Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (2 page)

“Yeah, it’s all there,” I replied, while turning my head to look at my three suitcases. Bummer, seventeen years and all I had to show for it was three suitcases.

“Time is wasting Kas, we need to go.” Dad walked over to my suitcases and picked them up, then walked out of the room heading for the car.

Mom stood there looking at me. No words came, so I stood up and walked outside to the hallway, went down the old stairs and I looked at the humans in the small lobby, envy in my heart. They never had to live a curse just to be able to go to Heaven one day. All they needed to do was go to confession and be forgiven. That’s so unfair.

Outside Dad was already in the driver’s seat of the minivan, so I went to the back door and got in, with Mom following suit. We drove for about an hour into the country until Dad turned left onto a dirt road. A mile in, we came to an old cottage with a man waiting outside. Dad stopped the car in a garage and we got out.

“
Salve
Vulcan, good to see you again,” Dad greeted the guy.

“
Salve
Troian,” he returned, and they braced both their hands on each other’s arms. Fallen don’t shake hands like humans; they greet each other in an old warrior way. Who gives a damn?

“Vulcan,” Mom said and greeted him in same way. Married women - or females as my mom always says - are not allowed to show affection to another male, so a kiss to the cheek is taboo.

“May I introduce my daughter Kasadya,” Dad said, gesturing to me.

“
Salve
Kasadya and welcome,” Vulcan replied, but luckily he didn’t do the arms thing with me. With long golden blond hair, and ember blue eyes, he looked down at me with a smile.

“Hi,” I said in return, my mom rolling her eyes at my short greeting.

“Shall we get your baggage?” Vulcan asked. We walked back to the garage to get our suitcases. I grabbed two of mine and my mom’s vanity case. Since they’re getting rid of me they are also returning to their home inside
Exsilium.

“Okay, that’s everything,” Dad said. We started walking to the cottage, a shifting portal waiting inside. A portal made by fae like my mom to gain access into
Exsilium
. Not all the fallen need it of course; it was made for
Apprendo’s
like me.

We walked into the old cottage to find it empty inside. Following Vulcan, we made our way to the kitchen, where Vulcan opened the pantry door and walked inside disappearing into green light. Okay, I’ll admit that was cool. Next to go was Mom. Dad and I were left; we stood there looking at each other. My breathing picked up with anticipation, and dread.

“Come my
Filiola
, your turn,” he gently prodded, nodding toward the open space in the pantry. No escaping I guess, so I took a step into the portal, stepping out onto a brick road in front of a huge house. I looked back to see my dad standing behind me.

“Welcome home Kas,” he said and started walking towards my mom and Vulcan, who were waiting for us at the gate of the house. I sighed and walked after him.

When we reached them, my mom turned towards the gate and it opened all on its own. One by one we stepped inside and went up the stairs, only to find the next door doing the same. Wow, getting cooler. It made little things, like opening a door and gate, easier. Walking behind Vulcan we entered a lobby in the front of the house.

“Freya, Vulcan and I are just going to drop our luggage at home, we will be right back,” Dad let me know, before placing my big suitcase on the floor to take my mom’s vanity from me. He looked at me with a smile and then poof they were gone. I turned to look at my mom and found her smiling at me.

“You’ll find our world interesting, that I promise
Fillia,
” she said, picking up my suitcase and motioning for me to walk with her.

“Yeah, pretty cool so far,” I responded, walking behind her into a hallway. When we reached the second door it opened on its own and she walked inside. I followed into what looked like an office.

“You can place your luggage here for now,” she instructed, putting my suitcase down in the corner of the office. I dropped my luggage and turned around to see her sitting in one of the couches.

“So is this
The Hellhouse
you guys were talking about?” I asked, looking around at the paintings and stuff inside the office.

“Yes, here you will practice your apprenticeship for about six months, and afterwards you will live with your
Custos,
until you are a
Custos
yourself.”

“How long will it take?”

“It depends on the fallen, but the average is about two years.”

“So, I guess that means there will be no prom for me?”

“No, my dear, there will be no prom. That is for the humans. We have other balls, and you will need to attend them, it’s tradition.”

