Demonfire (2 page)

Eddy rubbed her arm. It
tingled where he’d touched her. “What’s going on? How’d you get here? Where are
your clothes?”

The flickering light came closer,
hovered just in front of his chest, pulsed with a brilliant blue glow that
spread out in a pale arc until it touched him, appeared to soak into his flesh,
and then dimmed. Before Eddy could figure out what she was seeing, Dax took a
deep breath. He seemed to gather strength—from the blue light?

He shoved himself upright,
glanced at the light, and nodded. “Thank you, Willow.”

Then he stood up, as if his
injuries didn’t affect him at all. Obviously, neither did the fact he wasn’t
wearing a stitch of clothes. Towering over Eddy, he held out his hand to help
her to her feet. “I will go now. I’m sorry to have…”

Eddy swallowed. She looked up
at him as he fumbled for words, realized she was almost eye level with his…
oh crap!
She jerked her head to one side and stared at his
hand for a moment. Shifted her eyes and blinked at the blue light, now hovering
in the air not six inches from her face. What in the hell was going on?

Slowly, she looked back at
Dax, placed her hand in his, and, with a slight tug from him, rose to her feet.
The light followed her. “What is that thing?” Tilting her head, she focused on
the bit of fluff glowing in the air between them, and let out a whoosh of
breath.

“Holy Moses.” It was a woman.
A tiny, flickering fairylike woman with gossamer wings and long blond hair.
“It’s frickin’ Tinkerbelle!” Eddy turned and stared at Dax. “That’s
impossible.”

He shrugged. “So are garden
gnomes armed with pitchforks. At least in your world. So am I, for that
matter.”

Eddy snapped her gaze away
from the flickering fairy and stared at Dax. “What do you mean, you’re
impossible? Why? Who are you? What are you?”

Again, he shrugged. “I’m a
mercenary, now. A hired soldier, if you will. However, before the Edenites
found me, before they gave me this body, I was a demon. Cast out of Abyss, but
a demon nonetheless.”

He knew she was bursting with
questions, but she’d taken him inside her home, given him a pair of soft gray
pants with a drawstring at the waist, and brewed some sort of hot, dark liquid
that smelled much better than it tasted. She’d handed him a cup; then as she
left the room, she’d told him to sit.

He sat, despite the sense of
urgency and the pain. The snake tattoo seemed to ripple against his skin,
crawling across his thigh, over his groin and belly to the spot where the head
rested above his human heart. He felt the heat from the demon’s fireshot beside
the serpent’s head burning deeper with each breath he took. Exhaustion warred
with the need to move, to begin the hunt. In spite of Willow’s gift of healing
energy, he felt as if he could sleep for at least a month. Instead, he waited
for the woman, for Eddy Marks. He sipped from the steaming cup while she opened
and closed drawers in an adjoining room and mumbled unintelligible words to
herself.

The four-legged creature
stayed with him. Eddy called it “damned dog,” but she’d also said its name was
Bumper and it was female. The animal appeared to be intelligent, though Dax
hadn’t figured out how to communicate with her yet. She was certainly
odd-looking with her bullet-shaped head, powerful jaws, and curly blond coat.

“Sorry to take so long. I had
to hunt for the first aid kit.”

The woman carried a box filled
with rolls of bandages and jars and tubes of what must be medicine. He wished
his mind were clearer, but he was still growing used to this body, to the way
the brain worked. It was so unlike his own. This mind had memories of things
like bandages and dogs and the names for the various pieces of furniture he
saw, but too much in his head felt foggy. Too much was still trapped in the
thinking process of demonkind, of kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten.

The only thing that was
absolutely clear was the mission, and he was woefully behind on that.

Of course, he hadn’t expected
to encounter a demon-powered gargoyle armed with fire just seconds after his
arrival through the portal. Nor had he expected the power of the demons already
here. Eddy had no idea she had truly saved more than his life.

So much more was at stake. So
many lives.

Her soft voice was laced with
steel when it burst into his meandering thoughts. “First things first,” she
said. “And don’t lie to me. I’m trusting you for some weird reason, when I know
damned well I should call the authorities. So tell me, who are you, really? Who
did this to you? How’d you get this burn?”

