The Complete Protected by the Damned Series

by Michael Todd

  I get it, Pandora said. How about I do this: I won’t give you any information, but I will tell you if the book is wrong on something. It’s much worse to face an enemy you think you know about and be wrong than to have no idea. If you know nothing, you will be open to whatever happens.

  All right, Katie said. That sounds like an acceptable deal.

  Katie got up from the bed and walked over to the dresser, putting the book down and opening it to the first page. She grabbed the two knives off the table and started to box them up. Carefully she wrapped each knife in tissue paper and placed them, one on top of the other, inside of the box.

  She didn’t want to be too girlie about it, but she wanted it to look as nice as possible since she was going to pretty much be asking for something in return. She glanced over at the first page of the book and skipped through until it reached the part about the seventy-two.

  So, the first demon they talk about is Asmodeus, Katie said.

  Oh, lord, Pandora giggled.

  It says here that Asmodeus is the orgy devil of sensuality, Katie said, a slight blush on her cheeks. It is said he is also immensely spiteful and protective of his lovers. It says that he uses his allure, his sexual allure, to bring his victims to him. Some he keeps as sexual slaves of sorts and the others are usually enemies or blood lust.

  Asmodeus is definitely alluring, that’s for damn sure. Pandora snickered. He is like the ultimate ladies’ man, and I’ve had my fair share of fun with him. Not so much with his asshole tendencies, but I digress.

  Okay. Katie sighed. So, he is the most charming being I could ever meet but, in the end he will swallow me whole.

  After you swallow him, Pandora agreed.

  Enough! Katie interrupted. I get the picture. So, beware of any romantic or lustful feelings I may have toward someone. Got it. Noted.

  It would be the most passionate feeling you have ever felt, Pandora said. Like your shit is on fire or something.

  That sounds like what you get when you sleep with one of the guys from the pub, Katie said, amused by her joke.

  Humans are weird, Pandora groaned. Okay, who is next?

  Before Katie could move forward Korbin came over the loudspeaker, calling her to his office. She finished up with the box of knives and closed the book, stashing it in the top drawer of her dresser.

  I guess we will pick this up later, Katie said. After I sell my soul to another kind of devil.

  Korbin sat at his desk waiting for Katie to come down, wondering what she wanted to talk about. He could tell by the tepidness in her voice when she first came to his office that she didn’t want to be there to talk about whatever it was bothering her.

  He looked up as Katie came out of the elevator and walked toward his now open door.

  “Hey,” he said. “Have a seat.”

  “Thanks.” She sat down. “I brought you something.”

  He watched as she pulled a box from her lap, which was tied closed with a ribbon.

  He took it from her and smiled, pulling the bow off slowly and carefully lifting the lid. He stared down at the blue tissue paper and carefully picked up the two pieces, unwrapping each separately.

  Inside, there were a pair of very beautiful knives, hand crafted by Joshua, with the same glimmering texture to them. He could already imagine himself using them on a demon.

  “These are very expensive knives, as you are probably aware,” Katie said.

  “Yeah.” Korbin nodded, shaking his head. “They are beautiful. Joshua does amazing work. I am glad to see that he has been able to sit down and get some work done.”

  “Me too,” she said. “That being said, I think I need some help—your help—with the business.”

  “Me?” he said, putting down the knives and leaning back in his chair. “What’s going on? What’s the issue?”

  “Well, I looked at the books this morning, and to be frank, we are hemorrhaging money,” Katie explained. “I guess between the start of the company, training, and this new threat that just seems to be growing with the infected, I haven’t been paying the kind of attention to what Joshua is doing as I should be.”

  “All right,” Korbin said, pulling his eyebrows together. “What kind of help are you looking for?”

  “I just need someone to go over the books,” Katie replied. “To make sure everything is being done as efficiently as possible. We all know there are always places we can trim expenses, and I need to know where we can do that with what we are ordering and paying out for. I may have knowledge, but I lack experience in this area and I think that you could help—and not be too intimidating to Joshua at the same time.”

  “Are we sure we can trust Joshua?”

  “Yes,” Katie said, nodding. “Definitely. The thing is, he is doing what he thinks needs to be done, but he is a blade maker. He isn’t a businessman in any sense of the word. I’m sure he orders just like he assumes he should. I doubt if he knows that everything is negotiable with the quantity of supplies we are ordering, for example,.”

  “All right, I understand.” Korbin rubbed his chin. “So basically, he goes in and orders whatever he needs to perform his job, most likely from the same people he ordered from before. He assumes the price is the price, and that is it.”

  “That is what I believe,” Katie admitted. “I also worry that he won’t know how to handle profits, not that we have any right now. I don’t think he will understand that profits need to be distributed among different sectors of the company. He will most likely just put that money back into supplies, like a vicious circle.”

  “And we will continue to think we are operating at cost.” Korbin nodded. “Where do you keep your books?”

  “Right now there is only one. The guys built me an office on the main floor of the building next door, and I keep them in there so Joshua has access to them when he does all his ordering and accepting of packages.”

