MADNESS: Book One of The Shadow-Keepers Series

by Jas T. Ward

  Bounce’s gaze went to small slits, the colors of his eyes phasing from one color to the next as he watched her face to see what she meant behind the words. The wind died down and the lights overhead stopped blinking. “That’s right. You were kind enough to give me a vessel for Reno.”

  He pulled her forward and just when she thought she was getting reprieve he slammed her back hard against the wall, cracks spreading out from the impact. “Now, where did you get that body from?”

  Yin gave a Cheshire cat smile and licked her lips, bringing a hand up to dab at the blood on his jaw and then suckle it from her fingers, letting out another purr of pleasure. “He was supposed to be enticing bait. The perfect pawn to give us a checkmate. How was I to know your little freak would go all nut job and get slaughtered?”

  Bounce’s brows came down as his forehead creased in puzzlement. “Bait? For what?”

  Yin laughed, the vibration of it rumbling under Bounce’s hand that was still wrapped around her throat and keeping her a foot off the ground. “Not for what. For who. I thought he would be our way to track the prey down. Apparently he became the prey. Poor freak. So sad.” She brought a hand up to cup into a fist and twist under her eye as a mock that she gave a damn. Which Bounce knew she didn’t.

  Bounce let her go but stayed in front of her, both his arms braced, hands on the wall on either side of her head, keeping his eyes pinned to hers. “Enough of the bullshit answers. Where did you get the body from? And who would give a damn whose it was?”

  Yin smiled a poisoned smile and leaned forward to hiss in his ear, her tongue coming out to lick around the shell of it. “Epsilon.”

  Bounce blinked in disbelief and leaned back to see if she was actually serious and then saw she completely, totally, was. “His son?”

  His eyes widened in amazement and he stepped back to put his hands over his face. This was bad and she had no idea what events she had put into place. Or, as he dropped his hands, maybe she did.

  “You stole his son’s body from stasis for us to use for Reno?”

  Everyone had heard in whispered legends how the son of Lucifer had killed his own son Kelion and was so distraught at his actions that he had kept the body hidden in stasis in Hell for centuries, preserved by energy from the Source.

  It was said that Epsilon had gone mad from the act and that was what had caused the war to begin and the Eaters to be created. He blamed Earth, Heaven, even the realm of his birth - Hell - for the loss of his wife and then his son. No one knew why the man had killed his own son or kept the body, only that he had vaporized anyone who tried to even mention him returning it to the light of creation rather than held in eternal, perpetual death.

  It was unnatural and a blasphemy of the most carnal kind. It was rumored that Lucifer himself was even unwilling to force his son to let Kelion be released from death.

  Bounce suddenly felt exhausted, which was not too surprising as he had not slept in days. But this was an overbearing sense of weight at the consequences they had set into motion almost four years ago. “Why didn’t I ask? I should have asked.”

  Yin straightened her hair, followed by her clothes, and moved to stand in front of him. “You should have. But I would have lied. So it would have done you no good.”

  Bounce remembered that night so well. Jess was at the point of total insanity unable to function or even form words. Jess had to be chained to a wall like a prisoner, foaming at the mouth and bellowing in rage like a wild dog to be set free and to kill, all while laughing at them all. The only option they had was to destroy him, until Bounce realized what had happened to deteriorate the hero in such a way, and then he met with Reno. The split personality was barely a shimmer of existence at that point inside of Jess’ shattering mind. He was going to lose them both and he felt an old familiar guilt, which was hosted by the night he had lost Tanya and their unborn child.

  He had waited that night too, unsure what to do, and instead of trying anything, nothing was done. And he lost them both. He had acted without thinking and appealed to Yin to get him a vessel. Any vessel just as long as it was fast. He himself wasn’t sure if he could do what they did. But with the help of Yin’s powers of balance and his over choices of life and death, together they had done it. His reasons were clear - save them both. Now, he realized, her motives were far from clear to him then, as they were now.

