Hellfire (26 page)

No, he was thinking of what it
was like for young humans.
The friendships they had, the
opportunities to go out in the world and do stupid stuff, to take chances.
To learn and grow and experience life in all its wonders, even if that wonder
was nothing more than hanging out on a street corner with friends.

The best memories of his life
were of his times with Taron when they were still children, but then their
world had changed and they’d been thrust into a life without any challenges at
all. A life so tightly directed they’d never had the chance to grow, to find
out what they were capable of.

And what had he done with the
life he’d had?
Disappointed his father.
Left his
mother without the one child she’d been able to have.
Abandoned
his world, his people, and any chance at redeeming himself to his family and
friends.
Had he made the right choice when he’d left Lemuria? Would his
sacrifice make any difference at all, or was he merely using this battle
against demonkind as an excuse, a chance to see what there was beyond the only
world he’d ever known?

He was still learning. Still
discovering who and what he was. Even Ginny knew more about living than he did.
She’d lived more in her thirty-one years than he had in all the long centuries
of his existence. What did he have to show for his long life? What had he done
to make his mark on his world?

“Alton? Are you okay?”

Ginny’s soft question dragged
him out of his dark thoughts. Pulled him away from a lifetime of regrets and
worries about his future—if he even had a future.

“I’m okay,” he said. “Just
thinking about a lot of stuff I can’t do anything about.”

Ginny squeezed his hand and
hugged his arm close against her side. “I know. Life’s like that.
Lots of questions and not nearly enough answers.”

They quietly walked away from
the alley and back to the SUV. When they reached their vehicle, Ginny paused
and stared at Alton. “I wonder where the demons that were in the rats she
killed have
gone?
”

He shook his head. “I don’t
know, but odds are they’ve got the life force of the rats to give them more
power. Demons are definitely growing more aggressive, but rats?” He rolled his
shoulders.
“Nasty things.”
He gazed around the area
where they’d stopped, in a part of town filled with small shops, restaurants,
and bars. A few tourists wandered from store to store and most of the
businesses were still open. “Let’s walk,” he said. “Can we leave the vehicle
here?”

“It’s fine here. I actually
parked legally.”

She flashed him an uncertain
smile and slipped her hand into his. They walked along the sidewalk like the
rest of the people enjoying a balmy evening in the desert. Alton searched her
thoughts and found the same disquiet he felt within himself.

Sometimes he wondered if he
and Ginny were more alike than he’d thought. Maybe Ginny was the answer to his
questions, if he only knew what they were. Was Ginny as confused as he was?

Sounds of laughter filtered
out of a small bar they passed, but it was the country-western music that
brought Alton to a stop, made him back up, and drew him toward the sound. He
gazed in through the open door. Once his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he
realized the place was filled with young adults around Ginny’s age, all
gathered in couples or groups. They were laughing and talking and doing all the
things young couples in this world did to get to know each other.

It wasn’t this free in
Lemuria, but even at their more formal gatherings the objective was the same.
Spend time together, see if the person you met would make a proper mate, a
potential parent to the child you hoped to have one day. Here it was called
dating. He understood the concept, how human men and women interacted as they
grew to know each other.

He glanced at Ginny and
wondered what it would be like to go on a date with her. Would it hurt to take
a moment for themselves, just the two of them?

Feeling absolutely reckless,
he leaned close to Ginny’s ear and whispered, “Hey, sweet thing. Can I buy you
a drink?”

She giggled and leaned against
his arm. Then she gazed up at him with a look of pure adoration that he knew
was absolutely
fake
. “Can you afford a girl like me?”

He blinked and straightened
up. That certainly ruined his line. “Well, no. I gave all my money to you.”

She laughed, hooked a finger
in the waistband of his jeans and tugged.
“C’mon, cowboy.
I’m buyin’. It is, after all, your cash.” She winked. “How’s that work?”

