The Keepers of Hell Box Set

by Danielle James

  Kaia shrugged. “I don’t see where I have much choice in the matter,” she answered.

  “That’s it then,” Ash said. “You aren’t ready. But don’t worry, when you are, the wings will come.”

  Kaia didn’t know what to say. What could she say? Had she been so bad in life that she didn’t deserve wings? She didn’t get a chance to ask Ash because he was already leaving the cavern.

  A hand on her shoulder kept her from chasing after him. “It’s okay,” Antonio said. “It will come in time.”

  “Is he always that big of an ass?” she asked the warrior.

  “Yep, that’s pretty much his MO. But underneath it, he’s a good guy. You’ll get to know him, and when you do, you’ll love his angry ass as much as we do.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Kaia muttered.

  “Come on, we can hit up the libraries top side and see what we can find out about Jamie,” Lacy told her.

  “Who’s Jamie?” Kaia asked, already following the angels, her wings temporarily forgotten.

  “He is your assignment,” Antonio answered her. “Ash was going to put you on finding him as soon as you got your wings, but since that part has been delayed, you should get to work.”

  “Okay, but why are we looking for him?” Kaia asked.

  “He’s a soul that was destined to be a Guard,” Lacy explained. “Come on, I’ll explain on the way.”

  She held out her hand and Kaia took it. The next thing she knew, the ground slipped out from under her feet and for a split second, Kaia was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The feeling was brief and then she was standing in the middle of a park. “There’s a park in Hell?” she asked, waiting for her balance to come back.

  “No,” Lacy laughed. “But there is in New York. You’re in Central Park. We’re gonna head over to the Public Library and do some research.”

  “But how,” Kaia started.

  “It’s called flashing. You’ll be able to do it, too, in time. No one can see us right now, and no one will unless we will it so.” Lacy started to walk toward the street. “I have to know what happened to Jamie.”

  “Did you know him in life?” Kaia asked, keeping pace with the angel.

  “I did,” Lacy told her. “He was one of my students. I died in a terrorist attack on the school I worked at. Jamie helped me to get all of the students out before it happened. Unfortunately, I did not. Well,” she stopped and smiled at Kaia, “I did make it out, but one of the terrorists did too. He fired at Jamie. I put myself between the two and forced the gunman back into the school. It exploded, and the next thing I know, I am in Hell talking to Ash.”

  “Wow,” Kaia said. “That’s amazing. So, did Jamie get chosen for helping you?”

  “No,” Lacy told her. “He went on and did exactly what he promised at my funeral. He made me proud. He joined the armed forces and became a Navy Seal. We crossed paths not too long ago when Ryver destroyed the portal. Jamie was killed, but no one knows what happened to his soul.”

  “Humans have to go one place or another,” Kaia said.

  “Yes, but Jamie is a vampire. I always thought their souls were bound by the same rules as ours, but I could be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Okay, so what portal?” Kaia asked.

  “Oh hell,” Lacy said, “You really haven’t had time to get caught up. Come on, let’s get some coffee and I’ll fill you in.”

  They found a Starbucks relatively quickly and Lacy willed them both into solid form. After ordering, they took a seat near the windows.

  “Okay, CliffsNotes version,” Lacy said, taking a small sip of her latte. “There was a demon called Shax. He killed Ash’s family when Ash was only eight. The demon nearly killed Ash’s sister, but he jumped in front of her and tried to defend her.”

  “When he was eight?” Kaia asked with a raised brow.

  “Uh huh,” Lacy continued. “Anyhow, the demon thought Ash was special in some way so he made a deal with him. Shax wouldn’t kill his sister and Ash would work for him as an adult. Now, Ash didn’t know it, but children can’t be bound to deals with demons. So, after a long time of killing other demons for Shax, he met Elizabeth. Shax wanted Ash to kill her, but as you can see, that isn’t how things worked out. He killed Shax and the reward was to take over as the new leader of Hell.”

  “That’s fucked up,” Kaia muttered.

