Hellfire Read Online Free PDF Page A

sense of purpose.
    This, then, was the demon’s
newest entrance, the one that allowed them access into Earth’s dimension. It
was only a few feet from the portal he’d just crossed through. Obviously the
demons had discovered a new route to Mount Shasta, coming through from Abyss
here in Sedona and switching to the Shasta portal, bypassing the need for the
more direct gate he’d closed between Abyss and Mount Shasta.
    HellFire glowed brighter,
stronger. Alton felt the pull increase as the sword tried to reach the portal
to Abyss. “As you wish, my friend.” He stepped close
to the swirling gateway and aimed the sword. A burst of power shot down the
length of the blade and the portal suddenly glowed deep red, then orange and
yellow, hotter still, until the rock turned almost white and began to flow and
melt beneath HellFire’s attack.
    Within moments, the portal had
melted shut. The sword no longer vibrated. Breathing deeply, Alton lifted the
blade away from the quickly cooling rock. What had been an active portal
between Abyss and Sedona was now nothing more than a smooth black wall of cooling,
melted stone within the Bell Rock vortex.
    Alton sheathed his sword,
passed through the Sedona portal, and stepped out on the rocky ground near the
top of Bell Rock. It had been centuries since he’d last been to the Arizona
desert. He’d forgotten just how beautiful it was. The sun was beginning to set
and he stood for a moment, lost in the glory of a desert sunset and the
brilliant reds and golds of the rugged, wind-shaped bluffs. The gentle breeze
seemed to sing to him, a deep hum that resonated within his—
    “Where the hell’d you come
from?”
    Alton spun to his left and
blinked. Row after row of mostly gray-haired men and women, many of them
wearing loose robes or colorful skirts, sat cross-legged in the dirt.
    Well, crap
and nine hells. He’d materialized out of the solid rock, right into the
middle of a geriatric meditation group.
    Straightening to his full
height, Alton pressed his palms together, fingers
extended 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 tooled cowboy boots, made him look pretty
impressive to this group of humans.
    “I come from within,” he
intoned. 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
solemnly past the rows of brightly garbed folk.
    Popping out of the portal in
the midst of an evening meditation class of aging New Agers hadn’t been an
issue the last time he was here. Of course, it had been a while— give or take six hundred years.
    He really needed to get out
more.
    Still chuckling, Alton found a
well-traveled trail that took him down off the mountain and into a parking
area. The light was beginning to fade. Only a few cars and one old, beat-up,
but artfully decorated 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 a dilapidated bus painted with rainbows and flowers, Alton set his
backpack down in the dirt and pulled out the cell phone Eddy had given him.
    He carefully followed the
steps Eddy had shown him, found Ginny’s number, and pushed the button to connect
the call. He almost cheered 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. Is there any way you can come get me?”
    “Sedona? How the hell did you get to Sedona so fast? I just talked to Eddy a