Hellfire (25 page)

Frowning, Dax stared at Ginny.
“It almost sounds, from your description, that he got my old body. If I ever
actually see him, I’ll let you know if he looks familiar, but I was a pretty
scary guy, once upon a time.”

Eddy leaned her cheek against
his shoulder. “Love, you’re still a scary guy. Anytime you doubt yourself, just
ask me.”

“I’ll try and remember to do
that.” Laughing now, Dax planted a kiss on top of her head. “Anyway, it appears
he was sent to Earth as head of an invasion force, but he lost much of his
intelligence and the knowledge of his purpose in the transition from banished
Edenite to mercenary demon. Unfortunately, it seems he gains it back the longer
he’s on Earth.”

“But he just went back to
Abyss. Shouldn’t that make him lose what he’s learned?” Ginny looked to Alton
for confirmation, but it was Dax who answered.

“We don’t know for sure he
even goes back to Abyss. He started out in the void. Maybe that’s where he
returns. Maybe the rules don’t work the same for this guy. He wasn’t born a
demon. He was sent somewhere once before when Eddy destroyed his gargoyle
avatar. He seems to have returned this time as an even stronger entity.” Dax
stared at his clasped
hands,
both of them wrapped
around one of Eddy’s. When he raised his head, the look in his dark eyes left
Ginny feeling chilled to the bone.

“He directed the attack on me
in the cavern. When he grabbed me and held me against the wall, I felt his
teeth at my throat.
Smelled his foul breath on my face.
He was more than just mist. He felt solid. He shouldn’t—not in this dimension.
I tried to break away, but I had no strength. I still feel weak. I think he was
somehow siphoning my energy, absorbing it much as he did from the demons he
took at the battle in Evergreen. If it hadn’t been for DemonFire sharing his
own life force, I don’t know if I could have survived even that brief an
attack.”

“Are you certain?” Alton
leaned across the table. He held his fork in his hand as if he’d forgotten he
was planning to take a bite of his enchilada. “If that’s true, Dax, we’ve got
an even bigger problem than we thought. Do you think the other
demons have that ability, or is
the demon king unique?”

“The others were able to shove
me into the demon king’s grasp, but only the demon king was stealing my
energy.” Dax shook his head. “It was the weirdest sensation, as if my energy
were spiraling up and out of my body, like it was being sucked out of me. At
the same time, I felt the pulse of power from DemonFire, small amounts at a
time, not enough to interest the demon king, but enough to keep me alive.”

He pulled his T-shirt collar
aside, showing the smooth column of his throat. “I think the demon king is like
an energy vampire. His mouth was against my throat, though he didn’t pierce my
skin with teeth of any kind.”

Eddy ran her fingers over his
skin and shook her head.

“See?” Dax said.
“Nothing.
Not a mark. Not even a bruise. There aren’t any
marks on my body, either. As tightly as he held me, I should have bruises, even
scrapes from the talons.”

Dax released the cotton band
and it settled back against his neck. “I felt him.
His
scales, his claws.
He was very strong and my ribs still ache from the
way he held on when Alton was pulling me away, yet there’s no visible sign of
his touch.” He shook his head, as if denying the lack of evidence.

Ginny glanced from one somber
face to the other. “How long before you think he’ll be back?” She took a bite
of enchilada, hardly tasting the spicy flavor, but she chewed anyway. They all
needed to eat—they’d need all the energy they could get to fight this threat.

“A couple of
days at the most.
It’s been less than a week since Eddy sent him back to
Abyss.” Dax turned and gazed on her with such pride it made Ginny’s stomach do
a strange little flip.

Dax and Eddy had only known
each other a week and a half, and yet they seemed so sure of themselves, of
their feelings for each other. How did you know when the guy was right? When
the time was right? Ginny couldn’t believe Eddy’d quit her job! As much as she
hated Harlan, Eddy’d loved writing for the paper.

Almost as much as
Ginny
loved working at Shascom as a 911 dispatcher. She felt
as if she actually did things to help people, like her job mattered.

And demon
fighting doesn’t?

She blinked. What was DarkFire
doing in her head?

