Ginny Jones wrapped a clean kitchen towel around her torn fingers and glared at the screeching cat she’d finally managed to shove into the carrier.

Her cousin Markus leaned over her shoulder and sighed. “Poor Tom. I sure hope he’s not rabid.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” She glanced at the blood-soaked towel and then at Markus. “And what do you mean, poor Tom? Did you see what that cat of yours did to my hand?”

Markus shook his head, sending his long dreads flying. “I don’t understand. Tom’s a sweetheart. He’s never even scratched anyone, much less bitten before.”

“Tell that to your neighbor. She’s going to need stitches in her leg, not to mention what he did to my hand. C’mon. We need to get him to the vet so they can quarantine him before animal control shows up, or they might just take him and put him down.”

Markus grabbed the keys off the hook by the back door and picked up the carrier. Tom screeched, a long, low banshee wail that sent goose bumps racing along Ginny’s arms and raised the tiny hairs on the back of her neck. Tom didn’t sound anything like any cat she’d ever heard. Why did that screech sound so eerily familiar?

Like it was skirting with the edges of her memory?

She stared at Tom glaring back at her through the bars of the carrier, but nothing clicked. She’d never seen a cat with eyes like his. They flashed blood red. When he snarled, she was almost certain he had extra rows of teeth.

She shivered again and wrapped her arms around herself. Beyond weird. Everything about the stupid cat was freaking her out. Frowning, Ginny followed Markus at a safe distance through the back door to the garage and watched while he stowed the sturdy carrier in the backseat of the Camry.

Tom howled again. Ginny shook her head. “I don’t like this one bit. Shouldn’t we maybe put him in the trunk?”

Markus ignored her suggestion and got into the driver’s seat. “Get in. No cat of mine rides in the trunk.”

Ginny stared at the red-eyed cat. Tom returned her stare.

Markus glared at her. “You scared of a cat? Cripes, Ginny. Get in.”

She took a deep breath. The last thing she needed was to look like a coward in front of her baby cousin. “Well, if he gets loose from the carrier, you’re putting him back in—and I’m outta here. I’ve bled enough for the cause.” Ginny slammed the door and reached for her seat belt, wondering for the hundredth time what she was doing visiting her cousins in Sedona anyway. It wasn’t like they were all that close, but for some reason she’d gotten a wild hair, packed her bags and headed to Arizona without any plans or advance notice at all.

So far, her timing sucked. She’d barely parked the rental at her aunt’s house when the shit hit the fan. Old Tom, the fattest, laziest-looking cat she’d ever seen, had suddenly launched his porky butt off Aunt Betty’s front porch, screaming like the devil was on his tail.

He’d practically flown over the six-foot hedge separating Aunt Betty’s house from the one next door. Every hair stood on end and he looked like a flying fur ball with fangs. He’d gone straight for the poor neighbor lady who was just getting out of her car with her arms loaded with groceries.

The bags had gone one way, the woman the other, but Tom latched on to her left leg and buried his teeth deep. It had taken both Markus and Ginny to pull the cat off the poor woman, and then he’d taken off, still screaming. Aunt Betty freaked out, grabbed the two little ones, and as far as Ginny knew, she was still hiding in the bedroom with the kids.

Markus with typical teenaged thinking had gone after the cat with a big bass net like it was a four-legged fish. Ginny’d been the one who finally cornered Tom against the fence, but he’d gotten her good with claws and teeth before she managed to shove him in the carrier and latch the damned thing.

Not quite the entrance she’d imagined on the flight from Sacramento to Phoenix. If she had to go through a course of rabies shots, she was going to kill Markus, and anyone else who gave her grief.

Like Alton. Especially Alton.

Now why in the hell would she be thinking of her friend Eddy Marks’s tall, drop-dead gorgeous, egotistical jackass college buddy Alton? They’d barely met, though for some reason Ginny kept associating him with her being here in Sedona, which made no sense whatsoever.

Neither did the fact he’d kissed her the first time she saw him. For some reason, her memories of that kiss were all fuzzy, but she knew they’d locked lips, if only for a moment.

And very nice lips they were, in spite of his bossy attitude. He was a spectacular kisser. She remembered that much, but little else.

