“Doesn’t matter,” the demon said. “This one is top priority.”
“Ok, what?” Ash said as he got into his car.
“You need to kill the woman,” the demon said.
“Oh, that narrows it down,” Ash rolled his eyes.
“Yeah,” the demon replied with a sick smile. “This woman is guilty of murder.”
“So, not a demon?” Ash asked with surprise. “I don’t do humans.”
“You do whoever I say you do,” the demon reminded him. “And I say you do the woman.”
“What woman?” Ash barked.
“The doctor.”
Ash’s heart stopped for a second and his hand froze on his ignition. “What doctor?” he finally asked slowly.
“That doctor,” the demon said, pointing at his sister’s fiancé’s house.
“Elizabeth?” Ash couldn’t wrap his mind around his doc being a killer, much less killing her himself. He didn’t know what kind of sick game the demon was playing, but it wasn’t happening. “No.”
The demon didn’t look worried. “You will do it. Research it if you want, but she’s a killer. You belong to me and you do what I say and I say you kill her. Her soul belongs to me and I want it now.”
“This wasn’t part of our agreement,” Ash said through clenched teeth.
“If you want your sister to remain happy and safe, you’ll find a way to make the good doctor disappear in a very permanent way. I’m not about to bargain or argue with you about it. Make it happen.” And then, as quickly as he had appeared, the demon was gone.
Well fuck me twice, Ash thought as he pulled his car out onto the road.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Elizabeth couldn’t help it. No matter what she did, she just couldn’t get Ash out of her head. She hadn’t seen hide or hair of him in more than two weeks, which should have been a big, flashing red light to her, but it wasn’t. When a man went for two weeks without contacting a woman, it usually meant he wasn’t interested. She told herself that she was worried about him, about his heart. But that wasn’t exactly true, was it.
No, she wanted to see him because she missed him.
She closed her eyes and saw his face. When she slept, she dreamed of him. She dreamed of that stolen kiss and she dreamed of how his arms felt around her. She felt secure in those dreams. Whole. And when she woke from them, she felt empty inside.
She had done all she could to try and get hold of him through traditional channels. Elizabeth had asked Leanne about him, even gave his sister her phone number in case he wanted to call her. He hadn’t. But to his credit, Leanne claimed not to have seen him either.
So Elizabeth took more direct measures. She looked him up in the hospital records and hijacked his address. It was only slightly illegal and only a small abuse of her power as a physician in the hospital. And, so long as no one figured out what she was doing, she could keep her job.
As irrational as it seemed, she just had to see him.
It was for his own good, she told herself as her GPS led her to the address on file for him.
Besides, it had been Leanne’s idea to just show up at his home. Elizabeth was just following the advice of a friend. Leanne assured her that he was most definitely interested, but that he could just be very flighty sometimes.
Of all the adjectives Elizabeth could think of to describe Ash, flighty wasn’t one of them.
As she turned onto his street, she reminded herself that he was an anomaly in the healing department and her visit was strictly professional. Of course, as she pulled up in front of his house, her heart refused to believe her.
The lights were on. His car was there. All she had to do was get out of the car and knock on the door, right? Right. So why weren’t her feet moving?
Elizabeth gave herself a good pep talk and forced herself out of the car. She made her feet walk the few short steps to the door. She was quite proud of herself when she knocked on the door. On the last knock, the door opened slightly.
He didn’t seem the type to not shut his front door, so she pushed it open a little further. “Ash?” she called out. No one answered her. Her heart kicked things up a notch and she really was worried about him by that point. She pushed the door open further and took a tentative step into the main room.
She was greeted with a whole lot of emptiness. His living room was barely furnished. There was a well-worn sofa, a bookshelf and a TV. Since he obviously wasn’t in there, she moved further into his house. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, preparing to call 911 if need be.
She found the kitchen to be empty as well.
As she walked down the hall to his bedroom, Elizabeth was torn between feeling like an intruder and being completely terrified that some ill had befallen him. What if someone had broken into his home and shot him? It wasn’t like he hadn’t been shot before. What if that newly healing heart gave out on him and she found him lying dead on the floor.
Her palms became sweaty and it was all she could do to keep her breathing steady. There was a door to her left and she pushed it open. The bathroom was empty, sort of. The sink was full of knives that were covered in blood. The counter top was blood stained as well.
Fearing the worst, Elizabeth didn’t touch anything. Instead, she went to the only bedroom and carefully opened the door. That room too, was empty. She went inside and saw something she would never forget.
In the corner of the room was a trash can. It was a tall can like one would keep in the kitchen. That wasn’t the bad part. It was full of clothes and the stench of old blood assaulted her nose. She got closer and realized that it was the clothes that smelled of coppery blood.
She had been a trauma doctor for too long not to recognize that smell.
Elizabeth put her hand over her mouth and bit back her emotions. Her eyes found a cabinet built into the wall that was slightly ajar. She couldn’t stop herself even if she wanted to. She pushed it further open and then regretted her decision.
