For her, it hadn’t. Only his world had been turned upside down. With the demon dead, Ash’s sister would be safe. She could live out her normal life and he never had to worry about her safety from a demon again. It was he who had struck the deal that ultimately led him down this path in life. While he was desperately trying to make heads or tails of this new life, Lele was going about hers as if nothing had happened.
He felt a kind of peace settle in his stomach. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Lele was safe. He could hardly wrap his head around that kind of relief. The thing he had lived his entire life for had been accomplished.
And now, he was being rewarded.
He had a hard time looking at this new job leading Hell as a reward, but if it meant that he could continue to keep his sister safe, then Ash was going to do it. Not only was he going to put his heart and soul into it, but he was going to be the best damned leader Hell ever had.
Not that his predecessor was hard to top. Lucifer had been evil down to his bones. He had been twisted, vindictive, and all the things that would have led a soul to hell in the first place. Ash was none of those. He hoped.
“What’s on your brain?” Antonio asked him, bringing him back to here and now.
“I was just thinking how wonderful it is to see her so happy and safe,” Ash replied.
“Yeah. We are gonna have to drop by once in a while though,” Antonio told him. “She’s gonna start to wonder where her big brother disappeared to.”
“Yeah,” Ash nodded. “Real soon.”
“But first, your guard.”
Ash turned at looked at the warrior. “Why exactly, do I need a guard?”
“You need five guards,” Antonio corrected him. “And you need to pick them from the human population.”
“Why is that?” Ash asked. “Why not pick from the leaders here?”
Antonio rolled his eyes. “Because the leaders here need to lead their sanctions. They already have a job to do. You need fresh eyes and fresh muscle to keep your ass and the whole of the kingdom safe.”
“Who would go against me?” Ash remarked with stupid grin. “I’m the freaking King of Hell.”
“Come on,” Antonio said, leaving the room.
Ash followed him back to the room where his desk was. On the wall were hundreds of television screens. “On this wall,” Antonio told him, “Is every realm of Hell. You can see whatever you want, whenever you want, at all times.”
Ash let his eyes wander over the wall. He could see the sanctions and their inhabitants, as well as the leaders. It was a bit much to watch though.
“Look here,” Antonio said, pointing to one of the screens. “Listen.”
Ash trained his attention on that screen and the volume was suddenly loud enough to hear.
There were two demons talking to each other in a dark hallway.
“I’m just saying that he knows nothing of how things work down here,” a demon said to another one. “Why should we follow him blindly?”
“I agree,” the other demon said. “But what can we do?”
“I have a plan,” the first one said. He draped his arm over the other demon’s shoulders and they turned away from the view. They walked side by side until they were out of sight.
“See?” Antonio said. “There is always going to be those who will oppose you. Not just here. On Earth too. There will always be troublemakers. Look at Stephan. You need more than just yourself to keep things going right here.”
Ash nodded in agreement. “Ok then, what do we do first?”
CHAPTER SIX
Ash couldn’t feel the floor under his feet for a moment and threw out an arm to catch himself on, well, anything. What he caught was the arm of the warrior angel beside him. He was off balance and the heavy sword at his hip was pulling him to the right.
“Wicked cool the first time, right?” Antonio grinned, holding Ash’s arm while he got his bearings.
“That was different,” Ash grumbled. He had executed his first flash from Hell to Earth. That’s what Antonio had called it. The ability to move from one realm to another, instantaneously. It was different from the way Ash had moved before. The amulet had helped him, but it took longer and was less disorientating. He looked around and noticed that he was surrounded by rolling hills and trees. There was a river running off to the East, and something inside Ash just knew that he was on Earth and somewhere in Montana. In his mind, he could see something like a map and a little blip where he stood.
“Don’t worry, man, it goes away after a bit, and before you know it you’ll be flashing back and forth like you have been doing it your whole life.” Antonio finally let go and Ash was left to stand on his own two feet. “It will be second nature,” Antonio continued. “Like flying.”
That is when Ash remembered that he had wings. Huge, gorgeous, wings that he had yet to use, unless he wanted to count dreaming, which he didn’t. He hadn’t forgotten that they were there, but they were such an intricate addition to his body that it felt natural, as if they had always been there. He felt the corner of his mouth twitch in an urge to grin like an idiot.
“I know that look,” Antonio grinned. “Ready to try them out?”
Ash nodded and let loose the smile he had been holding back. “Yeah let’s do this,” he said. He willed his wings to spread and they obeyed. They stretched out behind him, twitching with the need to let go. He was prepared to feel that incredible freedom he felt in his dream. He coiled all of his muscles tight in preparation and then he pushed against the ground with his legs and jumped into the air, and….proceeded to land directly on his ass.
He had only jumped about four feet into the air before gravity slapped him back down. Wild hoots of laughter erupted from the warrior. Ash felt the sides of his neck getting hot, and then the heat traveled to his face. Not only was he embarrassed, but the fucking angel was laughing at him. Laughing. At. Him. Ash pushed to his feet and dusted off his backside. Antonio was still laughing. Ash wanted to punch him right in his stupid face. Didn’t anyone ever teach the man not to laugh at others? He turned to glare at Antonio.
