Hellfire (24 page)

This, then, must be the demon
king. Hideous beyond belief and as tall as Alton, as powerfully built as Dax
yet still an insubstantial wraith here in Earth’s dimension.

Or was he? Two sets of
multi-jointed arms with clawed hands wrapped around Dax’s waist as the demon
pulled his captive close once again. Ginny swung her sword, but the crystal
passed through the dark body. Eddy stabbed deep and hard, but there was no
spark of dying demon, no stench of sulfuric smoke.

“Why doesn’t it die?” Alton
hung on to Dax, frantically tugging him away from the demon. At that moment,
Eddy and Ginny pressed their swords together, deep within the demonic mist.

Sword points met—dark crystal
to light. Energy flashed. The creature screamed, but it wasn’t a cry of death.
The banshee screech bounced off the walls, reverberating and growing in volume.
It was a sound of fury.
Pure, unadulterated rage that filled
the cavern.

Then, without warning, the
creature suddenly turned Dax free, swirled like a miniature tornado, and
streaked upward, through a portal no one had seen, a narrow, glowing gateway to
Abyss, hidden within a dark cleft in the stone overhead.

Dax lay on the littered floor
of the cavern with DemonFire beside him. The crystal blade was dull. Dax’s
chest rose in fits and starts. He made strangled, gasping sounds as if he
wasn’t getting any air. Eddy leaned over him, listened for his heart, and then
blew air into his lungs. Again, and then again, until he coughed, gasped, and
then sucked in a huge breath.

He took another, and then
another, and his chocolate-brown eyes flashed open, flickering wildly in
obvious confusion as he slowly returned to consciousness.

“DemonFire?”
Dax’s hoarse whisper brought an answering glow from the crystal sword. Dax
touched the blade and sighed. “He’s all that kept me alive,” he said. “The
spirit in my blade shared his life force with me.”

Stunned, Eddy sat back on her
heels. Alton knelt beside Dax and helped lift him to a sitting position. Ginny
stood back, away from the three of them.
I’m staying here,
she said.
We need to close the portal, but not until we
know Dax is safe.

Alton raised his head and
gazed at her. She was absolutely lovely, standing beside them, a powerful
warrior with her sword clasped in her right hand. He felt pride in what she’d
done, even though he’d had no hand at all in her abilities. He was proud just
the same. Both she and Eddy had proved themselves once again as women worthy of
carrying crystal.

Carefully, with little sign of
effort, Alton lifted Dax and carried him through the portal to the SUV. Ginny
was sure Eddy wanted to remain beside her ex-demon lover, but she opted to stay
with Ginny and help her close the portal to Abyss. It took them only a few
minutes working together to seal it entirely.

The red glow disappeared. Even
the stench wasn’t as bad, though Ginny wondered if maybe they’d just fried some
of their scent receptors during the height of the battle. “Let’s make a quick
pass and make sure we got all of them.”

Eddy nodded, but she moved as
if on automatic pilot. They quickly checked walls, ceiling, and floor, making
certain the demons were gone and the gateway to Abyss sealed shut.

Together, Ginny and Eddy
stepped out of the vortex. The anxious sensation was gone. Ginny drew in a deep
breath of clean air as they walked the short distance down the hill to the SUV.
Dax was sitting up in the backseat, a little woozy, but at least he was
conscious. Eddy crawled into the back beside him, wrapped her arms around his
waist, and burst into tears.

Feeling close to crying
herself, Ginny got in and started the engine. Eddy slowly got her emotions
under control. Alton was quiet, sitting beside Ginny, staring out the passenger
window. His thoughts were entirely closed to her. He didn’t speak all the way
back to the casita.

Ginny unlocked the door while
Alton and Eddy helped Dax inside. Not a word was said as they separated and
went to their rooms to bathe. Somehow, it was most important to wash the stench
of demon from their bodies before they sat down and tried to figure out what
they’d just experienced.

It was a rather subdued group
that met around the dinner table a couple of hours later. Ginny’d ordered
dinner from the restaurant on site and they chose to eat inside at the kitchen
table rather than out on the beautiful deck with the view of the desert at
sunset.

