Authors: Kate Douglas
Crystalfire (14 page)
“Ah.” Selyn nodded, unsheathing her sword. “I see. It was human humor. You can be such an odd race.” She moved closer to the portal. “Ginny? We’re ready when you are.”
Ginny took a deep breath and flashed a big smile at Selyn. “Yes, Ma’am. Selyn, why don’t you and Daws and Alton come in with me. That way Eddy and Dax can keep an eye on the outside and zap any demons that try to escape.” She smirked at Eddy. “And it also separates the two of us, which is probably a good tactical move.”
Eddy was still chuckling when Ginny went through the portal first with DarkFire held high. Alton was glad he was right on her heels, because the place was so full of demons, their sulfuric stench made it hard to breathe.
Ginny slipped to one side and illuminated the entire cavern. Selyn and Dawson paused in the entry. Startled and obviously finding it hard to believe what he was seeing, Dawson ducked as a dark wraith shot across the small cavern and headed for the portal. Selyn caught it with her crystal blade.
“Thank you.” He kissed her quickly and shook his head. “Holy shit, Ginny.” He was staring at the walls and ceiling where demons glistened in all their shapes and sizes, in full display beneath the black light from Ginny’s blade.
The variety alone was pretty overwhelming.
“Pretty impressive, eh?” Alton swung his blade along the wall, incinerating dozens of wraiths. Their banshee screams were so loud they were practically deafening. Alton had to shout to make himself heard. “Daws, why don’t you see if you can close the portal. It’s probably the same one we closed once before. Look up there.” He pointed up with his blade. “It was hidden in among those stalactites, unless they’ve built an entirely new one.”
Daws leaned back and looked up, using his crystal blade to illuminate the ceiling. “I see it.” He ducked as a mass of demons boiled out and down through the portal. “Crap. At least now we know where they’ve been coming from.”
Alton didn’t answer. He was too busy scraping demons away from the walls and watching them flash and die beneath his crystal blade. Selyn was doing the same thing on the far wall, while Ginny kept the area illuminated. Howls and screams echoed off the walls and the air was thick with sulfur.
Eddy poked her head in through the portal and then stepped fully inside during a bit of a lull in the noise. She took a quick glance around the small cavern. “Everything okay? We’ve killed a few outside, but there aren’t too many.”
She ducked as a wraith flew by. Selyn cut it down with her blade while Eddy looked up at the portal Dawson was in the process of sealing. “Wow ... at least now we know where a lot of them were probably coming from. This one and Boynton. I’ll tell Dax.” She cocked her head to one side and frowned, as if she heard something over the banshee cries. Then she disappeared into the wall.
Dawson turned and flashed a smile at Ginny as Eddy slipped through the portal and disappeared. “Do you ever get used to that?”
“Nope. Especially when I’m actually walking through rock, because I know it’s dead wrong.” She laughed and focused the beam from DarkFire as she searched for more demons.
Daws held DemonsDeath with both hands. A powerful stream of blue fire shot from the tip of the crystal blade, covering the portal to Abyss with brilliant ripples of energy. The demons within the cavern grew more agitated as they realized the gateway was closing. The screams and howls were deafening, the stench almost suffocating. Alton continued scraping demons from the walls and killing them, while Selyn worked the area close to the portal.
The stench grew thicker, the screams and howls of dying demons more intense, even as their numbers dwindled.
“I think I’ve got it.” Dawson lowered his sword.
Alton stepped across the cavern and gazed up into the shadows. He held his sword overhead so he could get a better look at the melted rock. The portal was definitely sealed.
Once the portal was closed, they finished up in a couple of minutes. Ginny sheathed DarkFire and glanced about the cavern. “Hopefully that will hold for awhile.” She yawned. “I need some sleep. You guys ready to go back?”
Alton grabbed her arm. “As long as we can stop for hamburgers and French fries along the way.”
“Are you ever not hungry?”
Alton plastered an innocent expression on his face and shook his head. Laughing, Ginny led them all through the portal.
Dax waited outside. He glanced from one to the other, frowning. “Where’s Eddy?”
Alton shot a quick glance at Ginny and then stared at Dax. “With you. She came in and checked to see if all was okay, stayed less than a minute, then she left.”
Eyes wide, Dax shook his head. “No. She stepped through to speak with you, but she never returned. I thought she stayed to fight demons.” He stared at the cliff where the portal remained hidden in the rock, shot a terrified glance at Alton and then rushed through the portal. A moment later he returned.
