Kasadya Hellhound Twisted (24 page)

I grabbed hold of that weird feeling and let it flow over me; anger, despair, vengeance, agony, rage, bloodlust, sorrow slammed into me, taking me down to one knee. They were all there in those eyes. “Kasadya! You must leave now!” Max continued to yell. But it was no use, this creature and I shared something that could not be ignored. A young girl was standing in front of it, trying to talk to it, trying to calm it. But the creature’s eyes never left mine; he merely ignored her just like I was ignoring Max.

The girl’s cry of despair echoed above the creatures roar, as one of the fallen sliced at its legs. “Please, I beg you! Please, listen to me. Don’t do this to us!” she cried for him. He roared as another sword sliced at him, but he stood tall. Never falling to a knee, never giving up. He rose higher, his head hitting the ceiling, and whipped out his wings. The fallen caught in them were slammed into walls and each other. The girl trying to speak to him was swept along.

“I am sorry, Ilana, it must be done now,” Chax said, picking the girl up. Confused, I looked at them, my eyes leaving the monster in front of me. The girl’s cries were agonizing, but it was Chax’s eyes that seized my heart. Those beautiful green eyes, looked hard, so merciless, it looked like death. He rose and pushed the girl into Caim’s arms. I watched as he reached for his swords and pulled them free. Determined, he nodded to the others, who simply got up and left the court.

“Kas, please come with me,” Max begged, trying to pull me out, but I pushed him away. Chax now stood in front of the monster; it was bent down, roaring its anger at him. I watched as he turned the swords around in his palms. Then with blinding speed he moved, one, two, three movements and he was standing right in front of me, his eyes piercing into mine. I looked past him to see the monster eyes fading into yellow eyes, just before the head separated from the body.

I returned my eyes back to Chax and found him shocked, his eyes huge. That weird feeling left my chest at that moment, but what remained was so awful, so wrong. I felt tears run down my face; I felt my heart break into a million pieces. I now know what happened here tonight. I stepped back from Chax, my fear scenting the air. Max stopped me and held on to me. “Kasadya,” Chax whispered as he took a step towards me. I jumped and pushed Max back, trying to flee from him.

“Kas, he had no choice,” Max said behind me. I took in the picture around me; Chax in front of me the blood of the hellhound still dripping off his swords, I watched as a drop fell to the ground. The hellhound behind him, now back to human form, the body slumped into a heap. I looked at his head, and screamed my agony. It was the hellhound from the arena; it was the one that attacked me. I shifted with that scream, fleeing the murderer I saw before me, but most of all fleeing my own fate.

C
hapter 15

It felt as if my heart was shattered into a million pieces, and those pieces were stabbing me from the inside. I grabbed at my chest, trying to get the pain out of me. Nothing happened. Tears were streaming down my face, and wiping them off didn’t help.

I dropped to my knees and screamed to the sky above me. Arms enveloped me and held me tight. I sobbed into those
arms, trying to rid myself of this awful feeling. “That’s it, let the pain flow from your body,” the female whispered. My cries intensified, my heart broke even more.

“Why?!” I cried out, unable to understand why we were destined for greatness, just doomed at the same time.

“It is hard to explain, my dear, but I will try my best,” the female whispered back, smoothing my hair and trying to sooth me. “When we began our journey in this world, our Father told us that we must take our own steps. This sounds easy at first, but trust me it is not at all. We faced many battles, we concurred worlds and creatures never heard before, but we also failed every day. Do you know why?” she asked, lifting my head to look at her. I shook my head in return.

“Because we could not defeat our own faults. We accepted that we were perfect, yet one by one, we found that we were the exact opposite. We carried no compassion, no hope, and most of all no love. We were unable to feel. This, in return, left us nothing more than merciless killers, and all we could do is serve our Father in battles. That was before we met mankind.”

“With mankind’s birth we saw our differences, our faults. And our journey to defeat ourselves began for us. You see, Kasadya, you must defeat the very thing that makes you so powerful. You must defeat your emotions. A hellhounds emotions are very powerful, it’s what makes them so good. But it could also be your end, as you saw tonight,” she finished, and amazingly I had calmed down during her story.

“But why does a charm fix that?” I asked, wiping the tears from my face, my shirt wet from all the crying.

