Demonfire (28 page)

The snake was feeding from
Willow’s energy!

As Dax gained strength, so did
the curse. The tattoo writhed and shimmied its acid dance across his flesh. The
bleeding slashes across his back burned with their own fire. It was all he
could do not to scream in agony.

Willow flitted about,
obviously worried. Dax didn’t have time to explain. He felt the heave and
thrust of the snake’s body, but he concentrated on the pain, on the strength in
the reptilian muscles. Desperate, he called on his demon. Called for the
soldier, for whatever strength his allies could share.

Then he called for the pain,
and made it his own.

He would not fail. Eddy was
too close, her safety tied to his success. He might have been sent here to save
the Earth from demons, but Eddy was his focus, the one who mattered most.

Dax glanced upward, sensing
the gargoyle’s attack. The creature stared back at him, a vision of evil
incarnate with hatred glowing crimson in its eyes. Once again it screamed out a
chilling banshee wail. Long wings arrowed back along its body, turning the
gargoyle into a weapon of pure malice. Still screaming, it launched itself at
Dax.

He raised his hands and sent
an icy blast that solidified the air immediately ahead of the gargoyle. The
creature hit the thick ice, shattered it, and blasted through, but the force of
impact threw it off course. Screeching furiously, it circled right over Ed and
Eddy. Alton stepped to one side and took a mighty swing with his crystal sword.

The tip of one leather wing
hit the ground with a loud, wet
splat
. The gargoyle
shrieked and streaked back to the church, trailing thick drops of whatever blood
coursed through its veins. It caught its balance against the steeple, holding
tightly to the cross at the peak. Thick fluid still oozed from the wing where
the tip had been severed, but even as Dax watched, a new tip formed.

The gargoyle stretched its healed
wing out to its full length, as if testing it. Then it launched itself once
again. This time Dax hit it with flame. He felt the snake tattoo rise up from
his chest, but he fought it, drawing on the pain as well as the energy Willow
continued to feed him.

His demon roared to life, and
he felt the soldier’s strength of purpose. The gargoyle approached, flying
directly into the streams of flame shooting from Dax’s fingertips. Willow
sparkled brightly, almost as if she were enjoying herself.

She hovered off to one side,
drawing energy into her body, sharing it with Dax. The gargoyle kept coming.
Dax felt as if he watched its approach in slow motion as the creature drew
closer. He viewed the beast with preternatural clarity—its talons extended,
jaws gaping wide, and teeth shimmering red in the light of Dax’s rippling
fireshot.

Without hesitation, it flew
directly into the river of flames.

At the last possible moment,
it veered off.

Directly at Willow.

Dax didn’t have time to warn
the sprite. He watched in horror as the gargoyle snapped her up in his
slavering jaws and veered sharply away.

Silence descended. His flames
sputtered out. Stunned, Dax stared after the gargoyle as it banked low and flew
off into the darkness, bypassing its perch on the steeple and disappearing into
the nighttime sky.

Willow was gone. He felt her
absence, a physical amputation of an integral part of his body. She’d been so
intent on helping him, she’d not had time to save herself. The gargoyle had
feinted at the last moment and struck.

Dax had been terrified it
would go after Eddy. He’d never even thought to worry about Willow. Never
realized she might be an even more vulnerable target. Heartsick, Dax turned to
Eddy.

She raced across the street
and flung herself into his arms. “Willow? Where is she? What happened to
Willow?”

He couldn’t speak. He wrapped
his arms around Eddy and hung on, as much for himself as for her. The image of
those foul jaws closing around his tiny friend sickened him. Alton walked
slowly across the street. He looked as stunned as Dax felt. Ed trailed after
him, tugging Bumper’s leash.

The dog’s curly head hung low,
and her tail dragged, as if she, too, mourned the loss of her tiny friend.

“What about them?” Ed motioned
blindly toward the crowd of townsfolk standing off to one side, each and every
person staring wide-eyed at Dax and Eddy, Alton, and Ed.

Staring and trying to make
sense of what they’d just been a part of—a most improbable battle. One that Dax
could not allow to make the evening news. He nodded toward Alton. “Can you do
anything at all?”

