The Keepers of Hell Box Set

by Danielle James

  Ash transported himself back to his home and quickly changed his pants and boots. The pants he was wearing were slathered in minion goo and the soles of his boots were melted. He tossed them carelessly into the trash and pulled identical items out of his closet. He stopped with his hand on the hanger holding his pants, and just for a second, wished there was something other than black in his closet.

  He shook it off, knowing that black was the only color he would ever wear. It helped to keep him hidden in the dark recesses of Hell and it didn’t show all the blood and yuck he regularly covered himself in. After he was sufficiently dressed, he raked a brush through his too long hair and set out for the hospital. He might just as well see if he could find that doctor who was seeing his sister again, while he waited for Rashaan to come find him.

  With his blades hidden all over his body, he walked out into the afternoon sunshine. He silently cursed himself for not bringing sunglasses. The sun was bright and burned his eyes. He didn’t do daytime. He was a night creature, just like the damned demons that he killed.

  He strolled up to the hospital and sneaked in through the side door so that he wouldn’t have go through the metal detectors at the front entrance. He wasn’t in any kind of mood to try and explain all the hardware he was wearing. In just a few minutes, he found himself in the emergency room. He looked up and down the hallways, but didn’t see Dr. Tucker. And, he didn’t see Elizabeth either.

  Why, oh why, was he looking for her? he thought. Just because she was pretty and feisty didn’t mean that he needed to waste time looking for her. Lele’s safety was the most important thing to him and making sure Dr. Tucker checked out was at the top of his list of things to do while waiting for a demon to attack him.

  He wandered the halls checking out each and every room, but he didn’t find anything. A nurse stepped into his line of vision with her hands on her hips. She had short, curly, black hair and narrow eyes, just for him. “Can I help you?” she almost asked. Almost. It was more of a demand.

  He checked her left breast pocket for her name. Kelly. “Hello, Kelly,” he said in what he hoped was his come hither voice. Hell, he hadn’t used it in so long he wasn’t really sure if he was being charming or just coming off as an ass. “I am looking for Dr. Tucker; do you know where I can find him?”

  She rolled her eyes at him. Yep, an ass. “He is upstairs in surgery today. You can leave a message for him at his office,” she said in a tone that meant, “Get out of here and don’t come back.”

  “What about Dr. Rone? Is she here?” he asked. What the fuck was he doing?

  The nurse eyed him skeptically. “Are you a friend of hers?”

  Not exactly. “Yes.”

  The nurse thought it over for a moment. “She isn’t here. She doesn’t work day shift. I am sure that if you are a friend of hers, you could call her cell. Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do.” Kelly turned and walked away from Ash, a little faster than what would be considered casual.

  Ash watched her leave, even appreciating the way her backside swayed with each step. He found himself wondering if Elizabeth’s would do the same, and then shook himself out of it. He really needed to get laid, and apparently, his body wanted the petite doctor.

  He knew there was no way anyone was just going to point out his sister’s boyfriend, so he forced himself to march up the stairs to the surgical floor. He kept his head down and wandered the entire floor, hoping to catch the man alone so that they could talk. Yeah, talk. That is exactly what he wanted to do to the man who was intent on defiling his sister.

  After several hours and still no sight of the doctor, Ash resigned himself to go looking for the demon. By now, surely Rashaan had caught wind of his endeavor to find him. The sun was setting and his stomach growled, reminding Ash that he had not eaten yet.

  He jogged out of the hospital and down the street to a local fast food chain. With his order in hand, Ash walked the street while shoving fries into his mouth, seven or eight at a time. He guzzled down his drink and tossed the bag and the cup into a trash bin.

  The street was mostly quiet. There were homeless people here and there, and every once in a while he passed one of the regular working girls. He declined their offers for a good time. Just the thought made his stomach turn. Of course, when he thought of Elizabeth, his cock stood at attention and was all for it. He made a mental note to find her again and fuck her until she couldn’t see. Maybe until he couldn’t see. Maybe if he just got it out of his system, she would get out of his head and he could go back to his miserable life.

