Demonfire (25 page)

The snake appeared to weaken.
Dax’s jeans no longer rippled and bulged with the sluggish movements of the
partially bound reptile. Within a few moments, the fabric flattened out to
cover the natural curve of Dax’s muscular thighs and the flat contours of his
belly and waist.

The snake seemed to lose a
third dimension within Eddy’s grasp. She gently flattened the image once more
in its position around Dax’s perfect, copper-colored nipple, pressed the snout
into his flesh, positioned the gaping jaws over his heart.

Carefully, she smoothed the
brilliant reds, greens, and blues of the tattoo over Dax’s sweat-soaked skin.
Then she sat back on her heels and took a long, shuddering breath. Dax breathed
slowly, evenly. His eyelids fluttered. He blinked, opened his eyes, and gave
her an unfocused stare that lasted but a moment; then he closed his eyes again.
She wrapped her hand around his and held on.

She heard a siren, the sound
of brakes, the loud slam of a car door. She glanced over her shoulder as one of
the local sheriff’s deputies walked across freshly mowed lawn and headed
straight for them.

It was only then that she
realized a small crowd had gathered. At least a dozen people stood to one side.
How much had they seen? Frantically she looked at her father. He shrugged and
shook his head, but she noticed that Willow was safely hidden in her dad’s
pocket. Only the tip of her blond head was visible.

The deputy frowned when he saw
Dax lying on the ground with his shirt ripped open. He reached for his radio.

Alton rose to his full height,
towering over the man. “There’s no need,” he said, holding his fingers in front
of the deputy. “Our friend occasionally has these spells. He’ll be fine.”

Dazed, the deputy nodded.
Alton turned away and waved his hand in the direction of the curious onlookers.
Slowly, shaking their heads and talking quietly among themselves, they
dispersed. When Eddy glanced once more at the deputy, he was already walking
back to his car.

She felt Dax’s fingers tighten
around hers. When she looked at him, his eyes were open, though still a bit
unfocused. “You’re here. How?”

She leaned over and kissed
him. “Bumper came and got us.” She glanced up at the gargoyle and shuddered.
“She knew you needed help. Are you okay?”

Dax slowly sat up. He shook
his head. “I am now. How did you stop it? The thing was sentient. I felt its
hatred. It was crawling off my body.”

“She grabbed it by the
throat.” Ed held his hand out to Dax and helped him stand. He swayed, but
stayed upright. “Held on to the damned thing with its tongue whipping around
her wrist. I don’t know how much longer she…”

“Enough, Dad. I can do it as
long as I have to.” Eddy stood up without help and pointed at the library. At
the creature perched on the parapet. “What about that?”

Bumper growled. The gargoyle
stared down on all of them, but its eyes were mere stone and there was no sense
of life in the thing.

Dax stared at it for a long
moment. “I don’t know. My powers aren’t enough. I’m thinking we need to let
Alton take his turn with it. Maybe that sword of yours…”

“It’s too dangerous for you,
and I can’t do it alone. Not until we’re able to communicate. Damn.” Alton
swung away and stared off toward the mountain. Shasta loomed over the town,
like a benevolent guardian. “I’m sorry, Dax. I don’t know what I need to do to
bring it to life, but until we can communicate, I can’t use it anywhere near
you.” He sighed. “I’m not enough of a warrior to take on the gargoyle myself
and have any effect.” Looking at his hands in disgust, he added, “That’s
probably why my sword isn’t talking.”

“Is there any way for you to
check with Taron, find out if he’s had any luck with your people?” Eddy touched
Alton’s wrist. He jerked his head up and caught her in his brilliant emerald
gaze. She was shocked to see tears in his eyes.

“He will contact me if there’s
news.” Sadly, he shook his head. “I am outcast, now. I can never go back, not
unless my people decide that my actions were taken for the good of all.”

Dax swayed on his feet. Ed
quickly slipped a hand beneath his elbow. “Let’s get you home,” he said. “Maybe
something to eat will help restore your strength.”

Eddy slipped her arm around
Dax’s waist, surprised by how much of his weight she actually supported. He was
obviously much weaker than she’d realized.

It was just as obvious that he
didn’t want the others to realize how much he suffered. Eddy flashed a bright
smile at her father. “It amazes me how you stay so skinny,” she said,
“considering how you solve every problem with food.”