  “You wanted to lure Epsilon out. You thought he would look for his son. And we would capture Epsilon, no matter the cost.”

  Yin shrugged. “It seemed feasible at the time. What did it matter? Reno was never meant to be. He’s lucky he got the time he had. He served his purpose but not the outcome I had wished.”

  Her total disregard for emotions of others who all this devastated sent his outrage spiking back up as he stood and got back in her face. “Do you have any idea how many people that man touched? He found an impossible love! One that he never was meant to have just as much as he was never meant to be! He did nothing to do you! And you just used him,” his lip curled in disgust, “and let him be destroyed.”

  Bounce had no doubt that Epsilon slaughtered Reno out of some insane sense of justification at his son’s body being used. The being was smart and calculating. Epsilon had proven it time and time again, going uncaught for thousands of years since the war began, and manifesting the havoc he had in the realm of man, despite being hunted by the Grid and Heaven.

  Bounce closed his eyes and said with a voice full of weariness and regret for his part in this, unknowing or not, “Where’s his body, Yin? At least let Emma and Jess have that. Reno and the body he was placed in deserve to finally be returned to the light.” He opened his eyes to meet hers. “Please Goddess. If you truly do have a heart like you said, you’ll just let this end.”

  Yin tilted her head. “It’s too late. The freak will never be part of the light.” And with that parting blow, which seemed to have a sinister unspoken meaning to each word, she blurred out and was gone.

  PART THREE

  A KEEPER IS FOUND

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The Sound of WTF

  A forever existence could, at times, become a bore. It was one of those times for the Omega. He had run out of horror movies to watch, which were his genre of choice, and once again was trying to understand the beloved human movie - The Sound of Music. It was a delightful movie but he just could not get into it. Was it a war film? Was it a musical? A love story?

  Perhaps he was too focused on placing it into a niche of subject matter, rather than enjoying the spinning of the mop-haired Julie Andrews in a beautiful mountain valley.

  “Bollocks and Nazis galore.” He shut off the view that hung in the air before him like a hologram and turned at the sound of his outer chamber door being opened then closed.

  Rare was it anyone came to just visit and solicitors, along with Avon, didn’t have enough ambition to go door-to-door in Heaven.

  Even after death.

  “Who’s there?” He entered the outer chamber in his simple robes, twisting his long wiry white beard around his fingers, and stopped when he saw a woman on one knee with her head down in the worship position. That sight was not rare to him, but the one taking the humble position was someone who had never taken such a stance before him. Or for anyone, that he could recall.

  “Yin? I must say, I am surprised.”

  The beautiful goddess smiled and looked up as she rose to her feet. “Hello Father.”

  He held out his arms and she walked into them to let him embrace her. As god of all creation, all gods and goddesses were his children, as were all the beings in Hell as well as Earth.

  He was the creator of the Source, and the light from which all other lights came. He was just glad they didn’t all insist on family dinners as there could never be that big of a table with that many chairs.

  Even the Omega had his limits.

  Taking a step back to meet her eyes, he gave her a bemused smile with a twinkle in his eyes. “What brings you here
to perform such a proper gesture, goddess of balance?’

  Yin had debated for days on bringing this matter to the Omega. But without the father’s help she would never know if she was right. Her twin natures were torn to do wrong and do right so they warred over this matter, just as they had any other issue.

  She would be the first one to admit that letting her dark side play was far more fun and prominent than allowing her light side to run rein, but in this, Yin had no choice.

  Destiny was a path they all must obey. And Yin needed the Omega’s help to prove that it had finally come to pass for one who was once thought lost.

  “I have a favor to ask, father.”

  Omega gave her a puzzled look and pressed his lips in a firm line. He could tell that Yin was on her best behavior, and that did have him more intrigued than trying to figure out the singing family in the alive hills. “Ask little one, and if of the way of Light, I shall do my best to assist.”

