The Keepers of Hell Box Set

by Danielle James

  “Shut it, will ya?” Ash said, playfully punching Antonio in the arm. “I don’t even like you.”

  Antonio wagged his eyebrows. “Yes you do.”

  What the hell? Jake thought. These two were joking it up like Shelly wasn’t in danger. Didn’t they have priorities? “Can we please get back to the task at hand?” Jake yelled at them. “Shelly is out there somewhere and we need to find her.”

  “Easy there,” Antonio said carefully. Jake’s eyes had started glowing and he didn’t want the man to start any fires on Earth. “You gotta stay calm. We’re going to the witch’s house right now. She can help us.”

  “Fine,” Jake muttered. “Which way?”

  Ash and Antonio both spread their wings and shot into the air. Jake watched momentarily in awe of the angels. They looked like giant birds in the sky, Ash’s black wings and Antonio’s white wings as different as the men were themselves, and yet, they made a great team. It reminded Jake of his buddies at the fire station. They all ribbed each other incessantly, but when it came down to it, they were brothers. Jake had a feeling that these two were no different. He watched as they circled above him. It was an amazing sight.

  “Hey, Firebug!” Antonio called out from high in the sky, “you coming or what?”

  “Right,” Jake said out loud. He had damn near forgotten that he had wings too. They were such a perfect design that they fit as if he had always had them. As he spread those wings he hoped that he remembered how to fly.

  He pushed the air down with his powerful wings and his body lifted into the air. He caught up to Ash and Antonio and they shot off to the East. He was pretty sure he heard Ash mumbling about Jake’s ability to take to the air, and how it shouldn’t be that easy.

  They circled a mountain and then landed on a rooftop in a small town. The building was two stories and hand apartments on each floor. “Laura is in 106,” Ash told them. They made their way down to the lower level and Ash looked at Jake.

  “Time to get visible,” he told him. “Laura knows what I am, but she doesn’t about you two. Hide those wings.”

  Jake concentrated. He had only tried to make himself visible one other time and there was so much alcohol involved that he wasn’t sure he could do it again. See me, he said in his mind. Then he thought, but not the wings. He guessed he got it right because Ash nodded his approval just before the door to the small apartment opened.

  “Hi, Ash,” the little woman said with a smile. “Nice to see you again. How are things in the underworld?” she pushed the door open wide and stepped back so that the men could enter. Jake made note of the woman’s dark hair and blue eyes. She was young looking, but her eyes said something else. Her eyes looked like someone who had centuries of knowledge behind them.

  “Did you get my message?” Ash asked her.

  “I did,” Laura said with a nod. “I can scry for her, but I can’t promise you anything.” She looked at Antonio and Jake. Her eyes raked over Jake and he didn’t miss the appreciation in them. She was pretty, of course, but she didn’t do anything for him. “Who are your friends?” she asked.

  Ash gestured toward Antonio. “This is Antonio and Jake. They're friends of mine.”

  Jake kept his mouth shut but nodded in acknowledgement. He noticed that Ash didn’t tell the woman that they were angels or even in his employ. Laura continued to stare at him with a pointed look. He couldn’t decide what it was about her, but immediately he didn’t trust her. She kept eye contact with him, daring him to say what was on his mind. He didn’t dare.

  “Well, I guess I should get down to business,” she said before breaking eye contact and flitting off to another room.

  “You sure this is a good idea?” Jake whispered to Ash.

  Ash nodded. “Laura is good. She is a powerful witch, and if anyone on this plane can find Shelly, it’s her.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Jake said.

  Laura came back into the room with a map and a crystal that was suspended on a long silver chain. “Just give me a sec and I’ll see if I can get a read on her. Did you bring something of hers with you?”

  Ash shook his head. “I didn’t know I was supposed to,” he admitted. He didn’t know a lot about witchcraft at all.

  Laura smiled. “It’s no big deal,” she said. “Sometimes it is easier to find someone if you have something that belongs to them, but I can still look for her. It just might take a minute or two longer.”

