Hellfire (33 page)

“Wouldn’t that be
nice.
” Alton reached for one of the baggies and set it on
the tile counter. “Let’s see if this works.” He carefully opened the sealed
plastic bag and dumped the frozen demon in the sink. It clunked and rattled
just like a regular ice cube.

Ginny drew her sword as Alton
pulled HellFire out of the scabbard.

The vet stepped back out of
the way. “Where the hell did those come from? I didn’t even see them when you
walked in.”

Ginny flashed him a quick
grin. “They’re magic,” she said. “You can only see them if they want to be
seen.” She almost giggled when Dawson Buck merely nodded, as if magic made
perfect sense. Of course, in her new reality it did. She wondered if Alton’s
compulsion was still working on the man.

DarkFire flashed a brilliant
violet light over the frozen demon. All its demonic features were exposed,
twisted and frozen in a dark parody of evil.

The vet hissed a soft curse
and stepped back.
“Holy shit.
If I’d known how nasty
they looked, I might have thought twice about trying to catch them.”

“They’re definitely ugly.”
Ginny held DarkFire in place, almost mesmerized by the disgusting creature
lying frozen against the white porcelain sink. “They only show their true
colors in the glow from my sword.”

“Let’s hit this together and
see what happens.” Alton’s words snapped her back to the present. He touched
HellFire’s sharp point to one side of the frozen demon. Ginny tapped the other
side with DarkFire’s tip. The demon sizzled and burst into a shower of blue and
violet sparks and sulfur stench. The steam dissipated almost immediately. Only
the foul odor remained.

“Now that we know that works…”
Alton shoved the box toward the vet.
“Doctor Buck, why don’t
you open the bags and dump them in the sink.
We’ll get rid of all of
them before your staff returns.”

“Call me Dawson, and there’s
no rush. Lunch is at a good Mexican restaurant that serves the best margaritas
in town. I don’t expect anyone to show up for a couple of hours. Besides,
they’ll all be next to worthless when they get back.” He grinned. “I’ve left
the afternoon schedule free.”

Ginny glanced at Alton and
they both cracked up. All Ginny could think of was the demon margarita Eddy’d
been joking about earlier, as one after one they sent the frozen demons
sizzling and sparking away to the void.

Ginny zapped the final demon
with DarkFire and carefully slipped her sword back in the scabbard while Alton
cleaned up the used baggies. They reeked of sulfur.

“Throw them in here. This is
for toxic waste.” Dawson opened the lid of a heavy-duty waste can and Alton
threw all the used baggies inside.

“I want to see how you trapped
them.” Alton rinsed his hands off in the sink. “I’m really impressed. I never
would have thought of using a vacuum.”

Dawson dragged a big shop vac
out from under the counter. “I just stick the possessed animal in one of the
smaller pens. It only takes a minute or two before the demon realizes it’s
trapped, and it pops out of the critter. I imagine they’re looking for an
animal that’s not caged, but the minute I see the black mist hovering in the
air, I suck it up with the vacuum, grab a baggie, put it over the nozzle and
reverse the airflow. That blows it into the baggie, I seal it shut and
toss
it in the freezer.”

“Amazing.”
Alton slapped him on the shoulder. “Be sure and call us if you come across
more. Ginny and I can come back and get rid of them.”

“Sounds
good.”
Dawson shoved the vacuum back under the counter and walked them
to the door. “Can you tell me what’s going on? Where they’re coming from?”

Alton shot a quick glance at
Ginny. Silently, she replied,
He deserves to know, don’t
you think?

I agree.

Alton paused by the door and
gazed out at the quiet street that ran in front of the clinic. His thoughts
were wide open to Ginny, the fears he had that this could all end if the demon
invasion were successful. He looked directly at Dawson when he explained what
they were involved in.

“The balance between good and
evil is tipping toward darkness as demons move into this world. Ginny and I are
part of a very small group fighting demonkind. We’ve closed the local pathways
into Earth’s dimension, but the battle’s far from over. We can’t let any of
them escape, and those we’ve not caught are growing stronger by the hour.” He
placed a hand on Dawson’s shoulder. “Be careful. They’ve already possessed at
least one man we’re aware of. Be alert when you’re around them.”

“Why are you keeping it
secret? Shouldn’t the army be brought in?”

“We can’t risk it,” Ginny
said. “They’d come in with guns blazing. Every death in the fight against
demonkind, even of cats and birds and dogs, means another soul lost and more
energy for the demons.”

“Imagine the panic,” Alton
added. “People would see demons in everything. It would feed right into the
demons’ plans. They thrive on chaos.”

