Kasadya Hellhound Twisted (13 page)

“Yeah, show us your fallen!” they all started screaming, and I was trying to back out of the gang of little horrors. Looking to my left I stopped dead in my tracks and my jaw hit the floor.

Max was laughing and going crazy with them. On their request, he shifted to half breed hellhound and the kids went ballistic. Girls were screaming, boys were high fiving each other. Two little girls grabbed hold of my legs and begged me to go fallen. “Kas, just give in and enjoy something different for a change,” Max said and I looked at him to see him totally freaking happy. Go with it. Okay, they want a hellhound I’ll give them one. Transforming, I opened my wings high up in the air to ensure I didn’t hurt the kids and spread them wide, covering half of the grub spot with them.

A moment of silence followed so I took the time to stand my ground. The kids were all standing and watching my wings, and then my real hell started. Kids started to storm me, grabbing my wings and everything that could be grabbed. “Good show, Kas,” I heard Vulcan say, but the kids were starting to climb all over me so I couldn’t look at him to ask for help. In seconds they managed to get me flat on the ground, a little girl climbing on my chest and grabbing my face in her hands.

“That is so cool,” she said, smiling at me.

It’s remarkable what such a small and innocent child can do to even the fiercest creatures. After all the cruelty, battles and evil, one touch from this child could ease your inner battles. We walk this Earth everyday thinking that we defy the laws of the world by surviving it, but our children are the real warriors. So young and innocent, they face this world not only with bravery, but also with their special touch. “Did you like that?” I asked her, and she started to laugh and giggle. Sitting up, I took her in my arms and held her. “What’s your name, beautiful?” I asked her, watching her eyes dance with delight.

“My name is Mel, and yours?” she asked in return.

A few boys were opening and closing my left wing and my other wing became the petting zoo. “My name is Kas; do you know what I am?” I asked, her moving my wings a little to give the others more giggles and shrieks.

“Oh, yes I do. You’re a hellhound. My mommy was a hellhound, too. She showed me her wings many times.” She smiled and my heart dropped into my stomach. She is an orphan, a hellhound orphan.

Trying to keep my tears at bay, I continued to talk with her. “Do you know what that makes you?” I asked, snuggling her close to me.

She looked at me with those big blue eyes and shook her head. “You’re a hellhound, too. One day, when you’re big like me, you will look like me. Your wings will also stretch out like mine, and they may be even bigger,” I explained and I saw her face and eyes catch fire at my words.

“Really, am I going to look like you and my mommy?” she asked.

“Oh yes, but you’ll be a lot prettier than me,” I replied, tickling her to make her burst out in laughter.

“Come on guys, Chax and the rest are already waiting outside,” Vulcan said and at his words all the kids jumped up and stormed the exit, screaming and laughing the whole way.

“Wow, now that was something new,” Kali said, transforming back to normal. It would appear that not only I had to give them a show.

“Come on,” Max said, smiling down at me and offering his hand to help me up. I grabbed his hand
and he pulled me up. I bumped straight into his chest. Almost falling back, Max closed his arms around me, stabilizing me inside them.

And there we were; me in his arms, looking at each other. I looked at him, his face still in delight from the children as he smiled down at me. “You’ll get the hang of it,” he said to me, his smile creating dimples on his cheeks. For the first time he was actually good looking to me, as in ‘Wow, how could you not have noticed this before’.

“I was scared beyond words,” I replied, smiling back. Max burst out laughing, reached for my cheek and rubbed it.

“I know. I have never seen you so confused, and for the first time I would say lost. Did a few kids get the better of you?” he continued on.

Oh my freaking soul, he was touching me! Like in rubbing my cheek touching me. Freaking hell I didn’t expect this. “Didn’t you see me adapt?” I asked, smiling back at him.

Kali cleared her throat and Max looked up at her. “I think we need to join the rest you two. Sounds like the war started outside,” she finished and walked out, leaving me and Max still in our embrace. He wasn’t letting go and returned his eyes to mine.

“Do you know the most beautiful I have ever seen you was holding that little girl and talking to her. It’s not what you give as a warrior that makes me stop and admire you, Kas, but what you give as yourself,” he said as he slowly brought his lips to mine.

Holy freaking hell, Max was kissing me and I was kissing him back! Unlike my kisses with Seth, this one had some familiarity with it. I remembered everything we went through together, our first meeting, then the training, the day I gave him my blood. All the events we have lived and survived together came back to me. But the best part is that I felt right at home in his arms. Releasing me, he stepped back and looked at me. I, on the other hand, was left dumbstruck. Did I just enjoy a kiss from Max?

“Come on, the others might already be dead,” Max said smiling, and steered me out of the grub spot. As we walked down the hallway, following the noise to outside, I was left without words. I was expecting a lot of things from Max, from kicking my butt to telling me how to behave. But a kiss? Never in my life did I expect that. And the worst of all it is the way I felt. Like being in his arms and kissing him was normal. Okay, I’m going insane or something. We reached the others and stopped again to take in the picture. The old arena had now become some sort of playground.

