by Kellett, Ann
“Nice to meet you, Cara,” Meredith said, standing to take the woman’s free hand in her own. She took a sip. “This is delicious! Just like my grandmother made years ago. It’s a shame that people don’t go to the trouble to hand-squeeze lemons anymore.”
“It’s no trouble at all, dear. And it’s a real pleasure to have you with us. Please make yourself at home. I’ve got a few things to do but I’ll see you two later,” Cara said as she went back into the house.
Dax and Meredith sat in silence, enjoying the view. Meredith puzzled over what she’d experienced while horseback riding. They had stopped at a stream to cool off and let the horses drink. When Meredith turned to take in the view, she had seen bright yellow and pink wildflowers carpeting the valley, and she felt her long hair skimming her waist in the breeze. When she looked again, she saw the more appropriate summertime greens and browns. Was her mind playing tricks? Perhaps she needed this mini-vacation more than she realized.
“I can see why you never left. I love it here. To tell you the truth, I used my own money to host the book signing today. My publisher said it wouldn’t be profitable, even though San Saba is the setting of the book. But once I got the idea, I couldn’t stay away. Something drew me.”
“I could never live anywhere else,” Dax said. “Tell you what. Now that you’ve had a look around, I’d like to introduce you to some friends—the ranch hands. They would love to meet a real-life author. And you could see how they compare to the ones in your book. Let’s grill some steaks and enjoy the sunset. I’ll ask Cara to give them a call. They can join us once they’ve finished the day’s work.”
“I’d love to, Dax,” she said. “I can be back in San Antonio in a couple of hours, so there’s plenty of time. I’m so glad you talked me into this. Thank you.”
She held up her drink in an informal toast.
Dax clinked his glass against hers, then downed his drink and put the empty glass on the porch railing. His skin shone like burnished copper and his shirt was an unnatural white in the late afternoon sun. His jeans clung to his body in all the right places.
“The pleasure is all mine,” Dax said. “I’ll go ask Cara to prepare the food.”
Meredith’s pulse raced. Was this too-good-to-be-true hero she brought to life in her book for real? If she succeeded in describing Dax as she now saw him, a million more women would buy her novel. But for now, she had to find out what he wanted from her.
Within minutes, a fire roared in the barbecue pit. Two steaks marinated in a pan beside a huge bowl of tossed salad and the fixings for baked potatoes.
“Would you do the honors while I tend the fire?” Dax nodded toward a bottle of Cabernet.
“Sure.” Meredith went to work. The corkscrew was unlike any she had used before, and she struggled. Embarrassed, she turned her back to Dax.
His grip on her shoulder startled her. The corkscrew landed with a thud on the grass.
“How clumsy of me!” Meredith said. “Would you show me how to . . .”
“How to what?” Dax’s breath, hot and sweet on the nape of her neck, seemed familiar somehow, the echo of a hundred previous embraces. He took the wine bottle from her trembling hand. Wrapped his body around hers.
His lips caressed her neck and face. Tenderly at first, then with increasing urgency. Finally, when she could take no more, his mouth found hers. Meredith’s body exploded into a sky of shimmering stars. This perfect place—with hills and caves and babbling brooks—was real. Even better, this perfect man that she had conjured out of her dreams was real.
For once, she would take Elena’s advice and live fully in the moment. No second guessing or worry about consequences. She would push contracts and deadlines from her mind and enjoy herself. She would let herself create this one delicious memory, an escape from ordinary life that no one could take from her.
Meredith opened her eyes to take it all in. Dax’s half-opened eyes met hers.
Instead of the rich chocolate brown she was expecting, they were gold. And glowing. His embrace suddenly felt cold, reptilian.
Meredith pushed him away, heart pounding. Her novel had many crazy elements, but it was fiction. Nothing but entertainment. This was all too real.
The once-magnificent reds and pinks of the fading sunset now seemed lurid. She had no idea who this man was. She was alone in the middle of nowhere. With no cell phone service.
****
Damn it! Only one thing could have made Meredith shut down so suddenly and completely. He had been so wrapped up in Meredith’s vibrant, sexy energy that he had not sensed that anything was wrong.
“Meredith—wait,” Dax said as she stepped back, out of reach. “We have to talk. Now.”
She didn’t move. Her eyes were as wide as the moon looming on the horizon.
“We were not brought together by chance,” he said, inhaling deeply. The next few minutes were crucial. “Just about everything you wrote about is true. As in, it really exists. Right here. You got the major points right—my name, the demon portal in a cave on a ranch near San Saba. Demon-warriors. The next showdown over the fate of Earth.”
He had no idea what she was thinking.
“I don’t know how you did it—where you got the information. But we have to find out. My eyes look weird because I’m one of the good guys—one of the demon-warriors you wrote about. That’s one thing you missed—that our eyes turn gold when something bad is about to happen. But I’m also half-human.”
“Dax, I...”
“Let me finish,” he said. “This isn’t a game. We’re expecting the worst. Demons attack every 250 years. Like clockwork. This time, though, there’s evidence that the next one will happen much sooner. Any day now, in fact.”
