Hellfire (23 page)

Alton turned toward Eddy and
shrugged. “He gave us enough to pay for the room and to rent the car. Enough
that we won’t need to sell more diamonds for many months. My compulsion helped
him accept our explanation, and the deal worked for us as well as it worked for
him. Plus, I still have many more stones.”

“And here I’m totally frantic,
wondering how I’ll pay bills if I’m not writing for the
Record.
I gave notice this morning before we left for Sedona.”

Ginny parked the car in front
of a small building. “You quit your job?” She frowned at Eddy and then shot a
quick glance toward Alton.

He kept his features as
expressionless as possible. The decision whether to leave her job was one Ginny
needed to reach on her own.

“I did,” Eddy said. “And
Harlan was less than pleased, but I really didn’t have a choice. It’s not like
you can ignore a demon invasion, but at the same time, I’m totally freaking out
about what I’m going to live on.”

Ginny nodded. “So true, Eddy.
No one ever explains how superheroes pay the bills, but that’s not going to be
a problem for us. For one thing, I’m not quitting my job.”

Alton held back a frustrated
sigh and turned back to Eddy. “I’ve put more than enough money in Ginny’s
account for all of us.” He glanced at Ginny and wondered what she would think
of his offer. “If Ginny doesn’t mind, we can take some of those funds and
transfer whatever you need to your account.”

Ginny frowned at him. “Why
would I mind? It’s your money. Do whatever you want with it. I think it’s a
great idea, Alton.”

He merely nodded.

“Really?”
Eddy flashed him a big grin. “Wow. That would definitely make a difference.
Thanks. And Ginny, good luck on the job. I couldn’t do it, not with all the
interdimensional running around we’ve been doing.”

“You say that like you’re just
hopping a Greyhound from one town to the next.” Ginny slowly shook her head.

Alton picked up a few
scattered thoughts, mostly about all the changes in her life, how unbelievable
everything seemed. Maybe, once it felt real to her, she’d understand she
couldn’t go back to the life she’d once had. It was gone. Forever gone.

Just as his
had forever changed.
Had Ginny even once considered how much he’d given
up?

Ginny climbed out of the car
and held the door for Dax. Alton did the same for Eddy. Ginny’s thoughts
filtered into his head as Eddy slid out of the small backseat.

Thank you,
Alton. I hadn’t realized what a huge favor you’d done all of us. The money from
the diamonds really does make this a lot less stressful.

He wanted to laugh, but he
merely nodded. The money was nothing—merely one more weapon in their battle
against demonkind, and there was no way anyone could take the stress out of
hunting demons. Still, he couldn’t hide the pleasure her telepathic message
gave him. She’d been blocking him since earlier today. Hiding her thoughts so
successfully, he’d not had any idea at all what she was thinking.

For that matter, he still
didn’t, but at least she’d reached out, if only to be polite. That had to be an
improvement. As Ginny led them into the car rental agency, he opened his mind
to her, searching for more of her thoughts.

He slammed into a seething
wall of fury.

There was no sign of Ginny.
No, what he found was pure evil. The demon king was back, and he was very, very
close.

Alton reached for Dax, linking
their thoughts as gently as he could. He didn’t want the demon to know he was
aware of his presence.

Dax?
Do you feel it?

He’s
nearby, isn’t he?

He is.
Tell Eddy to be alert and I’ll warn Ginny. We need to find out where he is,
what avatar he’s taken.

Dax nodded and slipped an arm
around Eddy’s waist. Alton stepped up close beside Ginny.
I
sense demonkind nearby, possibly the demon king. Dax and I are going to search
for him. Rent the vehicle. Don’t worry about us. If we have to, I’ll use a
compulsion to hide our activities.

Ginny nodded, turned, and gave
him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Be careful.” Then she walked away from him.

Alton stood there, bemused by
the soft kiss that seemed to shimmer over his cheek, and wondering why she
confused him so. Then Dax lightly punched his shoulder.

