The Keepers of Hell Box Set

by Danielle James

  “Father,” she corrected him. When he looked at her quizzically, she said, “There is a big difference between Dad and Father. Balthazar was nothing more than a sperm donor for my mother. Even after that, he was useless. My mother was a human who died during my birth. Balthazar brought me here to be raised by minions. It was only because I can be a serious asshole that I lived at all.”

  “Well, you must have done something right to end up leading Greed,” Jake told her as they walked the dark hallway.

  Shelly shrugged her shoulders. “Whatever. I hate seeing him. This will be the second time I have seen him this century and that is two times too many.”

  They walked the rest of the way to the prison sanction in silence. Jake knew his mate was troubled, not only by having to keep watch on her father, but the fact that her blood was out there somewhere and they were powerless to find it and get it back. But he would not leave her side. Ash made it perfectly clear that he would kill Shelly to protect the greater good. As her mate, there was no way Jake was going to allow that to happen.

  They stopped in front of the entrance to the prison. Shelly tapped a few numbers into the keypad and then pressed enter, unlocking the doors. They stepped inside together and the doors shut behind them. Shelly turned to reset the lock before moving on.

  They passed cell after cell that held demons of all sorts who had pissed off Lucifer at some point during his rule. Some probably didn’t deserve to be there, but with everything going on, there was no way Ash had time to decide on those cases. They could stay right where they were for the time being. And then there were those who deserved to be there. Like Balthazar. Opening the gateway between Hell and Earth could be devastating for both sides.

  They rounded a corner and sure enough, there was her father. Shelly pressed her lips together tightly before taking a deep breath and plastering a fake as hell smile on her face.

  “Hello, Father,” she cooed sarcastically. “How are they treating you down here?”

  The demon had been crouched in the corner, secured to his cell by thick silver chains, but when he heard his daughter’s voice, he rose to his full height. His curved horns nearly reached the ceiling of his cell. His shoulders were so wide that they almost touched the sides of his confined space. His skin was blood red and his eyes were black as night. He smiled, and his ragged fangs emerged from behind his thin lips. “I can’t complain,” he answered her, coming as close to the bars of his cage as the chains would allow. He wondered why the visit, especially so soon after her last visit. There must be something serious going on if the new leader was checking in on him. He had already tripled the security detail surrounding Balthazar’s cage.

  “I just wanted to have a look at your ugly mug,” Shelly told him, her voice dripping with venom even though she wore a smile.

  “I am here,” he said. “Are you worried that I might not be next time? Is that why all the guards?”

  Shelly chose not to answer him. Instead, she turned to one of his guards. “No one but myself, my mate, or Ash is to see him, understand?”

  The guard nodded and stood just a touch taller with the responsibility.

  “Good,” Shelly said, turning to leave and taking Jake with her. “See you next century,” she called to the demon over her shoulder.

  “I think you were very nice to him,” Jake told her.

  “Fuck him,” she growled under her breath.

  “No thanks,” Jake said. “One demon lover is enough for me.”

  Shelly unlocked the doors and they left the prison. She turned back to punch the numbers into the keypad once again. Jake noticed at that exact same time that his boot was untied and he knelt down to remedy that situation. He stood and took his mate’s hand, leading her away from all the unpleasantness of the prisons and back to their rooms where he had a plan to take her mind off things. Neither of them noticed that after she typed in the code to set the locks, Shelly forgot to push one important key. She forgot to push Enter to set the locks in place.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Lacy felt herself moving through the air as if she were the wind. She had no body with which to feel the sensations she felt, but she felt them just the same. A part of her wanted to panic, but she could feel Liam’s large hand holding her, as if he were the tether to the ground that she needed to stay focused.

  She concentrated on the wolf and in an instant, she was standing on solid ground once again. Liam was still holding her hand.

  “Wow, now that’s how one should travel,” Liam chuckled beside her. “Where are we?”

  “I think we’re at the hospital in Bethesda,” Lacy told him.

  “So we just go in there and do… what? Exactly?” he asked her.

