Hellfire (22 page)

They were already healing,
without the bandages. What about an apology for denying their relationship?
For denying him?
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
“My injuries are almost healed. There is no need to concern
yourself
.”

Then he stood up and brushed
past her on his way into the house. It took all his strength not to grab her as
he walked by, but he decided it was more satisfactory to leave her standing
there with a perplexed frown on her face.

He almost laughed when he
heard her exhale in frustration as she asked Eddy, “What’d I do?”

He wanted to tell her. Wanted
to go back out there and grab her by both hands and say what was in his heart,
that he wanted her to care as much for him as he already did for her.

But that wasn’t what Ginny
wanted to hear. She’d already made it perfectly clear she didn’t want him.
Didn’t want his money, didn’t want his protection,
didn’t
want a relationship of any kind.

She was right when she said
they hardly knew each other, and the few days since he’d first seen her
fighting for her life were but a blip along the way for a man who counted his
life in thousands of years, but he’d known from the beginning. He’d seen her
and he’d known she would be important to him, even before he thought they had
any chance at all.

He’d also known she was going
to be nothing but trouble.

Even when he was the immortal
son of the chancellor of the Council of Nine he’d been fascinated by the human
woman who would have been nothing more than a commoner in Lemuria.

Was that it? He stopped dead
in his tracks. Of course it was! He felt like such a fool. Why hadn’t he
considered her feelings since so much had changed? She’d nailed him. He
was
an arrogant jackass, setting himself above her when
he’d first noted the impossibility of any kind of relationship between them.
Now she’d discovered she was not only immortal, Ginny was a descendant of
Lemurian royalty.

While
he
,
once the son of Lemuria’s ruler, the only child of the chancellor of the
Council of Nine, was no one. Lower than the lowest of the common people.
Disowned by his own father, an exile from the only home he’d ever known. What
could he offer a woman like Ginny? She was a woman of royal blood. An immortal
who
carried crystal. He couldn’t even offer her his honor.
That had been stripped from him as well. He was no one, not even a citizen of
the world he loved. Was that it?

She was so far above him now,
there was no way in the nine hells he could ever dream of courting her. He’d
been so caught up in the passion of the
moment,
he
hadn’t even considered their change in station. He should have known it would
affect her feelings for him, as it should. A woman of Ginny’s stature would
want an equal as a mate, not a loser like him.

He would have laughed if he
hadn’t felt like crying. Instead he continued on through the casita and went
out through the back, vaulted the low deck, and took off through the desert.
Maybe a good, brisk walk would clear his head. A walk anywhere as long as it
took him far from Ginny.

But what
about tonight?
They’d be sharing a room again.
The
same room with memories of their lovemaking filling his heart and soul.
He walked faster, putting distance between him and an unattainable woman as his
long legs carried him out into the Arizona desert.

The resort’s version of room
service looked better than anything Ginny’d seen in any upscale restaurant. She
went in search of Alton while Eddy and Dax set the table for lunch and put the
food out.

He wasn’t in the bedroom,
though his scabbard with HellFire lay atop one of the beds. She checked the
bathroom, but the towels were dry, so he hadn’t been in the shower. She cast
her thoughts and searched. There was no sense of him.
None at
all.

She went back into the
kitchen. “I can’t find Alton. He’s not in the casita and I don’t see him
outside.”

“He can’t have gone far. He
was here just ten minutes ago.” Dax gave the plates of food a longing glance.
Then he went toward the back deck and gazed out over the desert. Ginny and Eddy
stood beside him. Gray clouds heavy with rain boiled over the horizon and
framed the red bluffs in stark relief.

One area seemed to seethe and
swirl, rising and falling on the horizon. As Ginny watched, the darkness came
together and dove, then swept high into the sky again. She opened her mind and
sensed him then. Alton. He was out there, unarmed.

And the birds were back.

“Grab your swords. Follow me!”
She snatched her scabbard from the back of the chair where she’d hung it
earlier this morning, slipped it over her shoulder, and checked the buckle.
Then she raced into the bedroom and grabbed HellFire out of his scabbard.