Ginny laughed and bumped him
with her hip. “Imagine explaining you.” She smiled at Dawson. “Alton’s not
human. He’s actually from another dimension. One of our guys is an ex-demon in
a human body. I’m not fully human, and there’s a dog hosting the spirit of a
will-o’-the-wisp that can communicate telepathically.”

Dawson’s eyes got bigger with
each little bit of information they shared. Finally he sat down on his desk and
started to laugh. “I was going to say thank you for trusting me, but now I’m
wondering if I really want to know all this. My staff already thinks I’m nuts.
Harmless, but nuts.”

Dawson held out his hand to
Alton. “I’ve got a million questions that I hope you’ll be able to answer for
me someday. I promise to keep all this to myself.” He laughed again as they
shook hands. “Hell, if I tried to tell anyone what you’ve just told me, they’d
have me committed. I wouldn’t believe a word of what you’ve said if I hadn’t
seen those little bastards myself.”

He stood and walked them to
the back door of the clinic. “You’ve got my number. If there’s anything at all
I can do to help, call me.
Anything.
I mean it.”

Dawson closed the door behind
them and Alton and Ginny walked back to the Yukon and took their seats.

“I’m glad we told him,” Ginny
said. “I don’t think he’ll say anything.”

“I agree. Sometimes you have
to learn to trust people.” He caught Ginny’s eye and she smiled at him. They
were both living proof that trust didn’t always come easy.

“What next?” Ginny stuck the
key in the ignition.

“I think we need to check with
Markus.”

“Markus?
What for?”
She backed out of the parking place and
headed toward the neighborhood where her aunt and cousins lived.

“Because we’re secret
government agents and we need to keep him informed. Besides, there’s a really
good taco stand on the way to his house.” He flashed
her a
bright smile. “Unfortunately, I don’t think they serve margaritas.”

“Gotcha.”
She pulled a pout. “I just hope I’ll survive.”

“I hope we both do,” Alton added.

She turned her head and caught
him looking at her. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

While they ate lunch, Ginny
called ahead to make sure Markus was home. He met them outside, sitting on the
front porch steps with Tom in his lap. When Ginny parked the Yukon at the curb,
Markus set the cat down and walked quickly out to meet them. He didn’t even
give them time to get out of the SUV.

Alton rolled the window down.
“Hey, Markus.
What’s up?”

Markus looked over his
shoulder. Then he quickly glanced at the house. “Probably not a good idea for
you guys to come in.”

“Why not?”
Ginny leaned across Alton to talk to her cousin. “Is something wrong?”

Markus let loose a dramatic
sigh. “Everything’s wrong. Aunt Betty’s convinced you brought the devil to Sedona.
She’s blaming you guys for all Tom’s weird shit, and whenever one of the twins
acts up, now she says they’ve got the devil in them.” He made his voice all
high and squeaky and said, “All this bad shit’s because of your cousin Ginny
and her weird friend.”

“What?”

“Shush.” Alton bit back a
laugh, but Ginny’s shriek made his ears ring. He held her hand and listened to
her grumble before asking
Markus,
“Are the twins okay?
They’re not acting possessed, are they?” When Markus shook his head no, Alton
asked, “Why would she blame us? I don’t get it.”

“
There’s
all kinds of crazy shit going on. Pets attacking their owners, some guy in a
bar going berserk and talking in a weird voice, a lady in town said she was
attacked by rats that stalked her like they knew what they were doing. It all
started the day Ginny arrived.”

He shrugged and gave Ginny an
apologetic smile. “Mom knows you were adopted and she never could figure out
how your folks could take in a baby when they didn’t know anything about her
background. She always said they were asking for trouble taking in a stray kid,
and now she says you’re probably a demon child.”

“Aunt Betty said that?” Ginny
sat back in her seat. Alton turned around and caught the look of utter
devastation on her face. His first reaction was to punch Markus in the nose,
but he controlled himself and concentrated on Ginny.

“Your aunt doesn’t know what
she’s talking about.” Alton leaned close and kissed her. “She’s an idiot.”

“For what it’s worth, I
agree.” Markus leaned on the open window. “I tried to tell her she was talking
crazy, but she won’t listen to anything. That’s why I haven’t called you. I
didn’t think it was a good idea for you to come here, at least until whatever’s
going on stops. In fact, I’m glad I caught you just now, before you actually
knocked on the door and freaked Mom out entirely. We’re all okay, Tom’s just
Tom, and the twins are their usual spoiled-rotten selves.” He smiled
apologetically at Ginny. “If they get extra rows of teeth or their eyes start
to glow, I promise to call.”

Alton glared at him. “You do
that, Markus.”

Markus slapped the roof of the
Yukon and backed away.
“Yeah.
Ginny?
I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Mom’s, well…she’s just Mom. I probably
got my big mouth from her.”