  She smiled and took his hand. “I have something to show you.”

  Omega stood with raised brows after Yin led him to one of the High Council chamber rooms.

  In a chair in the center sat what appeared to a human male. Bound to the chair by Source chains, used to hold down the strongest beings, which circled around the man’s wrists and ankles. Seemed a bit overkill as this human was very clearly dead.

  “Yin. I don’t understand. Why is it you have a corpse as a pet? Is this that Earth holiday of Halloween?”

  Yin was almost bouncing as she walked over to the body and wrapped her arms around the man’s shoulders, resting her chin on one shoulder, with fingers stroking over the body’s bare chest, sliding her hand over a zig-zag scar in the chest. “I found the lost Keeper.”

  Omega’s eyes went up along with his brows seeming to almost touch his white hairline. He was not sure how to respond, as it seemed more plausible for her to tell him that the Easter Bunny was actually a guy named Buddy who lived in Georgia.

  He walked up to tilt the body’s head up gently by the chin with his fingers to search the man’s eyes. They were dulled, the irises the milky white of death. The pupils were tiny pin-prick size, barely seen in the haze of the once blue surrounding them.

  But the moment Omega touched the man his own head was filled with a million dark whispers and immense sense of blocked power.

  Dark power.

  He looked up at Yin and Omega said in a hushed, awed tone, “By the Heaven’s, how is this possible?”

  Yin gave a smug look as she proceeded to tell him how she had been searching for the lost Keeper for centuries. How she wanted to try and use that being for the side of Light.

  How she had thought she found it in a Breaker by the name of Jess Bailey, but she had been both wrong and right at the same time. The spark for the Keeper was in the hero, but was not the hero.

  Literally.

  Omega stood, letting the man’s head drop, as dead weight with chin to chest and smiled. “Well. We need to test your theory, my child. And there is only one way.” He held out his hand, and suspended above his palm was a small swirling free spark of the purest blue light.

  “Keepers were purpose driven beings. Or were supposed to be. So let’s give your little pet a purpose, shall we?”

  Chapter Forty

  Butt-Clenching Wood Chipper

  Pain was nothing new to Reno. In fact it was pretty much all he had known for most of his existence. But when you went from the absolute nothing of death to a blinding, butt-cheek clenching, white heat of pain, so bad that you really thought you were being shoved through a wood-chipper?

  You revaluated your agony meter.

  He had no idea how long he had screamed or if it was night, day, up or down; but all he knew was he hurt. Really, really bad. Reno felt every single sensation all in a second— hunger, thirst, desire, misery, sadness, joy, happiness. The list just kept growing until he fell back into nothingness, but minus the dead.

  He came back around the second time feeling like he was jelly in a flesh bag, head hanging down on a neck that felt like it was a noodle.

  He cracked open one eye, and then the other, to look down at a pure white marble floor, sitting in a puddle of his own sweat, tears, and he really didn’t want to think what else.

  He tried to speak and nothing but weak air squeaked out. Moving was totally out of the question and his mind was a slur of sounds and halts, unable to form any thoughts. If this was death, it really sucked.

  Worse than the first time, maybe not as bad as the second.

  “You’re awake.”

  He heard the voice of a woman whose words sounded like chirps mixed with some exotic accent, somehow pulling off husky despite the lilt in the formation of sound. He thought about nodding but that thought didn’t have the strength to go say hello to his head to do so. So he just sat there.

  Gentle hands lifted his head with fingers cupped under his chin. Reno opened his eyes and through a haze saw a beautiful woman. She had cat like eyes, tilted at the ends, surrounded by long lashes, and all framed by perfect porcelain skin and black hair. She seemed familiar and he felt the tug of a frown trying to form on his face, but wasn’t able to rally the nerves, or muscles, to give that any action.

  Her hand came up to wipe his brow, again tender as she smiled. “You live! The spark didn’t kill you, which means I was right about your purpose!”

