Demon Fire (3 page)

Not much to go on, but no red flags to keep her from accepting Dax’s invitation. How could she have been so stupid, to take this situation at face value? Things too often were not what they seemed. It was better to be cautious, to hold back, than to be disappointed or frightened. She composed an amusing anecdote about cowboys who spend too much time in the sticks to tell Judith at their next meeting. The sooner she put this behind her, the better.

Meredith’s headlights caught something just above the tree line—something flying. She slowed to get a closer look.

Her blood froze.

The creature was huge, with a wingspan of seven or eight feet. The moon blinked off and on as it slowly flapped its wings. It had no feathers, just leathery skin. It moved with a grace that belied its hideous features.

The creature slowed and dropped until it hovered a few inches in front of the windshield of the moving car. Cocking its elongated head, it opened its mouth to reveal razor-like teeth. Shining black eyes made contact with Meredith’s.
Tried to invade her soul
. Whatever it was, the creature was full of intelligence and cunning. It enjoyed taunting her, feeding on her fear.

Instinctively, Meredith swerved, hit the brakes and made a U-turn. Thank God she had been able to afford a new car once the book started making real money. She hit the gas pedal. The creature stayed just ahead of her, cawing in the glow of the headlights, then disappeared into the night sky.

The man who called himself Dax Thelassian might be delusional, but at least he seemed to have a heart. He didn’t want her dead. This creature did.

She tried to remember what the gate to the ranch looked like. Just as she thought she was getting close, her headlights picked up the silhouette of a figure on the side of the road, a tote bag in each hand.

Meredith slowed and hit the button that rolled down the passenger-side window.

“Hop in, Cara. I’ll give you a ride,” Meredith said.

“Thank you, dear. It’s not much farther now,” Cara said, smiling.

Meredith was flooded with gratitude for human companionship. “What in the world are you doing out here?”

Cara held up a bulging canvas sack. “The garden is a little ways down, on the other side of the road,” she said. “This time of year, it’s a race to get to the lettuce and tomatoes before the armadillos. They seem to know exactly when produce is at its ripest. Traps don’t do any good because there are so many of them, and they dig right under the fence. So I’ve turned it into a bit of a game, trying to get there first. And this evening, I’m the winner!”

Meredith smiled. “It’s sweet of you to give them a sporting chance—and to take such good care of Dax. I don’t know Dax very well, but it’s obvious he loves you dearly.”

“And I love him,” Cara said. “Here’s the gate—on the right. Thank you for the ride, my dear.”

Chapter Three

His appetite gone, Dax put the food in the kitchen. He called Randy and asked him to tell the others the meeting was postponed. He didn’t explain he had driven Meredith away by spilling their secrets. That she would never be back, and worse, that she might tell others. That he had failed.

The moon and the fire from the barbecue pit provided the only illumination in the velvet darkness. He crossed his boot-clad ankles on the railing of the porch, a glass of bourbon at his side.

He had a lot to think about. Spending the afternoon with a woman as smart and sexy as Meredith made him yearn to be a complete man, to understand what it meant to fully love and trust someone. He had an inkling of those emotions centuries ago. But he couldn’t let himself dwell in the past. Not tonight. Meredith’s presence wouldn’t have caused his eyes to turn gold. That happened only in anticipation of demonic activity. But what? This didn’t feel like the start of the battle.

Could Meredith be associated with demons after all? Perhaps it was a case of profoundly poor judgment. Like those who were fully human and male, he had let a woman’s white-hot sex appeal blind him. If their paths ever crossed again, he vowed to put his duties as a demon-warrior ahead of his human desires.

Headlights grazed the side of the house. His pulse quickened.

Lights switched on inside the house behind him. Must be Cara. Then he remembered that she didn’t drive at night. Seconds later, Meredith stepped onto the porch.

“Dax,” she said quietly, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I want to say I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly.”

“Why did you come back?” Dax asked.

