Hellfire (20 page)

These obviously knew they
needed that portal. The wraiths began to gather, piling one upon the other,
taking shape as they’d done in the Shasta vortex. Alton shoved another
attacking raven aside and slashed HellFire through the demon mist. All those he
connected with burst into flame and died, but others flowed in to take their
place.

He felt a burning slash across
his shoulders and knew he’d taken a direct hit from a raven, but his focus now
was protecting Ginny, giving her the chance to close the portal. She held
DarkFire in both hands while the sword’s dark fire covered the shimmering
gateway in the rock.

Glowing in shades from deep
purple to an incandescent green, DarkFire slowly but surely melted the portal
shut. Demons on their way through were immediately destroyed. The ones already
in the cave screeched and cried out, their voices growing louder, more
frustrated as their gateway to Abyss melted away, as more and more of their
evil brethren died.

When it was done, Ginny spun
about and grinned at Alton with a triumphant look on her face. It quickly faded
when she saw the blood. “Good Lord! How badly are you hurt?”

“Later.” He shook off her
concern. “It’s going to take both of us to handle all of these. I’ll knock them
down and drive out the demons. Don’t let any get away if you can help it.”

“I’m ready.” She took her
position behind him as he swung at an attacking raven, knocked it to the floor,
and held it down with HellFire’s sharp tip. The demon immediately escaped from
its avatar, but Ginny was there. With a single slash of her sword, the demon
burst into flames.

They repeated the moves on the
rest of the birds. Alton quickly gathered up the birds, filling his arms with
dazed ravens and carrying them through the portal. They were beginning to
recover their senses by the time he set them gently on the ground outside, but
the sky was clear of their brethren.

Which meant
that untold numbers of demon-possessed birds were most likely now winging their
way toward Sedona.

It was such a strange feeling
to be alone in a cavern filled with demon wraiths. Ginny glanced toward the
portal and willed Alton to return. She wasn’t afraid, which was weird
enough…crap. If anyone had told her just a couple of days ago that she’d be armed
with a crystal sword, fighting demons inside an energy vortex somewhere in
Sedona, she’d have thought they were certifiable.

She slashed through another
dark wraith and wrinkled her nose against the sulfuric stench.
Then another, and another.
She’d positioned herself in front
of the portal that led out of the rock, but she was afraid a few of the demons
had still managed to slip by her. Hopefully Alton would catch them outside.

She sensed movement and turned
to her left. The demons were gathering again, coming together to form a huge,
seething creature with arms and legs and long, sharp teeth. All still made of
mist, but she couldn’t see it as a harmless wraith.

Not beneath DarkFire’s
illuminating light. Their demonic features were made much too obvious. Out of
curiosity, she stuck her hand into the dark mass of demons. Other than feeling
icy cold, there was no substance to the joined creatures at all. She slashed
DarkFire through the middle and smiled with satisfaction when a dozen demons
burst into flames and sparkled away into nothing but stinking smoke.

Suddenly Alton was beside her.
“You doing okay?” he asked.

“I am,” she said, lunging
forward and catching two demons as they tried to circle around and get past
her. “How are you?” She risked a quick glance. “You’re still bleeding.”

He slashed HellFire through a
pair of dark wraiths. “I’m okay. Most of the cuts are on my back and shoulders.
They don’t hurt as much if I can’t see them.”

She laughed.
Only Alton…“What about the ravens?”

“They flew away. That’s what
took me so long. I waited to make sure they could fly. I didn’t want something
to get them while they were helpless.”

“What about that huge flock?”

HellFire glowed as Alton
slashed through another gathering of demon mist. “The birds are gone. It seems
they lost interest once we disappeared through the portal. Unfortunately, I
have a bad feeling they’ve headed toward Sedona.”

“You’re probably right.” Ginny
slashed through the last of the demons within sight. Alton leaned on his sword
beside her.