“Don’t even try and figure
them out.” He nodded toward the women and then turned back to the door they’d
just entered. “Demons are a lot less complicated. Let’s go.”

Alton followed. “You’re
telling me you don’t understand Eddy?
Even now?”

“Not a bit.” Dax grinned at
Alton and stepped out into the bright sunshine.

“But, how…?”

“I follow her lead. I listen
to her heart. I love her.” He stopped and stared directly into Alton’s eyes.
“Do you love Ginny?”

His question brought Alton to
an immediate stop.
“Love?”
He shook his head. “I don’t
know.” He glanced back toward the small office building shimmering in the
afternoon glare. “At first I was concerned because I was Lemurian, an immortal,
and she was…” He shrugged. “Nine hells, who am I kidding? I saw her and I was
drawn to her. She’s brave and beautiful and smart and funny, but she was human
and I thought maybe we could spend time together, though not anything serious
or truly important.”

“And now?”
Dax had turned and continued walking, heading quickly down the road they’d
driven in on.

Alton followed. “Now I know
Ginny is not only Lemurian and immortal, she’s also of royal blood.” He
laughed, aware of the bitterness in the sound. “I thought her a lesser person
and I find now that I’m the lesser one. I am an outcast, an exile from the only
world I’ve ever known. Even if I were to love her, she would not want one such
as me. So, whether I love her or not can’t really matter one way or the other.”

“You’re thinking like the
spoiled son of the Lemurian chancellor. Think like a man interested in a woman,
if you are. Because you once put yourself above Ginny and believed she was not
worthy of you, now you think she’d do the same.” Dax sent him a look that was
much too perceptive.

“I don’t understand. Social
standing is an important part of relationships.” Alton paused again as the
sense of demon grew stronger.

“Think of what you’re saying,
my friend. I’m an ex-demon. Eddy was a newspaper reporter. We didn’t ask to be
thrown together, but we were. We didn’t expect to fall in love, but we did. Do
you think she questioned my origin or I questioned hers? We were both too busy
trying to stay alive, hoping to enjoy the one week we thought was all we had
together.”

Dax turned and gazed toward a
small saddle in the nearby hill. “When you love, it is the object of your love
who
matters. Not where they came from or even what they are.
It’s who they are. Ginny is a brave and giving soul, an independent young woman
who has been thrown into a battle without any warning at all. Remember, you
chose to join this fight. Ginny didn’t. Don’t push her, but don’t underestimate
her, either.”

Alton rested his hand on Dax’s
broad shoulder. “How, my friend, did you grow so wise so quickly? You’ve been
human for less than two weeks.”

Dax gazed at him with eyes
that had seen too much. “In my short span on Earth, I’ve fallen in love, I’ve
watched those I love fight to the death. I’ve died and been reborn.” He
laughed, but there was very little humor in the rough sound.

“All of those things tend to
force you to focus on what counts. I learned that love is what counts. Only
love.” Dax blinked, tilted his head, and turned away. Walking quickly, he
headed across a small parking lot toward the saddle. “It’s up here,” he said,
increasing his pace to a jog.

Alton had no choice but to
follow. His mind seemed to spin with what Dax had said, but he’d have to study
those ideas later. The sense of demon was growing stronger, as was the pulse of
energy—a powerful masculine energy emanating from the nearby rise.

Ginny’d said there was a
vortex near the airport. This must be it, but it appeared the demon king had
found it first.

The big, bronze-colored SUV
looked a lot more practical than her little Ford Focus, at least for hauling
around a large ex-demon and a very tall Lemurian warrior. Ginny stood beside
their new rental and searched for Dax and Alton. “Do you see them anywhere?”
She glanced at Eddy.

“I don’t see them but I’m in
contact with Dax. They’re climbing up to that small saddle, just over there.”
Eddy pointed toward a shallow dip in the surrounding hills. “There’s another
vortex up there. Dax thinks it’s where the demon king might be.”