“Works for
me.”
He looped an arm over her shoulders and they stepped into the
shadows. There were at least a dozen young men lined up along a wooden bar.
Light reflected off of various bottles and glasses along the wall. Most of the
tables were filled with couples or groups of single men or women sitting and
drinking, talking and laughing.

The noise level dropped as he
and Ginny walked through the door. Alton was immediately aware of the
avaricious looks some of the women gave him. Any other time he might have
enjoyed the attention, but tonight he only wanted Ginny. She clung tightly to
his arm. He wanted to think she was staking her claim, but he figured that was
only fantasy.

Still, he couldn’t help but
wonder if she ever gazed at him in such a covetous manner.
If
she ever looked at him as if she were mentally undressing him.
He
doubted it. Not Ginny. She had more pride, unlike these ladies. Some of the
women they passed looked like they wanted to eat him alive.

One particularly busty blonde
tried to make eye contact, but Alton quickly glanced away. Luckily, the music
that had caught his attention when they’d walked by was still playing.

“I thought I knew this song.”
He grabbed Ginny’s hand and dragged her over to the colorful machine in the
corner that seemed to be the source of the music. “What is this? Is it like the
radio in the car?”

“No, silly.”
Ginny leaned over and read a list of titles across the front. “This is an
old-fashioned jukebox. I haven’t seen one of these for years. Look—it’s
actually flipping real records. Wow…Johnny Cash and
Folsom
Prison Blues.
I haven’t heard this one for a while.”

“It was on the radio in your
little blue car. That’s how I recognized it.” He turned and caught Ginny
looking at him, but she was only curious. At least he didn’t think she was
imagining him naked, and since her thoughts were blocked he couldn’t really
tell.

Her thoughts were always
blocked, it seemed.

“It’s an old song,” she said,
glancing at the list of titles once again. “I used to know all the words.”

He nodded. “I’ve only heard
them once before, but the lyrics made me think of my life in Lemuria, when I
knew there was a whole other world outside and I was stuck inside a mountain
with nothing to look forward to.”

She raised her head and her
tiger’s eyes seemed to look right through him. “You thought of Lemuria as a
prison?
For all those years?”

He shrugged. “Not always. When
I was younger, shortly after our continent sank beneath the sea, I was excited
about our new home. When I was old enough, I helped with some of the early
construction, but then it was done and there was nothing. No challenge, nothing
to dream of. It became even more of a prison after I began sneaking out and
visiting your dimension. The personal freedom here made me realize how much
more there could be in a man’s life. When I heard this song on your car radio
yesterday, it reminded me again of how I felt within the stone walls of our
world. Earth was the train, forever moving, knowing freedom.”

His words drifted off as the
song ended. Ginny continued to stare at him and her look was one of timeless
wonder, as if she might finally have started to understand more of the man he
was and not just the man he preferred to show her.

But was that a good thing or
bad? He’d never been close to anyone other than Taron, never really shared his
more intimate feelings and thoughts. Maybe it was a mistake to let Ginny get
too close. She’d already said she didn’t intend to stick around.

She had her job to go back to,
a job she seemed to think was more important than fighting demons, than saving
the world…than him.

Nine hells
…he
hoped his mental barriers were strong. They could still communicate, but he
didn’t want her wandering around inside his self-pitying thoughts. Another song
came on.
The same singer, but with a totally different sound.
Something about naming a boy Sue?
Alton tried to make
sense of the silly lyrics, but he couldn’t give them his full attention. Not
when Ginny was so close, her eyes focused solely on him.

He reached out and touched her
hair. Her dark curls were springy beneath his fingers, so unlike the straight,
smooth feel of his. Hers had life and energy, just like Ginny. They fit her.
Everything about Ginny fit. She was perfect, exactly as she was, a woman
comfortable in her own skin.

“Son of a
bitch!”

Ginny pressed close. Alton
focused on the group of young men at the bar. He recognized two of them. They’d
been part of the small crowd watching from the end of the alley when he and
Ginny took care of the demon-possessed rats. He’d left them all with a
compulsion to forget, but the tallest one had been particularly inebriated.