Like why. She couldn’t recall anything leading up to the kiss, or even what happened directly after. This wasn’t like her. Not at all, but confusing memories of Alton were all jumbled up with boarding a plane for Phoenix and grabbing a rental car for the drive across the desert to Sedona.

And now she was headed to the local vet with a crazy cat, her crazier kid cousin, and a hand that was bleeding through the dish towel she’d wrapped around the scratches.

If this was a vacation, she’d definitely had better.

 

“Is it always this busy?” Ginny rewrapped the towel around her hand while Markus drove around the block again, looking for a parking place. All the slots at the vet’s clinic were taken and there wasn’t a single empty spot along the road.

Markus shook his head. “Never. Especially on a Saturday morning.”

He finally pulled into the parking lot in front of a grocery store a block away. “I’ll carry the cat.” He glanced at Ginny and seemed to notice the blood-soaked rag for the first time. “Is that still bleeding?”

“Yes, it’s still bleeding. Your sweetheart of a cat nailed me good.” She got out of the car and started walking toward the clinic. Markus fell into step beside her with the carrier clutched in one hand. Tom had quit screeching, but his incessant growling and snarling was almost as bad.

Markus was big for eighteen—at least six foot six with broad shoulders and legs like tree trunks. As tall as she was, Ginny had to look up at him. He might not be the sharpest tack in the box, but she figured if he couldn’t protect her from a stupid cat, no one could.

Though, come to think of it, she was the one bleeding, not her cousin. She was still thinking along those lines when Markus grabbed the door to the clinic and held it open for her. Ginny stepped into total pandemonium.

The small clinic reeked of sulfur, which made no sense at all. Usually vet clinics smelled like cat pee. This one was filled with crying kids, screeching animals—most of them in cages, thank goodness—and a couple of staff members who looked as if they were ready to run and hide. Ginny turned and looked at her cousin.

Markus stared wide-eyed at a large cage holding a big blue macaw. The bird spread its beak wide and screeched. It sounded just like Tom. Markus swallowed with an audible gulp. Ginny took a closer look at the macaw. Teeth. Rows and rows of teeth.

Now, she was no expert, but she’d never heard of birds with teeth. Ginny blinked and refocused, but the macaw’s mouth was still filled with way too many razor-sharp teeth. A sharp yip caught her attention and she glanced down at a scrawny little Chihuahua that was, thankfully, wearing a muzzle.

More teeth. Not just sharp doggy fangs, but rows of shiny, razor-sharp teeth filled the little mutt’s mouth. A lop-eared bunny in a cat carrier just like Tom’s snarled and hissed and curled its lips back. More teeth. Every single animal in the clinic looked like something out of a cheap horror film, all of them snarling and screeching and trying to take bites with mouths filled with way too many rows of sharp teeth.

And just like that, her memories crashed back into her head. The big concrete bear chasing her that night back home in Evergreen, her best friend Eddy’s dad, Ed Marks, and Alton—though she hadn’t known him then, that tall, good-looking friend of Eddy’s from college—rushing out of the darkness and attacking the impossible creature, saving her life.

She saw it like a movie on fast-forward—Alton carrying a huge sword made of glass or crystal, jabbing it into the concrete bear like the thing was made of butter. Jumping up on the creature’s back, riding it like a bucking bronco, with the bear screeching and wailing.

Screeching and wailing, just like the animals here, in the veterinarian’s clinic.

Ginny sucked in a breath as images flowed into her mind. Alton lopping off the concrete bear’s head with a powerful swing of his sword, the crystal blade flashing by in a slashing arc.

The bear crumbling, just turning into a pile of rocks and dust and sulfuric stink, like it had never been alive at all. And the smell. That horrible stench.

Just like this vet clinic in Sedona.

She remembered Alton and Ed walking her home. How could she have forgotten that night? That was the night Alton kissed her! A girl didn’t forget a night like that. It made no sense at all.

Except she was remembering, now. Remembering it as clearly as if it had just happened. The bear, the battle…Alton’s lips. Oh Lordy…his lips, warm and full and so sweet, pressed against hers, moving over her mouth in a whisper of sensation and seduction.

The noise, the screeching animals, the stinky veterinarian’s clinic all faded away as Ginny pressed her fingertips against her lips and let the memories flow.