Somehow, after Dax’s brush
with the demon king, it was more comforting to sit at the small table within
the solid walls of the little adobe casita. More relaxing, knowing that a
demon-possessed creature wouldn’t be showing up unexpectedly during their meal.

At least not
unless one knocked on the door.

Ginny toyed with her wineglass
while Eddy passed around the plates of enchiladas, beans, and rice. A bowl of
fruit sat in the center of the table for all of them to share, and under any
other circumstances, they’d probably be drinking margaritas and having a party.

Not tonight. Alton reached for
Ginny’s hand and she wrapped her fingers in his. His hair was still damp from
his shower, hanging long and loose over his shoulders. Ginny thought about
running her fingers through the damp, silky strands, but she didn’t have the
energy. She felt absolutely lethargic after a long soak in a very hot tub—her
mind as well as her body still numb from the battle this afternoon.

It was so much easier not to
think about anything. Not to let her thoughts wander down the torturous trails
of the utterly impossible, of demons and Lemurians and Dax’s beginnings.
Of talking crystal swords and other worlds in dimensions apart from
this one.

Of the fact Eddy’d actually
quit her job and embraced her new reality—not only as a demon fighter, but as
the forever partner to a man she’d known for less than two weeks.

No wonder Ginny’d slept so
soundly once they’d returned this afternoon. She’d needed to escape a reality
that seemed more impossible every day. She’d crawled out of the tub, dried
herself, and slipped into a soft terry robe. There’d been no question of lying
down on
her own
bed. She’d joined Alton on his. They’d
stretched out together and held hands the way they were holding on to each
other now. He’d been her anchor then.

He was her anchor now.

They’d talked for a while,
lying there on the big bed in the room darkened with a heavy shade that shut
out the late afternoon sunlight. Alton had filled Ginny in on more of the
details of his week with Dax and Eddy, a week of terrifying battles and even
some laughter as they’d discovered all the different kinds of creatures demons
had possessed.

Killer
garden gnomes?
Check. Mrs. Abernathy hadn’t been off the mark at all
when she’d called 911 the night Ginny was working dispatch to report that a
garden gnome had eaten
Twinkles
the cat.

Impossible but true.

Ginny’d finally learned the
truth behind the battle in Evergreen when demons had taken on cemetery statuary
as avatars and marched against the townsfolk in what had turned out to be an
almost epic battle orchestrated by the demon king. It had actually seemed
humorous when Alton told it. Humorous until Ginny considered the danger behind
each act the demons had
committed,
each amazing and
terrifying sign of the accelerated evolution of their abilities.

Even more terrifying had been
the full story of that last battle on the flank of Mount Shasta. How the three
of them—Eddy, Alton, and Eddy’s father—had sat beside Dax’s dead body and felt
him grow cold as time passed, knowing their friend and fellow warrior was truly
gone. His return to life had been no less than a miracle, though even that had
been eclipsed by the replication of Alton’s sword.

Out of HellFire, DemonFire and
DemonSlayer were born, and the war against demonkind had truly begun.

So many things had changed
that day. Willow had lost her body and taken up residence in Bumper the mutt,
Eddy and Dax had achieved immortality, and while Ed’s mortality hadn’t changed,
the bad hip that had crippled him for years was totally healed.

The oddest thing in Ginny’s
mind as she’d finally drifted off to sleep was the fact she believed every word
Alton told her. Demons were real. Earth was the fulcrum that kept other worlds
in balance, and she really was an immortal Lemurian, charged with defending
more than one world against demonkind.

Never in her
wildest dreams…

In truth, her dreams had never
been this wild, and her life, by comparison, had been merely a shadow of what
she was living now. As unbelievable as today had been, it hadn’t been unusual,
at least when she compared it to her new reality—a reality that had changed
forever the night that stupid concrete bear cornered her behind the garbage
Dumpster, and she’d been kissed by the most beautiful and amazing man she’d
ever known.

She glanced at their hands, at
the way her dark fingers entwined with Alton’s fair ones, at the strength in
his hand, the muscles in his forearm, and she mentally dragged herself back to
the small kitchen, to the friends surrounding her at the table. To the amazing
fact it was all real.
All happening to Ginny Jones, Shascom
911 dispatcher.

