Hellfire (8 page)

Ginny flashed him a flirty
grin. “Hmm…should I apologize for being such a tough sell?”

Alton smiled down at her.
“Never apologize, Ginny. Not for being
who
you are.
You’re really quite amazing.” Then, after dropping that bombshell, he merely
added, “Notice anything?”

She blinked. Talk about
switching gears! Going back to the subject of possessed animals, she shook her
head. “Other than the fact they sound like normal dogs? No stink of sulfur,
either. Look at that guy.
Normal dog teeth.
Where’d
the demon teeth go? For that matter, where’d the demons go?”

“I imagine they’ve gone back
to the void, unless they could find new avatars after leaving the caged beasts.
Let’s go check the cats.”

They found the vet staring at
the rows of cages filled with cats. A couple meowed quietly. He turned to Alton
and shook his head. “This doesn’t make any sense. All these animals were
screeching yesterday. Their teeth had changed, their eyes were glowing. Today
they’re regular cats. I don’t get it.”

“I’m not positive, but I
imagine once the demons realized the animals were going to stay caged, they
lost their value to the demons. Demons took possession of the animals to give
themselves mobile avatars in this dimension. It’s the only way they can stay
here and move about. Caged avatars don’t do them any good.”

Obviously
confused, as much from Alton’s compulsion and his offhanded explanation of the
patently impossible demon possession as he was by the perfectly normal animals
filling his clinic, the vet stared at Alton and shrugged.
“I still don’t
get it. Where are the demons now?”

Alton glanced at Ginny. “I
wish I knew. They can’t last long in Earth’s dimension in their mist form, but
they could have searched for new avatars. Wild animals or pets running free,
not caged. I imagine you’ll be seeing an entirely new group of patients,
animals possessed by the same demons that once inhabited the creatures you’ve
got here.”

The vet scratched his head and
stared long and hard at Alton. “How do you know this? When I told people I
thought their pets were possessed, they looked at me like I was nuts.”

“That’s because the truth is
often frightening.” Alton stared at the rows of cats staring at him from their
pens. His words had a sense of destiny to them, as if he was making a pledge as
much as explaining himself to the vet. “I come from a long line of demon
fighters. This is the job I was born to do.”

Then he seemed to reach a conclusion.
“I want you to remember my visit after I’m gone,” he said, brushing his hand in
front of the veterinarian’s eyes. “You’re going to want to keep me informed of
any new and unusual activity.”

The doctor blinked and shook
his head. He smiled at Alton, but now his eyes were bright, focused. “What did
you say your name was again?”

Alton stuck out his hand.
“Alton Artigos.
And this is my partner, Ginny Jones. We were
talking about the animals you saw yesterday. As I said, the demons probably
fled once they understood their avatars were caged, but I’d appreciate it if
you’d let me know if you have another rush of animals like these. I forgot to
ask—how long has this been going on? Is it a recent phenomenon?”

“It’s just bizarre. Yesterday
was the first day folks showed up with their pets acting so
strange.
I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Then how did you know it was
demon possession?” Alton’s question seemed to catch the vet by surprise.

“Why…I…” He shrugged. “I don’t
know. They felt wrong to me. They looked wrong. It seemed obvious, though I
guess most people wouldn’t phrase it quite the same as I did.”

“Here.” Ginny dug a business
card out of her handbag. “My cell phone number is here. I’m so glad to see Tom
looking normal and healthy. He was scary yesterday. He got me good.” She held
up her bandaged hand. It still hurt.

“He bit you?” The vet took her
card. “That’s not typical behavior. Normal, socially adjusted pets don’t bite
people.” He blinked and stared at the rows of caged cats. “They’re nothing like
they were yesterday. I need to call their owners to come and get them.
Strange.
It’s all very strange.” With a last, somewhat
confused glance over his shoulder, he walked out of a room filled with
perfectly normal cats.

“What now?” Ginny tilted her
head. She gazed up at Alton standing so quietly beside her.

He shook his head. “I guess we
go to Lemuria. There’s nothing for us here. I sure hope HellFire knows what
he’s talking about.”

