more than it did before Daemon appeared.

I turned the water for the shower on, knowing it would take a solid ten or fifteen minutes to warm up, then stood in front of the mirror, looking at the reflection of someone I barely recognized.

It was only a few weeks—five? six? I was losing track—but I looked so little like the woman I’d been when I’d left my father’s house with a mission.

The use of my power seemed to have sapped all the color from my skin. My new paleness made the dark circles under my eyes all the more apparent. Purple and blue that was starting to make me look like I had two black eyes.

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