The smell was making it
difficult to breathe, but Ginny searched the entire cavern. She didn’t see any
more portals or demons. They’d killed over a hundred before she lost count.

Best of all, she and DarkFire
had closed the gateway. She stepped close to admire her handiwork. Alton looped
a long arm around her shoulders.
“Beautiful, Ginny.
It’s completely destroyed. You did it perfectly.”

Ginny lifted DarkFire. “No,
the credit goes to DarkFire. All I did was hold on for the ride.”

Alton sheathed his sword.
After a moment, Ginny did the same, but when she turned to walk toward the
portal, Alton drew her into his arms. “Ginny, I am so sorry. Once again, I must
apologize. I never would have sent you here if I’d realized the danger.” She
felt the warm caress of his lips against her hair and didn’t know whether to
laugh or rip his shirt off.

Laughter won, and then it took
her a minute to catch her breath. Alton stared at her because he obviously
didn’t have a clue what was going on.

She leaned back in his embrace
and held his face in both palms. He was frowning, which made her laugh even
harder. “Alton, you can be such a jerk. Quit worrying! You’re the one who’s
bleeding, damn it!” She dragged him close for a quick kiss, and backed away
before he could deepen it. “I wouldn’t have missed these past days for
anything. My life has changed in such wondrous ways, and I’m having more fun
than I ever imagined. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t sent me to
Sedona, and the only thing that would make it better is if Eddy and Dax were
here.”

He smiled at her. Then he
leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. This time, Ginny was the one who tried
to make it last, but Alton pulled away. He straightened up and looped his hands
around her hips. “Then it appears we need to call them,” he said. He stared at
the melted wall where the portal from Abyss had allowed untold numbers of
demons to enter Earth’s dimension.

After a long moment, he shook
his head. “We need to check the other portals—the one by the airport and the
other at Cathedral Rock. Then we have to hunt down the demons
who’ve
made it through. There were at least a thousand birds
out there, Ginny.
That’s a thousand evil souls at the very
least, and right now
, only two of us.”

Ginny checked the fastenings
on her scabbard, grabbed Alton’s hand, and tugged him toward the portal. “And
you think two more demon hunters will make a difference?”

Gazing about the small cavern,
Alton merely shook his head. “It’s going to have to,” he said. “They’re all we
have unless my people decide to join the fight.”

With that depressing thought
hovering between them, Ginny and Alton stepped through the portal into a
downpour. Rain boiled out of the seething clouds and water raced in muddy
streams across the rocky ground.

Ginny took off down the trail
at a full run with Alton right behind her. The situation was dire—Alton was
bleeding from dozens of cuts and scratches, they were both getting soaked, and
they were outnumbered by demons.

Yet for some stupid reason,
both of them laughed as they ran through the rain, all the way back to the car.

Ginny’s laughter—in fact, her
entire good mood—ended the moment they got back to their rooms when she
followed Alton into the bathroom and helped him peel his shredded shirt off his
shoulders.

All the way back in the car,
she’d thought most of the dark splotches on his flannel shirt were rainwater,
that the wounds the possessed ravens had inflicted were nothing more than
scratches.

She’d been dead wrong. His
dark red plaid shirt was torn to ribbons and drenched with his blood. Bits of
fabric were actually buried in the deeper cuts, where at least the flannel had
helped staunch the bleeding. Ugly gashes stretched across the top of his
shoulders and along his left forearm, the one he’d used to protect his face
from the attacking ravens.

“Oh, Alton.
I had no idea.” She felt like crying as she threw his shirt in the sink. His
crimson blood smeared against the white porcelain made her feel even worse. Her
hands shook as she grabbed one of the pristine white towels off the rack next
to the sink, soaked it in warm water, and began dabbing at the deeper cuts.
Most of them were no longer bleeding, though as she washed the caked blood
away, some continued to seep.

Alton pulled a small makeup
bench close to the counter and sat there while Ginny cleaned away the blood.
Even though she knew her amateur first aid had to hurt him, he never said a
word. It made her feel sick inside, to see him injured and bleeding.