  Her voice was so sing-songish that he found it hard to make sense of the words, even without the head that was mush.

  Without any tenderness, she let go of his head and his chin crashed back to his chest causing his neck to feel like a splitting noodle, pain exploding in his head.

  Reno was barely able to focus on the red high heels running out of the door, the woman singing some crazy sounding song, before he was tipped back into darkness once again.

  -We have you. Us are here.-

  Chapter Forty-One

  I’m a What?

  It was so beautiful here, and Reno was still amazed that he was actually here-Heaven.

  Or as Heaven had been explained to him by Yin a layer of Heaven, because there were apparently many layers of it to suit however the soul needed it to be. Different for each soul that rested eternally here. Reno wondered if dog souls ended up in Petco or a doggy park in their layer.

  He was standing on a balcony overlooking the endless valleys of light and small houses with streets that he guessed were gold or some other metal. They gleamed in the strange light of the night, although he didn’t see any moon in the starry sky. It was like Heaven didn’t need anything beyond the beauty of the place to be perfect. Night or day.

  Leaning over to cross his arms on the rail, he dropped his chin to his forearm and stared down at the beauty below.

  “How are you, Keeper?”

  He didn’t move even when the goddess wrapped an arm around him to rest her cheek against his shoulder, staring at his face and trying to read where his mind was.

  Hmm. How was he?

  Well, that was a loaded and a half question when he thought about it. He had died from being slaughtered in the streets of San Francisco, which happened after going insane from being rejected by the only woman he loved. Finally, all of this was after being a split personality in a cowboy’s head for over a century. Or was it two centuries? He wasn’t quite sure. Now he found himself a guest of a goddess who he now remembered had a hand in giving him his own life and was arranging his stay in Heaven.

  Yeah. He really was not sure how to answer her question at all.

  He stood and straight armed the rail as she wrapped her other arm around him and moved to press herself against his back.

  Yin was like some weird cat and Reno could not help but ponder if he was a mouse she was planning on eating, or a play toy she was planning on tossing around. Either one was probably okay with her as she purred whenever she touched him. It was, well...it was just weird.

  Then, as if all that wasn’t boggling enough, she kept calling him Keeper. A word he
had never heard before, nor did he know what it meant to be called a Keeper.

  Turning only to find her still wrapped around him, one of her legs coming up to stroke her foot along the outside of his leg, he swallowed and decided mouse. Definitely, without a doubt, mouse because she looked like she was going to eat him.

  “I don’t know what that is.”

  Yin smiled at his statement and trailed her fingers down his chest, pausing to let them tease the healed but ugly scar on his chest. A chest that still rose and fell with breathe it thought it still needed but lifeless with a heart that didn’t beat.

  “Omega will explain. Come.”

  She pulled away from him, still wearing a smile that he just didn’t see as completely friendly, as she held out her hand for him to take. He tentatively took it and let her lead him through the luxurious rooms they had given him, as well as new clothes which consisted of loose, flowing silk pants with matching robe tops that he never could figure out how to tie closed. All in the same colors the woman always wore - black and white.

  As they made their way down the hallway, the marble feeling warm against his cold feet, people stopped and stared at him, whispering behind their hands.

  Reno thought it was because they were all perfect and beautiful. He thought he must have stood out like an odd thumb with his too long hair that needed a haircut, a beard that needed a trim, and a nose he still thought was too big for his face.

  He hated the attention so he ducked his head down to avoid their stares. Reaching a large chamber, Yin let go of his hand. “Stay here.”

  He nodded and watched her almost skip to a door on the opposite side. Looking up, he saw the same beautiful color swirled sky through a ceiling that seemed to be made of glass, with walls made of the same white marble as the floor making up the rest of the room. Looking back at the door Yin had gone through as it opened, he frowned as an old man with a welcoming smile followed her. The man had one of those faces that were so friendly and wise that he seemed almost fatherly in manner.