Authors: Kate Douglas
Crystalfire (15 page)
She put an arm around his shoulders and hugged him as if he were a child in need of comfort. He should feel insulted, shouldn’t he? But it felt too good to complain.
Maybe he was nothing more than a child. He certainly needed something to comfort him. He needed Eddy.
“We’ll find her,” Ginny said. Her voice broke, and he hoped she wouldn’t cry. If she started crying, he’d probably cry, too. He didn’t want to lose control. It was too frightening. He’d lost Eddy.
“But if you don’t eat,” and he realized Ginny was still speaking to him, “you won’t be in any shape to help her. Please? For Eddy’s sake?”
He nodded and took a bite of the sandwich. Staying strong made sense. Being ready for whatever was needed of him, but what if they didn’t find her? What if she was lost forever? He was an immortal and so was Eddy.
Forever wasn’t merely a word.
He could not survive forever without Eddy Marks. He didn’t know if he could survive a single night without her. She was his world, his sole reason for existing.
He took another bite. Usually he loved to eat. As a demon he’d never had anything remotely like the kinds of meals he routinely ate in Earth’s dimension, but as he chewed, Dax realized that each bite tasted like cardboard.
He could barely swallow.
All he could do was worry about Eddy. Had demonkind taken her? It was as if she’d just winked out of existence. There wasn’t a trace of her in the portal and they’d checked all the other vortexes in the area, just in case she’d somehow slipped through the wrong one or gotten caught in some sort of energy flux or a dimensional warp.
Nothing. No sign of Eddy. No sign of her sword. Even DemonSlayer had disappeared. The really odd thing, though, was that all their portals to either Evergreen or Lemuria were sealed, as well. Which meant that, for now at least, they were trapped here in Sedona.
That was okay. He wasn’t going anywhere until he had Eddy back. He took another bite of the sandwich. What was he missing? Where in the nine hells could she be?
Ginny didn’t say anything while he ate, which was good. He needed to think. Eddy couldn’t just disappear. Things like that couldn’t happen, could they?
Ginny handed him a cold beer to go with his sandwich, and he drank that down without really tasting it, but his mind was still spinning. What was he missing? Eddy was gone. So was her sword, which meant that, hopefully, she wasn’t entirely alone. DemonSlayer was probably with her.
DemonSlayer! He turned around to Ginny. “Our swords can communicate with one another much more effectively than we can. Wherever Eddy is, DemonSlayer is with her. We need to see if our blades can make contact with Eddy’s.”
Ginny leapt to her feet. “I knew food would help.”
He grabbed her hand and she hauled him up. “Actually,” he said, “I think it was the beer.”
“Whatever.” She shoved the door open and Dax followed her into the front room. “Hey guys. Grab your swords and come out here. Dax has an idea.”
He reached for DemonFire, pulled it out of the scabbard, and set the blade on the low coffee table in front of the couch. He had to clear his throat, which felt unnaturally tight, to say anything at all, but he couldn’t look at anyone. Not if he intended to maintain any composure at all. “Let’s just hope the idea has merit,” he said. Then he made the mistake of glancing up, of looking at the others.
They looked at him with eyes full of hope, but wasn’t that all they had right now? Hope? This had to work.
Because if it doesn’t,
he thought,
I have nothing else. No other ideas, no way to find her.
His heart actually ached, and he felt like weeping, but that wouldn’t bring Eddy back.
he thought,
I have nothing else. No other ideas, no way to find her.
His heart actually ached, and he felt like weeping, but that wouldn’t bring Eddy back.
Once again he called to her, just as he’d called since the moment he realized she was missing.
Eddy? Eddy, why in the hell don’t you answer me? Where are you? I love you, Eddy. Come back.
Eddy? Eddy, why in the hell don’t you answer me? Where are you? I love you, Eddy. Come back.
“That is just freaky.” Willow slid down the berm that bordered the cemetery until she was out of sight, just in case anyone on the other side might be watching. She rolled over on her back and stared at the stars overhead.
Taron scooted down beside her. “What? The way he’s smashing the statues?”
She shook her head. “No, the fact that it’s Ed Marks doing the smashing, but he’s not really Ed. Ed’s the sweetest man you could ever meet. He’s kind and loving and he adores Eddy, so it’s just horrible to see him like this—smashing the avatars and then inhaling the demons. That’s how the demon king did it when he was a gargoyle—he’d wait for us to destroy the avatars and then he snagged as many of the escaped demons as he could and he just sort of inhaled them. Each one made him stronger.”
