Kasadya (Hellhound Awakened) (4 page)

“Take your places,” Chax instructed and I looked at him, what the hell then? So I looked at Lotan taking a spot a few steps away from me, turning around to look at me.

“Begin,” Chax said and Lotan changed into a big red guy with black tattoos running all over him; oh boy this doesn’t look good. He stood there waiting for me, so I looked over to Chax, who was already pissed off at me for not doing something.

“Transform Kasadya and begin!” he shouted at me. Okay, I imagined the normal thing; let’s try imagining the hellhound thing. Closing my eyes and concentrating I felt my body change again, and when I opened my eyes I was just a head shorter than Lotan. Smiling, he made the first move and charged at me.

Holy freaking hell! He stormed at me full speed his arm ready to punch me. Shocked, my body reacted on its own. Using my wings I lifted myself up a little and moved out of his way a moment before impact. Unlike the bird thing, he turned gracefully and punched me in the face. I went flying back and landed on my back, my wings trapped between the ground and me. Crap that hurt like hell.

Lotan was on top of me, pushing me down with a smile and pinning me to the ground. He opened his mouth and teeth like a shark’s came into view. Moving forward and heading for my neck.

“His bite will paralyze you, act now!” Chax yelled at me from somewhere behind me. Oh crap, no way in hell is this guy biting me. Digging my feet in the ground and using my wings at the back, I pushed up my lower body with such force I flung Lotan over my head, his head hitting the ground. The moment he was off me, I was back on my feet backing away from him.

“Good, now take him down!” Chax yelled again. But I just stood there looking at Lotan getting back up again. I’m a freaking girl; girls don’t fight like this. Damn, my cheek was thumping from the blow. The moment Lotan was up he stormed for me again, this time tackling me like a football player. My breath slammed out of me and I was lying under him, struggling to take a breath. He pinned me down, and then the shark teeth were heading for me again. With a quick movement I pulled my hand from his grip and went for his throat. I saw his eyes go wide and then he transformed back to normal, my hand still on his throat squeezing it.

I saw two hands coming into my view, going for my hand. Out of shock, I reacted and went into overdrive. I pushed Lotan away, he went flying through the air, and using my wings I was up on my feet again and ready for some more sick fun. Facing Chax, whatever look I had on my face, had him changing into his fallen form. He was two feet taller, and two huge fangs were sticking out of his mouth. The rest of him was still what you could call normal, ready to take me down.

Ready to kick his ass, I started to circle him, until someone’s voice pulled me back to reality. “Kas, don’t, he’ll hurt you, just take a deep breath and calm down.” I turned my head to look into Seth’s beautiful face, and did what he said. Inhaling deeply and releasing it, I calmed down. Still looking at Chax I slowly backed off, taking slow steps backwards, straight into Seth’s arms.

“It’s okay, you’re okay,” he whispered in my ear, and only then did I notice that my arm was back to normal, and I was shaking like a Chihuahua.

“What in heaven’s name where you thinking Chax? She just got here and you just throw her into this, expecting her to do what the others have been doing for weeks. Where are your brains!?” Seth yelled at Chax, my head in his chest and still shaking. Boy, I have never been so scared in my life, this is hectic stuff.

“She is my
Apprendo
. I train her, not you!” Chax yelled back at him.

“Look at her for God’s sake, she is in shock. You don’t just throw someone without experience into a fight like that, and against an Impon for heaven’s sake!” Seth continued.

“Release her now; protecting her won’t help her. She must learn in order to survive!” Chax yelled back at him.

“No,” Seth said and kept me in his arms. The next moment I was plucked from him and Chax’s face came into view. He was still transformed and looking at Seth. When I looked at Seth he had also transformed into what could only be called a werewolf. The same height as Chax he faced off with him, growling.

“You want a go at me Seth?” Chax asked, moving me from between them to his back, never releasing his hold on me. Damn this sucks.

“Any day,” Seth growled back at him.

“Stop you two!” Arianna yelled from the left. “Seth, you know we don’t interfere with each other’s methods, Chax has his own way of training.”