Alton raised his hands and
bowed his head. A moment later, he raised his head and gazed at Dax. Tears
coursed down his cheeks. “They won’t want to speak of what they saw. I can’t
erase their memories—they’re much too intense—but I’ve clouded them. They won’t
want to talk about any of this.”

He sat down hard on a low
fence beside the road. “I wish I could cloud mine. Poor, dear little Willow.
What a horrible end to a brave soul. I never imagined the gargoyle would go
after her.”

Dax sat heavily beside him. He
tugged Eddy into his lap. “He must have guessed how much I need her. She
collects the energy I use to power my demon abilities, the fire and ice I
throw. Without her, I’ll have only a fraction of my strength. Without Willow,
I…” His voice broke. He’d been on this world for such a short time, yet Willow
had been with him since the beginning.

She’d been part of him. In his
head, and very much in his heart. Not only had he lost the tiny engine that
ensured his powers, he’d lost a dear and loyal friend.

Eddy buried her face in his
shirt and cried. Ed stood beside them, softly rubbing her back, but he looked
ready to burst into tears as well.

Almost as if it were an
afterthought, Alton stood up and walked back across the street. He leaned down
and picked something up off the ground, and then returned with a triangular
piece of stone. He stared at it a moment, frowning. Then he held it out to Dax.
“Look. It’s stone again. This was the demon’s wingtip. I wondered what would happen
without the demon to power it. The thing had the texture of leather when I cut
it, supple and strong. It looked as if it were really alive, but this is
nothing more than stone.”

He turned it over in his hands
and pointed at a dark stain. “It’s just a rock, now, but it bled when I cut it.
I saw fluid pouring from the wound. It might have been green, but it’s still
blood. The demon bleeds when it’s hurt. If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

Alton’s quiet statement
carried the resolve of a blood oath. Dax stared into the darkness, thinking of
Willow, of her horrible death, trapped in the gargoyle’s jaws. He shuddered and
absentmindedly rubbed his chest. It was good to know the gargoyle bled. The
creature would die. He would see to it.

Eddy sniffed. “Are you in much
pain? Those cuts on your back aren’t bleeding as much, but I can’t tell how
deep they are. The tattoo…”

Dax frowned. He rolled his
shoulders. His back and shoulders stung, but the pain wasn’t nearly as fierce
as it had been. Instead he felt a dull ache and the stickiness of drying blood.
He rubbed his hand over his chest once again. The tattoo was nothing more than
colored ink. There was no pain, no sense of life. The glow was gone, but so was
the pain. He shook his head. “It doesn’t hurt. I tried working the pain,
drawing on it for power, instead of letting it control me. It appears to have
worked.” He sighed. Little good it would do. Without Willow, he wouldn’t be
able to draw enough power to fight.
Without Willow…

Eddy hugged him close and
pressed her cheek against his chest. Dax rested his chin on her head and stared
off into the darkness.

Where he watched a small,
glowing speck of blue grow and solidify before his eyes. “Willow?” He lifted
Eddy off his lap and stood up. “Look! Do you see that?”

Bumper barked. They all stood
and watched as Willow slowly reformed and materialized in front of their eyes.
She buzzed up to Dax and hovered mere inches from his nose.

Willow?

The little sprite spun in a
swirl of blue sparkles.
Sorry to worry you, but I
disincorporated so quickly, I sort of misplaced some of me.

“Where
have you been? We thought the gargoyle…”
He couldn’t say it. His eyes
burned, and his throat felt tight, but he didn’t understand why, only that it
had something to do with Willow. With the fact she was safe and alive and
showering him in blue sparkles. He cleared his throat and tried again. “I’ve been
worried sick about you! We’ve all been worried. We thought…damn it, Willow!
Where were you?”

She tilted her head and
grinned at him, cocky as ever.
I was in Bumper,
she
said.
Where else?

Before Dax could come up with
a suitable answer, Willow buzzed over to Alton and crawled into his breast
pocket. Dax glanced at Alton and almost burst out laughing at the bright grin
on the big man’s face. Then he smiled at Eddy and her dad and shrugged. “She
was in Bumper. Where else?”

