Hellfire (38 page)

Alton, Ginny, Eddy, and Dax
lined up and faced the creature. BumperWillow stood to one side, ears on alert,
tail high. Dax looked her way. “You okay, Willow?”

I’m ready.

Dax grinned at Alton.
“BumperWillow’s just too big a mouthful. They know we’re talking to both of
them.”

Alton shook the tension out of
his shoulders and tightened his grasp on HellFire.
“Works for
me.
Ladies?
Are you ready?”

“Definitely.”
Ginny slanted him a quick look.
I love you. Don’t you dare
get
hurt.

The same
goes for you.

Silence had fallen over the crowd,
standing now at a careful distance. The bull lowered his head once again and
pawed the ground. Sand and rocks flew over his shoulders. His powerful muscles
bunched and rippled as he started forward, slowly at first, but building up
speed as he got his massive weight in motion.

Alton felt the sense of evil
grow, almost as if the creature projected fear and danger ahead of him. Someone
behind them screamed. He heard the sound of shuffling feet, but he couldn’t
take the time to look. He had to hope people were moving back, out of the way
and not into danger.

He glanced at the others. Dax
and Eddy had moved to the right while he and Ginny took the left. Ginny stood
bravely with her red skirt blowing against her legs and her sword held aloft.
BumperWillow had moved and now stood her ground dead center between them,
making herself the focus of the animal’s wrath.

The bull raced directly toward
the dog and then, in a split second that caught them all off guard, he twisted
his huge body faster than any creature his size should have been able to move,
lowered his head, and came up beneath Dax with his deadly curved horns. Eddy
screamed and lunged with DemonSlayer but the crystal blade glanced off the
bull’s thick neck.

Dax grabbed the horn aimed at
his belly and brought his knee up against the bull’s snout, pushed and twisted
and managed an awkward flip over the animal’s head. Blood streamed from a
shallow wound in his side, but he landed on his feet with DemonFire still
clutched in his fist.

The bull shook his head. Thick
streams of saliva dripped from his open jaws. He glared from Dax to Eddy and
back at Dax once again. Alton slipped around behind the beast and BumperWillow
charged the animal, barking frantically, going for his face. True to her pit
bull nature, she baited the bull, teasing him with barks and growls and
snapping teeth. At the last possible second, she jumped and clamped her
powerful jaws down on the huge animal’s tender nose.

He bellowed and shook his
head, a sharp side-to-side jerk. BumperWillow hung on. Her back legs flailed as
she reached for purchase against the ground, but the bull swung his big head
high and then low, battering her muscular body hard against the dirt, knocking
the wind out of the tenacious dog.

Still she hung on, until he
jerked his head rapidly from side to side again. The sudden change in direction
tossed her a dozen feet in the air. Someone in the crowd screamed. BumperWillow
landed with a thud and a puff of dust, lying there in the dirt without sound or
movement.

The bull spun quickly. Blood
poured from his snout and his eyes glowed red, shooting angry sparks visible
even in the daytime sun. His horns had grown longer and sharper—they glinted
now like polished steel in huge, sweeping curves above his broad skull. Alton
saw his chance and stabbed for the bull. He was willing to risk killing the
creature if only to stop the demon’s attack, but his crystal sword balked at
taking an innocent life.

HellFire slipped off the thick
hide in a trail of blue sparks, but a single puff of black exploded into the
air.

“That’s one of the demons it
just absorbed.” Dax reached high and caught the wraith with the tip of his
sword. The mist exploded into stinking sparks, but his reach overhead left him
exposed and vulnerable.

The bull swung its big head
and caught Dax just beneath the ribs. He cried out, swinging DemonFire even as
the bull gored him deep with another sharp jerk of its head. As Eddy reached
for Dax, one of the bull’s hooves caught her thigh and scored a long slash
beneath her skirt. She twisted away as her leg crumpled beneath her, but she
still managed to pull Dax free before the bull could force the sharp horn any
deeper into his side.

Alton took a running leap and
jumped on the
bull’s
back as Eddy dragged Dax to
safety. He couldn’t tell how badly his friend had been gored, but the ground
was slick with blood. Clinging to the animal, Alton swung his sword beneath the
beast’s throat.