“C’mon.” Ginny climbed into
the driver’s seat while Eddy got in beside her. “I wish Alton and I
were
clearer with the telepathy. I’m getting better at
finding him, but I really can’t tell what he’s thinking most of the time.” She
pulled out of the parking spot and drove back toward the main road.

“It’ll come with practice.”
Eddy giggled. “Sex helps.” She
blushed
dark red and
turned away.
“Park there.”

Ginny ignored the comment
about sex, pulled into the parking lot, and found a space for the Yukon.
Suddenly she felt anxious, as if something bad was going to happen. She
scrubbed at her arms. “Do you feel anything?”

Eddy opened the door and
jumped out. She adjusted DemonSlayer so that the sword was perfectly placed for
a quick grab. “That anxiety is how you’re reading either the sense of demonkind
or the energy of the vortex. I feel it more specifically now, but at first it
was mostly a vague sense of something really horrible about to happen.”

“You nailed it. This is all so
new to me. I can’t always interpret what I’m sensing or feeling.” Ginny locked
the doors, shoved the keys in her pocket, and followed Eddy. She hated this,
the sense that her body was picking up messages, but it was like they were in a
foreign language and she couldn’t read them.

Yet she knew they were
important.
Knew that their lives could depend on her
understanding of the warnings given.
The feelings grew stronger as they
climbed the hill, the sense of anxiety, of something terrible about to happen.

Her teeth were actually
chattering, and it had to be at least eighty degrees outside. Ginny opened her
mind to Alton and immediately felt his presence.

Ginny?
We’re in the saddle
above you. Follow the twisted juniper trees. They’ll lead you to us.

Thank goodness she understood
Alton’s words for once, if not the other signals buffeting her mind and body.
She glanced at the trees alongside the trail. Their trunks were twisted, as if
someone had wrung them out like wet rags. A shiver ran along her spine at this
visible effect of the power of the vortex. Her sense of apprehension grew and
icy shivers raced over her spine.

Alton and Dax waited in a
narrow saddle between low hills of red rock. The sun was warm but a brisk wind
lifted biting sand to scour exposed flesh. Eddy immediately went to Dax and
took his hand, as if to anchor
herself
. Ginny decided it
was time to swallow her pride. When Alton reached for her, she gratefully
grabbed his hand. There was something about this place that made her want to be
anywhere else but here.

“Where’s the portal?” Eddy
studied the town of Sedona stretched out below them.

Dax shook his head. “We’re not
sure. The sense of demon is strong here, but we can’t smell them. I’ve asked
DemonFire and he’s not sure if there’s an actual gateway here or not.” He
rubbed his hands over his arms. “I can feel the bastards. I’m certain they’re
close.”

Ginny glanced at Alton. He
shrugged. “I can’t find a portal either. I can tell you, though…I don’t like it
here.”

The hill to your left, Ginny.
Look there.
DarkFire’s soft tones filtered into her thoughts. Ginny
stared at a small hill, hardly more than a bump to the left of their position.
With a slight tug on Alton’s hand, she headed toward the rise.

“Where are we going?”

“DarkFire told me to look at
the hill on my left.” She pointed. “I think she means that one.”

The others followed. Ginny’s
sense of anxiety grew, the feeling that they should be anywhere but here in
this place of power. None of the other vortexes had affected her this way.
She’d battled actual demons without experiencing the dark sense of foreboding
that seemed to pervade this whole area.

The snick of crystal on
leather caught her attention, and she knew Dax had drawn his sword. Alton set
HellFire free, and Eddy grasped DemonSlayer in her right hand. Another,
stronger shiver raced along Ginny’s spine as she freed DarkFire from her
leather sheath. The sword quivered in her grasp, and she knew DarkFire was
anxious for a fight.

An idea crept into her
mind,
one she knew must have come from DarkFire. “Let’s try
the power of our swords.” She held DarkFire high. The crystal glowed with its
impossibly dark light when the others touched their crystal tips to hers. A
blast of amethyst flame burst from the center, rose high, and then shot as if
fired from a cannon, straight toward the windblown red rock.

