Hellhound Born (Kasadya #3)

by Karen Swart

  With a smile, I looked at her. “Well, let’s go see hot stuff.”

  I turned and walked towards the front door. When I stepped outside, I was greeted with the morning sunshine and birds singing. I walked towards the circle where Chax trained me when I just started out in Exsilium. I turned to see if the pain in the ass was behind me. And lookie there, she was striding towards me with a smile on her face.

  “Raven, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Max said, trying to stop her.

  “Just watch and see me kick her ass,” Raven fired back.

  Behind her, I could see Chax leaning against the wall watching us.

  “You ready to have your ass handed to you?” She announced when she reached me.

  So, Chax isn’t stopping me, oh goodie. Time for some fun.

  She started with a kick to my torso, but I caught her foot mid-kick and stopped her momentum. Her smile dropped.

  “My turn,” was the only warning she had before my fist ended up in her jaw.

  She flew back and landed on the ground. Shaking her head, she got back up again. She stormed forward, ready to punch me.

  Amateur.

  I shifted to her back and pushed her forward. Shocked, she turned and looked at me.

  “That’s cheating!” She was pissed.

  “That’s using your abilities to survive.” I corrected.

  She stormed forward again, her eyes blazing.

  “Kas, just don’t hurt her too bad,” Ben said from my right.

  Her fist flew at me, but I deflected the blow. Lifting my leg, I kicked her backwards and watched as she flew through the air, landing with a hard thud.

  Kid needs to learn to wait for the right moment.

  She flew up again, but this time she chose to shift to her Hellhound form. Her eyes flickered briefly between red and yellow.

  Crap! She was pissed.

  Okay, time for a few more lessons. I didn’t shift to hellhound, didn't really need to. She had no formal training, so her hellhound wasn’t trained to perfection like mine. Her fist came at me again. I grabbed her fist in the air and waited for her to do something. She roared and her other fist flew at my face. I ducked my head, her fist barely missing my face.

  “Kasadya, we don’t have all day,” Chax said behind me.

  I nodded and hit her full force. Her huge form landed hard, rendering her unconscious. Stupid girl needed to learn how to fight. I walked over and watched her shift from hellhound to her normal form.

  “Somebody wake the kid. We have work to do,” I stated.

  I walked away and saw Ben and Nanini move to assist her. .I reached Chax and waited for another bomb to go off.

  “If you guide her, she might be able to survive that dream you had,” he said, punctuating his words as he turned around and disappeared into the house.

  And wham! My mood dropped so fast that I had to suck in a breath. I turned around and looked at her. She was up at least, shaking her head.

  I really hate him.

  I stormed back towards her, the others scattering when they saw me approaching. Raven just looked at me with no fear. I stopped just before her.

  “You have so much to learn, Raven. Stop trying to fight everyone you see and try to learn from them. I can help you. We all can help you,” I said, my hands motioning to the others who were nodding.

  “There is a battle coming and it’s going to be brutal. If you are not ready, you won’t last long.” I tried to explain as I held my hand out to help her get up.

  I could see the impact my words had and the small flash of fear in her eyes. She nodded and took my hand.

  “Okay,” she barely whispered, trying to get up on her feet without any luck. “I'll stop being cocky.”

  Satisfied I pulled her up and help steady her, until her balance returned. I turned to look at Max who was smiling at me.

  “We need to find those princes, and speed things up. Any suggestions?” I asked him, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice.

  “I know, but our options are limited,” he replied.

  “Um Kas, what about the princess?” Nanini asked from behind me.

  I turned to look at her.

  “What do you mean?” I asked confused.

  Nanini looked around, “You know, she tried to warn us about Kali. And she said that she knew what was happening to you and that you could help each other.” She whispered the last part, scared to say it too loudly.

  My mind flashed back to that conversation we had with her highness.

  It might work. Might just be another trap. Chax.

  “Let’s tell Chax and we can let him decide.” I suggested.

  I turned and walked to the house, prepared for another bomb to go off.

  He is not going to like this. Nope, not one bit.

  Chapter 6

  “Why didn’t you tell me this?!” Chax yelled.

  Yes indeed, the bomb was detonated.

  “I didn’t think it was such a big deal.” I tried to defend myself.

  But even as the words left my mouth, I knew I was lying. I wanted to fix things on my own and all I managed to do was mess everything up.

  “Do you know how dangerous she can be?!” he fumed.

  “Chax, come on! It’s over, done. Let’s try and logically think about this,” Michael said.

  When we came back in the house, Chax was talking to Michael and Raphael. Soon, Ariel and the rest also joined the conversation.

  “Indeed,” Chax replied, but his eyes said that this discussion was just postponed.

  I sighed and slipped deeper into the chair.

  He is so predictable.

  “So what are we going to do?” Raphael asked, leaning against the door frame of the lounge. Chax turned around and it felt like a boulder was lifted off of me. He walked around the room, packed with all of us, his face strain, as he thought it over.

  “It might be another trap,” he said, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

  “Definitely a trap, but can we use it to our advantage?” Michael asked, his eyes fixed on Chax.

