by Karen Swart
Chapter 21
After getting my nerves back and slowing down my heartbeat, I turned around to face the entrance. Luckily, the showers had stall doors on them or I would have kicked myself later. There I saw him leaning against the doorframe, smiling at me.
“Yes?” he replied, still grinning.
He looked normal, like nothing had happened. But then again, I also looked pretty normal until Maia gave me a spark and then my life pretty much went haywire from there.
“Are you okay?” I asked shakily, still trying to get a grip from the shock.
“Except for my favorite shirt being ruined… yes, I feel fine, thank you,” he went on. That’s so not cool, moaning about a freaking shirt when he almost died. Anger took over the fear part in me.
“If you ever do that again, I’ll kill you myself!” I yelled at him, pissed off. But I think it was more a reaction to fear rather than anger.
He laughed at my outburst. “Yes, of course, Kasadya,” he replied and turned around to walk off, leaving me there still staring.
“Kas, what the hell did you do?” Kali asked me, her face still in shock. Oh damn, if I think I was in trouble before, I just did a supernova on trouble.
“I had no choice; I couldn’t let him die,” I pleaded with her.
“Answer me!” she yelled at me, her shocked expression was changing to anger like a light switch; I cringed and looked down to the stall floor.
“He was dying, so I made a choice. I remember Lada and me talking about our blood, and how it was tainted, so I took a gamble.”
“What gamble?”
“I made him swallow my blood, like they do in the movies.”
Silence followed so I looked up to see if she was still there. Yep, standing there covering her mouth with her hand. She looked at me totally shocked. “Kali?” I asked, scared she’d start running or something.
Her hand dropped away and she stood there looking at me. “I understand, given the circumstances, you had a valid reason. But I fear you just gave Amon the ammo he needed to create his ultimate army,” she finished and walked out, leaving me with that thought.
Oh damn, I am so in trouble. If any Fallen are still out there, I just became their number one target. Thinking on a plan of action, I quickly got out and dried off to get dressed. I walked outside to see if I could find Kali or someone, but no one was there. I started running at super speed looking for them, especially Amon. I found Kali and the other guys in the command room, but no Max, Melissa, or Amon. Oh damn. Kali gave me a scary look and I cringed. Damn, I need to move fast and try to defuse this. I turned into the hallway and started running again.
I found them in Amon’s office. The moment I entered, they stopped the conversation. Taking slow steps towards them, I looked at Max. He looked okay; his hair was wet from a shower, but he looked really okay. Then I turned my eyes on Amon and saw the excitement on his face. “No!” I said to him, making sure he got the message.
“Kas, you’re a genius,” he replied.
“I said no, Amon,” I pushed out the words to emphasize my resolve. He looked at Melissa, so my eyes followed. Her face was shining and I knew they already decided to do it.
“Amon, we don’t know what my blood really did to him; we need to take this slowly and see what’s up,” I pleaded, returning my eyes to him.
“I don’t care; I want to stay with him,” Melissa said, so I looked back to her.
“Melissa…”
“No, it’s my life. I will decide. And I say he will give me his blood so that we can see what happens. When you find your love, Kas, you’ll understand why I made this choice,” she said and took Amon’s hand into hers. “We do it now,” she finished and pulled him out of the room.
“Wait!” But they just ignored me and walked off. I was about to follow them when Max grabbed my arm.
“Kasadya, you won’t change their minds,” he said, turning me around to face him, his hand holding me in place. “I’ve been trying since I walked in here,” he finished.
“This is dangerous; the Fallen will have my head for this,” I replied. His eyes went soft for the first time since I met him.
“Yes, I agree. Thank you for taking that chance with me,” he responded, releasing my arm. Damn, he just blew out my flame.
“You were different. What they are doing is wrong.”
“I know, but see their point in this. Every day she grows older and Amon doesn’t; now they may have a way to delay it, or maybe even cancel out the whole thing.”
“At what cost?” I asked him, unable to take my eyes from him. For the first time I saw a man, not a soldier.
He smiled. “We’ll take it one step at a time,” he answered, still looking at me.
Because some steps are worth taking. Damn, I hate my life. “Okay, we will see where this goes,” I replied, and turned around to walk out.
“Kasadya, I won’t forget what you did for me today,” he promised from behind me. I just nodded and walked out of the command room to find Kali and tell her she was right. I was in huge freaking trouble.
I was about to hit the corner when a woman’s scream echoed down the hallway. Not just any woman; it was Melissa. Following the sound, I ran super-fast to see what was up. I reached a door and just put my hand on it to open when she screamed again. I flung it open and walked in. She was on the bed, having the same reaction to the blood that Max had with mine. Amon was trying to help her.