It was full of weapons. Mostly knives of different shapes and sizes. These were at least clean. Elizabeth inspected each one carefully. Each knife was well used. She could tell by the tiny nicks in the blades. There were also pegs for at least three more knives, which were missing.
What the hell was Ash into? And what had she gotten herself into?
Her stomach turned into lead in her belly and she sat hard on the side of his bed. She had hoped there was something about him that meant safe, but now she knew that her initial impression of him had been right. This man was dangerous. From the looks of things, he wasn’t just a thug, but a killer.
She had to get out of there. Now.
Elizabeth found the nerve to work her feet and she quickly headed for the front door. She crossed into the living room. There. She could see her way out. She would leave and never look back. Hell, she may have to contact the authorities. But first, she wanted to talk to Leanne.
Just as her hand settled on the door, Ash came home. By came home, he appeared out of thin air! He was breathing heavily and the look on his face was purely murderous. He was covered in blood and one of those knives was in his shaking hand.
Elizabeth screamed.
***
Ash felt only marginally better than he had before he took himself to Hell. He had gone on a recon mission. He needed to know where to find that fucking demon he was supposed to kill and he needed to know more about the demon he worked for. After killing numerous minions, he had ascertained that the demon’s name was in fact, Shax.
What a stupid fucking name.
Apparently, there was a lot of shit going down in Hell recently. Stephan, Lucifer’s son, had killed his father. The spoiled shit was off on some tangent, hell bent on revenge on some vampires or something, and the whole of Hell was waiting for him to fail.
The idea was, after Stephan was done throwing his temper tantrum, someone was going to take his place as leader, whether it is by default or by force. And it seemed that Shax was having Ash take out h
is competition for the job.
As his molecules realigned in his home, Ash was furious. This was not what he had signed up for, but what could he do? He made a deal, signed it in his own blood. He was going to have to dig out that contract and read it again.
When he felt the floor solidly under his feet, Ash breathed a sigh of relief. It was short lived, though. His ears were immediately met with a shrill wailing noise. A quick check of his surroundings proved that he was in his home, and so was Elizabeth, who was staring at him and screaming at the top of her lungs.
Ah fuck! He dropped his knife and went to her. She shrank back away from him until her back hit the wall. “Don’t hurt me,” she cried out, putting her hands up in front of her in defense. Hurt her? He would never! But she didn’t know that now, did she? Ash gathered his brain up and realized what a sight he must be, covered in demon blood and holding a knife.
“Christ!” he barked out. “I won’t hurt you.” Ash tried to get closer to her, but she sank back further into the wall. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind. “Doc,” he said softly, “Doc listen to me. I will not hurt you. I swear it.”
“Get away from me!” she screamed. He hated that those words had left her lips. He hated more that she was genuinely afraid of him.
“Fucking hell,” he cursed, pushing his hair back over his head. Ash took two steps back from her. “Please stop screaming,” he begged her. “Please.”
Was he supposed to shake her? Slap her? He needed for her to get a hold of herself sooner rather than later.
“I won’t say anything,” she promised him with wide eyes. “Just let me go and I won’t say anything. I will pretend I was never here.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said again. But wasn’t he? He was supposed to kill her. She was his next mark on the demon’s list. But as he said the words he realized they were true. “Please, just let me explain.”
Elizabeth stopped screaming and looked him over. Her eyes raked over his skin from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. The physician in her saw blood and took over. Ash knew it the moment the next words came out of her mouth. “Are you hurt?” she asked in a small voice. Ash shook his head. “Then why are you covered in blood?”
“It’s a very long story,” he sighed with relief. “Let me clean up.”
“No,” she said, suddenly finding her courage. “You tell me now. Why are covered in blood if it is not your own? Why do you have a stash of weapons, and how the hell did you just appear out of thin air? I know you’re human. What are you, a witch or something? Regular people don’t just appear out of thin air and regular people don’t heal like you do. What are you? Are you a serial killer or something? Possessed? Are you some kind of hybrid?”
“That’s a lot of questions,” Ash answered her.
Elizabeth rolled her head to the side quickly. “Yeah, it is. And right now, I don’t know anything about you and to be honest, you’re scaring the shit out of me.”
“Doc,” he started.
“Elizabeth,” she corrected him. The reminder to use her name and not the nick name he had given her stung him.
“Can I please get cleaned up?”
“Will you answer me?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I promise. Just don’t leave, okay?”
Elizabeth nodded slowly. She kept her eyes on him everywhere he went and for everything he did. Even when he stripped out of his bloody clothes and started the shower. No way she was taking her eyes off him and giving him the opportunity to hurt her.
Her logical mind told her to run away, but of course, she didn’t listen. Even the way he showed up and with all the unanswered questions, Elizabeth believed him when he said he wouldn’t hurt her. Maybe she was being naïve, or maybe she was just stupid, but she had to know. She had to see how this was all going to play out.
She certainly didn’t entertain any thoughts about what he looked like under the shower spray. Nope. Not at all. And he took the fastest shower in history.
Once he was clean, he shrugged on a pair of black jeans and sat down on his worn sofa. “We need to talk,” he said.
“No shit,” was her reply.