  “Yeah, but it’s working out for the better, ya know? Ash has been putting together an Elite Guard to protect Hell and Earth. Some of Shax’s followers, including the witch in the cage in his office, freed Balthazar from his prison in the belly of Hell. Since then, Balthazar has done nothing but create problems. He opened a portal between Hell and Earth and let out hundreds of rogue demons. That took a while to clean up, and it wasn’t until Ryver came along that it was destroyed.”

  “So why haven’t you found this demon and put him back?” Kaia asked.

  “It’s not that easy,” Lacy told her. “He is smart and powerful, and that’s a deadly combination. We search every day but we keep coming up empty.”

  The women finished their coffees and left the shop. “So, we are finding this lost soul while everyone else is looking for Balthazar?” Kaia asked.

  “Basically,” Lacy told her. “We have to find him, he belongs with us.”

  “Then let’s do it,” Kaia told her. “We can split up and cover more ground. I’ll take vampire lore and you take the Heaven and Hell stuff.”

  Chapter Four

  This is one seriously fucked up place, Jamie thought as he forced his feet to move through the silent tundra. For the millionth time, he ran over his memories in his mind. He and his SEAL team had been called out to investigate a disturbance. He had been in a meadow of some kind. He pushed harder at his brain.

  There had been some strange shit going on. He remembered a demon and a column of darkness. He remembered seeing angels. Yes, he had seen Ms. B, his teacher from high school. She was an angel. Of course, she was, he thought. She had given her life for her students while the school was under a terrorist attack. The thought filled him with some small amount of satisfaction. He had seen her and her white wings. She had been yelling at him, warning him …

  And then, there was nothing. Jamie supposed he had died, but his afterlife was nothing like he had expected. When he chose to become a vampire and work for the U.S. Government, he thought that death would be the end. And if not the end, maybe Heaven or even Hell. But this?

  He found himself wandering aimlessly through a forest of trees that didn’t move, leaves and brush that didn’t make a sound when he stepped on them, air that didn’t echo. Even when he spoke aloud it sounded strange, as if the air itself ate the sound up. Everything was muted. Colors were pale and grayer than anything.

  There had to be a way out, but damned if he could find it. There was nothing, and no one. Well, that wasn’t completely true. He was there, and his thirst was there. His belly burned with the need for blood, and the longer he went without it, the weaker he felt. As it was, his feet dragged the earth beneath him. Jamie didn’t dare sit down to rest, though, for fear that he wouldn’t get back up again. Just a few seconds of rest made his feet feel as if they were made of concrete, and it took more effort to start moving again than to just keep going. What he feared but didn’t dare admit, even to himself, was that if he stopped, he would grow roots and become part of the earth—forever damned to the still, quiet of this place, wherever it was.

  ***

  How long had she been in this cage? In this prison? Laura wondered to herself. The angels barely even noticed her anymore. Well, all but one. Ryver. The daughter of Lucifer himself had taken a strange interest in her. She didn't say anything, just stared at the confined witch as if there was some answer that only Laura could give. It was creepy. She felt as though the angel was looking for something she couldn't see, trying to get into Laura's head.

  The time in the cell had taught Laura one thing: Do not trust demon
s. Not Shax, not Balthazar, and especially not the redhead named Shelly. She was Balthazar's daughter, and the key to infiltrating Hell. It had been a good plan. Just not good enough. Laura had been captured and Shax was dead. Balthazar was running free among the humans, and there was nothing she could do about it. The demon wasn't going to rescue his partner in crime, though. Laura knew it. She was at the mercy of the angels; those vile creatures that were hell bent on running Hell in a fair and just fashion. They were an affront to everything Lucifer had stood for, as far as the witch was concerned. They wanted to catch Balthazar and put him back in his prison cell for all eternity.

  If only she could use her magic, Laura thought, she could free herself. But no, Ash made sure that her prison was warded against it. The only thing she could do was sit and rot. But that wasn't entirely true. No, Laura, for whatever reason, was seeing images of this soul they were looking for. A vampire, if she was seeing correctly. He was lost, in a place without color or sound, a place that was dead but was not at the same time. Laura didn't know where it was, exactly, but she thought if she tried hard enough, she could reach the lost vampire.

