“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.”
“I’d love to see it. But why don’t you just destroy all the crystals?”
“It’s not that easy,” Dax said. “It has to do with energy, vibrations. Demons can take on physical shapes, but they are actually spiritual beings. Ones with very low vibrational rates. Storing energy in crystals all these years helps them raise the level of their energy. Makes them stronger. We could get rid of the crystals themselves, but not the energy that they store. The crystals are just a conduit. They can’t replace the energy itself.”
He went into detail about their battle plans. How they used a silver scepter to destroy demons in past battles, and how they feared they would not succeed the next time. Somehow, a century or more earlier, a crucial piece of the scepter had gone missing—the piece that deactivates the energy stored in the crystals. So much time had passed, and the scepter was so elaborate, that they were not even sure what the piece looked like. But finding it before the next battle was their highest priority.
Meredith stifled a yawn.
Dax glanced at his Rolex. “That’s enough for tonight. I can show you the cave, but we need to go when it it’s light. If