Chapter
Twenty-Four
StarFire? Can you help me? What should I do? Selyn hadn’t moved, but she knew the demon squatted beside her. Knew by the stench of his body and his foul breath. She’d managed not to shudder when he ran one talon down the front of her robe, parting the fabric so that it gaped open, exposing her breasts.
No, she’d kept her eyes closed and her
body as still as death. She would not scream. She refused to show
him fear. For now, he thought her unconscious, but for how
long?
Help
comes.
StarFire’s soft words gave her
courage. She bit back a moan. Dawson! It had to be Daws. Would he get here
soon enough? What did this thing want with her? It was massive—at
least three times the size it had been yesterday.
The way the demons behaved today
finally made sense.
Somehow the demon king had stolen
their life force. He’d drawn it off of the thousands of demons
swarming Lemuria, and he’d taken it into himself. That had to be
how he’d gained so much size and strength. How he’d managed to pick
her up and take her away. But why had he chosen her? What could he
possibly want with a slave?
No. Not a
slave. A Paladin. A guardian of Lemuria—a powerful warrior, armed
with crystal. She had to keep reminding herself, she
was a woman of value now. A woman of worth.
A woman loved by a wonderful man who
was coming, even now, to save her.
She sensed the change in the air
currents at the same moment the demon king let out a furious
shriek, leapt to his feet, and spun away from her. Finally, Selyn
risked opening her eyes. Light shimmered all around—a thousand
lights reflecting from the walls and ceiling.
The crystal
cave! She was in the cave where Taron had replicated
her sword and the swords for all the other women. Carefully,
without moving at all, she glanced around, trying to find where her
captor had gone. She spotted the ruby altar, saw a few primitive
candles burning in the same sconces where Taron had set glow
sticks.
It didn’t take many to light a chamber
made of diamonds.
A dog barked.
The demon king shrieked again, but his
voice came from the far side of the cavern. Selyn leapt to her feet
and drew StarFire.
“Selyn! Selyn, where are
you?”
“Here, Dawson! I’m over
here!”
Dawson stood at the entrance to the
cavern. She saw the shadows of others behind him—Ginny and Alton.
Two she’d not met before, who she deduced must be Mari, and Darius,
Dax, Eddy—and Bumper, who raced across the chamber at full tilt so
intent on reaching Selyn that she ran much too close to the demon
king.
The beast reached for the dog but she
yipped and scrambled out of his way, tumbling head over heels in
her rush to get to Selyn. Selyn knelt and hugged the wriggling,
quivering dog, getting more than her share of wet, sloppy
kisses.
She heard Dawson curse. Hugging Bumper
to hold her still, Selyn looked up as Dawson, Dax, and Eddy
attacked the demon king.
She shoved her fist against her mouth
to keep from screaming as Dawson lunged for the beast, thrusting
hard and fast with DemonsDeath, drawing some kind of thick, dark
blood with the crystal blade. Dax and Eddy moved in on one side,
Alton and Ginny on the other, all of them slashing and stabbing as
the demon king howled and reached out with his four, long,
multi-jointed arms.
Dawson pivoted away from the
creature’s talons and raced toward Selyn, grabbed her in his arms,
and held on as if he’d never let her go. She felt him shudder,
sensed the fear and the anger he’d been holding inside, and she
kissed him. Held his face in her hands and kissed him
hard.
“Dear God, I thought I’d lost you.” He
trembled from head to foot.
She held on to him even tighter.
“Never,” she said. “No matter what, I will always find my way back
to you.”
“Are you all right?” He tipped her
chin up with his fingertip and kissed her once again.
“I am. C’mon. We have to end this.
Now.”
Dawson nodded, but he kissed her once
more, grabbed her hand, and they ran across the cavern, closer to
the battle.
“Dax. Look!” Eddy used her sword to
point at the dark puddle gathering in the dirt wherever the demon
king stepped. “It’s bleeding from the wound Daws left, just like
the gargoyle—it’s real now, not merely a wraith.”
“If it can bleed, it can die!” Dax
lunged at the demon king and slashed rather than thrust. The
unexpected move caught the beast off guard, and DemonFire cut
through one of his multi-jointed arms as if it were made of
butter.