  “I’m not sure. Right now I just want to go in and see for myself how the man is doing.” Lacy looked down and realized she was still holding Liam’s hand. She started to let it go but he held on tighter.

  “You should make us invisible before going in,” he told her.

  “Right,” Lacy agreed. She wasn’t sure how to do that, but she figured if it was just like flashing, all she had to do was will it so. “Do not see us,” she commanded the world around her. She looked at Liam, who looked just as solid as he had before. “Do you think it worked?”

  Liam shrugged his shoulders. “Might as well find out,” he said, finally dropping her hand. He ignored the instant feeling of loss he felt and walked right up to a woman who was out for an afternoon jog. He stood in front of her with his hands on his hips and a huge grin on his face. The woman made no move to avoid him and he ended up having to move to avoid being barreled over. “I think it worked,” he told Lacy. A smile spread across her lovely face. Man, he would die a thousand times to see that smile just once.

  “Let’s go see my wolf,” she said, turning toward the hospital entrance. Liam bit back the growl he felt when she referred to the wolf as hers. He didn’t like the possessive way in which she referred to the man. He didn’t know why, but he would examine that later. He followed her through a set of automatic doors that to anyone who was watching, appeared to open for no one.

  They made their way through the hallways and down a long corridor until Lacy came to an abrupt halt in front of one of the doors. “It’s this one,” she said softly.

  “Are you sure?” Liam asked. He hadn’t heard Ash give her any specific directions to this place.

  “I can feel it,” she said. “I can feel his pain and frustration.”

  Liam nodded and took Lacy’s hand. She flashed them both to the other side of the room.

  Liam stood back and watched as Lacy followed her instincts. She walked slowly up to the bed where the man lay. Poor bastard, she thought. No limbs. Breathing through a tube. This was not living, not by any sense of the word.

  Lacy leaned over the man and gently touched the side of his face. “Do you need my help?” she whispered in his ear. Or at least, Liam thought it was where his ear should be. Bandages covered everything except for a small place on his chest that had remained unharmed.

  Lacy didn’t know why she thought the man could answer her, but she had to try. Maybe he wanted to stay alive and fight for his life, what was left of it, anyway. She knew that even though Ash wanted him as a guard, she couldn’t suggest letting him die if that was not what he wanted.

  “Please, find a way to tell me what to do,” she whispered to him. She laid her hand on the small patch of exposed skin on his chest. She felt his heart thundering beneath his skin. And then, something strange happened. In her mind’s eye, she could see the man that he used to be. He had been strong and healthy. She could see his wolf, powerful and majestic. She could feel how caged both man and beast felt in this condition. She could feel the pain he felt in his limbs that were no longer there. She could feel his agony and his emotional pain.

  Kill me, she heard someone say in her head. Had that been him?

  Strong arms embraced her and Lacy realized that Liam had come to her. “Shh,” he told her. “Don’t
cry.”

  Was she crying? Yes, she was. She was just full of tears lately. “I’m sorry,” she told Liam. “I don’t understand why I’m crying.”

  He held her closer to him. “It’s a lot to take in,” he said. “I feel sorry for the poor sap too.”

  Lacy lifted her head. “I don’t feel sorry for him. I feel what he feels. It’s devastating. Everything he ever lived for has been taken away from him. He hurts, and not just in his body. His mind is in pain too.”

  “Are you going to help him?” Liam asked her.

  Lacy nodded. “Yeah, I am.” She removed herself from the circle of Liam’s arms and leaned over the man in the bed. “I am going to help you,” she told him. She brushed her hand gently across his swollen face. “I don’t know how long it will take, but I am going to help you. Be calm.” The man’s heart monitor slowed to a steady pace and Lacy knew that he heard her and she had given him at least some measure of comfort, even if it was knowing that this wasn’t going to last much longer.

  Lacy flashed herself and Liam to a park she used to visit after she ran from her old life. She went there often to think in life, so she figured it was as good a place as any to go to now. They appeared near the swings that were empty for the time being. “See us,” Lacy said, willing their bodies to become visible. “Except the wings. Hide those.”

