Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (6 page)

Slowly and so gently, he dabbed the cotton on my cheek looking at me the whole time without saying a word. He went to my chin and lifted my head a little making me look him in the eyes
.
“How did this happen?” he asked, searching my face.

“His idea of teaching shifting is taking a girl in a dark cave and then motivating her into shifting,” I replied, my eyes locked to his.

“Yes, I believe Arianna mentioned something like that to me once. There are more suitable ways, but Chax clearly has no feeling towards his
Apprendo’s.”

“At least I got it right for a while; until he pinned me down and I was unable to get out from under him,” I said. He closed his eyes again, locking his jaws. He stopped nursing me and then opened his eyes and looked at me, but no words followed. Slowly he moved in towards me, gently placing his mouth on mine. My heart started to pound insanely, and I opened my mouth to take advance of my first kiss.

Our kiss deepened, and he moved his arms around me and pressed me to him. I moaned and kissed him harder; desperate for more. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him to me. This was everything I ever dreamed about, my body was humming and my heart pounding so hard I could feel it hit my ribs. We kissed for a long time, and when we finally broke the kiss we were both breathless. He leaned his head to mine still holding me; savoring the moment.

“May I be your escort to the autumn ball?” he asked me, still holding me close to him.

“Yes, that will be great,” I answered, lifting my head to look at him. We started kissing again, this time, devouring each other. After a while we stopped, and he helped me off the bed. Holding my hand he led me to the stairs going up to our rooms.

“I will release you from our prior arrangement for tonight. Go get supper and then get some rest in for tomorrow,” he said, his eyes dancing with delight.

“Okay,” I replied, and we quickly gave each other a good-bye kiss. He released me and turned around still smiling all the way. I turned around, and headed up the stairs feeling absolutely great after such a bad two days. I came into the hall and passed everyone with a huge smile, some looked at me like I was insane, others just stared.

I walked into our room to find Nanini and Lada inside getting ready for supper
.
“Hi guys,” I greeted them, and planted myself on the bed. They turned around and looked at me, confusion written all over their faces.

“Why on earth are you so happy, when it looks like you had the crap beaten out of you?” Lada asked.

I just smiled and lay back on my pillows. No way was I going to tell them I made out with Nanini's
Custos
. I’ll tell them later when my heart stops beating so fast.

“Oh hell, you made out with someone. It’s written all over that smug look on your face!” Nanini said, and started to jump on the spot.

“Maybe,” I replied, still smiling at them.

“Please tell me it was not the nutcase?” Lada whined, her face full of disgust.

“Are you crazy, I’ll kill him before I ever make out with him, the idiot!” I replied, totally shocked to find the feeling of his mouth on my neck all of a sudden. Oh that’s so gross!

“Was it Seth?” Nanini asked, jumping onto my bed excited.

“Yes, and he asked to take me to the ball,” I replied, still freaked out a little over the weird mouth feeling.

“Way out!” Lada said, and got up and smacked me on the shoulder
.
“You two are made for each other,” she finished.

“What was is like?” Nanini asked, and I turned to look at her with an Atlantic-wide smile on my face.

“It was wonderful, no dream could even beat it,” I replied, and then we went all crazy for the rest of the night. The girls hammering me over Seth, and I must admit it made me so excited to see him again.

We finished supper and hung out in the entertainment room. We played a round of pool with Lotan and another boy who was interested in checking out my bruises the whole time. After a while we all went upstairs and grabbed a bed, me drifting into sleep with Seth on my mind, damn that guy can kiss.

Chapter 4

Morning came and went with Vulcan giving us a morning filled with demons. With each one he classified the thing and also enlightened us on their strength and weaknesses.

There are a lot of big scary ones we will have to face. Many of them were also hard to take down. The only way of destroying a demon was by taking its head off. The same goes for us. We might be immortal when it comes to age and health but all of us die in the end; it’s just a matter of how long you can survive.

After lunch, the girls and I were on our way to the entertainment room, or as Nanini called it the “The Zone”. She really has a great imagination for the place. Walking up to the zone, we found Seth leaning against the wall waiting. The moment I saw him my heart started to pump double time.