“She’s not there. Not here. Where the hell is she? Alton, she’s gone. Where can she be?”
If he could describe the sense of regaining consciousness, Ed figured he would compare this experience to swimming upstream in sewage. The stench was disgusting, the sense of evil permeating every cell in his body enough to make him retch.
He couldn’t really see and had no actual feeling in his arms or legs, mainly because he wasn’t the one actually controlling them. His heartbeat was all wrong, as if it labored against something that was trying to force a different cadence out of the damned muscle. His lungs worked, but the knowledge that something other than his own brain was controlling things made all of his senses feel wrong.
Everything was wrong, but he fought the powerful desire to slip back into that private corner of his brain where he’d been hiding. Somehow, he had to figure out what the hell was going on. But how, with no sense of time, no feeling of where he was, of when it was?
He thought of Dax trying to describe the void, but Dax had only said there was nothing there. No time, no sense, no smell, no feeling.
Wherever Ed was, it definitely smelled bad. He fought against the pressure to go back into hiding deep within his own mind. Something was trying to control him—had been controlling him, but for some reason it appeared to be weakening.
He tried to see what was going on, and then realized he couldn’t see because it was night. Blinking his eyes felt very odd, as if he were blinking someone else’s eyes, thinking with someone else’s brain.
He glanced down at his body—same legs, same arms. He held out his hand and turned it palm up, palm down. He still wore his gold wedding band, even after all these years.
It was definitely his body, but he wasn’t in here alone.
So who was in here with him? And how did he know this?
And where the hell was he? He had a vague memory of waking up once before with sunlight streaming through a broken window but now he was outside and it was night. He’d been walking. He was almost certain he’d been walking, but when his mind had begun to clear, he’d stopped.
Whoever was trying to control him wasn’t happy with that at all. Something wanted him to keep moving. But why? And where was he going?
Slowly he looked around. The moon wasn’t up yet, but the night was crystal clear and the stars cast a bit of light. Enough that he recognized the shapes of headstones.
It’s the cemetery. I know this place. I know it ...
Could he be dead? Was he buried somewhere nearby? Could one of these headstones be his? He almost laughed. Wouldn’t it be funny if he actually turned out to be a ghost? All those years of trying to convince Eddy that ghosts really existed ... wouldn’t it be fun—just show up and say
Hi, I’m a ghost ... a visitor from beyond the veil.
Hi, I’m a ghost ... a visitor from beyond the veil.
Except he wasn’t ready to die and he didn’t have to prove anything to Eddy anymore. Not since she’d fallen in love with Dax, a man who’d started life as a demon. Who’d have thought his perfectly pragmatic daughter would end up with an immortal lover? At least now she didn’t think her old man was a complete nutcase.
So, what was he? Because he wasn’t just Ed Marks anymore. No, he was someone else, too. Someone evil and utterly disgusting—someone who wanted him to keep going, to walk farther into the cemetery, to go beyond the newer, more manicured graves on the perimeter.
He leaned over and picked up a stout piece of wood. Held it in his right hand and stared at it. No. This wouldn’t work.
Work for what? And why the hell had he picked it up?
He tossed the wood to the ground and shuffled toward the small caretaker’s shed. There was a lock on the door, but he tried to open it anyway. There was a sense that whoever was in his head didn’t understand the concept of locked doors.
He grabbed the handle and pulled.
There was a horrific noise, a sound of metal tearing. The handle pulled out of the metal door—just ripped right through the aluminum—and the door hung crazily on bent hinges. Ed stared at the latch still clutched in his hand.
How the hell did he do that?
Before he thought to answer the question, he was moving forward, into the dark shed. He reached for a thick handle leaning against one wall and picked up a huge pickax.
The handle was wood, but the iron pick was solid and deadly. Somehow, he knew this would work.
But for what?
As he walked out of the shed, he stared at the twisted door. Ed Marks was in great shape for a guy in his late sixties, but there was no way he could have ripped that door off the hinges, no way he’d be strong enough to pull the handle right out of the metal.
Except he’d just done it.
Confused, he let his body go wherever that other mind directed him. He walked through more rows of newer headstones, still proceeding toward the older part of the cemetery. Trees grew thick here, and the shadows made it more difficult to see, but that other mind running the show seemed to know where he was going.
At least his feet did. Ed struggled to maintain control of whatever thoughts he was hanging on to. He had a sense that the one who controlled him was growing weaker. That would explain his ability to surface now. He’d been held down by the entity in control of his mind, but it couldn’t afford the energy now to keep him totally subjugated.
