The faces were pure evil. Twisted, loathsome things coming at her from all directions—horrific creatures beyond even her worst nightmares.

Demonkind.

She stood alone—all alone except for DarkFire. She grasped her crystal sword in her right hand and planted her feet firmly. She knew she had to fight, had to protect…someone. She wasn’t sure whom she guarded, but she knew it was important.

Knew she could not afford to fail.

She called out to DarkFire, but the crystal didn’t respond. The voice was silent. The shimmering crystal blade had gone dark and dull. She stared at the flat, dark blade, shocked by DarkFire’s silence.

The creatures loomed closer. Voice or no voice, she had to fight, but why couldn’t she lift her sword? Her arm had no strength, her hand no sense of touch. As she stared at her fingers clutching the hilt, DarkFire fell from her grasp. When the sword hit the ground, the crystal blade shattered. The sound of breaking crystal echoed, repeating over and over like waves against the shore growing louder, more strident with each repetition.

She stood there, alone in the darkness with a broken sword, an arm without strength, a hand that had failed her, and she was more afraid than she’d ever been in her life. Terror washed over her, fear unlike anything she’d ever known, but it wasn’t the advancing demons that frightened her, or even the sword that lay in scattered shards of amethyst across the dark floor. No. Her fear was based on something worse, something beyond the monsters, more than shattered crystal.

She was alone. Isolated by her own choice, set apart to fight or flee by her own design. DarkFire was gone—destroyed now, her sentience lost because Ginny had been too cowardly to commit. Even Alton had abandoned her and turned away in disgust. She’d proved herself unworthy in so many ways. She no longer deserved to carry crystal. Even worse, she’d shown herself unworthy of love.

Her life was empty and the demons were coming, but she had no strength left to fight, no will to continue.

No strength, no help, no hope. The demons were all around, but this was the choice she’d made. She’d done this to herself.

She’d chosen this path. Chosen it all on her own.

Ginny lay there in the darkness as reality slowly pulled her free of the nightmare. Her arm was numb, probably from sleeping on it. Something big and heavy held her down. She should have been terrified, but she was warm and cozy and it was still dark in the room. Instead of fear, she felt protected as she rubbed her face against a solid, warm wall of…Alton?

Blinking, Ginny struggled the rest of the way out of sleep, away from a dream of horrific creatures and fears that were even more terrible to imagine. Thank goodness Alton was here, his body close and warm, the weight of his leg across her thighs the physical proof he’d not really turned away.

Only in her nightmare, in the deepest fears of her subconscious mind.

But what of DarkFire? Would the sentience in her sword abandon her if she refused the challenge she’d been offered? What kind of coward walked away from sentient crystal, from a battle that was nothing less than a holy war pitting the powers of good against the encroachment of pure evil?

I did. I have.

Good Lord.

No wonder Alton was disgusted with her.

Or was he? Would he be here beside her if he didn’t still like her at least a little? What if he didn’t? What if he’d finally realized what a fool and a coward she really was?

She’d never really thought of herself as a needy person, but right now, Ginny needed. Forget pride, forget fear, forget everything that might deter her from her goal. She needed Alton, but she wasn’t sure how he felt about her.

Crap, she wasn’t even certain how she felt about him! She liked him a lot, but she didn’t know if she loved him. Did that really matter? She didn’t have any promises that either of them would live through the coming battle against an unthinkable foe, but if her dream had taught her anything, it was that she had to get her priorities straight.

DarkFire had nailed it perfectly. There were other women who could handle her dispatcher’s job at Shascom, but only Ginny could wield DarkFire. Only Ginny Jones had the strength and the ability to carry the dark crystal sword, the only sword they knew of that showed demons in their true guise.

It was time to stand up in spite of her fears. Time to act like a grown-up, which meant she must accept DarkFire’s challenge. Somehow she needed to find the strength to face the evil that was coming, to stand against the threat of demonkind.

She needed the strength to take a chance, to take control of her own future. But first, she had to admit that, for all her bravery and all her tough words, she needed the man who slept beside her.

It was definitely time for that.

The question was, could she open herself enough to allow him inside those private recesses of her heart? Inside her mind? No man had ever touched her heart, not like this. No man had ever made her feel needy and uncertain. It terrified her even as she felt tempted by the strength of his arms, seduced by the honesty of his character and by the innate goodness of the man.

