This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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Prologue: Livin’ on a Prayer

The demon’s jaws clamped down on Ash with all of the creature’s might. Ash’s body was severed, his blood splattered, and the lizard demon scuttled away unscathed. Ash screamed in agony as his life-flame flickered. His teammates following behind him raced to his side fearing the worst. Ash looked into his friend’s eyes and knew it was all over for him.

“Well, it’s been an interesting experiment,” said Shiva. “But I think I’ll take the lead again.”

“Aw man!” said Ash. The boy trembled and whined about the tiny demon bite to his thumb. Now he regretted ever stopping to look at that little lizard. He’d only been leading the group for half a day, which was actually longer than Shiva could stand Aura’s trial leadership.

That’ll teach Ash to play with the demons
, Shiva thought smugly to herself while suppressing a grin. She shoved Ash to the side and paraded ahead of him, just for good measure.

“Keep up, now! And no more handling the wildlife!” Shiva shouted like a drill sergeant. If she had to look after the two pathetic boys she’d been stuck with, she was at least going to get some respect out of them.

Aura the death-toucher stepped to Ash’s side. “Red headed witch!” he whispered to Ash. “Thinks she can bring us all the way out here and treat us like dirt!” Aura was not particularly fond of Shiva, or her family. “It’s only because her dad’s Satan that she even gets to be the boss of us,” Aura said, matter-of-factly.

“Shhh, dude, she’ll hear you,” Ash said.

“I don’t care if she does,” Aura replied a little louder. “The least she could do is wear a more sexy outfit for us!” Aura was kind of a perv. He was routinely disappointed in Shiva preference for armor over anything remotely provocative.

“How’s your owwie?” he asked Ash.

“I’ll live,” Ash replied in an effort to save face.

“The next time you see something buried in the sand and want to tug on it, just let me know. I’ll use my death-touch hand, and if it’s a demon, I’ll kill it. Easy as that.” Aura was referring to his cursed hand, which he covered with an old silver gauntlet. He was born with the power to kill, but didn’t really know why. Legend says the death touchers were Angels that were sent to Earth specifically to kill humans and demons. But that was just a legend.

“Yeah, thanks,” Ash said. He was now disappointed. He thought he found another Earthan object. They’d been coming outside the Kingdom of Hell’s protective gates for two weeks now, and Ash was pleasantly surprised to learn that sometimes, quite randomly, objects from his home on Earth would slip through the dimensions and land in Hell.

On one of his earlier outings, he tripped over a buried tire in South Hell’s desert landscape. That’s when Shiva, their commander and know-it-all, informed him of the rare dimensional slip-ups. From that moment on, his mind was more focused on keeping watch for anything he could find that would remind him of home than on his actual mission. And maybe if he were really lucky, he’d find something that could even help him get out of Hell.

“It’s getting really dark out here,” Shiva said. “Let’s turn our flame up.”

The guiding light on their journey came from the small fireballs hovering in each of their hands. Instinctively, the three of them focused on making their fireballs bigger. Without batting an eye, both Shiva and Aura’s fireballs grew in size, shedding more light on their sunless, dreary world.

Ash had to close his eyes and concentrate. He was still new to making flame and although he had a lot of stamina, he still lacked experience. But he
was
improving. With his eyes firmly shut, he imagined the flame in the palm of his hand growing. He opened his eyes to see he’d done just that. He was impressed by his newfound power. Two weeks ago he could barely shoot sparks.

After walking for another couple of minutes, Shiva stopped abruptly. Aura and Ash also stopped. Shiva bent down and investigated what she’d been looking for. It was a long white marker stick she’d rammed into the sand on their first scouting mission. This was their stopping point. The furthest point out that any devil had ever been from the city.

“Okay, this is as far as we go for today,” she said. Aura smiled, thinking his workday would soon be coming to close. Ash smiled too, but for a different reason.

“So, this is the farthest out anyone’s ever come?” he asked Shiva.

“It’s damn close,” she told him. “Don’t tell me you’re going to
do that
again?”

“Of course!” Ash said. “It’s my duty!”

“Want help?” Aura asked.

“Sure, you go that way and I’ll go that way!”

Aura started walking in one direction, and Ash started walking in another direction out past the marker as well. They were going to go farther out than anyone ever had, much like they’d done every day since they started going outside the city.

“Don’t come crying to me when a crafty demon sneaks up on you!” Shiva called to them. She tried to act like she didn’t care that they were going farther out, but it showed. She really did care. Not because she valued their lives, but because they were effectively showing her up by going out farther than her. She couldn’t stand to be second best, let alone third best.

