Hellfire (30 page)

For the first time since she’d
learned of her Lemurian heritage, Ginny consciously lowered her mental barriers
and opened her thoughts. She chose trust, and with that one small step, she
opened herself entirely to the man who made love to her so perfectly. She
shared her fears, her needs, and most of all, she shared her love.

She felt him connect, felt the
wonder of his love, and her body shivered in reaction. He was as fearful as
she, as unsure of her feelings toward him, but so very certain of his for her.

Ginny raised her hand and
traced the curve of his jaw and the sharp ridge of his eyebrow. “I love you,
Alton. I’m not sure how or why it’s happened so quickly, but I can’t deny what
I’m feeling.”

His eyes sparkled with unshed
tears and his beautiful face wavered in front of hers. Dear God, she was
crying, and it made her feel so stupid, to be making love with this gorgeous
man and weeping for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

He leaned close and kissed her
lips, kissed the tears that leaked from her eyes and rolled into her hair.
Whispered against her temple, kissing her between every word.
“I love you, Ginny. I can’t explain it either, but I know how I feel, what I
feel.” He chuckled softly, and still he kept up that perfect rhythm, filling
her over and over with each slow and powerful thrust.

His thoughts were as open to
Ginny now as if she read a printed page.
Open and full to
bursting with feelings neither one of them could deny or even put actual voice
to.
Her nerve endings were all on fire, her heart pounded out a wild
tattoo within her chest, yet her mind was calm, open, and gloriously,
unbelievably free.

Free, yet filled with Alton.
She knew now how he worried, how he’d felt so undeserving of her love. Knew
that he’d once been selfish and self-centered, that he’d looked down on her as
a lowly human female, as nothing but trouble, yet couldn’t help but be drawn to
her, as unsuitable as he thought she was.

“So, I’m unsuitable, am I?”
She frowned, or tried to, but he was kissing the sensitive skin beneath her ear
and it was impossible to even fake being angry.

“So terribly unsuitable,” he
said.
“Extremely unsuitable.
Wrong
in every way.”
He nipped her earlobe and tugged. “I think that’s part of
your allure. It’s what caught me from the very beginning.
Your
unsuitability, your amazing spirit, your bravery and your beautiful tiger’s
eyes.”
He kissed her lids, she tilted her hips, he drove deep and hard,
and suddenly her heart was thundering in her chest, her back arching as she
lifted to him, reached for him with her body, with her heart, with her mind.

This time her orgasm started
slow and deep, a hot coil of energy radiating from her womb to her toes, to her
fingertips to the sensitive peaks of her breasts. Alton wrapped his arms around
her waist, lifting Ginny, rearing back on his heels. Her legs tightened around
him, her heels locked tightly at the small of his back, and she pressed her
cheek against the hard wall of his chest.

Powerful heated spasms filled
her. Muscles rippled and pulsed and her body enfolded his, holding him deep
inside, contracting around his heat and length, forging a connection unlike
anything Ginny had ever experienced in her life. Alton’s strong arms held her
close, their bodies shuddering as each of them drew deep, gasping breaths of
air. Finally, Ginny’s muscles all went limp as the last spasm slowly faded away,
as the heat and rush of climax gave way to enervation.

Alton’s chest shuddered
beneath her cheek. Ginny raised her head and gazed drowsily into green eyes
sparkling with laughter. “I think I want to sleep now. Why are you laughing at
me?”

He chuckled softly and nuzzled
the top of her head with his lips. “I’m laughing at both of us. At how stupid
and stubborn we’ve both been, at how perfect we can be. I love you, Ginny
Jones. No matter what happens over the coming days, don’t ever doubt my love.”

She planted a kiss just above
his heart.
“Never, Alton.
I promise. Now put me down.
I need sleep, preferably without nightmares.”

Laughing softly, he slowly
withdrew. Ginny stretched out on the bed, totally replete and unbelievably
relaxed. Vaguely, she was aware of Alton bathing her with a warm washcloth, of
his big body settling in beside hers.

Of his lips
brushing her temple, her chin, the corner of her mouth, before he lay back.
The night was dark and still and the man she loved slept beside her. Wrapped in
his arms, Ginny slept without dreams.

