Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (3 page)

“Kas.”

“So are you another dog?”

“If you are referring to a hellhound, then yes I am.”

“Perfect, another one to pound down in the arena, can’t wait,” the Jennifer Lopez girl said with a French accent, whilst looking me up and down.

“Oh please, like you can talk, werewolf,” Lada chimed in, moving forward to stand between the girl and me.

“Don’t push me, Lada,” the girl replied, a growl escaping from her throat. Oh man, she is a freaking werewolf.

“Come girls, we have to entertain the boys, leave these losers for later,” Kali said and walked out, the other two following her.

“One of these days, I’m going to kill her,” Lada declared, turning around to look at me.

“Something I should know about?” I asked, not really into the diva squad thing since I was fourteen, and being the odd kid out, I was picked on daily. So over that now.

“They think they are the bomb,” Nanini replied, pacing around in the open space in front of the bed.

“So I guess that will be the local cheerleader squad then?” I asked, still looking at the doorway the girls left from. Man I hated them in school, but now I’m stuck with the same type of divas all the time. And to add on to the whole thing, they turn into freaking werewolves.

“Yeah, every school has them right?” Nanini replied, and from the look on her face I could see that see missed out on it because she had to come here when she was eleven. I personally don’t think she missed much.

“Come on, let’s get you unpacked so we can get some grub before its time for our
Custose,
” Lada instructed and went back to the suitcase.

“Yeah, so who and what are they, just to be on the safe side?” I asked, taking some clothes from Lada again, and pointing to the door the girls were standing in earlier.

“The leader of the pack would be Kali, she is a harpy. Then the werewolf is Nina, and the blondie at the back is Juno, who is vampire,” Lada explained with a displeased face.

“Okay then. We are so not doing a slumber party with them!” I said, making a joke to try and lift the spirit in the room, and it worked, both of them laughed.

We finished unpacking and the girls showed me how to get to the mess hall, or as they put it, grub spot. Pretty much like at school, you get in line, take a tray, grab food and look for an open spot, which was easier.

The grub spot only had a few kids, from what I could see just about twenty. We went to sit down and I took my first bite when a group of four guys came to sit with us. Lada introduced me to them all, and I must admit it was quite nice talking to boys for a change, without feeling odd; and man were they fine. After we ate, we got up to return our trays to the kitchen area, the three divas checking us out with every step.

“You can actually date one of them if you are interested, the “no go zone” is officially over, they are fallen so it’s permitted. You’re going to need a date for the ball,” Lada said to me when I put my tray in the wash bin.

“Really?” I asked, excited and scared at the same time. I don’t have much experience, but hell, I wouldn’t mind getting to first base before I’m eighteen.

“Yip, it’s cool now. So grab and enjoy,” Nanini said, very pleased at the idea.

“I’ll keep that in mind when a hunk comes along,” I responded, smiling back at her.

Laughing we went outside, still on the guys subject
,
until they steered me into what looked like a huge entertainment place. A huge TV, two pool tables, and some other stuff were crammed into the room, with kids playing on them.

“We hang out here until our
Custos
come and fetch us for our training,” Lada explained, going over to the TV to flip it over to MTV. So glad we can watch the normal world from here. I was wondering if they had the same stuff, and so far it was as normal as usual.

“So, who’s your
Custos
?” Nanini asked, grabbing the pin ball machine close to us.

“I believe it’s a Chax somebody,” I replied, looking at her feet moving like they were on fire. The girl clearly had a problem keeping still, but then she suddenly stopped dead, so I looked up to see her looking at me in shock.

“You mean Chax De Luca?”

“I think so, didn’t really pay much attention to the details, one boring teacher to another isn’t worth it, right?”

“Boring will be the last thing you call a
Custos
, but Chax is the worst of them all. Vampires aren’t people persons, and man he is the worst of the lot,” Lada said next to me.

“What does that mean?”

“First of all, it means they are not old guys or woman, the fallen never grows old. Haven’t you noticed that with your parents? We hit a late twenty stage and that’s it for eternity. Second, he is a
Dominus
Custos
, being one of the first original fallen and he serves on the council. He is permanently in a bad mood.”