Ash had only taken about twenty steps but it felt like another mile. They were technically in the second-most dangerous area of Hell, the unexplored lands. Any number of demons could be out here lurking somewhere in the darkness. Ash had been lucky with his demon encounters so far, but alone and blind, he feared he wouldn’t do so well. He willed his fireball to float in midair, freeing up the use of his hand.

Ash dropped down to his knees and put his hands together in formation. All of Hell was silent. This was the perfect place for him right now.

If no one’s ever been here, then no one’s ever tried it here. Even if there’s a tiny sliver of hope it might work, it’ll be worth the risk…

There in the silence and darkness of Hell, a lone prayer went unheard into the night sky. If by chance one did hear it, its message would be clear: “I’m here. I am alive. I need help. So please, come find me already!”

“Hey! You guys have anything to report or not?” Shiva whisper-yelled out to them. Ash jumped back up to his feet. He was done. He took the fireball back in hand, and walked back to Shiva. Aura was returning as well.

“I’ve told you before, there’s no point in going out that far,” Shiva said.

“Oh, there is too a point,” Ash replied. He smiled at Aura, who returned his smile.

“Whatever,” Shiva said. “Let’s just get back.”

Shiva made certain the white marker was still stuck firmly in place. Finding it fit enough for her expectations, she stood and pivoted, ready to leave. Doing so turned up some of the sand where she was standing, and something underneath the sand caught her eye. She bent down to examine it. She smiled upon seeing what it was.

“Your lucky day,” Shiva called to Ash. She picked up what she’d found in the sand and tossed it to Ash. The boy, surprised, fumbled the item in his hands and nearly dropped it. When he finally had a tight grasp on it, he was speechless.

In his hand was an iPod. It even had a pair of earphones wrapped around it. What a find! He turned it on, hoping against all odds that it would still work. It turned on without a problem, and even had a full battery. He cycled through the songs on it, trying to get a feel for what kind of music was stored on the device. Shiva and Aura watched him with amazement. Such technology didn’t exist in Hell.

Ash determined the iPod must have come from an Asian country, because the majority of the music was in a foreign language, most likely Japanese. There were a few American pop songs to be found, but nothing quite to Ash’s tastes. He was more of a punk rocker. But poppy foreign music was better than no music at all. He pocketed the iPod and smiled brightly at Shiva.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Don’t let it distract you from our task,” she replied.

“Come on,” Aura said, putting a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The two devils and one half-devil turned around, heading back to the protective walls of the Kingdom of Hell.

Part
One

Chapter One: Negative Divide

Ash Kaplan was stranded in Hell, and it wasn’t even the
good
part of Hell. He was unbearably cold, too. It was always
cold in Hell, but way outside the Kingdom’s protective walls and across the dark desert, the boy and his companions didn’t even have the warmth of the artificial sun. The only light available out there came from their own fireballs and did little to illuminate the surrounding area. Not that they would see much more than sand dunes, anyway. The wailing wind was a prelude to what would soon become another sandstorm.

Having become quite familiar with the ominous sound over the past few days, Ash pulled up the bandana hanging around his neck to cover his mouth. His teammates did the same. They all wore protective goggles to keep the sand out of their eyes, as well as hooded cloaks to protect the rest of their bodies. Everyone hunkered down to wait out the sandstorm. It was times like this that Ash was tempted to pull out his iPod, but with no way to recharge it when it died, the boy was extremely cautious about using it.

"This place blows," Aura said once the wind died down and the sand stopped flying. "Get it? Like, the wind?
Blowing
? And because it's terrible."

"I get it," Ash said, digging some sand out of his ears.

"Shut up," Shiva commanded. "You'll give away our position."

"I don't know if you've noticed,
Ms. Satan
," Aura said, "but there's no one around to give away our position
to
."

Shiva remained stone faced. With a roll of her eyes, she turned to face her men. "You know I hate it when I have to repeat myself," she said.

"I'm beginning to think you don't," Aura replied.

"Have you ever for a moment been serious about this? Just once, could you actually take a look around and try to accomplish what we're out here to do?"

And so began another classic argument between Shiva and Aura. There were usually at least two a day, and they never lasted less than twenty minutes, with an optional five-minute intermission. Ash had become accustomed to sitting back and watching. He'd been nearly wounded once when he'd mistakenly backed up Aura's side of an argument. But, from that incident, Ash learned a very important lesson: never get involved.