  “Do you think he can be trained, or do you think we will have to have someone else do the negotiations and ordering?” Korbin asked.

  Katie thought for a moment. “Probably the latter,” she finally answered. “He is a good kid, but he has serious social anxiety. I think trying to push him to negotiate with these suppliers—some who are really pushy—will only make things worse for him, and therefore for us.”

  “Right,” Korbin said. “Okay. Sure, I’ll look at the books with you.”

  “Thank you, Korbin. And you don’t have to wait for me to be there—just whenever you are available. During the day the office is open, and at night just grab the key from me or Joshua if he is still there. I really appreciate this.”

  “Not a problem,” Korbin said, glancing at Eric in the pit below them. “Why don’t you suit up and go work out with Eric. He has been going at it for hours.”

  “Absolutely.” She nodded, then got up and walked to the door. “And thanks again.”

  Korbin just smiled, feeling good about helping her out.

  Eric could feel the sweat rolling down his forehead as he pushed the weights over his head and lowered again.

  He growled as he pushed back up. The muscles in his arms and back quaked under the pressure. He didn’t know if it had anything to do with the demon inside him but he felt damn strong now, ready to take on whatever the fuck came his way.

  He was pumped to be Damned, pumped that he could use the same sick sons of bitches that killed his comrades to kill the aforementioned sons of bitches. He was pumped to have that extra boost, but he wouldn’t misuse it.

  “You are looking buff.” Katie was leaning against the wall. “Don’t overdo it, or you will hurt yourself.”

  “I feel amazing,” Eric replied, glancing at her. “Like I could tackle a bull.”

  “Wait till it starts talking to you all the time.” Katie chuckled. “You just need to be careful, that’s all. Its ultimate goal is take you over, and when that happens there is no going back. That’s when we have to make a really hard choice.”

  “That won’t happen
.” Eric racked the weights and stood up. “I’m tougher than that. I won’t let it take me over.”

  Shit, there isn’t even a very big demon in there. Pandora sniffed. And the thing is terrified still—or maybe that’s just because we showed up. Either way, the thing is not giving him anything extra, really.

  Let him be, Katie told her.

  It’s hard to ignore him. He has such a hard-on for you that you would think Asmodeus was inside him. Pandora chuckled. His muscles are going to deflate, and we’re gonna watch him spin around the room like a fucking skin balloon.

  Where do you come up with this shit? Katie asked. “Skin balloon?”

  “You okay?” Eric waved a hand in front of her.

  “Yeah,” she said, shaking the far-off look from her face. “Just thinking, is all.”

  “Yeah, well, you aren’t going to be the only badass in here for long,” he told her. “Not that the others aren’t awesome, but it’s obvious who takes care of shit.”

  “That’s not true,” Katie said. “We all have our special skills. If it were true, Korbin and Jeremy wouldn’t have saved that school bus full of kids.”

  “Oh, agreed,” Eric said, wiping his forehead with a towel. “But there’s definitely something different about you.”

  She nodded her agreement. “Yeah—I’m insane. Being on the team, running a business, and apparently checking in on you guys too. It’s the voices in my head.”

  Damn right. Pandora snickered. You could all use voices like mine in your damn heads.

  Like we need tumors, Katie shot back.

  Did you just compare me to a growth? Pandora asked, wonder in her voice.

  “Well,” Katie said, clapping her hands together and ignoring Pandora. “You want to do some sparring?”

  “Hell, yeah,” Eric said, walking into the center of the pit. “I’ll take it easy on you.”

  “Well, thanks.” Katie chuckled.

  They circled slowly around each other, both crouched in defensive positions. Katie watched the movements of his legs and arms. He stepped forward quickly and jabbed but Katie dodged, nodding her head as she slapped his hand aside.

  Eric chuckled and tilted his head back and forth, stretching his neck.

  Katie stepped forward, but leaned to the right when he attempted to kick her in the chest. She grabbed his leg and spun him around, pushing him playfully.

  “You are doing better.” Katie laughed, bouncing up and down. “Just don’t react too soon.”

  The two sparred for over an hour, Eric not once hurting Katie in the least. He almost had her down at one point, but she swept his legs and stood back up, laughing.

  He was having fun with it…almost too much fun.

  Katie knew he would be good for their team, but he would have to watch himself and not get too cocky.

  When she was done there, she thanked him for a good workout and walked off toward weapons. She figured she and Calvin could end the day with some training in that area.

  All the while, though, her mind was on the Seventy-Two. She wondered what else that book had to say.

  Chapter 3

  The sun was starting to go down as Katie sat on the edge of her bed, combing her hair after getting out of the shower.

  She had worked on the bow and arrow with Calvin for the afternoon, figuring if Joshua could ever get the spray down they could put it on the arrows’ heads. She thought it would probably be good to know how to use the weapons in the armory, especially since she now owned a weapons manufactory.

  Either way. she would end up taking it out for a test drive in the coming days.

  Katie looked at the book, but her stomach growled, letting her know just how hungry she was. The guys had picked up chicken and potato salad and such but what she was really in the mood for was some delicious Italian food.

