Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (14 page)

Nope, not at all.
“Yeah I saw, I’ll try it tomorrow; just going to do the usual one today,” I finished and went back to the task of getting my hair into a pony. Finally, and with burning arms, I had it and put my brush back in the drawer. In the meanwhile, Nanini had made her bed and cleaned her section in a record time. Damn, still have to do mine.

Lada came out and Nanini flew into the bathroom, slamming the door at the same time. “Don’t slam the door Nanini!” Lada yelled at her, and I had to laugh. The two of them make an unusual pair, but they balance each other out at least. I walked to my bed and started my clean up. The moment my hand touched the covers, I had a flash back of the dream.

For some reason it was at the beginning again, where my face was in the grass. I know that things in your day could pop up in your dreams again, but why on earth would I put the demon in the werewolf’s place? Now, thinking about it, where the hell did he come from? I’ve never seen a guy that looked like him, did I make him up? Cleaning up and finishing my section, I ran a few scenarios through my brain but got no answer to my questions.

We went down and grabbed breakfast before our day of hell started again. Taking my last bite Vulcan came into the grub spot. “Hurry up
Apprendo’s
the others are already waiting,” he said and walked out. At that, everyone started gulping down their food and drinks, me included. We finished off and then started the journey to the arena. Outside everyone was waiting for us. Boy we need to get a new wake up time, looks like we are slacking.

Chax, Seth, Arianna, and Dagon were waiting for us at the tree where we met yesterday. Okay, so my tree became the meeting spot, cool. The four of them were having a conversation and the moment we reached them they stopped and looked at us. My eyes landed on Arianna’s face for some strange reason and for the first time I saw her pissed off. When she saw me still looking at her, she quickly changed her face and turned around, looking at the others also gathered in little groups. Okay, did I do something?

“Morning
Apprendo’s,
” Seth and Dagon greeted, so I turned my eyes away from Arianna and looked at them. When I saw Seth, I felt a whole lot better. I don’t know what Arianna’s problem is and I don’t care. Walking to Seth I greeted Dagon and Chax, who just looked at me and nodded. Yip, grumpy Chax is back today; let’s hope the werewolves can change his mood again. I looked at Seth and smiled at him, I got one back and that made me totally forget about the dream and Arianna’s look.

“Today we must improve on our techniques; we need to combine our abilities more to get the best result,” Chax said, and I turned to look at him. Okay down to business as usual.

“I agree. We can do a lot more damage if we combine our abilities together. It’s finding the right recipe that’s the problem,” Dagon replied.

“Gather around fallen!” a guy yelled, so we all turned around to find Astin on the stage thing
.
“Dontalion has suggested that we try another approach
to aid the training. Together, with their teammates, Dontalion and Annabelle will demonstrate the powers of a fully trained team. Study them well,” he finished, then turned around and walked off the stage. The crowd in front of us started to separate, creating a huge circle. Standing in the middle was Don and his team; they took formation and transformed.

Don and two others were werewolves, but they also had a vampire, three fae, and a harpy. Four females and four males made out his team, nice. A redhead female and seven others walked out of the circle and took their formation. They ended up in what looked like a triangle form, where Don’s team was in a circle. I watched as the red headed woman transformed into a huge half lion, half eagle thing.

“What on earth is that?” I asked, awed by the female.

“She is a griffin,” Dagon replied
.
“Very rare fallen species, the last ones are only found in Astin’s fallen. If I’m correct, he has four. Annabelle would be the only female.”

Wow, I’ve seen a lot of griffin’s pictures, but this takes the cake. She started to pace slowly to the left, and then her team of two werewolves, one fae and the rest vampires, began to move with her. Don and his team were keeping still, their eyes on the others. The griffin team kept on slowly moving to the left, just looking at Don’s team.

This continued for a few more minutes, and I was starting to get bored. My eye caught one of Don’s team members taking a step inward, which in turn left their circle a bit out of place, the griffin team attacked. The fae took to the sky holding her hands at her side; the next thing three vampires were riding on tree roots ripping out of the ground. The roots lifted them up, meeting Don’s fae and harpy in the air, where they went over into super speed. Nice, she must be an earth fae.