“You need to see a doctor.
Some of these are really deep.” She rinsed the towel once more, wrung it out,
and watched the blood-stained water swirl down the drain. As she turned to
clean more of the cuts, Alton grabbed her wrist.

She stared at his long, pale
fingers wrapped around her arm and wondered if he could feel how badly she was
trembling.

“Please. Don’t be upset. It
probably looks a lot worse than it is.” He raised his arm and studied the
bloody scratches. Then he smiled and shook his head. “See? They’re not that
bad. I don’t need a doctor, Ginny. Eddy stuffed some bandages in my pack, if
you want to use some on the deeper cuts, but I really don’t need them.
Lemurians heal quickly, remember?”

She sighed, shaking her head
with dismay. “I didn’t know you’d been hurt this badly. I feel terrible. I was
treating it as a big game, like it was all for fun, and you’re bleeding all
over the place. I can’t believe I was laughing all the way back to the car! I’m
so sorry.”

“Now you’re being the jerk.”
For some reason, his gentle laughter made her tense up. “If you’ll recall, I
was laughing, too.” He pulled her close until she gave in and sat on his lap,
though she certainly wasn’t able to relax.

She could, however, disagree
with what he’d said. “I should have been more aware you were hurt. This
happened because you were protecting me. You always remember to watch out for
me.” She shook her head so hard her wet ponytail slapped the sides of her face.
“I was so caught up in the fact that I was actually inside the rock fighting
demons with my own sword that I think I got a little carried away.”

He laughed again and hugged
her. “It was pretty exciting. I think you had a right to be a little carried
away.”

She dabbed at the bloody cuts
on his forearm and decided they weren’t quite as bad as they’d looked, but she
still felt guilty, as if she needed to do something to atone. She hated the
fact he’d been hurt protecting her.
Hated feeling guilty over
his cuts and bruises and bloody slashes.

Yet even as she worried, she
felt panic rising. How had she allowed him to become so important to her so
quickly? When had he started to matter so much? They hardly knew each other and
yet she was sitting in his lap, dabbing at his wounds like they’d been together
forever. She was worrying about him as if he was her responsibility, as if they
were actually involved in a really serious relationship.

Which they
weren’t.
She didn’t do relationships. She didn’t let guys matter to her,
because the minute she did they started demanding things she wasn’t ready to
give. Even though she’d known him only a few days, already she realized that
Alton was everything she’d ever wanted in a man, which was exactly why she
shouldn’t be getting so close to him.

Men never hung around, no
matter how perfect they might seem at first. They got what they wanted and then
they left, or they started making a woman’s decisions for her, taking away her
sense of control, her choices,
her
life. No way was
she going to get involved with a guy to the point where he wanted to take over
her entire existence.

No way was she willing to give
up everything she’d worked so hard for—her sense of herself, her independence,
her control.

It wasn’t going to happen.

Except, she had a terrible
feeling it was happening already. Whether she wanted it or not, her life was
changing. It had been changing since the night she’d been cornered by a
demon-possessed concrete statue of a bear, and rescued by a drop-dead gorgeous
guy from another world.

If she really thought about
what had happened to her since that moment, if she closely examined what they’d
done last night when they made love, or this morning when she’d fought demons
with a powerful, magical sword, she’d probably end up hiding in a dark corner
somewhere, babbling like an idiot.

Life was never going to be the
same. Most of what had happened was totally out of her control, but part of the
fault was hers—she’d broken her own rules. She’d laughed when he bought all
those condoms. Why hadn’t she thought about the implications of Alton buying
two big boxes? She should have known what he was thinking, but instead she’d
let him inside her shields, those barriers she’d kept up around her heart since
she was just a little girl.

She and Alton had made love
last night, and it had been unlike anything she’d ever experienced in her life.
She’d never be content with any other man, not after a night with him. He’d set
an entirely new standard, one no one else could ever come close to meeting.