Demonfire (4 page)

The horse reared, and Eddy’s
ceiling fan turned to toothpicks when the general’s sword caught the spinning
blades. Dax fired another blast, and the top half of the general separated from
the horse and tumbled to the floor.

It rose up, wobbling on its
bronze torso, then pivoted on both arms and moved around beside the rearing
horse, caging Dax in the corner.

The general’s legs remained in
the saddle, raking the bronze flanks of the horse with sharp spurs. Half a
dozen small stone statues—three cats, two squirrels, and one little deer with
spreading antlers—scurried across the floor. Some carried garden tools and
sticks; all of them headed for Dax and his bare feet.

Willow flitted from one side
of the room to the other, gathering energy out of the air to throw to Dax.

Bumper tugged at the short
leash, her snarls and barks adding to the din. Her powerful jaws dripped
saliva; her razor sharp teeth clicked with each snap. In one brief flight of
hysterical fancy, Eddy realized she looked like a killing machine in a Shirley
Temple wig. With a quick prayer, she unhooked the dog’s leash, and Bumper
launched herself into the melee.

The small statues scattered,
though one squirrel wasn’t quite fast enough. Bumper caught it between her
jaws, shook her head, and snapped the thing in two. The dark mist inside
floated toward the ceiling.

Dax hit it with a burst of
fire, and the mist disappeared in a sizzle of white steam. Then he quickly
fired on two of the stone cats, destroying them along with their demons. Bumper
had gotten the last squirrel and was chasing down the stone deer, barking
nonstop. She dodged the deer’s antlers and the slashing bronze hooves of the
horse, but her frenetic attack effectively took everyone’s concentration off
Dax.

No one seemed aware of Eddy at
all.

She grabbed a wooden chair and
raced into the front room, raised it over her head, and clobbered the top half
of the general across the back. The chair shattered on contact, but the
demon-powered statue toppled to the ground, where Dax hit him with a burst of
icy wind.

The bronze froze and
splintered. As black mist poured out of the cracks, the icy blast caught it,
and frozen drops clattered to the ground where Dax steamed them out of
existence with a shot of fire.

Empowered by her success and
Bumper’s effective attack, Eddy grabbed another chair and swung at the rearing
horse’s back legs. This chair shattered as well, but the horse dropped to all
four feet and turned toward Eddy.

Its jaws opened wide, and she
saw row upon row of sharp, silvery teeth where teeth shouldn’t be. The horse’s
eyes glowed an eerie yellow, and she realized the broken chair legs she held
were no defense at all.

Bumper must have sensed her
danger. She snapped the spine of the stone deer she’d attacked and charged the
horse. Instead of going for the throat, Bumper sank her teeth into the right
rear leg, up high, just beside the horse’s belly.

Animated by the demon inside,
the bronze seemed to have the texture of plastic, and there was nothing Bumper
liked more than her plastic chew toys. Hanging by her powerful jaws, hind legs
scrabbling for purchase on the tattered carpet beneath her feet, Bumper finally
threw the bronze beast off balance.

Dax zapped the last of the
stone cats and its resident demon with fire, then spun in place and hit the
fallen horse with a shot of freezing air. This time, when the bronze cracked,
two misty creatures escaped. He caught each of them in a flaming arc, burning
them until the black mist turned to steam and evaporated in the suddenly quiet
room.

Still growling, Bumper backed
away from the fallen statue, and leaned against Eddy’s shaking knees. Eddy’s
lungs ached with each tortured breath.

Dax reached out and caught
Willow out of the air before she could tumble to the ground. Eddy sensed the
tiny sprite’s utter and complete exhaustion.

She’d given everything she had
to Dax.

Eddy’d given everything she
had, period. Including her home. She flipped on the only lamp still standing.

The small living room was
littered with crumbled stone and large chunks of metal. Black scorch marks
disfigured the walls, and Dax’s fire had burned holes in the carpet. The
ceiling fan still spun, but only one blade remained. The air reeked of sulfur.
Broken glass was everywhere, destruction complete.

Explaining this one to the
insurance company was going to be a bitch. Eddy leaned over, rested her hands
on her knees, and struggled to get her ragged breathing under control.