There’d been another night, too. She blinked as it came into focus. Just the two of them, walking arm in arm down the street to her house, standing on her front porch. She was thinking of inviting Alton in. He’d been just as bossy and arrogant as the first time they’d met, but she’d laughed with him, too, and even though they’d only met the night he’d saved her life, he was really very nice under all that bluster.

How could she forget that he’d offered to stay the night on her front porch? Offered to protect her. That was sweet, even though she didn’t need any protection. Not in her little town of Evergreen on the slopes of Mount Shasta. Safest place in the world.

She remembered saying good night and for some reason she’d kissed his cheek when she’d really wanted nothing more than to drag him inside and take him straight to her bedroom. Her toes actually tingled, remembering. Her womb felt heavy, her breasts full, recalling now how she’d gone in alone and closed the door. Leaned against it, thinking of Alton. Hearing his voice.

Hearing his voice? How could she have forgotten his voice in her head, that sexy whisper…giving her orders?

Damn it all!

Telling me to come to Sedona.

Ginny clenched her hands into fists and bit back a scream that would probably have shut up every screeching animal in the room. It was Alton’s fault! Somehow he’d hypnotized her. That had to be it. He’d hypnotized her and made her forget the bear and his kiss and…

She growled. The macaw shut its big mouth and stared at her, but all Ginny could see was Alton. That insufferable jackass had sent her here. He’d saved her from a bear made of concrete with rows of razor-sharp teeth, a bear that couldn’t have been real, and he’d sent her down here to frickin’ Sedona, Arizona, where the cats and bunnies and birds had the same kind of impossible teeth.

Ginny spun around and glared at her cousin.

Markus took a step back. “What’d I do?”

“Nothing. Not a damned thing.” She took a deep breath and let it out. Something very weird was going on, and Alton was involved, all the way from the tips of his sexy cowboy boots to the top of his beautiful blond head. “I have to make a phone call. You sign in. I’ll be right back.”

 

There wasn’t a stitch of clothing covering her perfect body. She was tall and slim and her stylishly bobbed hair swung against her jaw with each step she took on gloriously long legs. If she hadn’t been trying to kill him, Alton might have found her attractive. Instead, he wrapped both hands around the jeweled hilt of his crystal sword and swung with practiced ease.

The blade sliced cleanly through the juncture between her neck and shoulder. He watched with grim satisfaction as the mannequin’s head bounced off the wall and rolled across the sidewalk. The jaws gaped wide, exposing row after row of razor-sharp teeth framed by perfectly painted pouty lips.

Alton stepped back out of the way, giving Eddy Marks plenty of space to aim the point of her crystal sword. She held DemonSlayer high, slashing through the demonic mist as it flowed through the hole in the mannequin’s plastic neck.

The eerie banshee cry of the escaping demon sent shivers down Alton’s spine. The screech ended abruptly the moment Eddy’s sword sliced into the mist and it burst into flame. All that was left was a puff of foul-smelling smoke.

“Well done, my lady.”

Eddy smiled at the sword in her hand. “Thank you, DemonSlayer.” Then she sheathed her weapon and rose up on her toes to accept a kiss from her beloved Dax.

Alton couldn’t help but think that Dax was one very lucky ex-demon, to find a woman like Eddy Marks, one brave enough to have gained immortality along with her own sentient sword. There weren’t many women like her, not in the world he’d come from.

In fact, there were none like Eddy in the lost world of Lemuria. As far as he knew, she was just as unique to Earth.

“That was a new one,” Eddy said when she finally peeled herself away from Dax. “Have you seen any more like her?” She nodded in the direction of the mannequin lying on the sidewalk.

Alton dragged his gaze away from Eddy and Dax and stared at the mannequin. “Thankfully, no, but this isn’t good. It was bad enough when demons were using ceramic and stone creatures as avatars, but plastic’s a new medium for them. Can you imagine the chaos they’re going to cause? There’s no way to get rid of all the potential hosts for the damned things.”

Dax knelt down and ran his hand over the body, as if he needed to see for himself what it was made of. “What I want to know,” he said, “is where the demons are coming from. All of a sudden, there’s no shortage of them, either. There shouldn’t be so many. Not since Alton sealed the gateway from Abyss.”

Eddy shoved her bangs out of her eyes. “Maybe they’ve opened a new one.”