He was the one who’d shouted
the curse, though he sounded more frightened than angry.

Alton grabbed Ginny’s arm.
They edged over so he could see the guy better. His compulsions generally
worked really well on drunks. They didn’t have the mental clarity to fight his
suggestions, but there was something weird about this guy.

He was
there, wasn’t he? He looks familiar.

Yes,
Ginny. I want to watch him. Something’s not right.

I agree.

She moved with him and they
took two empty stools close by the young man. He was leaning over the bar now,
staring at his mug of beer and mumbling incoherently. His shoulders jerked, his
legs twitched, and there was obviously something very wrong about him. The
bartender was serving another customer, but he was definitely keeping an eye on
this one.

Even his friends seemed to
have noticed something was wrong. A couple of the guys had their heads
together, but they kept their focus on the drunk. Suddenly he straightened up,
screamed as if the gates of hell had been flung wide, and lunged toward Alton
and Ginny. He swung his arm around and caught Ginny hard on the shoulder with a
roundhouse punch.

She flew off the stool before
Alton even had time to react. He caught her before she hit the floor. The guy’s
buddies were all over him. Within seconds they’d grabbed his arms and pinned
him against the bar.

“I’m okay.” Ginny shook her
head and tried to sit up, but Alton held her down between the legs of their
barstools while the battle for control went on over their heads.

“Stay down. I have a horrible
feeling that I know where those two demons pumped up with the life force from
the dead rats went.” Alton pulled HellFire from his scabbard.

Despite his orders, Ginny
scrambled to her feet and grabbed DarkFire. Five men were trying to hold the
drunk, but he managed to shake them loose one by one whenever they grabbed an
arm or a leg. The bartender was on the phone, calling for help.

“Now, before the police
arrive.” Alton stepped forward and waved his hand over the group of men as they
struggled with the drunk. All five suddenly turned the tall kid loose. He shook
them off, completely unaffected by Alton’s compulsion. His eyes glowed red. He
snarled a curse and the sharp points of his teeth glowed in the reflected
light.

Alton leapt forward and
pressed his crystal blade against the drunk’s chest. The kid jerked and his
body went totally rigid. His arms flailed, his mouth opened in a soundless scream.

Then another piercing screech
poured out of his mouth, along with a thick, black mist. Ginny caught the
wraith with DarkFire’s blade and it burst into amethyst sparks and sulfuric
smoke. A second dark cloud shot out of the man’s mouth and Ginny got that one
as well.

The drunk stared blindly at
Ginny. His eyes rolled back in his head and he slowly crumpled. Alton grabbed
him before he hit the floor and eased him slowly to the ground. Ginny quickly
sheathed her sword and Alton managed to get HellFire in the scabbard before the
sound of sirens and screech of tires warned that the police were pulling up out
in front.

Alton quickly set a compulsion
over everyone in the bar. He knew it wouldn’t last, but hoped it would at least
give Ginny and him time to escape.

He grabbed her hand and
slipped out through the door just as the police raced toward the bar. Alton and
Ginny stepped to one side and the two officers ran by them without seeming to
even notice they were there.

“What’d you do? How come they
didn’t even look at us?” Ginny frowned and stared over her shoulder at the bar
as Alton dragged her down the sidewalk toward the SUV.

“I used the same glamour on us
that we use on our swords. They were so intent on getting inside the tavern
that they weren’t looking for us, so they didn’t see us.”

“Oh. I never would have
thought of that.” Ginny wrapped both her hands around his left arm and matched
her steps to his. “Well, Alton. I must admit…you certainly know how to show a
girl a good time.”

He snorted. He couldn’t help
it, and it made her laugh. “Good times like that we can do without.” Then the
reality of what they’d done slammed through the adrenaline rush that had him
practically giddy with relief. “You know what this means.”