Then she heard the wail of
sirens in the distance. “Dax. You need to get out of here,” she gasped. “The
police are on their way. Where can you go?”

“Wherever you go, Eddy Marks.”

She jerked her head up and
gaped at him.

He held his big hands out,
palms up. Willow sat in his left palm with her wings drooping and her head
hanging low, but she was safe. Eddy stared at the hands protecting the tiny
sprite—the same hands that shot fire and ice at marauding demons. The same
hands that had stroked Bumper’s curly head with such gentleness.

“I could not have done this
without you and Bumper,” he said simply. “I need both of you.” Dax glanced at
the tiny figure in the palm of his hand. “And Willow, of course. I will always
need Willow. You have to come with me, Eddy. It’s too important. I can’t do
this by myself. I need you.”

He held his right hand out to
her. “Besides, the demons know where you live. They’ll return. You’re not safe
here. I will not leave you unprotected.”

Eddy stared at his hand.
Glanced at the snake tattoo that had come back to life and seemed to ripple
across his entire torso. Then she looked down at Bumper. She was parked on her
butt between the two of them, but with her doggy gaze fixed firmly on Dax and
her curly tail going like a high-speed metronome. Eddy laughed. None of this
made sense. The sirens were coming closer. Her house was ruined. Dax had a huge
grin on his face, like he was having the time of his life.

And so am
I.

Hadn’t she just complained to
Ginny that nothing exciting ever happened? Eddy gazed at the destruction that
had once been her perfect little living room. Then she raised her head and
grinned at Dax. “And you’re saying I’ll be safe with you, a guy who’s admitted
he’s a demon?”

“A fallen demon, Eddy. Too
good for Hell.”

“Well, in that case, what can
I possibly be worried about?”

Still laughing for God knew
what reason, she grabbed her purse off the floor, checked to make sure her cell
phone was inside, and snapped the leash back on Bumper. “I sure hope you know
where we’re going.”

Dax grabbed her hand, pulled
her close, and shocked her to her toes with a quick kiss. “I do now. We’re
headed straight up the mountain. I’m going to need more help than one skinny
girl and a curly-headed dog. We’re going to find the Lemurians.”

Oh, crap.
She felt laughter burbling up again and bit it off before she gave in to
complete hysterics.

Eddy’s brain slipped into
overdrive. She put on clean socks and laced up her hiking boots. Her jeans and
tank top would have to do—the police cars were pulling up across the street and
she didn’t want to get caught in the house. They went out the back through the
broken glass door. She worried about Dax’s bare feet and the glass all over the
carpet, but he and Bumper both got out of the house without cutting themselves.

A block away, she grabbed
Dax’s hand. “Before we head up the mountain, you need boots and a shirt. We’re
going to my father’s house first. It’s not far.”

“He knows of the Lemurians?”

“He thinks he does.” She
tugged Bumper’s leash, and they slipped down an alley. Exhausted from the
battle, Willow rode along perched on Eddy’s shoulder. Carrying the sprite with
her felt absolutely perfect. Eddy loved seeing the pale blue glow that was
barely visible in her peripheral vision.

Somehow, knowing Willow was
there was reassuring. She wasn’t losing her mind at all. Dax was real. The
demons were real, and this really was happening.

Not that it was good. No, if
what Dax said could happen actually did, it was going to be awful, but just
knowing that these creatures existed, that she wasn’t absolutely crazy, was
somehow life affirming.

Dad was going to love it.

Her childhood home was dark,
but she spotted lights on in her father’s workshop out back. Since her mother’s
death, her dad spent most of his time in the shop, puttering with his model
trains or building birdhouses.

It had become a neighborhood
joke how Ed Marks had singlehandedly turned this part of town into the bird
high-rent district with his fancy designs. There wasn’t a tree without at least
one of his birdhouses for blocks around, but tonight, from the noise coming out
of the shop, it sounded as if he was busy with his model trains. He’d spent
years on the layout, a perfect miniature scale model of Mount Shasta and the
surrounding towns.

McCloud, Edgewood, Weed, the
town of Mt. Shasta. Their own little community of Evergreen. All to scale, all
perfect. “Dad? Are you in there?” Eddy stood just outside the door and tapped
lightly.

