Hellfire (5 page)

The images of that last battle
flashed into Alton’s mind. Like Ed, he still had nightmares. “That’s quite
possible, but in this case, Dax’s and Bumper’s lives—and her
father’s—
depended
on her. She took my crystal sword when I was injured—a brave act that put her
in grave danger—and destroyed the gargoyle. The demon king survived and escaped
back to Abyss, but Eddy not only saved my life and her father’s, she gained
immortality for herself and Dax, and even for Bumper. Of course, that’s because
Willow now resides within the—”

“Uh-huh.
Immortality?
A crystal sword?
This I’ve got to see to believe.”
Ginny stood up and gathered the remains of their meal. “Alton, you’re quite the
storyteller, aren’t you?”

She walked away with the tray
filled with their trash. Alton checked the sword strapped across his back and
thought of removing the glamour that kept it hidden from human eyes. Then he
glanced up and saw the teenage employees watching him from behind the counter.
Later.
He couldn’t do it here.

Ginny walked out of the
restaurant without a single glance to see if he was coming. Alton followed her
through the door.

She was halfway to the car
when he noticed movement in the shrubs ringing the parking lot. A skinny animal
that looked like a feral dog was slinking along the edge of the bushes, barely
visible in the dark. It stalked Ginny, shadowing her as she walked toward the
car. The scent of sulfur carried on the gentle breeze.

Alton drew his sword and raced
toward the creature. At the last moment, the animal turned toward him and
screeched,
a loud banshee wail that raised the hairs along
Alton’s spine. As it crouched low, its eyes glowed red. Light from overhead
lamps glinted off rows of razor-sharp teeth.

It jumped, springing at Alton
with impossible speed. Alton turned to meet it. He swung HellFire.

The sword balked at the last
moment. Alton’s arm jerked with the unexpected change in direction and he hit
the beast beneath its ear with the flat side of the blade.

It toppled to the ground,
unconscious but still alive. Ginny screamed and came running. The questions
tumbled out of her, faster than Alton could answer.

“What was that? Ohmygawd! It’s
a coyote. They never attack people! What did you do? Where’d that sword come
from? You didn’t have it in the restaurant. I would have seen it! What
happened?”

He wrapped an arm around
Ginny’s shoulders. She was shaking like a leaf. “It’s okay,” he said. “Hold on,
just for a moment.”

He held his sword up.
“HellFire.
You stopped my swing when I would have killed the
demon. Why?”

The crystal sword glowed and
he felt the power race from the hilt to the blade. “It is wrong to kill a
living avatar. The death of an innocent creature will feed the demon’s power.
Touch my blade gently to the beast, over its heart. I will draw the evil to
me.”

Alton heard Ginny’s soft gasp,
but he concentrated on the sword, on gently laying the tip of the blade against
the coyote’s chest where he thought the heart must be.

A black mist began seeping out
of the stunned animal. Alton drew it forth with the crystal blade until the
coyote shuddered and relaxed. The mist reeked of sulfur, but before it could
escape, Alton slashed through the wraith with his blade.

The mist burst into flames.
Ginny’s short little scream cut off as the air filled with the stink of the
dead demon and a puff of black smoke disappeared into the darkness.

Before Alton could explain
what had happened, the coyote sat up, shook its head, and took off in a wobbly
run toward the nearby fields.

Ginny stared at the sword in
his hand. “That smelled just like the veterinarian’s clinic. Oh shit.
Everything you said? No. It can’t be. Okay, bud…your moment’s over. Explain.”

Alton held the sword out in
front of them. The light it cast was bright enough to leave shadows.
“Ginny, meet HellFire.
I’ve carried this sword since I was a
very young man. It has only recently begun to speak to me. A couple of nights
ago when Eddy destroyed the gargoyle, we fought a terrible battle, one where
all our lives were at risk. Dax’s borrowed body, his avatar, was killed, but
because of Eddy’s bravery, all of us achieved status as warriors. Dax was given
his life back and he and Eddy were gifted with immortality when Dax made a deal
with the Edenites. My sword replicated itself, creating two more exactly alike,
so that Dax now carries DemonFire while Eddy carries DemonSlayer.”