She hesitated. “Car trouble. I didn’t want to risk the long drive home. I would be grateful if you would put me up for the night.”

Dax felt a tug in his loins. He swung his legs off the porch railing and motioned to the rocking chair beside him.

“Have a seat,” Dax said. “Don’t worry about a thing. The eye thing only happens when there’s about to be trouble. It must have been a warning about your car.”

Dax didn’t want to frighten her with talk of demons, and he had no explanation to offer. “I’m just glad you’re all right. The steaks are ruined, but I could ask Cara to fix you something else.”

“No thanks,” Meredith said, settling into the rocking chair. “I don’t need anything. Wow—the stars never look like this in the city. It’s so beautiful, even at night.”

Dax chuckled. “Beauty can hide a hell of a lot of danger. Like the coals over there—beautiful, but deadly. Back when I was little, my mother used to tell me that I would have to dance through fire. I always think of that on nights like this.”

“What did you just say?” Meredith asked.

“My mom used to tell me to persevere—to push through the bad things to get to the good.”

“No—I mean about fire. What did she say, exactly?”

“Let me think,” Dax said. “It was strange, a kind of poem. Something like, ‘You have to dance through the fire to lost worlds found.’”

“I can’t believe it!” Meredith said, jumping up. “Remember at lunch, when we said we couldn’t remember the riddle our grandmother told us just before she died? That’s it!
The stone is round as time is round. Dance through the fire to lost worlds found.
I never thought I’d remember that even though she said it over and over! I can’t wait to tell Elena. What do you think it means?”

“I have no idea,” Dax said, “but it seems to prove some sort of connection between us.”

“There were some other sayings, too,” Meredith said. “Nanna also said I’d have to face the gates of hell. Let’s go inside. We have to get to the bottom of this. The sooner, the better.”

****

They asked each other questions, explored every aspect of their lives. Dax described his early years in Spain and then coming to America with his family as part of the expedition led by Lieutenant Juan Galván, which settled on the San Saba River in 1753.

He paused. When Meredith did not laugh or roll her eyes, he continued.

He had been a teenager then. He remembered little from before his first battle with the demons: mingling with the Apaches who were part of the expedition, playing in water, a precious resource in the Hill Country. After his victory over the demons a few years later, he dedicated his life to being a demon-warrior. Since then, he rarely left the ranch.

He described the demons, and how they reach out to those in despair. He explained that expediters facilitate evil by entering a pact to put material wealth and power above all else and plotting the destruction of others for their own benefit. As members of the Warrior Council, Dax and his ranch hands spent their lives preparing for the next round of battle.

“We have to walk a very fine line,” he said. “Three thousand acres is a lot to patrol, especially given the terrain. We monitor the cave that contains the portal as best we can, but we don’t want to draw attention to it. The last thing we need is for even more treasure hunters to traipse through here in search of the so-called lost gold mine.”

“Why do you say ‘so-called?’” Meredith asked. “Isn’t it documented that the Spanish had a gold mine here about two centuries ago? There have been other reports of gold since then. Just because no one knows where it is doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. That’s another thing I must have gotten completely wrong in my book.”

Dax laughed. “We know where it is, all right. We were there. Still are. But the truth is it was never a gold mine.”

He paused. Could he trust any human—even Meredith? He had to.

“It’s a more significant treasure than gold—a cave full of crystals the demons have placed there over the centuries. Beautiful crystals from many planets throughout the galaxy. All shapes and sizes. All different colors, even a few that are not found on Earth. They cover every square inch.

“Each one stores a different energy. Before long, the energy will reach a tipping point, just as it did 250 years ago. That’s all the demons need in order to leave the portal and invade the earth. If we can’t hold them back, all hell will break loose for the next two and a half centuries. Literally.”

“I’d love to see it. But why don’t you just destroy all the crystals?”