Ed just grunted in response.
Dax smiled, but there was no light in his deep brown eyes. Only the look of a
man who knew he’d failed at his greatest challenge. Failed and put those he
loved at risk.

Eddy gave her head a sharp,
determined shake. “I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “And you’re wrong.
You’re going to beat this thing. I know it.” She placed a hand over his heart,
over the now quiescent tattoo. “I feel it, here. This thing is not stronger
than the two of us together, and that’s how we’re going to fight this battle.
Together.”

Dax stared at her for a long
moment. Then he leaned close and kissed her. His lips were firm, his kiss
filled with renewed confidence. “With you beside me, Eddy Marks, there’s
nothing we can’t accomplish, is there?” He kissed her once more. He was smiling
when he backed away, but this time she saw the matching glow in his eyes.

They turned and walked back
toward Ed’s house, aware the malevolent stony stare of the gargoyle followed
them until they turned the corner.

Wednesday afternoon—day four

Dax tried to listen, but
Eddy’s voice was barely audible. She was on the phone in another room next to
the kitchen, but Dax couldn’t hear her well enough to know who she spoke with.
He wasn’t sure where Ed had gone, but he’d stepped outside a few minutes
earlier. Alton sat beside Dax. He finished his sandwich and pushed his chair
back.

Dax grabbed his hand before he
stood. “Once again, I owe you my life, my friend. Thank you.”

Alton stared down at their
joined hands and shook his head. “I did nothing. I failed. I can’t draw my
sword, without fear of harming you. I couldn’t contain the battle within the
sphere…”

“A battle I’d already lost.”
Dax glanced at their clasped hands and felt more discouraged than he had since
the beginning. “Quite an army we make, eh? What can we do to beat this thing?”

If only they could destroy the
gargoyle…

Alton tightened his grasp on
Dax’s hand and then released it. He sighed. “I thought, when I made the
decision to leave my people, that I could help you, but so far, I’ve done
nothing but fry a few demon spirits and muddy some memories. Not very
warrior-like. Right now, I intend to get some rest. We will try again this
evening.” He shrugged. “What more can we do?”

Eddy walked into the kitchen
and stopped behind Dax’s chair. She rested her hands on his shoulders. That
simple contact seemed to give him a sense of calm he’d been unable to find with
her in the next room.

“I think that’s a good idea,
Alton.” She lightly rubbed Dax’s shoulders. “I just talked to Ginny. She’s
getting all kinds of calls at work about what she’s calling ‘woo woo’ stuff. It
sounds like there are rumors flying about everything from the water system
being poisoned with hallucinogenic drugs to an alien invasion.” Eddy laughed,
leaned over, and kissed Dax’s cheek. “No mention of demons. If they only knew.”

She turned toward Alton. “She
remembers you, Alton. I thought you said you’d made her forget. She asked about
my dad’s friend with the long blond hair. The one who kissed her.” Eddy’s eyes
crinkled up with her big smile. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”

Alton flushed a deep rose. “I
had hoped it would make her forget.”

“Obviously it didn’t work the
way you planned.” Eddy’s laughter bubbled over.

Dax leaned his head back
against her belly and gazed up into her twinkling brown eyes. He never grew
tired of watching her, of her touch, her scent. Her smiles. He swallowed back a
million things he suddenly wished he could say, and concentrated on Eddy’s conversation
with Ginny. “I’m sure Alton was thinking only of our mission,” he said, winking
at the Lemurian.

Eddy grinned at Dax. “I’m sure
he was.”

Alton grunted and changed the
subject. “Any talk of calling in the army? Help from neighboring law enforcement?”

“Not yet.” Eddy shook her
head. “Luckily, folks here tend to take care of their own problems. There
haven’t been any deaths or serious injuries, thank goodness, so I guess no
one’s totally freaked out yet. I’m wondering if things are going underreported
simply because people don’t believe what they’re seeing.”

“Could be.” Ed walked into the
room. “I just saw Mr. Puccini. We chatted about the weather and the vandalism
at Eddy’s house, but he didn’t say a word about the turkey cornering him on the
front porch. Looks like Alton’s hypnosis is still working.”

“Good.” Alton grabbed his
scabbard with the crystal sword and slung it over his shoulder. “I need sleep,”
he said. Bumper stood up and wagged her tail, ready to follow him. Willow
buzzed across the room, did a little loop in front of him, and then zipped down
the hallway. A pale scattering of blue sprinkles blinked out in her wake. Alton
nodded and then followed the dog and the sprite.