Blinking, he raised his head.
She knelt in front of him. Her short dark hair was tousled, and her chocolaty
brown eyes stared at him with concern and some other emotion he couldn’t quite
identify. Thank goodness there was no sign of fear. He didn’t want her to fear
him, though she’d be better off if she did.

He shook his head. He still
couldn’t believe that blasted demon had gotten the drop on him. “I really am
demonkind. From Abyss. The wound on my chest? It was the gargoyle. He surprised
me. I wasn’t expecting him, especially armed with fire.”

She blinked and gave him a
long, narrow-eyed stare. “Hookay. If you say so.” She took a damp cloth and
wiped around the burn on his chest. The cool water felt good.

Her soft hands felt even
better. Her touch seemed to spark what could only be genetic, instinctive
memories to this body he inhabited. He felt as if his mind were clearing. Maybe
this world would finally start to make sense.

She tilted her head and
studied the burned and bloody wound. “That’s the second reference to a gargoyle
I’ve heard tonight,” she said, looking at his chest, not his face. “They’re not
generally part of the typical conversation around here.”

Shocked, he grabbed her wrist.
She jerked her head around and stared at his fingers. He let go. “I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean to startle you. Have you seen it? The gargoyle? Do you know where
it is?”

She stared at him a moment,
and then sprayed something on the wound that took away the pain. She covered it
with a soft, flesh-colored bandage before she answered him. “No,” she said,
shaking her head, concentrating on the bandage. “Not recently.”

Her short dark hair floated
against the sharp line of her jaw. He fought a surprisingly powerful need to
touch the shimmering strands. He’d never once run his fingers through a woman’s
hair. Of course, he couldn’t remember having fingers. He’d never had any form
beyond his demon self of mist and scales, sharp claws, and sharper fangs.

She flattened all four corners
of the bandage and looked up at him. He wished he were better at reading human
expressions. Hers was a mystery to him.

“Last time I saw it,” she
said, “it was perched on the corner of the library building where it belonged,
but I heard it flew away. It’s made of stone and most definitely not alive,
which means it shouldn’t be flying anywhere. What’s going on? And what are you,
really? You can’t be serious about…” She glanced away, shook her head again,
and then touched the left side of his chest, just above the first puncture
wound. “Turn around so I can take care of these cuts over your ribs.”

He turned and stared at the
fireplace across the room. After a moment he focused on a beautiful carved
stone owl, sitting on the brick hearth. The owl’s eyes seemed to watch him, but
he sensed no life in the creature. It was better to concentrate on the bird
than the woman.

Her gentle touch was almost
worse than the pain from the injuries. It reminded him of things he wanted,
things he’d never have.

He was, after all, still a
demon. A fallen demon, but nonetheless, not even close to human. Not at all the
man he appeared to be. This form was his for one short week.

His avatar.

Seven days he’d been given.
Seven days to save the town of Evergreen and all its inhabitants. If he failed,
if demonkind succeeded in this, their first major foray into Earth’s dimension,
other towns could fall. Other worlds. All of Earth, all of Eden.

Seven days.

Impossible…and he’d already
wasted one of them.

He would have laughed if he
didn’t feel like turning around and heading back to Abyss—except Abyss was
closed to him. With only the most preposterous of luck, he might end up in
Eden, though he doubted that would happen, no matter how he did on his mission.
The promises had been vague, after all.

So why, he wondered, had he
agreed to this stupid plan?

“I asked you, what’s going on?
I’m assuming you know how my cheesy little Walmart garden gnome suddenly grew
teeth and turned killer. Try the truth this time. With details that make
sense.”

He jerked his head around and
stared at her, understanding more of his new reality as each moment passed, as
the memories and life of this body’s prior owner integrated with his demon
soul.

Eddy sat back on her heels,
and her dark eyes flashed with as much frustrated anger as curiosity.

He glanced down at his side.
There were clean, white bandages over each of the wounds from the demon’s
weapon. The big burn on his chest was cleaned and covered. The entire length of
his tattoo pulsed with evil energy, but if he ignored that, he really did feel
better.

