Demon's Daughter (Demon Outlaws) (17 page)

When he did, what was to become of them?

She needed guidance. The only source she knew to turn to, that she’d ever been taught to seek out other than her mother, was the goddesses themselves.

The rain was their gift to a burning land. She cleared her mind, lifted her face, and murmured the prayers her mother had taught her.

The rain gentled but did not stop. Without the driving force of the wind to mix them with sand, the drops cleared from opaque to glass. They shimmered and danced to fall around Airie like curtains of tiny, glittering crystals.

A figure appeared, outlined in the backdrop of rain, and Airie caught her breath, afraid at first that the demon had returned. Her immediate concern was for Scratch.

But the figure was that of a woman, and Airie’s concern turned quickly to awe.

She was in the presence of a goddess. At least one of them had not turned from her.

The goddess’s lips moved as if attempting to speak, but Airie heard nothing other than the patter of the rain on the mud-slickened ground. The goddess stretched out a hand in invitation and Airie accepted it, her own fingers trembling. The goddess’s touch had no substance to it, and yet that it was real, she did not doubt.

The rain parted around them, leaving them isolated in a sparkling oasis of sunlight. The goddess was golden and glorious, dressed in a gown crafted from a rainbow of colors, and the warm hunger in her eyes as she examined Airie from head to toe was palpable.

All worry for the future was forgotten, banished by an opportunity Airie had never believed could be hers. Hope grazed her heart and overrode any disinclination to beg.

“Please,” she implored, “can you tell me if my mother is at peace?”

The goddess went still. “She wants you to know that she is with you.” An indefinable expression flashed across her face. “And that she loves you.”

Airie closed her eyes and absorbed the goddess’s words. She had never been given a chance to properly mourn her mother. She had left no offerings with her body, or dressed her in fine clothes so she could stand with pride before the goddesses she had served. Airie had left her alone, discarded in a temple even the goddesses had abandoned.

But now she knew beyond doubt that her mother was at peace, and Airie owed it to her memory to try to do something worthwhile with her life, as she would have wanted.

The sorrow she had struggled to control since leaving the mountain surged through her, then abated, although it did not disappear completely and never would.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

A flash of pain crossed the goddess’s face before her expression closed. “You have no reason to thank me. I am a part of you, and I owe a great debt to your…mother…for that. You are the product of her upbringing, not mine, and I’ve tried not to interfere before this. But now, if you need me, I’ll be here for you. You have only to ask.”

Airie heard the slight hesitation in the soft-spoken words and her worry returned, not only for what was to become of both her and Scratch, but also as to whether she would be able to overcome the taint of her parentage.

She would not let the past overwhelm her future. She might not be able to change the fact that her father had been a demon, but her mother had been nothing but the personification of goodness and strength. She would make her mother proud, although it would not be easy. Airie had no illusions about herself or her flaws.

“I don’t know what I will do without my mother to guide me,” she confessed.

Tension stiffened the goddess’s features, making her appear uncompromising. “You must make a choice,” she said. “Not now, but soon. You were born on this world, but you were not born to it. It is not yours. If you wish to make a place for yourself here, you must be welcomed in it. If you don’t do so soon, you will then have to choose between worlds. Will you choose the world of your mother or that of your father?”

Airie did not understand. The words made little sense to her. “I choose this world,” she said.

“You have not yet earned any choice,” the goddess replied. “You can make none until you do so. If you want to be a part of this world, you must make it yours.”

The rain began to thin. Airie had hoped for more guidance than this.

Bursts of light shone from the goddess’s pores. “The immortals watch you. But they do not favor you. It is up to you to earn their respect.” She began to fade with the thinning droplets of rain, her form growing more translucent. The golden light dimmed. “Desire did very well with you,” she added, her intent gaze memorizing Airie. “Know that your mother loves you.”

The rain ceased and the goddess was gone.

As Airie glanced at the rain-soaked mud and rivulets of water streaming down the craggy canyon walls, sudden panic filled her.

Scratch was gone as well.

…

The rainstorm had forced Hunter to seek temporary shelter in a yucca grove, which meant he’d had no real shelter at all. His miserable day was complete.

Once the storm let up enough for him to judge that the slippery terrain was again safe for travel, he and the sand swift started for home.

He rocked in the saddle, settling his hat farther back on his head. Water trickled from its brim down the back of his neck. Why that irritated him he had no idea, because he was already soaked to the skin.

He’d had plenty of time to think while he waited for the rain to abate.

Perhaps the Godseekers really were the best ones to take Airie in. They would assume her differences stemmed from immortality. They would care for her and keep her safe. He would tell them of how she had healed Sally and Scratch, and they would believe he brought them salvation. He was the Demon Slayer. They might try to kill him for his amulet, but they would not doubt him.

Before he gave her over to the Godseekers, he would need to return Mamna’s gold. The thought of doing so gave him great pleasure. It had weighed too heavily on him.

He finally crested the bluff overlooking the canyon. Sally picked her way down the other side of the steep, muddy slope, aware from past falls that the potential for landslides had greatly increased and that the rocks were no longer secure.

Hunter wiped water from his face, puzzled by what appeared to be two shadows in the canyon where there should not be any at all. Not in this weather. One shadow belonged to Airie. The owner of the second was unidentifiable from this distance because of the rain.

What quickly became obvious to him, however, not only from the halo of unnatural golden light surrounding Airie but also from the sudden responding warmth of the amulet around his neck, was that Airie was not speaking with a mortal.