She slammed one hand on the
top rail and vaulted over, hitting the ground beyond the deck with Dax and Eddy
right behind her.

“What is it? What do you see?”
Eddy caught up and ran beside her.

“That black formation. Those
are the birds, the ones possessed by demons that attacked us earlier. I’m not
sure, but I think they’re after Alton.
Hurry.
There’s
no place out here for him to take shelter.”

Dax put on an extra burst of
speed and quickly outpaced them. As they drew closer, it was obvious the birds
had someone or something cornered against a huge saguaro cactus. Dipping and
diving, their banshee cries carried on the sharp breeze that whistled through
the sagebrush and over the red bluffs.

Finally they could see Alton.
He’d grabbed a length of scrap iron and was using it to swing at the birds as
they dove at him, attacking in an almost military precision. Dax skidded to a
stop, raised his hands, and shot a powerful blast of icy air at the demonic
flock.

Hundreds of birds dropped. The
rest wheeled away, spinning above the blast of freezing air. Ginny tossed
HellFire to Alton. He grabbed the sword without a word and immediately pressed
it to the stunned birds littering the ground in front of him. One by one, dark
smudges of demon mist escaped from each bird. Ginny and Eddy caught the wraiths
with their crystal blades and filled the air with the sulfuric stench of dying
demons.

Dax blasted the second wave of
birds, dropping hundreds more to the ground. With Alton driving the demons from
their feathered hosts and Eddy and Ginny killing each one as it tried to
escape, they worked their way through the fallen birds and destroyed each demon
before it could go in search of a new avatar.

Ginny lost track of the number
of times she swung DarkFire through demon mist. Each one showed its true demon
self, flashing fangs and claws in the seconds before it died, but they all
died—just as all their avian hosts survived.

By the time the birds were
gone and the demons destroyed, Ginny’s arm felt like a lead weight. She glanced
at Alton. He leaned on HellFire and stared at her. “Are you okay?” she asked.

He nodded.
“Other
than feeling pretty stupid.
I can’t believe I came out here without
HellFire. They were on me within minutes, almost as if they were lying in
wait.”

Ginny took a deep breath and
willed her heart to stop pounding. “They might have been.” In fact, they
probably were, but she didn’t want to think about that.

“Let’s go back and eat.” Dax
slapped Alton on the arm. “C’mon. We left a lot of really good food on the
kitchen table.”

“Is it as good as Ed’s
cooking?” Alton sheathed HellFire and followed Dax. Eddy and Ginny walked
beside them.

“Nothing is as good as Dad’s
cooking.” Eddy flashed him a grin. “But this looks like a close second.”

They laughed and teased one
another all the way back to the casita. Ginny did her best to take part, but
she couldn’t stop thinking about Alton. About what Eddy had said about the
dangers facing
them.

There’d been a moment, that
very brief moment when she’d realized Alton was alone in the desert, unarmed
and under attack, that she’d known she would risk anything—
anything
—to
keep him safe.

Including her freedom?

Yes,
she admitted.
Even that
.

But what
about her heart?
Ginny Jones was never going to fall in love. She flat
out refused to make herself that vulnerable to any man.

But then she glanced at him,
walking beside her with that sexy, long-limbed stride of his and the cocky
smile on his perfect lips, and she wanted him.
Wanted him so
badly she felt like screaming.

No, damn
it.
She refused to allow it. She was not going to fall in love. Not as
long as she had anything to say about it.

The four of them stood beside
the little blue Ford Focus and stared at the car. Ginny cocked an eyebrow at
Eddy, who was obviously having a hard time fighting a case of the giggles.

“What’s so funny?” Ginny bit
the inside of her cheek.

“It’s awfully small,” Dax
said, bending over to peer through the open window on the driver’s side. “The
three of us barely fit. How are four…?”

