Demonfire (16 page)

For some reason, he didn’t
find the same sense of satisfaction those options had given him in the past.
Wondering about his changing frame of mind, Dax followed Eddy back into the
house with Bumper and Willow right behind.

Alton stood in the kitchen
with his sword out, checking the blade in the bright overhead light. He glanced
up, saw Dax, and quickly sheathed his sword, but it was obvious the weapon
fought him. It looked as if it took all of Alton’s considerable strength to
force the thing back into the scabbard.

Dax stood back, waiting in the
doorway until it was safely encased in leather.

“It doesn’t understand why I
won’t let it kill you, Dax.” Alton laughed. “Don’t ever try and sneak up on me.
The sword will know the moment you get within striking distance.”

“I’ll remember that.” He eyed
the thing respectfully. The blade was at least five feet long and appeared to
be made of pure diamond, sharp as a razor. Not something he wanted to go up
against in battle.

Dax put the evening’s failure
out of his mind. Tonight they faced their first true test. “Alton, you and Ed
are going to take the southern part of town and cover the area around to the
east. Eddy and I will go north and west. Be careful on the eastern side since
that’s closest to the mountain. If you discover heavy demon infestation
anywhere, I want you to contact us. Ed’s got a cell phone, and so does Eddy. I
can’t count on my telepathy in this body. It’s not consistent.”

“No problem.” Alton strapped
the scabbard across his back and checked to make sure the grip was perfectly
placed for quick retrieval. “Maybe we’ll get a little action tonight and my
sword will finally tell me its name, eh?” He flashed a grin at Dax and took a
step toward the door. “Ed? You ready to go?”

“I am.” Ed wrapped his arms
around Eddy and gave her a tight hug and a kiss on top of her head. “Be
careful, sweetheart. Don’t take any chances. Be sure and listen to Dax.”

She hugged him back. “I will,
Dad. You be careful too. Do you and Alton want Bumper?”

“You keep her. We’ll be okay.”
Ed glanced at Dax. “Take care of my little girl, Dax. Keep her safe.”

“Yes, sir.” Dax held a hand
out. Ed took it in a firm grasp. “You have my promise.”

Ed nodded. “Remember to lock
the house up, Eddy. I’ve got a key.” He looked around the kitchen as if he
couldn’t quite believe where he was going. Then he flashed Eddy a huge grin,
turned away, and followed Alton out the back door.

Eddy stared at the door for a
moment after it closed. Then she shook her head, laughing. “All the years my
dad’s believed in flying saucers and ghosts and demons and I’ve teased him
about it. Now I find out he was right and I was wrong.”

Dax shrugged. “I can’t say
much about flying saucers, though I understand Atlanteans have a form of
transportation that might appear…”

“No!” Eddy laughed and held
both her hands over her ears. “Let me hold on to at least a few of my
delusions. Please?”

“If you say so.” Dax waited
while she grabbed a jacket for the cool night air and locked the back door
behind her dad and Alton. Then she led him out the front door.

Dax followed close behind and
stood at her side while she locked the door. Eddy left the porch light on, as
if they were just going out for a regular evening.

As if you could call hunting
demons a regular anything. He wondered how they’d fare this night, if all of
them would still be alive come morning. It was so beautiful out, but when Dax
glanced up at the night sky, he felt as if time were spinning by at Mach speed.

The tattoo shivered across his
chest, and he felt the heat beginning to build once more. Three days almost
gone, and they’d yet to face demonkind in force. Three days since he’d been
cursed, and the curse grew in strength by the hour.

Dax gazed along the dark and
silent street and wondered, once again, what the night would bring.

“I’ve made a list of the
places with stuff demons can use as avatars, all on the way to the cemetery,
but that’s not even counting all the little garden statues in everyone’s yards
and the ceramic stuff in houses.” Eddy raised her head and caught Dax looking
back at her. She smiled at him, and for a moment she wasn’t terrified of what
might come. She wasn’t afraid for Dax and the pain he suffered from the curse.
For just a moment, she was a woman gazing at a man and thinking things a woman
in love would feel.

