Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (12 page)

Lotan was next and he was giving them the same treatment; checking them out from top to bottom. I don’t think that’s a wise choice. The guys kept their eyes on him for a while, and I could see two biting on their jaws. The rest followed suit, then it was my turn. I decided to keep my head to the floor and get past them as quiet as possible; don’t want to be dog chow for the day.

The moment I was at the third guy I heard him take in a deep breath; did he just smell me? Shocked, I looked at him but still kept on moving; he looked at me, his eyes boring into mine. Oh boy, these guys are freaking scary.

We walked down the hallways and made it outside to the arena. The moment I took in the picture in front of me I stopped. There were a hundred or so fallen standing around waiting for us, and then I saw my Dad waving at me. Delighted to see him again I headed straight for him; I didn’t even know I missed him so much until now.

“Father,” I greeted him and grabbed him for a big hug. One hug from him always made me feel better, and after the sniffing guy, I needed a hug.

“Ah my
Filiola
I’m so glad to see you, how are you doing?” he asked, pushing me back to look at me. His eyes were sad and yet happy at the same time.

“Still alive, hanging in there, and you?” I replied, smiling at my father; he still calls me his little daughter, which is pretty funny given the circumstances.

“I’m glad to hear that. Your mother and I are fine, my
Filiola
. She is somewhere in this crowd looking for her sister, she’ll be here shortly,” he said, brushing his fingers over my cheek to show his affection.

“Can I have your attention?” Vulcan yelled over the crowd, and everyone stopped talking and faced him as he stood on a stage thing in the middle of the arena.

“Because of the reports of the demon behaviors we have been receiving the last week, we have no choice but to adapt ourselves to fight this war and win. If we do not adapt our approach, we will die and they will win.

“To aid us with the necessary training and skills to take on our newfound challenge, we have asked Astin Caponito and his fallen to aid us. As agreed, they will instruct us all, and therefore they will take charge and we will follow. Is this understood?” Vulcan asked, looking over the crowd his face more serious than ever. Still doesn’t beat Chax’ face, but he’s almost there.

There was a moment of silence in the crowd then the first “aye” came followed by many. When my father said it, he looked at me to make sure I got the drift. So I said my “aye” and joined them in this new found hell. Hey, at least this time I won’t be the only one suffering. Even my serious mom will be joining the ride. Hell yeah, I want to see her in action.

“Then, as from this moment I step back and join you in training,” Vulcan replied, looking at the big scary guy Nanini had bumped into and stepped aside. The guy walked to the same spot and looked at the crowd. He had dark black hair that reached past his shoulders, brown eyes; and yip just like all the other fallen guys one hell of a body to go with it. If he didn’t look so scary I would say he was hot, but man he was scary.

“The time of pairs has officially come to an end, from today you will become teams, or as we put it packs. There are no versions of
Custos
or
Apprendo’s
in our teams, if you wish to still take responsibility for your
Apprendo
, then do so. This is not about two fallen, it is about a team of fallen. You will learn each other’s weakness and strengths. You will learn to use them to aid your team. There is a team leader and his or her team that follows the orders given, there will be no exceptions.

“If a team cannot work together, they cannot survive. I suggest you get this in your heads pretty fast, or the days of the fallen are at an end,” the guy said, and looked at the crowd. Silence followed him so he continued with his speech.

“My fallen have agreed to assist in the training; they will be obeyed at all times. I know you have been serving for years, but they have been doing it in a team for years.” He looked at a guy standing to his left and nodded, then turned back to look at us. “Dontalion and the other team leaders will take lead and begin; we will leave the choice of a team to you. However, there must be eight in a pack, choose wisely,” he finished, turned around and went to stand with the other guys.

I looked around to see what’s happening, and found that I was not the only one missing my dad. Nanini had hers still in a death grip, and the look on his face says that he really didn’t mind. Nanini’s mom was standing next to them, also a petite blonde, smiling. I saw Lada with her mom and dad; also holding her mom and looking at her dad. As my eyes looked around all the
Apprendo’s
were with their parents, enjoying a short moment with them. But when my eyes landed on Kali, I stopped and looked at her. She was standing alone, no parents in sight.