Eddy grabbed Dax’s hand and
tugged him to his feet. He reached for his plate, but Ed already had it in his
hand. “Go,” he said. “Get some rest. I have a feeling we’re going to have a
busy night.”

Eddy kissed her dad’s cheek
and headed down the hallway, but the wink she gave Dax left no doubt what was
on her mind.

Dax turned to wish Ed a good
rest. Ed’s dark eyes, so much like his daughter’s, held him in place. Dax
closed his, unable to meet the man’s direct gaze. He took a deep breath, opened
his eyes, and found Ed still watching him. “You know I love her,” he said. “I would
do anything not to hurt…”

Ed rested a heavy hand on
Dax’s shoulder, interrupting him. “I know,” he said, “Sometimes life hurts, but
we do the best we can. Dax, my daughter is smart enough to know what she’s
gotten herself into. As much as I hate to think of her in pain, I would never
try and make her choices for her.”

Dax couldn’t help but wonder,
if he had been in Ed’s shoes, how he would feel about his daughter loving a
demon. One scheduled to disappear in a few short days.

“I have much to learn,” he said,
“and so little time to learn it all.” He sighed and glanced out the window at
the bright sun, the deep green of the trees around the house, the blue of the
sky. All so beautiful, so foreign, and, for him, so entirely temporary. With a
long sigh, Dax turned away from Ed and walked down the hallway to the room
where Eddy waited.

“Take off your shirt.” The
shades were drawn, leaving the room in shadows. She stood beside the bed with
her arms folded over her chest. “I want to see what that snake did to you.”

Dax shrugged out of his shirt.
The top two buttons were missing, so it only took him a few seconds. Eddy’s
eyes went wide, and she stepped up to him. “I can’t believe it’s right back
where it belongs.” She ran her fingertips over the tattoo, from the snake’s
broad snout to the point where it disappeared beneath his jeans. “What about on
your leg?”

He glanced up at her and
grinned. “Is that an invitation?”

She blinked. “What?”

“You’re asking me to take my
pants off. I merely wondered…”

“I hadn’t really thought about
it like that, but now that you mention it…” She reached for his shoulders and
ran her hands over the curves of muscle and lumps and bumps of bone, from his
collarbones to his biceps. Suddenly her smile faltered. Brown eyes glistened
with tears. “I can’t do this. I can’t treat it like play, as if everything’s
okay. Dax, you scared me so badly today. When I saw you and Willow and Alton
lying on the ground…”

“It’s okay. I’m okay now. Your
touch saved me.” He put his arms around her and pulled her close. She leaned
her cheek against his chest. Her lips rested on the snake. Her tears glistened
against the brilliant colors, and he thought of how brave she was, how powerful
her love was.

“We’re both exhausted and we
need to rest. The battle took a lot out of me…saving my life took a lot out of
you.” He kissed the top of her head, and she tilted back and raised her lips to
his. When he took her mouth, she was everything he could have asked for.
More—she was answers to questions he’d never known to ask. Love and kindness,
humor and tears, bravery that was so much a part of her that she could stand
beside him in battle despite her fears.

She could love him in spite of
the fact she knew he’d be gone in mere days. She was more than he, stronger and
truer, and yet he knew she loved him. Knew it though she’d never spoken the
words.

She’d faced the demon’s curse
to save him. There was no greater testament to her love.

No greater love. He felt her
smile against his mouth. “I agree,” she said, kissing him. “We need to rest,
but we really have to make love first.”

“We do?” He nibbled her lower
lip.

She nodded and kissed him
again. “Of course we do. It seems to contain the demon’s curse when we make
love. I’m thinking of making love as taking proactive steps to prepare for
tonight’s battle.”

“You are?”

She kissed him once again.
Then she reached for his belt buckle. “I am. I need to see if the tattoo is
where it belongs. Then I need to make sure it stays there.”

“And you intend to do this
how?” He watched her fingers move over the belt buckle. Watched as, tooth by
tooth, she slipped the zippered fly on his jeans open.

She ran her fingers under the
elastic band of his knit shorts, and he almost groaned from the light touch of
fingertips against his flanks. Then she was shoving the fabric down over his
hips, baring him entirely.