“Yeah.”
Ginny’s audible sigh broke Alton’s heart. “We’ll see you around. Be careful.
Call if something comes up.”

“Will do.”
He stepped back up on the curb.

Ginny drove away from the
house. She’d wiped all the expression from her face, but Alton could feel the
sadness flowing off of her in heavy waves of pain. Her voice sounded totally
flat when she asked him, “Where to now?”

He stared at her a moment,
wondering how he could make things better. Nothing came to mind. “Let’s make a
quick drive through town,” he said. “Then we can check the Boynton Canyon
vortex again. Maybe go by the one at the airport. I want to make sure all the
portals we’ve sealed are holding.”

“Okay.
The
airport first.
It’s closest.”

Her voice had totally lost its
spark. Alton wanted to strangle Markus, but the kid hadn’t realized what he was
saying.

“That explains so much.”

Alton leaned back in his seat
and watched Ginny. “What explains what?”

“What Markus
said.
My mom and his mom were never very close even though
they were sisters. I always thought it was their age difference, but it could
have been over things Betty said to my mother about me.”

Alton nodded. “Markus should
have kept his big mouth shut.”

Ginny laughed. “‘Discretion’
and ‘Markus’ are never used in the same sentence. He says what he thinks,
generally before he actually thinks it. He’s always been that way.”

She clammed up, turned at the
light, and drove down the highway that led to the airport. After a minute she
patted his leg. “Alton, I have no doubt that my mother and father loved me. I
was their only child. They chose to adopt me and they were such good parents.
Even though they were older, they loved me and did the best they could for me.
Look at it this way—Markus has had to live with my Aunt Betty all his life. I
was the lucky one, don’t you think?”

Alton leaned over and planted
a quick kiss on her cheek.
“No, sweet one.
Your
parents were the lucky ones.”

“Thank you.”

The rest of the trip to the
airport was made in silence. Alton wondered about Ginny’s thoughts, but he decided
not to intrude. In some ways he couldn’t help but feel jealous. Ginny had loved
her parents and they’d loved her. She was proud of them and she missed them,
but she’d always have such good memories.

He wished he could say the
same. He loved his mother, but it was hard to respect a woman who’d stay with a
man like his father. She’d chosen to remain his mate all these years, no matter
how Artigos had treated her or their only son.

Had she known about the other
stuff? What in the nine hells had his father done? What was the man thinking
when he forced an entire civilization to give up a home it had finally grown
comfortable in, after their traumatic move from the original continent of
Lemuria?

And what was his plan now?
With demonkind attacking and the future of all life balanced on a razor’s edge,
what could his father possibly have in mind, that he was willing to sacrifice
so many worlds, so many lives?

Alton hated to think of Ginny
hurting over her cousin’s thoughtless words, but even more, he hated wondering
what his father might be planning. What the man had in mind. A showdown was
coming, and as much as Alton loathed the idea, he was afraid it was going to be
more personal than he’d ever imagined.

He was going to have to face
his father. Not as the man’s son, but as the one who would somehow remove
Artigos from his position as the head of the Council of Nine.

Artigos was powerful. He was
canny—a smart man without morals or ethics to impede his actions.
But why?
What would make an intelligent man turn on his own
people, his own family—his own son? He couldn’t do more to help demonkind if
he’d tried.

A chill raced along his spine.
Could that be it? Was Artigos literally in league with the devil? Had his
father somehow, during his long life, become the tool of demonkind?

It would explain so much.
Alton had to find out. Then he had to face the man who had been his father.

They walked back to the Yukon
after checking out the vortex near the airport. Ginny reached for Alton’s hand
and wrapped her fingers around his. He’d seemed distracted most of the morning.
At first she’d thought it was because Dax and Eddy were gone, but now she was
almost certain it was over the information they’d gotten from HellFire this
morning.

It was bad enough that Alton’s
father had disowned him, but it might be so much worse. She’d been in Alton’s
thoughts, following his convoluted mental process as he’d worked his way
through his father’s transgressions. Could Alton be right? Was Artigos somehow
in league with the creatures of darkness? She glanced at Alton and figured
she’d be distracted, too, if she’d suspected such devastating information about
one of her parents.

“Are you still up to checking
out the vortex at Boynton Canyon?”

Alton nodded. “It shouldn’t
take us long. There was no sign of demonkind here, and I’m hoping that one will
be just as clear. Then we need to rest a bit before we meet Taron. He’s due
around sunset.”

Ginny unlocked the Yukon and
opened the door. She glanced up at Alton, standing beside the SUV, staring off
into the distance. When he didn’t answer her, she said, “I think you need to
learn to drive.”