  Ash heard a struggle coming from one of the nearby alleys and moved to check it out. The Boss told him that Rashaan was killing innocents, and it would be just like a demon to use a human to get to him. He bounded around the corner and found a large man holding a prostitute against the side of the building. At first, Ash was going to walk away, but then he heard her whimpering. “Please no,” she was saying.

  Ash couldn’t leave. He pushed his feet as hard as he could and slammed into the would-be rapist. It was like ramming into a brick wall. He didn’t think that this was his demon, but who knew? The prostitute ran off, her heels clicking against the asphalt. Ash found himself barreling to the ground with the rapist at his throat.

  “You fucking idiot,” the man snarled. “You gonna pay.”

  Ash rolled them both to the side and then he was sitting on the man’s chest. “Not today,” he barked as he drew his fist back and then let it fly. It landed with a sickening crack against the man’s jaw.

  The man jerked his body and Ash lost his balance. Before he knew what happened, the man was standing and Ash was sitting on his ass. Then he pulled his gun. Ash didn’t have time to react before the man pulled the trigger.

  White hot pain lanced through his chest and Ash instinctively brought his hand to his burning chest. There was blood flowing freely through his fingers as the man laughed and walked away. The last thought Ash had was that this was no demon. Demons don’t need guns and they wouldn’t have left him alive. Of course, alive was a relative term as he watched his precious lifeblood escape from his body. “Watch over Lele,” he prayed before everything went black.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Elizabeth walked into her emergency room for her shift in hopes that it would be a quiet evening. She had come to think of it as her ER. It was the only place she felt at home, the only place she was ever really comfortable. She couldn’t help but wonder if Mr. Tall, Dark, and Dangerous was going to grace her with his presence. As much as she hated to admit it, she hoped he would. He had been all she could think about all day and had barely gotten any sleep at all.

  Who was he? Why was he watching her? Why did he lie about the reason he was in the ER? Was he married? The last was something that kept running through her brain without her consent. There was just something about him that made her inner female stand up and take notice. If he came back, she was going to ask him all those things. She didn’t know why she needed to know more about him, only that she did.

  She had barely hung her jacket up in the lounge when the alarm went off. It was something like a doorbell; a sound that wouldn’t panic patients but the staff all knew what it was. It meant that there was a serious trauma coming in. So much for her hopes of a quiet night. Immediately, Elizabeth slipped into doctor mode and made her way into the hall.

  “There is a gunshot wound coming in less than five,” Kelly shouted to Elizabeth as she scrambled to gather supplies.

  “I’m headed to the doors now,” Elizabeth called back to her and turned and powerwalked to the emergency ambulance entrance, snapping on a pair of latex gloves as she went. “Prepare trauma three.” Her heart raced in her chest and the adrenaline pumped through her veins heavily. Even though she was exhausted, her mind and body leapt to life. This is what she became a doctor for. This is what she lived for. She was in no way happy that a person had been shot, but the fact that she could help him and she knew it, sent a thrill down her spine.

/>   Just as she approached the entrance, the doors flew open and two EMT’s were pushing a gurney through them. One of the techs was sitting astride the victim, administering CPR, while the other squeezed the bag that delivered much needed oxygen into his lungs.

  “What do we have?” Elizabeth asked as she walked quickly beside the stretcher. She reached over with her already gloved hand and felt for a pulse at the man’s jugular. The only thing she felt was the compressions delivered by the tech.

  “Thirty year old male, GSW to the chest, BP was eighty over fifty when we arrived, he tanked en route. Administered fifty cc’s Epinephrine and started compressions,” the one with the bag told her.

  “How long?” she asked.

  “Happened about thirty minutes ago, he’s been down for five.”

  “Get him to trauma three. We’ve got a code team waiting for him,” she barked as she helped push the victim to where she needed him to be.