Dropping to her knees, Eddy
traced the brilliant edges of the tattoo with her fingertips. “I can’t believe
it’s back where it belongs,” she said, stroking gently along the design. When
she followed the sensitive areas her fingers had touched with the light brush
of her lips, Dax almost collapsed. He reached back and grabbed the oak
headboard to steady himself as she tugged his jeans down to his ankles, untied
his boots, and slipped everything off of him.

She shoved the pile of
clothing, socks, and boots to one side and ran her hands up his long legs. Then
she paused, kneeling before him, her hands resting on the jut of bone at his
hips. He stood there, entirely nude, his body so hard and ready for her touch
he practically quivered beneath her steady perusal.

He wondered if the demon would
rise to meet her, wondered what Eddy thought when she looked at this human
body. Did she realize the demon still existed? Did anyone understand how much
of him was human, how much demon?

How much of him was purely
Dax, a combination of the two?

In spite of his demon side,
Dax felt a stronger connection to the man who had died so bravely while clothed
in this shell.

Stronger even than the
connection to his demon self, but wasn’t it better to connect to a hero than a
demon interested only in self-preservation?

Dax wondered, would he be as
brave as that hero when his time came? Would he be able to walk away from Eddy,
from all those he’d already grown to love, without faltering? Had that other
man, the soldier who died in battle, left behind a woman? Children? People who
loved him?

When Dax thought of leaving
Eddy, his heart actually ached. He reached for her, touched the thick, dark
hair that tumbled over her forehead, and ran his fingertips along the line of
her jaw as she gazed up at him.

“I love you, Eddy.” He hadn’t
meant to say the words, hadn’t wanted to burden her with the emotions churning
in him, but they spilled out, and once they were said, he couldn’t stop
himself. “I never knew what love was until you. I never understood how it felt,
what it meant. Make love with me. Love me.” He reached for her hands. She
placed hers in his, and there were tears sparkling in her brown eyes.

Dax tugged lightly, and she
came to her feet. “I love you too, Dax.” She clung to his hands, her fingers
gripping his so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I love you so much. I tried
not to, but I…”

He leaned over and kissed away
the words. She turned his hands free and wrapped her arms around his waist. The
worn denim of her jeans teased the sensitive underside of his erection, and the
taut peaks of her nipples pressed through her T-shirt, hard against his chest.

Dax had to be inside her, now.

He reached down and looped one
arm beneath her knees, the other across her back, and lifted her.

“Dax!” She grabbed his neck
and her sandals fell to the floor, but he managed to drop her on the bed and
cover her body with his in one quick move.

“No more talking. You’ve got
too many clothes on.”

She giggled and twisted
beneath him. He slipped the T-shirt over her head and dragged her jeans and
panties past her slim hips until she was as naked as he was. She squirmed
beneath him, laughing and grabbing at his hair, his shoulders, his back,
pulling him close even as she pretended to push him away.

He kissed her breasts, her
belly, the line between her groin and her thigh. Then he dipped his head
between her legs and ran his tongue lightly along her damp slit. She arched
against him with a cry of pleasure, so he did it again. Then he drove his
tongue deep, licking and suckling as she squirmed and whimpered beneath him.

Her fingers twisted in his
hair, and she arched her hips against his mouth when he found the tiny bundle
of nerves with his lips and suckled her. He used his fingertips to separate her
petaled folds and slipped first one and then another finger deep inside.

She was wet and slick and so
very hot, and when she climaxed, he felt the muscles clasping his fingers,
pulsing in rhythmic waves as she found her pleasure. She was still grinding her
hips against him, still whimpering when he slipped his fingers free of her
sheath, moved up her body, and placed the thick crown of his penis where his
mouth and fingers had been.

She parted for him, welcoming
him inside her liquid heat with sighs and soft sounds of pleasure. He thrust
hard and fast, and at the same time he covered her mouth with his, swallowed
her cries as he filled her. He felt the hard curve of her womb, the taut mouth
of her cervix riding against his sensitive glans, and he dreamed an impossible
dream, of someday planting his seed deep inside, of filling her with his child,
one born of the two of them.

Eddy, growing round with his
child. Could anything be more lovely? Only the sight of her nursing their babe.
The image swelled beneath his heart until he saw a tiny fist against her
breast, perfect cherry lips encircling her rosy nipple.

Demon and human? Or would a
child of theirs be entirely human? This body was human, the seed he gave her,
human…. But it was not to be. Eddy had already said she took pills to prevent
pregnancy, and he would be gone in three more days.

It was good that she prevented
creation.

What kind of father created a
child and then abandoned it?