He circled the camp and pushed his head down to go lower. He still couldn't tell whether he was looking at tents or buildings, mostly because they were covered in snow. As if on command, the wind picked up, scattering the loose snow even further. There were no signs of life that he could see, so he moved in closer. The wind blew more and Jamie caught a glimpse of something on the ground. He looked harder, noticing that what he saw was a dead body. The snow had covered it over, but it had not had time to freeze.
He yanked his head up and pushed his wings harder than he had before, right back to Ash and the rest of the Guard. "I think I found it," he said, landing on the snow. He didn’t even consider his technique and only when he heard the crunching of the snow under his boots did he realize it. "There doesn’t appear to be anyone left, though."
"Are we too late?" Lacy asked disappointed.
"Maybe, maybe not," Ash said. "Let's go, but proceed with caution. At this point, we should assume that anything may be a trap."
The angels followed Jamie back to the site, all of them landing on the perimeter. Ash listened carefully for anything and everything before giving the silent command for his Guard to move forward. They inspected each and every tent, but found no sign of life.
"They're all dead," Kaia said, stating the obvious. "We're too late."
Jamie had his head just inside a cavern that appeared to be recently excavated. "I think this is where it was," he said. "I'm going in." He pushed into the dark cavern, stepping carefully. Something shiny to the right caught his attention. When he leaned down to pick it up, the golden box gleamed in his hands. "Fuck," he muttered. They were too late.
Chapter Ten
"That was a complete bust,” Lucas growled as they returned to hell. “Fucking Balthazar!” They had gone to the icy Antarctic only to find Balthazar gone, the humans slaughtered, and a discarded box on the ice.
“Not a complete waste,” Ash said. “We did find the last box. Well, Jamie found it.”
“You’re welcome,” Jamie said, appearing next to them. He was getting the hang of flashing pretty quickly. He turned to tell Laura what they found and roared. “No!” he shouted, running for the cage. “Unlock it now!”
Ash looked to the cage and knew immediately what had gotten to Jamie. The witch was dangling in the center of her cell, hanging by her neck from a makeshift noose. She had used her sheets to hang herself. Her face was blue and her eyes were bulging. Ash lifted his hand to open the door, but Jamie was already there.
A ferocious roar shook the office as Jamie ripped the door off its hinges. He slung it aside as if it weighed nothing and went to his mate. Jamie ripped the sheet from the top of the cage, catching Laura in his arms. He laid her on the bed gently, but quickly, laying his ear next to her chest. “She’s not breathing!” he shouted.
Without thought for anything else, Jamie lifted her chin and breathed into her mouth. “Come on baby, breathe,” he said before blowing into her mouth again.
The others watched, stunned by the turn of events. Ash wanted to help, but there was nothing he could do. Jamie was already doing all that could be done. He thought of his mate and how he would feel if it were her in that cage. His mate … she was a doctor! “Elizabeth!” he called for her.
Elizabeth ran into the office with her vampire speed, knowing her mate needed her. “What’s going on?” she asked, but no one needed to answer. She saw it for herself. “Damn,” she cursed before running to Jamie’s aid. “Let me help,” she told him.
“No,” Jamie growled, “she can’t die.” He breathed into her mouth again.
“I know,” Elizabeth told him. “I can help her, but you have to let me.”
Jamie wanted to shove the other vampire out of the way, but protecting his mate took precedence over his fears. “Help her,” he demanded.
Elizabeth listened momentarily before saying, “Move her to the floor.”
Jamie scooped Laura’s motionless body up and laid her on the floor as he was told. Elizabeth clutched her own hands together and began doing compressions on his mate. “Her heart isn’t beating,” she said. “We have to keep it going. Breathe.”
Jamie forced another breath into his mate. When her chest rose and fell and then remained still, he panicked. “I have to change her,” he announced, already leaning down to her neck. He was prepared to to drain her human blood and replace it with his own. Anything to save her.
A sharp pain in his side took him by surprise, and Jamie found himself on the back wall of the cage. Elizabeth was glaring at him. “No, you won’t,” she said definitively. “You will not change her without her permission.”
“Ash did it to you,” Jamie growled at her.
“No, he didn’t,” Elizabeth told him while continuing compressions. “Antonio took me to his family and they asked me first. I don’t remember much, but I remember that part. You will not change her unless she can agree to it. Now get over here and breathe for her.”
Jamie looked to the faces of the other angels in the room and knew he would lose that argument. He forced air into his mate’s lungs again and then sat helplessly as the doctor continued to administer CPR. What had she done? Why? So many things were going through his head, but the biggest, loudest thought was, he couldn’t lose her. Two more times he breathed for her before Elizabeth stopped.
“Shh,” she said and everyone was silent. “I got her,” she announced. “We got her back.”
Jamie leaned down and listened for himself and sure enough, Laura’s heart was beating. It was weak, but it was there. She sucked in a breath and Jamie’s heart leapt with joy. She was alive. The color began to return to her lips and face as she started breathing on her own. "You crazy girl," Jamie whispered, pulling her into his lap. "Why would you do that?"
