Hellfire (2 page)

Alton stepped back out of the
way, giving Eddy Marks plenty of space to aim the point of her crystal sword.
She held DemonSlayer high, slashing through the demonic mist as it flowed
through the hole in the mannequin’s plastic neck.

The eerie banshee cry of the
escaping demon sent shivers down Alton’s spine. The screech ended abruptly the
moment Eddy’s sword sliced into the mist and it burst into flames. All that was
left was a puff of foul-smelling smoke.

“Well done, my lady.”

Eddy smiled at the sword in
her hand. “Thank you, DemonSlayer.” Then she sheathed her weapon and rose up on
her toes to accept a kiss from her beloved Dax.

Alton couldn’t help but think
that Dax was one very lucky ex-demon, to find a woman like Eddy Marks, one
brave enough to have gained immortality along with her own sentient sword.
There weren’t many women like her.

In fact, there were none like
Eddy in his own lost world of Lemuria. As far as Alton knew, she was just as
unique to Earth.

For some unfathomable reason,
a fleeting image of Ginny Jones flashed through his mind—
her
body tall and lean with skin dark as night, and those gorgeous tiger’s eyes of
hers.

The image popped out of
existence so fast it left him shaken. Blinking, he realized he was still
watching Eddy and Dax.

“That was a new one,” Eddy
said when she finally peeled herself away from her lover. “Have you seen any
others like her?” She nodded toward the mannequin lying on the sidewalk.

Alton dragged his gaze away
from the two of them and stared at the mannequin. “Thankfully, no, but this
isn’t good. It was bad enough when demons were using ceramic and stone
creatures as avatars, but plastic’s a new medium for them. Can you imagine the
chaos they’re going to cause? There’s no way to get rid of all the potential
hosts for the damned things.”

This latest demon invasion had
begun less than two weeks ago. So far, demons could exist in Earth’s dimension
only as formless wraiths—smelly black mist without substance. They’d started
out possessing ceramic, stone, and metal figurines, though they’d not managed
to do too much damage.

This was scary, though, this
move to plastic. The demon
who’d
possessed this
mannequin seemed to have a lot more control than the ones who’d taken on the
more primitive avatars. The creatures were somehow gaining power, even
intelligence. It appeared they were actually evolving—and doing it way too
fast.

Dax knelt down and ran his
hand over the mannequin’s body, as if he needed to see for himself what it was
made of. “I want to know where these new demons are coming from. There
shouldn’t be so many. Not since Alton sealed the gateway from Abyss.”

Eddy shoved her bangs out of
her eyes and glanced at Alton. “Maybe they’ve opened a new one.”

Nine hells.
A new portal was the last thing they
needed. Alton really didn’t want to consider such a thing. He stared at Eddy
and Dax and sighed. Just over a week ago he’d been a perfectly bored resident
of Lemuria, wondering why nothing exciting ever happened. Then he’d helped two
humans, a tiny will-o’-the-wisp, and a mongrel dog escape from a Lemurian
prison in a separate dimension deep within Mount Shasta.

His life hadn’t been the same
since.

Exiled from Lemuria—a
mythological world, according to humankind, which showed how little they
actually knew—with a price on his head, he’d joined the battle against
demonkind’s invasion of Earth. Not that he was complaining about all the
changes in his life, but was there no end to the damned demons?

Of course, Dax’s and Eddy’s
lives had changed just as drastically. Dax the demon—kicked out of the hell of
Abyss for good behavior—had become a demon slayer, working for the good guys to
halt the demonic invasion of Earth. Eddy Marks was a newspaper reporter who had
saved Dax’s life without a clue what she was getting into. Alton knew the
pragmatic journalist hadn’t planned on becoming a demon slayer—or gaining
immortality, a demon lover, and a sentient crystal sword that talked to her.

And Bumper was just a dog—a
foster mutt Eddy had brought home from the pound to save from euthanasia. The
dog barked. Alton leaned over and scratched her curly head. Bumper looked up at
him, and Willow’s thoughts flowed into Alton’s mind.

I think
that demon was the only one. Bumper and I checked.