Alton awoke in a cold sweat.
He fought the instinctive urge to jump out of bed and search for whatever it
was that had disturbed him. Instead, he lay perfectly still, listening to the
silence of the predawn hours.

Ginny slept quietly beside
him. Her nose was pressed against his shoulder and the tousled tangle of her
hair tickled his chin. He opened his senses to the darkness. Something was off
but he couldn’t tell what.

HellFire?
Would the sword answer him, sheathed and
stored in the corner where he’d left it?

I am here,
Alton.

Thank the gods!
Is anything wrong? I have a sense of something not quite the way
it should be.

After a brief pause, HellFire
said,
I sense evil. Something moves within this dwelling.
Something that does not belong.

“Ginny?” Alton leaned over and
brushed his lips across her brow.
“Ginny, wake up.
Something’s wrong.”

Her eyes flashed wide, barely
visible in the darkness. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know, but HellFire
agrees. Get something on, grab your sword. I don’t want to open the door unless
we’re both armed.”

She nodded and slid out of
bed. He heard the rustle of her clothing as he was slipping into his jeans. A
moment later, DarkFire burst to life in a brilliant flare of amethyst light. He
slipped HellFire out of the scabbard and rested his fingers on the doorknob.

Ginny?
Are you ready?

Ready.

She rested her fingers on his
hip. Slowly, Alton opened the bedroom door. The stench of sulfur was thick in
the main room separating the two bedrooms. Ginny held her sword high, but there
was no visible sign of demons.

Alton flipped on a light and
the room was bathed in a soft glow. Everything looked fine, though curtains
flapped at an open window. The screen was still in place, but he remembered shutting
the window against the evening’s chill.

He glanced over his shoulder
and nodded to Ginny. Quietly the two of them moved across the room to the door
that led to Dax and Eddy’s room. Alton listened at the door, glanced once more
at Ginny, then turned the handle and shoved.

The door flew open and Alton
raised his sword to illuminate the dark room. The stench of sulfur almost
flattened him. In HellFire’s blue glow he saw Eddy trapped against a corner
wall, surrounded by a thick, black mist that seethed and boiled around her. Her
eyes were wide, her mouth moving as if she screamed, but no sound escaped.

Dax still lay on the bed,
struggling beneath more of the stinking mist that somehow held him prisoner.
Only his right arm and one foot were visible beneath the mass of demons in the
light from Alton’s sword. Ginny slipped in beside Alton and flipped the light
switch. The dark shadows seemed to draw back, as if afraid of the brightness,
but they didn’t leave.

Ginny held her sword high, and
suddenly the mist took on shape and form. Hundreds of lesser demons grappled
with Eddy. Their hideous faces leered and twisted arms and legs and prehensile
tails held her arms at her sides, covered her mouth, and kept her captive. More
of the disgusting beasts held Dax down, but the largest one, the demon king,
straddled his chest. He covered Dax’s face with his in a disgusting parody of a
kiss.

Alton lunged at the creature
with HellFire. He slashed through the wraithlike body with his sparkling
crystal blade, but the demon rolled away unscathed. He didn’t appear to be
injured or damaged at all. The lesser demons stayed in position, still holding
Dax to the bed.

Alton took a quick look over
his shoulder to see where Ginny’d gone. She’d grabbed Eddy’s sword,
DemonSlayer, and held the leather scabbard in her left hand while she slashed
at the demons holding onto Eddy with her right. DarkFire glowed. Screams rose
as demons flared into brilliant flashes of flame and died, but their banshee
wails seemed to embolden the demon king.

As Eddy reached out of the
boiling, seething mass of demons, DemonSlayer leapt from the sheath and into
her grasp. The demon king rushed for Alton with his four powerful arms spread
wide. Alton feinted and dipped to his left, grabbed Dax’s sword, and loosed
DemonFire from the scabbard. He swung HellFire at the demon king and forced him
back from the bed, away from Dax.

Alton swung again. Once more
the creature twisted out of the way and evaded the blow, but Alton now had his
back to the bed, between the demon king and the ex-demon who was Alton’s
friend.