Nine hells.

The three of them stared at one another. A new portal was the last thing they needed. Alton sighed. Not two weeks ago he’d been a perfectly bored resident of the lost world of Lemuria, wondering why nothing exciting ever happened. Then he’d helped two humans, a tiny will-o’-the-wisp and a mongrel dog escape from a Lemurian prison deep within Mount Shasta, and nothing had been the same since.

Exiled from Lemuria with a price on his head, he’d joined the battle against demonkind’s invasion of Earth. Not that he was complaining about all the changes in his life, but was there no end to the demon invasion?

Of course, Dax and Eddy’s lives had changed just as drastically. Dax the demon had become a DemonSlayer, working for the good guys to halt the demonic invasion of Earth, and Eddy Marks was a newspaper reporter who had saved Dax’s life without a clue what she was getting into. Alton figured she probably hadn’t expected immortality, a demon lover or a crystal sword that talked to her.

And Bumper had been just a dog. The dog barked. Alton leaned over and scratched her curly head. Bumper looked up at him, and Willow’s thoughts flowed into Alton’s mind.

I think that demon was the only one. Bumper and I checked.

Thank you, Willow. And Bumper.

He couldn’t imagine Willow’s life now, trapped inside a mongrel like Bumper. The tiny will-o’-the-wisp had been sent as Dax’s companion, able to draw energy from the air to fuel his demon powers. In that last big battle on Mount Shasta when the demon ate Willow, she’d managed to transfer her consciousness into Bumper just in time. While Dax no longer needed Willow for energy, Alton knew they all needed her as part of their team. Whether she looked like a tiny fairy or a curly blond pit bull, Willow had the soul and spirit of a warrior.

Just like his other companions.

Alton carefully sheathed his sword. HellFire, the crystal sword he’d had since reaching manhood, had finally, after so many millennia, gained sentience and begun to speak. Proof that it finally considered Alton a warrior, a man of respect.

They’d all earned that respect in the final battle with the gargoyle, which explained the crystal swords Dax and Eddy now wielded as well, replicates of his own sword.

DemonFire for Dax, DemonSlayer for Eddy.

Sentient crystal swords, perfect for fighting the demon invasion that threatened to offset the balance between good and evil. Three warriors, their sentient swords and a mongrel dog melded to the mind of a will-o’-the-wisp.

They were all that stood between a demon invasion of Earth and the unsuspecting citizens of this world.

Alton couldn’t help but worry they might not be enough.

Eddy’s cell phone played Ode to Joy. She reached for the phone and turned away to take her call.

A chill raced along Alton’s spine.

 

Eddy stared at the phone in her hand for a long, long time. Then she slowly slipped it back into her jeans pocket. Alton and Dax were deep in conversation, and it looked like BumperWillow was right in there with them.

BumperWillow. Eddy couldn’t think of one without the other. Not anymore. Thank goodness she’d been able to get things straightened out with the shelter and they’d agreed to let her adopt her foster dog, Bumper, or they’d really have been in a fix. When the gargoyle had eaten the little sprite’s body and she’d slipped into the closest available host, at least she’d found one who loved and welcomed her.

The symbiosis between the brave little will-o’-the-wisp and Eddy’s funky mutt couldn’t have been better, though after seeing how gorgeous Willow’d been as a sprite and how silly she looked as a pit bull crossed with a blond poodle, Eddy couldn’t help but wonder if Willow ever had second thoughts about her choice of borrowed body.

But that was the least of Eddy’s problems. Ginny Jones’s phone call had just opened up a whole new can of worms.

“Guys,” Eddy said. “We’ve got a problem.”

 

Alton kept his arms tightly folded across his chest. He was afraid if he didn’t hold himself contained, he’d fly to pieces. Ginny was in danger, and it was his fault. All his fault, for sending her to Sedona.

He’d known there was more than one vortex in that Arizona town, but he hadn’t even thought of the demons using one as a passage from Abyss to Earth’s dimension. No, all he’d thought about was getting Ginny away from Mount Shasta and the demon invasion here, but this community was probably the safest one around for now, especially with the three of them keeping things under control.

He glanced at the headless mannequin lying in the alley.

Well, moderately under control.