Laura did not open her eyes and answer him, but she did turn her face to his chest. Even unconscious, she knew he was there. How could he ever leave her alone again after this? How could he be certain that she wouldn't try it again? At first, he had been worried that Ash or one of the guards might have tried to hurt her, but he never imagined that she would hurt herself. No, that wasn't something he was ready to accept. If she had died, her soul would have become a permanent resident in Murder and there was no coming back from that. For now, he would just have to be happy that her attempt was not successful and that she was still with him.
Ash let out a sigh of relief when Elizabeth came out of the cage. "She is going to need to be watched very closely for a while," she said.
"I'm not leaving her side," Jamie said, already lying down with Laura on the bed.
"You may stay with her," Ash told him, knowing it was a moot point. The vampire was going to do it whether Ash said he could or not.
"Well, I guess we all know what kind of power Jamie has now," Lucas grinned. "Not bad for a squid."
"What are you talking about?" Jamie asked, raising his head up. "I'm just the same as I was before, only with wings."
"No," Ash told him. "There is no way you should have been able to open that cage before I took the spell off, and yet you did. Ripped the door right off."
"Vampires are strong," Jamie reminded him.
"Not that strong," Ash told him, shaking his head. "No one should have been able to get in there."
"Well, you hear of mothers lifting cars off their children," Lacy pointed out.
"This was different. He was physically stronger than the magic I put on the cage. I'm not gonna lie, it bothers me a bit. No one should have that kind of strength."
“I saw Laura in Limbo,” Jamie admitted. “She found a way around the magic ban, so why would it be so hard to believe that one person could be strong enough?”
Ash’s face turned bright red. “How in the fuck did she do that?” he growled.
Jamie shrugged. “Beats me, but she put some kind of protection spell on me. At first I thought she was hiding me, but then I realized she was protecting me, because I am her mate.”
“The love of a mate can
be very strong,” Elizabeth reminded her own mate. “You should know that.”
Ash clenched his teeth together so hard it hurt.
“His sheer physical strength could be blessing,” Shelly offered.
"I think there may come a time when we need it," Lacy told him. "For now, why don't we try to figure out what Balthazar's next move is so that we can try again?"
Jake clicked on the television and shook his head. "You were right, that was the horseman's box. He ain't wasting no time getting started either."
"Hurricane Lily has come ashore on the Florida coast, taking an unknown number of lives. This category four storm is quickly gaining strength and by night’s fall, we expect it will be upgraded to a category five. Meanwhile, a violent quake near the Hoover Dam has the West Coast in a panic. Geologists are saying that this one rates a nine on the Richter scale and aftershocks should be expected in the range of five to seven. Government officials are baffled by the sudden onslaught of natural disasters and are scrambling to get resources where they are needed most. Stay tuned for more as it develops."
"When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth."[ii] Ash shook his head. "What the hell are we supposed to do if we can't find the bastard and kill him?"
"I can find him," Shelly told them all. "Thanks to that spell, I can feel him. I think I can still see what he sees."
"Oh honey," Jake said, "I'm sorry. We didn’t mean for it to stick."
"It doesn’t matter," she told him, waving her hand in a dismissive fashion. "I was being selfish. We need to see where he is and, for now, he doesn’t know I'm in there with him. The next time the connection is made, I'll let you know."
Chapter Eleven
“Do we really need to be wasting our time on this?” Jamie asked Kaia as they entered yet another realm. He wasn’t given a proper tour when he arrived, so Ash decided Kaia should show him around while they waited for Shelly to reconnect with her father. He hated to be away from Laura so soon after her suicide attempt, but it came down as a direct order from Ash and Jamie wasn’t going to disobey a direct order. He knew that Elizabeth was watching over her. It didn’t make it easier, though. He wanted—needed to be with her. To protect her. To make sure she didn’t do anything stupid again.
“You may not think so, but it’s important. Not just for your information, but for the leaders as well. They all need to know who you are,” Kaia explained. “Come on, you’ll like this one,” she said, opening the huge doors to Lust.
Jamie looked around the expanse of sand and ocean that greeted him. This was Lust? It was a beautiful place, hardly something one would expect to see in Hell. “Wow,” he breathed. The beach was unoccupied, save for a few seagulls.
“I don’t know what you see in here,” Kaia told him, “But more than one of us has fallen to its charms. Remember that none of it is real.”
“Not real, got it,” Jamie said, noticing that there was one person on the beach off in the distance.
“Hey guys,” a woman said, approaching them on foot. “Nice to see you again Kaia.”
“Hey, Ameris,” Kaia greeted her. “Jamie, this is Ameris, the leader of Lust.”
Jamie waved at her, but the woman walking in the surf had his attention. There was something very familiar about her … the brown hair and the way she moved … it was Laura! “What is she doing here?” he demanded, already marching toward her.
“Uh oh,” Ameris said with a grin. “Better go get him.”