“She lost both her parents, about two months ago,” my dad whispered in my ear. I turned to look at him and saw the same sadness I was feeling. Poor girl, I know she is a handful but no one deserves to be alone, especially without parents. They can be a pain in the butt, but they are your lifelines. I can’t imagine a life without my parents, even if my mom is such a pain in the butt.

“Come Kas, Chax is waiting,” my mom said from behind me and I turned to look at her. Like I said, a pain in the butt. The guy just said that it doesn’t work, why would she want me to continue with Chax?

“But—“

“There is a good reason why we created the system. Even with this situation you will remain with him,” my mom cut me off, and I could see there was no arguing, her “I’m the boss” face was up and ready for action. Knowing full well that to argue with her would be a dead end I turned to my dad.

“See you later, Dad,” I greeted him with a peck on the cheek and then walked passed my mother, ignoring her to make a point.

Pissed off with my mother, I walked through the crowd looking for Chax; whom I found leaning against the tree I was leaning against yesterday. Drawing in a deep breath, I walked over and went to stand next to him, crossing my arms over my chest. I looked at the crowd and saw the Apprendo’s saying goodbye and then falling in with their
Custos
. So our parents are sticking to the old ways then; old people I tell ya.

The scary guys were walking in a group towards the crowd, then from my right more fallen shifted in. They all had the same scary look the guy’s had, even the girls. They joined the guy who spoke to us. He gave them orders, and then they divided up in groups of four and started walking in the crowd, taking up standoff places waiting for us apparently. I looked at Chax; he was very quiet just looking at all of them.

“Okay, so what do we do?” I asked him, taking the lead, because he certainly wasn’t. He ignored me and just kept looking at everyone. One of these days I’m going to hit him, real hard. Pissed, I looked back at the crowd to find some old faces heading for us. Seth, Nanini, Arianna, Lotan, Lada and her
Custos
Dagon were heading our way and my heart took a huge thump. They came to stand in front of us, Seth smiling at me. “Okay Chax, let’s do this,” Dagon said and finally Chax moved and walked up to him.

“Indeed, old friend,” he replied. At that Nanini started jumping around again
.

“Oh yeah, were gonna be one wicked rocking team,” she said and everyone except Chax laughed. This is going to be one hell of a team and it’s going to be fun.

“Is this your chosen team?” a guy asked. I looked past Lotan to find the Dontalion guy with three others standing there. One of the guys was the one that sniffed me. I backed up to Seth, who placed his arm around my waist and pressed me to him. When I looked at him he was giving the sniffing guy one hell of a death stare. Feeling safe, I returned me eyes to the Dontalion guy, only to find Chax giving the sniffing guy also one hell of a death stare. Okay this is new, but hey I’m not complaining. The more guys keeping the creepy guy off me, the better.

“Yes, this is our team. We may begin,” Chax replied, and turned his eyes back to Dontalion.

“Good, let’s find some open space, it’s too crowed here to practice,” Dontalion said and gestured for us to follow. His companions turned with him, the sniffing guy who first smiled at me, also turned and walked with them. We followed a few steps behind them. I kept my eyes on the sniffing guy, not liking this one bit.

Dontalion stopped at a spot in the garden. The grass has started to turn yellow from the cold, but at least there were no trees and stuff around. We joined them and took off our jackets, dropping them on the ground, then went over to stand in front of them.

“Let me introduce you to some of my team mates that will be assisting in the process,” Dontalion explained, and gestured to the first guy.

They all looked the same: long black hair, brown eyes, and yip drop dead sexy
.
“This is Marcus, his brother Acteon, and my cousin Paeon. You can call me Don it’s easier,” Dontalion said, and then they all took off their jackets and dropped them on the ground. So the creepy guy was Marcus, hell at least I knew his name now. Chax did the honorable thing and also introduced us to them, when he reached me Marcus’ eyes stayed on me. Oh no, this is so not good, I always get the weird deals.

“We start with a basic test to see what work we have to do, then we will move over to the advanced stuff. The orders are to get you in full function by tonight, so it’s going to be a long day. Let’s begin,” Don said, and the four of them started to circle around us. Oh hell, here we go.