“Oh that’s just freaking great! I get Darth Vader?”

“Yeah, you get the most desired, sexiest vampire in existence; with a really bad attitude to completely spoil everything else.”

“Crap, that sucks,” I finished, laying my head back on the couch, my hands on my forehead. That’s all I need, an ass training me, and apparently he looks like a god to spoil every dream guy I ever had.

My life so sucks.

Chapter 2

With my hands on my head, I was still sitting there hating my life and wishing I was never born. Why do I always get the bad deals in life?

“Nanini, are you ready?” a guy’s dream voice asked from behind me. I lifted my head and turned around to see a dead sexy guy standing there looking at us.

“I see we have a new
Apprendo
. Seth De Monte,” he greeted, walking over to stand in front of me. Man this guy was beyond sexy; dark brown hair reaching his ears, blue eyes, and a smile with dimples and all. But it was his body that completely had me dumbstruck. Absolutely perfectly shaped guy with muscles, too. Lada decided then to save me and gave me a soft push. I snapped out of it.

“Hi, Kasadya Levourne, but Kas for short,” I replied, getting up to do the greeting thing. The moment my hands touched his arms, goose bumps broke out all over them. Oh boy, this guy is so hot.

“An honor, Kas,” he said smiling, giving me even more goose bumps.

“I presume Troian is your father?”

“Yes, and my mom’s Freya.”

“Good, your father is one of the best, and your mother is also very talented. I will be looking forward to seeing what their daughter can do.”

“Okay, that’s makes two of us,” I countered, and everyone laughed.

“Well Nanini, shall we be off?” he asked, still looking at me with a smile.

“Yip, let’s get this going, I have some adrenalin to work out,” she replied, her voice moving behind me.

Nodding at me and Lada he joined Nanini, and they walked out together, with me still looking at him the whole time.

“Oh man, I think you just found that hunk you were talking about,” Lada said, patting me on the back.

“Oh come on, it’s not like we can date our
Custos.
”

“Actually, you can. The moment you turned seventeen you are, by fallen law, declared an adult and can date anyone you want to. And he is available, too.”

“You’re joking right?”

“Nope, if you want you can even
pactum
with him and become mates.”

“What?”

“It means you two can bond and become husband and wife if things work out. You don’t even need your parents’ permission; and we, being hellhounds, are even pushed into it, to speed up the hellhound population.”

“Okay, I am so not doing the marry thing, and children are definitely not in my future plans; thanks. But I won’t mind hitting first base with him.”

Laughing, another guy came in and greeted Lada and I. His name was Dagon and he was Lada’s
Custos
. After the greeting they both left, leaving me alone to think about this whole business of marriage and stuff. No way in hell.

I was the last person left, everyone being collected by their
Custos
; clearly mine also had no care for the words “on time”. So I planted myself on the couch and watched MTV.

“Kasadya?” a guy’s voice said behind me. I turned around to see who it was, only to find an even sexier guy standing there.

“Yes,” I replied. He had dark brown hair reaching below his jaw, emerald green eyes, and a well-trimmed beard running around his mouth to his chin and jaw. It almost looked like he hadn’t shaved in a while.

“I’m your
Custos
. Come, Maia awaits,” he instructed, then turned around and walked out. What the-?

Jumping up I ran to catch up to him. Yeah, not even “Hi” or anything just, “Come”. Man, I have a really bad feeling about this. I caught up to him and walk behind him to the front lobby, and then outside.

“My
Apprendo
reports directly to the arena. I will not waste my time on you again, understand?” Chax said, not even bothering to look at me.

“Yes,” I replied, anger blasting through me. Okay this guy was beyond grumpy.

We walked in silence onto the brick street, passing many buildings and houses until we came to a street full of little shops. It looked a lot like the ally in Harry Potter. Reading signs from food to weapons, each shop provided something else. This must be their main street or market.

We reached a little shop almost tucked away between two bigger ones and he walked in, the door opening on its own. Inside the little shop was something more like a house, a nice lounge greeted us for a warm welcome.