  Ash gestured with his hand for her to get on with it, so Laura did. She spread the map out over her kitchen table and chanted a soft spell. She held the crystal above the map and it began to swing. She chanted again and the crystal started to spin. After a moment, she dropped the crystal on to the map.

  “Looks like she is in Afghanistan,” Laura muttered. Her brow was wrinkled and she genuinely looked confused. “What in the world would she be doing there?”

  “I have no idea,” Ash said. “But we’re about to find out. Can you tell us where in the desert she is?”

  Laura shook her head. “I’m sorry, no. Maybe if I had something of hers I could be more specific, but unfortunately, this is the best I got.”

  “It’s better than what we started with,” Jake said, already heading toward the door. He didn’t know if the witch was right or wrong, but the whole thing seemed staged to him. One thing he did know was that Shelly wasn’t there in that apartment, so staying there was a waste of time.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The trio made themselves invisible again and took to the air. Once they were high enough, Ash grabbed both of his angels by the back of the neck and flashed them all to the other side of the Earth.

  Jake looked down from his perch in the sky. He had flashed before, but never in midair. He was fairly certain he would never get used to it. He scanned the desert that stretched out below him. Why would Shelly come here? And where would she be?

  “Come on, let’s get on the ground,” Ash commanded, and Jake and Antonio followed him. They dove from sky to street level. It was early morning and the street merchants were opening their shops for the day. The three men landed on a dirt road and walked among the humans that were milling about getting ready to start their day. They stayed invisible, of course. There was no reason to alert anyone to their presence, so they made their way on silent feet.

  Jake’s wings were twitching at his back. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he already knew Shelly wasn’t there. He knew it in his soul. He had felt closer to her back in the States when they were at Laura’s apartment. He didn’t know how he felt her, just that he did. It was almost like someone dropped a GPS under his skin and the destination was set on Shelly’s whereabouts.

  After deciding that Shelly was nowhere in this little town, they decided to take to the air and fly to the next town. “Is this what we’re gonna do?” Jake asked loud enough to be heard over the wind. “We just gonna fly from one town to the next until we get exhausted? She’s not here. Your witch is full of shit.”

  Ash immediately stopped in the air and turned to face him. He hovered in the sky at eye level with Jake. “What makes you think that?” he said.

  Jake had no choice but to stop as well or run over his leader. “I just know, that’s all.”

  Ash looked at Jake with a speculative eye. “Is there something we should know?” he finally asked.

  Jake shook his head. “I don’t know how I know, I just do, ok?” He could hardly explain it to himself, much less anyone else, no matter how hard he wanted to.

  “Well, Laura has never steered me wrong before, so I’m going to at least check it out.” He turned in the sky and flew off ahead of them.

  “He really isn’t someone you want to piss off,” Antonio reminded Jake before flying faster to keep up with Ash.

  “No shit,” Jake muttered. “I remember what he’s like pissed.” The memory of Ash holding him to the wall with black flames dancing over his skin was something Jake wouldn’t soon forget.

  Jake watched the
ground below him. The sand rolled like a sea of tan water. Every now and then they would see an animal or someone riding a camel. He didn’t know people still did that. After a while, they flew over a military base. It wasn’t anything special by any means, but the dog they kept with them was pretty impressive.

  Upon a closer look, Jake noticed that the dark brown animal was not a dog after all, but a wolf. A very large wolf. The men at the base didn’t appear to have any fear of it. They walked around it as if it were one of their own. Jake had heard of the military training dogs to help them, but he had never heard of a wolf.

  It didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things and Jake thought it was odd that he even noticed it at all. He was noticing everything. He noticed the way the dry desert air rubbed against his face, the way the sun felt on his skin, the way his wings felt heavier than normal. There was a substantial amount of sand in the air the closer they flew to the ground, and it was collecting in his feathers. Higher up it wasn’t so bad. He knew he should be watching for any sign of Shelly, but he also knew that this search was a complete and total waste of time. But there would be no convincing his leader of that. How could Jake explain how he knew if he didn’t know himself?

