Demonfire (32 page)

He followed her into the
kitchen, and she was glad he was behind her and couldn’t see her face. It
hadn’t been all that hard to make an impossible promise, but there was no way
she could keep the truth out of her eyes.

It was actually sort of odd,
to think she worried so much about lying in her newspaper articles, yet she had
no qualms at all about lying to the man she loved.

By the time they got inside,
she had her emotions under control once again. The last thing she wanted was
for Dax to spend his last days on Earth worrying about her worrying about him.

She sat down at the table,
opened her laptop, and quickly finished her article. Then she attached it to an
e-mail to Harlan and hit
SEND
.
Lies. All of it lies.

She merely had to remind
herself they were all for the common good.

The noon sun hung high
overhead. Eddy clung to Dax’s hand while all of them stood motionless as a
bunch of statues in the sunlit park and stared at the empty parapet atop the
library. Finally, Ed broke the silence.

“Where the hell’d the bastard
go?”

Dax shook his head and rubbed
his chest. “I have no idea. I was certain he’d be here. Alton? Any ideas where
he might be?”

“No. I figured he’d still be
healing.”

“I think I know.” Eddy turned
away from the library and stared at Dax. “You said he gets his strength from
the demons whose souls he takes, but we’re fresh out of demons. Could he be
trying to open a new portal?”

Alton jerked his head around
and stared at Eddy. “Gods, I hope not. If he’s in the mountain, there’s no way
to stop him.”

“Why not?” Eddy frowned. “You
closed the other portal without any trouble.”

“That was before any of us had
a Lemurian death sentence hanging over our heads. I can’t be positive if it’s
actually been posted or not, but what I did when I broke you guys out of your
cell is punishable by death. I went against my father’s orders, and he’s the
head of the Council of nine. As far as you and Dax, before we left Lemuria, the
council had already determined you two should die for your
transgression
of actually trying to help my people. If we go back inside the mountain, we
might not make it out alive.”

Dax crossed his arms over his chest.
“If the demon opens a new portal, no one will make it out alive. Another
gateway to Abyss could tip the balance beyond redemption.” He shrugged. “If
more demons gain entrance to this dimension, if the gargoyle achieves ultimate
power, a death decree is a moot point.”

Alton stared at Dax for a
moment. Then he slowly nodded his head. “There is that,” he said.

Ed shoved Bumper’s leash into
Eddy’s outstretched hand. Then he swung around and headed down the sidewalk.
“I’ll get the Jeep,” he said, shouting back over his shoulder. “Then I’ll meet
you back here in a few minutes. Keep looking.”

They drove as far as they
could and stopped at the same gate where Ed had picked them up just five short
days ago. Dax was surprised when Ed chose to join them on the hike up the
mountain. He and Eddy both tried to argue her dad out of it, but there was no
way Ed was going to be left behind at this point.

Now, as they drew close to the
portal that had let them into the dimension that led to Lemuria, Dax had to
respect Ed’s dedication to their cause. He was obviously in pain from his bad
hip, but he’d managed to keep up as they made their way along the faint trail
winding higher and higher up the steep slopes of Mount Shasta.

The hillside was beginning to
look familiar, when Willow suddenly popped out from behind Alton’s long hair
and buzzed into the air in front of them. She left a comet’s tail of blue
sparkles behind her as she zipped toward a tumble of rocks just ahead. Bumper
barked and jerked the leash out of Eddy’s hand.

Dax grabbed for it and missed.
The dog took off, scrambling over the loose scree littering the side of the
mountain. Her leash trailed behind her.

“Bumper! Come back. Here
girl!” Eddy started after the dog.

Dax grabbed her arm and held
her back. “Wait. See what she’s after.”

“But what if the gargoyle’s
there?” Eddy tried to jerk her arm free, but Dax held on. She glared at him.
“Let me go.”

He shook his head. “Look.”

The gargoyle lurched from
behind the largest rock, walking awkwardly over the rough surface. Bumper
yipped and made a perfect U-turn. She raced back toward Eddy as the gargoyle
spread its wings and rose to its full height, twice as tall as it had been the
night before.

