“Oh hey, you’re back,” the angel said, crossing his ankles. Still on the desk. “I have been waiting for you. What took so damned long?”
“Who are you?” Ash asked. There was something about the angel he couldn’t quite place his finger on.
The angel dropped his feet from Ash’s desk and sat up in the chair. He wiped his salt and grease covered hand on his pants. Then he stuck a hand out to Ash. “Name’s Antonio. Warrior angel. Nice to meet you.”
Ash stared at the offered hand for a moment before taking it. The angel gripped his hand and pumped it up and down enthusiastically several times before releasing it. Ash felt the need to wipe his own hand on his jeans to remove the potato chip debris.
“Yeah, nice to meet you too. What are you doing here?” Ash said.
“We all got a job to do,” Antonio said around yet another mouthful of chips. “My job is to help you get situated here and to help you find your Elite Guard.”
Ash let a heavy sigh escape his chest. Elite Guard. Why? And how? And … the questions were piling up in his head faster than he could process them. Suddenly, the weight of the day settled on him and Ash’s legs threatened to give way under him.
“Hey man, you don’t look so good. Here, have a seat,” Antonio said, motioning to the chair.
Ash nodded once and allowed himself to fall into the plush leather. It surrounded him like a hug and he sank into the soft cushions. He leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and tried to will a pounding headache into submission.
“You should really de-stress a bit,” Antonio offered. “Chip?”
Ash opened one eye to see the angel holding the bag in his direction. “No thanks,” he said quietly.
“Ok, but you don’t know what you’re missing,” Antonio said.
The angel kept talking, but Ash tuned it out. After all he had been through over the course of one day, after all he had seen, the angel was just too much. Ash was sure that he was going to have to revisit the Elite Guard talk, and he was sure there were many things he was going to have to do eventually, but at that moment, all he could concentrate on was the jackhammer in his brain.
Ash settled deeper into the comfortable chair and willed his mind to clear. He put aside the different sanctions and their leaders. He put aside the suffering he had witnessed. He shoved his qualms about leading Hell into the back of his brain and concentrated on breathing.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Then, Ash was flying. His brand spanking new black wings were carrying him over the city he had grown up in. He flew over his home, and for the first time, saw his house from an aerial perspective. He noted that his trees needed trimming. What an asinine thought to have, in light of all that had happened.
He flew over the streets and flew over the church where he had gone to seek guidance. It was dark now, not a single light on. Those beautiful windows he admired before were now broken and dark. It was as if the church had been abandoned for years, not the beautiful sanctuary he had visited before. It very well may have been, too. If Ash had learned anything, it was that things are not always as they seem.
He flew further and found himself circling the hospital. He flew over the roof and the helipad, watching as a patient was pulled off the chopper and onto a gurney. He watched as the patient was wheeled into the hospital at breakneck speeds. He hoped the poor sap made it.
He had the urge to land and go inside. He didn’t know why, but he felt like there was something pulling him toward it. Ash shook off the feeling and flew further east. He flew over mountains and forests. When he reached the coast, he flew over the Atlantic.
Ash was flying over Europe when he heard the strangest noise. It almost sounded like a cat that was stuck in a washing machine. While it was running.
Ash turned his head toward the sound, but he could see nothing causing it. His brows wrinkled together and he flew in the direction he thought it was coming from. The noise got louder and Ash flew faster. What the fuck was that?
Ash opened his eyes and realized that he had fallen asleep. He was slumped over sideways in his new office chair and someone had shoved a makeshift pillow under his head. He tried to pick his head up only to find that his neck muscles were locked up tight. Oh, that weird, cat in the washer noise was still going on. Only louder.
Ash lifted his whole body to a proper sitting position, except his head, which was still stuck somewhat at a sideways angle, to see that angel he met standing in front of a panel of TV screens. And the noise? That was the angel….singing.
“I don’t know what I would do without you,” the angel bellowed. Ash cringed. He thought that angels’ singing was supposed to be glorious and divine. This was anything but. This was torture. Ash felt both of his ears to make sure they weren’t bleeding. They weren’t. Not yet.
“For the love of everything holy,” Ash grumbled.
“Oh good, you’re awake,” the angel said with a toothy grin. What was his name? Antonio, that’s right. “I was starting to think you were gonna sleep the century away. Want some coffee?”
Ash noticed the angel was holding a cup of brew and there was a pot simmering on a table next to the wall of TV screens. “Yeah,” Ash answered, pushing to his feet and walking over to make himself a cup. “What time is it?”
“Hell if I know,” Antonio answered him. “Let me check.” He closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back to Ash. “It is noon in LA, one in Houston, two in Cincinnati, and three in New York.”
Ash cut him off. “What time is it here?” he grumbled.
“Oh, nobody knows. Hell doesn’t have time. It exists independently of time and space.” Antonio took a sip of his coffee. “What feels like a day here could be a year on Earth.”