  After searching three towns and making a wide arc around the perimeter, Ash was finally ready to admit that Laura had been very wrong. He landed on a sand dune and waited for Antonio and Jake to land next to him.

  Antonio landed with the grace of someone who had always been an angel. Jake, on the other hand, did not. He landed hard and his feet sank down into the shifting sand. He tried to pull his foot out only to have the other sink further.

  In fact, the more he moved, the worse it got.

  “What the fuck?” he cursed, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. He had sunk to the point where he had to lift his wings to keep them out of the sand. He was sinking, fast.

  “Having a bit of trouble?” Antonio snickered.

  Jake glared at him. “A little help here?” He was up to his butt in sand. Literally.

  “Nah, this is so much more fun to watch,” Antonio grinned. “You know, the more you move in quicksand, the faster you sink.”

  “I didn’t think that quicksand was a real thing,” Jake growled, wondering how he was going to get out of this predicament. He looked at both Ash and Antonio, only to realize that they were wearing matching amused expressions. He wasn’t going to get any help from them. He looked to his right and saw nothing. Sand and more sand surrounded him on all sides.

  “I have no idea how to get out of this,” Jake said to Ash. “What am I supposed to do?”

  “It is important that you learn to save yourself,” Ash replied with a devious smile. “You have all the tools you need to get out. You just have to find them.”

  Jake was pretty sure that he did not have the tools he needed. The sand was up to his chest and his wings were folding upward against his will. He could feel the sand shifting and creeping into his clothing.

  Up to his neck.

  Jake tried to force his wings out of the sand, but it was too late. Even if he could get them out, he wouldn’t be able to use them.

  Up to his mouth.

  Jake pressed his lips together to keep the sand out of his mouth. He felt it tickling his nose and held his breath. He sent a pleading look to Ash and Antonio just before the sand covered his eyes. They were smiling at him and that was the last thing Jake saw before he was enclosed in darkness.

  He could feel the sand pressing against his body. It weighed heavily on him, threatening to crush him. Jake’s instincts told him to move, but it was no use. Now he couldn’t even wiggle his fingers. He felt the sand close over the top of his head and Jake knew he was in deep shit.

  His lungs began to burn with the need for oxygen. He thought he heard muffled voices, but he couldn’t tell who said what. He hoped that his fellow warriors were deciding who was gonna save his ass. After a minute or so, Jake knew that wasn’t going to happen.

  His lungs burned. His eyes burned from being closed so tightly. His wings burned. Burn. Fire. He had all the tools he needed… he had fire! Jake didn’t know if it would work, but it was all he had left. If he didn’t do something he was going to suffocate. He didn’t know if angels could suffocate, but he wasn’t in the mood to find out.

  Jake called fire to him. The granules of sand heated up and began to melt. As he called the fire, he willed it hotter. Hotter. So hot he feared he might melt too, but he kept it up. He could move his hand. Then a foot. Soon, he was swimming in melted sand, as if it were thick water. It was like swimming in jello, but he managed to push for the surface ,and when his hand broke through, Jake kicked his feet, forcing his head up.

  When his head was out, he gasped in huge gulps of air. It was blistering hot, but it was air that his lungs desperately needed. He wiggled his wings out and opened them. Pushing the air down, he lifted his body from the pit. He beat his wings furiously, forcing the sand out of them.

  Finally, when he was sure he wasn’t going to fall back in, Jake looked down. There was a flaming pit beneath him. He willed the fire out and allowed himself to land next to Ash.

  He looked at his leader with a sideways glare. “Thanks a lot,” he growled at him.

  Ash laughed. “You did just fine.”