So while the two bickered, Ash's mind wandered. There he was: standing in a remote desert in Hell, far from the protection of the Kingdom’s walls and at the mercy of countless savage demons wanting nothing more than to pick his bones, in complete darkness save for the three small fireballs he and his companions were carrying, looking for some supposed rebels that probably didn't even exist, and all he could think was:
I should have packed more cheese.

He was referring to the small crumbles of cheese he'd grabbed from the castle’s dining hall that morning before leaving for their mission. Along with a few crackers, he made little rations for himself that could sometimes last all day. He had to be careful about what kinds of food he brought with him outside the kingdom, as sometimes the smellier foods would attract unwanted demons.

With his teammates still bickering Ash dazed off into the artificial sun behind them, which was now a mere blazing speck in the sky. At the bottom of his eyesight there was a sudden movement. His devil eyes were much more powerful in the dark than a human’s, but the boy was still unable to see perfectly. Whatever was out there had vanished.

“We got company,” Ash said. Without another word the boy took off. Shiva and Aura abandoned their quarrel and joined in the pursuit. They followed as Ash leapt from one sand dune to another, bringing out his wings and using them to gain some hang time. Just ahead of him, Ash could just make out the sound of footsteps. A loud metallic
BANG
rang out, confusing everyone. Raising the intensity of his flame, Ash shot it forward hoping to catch his prey off guard. A couple yards ahead, standing on the roof of a rusted Volkswagen Beetle half-buried in sand, a cloaked figure disappeared into the darkness.

Ash followed, but a cloud of sand stirred up in front of him. He heard a loud
THUD
, and scrambled to pull his bandana back up, but was not quick enough. He plunged directly into the cloud of sand with nothing covering his mouth. As he coughed and hacked, his teammates called out to him, asking what happened.

"I'm okay," Ash assured them.

"That's not what we were asking about!" Shiva called through the darkness.

"Gee, thanks..." Ash grumbled. Raising his hand-torch once more, he scoured the area looking for any trace of the cloaked person. He investigated the Volkswagen and was surprised to see it was an early model, probably from the nineteen-sixties. This was the largest Earth object he'd found in Hell so far. He ran his hand over the cold metal exterior, taking momentary pleasure in the reminder from his home.

Stepping around the front of the vehicle, Ash came face to face with a demon.
Face to face
maybe not the best term to use here. More like face to worm. The red, sausage-like demon whipped forward with what the boy hoped was its head, because it was spewing out foul-smelling gunk. He was lucky to have jumped backwards in time, because whatever the gunk was, it completely dissolved his bandana and goggles. The boy tossed a fireball at the demon and when the light went out he felt a soft spray of worm guts showering him.

Shiva was the first to catch up to Ash, who had already relit a new flame in his hand and wiped off his face with his cloak. "Status report," she said, which was her official-sounding way of asking what happened.

"Gee, where do I begin?" Ash said, more than a little disgusted and fed up at the moment. "I thought I saw a guy, but he disappeared in a cloud of sand before I could catch him, and then I got attacked by a worm that spewed acidic gunk at me out of its ‘face’, and that's
if
I'm lucky." He pointed down at the remains of his bandana and goggles in the sand. "That's all that's left of my gear, so I guess I could have just had my face melted off too."

"What did the rebel look like?" Shiva
asked.

"My face!
Melted
off!"

"Don't dodge my question!"

From somewhere in the desert, there were several loud
THUMPS
in succession.

"Hey Ash," Aura said, his voice tense.

"What?"

"You say the rebel disappeared in a cloud of sand, right?"

"Yes. And then the demon attacked me."

"
A cloud of sand like…
those
?" the death toucher asked, sounding concerned. Aura raised a single finger, pointing out to where his fireball was levitating some thirty feet away. By the light it emitted they could see at least fifteen enormous separate sandstorms. The team had merely a second to be astonished before they were completely overwhelmed by a wave of those same colossal red demon worms heading straight for them.

Not wanting to stand around and be trampled by demon worms, the three teammates retreated.
"There are at least twenty of them!" Shiva said, holding a flame before them to light their way.

"What now,
leader?
" Aura asked. He’d abandoned his original flame, as it had gone too far out and was no longer under his control. Instead, he lit a new fireball to use as a torch.

"We run, obviously!" Shiva said.

"The kingdom is the other way," Ash pointed out. He was right for once; the glowing speck of a sun could be seen far off in the distance.
Behind
the charging onslaught of demons. The team was instead retreating even further into the desert of Hell.