  Not that she wanted to. There was no reason for her to feel inclined to help the angels. The vampire, though, he was a treat for the eyes. Even though his image was somewhat muted, his dark hair and light eyes were captivating. His face was strong and angular, but kind at the same time. There was a determination in his eyes that made Laura think that he would escape his current predicament. His tall, muscular body was covered in tattoos, and he wore black from head to toe: black shit kicker boots, black cargo pants, black long-sleeved cotton shirt. Even his face was painted as if he were a Marine or some other armed forces kind of guy. Maybe he was. Perhaps that was what got him killed.

  It was odd, the interest she had taken in the man, even though she had never met him. Already, she felt contempt toward him because she knew he would be free and he would become one of the damned angels that held her captive. A spike of possessiveness speared her chest. Those damned angels should not get him. She didn't want him either, of course, but she definitely didn't want Ash to find him. Maybe if the angels did find him, Laura could seduce him, bring him on over to her side. Maybe she could convince him to let her out. They could escape together and finally take over Hell and run it the way Lucifer had intended. That was a whole lot of maybe's, but it was a plan. Not a great one, but a plan just the same, which was better than what she'd had before. She wondered, if she could reach him, could she hide him from the angels? She would have to perform the perfect spell, one that did not rely on tokens or charms. One that she could speak, and it would have to be fast. Laura sat back on her bed and closed her eyes. She had to think this through. This was one plan she wouldn’t allow to get FUBAR’d. She couldn’t afford it. This was her only chance at freedom. She knew it in her soul.

  ***

  The library was massive, Kaia noticed as she stood in awe of the thousands of books. Her feet itched to check out the fiction section, but she had a job to do. She went immediately to one of the many computers and typed in her search parameters.

  Thousands of results flooded the screen. Kaia narrowed it by non-fiction and then modern vampire. That helped significantly. She scribbled down some notes and made her way into the shelves. She breathed deep, loving the smell of books. She always had. It didn’t take long to find the book she was looking for.

  Kaia pulled the large tome off the shelf and sat down. She thumbed through the pages, looking for anything about vampire death and souls. One entry came up more often than all the others. It was an expert named Jean LeCroux, who currently had a shop in New Orleans. That was where they needed to look. Of course, if Kaia were still alive, she could have checked the archives at the Nellis Air Force base in Nevada. It was just north of Area 51 and included databases on not only aliens, but all kinds of supernaturals.

  “Find anything?” Lacy asked her.

  “Can we go to Nevada and to New Orleans?” Kaia asked her.

  “I guess,” Lacy answered. “You smelling something?”

  Kaia explained about the expert in Louisiana and the database in Nevada.

  “You mean it’s real?” Lacy asked. “Area 51 is a real place?”

  “Of course, it is,” Kaia told her. “The area is labeled a testing sight, but yes, Area 51 is real. And so is the information there.”

  “Well damn, let’s do it,” Lacy told her. She took Kaia’s hand and flashed them both away.

  They materialized in front of the base in Nevada. “So, what’s the plan?” Kaia asked sarcastically, “Just waltz in there like we belong? Like we’re just one of the crew?”

  “Something like that,” Lacy said with a grin. “But first, we gotta stay invisible so we can check out their wardrobes.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?” Kaia asked.

  “I got this,” Lacy said. She closed her eyes momentarily and then opened them again. “Okay, let’s go,” she said.

  “Wait,” Kaia said, taking Lacy by the arm. “We are not invisible. I can see you.”

  “Of course, you can, silly,” Lacy said, “We can all see each other. The only one of us that can go incognito, and not even Ash can see him, is Lucas.”

  “But the people inside that gate,” Kaia asked, “They cannot see us?”

  “Right,” Lacy said. “Now come on.”

