Kasadya Hellhound Twisted (26 page)

A tunnel of water was now scooping up from the sea, and turning towards me. Oh crap I am going to get wet today. I braced myself again and as the first drop splashed me, I wrapped my wings around it and sent it back double time. Where she created a tunnel, I created what looked like a tidal wave. But I dropped it before her, the water rushing over her feet. Shocked, she looked at me then at Chax. Chax was walking over to them and the four of them got into a heated debate. Arms were flying around, except for Chax, and from the sound of their voices, they weren’t happy about this.

I was getting bored, so I turned to watch Abby’s training. She was flying around, trying to avoid the bolts coming at her. From what I could see she already had two burns from them. Poor girl, she really wasn’t good at this. Her eyes were huge and she was flying around like a mad thing. “Kasadya, we need to talk,” Chax said behind me. I sighed and turned to face him.

“About?” I challenged him.

He scowled at me.“How did you manipulate the fae’s assaults?”

“I just did it. Have no idea how, but I just did,” I replied.

He stared at me, saying nothing, and I was looking right back at him. He won’t scare me, no freaking way. Finally he nodded and went back to the fae. After explaining to them what I’d said, they shifted out leaving me alone with him, well except for Abby and Aedon in the back. He walked towards me, his eyes intent. “Let’s see how you do with g-force punches,” he stated while transforming into a vampire. He moved with his super speed, but to me it looked like normal speed.

He reached me and sent out his fist, I just stepped back one step and watched as he crashed into the sand. Oh glorious day, Chax de Luca is eating sand. Furious, he jumped up and shook the sand off his face. I was standing in a casual stance, looking at him. He stormed again, this time his fist travelled to my face. In control, I leaned back just enough for him to miss me, and he flew over me, his face hitting the sand again. “Well, are you going to hit me today?” I asked bored with his attempts.

He got back up, and rather than make a fool of himself he walked over to me, and as he stopped in front of me, swung for my face. I barely missed it, and kicked him in the stomach, sending him back. “I won’t be that easy to kill, Chax, that you can be sure of,” I sneered at him with each step I took toward him.

“You seem in control today, Kasadya, what changed?” Chax asked also coming towards me.

“I reminded myself that there is no such thing as happily ever after,” I replied as I ducked from his punch. The force of it was so strong that it whipped the wind towards my face. I turned to my left and swung out my wing, again he went backwards. On his knees he looked up at me. I was not advancing to him anymore; instead I waited for him to get up again.

“Happiness is what you make of it, Kasadya,” he said, trying to change my mind. But I already knew the truth; I already saw it with my own eyes.

“Now, Chax, we both know that you will be there to make sure it never happens, right?” I asked sarcastically. I could see the hurt in his face, but I didn’t care. Not once did he stop and try to see the hurt and confusion in the hellhound’s eyes, no he went straight for the kill.

“I had no choice,” he replied, standing up.

I shook my head and smiled at him. “Yeah, that’s what everyone’s been telling me. Don’t worry, I’ll make it easy on you when the time comes,” I answered, straightening
my shoulders and rolling them.

Instead of continuing on with his training, we had stopped and were standing there looking at each other. Silently we promised each other that should such a moment come, not one of us was going to stand down to the other. He turned and walked towards Abby and Aedon, transforming back to normal on his way there. I turned back toward the sea and looked at the waves crashing in at the shoreline. The wind was whipping around me, so I closed my eyes and opened up my wings. Instantly they grabbed at the wind and I could feel myself being picked up from the ground. This is pretty cool, I thought to myself. Feeling the wind travel into my wings and then turning inside them unable to escape.

“Return home, we are done for today,” Chax commanded in my mind, spoiling my moment. I sighed and returned back to normal; one last look to behold the sea in its glory. I closed my eyes, and with a last intake of breath, I shifted back to Chax’s house landing on the gateway. I found Abby, looking totally wasted, sitting on the porch with a bottle of water. Looking around I found no Chax, which was good because I’d had enough of him for a while.

“I really suck at this,” Abby said as I approached her. Curious, I sat down next to her.

“You’re getting better, Abby, it takes time to develop your fallen body and techniques,” I encouraged her.

She looked at me with her bangs hanging over her face. “Thanks for trying, Kas, but I am still just as lame as the day I started. I will most likely die in my first real battle.” She pulled herself down. It was hard trying to defend that, from what I had seen she really wasn’t a fighter, her brains are her best asset. Maybe Chax will see that and rather keep her in Exsilium.

My silence made her feel even worse so she dropped her head and looked down at her shoes. “You know, I am really good at fighting, but I suck at making plans and getting it done right. I have messed up so many times that it’s a miracle I haven’t destroyed Earth or Exsilium,” I tried to give her some encouragement.

She smiled at that. “Yeah, I heard about a few of them from Max. But he sees it in another version, he says you make mistakes, but that in time they turn out to be okay,” she replied, a small laugh escaping. I started to laugh with her. That’s Max, trying to create a Picasso from a first grader’s painting.

“I wasn’t always like this, Abby. Sometimes life has a way of forcing you into the direction it wants you to go in,” I tried to explain my journey to what I have become.

“Kas, if life gives me that push I would gladly take it,” she replied, and my heart seized at her words.