The griffin stormed forward, two werewolves at her sides. When Don and the others were looking up trying to help those above, they attacked them. Wow, not only was the root thing a great attack but also a diversion; that’s something to remember. Don’s harpy then started to scream and everyone grabbed their ears, trying to lessen the sound. The griffin and the others grabbed their ears, and Don’s team moved in attacking them; they were immune to the harpy’s scream. They were fast, combining their abilities to take them down. The harpy’s scream was starting to hurt my ears, so I took my eyes off the team and grabbed them. Then suddenly, total silence. I looked up and saw the harpy pinned to the ground by the griffin, which had knocked her out cold.

Don and the others were still fighting. A purple fae blasted a vampire out of her way, and then blasted the griffin, who was making her way to a werewolf. The moment the bomb hit the griffin four roots jumped out of the ground and wrapped around the purple fae. The fire fae on Don’s side sent out firebombs all over the place, hitting the griffin, werewolf and the earth fae. As the earth fae landed on the ground, a werewolf on Don’s side jumped into the air, and with one claw swipe, cut off the roots trapping their fae.

“Stop!” Astin yelled, and the battle stopped dead. My eyes still on them, I watched as they turned back to normal then started to help their team members get up. After all of them were up and back in action, they nodded to each other and then turned to face the crowd; who stood there in total silence.

“Whoo hoo, that was totally wicked!” Nanini yelled, next to me and everyone turned around to look at her. One by one, their faces turned from shock to smiles. The crowd turned back to look at Don and the others, and then started applauding and a few more “whoo hoo’s” also followed. Don and the others were looking at each other with shock written all over their faces. They didn’t expect this kind of a reaction.

“Well done, Astin. Indeed your fallen teams are something too witness. I believe I owe you an apology,” Vulcan said, walking over to Astin and shaking his hand. Astin took it in return and smiled at Vulcan. Okay, so the moral of the story; don’t judge something before you take a good look at it. Like Astin and his fallen the outcome can be phenomenal.

Many walked out of the crowd and offered their hands to Don and the other fallen, talking to them and congratulating them on a good job done. I must admit that the battle I just witnessed had me still dumbstruck. From everything I had to see and endure since my first day here; I was totally blown away by this. Even my dad was shaking Don’s hand and the others, asking questions and stuff. I could see he was really fascinated by their team work.

I turned around to look at Seth and the others, to find only Chax and I still remaining. I turned my head back and saw that our group had also made their way to the crowd and were shaking hands. Nanini was jumping up and down in front of Annabelle, and I could see that she in return was having a hard time keeping her eyes on her. A smile broke out on her face, and the she burst out laughing. Nanini stopped her jumping, and the two started talking again.

“For many years I have tried to make the others see the potential Astin and his fallen had, but it was always a failure. I watched these fallen take on demons ours haven’t even seen yet and walk out victorious. Do you know how many lives could have been saved if they just listened?” Chax said next to me, and I turned to look at him.

His eyes were on the crowd in front of us, but he turned to look at me. For the first time since meeting him I saw sadness, and deep pain. He turned around and walked off to the direction we were training in yesterday. Surprised and worried I kept my eyes on him as he made his way through the garden. I might have misjudged Chax. He may be a grumpy guy with no sense of interaction between people, but in his eyes I saw a male that has lived and lost for others, I saw a reason.

“That is one fallen I would gladly give my life for,” Don said next to me, but I didn’t turn to look at him. I was too concerned over Chax, unbelievable
.
“Never in my life have I met someone that equals him, not only does he serve with all that he is, he also does it with his whole heart,” he finished.

“Yes, but it would appear to be a broken one,” I replied, my eyes still on Chax.

“We all lose something in this war young one, some fall to the loss. But some, like him, rise above it and try to save others from the same fate. There will be a day when this fate will cross your path. When it does you will have to make a choice, fall and be concurred by it, or rise above it to do good for others,” Don explained, and started to walk in Chax’s direction. I kept my eyes on both of them, his words taking a place in both my brain and heart; I will rise above it, I promised myself.