  Liam couldn’t help but grin at the way she scrunched up her brow when she was concentrating. He was finding more and more things to like about her the more time he spent with the angel. And that was what she was. To Liam, even before she got her wings, Lacy had been an angel. He knew that her life had not been an easy one, yet she found it in herself to be compassionate and loving to all those who were lucky enough to be around her.

  “Come on,” Lacy told him, pulling him by the hand. She let him go when she got to her favorite swing and sat down in it. “Push me.”

  Liam cocked his head sideways at her for a moment. Ok, he thought. He walked around behind her and gave the swing a gentle push. Lacy moved forward and she leaned back in the seat to let her blonde hair fall behind her. The sun lit her face, accenting her delicate features. Yes, she was an angel.

  “Faster!” she called out, and Liam gave the swing a proper shove. Lacy jolted into the air with the force of his push and she laughed aloud, bringing her legs forward and back to keep the momentum going. “Get on,” she told him. “Let’s race.”

  “I’m good,” he told her with a smile.

  “Nonsense. Get on the damned swing,” she demanded.

  “Aren’t we supposed to be working?” he asked even though his feet brought him around to stand in front of an empty swing.

  “All work and no play makes Liam boring,” she said in a sing song voice. “Besides, I’m swinging and you have to stay with me so you might as well make the best of it.”

  Liam sat in the seat with a resigned sigh. He pushed with his feet and got the contraption going, but that could only take him so far.

  “What’s wrong?” she laughed from her crest in the air, “afraid of heights? You can go higher than that!”

  Liam felt his cheeks turning red. Actually, he couldn’t. “I can’t go any higher,” he admitted. “I don’t know how.”

  Lacy leapt off her swing and landed gracefully a few feet away. She turned on her heel and faced Liam. “You don’t know how to swing?” she asked with a raised brow.

  Liam shook his head. “Nope. We didn’t have swings like this when I was a boy. Even then there was no time to play.”

  Lacy pressed her lips together and marched with determination around him until she was standing behind him. “You mean you didn’t play as a kid? Ever?”

  “I lived a long time ago,” he reminded her. “I was taught to care for the livestock and tend the crops as soon as I could walk. Playing wasn’t something I had the luxury of learning.”

  Lacy placed both of her hands on her hips. “Well, you’re gonna learn now,” she informed him. “Hold the chains here,” she said, taking his hands and placing them on the sides of the swing. “I’m going to pull you back and I want you to extend your legs forward when I let go.”

  Liam held on as she did what she said she was going to do. Lacy pulled his swing backward as far as her small frame would allow and let him go. “Now put your feet in front of you!” she called. He obliged, and nearly lost his ankles when the swing crossed over the grass once again. “You gotta tuck your feet under you on the way back,” she said. “Here, watch me.”

  Lacy hopped back onto her swing and pushed off with her feet. Liam watched as she worked her legs, but it wasn’t just her legs he noticed. She used her whole body to move the tiny seat attached to two chains in order to lift herself high in the air.

  He copied her movements. When he was going forward, he kicked his feet out in front of him and leaned back with his body. The swing climbed in height. He couldn’t help but smile as he began to close the distance in their heights. “I think I got it,” he said through a huge smile.

  Lacy watched as her man learned to swing for the first time. Whoa, her man? Where did that come from? It didn’t matter, because she saw a soul who had been trapped in Hell laughing and playing. “Come on,” she encouraged him, “higher.”

  They competed against each other to see who could swing the highest. Lacy won, naturally, and not because Liam let her. When Lacy leapt off her swing while it was a good ten feet in the air, Liam couldn’t get out of doing the same. He didn’t know how to stop the swing anyway. He waited for the right moment and then shoved his body out of the swing.

  His arms and legs pin wheeled around him as he sailed gracelessly through the air. The flight was a short one though, and he landed in an ungraceful heap on the ground.

  “Not too bad,” Lacy grinned.

  Liam spat the grass out of his mouth before turning his head to look at her. She was positively glowing from the inside out and he wasn’t sure it was all from the whole angel thing. She was light, and goodness, and everything that was right with the world.