“Maia,” Chax called, ignoring me.

A blonde woman came into the room from another door. She had blue eyes, a slim figure, and a beautiful, warm smile on her face.

“Chax.” She greeted him without even looking at him; her eyes were on me while she walked over to stand in front of me. “Welcome young one, I’m Maia,” she said, greeting me with her hands on my arms.

“Hi, I’m Kas,” I replied, glad to see a happy face after a half an hour of seeing only someone’s back.

“If you’re done, you need to spark her so we can return and begin her training,” Chax said. I looked behind her to see him looking at us. Wow, finally he’s at least looking at me.

“Chax, that is the only reason you ever come to me, so keep your pants on,” Maia said, still smiling at me and holding my arms. “Now let’s give you your spark and see what beautiful creature awaits us.” Suddenly I felt a buzz from her hands going into me.

It spread through my entire body, giving me goose bumps. She released me and took a step back. From the goose bumps I felt warmth spread through me, and then I felt the transformation, my muscles and skin stretching and growing. I looked at my hands and saw them turn from normal to bigger hands with sharp nails and fur spread all over them. Looking back at them, I saw that I was taller than both of them. Wow.

He was looking at me from top to toe, inspecting me without a word. I saw a small smile on his face and the moment he saw me looking at him, he turned his face to the window and walked away. Okay, so he’s a hide-and-seek kind of guy. I turned my eyes back to Maia who stood there grinning like a schoolgirl.

“Fabulous,” she said, looking at me.

“I hope it’s not bad,” I replied.

“Let me show you,” she offered, and moved her hand in the air; a huge mirror took shape in the air in front of me. Okay, now this is something new. Looking back at me was the same thing I saw with Lada, but it looked more like me. My hair was hanging over my shoulders to reach my hips, a lot longer than normal, and then I saw my wings sticking out from behind my back. Concentrating I moved them; I have no idea how, but I moved them.

They opened gracefully; I closed them again and repeated the action looking at them with awe. They are definitely bat-like, but for some strange reason they are beautiful to me now. I looked at Maia to see Chax looking at me from behind her; he turned around again, not willing to show he was a little bit interested in my hellhound form.

Smiling because he was such a blowhard, I turned to look at Maia.“Yip, not bad.”

“You’re beautiful Kas, a rare thing in our fallen forms, but clearly not in you,” Maia said, and turned around to look at Chax. “All done Chax, now you can continue your training,” she finished.

He turned around. “Thank you Maia, Vale. Kasadya come, we’re already late.” And walked to the door.

“But how do I turn it off?” I asked him, definitely not walking back looking like this.

“Just imagine it in your head Kas,” Maia instructed, pointing her finger to her temple.

Imaging it in my head, okay I can do this. Closing my eyes, I felt my body reshaping and when I looked at myself in the mirror I was back to normal. Okay I can do this. I turned to the door to see Chax standing there looking at me with a face that said “today”, so I quickly thanked and greeted Maia, and then followed him back outside.

We walked back to
The Hellhouse
. When we entered the front gate he walked around the house towards the back. I followed again without a word. Don’t want to piss off this guy. Reaching the end of the building, I could hear shouts and stuff from somewhere behind the building, and rounding the corner I stopped dead in my tracks. In front of me was the arena everyone talked about, a huge stadium-like thing. And there were pairs of creatures everywhere, sparring against one another; their
Custos
standing outside the fight giving orders.

I saw Nanini in her pink form flying in the air, throwing pink bursts of light at a half woman, half bird creature. The bird thing screamed when the pink light hit her and dove for Nanini, who simply moved out of her way at the last moment. The bird thing flew straight into another fight.

“Today Kasadya,” Chax demanded. And I looked back down to see him standing with two other people, so I quickly moved along and joined them.

“This is Arianna Facetus and her
Apprendo
Lotan; you’ll be sparring with him today,” Chax said, motioning to the two standing there. Lotan I met earlier in lunch, so I just nodded at him and greeted Arianna properly.