“Look at her Arianna; do you think his methods are acceptable?”

“No I don’t, but she is still his
Apprendo
and he alone trains her. You and I cannot intervene,” she continued.

Without a word they just looked at each other. After a while Chax transformed back to normal, turned around, and grabbed me around the bicep pushing me back towards the building. He shuffled me through a hallway, all the way to a lounge area without saying a word, then pushed me down in a chair and released me.

“If you ever try to attack me, you better know what you’re doing. Unlike the others, I will engage and I will hurt you, understand?”

“I didn’t mean to,” I croaked out, near the point of crying. How humiliating, being dragged away like that.

Without a word we just looked at each other. I felt a tear drop down my face, over my cheek, and I looked down at my lap. He turned around and left me alone in the room; the moment I felt safe I burst into tears. The guy’s insane! I have a freaking insane
Custos
, and he’ll kill me before I even reach week two.

With my hands over my face, I heard footsteps and quickly pulled myself together; a pair of men’s legs in jeans came into view.

“Are you okay, Kas?” Seth asked, and then bent down to look at me.

“Yeah I’m okay, just had the wits scared out of me. Thanks for helping me, and sorry for the trouble.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’ve never approved of his methods and that makes the two of us incompatible.”

“Yeah, he is a pretty tough guy.”

“No not tough, he is out of touch with normal emotions,” he said, and when he raised me up to take me into his arms again, I went without resisting. His arms were very comforting and I allowed myself the moment.

“I wish I could get you transferred to another, but it has never been done before.”

“It’s okay I’ll survive. Have to, right?”

He released me and we looked at each other, he leaned closer with his mouth. Just when he was about to kiss me, Chax came into the room. Seth stopped and looked up at him.

“Come Kasadya, we will train at my house. There are too many distractions here,” Chax said, and stepped to the side. Opening the door he waited for me to follow. I looked at Seth and smiled then turned and walked out.

“Careful, Seth, you play with fire,” I heard Chax say and then the sound of his footsteps following me. I just continued walking until we reached a set of doors where I stepped aside for him to take the lead. He walked by me like I wasn’t even there and just continued to storm down the next hall. Oh boy, I’m going to have one hell of a time with this guy; clearly he is not a people’s person.

After a moment he stopped and turned around to look at me. “I can see this is going to take too long, take my hand,” and he offered me his hand. Nervous, I slowly moved my hand to his, and the moment it touched his we shifted into a lounge room, filled with antique furniture. He let go of my hand and walked out of the room. I followed him, all the while looking at the paintings and stuff. We were walking out a door to a garden with a wide open patch of grass. On the side I could see weapons and stuff hanging on walls.
Oh boy this guy needs a hobby
. Clearly this guy is taking his job beyond the point of serve.

“We will practice here for the next few days. I want to make myself very clear. When you go out in the field you will meet much more dangerous creatures than here, and they will not stop before they kill you. There will be no one to save you but yourself. You fail here and you will die out there. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good, we will begin with basic battle techniques. I’ll show, and you follow.”

He walked over to a small bench, removed his jacket and flung it over the bench. Now in just a t-shirt and jeans, he was walking to the middle of some type of ring and looked at me waiting. I moved over quickly, so as not to piss him off again.

Then he started with a basic punch move and I followed. We did a few, and every now and then he had to move my arm or twist my hand, to ensure that I get the technique before we continued. I must confess, this guy moved very gracefully. I found myself fascinated with him every time he showed me a move. This guy can fight.

We continued until the sun’s final rays peeked out from behind the horizon, leaving the sky orange and purple. I was totally wasted, since he doesn’t do time-outs during his training sessions. I’m either going to build muscles like a gym jockey or I most likely won’t be able to move tomorrow, the last one a hundred percent guaranteed.

“Tomorrow after lunch I’ll meet you at the front door. I will shift you here but by the time we are finished you will take over the shifting and then be on your own.”

“Okay.” Like I have a magic wand stuck somewhere.

