“How do we find Balthazar?” Jake was asking.
“I can help with that,” Shelly finally offered.
“Yeah?” Jake turned to her. “How?”
“I’ll call him.” Shelly stood and brushed off her pants.
“You can just call him?” Jake asked.
“I thought he was in lock up,” Ash said.
“Of course I can,” she said. “He’s my father. And he is right downstairs.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Shelly led Ash, Jake, and Antonio into the depths of Hell. None of them, save for Shelly, had been given the official tour of this part of Hell. Ash had seen it, of course, through the extensive monitoring systems in his office, but never up close and personal. This was where the worst of the worst were kept locked away, hidden from everyone else. The inhabitants of this prison they were walking into were the cream of the crop where evil was concerned.
It was also where Lucifer’s son was being held for his eternity.
Shelly typed a combination into a keypad and two heavy steel doors clicked open for her. The group was silent, except for the click of Shelly’s high heels on the concrete floor.
They passed row after row of heavy doors, each of them containing a demon who had committed some heinous crime, even among their own kind.
“This is Stephan’s cell,” she said as they passed one of the doors. Lucifer’s son was just beyond that door.
“I hear the vampire that put him here unscrambled his demented brain and made him sane. Gave him a conscience, too,” Antonio said. “Now he is cursed to live out eternity with his own regrets about the things he did and no way to escape them.”
Ash shivered. Jake muttered a curse under his breath.
“Here we go,” Shelly said with a smile. A roar came from the other side of the door she stopped in front of. “Hi to you too, Dad,” she said to the door. She typed in another code next to the door and the steel contraption slid silently to one side, revealing the demon inside. There were bars across the opening of the cell and the demon was chained to the wall.
Jake stared at Shelly’s father. She must have gotten her looks from her mother, because it sure as hell wasn’t from him. The demon inside was enormous, with black skin and horns made of ebony that curled back from his head. His eyes were black as night and his hands were not hands at all, but talons. He had the torso of a man, but the body of a horse. A centaur?
“I thought those only existed in myths,” Ash said aloud.
“Myths are based on truths,” Shelly told him. Then she turned her attention to her father. “Have any visitors lately?” she asked with a smile.
Balthazar moved like lightning toward the bars that separated them, but the silver chains that bound him to the wall stopped him just short of his destination.
“Man, that silver bites, doesn’t it?” she asked him.
“Silver?” Jake whispered.
“Yeah, demons are allergic to pure silver,” Ash explained. “It keeps them from escaping.”
Jake nodded but kept his eyes on the interaction between his woman and what was the equivalent of his father in law. He shuddered. Talk about your in-laws from hell.
“Do I want to know what he did to get in there?” Jake whispered.
“I think,” Antonio whispered back, “back in the day, he was responsible for letting loose the Black Plague.”
“Ew,” Jake said. Antonio nodded in agreement.
“So, as I asked before, any new visitors?” she asked again.
“I should have killed you when you were born,” the demon snarled at her.
“Oh, Dad, you always know just what to say,” Shelly cooed at him, clutching her hands to her chest. Jake smothered a laugh. He loved that woman.
“No one sees me,” Balthazar growled. “What has happened?”
“Can’t I just drop by to see dear old Dad?” Shelly asked him.
“No,” he grunted. “Not with an audience. Go away.”
“I’m afraid that is not possible,” Ash said, stepping forward and pushing Shelly behind him. “Has anyone come to your cell?”
“Fuck you,” the demon said.
Ash called on his powers. He knew the instant his eyes went red because so did his vision. He allowed the black fire to light all over his skin and stared at the prisoner.
The demon’s head jerked up when he saw the display of power. “You,” he breathed. “Things have been changing.” The demon dutifully arranged his body so that his front legs were bent at the knee and he lowered his head. “What can I do for you, my Liege?”
Ash rolled his eyes but said nothing about the bowing. He hated it when they bowed, but in this case, he was going to let it slide. “I want to know about your visitors.”
The demon stood. “None,” he replied. “Not until you. Is it possible that you are looking for a new second in command? I would be pleased to be at your service.”
Ash shook his head. “No, sorry. You’re in here for a reason and here you will stay.”
They walked away from the demon and the cell door closed behind them. They all walked in silence back to Ash’s office.
“How long are you going to keep him in there?” Jake asked Ash.
“Eternity,” Ash replied. “We don’t need the likes of him running around.” Then, he picked up his phone. “Mali, yes. I need you to double, no triple the security in the prison, especially on Balthazar.” There was a pause, “No, don’t give any reasons. I’m in charge here and I say more security. Thanks.” He hung up the phone and turned to his friends. Funny how they had just been souls he worked with a few days earlier.
“That’s wonderful and all,” Jake said, “but I was referring to him.” He pointed over to the corner of the room where Liam, the soul who got out of Greed, was still sitting in his cage.