My thoughts were interrupted when two arms circled me and pressed me to a strong chest. After yesterday, I made a mental note of Chax’s scent and also Seth’s, to make sure I didn’t mistake the two again. The smell of oranges came to me so I knew whose arms were holding me.

“Everything okay?” he whispered in my ear, his mouth traveling slowly to my neck and giving me goose bumps
.

“Yeah everything’s just fine,” I answered, enjoying his affection.

“You looked sad there for a moment, did Chax do something?”

“No he didn’t do anything, Don and I just had a talk,” I replied, rubbing my cheek against his.

“Come on you two, we don’t have all day,” Dagon said, and walked past us to follow Don. The others joined him, and Nanini turn around and gave us the thumps up with a smile. Lada took Lotan’s hand and the two walked towards the others.

“We really need to find some time to be alone,” Seth complained, and kissed me on the cheek, then walked around to face me
.

“I agree. This is getting to be too much,” I replied, smiling at him.

“Come on, the others will be on our case,” Seth said and I started laughing
.

“You mean Chax will be on our case,” I retorted and he started laughing as well. I took a step and found that one foot was trapping the other; I looked down to see my laces were undone, “Damn,” I said, bending down.

“I’ll wait for you.”

“Na don’t worry, I’ll fix them and shift over. You go before the others freak out on us,” I replied, shooing him off. Laughing he turned around and started walking off, so I got hold of the first shoe’s laces and got to work. I just finished them when two guys walked pass me; I didn’t look up to see who it was, concentrating too much to get the shoes done. Finally, with the last shoe done I got up and was about to shift, when two arms grabbed me from behind.

“Morning
bellus,
” Marcus whispered in my ear, my heart stopping at his last word. My nightmare came crashing down on me; my heart was beating so hard I could feel it slam into my ribs. The part where I used my wings to get the demon off me came to mind, and I knew I had my ticket out of here. Dream or not, I’m getting out of his grip. I transformed, pushing my wings out and sending him flying. I turned around, spreading my wings to adjust them, and then snapped them shut again. He was on his butt on the ground looking at me, totally shocked.

“If you ever touch me again, you’re dead!” I yelled at him. During my dream relapse, my fear turned into fury and now I was at boiling point.

He laughed at me and then with an evil smile said, “So much spirit, so much fire. Indeed you are a trophy for any male; but you will be mine.” And then he got to his feet, moving towards me.

There is no way in hell I’m ending up with this ass, so I did the inevitable. Two steps from me I attacked, punching him in the face. The moment he stepped back from the punch, I used my wings for a little lift-off and kicked him in his face. Dropping down I watched as he landed on his back, transforming into a werewolf. Okay, game on.

He stormed at me, but at the last moment I stepped aside, brining up my knee and slamming it into his torso. He bended over from the blow, so I backed away to put some distance between us
.

“I’ll teach you how to respect a male!” he bellowed, and turned around jumping for me. When his face came into view, I did a turn kick and smashed my foot into his face, sending him to my left
.

“I warned you wolf!” I yelled back at him, trying to get him to back down and stop this. But no, he got up again and jumped me, my back hitting the ground.

I forced my hand under his snout and grabbed his throat, squeezing for dear life; he started to laugh at me. “You’re not strong enough for that hellhound,” he said and licked me on the face. Oh, freaking gross! I slammed my head straight into his and he lifted back just enough for me to get my wings up from under me. Using them I lifted both of us off the ground, and then turned to the side pinning him down.

“Now this is more like it,” he leered, and grabbed me around the waist pressing me against him. I brought up my fist and planted it in his nose and blood spurted all over my face. Howling, he let go of me and grabbed his nose. Seeing my chance, I got up and stepped away from him, ready for the next thing he threw at me.

“Does is hurt wolf?” I asked sarcastically. He wanted it, he got it; just not the version he was looking for. But hey, I did warn him. He flew up from the ground and came at me again, this time I readied myself on the balls of my feet, my wings snapping close to my back. He jumped through the air straight for me. But just as I was about to kick the hell out of him again, he was attacked in the air by another wolf, and someone grabbed me around the waist and shifted out with me.