Purple light bathed the
surface and disappeared into the hillside. Dax stepped forward and placed his
left palm against the spot. His entire arm slipped neatly through the rock.
He’d found the portal, exactly where their swords had marked it with their
fire.

“I have a bad feeling about
this.” He pulled his hand free and glanced at Alton. “Why don’t just you and I
take a quick look inside?”

A spark of anger flashed
through Ginny. Didn’t Dax think she and Eddy were strong enough to fight?

But Dax wasn’t through. “Then,
if something goes wrong, we’ll have backup.” He leaned close and kissed Eddy.
“It wouldn’t be the first time she’s saved my ass.”

“Mine, either.
Ginny?
Is that okay with you and Eddy? We’ll step through,
check it out, and return within two minutes to let you know what we’ve found.
If we don’t come back in that time span, you’ll have to come in with the
knowledge that there’s probably something really nasty on the other side.”

Her thoughts were still spinning,
interpreting this new reality, the one she didn’t expect. Both Dax and Alton
were treating their women as trusted fighters, as warriors equal in strength
and cunning to their own. Their trust made Ginny think seriously before she
replied.

“I don’t like this. I’m not
sure why, but something feels wrong.” She thought of how she’d felt when Alton
had been out there in the desert with possessed birds attacking him from all
directions. There was no demon stench around them now, but that didn’t mean the
bastards weren’t in there, waiting.

“I don’t like it either, but
I’ll feel better with you and Eddy as backup. We’ll be careful, but you take
care as well.” Alton gave the surroundings a quick check. Then he leaned down
to kiss her. He paused, as if he wasn’t quite sure of the reception he’d get.

Ginny
raised
up on her toes and kissed him hard and fast. “You be careful.” It was an order
he’d better obey.

Dax stepped through first.
Alton followed, mere seconds behind. The cavern pulsed with deep red light. There
was no portal visible, nothing leading to Shasta or Atlantis. Nothing that
seemed to lead to Lemuria or even to the worlds of Abyss or Eden, but the sense
of something
other
within this vortex was strong
enough to have Alton and Dax taking up a defensive mode and turning, back to
back, to study the small enclosure.

Light flashed from both their
swords, illuminating the area, turning the red glow to a deep yellow. Alton
peered into the corners, glanced around the few stalactites hanging from the
ceiling a good twelve feet above them. “I don’t like the way it makes me feel,”
he said, “but I can’t see anything in here other than that weird light.”

He focused on his sword.
“HellFire?
Can you sense anything? Is demonkind nearby?”

The sword glowed, almost as if
in thought. “I sense evil, but it is all around. There’s nothing specific and
yet I know danger exists. It is everywhere, but nowhere in particular.”

“It’s got to be coming from
somewhere. Should we call the girls?”

Alton nodded. “I’ll get them.
Ginny’s sword might be able to help. DarkFire illuminates things in ways the
other swords can’t.”

He slipped out through the
portal just as Ginny and Eddy prepared to enter. “What’s up?” Ginny’s eyes
flashed tiger-bright.

“Come on. We’re not sure, but
be wary. It’s really strange in there.” Immediately he turned and stepped back
through the portal. Ginny followed with DarkFire clasped tightly in her hand.
Eddy was right behind her.

They passed through the portal
and entered the vortex.

Dax was gone.

“Where is he? Where’s Dax?”
Eddy stepped into the small space and quickly spun about.

“I just left him.” Alton’s
heart thudded in his chest. His lungs burned with each sharp gasp for air. He
lifted his crystal blade high. “Where is he, HellFire? What’s happened to Dax?
Do you sense him? Do you feel DemonFire? Are they here?”

“Draw
DarkFire.”

Ginny held her sword high at
HellFire’s terse command. Her blade flashed with dark light. The hideous faces
of thousands of demons burst into view, shadows intertwined throughout the
cavern, camouflaged within the very structure of the rock, so thick they looked
as if they were part of the stone itself.