He treated her as an equal even though he came from a world that looked at women as lesser beings. He’d never tried to hold her back, had never asked her to be less than she was. He’d been proud of her fighting strength, proud of her ability to carry crystal. Not once had he treated her as if she didn’t matter.

Because, to Alton, she did matter. She mattered greatly. No one—man or woman—had ever held her in such high esteem. She had no doubt of that, but was it enough? Enough to change her life, to give up all she’d worked for, what she was familiar with?

Not if you’re a frickin’ coward, it’s not.

Is that what this was all about? Was she just too big a coward to take a chance on whatever was building between them?

Ginny Jones isn’t afraid of anything.

Well, not usually, but this was all new, unexplored territory. Not just fighting demons—this meant accepting love.

Giving herself over to love.

There. She’d labeled it, the thing that had her so freaked out. Was it fear of falling in love that held her back? If that was it, she was a bigger coward than she’d thought.

She drew in a deep breath and inhaled his scent, the warm, sleepy smell of shampoo and soap and man. Tears filled her eyes, unexpected and unwelcome. What the hell was wrong with her?

“Ginny?”

Alton’s drowsy mumble tickled her ear.

“Hmm?” She nuzzled his chest and quickly blocked her thoughts. Damn. Had he been snooping around in her head?

“Are you okay?”

His words were clearer, his body suddenly taut, muscles tense and hard.

“I’m fine. Go back to sleep.” She forced herself to relax.

His long fingers stroked along her flank, over the curve of her buttock. Her hips tilted of their own volition, bringing her belly up close against his rising erection. He fit tightly against the swell of her stomach, a burning brand she couldn’t ignore—didn’t want to ignore.

“I’m awake now.” He nuzzled the soft skin beneath her jaw and nipped her throat with sharp teeth. “I want you, Ginny. I need to be inside you. I want to taste you and touch you and make love to you.”

He punctuated his soft whispers with kisses that traced the swell of her breast and ended when his lips fastened around her tightly puckered nipple. He sucked hard, drawing it into his mouth.

She arched her back and cried out. His teeth scraped the sensitive tip and his fingers stroked her flank. He moved to her other breast, suckling and licking, pulling the nipple painfully tight between his full lips. She concentrated so intently on the way his mouth ravaged her breast, she lost track of his roaming fingers.

But not for long.

His tongue pressed her nipple against the roof of his mouth at the same time his long fingers slipped beneath the elastic waist of her panties and slowly but certainly plundered the cleft between her legs. Two long fingers, stroking deeply inside while his thumb made tiny circles over her clit.

She whimpered as he teased her, as he showed her what her body was capable of feeling. All so new, so unbelievable. She wasn’t like this—she’d never been this responsive, her body so sensitive, her heart so unguarded. His mouth and lips, teeth and tongue, and probing fingers took her to the precipice and over before she even realized what he’d done. Gasping, arching her back, Ginny pressed her breast against his mouth and clamped her legs around his wrist.

Her whimper became a cry, the cry a soft scream of surprise and completion. Writhing within his tender hold, she didn’t know whether to press close or pull away from so much, so fast. He held her there, caught in the midst of an orgasm that wouldn’t end, carrying her through wave after wave of sensation until her body shuddered with its final release.

Not until her spine lay flat against the mattress once more did Alton release the pressure on her nipple and gently lick the sensitive tip. He eased his fingers out of her, swirling them in damp circles over her sensitive clitoris as he slowly pulled his hand out of her panties.

Her hips jerked in response. Alton’s laughter was strained when he leaned close and kissed her mouth. Then he rolled away and she heard a sound that could only be Alton ripping his way into one of the boxes of condoms. A moment later he rolled back to her, hugely erect, fully sheathed.

She expected him to penetrate her immediately, but he scooted down between her legs and slipped his long arms beneath her thighs.

Ginny raised her head and glared at him. “What are you doing?”

He looked up and smiled at her from between her raised knees. “Something I’ve wanted to do since the first time I saw you.” His palms slipped under her butt.

She tried to shove her knees together. His wide shoulders held them apart. He leaned close and blew a soft little puff of air over her damp and swollen folds. Her hips jerked in response.

“Hold still.” He was laughing softly. Ginny tried to squirm out of his grasp but he held her in place without any effort at all.