This was not good, but the problem in Sedona sounded even worse. Family pets with glowing eyes and multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth? Loving animals suddenly going berserk and attacking their owners? It sure sounded like demon possession to Alton, and he knew the others agreed. Until today, they’d thought demons could only animate things of the earth—ceramic or stone, concrete or clay. Plastic was essentially more of the same, just a different material, but taking on living creatures as avatars took a lot more power, showed more intelligence.

Ginny could be in terrible danger.

BumperWillow whined. Alton looked at Dax and Eddy, and realized they were staring at him too. All three of them. What had he missed?

“Well?” Eddy slapped her hands down on her hips.

Alton blinked. “Well, what?”

She rolled her eyes. “Are you going? Is there a passage through the vortex that will get you to Sedona now so you can check on Ginny? My best friend’s in danger because you sent her there.”

He cringed. “I know. Yes, there’s a passage, and yes, I’ll go.”

Eddy’s sudden smile hinted at something more than mere concern for Ginny. “Be sure and pack some extra clothes,” she said. “You might be gone for a while.”

 

Eddy’s dad, Ed Marks, gunned his old Jeep up the last steep stretch of dirt road. He’d offered to take Alton as far as he could up the rough flank of Mount Shasta, but they’d just about reached the end of the road. Alton knew he still had a good hike ahead of him to find the portal.

The way was steep, the ground slippery with loose rock and scree that often meant slipping back two steps for every step forward, so the ride this far was welcome. Plus, he enjoyed spending time with Ed.

It shouldn’t have surprised him, how much he liked Eddy’s dad, but their close friendship had been an unexpected bonus. Alton figured it was as much his need for a father figure who treated him with respect as the fact Ed was just a hell of a nice guy. His own father still hadn’t accepted that he was an adult, a capable man able to make his own decisions. Ed saw Alton as a warrior, a brave companion to Dax and Eddy.

And he treated Alton like a man grown, which might have been silly under other circumstances. As an immortal, Alton was already centuries older than Ed Marks, something that didn’t seem to bother Ed at all.

He wondered if his own father would ever see him as anything other than a disappointment. What would the ruling senator of the Council of Nine say if he knew his son’s sword was now sentient, that Alton had proven himself as a warrior?

Fat chance of that ever happening. Now that he had a Lemurian death sentence hanging over his head for helping Dax and Eddy escape from their prison cell, Alton had to accept the fact that going back to his world inside the volcano probably wasn’t going to happen.

Still, it was something to dream of—his father actually learning his only son had accomplished what no other Lemurian in recent history had done—he’d established communication with his crystal sword. Even though the story of Lemurians as warriors and demon fighters was a huge part of their history, no one alive now could actually remember anyone strong enough or brave enough to bring their sword to life.

Yet Alton’s sword spoke to him. Respected him enough to communicate, sword to Lemurian.

In fact, he was the only Lemurian alive today who’d actually taken part in a battle with a weapon other than words. While his people took pride in being known as philosophers and statesmen, they’d lost their fighting edge—the very qualities that had kept their society safe for so long.

Just as they’d lost their strongest allies—their sentient, speaking crystal swords. The sword each young man received when he came of age had become nothing more than a fancy ornament.

Crystal swords had no reason to speak to men they didn’t respect. Why talk to a warrior who didn’t know how to fight and wasn’t willing to risk his life for something of importance?

Alton had not only risked his life, he’d discovered an inner strength he hadn’t known he possessed. He’d proved to both his sword and himself that he was a warrior, one willing to die for a cause he believed in—protecting the known worlds from the threat of demonkind. All of them—Eden, Earth, Atlantis, and Lemuria—were at risk from the encroaching evil of Abyss.

The danger of reaching a tipping point, of the ages old balance of good and evil finally slipping over to the dark side was still very real. Thank goodness the demon invasion of Earth had barely gotten under way before the Edenites recognized the threat and recruited Dax, a fallen demon, out of the void. With his borrowed human body and Willow by his side, he’d become the perfect leader in the fight against demonkind, against a demon king powerful enough and smart enough to lead the demon hordes to victory.

Gaining strength by the hour within his stone gargoyle avatar, the demon king had almost won. Dax’s brave sacrifice and Eddy’s strength and determination in the face of certain death had bought a temporary victory when Eddy’d courageously risked death by wielding Alton’s crystal sword.