Things she’d better stop
thinking right now.
Damn
…
where’d
that come from? Double damn.
…She’d been avoiding the L word really well
until now. Eddy blinked herself back to the job at hand and tore her gaze away
from Dax. Took a deep breath and willed her heart to stop racing.

She glanced once more at her
list and then much more carefully at Dax. She wasn’t about to let herself be
caught up in those gorgeous dark eyes of his. Not now. “Okay, how about we set
the cemetery as our eventual destination, and just check as many of these
places along the way as we can.” Eddy took a final look at the list, folded it
up, and stuck it in her pocket. Then she grabbed Bumper’s leash and zipped her
jacket closed. It was cool out, but not cold. She wondered what kind of weather
demons preferred.

Willow flitted around for a
moment and then settled in the curls between Bumper’s ears. Dax clicked on the
flashlight he’d borrowed from her dad. Then he turned it off, and on again.
There were no streetlights in this part of town, and they’d need the light.

“You lead,” Dax said. “I’m not
really sure where we’re going.”

Eddy nodded and took off with
Bumper leading the way. They followed the road to the main boulevard and headed
north. Shops were closed, but there were still a few restaurants open, and all
seemed normal for a Tuesday night. Music filtered out of a small bar. There was
a burst of loud laughter, more music, and voices.

“It’s a nice town, Eddy. Good
people live here.”

Eddy nodded. “They do. That’s
why I hate to think of anything awful happening here. Demons! It’s so hard to
believe. Like something out of a horror movie.”

Dax wrapped his fingers around
her hand. He was so big, his hands so much larger than hers that he made her
feel almost petite. She looked up at him and smiled. It was such a natural
thing, even if highly unusual for her, to be walking down Lassen Boulevard
holding hands with a really gorgeous guy.

His fingers suddenly tightened
around hers. He pulled Eddy into the shadows beneath a decorative awning.
Bumper whined.

So much for natural.

“Shush, Bumper.”

Bumper’s ears went back, but
she didn’t make another sound. Dax tapped Eddy’s shoulder and pointed to a
shadowed area across the street. At first she didn’t see what he pointed at.

Then part of a shadow detached
itself from a darker area. What looked like a small panther moved clumsily
along the sidewalk. Eddy stared a moment longer and realized it was a carved
stone cat, one that had sat upright in front of the store for years.

Now, though, it slunk along
the sidewalk. Awkward at first, it seemed to gain coordination with each step,
sniffing at the ground and then raising its head in the air as if to sniff the
wind. It paused with one paw raised, nose in the air, its posture
preternaturally alert.

Bumper growled, low in her
throat. Eddy pressed her jaws together with her fingers. The dog whined, but
she stopped growling.

As Eddy watched, the stone cat
turned and stared directly at her. Instead of blank stone eyes, she faced red,
glowing coals. The cat opened wide an improbable mouth framed in flashing rows
of razor-sharp teeth. It screamed a piercing banshee howl that raised all the
hairs along Eddy’s spine.

It crouched low, and, without
warning, leapt halfway across the street in a single bound.

“Eddy! Get back!” Dax raised
his hands. His brow furrowed in concentration. The cat leapt again. This time
Dax caught it with a wall of frozen air that knocked it to the ground. Bumper
barked and growled, jerking hard at the leash. Eddy wrapped the strap around
both her hands and held on. Willow flitted over Dax, gathering energy to fight
the demon.

The stone cat sprawled on the
ground, stunned. Dax shot it with a burst of flame. The stone cracked open.
Black mist oozed through the fissures. Dax caught the mist with his icy blast
once more, freezing it into shards of ice. Then he seared the frozen demon with
flame. It sizzled and dissipated into the air.

Before the last wisp of steam
had vanished, Dax grabbed Eddy’s hand and tugged her along the street, around a
corner and behind a small crystal shop, with Bumper bouncing joyfully beside
them. As soon as they got into the shadows, he wrapped his arms around Eddy and
covered her mouth with his in a hard, uncompromising kiss.

She heard footsteps thundering
by and laughed against his mouth. “And here I thought you just couldn’t stay
away from me.”

He chuckled and pressed his
forehead against hers. “I can’t, but I also don’t want to have to explain what
we’re doing to your curious police. Not yet.”