Held her in place, dipped his head low, and slowly ran his tongue in one long lick between her legs. She giggled, embarrassed and flustered and a little bit afraid. She had no idea what to expect, how to act, what to do. He swirled his tongue around her sensitive little nub and then speared her deep, licking and suckling as if he loved every taste and all the different textures of her feminine parts.

No one had ever done this with her before. No man had tasted her so intimately. She should tell him to stop. Really. It was too personal, too much, too soon. She hardly knew him. She’d never know him well enough to allow him to do this.

He licked and sucked and explored with teeth and tongue and lips, and she wanted to die. She should be embarrassed. She was embarrassed…she was so close to coming and his tongue felt so amazing that if he’d suddenly decided to quit she was sure she’d scream and pull him back down between her thighs to finish what he’d started.

Then he wrapped his soft lips around her clitoris and sucked, exactly the way he’d suckled her nipple.

Ginny screamed. Arched her back, thrust her hips forward, and screamed again. Laughing softly, Alton moved over her body, covered her mouth with his and she tasted him and more—she tasted herself.

Her first thought should have been how gross, how disgusting, but it wasn’t. Not at all. This was something shared, a taste so intimate she wanted to cry, a climax so perfect she sobbed with the pulsing, quivering ripples still racing through her body.

Once again Alton shifted his position, moved his long, lean body over hers, and pressed the broad head of his penis against the mouth of her vagina. Slowly he surged forward, filling her, stretching her inch by full inch, sliding along sleek, sensitive muscles until he was buried deep inside.

He held perfectly still, giving her body time to adjust. He was huge and the size of him made her burn, but she remembered when they’d done this before, how the burn had quickly eased and the pleasure of his size and his skill had taken her places she’d never expected to go.

She’d thought it could never be better than it had been that night. She was wrong. This time she felt a connection to Alton she’d not known before, a sense that they were meant to be together, meant to love each other.

Almost a sense of destiny.

If only she knew for certain how he felt. His muscular body covered hers, warming her, protecting her. His long, silky hair draped over them both and tickled her shoulders and breasts like a thousand tiny fingers across her skin, enclosing the two of them in shimmering golden strands.

He turned her on, he made her feel safe, and she knew without a doubt she wasn’t going back to Evergreen. Not yet. Not until this fight was finished. Not as long as Alton needed her by his side.

Slowly rolling his hips, he stroked her, deep and full, and her body rippled and clenched around him, holding him close, loving him. Still, there was a sense of something missing, a feeling there should be more between them. A connection she’d somehow missed. Slowly she raised her lids, looked into his beautiful emerald-green eyes, and knew exactly what that was.

For the first time since she’d learned of her Lemurian heritage, Ginny consciously lowered her mental barriers and opened her thoughts. She chose trust, and with that one small step, she opened herself entirely to the man who made love to her so perfectly. She shared her fears, her needs, and most of all, she shared her love.

She felt him connect, felt the wonder of his love, and her body shivered in reaction. He was as fearful as she, as unsure of her feelings toward him, but so very certain of his for her.

Ginny raised her hand and traced the curve of his jaw and the sharp ridge of his eyebrow. “I love you, Alton. I’m not sure how or why it’s happened so quickly, but I can’t deny what I’m feeling.”

His eyes sparkled with unshed tears and his beautiful face wavered in front of hers. Dear God, she was crying, and it made her feel so stupid, to be making love with this gorgeous man and weeping for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

He leaned close and kissed her lips, kissed the tears that leaked from her eyes and rolled into her hair. Whispered against her temple, kissing her between every word. “I love you, Ginny. I can’t explain it either, but I know how I feel, what I feel.” He chuckled softly, and still he kept up that perfect rhythm, filling her over and over with each slow and powerful thrust.

His thoughts were as open to Ginny now as if she read a printed page. Open and full to bursting with feelings neither one of them could deny or even put actual voice to. Her nerve endings were all on fire, her heart pounded out a wild tattoo within her chest, yet her mind was calm, open, and gloriously, unbelievably free.

Free, yet filled with Alton. She knew now how he worried, how he’d felt so undeserving of her love. Knew that he’d once been selfish and self-centered, that he’d looked down on her as a lowly human female, as nothing but trouble, yet couldn’t help but be drawn to her, as unsuitable as he thought she was.

“So, I’m unsuitable, am I?” She frowned, or tried to, but he was kissing the sensitive skin beneath her ear and it was impossible to even fake being angry.