“Yeah, not pretty, is it?” I threw at him. He looked up and then I saw his tears, damn. I went to stand on the other side to help hold her down.
“How long did it last?” Amon asked me, tears running down his face. He must really love her.
“A few minutes, and then Max went into dead mode,” I replied, looking at Melissa. Her eyes were huge from the pain, but it was too late now.
We held her down and her screaming started to quiet down. Just like Max, she went into dead mode; no breathing, nothing. This time I stayed put, needing to see this. Minutes went by and I was starting to go into panic. Amon was restless as well; he kept feeling her face and stuff. Losing hope, I decided to get up and kill Amon. The moment I was on my feet, she flew up into a sitting position, taking in a deep breath and scaring the daylights out of me. I jumped away from the bed in shock, and bumped into a hard chest. Without caring whose it was, I stayed put, watching her.
Oh man, that is just freaky. She looked around and the moment she saw Amon, she grabbed him. “Never do that to me again,” she blurted out, hugging him. He was kissing her head and anything he could get his mouth on.
“Never,” he agreed, a tear falling down his cheek. Okay, I can do the slicing, fighting, and even headless stuff, but this was too much for me. I walked out of the room to go stand in the hallway, bracing my hands on the wall and taking in deep breaths.
“I can see now why you thought I didn’t make it,” Max said from my left. I looked up to find him standing there, looking at me. Oh, he was the chest. Damn.
“Yes, you have to admit that was beyond scary, not to mention freaky,” I replied, straightening up to look at him.
He smiled. “I’m glad I was the first one to scare you,” he teased and walked back into the room. Shaking my head at his joking in a time like this, I went to knock on the door.
“Guys, are you okay?” I asked, concerned for Melissa.
“Yes, you can come in,” Melissa said, so I walked in to find her standing and looking at herself. “I don’t feel different,” she told us, looking back up at Amon and then Max.
“Yes, I don’t feel a difference either,” Max pitched in, and then all of them looked at me.
I held up my hands in surrender. “Don’t ask me. I never tried it before,” I threw back to get them. They looked at each other.
“So, what are we then?” Melissa asked, looking at everyone.
“It’s difficult to tell. In all my years, I’ve never heard of something like this ever being done. We need to test the limits of this,�
�� Amon said, looking at Max, who nodded.
“I agree. We can do it with me. That way Melissa will not be harmed in the process,” he replied and walked out of the room, sparing me a smile. I looked at him, confused, and then returned my eyes to Amon again.
“What the hell is he smiling about?” I asked him. Amon smiled.
“He’s going to play test dummy and test his newfound body,” he answered, and then I heard my name being called in the hallway.
“Kasadya, I can use some help!” Max yelled. Fury pounded through me.
“I’m going to kick your butts for this,” I said to Amon and walked out of the room, only to find Max walking a few meters in front of me. I kept my eyes on him, observing him from behind. We walked past the command room, and I gestured for Kali to fall in. She quickly caught up and walked next to me.
“What now?” she asked.
“Amon did the same with Melissa, and now Mad Max wants to test his newfound life,” I replied, pointing to Max.
“Kas, you really need to think before you do things like this. You are creating world scale disasters,” Kali threw back at me, but man was she right.
“Agreed. No more brain waves from me,” I said, and looked at her to find her smiling at me. Yeah, I’m an idiot; I know.
Max led us all the way to the court and walked to stand in the middle, looking at us. I stopped and folded my arms across my chest, looking at him. We stood there for a while until Max rolled his eyes. “Kasadya, I need some help,” he pleaded. Oh, I’ll help him, back into near death. I just stood there, ignoring him.
“Kas, just get it over with,” Kali said next to me. I shook my head and walked up to him. He greeted me with a smile.
I stopped in front of him and looked at him, trying to figure out how to test him. “So, any ideas?” he asked me.
“When I came to Exsilium, my Custos took me to a spirit fae to get a spark. Before that I was normal, but afterwards all hell broke loose,” I told him, trying to find a solution.
“Then you’re lucky to have a spirit fae around for this,” Amon said from behind me. I turned to look at him, incredulous. Of course. He released Melissa and walked over to Max, holding out his hands. Max looked at them and then locked his hands onto his arms. Amon closed his eyes and concentrated. I looked back at Max to see what was happening. I saw the moment he felt the magic. He frowned, looking at me.