He offered his hand again and this time I took it a little more easily. And, like that, I was standing in the front lobby of
The Hellhouse
. The moment I released his hand he shifted out without even saying good-bye or night. Man he needs some classes on manners.

Walking back to my room I felt like a train hit me, each step was agonizing, my muscles straining from all the exercise they had this afternoon. I made it into the hall to find the three divas standing at the first door talking to someone. Just moving passed them I ignored them and walked to our room. The moment our door came into view I sighed and walked inside to find Nanini jumping on a spot and Lada on a laptop.

“Wow girl, you look wasted,” Lada commented.

“You don’t want my body at this moment,” I replied, and walked to my bed and crashed on it.

“Yeah, Chax really packs one hell of a training punch,” Nanini said, coming to pace in front of me.

“Yeah, he’s what I would call a lady-killer,” I replied, and tried to roll over to get back up again, without any luck.

“Seth was totally pissed at him the whole afternoon; Arianna had to calm him down a few times,” Nanini continued, and leaned over to look me in the eyes.

“Yes, he is fascinated with the new girl,” Lada said, laughing softly.

“Hey, cut me some slack here. Just went through one hell of a day and it’s not even over yet. Man I’m so sore.”

“How are you going to get to the grub spot like this?” Nanini asked, still hanging over me.

“Definitely not going to make it, don’t even think the bathroom is reachable at this point.”

“Nanini go get Lilly, she’ll be able to help Kas,” Lada instructed, and Nanini ran out of the room.

”Who’s Lily?” I asked, worried that someone was going to help me into an even worse situation.

“She is spirit fae, like Maia. Able to leave you sitting on the ground like a little child in the hot spot corner; or in your case, able to remove the pain from your muscles so that you can get up, go eat, and have a bath.”

“You think she will come and visit me every night?” I asked, still trying to get off the bed. Stupid guy, how the hell did he want me to train if I couldn’t even move the next day?

Hello, I hear I have a patient waiting for me,” a girl said, and came to lean over me smiling.

“If you can take the pain away, I’ll be your best buddy until the end of days,” I said, begging her to help me.

“Don’t worry, we do this all the time.” She placed her hands on my shins, and just like with Maia, a buzz went into my body followed by goose bumps. Then the warm feeling spread through me, taking away the pain.

“That feels so good, thank you,” I said, to the girl who was now green from top to toe.

“No problem, hope you feel better in a few minutes. I’ll see you guys. Still have to get ready for supper,” she replied, and walked out of the room.

“I like her,” I said, and we started laughing.

After a few minutes I got up, took a shower, and then we made it to the grub spot. I ate the entire plate. The girls went to the entertainment room, but I called it a night and went straight for bed; crashing on it with such force, I bumped it in into the wall. Holy crap, I hope tomorrow will be better. My first day here totally sucked big time.

Chapter 3

After I finally convinced myself to get up and start a new day, we went to breakfast. Lotan had been watching me since last night, but made no attempt to confront me or anything. That made two of us, still trying to forget my
Custos
dragging me away like a little girl, idiot.

Then it was time for “Class” as the girls put it. Basically we all gathered in a theater type room, with Vulcan talking in the front. We began with a few laws that we needed to get into our skulls. One law that said a male and female pair goes out in the field had me thinking for a while. Yesterday I couldn’t help but notice that all the girls had a guy
Custos
and the boy’s had girl
Custos
; why on earth would they do that? Wouldn’t two girls get along much better, than a grumpy old guy and a seventeen year old girl?

“May I ask a question?” I asked Vulcan, interrupting him while he was explaining a law to us.

“Of course Kas, go ahead.”

“Why do you pair girls with guy’s
Custos
, and vice versa for the boys?” I asked, watching Kali turn around looking at me with interest. Okay, so I’m not the only one left in the dark here.

“You are the first one in many years to ask that question. Out in the field we have various demons to destroy. Some are more powerful than others, some so powerful not even a fallen alone can withstand them. Many years ago, before the humans 1300’s, we had huge problem with two types of demons. These two types still exist, and have become even more powerful then in those years.