You are a
warrior now, Virginia Jones. It is your destiny to fight demonkind. You have
strength and intelligence, and you have me. Your position in your world can be
handled by another. This one can’t. Only you can wield DarkFire. Do not
squander the gift presented to you by Daria the Crone. Do not keep me away from
this battle I long to fight.

DarkFire’s presence faded from
her mind, but her admonition left Ginny rattled. She turned and frowned at
Alton. He was taking another bite of enchilada, but he turned with his fork
poised halfway to his mouth and frowned right back at her. “What? Why do you
look at me that way?”

“Have you been talking to
DarkFire?”

“Of course
not.
Your sword only speaks to me with your permission. Why do you ask?”

“No reason,” she mumbled. “No
reason at all.”
DarkFire, too?
Feeling horribly outnumbered, Ginny switched gears. “Okay, if it’s going to
take him a couple of days, we might have more help by then. That’s when Alton
and I are supposed to meet Taron inside the portal at Bell Rock. He should have
word of the Council of Nine’s plans.”

Alton finished his meal and
shoved his plate aside. “That’s true, but we can’t count on their help.
Unfortunately, as long as my father is the council leader, they’re going to
listen to him, and he has no desire to do anything his son might suggest.”

Dax seemed obviously perplexed
by Alton’s comment. “Are you saying he would condemn an entire society to prove
his point? He’d let demonkind win rather than accept that you might be right in
this instance?”

Alton merely shrugged, but
Ginny knew how badly his father’s narrow attitude hurt him. She covered his
hand in hers. He gave her a quick, sad smile. Then he sighed and turned his
attention to Dax and Eddy.

“Dax, why don’t you and Eddy
stay in tonight? Get your strength back so you’ll be ready to go out when we
patrol the area tomorrow.
Ginny?
Would you be willing
to take me into town? I think we need to look around Sedona at night when
demonkind tend to be more active. I want to know if they’re still taking over
pets. We haven’t heard from your cousin or the vet. I fully expected a call
from at least one of them by now.”

Ginny folded her napkin and
set it next to her plate. “I think that’s a good idea.” She turned to Eddy.
“Are you guys okay with that?”

Dax was the one who laughed.
“You’re kidding, right? You’re asking if I want to stay here and
sleep?
It sounds wonderful.”

Eddy punched his arm.
“Actually, he’s been eyeing that big-screen TV and the remote control.” She
rolled her eyes in dramatic fashion. “He’s discovered the joys of reality TV.”

Dax frowned. “I’m merely
trying to learn more about Earth’s culture in the twenty-first century. My
body’s original owner died over sixty years ago. I have a lot of catching up to
do.”

Ginny snorted, covered her
mouth, and did it again. “Sorry, but this conversation just struck me as
totally unreal. We’re sitting here in this ritzy little resort in Sedona,
Arizona, paid for by stolen diamonds from Lemuria, talking about fighting
demons and Dax’s borrowed body and reality TV. Don’t you think it’s just a
little bizarre?”

Eddy stood up and grabbed her
plate and Dax’s. “Tell me about it. What’s really freaky is that my father has
never been happier. Every weird legend, every myth he’s studied or crazy tale
he’s heard is suddenly coming true. It’s given the man a new lease on life.”

“Ya know
,
I miss your dad.” Ginny grabbed the rest of the dishes and carried them to the sink.
All they needed to do was scrape the dishes and leave them in the sealed
carrier for housekeeping to pick up off the front porch.

“I miss him, too, but he’s
home with BumperWillow for company. I’m going to call him in a bit.”

“Tell him hi for me.” Ginny
turned and leaned against the counter, well aware of Alton’s silent perusal of
her. She opened her thoughts to his and found only impressions of contentment
as he watched her. She’d not expected thoughts as comforting and calm.

“Will do.
You guys be careful.” Eddy poured
herself
a glass of
wine and grabbed another cold beer for Dax. “We’ll be thinking of you out there
battling demons while we’re sipping our drinks and watching the moon rise over
the desert from our lovely room in this luxurious resort.”

Laughing, Ginny pushed away
from the counter. “Thank you so much. Your concern overwhelms me.”