“Brace yourself, cowboy. This is going to be rough,” I warned him playfully, grinning. Payback can be so nice. His eyes grew wide and Amon released him, stepping back. Just like with a Fallen, Max started to transform, but it took longer than with a Fallen. It also looked painful, more painful than it had been for me to shift. But a few minutes later, and I’m sure a few screams held back from him, a half hellhound and half Max was standing there looking at us. Unlike me, he still had his human flesh and eyes. The only things giving away that he was not completely human were the big black bat-like wings on his back, two horns on his forehead, and of course he was way taller than usual. Yep, I’m freaking Frankenstein!
He looked at himself, and the moment his wings opened up he tried to turn to look at them, which was impossible. I could look at mine, but it was because they were way bigger than his. He looked back to us. “So, what am I?” he asked. I looked at Amon, waiting for a reply but he just stood there, his jaw open. Great, the freaking fae was stunned. I looked back to Max.
“I believe you’re a half-breed hellhound,” I answered. He made the frown again. “Look, I was born from a Fallen pair, so I’m a purebred Fallen. You came from two humans. So by taking my blood, only a few Fallen elements were brought into you, thus ending up in what can only be called a half-breed,” I finished, shaking my head at watching too many stupid movies to come up with that explanation.
“Holy hell.” Kali said from next to me, so I turned to look at her. “Kas, if the Fallen see this, I believe you’re dead,” she went on. I took it in gracefully.
“I’m dead anyway,” I replied, and she looked away from Max to me, sorry written all over her face. What the hell. Might as well enjoy the ride until it’s over. So I shook off the dead ring and looked back at Max. “Let’s see what you can do,” I said, transforming to Fallen and walking to take a sparring stance against him.
He looked at me, waiting for me to say something. “Okay, your wings are your greatest weakness, but with the right training, can also be your best asset,” I said, snapping out my wings for him to see how I used them. I have mastered the art of moving one without the other, which really helps if you need to knock a demon or two away from you.
So, Max and I started training all over again. I became a Custos and taught him everything I knew. It took a few weeks, but slowly he started to transform into a Fallen. Just like with me, his wings grew bigger and stronger with each training session. Kali took over the training with the human guys, to make sure they are not killed. We were able to convince Amon not to create more half-breeds. He agreed to only use it as the last option. Up until now, we only had four half-breeds, two hellhounds and two fae. Kali refused to give blood, and I didn’t push her any further. So, it was between me and Amon to train the half breeds. We discovered later that the fae also just needed a spark, and there you go, magic half breeds.
Unlike the other fae, the only indication of change in the half breed fae was a change in hair color. We all trained hard and made sure they all lived up to their Fallen bodies. I must admit I had some sympathy for Chax after the third day of being a Custos. Man, I wanted to kill Max a few times. But alas, we were still going. Even Melissa joined in on the fun, but we all agreed she wouldn’t go out hunting; she accepted and just trained herself at the compound.
Kali and I got to know the humans and half breeds a lot better. Kali was even dating Ryan. Absurd I know, but I wasn’t complaining. After all we went through, she deserved some fun. The first time the demons saw Max, they all stood there shocked, so we quickly did some real damage before their brains could kick back into action. From there we stormed club after club, after club.
But we never saw another Fallen again. We did however find a few clubs that were already shut down. No demons in sight. What was strange was that our informant reports that the club was in working order the day before; I could only hope that it was them. I still punish myself by trying to shift into Exsilium, but still nothing.
“Okay, tonight we hit Los Angeles. So, let’s get this started,” Amon instructed, sliding in his swords. Shifting also got a whole lot easier. Just like Chax showed me, I trained them all. Found a nice cave in Brazil that also helped. I must confess that it took a long time, but we got them shifting and boy did I have fun with Max in the cave. Chax would have been so proud.
The humans locked in with us, ready to shift. Max looked at me and smiled. I returned the smile. During all this training and stuff we became good friends. Kali sensed before me that when I fought alongside Max, he kept me on the calm side. He kept me from going insane. The moment my yellow eyes go red, he would step in and take me down or something. So far I still had yellow eyes and was sane. Let’s hope it lasts.
So, we shifted to a new club we learned about in Los Angeles, landing in the alley next to it. “Okay, Kas, Kali, go check out the club and report back,” Amon told us. So Kali and I got our girl power out and walked over to the club. We don’t flirt anymore. Now we just use our feminine side to get in, check out the place, and report back. Then we all shift in, using Kali and me as the locators, landing in the spots we had picked out.
We got in like always and checked out the vibe. Yep, about fifty demons and a lot of humans. I looked around and stopped dead in my shoes. There, sitting on a couch, was Mr. Ballen and his crew. I looked around and found Kali staring at them. The look on her face said he was so dead. Luckily she looked for me and when we made eye contact, told each other without words to report back, so we shifted out to the others and laid out the plan.