The demon king was gone, for now. But, he’d be back.

Had he resurfaced in Sedona?

Alton stared at the trees they passed and thought about Dax and Eddy and the love between them that seemed to grow stronger each day. He’d be jealous if he didn’t love both of them so much. Eddy was brave and true, and Dax, a man who had begun as a demon, had shown more integrity and good than anyone Alton had ever known in Lemuria. Dax and Eddy deserved the immortal love they’d found with one another.

So why did that make him think of Ginny Jones? She was nothing like Eddy Marks. Nothing at all. Ginny was mortal, her life no more than a tiny blip on his life’s screen. Plus, she was stubborn and opinionated and had no respect for a woman’s place—a woman’s role as the helpmate to her man. Not that Eddy was anything like the Lemurian women Alton had known, either, but she was Dax’s problem.

Did that make Ginny his?

The engine revved up and the Jeep’s wheels spun as forward motion ceased. Alton glanced at Ed.

The older man shrugged. “This is as far as I can go, Alton. You’ll have to hoof it the rest of the way.” He slipped the gears into neutral but left the engine running. The trail wound upward from here, climbing through the last of the trees before it crossed areas of slippery scree, the shattered stones that littered the sides of the dormant volcano above the tree line.

Alton climbed out of the Jeep. He checked his scabbard to make certain his sword was secure, grabbed his pack and slung it over his shoulder. “Thanks, Ed.” He glanced around, orienting himself. A harmless-looking pile of rocks lay beside the road.

Harmless now, but they were the remnants of the gargoyle that had become the avatar of a powerful demon. Eddy had destroyed the avatar with her singular act of bravery, but she’d missed the demon’s soul and it had escaped back to Abyss. Unfortunately, it could still return to create havoc on Earth.

Alton shook his head. “Hard to believe this is the same place where we fought the demon—and almost lost.”

Ed sighed. “I’ll admit, I’ve never been so afraid in my life. For myself, for my friends—the image of that monster twisting Dax’s body and throwing him to the ground still wakes me up at night. I never thought I’d see the boy alive again.” He cleared his throat, wiped a hand over his eyes. “The truth, though? Mostly, Alton, I was afraid for my daughter. Her bravery astounds me, even now.”

Alton reached out and shook Ed’s hand. “We don’t need to worry about Eddy. She’s a lot tougher than she looks.”

Breaking into laughter, Ed threw the Jeep into gear. “That she is, son. Now you get. I’m worried about Ginny. She doesn’t know what we went through here, so she doesn’t have any idea what she’s up against. You go take care of that girl.” He winked, turned the Jeep and headed down the hill.

Alton watched until the Jeep disappeared into the forest. Then he started the long hike up the hill. The mountain might be the vortex, but there were only a couple of places where he could cross into the other dimensions and access the portal that would take him to Sedona.

Or the one that led to Lemuria.

No. He couldn’t think about home. He’d made his choice when he helped Dax and Eddy escape from their Lemurian prison cell. He’d walked away from everyone and everything he’d known and loved his entire life, but he’d chosen for the greater good.

He wondered if his friend Taron had had any luck at all convincing the council to join the battle against demonkind. That was Alton’s only hope of ever going back home. Taron could be persuasive, but were his powers of persuasion a match for the council’s stubbornness?

The sun had moved to the west by the time Alton paused in front of a mass of tumbled boulders and knew he’d reached the portal. He wrinkled his nose against the stench of sulfur. There shouldn’t be any sign of demons here, but their smell was all around him. That made no sense. He’d closed the portal to Abyss.

Unless they’d managed to open a new one.

Alton faced the lichen-covered rock, but before he stepped through, he removed his sword from his scabbard. As he wrapped his fingers around HellFire’s jeweled hilt, he realized how much the sword’s sentience had changed things. He no longer felt alone—not when he had HellFire beside him. Addressing the crystal blade, he asked, “Do you smell their stench as I do?”

The hilt vibrated in his hand. “I do,” the sword answered. “I’m ready.”

With a nod, Alton stepped through the portal, walking through what appeared to be solid rock. The dark cavern he entered glistened with the light from the various gateways leading to other dimensions—the green and turquoise that led to Atlantis, the gold and silver that would take him to Eden—and certain death should he attempt to pass into that hallowed land.