Alton waited by the door with
a hopeful expression on his face and the keys to the Yukon in his hand. “No,”
she said, grabbing her keys as she walked past him. Laughing, Alton shrugged
his broad shoulders and followed her out the door.

Ginny drove slowly out of the
resort grounds. She glanced at her cell phone for messages. Then she handed it
to Alton.
“Call Markus.
See if he’s seen anything
unusual.”

Alton took her phone, found
Markus’s number, and punched the key. There was no answer. He left a brief
message and then handed the phone back to Ginny.
“Now what?”

“Wasn’t this your idea?” She
laughed. “I guess we drive. Open the windows. Keep your senses alive to
anything that feels wrong.” She slanted what should have been just a quick look
in his direction. Light from the dashboard reflected off the curve of his chin
and the sharp line of his nose. His hair was dry now, hanging like pale yellow
silk over his shoulders and pooling in his lap. Damn, but she was jealous of
that hair. Why
was it
the guys always got the
beautiful, smooth tresses? She loved that he’d left it unbound. His black
T-shirt was tucked into his jeans—it stretched over his muscular chest as if it
had been painted on him.

She had to force her attention
back on the road stretching out in front of them.
Concentrate,
girl. Pay attention.
“I felt the demons at the airport,” she said,
though she hated recalling that awful feeling. “It was a horrible sense of
something really wrong, like a slow-motion anxiety attack that just kept
building and getting worse.”

Alton’s big palm covered her
right knee and she smiled at him,
then
quickly looked
at the road ahead. “I wasn’t sure if it was the vortex I was sensing or the
demons, but once we went through the portal I knew it was demons making me so
anxious.”

Alton nodded. “I sensed them
as well, but I’m wondering now if it was the lesser demons we sensed, or the
demon king. I’ve never noticed that kind of physical reaction before, but this
was a feeling of something truly evil.”

“Maybe it’s because he truly
is evil. Think about it. A demon that’s born a demon, that’s always a demon, is
acting true to his nature. In Abyss, he’s not evil, he just is. As Dax said,
his only concern was staying alive, so the demons invading Earth’s dimension
aren’t inherently evil—they’re merely acting the way they’re supposed to
act—like demons. The demon king, though, was once a creature in a world without
evil, so for him to choose the darker side means he consciously chose to be
bad. Doesn’t that make him worse than a natural-born demon?”

Alton’s burst of laughter
caught her by surprise. “What?”

“Ah, Ginny…If I’d had any
doubt that you were Lemurian, your argument just now would have convinced me of
your true nature. Lemurians live for the debate. You’re a natural.”

She chuckled. “Eddy’s always
said she hates to argue with me because I refuse to lose even when I’m wrong.”
Grinning broadly she added, “Of course, I’m never wrong.”

“I’m glad you told me. I’ll
remember that when we disagree.” Alton settled back in the comfortable seat and
smiled as if he were enjoying his own private joke.
At her
expense.

“You say that like it’s not
going to happen.”

Alton cocked one expressive
eyebrow and rolled his head to one side to watch her. “I was being facetious. I
imagine we’ll disagree many times in the many years ahead. Don’t expect to win
every time. It would be bad for my self-image.”

Many years?
Would they really be together for many
years? How could Alton say that when they’d known each other such a short time?

She really didn’t want to
think about that right now. No, she just wanted to check around Sedona for
demons and then get back to the casita and sleep. Except where was she going to
sleep tonight?
In the same bed as Alton?
And if they
slept in the same bed, would they make love again?

Just thinking of the
possibility made her stomach
clench—
but was it nerves
or expectation? Ginny glanced Alton’s way, but he was staring out the window as
they sped toward town. She wondered what he was thinking, but when she
searched, she came up against a solid wall blocking his thoughts. Turning her
attention to the road ahead, she drove through the darkness toward the lights
of Sedona.

Alton hadn’t felt this relaxed
in ages. There was something about Ginny Jones that seemed to make him feel
complete in a way he’d not been in thousands of years. It didn’t make sense,
really, since she’d certainly not committed herself to him. They’d made love
only that one night and she certainly didn’t treat him with the respect and
deference a Lemurian female traditionally offered to her mate.