“Dax?
Can you hear me? Reach out with your right hand. I have your sword.” Alton
glanced down between blows, saw Dax’s fingers twitch, and managed to slip the
jeweled hilt into his hand. Dax took DemonFire from Alton, gave a mighty yell,
and rose up from the bed. Demon mist scattered in all directions. Others clung
to his body, writhing and twisting over his bare flesh, almost as if they tried
to form a cage about his torso.

Dax lunged to his feet, still
covered in demonkind. Shaking like a big dog, he quickly dislodged the filthy
creatures. Alton swung HellFire through the wraiths as they slowly floated to
the ground. Dozens burst into flames and sparks.

Dax swung his head around.
“Where’s Eddy?”

“She’s fine. I’ve got her.”
Ginny’s shout came from the far corner. “Don’t let that bastard get away.”

Alton glanced toward Ginny’s
voice and saw Eddy standing beside her, sword in hand. The women were fine. The
air around them was filled with the sparks of dead and dying demons. Eddy and
Ginny appeared to be working their way across the room, killing demons as they
came.

The demon king was nothing
more than black roiling mist beneath the bedroom lamp and the light of
DemonFire and HellFire. Swinging and slashing through the mist, their swords
seemed to disrupt the creature, but for some reason they couldn’t kill him. He
surged and then recoiled, like black smoke in a capricious wind, constantly
evading a killing strike and then reforming once the blade had passed.

“How the nine hells do we kill
this bastard?” Alton swung once more, but the darkness reformed behind the
slashing blade.

“I don’t know. He’s getting
stronger. He managed to siphon off more of my energy.” Dax was breathing hard
and his strikes were not as clean.

“And here I thought you two
were just making out.” Alton slanted him a quick grin. Dax rolled his eyes and
jabbed DemonFire completely through the wraith.

A flash of amethyst light
caught the edge of the mist and turned it into a twisted, scaled arm. Ginny
moved even closer and held DarkFire overhead, illuminating the beast beneath
her sword’s violet glow. The entire demon king burst into view. It towered over
them, all scales and talons and slavering fangs—hideous beyond belief, a vision
of evil incarnate.

“Holy shit.”
Dax took a quick step back. “It’s me! That’s my old form. There were none like
me. The bastard’s definitely got my old body, my demon form.”

Alton caught the look of
horror on Eddy’s face, the anger in Ginny’s eyes,
the
confusion in Dax’s expression. “It’s not you now, Dax. Whatever you were
before, you’re not that thing anymore. But he’s after you. You’re his target.”

They circled the hulking
creature. It was larger now than it had been earlier in the day, when it had
trapped Dax in the vortex. Now it pivoted on powerful multi-jointed legs with
clawed feet and reached out with four powerful arms tipped with vicious claws.
Always it watched Dax, reached for Dax. Saliva dripped from a mouth filled with
razor-sharp teeth, and curved horns protruded from its forehead.

Its eyes glowed with an unholy
light and a terrifying intelligence. It knew what it wanted. It wanted Dax.

“I want to know how it got
here. We saw it go through the portal to Abyss, but that portal’s been closed.”
Alton drove his sword into the creature’s body. Black mist swirled around the
blade, reforming after the crystal passed through. But the creature kept
glancing at Ginny’s glowing blade as if he feared it, pivoting and spinning
away from the dark violet light.

Whenever it escaped the glow,
the demon king became mist once more, yet it still remained untouched by their
swords.

“There’s got to be another
portal.” Ginny stepped closer and held DarkFire high. The demon king lunged in
her direction. Without hesitation, Ginny lashed out.

The demon shrieked and
recoiled. Sparks exploded where she’d hit him with the blade.
“Interesting.”
She flashed a brilliant grin at Alton. “He
doesn’t like DarkFire.” She lunged forward and slashed at his torso. The demon
king twisted and evaded the blade. Again and again Ginny went for the kill, but
each time she managed nothing more than a nick and a spark. The sharp stench of
sulfur told them she’d wounded the beast, but not seriously enough to stop him.

Alton stood at Ginny’s side
with his sword at the ready, but there was nothing he could do, not if Ginny’s
DarkFire was the only blade that could kill the damned thing. Still, watching
her fight was amazing. She danced around the demon and her crystal sword
flashed almost faster than the eye could follow.