A glint of blue flashed
through the seething mass of dark wraiths. With a horrifying scream, Eddy leapt
toward the bulge against the far wall and slashed through the clinging mist.

Demons screeched and hissed
and died. Ginny and Alton were right beside Eddy, burning through the demon
mist that somehow held both Dax and his sword prisoner beneath their roiling,
writhing bodies. The stench of sulfur polluted the air as demon after demon
died, and their ear-splitting shrieks echoed off the walls, but as Eddy or
Ginny or Alton managed to free an arm or a leg, more demon wraiths rushed to
hold Dax immobile.

“Can you reach him, Eddy? Can
you hear him?” Alton ran his blade carefully across Dax’s torso. Demons burst
into flame.

Eddy’s sobbing breaths echoed
in the small space. “No,” she cried. “There’s nothing. No sense of his mind. I
can’t reach him at all.
Hurry!”

Ginny swept her sword through
masses of demons and they died horribly, shrieking and wailing, but they
weren’t dying fast enough. Enough survived to keep Dax as their prisoner.

Alton’s sword flashed and
twisted and more demons died, yet the truth remained—from everything they’d
learned of demonkind, this shouldn’t be happening. Demons were mist, mere
ghosts in this dimension,
wraiths
without power or
strength. Somehow they’d managed to capture a powerful warrior. It should be
impossible, yet they held Dax against the cavern wall, immobile and apparently
unconscious.

Alton hoped that was all that
was wrong. Dax couldn’t be dead. Not in such a brief time. He’d only left him
for a few seconds—not even a full minute. He wore the phoenix tattoo. Didn’t
that ensure his immortality?

Eddy fought like a woman
possessed. Her sword flashed and demons died. Still more came, but where were
they coming from?

Ginny’s sword not only dealt
death, it showed them the true nature of the demons, their actual appearance as
they looked on Abyss—foul, ugly creatures with fangs and claws and shimmering
scales. Here, though, they’d only existed without substance or strength. How
could they hold a man as strong as Dax?

How could they hold a crystal
sword?

Alton glanced around the small
space, searching for some sign of the portal. Somehow demons were slipping into
this dimension, but he couldn’t tell where they entered. The walls were covered
in demons, clinging like slime mold to the red rock. More crawled across the
ceiling overhead, undulating like dark smoke through and around the
stalactites, all of them heading for Dax.

So many had died that their
ghostly bodies began to litter the floor with black soot, yet Dax remained
trapped.
Frantic, unsure how to rescue his friend, Alton
thrust his hand into the demon mist and managed to wrap his fingers around
Dax’s cold right arm.
He pulled with all his strength, yet Dax seemed
frozen. His arm remained clasped against his body. DemonFire was wrapped in
fingers gone white with the strain of their grasp.

Alton sheathed HellFire so he
could use both hands. He reached through the icy chill of the massed demons
holding Dax against the wall of the cave and managed to wrap his long arms
entirely around his waist. He latched his long fingers together against Dax’s
lower back. Then, using the wall for leverage, he braced one foot beside Dax
and slowly pulled.

Ginny’s and Eddy’s swords
slashed all around Dax, killing the wraiths that seemed to connect him to the
wall. Dax was limp, his dead weight beginning to lean forward into Alton’s
embrace. His head wobbled loosely on his shoulders, his eyes were closed and
his features slack. Alton couldn’t tell if he breathed or not.
If he still lived.

More demons died and their
hold on Dax seemed to loosen, yet still Eddy and Ginny fought on. Alton
continued to pull, yet something held Dax. Something powerful refused to give
him up.

Eddy moved to one side and
Ginny to the other. Ginny raised her sword and DarkFire’s light flashed through
the space between Dax and the solid wall of the cave.

Something
large and dark rose up, a creature of boiling black mist and too many long,
snaking arms.
Arms that grasped Dax and continued to
hold him.
Light from Ginny’s sword bathed the creature and his features
sprang into full relief.