“So terribly unsuitable,” he said. “Extremely unsuitable. Wrong in every way.” He nipped her earlobe and tugged. “I think that’s part of your allure. It’s what caught me from the very beginning. Your unsuitability, your amazing spirit, your bravery and your beautiful tiger’s eyes.” He kissed her lids, she tilted her hips, he drove deep and hard, and suddenly her heart was thundering in her chest, her back arching as she lifted to him, reached for him with her body, with her heart, with her mind.

This time her orgasm started slow and deep, a hot coil of energy radiating from her womb to her toes, to her fingertips to the sensitive peaks of her breasts. Alton wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting Ginny, rearing back on his heels. Her legs tightened around him, her heels locked tightly at the small of his back, and she pressed her cheek against the hard wall of his chest.

Powerful heated spasms filled her. Muscles rippled and pulsed and her body enfolded his, holding him deep inside, contracting around his heat and length, forging a connection unlike anything Ginny had ever experienced in her life. Alton’s strong arms held her close, their bodies shuddering as each of them drew deep, gasping breaths of air. Finally, Ginny’s muscles all went limp as the last spasm slowly faded away, as the heat and rush of climax gave way to enervation.

Alton’s chest shuddered beneath her cheek. Ginny raised her head and gazed drowsily into green eyes sparkling with laughter. “I think I want to sleep now. Why are you laughing at me?”

He chuckled softly and nuzzled the top of her head with his lips. “I’m laughing at both of us. At how stupid and stubborn we’ve both been, at how perfect we can be. I love you, Ginny Jones. No matter what happens over the coming days, don’t ever doubt my love.”

She planted a kiss just above his heart. “Never, Alton. I promise. Now put me down. I need sleep, preferably without nightmares.”

Laughing softly, he slowly withdrew. Ginny stretched out on the bed, totally replete and unbelievably relaxed. Vaguely, she was aware of Alton bathing her with a warm washcloth, of his big body settling in beside hers.

Of his lips brushing her temple, her chin, the corner of her mouth, before he lay back. The night was dark and still and the man she loved slept beside her. Wrapped in his arms, Ginny slept without dreams.

 

Alton awoke in a cold sweat. He fought the instinctive urge to jump out of bed and search for whatever it was that had disturbed him. Instead, he lay perfectly still, listening to the silence of the predawn hours.

Ginny slept quietly beside him. Her nose was pressed against his shoulder and the tousled tangle of her hair tickled his chin. He opened his senses to the darkness. Something was off but he couldn’t tell what.

HellFire? Would the sword answer him, sheathed and stored in the corner where he’d left it?

I am here, Alton.

Thank the gods! Is anything wrong? I have a sense of something not quite the way it should be.

After a brief pause, HellFire said, I sense evil. Something moves within this dwelling. Something that does not belong.

“Ginny?” Alton leaned over and brushed his lips across her brow. “Ginny, wake up. Something’s wrong.”

Her eyes flashed wide, barely visible in the darkness. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know, but HellFire agrees. Get something on, grab your sword. I don’t want to open the door unless we’re both armed.”

She nodded and slid out of bed. He heard the rustle of her clothing as he was slipping into his jeans. A moment later, DarkFire burst to life in a brilliant flare of amethyst light. He slipped HellFire out of the scabbard and rested his fingers on the doorknob.

Ginny? Are you ready?

Ready.

She rested her fingers on his hip. Slowly, Alton opened the bedroom door. The stench of sulfur was thick in the main room separating the two bedrooms. Ginny held her sword high, but there was no visible sign of demons.

Alton flipped on a light and the room was bathed in a soft glow. Everything looked fine, though curtains flapped at an open window. The screen was still in place, but he remembered shutting the window against the evening’s chill.

He glanced over his shoulder and nodded to Ginny. Quietly the two of them moved across the room to the door that led to Dax and Eddy’s room. Alton listened at the door, glanced once more at Ginny, then turned the handle and shoved.

The door flew open and Alton raised his sword to illuminate the dark room. The stench of sulfur almost flattened him. In HellFire’s blue glow he saw Eddy trapped against a corner wall, surrounded by a thick, black mist that seethed and boiled around her. Her eyes were wide, her mouth moving as if she screamed, but no sound escaped.