“Oh just great, I don’t even know how to dance, Mom. You wouldn’t allow me to go to any of the dances at home, remember?”

“Don’t fret about it now, only focus on one thing at a time.”

Rolling my eyes at her I planted myself on another couch, only to have the living daylights scared out of me, when Dad and Vulcan shifted in next to me. Laughing, my dad went to sit next to Mom, Vulcan walked behind the desk to take his seat.

“Let’s begin. Kas, you will be attending here at the house for about six months. From there you will live with your
Custos
until he has found you worthy of being one yourself. We have rules for the house which I will give to you, learn them by heart,” Vulcan finished.

“Okay.”

“You’re chosen
Custos
is Chax De Luca; he will introduce himself when he arrives later today.”

“You have arranged for Chax?” Dad asked.

“Yes, he is the best and just finished with his other
Apprendo,
” he said, looking at my dad who turned his head to me. There was something in his eyes, something like dread. Okay, what’s wrong with this Chax guy?

“Then I will trust your judgment; my
Fillia
will not disappoint me,” Dad finished, getting up from the couch. “If you need anything Kas, you only need to ask Vulcan. We will only see you once a month from now until you finish, be good my
Filiola,
” Dad said and kissed me on the head.

Mom was up next and we just stood there looking at each other. I was waiting for her to say something, anything. But just like always, she just kissed me on the cheek and joined my father at the bookshelf. Some girls have that best friend mom, I had... well I had her.

“Be strong Kas,” Dad said, before he shifted out with Mom. I turned, really pissed off at Mom, to look at Vulcan. You would think that she would at least say goodbye. But no, too much for Mrs. Perfect.

“Okay Kas, let me show you to your room and introduce you to your roommates; Nanini and Lada. They will assist you with the rest,” Vulcan said, walking over to my suitcases. He picked up two of them, leaving me with the third.

I followed him up the hall, going up a few stairs, until we finally made it into another hall, which was buzzing with life. As I walked behind him, kids my age were everywhere. In one room my eye caught a girl completely green from top to toe; dangling in a meditating position in the air. Okay, now that’s freaking cool!

He finally stopped at a room and went inside. Following him I found two girls in a huge freaking room. A dark haired girl was lying on the bed, and blonde was jumping up and down in front of her. The moment they saw Vulcan the one jumping stopped and the other one got off the bed.

“Greetings
puellas,
” Vulcan said, placing my suitcases on the floor.

“Hi Vulcan,” they said simultaneously.

“Kas, this is Lada Facetus,” he told them, motioning to the dark haired girl. She had brown eyes and
a
dark tan skin, with long brown hair to complete her majestic look.

“And this is Nanini Dacus.” He motioned to the blonde girl. She had blue eyes, long blonde hair and a very petite figure, like a pixy.

“Girls, this is Kasadya Levourne and she will be joining us. Please show her around and introduce her to the others, her
Custos
will introduce himself later. Kas get settle in, and best of luck,” he finished, walking out of the room.

“Hi there, so glad we have another State’s girl,” Nanini said, and starting to jump on the spot again; like she needed to get to the bathroom or something.

“Yeah, the Europe girls can really bug the hell out of you,” Lada commented, smiling at me.

“Glad to hear, do you need to use the bathroom? Or something?” I asked Nanini; her jumping totally breaking my concentration.

“Don’t mind Nanini, she has an adrenalin disorder and she is always jumping or pacing around. Believe me, the moment she plants her butt, it’s her mouth that goes off,” Lada teased, laughing.

“Yeah, but at least it’s a positive when I need to fly,” Nanini countered, trying to stop, but failing badly.

“Did you just say fly?” I asked, stunned at the words.

“Yip, I’m a fae and one of my powers is flying. I had to come live in
Exsilium
when I was eleven. I had a big problem keeping my flying under control.”

“Wow. I could just imagine the human’s reaction to that.”

“This will be your section of the room, and luckily we have a bathroom to share so we need to work out a routine. Nanini goes in last because she takes the longest,” Lada said, gesturing to a bed in the corner near a window and another door to the right.