He paused in front of an old grave. There was a tiny cherub on top of the granite stone. Ed stared at the statue.
It glared at him out of eyes that glowed a sickly shade of green. Even as befuddled as his mind was right now, Ed recognized demonkind when he saw the signs, so he didn’t fight it a bit when his arm lifted the heavy pickax and swung. The iron point connected with the stone cherub.
It shattered and the demon inside shrieked as pieces of the ruined cherub fell to the ground. A thick, oily mist seeped from the broken pieces of stone. It hovered for a moment, a dark and stinking wraith.
Ed opened his jaws wide and inhaled, and the power of his lungs drew the disgusting creature into his mouth.
He swallowed. The human part of him wanted to vomit.
The demon part chortled.
Ed lifted up the pickax and walked to the next small statue, this time an angel with glowing eyes. He tried not to lift the ax, fought the need to swing it, did not want to release the demon hiding within its stone avatar.
But whatever ruled his body—and it had to be demonic—had gained strength from that first demon soul. It shoved Ed back, shoved the last shreds of his consciousness down into the dark corners where he’d been held prisoner.
He hovered there a moment, struggling to hang on to whatever threads of himself existed, and in that brief moment, he sensed Eddy. Dear God, he didn’t want her to know what had happened! She’d want to come and help him, and that wouldn’t do.
He used his last bit of self, the slender threads of consciousness that had once been Ed Marks to push her away.
Run Eddy! Go! Go away!
Her startled cry sounded so close she might have been beside him.
Run Eddy! Go! Go away!
Her startled cry sounded so close she might have been beside him.
Dad? Dad, where are you?
He felt a huge surge of power. Not his. Evil. Focused and aware. Very, very aware. Whatever it was, it reached for Eddy. He felt it, pushed with everything he had and tried to stop it.
Failed.
Eddy disappeared, along with Ed’s grasp on the world. Everything recognizable slipped away, buried in the disgusting sense of demon flowing over him like thick, black sludge. He was almost certain he heard demonic laughter, felt a new surge of power. Not his. Not anymore. Vaguely aware of Ed, of the man he once was, he swung his ax. It came down on the angel and he saw the thing shatter into a million pieces.
Once more he felt the pressure in his lungs as he inhaled yet another demon. Fought a vague desire to retch. And then, as before, his sense of himself as Ed Marks, his fear for Eddy, his knowledge of reality, all winked out.
Chapter 11
Taron wished he had some way to contact Alton, but they’d not had any luck finding a phone number for Ginny and it appeared Mari’s parents—who might have known it—were out of town. Maybe they went to see the ocean with Mari and Darius.
He knew he could talk to Alton and explain the necessity of keeping Dax away from here, though with the portal closed, there was no way for Alton to get to Evergreen, unless of course they were able to go to Lemuria first and then come here.
It was all a moot point, though, without a way to make contact. Which meant he and Willow were on their own.
He held her hand as they walked, and the connection was oddly soothing. As if the mere feel of her hand in his gave him strength. Her touch reminded him of the necessity of prevailing in whatever final battle awaited them. He had to win. There was no way he could fail, because failure could mean the end of Willow. Somehow, he knew, should demonkind win, a creature of Eden would have no place in this world.
Of course, neither would he. At least not as anything beyond a source of energy for demonkind. He didn’t even want to think of what that would entail, but it couldn’t be good.
With those thoughts weighing him down, he continued on, holding tightly to Willow’s hand as they walked along the streets of the small, quiet town. Neither of them spoke, but it was a comfortable silence. The occasional vehicle passed by, and he wanted to stop and study them, to see what it was that made them move so quickly, but the sky was growing dark and the sense they must be somewhere soon was pressing.
The moon hadn’t come up yet, but as the night grew darker, street lights and the occasional porch light from homes along the way came on and made it possible for them to see.
“I want to check this building out, okay?”
Willow tugged him toward a dark wreck of a building in the middle of town. Built all of stone, Taron at first thought it looked unfinished. Then he noticed the wood boarding up windows and the weathered look of the stone and realized it was a derelict remnant of another time. It must have once been a beautiful structure, with statues of some sort at either corner. Two barren pedestals were all that remained.
Willow headed around to the back side of the building. There was a locked set of doors that appeared to cover an opening into the basement. The rest of the building looked solid, though there were a couple of broken windows here at the back. Only one was partially barricaded with wood. Wires hung loose from an open panel near a barred door.