Dax still lay on the bed, struggling beneath more of the stinking mist that somehow held him prisoner. Only his right arm and one foot were visible beneath the mass of demons in the light from Alton’s sword. Ginny slipped in beside Alton and flipped the light switch. The dark shadows seemed to draw back, as if afraid of the brightness, but they didn’t leave.

Ginny held her sword high, and suddenly the mist took on shape and form. Hundreds of lesser demons grappled with Eddy. Their hideous faces leered and twisted arms and legs and prehensile tails held her arms at her sides, covered her mouth, and kept her captive. More of the disgusting beasts held Dax down, but the largest one, the demon king, straddled his chest. He covered Dax’s face with his in a disgusting parody of a kiss.

Alton lunged at the creature with HellFire. He slashed through the wraithlike body with his sparkling crystal blade, but the demon rolled away unscathed. He didn’t appear to be injured or damaged at all. The lesser demons stayed in position, still holding Dax to the bed.

Alton took a quick look over his shoulder to see where Ginny’d gone. She’d grabbed Eddy’s sword, DemonSlayer, and held the leather scabbard in her left hand while she slashed at the demons holding onto Eddy with her right. DarkFire glowed. Screams rose as demons flared into brilliant flashes of flame and died, but their banshee wails seemed to embolden the demon king.

As Eddy reached out of the boiling, seething mass of demons, DemonSlayer leapt from the sheath and into her grasp. The demon king rushed for Alton with his four powerful arms spread wide. Alton feinted and dipped to his left, grabbed Dax’s sword, and loosed DemonFire from the scabbard. He swung HellFire at the demon king and forced him back from the bed, away from Dax.

Alton swung again. Once more the creature twisted out of the way and evaded the blow, but Alton now had his back to the bed, between the demon king and the ex-demon who was Alton’s friend.

“Dax? Can you hear me? Reach out with your right hand. I have your sword.” Alton glanced down between blows, saw Dax’s fingers twitch, and managed to slip the jeweled hilt into his hand. Dax took DemonFire from Alton, gave a mighty yell, and rose up from the bed. Demon mist scattered in all directions. Others clung to his body, writhing and twisting over his bare flesh, almost as if they tried to form a cage about his torso.

Dax lunged to his feet, still covered in demonkind. Shaking like a big dog, he quickly dislodged the filthy creatures. Alton swung HellFire through the wraiths as they slowly floated to the ground. Dozens burst into flames and sparks.

Dax swung his head around. “Where’s Eddy?”

“She’s fine. I’ve got her.” Ginny’s shout came from the far corner. “Don’t let that bastard get away.”

Alton glanced toward Ginny’s voice and saw Eddy standing beside her, sword in hand. The women were fine. The air around them was filled with the sparks of dead and dying demons. Eddy and Ginny appeared to be working their way across the room, killing demons as they came.

The demon king was nothing more than black roiling mist beneath the bedroom lamp and the light of DemonFire and HellFire. Swinging and slashing through the mist, their swords seemed to disrupt the creature, but for some reason they couldn’t kill him. He surged and then recoiled, like black smoke in a capricious wind, constantly evading a killing strike and then reforming once the blade had passed.

“How the nine hells do we kill this bastard?” Alton swung once more, but the darkness reformed behind the slashing blade.

“I don’t know. He’s getting stronger. He managed to siphon off more of my energy.” Dax was breathing hard and his strikes were not as clean.

“And here I thought you two were just making out.” Alton slanted him a quick grin. Dax rolled his eyes and jabbed DemonFire completely through the wraith.

A flash of amethyst light caught the edge of the mist and turned it into a twisted, scaled arm. Ginny moved even closer and held DarkFire overhead, illuminating the beast beneath her sword’s violet glow. The entire demon king burst into view. It towered over them, all scales and talons and slavering fangs—hideous beyond belief, a vision of evil incarnate.

“Holy shit.” Dax took a quick step back. “It’s me! That’s my old form. There were none like me. The bastard’s definitely got my old body, my demon form.”

Alton caught the look of horror on Eddy’s face, the anger in Ginny’s eyes, the confusion in Dax’s expression. “It’s not you now, Dax. Whatever you were before, you’re not that thing anymore. But he’s after you. You’re his target.”

They circled the hulking creature. It was larger now than it had been earlier in the day, when it had trapped Dax in the vortex. Now it pivoted on powerful multi-jointed legs with clawed feet and reached out with four powerful arms tipped with vicious claws. Always it watched Dax, reached for Dax. Saliva dripped from a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth, and curved horns protruded from its forehead.