What a weird day it had been.
Today’s attack on Dax had been totally unexpected…but at least Dax was safe.
Ginny raised her head and caught his dark-eyed gaze and she thought of the
first time she’d met him, when Eddy had introduced him as an old college friend
in that little coffee shop in Evergreen. Was it only a week and a half ago?
She’d liked him immediately without even realizing who or what she was actually
meeting.

With that memory firmly in
place, the present rushed back into focus. They could have lost him today, and
while she would have lost a friend, Eddy would have lost the man she loved. The
one she’d promised to love for all time. It was a sobering thought. One Ginny
wasn’t prepared to dwell on, especially with Alton’s fingers clasped so firmly
in hers.

She let go of his hand, picked
up her wine, and lifted her glass. “To Dax,” she said. “May you always stay
safe, no matter how dangerous the fight.”

“Hear, hear.” Eddy leaned
close, kissed Dax’s cheek, and
clinked
her glass to
his beer bottle. Alton joined them. They all sipped at their drinks. Then, one
by one, they set their glasses down and an uncomfortable silence hovered over
the small group.

Ginny couldn’t stand it a
minute longer. “Does anyone know what happened today? From what you’ve told me,
that wasn’t normal demon behavior, if there is such a thing.”

Dax nodded. “It certainly
wasn’t what I expected. The second Alton stepped through the portal and left me
alone in the cavern, the demons attacked. I’ve never seen anything like it.
They practically exploded off the walls. We hadn’t seen them because they’d
somehow taken on the shape and color of the stone, but they flew at me like an
explosion of black mist. It was too fast for DemonFire to warn me. There was
enough force behind their attack and enough substance to the creatures that
they caught me off balance. It felt like a harsh wind picked me up and threw me
against the back wall.”

“But what was that thing
holding on to you?” Ginny covered his big hand with hers. “It didn’t look
anything like the other demons. It was huge, and it was one entity. I’m sure of
that. Not a collection of demons trying to appear as a single beast.” She shook
her head. “It was real, real ugly.
A hideous face.
Scales, long fangs, and what looked like four multi-jointed arms with hooked
claws even on the joints. Yuck.
Definitely ugly.”

Dax raised an eyebrow, nodded,
and glanced toward Alton. “You guys got a better look at it than I did. I could
feel it—feel at least four scaled arms around my waist, the strength in muscles
and bone. It wasn’t just mist. Was it the demon king?”

“I think so,” Alton said. “But
if it was, it’s more dangerous than we realized. Tell Ginny what you learned
about the demon king when you were in Eden. It might help explain why we have
reason to fear him.”

Dax nodded. He glanced at Eddy
and the look in her eyes spoke volumes. Ginny knew they must be thinking of
that terrifying time when Eddy thought Dax was dead, when they couldn’t find
their tiny will-o’-the-wisp companion, Willow.

Dax’s voice was rougher than
usual. He squeezed Eddy’s hand and exhaled a frustrated breath of air. “I’ve
told you how I was originally a demon from Abyss. Well, the one we’re fighting
now began in Eden. He had it all—he was a creature of Paradise, but he threw it
away. They told me he was the only son of one of their leaders, a young man of
uncommon beauty and impeccable lineage. They banished him because he embraced
the darkness. He was sent into the void as punishment for his evil acts, where
he should have remained forever entombed, except he was recruited by leaders of
Abyss—leaders I didn’t even know existed—and turned into a demon.”

“You had no idea your world
had rulers?” Ginny tried to imagine Abyss, a dimension of total chaos and
unadulterated evil. What kinds of creatures ruled such a place?

What kind of creature would
choose Abyss? Even the void sounded preferable.

Dax shook his head. “No. I was
merely a nameless demon, one of untold millions of creatures who exist merely
to survive at all costs. I wasn’t concerned with kings or rulers. My biggest
worry was not getting fucked or eaten by someone bigger or smarter than me. Our
recruited demon, however, never actually existed among the masses. He was
transformed while still in the void and given the body of a demon.”