Which, he’d
finally decided, was part of the attraction.
Ginny deferred to no one. She
was tough and outspoken and fearless in battle, as aggressive on the
battlefield as she’d been in his bed. There was a lot to be said for a tough,
self-confident woman.

At least he finally understood
why Dax loved Eddy so—she was his equal, a woman to stand beside, to count on,
not one to treat like spun glass. Eddy was a woman worthy of respect.

Just like Ginny.

She drove slowly once they
reached Sedona. At the intersection of Highway 89, she stopped for the red
light and then turned left into town. Traffic was quiet—not nearly as heavy as
it had been during the daylight hours. It was still comfortable out, so they
drove with the windows down.

Alton fiddled with the radio.
He was quickly growing to love the different kinds of music he could find with
the mere flip of a switch. For all their advanced technology, Lemurians had
nothing to compare to the music humans made. They couldn’t.

Good music was passionate. It
stroked the emotions.

He stopped at a
country-western station, listened a moment, and then sat back to enjoy a slow,
sad ballad about lost love and missed chances.

Ginny laughed. “You always go
for the most depressing music, Alton. What’s wrong with something fast and
sexy? Some of these songs just make me wanna cry.”

“That’s because they make you
feel emotions.”
He steepled his fingers beneath his chin.
“I was raised in a society where emotions are frowned upon. In Lemuria, it’s
all about logic, about the common good. Humans are all about passion and
emotion, about getting in touch with their feelings.” He sighed. “I envy you
the life you’ve led, the freedom to enjoy emotional highs and lows, to feel
sadness and joy with equal measure.”

Ginny was quiet for a long
time, staring straight ahead as they slowly drove through town. After a couple
of blocks, she softly sighed. Her voice was so quiet he barely heard her.

“I know it sounds great in
theory, Alton, but emotions aren’t always a good thing. I still feel horribly
sad when I think of my parents and how much I miss them. I’m scared to death of
the changes in my life right now.” She stopped at a red light and turned to
stare at him.

“Most of all, I’m really terrified
of what I feel for you.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to feel all twisted
up inside, unsure of how you feel about me, afraid of what I’m beginning to
feel for you.”

The light changed and she
pulled forward, but her soft words hung in the air between them, emphasizing
the charged silence.

He had no answer for her. Dax
had asked him if he loved Ginny. How could he know what love was if he’d never
felt it before? He liked her. Liked being with her, admired her, but
like
and
admire
weren’t
necessarily love. His lack of response only added to the silence between them.

A silence
that didn’t end until they heard a blood-curdling scream.
Ginny hit the
brakes and skidded to a stop at the side of the road. “Do you hear that?”

“C’mon!” Alton jumped out of the
SUV, drew HellFire, and raced back the way they’d just come. Traffic continued
past them on the road as if no one else heard the terrified screams. Alton
skidded to a quick stop in front of a narrow alley, slid around the corner, and
ran down the dark passage between two buildings.

Ginny’s feet pounded the
sidewalk behind him. He held his sword high. HellFire’s brilliant glow
illuminated the shadows, spotlighting an older woman cowering in a doorway,
surrounded by huge gray rats.

He saw seven of them, though
others might be lurking in the shadows. Their eyes
glowed
blood red. Naked ears lay flat against ugly heads. It took Alton a moment to
place the odd clicking noise echoing around him—it was the rhythmic snap of
teeth as the rats closed in on their prey.

She was wearing shorts and
hiking boots. Her legs were bleeding from a dozen deep scratches, though Alton
was relieved to see she didn’t have any visible bites. She looked about sixty
or so in human years. Her gray hair framed her face in a wreath of curls and
frizzy tangles. She grasped the broken handle of a broom in both hands and held
it like a club. The rest of the broom lay just beyond, along with the bodies of
two dead rats.

“Don’t worry about finesse,”
Ginny said. “I hate rats.”

“Whether you hate them or not
doesn’t matter.” Alton swept his loose hair over his shoulders to get it out of
the way and moved around to the other side of the advancing circle. “If you
kill the living avatar, the demon will take its life force. The last thing you
want to do is feed demons. It’s better to force them out and kill them in their
mist form.”

