Demonfire (23 page)

Long moments later, her body
relaxed, and she slumped against him. Her cheek rested on his shoulder; her
arms dropped listlessly to his sides. She panted, breathing in and out with
quick bursts of air that tickled his sweaty skin.

Dax lay her down on the soft
bed, loath to separate entirely. Her closed eyelids fluttered but didn’t open.
Perspiration beaded her chest and forehead, and a rosy flush spread over her
breasts and belly.

Carefully, Dax pulled away.
Regretfully he withdrew from her vagina. Her slick muscles still rippled around
his shaft when he slipped free, almost as if they tried to hold him close, but
he backed away and went into the bathroom to find a damp cloth. He quickly
washed himself, rinsed the cloth carefully in warm water, and returned to Eddy.

He was almost afraid to think
of what they’d done. What he had done. He’d felt the demon come to life, felt
the power of his demon lust, the comingling of human and unworldly creature,
taking Eddy, making love to Eddy.

He’d been afraid, but not
enough to stop. He’d wanted her too much. Needed her too badly. Now she slept
soundly just as he’d left her. One arm covered her eyes, one knee was still
raised, the other sprawled limply to one side. Carefully, Dax washed between
her legs, bathing his seed from her body, and then drying her with a warm
towel.

When he was done, she rolled
to her side with a soft sigh on her lips. He put the damp cloth and towel in
the hamper, turned out the light, and crawled into bed behind her. His body fit
perfectly against the curve of hers. He lay there with her warm bottom tucked
against his belly and her damp hair tickling his chin.

It was a long time before he
slept, not because he couldn’t relax, but because he forced himself to stay
awake. He didn’t want to miss a single minute of the sweet experience of
holding Eddy close. Of knowing that she slept so peacefully now because her
body was sated from his loving.

Human and demon. Together
they’d left her satisfied and smiling. He needed to think about that. Needed to
understand how the two could work together.

Four more days to defeat the
demons. Four more days in Eddy’s bed before his life on her world ended. How
could he bear to leave her?

How could he not?

At least the death of his
human body would be acceptable if he knew he’d be leaving Eddy safe. Alive,
unharmed, and safe, in a world free from demonkind.

There was no other option.
There was no point in saving the citizens of Evergreen if he couldn’t save
Eddy. No point at all.

She wasn’t certain what woke
her, but Eddy was suddenly wide awake and terribly aware of the man sleeping
beside her. Dax must have turned off the bedside lamp before he slept, because
the room was softly cocooned in total darkness. The sun hadn’t begun to rise,
yet she felt energized, as if she’d slept soundly for many more hours than
their late night should have allowed.

Reacting purely by instinct,
Eddy placed her palm over the tattoo, finding it easily even in darkness by the
intense heat radiating along its length.

The moment she covered the
snake’s head with her palm, Dax sighed. His body relaxed, and he rolled from
his back to his side, enveloping her in warmth and muscle. One heavy,
hair-roughened leg slid across her thighs, and she felt the thick length of his
partially tumescent erection against her hip.

They’d made love just the one
time before exhaustion had claimed her, but Eddy’s body still hummed with the
aftereffects of the most amazing climax she’d ever experienced in her life.

When the sun rose, Dax would
be starting his fourth day. More than half his time would be gone. Eddy didn’t
want to think about life after Dax, but she couldn’t help herself. She knew
she’d never know another man like him, a man as much demon as human, one who
loved her even as he sometimes left her feeling just a little off balance, a
bit unsure. No, she would never find anyone even remotely as close to perfect.

Wasn’t this just like her
usual luck? She’d never wanted a permanent relationship with any guy until now.
Until Dax. He was the first man she’d ever known who pushed all her buttons. He
filled every need she’d ever had, including a few she hadn’t even been aware
of.

Typical.
Softly, she stroked the tattoo, aware now how his skin cooled beneath her
fingers. Dax sighed and snuggled close, nuzzling the sensitive skin beneath her
ear. His hand drifted across her belly, slipped upward over her ribs, and
settled around her left breast. His palm was rough, his fingers gentle, as they
lightly plucked at her suddenly attentive nipple.

She felt him growing erect
against her hip, knew he hovered on that plain between sleep and wakefulness.
His lips pursed in a drowsy kiss against her throat; his hips thrust forward.