“Afternoon girls,” he greeted, smiling at us, his eyes staying on me.

“Hi,” We greeted in return and the two girls looked at me all smiles.

“Nanini, will you mind if I take a walk with Kas to the front door?” he asked Nanini, who grinned back.

“No you can take your time, Lada and I are going to go kick butt at the pinball machine,” she said, and the two disappeared into the room.

“Come, I’ll walk with you,” he said, offering me his hand. I took it without even thinking twice and started to walk with him.

“Did you rest well?”

“Yes thank you, and you?”

“To the best of my ability. Arianna and I had field service in Paris.”

“Paris that’s nice, so you and Arianna are partners?” I asked, jealousy rising within me. Wow. This love thing is scary. I never was a jealous person before.

“Yes, we have been for about seven years now,” he explained, looking at me with a smile.

“I see, how do you fit Nanini and field service into one day, must be hectic?”

“Yes it is, but those who have
Apprendo’s
make the sacrifice. We learn how to cope with it. That’s why we only train in the afternoons; it gives us the opportunity to get some sleep.”

“Ouch, doesn’t sound fair just to have what, five hours of sleep?”

“No, but you get used to it. A single
Custos
make such a decision to give the
pactum
partners some time for a family. A small price to pay for the survival of the fallen and mankind.”

“Yeah, doesn’t sound that bad if you put it like that,” I replied, stopping at the corner leading to the lobby.

He released my hand and placed his hands on my hips pulling me to him
.
“Can I make a request?” he asked, his mouth almost on mine
.

“Yes,” I answered, already breathing hard with anticipation.

“Try to stay safe. I know it’s not really possible, but try. Seeing you hurt like yesterday makes me insane,” he said, his mouth inches from mine. I could feel his breath on my lips.

“I’ll do my best,” I promised, and pressed my mouth to his. We kissed deeply, him placing one hand behind my neck and the other on my lower back, mine was on his chest. The kiss was so good I melted in his arms letting him take me away before my next punishment. After a long while we released each other
.

“Until tomorrow, Kas,” he greeted me, with a last kiss. Turning around he walked back to the zone, leaving me there breathless and looking at him until he was gone.
Man that guy can kiss. Turning around I took a step into the lobby, straight into Chax’s chest; immediately I backed away and looked up at him.

“If you’re done playing with Seth, and ready to stop wasting my time we can begin.” And then he shifted out. Why the hell must he always have something to say about me and Seth? It’s not like I was late. We left the grub spot early to get some rest in before training. I see it’s going to be a long day, again. I closed my eyes and used my newfound anger to shift to his garden. I found him not only jacketless, but shirtless as well, in a pair of what looked like yoga pants; waiting in the middle of the arena.

“Today!” he yelled at me, clearly pissed again. So I quickly took off my jacket and dropped it on a small wall close by and joined him, waiting for him to do some crappy thing to me again.

“Fetch a weapon of your choice,” he said, gesturing to the walls. Okay did he lose his mind completely? I just stood there looking at him.

“I’m waiting.” He continued looking at me with his pissed off face again.

“I don’t know anything about weapons; a little help would be appreciated,” I replied gently. I didn’t want to provoke him again, maybe if I try this approach it will work out better.

He looked at me for a while and then turned around. “Come,” he said, walking to a wall hanging full of weapons. He then removed what looked like the fork-knifes Elektra used in her movie, and turned around to give them to me
.
“They won’t take off a head but can be used to pin it down for you to take its head,” he explained, walking back to the middle of the arena. I followed looking at the two things in my hand. I had no idea how to use the stuff, so I just stood there looking at him. He drew in a breath and moved behind me and took my hand in his
.
“You have to hold them like this, make sure the heaviest part of it stays in your palm. The rest will counter itself out in your hand when you move it.”

He was moving the fork things in my hands, spinning them, and I could feel the weight thing he was talking about. As long as the heaviest part stayed in my palm I could move them around in one hand without dropping them
.
“Good, now when you throw them lock your two fingers in the grooves like this.” He moved my index and middle finger into the bending grooves that start off the fork.