  They jogged the man to the trauma room where a team of six nurses and one PA waited for them. Everyone jumped into action at once. Supplies were ripped open and the lights were arranged so that they would deliver the best light. The EMT’s stopped CPR long enough to jump off the man’s stomach and the team hefted his body from the gurney to the table in one ultra-fast, unceremonious tug. His back thumped against the steel table that was covered in a white sheet. Elizabeth cringed a little when his head banged on the table, but there wasn’t time to worry about it.

  “Let’s get him intubated,” she commanded. As soon as the mask was off his face, Elizabeth’s stomach turned. It was him. That man who was in her ER a few days ago. Even unconscious, he seemed larger than life and still seemed dangerous. She had seen him poking around the hospital several times since then, but hadn’t spoken to him.

  Now, seeing him lying on her table, Elizabeth couldn’t help but fear for his life. Blood was gushing from the wound in his chest. Anger, unbidden, welled up in her chest. How dare he go and get himself killed before she could ask him all the things that had been stacking up in her brain? How dare he come into her ER with a giant hole in his chest!

  She shook herself and refocused.

  The nursing staff had done a wonderful job of getting him on life support and now the machines were breathing for him. Except that his heart was not beating. Elizabeth placed the pads on his chest and nodded for her nurse to start the defibrillator. Everyone waited for what seemed an eternity, but was actually only the space of two heartbeats. Except there were no beats. Elizabeth gave the command with a nod of her head.

  “Charging,” the nurse announced. “Clear!” and everyone removed their hands from his body as the shock jolted him.

  “Again,” Elizabeth commanded, and the nurse shocked him again.

  Elizabeth studied the monitor in search of any sign of rhythm. Nothing. “Three hundred,” she demanded.

  The nurse adjusted the dials and nearly shouted, “Clear!” The man’s back bowed and lifted slightly from the table under the force of the shock. Elizabeth examined the wound that was centered in his chest. Too much blood was running from it and soaking the sheet underneath him. Shocking him wasn’t working. He was going to lay there and bleed to death if she didn’t act quickly. “How long before Dr. Tucker gets here?” she asked.

  “Less than ten minutes,” one of the nurses replied.

  That was too long. Her patient wasn’t going to last another three minutes if she didn’t do something. “Son of a bitch,” she exclaimed. “We gotta open him up. Now!”

  Her team knew that Elizabeth rarely performed surgical procedures and that she didn’t make the call lightly. They worked as a single unit, bringing her everything she would need.

  Elizabeth leaned in close to the man’s ear. “You will not die today,” she whispered into his ear. She felt the cool metal of a scalpel being laid into her palm. Elizabeth drew in a deep, calming breath before finding her mark on his chest.

  She felt the blade sink into his flesh and pulled it down toward his belly in a slow, deliberate move that sliced his skin like a hot knife through butter. The others were working on making sure that he was sedated, even though he was unconscious. He didn’t need to wake up while she was patching him up.

  After his skin was pulled away from his sternum, Elizabeth used the tiny saw to separate his ribs from the sternum. “Spreader,” she said, and the instrument was given to her without question. She positioned it so that it would open his chest and she could see what needed to be done.

  She worked meticulously to repair the damage to his heart. The bullet had ripped through the bottom portion and blood was now barely seeping from the damage. “We need O pos, fast. As much as we can pump into him,” she stated to anyone who was listening. She didn’t bother to take her attention off his heart because she knew her team would make it happen. Elizabeth reached for her suture kit and stitched the gaping hole as quickly as she could.

  Then she waited only a second for the blood they were forcefully pumping into his body to get some volume. “Paddles,” she said, and her nurse handed her the internal paddles. She placed them gently on either side of his heart and said, “Clear.”

  The paddles delivered the jolt of electricity directly to his heart, but nothing happened. “Again,” she said and the jolt was delivered again. Three more times they shocked his heart, but no response from him.

  “He’s gone,” one of the nurses told her gently.