He began to take form in the
thin, gray light of early dawn. The dark sweep of hair across his brow, the
straight line of his nose, the curve of his jaw. With the growing visibility of
his face came the full awareness that their time was growing shorter with each
minute that passed.

The sun was rising.

Another day had ended. The new
one began. Eddy rubbed her hand slowly across the firm muscles of his chest and
cupped her palm over his shoulder. Gently, she applied pressure and pushed him
over on his back. He rolled over with a grunt, but his eyes stayed closed.

Eddy raised up on one elbow to
study him. His thick lashes curved in dark half moons above sharply defined
cheekbones. His lips were pursed, but when Eddy leaned close to press a soft
kiss to his mouth, they softened and reformed beneath hers, returning her kiss.

She smiled against his mouth.
His muscles firmed beneath her hands as he awoke more fully. He returned her
smile. His big hands found her in the darkness, stroking her flanks, her sides,
cupping her breasts.

He lifted her, and, as if
they’d done this uncountable times, Eddy slipped her leg across his body and
straddled his hips. Rose up, grasped his thick erection in one hand, and guided
him between her legs.

When she settled down over
him, he sheathed perfectly within her, filling her completely. She wriggled her
hips just enough to settle all of his length inside. He groaned. The faint
light spilling through the blinds glinted off his sleepy smile.

Eddy began to move. She
quickly found a rhythm that took Dax deep and then slipped him almost free of
her tight channel, lifting and then lowering herself above him. Teasing him
with tiny, rocking motions of her hips, she managed to make contact exactly
where she wanted to on each rise and fall. She used the muscles in her thighs
and calves to lift her up, to slowly lower her down, to take both of them to
the very edge.

Fully awake now, Dax’s eyes
glinted in the growing light of dawn. His lips were tightly drawn as he grasped
her around the hips with both hands, lifting her up, pulling her down. He
lifted his hips to meet her, faster now, and harder until the
slap, slap, slap
of their bodies coming together seemed to
echo against the harsh rasp of their breathing, the soft whimpers from Eddy,
the deep groans from Dax.

She leaned forward and pressed
her palms against his shoulders, anchoring herself as he drove into her,
raising his hips hard and fast to meet her.

Her body hovered, nerves
stretched thin on the sharp edge of orgasm. Eddy ran her tongue across her lips
and gazed down—directly into the eyes of the snake.

Its forked tongue darted
toward her with a malevolent and deviant sensuality anchored in pure evil. Eddy
slammed both hands over the gaping mouth as the snake’s scaled head slithered
entirely free from Dax’s chest. She felt the curve of its blunt snout, the
strength of muscle beneath its hot, reptilian skin. With a harsh cry, she
shoved the serpent back against Dax.

He seemed unaware of the
impossible battle taking place over his heart. With eyes closed and lips
stretched thin in what could have been either a grimace of pain or extreme
pleasure, he slammed his hips upward, driving into her. Eddy arched her back,
held the snake in place, and gave in to orgasm. Wave after wave of pleasure
rippled from the point where she and Dax connected. Rippled and grew in a tide
of sensation.

The snake moved beneath her
hands, and Eddy channeled the sharp waves of pleasure, worked the full thrust
of arousal, and cast it forward, calling on all the love she felt, the fears
for this man, the need in her she knew no other man would ever
satisfy—channeled all of it from her heart, through her hands, and into Dax.

Owning it, working the
multiple strengths of her own pleasure and need, she sent it blasting into the
snake.

A brilliant pulse of energy
passed from her fingertips into the reptile. Eddy felt the thrill of completion
as Dax cried out, as his body tightened beneath hers and his hips thrust upward
and held.

Her muscles clenched, and
still the power passed from Eddy, through the snake, into Dax. Back again to
Eddy, a circle of power surrounding the snake, trapping it within a golden
light that actually glowed along the sinuous edges of the tattoo.

Eddy felt it along her thigh,
where she connected with the tail end of the snake, felt it against her pubes,
where the thick body of the snake passed over Dax’s groin. Felt it beneath her
hands, where the snake’s head stopped its powerful thrust and once again
flattened into a seemingly harmless tattoo, a mere piece of art adorning her
man’s broad chest.

The last ripples of orgasm
rolled through her body, in wave after wave of pleasure so powerful it verged
on pain. Eddy fell forward as Dax’s arms wrapped tightly around her and held
her close. The tattoo was a cool presence between her breasts. She knew it
lived, but for now she knew without any doubt she had subjugated whatever evil
curse gave it strength.

