Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (25 page)

“So what’s the problem?” I asked him, keeping my eyes on his
.

“The problem hellhound is that the first hellhounds had to be destroyed to stop them from killing. Their trueborn nature was beyond sanity. The more they killed, the more they drifted into bloodlust, until they reached a stage where they would kill even a fallen or human standing between them and the demon. They became even worse than a demon,” he finished and I felt the strength drain out of me, but composed myself quickly.

“I’m not like that, I kill demons but I don’t harm anyone else. I helped save their lives last night; I didn’t kill them to get to a demon,” I said, pointing my finger at the black haired guy, now totally pissed off. Amon looked at me for a while then turned around and gestured for everyone to leave. Kali and Melissa where the only ones to stay behind, each side not trusting the other.

“Kas, it begins slowly and then works into that state. If you don’t find your “charm”, you’ll go insane just like them. The fallen will have no choice but to kill you, you will destroy anything that stands in your way,” he explained. Okay, so I need a freaking charm to stay sane, no problem.

“So where can I get a charm?” I asked him, but he looked at Melissa and then walked over to her, returning his eyes on me
.

“It’s not an object, Kas, it’s a person. Someone that will be able to stop your hellhound from slipping into insanity,” he finished, resting his hands on Melissa’s shoulders. Okay so I have to find someone, that can be done, no problem
.

“Okay, just give me a name and point me into the right direction. I’ll help myself from there,” I threw back at him, but he just stood there holding her and looking at me.

“Kas, he’s trying to tell you he doesn’t know the person you’re looking for. Your
pactum
mate,” Kali said from behind me, and I turned around shocked at the words
.

“You can’t be serious?” I said, backing away from her. She had transformed back to normal and was standing there looking at me with more freaking pity on her face.

“I’m sorry Kas, many hellhounds feel that they were pushed into a mating to speed up the hellhound population, but it was to keep them from such a fate,” Amon went on. I hit the wall and pressed back against it, oh damn this is so not good
.

“Any other solutions? Because I just got out of hell, I’m so not getting back into another one,” I threw back at both of them. Kali just looked at him, and so I kept my eyes on him as well.

“I’m sorry, none was found. This is the only way, and finding your charm will not be easy. He must be able to calm your hellhound, not many are able to,” Amon replied. Oh just freaking great, I so don’t have a life anymore. I dropped my head and transformed back to normal, so my defeat will be my destiny, what a way to go.

Chapter 18

After a long time standing there and thinking of solutions, I couldn’t find any. I looked back up at them and told myself to get over it. I either end up mated, or be destroyed, don’t give a freaking damn anymore.

“Okay got the message; now tell me what the hell you’re doing here with humans?” I threw back at him. He gestured for us to sit and took his place next to Melissa, and continued with his food. Kali and I sat down again, she dug back into her food, but I was too pissed off and just looked at him and Melissa.

“About thirty years ago I was on a hunt, tracking down three demons that were becoming a menace to a small town. I traced them all the way to another town. By the time I got there, they had already started to attack some of the people. But instead of humans fleeing, there were four human males fighting back. They didn’t run away, instead they fought until the last one dropped to the ground, but the best was still to come. I was about to move forward to kill the demons, when the entire village stopped running and screaming. When the last human male fell they all attacked the demons. The three demons were killed by them that day, not by a fallen.

“Just like you, I was told that humans had no courage and would not stand and fight off demons to save themselves, but that night I saw a different version of humanity. Humans are strong, not like a fallen, but together they make a good team. They have courage, more than I can say for some fallen. But the most important element to them is their love and loyalty to each other. Yes, many humans will run and not stand for a fight, but humans like Melissa, Max, and the others are not like that. After that night, I decided to study humans and found more and more of them were standing up against demons and not running anymore; humanity was fighting back. I returned to
Exsilium
and addressed what I had seen before the council. I begged them to listen to me and take some of the humans and train them, to see if we cannot be assisted by them in this war.

“But like always, they just pushed it aside and clamped down on the law. I went back to the human world and continued my service. Until one night, I found Melissa’s father fighting a demon. Not willing to see another good human fall, I stepped in and killed the demon. Afterwards her father and I talked and explained to each other the war with the demons, that night he rounded up about fifty men that wanted to train, that wanted to help. I never returned to
Exsilium
, instead I started this facility and trained humans to kill demons.

“The men you saw sitting here are the second generation of fighters I command. These are the sons of the first men that started this quest, and the generations to come will continue on,” Amon finished, and sat back looking at us.

Wow, now that’s another point of view. Okay yes, I agree they have the courage and stuff for the job, but unlike us, they don’t make it past fight one alive. At least we have a fifty percent change of going to fight two.

“I understand everything you’re saying, and yes I know there are a lot of humans like your men that do fit the bill. But they also die easily. Don’t you think it’s a bit risky?” I asked him, leaning back in my chair.

“Yes indeed, and I can assure you that every time we lose one we feel the loss. Not only in a team but also as a family. But you underestimate my men, they are exceptional fighters.”

“Mmm, don’t want to puncture that castle you’ve got going there, but last nigh they didn’t do too well. If Kali and I didn’t step in, they would most likely be dead.”

Laughing, he looked at me with a smile. I didn’t see the funny point in what I just said, they could have died and it was pure luck we all got out of there, so I frowned at him. “Kas, it was intentional. Max and Adian were scoping out the place. The entire team was waiting outside for the signal, but they never received it because you two intervened and shifted them across the country,” Amon replied, still smiling.

“What? Are you mad? You can’t send two guys in like that to do freaking scoping; they were already covered in blood when they were herded in!” I went off on him. That was just such a stupid idea.

Now he was laughing like there is no tomorrow. I looked at Kali and found that she too didn’t think this was very funny, so I looked back at him. “Did you go insane somewhere in this great plan of yours?”