The little half smile he gave
Ginny wasn’t all that reassuring. Not when he’d told her he had a death
sentence hanging over his head.

It was cool and overcast when
Ginny parked the car in the empty parking area at Bell Rock. She stuffed a few
things from her suitcase into her daypack while Alton checked to see what he wanted
to take in his. There was no point in carrying any more extra weight than they
had to.

After locking the car door,
Ginny slung her pack over her shoulder and adjusted the weight. Alton grabbed
his. It didn’t weigh much at all, as he’d pared it down to the minimum, but he
didn’t take more than emergency overnight stuff. With any luck, he figured they
could be back before sunset.

He wished he felt luckier. He
stared up at the deep red sandstone of Bell Rock and tried to imagine what
awaited them, but he had no idea what might happen once he and Ginny crossed
into Lemuria. HellFire remained dark and silent, though the solid weight of the
leather scabbard across his back was a surprising comfort to him. More so, now
that HellFire had found his voice.

What would his people think of
his sentient sword? As nervous as he was about entering Lemuria after the way
he’d left—sneaking out with escaped prisoners in the gray light of early
dawn—Alton couldn’t help but feel a sense of achievement. His sword spoke to him,
proof he’d gained status as a Lemurian warrior.

And, petty as it seemed, he
hoped his father would be proud. It was not easy, living an immortal lifetime
as a failure, feeling as if he’d always been a disappointment. He hated to
think what his father had been thinking of him over the past week. All the
chancellor knew was that his son had failed once again—he’d broken a Lemurian
edict and, as far as anyone in Lemuria knew, Alton was nothing more than a
common criminal.

He shivered, seeing himself as
his father saw him.
Seeing himself as someone even worse than
a failure.

“C’mon,
Alton.
What’re you waiting for?”

Jerked out of his black
thoughts, Alton shook his head.
“Nothing.
Just
thinking,” he said, but before Ginny had a chance to ask him what he’d been thinking
about, he took off at a brisk walk along the well-marked trail.

Leading Ginny up the bluff, he
realized he’d not thought of his lack of accomplishment since leaving Lemuria.
He hadn’t dwelled on his supposed failings, on the fact he’d not measured up as
the son his father wanted. Only now, knowing he would be facing his father in a
very short
time,
was he suddenly swamped in self-doubt
and insecurity.

Since he’d left Lemuria, he’d
been filled with confidence and he’d acted bravely, with honor. He’d changed.
He wasn’t the same man he’d been just over a week ago.

He was a warrior. A confident
fighter, one who’d met demons in battle, all because he’d chosen to take a
stand for the right reasons and risk everything for a principle he believed in.

The self-confidence that had
begun to ebb reappeared. He walked tall, proud of himself, proud of the woman
beside him—just as proud of the sword slung across his back.

Pride goes
before a fall.
He shook his head. Now was not the time to be thinking of
old human sayings.

They followed the worn path
that led up and around the towering red rock. It was still early and the threat
of rain hung close in the dark and heavy clouds.

They crossed a large, flat
area where the wind had scoured the rock smooth. Alton recognized it as the
spot where the class had been meditating when he arrived from Shasta. A few fat
raindrops fell, sending up tiny puffs of red dust as they hit. Alton grabbed
Ginny’s hand and tugged her toward a perpendicular bluff of deeper red
sandstone. “This is the portal,” he said, stopping in front of the smooth wall.
“We pass through here.”

Ginny shook her head.
“How?
There’s nothing there but solid rock.”

“Watch my hand.” He pressed
his palm against the rock, hesitated a fraction of a second, and his arm
disappeared into the stone. Ginny gasped and her fingers tightened around his.

“That’s impossible.
Absolutely impossible.”

He grinned at her, and then,
because he really couldn’t help himself, leaned over and kissed her. Her full
lips immediately softened under his, so filled with invitation that it was
harder to break away than he’d expected.

He finally ended the kiss and
ran his tongue over his lips, tasting Ginny. “Actually, it’s not,” he said. “I
just did it, and so will you.” He held her palm against the wall. “Imagine a
tunnel. It’s dark and cool with light glowing at the other end.”