She remembered years ago, when
her mom was still alive and her dad much younger, that he’d been as big and
powerful-looking as Dax. The mature man who opened the door wasn’t at all
frail, despite a slight limp from his bad hip, but the physical bulk of
hard-worked muscle and youthful strength was gone. He was still tall, but
leaner now, with deep grooves in his cheeks from years of smiles, and his once
dark hair was shot with gray.

“Eddy! Sweetheart, what are
you doing out so late? Come on in. And…?” He stared sharply at Dax, standing
beside Eddy with bare feet and bare chest. After a quick appraisal, including a
second glance at the sweats Eddy had borrowed from him a few days before, he
opened the door wide.

Bumper wriggled all over until
Ed leaned down and ruffled her curly head. “Brought home another stray I see.”
He paused a moment and picked some glass splinters out of the dog’s thick fur
and then shot another sharp look at Dax. Then he glanced at Eddy and led them
over to a group of tall stools beside the model-train layout.

“Okay. What’s up?”

The look he gave Eddy reminded
her of the first time she’d brought a date home in high school. “Dad, this is
Dax.” She reached up to her shoulder and cupped Willow in her palm. Then she
held the glowing ball of light in front of her. Willow stood up and spread her
tiny wings.

Ed sat down—hard—on the
closest stool.

“This is Willow…. And Dad? I
have a whole lot of really weird and wild stuff I have to tell you.”

Dax liked Eddy’s father
immediately. The man remained calm in spite of the story his daughter told. He
asked intelligent questions, seemed relieved that no one had been hurt during
the attack on her home, and offered to go over and repair the damage.

Then he took them inside
Eddy’s childhood home, opened a large cabinet, dug around for a thick file, and
dropped it into Dax’s hands. “Can you read English?”

Dax stared at the papers in
his hands. “I don’t know if I can read at all.” He flipped open the first page
and stared at the black marks running in straight rows from side to side.
Willow made a quick buzz across the pages, and the printed symbols suddenly
made perfect sense. He raised his head and grinned at Eddy’s father. “Yes, it
appears I can.”

He flipped through page after
page, reading stories about the ancient continent of Lemuria, how it had sunk
beneath the waves, but not before the inhabitants were able to reach safety on
Mount Shasta. According to Ed Marks’ research, the Lemurians now inhabited the
inner caves and secret valleys of the mountain. They had once been known as
demon fighters, powerful warriors able to best the demon hordes of ancient
times in epic battles that had changed the course of history through many
dimensions. Supposedly they had powers mere humans barely understood.

Powers that just might tip the
balance between success and failure. All Dax had to do was find people who,
according to Eddy, didn’t exist.

But, if he believed her
father, they did…. And hadn’t Ed believed in demons and will-o’-the-wisps?

Dax raised his head as Eddy
and her father walked back into the room.

“We made some sandwiches.”
Eddy sat down beside him and stuck a plate in his hands. “What about Willow?”

Dax shook his head. “She
exists on energy, as I once did. As a demon, I only ate my enemies to keep them
from coming back to fight again.” He took a bite, chewed a few times, and
paused. “This is my first meal as a human. It’s good.”

Eddy and her father exchanged
an unfathomable look and then burst out laughing. Eddy leaned over and kissed
Ed on the cheek. “You win, Dad.”

Ed slapped his knee and
laughed again. “Dax, my boy, you have managed to give me the creditability I’ve
always lacked in my poor, pragmatic daughter’s eyes. Thank you.”

Dax merely smiled around a
huge bite of his sandwich.

“Dax, the police stopped by
here a little bit ago while you were going through the file. They wanted to let
Dad know what had happened to my house and make sure I was okay. I didn’t tell
them anything about the demons or you, and we let them think the mess was from
vandals.”

Dax nodded. “Probably for the
best.” He glanced down at Bumper, who stared back at him with soulful eyes.
Without a second thought, he tore off a bite of his sandwich and gave it to the
dog.

Bumper’s curly tail thumped
the floor.

Dax glanced at Eddy, but she
was talking with her father. He looked back at the dog, grinned and slipped her
another bite.