The limb fell to the ground, twitching
and grasping, as if it was trying to crawl away. The demon screamed
and slashed at Dax, but Dax had already pivoted and spun out of
reach.
Eddy cursed and jumped out of reach as
the demon shifted direction, pivoted on one leg and went straight
for her. Dax leapt between them, cutting and stabbing with his
crystal blade, but two of the demon’s three remaining arms snaked
out and snagged his shirt with long, curved talons.
Dax cursed, but he couldn’t pull free.
Alton and Ginny closed in from one side, Darius and Eddy from the
other. Dawson and Selyn split up, each moving to opposite sides of
the demon.
Selyn stalked the demon, with StarFire
in her hand and Bumper on her heels. Mari stood to one side,
chanting some sort of spell with her arms held high.
Dawson watched the witch for mere
seconds when something clicked. He shouted to her, “Mari, call on
the spirits.” He slashed at the demon’s legs, but the creature
danced away, spinning out of reach with unexpected speed and
agility. The demon king still hung on to Dax with two of his arms,
like a child holding a rag doll.
“The spirits, Mari,” Dawson repeated.
“Artigos’s sword mentioned waiting for rebirth in Mother Crystal.
He meant this cave. The warrior’s spirits are here. Call the
spirits of the warrior women. They’re here. I can feel
them.”
Mari nodded, and her voice rang out
until the crystal walls of the cavern vibrated. The demon tried to
spin faster, as if to take Dax away, but something seemed to hold
him back. Alton buried his blade in the demon king’s back, and
Ginny attacked with DarkFire. Flames shot from her blade whenever
she connected with the beast, but instead of weakening, he seemed
to grow stronger.
“Damn you!” Eddy drove forward with
her blade and slashed at the demon’s legs. “He’s stealing Dax’s
life force. We’ve got to stop him!”
The demon king clutched Dax against
his chest, but Dax no longer struggled. Instead, he hung there,
limp and lifeless.
“No!” Selyn charged the demon king at
the same time that Eddy leapt to the top of the ruby altar and from
there to the creature’s back. Clinging to his shoulders, she swung
DemonSlayer across his throat and began to saw at the thick, corded
muscle guarded by heavy scales.
Ginny stabbed frantically, burying
DarkFire in his side and legs. Sparks flashed and blood flowed, but
it was hard to attack without risking Dax.
Dax, who dangled helplessly in the
demon king’s grasp.
Mari’s chant created an absurd, almost
musical backdrop to the life and death battle, but her voice never
wavered. Instead, she seemed to grow stronger. Light flashed all
around, as if the crystals embedded in the cavern walls had come to
life; they pulsed in time with her spell.
The room grew brighter; the pulse of
life took on sound, and the beat of many hearts filled the chamber.
White wraiths spilled out of the walls, bursting forth from the
crystals, swirling through and over the demon king, filling the
small space between the hideous creature and Dax’s body. Wherever
one touched, the demon burst into boils and burned flesh, until it
howled in agony, yet the white wraiths covered Dax with a
protective blanket that held him apart from the demon.
Screeching, the demon king shook hard
enough to dislodge Eddy. She fell to the ground with DemonSlayer
clutched in her hand, rolled out of the way, and rose shakily to
her feet.
The wraiths continued their graceful
attack, floating over and around the demon king, slowly but surely
destroying his skin and scales with nothing but their gentle
touch.
Howling and wailing, he tried to spin
but somehow the wraiths controlled the beast and held him to this
spot. Finally, shrieking and bleeding, the demon king dropped Dax
and backed away with BumperWillow snapping at his bleeding
legs.
The dog avoided the blood and the
gore. Selyn realized why when the demon shook its head and a drop
of dark blood splashed on her arm. Her skin sizzled as if from an
acid burn.
Mari’s chant continued, growing
stronger, louder, and the sense of power within the crystal cavern
grew. The white wraiths circled the demon king, spinning faster and
faster until he was lost in a swirling blanket of glowing white
light. Then, with a final, ear-splitting scream, the demon seemed
to collapse in upon itself. It disappeared in a flash of light and
disgustingly familiar sulfuric stench.