“That was a stone avatar, though. This time he’s got a human avatar. According to my sword, the human body will grow weaker without food.”
“I don’t think it matters.” She had to keep in mind that she actually had more experience fighting demons than Taron or his sword. He might be bigger and physically stronger, but Willow had been on the front lines with Dax since the very beginning. “We have to stop him before he kills Ed, because I don’t think it matters if Ed is dead or alive. Think about it—if the demon king grows strong enough, he could animate Ed’s body even if Ed dies. If he can make a stone gargoyle fly, he could certainly make a corpse walk.”
She really didn’t want to think about that. Poor Ed!
Taron grasped his sword. “Sword? Can we stop him?”
The blade didn’t respond. Taron cursed softly under his breath.
“Why do you call it ‘sword?’ Doesn’t your blade have a name?”
“I’m sure it does.”
He sounded somewhat disgusted, which didn’t make sense. All of the warriors she knew loved the sentience within their crystal blades. They trusted them with their lives, after all.
Taron glared at the weapon. “However, my weapon has not informed me what his name is.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Willow touched her fingers to the blade. The crystal softly glowed. “What is your name? If we are to defeat this enemy, we have to work together. You’re not making this any easier for Taron.”
The blade shimmered softly. “It is not my place to make things easier for Taron. Fighting demonkind is difficult work.”
“Great. Like I don’t realize that already?” Taron gazed at Willow and shook his head. “Alton got snark ... wonder what you would call this?”
Willow didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The fate of all worlds at stake, and she was dealing with not one but two male egos. It really didn’t seem fair.
She glared at the blade. “Enough already. We have no time for such foolishness. Your name, please?”
The light along the faceted blade pulsed. Probably the crystal sword version of a long-suffering sigh.
“I am CrystalFire, named for the swords replicated in my image, created in the heart of Mother Crystal.”
Taron muttered, “Swords we could probably use about now.”
“What’s ‘Mother Crystal?’” Willow stared at the softly glowing sword.
“The cave?” Taron shook his head. “Remember where we fought the demon king? There’s a whole series of caves, all formed from different kinds of crystals. You were in the diamond cave where I replicated the swords.”
“And where the spirits of the departed warriors live. I remember!” Willow stared at the shimmering crystalline blade. “What can you tell us, CrystalFire? What do you know about this demon and his avatar?”
The sword pulsed and then continued. “This demon grows more powerful with the life force of each lesser demon it consumes. If we have any hope of saving the human, we must attack now.”
“Any ideas how we’re going to do that and not end up dead?”
Taron’s question sort of hung there. The sword didn’t answer. Willow heard the sound of ceramic shattering, and knew another avatar had been destroyed, another demon soul consumed.
More power for the demon king. Less chance of Ed’s survival. An idea popped into her head. Now why hadn’t she thought of this before?
“CrystalFire? I can draw energy and shoot it from my fingers as power. Is there any way for me to share that energy with you? Can you use the energy I collect to charge your fire and make it hotter or stronger?”
The sword pulsed and shimmered. Taron gazed at Willow, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Maybe he thought she was just nuts, but they had to help Ed. She’d loved Ed from the first moment she met him, and he was Eddy’s father. She hated to think what it would do to Eddy if they couldn’t save him.
“Draw forth your power and send it to me. If I open myself to your energy, it might work.”
Did CrystalFire actually sound hopeful? It was so hard to tell with a sentient sword, and so far she wasn’t all that impressed with Taron’s. But Willow sat up, folded her legs comfortably, closed her eyes, and held her hands out. She felt the energy coming to her, just as it had when she was tiny. She’d missed the sense of power rushing into her body, the pressure of the huge charge as it built up inside.
She felt Bumper stirring, and wondered if she felt it as well.
It’s okay, Bumper. This won’t hurt you.
It’s okay, Bumper. This won’t hurt you.
It tickles!
Tickling is okay. Just relax.
It felt as if Bumper were running in excited circles inside her head. Willow blocked the dog and concentrated on the power building inside. “CrystalFire? Do I need to touch you to share the energy?”
“That would be impractical in battle. See if you can send it directly to the blade.”
She held her hands out and pointed her fingers at the crystal blade. Closed her eyes, concentrated on the crystal sword, and
pushed
the power toward the faceted blade.
pushed
the power toward the faceted blade.
“Gods be damned.”
Her eyes flashed open at Taron’s soft curse. He sounded almost awestruck. When she looked at the crystal blade, Willow knew why.
The blade vibrated, awash in a blinding silver light. “It worked!” Giddy with success, Willow glanced at Taron. “Can you feel it?”