Thank you,
Willow.
And Bumper.

He couldn’t imagine Willow’s
life now, trapped inside a mongrel like Bumper. The tiny will-o’-the-wisp had
been sent as Dax’s companion, able to draw energy from the air to fuel his
demon powers. In that last big battle on Mount Shasta when the demon ate Willow’s
tiny body, she’d managed to transfer her consciousness into Bumper just in
time. While Dax no longer needed Willow for energy, Alton knew they all needed
her as part of their team. Whether she looked like a tiny fairy or a curly
blond pit bull, Willow had the soul and spirit of a warrior.

Just like his other
companions.

Alton carefully sheathed his
sword. HellFire, the crystal sword he’d had since reaching manhood, had
finally, after so many millennia, gained sentience and begun to speak—proof
that it finally considered Alton a warrior, a man worthy of respect.

They’d all earned that respect
in the final battle with the gargoyle demon, which explained the crystal swords
Dax and Eddy now wielded as well, replicates of his own sword.

DemonFire for Dax, DemonSlayer
for Eddy.

Crystal
swords, perfect for fighting the demon invasion that threatened to offset the
balance between good and evil.
Three warriors and
their sentient swords, along with a mongrel hosting the mind of a bodiless will-o’-the-wisp.

They were all that stood
between a demon invasion of Earth and the unsuspecting citizens of this world.

Alton was terrified they might
not be enough.

Eddy’s cell phone played “Ode
to Joy.” She reached for the phone and turned away to take her call.

A chill raced along Alton’s
spine.

Eddy stared at the phone in
her hand for a long, long time. Then she slowly slipped it back into her jeans
pocket. Alton and Dax were deep in conversation, and it looked like Bumper and
Willow were right in there with them.

Bumper and Willow…BumperWillow.
Eddy couldn’t think
of one without the other. Not anymore. Thank goodness she’d been able to get
things straightened out with the shelter and they’d agreed to let her adopt her
foster dog, Bumper, or they’d really have been in a fix. When the gargoyle had
eaten the little sprite’s body and she’d slipped into the closest available
live host, at least she’d found one who loved and welcomed her.

The symbiosis between the
brave little sprite and Eddy’s funky mutt couldn’t have been better, though
after seeing how gorgeous Willow’d been before and how silly she looked as a
pit bull crossed with a poodle, Eddy couldn’t help but wonder if she ever had
second thoughts about her choice of borrowed body.

But that was the least of
Eddy’s worries. Ginny Jones’s phone call had just opened up a whole new can of
worms.

“Guys,” Eddy said, “we’ve got
a problem.”

Alton kept his arms tightly
folded across his chest. He was afraid if he didn’t hold himself contained, he
would fly to pieces. Ginny was in danger, and it was his fault—all his
fault—for sending her to Sedona.

He’d known there was more than
one vortex in that Arizona town, but he hadn’t even thought of the demons using
one as a passage from Abyss to Earth’s dimension. No, all he’d thought about
was getting Ginny away from Evergreen and the demon invasion here.

Who in nine hells was he
trying to kid? He’d wanted Ginny away, period. She was the most unsuitable
distraction he’d ever seen and he wanted her gone because she was a danger to
his own peace of mind. She’d have been safer if she stayed. This community was
probably the safest one around for now, especially with the three of them
keeping things under control.

He glanced at the headless
mannequin lying in the alley.

Well,
moderately under control.

This was not good, but the
problem in Sedona sounded even worse. Family pets with glowing eyes and
multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth? Loving animals suddenly going berserk and
attacking their owners? It sure sounded like demon possession to Alton, and he
knew the others agreed.

Until today, they’d thought
demons could only animate things of the earth—ceramic or stone, concrete or
clay. Plastic was essentially more of the same, just a different material, but
taking on living creatures as avatars took a lot more power, showed more
intelligence.

Ginny could be in terrible
danger, and it was
all his
fault.

Bumper whined. Alton looked at
Dax and Eddy, and realized they were staring at him too.
All
three of them.
What had he missed?

“Well?” Eddy planted her hands
on her hips.