The white wraiths floated away,
hovered for a moment overhead, and then settled on Dax where he lay
immobile on the hard ground. Eddy knelt beside him, holding his
hand, weeping softly.
Selyn broke free of Dawson’s grasp and
ran to Eddy. “We need to use our blades. They’ll share their life
force with him. I know they will. That’s how we saved
Dawson.”
Eddy didn’t hesitate. She grabbed her
sword and placed it over Dax’s heart. Dawson and the others pulled
theirs, and all of them lay the blades across Dax. The white
wraiths continued to hover, covering him with a sense of life and
hope impossible to ignore.
Long moments later, his eyes fluttered
and then opened. Selyn reached for Dawson’s hand and held on
tightly as Dax slowly regained consciousness. Finally, he smiled at
Eddy. “I bet you’re getting really tired of this, aren’t you?” He
reached for her, and she tumbled into his arms, crying and laughing
at the same time.
Selyn finally looked away from the two
and glanced about. The white wraiths were gone. “Where are they?”
She gazed in Mari’s direction. “The spirits of the warrior women.
Did you see them? Where did they go?”
Mari waved her hands. “Into the
crystal walls. They must be part of this cavern. Maybe that’s why
Taron was sent here to replicate the swords—because the spirits
that bring them to life live here.”
Dax slowly sat up with Eddy’s help. He
still looked weak, but his color was returning. “They kept me
alive. They were sharing their life force with me, even as the
demon king was siphoning mine away.” He shook his head. “Such a
feeling of goodness, as if they were everything the demon king
isn’t.”
He looked at Ginny. “Is it dead this
time? I saw you nail him with DarkFire.”
She shook her head. “No. I think he’d
already drawn too much power—from the other demons during the
night, and from you just now. He’s gone, but I have a feeling he’ll
be back.”
“How can we kill him?” Mari wrapped
her arms around Darius and leaned against his side. “What will
destroy him for good? This fight will go on until he’s dead and
gone.”
Eddy stood up and held out a hand to
Dax. When he took it, she tugged him to his feet. “I think it’s
going to take everything we have, a combination of magic and
crystal.” She glanced around them at the crystal walls. “And maybe
even the spirits of long-dead women warriors. I wish we knew for
sure.” She turned to Dax. “You okay to head back?”
“I am,” he said. “Thank you. All of
you. And Selyn, I’m so sorry for what happened to
you.”
“Sorry? Why should you be sorry?”
Selyn looked at Dax and finally just shook her head and laughed.
“It’s not your fault, Dax. I’m okay. I think, after this, I can
survive anything. I’m a lot tougher than I ever realized, and it’s
because of all of you.”
BumperWillow barked. “And you, too,
Bumper. And Willow.” She grabbed Dawson’s hand. His warm fingers
wrapped around hers and she squeezed his in return. Definitely
stronger than she’d ever dreamed.
Dawson held on to Selyn’s hand all the
way back to the main levels of Lemuria. He wasn’t about to let her
go for anything. Not yet. Her abduction was too recent, the fear
he’d felt when that monster stole her away still a knife to his
heart.
All he could think of was taking her
back to Alton’s quarters and making love in that perfect pool, but
the minute they reached the main plaza, he figured that was one
dream that was going to have to be put on hold.
Artigos the Just and Artigos the
younger called out to them as they slipped through the portal.
Taron stood right behind the two leaders with his arms folded over
his chest. His expression was impossible to read.
Alton stepped forward. “The demon king
was badly wounded, but we don’t think he’s dead. He’s probably
escaped back to Abyss. I’m sorry that we failed.”
His grandfather stepped forward and
wrapped his arms around Alton. “You’ve not failed. You’ve returned
Selyn safely and brought your comrades back unharmed. That was your
goal, wasn’t it?”
Alton glanced at all of them and
slowly nodded. “I guess you’re right, Grandfather.” He turned to
his father and held out his hand. “I hope you’ll forgive me for the
actions I ordered against you.”
His father grabbed Alton’s hand and
pulled him into a warm embrace. “You saved my life, son. I will be
forever grateful that you had the courage of your beliefs . . .”