“Then take your arm back like this.” He pulled back my arm, bending it at the elbow, and then brought it forward fast. As my hand went forward I released my weapon and planted it inside a nearby tree. Wow that felt good! Never done it before, but man it gets your blood pumping.

He walked over to the tree, retrieving the fork.
“Good, now practice on this wooden board over here.” He motioned to a big, wooden board filled with marks from weapons hitting it over and over again. He reached me and placed the fork in my hand, stepping back to give me some space.

I started the swinging movement again, this time using both hands, and just like that I had it.
I
then withdrew my arm, aimed and threw it straight into the board. Moving quickly, I threw the other one and it landed almost at the same spot, grinning I looked at him.

“Excellent, you handle them very well; now let’s get some swords to practice with,” he said, walking over to the wall. I followed, playing with the fork knifes in my hands; then stopped the moment I saw him standing and waiting for me to stop playing. I handed over the weapons for him to replace them on the shelf. Keeping my eyes on him, I saw him taking down a sword that looked like a cross between a samurai and an old knight’s sword.

“It is very effective and sharp as hell, don’t fool around with it,” he instructed, placing it in my hands. I looked at the shining blade and smiled. It felt good in my hands, and I really liked the blade; it was shiny at the top and a darker metal at the edge. Engraved into the metal were the words
In Dea Speramus,
which meant
In God We Trust
. Smiling, I looked up to find him staring at me. Recomposing myself, I turned around and walked back to the middle of the arena; stopped and turned back to see him removing a very big sword from the wall and then walking back to me.

My heart started pounding in my chest, even worse than when I saw the shark teeth in Lotan’s mouth. He’s going to cut me into pieces today; there goes the “I’ll try my best” part I said to Seth. Crap! He came to stop in front of me, his sword hanging next to him
.
“Relax Kasadya, I won’t hurt you, it’s to show you how to move and use yours. Then we will start off slowly with some sparring,” he said, smiling at me.

Oh boy, I still didn’t trust him. For the past two days I have ended up really hurt, I can’t help but feel this is so not a good idea. He then moved his sword up above his head, stopping in the air
.
“Look at my movements, then repeat them with your sword.” He moved back a step, and then moved the sword slowly for me to see each movement he made with it. Yip, I got the warrior god with an attitude problem, what a shame. First he moved so graceful, and then he slammed over to brutal force. I was transfixed by him and found myself looking at his chest, watching how his muscles moved with him; shaking my head I turned to start the movement.

Okay I’m going insane. Why on earth would I be looking at his freaking chest and muscles, when I just kissed a really hot guy a few moments ago? I think I need to ask Lily to withdraw stuff like this from my brain. No wait, that will be so embarrassing, just push it down Kas. I repeated the movement to the letter and then looked over to find him standing there looking at my body and not my hands. My freaking body did the goose bumps again. For heaven’s sake, can’t I have one normal day, just freaking one!

I moved out of the stand and turned to face him. He snapped out of his stare and looked at me.
“Good, now the next move.”  Again my eyes wandered off from his hands to his freaking chest. Irritated with myself I started to do the move before he was even finished. Trying to push my undesired reaction out of me I did the move and even more. The next thing I knew, he was in front of me, his sword drawn to attack.

He swung his sword, and I countered it with mine. Adrenalin spiking, we went at it full force; me handling the whole thing like I had been doing it for years. I watched his face and he watched mine. I caught his movements from the corner of my eyes; and then countered them. A few blocks and jabs later, he started to smile at me, and that made me even madder.

Our battle lasted for what seemed like hours, and we gave each other hell the entire time. We stopped when the orange and purple horizon made it difficult to see each other’s swords. We stood there breathing hard and just watching each other without a word. After we recovered enough to breath correctly he walked over to me, taking the sword from my hands, his eyes never leaving mine
.
“Good work, Kasadya; you have a natural talent for weapons,” he said, as he turned around and walked over to the wall and placed the swords back on their places.