She stepped up on her toes and
kissed him hard and fast. Then she grabbed his hand. “Let’s go. That mess in
the street will keep the cops busy for a while.”

They slipped out from between
the buildings and headed away from the commotion, down the street toward the
old library. Bumper trotted alongside as if fighting demon cats were an
everyday event, but she slowed her pace when they reached the library. The
stone building was empty now, merely a shell of its former glory, and,
according to laws regarding earthquake safety, badly in need of restoration.

At one time there had been two
gargoyle statues on the roof at either side of the main front door. Years ago,
one had been vandalized and destroyed, but the remaining gargoyle had survived.
They’d both seen it there, holding court from the corner mount earlier today.

Now the corner was empty.
“It’s gone.” Dax’s flat words gave just a hint of the frustration he must be
feeling as they stared at the point where the gargoyle had been attached since
long before Eddy’s father was born. Now the shelf of quarried stone stood
empty, mute testimony to the demon that had chosen the statue as its avatar.

“Listen!” Eddy tugged Dax’s
hand and pointed toward the west, in the direction of the cemetery. The faint
sound of screeching and deeply resonant howls barely registered. Bumper growled
and tugged the leash.

“We need to see what’s going
on.”

Dax stared at her for a
moment, as if trapped by indecision. “Eddy, maybe you should try and find your
father and Alton. Go with them.”

“You’re kidding, right?” She
glared at him, silently daring him to give her such a stupid order. He looked
as if he’d like nothing better than to send her home. “I’m going with you, Dax.
We’re a team, remember?”

He sighed, long and loud. “I
remember. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.” He rubbed his chest and took a
deep, shuddering breath.

Eddy reached for his top
button.

“We don’t have time,” he said.

“Don’t be stupid.” She was
angrier than she had a right to be. Angry at Dax for wanting to keep her safe,
at the demons for creating this mess, at Harlan for firing her. Angry at a life
that was currently spinning totally out of control. “We don’t have time not to.
Hold still.” She parted the buttons and gasped. The snake stared directly into
her eyes with a malevolence she’d not expected. Eddy took a deep breath and
slapped both hands directly over the serpent’s head. She was almost certain she
felt the texture of his scales, the hard surface of fangs, but the intense heat
quickly overwhelmed any other sensations.

Holding her hands against the
tattoo, she drew the heat into her own body, aware of a difference this time,
as if she dealt with an actual creature, not merely a cursed tattoo. It took
longer to cool the heat, and when it was done, her arms felt heavy and her heart
thudded in her chest.

The curse was growing
stronger. How much longer would she have any effect on it? How long before the
thing attacked her when she tried to cover it with her hands?

What the hell would she do if
it did attack?

“Thank you,” Dax said. He
bowed his head. “It’s worse, isn’t it? I can feel it. It’s coming to life. Just
now, when I zapped the demon…the first time, nothing happened. It was harder to
draw my powers. I felt as if they were fighting me, refusing to respond.”

“Yeah, but they did respond.
You’re still in charge. It’s okay, Dax. I can handle the pain if you can.” She
forced a laugh. “Ain’t no tattoo gonna get the best of me!”

She wanted to wrap her arms
around him and hold him close, just hug him hard until the damned curse was gone,
but when he held his hand out, she took it. Then she followed him down the dark
lane that would lead them to the cemetery.

In the distance, Eddy heard
faint screams and banshee howls, interspersed with the nearby chirp of crickets
and the hoot of an owl. She shivered, held tightly to Dax’s hand, and kept her
senses on high alert.

There was a small hardware
store with a nursery along the road to the cemetery. Dax held a finger to his
lips as they drew near. “I sense demonkind nearby,” he whispered. “Stay alert.”

Bumper growled and strained at
her leash. Willow zipped around the side of the building, while Eddy and Dax
crossed the parking lot. Two large dusk-to-dawn lights illuminated most of the
asphalt and the front of the store, but the dark shadows could have hidden an
entire army of demon-powered avatars.

They peered through the
windows into the store, but nothing seemed amiss. Dax used the bright beam on
the flashlight to illuminate the gardening area, but all seemed quiet.