Its eyes glowed with an unholy light and a terrifying intelligence. It knew what it wanted. It wanted Dax.

“I want to know how it got here. We saw it go through the portal to Abyss, but that portal’s been closed.” Alton drove his sword into the creature’s body. Black mist swirled around the blade, reforming after the crystal passed through. But the creature kept glancing at Ginny’s glowing blade as if he feared it, pivoting and spinning away from the dark violet light.

Whenever it escaped the glow, the demon king became mist once more, yet it still remained untouched by their swords.

“There’s got to be another portal.” Ginny stepped closer and held DarkFire high. The demon king lunged in her direction. Without hesitation, Ginny lashed out.

The demon shrieked and recoiled. Sparks exploded where she’d hit him with the blade. “Interesting.” She flashed a brilliant grin at Alton. “He doesn’t like DarkFire.” She lunged forward and slashed at his torso. The demon king twisted and evaded the blade. Again and again Ginny went for the kill, but each time she managed nothing more than a nick and a spark. The sharp stench of sulfur told them she’d wounded the beast, but not seriously enough to stop him.

Alton stood at Ginny’s side with his sword at the ready, but there was nothing he could do, not if Ginny’s DarkFire was the only blade that could kill the damned thing. Still, watching her fight was amazing. She danced around the demon and her crystal sword flashed almost faster than the eye could follow.

The demon king roared his anger, but he backed steadily away from Ginny’s assault. His eyes flickered from Dax to Ginny, to the flash of her sword. She forced him into a corner. Alton caught her eye. What if we go at him together? Maybe the strength of two swords?

Ginny nodded. Ready?

“Ready!” Alton leapt toward the demon king as Ginny drove her sword deep. It screamed, a horrible banshee howl, and leapt into the air, away from the dark-light glow of Ginny’s blade. Out of the violet light, it once again appeared as formless mist that suddenly swirled into a violently spinning tornado of black, sulfuric smoke. Spinning faster and faster until it was little more than a midnight blur of stinking mist, it flew through the open bedroom door and out toward the window in the main room.

With a loud whoosh the demon hit the screen and disappeared into the early morning darkness.

The room seemed unnaturally quiet after the creature escaped. Ginny leaned on her sword, blowing as if she’d run a mile. Alton checked to make sure she was okay before turning away to see if Dax and Eddy were all right.

Dax sat on the edge of the bed, breathing hard, with DemonFire grasped in both hands. Eddy stood next to him with her arm wrapped around his shoulders. There were fresh tear tracks on her cheeks. The room reeked of sulfur, but the demons were all gone, presumably destroyed by Ginny and Eddy’s attack.

Alton knelt in front of Eddy and Dax. “What the nine hells happened in here? How’d they get in?”

Eddy shook her head. “Through the window, I guess. We were both exhausted. Dax was asleep before I even got out of the shower, but the fight earlier had already taken so much of his energy.” She shuddered. “I didn’t awaken until I was already covered in demonkind. When I tried to get to my sword, they trapped me against the wall.” She shook her head, a short, sharp jerk of utter frustration, and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her shaking hand. “I couldn’t break free.”

Alton pondered that a moment. He hadn’t thought demons in this dimension capable of such an attack, especially without avatars. Once again they’d proved him wrong. “How’d they manage to hold you? They’re just mist, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. Right. Toughest mist I ever saw.” Eddy slowly sheathed her sword. “They look like smoke but there’s substance there. They’re not like they used to be. I remember passing my hand through them before and they felt like cold smoke.”

She swept the tousled hair back from her forehead. “They still look like smoke in regular light. I couldn’t see their demon shapes without Ginny’s sword, but I could feel them. When they had me covered, I felt scales and claws. They couldn’t bite or scratch me, but they were certainly capable of holding me down.” She took a deep breath and shuddered. “The worst of it was the fact I was screaming and cursing for all I was worth, but there was no sound. None at all. I knew you guys couldn’t hear me. God, that was so scary.”

Dax slipped an arm around her waist and leaned his head against her belly. “I couldn’t see you. I was buried in the damned things. Thank goodness you’re okay.” He planted a kiss on the bare strip of skin between her cami top and cotton pants.