“Amazing. It feels as if it could fight without me even holding on.”
The crash of breaking ceramic echoed in the night. A banshee cry raised chills, and then immediately ended on a sharp note. Willow leapt to her feet. “Now. We have to do this before he gets any stronger.”
Taron nodded. With CrystalFire held high, he and Willow leapt over the low berm and raced through the dark cemetery. The glow from the sword lit their path between the silent graves. They headed toward a long row of trees barely visible in the darkness. Newer graves gave way to older, more intricate sites. Flat stones flush with the grass gave way to upright markers, polished granite segued into old, carved headstones and large crypts. Little fences surrounded some—everything from stone to wire to rusting iron.
Light flickered up ahead. The stench of sulfur grew thicker, stronger, until it was almost suffocating.
Another demon howled. Another shriek abruptly ended.
Taron held his hand up for silence and then slipped behind a large, stone crypt. Willow stuck close, ready to draw more power as needed. Her fingers actually tingled with the need to fight, to do something to stop the demon and save Ed, but the night was silent for now.
No. It wasn’t. The soft rasp of labored breathing on the far side of the crypt had to be Ed.
He didn’t sound good. Slowly Willow slipped around the back of the crypt until she could see Ed. Almost lost in dark shadows, he was barely visible. It appeared he grasped a heavy ax in one hand, but he leaned on it, as if it were a cane and he needed its support to remain upright.
He was an older man. Not at all frail, but certainly not in any shape to house a demon intent on taking over the world. Plus, Willow had to believe that Ed was fighting this horrible thing with all his will. That alone would exhaust any man.
CrystalFire shimmered and Ed turned in their direction.
The light from Taron’s sword illuminated Ed’s face, and Willow gasped. His eyes glowed a dark, unholy red. Saliva ran down his chin, and there was blood on his hands from myriad cuts and scrapes. He stared at her and shrieked, but it was not Ed Marks looking at her.
No, she felt as if she stared into the eyes of Abyss.
Chapter 12
It was painful to see Ed this way, yet in his face, that dear, familiar face, Willow saw the same glowing eyes she remembered from the gargoyle, the same look of evil.
Taron touched her shoulder. “Stay back. I don’t want to worry about you when I’m swinging this thing.”
Like she didn’t know that? Men! Still, Willow managed to place one hand on his arm without saying anything insulting. “Be careful, Taron. You don’t have to worry about harming Ed. The sword won’t let you, and if the demon king knows that, it could put you in danger. Let me try zapping him with sparkles first. It might not run the demon out of his avatar like it did with the others, but it could at least confuse him.”
He stared at her a moment. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Willow. I’m afraid ...”
She shook her head. “We don’t have time to be afraid. I’ll zap him, you see if you can slap him with the flat side of the blade. That’s what Dax and Alton do to drive demons out of live avatars. Watch out for that pickax, though. It’s deadly.”
Taron leaned in close and kissed her. At that moment, Ed screamed, swung the ax over his head and ran straight at them. Willow spun around and shot a flood of blue sparkles pointblank into Ed’s face.
He obviously hadn’t expected anything like that. The blast of blue energy hit him full on, even though he tried to duck. With a loud shriek, he tripped over the pickax and fell face down. Taron rushed forward and slapped Ed across the shoulders with the flat of the blade. Silver sparks flew and the air sizzled with energy.
The demon inside Ed howled, but he didn’t come flying out of the man the way Willow had hoped. Instead, Ed crab-walked away from Taron’s blade on all fours, still shrieking. Then, moving like a marionette with a few missing strings, he popped disjointedly to his feet, bent down, and reached for the pickax. Bloodied fingers wrapped around the wooden handle. He brought it up in a powerful overhead swing, still shrieking that banshee wail, and went straight for Willow.
She backed up, tripped over the raised border marking a burial site and went down hard. The air knocked out of her lungs with a loud
whoosh
, but she rolled to one side just in time as she hit the ground. Ed buried the point of the pickax in the dirt mere inches from her thigh. As he struggled to pull the ax free, Willow rolled again, until she’d put a headstone between herself and Ed.
whoosh
, but she rolled to one side just in time as she hit the ground. Ed buried the point of the pickax in the dirt mere inches from her thigh. As he struggled to pull the ax free, Willow rolled again, until she’d put a headstone between herself and Ed.
Taron swung his sword again and connected with Ed’s arm, striking hard with the flat of his blade. Energy flared. The air crackled around both Taron and Ed, and for a brief moment the contact of blade to arm held Ed immobile. He struggled against the force, still shrieking, before he finally broke away.
