Hellhound Born (Kasadya #3) (6 page)

“Hello,” I greeted her, but made no attempt to shake her hand.

“Hello, Kas. It’s nice to finally meet you under better circumstances,” she said, returning the greeting.

Yeah, like that was supposed to work.

“
Nice to ... um meet you too,” I replied.

Caim looked between the two of us, clearly lost at what to do next, so I saved him.

“I have to go find the others,” I said after an uncomfortable silence, then I turned and walked away quickly.

I could hear the two of them speaking quietly, but didn’t really care what they were talking about. I reached the lounge again, finding Lada and Lotan standing there, watching the girl. Lada turned and when she saw me, rushed over and grabbed me in a hug.

“Oh, Kas,” she whispered. I hugged her back.

“I'm okay, “I reassured her, looking over at Lotan. 

I gave him a huge smile in my attempt to pull off the lie.

I was far from okay
.

He smiled back at me and nodded. Lada released me and peered at me closely.

“Are you sure?” she asked with concern.

I nodded. Just then, loud footsteps could be heard behind me and had me stepping back, whipping around to determine who, or what, was making all of the noise. When Caim and Zurita came into view and joined us, I relaxed slightly.

“What’s going on?” Caim asked once he drew even with us

“Kas and Chax found a lost hellhound girl,” Lada said, pointing to Raven, who was currently sitting on the couch talking to Nanini and Max.

Chax was standing in a corner, arms crossed and staring at me. I lifted my chin in defiance, just to remind him I was still pissed off at him. His gaze never wavered, his eyes boring into mine.

“What?” Zurita asked, stomping into the lounge followed closely by Caim.

She went over, sat next to Raven, and began introducing herself and Caim. The air shifted behind me and I turned to find Vulcan standing there.

“You said you got all of them,” I bombarded him.

“We thought so too,” he replied, walking past me to enter the room.

With a scowl, I stalked inside and leaned against a table with my arms crossed.

“Salve, young one. I am Vulcan,” he greeted her.

Raven proceeded to give them the short version of what had happened to her, and when she finished they stood gaping at her.

“Well, I thank Chax and Kasadya for finding you and bringing you home. Now, you are safe and ready to start your apprendo training” Vulcan said, patting her on the arm.

She beamed up at Vulcan, including the others in her smile, relief all over her face. Guilt ate away at me yet again. It must have been hard on her, all alone with no explanations.

“You did good Kasadya, regardless of your tactics, she is safe now,” Chax whispered in my ear from behind me.

He would have scared the crap out of me, but for some reason, the moment he started talking, I was at ease.

“Chax, safe is the last thing she is now. I just brought a girl into a war that might kill us all. She is far from safe,” I whispered back.

His hand came to rest on my shoulder.

“That may be true, but now she has a change of surviving and she won’t be alone,” he replied, attempting to assuage my conscience. 

I nodded, not wanting to argue with him. She was about to get the crash course from hell, as learning to survive in the world of the Fallen was no easy task.

“Did anyone find anything?” I asked, twisting around to look at him.

His face gave away his answer.

“No,” he said, confirming my thoughts. 

Suddenly the whole house shook with a force that  felt and sounded like an explosion. Grabbing the table, I braced myself. Everyone snapped to attention and steeled themselves to act. Chax, however, frowned and glanced around the room. He then got that pissed off look he always had, well at least when I was around.

 “Abby!” he yelled, storming out of the room. I followed closely behind, wondering what in the hell had just happened.

He marched to a door in the hallway and yanked it open. Smoke billowed out into the hall.

Oh, that doesn’t look good
.

Ben and Abby suddenly came crashing out of the door, running right into Chax, slamming him against the wall. As Abby knocked Chax to the floor, I grabbed Ben and steadied him. He was covered in black ash and swiftly scanning Abby, she appeared to be covered in the stuff herself.

“Abby, what in heaven’s name have you done now!?” Chax bellowed.

She cringed and rolled off him.

“Um.... we tried something and it kind of didn’t work,” she explained, grabbing the hand Lotan held out to pull her up.

“What did you try?” Chax asked, climbing to his feet.

Abby tried to dust off her clothes and looked at everyone now standing around staring at her.

“We tried to build a small bomb,” she admitted, dejected.

I burst out laughing, while Chax’s expression revealed he was about to explode. He glared at me and then back at Abby.

“What?” Chax demanded, clearly upset with her.

“Before you cuss her out, I can explain,” Ben said, moving between Abby and Chax.

I smiled at the determined stand he had taken. I also noticed that he was very protective. Intrigued, I kept my eyes on him.

“We used some of the Fallen elements and infused them with napalm. As you can see, it works. We just didn't think to test it outside,” he admitted, looking to Max for support.

I looked over at Max to find he was smiling back.

“Why would you want to create a bomb?” Chax asked, walking over to the door and looking down; his face fell even more before he scowled.

“To make sure we can take down as many as possible, when the time comes,” Ben answered. 

Chax stood there looking down at what I expected was chaos and sighed.

“The house is never going to survive them,” I heard him mutter, before he turned around and looked at everyone.

“Go get cleaned up,” he ordered, dismissing the two of them.

“That was awesome,” Raven said from behind me. 

We all started laughing, except for Chax.

“Vulcan,” Chax said, his gaze shifting to address him, “we must find her a custos.”

“I will take her,” Caim said, placing a hand on Raven’s shoulder.

Zurita beamed at him and moved to stand closer to them.

“Done,” Vulcan said, smiling at Chax, who did not appear impressed with the pair.

Yeah, with Kali becoming the enemy, Caim didn’t have an apprendo.

The thought reminded me of her betrayal and my mood plummeted again.

My emotions were a roller-coaster at this stage. One moment I was angry, the next I was riding the guilt wagon. But most of the time I felt tired. I just wanted to crawl under a rock and disappear.