Eddy grabbed Bumper’s collar
when the dog ran into her legs in her mad scramble to get away from the
monster. Alton moved to one side and drew his sword. Ed grabbed Eddy’s free arm
and tugged her and Bumper out of the way.

Surrounded at a safe distance
by his friends, Dax stood alone on the hillside, not a dozen feet from the
massive creature.

He glanced to his right. Alton
was slowly working his way around the gargoyle’s side. It ignored the Lemurian.
Its focus was entirely on Dax.

Ed and Eddy waited off to the
side as they’d planned, well out of the way should the gargoyle use any sort of
weapon. Dax was unsure of its powers in this form. It was obviously alive.
There was no sign of the stone creature it had once been.

Now its wings waved slowly
back and forth with supple grace. The muscles in its long arms bunched and
stretched, and the leathery skin over its massive chest rose and fell with each
breath it took.

When it opened its mouth,
razor-sharp teeth gleamed white, and its disgusting tongue was long and sinewy,
colored a deep grayish green. Saliva dripped from its jaws. Eyes that had once
gleamed like red fire now glowed with an inner light that was both alive and
cunning.

The gargoyle raised its head
and let out a roar. No longer the eerie wail of a banshee, this time it had the
full-blown depth of a living, breathing creature, a sound somewhere between an
enraged lion and an angry bull elephant.

Bumper dropped to the ground
and shivered when it roared a second time. Willow had moved to a point behind
Dax where she was protected from the creature, yet close enough to Dax that she
could draw energy from their surroundings and feed it to him. He felt the
warmth of Willow’s energy pouring into him, strengthening his arms and legs,
even as it awakened the cursed tattoo now rising over his chest.

There was no way to avoid the
pain. Whenever he called on his demon powers now, he called the curse to life.
They were one and the same. His only hope was that he’d be able to work it once
again, to make the pain his own and withstand the agony long enough to battle
his greatest foe.

He stared into the gargoyle’s
eyes and sensed the creature’s keen intelligence. No longer a mindless demon
working through the body of a stone avatar, it had become—somehow, some way—a
sentient, living, breathing demon. Dax wondered what its form had been on
Abyss. Had it somehow found its likeness in the stone gargoyle on the library
building?

Dax had been a demon since
time began, but it had only been in his later years that he’d had enough
self-awareness to care about his existence, to wonder if there might be
something better to life than the unending hell of Abyss. Had that happened to
this demon as well? Had it finally begun to question its existence?

Had it, too, been kicked out
of Abyss? If so, it certainly hadn’t been for questioning evil. There was
nothing good about this creature. No, it was evil incarnate, with a cunning
unlike anything Dax expected.

He took a step closer to the
gargoyle, drawing the creature’s attention. Alton was able to move a few feet
closer without being noticed. Now he stood behind, not beside, the gargoyle.

It didn’t appear to see him,
so intent was it on Dax. When Dax took a step, the creature moved as well. When
Dax moved to one side, the creature mirrored his shift. As Dax played out his
little dance, testing the gargoyle’s responses, Alton slipped closer to the
creature’s back. He’d drawn his crystal sword and held it high overhead, but he
wasn’t yet close enough to strike.

Dax raised his hands and let
loose with a burst of fire. The gargoyle leapt in the air, barely avoiding the
flame. Alton jumped to one side and swung his blade. The crystal glimmered with
power as he slashed just beneath a clawed foot.

The gargoyle flapped his wings
down with a powerful stroke as Alton prepared to swing. One heavy wing caught
his head and shoulders and flung the tall Lemurian to the ground. He swung the
crystal sword as he fell, cutting a broad slash across the gargoyle’s torso.

Thick, green, acidic blood
poured from the wound, burning whatever it touched. Grass shriveled and turned
black as the gargoyle tried to gain altitude. Dripping blood splashed Alton’s
shoulder and along his sword arm, dissolving his flannel shirt and burning
through to his flesh.

Alton cried out in pain and
collapsed to the hard ground, clutching his injured arm. His sword lay beside
him on the burned grass.