The portal glowing gold would take him home, to Lemuria, a land where he’d always been welcome. Now, were he to attempt to cross into Lemuria, he feared he faced death as surely as if he’d tried to enter Eden’s sanctuary.

Facing Ginny Jones and a whole passel of demonkind sounded a lot safer.

Alton turned his back on the gateway to his home world. The one that had once led to Abyss was still sealed shut. Why, then, did he smell the sulfuric stench of demons? Where were they coming from?

He held his glowing sword high and used the light HellFire cast to search along the stone walls. A small portal, tucked into a nook toward the back of the cavern, glowed with the colors of a setting sun.

Sedona. He recognized the multicolored hues of red rock and blue skies, but swirling within the portal’s depths he sensed something else.

Demonkind.

Demons had passed this way, and not so long ago. Were they somehow making their way from Abyss to Sedona, and then north through the connected vortexes to Mount Shasta? He’d have to ask Eddy and Dax about that.

After he got to Sedona.

He touched the cell phone Eddy had tucked into his pocket and wished it worked within the portals, but Eddy’d explained to him how they needed towers to carry the signal, and there certainly weren’t any deep inside the volcano.

Alton took a step toward the portal, but he caught himself, pausing in midstep as a dark mist slipped through the multicolored gateway. Silently it flowed along the wall toward the portal leading to the flank of Mount Shasta.

Demon!

His sword vibrated with power. Alton swung. The crystal blade connected with the black mist and it screeched and burst into flame. Crackling and sizzling, it disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving only the stench behind.

Alton stared at the spot where the demon had emerged. A shiver raced along his spine. This one had come directly from Sedona. His heart gave an unfamiliar lurch. Ginny was in Sedona—and so were the demons.

Demons powerful enough to take on living creatures as their personal avatars. Creatures strong enough to kill.

Holding his sword aloft, Alton stepped through the portal.

 

“Who’d you have to call?”

Markus’s question snapped Ginny out of her convoluted thoughts. “Eddy. I called my friend Eddy Marks.”

“I hope it was important.” Markus backed out of the parking place he’d taken at the supermarket. Without Tom. The vet had insisted on keeping the cat for observation, which suited Ginny perfectly. Damned cat had really chewed up her hand. She peeked under the bloody towel and wished she hadn’t looked.

“You were gone so long I had to take Tom into the vet by myself.”

Ginny scowled at him. Her hand still hurt like the blazes and not once had Markus thanked her for risking life and limb while catching his stupid cat. “Well, Tom is your cat, cousin of mine, and I would really like to get back to the house so I can clean up the mess your sweetheart of a cat made of my hand.”

Markus stared straight ahead. “Aren’t you gonna ask me what the vet said?”

Ginny shook her head. “I figured you’d tell me if he had any idea what happened.”

Markus curled up one lip and made a snorting noise. “He says they’re all possessed. I knew he was into crystals and vortexes and all that New Age stuff, but I thought it was just for show. He’s dead serious.”

“Possessed? By what? The ghost of Christmas past?” Ginny stared out the side window as Markus drove the few blocks home. Possessed. It sounded totally unbelievable, but how else do you explain a cat with four rows of teeth, glowing red eyes and a scream like a banshee on meth? A scream that sounded horribly familiar.

Since her memories of that crazy night in Evergreen had begun to resurface, Ginny’d had the sound of the bear’s ear-shattering scream in her head. A scream that was nothing more than a louder version of the strange howl coming from Markus’s fat old cat.

Had the bear been possessed? Had some sort of evil entity turned a concrete statue into a slavering, screaming killer? Something made it come to life. She hadn’t imagined the damned thing, though she’d thought it was just a weird nightmare.

But all those animals at the vet’s—the birds and bunnies, cats and dogs—every last one of them acted unnervingly similar. Screeching, trying to bite, flashing those rows of sharp teeth, and staring out of glowing eyes.

Possession didn’t sound all that crazy when you took it in context with what they’d seen today.

With what had attacked her just a few days ago.

Markus drove the car into the driveway and pulled into the garage. He shut off the engine and turned in his seat to glare at her. “You’re making fun of it now, Ginny Jones, but how else do you explain all those animals? They weren’t normal. Birds don’t have teeth. Rabbits don’t hiss and snarl and screech like that little bunny we saw today. Something’s making them act crazy. If they’re not possessed, what’s going on?”