“No, my dear I’m quite sane. The blood they were covered in was from the local butcher. We order about 5 gallons a week from him. You see, they cover themselves with it and stumble near a club. The demons then mistake them as easy prey and take them inside the club, where they will give back details of how many are inside for the attack to take place,” he replied, a huge smile on his face, and Melissa was sharing it.

“You are insane; you can’t throw them to the dogs like that!” I yelled, now pissed that this fallen basically plays with fire when he sends these humans out to their deaths. No wonder he’s an outcast, the council will have his head for this.

“Oh, it was not my idea; Max came up with it about three months ago. So far it works just fine. Except when two females try and save them and blows their cover,” Amon went on laughing all the way. Max entered the room and went to sit next to him, and yes a huge smile was on his face too
.

“Dumb nut,” I threw at him. Can a human be more stupid then that?

“Kasadya, I can assure you that we pitiful, coward humans can teach the fallen a lot when it comes to tactical elements of war,” Max said smiling at me.

“Whatever. Amon, can we have our weapons back, and get the hell away from your stupid men and their ideas,” I threw back at Amon, and ignored the cocky human at his side.

“Of course, you are free to leave. Come, let’s go to my office and I will get them out of the safe and escort you outside,” he replied, all smiles gone, and stood up. Melissa and Max followed him so we all walked out of the room. They walked in front and Kali and I were in the rear.

“I agree, they are coo coo,” Kali said next to me, making a circle at her temple. At least one person agrees with me.

“We just need to check on something then we will continue,” Amon said, and turned into a door. Kali and I followed them in and found a room filled with computers and stuff. Some of the men at the dinner table were working on them; others were looking at a huge screen with the globe on it. I stopped at the screen and looked at it; green, red, and orange dots were all over it. Each country and continent covered in them
.

“What are these?” I asked, and turned to look at Amon, who was now standing next to Kali looking at it too.

“This is the result of twenty years of hard work. Each dot represents a club or place where demons convert or do business. The green dots are places we already hit and cleared, we evaluate them each month to ensure they didn’t reopen. The red dots are places still in service, and the orange dots are places starting up again,” Amon explained. In the middle of all that I kept the dots in my view.

Almost every continent was covered in red and orange dots. So many, how can this be? I looked at all the dots and found a few purple ones in between
.

“And the purple dots?” I asked. He didn’t mention any of them.

“The purple are places that were attacked by fallen, as you can see there isn’t many, makes you wonder what’s up with them,” Amon replied and suddenly I remembered the shifting problem. OMS, does
Exsilium
even exist? Are they even there?

“Amon, we tried to shift to
Exsilium
but nothing happened, do we need to know something?” I asked, walking to stand in front of him and getting his full attention. I also wanted to see his eyes in case he tried lying to me.

“I don’t know. I haven’t tried to shift back to
Exsilium
since that night. Are you sure you can’t shift in?” he asked, concern on his face as he looked at me. I closed my eyes again and this time focused in on the fountain. Nothing. I tried the garden at
The Hellhouse
, again nothing. It’s like it doesn’t exist anymore. I opened my eyes and looked at him
.

“No, nothing,” I replied, my voice breaking at the last word. What will we do? Where should Kali and I go?

I turned around and looked at her. And found her in the same state I was in; her eyes were big and I could see tears starting in them
.
“Kas, we don’t run into fallen that much, but I don’t think something happened to them and
Exsilium
, it’s impossible,” Amon said from behind me. I turned around and looked at him.

“Like it wasn’t possible for a demon to reach us in
Exsilium
?” I asked him, my father’s face in my mind. Was he still alive? What about my mother, Chax, Nanini, Lada, and all the rest?

He looked at me, contemplating my words. Yeah nothing is impossible anymore, Kali and I are living proof of it. We survived just to get out and find everyone we loved and cared about gone.              

I turned around and walked to Kali when I heard her take in a sob. I reached her and placed my arms around her. I had no words for comfort; I had no words for hope. We are alone, after all we survived we are alone in this. I closed my eyes and held her, keeping my eyes closed to hide my own tears. Oh yeah, and there goes my hope to live. Now it’s just a matter of time before I go insane and need to be destroyed.

“Kas, you and Kali are more than welcome to stay here until we can find a solution to this. There are more than enough open rooms, and we will accommodate you with everything you need,” Melissa said from behind Kali. I looked up at her and saw the pity on her face. Yeah, getting used to people looking at me that way, what a pitiful excuse of a creature I have become
.

“That will be great, thank you,” I replied taking the invitation, knowing full well Kali and I don’t have anything to survive on out there.

“Come, I’ll take you and show you some rooms, you can pick any of them,” Melissa instructed, gesturing for us to follow. I pressed away from Kali and looked at her.

“I’m still here, and we do this together,” I soothed her, to give her some hope. She smiled and wiped her face.

“No, you have all of us,” Amon said. I looked at him.

“Yeah, looks like you got two more additions to your insane crowd, not like we have anything else to do,” I replied and smiled at Kali
.

“You are free to join us, but you’re under no obligation,” he finished. I looked at Kali to make sure this is something she is okay with too. She smiled.

“Not like we have big plans, huh?” she said. No, we don’t
.

“Okay Amon, we will pick out a room, and then you will need to do a crash course on us,” I said smiling at him; or tried my best.

“Yes, of course,” he replied, and so we turned and walked out behind Melissa and followed her as she led the way. We walked in silence and my parents faces flashed in my mind. I was no fan of my mom but I still loved her in a weird kind of way. I really hope this is just some glitch or something. Maybe we were in hell too long? Maybe our shifting got screwed up some way or another? Who knows, haven’t been at this that long and the knowledge I do have is mostly about a demon world.