Hunter had seen very few demons in mortal form before and wondered if that was what protected this one from the rain, or if its protection came from the hypnotic golden light around Airie.

What if the falling of the goddesses’ mountain meant the rains were no longer able to keep the demons away?

His heart lurched in his chest. The thought of Airie facing another demon alone caused him far more concern than it should, since this demon appeared to pose no immediate threat to her. If it had, his amulet would warn him. Instead it sent a gentle heat seeping through him, chasing away the dampness that had permeated his skin for miles. Sally, too, would have charged to her defense.

But unwelcome memories of his sister, vibrant, beautiful, and trusting, surfaced. His fingers tightened on the reins and his vision blurred. A demon had seen Airie the night before. That it might return for her should come as no surprise. She, too, was a beautiful woman.

He had been a fool to leave her alone.

Instinct had him ready to dig his heels into the sand swift’s sides and urge it forward so he could ride to Airie’s rescue, but a mean, suspicious part of him made him draw back on the reins to see how she would respond to one of her own kind this time.

She stretched out her hand to the faint figure before her as if in supplication, and Hunter’s shoulder muscles bunched in response as he watched.

The rain eased, then stopped entirely, and suddenly, he saw she was alone.

His relief disappeared an instant later as her hand went to her chest, clutching into a fist over her heart. She spun around in frantic circles, searching for something that was no longer there.

He had seen enough.

He gave the sand swift its head and within moments he was at her side.

The man in him admired the picture she presented even while the part of him that hated demons wished she did not look quite so appealing. Clad in a thin white cotton shift, its wet fabric clinging to her curves and far too transparent, she swiped damp curls off her flushed cheeks and tucked them with shaking fingers into the long, thick braid of coal-black hair she wore. She looked fresh and innocent, except for the fear filling her wide brown eyes.

Fear was an emotion he did not associate with Airie. Remorse wrenched at his heart, twisting and squeezing. He had left her alone and something bad had happened.

He slid from the sand swift’s back and caught her by the shoulders, searching her face. He wanted to ask what the demon had done to her but didn’t know if he could stomach the answer. She was alive, and that was enough.

It was more than could be said for anyone else who had faced a demon that day.

Airie threw herself into his arms, sending him stumbling backward a step. He quickly regained his footing. His equilibrium took him a few seconds longer to retrieve.

“Thank the goddesses you’re back,” she cried, sounding both anxious and relieved, burrowing her face in the crook of his neck. “I only took my eyes off him for a few moments, and now he’s gone. We have to find him.”

Hunter’s arms tightened around her. Did she think he would help her find this demon? Did she think he would do anything other than kill it if he did?

She was crying now, with intense, shuddering sobs that he had never heard from her, not even on that first night after her mother had passed away. He had not been kind to her then. She hadn’t seemed mortal to him, not even in her grief. He felt helpless in the face of it now.

He held her close and rocked her, resting his cheek against her crown and rubbing the heel of his palm in slow, awkward circles between her shoulders. She smelled of fresh air and innocence, and deep down inside, the protective shell Hunter had erected around his memories of another life where innocence was cherished began to crack.

“He’s just a little boy,” Airie was saying into the collar of his shirt, and the circling motion of Hunter’s hand stopped as the extent of his stupidity sank in.

She was talking about Scratch.

Of course she was talking about Scratch.

But then what of the demon?

At the moment, Scratch was the more immediate problem. The demon would have to wait.

“Airie,” Hunter said firmly. He eased her out of his arms. When he was sure he had her attention, he asked, “Where have you looked?”

“Here. In the yard.” Dismay filled her eyes at the realization that she had glanced around, but not searched.

“He’s got to be somewhere nearby, then. He couldn’t have gotten far.”

“He was afraid of the rain,” she said. Her breath hitched. “I wanted to show him there was nothing to fear.”

He wondered if Scratch had been more afraid of the rain or the sudden appearance of a demon, but he didn’t say it. Not yet. Later, he would have a talk with her. She might be half demon, but she knew nothing about them.

Her mother had been right. Airie had little to no experience of the world beyond the mountain and the temple. In many ways, she was as defenseless as Scratch.

Hunter started for the cabin. “Perhaps he tried to find cover.”

He checked first beneath the steps, where there was a small crawl space of the right size to attract a child wanting to hide. Nothing. He looked inside the cabin, under the bed, and inside the cupboard, where it was less likely he could fit. He then searched the corners of the yard where an outcropping or crevice might conceal him.

After that he, too, began to worry. Where could the boy have gotten?

Airie watched Hunter with an expression of hope and trust on her face. She expected him to find Scratch, but other, more alarming thoughts niggled at him. Coyotes and wolven roamed the canyons. There was also the danger of sinkholes if one did not know how to avoid them. He had a habit of picking up things he should not. Worse, what if Airie’s demon had not been alone? What if another had made off with the boy while she’d been distracted?

Sally waited where Hunter had left her. He crossed the yard to her side and unloaded the packs. Steam rose from the saddle. Already, the heat of the sun and the dryness of the earth wicked away excess moisture.

The desert would be in full bloom for a few days following the rain. Airie would love that. Once he found Scratch, he would take them out for a ride so they could enjoy it.

After that, he would make plans to get them to the Godseekers. He could not look after them out here. He couldn’t watch over them. He did not lead that kind of life.

Most importantly, the Godseekers lived to the north, well out of demon territory, and after she was far away, perhaps the one now pursuing her would forget her. He could not bear the thought of Airie in the possession of a demon, or anyone else.