And that was when Antonio stopped laughing. “Whoa, dude,” he said, putting both hands up in a defensive gesture. “That right there is something you gotta control.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ash growled at him.
“Your eyes, man,” Antonio answered. “They’re fucking glowing red, like hot coals. Kinda making me fear for my own well-being.” He backed up several steps. “In my defense, it was funny as shit to see you land on your ass.”
“Hot coals?” Oh, what the hell was going on?
“Yeah, man, your temper is making your eyes red. Ya know, to strike fear into the hearts of demons that would cross you. You got some serious mojo now, man, and I don’t want to be the first recipient.” Antonio backed up a bit.
“I thought I could fly,” Ash grumbled. What good were wings if he couldn’t fly? He breathed slowly to get a grip on himself. He didn’t know what kind of power he had, but he didn’t want it flying around unleased. First, fly. Then deal with the hot coals issue.
Antonio chuckled. “You can. You have the appropriate appendages to do it. But, you gotta learn to fly before you can just leap into the air and take off.”
Ash was still embarrassed. He was the leader of Hell. Hell! Yet he couldn’t fly. He let out a heavy sigh. “Ok, then what do I do?”
Antonio shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know that there is right or a wrong way to do it. It’s different for everyone.”
Ash was going to punch him. In the face. Probably with the sword that was hanging at his hip. He squashed the urge and tried to speak calmly. “Aren’t you supposed to be here to help me?” he asked more than a little irritated, “because right now, you ain’t much help.”
Antonio smiled at him. Fucker.
“Just tell me what you did to learn to fly?” Ash said through clenched teeth.
“I just imagined myself in the air,
” Antonio said. “Then I started to beat my wings and poof! Airborne.”
“Poof,” Ash repeated. This angel/warrior/vampire was going to be the death of him, Ash just knew it.
“Try beating your wings,” Antonio said.
Ash did it. He told his wings to spread and they did as he commanded. He raised them and pushed them down several times. “Good,” Antonio said. “Now do it harder, like you’re pushing the air down with them.”
Ash pushed his wings harder. He started to kick up a good breeze with them. “Harder,” Antonio said. “You ain’t gonna break them.”
Ash pushed harder, until he was making enough wind to toss the angel’s hair around. “Keep it up!” he heard the angel say. “More!” now the angel was shouting.
Ash pushed and pushed with his wings. He pushed hard enough that the force lifted his body from the ground. He kept beating his wings against the air. Higher and higher, he rose into the sky.
“Great!” Antonio grinned at him. He was in the air as well, but it seemed like he was using a lot less effort than Ash was.
“Ok,” Ash called loud enough to be heard over the wind, “Now what?”
“Now you tilt yourself forward and go!” Antonio said, just before taking his own advice and shooting across the sky with ease.
Ash watched him go half a mile in about a second or two. Then he did as the angel said. He tilted himself forward by pushing his legs back and his head down and… tipped all the way over. He was still beating his wings, so as his head lowered and his feet went back, the force of his wings propelled him faster until he was feet up in the air and head to the ground. He flailed his arms and righted himself, but couldn’t stop fast enough and was tossed over again. And again. He was spinning in the air like a fucking pinwheel. He could hear the laughter coming across the skies and getting louder as Antonio got closer. At least, the angel was going to help him.
Or so he thought.
“Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around,” Antonio sang.
“Would you please help me?” Ash shouted. He was starting to feel sick.
“What do you want me to do?” Antonio asked. “If I grab you then I am going round with ya! I can help once you get a hold on your directional difficulties.”
“How do I fucking stop you idiot?” Ash bellowed. “I’m gonna fucking puke any second!”
“Well, that’s gonna be gross,” Antonio remarked. “Just stop flapping your damn wings.”
Ash did as Antonio instructed and stopped moving his wings. Aaaaaannnndd then….
He started to fall. Ash wanted to close his eyes as the earth rushed up to meet him, but he couldn’t. His own body had turned traitor on him, and he watched as certain death rushed to meet him. Faster and faster he fell, head first, of course. How the fuck high up had he been, anyway. He had never imagined falling from the sky, but he would have thought it wouldn’t have taken so long. Time seemed to slow down as he plummeted toward his own death.
“Spread your wings!” Antonio was shouting behind him. Ash was having trouble concentrating on anything but dying right at that moment. “Dude! Spread your fucking wings or else you’re gonna be splatter!”
At some point, his wings had folded and were lying flat against his back, and Ash couldn’t remember how to open them. Open, open, open, he thought at his wings. The ground was coming fast and Ash felt a peace settle over him. He accepted his fate. All because he stupid wings wouldn’t open.
Just before he would have crashed violently into the waiting brush beneath him, Ash’s fall leveled out and he began to float horizontally, just a few feet above the ground. He craned his neck and looked behind him to see that his wings had opened.
“Whohoo!” Antonio yelled as he flew up beside him. “Man, I thought you were toast! Now fly, damn it!”
Ash couldn’t believe it. He was flying! Fucking. Flying. He lifted his head so that he could see the sky and pushed his wings, rising higher and higher in altitude. He soared across the valley and finally let go of everything. He let go of his worries, his fear, and his inhibitions.