“Hell, I don’t know,” Ash said. “He really is on the bottom of my priority list.”
Jake stole a glance at the soul, who was sitting quietly and watching everything that was going on. He felt sorry for the bastard, to be honest.
“Did you find anything on the laptop?” Ash asked Antonio.
“Yeah I got my brother to crack it for you,” Antonio answered. He pulled the computer out of its case and opened it for Ash. The screen was unlocked and Ash immediately went to work sorting through the files. “I had him restore as much as he could,” Antonio continued. “They tried to wipe the hard drive, but they didn’t do a very good job. I don’t know the particulars, but I know it took my guy a minute to crack it.”
“You have a guy for everything, don’t you?” Ash asked him as he clicked his way around the operating system.
Antonio shrugged.
“What do we do now?” Shelly asked.
“We find those fuckers who took you and get your blood back,” Jake told her.
“I hate to admit it but...” Shelly started, but she didn’t have to finish the thought. Jake grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him.
“Don’t you worry,” he told her, cutting her off. “I am going to be right by your side from now until we find them.”
“What about my realm?” Shelly asked. “I don’t want you to get trapped in there. I have to be there sometimes.”
Jake furrowed his brow. “That room full of rocks?” he asked. “I think I can handle it.”
Her face lit up. “You see rocks?”
He nodded. “Yeah. At first I saw gold and riches, but when you went missing, all I saw was rocks.”
“Do you know what that means?” she asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“What?”
“It means you have beaten your sin!” she grinned.
“I don’t know about all that,” he said to her. “Just maybe I found something I want more.”
Jake knew that Ash and Antonio were watching them and he didn’t care as Shelly crushed her lips to his. He held her tight and kissed her back, conveying what he felt in his heart for her. When he had made the transition from
caring to love, he didn’t know, but it was there, just the same.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Two Earth years later…
Jake and Shelly stood silently in the open doorway of the classroom where his charge was now teaching a class full of high school students. Lucy had picked up the shambles of her life and moved to Texas. She had even changed her name. Now, she was Lacy and she was doing what she had always wanted to do with her life. Teaching.
He hated that so much time had passed, but time moved differently in Hell than it did on Earth. Jake had to keep reminding himself that he did his part, albeit forbidden, to help Lacy when she wrecked her car. The rest was her time to grow and change. Now Jake could see the spunk and the fire in her eyes that could only come from soul deep. It was what drew Ash to her and it was what was going to land her in front of Ash one day, just like he had been.
Jake had done a complete background check on the woman and discovered that she had a master’s degree in teaching. She had also been learning to defend herself. Lacy had been taking Karate classes for months and was getting better at it every day. He could see the difference in her. It was obvious in the way she moved and in the way she carried herself.
She was a whole new person. Jake felt a foreign emotion well in his chest. Pride. Not for himself, but for this woman who had beaten the odds and came back stronger than before. She pulled herself out of her abusive relationship and instead of hiding, she molded herself into a warrior.
He watched as she scribbled something on the chalkboard and then turned to ask questions of her students. It was obvious that they respected her. Jake felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips. It didn’t matter whether the kids liked their teacher or not when it came to high school. What mattered was that the kids respected their teacher. Lacy had that in spades. She was no longer the timid, introverted woman he had first seen in her small house months ago. She was confident and strong.
Jake was happy. For the first time in his life, he truly understood what it meant to be whole. He had been reluctant to welcome Shelly into his heart, but her forceful nature and her possessive streak had awakened something inside of him that he didn’t know existed. For the first time, he wanted something more. More than riches and fame, more than notoriety and infamy. He wanted life. Not just his own, but hers, because without her he was nothing.
He had been selfish and greedy in life. He thought when Ash offered him a job that he would get a chance to make things right. He had been right and he had been wrong. The job had brought him to his place in life, or afterlife, as it was, but it was Shelly who had truly been his redemption.
She had inadvertently pulled Jake out of himself and taught him what it was like to love. She was his perfect other half, meant to be his for all eternity. It was the stuff romance novels were made of and instead of cringing at the thought, Jake grinned.
He still worried about the humans who had managed to hold her captive. True to his word, he had not left Shelly’s side while the humans were on the lamb. The fact that they had Shelly’s blood irked him to no end. Not only could they use it to summon Balthazar, but it could be dangerous to his woman as well. They could summon her again and she would be powerless to fight it. They could destroy her if they so desired, and they could use it to control her, putting everyone at risk. It was a risk he wasn’t ready to take.
Jake took some measure of comfort in knowing that because of her bullheadedness, because she insisted on marking him, he could always find her. He smiled as he remembered that her initial marking had been to be an ass, to prove to the world that when Shelly claimed something or someone as her own, that she meant business. Now, the mating was mutual. If they did summon her, and lord better help them if they did, they wouldn’t hold her for long.