Smiling, Eddy turned her face
and rested her cheek against Dax’s chest. Rested it directly over the snake’s
venomous fangs, feeling almost smug in her awareness that once again she’d
bested evil.

Sunlight found them, drowsy
yet complete. Dax was still buried deep inside her body, and his arms still
encircled her waist. But the snake was quiet, and Eddy knew Dax felt none of
the curse’s pain right now. Whatever she’d done had stopped the creature,
though probably not for long.

Even so, she couldn’t help but
smile. They’d conquered its strongest attack yet, and they’d done it with love.
Maybe that was the secret to fighting the demon. There was power in love. They
just needed to figure out how to use it, and there were very few days left to
get it right.

Wednesday morning—day four

The bedside telephone woke Dax
from a troubled sleep—a night filled with dreams of searing fire, hopeless
battles, and armies of demon-driven gargoyles. He was still trying to associate
the persistent clamor assaulting his ears with the images in his head when,
mumbling incoherently, Eddy crawled across him.

Dreams evaporated like a
fireshot demon in the welcome distraction of Eddy’s sleek, naked form gliding
over his suddenly wakeful body. Still grumbling, she planted an elbow against
his sternum and reached for the phone, but it stopped ringing before she could
answer.

Groaning, Eddy flopped down,
landing crosswise over his chest. Sunlight glowed around the edges of the
blinds. He knew it was time to be up, but he felt no inclination to move,
beyond the automatic sweep and stroke of his palm along Eddy’s spine. She
wriggled closer and groaned, but now her sleepy sounds held a note of pleasure.

As did Dax’s. Somehow, all her
warm parts had connected perfectly to his corresponding and now wide-awake
parts.

“That feels so good,” she
mumbled. “Please don’t stop.”

Her lips moved against his
shoulder, and he grinned at the improbability of their position. Less than a
week ago he’d been a spirit lost in the void. Before that, a scaled demon
fighting to survive one more day within the hell of Abyss.

Now he was lying in a
comfortable bed with a beautiful, naked female sprawled over him. This, he
thought, is paradise.

What could the Edenites offer
that he hadn’t already found here in bed with Eddy Marks? His body tightened as
he imagined even more pleasure they could share. The physical side of love as
his human body experienced it went beyond anything he’d ever known or even
imagined throughout his long demonic life.

Though he couldn’t deny his
demon side either. Hadn’t it added to Eddy’s pleasure?

A sharp rap on the door
stopped his musings. Ed’s voice ended them entirely. “Eddy? You two awake in
there? I need to talk to you.”

Eddy groaned. “Sorry,” she
whispered. “Be right there, Dad.” She pushed up with both arms, kissed Dax much
too quickly, and crawled off him and off the bed.

He watched her bend over and
grab a robe from the floor. Covering that gorgeous body seemed somewhat
sacrilegious, but he understood the human need for modesty.

She ran her fingers through
her short, tousled hair and reached for the door. Dax covered himself with the
blanket as Ed stepped into the room. He gave Eddy a quick hug and acknowledged
Dax with a brief smile.

“Sweetie, that was Harlan
calling. He actually groveled, something I never expected from that horse’s
ass.” He chuckled. “He had the nerve to say you took being fired much too
literally, and he wants to know when you’re going to get your story in for the
afternoon paper. In his words, in light of the current ‘events’ in town, he doesn’t
understand how you could possibly let him down like this.”

“Let him down?” Eddy snorted
inelegantly. “He told me to get out and not come back.”

Ed merely shrugged, but he
couldn’t seem to hide the grin on his face. “He claims it was a simple misunderstanding.”

“Simple, my ass. The man’s a
jerk.” She glanced at Dax. “I’ve had a few other things on my mind besides
Harlan.” Shrugging, she added, “Anyway, if we’re not successful in the next
couple days, there’s not going to be a paper to write for or a town to write
about.”

Dax shook his head. “Don’t
even think that way. We’ll succeed, Eddy. We have to.”

She glanced his way. “Okay.
But what can I write? Do you want me to actually do a story about the demon
invasion? What can I say?”

Dax thought about it a moment.
Things were coming to a head. Enough citizens had seen the demons’ avatars in
motion now to be feeling real concern about either their community or their
sanity. “Can you put some kind of spin on things, make it sound like unusual
but explainable behavior?”