Finally, she moved. Fiddled with her pendant. Opened her mouth. “But who are you, really? Nobody can be just half-human.”
“You might be surprised,” Dax said. He sighed. That was a topic for another day.
“My family came here from Spain in the mid-1700s to fight the demons in the most recent attack. My mother’s side was human. Father’s side was demon-warrior. I’m a half-breed. I’ve been here ever since, watching and getting ready.
“If we vanquish the demons, I will be allowed to become either all-human or all-demon-warrior. The truth is, after two and a half centuries, I’m tired of being on the prowl. Honing my skills as a warrior meant leaving my human heart behind. But I cannot let myself think about that. Not yet.”
She looked at him with glassy eyes.
Embarrassed, he turned away. “I’m sorry, Meredith. You remind me of someone, so I told you things I have never said to anyone. I shouldn’t have burdened you.”
“It’s just that what you’re saying is so bizarre. Who would ever believe you?”
He pressed on. “What’s important is that we defeat the demons once and for all. You have no idea what they’re capable of. What life would be like for the next two centuries with them in charge. But you can help. Tell me where you got the information that you wrote about. Please.”
Meredith’s shoulders dropped. The magic was gone.
“It sounds impossible, but I was telling the truth earlier. The plot came from a little girl, about eight years old, with black hair and brown eyes. She showed up in my dreams just after my grandmother died, and told me stories. They were so vivid I started writing them down. I have no idea who she was. She doesn’t come to me anymore. That’s why I haven’t started another book. I’m afraid I can’t help you more than that.
“And now I need to get going.” She turned and walked briskly toward the porch.
Dax could not force her to stay ... to believe him.
“Please think about what I’ve said. We need you.”
She did not even look at him as she got her purse and walked around the house. He followed just long enough to see the red glow of her taillights disappear after the first bend in the road.
****
Open door. Put key in ignition. Breathe. Meredith kne
w she could cope if she broke things into their smallest components.
What was she supposed to think? She dialed her phone, hoping against hope to reach Elena. To kill time as she put as much distance as possible between herself and this monster. Her phone was dead. She switched her headlights to bright and hit the gas as she made another sharp turn.
It was darker now. All she could see was a blur of trees and fields as she sped past.
She tried to remember what Elena told her as they said their good-byes in the restaurant parking lot. Elena had used the e-mail access on her cell phone to review the private investigator’s findings about the man who called himself Dax Thelassian.
There wasn’t much. Family had ranched the same three thousand acres beginning a century before Texas was even a state. Respected, but kept to themselves. No one had ever joined a civic organization, run for city council or volunteered for community service projects. Over the years, the family had dwindled to just Dax and an elderly aunt. A few ranch hands stayed on. They made enough money to be self-sufficient.
Not much to go on, but no red flags to keep her from accepting Dax’s invitation. How could she have been so stupid, to take this situation at face value? Things too often were not what they seemed. It was better to be cautious, to hold back, than to be disappointed or frightened. She composed an amusing anecdote about cowboys who spend too much time in the sticks to tell Judith at their next meeting. The sooner she put this behind her, the better.
Meredith’s headlights caught something just above the tree line—something flying. She slowed to get a closer look.
Her blood froze.
The creature was huge, with a wingspan of seven or eight feet. The moon blinked off and on as it slowly flapped its wings. It had no feathers, just leathery skin. It moved with a grace that belied its hideous features.
The creature slowed and dropped until it hovered a few inches in front of the windshield of the moving car. Cocking its elongated head, it opened its mouth to reveal razor-like teeth. Shining black eyes made contact with Meredith’s. Tried to invade her soul. Whatever it was, the creature was full of intelligence and cunning. It enjoyed taunting her, feeding on her fear.
Instinctively, Meredith swerved, hit the brakes and made a U-turn. Thank God she had been able to afford a new car once the book started making real money. She hit the gas pedal. The creature stayed just ahead of her, cawing in the glow of the headlights, then disappeared into the night sky.
The man who called himself Dax Thelassian might be delusional, but at least he seemed to have a heart. He didn’t want her dead. This creature did.
She tried to remember what the gate to the ranch looked like. Just as she thought she was getting close, her headlights picked up the silhouette of a figure on the side of the road, a tote bag in each hand.
Meredith slowed and hit the button that rolled down the passenger-side window.
“Hop in, Cara. I’ll give you a ride,” Meredith said.
“Thank you, dear. It’s not much farther now,” Cara said, smiling.
Meredith was flooded with gratitude for human companionship. “What in the world are you doing out here?”
Cara held up a bulging canvas sack. “The garden is a little ways down, on the other side of the road,” she said. “This time of year, it’s a race to get to the lettuce and tomatoes before the armadillos. They seem to know exactly when produce is at its ripest. Traps don’t do any good because there are so many of them, and they dig right under the fence. So I’ve turned it into a bit of a game, trying to get there first. And this evening, I’m the winner!”
Meredith smiled. “It’s sweet of you to give them a sporting chance—and to take such good care of Dax. I don’t know Dax very well, but it’s obvious he loves you dearly.”
“And I love him,” Cara said. “Here’s the gate—on the right. Thank you for the ride, my dear.”