“Fine then, I think we all should get some rest. Tomorrow the hunt continues,” Chax said and I felt his hand on my arm.

Looking up, I met his eyes and I could see some understanding.

“Do you want to return to the cottage?” he asked me.

I noticed that the others were walking away, going about their business.

Good question.

Did I want to stay here and risk running into Zurita constantly? Oh, and let’s not forget Raven. Or did I want to go to the place that was built just for me? I didn’t have a clue where I wanted to be at that moment.

“Go upstairs and get some rest. It will get better with time,” he decided for me.

I nodded my head in acceptance and headed upstairs. With some luck, I didn’t run into anyone in the hall so I made it to my room without any more crap directed at me. I walked inside and closed the door behind me. Walking over to the bed I sat down and looked around.

This doesn’t feel like my room anymore.

Just glancing around brought back memories of me and Kali.

Why the hell did she do that to me?!

I jumped up and started to pace. My memories were trapping me in the past, forcing me to re-live Ryan's death, and Kali’s betrayal. My door flew open and Chax stormed in. He kicked it closed behind him and walked straight to me, as I took a step back from him.

Ignoring my retreat, he grabbed me and crushed me to his chest while murmuring, “Breathe Kasadya.”

I automatically drew in a deep breath finally registering what had just happened yet again. Tears burned my eyes. Everything was a big mess.

“I will take you to another room,” he continued and shifted with me.

We landed in a room I have never seen before.

“Breathe, Kasadya,” he said while rubbing my back, projecting calming feelings into me.

After a few minutes, my breathing returned to normal but he still kept me in his embrace.

“We need to work on that. You will need to learn some breathing exercises and perhaps even some meditating,” he said as he steered me towards a huge bed.

Glancing around the room, I could see a lot of paintings. I stopped dead when my eye caught a painting with the name Da Vinci scrawled at the bottom. I had never seen that painting by Da Vinci.

“I bought it from him when he was still struggling to sell some paintings,” Chax stated, when he realized what had caught my attention.

Holy crap! That must be worth millions.

My eyes traveled over the other paintings. Everywhere, famous artists’ names were indicated on the drawings.

“You like collecting artifacts?” I asked, sitting down on the bed and looking up at him.

His eyes traveled over them.

“It’s hard to keep memories when you live as long as I have. It helps me remember. The day I brought that painting, we battled a legion of demons. We lost three Fallen that day as well,” he explained.

My eyes were riveted to him. To have lived so long, remembering all the crappy things that had happened to you, suddenly wasn't really appealing anymore.

“I'm sorry,” I whispered. 

The apology slipped out before I registered it, much less thought about his reaction. He looked down at me and smiled.

“Come get some sleep. Tomorrow, first thing, we are starting the day with some meditation. I'm just beyond that door if you need me,” he said, indicating where the door was located. 

He stepped towards it and, with a final nod, closed it behind him.

I laid down on the bed, looking at all the paintings. Somehow, while gazing at the beauty around me, I started to drift off into the darkness.

Chapter 5

“You must save them,” the child said as my dreams filled with white mist. I looked around, unable to see anything.

“I'm trying,” I replied as I turned around and tried to find the child that kept popping up in my dreams.

“The battle begins,” the child said.

I saw the mist opening up and as it cleared, a scene was revealed.

I looked down on the scene before me. In front of me, was a line, standing and waiting, There I stood, Max to my left and Zurita to my right. I scanned the other faces in the line, finding Lada and a few more standing side by side, their eyes fixed ahead. Further down the line I found more familiar faces. Chax and the rest of the other fallen stood ready in a second line.

A sudden blast to my right grabbed my attention, snapping my head towards the sound of the blast. And there, in front of my eyes, a huge purple hole was forming in the air. Ballen's face was the first thing I saw when the hole started widening. There he stood, devilish smile in place, staring us down from the other side of the ever-expanding opening.

 “Destroy them!” He yelled as thousands of demons, already transformed, stormed through the hole towards us.

“Hellhounds!” My voice rang out across the lines.

Looking back, I saw all the hellhounds transform, including myself. They transitioned to hellhound form and then to the
born
form. My eyes focused on the dream Kas. She stood out above all the others, double the size of the other
borns
. The demons approached them and with a roar, the
borns
initiated the attack. Bones cracked and swords clanged together, their screams filling the air.

Like a tsunami, the demons descended upon the Hellhounds. The rest of the demons stormed the line of Fallen waiting in the back. The deafening sounds of battle assaulted my ears. My eyes were focused on Chax as I saw him take the heads of his adversaries. Soon he was fighting masses of demons, as even the Fallen were overwhelmed by them. A roar sounded in front of him and my eyes traveled back. Max’s head was missing. His body fell to the ground, joining the dead bodies scattered everywhere.

“No!” I stormed forward right into an invisible wall, my hands reaching for it.

I watched in horror as my friends, family and loved ones died before my eyes.

When Chax's head was taken, the
born
Kasadya roared in fury. She turned and looked in his direction, bloody tears trailing down her face. She was all that was left, all of the fallen now dead. Demons surrounded her,  pinning her to the ground, their weapons piercing her body. Her tears flowed freely and soon her face was covered in bloody streaks.

Ballen walked over to her, “You never stood a chance. Now I will send you to your Sire and you can tell him earth belongs to me now.”

Ballen finished by taking her head. A sickening thud sounded as her head dropped to the ground and rolled away from her body.

“No! No!” I screamed and punched the wall.

“You must save them.” The child’s voice said behind me.

I whirled around, ready to kill anyone who approached, but I was alone in the white mist again. Tears streamed down my face for the loss of my loved ones.

“How do I save them?!” I yelled into the mist, desperately seeking an answer.