Dax threw more flame. The air
filled with the stench of burnt flesh, and the gargoyle tumbled to the ground.
Blood still flowed from its wound, but it managed to turn and rise to its feet
just as Dax encased it with a frozen mist. The creature broke through the ice,
rising up on its stumpy legs, spreading its wings wide.

It roared, trumpeting anger,
pain, and frustration in a mind-numbing bellow. Dax waited for Willow to
recharge him with more energy. Maybe now he’d finally have enough to kill this
thing.

Alton grabbed his sword and
struggled to his feet. He held the jeweled hilt in both hands as he prepared to
strike a powerful blow. Dax raised his hands to throw more flame at the wounded
gargoyle.

For a moment in time, it felt
as if everything stood still, yet Dax’s body pulsed with the power flowing into
him from the tiny sprite. Willow hovered barely within his peripheral vision, a
volatile whirlwind of blue light feeding energy directly to Dax. Power coursed
through his veins, charged his muscles, and fired his demon abilities.

He was invincible, a demon
inhabiting the body of a strong soldier with right on his side. He could not be
defeated. Not now, with his mission so close to success. Nothing could stop
him.

Nothing
would
stop him.

And then he felt it. The first
stirrings of the cursed tattoo as it fed off Willow’s shared energy. Waves of
pain slithered over his body, across his thigh and groin, above his heart.

Eddy screamed as the tattoo
came to life and raised its head away from his chest. Dax felt the cold stroke
of a forked tongue beneath his chin and the burning twist and turn of the
serpent’s body as it moved across his torso. Quiet until now, almost as if it
had been lying in wait, it came to life with more strength than ever before.

Alton stumbled, apparently
from the pain of his acid burns. He lowered his sword as weakness gained the
upper hand. His body visibly trembled. The gargoyle raised its wings and then
lowered them in a powerful downstroke. Slowly it lifted off the ground.

Green blood still oozed from
the wound across its belly, but the flow was slowing as the creature flapped
its wings again and gained a few more feet of elevation. Dax tried to send fire
against his enemy, but the pain from the curse sapped his strength. Somehow,
the serpent had tapped into Willow’s flow of energy and must have commanded it
all for itself.

Dax wrapped his hand around
the snake’s head to keep the fangs away from his throat. He flung a short burst
of flame with his free hand, but it was barely enough to singe the tip of the
gargoyle’s left wing.

Barking and growling, Bumper
fought her leash with an unending cacophony of frustrated complaints. The
gargoyle turned its eyes on Dax, and Ed set the dog free. Bumper leaped for the
gargoyle and managed to catch one wing in her jaws.

She pulled the creature to the
ground where it knelt, snarling. Instead of racing for safety, Eddy and her
father ran directly at the gargoyle. Eddy swung her baseball bat and connected
with the gargoyle’s shoulder. It flinched, obviously surprised by the blow. Ed
held his iron pry bar with the chiseled tip like a jousting sword. He raced
directly at the beast.

Horrified, Dax tried to send
another burst of flame, but there was nothing left. The tattoo had absorbed all
his reserves, and it was all he could do to hold the snapping jaws and extended
fangs away from his throat. Willow no longer sparkled beside him. She lay on
the trampled grass, a tiny little sprite without a hint of light.

Eddy took another swing at the
gargoyle, but it rose to its feet and brushed her aside with one vicious swipe
of its taloned paw. She tumbled inelegantly to the rocky ground and lay still.
Ed swung his bar and connected with the gargoyle’s head.

It grabbed the end of the iron
bar and ripped it out of Ed’s hands. Then it simply bent the sturdy bar into a
twisted circle and threw it. Ed stumbled back. The heavy length of iron barely
missed him. He dropped to his knees and grabbed Eddy under the arms as Dax
reached the two of them.

The gargoyle hesitated a
moment, as if considering the easy target lying on the ground just a few feet
away, or freedom. Screaming an unintelligible battle cry, Alton ran at it from
behind with his sword held high, but the gargoyle flapped its huge wings once
again and lifted into the air with another earsplitting roar. Bumper took one
last leap into the air, snapping at the huge, leathery wings, but she missed.
She came down hard and rolled along the steep slope. Then she scrambled to her
feet and stood up, barking, as the gargoyle flew down the mountain, heading
directly for town.