Ginny didn’t say a word. She
stared at the sword. Then she raised her head and stared at Alton, and he
realized she was in shock. He did the only thing he could think of.

After carefully stowing
HellFire in the scabbard once more and setting
a glamour
on the glowing sword so that others might not see it, Alton wrapped both his
arms around Ginny Jones, pulled her body close to his, and kissed her.

How could she possibly have
forgotten what his kisses felt like? Ginny’s memories hadn’t even come close.
His lips were full and soft, sliding over hers with warmth and possession.

Everything he’d said, all the
crazy stories and the crazier things she’d witnessed faded away beneath the
sensual glide of his mouth over hers, the warm, wet thrust of his tongue against
her teeth and the sensitive roof of her mouth.

She’d never been kissed quite
so thoroughly in her life, never felt her body go soft and pliant so that it
fit against a man’s with such perfection. His angles and ridges seemed to
correspond perfectly to her curves and valleys. Where she left off, Alton
began. When Ginny breathed out, he inhaled. Even their hearts beat in a
synchronized rhythm, pounding at breakneck speed, faster and faster, yet
keeping perfect pace.

One with the
other.

Ginny moaned.

Alton groaned.

She plucked at his shirt. It
pulled loose from his jeans and her fingers found warm, living skin beneath.
His callused palm slid against her back, skin to skin, leaving a trail of heat
and sensation wherever he touched her. His fingers wrapped around her ribs and
softly stroked the full side of her breast.

She arched into him, silently
begging for more. Her nipples puckered up against the lace of her bra as his
fingers glided closer.

A car pulled into the parking
lot. Lights flashed over them, dousing Ginny like a bucket of cold water. She
ripped her mouth free of Alton’s and backed as far away as his arms allowed,
breathing in and out in harsh, explosive breaths.

He leaned his forehead against
hers and she felt his laughter before she heard it.

“Nine hells,” he said, gasping
for air with each harsh breath.
“Nine hells and then some.
Woman…what you do to me!”

For the weirdest reason, his
curse alone convinced her. No one said
nine hells.
Not anyone from this world. Still sucking air, she stared at his chest. If she
concentrated hard enough, she saw the leather strap that crossed from one
shoulder, over his chest, and around his waist on the opposite side.

“Turn around.” Ginny stepped
out of his embrace and planted both hands on her hips. Damn it all if he didn’t
do as she said. He turned slowly and she saw it then, the tooled-leather
scabbard across his back with that damned crystal sword glowing through the
design. The jeweled hilt stuck out of the top, glinting silver in the reflected
parking lot lights.

“I can see it now.” She walked
around him until she stood directly in front of him again and folded her arms
across her chest. “I couldn’t see the sword before.
Not at
all.
How come?”

Alton smiled and his green
eyes twinkled. “It’s called
a glamour
, sort of a spell
I cast to hide the blade from curious eyes. If you really want to see it, or if
you know of the glamour, the sword will be visible only to you. It’s a simple
compulsion, one that doesn’t take a lot of energy but it works for most
people.”

He shrugged and laughter
crinkled the corners of his eyes. “If it’s any consolation, I learned early on
that a simple compulsion doesn’t work on you. For some reason, you’re much too
powerful. That’s why I had to kiss you the night the demon’s avatar—
that bear—
attacked you. I tried a simple compulsion to make
you forget, but it wouldn’t stick. I finally had to resort to a kiss.”

“That’s the only reason you
kissed me?
To make me forget?”
She ran her tongue over
her just-kissed lips, aware of a horrible hollow feeling in the pit of her
stomach.

He at least had the good
graces to look embarrassed. “That’s what I told myself, and it did work, at
least for a couple of days.” He placed both his hands on her shoulders.
His palms rested, warm and solid, against her.
“Truth?
I was looking for any excuse I could find to kiss
you, Ginny. I’m not sure why, but I thought you were absolutely fascinating the
first time I saw you, huddled down behind that filthy garbage bin, swinging a
piece of scrap lumber at a concrete bear five times your size. Even then I knew
you were special.”

“You did?” That was the best
she could come up with? Shit.