Before Eddy had a chance to
answer him, Bumper raced through the door and jumped up on the bed, wriggling
all over as if she hadn’t seen Dax in years. He grabbed her muzzle to avoid a
thorough face washing, Bumper style. Willow buzzed by and landed on the
headboard. When Dax finally got Bumper under control and glanced up, Alton
stood in the doorway with both hands looped over the top of the frame.

Obviously, any private plans
Dax might have had with Eddy were officially out of the question.

“Good morning.” Alton grinned,
obviously well aware of Dax’s opinion of all the interruptions. “I heard what
you said, Dax. I agree. If we can come up with a plausible explanation for
things to run in the local newspaper, and if I cast a community-wide compulsion,
we might be able to contain news of the invasion for a few more days, at least
until we destroy the rest of the creatures.”

“Eddy?” Dax grinned at her and
received an even warmer smile in return. “Can you do that?”

“Sure,” she said, with an
exaggerated wave of her hands. “I can do anything. Just call me Lois Lane, ace
reporter…as much as I hate doing anything for Harlan, after the way he fired
me.”

Dax laughed. “I have to agree,
but unfortunately, it’s not about Harlan, or any of us, right now.”

Eddy’s eyes seemed to bore
into his for a long time. Then she quickly turned to her father and pressed
both hands against his chest. “Go. Take Alton, Bumper, and Willow and let me
get some clothes on. You guys think of an angle for the story, and I’ll get it
written, but go. Now.”

The room seemed unusually
quiet when they’d all left. Eddy closed the door behind them, and Dax threw the
covers back. She turned and smiled at him. “You’re not going anywhere. They can
wait for a few more minutes. For that matter, so can Harlan and the rest of the
universe.”

He frowned, but she was coming
toward him with a subtle exaggeration to the natural sway of her hips, slipping
the robe over her shoulders to expose her perfect breasts.

Dax’s mouth was suddenly too
dry to form words. His brain seemed to have gone entirely on hold. Thank
goodness his body didn’t have any problem knowing how to react.

It really wasn’t all that much
more than a few minutes. A very pleasurable few minutes. Until now, Dax had no
idea just how much pleasure two people could find in such a very short time.
Or, how powerful the act of love could be between two souls who truly cared for
one another.

The glow returned to his
tattoo. Once again, the pain was gone.

Eddy figured she probably
should feel embarrassed walking into the kitchen at the tail end of another of
her dad’s big breakfasts. Her cheeks were pink from Dax’s beard, her lips were
swollen from his kisses, and her body still hummed with the power of their
lovemaking, but she’d skip a meal any day to spend the time with Dax.

Nor was she at all embarrassed
that both her father and Alton obviously knew what she and Dax had been doing,
especially when she knew time with him was so short. She glanced down at their
clasped hands. She couldn’t bring herself to meet Dax’s gaze, even though
they’d both discovered an added benefit to sex.

The term
afterglow
had a whole new meaning.

The moment they’d both
climaxed, a soft, golden glow had once again surrounded the cursed tattoo and
contained the curse, as far as they could tell. For now, at least, Dax’s pain
was gone.

As were half of his days on
Earth. Already they were well into his fourth day, yet they were no closer to
ending the demonic invasion than they’d been the day before.

Eddy was, however, way too
close to being in love with him. In fact, she knew she was fooling herself not
to admit she’d gone and fallen head over heels beyond lust with a man
predestined to leave her much too soon.

Not something she wanted to
think about when the fate of her entire community—crap, the whole world—was at
stake.

Her dad stood by the sink,
scraping leftovers into a bowl for Bumper. He glanced up as she and Dax stopped
at the counter to pour themselves cups of coffee. “I saved pancakes, bacon, and
eggs for you,” he said. “Just give me a minute.”

“Thanks, Dad. I’ll have to go
on a diet if I eat many more of your meals.” She glanced away before Ed could
respond and followed Dax to the kitchen table.

Alton joined them as Ed set
plates in front of Eddy and Dax. “I’ve been watching the news out of
Sacramento,” he said. “No mention yet of anything here, but we’re going to have
to come up with something to satisfy the local population.”

“I wonder if Ginny could
help?” Eddy set her fork down. “She’s a nine-one-one operator. I could at least
check with her and see what kinds of calls she’s getting. If anyone would know
what’s going on around here, what people are complaining about, it would be
Ginny.”