  He pushed to his feet and grinned at her. Taking her in his arms, he spun her around. Her peal of laughter chimed in his ears and he thought it sounded like angels singing in the wind. He couldn’t help but laugh with her. He couldn’t remember the last time he really laughed. When he set her on her feet, he became very aware of their bodies touching.

  Her breasts were pressed firmly against his chest, damn near trying to spill out of that tiny top she was wearing. His hands were at her waist and her arms had come to rest around his neck. He was a full foot taller than she was and she was craning her neck to look up at him. Her clear blue eyes sparkled in the sunlight, her little nose sat atop of perfectly shaped lips that he had the immediate urge to taste. Liam didn’t think it through, but dropped his head and brushed his lips across hers.

  Electric fire raced through his veins as soon as he made contact. He pulled her body closer to his, making her back bow. He traced the seam of her lips with his tongue and when she opened for him, he darted inside. Liam explored the cavern of her mouth with his tongue, dueling with hers for domination. She tasted like berries and wine, a mix he had always been fond of when he had been alive.

  Too soon, Liam realized what he was doing and broke contact with Lacy. He set her back from him so that no parts of their bodies were touching. This was dangerous territory he was flirting with and he couldn’t afford to give in to temptation. And that was exactly what Lacy was.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked him, breathless.

  Liam shook his head. “I can’t do this. I won’t.”

  Lacy placed her hand on his bicep, “Do what?”

  Liam jerked his arm away from her. “Don’t touch me,” he barked as he moved away from her. He could see the hurt etched on her pretty face, but he had to be stronger than that. “Please. I’m sorry. I can’t.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said softly. “I thought… Well, it doesn’t matter, because I guess I thought wrong.”

/>   “I don’t want this,” Liam choked out.

  “You don’t want what? This? This life? Or is it just me?” she asked him, the hurt in her voice painfully obvious.

  “Oh, I want,” Liam answered, turning to face her. “I want some things so much that I fear by taking them I will end up right where I belong. In Greed. I want to walk on the earth again. I want to feel the sun on my face. I want to be a warrior for Ash. I want to help.” He got closer and towered over her. He lowered his head so that his nose was nearly touching hers. “And I want you.” His hot breath fanned over her face. “I want you so bad I can taste it. I can smell your skin and it’s like a drug for Since the first time you walked into Ash’s office, all I can think of is you and how your skin would feel under my fingertips. I want to taste you and hold you. I want you underneath me and I want to fuck you so hard that the only words you will be able to say are my name and please. I want. Don’t ever think that I don’t want you, because I do. But I can never have.” He turned abruptly and walked away from her then, leaving her breathless and stunned.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Liam wait,” Lacy called to his retreating back. For a regular man, he could move fast. She had to run to catch up with him. “Would you just wait?”

  Liam spun on his heels to face her. “Wait for what?” he growled.

  Lacy took a deep breath, knowing he was frustrated. Hell, so was she. He had barely kissed her and her body was demanding that she toss him on the ground and rape him if need be. She forced her racing heart to calm before speaking again. “You have to stay with me,” she reminded him. “I have to talk to the wolf’s family. You can help if you want.”

  Liam shook his head. “I think I can just wait in the hall,” he grumbled.

  “Fine,” she agreed. “But let’s not be this way. Can we just pretend that whole thing back there never happened?”

  Liam shrugged his massive shoulders. “Like I can forget that,” he said under his breath. Lacy smiled and took his hand, ignoring the heat that singed her skin with the contact. She wouldn’t likely be forgetting it either, but she could pretend. She pulled him along with her as she flashed them both back to the hospital. She wasn’t lying when she told him that he needed to stay with her. It was the agreement she made with Ash when he allowed Liam out of the cage. The part she wasn’t really ready to admit to him though, was that she felt stronger with Liam beside her. She felt whole. Complete. Like she had been missing some important piece of the puzzle her whole life and when she and Liam touched, that piece clicked into place.