“Thanks,” I replied, and picked up the first suitcase, placing it on the bed to start unpacking.

“I’ll help, you stand at the closet and I’ll give one a piece at a time. It will go a lot faster with some team work,” Lada insisted, and sat down next to the suitcase.

“Nice, so how long have you been here Lada?”

“About two months now, turned seventeen in March. Don’t worry, the place isn’t that bad. At least we have sexy guys to keep us entertained,” she answered, handing over a pair of jeans.

I took the jeans and placed them in the closet. Sexy guys, yeah right. Then I remembered the two in the hall; they did look pretty yummy.

“So where are you from?” Nanini asked, pacing around the front of the bed.

“I’m from Toronto, it’s a pretty cool town,” I replied, taking clothes from Lada and placing them inside the closet

“And who are your parents?”

“My dad is Troian, a hellhound; and my mom is Freya, also a fae like you.”

“Wow. That will make you a hellhound, totally wicked.”

“Why would that be wicked?” I asked her, turning around to face her.

“Hellhounds are the strongest of the fallen, but also rare. I’m also one,” Lada said, looking at me with pride written all over her face.

“Have you transformed yet?” Nanini went on.

“If you mean transformed into a hellhound, no. But I shifted to somewhere, and that had my mom and dad throwing a hissy fit.”

“Then you are going to have to get a spark, to hit the transformation,” Lada continued.

“What do you mean a spark?”

“In the old days we would transform for the first time when we were near a demon; but now we are taken to a spirit fae called Maia. She uses her powers to trigger your hellhound inside. You will be able to transform into a hellhound. Afterwards, everything is pretty cool.”

“So this Maia is going to zap me with her powers, to turn me into a monster?”

“Basically, yeah.”

Oh just great, not only will I be a monster, but someone had to zap me into one.

“Do you know what I would look like?” I asked Lada, worried over the aftereffect this was going to have. I don’t want to look like a bull or something.

“I can do more than that,” she said smiling. Getting up she walked over to an open spot near the window. When she turned around she wasn’t a girl anymore. She was two feet taller, and was covered in what look like fur. Her brown eyes were now yellow with black pupils. On her forehead were two small horns sticking out. But it was the two black bat-like wings lifting up behind her that did it for me. Oh my freaking soul! I am going to turn into a huge freaking bat! My legs turned into jelly and I planted my butt on the bed.

“It’s not that bad, Kas. We can do a lot cool stuff with our fallen bodies. Our wings grow stronger as we develop our fallen nature. We are able to use them to fly and fight. We are just as fast as Harpies, even better,” she told me in a slightly deeper voice, before she transformed back to normal. I didn’t see the okay part in this, definitely not the cool part. I don’t even know what a freaking Harpy is.

“Come on Kas, think positive about this. I know it’s shocking the first time, but at least you don’t turn pink all over,” Nanini said, patting me on the shoulder.

“You turn pink?” I asked her, remembering the girl drifting around in her room earlier.

“Yeah, it’s a fae thing. We turn into almost any color on the planet. Even my freaking hair goes pink, so not cool.”

“Well at least you still look human, and not like a huge bat.”

“Point taken.”

“How do your clothes stay on when you do that?” I asked, worried about my birthday suite making its appearance in front of other people.

“Don’t worry. A fae charms our clothing, making it possible to move and stretch. Your clothes are already charmed, must have been your mom,” Lada said, coming to sit next to me again.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a girl with a thick, Russian sounding accent asked. Three girls were standing at the door. The one in front looked almost exactly like Kate Beckinsale. The one on her left like Jennifer Lopez, and the last one at the back like Kirsten Dunst.

“Can’t remember inviting you into our room, Kali,” Lada said, clearly pissed off at the girl.

“Since when do I need your permission, dog?” Kali countered while smiling at Lada, who jumped up ready for a fight.

“Okay, you two cut it out, save it for the arena,” Nanini demanded, but she also looked ready for some action, taking a “just try it” stand at the bed’s end.

“And who might you be?” Kali asked, swinging her finger at me.