Stronger.

He sensed Willow’s presence
and finally spotted her sitting in amongst a collection of glass figurines on a
small bookcase. Could demons enter glass? He wasn’t sure, but at least Willow
would warn him in time. He caught the woman’s unwavering stare with his own.
She waited more patiently than he deserved for his answer. “I always tell the
truth,” he said. “The problem is, will you believe me?”

She nodded and stood up. “I’ll
try.” She stalked out of the room. He heard water running. A moment later she
returned, grabbed his cup and her own, and left again. This time, when she
handed him the warm mug of coffee, he knew what to expect.

He savored the aroma while she
settled herself on the end of the couch, as far from him as she could get while
still having room to sit.

She was close enough for him
to pick up the perfume from the soap she’d used to wash her hands, the warm
essence of her skin, the scent that was all hers.

He shrugged off the unusual
sensations her nearness gave him. Then he took a sip of his coffee, replacing
Eddy’s scent with the rich aroma of the drink. He couldn’t seem to do anything
about his powerful awareness of her. Of this body’s reaction to her presence,
her scent, to every move she made.

He could try to ignore her,
but he didn’t want to. No, not at all. It probably wouldn’t work anyway.

She curled her bare feet under
herself and leaned against the back of the couch, facing him. He turned and sat
much the same way, facing her.

Bumper looked from one of them
to the other, barked once, and jumped up on the couch, filling the gap between
them. She turned around a couple of times and lay down with a loud, contented
sigh. Her fuzzy butt rested on Dax’s bare foot; her chin was on the woman’s
ankle.

“Bumper likes you.” She
stroked the silly-looking beast’s head with her long, slim fingers. “If she
didn’t approve, you wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Dax smiled, vaguely aware that
it was an entirely new facial expression for him. Of course, everything he did
now, everything he felt and said, was new. “Then I guess I’m very glad Bumper
approves. Thank you for battling the demon, for taking care of my injuries. You
saved my life.”

She stared at him for a long,
steady moment, as if digesting his statement. There was still no fear in her.

She would be safer if she were
afraid.

“You’re welcome,” she said.
“Now please explain. Tell me about the garden gnome. What was it, really?”

He arranged his fingers in a
steeple in front of his face and rested his chin on the forefingers. Had the
one who first owned this body found comfort in such a position? No matter. It
was his body now, for however long he could keep it alive, and resting his chin
this way pleased him. “The small statue was inhabited by a demon from the world
of Abyss. They’ve broken through into Earth’s dimension, but the only form they
have here is spirit—that dark, stinking mist you saw after you shattered the
creature was the demon’s essence. They need an avatar, something made of the
earth…ceramic, stone, metal. Nothing alive. The avatar gives form and shape;
the demon provides the life.”

She nodded her head, slowly,
as if digesting his words. “If I hadn’t seen it…Good Lord…I still can’t believe
I saw what I saw out there.” She glanced around the room. “Where’s that little
fairy? The one you called Willow?”

“She’s actually a
will-o’-the-wisp, not a fairy. She’s a protector of sorts. She gathers energy
out of the air and shares it with me. Helps me understand this unfamiliar
world, this body. Right now, she’s sitting on your bookcase. I think she likes
being surrounded by all the little figurines on the top shelf.” He looked over
his shoulder at Willow. Her light pulsed bright blue for a second. Then, once
again, she disappeared among the tiny glass statuettes.

Eddy shook her head. She
laughed, but it sounded forced, like she was strangling. Mostly, her voice was
low, sort of soft and mellow. It fit her.

“I’m generally pretty
pragmatic, unlike my father, who believes every wild story he hears. I can tell
it’s going to be really hard for me to deal with all this. Just point to Willow
as a reminder that the impossible is sometimes possible…. You know, when I look
at you like I think you’re lying.”

“I promise to do that.” He
smiled over the edge of his cup and took a sip of the dark brew. She’d said it
would perk him up, whatever that meant. He did feel more alert. He hoped it
wasn’t because danger was lurking nearby. He still didn’t understand all this
body’s instincts.