“Where else?” Eddy was still
chuckling a few minutes later. She waited on the corner under a streetlight
with her father while Dax and Alton checked the area for more demons. She
didn’t mind the wait at all. She didn’t mind much of anything, now that she
knew Willow was safe. She’d been so certain the little sprite had been
swallowed by the demon gargoyle that the relief was unbelievable.

Bumper nudged Eddy’s thigh
with her nose, obviously searching for a little more attention. Eddy complied.
“Bumper, if not for you, Willow might not have made it. You are such a good
girl.”

Bumper wriggled and danced,
practically turning herself inside out for more of Eddy’s attention. Talk about
living for the moment. Nothing seemed to faze the dog—not a demon attack nor
sharing her consciousness with a terrified sprite. Eddy ruffled Bumper’s blond
curls and wished she could be a little more doglike.

It had to be sort of a Zen
thing…but it would be great not to worry about things she couldn’t change.
Wonderful not to always be thinking of what could happen next. She stared
across the intersection and thought of all the things that could have gone
wrong.

Bumper licked Eddy’s fingers,
and she sighed. Maybe she needed to think of the things that had gone right,
instead, but it was hard. None of the avatars had survived the battle, but with
so many of the crushed statues or garden gnomes, the gargoyle had gained
another demon’s energy. At least things here in town had settled down for now,
and the gargoyle was gone. The townsfolk had already dispersed, confused, no
doubt, by Alton’s special brand of group hypnosis.

It wasn’t as powerful as the
first time he’d used it, but so far it appeared to be working, which meant the
people weren’t immune to it yet. She wondered how they’d have handled the
community without the Lemurian’s help.

Okay. That was a good
thing—the fact Alton had the courage to choose exile in order to join them. She
wondered if Taron was having any luck with the rest of Alton’s people. Dax
needed more help. So far, they’d survived everything the demon had tossed their
way, but they weren’t winning. Not by a long shot.

Eddy heard men’s voices and
glanced toward the scene of the fight. The highway patrolmen had taken off
right after Alton’s spell, but Milton and Bud were hanging around, checking the
damage. Their voices carried on the still night air.

Eddy touched her dad’s sleeve
to get his attention. “I’m going to have a chat with Milt and Bud. I’m curious
to see how they’re explaining all this.” She leaned over and patted Bumper’s
head again. “Be good, beast.” Bumper yipped and licked Eddy’s fingers. Then she
sat and planted her butt on Ed’s foot.

Eddy walked across the
intersection to chat with the deputies.

“Hey, Eddy. I thought I saw
you over there.” Milton glanced up from his perusal of a shattered angel. “What
do you make of all this? First the blocked on-ramp, and now this mess.”

She shrugged. “I have no idea,
Milt. What’s your guess?”

Milt shoved his hat back and
scratched his head. “I’m wondering if we’ve got some sort of cult we weren’t
aware of. Someone had to bring these things into town, but I have no idea what
got into that mob. I watched ’em with my own eyes. It was mass hysteria,
beating these statues into dust. Can you imagine desecrating graves like this?”
He swept his hand to encompass all the broken statuary. “Every gosh-darned one
of these was guarding a plot at the cemetery. I wish I knew how they got them
all here. Even more, why did those people think they had to destroy every
single one?”

Eddy knelt down to examine the
angel. She glanced up as Bud joined them. “Do you think any of these can be
repaired?”

Bud shook his head. “I don’t
think so. What a mess.” He took a few steps and knelt down beside the shattered
body of a tiny cherub. “This looks like the one from my grandma’s grave…sick
bastards. I need to go see if hers is still there.”

He lurched to his feet and
brushed the dust off his hands. “Ya know, it doesn’t look like somethin’ a gang
might’ve pulled. I’m leaning more toward a satanic cult. Devil worshippers,
maybe. Most of ’em are angels,” he added softly, pointing to the broken wings
scattered about.

Eddy nodded gravely. “I
noticed that.” She stood, slipped her digital camera out of her pocket, and got
a few pictures of the mess, along with shots of the two deputies. “Should I
mention that in my story? The cult angle? You never know…. I can see if it gets
you some leads.”

Bud nodded. “You do that,
Eddy. Folks around here look out for each other, but this was just weird. What
would make them all go so nuts that they’d destroy all these statues? They’re
good people…most of the time.”