Alton cleared his throat and
glanced away. Eddy got the strangest feeling he was hiding something, but then
he turned his open gaze on her and merely shrugged. “Whatever you think. You’re
not going to tell her the truth, are you?”

Eddy thought about that a
moment. “I wish I could, and if anyone can keep a secret, it would be Ginny
Jones, but I think the fewer people who realize what’s really going on, the
better. I’ll call her and see what she’s heard. She’ll tell me what she can,
though obviously a lot of what she knows is private information that she can’t
share.”

“Be sure and ask her how she
is, will you?” Alton’s soft question brought Eddy up short.

“Will she remember the
concrete bear coming after her?”

Ed interrupted. “Alton let her
think she got caught up in a street fight. You’ll be able to tell by her
answers how much she actually recalls.”

“Right.” Eddy stared at the
plate she’d hardly touched. Food was the last thing on her mind. “I’ll find out
what I can, but you guys need to work on an angle for a story.”

“If you think that will work,
I’ll send it to Harlan.” Eddy glanced over the brief story she’d written about
the current spate of vandalism taking place around the community of Evergreen.
She’d blamed it on a suspected influx of gangs from the Central Valley.

Ginny was the one who had
given her the idea, since it was what the local sheriff’s department was
attributing all the broken statues and lawn decorations to: gangs moving into
the area, trying to establish their own turf. There was just enough truth behind
their suspicions to make the entire story plausible, and it meant Eddy didn’t
have to write an outright lie. She was merely reporting what she’d been told.

There were problems,
definitely, but not any that required military intervention. Dax was the one
who’d explained that gangs today were inherently evil, and probably run by
demons who’d made their way to Earth the old-fashioned way, by becoming human
after spending time in the void. They weren’t, however, part of the current
invasion. More the standard, run-of-the-mill bad guys as compared to demonic
invasion by the truly malevolent.

“Well,” she said. “Will this
work? It’s not much of a story.”

Dax stood up. “It sounds good
to me. Alton? Ed? What do you guys think?”

“I think a little backup
compulsion is all we’re going to need.” Alton stood beside Dax. “Why don’t you
come with me? We can walk into town, check out the library, and see if the
gargoyle is back on his perch. It’s a good, central location where I can cast a
compulsion over the entire community. I’ll make them suspect that gangs are
behind all the demonic activities. Eddy’s story will confirm their suspicions.”

Ed glanced up from Eddy’s
computer. He’d been reading the screen over her shoulder. “How long can you
make the compulsion last?”

Alton shrugged. “Three, maybe
four days.” He looked at Dax. “I can make it last as long as Dax. He’s only got
until midnight Saturday, if we’ve got the days properly figured. If we haven’t
got the problem solved by then, we’ll need a new plan.”

Eddy caught Dax’s steady gaze.
He wavered and danced before her eyes, but that’s what happened when you looked
at a guy through eyes filled with tears. Damn. She wasn’t ready to think of him
leaving. Not yet. Blinking rapidly, she turned back to the computer, finished
her brief note to Harlan, and hit
SEND
. “It’s all
done,” she said. “What next?”

“Alton and Dax shouldn’t be
gone all that long.” Ed straightened up. “Why don’t you and I take a walk
around the neighborhood, just see what people are saying?” He held out his
hand.

Eddy took it. Dax leaned close
and kissed her lips. It was obvious she was the only one he saw in the room.
She couldn’t control the fact her body swayed toward his, that her heart
pounded at the merest touch of his mouth to hers.

“Be careful,” he said. “We
won’t be gone long.”

Alton grabbed Bumper’s leash
and snapped it to her collar. “Do you mind if she comes with us? Willow hates
to be away from her.”

Eddy laughed. The tall
Lemurian with the curly pit bull watching him with pure adoration had no idea
what a babe magnet Bumper was going to be. “You don’t think Bumper’s going to
let you go without her, do you? Go, you fickle beast.”

Dax opened the door, and Alton
went through first. As he closed it, Dax gave Eddy one last, lingering glance.
Then he shut the door behind him.

Eddy stared at the door.
They’d never been separated before. Not since she’d found him in the potting
shed. This was the first time, and it felt horrible.

What was it going to be like
when he was gone forever?

Her dad ruffled her hair, the
way he’d done when she was little. “C’mon, sweetie. Let’s go check out the
neighborhood.”