Chapter Three
His appetite gone, Dax put the food in the kitchen. He called Randy and asked him to tell the others the meeting was postponed. He didn’t explain he had driven Meredith away by spilling their secrets. That she would never be back, and worse, that she might tell others. That he had failed.
The moon and the fire from the barbecue pit provided the only illumination in the velvet darkness. He crossed his boot-clad ankles on the railing of the porch, a glass of bourbon at his side.
He had a lot to think about. Spending the afternoon with a woman as smart and sexy as Meredith made him yearn to be a complete man, to understand what it meant to fully love and trust someone. He had an inkling of those emotions centuries ago. But he couldn’t let himself dwell in the past. Not tonight. Meredith’s presence wouldn’t have caused his eyes to turn gold. That happened only in anticipation of demonic activity. But what? This didn’t feel like the start of the battle.
Could Meredith be associated with demons after all? Perhaps it was a case of profoundly poor judgment. Like those who were fully human and male, he had let a woman’s white-hot sex appeal blind him. If their paths ever crossed again, he vowed to put his duties as a demon-warrior ahead of his human desires.
Headlights grazed the side of the house. His pulse quickened.
Lights switched on inside the house behind him. Must be Cara. Then he remembered that she didn’t drive at night. Seconds later, Meredith stepped onto the porch.
“Dax,” she said quietly, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I want to say I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly.”
“Why did you come back?” Dax asked.
She hesitated. “Car trouble. I didn’t want to risk the long drive home. I would be grateful if you would put me up for the night.”
Dax felt a tug in his loins. He swung his legs off the porch railing and motioned to the rocking chair beside him.
“Have a seat,” Dax said. “Don’t worry about a thing. The eye thing only happens when there’s about to be trouble. It must have been a warning about your car.”
Dax didn’t want to frighten her with talk of demons, and he had no explanation to offer. “I’m just glad you’re all right. The steaks are ruined, but I could ask Cara to fix you something else.”
“No thanks,” Meredith said, settling into the rocking chair. “I don’t need anything. Wow—the stars never look like this in the city. It’s so beautiful, even at night.”
Dax chuckled. “Beauty can hide a hell of a lot of danger. Like the coals over there—beautiful, but deadly. Back when I was little, my mother used to tell me that I would have to dance through fire. I always think of that on nights like this.”
“What did you just say?” Meredith asked.
“My mom used to tell me to persevere—to push through the bad things to get to the good.”
“No—I mean about fire. What did she say, exactly?”
“Let me think,” Dax said. “It was strange, a kind of poem. Something like, ‘You have to dance through the fire to lost worlds found.’”
“I can’t believe it!” Meredith said, jumping up. “Remember at lunch, when we said we couldn’t remember the riddle our grandmother told us just before she died? That’s it! The stone is round as time is round. Dance through the fire to lost worlds found. I never thought I’d remember that even though she said it over and over! I can’t wait to tell Elena. What do you think it means?”
“I have no idea,” Dax said, “but it seems to prove some sort of connection between us.”
“There were some other sayings, too,” Meredith said. “Nanna also said I’d have to face the gates of hell. Let’s go inside. We have to get to the bottom of this. The sooner, the better.”
****
They asked each other questions, explored every aspect of their lives. Dax described his early years in Spain and then coming to America with his family as part of the expedition led by Lieutenant Juan Galván, which settled on the San Saba River in 1753.
He paused. When Meredith did not laugh or roll her eyes, he continued.
He had been a
teenager then. He remembered little from before his first battle with the demons: mingling with the Apaches who were part of the expedition, playing in water, a precious resource in the Hill Country. After his victory over the demons a few years later, he dedicated his life to being a demon-warrior. Since then, he rarely left the ranch.
He described the demons, and how they reach out to those in despair. He explained that expediters facilitate evil by entering a pact to put material wealth and power above all else and plotting the destruction of others for their own benefit. As members of the Warrior Council, Dax and his ranch hands spent their lives preparing for the next round of battle.
“We have to walk a very fine line,” he said. “Three thousand acres is a lot to patrol, especially given the terrain. We monitor the cave that contains the portal as best we can, but we don’t want to draw attention to it. The last thing we need is for even more treasure hunters to traipse through here in search of the so-called lost gold mine.”
“Why do you say ‘so-called?’” Meredith asked. “Isn’t it documented that the Spanish had a gold mine here about two centuries ago? There have been other reports of gold since then. Just because no one knows where it is doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. That’s another thing I must have gotten completely wrong in my book.”
Dax laughed. “We know where it is, all right. We were there. Still are. But the truth is it was never a gold mine.”
He paused. Could he trust any human—even Meredith? He had to.
“It’s a more significant treasure than gold—a cave full of crystals the demons have placed there over the centuries. Beautiful crystals from many planets throughout the galaxy. All shapes and sizes. All different colors, even a few that are not found on Earth. They cover every square inch.
“Each one stores a different energy. Before long, the energy will reach a tipping point, just as it did 250 years ago. That’s all the demons need in order to leave the portal and invade the earth. If we can’t hold them back, all hell will break loose for the next two and a half centuries. Literally.”
