Destiny Rising by L. J. Smith Page B

did you find it?” Elena asked.
    Andrés shrugged. “The beast was easy to find. Once I had my assignment, something in me drew me toward it. It turned out to be a demon in the shape of a black dog. A pure demon, not a half creature like a vampire or a werewolf. It was attracted by guilt, especially the guilt of adultery. Javier had taught me the principles of accessing my Power, but the first time I actually did it, I felt like I was sucking the whole world into myself. I was able to call a wind and blast the black dog away.” He smiled again shyly at Elena.
    “Maybe if I try to tap into nature the same way, it’ll help unlock whatever my Powers are,” Elena said.
    Andrés knelt directly in front of Elena. “Close your eyes,” he said, and Elena did as she was told. “Now,” Andrés continued, and Elena felt him gently touch her cheek, “take deep breaths and concentrate on your connection to the earth here. Your talents won’t be the same as mine, but they’ll be rooted in this land, the place where you began, just as mine are.”
    Elena breathed deeply and slowly, concentrating on the ground beneath her, the warmth of the sunlight on her shoulders and the tickle of the grass against her legs. It felt comfortable, but she didn’t sense any mystical connection between herself and the world around her. She gritted her teeth and tried harder.
    “Stop,” Andrés said soothingly. “You’re too tense.” His hand left her cheek and she felt him sit beside her, his thigh touching hers, and take her hand. “Let’s try it this way. I’ll channel some of my connection with the earth into you. At the same time, I want you to visualize sinking deeper into yourself. All the doors that are usually shut inside you will open and let your Power flow through.”
    Elena wasn’t quite sure how to “visualize sinking deeper into herself,” but she took another slow breath and tried to imagine it, consciously making herself relax. She pictured herself walking along a passageway of closed doors, the doors flying open as she passed them. Her hand felt pleasantly warm and tingled slightly where it touched Andrés’s hand.
    But when she had possessed the Power of Wings, before the Guardians had taken them, she had felt a lot more than this, hadn’t she? There had been the feeling of amazing potential inside her, of these tightly furled, powerful things that were part of her, and that she could release when the time was right.
    She wasn’t feeling anything special now. The doors flying open were only in her imagination, nothing more. Elena opened her eyes. “I don’t think this is working,” she told Andrés.
    “No, I don’t think so either,” he said regretfully, opening his eyes to look at her. “I am sorry.”
    “It’s not your fault,” Elena said. “I know you’re trying to help me.”
    “Yes.” Andrés tightened his hold on her hand and looked at her thoughtfully. “I don’t think that relaxation and visualization are really your strengths,” he said. “Let’s try something else. Instead, we will work with your protective instincts.”
    This sounded more likely.
    “Close your eyes again,” Andrés went on, and Elena obeyed. “I want you to think about evil,” he said. “Think about the evil you have seen in your adventures, the evil that you—that both of us—must fight.”
    Elena opened her mind to her memories. She remembered Katherine’s pretty, half-mad face twisting as she screamed with rage and tore at Damon’s bleeding chest. The dogs of Fell’s Church, vacant-eyed and snarling, turning on their owners. Tyler Smallwood’s teeth lengthening into fangs and the glee in his eyes as he tried to attack Bonnie. Klaus gathering the lightning in his hands and throwing it at her friends, his face alight with vicious glee.
    Images spun through her mind faster and faster. The kitsune , Misao and Shinichi, cruel and careless, laughing as they turned the children of Fell’s Church into savage