A year? A freaking year? “How long in Earth time have I been down here?” Ash asked him.
“I would say about six months. Give or take a few days.” Antonio made himself comfortable in Ash’s chair again.
“I need to go check on my sister,” Ash said, turning for the door.
“You don’t need to leave to do that,” Antonio told him just as Ash’s hand landed on the knob.
Ash turned to look at the warrior. “How’s that?”
“Come on, let me show you,” the angel said. He walked to another door and opened it. “Well, come on,” he said with an expectant look.
Ash shrugged his shoulders. What could it hurt? He followed Antonio into the next room. The walls were black and there was a black leather sofa against the wall. There was a light in the center of the ceiling, but it didn’t really give off much light. The only other thing in the room was an old mirror. It was as tall as Ash and wide as a door. The frame around it was gilded silver. It glimmered in the dim light and the glass seemed to move, but didn’t.
“What is this?” Ash asked.
Antonio waved a hand around the room. “I know, your predecessor wasn’t much for decorating. I really think with some better lighting and maybe some throw pillows this room could be more useful. But Lucy was all about the doom and gloom.”
“Lucy?” Ash asked as his eyebrow kissed his hairline.
“Yeah, Lucifer.” Antonio shrugged as if Ash should’ve known what he was talking about. “He wasn’t very friendly, in fact. I never cared much for him.”
“You knew him?” Ash asked. He couldn’t believe all the one-liners coming out of his mouth, but it was just so much to take in.
“Not really,” Antonio answered. “But he was around for a long time. This angel gig, it’s still pretty new to me too, but I have figured a few things out. I got this job with you by helping my family stop Lucy’s son. He was a twisted fuck, that’s for sure. Heck, defending my family is what landed me with wings in the first place.”
Ash let his eyes travel over the dimly lit room. What in the hell had he gotten himself into? Hell….that was exactly what. He remembered the investigating he had done while trying to figure out how to get out of Shax’s grip. He heard ho
w Stephan, Lucifer’s son, had killed his father and was on some psycho revenge mission. And this angel claimed to have had a hand in Stephan’s demise. He knew his brain was already on overload, but he had to know more. “Before you were an angel…” Ash started.
Antonio grinned at him and showed a pair of shiny, sharp fangs where any human would have incisors. “Yep. I was a vamp. Technically, I guess I still am,” Antonio offered. “I can feed. But no worries, I only do that from my mate. These things,” he pointed at his mouth, “became useless for my survival the day God gave me wings. I can eat food now. And run in the sun. Or fly. Or any number of fabulous things that any self-respecting vampire would be green with envy over.”
Ash couldn’t help but smile at the proud look in the angel/vampire’s eyes. The look of love that crossed his face when he talked about his mate was exceedingly obvious, as was the flicker of something that almost looked like nostalgia. He missed his mate. This vamp was away from her to help Ash. “So you were given wings and made an angel for stopping Stephan?” Ash asked him.
Antonio laughed. “Nope. Had the wings before that. I only had to die for my family twice to get them.”
“Twice?” Ash asked in an unnaturally high pitch.
“Yeah,” Antonio said. “But that’s a whole other book in my life. We’ll get into that some other time. Right now, I want to focus on getting you settled here.”
Ash was feeling some mad respect for the irritating, potato chip eating angel who couldn’t sing to save his own life. He felt his head nodding in agreement, even though he didn’t make the decision to do it. Ash’s wings flicked at his back, as if they were itching to spread out, to move. “I get that,” Ash said. “Let’s do it. What is in this room that is going to help me see Lele?”
Antonio walked over to the mirror. He smiled in it, checked out his own fangs, turned around and tossed his head over his shoulder. “Do these leather pants make my butt look fat?” he asked Ash with all seriousness.
Surely, he heard the angel wrong. “I’m sorry, what?” Ash asked.
Antonio laughed. “Man, you should have seen your face!” he barked out. Laughter rolled out of the angel’s mouth. At least, it was better than his singing. Ash felt his neck getting hot.
“Just joking, man,” Antonio told him. “This here is the Mirror of the Soul. I can’t work it. Never could and never will. Only you can see in the mirror.”
Ash walked over to stand next to Antonio. He saw the angel and he saw himself in the mirror. Man, he looked like shit. But the wings. They were still impressive, even with the dark circles under his eyes and the bad hair day going on.
“You gotta touch it,” Antonio said.
Ash reached his hand forward and tentatively laid it on the glass. The image changed from himself and Antonio. First, it was filled with swirling, foggy looking stuff, then it began to clear and he saw his sister. She was milling around her home, picking up. He watched as she tossed a shirt into the laundry hamper and then went to work on her kitchen. It was weird, watching her when she didn’t know it. He almost felt like a peeping tom. As he watched her go about her life as if the whole world hadn’t changed, Ash realized something.
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 th
at 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.
The Keepers of Hell Box Set Page 14
