The Keepers of Hell Box Set

by Danielle James

  When he was done, all eyes were on Shelly.

  “What happened when the humans summoned you?” Ash asked her.

  Shelly closed her eyes. Images of her abduction flashed through her mind, along with snippets of conversation. She remembered all of it.

  “They thought I would help to overthrow you,” she told Ash. “But I laughed at them. They used a spell to keep me there and to paralyze me. They took my blood so they could use it for later. They wanted to summon Balthazar.”

  “And what else?” he asked her.

  “They wanted to control me,” she said.

  “Thank God I’ve been with you the whole time,” Jake said with relief.

  “But why Balthazar? What does he have that other demons, who are easier to get to, don’t?” Antonio asked her.

  “The gateway,” Shelly breathed.

  “What gateway?” Lacy asked.

  “The one between Earth and Hell,” Ash answered for her. “Balthazar can open it?”

  Shelly nodded. “It’s why he was locked up in the first place.”

  “Well, fuck me,” Antonio growled. “We gotta make sure he stays locked up.”

  “There is something else,” Shelly admitted with her eyes on the floor. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What?” Ash demanded.

  “I left the prison unlocked,” she said quietly.

  “No way,” Jake said. “I was with you. I saw you set the locks.”

  Shelly shook her head. “I didn’t push enter. I didn’t remember it until now. They must have used my blood to control me.”

  Ash’s eyes burned with red fire. He had known that having Shelly’s blood out there in the world was a bad thing. He had all but decided to kill her before, but Jake stopped him. The angel had promised to keep Shelly out of trouble, and still the humans were able to get to her. “I’m sorry,” he said softly as he pulled the Blade of Darkness out of the holster at his waist. It was the one blade that could kill any demon, and his heart was heavy as he made the decision to use it.

  “Oh, hell no!” Jake shouted, leaping between his mate and his leader. “No. I won’t let you!”

  “It has to be done,” Ash reminded him.

  “Over my dead body,” Jake shot back.

  “If that is what you wish,” Ash said quietly. “I don’t like it either, but I must protect all of us, even if it is from your mate.”

  “Hold on a minute,” Lacy said, sending calming vibes to Jake and Ash. Ash shot her a wicked stare, but she stood her ground. “There is no reason to kill anyone right now. We might need her.”

  “I don’t see where I have a choice,” Ash reminded them.

  “What about the cage?” Lacy asked urgently. “Can you put her in the cage? Make it so they can’t summon her?”

  Ash thought for a moment. Then in an instant, Shelly was out of the chair and into a cage identical to the one Liam had resided in before. Ash placed both of his hands on the bars and concentrated. The bars turned red hot before cooling again, and Ash let them go. “No one can get to you in there,” he told her. “And you may not leave the confines of this cage. I will not entertain any thoughts on this. Anyone opens it, the penalty will be death.”

  Jake and Lacy breathed a sigh of relief. Liam looked at Shelly with pity, having known all too well what it was like to stay in there.

  Antonio smiled and waved at Shelly. “Prison looks good on you,” he played with her. “Must run in the family.”

  “Fuck off you Tuna Twat Pie,” she growled back at him.

  Antonio grinned. “I do not like Twat Pie, no ma'am, I do not like it Sam I Am. I do not like it in the air, I do not like it anywhere. I do not want it near my face, I do not want it anyplace. It's not what you think...so do not shudder, your mind is in the gutter. Tuna Twat Pie...run, run, run. Do not smell it...it's not fun, I do not like Twat Pie, no ma'am, I do not like it Sam I Am...”

  Ash ignored the snickering of everyone around him and scrubbed his hand over his head. “I’ve got to make sure someone locks that door,” he said.

  He was reaching for the phone when an alarm that sounded much like a tornado siren started going off. “What the…” Antonio asked.

  Ash’s phone started ringing and he picked it up. “Damn it,” he said into it. “Lock it down. Lock it down tight.”

  He slammed the phone down and looked at his two guards. “Balthazar has escaped.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “Are you freaking kidding me?” Laura’s voice interrupted Balthazar’s fun. Upon getting free, he had immediately left Laura’s side and sought out to feed his baser needs.