She rolled her eyes in his
direction with a look that let him know exactly what she thought of his instructions.
Then she stared at the wall, closed her eyes a moment, and her hand disappeared
all the way to her elbow. Immediately she jerked it back out.

“Shit! I did not see that.”

He laughed. “Well, you would
have if you’d opened your eyes.”

“I did open my eyes, about the
time my arm disappeared.” She twisted and turned her arm, as if she needed to
make sure her parts were still where they belonged. “That is just wrong.”

“I hope not, because we’re
walking through before we get soaked.” The storm was moving quickly across the
desert. It looked like a dark gray wall coming closer by the second. Raindrops
splattered all around them, faster now.
Harder.
“Hold
my hand and follow me.”

“I really don’t want to…oh,
crap.”

He grabbed her hand and
stepped through the portal. Ginny followed close behind and within seconds
they’d cleared the gate. Alton turned her hand loose and pulled HellFire out of
his scabbard. The glow from the crystal sword lit the dark cavern.

Ginny’s eyes were tightly
shut.

“You can open your eyes now.
We’re inside.” He laughed and held HellFire overhead. Shadows danced off the
shimmering walls. Thankfully, there was no sulfuric stench, no sign of demons
having recently passed.

He turned and smiled at Ginny.
She was staring at the shimmering walls, her eyes wide, lips parted in absolute
astonishment. “What is this? What am I looking at? How can we be inside a solid
chunk of rock?”

“We’re not actually inside
Bell Rock. It’s merely a portal. It led us into another dimension using the
power of the energy vortex in the rock.” He pointed out the various gateways.
“That will take you to Atlantis, the one next to it goes to Eden, though if you
try to pass through uninvited,
you
will die. That
melted splotch on the wall was a portal directly to Abyss, but I sealed it when
I was here yesterday.”

“Un-frickin-believable.”

Laughing, he dragged her down
the tunnel a short way. “If you pass through that one, you’ll end up in Mount
Shasta.
Takes just a couple of minutes to cover the distance.
That’s how we’ll go home when it’s time.”

Ginny shook her head so hard
her frizzy ponytail slapped the sides of her face. “This is absolutely unreal.
Where’s the one to Lemuria?”

“This way.”
He tugged her back to the main part of the cavern. The gateway to Lemuria
beckoned with a golden glow. Alton tightened his grasp on Ginny and held his
sword in front of them.
“HellFire?
You’re sure this is
safe? I don’t want to expose Ginny to any danger.”

“Every war is fraught with
danger, but no one in Lemuria would dare cross a sentient crystal sword. Nor
would they harm a daughter of Lemuria. Go.”

Alton raised his eyebrows and
glanced at Ginny. She looked like she was trying not to laugh. “If you say so,”
he said. Holding the sword high, he and Ginny crossed through the swirling gold
portal and stepped onto the pathway that would take him home.

“What’s that noise?” Ginny
grabbed Alton’s arm and planted both feet. She wasn’t going to take another
step until he explained the deep roaring sound that echoed throughout the
tunnel they’d popped into once they passed through the portal. Gold light shimmered
on the walls around them, but the sound seemed to pulse within her skull, so
powerful, so all consuming that she was certain her heart had taken up its
beat, that her breathing was locked to its cadence.

“It’s energy—nothing more than
visual and audio effects set up to protect Lemuria from invaders.” Alton
slipped his pack higher on his shoulder, grabbed her hand, and tugged her
forward. “You’ll see. It’s pretty cool, actually.”

“I’ll believe that when I see
it.” Grumbling, Ginny wrapped her fingers around Alton’s. They followed the
pathway for a short distance. The roar grew louder with each step they took,
until Ginny felt as if she’d become part of the noise, as if her own heartbeat
contributed to the din. The tunnel ahead seemed to glow and shimmer in time
with the echoing sound.

Alton stopped. His fingers
tightened around hers and he turned to look directly into her eyes. “This is
it, Ginny. Once we go through the veil, I’m a wanted man. I don’t know what’s
happened since I left, what’s waiting on the other side.”