She smiled at me. “Because you can share those emotions. When you go hellhound born, it is an overload of one, maybe two, emotions. But a charm can “extract” that from you and replace it with a more soothing emotion, like love,” she said.

“And if I don’t find my charm, will that be my future? Will I be …” I swallowed, unable to say it.

Her eyes were haunted and she took a while to answer. “Yes, no hellhound could control their emotions without their charm,” she whispered. I let my head drop to her again, defeated. “It was just as hard for us at first, emotions were never part of our design. But with more and more exposure we found them. Slowly, and uncertainly at some times, we found them. A smile from a child, a hug from an old woman.”

I was glad for her, really I was, but this doesn’t help me at all. My mind drifted back to that hellhound and his eyes. “Kasadya, do you understand what I just tried to tell you?” she asked, rubbing my back. I didn’t reply. I was busy remembering the murderer’s eyes, those green eyes, with death in them. “Every day you will face this, but never give up. Try no matter how difficult it gets,” she continued on.

Why should I try if I know it won’t happen? Why the hell should I even get up and go back? I might as well ask her to kill me now and save myself the trouble. “No, Kasadya, neither I nor the others would ever do that. You have a remarkable journey before you, one that no one has ever heard of. To steal that from the future would be devastating,” she pitched in.

I sat there, shaking my head. Sitting back on my own, I looked at her. “Did you just read my mind?” I asked.

She smiled, leaning back on her arms. “Yes, my gift for defeating my own faults. Do you know who I am?” she asked, her smile beyond beautiful.

“Sorry, I never even asked in the cave. I was pretty tired after that fight. I know you’re an archangel,” I answered.

“I am Uriel, and mostly I am responsible for the love between my Father and his children. Other times I am the beacon of hope,” she replied, smiling at me. Okay, that explains a lot.

She had the most beautiful eyes, light blue with dark circles around the blue. Her hair fell in blonde curls around her body. A beautiful face, one only seen on movie stars. Yes, beautiful. “What happened to me the other night with Ira?” I asked. I never really got an answer that night, didn’t really want one at that time. Her haunted look returned, and she looked up at the sky, her eyes searching for something.

“We are all born angels of equal, with battles we grow stronger. But sometimes, with great evil, when a battle is won an angel will be what we called defined. This evolution, as humans call it, is how archangels are born,” she finished and looked down at me again. What?

“I am no angel, Uriel,” I replied, motioning to myself.

“I know, you are the first fallen to receive such a gift. It is only completed after a few great battles, but when it does you will be the first archfallen,” she said as if everything she just said was so normal.

“What is it going to mean if I have to be put down?” I asked, my heart constricting around that word.

Her smile faded and she looked at the stars again. “You must not fail, Kasadya,” she barely whispered.

“Yeah, hate to burst that bubble, but I am already failing. Chax had to break my wing the last time I lost control,” I muttered, falling back onto the grass and looking up at the stars.

It’s been so long since I looked at them. I believe the last time was the night I shifted out of the hellhouse, before Chax had to drag my ass back there. “Why Chax?” I asked, those green eyes of his would never be the same to me.

“We are unable to destroy any fallen, even the hellhounds. The Dominus Custos was charged with that task, I remember that day so vividly. Our Father cried for many years after that. Chax was the only one able to successfully destroy them,” she replied.

Crap, so there goes my “Max take care of me arrangement”. I shivered at the idea of seeing those green eyes of death approaching me for my final moment. Kinda sucks knowing that the person who I began my journey with will be the one to end it. “How would I find my charm?” I asked, the desperation in my voice deafening.

“I don’t know, Kasadya, you would have to ask a hellhound that found his or her charm,” she replied.

“I know exactly who to ask,” I said, getting back up again and dusting myself off. She looked at me questioningly. “Thank you for tonight, Uriel.”

She nodded and smiled. “I will always watch over you,” she said, vanishing on the last word. Right, now to go find my father. He found his charm, and I wanted to know how. I shifted to the hellhouse and walked to Vulcan’s office. The house was so quiet it almost felt like old times. Kids must be sleeping.

I turned and walked into his office to find it empty. Crap, where the hell is he? I walked back into the hall and started searching for him. He was nowhere to be found. Desperate, I decided to go look outside. I knew he liked his garden, maybe he would be there. I found him at the roses, he was making them grow into beautiful buds. I stopped to watch them open and spread their petals. “Can I help you?” Vulcan asked without looking at me.