  He had found it in a local strip club. After a fabulous lap dance by a stripper named Candi, he had taken her into a private room.

  He had assumed a glamour that made him look human so when he began kissing and licking the woman’s skin, she didn’t protest.

  He was balls deep in the woman when Laura appeared to him. “I’m a little busy,” he told her.

  “You’re supposed to be helping me, remember?”

  “And I will. But unless you want to join in on the fun, I suggest you go back to your little apartment and wait.”

  His suggestion was reinforced by the impatient moan of the woman he was fucking.

  “Ew,” Laura said before stomping her way out of the establishment.

  “I’m sorry, my pet,” Balthazar said to the stripper. “Now where were we… oh, yes. The fun part.” He let go of his glamour and took his real form. His body grew both inside and out of her body. His cock became three times the size it had been before, ripping her from the inside out. Her eyes shot open and she saw him for what he really was. Her tortured screams were music to his ears as he thrust harder into her.

  ***

  “How are we going to find him?” Jake asked Ash.

  “I don’t fucking know!” was the response he got.

  “I know,” Shelly said softly from her cage. “My blood. Take it and scry for him. It’s what the humans did.”

  “No one else needs your blood,” Jake snapped.

  “It’s the only way,” Shelly told him. “Please,” she held her arm out of the cage, “take it and let me help make this right.”

  “I don’t know how to scry,” Ash reminded her. “I’m not a witch.”

  “I do,” Shelly told him. “I can help. Please. It’s the least I can do.”

  Shelly told Ash what he would need and after he gathered it, she pushed her hand out of the cage again. Ash wasted no time drawing his blade across the palm of her hand. As the red blood welled up in the wake of his knife, Antonio held Jake back to protect everyone.

  “You better hope this works,” Ash said as he did exactly what Shelly had told him to do.

  The pendulum swung across the map he had spread out across his desk in varying directions until it stopped and jerked itself out of Ash’s grip and onto the paper.

  “What does it say?” Antonio asked. “Where is this bastard?”

  Ash looked up from the paper with a resolved expression. “Montana.”

  “Ok, then,” Jake said, more than eager to bring him back so that Shelly could be free, “Let’s roll.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Balthazar stood in the middle of the meadow, surrounded by little purple flowers and tall grass that tickled his calves. The wind blew softly and a sense of peace encircled him. This place was sacred, he knew. No human or demon would ever suspect the power this place held, and that was the way it was supposed to be. The gateway to Hell was something he had created himself; a work that he was exceedingly proud of.

  The Creator had not been willing to construct such a place for fear of it being used for less than stellar purposes. If there were an entrance other than the afterlife, someone would assuredly open it, unleashing Hell on Earth.

  Lucifer had been furious with Balthazar so many centuries ago when he created this place. But Lucifer’s reasons had not been the same as the Creator’s. Lucifer liked control. He wante
d all of his demons and minions kept under his thumb and well within his control. Balthazar, however, preferred chaos.

  He slid his gaze to the three humans who waited not so patiently for the big show. They had no idea what they asked for when they sought to open the gates. Their thinking was that Ash, the new leader of Hell, and his band of merry misfit angels, would be so engrossed in closing the gateway and putting all the demons back in Hell that they would too busy to notice three lowly humans coming in and taking over. As if. As if any of the residents of Hell would bow to a mere human. They barely bowed to Ash, and that was more because he put the fear of God into them. Balthazar had to admit that angel packed one hell of a punch, but he had never been one to cower to anyone and he wasn’t going to start now.

  Once the gateway was open, not even the new leader had the power to close it. Balthazar watched as the witch on the edge of the tree line shifted impatiently from one foot to the other. Her human companions seemed a little nervous. As well they should be, he thought. They were about to meet their maker. No human could survive the power of the gateway. Ooops, did he forget to mention that to them? He chuckled. Oh well.

  He smiled to himself when he remembered the look on the witch’s face when he flashed back to her apartment. He had been covered in blood and full from his meal. He had enjoyed the human woman very much. After he got his rocks off, he had eaten her. Of course, he left her liver by her head. He never was fond of liver. He wondered how the humans would explain it, or even clean it up. He knew how… burn the place down and start over. The witch had been disgusted with him but was eager to get started.