The bull twisted away from the
blade. It lunged and dipped, twisting like a whirling dervish, spinning faster
than nature had ever intended. It was all Alton could do to hang on for the
ride and try to avoid the thrashing swing of razor-sharp horns. Then the bull
bucked high, came down stiff-legged, and landed hard on all four legs.

Jarred by the impact, Alton
grabbed on to the horns with both hands to keep from flying off. HellFire flew
from his grasp in a spinning arc and buried itself tip first into the ground.

Fighting panic, Ginny quickly
weighed her options. Dax was down and bleeding badly. Eddy’s leg had a deep
slash. BumperWillow was either unconscious or dead and Alton was clinging to
the
bull’s
back without HellFire. Ripping off her
skirt, Ginny stood her ground in her white camisole top, black lace panties,
and red platform sandals, waving the red fabric in front of the bull like a
matador’s cape.

She didn’t know if demons
liked red or not, but this demon-powered bull was putting his head down and
blowing huge blasts of hot air from bleeding nostrils—thank you, Bumper. And he
was glaring at the billowing red skirt.

Alton flashed
her a
thumbs-up and nimbly jumped from the bull’s back. He
reached for HellFire. The sword burst out of the dirt directly into his grasp.
Alton held his weapon high and raced toward the bull. Just as he got within
striking distance, the animal swung his head.

One of the long horns ripped
into Alton’s side and lifted him high overhead. Ginny screamed. She felt
Alton’s agony through their mental link as the horn sliced deep into his body.
The bull swung his head and Alton tumbled over his broad back like a rag doll.
HellFire once again landed in the dirt, but this time Alton lay beside his
sword, unmoving.

Ginny searched for his
thoughts and found nothing.

Then the bull charged.

Ginny stood her ground as best
she could with her sandals sinking into the torn and shredded dirt. The bull
lunged toward her red skirt. She whipped it out of the way as the animal passed
and struck him across the shoulders with the flat of her blade.

A black wraith flew from
between his horns—the second demon it had absorbed. Ginny lunged for it and
barely caught the trailing end of mist. The demon burst into violet sparks as
the bull raced by. Dirt flew when it twisted and slowed its huge bulk enough to
turn and charge her once again.

She glanced toward Alton.
Blood pooled around him but he hadn’t moved. Eddy was on the far side of the
field, kneeling beside Dax. Both of them were covered in blood, and
BumperWillow still lay in the dirt where she’d fallen.

Ginny was alone and the bull
was coming back. Her white camisole top was stained with blood and her bare
legs were covered in mud and blood and saliva from the bull’s last charge.

She linked with DarkFire and
felt the power of the crystal pour into her as she faced the bull. The ground
vibrated beneath her feet from his pounding charge and though he moved with the
speed of a rolling freight train, he seemed to come at her in slow motion.
Ginny stood her ground until the last second,
then
swung her red skirt to attract his charge. He lunged for the fabric and she
ducked and rolled out of the way.

She came to a stop beside
Alton. He lay in a crumpled heap in the dirt and blood poured slowly from a
deep puncture in his side, but there was no time to check on him, no time to
assure
herself
whether he lived or died. DarkFire
seemed to vibrate within her grasp and she saw an answering glow in Alton’s
sword. Bending from the waist, Ginny swept HellFire up in her left hand. She
put her head down and, with a glowing sword in each hand, raced across the
field, as far from Alton as she could get.

She stopped in an open space,
far from Dax and Eddy, farther from Alton and BumperWillow. She couldn’t think
about Alton now. Couldn’t allow her mind to travel through all the terrible
possibilities of whether the man she loved lived or died.
Focus.
She had to focus.

The demon king must be
stopped—she was the only one left who had a chance to do it.

The bull paused in its attack.
It lowered its huge head and stared toward Dax and Eddy on the far side of the
field. Ginny was sure he weighed the odds of getting to Dax before Ginny got to
him, because he swung his head around and lowered it, staring at her out of
flame-red eyes.

Once more he pawed at the hard
ground, throwing clods of dirt high over his back and shoulders. Blood still
dripped from his torn nose, and saliva hung in long, nasty ropes from his jaws.
He
bugled
his banshee scream and charged.

Ginny screamed even as she
attacked. Running directly toward the crazed beast, she flung her red skirt
over the bull’s head and whirled out of the animal’s way.