  She had been craving it for like a week, but hadn’t really felt like going out with her normal babysitter.

  Korbin never let her go anywhere alone unless she left without telling him, which was a serious breach in the rules. Korbin had questioned her on occasion, and she didn’t want to experience those occasions any more often than she already did.

  Katie walked over to her closet and stood there a moment looking in, then pulled out some clothes.

  She got dressed and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

  The desire for Italian wasn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon, so she figured babysitter or not, that was her destination for dinner.

  She left her room and made her way to Korbin’s office, laughing at the guys as they chowed down on fried chicken. It wasn’t often that they were all quiet at the same time, but with their mouths full they really had no choice.

  Katie thought about messing with them, but her hunger for everything Italian had taken over like a storm.

  She still couldn’t figure out why she was so damn hungry in the first place.

  Either way she wasn’t going to sit around and be miserable, and the thought of fried chicken made her groan, so instead of saying anything she nodded at Calvin as she passed and climbed into the elevator. She leaned back against the wall as it took her down to the office, thinking about the book, the company, and everything that was going on. Her life was interesting; no one could take that away from her.

  When she reached Korbin’s office, he had his head down and was typing something with emotion. Katie leaned against the frame and cleared her throat. He looked up and stopped typing, sitting back and nodding permission for her to come in. She smiled and meandered into the office, looking around.

  “How was training with Eric?” he asked.

  “All right.” Katie shrugged. “He thinks he is the fucking Hulk right now.”

  Korbin pursed his lips, considering her information. “Should we be worried?”

  “Worried?” She shook her head. “No, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on him. You don’t want him to take stupid risks, and possibly get him or someone else killed. From what we can tell the demon inside him isn’t very big, but if it really wants to take over it could make a move. If he doesn’t dial his excitement at being Damned down just a bit, he could find himself on the opposite end of the stick.”

  “And that wouldn’t be good at all.” Korbin sighed. “Well, thanks for sparring with him. Now, what can I do for you?”

  “I just wanted to let you know that I was going to go to Bootlegger Italian Bistro on Las Vegas Blvd, the south side. They have some good Italian food, and I am craving Italian horribly,” Katie told him. “I figured I’d give you a heads-up, so you could send your spy after me while I was out. Unless you just want me to take him with me, like last time?”

  “You are perceptive.” Korbin shook his head. “But no, not this time. Go have your Italian. Be safe, enjoy. The guys are all having a great time up there with their mound of chicken.”

  “I know, I saw that,” Katie replied, laughing. “And are you sure? I mean, you normally want me to have a nursemaid. You know, with all those creepy people out there and how fragile I am, I could easily be pulled into a candy van.”

  “You could.” He laughed, leaning back in his chair. “But I think I will go on faith here.”

  “Thanks, boss.” She turned to leave.

  “And a cannoli,” he added.

  “You know,” Katie agreed, turning back around, “I think that for a little bit of freedom, a cannoli can be arranged. Any specific kind?”

  “A traditional one.” He laughed. “None of that fancy shit.”

  “Right. I’ll make sure to order it that way. ‘A cannoli—the traditional kind, with none of that fancy shit.’”

  “Hey, I bet you that you wouldn’t be the first person who said that in a restaurant,” he surmised. “I grew up in an Italian household, so I tend to get a little picky about my cannolis.”

  “Now you’re making me nervous.” She chewed on her lip. “Will the cannoli be up to Korbin’s standards? If it’s not, I just want to put out there that it is not o
nly not my fault, I will not pay the punishment for it.”

  “Ehhhh,” he said, squinting one eye, “all right. You drive a hard bargain, but that’s fair. No cleanup duty for you if the cannoli sucks, but that doesn’t mean I won’t go to this restaurant just to give them a piece of my mind.”

  “Of course, boss.”

  Katie walked out of the office laughing and shaking her head. Some days Korbin could be the most intimidating man on Earth, but on other days he was quite enjoyable to be around.

  She was well aware he had a lot of responsibilities, and they weren’t just about keeping the house afloat.

  He felt responsible for every human soul in that building, and every human soul outside the building. Katie finally understood what Damian had meant when they first met about Korbin’s need to take care of the world being what would eventually kill him.

  She was starting to agree with that statement wholeheartedly.

  Katie rounded the corner into the garage and looked at the SUVs, which were parked in rows. She went over to the box on the wall and pulled out a set of keys for the one closest to the entrance. As she walked toward it Joshua climbed into Mamacita’s car, and it headed out.

  Katie smiled as the little red sports car blew down the driveway. She stood there for a moment holding the keys in her hand and thinking before turning around and walking back into the complex. She pushed herself hard, running back up the stairs two at a time to Korbin’s office, and stood in his doorway breathing heavily.

  “You forget something?” He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. “Your lungs, perhaps?”

  “Hold on,” she said trying to catch her breath. “I have…a…question.”

  He chuckled. “All right. By all means! I’ll wait.”

  She raised a middle finger. “Hey, don’t be snappy, or you’ll get a chocolate-chip-cookie-dough cannoli.”

  “Oh, God.” He cringed.