Eddy snorted. “Reminds me of
the circus where about ten big clowns all climb out of an itsy-bitsy car after
it pulls into the ring.”

Alton shook his head. “I’m not
sure how big a clown is, but I have a feeling the four of us won’t fit in
this.”

“If you guys knew how to
drive, Eddy and I might fit in back, but there’s no way I’m turning either of
you loose with any car I’m responsible for.” Ginny reached for the door.
“Alton, you’re taller than Dax, so you take the passenger seat. Dax and Eddy
will have to squeeze into the back. It’s less than ten miles to the car rental
place. I saw it when we drove through town.”

Ginny waited to get into the
car until the others had managed to squeeze into their seats. There was much
shuffling and good-natured cursing as they rearranged long legs as well as
scabbards and swords. Ginny maintained until the other three were situated, but
as she buckled herself in, she made the mistake of glancing up and catching
Alton’s twinkling green eyes staring directly into hers.

The humor in his gaze did it.
She’d been so tense all through lunch, so unwilling to let down her guard. He’d
moved his seat as far forward as he could to make room for Dax and Eddy in the
backseat, but now, seeing him squished into the small front seat with his long
legs folded tightly and his jeans-clad knees poking up in front of the
dashboard was just too much. Laughter bubbled up out of her chest and exploded
in a burst of giggles.

She leaned her forehead
against the steering wheel and let the laughter flow. Alton’s deep chuckle was
quickly joined by Dax’s and Eddy’s unrestrained laughter and the tension melted
away. Finally Ginny raised her head, turned toward Alton, and caught him
smiling at her, laughing with her, and she knew.

Whatever happened, she and Alton
would figure it out. If they could laugh at the stupid stuff and deal with the
tough issues, they’d get through whatever came their way.

Even the convoluted feelings
that seemed to affect every thought Ginny
had,
every
move she made?

Even those.
They could be friends. They could care
about each other without falling head over heels in love. Without all the
issues that went along with a deeper, more emotional relationship. All it meant
was keeping things on an even keel. Remembering that she was an independent
woman who had done well without a man in her life for the past thirty-one
years, who could continue to succeed with a man as a friend, not the other half
she’d need to complete her whole.

She was already whole. A woman
complete unto herself.

And don’t
you forget it.

With that admonition planted
firmly in mind, Ginny got her giggles under control, wiped the tears from her
eyes with both hands, and then started the car.
First things
first.

They definitely needed a
bigger car.

“Okay.” Ginny handed her cell
phone to Alton. He tucked it into her bag as she smiled at Eddy in the rearview
mirror. “Watch for Airport Road. The same company where I got this car has an
office at the Sedona airport. The guy I just talked to says he’s got a Yukon.
It’s a big four-wheel-drive SUV that should be perfect for us.”

Eddy leaned forward. “How are
we going to pay for it? You can’t keep sticking things on your charge card,
Ginny. That place we’re staying in must be costing you a fortune.”

Alton interrupted. “That would
be my department. I grabbed a handful of diamonds when we were in Lemuria and
we sold a couple to a jeweler.”

Eddy’s mouth fell open and she
grabbed his shoulder. “You mean he didn’t ask you where they came
from?
”

Alton shrugged. “He was more
interested in paying us a fraction of their actual value and getting us out of
his shop.”

“There’s our turn.” Ginny
flashed a glance at Eddy as she made a right onto a side road. “No thanks to my
navigators.”

“Sorry about that, but I’m
still trying to figure out how you were able to sell loose diamonds and not get
arrested.” Eddy laughed and sat back in her seat.

“There was a little Lemurian
compulsion involved.” Ginny flashed a quick glance at Alton, but Eddy didn’t
seem appeased.

“Alton? Didn’t it bother you
to know he’d cheated you?”

Alton thought about that a
moment. He knew enough about human currency to recognize the value of the
perfect stones and the fact the jeweler had definitely made out better on the
deal, but Alton and Ginny had still gotten more money than they needed. And he
had played what Ginny referred to as his Lemurian mind games on the man.