  Jake grumbled something incoherent and watched as Antonio inspected the pit. He lifted something off the ground for everyone to see. “Hey, look at this,” he said with a toothy grin. “People pay good money for this shit.” He was holding a chunk of sand that had solidified into a wavy shape. It looked like glass, and from the right direction, it might have even looked like a horse. “It’s like when lightning strikes the sand. It makes for really valuable art. Wanna keep it?”

  Jake shook his head. “No, I just want to find Shelly,” he grumbled. “Now that you two have had your fun.”

  Jake turned to walk away so he didn’t see the satisfied looks that Ash and Antonio exchanged before they rushed to catch up to him.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “I just don’t understand,” Laura said into her phone. “I have never been so wrong before.”

  “I don’t know either,” Ash’s voice said from the other end of the line. “We’re coming back to the States. We feel like she’s there.”

  “Ok, well let me know if you need any help,” Laura said before saying goodbye to the leader of Hell. Then, she turned to her companions. “You need to work faster,” she told them.

  Caleb raised a brow in question to her. “I didn’t know you were on a first name basis with the new devil in charge.”

  “It isn’t something I brag about,” Laura told him. “I sent them overseas to find this demon,” she pointed over her shoulder to Shelly, who was still locked in the spell, “but they’re smarter than we thought.” Laura had put a binding spell on Shelly’s ears so that she couldn’t hear anything they said. It was not only for the safety of the humans, but for Laura’s as well. She couldn’t very well have the Leader of Hell knowing she was working against him. She always had been. Even when he had been a human, Laura was working on the side of evil.

  She had been more than an associate of Shax. He had been her lover. They were going to rule Hell side by side, and they were using Ash to get some housekeeping done. Who knew that he would fall in love with that woman, Elizabeth, and wreck all of their plans? Laura didn’t think the man had it in him at the time. She had been wrong, and she was out for revenge. Not just for the death of her lover, but for her grand design being ruined. She would never reign in Hell as long as Ash was in charge.

  She would not underestimate him again.

  “Why don’t you just persuade this new guy to our way of thinking?” Jason asked her.

  Laura rolled her eyes. “Do you really think it’s that easy? Do you think I would survive that conversation? Especially now that we have kidnapped one of his demons?”

  Jason shrugged his shoulders. “So what do we do now?”

  “Now, I cast
a cloaking spell that will keep all of us hidden from the angel’s radar,” Laura said. She gathered her supplies and began chanting. When she was done, she slipped an amulet around both men’s necks. “This will keep you hidden,” she said, “but only if you wear it.” She paused for a moment. And then she decided it was best for her to add, “So don’t take it off.”

  “What about the demon?” Jason asked her. “We still need to get in there and get that blood.”

  Laura sighed heavily. She just had to align herself with men who carried about as much sense as the grass that grew outside on the lawn. “So get in there and get it,” she snapped. “The spell keeps her in, not you out.”

  Caleb was already moving before Jason could tell him to do so. The pair had worked together long enough that he knew he was the lackey. He picked up a syringe and a vial and stepped into the spell with their captive demon.

  Shelly had been watching the exchange between the humans. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she caught words here and there from reading their lips and their body language. She could tell that the witch didn’t like the men much, and Shelly had to wonder why she worked with them in the first place. She knew as soon as the one picked up a needle what he was going to do.

  She stood perfectly still and allowed him into her little circle. He smiled up at her and took her wrist in his hand. When he turned her hand over and poised the needle over the bend of her elbow, Shelly struck.

  She used her other hand to grab the syringe from him and twisted her hand so that she had control of his arm. She yanked that arm up behind his back and plunged the needle deep into his shoulder. Caleb wailed in pain. Shelly shoved him out of her circle and made eye contact with the witch, daring her to send that other human in to try it again.

  Caleb landed hard on his knees and bent over in pain. Laura stomped over to him and yanked the needle out of his muscles. “Idiot,” she muttered. “Did you think she would just let you take it?”

  “I don’t know what I thought,” Caleb snarled at her. “You said get it so I went in. What the fuck was I supposed to do?”