“I need to speak to my parents, I don’t know where to find them,” I replied, my eyes on his back. He turned around and regarded me. Yeah, I am sure my face was all puffy from the crying.

“It’s early in the morning; they might be back at home. Three houses from Maia, the one with the huge garden,” he replied, turning back to continue with his flowers. As more roses opened, I took in a breath and let their scents drift into my lungs. Peace, that’s what roses meant to me.

I shifted to outside Maia’s place, and started to walk to the right. Three houses later I found the garden Vulcan had spoken of. It was more like a jungle, but that’s my mom. I walked up to the door and knocked. After a few minutes the door opened and my father looked at me, concerned. “Honey?” he asked, stepping outside.

“I have to speak to you and Mom. I need to know, Dad,” I answered, holding up my hand to stop him from hugging me.

I’d had enough hugs for today; he nodded and gestured for me to come in. I walked in and found the old scents from my childhood waiting inside. Mom loved Jasmine, and she would always plant them close to windows. Now they filled the air with their intoxicating scent. I huffed it off and walked into the lounge, but I didn’t take a seat. “I’ll just go fetch your mother,” my father said, walking up the stairs.

I turned around and looked at the room; it really did remind me of our old home on Earth. Same cosy chairs, big pillows and plants everywhere. I remembered she used to sneek into my room and water the plants when she thought I was asleep. In my teenage years, that got a little bit too much so I started doing it to get her out of my room.

“Kas,” my mother said behind me so I turned to look at her. Red puffy eyes looked back at me, she had been crying herself. Well I’d had enough of that, too.

“I need to know how to find my charm, or he is going to kill me,” I stated. There is no use going around it with discretion. A tear dropped from one eye and rolled down her cheek, she nodded and indicated to the chair for me.

She and Dad took the two seater across from me, looking into each other’s eyes, my dad kissed her cheek. I cleared my throat; I so didn’t need to see their love scenes right now, not with this topic. They turned their eyes on me. “We have been expecting you. Chax was here just an hour ago. He told us what happened,” she said, another tear falling.

“Yeah, I watched as he sliced another hellhound’s head off to stop him,” I replied. Strange that there was no emotion in my voice
.
That dead voice from hell was back. Maybe it’s a good thing, like Uriel said, emotions are not good for me.

“I am sorry you had to witness that, honey,” Dad said his face in anguish.

“I am not; it’s good to see what my end will be. But with your help I can maybe avoid it,” I threw back. I have come to realise that pity is for the weak; I should never have thought that returning here would change my outcome.

I am, and will always be, fighting for my life. My father closed his eyes, and nodded. “Of course, honey. We will tell you everything,” he replied, looking down at Mom again.

“It is impossible for you to find him, he must find you,” my mom started. At those words my heart took a journey straight to my stomach. Yeah, so screwed.

“How the hell would he find me?” I growled out. My father lifted his eyebrows at that growl; he wasn’t expecting me to be so pissed off. Well I am so sorry for disappointing you. I mean, I am just a walking corpse anyway.

“You have to lose control. I would never have found your father if he didn’t lose control. We were just paired together, barely a month. He became hellhound born, and I was left to hunt him down. He had already killed one human to get to a demon.”

“I had no option except to try and stop him myself, Chax was too far away. I engaged him and we fought. When he was about to kill me, I yelled at him to stop and get a grip. He stopped a second then fell back, and I knew. My attack turned from anger to calmness. Softly I spoke to him, while he was about to kill me, I soothed him out of it.” As she finished, tears now ran freely down her cheeks. My dad took her in his arms and held her.

So that’s what the girl was trying to do. She was trying to soothe him and bring him back. Yeah, it worked wonders. “So that’s it? I would only know the moment I turned. Hell, that helps a lot. Were there no indication before that, you know like feelings for each other or something?” I asked, my voice still dead. My dad looked at me thinking about my question, it was my mom that spoke up.

“Not really, we actually could not bear each other. I thought your dad was a loose cannon that would only be my downfall, and he thought I was a stuck up Chax de Luca,” she said, a small laugh escaping.

“You have to give me more than that, I can’t bear a lot of males,” I replied. A blush formed on her cheeks that were already completely red from crying.

“I was thinking about him constantly, and couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. Even when sparring, I had a hard time,” she confessed.