“What is this place?” Taron ran his hand over the rough stone exterior.
“It was a library building. Eddy said it’s been condemned because it doesn’t meet safety requirements. The town can’t afford to fix it, but they don’t want to tear it down, either.”
“Libraries are important. You’d think they’d find the money.” He studied the solid old structure and tried to imagine when it had been new.
Willow shook her head. “There’s still a library, but in a newer building. It’s just this old building that’s a wreck. Come on. I don’t sense the demon king here, though Bumper says she can smell faint hints of his presence. I imagine he stayed here during the day.”
“Is this where he hid before?”
She pointed to one of the empty platforms almost lost in the shadows. “In plain sight. He took over the stone gargoyle that used to sit up there. It was the one that ate my sprite body and killed Dax.”
She said it so lightly, but the image sickened him. “Where is the gargoyle now?”
Willow’s smile took on an unexpected twist. “It’s a pile of rocks on the side of the mountain. The bastard got what he deserved. I’m only sorry Eddy wasn’t able to finish him off.”
“Me, too.” As Taron followed Willow down the street, he thought of that battle on the mountainside. Alton had told him about it. They’d all wished Eddy had been successful, though she’d accomplished more than either Dax or Alton. Still, if the demon king had died that night, they wouldn’t be in this fix, trying to find Eddy’s father and stop the demon who was controlling Ed’s body.
But that wasn’t fair, either. Eddy had done more than any woman of Lemuria would have even attempted. She’d done more than he, a supposed warrior of Lemuria could imagine. He thought of the final battle Alton had described and wondered how brave he would be should the demon king come after him. Not brave enough, he feared, though somehow he had to find enough backbone to stand up to the beast.
Dax had given his life. Alton had almost been killed and Willow’s body had been eaten. All of them had shown great courage. Taron glanced at their linked hands, the way his fingers and Willow’s interlocked, and felt as if he should apologize for holding hers.
What good was he as a warrior? How could he possibly fight a demon that had grown stronger with each day that passed, one that—weeks ago—had already been powerful enough to stop Alton and Dax and Willow?
A faint sound caught his attention. “Did you hear that?”
Willow shook her head. Bumper’s voice popped into his mind.
I did. It came from the cemetery. I’m almost sure that was the shriek of a demon.
“This way.” Willow tightened her grasp on his fingers and pulled him toward the faint sounds of demonkind. She stretched out her long legs and picked up the pace. Taron broke into a trot to keep up with her.
He heard a loud noise, as if many machines were running. It grew louder as they ran along the dark road, and he could see lights up ahead, moving quickly back and forth.
“What is that?”
“The freeway. Part of the Earth’s transportation system. Those are vehicles traveling north and south along the road. The same as the cars you’ve seen here in town, but they’re moving a lot faster and there are more of them. The traffic runs night and day—it’s how people here travel great distances.”
Again he wished he could stop and watch, but this was obviously not the time. This was truly a fascinating world and he hoped the day would come when he could spend more time observing, but Willow was tugging his hand and running up a roadway that crossed over the freeway.
He felt a strong compulsion to unsheathe his sword, so he pulled it out. The blade glowed, and somehow he knew the blade was aware that demons were close.
Another shriek echoed through the night, much closer this time. Why weren’t people coming outside to investigate? Did they have no sense of curiosity over these strange sounds? He glanced at Willow. She walked quickly now, focused on the road ahead.
He tugged her hand without slowing her down. “How have you kept the demon invasion from the humans living here? Don’t they wonder at the strange sounds, the cries of demonkind?”
She glanced his way but kept moving forward. “Alton has kept a compulsion over much of the town. The citizens think they’re hearing the cries of birds in the night, and the damage has been blamed on vandals. No one has been harmed by demonkind—at least not yet. I think Ed is the first human to be possessed in this town, and it took the demon king to manage that.”
A flash of light caught Taron’s attention. “Look!” They both paused at the top of the road that crossed over the freeway. Another light flashed. “What is that?”
“Crap.” Willow grabbed his hand and dragged him down the other side of the road. “That’s the cemetery. I think the demon king is munching on demon souls.”
She’d never been a screamer, but Eddy figured now might be as good a time as any to start. Where the hell was she? There was no up, no down, no sense of her body, no light no dark. Nothing.
Just her mind, spinning in terrified circles that went nowhere fast.
Dax? Sweetheart? Where are you? Are you there Dax?
Dax? Sweetheart? Where are you? Are you there Dax?