"This is stupid!" Aura said. "I'll just kill them all with my death touch!"
The boy stopped and faced the demons. Shiva and Ash stopped as well but kept their distance. They remained alert and ready to flee again at a moments notice. Everything went silent as the demons disappeared suddenly from sight, burrowing underground.

Five
of the demons emerged from the sand, encircling Aura. The death toucher removed his metal gauntlet, revealing his blackened hand. He was about to shoot forward when the demons unanimously shot out the same acidic liquid that Ash had encountered.

Aura
dropped to the ground and covered himself with his arms. He couldn’t avoid the demon’s attacks, as their acid sprayed across his cloak. The material dissolved almost instantly, leaving Aura with only his signature black and blue coat for protection.

"Is that all you got?" Aura said. The
demons did not acknowledge him. "I take it you're done puking, since you're not blasting me again? That must mean you've run out." Again, the demons did not respond. Aura grinned. "Now you're all in big,
big
trouble!"

Aura shot his
hand forward so fast it was a blur. He pivoted and blasted his arm out again. Five times he did this, each time an electric blue shock occurred and the demons dropped dead. Five purple wisps of demon souls disappeared into the night. Aura fell to his knees, his nose trickling with blood.

Ash
tried to rush to his friend, but more demons emerged from the ground and blocked his path. Even more of the worms popped up surrounding Shiva. Those demons began spewing out their acidic gunk at the girl. Shiva moved like a gymnast: twisting, bending, turning her body in every which way conceivable to avoid their acid. Their toxic substances missed her entirely. Now it was her turn.

Drawing twin daggers out from underneath her cloak, Shiva lunged at the nearest of her foes. With
a quick swing of her arms the demon was severed into four sections. It dropped to the ground where it continued to wriggle around disturbingly. Again, Shiva leapt forward at each foe, cutting them all to fleshy ribbons. After her final attack she took a knee and tucked away her daggers, thinking she’d won. Another demon popped out of the sand behind her, spraying her down with the acid.

Her
cloak and facial protection melted away, revealing the spunky redheaded girl in armor. She turned and blasted a small shot of flames at the demon that sprayed her and its head exploded.
I need more training,
Shiva thought.

Ash's defense was a little simpler. With the worms surround
ing him and spraying their acid at the same time, the boy simply jumped. At the peak of his jump, he brought out his wings and flapped powerfully downward. The result was an extra spring to his jump, launching him higher. From above he readied fireballs in both hands. Since learning how to use flame a month ago, Ash discovered he had a natural talent for it. He shot the fireballs at the demons and quickly readied two more. Over and over he did this, floating in the air and raining down fire until there was nothing on the ground but demon puddles.

The boy
dropped down and pulled his wings back inside his body. Shiva and Aura joined him, and all three of them appeared to be okay despite some minor burns from the acid.

"Anyone injured?" Shiva
asked.

"Are you kidding? Those gu
ys were small fries," Aura said, wiping away the last of the blood from his nose. He caught a concerned look from Ash about it, but smiled confidently as if it were no big deal.

"
That was a lot of demons,” Ash said. “Do you think we stepped on their nest back by that Beetle?”

"
There was another demon back there?” Aura asked, alarmed.

“No, I mean… Oh, never mind.”

“Did you see anything else?” Shiva asked.

“Oh yeah!” Ash said, remembering the cloaked figure. “I saw someone, I think! Just before the demons attacked us.”

"Sounds too convenient. Maybe the demons were part of the rebels defenses," Shiva said.

Aura snorted, unconvinced. “
If
there even are any rebels. We still don’t have any solid proof yet,” he said. “All we’ve got to go on are a few of Goddard’s suspicions.”

"
Regardless, we’ve finally got
something
to report,” said Shiva. “Let’s high-tail it back to the kingdom so Ash can inform… Where’s Ash?” Shiva asked, noticing the boy had wandered off.

Increasing the size of her guiding flame, Shiva found the boy standing several feet away, staring up at the sky. Before she could ask what he was looking it, there was a brilliant flash in the sky miles away. What looked like a black meteor shot through the sky and rocketed down, but did not hit ground.

“It can’t be…” Aura said.

The team advanced cautiously. Ash relit a new fireball and floated it forward slowly. Up ahead t
hey could see the ground came to a cliff-like edge. With more bright eruptions in the sky raining down glowing objects, Ash crept closer to the edge for a better look. He was only a few steps from falling off, but his fireball was hovering twenty yards out. There was no bottom to the canyon. All they could see was a radiant black haze that obscured the view of anything below. For a moment, Ash thought he might have stumbled upon the Grand Canyon. But he was not on Earth, and he knew at once where they must have ended up.

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