Bellowing its ear-splitting
wail, the bull stopped and twisted his head, trying to dislodge the fabric that
hung from his horns and covered his eyes. The sharp horns came perilously close
to Ginny and he kicked out. One hoof caught her square in the chest. She
grunted
,
gasping for air as she spun to the side with
DarkFire raised high in her right hand, HellFire grasped tightly in her left.

Then she lunged forward and
brought the flat sides of both DarkFire and HellFire down hard, right between
the bull’s horns. Power burst from both blades in a shower of amethyst and blue
flames. The bull stopped as if stunned. He shook his head. Then, with a
wrenching cry, the demon king burst forth.

Ginny lunged for the demon
with both blades.

Caught in DarkFire’s purple
light, the huge, black wraith burst to life in all its demonic shape and form.
Both blades passed through its legs and the demon howled in frustration. The
bull shook his head again, but he couldn’t dislodge Ginny’s red skirt still
twisted around his horns and covering his eyes. He trotted away with the demon
struggling, half in and half out of his massive body.

Even away from DarkFire’s
light, the demon king was fully visible as a demon.
A very
pissed-off demon.

Still hanging on to both
swords, Ginny raced after the bull. She leapt over the torn earth in a
desperate dash to catch the demon king, but just before she reached him, he
screamed a banshee cry and then with a horrible sucking sound, pulled his body
entirely free of the bull.

She swung at the hideous shape
with DarkFire. Sparks flew, but the wraith reformed as the one blade passed
harmlessly through both his legs. She tried to reach him with both blades, but
he was just out of her reach.

Moaning and screaming, the
demon king hovered overhead for a moment, its four arms spread wide, its mouth
gaping and
fangs dripping
saliva. Then with an even
louder shriek it suddenly coalesced into a spinning tornado of sulfuric stink
that collapsed in upon itself, growing smaller and smaller as she watched.

There was a tiny atmospheric
pop
and the demon winked out of sight. Seething with
frustration and rage, unable to fully catch her breath, and absolutely
exhausted, Ginny would have crumpled to the ground, but she knew that Alton
needed her. Calling on her last bit of strength, she turned toward him with
both swords dragging in the dirt.

It took her a moment to
comprehend what she saw.

He had one hand pressed
against his side and he was trying to sit up. Blood still ran from his wound,
but he raised his head, caught her eye with a look that spoke volumes, and
smiled at her despite his obvious pain.

He was alive. Energy surged
and Ginny raced across the field on wobbly legs. She collapsed beside him.
Alton reached for her and dragged her close. The warmth of his embrace and the
love in his eyes was all it took.

She burst into tears.

He’d never seen anything more
awe-inspiring than Ginny’s battle with the demon king. Holding her now, loving
her with all his heart, Alton had no doubt she’d saved all their lives. He
glanced over her shoulder, to the place where Dax lay in the dirt.

Eddy and another man were bent
over the ex-demon. Willow had dragged herself over to lie beside them. At least
Eddy wasn’t crying. Alton figured that was a good sign but he wasn’t sure who
was with them.

Right now, it didn’t really
matter. All that mattered was that Ginny was safe in his arms.
Safe in spite of her bruises and her tears.
His side hurt
like the blazes, but as deep as the bull had gored him, he didn’t sense that
anything vital had been injured. Already he could feel his wound beginning to
heal.

He brushed Ginny’s hair back
from her face. Her perfect braids had pulled loose, she was covered in blood
and muck and dirt, and tears left dusty tracks over her cheeks. He’d never seen
her looking more beautiful or wanted her so much.

He planted a soft kiss on her
lips. She sniffed and turned away. He dug a handkerchief out of his pocket and
she wiped her face and blew her nose. When the tears were gone, for now,
anyway, she turned back to him. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding. Let me help….”

“I’m fine.
And
you?
Ginny, you’re absolutely amazing. You did it. All by yourself, you
stopped that bastard. I think you sent him away for a while.”

She sobbed and shook her head.
“I couldn’t kill him. I tried, but…”

“Ah,
sweetheart.
You were magnificent.
Absolutely magnificent.
C’mon. Let’s go check on Dax.” Slowly he rose to his feet, but Ginny was up
before him and helped him stand.