“Hell yeah!” he screamed into the sky as he learned very quickly to maneuver. He watched the trees pass under him and felt free. Free of everything. His teacher flew up next to him and grinned that same stupid grin that had made Ash want to punch him before, only this time, Ash knew he was sporting the same grin.
“See?” Antonio asked. “You just had to figure it out! Now, let’s go find us a worthy guard!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
It took some effort, but Ash finally got the hang of the whole flying thing. He could dart left and right, climb higher or drop lower, he could even soar on the wind. The whole thing was just too fucking wonderful to stay mad at Antonio for being, well, for being Antonio. It was his personality, the way he was. Ash had a hard time believing that this all fun and games, light-hearted idiot was a fierce warrior for the Heavens. But you should never judge a book by its cover, right?
“There,” the angel in question yelled out over the wind. He pointed to a burning building below. Heavy black smoke was spiraling into the air as flames licked toward the sky. Emergency responders were on sight, several fire trucks and police vehicles, and twice as many human bodies working to get the blaze under control.
“What do we do?” Ash asked, doing his best to hover in the sky.
“We watch.” Antonio hovered beside him.
“Watch what? I don’t know what I’m looking for,” Ash reminded him.
“Great courage and selflessness are key characteristics in a warrior. A warrior in life makes a good warrior in the afterlife too,” Antonio said as if Ash should have already known that. “I figure a blaze is a good place to start looking.”
Ash watched as the first responders dumped water from their trucks on the blaze. It wasn’t looking like they were going to get the fire reined in. “I don’t think this fire is giving up,” Ash mused.
“Let’s take a closer look,” Antonio said and started toward the blaze.
“Wait,” Ash said, grabbing Antonio by the arm. “What if they see us? I know there are supernaturals, but it isn’t everyday one sees a couple of angels.”
Antonio grinned. “No human can see an angel unless we want to be seen. As long as you don’t want anyone to see you, they won’t.”
“Oh,” Ash said. Made sense. “Ok, let’s go.”
The pair dove down and Antonio flew right into the burning building. Ash followed and when Antonio landed on the second story, Ash was right behind him. He tried to slow his speed, but landing was not something Ash had learned to do, so when his feet hit the floor, his top half kept going. He toppled over, and the only thing Ash could do was tuck and roll with it.
“I will give the landing a three but a ten for the rebound,” Antonio whooped into the air.
Ash stood and brushed himself off. “Suck it,” he barked at the angel. There were violent flames all around them, chewing up everything in sight. Neither the flames nor the heat had any effect on the angels, though. They were free to watch.
When Ash heard someone calling for help, his first reaction was to head toward that voice and get the person out of the fire, but Antonio stopped him. “We can’t help,” he said. “We have to let things play out.”
“What if that person dies?” Ash demanded. “I can help.”
“If that person dies, then that is the way it’s supposed to be,” Antonio said.
Ash grumbled. He hated that he couldn’t help. He understood, but that didn’t mean he liked it. He watched as the fire fighters moved through the burning building. The blaze became too much for them and one by one, they had no choice but to go back out.
There was still a man crying out for help.
Ash watched as one fireman leaped over a wall of flames and used his body to break through a wall. Flames swallowed him up, but Ash had to follow him. He watched as the man fought through the flames and finally to the person who needed help.
“Here,” the fireman tol
d the man, “put this on.” He had given the man his oxygen mask. “I’m gonna try not to hurt you, but if we’re gonna get out of this alive, I need you to trust me and hold on for the ride.”
The man was holding the mask over his face and nodded. The fireman hauled him up and over his shoulder. “Sit tight, princess, we getting outta this castle,” he grinned and took off running. He leaped over a fallen beam that was burning and tried to make his way back to the steps. A huge wall of flames stopped him. “Shit,” the fireman grumbled. He turned and searched for another way out.
Ash could see through the fire and could see there was another set of stairs on the opposite wall. He blew gently in that direction and the flames flickered down just enough for the fireman to see the exit sign above the second set of stairs.
The fireman leapt into action and hauled his cargo to the stairs. He went down them, two at a time, until they reached the end. They crashed through the heavy door at the bottom into the fresh air. They were greeted by EMT’s, who helped take the man from his shoulders.
“I have to go back and make sure there is no one else,” the fireman announced.
The EMT shook his head. “You can’t,” he said.
“The hell I can’t!” He tried to go back inside, but a man even bigger than he was stepped in front of him. “Move, Captain,” he demanded.
The captain just put his hand on the fireman’s shoulder. “I need you alive. We have evacuated the building. No one goes back in.”
“But…”
“No buts,” the captain insisted. “I don’t know how you got him out, but you saved his life. Now I feel like I have to save yours, because if you go back in there, you’re toast. Stay out. That’s an order.”
Ash watched as the fireman sank to a sitting position, deflated by the order of his superior. “I like him,” Ash announced.
“Yeah?” Antonio grinned.
“Yeah,” Ash agreed. “He’s bullheaded, selfless, and follows orders. And he’s huge. So what now?”
Salvation (The Keepers of Hell Book 2) Page 4