Everyone was having a blast. Nanini was creating small lights bombs and sending them into the fountain, making it burst on contact and spraying the kids. Chax was pushing what looked like six children on swings, patiently walking back to the first one to begin again. Lada and Lotan were playing football with some. Caim and Abby were on some sort of blow up castle thing, jumping up and down with the kids. Ben, Kali, and Ryan were doing cricket with some boys next to the football players.

“So this is Exsilium’s Hellhouse? Interesting place,” Max commented next to me.

“Trust me, the previous version was a lot scarier than this one,” I replied, watching as Vulcan and Maia came walking over to us.

“So, Kas, what do you think?” Vulcan asked, gesturing to the scene in front of us.

“It’s different all right. There are so many, how do you guys survive?” I asked, looking around at what must be fifty kids, their ages ranging from ten downwards. This is so sad. Looking at them I could see we lost many fallen, but their loss was much worse.

“It was difficult at first, many of them had experienced some of the battles and struggled to fit in. Many suffered the loss of their parents. But with some love and attention, we had them settled in and smiling again,” Maia explained, smiling at me. I was thinking of our discussion when Kali was brought to her. Did we get all of them, or were there some still wandering Earth alone and afraid.

“Vulcan, are you sure that all the kids are here and safe, you didn’t miss any?” I asked, my heart beating hard. I don’t want any child to feel lost like Kali and I felt.

“We believe so, Kas. For a long while the fallen stopped serving and only searched. We went back to the homes of all the fallen families and started searching from there. What counted for us was the moment we knew what was happening, all fallen joined together and fought back. We lost many, but we also saved many,” Vulcan said, leaving me feeling a little bit better. Good, I don’t want to know that there is a child out there lost and alone. “Come, let’s get you an activity and some kids. Its hard work, but as you can see something different than what we are used to,” he continued and led Max and I to a bunch of kids playing on a slide.

Max and I ended up entertaining the kids, and Max taught me and them a Russian folk game called Gorodki. Basically you take a bat and from a distance he marked out, aim it at the bunch of Skittles he’d arranged in different patterns. As he explained, the Skittles were called gorodki, which means townlets, then the square they were in was called gorod for city. The first pattern he made was called a fork or vilka. This is pretty hard, you had to throw the damn thing to hit the pattern and throw off the skittles.

Sounds easy, but hell it wasn’t at all. Unlike bowling, these things were
laid out flat or something making you have to double up on the aim thing. After a couple of rounds we were joined by all and everyone started to play it, Chax, Max, and Kali were showing off. Max and Kali have grown up with this game so they were experts, but Chax was just plain showing off. We played in teams, the one against the other. Each fallen taking about six kids to make a team, then we threw off against each other.

The more Skittles you get knocked off the more the points, like a strike in bowling. Just weirder. We continued on for the rest of the morning, by noon I was feeling the effect of no sleep. My aim began to take very bad turns and I almost ended up hitting Ben in the face. Luckily the relieving fallen team arrived to take over the afternoon shift.

“Let’s get home and try and catch some sleep before tonight,” Chax said, shifting us back to his house. I ran up the stairs and went straight for the bed, Kali joining me on the other side.

“That was pretty nice, hey?” she said, rolling over to her side to look at me.

Yeah, it was pretty nice. “I kissed Max,” I confessed.

Her eyes going wide, she smiled at me. “Kas, you two have been looking at each other for months; it is no surprise to me. And?”

“Well, that is what’s so weird about it. It was normal, like we have been kissing for years. I didn’t experience that with Seth,” I said, waiting for an explaination for it.

“It felt normal because you already know him inside and out, that’s the best part of starting a relationship. No weird moments, like ‘what does he like?’ and stuff like that. He knows you and you know him, it will be easier for the two of you,” she continued. Hmm that makes sense. “Okay, get some sleep. I could see you had a tough time focusing,” Kali ended and I closed my eyes. Darkness claimed me and I walked into a beautiful dream, of open fields covered in flowers. Wind was whipping through my hair and flowing around me. I was free to enjoy what beauty this dream had to give. No duty, no fear, but most of all no demons.

                                                         
 
                                                                                                                                                                                    
 
C
hapter 8

“Hey girls, you have to wake up and get a move on!” Nanini yelled from the other side of the door, Kali and I jumping up from the shock. Damn, Nanini, you have got to learn how to sleep. Moaning, Kali and I got up and got dressed. Looking outside the window while I brushed my hair, I could see it was almost night time, the purple and orange silhouette across the horizon.

“Crap, we only had like four hours of sleep,” Kali moaned in the bathroom. “This is not going to work for me.” I laughed, because I knew this was the start of a new schedule for us, which will most likely—if we’re lucky—continue on for thousands of years.

“I suggest you embrace it and start loving it. I have a feeling this is only the beginning,” I replied to her moaning. Poor girl, not even a day has passed for her and she is already getting dressed to go out and start over again. A fallen’s life is such a treat.

“So, what do you think we are going to do tonight?” she asked, coming out of the bathroom with her gear on and ready for action.

“Most likely we will be fighting demons, didn’t see anything else on the job description,” I replied, locking my hair in place.

Pouting, she went to sit on the bed. Looking at me, she complained again, “One normal day, is that too much to ask?” I just laughed. Being a fallen, you pretty much get that from day one, normalcy has nothing to do with this world.