He turned and red fire shot from those banshee eyes. Then he shrieked at Taron, spun around, and headed directly for Willow. Again he raised the heavy pickax and swung it over his head. Willow jumped from behind the headstone, pointed all ten fingers at Ed and shot another huge blast of sparkles.
They caught him right in the chest. He dropped the ax and slapped both hands over his heart, still shrieking. His eyes flashed red and spittle flew from his mouth. Taron came in from behind and swung CrystalFire in a deadly arc, but Ed spun out of reach. He stood there, gasping for breath, staring at both of them out of glowing red eyes.
For a moment, for the briefest instant, the red faded and the glow disappeared. Willow was almost sure she caught a glimpse of Ed—of the wonderful man she knew behind those dark brown eyes. She felt terror, remorse, and undeniable fear.
Then he straightened and shook his head. The red glow flashed from his eyes and he turned away and ran. Within seconds he’d disappeared into the darkness.
Blinking, drawing in huge gasps of air, Willow sat down on the headstone. Her fingertips burned from the blasts of energy and she felt totally depleted, much as she had in those earlier battles when she’d fought beside Dax.
If she still had her wings, she knew they’d be drooping.
Slowly, Taron sheathed his sword. He stopped just in front of her, and his head hung low. “It didn’t work,” he said.
“Actually, it did.” Willow reached for his hand and wrapped her fingers around his. As hot as hers were, his felt like ice. “There are still demons here. Bumper can smell them, but the demon king is gone for now, so he’s not hunting them. We might not have saved Ed or driven the demon king out, but he’s obviously regrouping. Those demons that are still here? They’re demons that the demon king won’t be able to feed on. Not if we get them first.”
Taron slowly nodded and glanced about the dark cemetery. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you’re right.” His smile slowly spread, and Willow’s heart melted.
He was, without a doubt, the most wonderful, most handsome man she’d ever seen. He held out his arm. “Will you join me?”
Laughing softly, Willow stood up and curtsied. “Delighted,” she said, as if he’d asked her to dance. And she wondered how she knew about dancing, and where the response had come from. Unless she still had the same ability as she’d had as a tiny will-o’-the-wisp, when she’d been charged with gathering the information Dax would need to survive in this different dimension.
She’d never quite figured out how that worked, though she’d always seemed to know what she needed in order to help Dax get along as a believable human. She was still trying to figure it all out when Taron swept her into a tight embrace, leaned in close and kissed her. She hadn’t been expecting it—he seemed to pick the oddest times to claim her mouth.
She kissed him back, but she took control and ended it. Taron merely shrugged and backed away. She had a feeling he’d merely given her that small victory. Then she took a deep breath and switched gears.
“Okay, Bumper. Where are the little bastards?”
Straight ahead there’s one inside the stone angel. And over there on your left, I sense one in the carved bird. C’mon, Taron. Bring CrystalFire. We have work.
“Why do I feel as if everyone’s giving me orders?”
Willow laughed and grabbed Taron’s hand. “Maybe because we are?”
She risked a quick glance at their linked hands, and didn’t even attempt to bite back the huge grin that split her face. She’d just helped run off the demon king with those fingers. It felt really, really good.
Now, all they had to do was figure out a way to get rid of him for good without harming Ed. She knew they could do it. She glanced at Taron and drew a sense of strength from him. Yes. They could do it. Somehow. She just had to have faith.
Dax stared at the blades, all five of them arranged on the long, low table in front of Dawson’s couch. There should be six. Eddy should be here, along with her sword, but she was gone and so was DemonSlayer.
He still couldn’t believe she was missing. They’d never been separated—not since he’d died and then been reborn. He’d promised her then they’d always be together, but now ...
Crap. Staring at the blades, he felt lost and uncertain, as if his anchor were missing. The one who held him to this world, this life. The one who kept him from the darkness he sometimes still feared might be part of his soul.
The soul of a man who was once a demon.
Could one ever totally walk away from his beginnings? From what he’d been born to, from the life he’d embraced since time began? Eddy had helped him hold on to this new life. Eddy was the one who gave him the courage to survive as something other than demonkind.
With any luck, their swords would bring Eddy back.
Shimmering across the wooden tabletop with the blue fire of pure diamond were his DemonFire, Alton’s HellFire, Dawson’s DemonsDeath and Selyn’s StarFire. Ginny’s beautiful amethyst blade, DarkFire, lay in the center.
They’d arranged the blades like a fan with the points touching.