  They flashed inside the heavy gates surrounding the base. There were planes of all sorts littering the pavement, but so far, not a single soul was outside. “We may have to go in,” Lacy said.

  After a few moments of just walking around, a pilot came out and began to work on his jet. “Not his outfit,” Lacy commented, “We want something that will get us in.”

  “Why can’t we just go in like this?” Kaia asked. “They can’t see us, so what’s stopping us from getting into the archives?”

  “Well,” Lacy said, turning to her, “They may not see us, but they will see things moving around. Even though we are invisible, we do have mass and we would set off any sort of motion detectors or other security measures. It’s best if we dress up and play the part.”

  “I see,” Kaia said, understanding what this whole process was about now. “I think we should go to the entrance and have a look.”

  They did just that, and luckily, a soldier was coming out in uniform. “That’s what we want,” Lacy said. “Come on.” She led Kaia around a corner where no one could see them, checked for security cameras, and then made them both visible again. “Get dressed.”

  She concentrated for a moment and then her outfit was completely different. Instead of her white shirt and pants, she was now wearing complete U.S. standard military fatigues. “Wow, that’s cool,” Kaia said in awe.

  “Yours isn’t bad either,” Lacy smiled.

  Kaia looked down at herself and realized that her clothes had also been replaced with military fatigues. “I didn’t even notice. How did you do that?”

  Lacy shrugged. “Angels have what they need with only a thought.”

  They walked to the entrance and faced the security guard. “Hey Gus,” Lacy said. “Wanna let us in?”

  The guard looked confused for a moment, but then relaxed. “Of course,” he said, “Have a good day ladies.”

  Once they were inside, Kaia whispered, “How did you know his name, and how did you get us in here?”

  Lacy laughed. “I calmed his emotions to the point that he wasn’t worried about whether or not we belonged here. And his name was on his shirt.”

  “Oh, haha, I get it,” Kaia said. “Let’s just get to the library and get the hell out of here,” she suggested.

  The archives building was huge, and it took some doing to find any information at all. “Hey look at this,” Kaia said to Lacy. “This was the government’s original attempt at identifying all supernaturals. It didn’t work, of course, because no one would cooperate. No one wanted to be labeled.”

  Lacy looked over the document with a combination of dis
taste and awe. There were hundreds of names on the list. She hadn’t realized there were so many, and if this was a failed attempt, how many more were there? She hated that the government had wanted to keep tabs on people, no matter what species they were.

  They rummaged for hours but found nothing that would help them locate Jamie. “Now what?” Kaia asked.

  “I guess we’re off to New Orleans,” Lacy said, taking her hand. “Let’s go.” She flashed them both out of Nevada and to the shop on Bourbon Street.

  Chapter Five

  "What are you doing in here again?" Ash demanded. "You know I want you out of sight for now."

  "I do," Jensen answered. "And I checked to make sure she wasn't in here first. I do need your help, if it's not too much to ask."

  "What is it?" Ash asked with a sigh. He knew he had to be available for Jensen, but damn if Balthazar wasn't eluding them at every turn. Ash had focused all his energy on finding the fucking demon. Still, he had to ensure that Hell was running smoothly.

  "I have two souls in Murder that I am not entirely sure are supposed to be there. The realm hasn't drawn them in yet, and after speaking to them, neither of them admits to taking a life for any reason. Is it possible there might be a mix up?" Jensen pulled his tablet out and handed it to Ash.

  He took the tablet and examined the two files in question. As far as Ash could see, there wasn't any good reason for either of them to be in Murder. "Well, seeing as how I am missing one soul completely and how Jake was on Shelly's list at first, I am going to go out on a limb and say yeah, it's possible there was a mix up." Ash shook his head and ran his hand through his hair. Never had he imagined that running Hell would be a bureaucratic nightmare, but here he was. As far as he was concerned, a soul's final destination should be one of those things that the universe got right. "Do not let them out, but do some research on it. If you can figure where they are supposed to be, let me know. Under no circumstances are you to let them out of Murder until we get this resolved."