  “Might as well try, yesterday delivered nothing. Time is running out for us,” Chax finally said, turning around to look at us.

  “She said you should just call out to her?” he asked me.

  I nodded, not wanting to pick another fight with him.

  “Then we meet her on our grounds,” Chax said, indicating for us to prepare for a shift.

  “Caim, I want you and Zurita to stay behind with Raven. Her training needs to be quick and efficient,” Chax instructed Caim, who nodded in agreement.

  I was pretty relieved with that. She really knew how to get on my nerves. We walked outside and stood at the gate, relaxing our bodies we were ready to be shifted. Chax turned and nodded at Michael. Following suit, the other archangels shifted out.

  Damn, so they won’t be helping with this one.

  Chax shifted us to an open field. There were no houses or anything around, just a barren field with a small scattering of trees nearby.

  “I want the rest of you to form a circle around Kasadya and me. If this demon so much as steps close, you kill her,” Chax instructed the group.

  They spread out in a circle, leaving Chax and me in the middle. Once Chax was satisfied the circle is secured and ready, he looked at me.

  “Call her.” He instructed.

  I took a deep breath, hoping to hell this wouldn’t backfire on us.

  “Luxuria!” I yelled as loudly as I could.

  Now we had to wait. You could feel one of them getting closer. It was as if the wind died down, the birds stopped making sounds, and the world tried to hide from demon princes. Afraid of them. Suddenly, there she stood, glaring at each of us within the circle

  “Hellhound, you finally started thinking. Who knew you had such potential?” She smiled at me, her eyes traveling to Chax and she took a step back.

  “Chax,” she breathed.

  “Luxuria,” he replied, his eyebrows frowning at
her.

  So, the two knew each other. Why is that bothering me so much?

  Irritated, I started without Chax's assistance.

  “You said you had an offer?” I asked her, snapping the two of them out of … whatever they had been doing.

  She looked at me, but her eyes kept traveling back to him.

  “Now you want my assistance? When I offered it you didn’t listen. Now my brother is preparing his legion to march for battle. Why should I help you now?” She all but sneered at me.

  “Because I’m asking it now,” I stated, not even bothering to explain.

  She looked at me and then back at Chax. She turned, her eyes taking in the circle that surrounded her.

  “You must be sure you can kill them,” she said, not looking back at me.

  “I will kill them,” I stated.

  No way would they get the best of me again. She turned and looked at me.

  “There is no failure here, hellhound. If you fail and they escape, they will know it was me and will launch an attack against me,” she explained.

  I nodded, understanding that she was betraying them, but why I didn’t know.

  “I will lead them to a location where you can kill them,” she continued, her eyes back on Chax.

  “Why are you doing this?” Chax asked.

  She studied him for a moment.

  “When Ira died, his power was divided among the remaining princes. I want it all,” she stated, an evil smile on her face.

  “You know that I will try to kill you when I am done with them,” I retorted.

  Her head whipped around, her eyes narrowing as she focused on me. I could already hear Chax laying it on me after this was done.

  “I would expect nothing less Hellhound. When that time comes, we will meet in battle,” she agreed.

  Good, don’t want her to think we will be like friends or something.

  “But first, how will you keep them grounded? You know they shift out when attacked. Call it their survival plan?” Her eyes traveled to Chax.

  “We don’t know yet. But we will find a way,” he replied, his eyes never leaving hers.

  With a quick scan, I saw that he was on the balls of his feet, ready to attack at any moment. I refocused my attention on her. She regarded him and nodded.

  “Then find the solution and I will bring them to you,” she finished and shifted out.

  He looked around as if she was going to shift back at any moment. When nothing happened he relaxed, regaining his footing. I just shook my head. Demons love their elements of surprise. It’s not like she would look at you and then try to attack then.

  “Any suggestions on keeping the demons grounded?” Chax asked, not looking directly at anyone as he watched our surroundings.

  Silence greeted him. We stood there for a while, thinking, before Chax shifted us back to his house. Once there, we all started thinking about a solution.

  “I have nothing,” Lada said, spread out on the couch.

  “Ditto,” Nanini said from behind the couch.

  She had crawled to that spot earlier, looking for a spot in the sun.

  “It’s not like we can stop a shift,” Max said, treading holes in the carpet.

  Unless you’re Chax, my mind drifted off. With that I was up and moving around.

  That’s right! He had blocked my shift and froze me in place when we met his brother.

  “Chax, when we met your brother in the ice-lands, you did something that prevented me from shifting. What did you do?” I asked, turning to look at him.

  He was leaning against the wall and staring outside through the window. With my question he turned and looked at me, his eyes narrowed.

  “I used our link with Corra and blocked you. It’s like a charm.” He replied.

  I watched the light bulb go off inside his head, his face lightning up with comprehension.

  “If we are able to do the same charm to them, we might be able to stop them,” he finished and looked at Abby.

  With ridiculously fast sentences, he quickly explained to her what he did with me. Then POW! Ben and Max had a brainwave and the four of them were heading down to Abby's lab.