Alton blinked. “Well, what?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you
going? Is there a passage through the vortex that will get you to Sedona fast
so you can check on Ginny? My best friend’s in danger because of you.”

He cringed. “I know. Yes,
there’s a passage, and yes, I’ll go.”

Eddy’s sudden smile hinted at
something more than mere concern for Ginny. “Be sure and pack some extra
clothes,” she said. “You might be gone for a while.”

Eddy’s dad, Ed Marks, gunned
his old Jeep along the last steep stretch of dirt road. He’d offered to take
Alton as far as he could up the rough flank of Mount Shasta, but they’d just
about reached the end of the road. Alton knew he still had a long hike ahead of
him before he made it to the portal.

The way was steep, the ground
slippery with loose rock and scree that often meant slipping back two steps for
every step forward, so the ride this far was welcome. Plus, he enjoyed spending
time with Ed.

It shouldn’t have surprised
him, how much he liked Eddy’s dad, but their close friendship had been an
unexpected bonus. Alton figured it was as much his need for a father figure who
treated him with respect as the fact Ed was just a hell of a nice guy. His own
father still hadn’t accepted that he was an adult, a capable man who could make
his own decisions, but Ed saw Alton as a warrior, a brave companion to Dax and
Eddy.

And he treated Alton like a
man grown, which might have been silly under other circumstances. As an
immortal, Alton was already centuries older than Ed Marks, something that
didn’t seem to bother Ed at all.

He wondered—would his own
father ever see him as anything other than a disappointment? What would the
ruling chancellor of the Council of Nine say if he knew his son’s sword was now
sentient, that Alton had proven himself as a warrior?

Fat chance
of that ever happening.
Now that he had a Lemurian death sentence
hanging over his head for helping Dax and Eddy escape from their prison cell,
Alton had to accept that going back to his world inside the volcano probably
wasn’t going to happen.

Still, it was something to
dream of, his father actually learning his only son had accomplished what no
other Lemurian in recent history had done—he’d established communication with
his crystal sword. Even though the story of Lemurians as warriors and demon
fighters was a huge part of their history, no one alive now—except maybe the
reclusive Crone, a woman of legendary stature who had chosen exile for some
unknown reason eons ago—could actually remember anyone strong enough or brave
enough to bring their sword to life.

Yet Alton’s sword spoke to
him.
Respected him enough to communicate, crystal sword to
Lemurian.

In fact, as far as Alton knew,
he was the only Lemurian alive today who’d actually taken part in battle using
a weapon other than words. While his people took pride in being known as
philosophers and statesmen, they’d lost their fighting edge—the very qualities
that had kept their society safe for so long.

Just as
they’d lost their strongest allies—their speaking crystal swords.
The
sword each young man received when he came of age had become nothing more than
a fancy ornament.

Legend said the swords’
sentience came from the spirits of demon fighters from long ago, the souls of
powerful and brave men who’d bested demonkind in a war that had kept Abyss in
line for millennia.

That didn’t explain the sexy
female voice in Eddy’s sword, but it certainly accounted for the silence in
every sword presented to every young Lemurian male. Why would any warrior’s
spirit want to speak with a man who didn’t know how to fight and wasn’t willing
to risk his life for something of importance?

Their silence was
understandable.

Alton had not only risked his
life, he’d discovered an inner strength he hadn’t known he possessed. He’d
proved to both his sword and himself that he was a warrior, one willing to die
for a cause he believed in—protecting the known worlds from the threat of
demonkind. All civilizations linked to Earth, no matter what dimension, were at
risk from the encroaching evil of Abyss.

The danger of reaching a
tipping point, of the ages-old balance of good and evil finally slipping over
to the dark side, was still very real, especially with the new threat of a
demon king powerful enough and smart enough to lead the demon hordes to
victory.

Gaining strength by the hour
within his stone gargoyle avatar, the demon king had almost won. Dax’s brave
sacrifice and Eddy’s strength and determination had bought a temporary victory
when Eddy’d courageously risked death by wielding Alton’s crystal sword. She’d
beheaded the stone gargoyle and sent the demon king back to Abyss—for now.