He grinned. “I did. I still
do. I’m so sorry I got you into this mess. I sent you here because I wanted to
keep you safe. I never imagined the demons would invade Sedona, but it looks
like that’s what’s going on.”

“Markus told me that’s what
the vet said—that the animals were possessed.”

Alton nodded. “The vet is very
perceptive. They’re possessed by demons—which means the demon king can’t be far
away. I need to get Dax and Eddy here.
BumperWillow, too.
I can’t fight a full-out invasion by myself.”

“BumperWillow?”
He’d mentioned someone named Willow, but wasn’t Bumper that mutt that…?

“Bumper is Eddy’s dog and
Willow is the will-o’-the-wisp who drew energy out of the air to drive Dax’s
demon powers. The demon king, when it was using the stone gargoyle as its
avatar, attacked and ate Willow.”

“Ick!
How awful!”
She didn’t even know Willow, but—

“Yeah.
It was pretty horrible and we thought she was gone, but she’d managed to slip
her consciousness out of her little fairy body just in time. She hid inside
Bumper. With her body gone, though, she’s stuck there, sharing Bumper’s body.”

He laughed. “The two of them
seem perfectly content with the situation, but since both of them are in there,
we’ve been calling them BumperWillow. Dax doesn’t need Willow to access his powers
anymore, not since he got rid of the cursed snake tattoo and got the phoenix,
but—”

“Whoa. You’re losing me here.”
Shared bodies and cursed tattoos. She needed some quality time with Alton if
she was ever going to make sense of any of this. The weird thing was
,
she believed him. It was too crazy a story for anyone to
make up.

And there was that
disappearing, talking sword, Tom the cat and his glowing eyes, and the coyote
with way too many teeth. Too many visuals to ignore, but they still made her
head spin.

She really needed to sit down.

Alton’s arm went around her
waist. Once again, he was much too close, his body too perfectly aligned with
hers.

“Where are you staying?”

And that voice. She wanted to
sigh. Just sigh and melt against him like a stupid damsel in distress, except
she wasn’t in distress and she was no weak-kneed damsel. And just because she
believed him didn’t mean she trusted him. “I just got here today,” she said. “I
was planning to stay at my cousins’, but I don’t think that’s going to work.”

She stopped and took a deep
breath, stepped back out of his embrace, and planted her feet. She needed the
solid feel of pavement beneath her sandals. Needed to know she was standing
under her own power. She’d never been quite as pragmatic as Eddy, but even if
she was a little more open-minded than her best bud, her head was reeling with
everything Alton had said.

Crazy as all of it sounded,
his wild explanation answered so many questions.

“You just got here today?”
Alton tilted his head and looked at her with a frown. “But I sent you days ago.
I checked your house over the weekend to make certain you were safe. You
weren’t there. I thought you were already in Sedona.”

She shook her head. “I flew
into Phoenix on Friday, but I hung around and shopped. I really didn’t want to
come here. I mean, we send cards at Christmas, but I’m not that close to my
Aunt Betty, especially since my mom, her older sister, died.”

She glared at him and tried to
look fierce. “I couldn’t get past the feeling that I had to be in Sedona.” Then
she lost it entirely and laughed. This was all just way too bizarre. “I finally
gave up, rented a car, and drove the two hours to my cousins’ house, where I
was immediately attacked by their cat. Now I find out it’s
all
your
fault.”

Alton groaned. “I am so sorry
for that. Will you ever forgive me?”

She wanted to be angry with
him, but how could she? He’d wanted to protect her. She couldn’t think of
another man who’d been as thoughtful. All the men she knew wanted something
from her, whether it was sex or money or help for one thing or another. She’d
gotten quite good at saying no to all requests.

Alton had only wanted to keep
her safe.

“Let me think about it,” she
said, teasing him, but it was obvious he didn’t get the joke.

He merely nodded his head and
stared at the ground. She bit her lips to keep from laughing again. “Alton? I
was teasing. You’re forgiven. There’s nothing to forgive.”

He raised his head and smiled
at her and she was sure she felt it all the way to her toes. “Thank you, Ginny.”

She shrugged. “You’re welcome,
I guess. Look, we need to find a place to stay. My Aunt Betty is already
freaking out since their cat went nuts this morning. She doesn’t need any
visitors right now, and I couldn’t take you there with me anyway. There’s no
room, and no way to explain you.”