  Balthazar could sense the angels headed his way. Let them come. He knew they would try to stop him, but they would be too late. “Embpathaza tudoaris fazichia,” Balthazar said proudly. The incantation meant nothing in any known language; it was specific to this gateway and this spell. He saw the outstretched wings of the angels in the sky above him and grinned. “Embpathaza tudoaris fazichia!” he bellowed into the morning sky. Then he dropped to one knee and looked at the black winged angel that was landing in front of him. The angel was covered in black fire and menace poured from his glowing red eyes. He met Ash’s eyes with a mischievous glint and saw when the angel realized he was too late. His looked changed from menace to fear and Balthazar fed from the emotion. The angel wasn’t afraid of him, exactly, but what he was about to do. Balthazar curled his meaty fist and slammed it down against the soft earth. “Embpathaza tudoaris fazichia!”

  His fist connected at the same time that Ash screamed “No!”, but it was too late. The ground began to rumble under their feet and Ash leapt into the sky. “Go! Now!” he commanded his angels. Ash looked to the three humans who were sitting ducks and shouted, “Get away from here you fucking idiots!” Ash watched the humans turn to run, but not before he recognized one of them. Laura! The witch who was supposed to be helping him. Ash snarled under his breath and made a B-line for the witch. She had some answering to do for her actions, and Ash intended to make sure she survived to answer for it.

  The rumble grew to a loud growl and then a groan as the earth shifted and reformed. Dirt and grass piled up and up on top of itself, pushing its way up from underneath, as if the mother of all groundhogs were trying to escape from its depths. The ground shifted and rumbled, the mound of dirt getting larger with each passing second.

  Ash swooped down and snatched Laura from the ground, taking her into the sky with him. “I swear if you move a muscle I will drop you into the deepest, darkest hole in Hell I can find,” he said next to her ear. Ash saw that his Guard was retreating to a safe distance and he shot forward in the sky to join them.

  The mound of earth thundered and then… exploded. Blue light burst from the ground and reached toward the Heavens, sending out a wave of energy from its core in all directions. Ash watched helplessly as the blast moved over the grass, disintegrating it as it moved. The trees that surrounded the meadow turned to ash in the wake of the blast. The two remaining humans ran for their lives, but couldn’t outrun the energy that had been unleashed. The wave hit them like a burst of fiery wind, burning their flesh and ripping it from their bones. Ash watched as their charred remains fell to the ground and then turned to ash and blew away into the wind.

  It only took a second for the blast to reach Ash and his guard. He turned his back on the approaching energy storm and wrapped his wings around his cargo, taking the full force of the blast. It rattled his bones and burned his skin, causing him to tumble from his perch in the sky. He looked for his Guard as he fell, but could see none of them. The world spun around him as Ash fell to the burned remains of the earth below him.

  He landed with a thud and all the air whooshed out of his lungs. Ash gasped, forcefully dragging air into his body before standing up. He looked to his side to see Laura, a witch he had once trusted, unconscious on the ground. Her chest moved and he knew she was breathing. Alive. He didn’t care for her well-being in any other capacity. His chest burned with the witch’s betrayal. Antonio landed just feet from where Ash stood. “Are you ok?” he shouted. He sounded so far away and Ash knew that his eardrums were damaged. From the way the angel was shouting at him, so were his. Ash nodded and pointed to Laura.

  Antonio followed his direction and saw the witch on the ground. “Traitor,” Ash shouted back at him. Antonio nodded and scooped the witch up. “Lock her up.”

  The angel didn’t ask questions and flashed away with his cargo in hand. Lacy and Jake landed next to Ash. Everyone seemed no worse for the wear. “We gotta stop him,” Jake said, looking back over the meadow at the blue and purple column of light.

  “Now,” Lacy agreed, her sword in her hand.

  The three marched forward, weapons drawn, into the clearing, which was now much bigger than it had been before. Balthazar stood proudly in front of the column of light with both hands on his hips.