Shocked, I looked at her. “Abby, don’t ever say that. The things I had to do to survive everything. Trust me, no girl should ever go through that.” My mind travelled back to those days. That stench in Hell that constantly made you want to vomit, thousands of eyes always watching you, and never knowing which one was about to try and kill you. Thousands of screams echoing in what I called night time.

“Was it that bad?” she asked, bringing back my attention. I looked at the blue sky and sighed.

“Can I tell you a secret, Abby?” I asked in return. She looked around to make sure we were alone. She never uses that side of hers, but she will someday. She nodded, scooting closer
to me. I leaned in.

“I was scared every second down there, I just learned to hide it well,” I confessed. Finally, after so long, it felt like fresh air was pushed into my lungs and I could breathe easier.

There, my secret was out in the open. I was freaking scared
.
I am still scared. Every time I have to face an enemy my nerves feel like they are about to crash over me and render me useless. Then I remember that side of me, the one that I opened up in Hell and let it run over me, let replace me. I never felt like me when I used this, I felt like someone else, something else. More dangerous, more able to kill than I ever could.

It took Abby a few seconds to take in what I just told her, and thankfully she didn’t make a big deal out of it. We sat there in silence, watching as the gang started to shift in for the nightshift. Max shifted in with Nanini, and by the look of it she had given him a hard time again. His face was bruised on one side, and it looked a lot like a light burn. Yeah, she did kick his ass again.

But knowing Max, he let her; he wouldn’t ever really go out to hurt a girl. I had to pretty much almost kill him before he gave me a punch back. He stopped to look at me for a moment, then brushed it off and went into the house. I had no such luck with Nanini, who came rushing over and almost knocked us over. “That was super cool, like super-duper cool. You should have seen his face when I came out of the bush unexpectedly and whammed him with a bomb. For the record we so don’t pick him for our hide and seek team, he sucks big time,” she eagerly blurted out.

Kali and Lada made their way over during the whole unravelling of her training session. We looked at each other, and all broke into laughter. I might be going out soon, but little things like this will be in my mind when I go.

C
hapter 17

We spent about an hour outside, just us girls, laughing and joking.
Of course, Nanini was cracking us up with her details of the training session. Worse were her details of how big and powerful Max flipped out when he couldn’t find her. By the time his lord and the rest of the guys showed up we were crying from it all. Even nervous Abby was cracking up.

“Oh wait, I didn’t tell you about this part. So he was looking at the waterfall, then he stepped on to the top and looked down to try and see me. The next thing he slipped and fell in, and I do believe he was cursing in Russian.” I looked at Kali and we started laughing all over again. But clearly Max didn’t approve.

“I did not slip, you shot me with a light bomb and then I fell into the water,” he rectified the facts.

Nanini turned around on her butt and looked at him. “Yeah, can you prove it, Godzilla?” she taunted him.

His face went into Chax mode and I laughed even more. “Right, can we have some order please,” Chax pitched in, totally blowing it. The happy mood dropped instantly and we were back in business. Having our attention, he continued, “Tonight we are going to patrol a few streets in a small town in Argentina. We have received reports of human men disappearing in the area. It’s
simple; we search and we destroy if we find a demon.”

I got up and dusted off my butt, time to get to work I guess. Looking at the others they weren’t really dressed for it, and it must have caught Chax’s eyes as well because he was giving them that “today” look. Kali caught the implication immediately and shifted away first, the other girls joining her. Leaving me alone with all the males.

Well I was getting the look of death from Chax and Max, and guess what I had no idea why. I returned the look. No way in Hell am I going to be intimidated by these two. “Guys, did we miss something?” Lotan asked. Nobody answered; in fact nobody even gave him any notice. “Okay, I’ll go see where Lada is,” he said when we still continued on with our silent war.

“Don’t even think about it,” Max finally snapped, his face furious. I lifted one eyebrow at that, but remained silent. I had no idea what he was referring to, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

“Don’t temp me, Kasadya,” Chax growled out. Okay, this was becoming very weird. Last I looked I didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah, I was going to do something wrong, but no way in hell would they know about it. So I remained calm and collected, smiling at both of them.

Our awkward exchange was interrupted when the girls joined us all ready for the night. The sky was turning orange and purple, and inside I could feel my hellhound stir for the night. She wanted out, she wanted to war. Funny, I’d never felt that side of me as another entity or persona before. In fact, I haven’t felt that side of me do this before. Perhaps it’s got something to do with this archfallen thing. Shrugging it off, I walked over to Kali and nodded at her, all the while the two guys were still looking at me like I was about to drop an A-bomb on someone.

We were force shifted to a small town at the sea coast. The fresh air slammed into us and revitalized my senses. I took a deep breath, taking in the new scents and sounds. The town was quiet except for the three or four places where people got together at night. “Remember, we search, and then destroy if we find anything,” Chax said indicating for us to follow him. The town was built on a cliff, so moving upwards was at a slow pace. Chax stopped and turned his face a little towards us. “Split up in two, one group in that street and another in this one.” I held back waiting to see how the group would divide. I was so not going with Max or Chax. But just my luck the two nodded at each other and then each went their own way.

For the love of … okay I have to pick one, might as well choose Max. I turned left and followed Max, Nanini, Ben, Kali, and Ryan. “No, Kasadya, you stay with me,” Chax declared behind me. Almost spitting venom, I turned to look at him; he was giving me that smug look of his. I could see he was trying to bait me into a fight. Cool, two can play that game.