She grabbed her cell phone out
of her purse and punched in her aunt’s number. When Markus answered she told
him she’d decided to stay in town. He sounded relieved when he promised to pass
the message on to his mom. Ginny tucked the phone back in her purse after
checking for messages.

Nothing.
Not even a message from Eddy, but if what Alton said was true, Eddy probably
had other things on her mind.

Like an
immortal lover? Sheesh…

“C’mon.” Ginny grabbed Alton’s
hand and tugged him toward the car. “Let’s find a motel somewhere and figure
out what we’re going to do next.” She glanced at him and caught the raised
eyebrows. “Don’t even think of it. I’m tired and we are not sharing a bed.”

Alton laughed.
“If you say so.”
He walked with her, hand in hand, to the
little car.

She hardly knew the man and
she was planning to stay with him in a motel room tonight. This was not the way
she did things. So why was she smiling like a total idiot?

Because the world was suddenly
not the world she’d always known. Because there were demons and magic and her
best friend forever was now immortal.

And
there’s a man walking beside me who’s not even human, yet he makes me feel
things I’ve never felt in my life. Good things.
If she added it all
together, it still made no sense, but Ginny knew she couldn’t have wiped that
smile off her face for anything.

She just wished the little
frisson of fear that accompanied it would quit coiling along her spine.

Ginny made him wait in the car
while she got a room in a place called a Super 8. He wasn’t sure what that
meant, but she seemed to know what she was doing, which was a good thing. He
wondered if he’d ever figure things out.

This dimension was nothing
like Lemuria.

No, it was so much better, so
much more alive, that he couldn’t get enough of it.

Couldn’t get enough of Ginny
either, for that matter, which probably wasn’t his smartest move, but she
fascinated him. Everything about her, from her attitude to her tall, lean body,
and her beautiful tiger’s eyes that flashed with life and light. He loved her
dark, dark skin and the subtle scent that was all hers, the soft fullness of
her lips and the way she kissed. He leaned his head back against the seat and
closed his eyes.

Damn, but the woman could
kiss. Her lips were so soft and sleek and her mouth fit perfectly to his. He
realized he was running his fingertips over his lips in a vain attempt to bring
back that amazing sensation.

He wasn’t even close. Feeling
like a complete idiot, Alton folded his hands in his lap and gazed toward the
office. Ginny stepped through the door and got into the car beside him. “The
place is pretty full, but I got us a room in the back.
Two
beds.
I could only get it for tonight. They’re booked solid tomorrow.”

He nodded. “That should give
us time to figure out what we’re going to do next. I really need to get in
touch with Eddy, but I’m not getting an answer on her cell phone.”

Ginny drove around the back of
the motel complex. “Have you tried the house?”

He shook his head. “I don’t
have the number, but you’re right. Ed would know what’s going on.” Why hadn’t
he thought to get Ed’s phone number?

Maybe because he still didn’t
quite understand how cell phones worked. Telepathy was so much easier.
Unfortunately, he’d been unable to maintain his link with Taron back in
Lemuria, and he, Eddy, and Dax had never established a very strong connection.

Come to think of it, he had no
connection at all with Ginny, so maybe it wasn’t all that great.

Ginny drove slowly through the
parking lot, staring at the various doors they passed. “I’ll call once we get
in the room,” she said. “I know all of Eddy’s contact numbers.” She pulled into
a parking space and turned off the engine. “It’s that one up there.”

She pointed to a room on the
second floor. Alton unfolded himself from the small front seat and got out. He
grabbed the scabbard with HellFire and the pack with his extra clothes and
followed Ginny’s instructions on how to lock the car door.

She handed a little plastic
card to him. “That’s the key to get into the room. C’mon. I’ll show you.” She
tugged a small bag behind her that rolled on wheels and he followed her to the
stairs. She did something to the handle on the bag and suddenly she had a tote
bag. He grabbed it out of her hand to carry it for her.

“Thank you.” She smiled at him
and went on up the stairs. Alton followed, pleased that he’d obviously done
something right by carrying her bag. With human women, one never knew. They
were terribly independent.