“I’m simply a human,” he started. When her brow rose skeptically, he put up his hand to stop her from talking. “Hear me out. I am a human who made a deal with a demon a very long time ago.”
“A demon,” she repeated.
Ash nodded. “I know it sounds crazy, but when I was just a kid, a demon attacked my family. He killed our parents and was about to kill Leanne. I had to save her. So I made a deal with him.”
“And what was that deal?” she asked.
“I agreed to work for him as an adult. He has me kill other demons. Beings that have crossed the line between what is within their rights to do and what would be considered a crime. Killing innocent people is a crime. That is why I am covered in blood.” Well, it was mostly the truth.
“That’s a lot to swallow,” she remarked. “And the appearing out of thin air?”
Ash pointed to the amulet that hung from his neck. “This little ditty right here helps with that. I had it made for me, special order, by a witch I know. It’s very powerful. It helps me move between here and Hell.”
Elizabeth’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Hell? You mean it’s a real place?” Her voice raised an octave, “And you actually go there?”
Ash felt the corner of his lip twitching in the urge to smile at her disbelief. “Yes and yes.”
Elizabeth stood up and started pacing the floor. Her logical mind wanted to throw the whole story he just told her out. She wanted to slap him for lying to her. But then again, he didn’t really seem to be lying. After all, she lived in a time where vampires and werewolves lived freely in the public. Hell, some of them enjoyed it. Some were even famous. They were actors, rock stars, and politicians. Why not demons? It wasn’t such a huge stretch to include them in the category of creatures that no one thought existed ten years ago but have come out into the light.
Perhaps he was lying. Elizabeth could admit to herself that she didn’t know shit about demons or deals, but she couldn’t fathom that making a deal with a child wouldn’t be frowned upon. And even if it was done and he was telling the truth, a child lacks the knowledge and resolve to make a binding deal.
And she had always believed in Heaven, why couldn’t Hell be a real place as well?
“Are you going to say something or just wear a rut in my carpet?” Ash asked her as he leaned back in his seat. He nonchalantly crossed one of his long legs over the other.
“This makes no sense,” Elizabeth finally said. “Or maybe it makes perfect sense. I don’t know.” She kept on walking from the sofa to the window and back again.
“I don’t expect you to believe me,” Ash told her. “But it’s the truth and there it is.”
“You healed so fast,” she said more to herself than to him. “You act so strange. You look like a fighter.”
“And you are giving me whiplash with all that pacing,” Ash told her.
“Stuff it,” she snapped as she passed him on her pace yet again. “All those weapons,” she continued. “Is that how you healed so fast?” she demanded, turning to face him.
“The demon healed me,” Ash replied.
“Now why would a demon heal a human?” she asked. If she was going to believe him, and she was still on the fence about that, she wanted some real answers. “I don’t know much about them, but I am pretty sure they are all about death and destruction, not healing.”
Ash nodded. “Yeah, but he wanted me to keep working and I couldn’t with my chest cracked open.”
“And the deal you made? What was it, exactly?”
Ash let all his air out on a heavy sigh. “I work for him, Lele stays safe.”
“And if you refuse to do it?” she asked, taking a seat next to him.
“Then he gets both Lele and me.”
Elizabeth felt her heart stop in her chest. Then it jumped back
to life and thundered so loud she could hear it in her own ears. “What do you mean, he gets you?”
“I mean, he gets my soul and hers.” Ash took her hand in his. “Which is why I have to keep killing the demons he tells me to. I can’t risk her. I won’t.”
“So as long as you do what he says, you and your sister are safe?” she asked.
“That about sums it up.”
“And if you’re killed on one of these jobs?” she asked.
“Then he gets my soul,” Ash told her honestly.
“Well that’s a crock of shit,” she announced.
Ash laughed. “Yeah, I agree, but it’s what I signed up for.”
“Haven’t you tried to get out of it? I mean, there is always a way. Even the most iron clad agreements have special clauses. You were a child. How can a child enter into any binding agreement, human or otherwise? There has to be a way out of this,” she rambled.
“Believe me Doc, I’ve tried. I spent a long time arguing with myself over this. I have read and reread the contract in hopes of finding something I missed before. It’s just not there. There is nothing I can do.” He shook his head. “Don’t you think I would have by now if there was a way out? That’s why I have been staying away from you. I’ve already told you too much.”
“Why did you tell me, anyway?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I just couldn’t let you be afraid of me. My life sucks and it always will.”
“Why did you kiss me?”
Ash chuckled. “I wanted to?” he answered with a quirk of his lip.
“You never intended to see me again, did you?”
“No,” he told her. “I don’t know why, but I don’t want this for you. You are a good doctor with a lot of good left to do in the world. I never let anyone close to me because it could be dangerous.” He realized now more than ever how dangerous it would be. The demon would see to it that Ash never had anyone to call his own.
“Well it’s a bit late for that now, isn’t it? It was too late the moment you walked into my emergency room and I saw you.”
“You can’t be near me,” he said. He realized that as they talked, their faces were getting closer and closer. He could smell her subtle perfume now.
The Keepers of Hell Box Set Page 8