  “I wondered if you were coming back for the show,” his voice boomed.

  “Give up now and we will let you live,” Ash growled, his fire raging over his body.

  Jake’s body was also covered in fire, but not black fire like Ash’s. His was a bright red fire that moved over his skin as if it were anticipating his command to leap off his body and devour everything in its path.

  Lacy had no fire, but her wings were at the ready on her back and her heart was full of rage. “Fear me,” she said softly, but with conviction, in the demon’s direction. “You can’t win. Fear me. Fear us.”

  The demon’s eyes widened for a moment as the three approached him. “You can’t stop it now,” he said, taking a step back. Lacy knew he felt the fear she sent his way, but he was strong. So very strong.

  Jake commanded his fire and it leapt off his body, coursing over the charred ground in a straight line for the demon. It circled his feet and then began to creep up his legs. “What the fuck,” the demon snarled, turning his back on the three and facing his portal. “I will win the day!” he shoved his hands into the portal and pulled, as if he was trying to open a set of doors. Ash took off at a run to stop him, but the portal opened and Balthazar disappeared inside.

  “Fuck,” Ash snarled, and headed to the same opening that Balthazar created. He didn’t make it inside. The portal split and blackness exploded from it, twisting and turning around itself as it worked for the sky. The howl of the storm was deafening and that was when Ash discovered that the black storm was in fact, demons. Many, many demons escaping the confines of Hell. He could hear them laughing, hear the joy in their freedom.

  “We have to close it!” Ash shouted above the noise, and his guards nodded in unison. The three channeled their powers at the column, but nothing happened. Ash threw everything he had at it, but still the portal remained.

  The black had separated into thousands of smaller, wisp-like tendrils that surrounded the guards. Lacy struck out with her sword and severed one of the tendrils. It screamed in pain and dissipated into thin air. The men followed suit and began slashing at the black
in an attempt to stop any of the demons from making it away from the portal and near the humans.

  Ash took his blade of darkness and stabbed at any demon that came close. They stood with their backs to each other, forming a small triangle, surrounded by demons. The wisps circled them, darted at them and back away, cutting their skin with each contact. The three angels were sorely outnumbered, and for the first time since Ash took over Hell, he wasn’t sure they were going to make it out alive. He paused in his fight just long enough to face the Heavens. “A little help here?”

  ***

  Antonio flashed to Ash’s office with Laura in tow. He tossed her unconscious body into the cage that Liam had occupied for months and slammed the door. After a second thought, he yanked the door open and reached inside, ripping the amulet from around her neck. “No escaping now,” he said sweetly and then slammed the cage shut again.

  “What’s going on?” Liam asked with more than a little concern. “Things are going nuts down here.”

  Antonio yanked a panel open next to Ash’s desk and slammed his hand over a button on the wall. An alarm began going off and Antonio picked up the phone on the desk. “Lock down procedures,” he barked into the receiver. “Lock it all down. No one gets in or out.”

  Then he turned his attention to Liam. “Look here, man,” he said, “this is your time to shine. Prove you got what it takes.” He pointed to the cage. “Keep her here. I don’t care what it takes or what you have to do. She does not leave. She does not get out of that cage. No one comes in this office. Got it?”

  Liam had no idea what was going on but he nodded his head.

  “Great,” Antonio said. “I gotta go. Here take this,” he slapped the handle of a huge sword into Liam’s hand. “If anyone, ANYONE, comes in here, use it.”

  “Where’s Lacy?” Liam demanded. “Is she ok?”

  Antonio turned to Liam with a fierce stare. “Lacy is fine.”

  “I need to go to her. I have to protect her.”

  Antonio got right up in his grill. “Lacy does not need protecting,” he growled, then backed off a bit. He pushed his hand through his hair and forcibly calmed himself. “Look, I get it. She’s your mate. You want to protect her. But your mate is like no other. She was chosen to be the protector. She is a warrior, and now it’s time for her to do her job. What she needs is not to worry over you. She needs you to stay here and be safe. She needs you to keep this office secure and keep that fucking witch in that cage so she can’t cause any more shit. We all need you for this. You are the only one.”