“It’s not that easy,” Dax said. “It has to do with energy, vibrations. Demons can take on physical shapes, but they are actually spiritual beings. Ones with very low vibrational rates. Storing energy in crystals all these years helps them raise the level of their energy. Makes them stronger. We could get rid of the crystals themselves, but not the energy that they store. The crystals are just a conduit. They can’t replace the energy itself.”

He went into detail about their battle plans. How they used a silver scepter to destroy demons in past battles, and how they feared they would not succeed the next time. Somehow, a century or more earlier, a crucial piece of the scepter had gone missing—the piece that deactivates the energy stored in the crystals. So much time had passed, and the scepter was so elaborate, that they were not even sure what the piece looked like. But finding it before the next battle was their highest priority.

Meredith stifled a yawn.

Dax glanced at his Rolex. “That’s enough for tonight. I can show you the cave, but we need to go when it it’s light. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask the ranch hands—the other members of the Warrior Council—to meet us there in the morning.”

After Meredith got the suitcase that she had packed for the last leg of the book tour out of her car, Dax showed her around the house.

“You have the loft to yourself,” he said. “Bedroom, bathroom. Office, if you want to use the computer or watch TV.

“We’ve had a busy day,” he said, using every ounce of his energy fields to detect any presence of the enemy. All he got in return were the vibes of a sexy, smart woman. “Let’s get some sleep.”

Chapter Four

Meredith showered, then used Dax’s computer to e-mail Elena. Without breaking her promise never to tell anyone what Dax had said, she wrote her cousin that she now remembered the words to the riddle.
Just something to think about...
she typed.
We can figure out what it means when I get back. It got too late to drive home, so I’m spending the night—alone! Darn : )!

She fell into a deep sleep. Dreamed of Dax with dark hair and a short beard, in richly textured clothing unlike anything the members of her tribe had ever seen. Playfully splashing each other in the frigid water of the creek, then soaking up the sun atop a boulder. Making love in a meadow of wildflowers.

Meredith’s eyes popped open just as she was opening the drawstring of the buckskin pouch at her waist. Dax was always slipping her trinkets, but this one made her gasp. This one determined the fate of people across the land and linked her to Dax for eternity.

Meredith’s heart raced as she oriented herself to her surroundings. The room filled with the grayish glow of approaching dawn.

Something was scratching at the window.

It couldn’t be tree limbs. In the Hill Country, wildfires are a constant threat and homeowners plant trees some distance from their homes.

Curious, she got out of bed and pulled back the curtains.

And screamed.

The reptilian creature she had convinced herself didn’t exist hovered just outside, lazily flapping giant wings. It scratched its beak against the glass, then tipped back its head. Its mouth opened as if laughing. Iridescent black eyes locked with hers, inviting her to dive into bottomless pools of evil. The stench of sulfur filled her lungs.

Meredith was still staring out the window when Dax got there.

“What happened?” he said, pulling her toward him.

“It was here again,” she said. “That thing.”

“What thing?”

“I don’t know exactly,” she said. “A bird or dinosaur—a giant flying thing. It scared the hell out of me last night.”

“What are you talking about?” Dax took a step back. “We didn’t see anything last night.”

“Just down the road,” Meredith said. “While I was driving away. That’s the real reason I came back.”

“You said you had car trouble!” The full force of her words impaled his mind. “Why the hell did you lie?”

Meredith fought back tears.

“At first, I thought you were crazy. I wanted to get away. Then pieces started to come together in my mind, but I didn’t want you to think I was coming back just to be with you. That you had that kind of power over me on the day that we met.”

“You know what it’s like around here!” He was practically shouting. “I told you things last night that no other human has ever known. Trusted you. You owed it to me to tell me.”

He sat on the bed and shook his head. “Your novel has brought you riches, made you a star. Did you sell your soul in the process? How can I be sure you’re not a damned expediter? Or worse?”

She was suddenly defiant. Who did Dax think he was, to think she wanted anything to do with his bizarre little universe?