Dax raised his head and caught Ginny watching him. Thank goodness she didn’t look at him with pity. He couldn’t take pity right now. He needed her resolve, and Ginny had that in spades. He nodded, acknowledging her unspoken request. “Have DarkFire take the lead. Does she understand what we’re asking?”
The amethyst blade pulsed. Ginny ran her fingers over the shimmering facets. “DarkFire? Eddy and DemonSlayer, with the spirit of Selyn’s mother, Elda, are lost. We’ve tried to contact Eddy without any luck. Wherever she is, she’s beyond our reach. Can you try to connect with DemonSlayer and help us find them?”
She glanced at Dax and then at her sword. “We’re hoping you have better luck than we’ve had. We thought that maybe, if you shared your energy, it might ...” She let out a huge, frustrated sigh. “We want to bring them home. Please try and find them.”
All of the blades glowed, but none spoke. Ginny stared at them for a moment and then raised her head and looked at Dax.
Her eyes had always fascinated him. Now he found himself caught in the steady gaze of what Alton called Ginny’s “tiger’s eyes.” Eyes that let him gaze directly into her heart, into her soul. He knew without asking that she was devastated by Eddy’s loss, but Ginny wasn’t about to let it stop her. She was strong and resilient—every inch the tiger.
“DarkFire says it may take awhile, Dax. We’ll have to be patient as they search. They can’t always cross dimensions, though DarkFire is hoping that, with their energy combined, they’ll have better luck.”
He sighed. Waiting was never easy. He wasn’t sure why, but he had a horrible feeling Eddy had somehow stumbled or been pushed into the void—and the feeling kept growing. He thought of all the time he’d spent in that place that was nothing at all, and he wondered, if that was where Eddy had ended up, how would she handle it? How did a woman who was always planning or doing—or at least thinking about planning and doing—exist in a vacuum?
He pictured her, how she was at night, often talking in her sleep, her body restless, her eyes flickering behind closed lashes.
Sometimes he would wake her from uneasy dreams and they would make love—slow and easy, their bodies coming together in the way of lovers who knew each other so well. It was so hard to realize they’d only been together for a month, not when they’d both lived lifetimes over the past four weeks.
It wasn’t a lifetime he could imagine losing.
He and Eddy were perfectly matched as friends, as partners, as lovers—at times hot and passionate, but often making love so slow and easy, as if they had all the time in the world, touching and stroking, finding that perfect rhythm until both of them tumbled into orgasm and then into restful sleep.
His body ached with missing her. She’d only been gone for a couple of hours, yet he yearned for her with a pain that might have festered for a lifetime. He hated feeling so useless—unable to do anything but sit here and stare at the shimmering blades.
He wished there were some way he could add his own power to their search.
He ran his fingers over the phoenix tattooed on his chest. Where he’d once carried a colorful snake that was supposed to guard his powers—something that went horribly wrong when a demon’s curse turned those powers against him—he now wore the phoenix and its sign of rebirth.
What good was rebirth if the one he loved died?
He couldn’t think of that. Refused to consider something so drastic, so horrible, so he went back to worrying about Eddy.
If that was where she’d gone, the silence of the void would drive her nuts.
Just as the silence here, in Dawson Buck’s living room, was making him crazy. He stood up, startling the others. “I have to go outside. I can’t stay in here. Tell me the minute you hear anything, okay?”
Alton stood and rested his big hand on Dax’s shoulder. “Do you want company?”
He shook his head. “No.” He laughed, a short, sharp bark that definitely lacked humor. “I may go run a few laps around the pasture. I need to burn off some nervous energy.”
“You need to sleep.” Alton glanced at the others. “We all do. We’re exhausted—every one of us is at the end of our strength.”
Dax nodded in agreement. “Later. I’ll be in later. I just ...” He sighed. “I need to go outside.”
Turning quickly away, he walked across the room and out onto the front porch. He didn’t want to fall apart in there. Not in front of his friends. They were upset enough by Eddy’s disappearance. The last thing they needed was to witness his loss of control, and Dax knew he was very close to losing it.
He leaned against a post in front of the house and listened to the sounds of the night. Crickets chirped, and he heard what had to be an owl nearby. Dawson had pointed one out to him, with its huge yellow eyes and the tufts of feathers atop its head that looked like little horns.
Which, of course, made him think of demons and Eddy and what in the hell could have happened. He’d watched her step through the portal, and then he’d waited. There was always the sense of her going away when she crossed through an energy portal—that mental connection that was so much a part of them was severed by the dimensional change.
Had this separation felt any different? He tried to remember, but nothing had seemed out of place, so he’d not noticed anything different.
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