Then he raised his head and focused on Alton. “We know that the demon king was once from Eden, that he was intelligent and evil. He seems to regain more of his cognitive abilities every time we see him. Now that I know for certain he’s got my old demon body, I’m wondering if I’m the only one he can siphon energy from.”

Ginny sat down on the edge of the bed beside Dax, but she looked up at Alton. With Dax weakened, he felt as if more of the weight of this battle had fallen on his shoulders. At one time, he might have taken pride in their trust. Now it terrified him. This fight was not going as well as he’d expected. Not at all.

Ginny’s question confirmed it. “Are you sure it’s just energy he wants? Could he be after something more?” She turned toward Dax. “Your life force, whatever it is that makes you immortal and gives you your powers. Could he be stealing that?”

She leaned close and kissed Dax on the cheek. “Nothing personal, Dax, but you look like shit. A lot worse than you did this afternoon at the vortex. I think he’s taking some important stuff from you. We need to stop him before he gets any more.”

Eddy nodded. “I agree.” She laughed, but it came out sounding like more of a sob than anything else. “I want to get you home for some of Dad’s cooking.” She wrapped both arms around Dax’s shoulders and rested her chin on top of his head. “Hell, I just want to get you home. I’ll feel safer back in Evergreen.”

Dax tilted his head and kissed her. “We have demons to fight, Eddy. Staying safe isn’t how battles are won.”

“I know, but going into battle when you’re not fit isn’t how to win, either.” She raised her head and stared at Alton. Her dark-brown eyes were swimming in tears, but she didn’t give in to the emotions that were obviously choking her. “We’ll go with you like we planned this morning and find a portal back to Evergreen, either at Red Rock Crossing or Bell Rock. We just need a couple of days. I promise we’ll come back by Sunday. I know Ginny’s got to go back to work in a—”

“No.” Ginny interrupted, shaking her head. “I’m going to call Shascom and tell them to find a replacement. I’m not going back. Not until we win.” She wrapped her fingers around Alton’s.

He almost wept with relief.

“What?” Eddy’s mouth hung open. “You’ve been there forever. You love your job. You swore you weren’t going to quit.”

Ginny shrugged. “Sort of like you said you weren’t going to quit the paper?” She laughed. “I think it’s finally sunk in—this is a lot more important.”

Eddy wrapped her arms around Ginny and hugged her tight. “I am so glad you’ve finally come to your senses!”

“Gee, thanks.” Ginny hugged her back. “I love the way my best friend in the whole world backs up my decisions.”

Laughing, Eddy patted her head. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“What? To drive me crazy?”

“Well, that among other things.” Eddy’s expression sobered. “I’m really glad, Ginny. It’s the right decision. I know it’s not an easy one, but it’s the right one.”

Ginny nodded. Then she grabbed Alton’s hand and hung on like she’d never let go. “This all happened so quickly. It took awhile before I realized there’s a lot more going on than just some big adventure. It’s a war we can’t afford to lose.” She lifted DarkFire and stared at the glowing blade. “The Crone is the sentience in my sword. She lived so long, waiting to give DarkFire to me. Then she gave me immortality. I feel like an idiot now, but it took me awhile to realize the responsibility that came with her gifts.”

Dax slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a quick squeeze. “We can’t do this without you, Ginny. It appears only DarkFire has any effect on the demon king, and he’s the one we need to defeat.”

She nodded. “I know. Do you have any idea how scary that is?”

Alton pulled her into his arms and hugged her close. “Yes, Ginny. I know exactly how scary it is. I was terrified, watching you go after that bastard.”

She kissed his chin, leaned back in his arms, and grinned at him. “I notice you didn’t try to stop me, though. Thank you for standing beside me, for trusting me.”

Alton laughed. “Trusting you? Nine hells! I was hoping you’d kill the damned thing for me. I’m beginning to think the warrior women of Lemuria were a lot tougher than the men. I wish I knew what happened to them, but that’s probably why their history’s been hidden. The fragile male ego couldn’t handle it.”

Both Eddy’s and Ginny’s swords flashed brilliantly and then the blades went dark. Alton stared at the fading glow on Ginny’s sword and shook his head. “I’m not saying another word. Not a single word.”

HellFire glowed within his grasp. “That’s probably an excellent idea, Alton.”

“What do ya know.” Eddy flashed a huge grin at Alton. “No snark this time.” Laughing, she and Ginny sheathed their crystal blades.