He turned and stared at her.
“What?”

She smiled. At least this was
taking his mind off his father. “You need to learn to drive the Yukon. If
anything
were
to happen and I couldn’t drive, I’d want
to know you could get us away safely. There’re plenty of roads out here without
much traffic. Do you want to give it a try?”

He grinned and held out his
hand. She dropped the keys into his palm and they traded sides of the car. She
crawled into the passenger seat and made a big show of buckling herself in
safely and pretending to put on a crash helmet.

Alton did the same. She
watched while he inserted the key, checked to make sure the gears were in Park,
and started the engine. Then he shifted to Reverse and slowly backed out of the
parking space. With a flourish, he shifted to Drive and headed for the main
road.

“You act like you’ve been
driving for years.
How?”

He flashed
her
a
bright grin. “I’ve been paying attention. Taron always tells me I
don’t pay attention like I should, so I’ve made a point of watching you.”

He braked at the stoplight and
smiled at her again. “I’ve discovered it’s very easy to pay attention when
you’re the subject I’m supposed to be watching.”

She blinked, aware of a warm
glow that seemed to heat her from the inside out. She was still thinking of his
words when the light changed. Alton signaled and turned right, back onto the
main road. He drove down the highway as if he’d been driving for years. Within
minutes he’d turned again, onto the road that would take them back to the
Boynton Canyon vortex, and then to their little casita at the resort.

After a few minutes, Ginny
realized she’d totally relaxed. “You’re really a good driver. You even remember
to signal. I’m impressed.”

He flashed
her
a
bright grin. “Thank you. You should be.” Then he turned his full
attention back to the road, frowning with intense concentration as he drove
along the two-lane highway.

He slowed as they passed by
the green field where the fighting bulls were pastured. It was a large herd,
but they grazed peacefully on the lush grass. Their horns shimmered in the
bright sunlight. One huge bull raised his head and watched the Yukon as they slowly
passed by. After a moment, he lowered his big head and returned to munching on
the grass.

“I think we’ve just been
dismissed by the lord of the pasture.” Alton chuckled. “Those things fascinate
me. They’re huge and they look like nothing but muscle.” He accelerated and
they continued on past the herd. “With attitude,” he added. “They’ve definitely
got attitude.”

Ginny laughed, and with her
laughter tension flowed out of her. What a morning they’d had. She slanted
Alton another quick glance and sighed. Talk about attitude! Alton had it in
spades, but his was well deserved. He looked so good sitting beside her, all
broad-shouldered and long-limbed and so damned
male.
How a guy who was as flat-out pretty as Alton, with all that gorgeous long,
blond hair and perfect bone structure could epitomize everything masculine made
absolutely no sense at all.

But somehow, Alton had it
nailed.

Even now, wearing a black
T-shirt that stretched over his muscular chest and tucked into his
tight-fitting jeans, he only needed the horse to pass for a cowboy, or a
motorcycle to look like he belonged on a Harley. He’d braided his hair this
morning into a single long braid that hung down the middle of his back. With
his baseball cap on, he looked like a regular guy—a regular drop-dead gorgeous
guy.

His green eyes sparkled and
with the hair pulled away from his face, his sharp cheekbones, the line of his
jaw, and his long, straight nose looked like something a sculptor might create.
She thought of him the way he’d been this morning,
lying
beneath her when she’d straddled him, made love to him. How he’d flipped her
over so effortlessly and taken her even higher.

She sighed again.

Then she thought of the demon
king and the danger facing them, and all the tension came flooding back.

“Don’t.”

She turned to him, blinking.
“Don’t what?”

Alton shook his head. “Don’t
worry. Enjoy a few minutes without worrying about what’s coming next. You look
so gorgeous sitting beside me with stars in your eyes. Much prettier than when
you’ve got your eyebrows all tied in knots.”

“Stars in my eyes? Me? Ha!”
She sat back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. “I never have
stars in my eyes. That’s for dreamers.”

Alton merely grinned as he
pulled off the highway and turned down the road leading to the Boynton Canyon
vortex. He parked the Yukon in the lot, turned off the ignition, and stuck the
keys in his pocket. Then he turned in his seat and rested his arm against the
back. “You had stars in your eyes this morning when we were making love. I looked
up as you straddled me, when you took me deep inside you, and I saw them.
Brilliant stars in those tiger’s eyes of yours.
Don’t ever
lose them.”

His soft words left her
speechless. He leaned over and kissed her and her eyes filled with tears.
Damn him.
She kissed him back, but she’d never been so
afraid in her life. She’d gone and fallen in love and they still had a war to
fight. She’d never had so much to lose before, never wanted anyone as much as
she wanted Alton.