Immediately Chax, Seth, Dagon, and Lotan pushed us into the middle creating a protective barrier around us. Each one picked another one of the scary guys, and started to pace with them. Nanini was jumping like a mad thing next to me, and I wondered if it was her nerves or adrenalin? I know it’s my nerves that are making me edgy. Then the scary guys transformed, all of them to werewolves, so Chax and the rest did the same. Seth was also a werewolf, but they were black, he was brown. He and the Marcus guy were growling at each other like real wolves. Paeon went for Lotan, sweeping his legs out from under him. The moment he was down Paeon jumped over him straight for Lada. I reacted. Transforming I jumped him, my body hitting his with a force; then all hell broke loose.

Chax, and I think Don, were hitting each other like mad. I could hear each punch hit the other. I was hitting Paeon with all my force, and then Nanini blasted him with a bomb, missing me by inches. Howling, he punched me in the face, and I went flying backwards. Ouch this guy can pack a punch; my jaw was throbbing from the blow. I turned my head to look back at him, and was suddenly thrown a few meters through the air, landing face first in the grass.

Oh, that hurts really bad! Spitting out the grass, I tried to get back up again, but this time it was Marcus who attacked me. Pushing me down his mouth was snapping in front of my face, saliva dripping all over me. Oh my soul! This is going to hurt. The moment he transformed, I noticed that his black fur was tipped with gray; I checked him out so I could identify him from the lot to make sure I stayed clear of him. Then suddenly he was off me, and I looked to my right to see two werewolves biting and fighting the hell out of each other. It was Seth thank God. Then I was pushed back into the ground, my mouth stuffed full of grass. I could hear screaming and shouting and yip, Chax yelling at me to concentrate, that’s so typical of him. We are having our asses handed to us and he wants to yell orders, prick.

I was trying to get the thing off my back but it was like trying to move a freaking truck, and he was pressing my wings into the ground
.
“Maybe you’ll do better in a bed, Hellhound.” I heard someone say into my ear. Oh hell no! Pushing my weight to one side, I lifted my elbow and punched him in the face. His weight lifted off me and I took the gap; swinging over I punched him off and got to my feet. Dagon was on him, hitting him with firebombs. I looked around to see that these four were giving us the time of our lives. Arianna was down, Nanini and Lada were trying to take on one, Chax and Lotan were on another and Seth was on Marcus just inches from me.

Focus Kas
. I stormed the one the girls were busy with and tackled him to the ground. The moment I was on top off him, I shifted with him and planted him in the fountain a few yards away. Making sure he was in the water, I immediately shifted back and was on the one Dagon had his hands full with
.
“His legs!” Dagon yelled, so I did a slide kick taking his legs from under him, and Dagon was on him hitting him like hell.

“Stop!” Don yelled and we all stopped dead. Dagon had his fist in midair, ready to hit the one below him
.
“Disengage and get up!” Don went on, so I looked up at him. He and Chax were moving out of their battle form, Don extending a hand to help Lotan up. Feeling safe I transformed back to normal; the others followed and we all walked back to each other, forming a group again. Sucking air, I looked at the others. We were all messed up, blood and bruises everywhere. Arianna had a huge swollen eye that was already turning black; Chax, for once, had a cut lip. But it was Seth’s shoulder that got my attention, one of them had taken a bite out of him and blood was running down his shirt. I walked to him and pulled away the shirt to check the damage. Damn it was deep.

“It’s okay, Kas, I heal fast,” Seth soothed, taking my chin in his hand to stop me from looking at it. Tears started to form in my eyes. I don’t know if it was anger or fear that put them there, but I had a tough time keeping them back.

“Okay, test over. Now we start with eliminating some errors, then trying again,” Don said, walking over to Seth and I. He pulled away Seth’s shirt and looked at the wound, then he looked at Marcus with a pissed off face. Marcus was just smiling at us, pleased about it.

“Your first mistake was dividing your group into two. By protecting your females you double up the impact of the attack on yourselves, creating a protected atmosphere for your females; which in return lets their guard down.