Without waiting for an answer, Markus got out of the car and slammed the door. Ginny sat in the front seat for a few minutes, thinking of Tom and the other animals they’d seen at the veterinarian’s clinic, thinking of the concrete grizzly that had attacked her.

Thinking of Eddy’s friend, Alton. Why did she know he was the reason she couldn’t remember anything? Now that she was away from him, the memories were coming back. She recalled him saving her from the bear, walking with her, even laughing with her.

Most of all, she remembered his kiss.

What she couldn’t remember was why he’d kissed her—or why she’d kissed him. One thing she knew for certain—he was the only reason she’d come to Sedona.

None of this made sense, and Eddy hadn’t been much help, either. She’d merely said to hold tight, that she was sending someone, but she wouldn’t give Ginny any details about who or why or what the hell was going on.

Muttering under her breath, Ginny rewrapped the bloody towel around her hand and followed Markus into the house.

 

Covering vast distances via the vortex was more disorienting than moving between dimensions, but the one thousand and thirty miles between Mount Shasta in northern California and Bell Rock in Sedona, Arizona, took less than a minute down a dark tunnel lit only by HellFire’s crystal light.

The sun was beginning to set when Alton sheathed his sword, passed through the portal and stepped out on the rocky ground near the top of Bell Rock, one of many vortexes in and around Sedona. He stood for a moment, lost in the glory of a desert sunset and the brilliant red of the rugged, wind-shaped bluffs. The gentle breeze seemed to sing to him—a deep hum that resonated within his…

“Where the hell did he come from?”

Alton spun to his left and blinked. Row after row of men and women, most of them wearing loose robes or colorful skirts, sat cross-legged in the dirt.

Meditating?

Well crap and nine hells. He’d materialized out of solid rock, right in the middle of a yoga class.

Straightening to his full height, Alton pressed his hands together beneath his chin and bowed his head. His waist-length blond hair, unbound, flowed over his shoulders like silk; and he knew his almost seven feet of height, aided a bit by his boots, made him look pretty impressive.

With any luck, his appearance alone might help him get out of here without too much trouble, considering the audience.

“I come from within.” He kept his voice unnaturally deep and bowed his head once again. Then, biting back a powerful urge to laugh, he looked straight ahead and walked past the rows of stunned yoga practitioners.

Popping out of the portal in the midst of an evening meditation class hadn’t been an issue the last time he was here. Of course, it had been a while—give or take six hundred years.

Obviously, he really needed to get out more.

Alton found a well-traveled trail that took him down off the mountain and into a parking area. The light was beginning to fade and only a few cars and one old, beat-up-looking bus remained. He figured the bus must be here for the group he’d surprised up on top.

Maybe he could catch a ride into town with them…or not. Grinning at the thought of Lemurian royalty hitching a ride on an old bus painted with rainbows and flowers, Alton set his backpack down and pulled the cell phone Eddy had given him out of his pocket.

He carefully followed the steps Eddy’d shown him, found Ginny’s number, and pushed the button to connect the call. He almost shouted when Ginny answered on the second ring, but he managed to control himself.

“Is this Virginia Jones?” he asked.

There was a long silence. Long enough that Alton wondered if he’d done something wrong.

“Who’s this?”

Nope. That was Ginny. “This is Alton. Eddy Marks’s friend.”

“How’d you get my number?”

Definitely Ginny.

“From Eddy. Ginny, I’m in Sedona. Would you be able to come get me?”

“Sedona? How the hell did you get to Sedona so fast? I just talked to Eddy a couple of hours ago, and there’s no way you could have come…”

“I’m here, Ginny, and I’ll explain everything once I see you. I’m in the parking lot at Bell Rock. Do you know where that is?”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. And you’d better have some answers for me because I’ve definitely got questions for you.”

Before he could answer, the line went dead. Alton stared at the phone for a moment before calling one more number. Eddy’s voice mail came on. He left a message and wondered where she’d gone, why she hadn’t answered the phone. Then he tucked it in his pocket and leaned against a rock. Folding his arms across his chest, he waited impatiently for Ginny while the night grew dark around him.