She grabbed HellFire out of
the dirt and handed his sword to him. Then she slipped DarkFire into her
scabbard.

They helped each other across
the field. Dawson Buck, the vet, was kneeling beside Dax. “Are you guys okay?”
He looked at Alton’s ripped shirt and torn flesh. “How bad is that? It’s
bleeding pretty heavy.”

Alton shook his head. “I’ll be
okay. How’s Dax?”

“Anyone else would need surgery,
but he’s something else.
Literally.
I think stitches
might help. He said he doesn’t want a doctor, but I can at least sew him up.
I’ve got my kit with me, but I’ll have to follow you back to your place.” He
glanced around. “It’s illegal for a vet to treat a human.”

Dax chuckled. “I’m not human.
I’m an ex-demon.
Alton’s Lemurian.
I doubt the
licensing board covers us at all.”

Dawson just shook his head.

Alton held tightly to Ginny.
“Sounds good, Dawson.
Let’s get out of here. I need to do
some crowd control first. Ginny, can you get the car?” Alton kissed Ginny’s
cheek when she nodded. He turned away and walked toward the crowd of curious
onlookers, raised his hands, and let the compulsion flow from his mind through
his fingertips.

Ginny headed toward the
parking lot. Alton watched her walk slowly across the torn field wearing
nothing but her stained camisole top, her tiny black lace bikini panties, and
those silly platform sandals that made her long legs look even longer.

No one in the crowd seemed to notice.
No, they were all talking about the great entertainment and what a wonderful
show it had been. His compulsion had worked, but then with a vision like Ginny
starring, it had to have been amazing.

Alton had to agree it had been
a great show. They were all still alive. He went back and knelt down beside Dax
again. His friend’s face was pale, but his eyes were open. “I’ll be okay,” Dax
said. “We need to get out of here before the authorities arrive. Is the demon
king dead?”

Alton shook her head. “No. But
damn, Ginny was amazing. She fought him with both HellFire and DarkFire.
Neither blade was able to kill him, though she managed to send him somewhere. I
don’t know if he’s gone to Abyss or the void, but he feels gone.”

Just then Ginny pulled up in
the SUV. She’d found the remnants of her red skirt somewhere along the way and
had it tied around her waist, but when she climbed out of the Yukon, she still
looked a little shell-shocked by what had happened.

Dax reached for her hand when
she knelt down beside him. “I hear you were the hero of the day. Thank you.”

She shook her head. “I
couldn’t kill him. Not even with both swords. And Dax, I could see him in his
demon form, in your old form, without the light from DarkFire. Just before he
disappeared, he was entirely visible. DarkFire wasn’t close enough to
illuminate him. I’m hoping I sent him to Abyss or the void, at least for now,
but he’s getting stronger. How do we stop him? There’s got to be a way.”

Dax didn’t answer. He merely
closed his eyes and clung to Eddy’s hand. She looked at Ginny with tear-filled
eyes and shook her head.

Alton and Dawson carefully
loaded Dax into the SUV. Eddy climbed into the backseat beside him and held a
towel they’d found in the Yukon over his deepest wound.

Alton didn’t even ask for the
keys. His side hurt like hell and he was feeling a little light-headed from
blood loss. Ginny helped him lift Willow into the back. Still feeling dazed,
they headed back down the road to their casita with Dawson Buck, the
veterinarian, following close behind.

Ginny carried cold beer and a
fresh plate of cheese and crackers out to the back deck. They were all bathed,
their injuries tended and bandaged by the local vet, and the worst of their
wounds almost completely healed by Willow. Even trapped inside Bumper, she
hadn’t lost her skills.

Dawson was still here,
obviously fascinated by the stories Alton and Dax were telling him of the
ongoing demon invasion and the lost women of Lemuria. Willow had parked her
fuzzy butt against his leg and was shamelessly begging for treats.

“Thanks, Ginny.” Dawson took
the beer she offered and turned his attention back to Alton. “How many days do
you think you have before the demon king comes back?”

Alton shook his head. “We have
no idea. He could return tonight, as powerful as he seems to be growing, but we’re
hoping he’s gone for a while. We think all the portals to Abyss are sealed, so
hopefully he’ll have to work harder to get back.”

Dawson frowned. “How’s that
work? If the portals are sealed, how do they go home?”