Those humans had disappeared without a trace. Jake and Ash had searched the world over for them, but they were nowhere to be found. That laptop they retrieved was full of coded emails and files that made no sense whatsoever. Ash had put Mali to work on them, but it was slow coming. It was obvious that they had help from someone, but who? There were still so many questions left unanswered and Jake vowed to find those answers.
He would protect his woman. His demon. His soul mate. His redemption.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Okay class; open your text books to page three- ninety-one. Today we start the Civil War,” Lacy said, writing the numbers on her chalkboard. She smiled secretly to herself when she heard the collection of groans from her students. “This year, we are going to do something different,” she told them as she turned to face her class. She had been teaching for several years now, but still, the stare of twenty-five teenagers was unnerving. But Lacy loved to teach and she was confident that she would win over this class as she had the ones who came before. “I like to shake things up a bit,” she continued, looking out over the sea of faces. Some were bored, but there were a few that honestly looked interested. “The school board doesn’t like it when we shake things up, so that’s a vote in its favor if you ask me. I want you to read the chapter in your book, but first, I want to tell you a story.”
Lacy reached behind her on the desk and lifted the age-worn document that she brought just for this occasion. “This is a letter from my great-great- grandfather,” she told her class. “I have a whole collection of these, and we are going to spend some time reading them first. He was a soldier in the Union, but his one true love was from the South. This is his tale. It is a story about true love.” She heard some of the boys groan, but she could see that some of the girls already had given her their rapt attention. “It is a story of war, of loss, and finally, resolution.” And that was when the boys in her class gave in to listen as well.
“My Dearest Whitney,” Lacy read from the yellowed paper. The ink was black and had worn over time, but Lacy had read the letters so many times that she knew them all by heart. “So many days have passed since I was able to look upon your beautiful face. I fear in this time of conflict that I may never do it again. Just today, while we were eating our meal, Confederate soldiers raided our camp. I, and the others in my brigade, was caught unaware. We lost three men before any of us realized what was going on, and then I dropped my oats and palmed my rifle.
My Whitney, my sweet, wonderful Whitney, I am not proud to say that I have taken the lives of four men today, and saw the demise of many others. It pains my heart to know that these men, most of them mere boys, were sent to meet our God in the Heavens today. I am ashamed to have had a hand in it.
Will this war ever end? I carry your letters with me, every day, next to my heart. That way I know that you are with me. I sleep each night with my gun under my head, and each night I pray that the light of dawn will touch my face. I pray that the next soul to leave this earth is not mine, for I am greedy and want a life with you when this is over.
My love, please always remember that I love you dearly, with each breath that I take. My only mission in this war is to come home to you, and if the Lord chooses to bring me home to Him, I shall love you from the kingdom of Heaven until we meet again.
Always and Forever yours,
Gabriel.”
Lacy listened to the utter silence that filled her classroom. It was thick, almost tangible. She saw more than one student wipe a covert hand under their eyes to wipe away tears. Bingo. She had them hooked. Her plan was to use a letter every day to coincide with the lessons in the book, to give the lesson credibility from someone who had lived it.
She put the letter down on her desk and carefully closed the folder she kept them in. Then she addressed her class. “Who can tell me what the Civil War was fought over?”
***
Lacy had engaged her class for the entire period. She looked at her clock and realized that the hour and a half had flown by. She couldn’t help but feel a little proud of herself for getting her students interested and involved. She tapped her laptop to open the homework screen and said, “I will email everyone tonight’s assignment.
Please remember to check it.” And that was when it happened.
The intercom on her phone started playing a jingle. The students looked up in confusion, but Lacy knew exactly what it was. She looked at her intercom like it just stood up and did a little dance. What the hell? She wasn’t aware of any drills today, but they didn’t always tell anyone. But that jingle, it was specific. It was non-threatening, but it was the worst of them all as far as Lacy was concerned. It was the one that meant the school was under attack.
Her heart stopped for a second and then thundered in her chest. Her cell phone beeped and Lacy knew without looking that it was the same warning, a backup for any teachers that were not in their classrooms. A part of her realized that this was probably a drill, but a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was not.
“Class,” she said, snapping into action. She had been through this drill two dozen times, she knew what to do, “When the bell rings, I do not want you to leave your seats. In fact, I would like for everyone to please move to the back of the room. We’re having a drill, I think.” The class didn’t argue. They too had been through the drill. Lacy moved quickly to the door of her class and gently pushed it closed. Then, she locked it. She didn’t know why, but something told her that this was not a drill and to keep her students safe. She looked back at her desk and thought of her nine millimeter that was tucked safely away in the locked drawer. She fingered the key that hung around her neck for only a moment before making her decision.
The Keepers of Hell Box Set Page 33