“Damn. I was afraid you’d say
that.” Ginny touched DarkFire to the first rat. It screeched and rolled over.
The demon shot straight out of its belly in a dark swirl of stinking mist.
Alton swung HellFire. The demon burst into flame and disappeared in a thick
cloud of sulfuric smoke.

Another rat,
another demon gone.
Then another.
Suddenly
Ginny sensed a movement to her left. She spun around as a large black cat
launched itself from the top of a pile of boxes. Ginny slapped it down with the
broad side of her blade and Alton forced the demon from its body. Ginny swung
DarkFire through the screeching wraith and watched with absolute satisfaction
as the black mist burst into flames.

The cat sat up and shook its
head, hissed once, and raced away.
“Ungrateful beast.”
Ginny turned her attention to the rats once more. “The least he could have done
was
hunt
a few rats.”

Only four of the creatures
remained, but they continued to circle in front of the woman. She’d moved to
the top step. Trembling, she hung on to the door, watching wide-eyed.

Advancing slowly, Ginny and
Alton methodically destroyed the rest of the demons. The stunned rats wobbled
to their feet, blinked with beady but normal rat-colored eyes, and scattered.
The woman stared as the last of the vermin disappeared into the shadows.

Then she focused on the light
from the two swords. Slowly she moved down the three steps, but she didn’t turn
loose of the broom handle. “What the hell happened? There’ve always been rats
in the alley, but never once have they come after me.”

Ginny sheathed DarkFire and
stepped forward. “Are you okay?”

The woman nodded and glanced
at her legs. “I scratched myself when I fell. I was trying to get away from
them.” She pointed at the dead rats. “Those two
came
flying out of the dark and scared me half to death. I knocked them both down
before I had a chance to think about it, but the broom snapped in two.”

She grabbed the short banister
beside her and hung on. Her entire body shook as she stared at the dead rats.
Then her head snapped up and she looked at Alton as if she were seeing him for
the first time. Her terrified gaze settled on his sword. “Who are you? Are
those lightsabers you’re using? I’ve only seen those in the movies.” She
reached for HellFire.

Alton quickly pulled the blade
out of her reach and slipped it into his scabbard. He checked Ginny’s sword to
make sure her glamour was in place. Then he swept his hand across the woman’s
eyes. She blinked owlishly and looked down at her legs.

“Oh, wow! How’d I do that?”
She touched one particularly deep scratch and then looked up at Alton. “Who are
you?”

He ignored her question. “We
heard you scream. My friend and I came to see if you needed help. Are you
okay?”

Still somewhat dazed, she
nodded. “I’m fine. I must’ve fallen. I’ll need to clean these up, but thank
you. It’s nice to know someone will still stop and help a person.”

She gazed into the shadows and
shuddered. “Weird,” she mumbled.
“Just weird.”
Then
she turned, opened the door to the back of the shop, and went inside.

Alton gazed at Ginny for a
long moment. A sound caught his attention and he turned quickly, drawing
HellFire.
Nine hells.
He
quickly sheathed the sword.

A small crowd of onlookers had
gathered at the far end of the alley, obviously drawn by the woman’s screams
just as Alton and Ginny had been. Alton grabbed Ginny’s arm and they walked
quickly toward the group. As they drew closer, Alton realized they were mostly
teenagers and young adults.

At least a few of them had
been drinking. “Hey, man.” One who’d obviously had too much, a tall, lanky kid,
stepped forward. “Cool sword.”

“Sword?”
Alton gave him a confused look. “What sword?”

The kid frowned. He looked at
Alton’s hands. One clasped Ginny’s arm, the other hung at his side. He shook
his head. “I was sure I saw a sword.” He looked over his shoulder at his
friends. “Man, I need another beer,” he said. Then he spun around, stumbled,
and laughed. “Make that two.”

He took off down the street
with his buddies laughing and teasing him. Alton watched the group go with his
thoughts in turmoil. He wasn’t thinking of the demons or the fact they’d just
saved a woman from an unprecedented attack, one that almost seemed too
organized for demons as they knew them.