Redemption (The Keepers of Hell Book 3) (11 page)

     He was loathe to take his eyes off her, unable to wait to see what she would do next. Everything she did surprised him in a way that he couldn’t imagine ever having to live without. He wondered how he had lived without it in the first place.

    She climbed up his body and angled her hips over his erection. “You ready for this?” she asked.

     “More than you can imagine,” he groaned.

     And then she slid her body over his, taking him inside her. Jake was lost to the sensation of being one with this incredible woman. He watched her as her back arched and her hips flexed over him, her head tilted back as she gave in to the pleasure he was giving her with every move of his hips.  He was hers to command, but she was his too. He knew it deep inside himself. This demon had worked her way into his heart and made a home for herself there, and he would spend every hour of every day making sure she stayed there. 

     As he pushed himself further inside her, Jake gave her all he had to give. He gave her his body, his heart, and his soul. As they made love, and even though he didn’t know how he did it, Jake knew without a doubt that he gave her just a little piece of himself that would stay with her forever, marking her as his mate for the rest of eternity.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

     Jake and Shelly walked into Ash’s office when the heavy doors opened for them. Ash knew they were coming. The pair had been allowed their alone time, but now, it was time to debrief. Ash was sitting behind his desk with a blade in his hand. He had the handle secured in his right hand and the tip was just touching the palm of his left. He was turning it over and over again, as if he were doing it subconsciously to what he was thinking about.

     “Hey,” Jake said as he led Shelly into the room.

     “Have a seat,” Ash said, motioning to the two chairs across from him. This was the man Jake first met. He was serious and menace poured off him. This was the angel that nearly killed Jake when he put his fire out. This was serious. “I won’t get into any niceties right now. We need to know what happened. I need to know everything you remember,” he said to Shelly.

     Shelly straightened her shoulders beside Jake and he slipped his hand over and laid it on her knee to lend her support. “I honestly don’t remember very much,” she admitted to him. “I was summoned and I thought it was you, so I went with it. The rest is just a blur.”

     “You don’t remember anything about your abductors,” Ash said. Not a question. But he had already known that.

     Shelly shook her head. “I think they put a spell on me to make me not remember. I can remember bits and pieces, but that’s it.”

     “Why don’t you tell me what those pieces are,” Ash recommended, leaning forward and bracing his elbows on his desk.

     Shelly eyed the knife he was toying with. The blade was as black as his wings were and the handle was made from bone. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was. Any demon worth their own weight knew of it, just very few had seen it. Those who had seen it didn’t live to tell about it. Shelly swallowed hard. “Is that what I think it is?” she asked, staring at the blade.

     Ash plunged the knife down into his desk and allowed it to stand on its own. “It is,” he told her. “The Blade of Darkness really does exist. Now talk.”

     Jake gritted his teeth together. He didn’t know what was so special about this knife and he didn’t care. The fact that it had given Shelly pause grinded his gears and made him want to take her out of there immediately.

     “I remember something about a gate and Balthazar. That’s it, though, I’m afraid,” Shelly said without looking away from that knife.

     “What the fuck is that thing?” Jake finally asked, unable to stand it any longer.

     “The Blade of Darkness is a knife used to kill demons,” Ash told him. Then he turned his attention back to Shelly. “You don’t remember anything else?”

     She dropped her head and shook it. “No, I’m sorry.”

     Ash leaned back in his chair. “We have to assume that they have your blood,” he told her. “You know I really do like you.”

     Shelly nodded but didn’t meet his eyes. Jake watched as the pieces started to fit together. The blade of Darkness… Shelly’s defeated attitude… the sadness in Ash’s eyes… Oh hell no. “Wait just a minute,” Jake barked, standing from his seat so fast that it knocked over behind him. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

     “Please sit down,” Ash said quietly.

     “Hell no I won’t!” Jake bellowed. “You’re planning to kill her, aren’t you?”

     Ash looked at Jake with a completely unreadable expression.

     “Answer me, damn it!” Jake demanded, slamming his fists on Ash’s desk and getting nose to nose with him. “You will not touch her!”

     Ash rose slowly from his seat and met Jake’s eyes. Both men had taken on the signature red in their eyes that meant the shit was about to go down in a serious way. “I do not believe you are in any position to give me orders,” Ash growled at him.

     “Fuck that!” Jake snarled, unafraid of Ash’s wrath. “Why would you even consider it? I thought you were good. Why would you punish her for something she didn’t do! For something she had no control over?”

     Ash shoved the desk out of the way and shoved Jake against the wall. “Because they have her blood!”

     “So?”

     “They can summon her again! They can use it for spells. They can control her with it!” Ash shouted in his face.

     The anger quickly dropped to a simmering rage in Jake. “Control her?” he asked.

     Ash stepped back from him. “Yes, control her. As in, use her as a puppet to infiltrate and destroy us. I am thinking of the greater good for everyone here. I don’t want to kill her!”

     “I won’t let you.” Jake met his leader’s terrifying stare. “I won’t do it. I will destroy you first.” He didn’t raise his voice. It was not a threat. It was a promise and Ash knew Jake had every intention of keeping it. Shelly was his mate and mates would die for each other.

     “What else can I do?” Ash asked him. “If you have another way, I am open to suggestions.”

     “I’ll stay with her. At all times. I won’t let her out of my sight. If they summon her, I will follow. I will protect her and kill anyone who tries to harm her. We know what they are looking for. Balthazar. So I say we find him first.”

     Ash paced the room while he pondered Jake’s words. He looked from his angel to his demon. They were mates. How could he kill her? He would let no one near Elizabeth and Ash understood better than anyone the need to protect one’s mate. Perhaps Jake was on to something.

     “You stay on her like stink on shit,” Ash commanded. “If anything goes haywire, it’s on you. Do you understand me?”

     Jake let out a breath of relief. “I understand.”

     Shelly had watched the whole exchange in silence. She had known that Ash intended to kill her. It was the smart thing to do. It was what she would have done. But as Jake fought for her, she was impressed. She was filled with an emotion that she was unfamiliar with. Hope. He was willing to risk his life, his afterlife, to save her, and didn’t that fill her up with the warm and fuzzies. Jake was one hell of an angel, and he was hers. There was no mistaking it, no denying it. She hadn’t been able to let him go from the first time she had seen him. And now she knew why. It wasn’t because he belonged in Greed. It was because he was her mate. He was everything a mate should be. He was loving and gentle when the time called for it, but he was vicious and dangerous when he needed to be. He didn’t put up with her shit and gave it as good as he got. He was her perfect match and she couldn’t stop the smile that split her lips.

     “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.