  “Wow Kas. You know how to get attention,” Nanini remarked after the four stormed out of the lounge, talking like nerds about cells, chemical reactions and more science things I haven’t heard before.

  “Clearly,” I replied.

  Raven came into the room and looked like someone tried to barbecue her.

  “What happened to you?” Nanini asked, clamping her fingers over her nose when Raven’s smell hit her.

  Raven turned and looked at her, “I ended up in some sort of sick training arena. Was fried more today, then like... Well, I haven’t been fried before today.”

  I laughed at that, because Nanini eyes grew wide and then all proud.

  “So they took you to my arena?” Nanini sparked.

  “Your arena?” Raven’s eyes were zeroing in on Nanini and I could see she was calculating.

  “Smoking hey?” Nanini ask, smiling at her.

  Raven moved pretty fast. The sound of Raven's fist against Nanini's cheek echoed through the room, just before Nanini landed on the floor.

  “There is something really wrong with you!” Raven pointed at a surprised Nanini, who was still on the floor.

  “I was almost killed today!” she yelled.

  Nanini smiled up at her, “Awesome, right?”

  Raven's fury fell when she realized that with Nanini there was just no hope. Raven turned to look at me.

  “Yeah, I was fried too, so don’t worry. What’s important is that you are still alive. Go get a shower and get changed, then I'll give you a few sword lessons.”

  She was up and out of the lounge, her feet plodding up the stairs, as soon as the words slipped from my mouth.

  “I like her,” Nanini said as she got up.

  I just shook my head. Nanini was a lost cause, so trying to explain the pain her course inflicted wouldn’t help.

  “It’s nice of you to help Raven out. Although the two of you don’t really interact that well,” Lada said, grinning at me.

  “She is a pain in the ass. But I would sleep better if I knew she was a pain in the ass for demons too.” I explained.

  I walked out towards the arena Chax used to train me. Stepping outside, I drew in a deep breath. The day was almost over and we hadn’t changed anything. Well, except for an arrangement with a demon princess, including a way to ground demons. I walked over to the wall filled with weapons and looked them over. I missed my training facility at Amon's compound. I had some bad-ass weapons that would make all these look like dingy toys.

  “Kas I would like to talk to you,” Zurita said from behind me.

  And my day is not getting better.

  With a sigh, I turned to face her.

  “Sure,” I replied, crossing my arms and waiting for her to “talk” to me.

  It was pretty clear that she was pissed off at me. She walked over to a bench and sat down.

  “I know, given the circumstances, we didn’t meet on good terms. However, I am indebted to you.” She smiled at me.

  Huh? Did I miss something?

  “For what?” I asked.

  “You may have caused a lot of trouble, but you also brought Caim and me together. And from what I hear, you also saved him. For that I am very grateful.” She got up and walked over to me.

  “I made mistakes just like you. But I know you will learn from them, just like I did.” She placed her hands on my upper arms and looked at me.

  “Okay.” was my only reply.

  With a nod she released me and turned to the house. I watched her leave, dumbfounded from our conversation. Raven came storming past her, and Zurita watched her make her way to me. A huge smile was on Raven's face. Looking back to Zurita our eyes met and with a smile she nodded at me. It would seem we had an understanding.

  Now, just to figure out what it is.

  “What are we doing fi
rst?” Raven caught my attention.

  Looking down at her and smiled. I could see the excitement in her eyes. I wish that was how I felt when Chax trained me.

  “Go get those swords over there.” I pointed to the same ones I started with. Memories of that day still fresh in my mind.

  Raven lifted them up, her face beaming with pride when she made her way back to me.

  “They are beautiful,” she said in awe.

  I pulled out my swords and her mouth dropped open.

  “We will get you your own pair. I will ask Chax when we are done,” I promised. She looked up at me surprised, “Really?” she asked uncertain.

  “Yes, and we will fix your clothes so you will have sheaths to place them in, like mine.” Her eyes became watery and she nodded, a whispered thank you escaping her mouth. I smiled at that. Poor girl, she had so much to learn.

  I moved a few steps away from her.

  “I move and you repeat with your swords. Ready?” I explained to her.

  With a nod, we began.

  I had to give Raven some credit, she was a quick learner. In no time she was perfecting her moves with the swords and moving with skill. At some point Lada, Nanini and Lotan joined us outside, all of them whooping when Raven mastered the successive move. By the time we finished, an orange sundown greeted us on the horizon.

  “Go get cleaned up again. You look like road-kill,” I joked with her, and then watched her leave.

  “Wow Kas, you are a great teacher. You're going to make one hell of a custos,” Lotan remarked.

  I stopped at his words, but didn't look at him. That would depend on if we survived the battle.

  I loved teaching. When I started teaching Kali it felt natural. Watching her perfect her moves, like Raven had done, brought joy to me. But knowing that I also trained my own enemy brought with it a new feeling. I knew that trusting wouldn’t be as easy as it used to be. But, I still want to be a custos one day. I wanted to teach others and see them grow into the warriors they were meant to be, like Max and Ben. My heart bled when I thought about Ryan. He was a good man; he hadn’t deserved to die like that.