Kaia shook her head and ran after Jamie, knowing all too well the pull of Lust. She reached him and pulled his arm. Might as well have been pulling on a steel beam that was cemented into the earth. “Jamie, it’s not real,” she said very loudly, bordering on a shout. “Come on, time to go.”
“Why is she here?” he asked again, pulling Kaia along with him. “She isn’t supposed to be here.”
Kaia knew that the only thing that would stop Jamie was for him to see the truth. That or she was going to have to drag him out, which obviously was not going to happen. She had planted her feet and he was dragging her along as if she weren’t even there. There was only one option. Kaia pushed her new power of protection toward Jamie. If she could just protect him from the realm long enough for him to see the truth, maybe she could get him out of there.
She concentrated and held onto him tight. It took a moment for her power to completely shield him from the power of Lust, but finally he stopped moving. “What the hell?” he asked. “Laura was here and this was all different. There was a beach.”
“I told you,” Kaia said with relief, “none of this is real. Laura isn’t here. I don’t know how long I can shield you so we need to go. Now.”
Jamie couldn’t believe what he had seen. It was so real. Where Laura once stood, now there was nothing. A big, gaping, nothing. He turned toward Kaia and nodded. “Let’s go.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Ameris called after them as they high tailed it out of there.
As the doors closed behind them, Jamie turned to Kaia. “What the fuck?”
“I know, right?” she answered. “I fell for it too. We all have to be extra careful in there. It shows you what you want the most, but you can never have it. Eventually, it drives you insane and you spend an eternity chasing what you can never have.”
“That’s messed up,” Jamie said, scratching his head. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”
“No problem,” Kaia said. “We got one more stop.”
She led him to the entrance to the Playground. “This is a playground?” Jamie asked once they entered.
“Not exactly,” Kaia told him. “This is where the souls who commit crimes against children go. They can’t even look at the children without experiencing horrible pain.”
Jamie took in his surroundings. There were people, men and women alike, chained to the stone floor. Most of them had their heads down to stare at their feet. And Jamie could see why. All around them were children playing and laughing. Happy children. Kaia had left his side and wandered to the barrier that kept the children separate from the pedophiles.
“Why are there children in Hell?” he asked.
Kaia didn’t look at him when she answered, instead, her eyes were glued to the children playing. “They aren’t. The children are in Heaven. These are the souls of children who died before they could grow up.” She placed her hand on the barrier and sniffled. “They can’t see us, but we can see them.”
“Which one is yours?” he asked, already knowing her story.
“The little blonde on the slide,” she answered. “I visit every day, but it isn’t the same as holding her.”
“I can’t even imagine,” Jamie said, dropping a heavy hand on her shoulder and giving it a comforting squeeze. “I’m sorry.”
“I know that my job here is important,” Kaia told him. “And I know that it is definitely better to see her every day than not. If I didn’t work for Ash I would be stuck in Murder as a resident, I get that. I deserve that. I took my own life, and there is no asking for forgiveness once you succeed. But I still miss her so much.”
“Of course you do,” he said. Once more he was grateful to Elizabeth for saving Laura from a fate far worse than death. “And one day, we are going to find a way for you to be with her.”
“It isn’t possible,” Kaia said sadly.
“Everything is possible,” he told her. He reached over and lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. “You have to have a little faith.”
“That’s what Jensen says,” Kaia said with a sad smile, “But it’s damn hard.”
“Faith is knowing something is true without the burden of truth,” he said. “Faith is what brought us all here, and faith will get you back t
o your daughter.”
“I’m not sure I have any faith,” Kaia admitted.
Jamie pulled her into a friendly hug. “No worries, I have enough for you too.”
Kaia laughed. “Thanks. I don’t know why I just dumped all of that on you. I don’t talk about it much. It just gets to me sometimes. But hey, who am I to be having issues when the world is falling apart, ya know?”
“I do know,” Jamie said, releasing her. “My mate is in the cage, remember?”
“Yeah, you’re more fucked than I am,” Kaia laughed.
Jamie laughed with her. “I guess fucked is better than losing her altogether.” The smile left his face and was replaced with a sincere expression. “If you ever need to talk, I’m here,” he offered.
Kaia nodded, and the pair left the Playground to return to the office.
When they arrived, Ash was ranting to the other guards. “There has to be a way!”
“Is all of this yelling really good for your heart?” Antonio asked from behind Ash’s desk.
Ash turned to glare at the angel who was at his new desk, downing a package of chocolate chip cookies. There were crumbs. Everywhere. “How many times do I have to tell you not to eat at my desk?” Ash shouted.
“That was the old desk,” Antonio told him. “This one is new. You have to have new rules for it.”
Ash’s face turned red and his wings caught fire. “You didn’t listen before anyway!” he growled. “Go. Now.”
“I was just saying,” Antonio grumbled, but he didn’t finish the thought. Ash pointed at the new desk and sent his power at it. The desk exploded into a million shards and splinters of wood.
All of the angels stepped back. Except Antonio, who didn’t seem phased by Ash’s anger. “Well, that was unnecessary,” he said, taking his cookies that he barely managed to snatch off the desk before its demise and getting up from Ash’s chair.
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