  “No he’s not!” Elizabeth shouted. She tossed the paddles aside and reached into his chest with both hands. She began manual compressions of his heart. “It is not your turn,” she said to her patient. “You need to man up, big boy, and live! You. Will. Not. Die. Not today, not on my watch.” She didn’t know why it was so important to her that the big, scary man lived; only that he had to. She didn’t even know him, but the thought of him dying was breaking her heart. She knew deep down that this man was important for some reason, and by God she was going to do everything in her power to see that he lived to scare the shit out of her another day.

  “Again,” she commanded and the paddles were placed in her hands once again. “Clear.” She shocked his heart three more times. On the third time, there was a little blip on the monitor. “Shhh,” she told her team. They waited, not even breathing, everyone watching the monitor. The moment dragged on for an eternity, but then it happened again. And again.

  “We got rhythm,” one of the techs announced.

  Elizabeth felt an enormous weight lift from her shoulders as she watched the mystery man’s heart stutter to life in front of her. “Thank God,” she whispered.

  “It seems I have missed all the fun,” Dr. Tucker announced as he entered the room. He placed his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “You did well, Doc. I can take it from here.”

  Elizabeth didn’t want to leave her patient, but she knew that she was no heart surgeon. Dr. Tucker would be able to make sure that this man got the attention he needed. Reluctantly, she backed away. When her back hit the doors, she pushed through them and found herself a chair right outside. She slumped down into it and let her emotions finally run free. The adrenaline in her blood subsided, leaving her with a serious headache and tears began to streak down her cheeks.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Ash was dead. He knew it. He had to be. He was swimming in a sea of black with no beginning and no end. He knew he was in Hell by the complete lack of light. He had failed his mission and now it was time to pay the debt he owed to the Boss.

  He felt himself drifting away as sirens sounded in the distance. Even though he could no longer see or even feel anything, he could hear. He heard the EMTs talking and knew they were rushing him to the hospital. He also knew that there was no way he was going to make it out of this alive.

  He had surrendered to his fate. The Boss would get his soul, but his sister would be safe for the rest of her life. Even though he never did get to check out her fiancé, he knew in his heart that the man would take care of Lele. He felt peace for the first t
ime when he wasn’t transporting. He surrendered to his fate.

  And then the darkness lifted and in front of him was a blazing fire. The real gateway to Hell was open and waiting for him. He could feel his muscles flexing and itching to move toward it, even though he had no desire to go into the flames. He willed himself to stay where he was, but his body moved forward anyway. The flames grew hotter and Ash wondered if he would incinerate on contact with them.

  A jolt of electricity shot through his body and he cried out with the pain, only his mouth made no sound. No one would ever hear his screams, not now, not ever. He was lost to Hell. As his feet slid toward the blazing inferno, another jolt rocked him.

  Sweat broke out all over his body. In his mind, he prayed to the God that allowed his family to die to watch over Lele and then he prayed for his own soul. He prayed that he would have the strength to accept his fate like a man and not like the coward he felt like. He had never felt so much fear in his life.

  Another jolt. His back bowed and pain sliced through his entire body. He bit back the scream that wouldn’t have made a sound. If he was going to Hell, he was going to do it with dignity.

  And then, he heard it; an angel’s voice that rang in his mind. “It is not your turn,” she said. “You need to man up, big boy, and live! You. Will. Not. Die. Not today, not on my watch.” The voice was vaguely familiar and it soothed the pain in his soul. It physically pulled him away from the flames if only by a few inches. It filled his heart with hope and he could swear he felt it wrap around his heart like a warm blanket. He still had work to do. He wasn’t ready to die. He wasn’t ready to leave Lele and he wasn’t ready to leave that voice. It made him want to live.

  Ash forced his feet to move backward, away from the gateway to Hell. He concentrated on that lovely voice that was so strong and filled with desperation. Whoever it belonged to needed him. He couldn’t turn his back on it. Ash forced his feet again and again, gaining precious distance from his destiny. Finally he was able to turn his back on the flames completely. He felt the pull of Hell let go of him and he ran as hard as he could. He didn’t know where he was running to, only that if he pushed hard enough, he would get there and the destination would be life.