Nothing. Oh, crap. Double crap. She felt like she was going to hyperventilate, but she didn’t seem to be breathing, so how the hell could that happen?
Her brain was buzzing, like she was going to implode if she didn’t, somehow, find somewhere to anchor herself ... figuratively speaking, of course. How do you anchor nothing that’s obviously nowhere?
She’d stepped through the portal, talked to Alton and Ginny, Selyn and Dawson, and they were doing fine. Killing demons, closing the portal to Abyss, no problem.
Just an average day in the craziness her life had become.
Then, just before she returned, she could have sworn she heard her father’s voice. In her head, saying her name, except his telepathy wasn’t all that great and there was absolutely no way he could reach her in Sedona when he was in Evergreen.
Something had felt wrong, but at the same time, she’d known it was him. And, like any daughter would, she’d tried calling to him. She’d been in the process of popping back through the portal, but it had been pure instinct to respond to that familiar voice.
So of course she’d called to her dad, except he hadn’t answered—and she hadn’t ended up where she’d planned.
She’d had a vague sense of something pushing her, but that didn’t make sense. How could anything push her while she was passing through a portal? Could she be trapped in the vortex? Somehow caught in the wall of rock they so easily stepped through—even though it should be impossible, right? No one could walk through rock, except she’d been doing it like it was no big deal, just walking right through energy portals like they actually existed, when everyone knew they couldn’t possibly be real.
Doing the impossible on faith.
Oh, shit. This was so not a good thing.
She was afraid she was going to hyperventilate again, except she wasn’t breathing so that, at least, was one thing she probably didn’t have to worry about.
Crap. How could she exist without breathing? Without seeing or feeling or tasting? Without a body. Is this what it was like for Willow, stuck in Bumper now for the past three weeks? For the rest of her life?
Damn, but she had a whole new respect for Willow. That brave, funny little sprite had adjusted awfully fast to what had to be a living hell.
Eddy didn’t see herself adjusting to this situation very well at all.
Dad? Are you here, Dad? I know I heard you! Daddy!
Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe ... no. No breathing. Oh, this was so not good. She needed to calm down and think. Start with simple things. Normal things.
She concentrated on toes and fingers. Nothing.
Tried blinking her eyes.
Nothing.
Shit. What did she expect? There was nothing remotely normal about her life anymore. She was sleeping with—hell, she was in love with—an ex-demon, fighting a demon invasion in two different dimensions and carrying a crystal sword that talked to her. Normal? What a joke that was.
Carrying a crystal sword. She’d had it with her when, well, when whatever had happened, happened. Frantic, she called out for her sword.
DemonSlayer? Can you hear me?
DemonSlayer? Can you hear me?
I am here, Eddy.
Oh, shit. Ohshitohshitohshit.
She never thought she’d be so happy to hear a familiar voice.
Thank goodness. Are you okay? Where are we? What happened?
She never thought she’d be so happy to hear a familiar voice.
Thank goodness. Are you okay? Where are we? What happened?
I’m not sure. We have no substance. We are merely consciousness. I do not know where your body is, nor my blade.
That really wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Eddy took a deep breath, figuratively speaking.
Okay. So that’s what we know we don’t have. What do we know that’s a positive thing?
Okay. So that’s what we know we don’t have. What do we know that’s a positive thing?
Well, Eddy ... it’s not so positive, but I have a feeling we’re in the void.
Dax’s void? The same place where he was exiled?
I believe so.
But how? We just stepped through the portal—I’ve been in and out of that portal before, but this time we ended up here. Did you sense anything when it happened? Was the demon king involved?
I don’t know, but that’s not to say he wasn’t, merely that I did not sense his presence. I’m almost positive I heard your father speak ...
Me too! I was calling out to Dad and then
wham!
I was suddenly here, which is pretty much nowhere.
wham!
I was suddenly here, which is pretty much nowhere.
That is the essence of the void. It is nowhere. Without form or substance or any true location. No time, no ...
Uh ... DemonSlayer? I really don’t want to hear any more of that. Think positive. Use some action verbs. What can we do? How can we get out of here?
It felt as if she waited forever for DemonSlayer’s answer. When it came, it was definitely not what Eddy wanted to hear.
I don’t know, Eddy. I honestly don’t know.
“Dax? You have to eat something.”
Ginny sat down beside him on the top step in front of Dawson’s house and put a sandwich in his hand. He stared at the thick slices of bread filled with leftover roast and wondered why she thought he could possibly eat while Eddy was missing.
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