His voice broke, and he took an audible breath, but he didn’t
release his son. “. . . that you were willing to risk all for
Lemuria. I couldn’t be more proud. Your mother feels the
same.”
Alton pulled back. “Have you spoken
with her?”
“I have. Taron and I went through the
portal, and I contacted her. The snow is still much too deep to
traverse, so we’ll need Mari’s magic to get back to Evergreen, but
for now she is safe with Spirit, Freedom, and Ed. They’ve seen no
sign of demonkind since we left Evergreen.”
“What about Markus?” Ginny glanced at
Eddy. “Eddy, didn’t you just say your dad was going to try to reach
him?”
Artigos sighed. “Markus hasn’t
answered his phone, but Ed said that wasn’t all that unusual.
They’re going to keep trying, and we’ll make contact again
tomorrow. Now that you’re back, though, we need to discuss our
future plans for Lemuria. There’s an army to organize, a new
government under your grandfather’s rule, new members of the
Council of Nine to choose. . . .”
He grabbed Alton’s arm and turned
away, obviously intent on going straight to work on everything that
could be done now. Dawson glanced at Selyn. She winked, grabbed his
hand, and tugged him toward a small portal he’d not noticed
before.
Without drawing anyone’s attention,
the two of them slipped through the portal, into one of the narrow
passages generally used by the Lemurian guards.
It was also a wonderful shortcut to
Alton’s quarters. Laughing at their escape, Dawson let Selyn tug
him along the passage and through another portal into the private
rooms.
“Do you think they know where we are?”
Selyn kissed his chin, but her fingers were busy tugging at the
ties holding the neck of his robe closed.
“Do you think they care?” Dawson
grabbed the sides of her robe and pulled it over her head. She was
entirely nude beneath the soft folds. “If I’d known before what
Lemurians wore under these things, I might not have insisted on
giving you my old scrubs.”
Selyn giggled, still tugging at the
ties she’d managed to tangle into a knot. Dawson leaned close and
rubbed his beard over the sensitive tips of her
nipples.
“That’s not fair.” She gasped when he
turned his head and nibbled with his teeth.
“I think it is.” He sucked the entire
nipple between his lips, tugging until Selyn rose up on her toes,
but when he released the pressure, she spun out of his way and
grabbed his robe, tugging it over his head without untying
it.
“Ouch! I’ve gotten used to keeping
both ears, thank you.”
Laughing, she pulled harder until the
fabric finally came free. They’d managed to work their way down the
passage to the bathing room as they undressed. Dawson kicked off
his boots and grabbed Selyn up in his arms.
Then, slowly, and with many dips and
kisses, he lowered her into the water. Steam rose all around, and
Selyn was slippery as an eel, but he held her tight against his
chest and kept her there as he sat on a ledge beneath the water’s
surface. It bubbled all around them, washing away the stench of
demonkind, soothing and removing fear and loss. Cleansing them in a
way that renewed Dawson, that energized Selyn.
Holding her against him, Daws felt the
tension seeping out of his bones. He allowed his muscles to relax,
let the events of the day fade away with the wisps of steam
floating on the surface of the water.
His life had changed, but so had
Selyn’s. Dawson had the strange feeling that they were merely in
the midst of a chapter of a much larger story, that the events
leading to this moment in time were nothing more than bullet points
on a much longer list.
He’d never imagined finding love. Not
like this. Never dreamed he’d find himself playing the part of a
warrior, a member of an elite group charged with saving an entire
civilization from demonkind, but he was.
Selyn nuzzled beneath his chin and
kissed him softly. “I love you, Dawson Buck. No matter what comes,
no matter where our lives lead, I swear I will always love you.
Forever.”
He returned her kiss, opening his
thoughts to her, sharing everything that filled his heart. “Always
is a damned long time. Are you sure about that?”
“Oh, yeah.” She snuggled close, slick
and warm and perfectly aligned to take him deep inside. Sighing as
he filled her, she tightened her grasp around his neck, rested her
forehead close to his. Kissed him. Then she kissed him
again.
“I’m sure,” she said, nuzzling the
soft beard covering his jaw. “I just hope forever’s long
enough.”