Kasadya Hellhound Twisted

by Swart, Karen

  “Indeed. Today the hellhound and her friends won’t die. Her service to us is still needed,” Ballen said from somewhere. Fury slammed into me with his words. The hell I will! If he thinks I am one of his toys, he can think again. Ass.

  “You can try and entertain someone else, Gluttire. You forget I don’t really play these games. Regarding the female hellhound, you forget the destruction the first generation caused you and your legions. I seem to remember you fleeing before them, too afraid to challenge even one,” the male with the thick voice answered him.

  The one holding me snorted again at that, choking me even harder. “Release her, brother. She will come back to us,” Ballen said, appearing next to the one holding me, his hand coming to rest on his arm. The demon holding me looked at him, and then released me. Grabbing a deep breath, I backed away from the two, picking up both my swords and taking my stand against them. Ballen looked at me with a smile. “Later, my hellhound,” he said shifting out, his brothers and demons following.

  Rubbing my neck, I looked around and found three more males with wings. Archangels I presume. “Are you okay?” Max asked me, coming to stand in front of me and inspecting my neck. He tried to touch my throat but I just pushed him away.

  “Yes, you can stop fussing,” I replied, pissed off at his mothering and everything that had just happened. Shaking his head, he gave me a disapproving look. Oh just great, now I have two giving me the look. What a lucky girl I am. I slid in my swords, and glanced at the crowd around me.

  “Raphael, care to explain?” the thick dark voice asked again. This time I could see that it was a blond angel, standing even taller than Raphael. He walked slowly towards me, stopping when we were face to face, his eyes going over my neck. “Are you okay, Kasadya?” he asked, looking at me with concern. My pissed off mood just went sky high. For goodness sake, I am capable of taking a few punches and a choke or two.

  “Just peachy,” I replied. Turning around and heading straight for Kali, who was a few paces from them, I leapt into the air. I landed next to Ryan, who was already trying to get her off but failing.

  “They didn’t nail her; they bolted her to the tower,” Ryan explained, trying to undo the bolt in her feet.

  “We will get her off. Try to see if they left any equipment around, maybe we can reverse the bolts out of her,” I instructed him, trying to think of a solution. Max was just reaching her on the other side, his face filled with fury.

  “Hells bells,” I heard Nanini say, but didn’t look at her. “Now that is a sick move.”

  “Predictable for Gluttire, he loves to play with his victims before killing them,” Raphael explained to her.

  “Step aside, I will help her,” Chax said, climbing up and pushing me away. Confused, I looked at him, but did as he said. Fighting wouldn’t help now, and getting Kali off was the only thing on my mind … for the moment. Chax looked at her hands, and then looked at me. “She has lost a lot of blood, and will need a healer. The longer she stays pinned, the longer she will need to heal,” he relayed to me. I nodded, but didn’t understand why he needed to tell me that; I already knew. He turned around and climbed over her, placing one arm around her torso, he grabbed hold of an iron bar at the other side with the other one.

  “No—” I started to say and tried to stop him, but he was faster than me. He ripped her out of the bolts, her blood covering my face as I reached her left hand.

  “I’m sorry, Kasadya, but there was no other way. We need to get her to Maia,” Chax said, holding her against him. Shocked, I looked at him, her blood now blurring my vision. Can he be that cruel? I wiped it off, my eyes never leaving him. I know he has this no mercy rule, but that was just a little too much.

  “Raphael, help them into Exsilium,” he said, shifting with her still in his arms.

  Fury pounded through me. Shifting down I landed next to Raphael and the blond angel. “Kasadya, I will take you to Maia. Michael and the others will help your friends,” he said, offering me his hand. I looked at Max, and without a word he knew what I wanted to say. Nodding, he went to stand next to Amon. He needed to protect the team; my safety was not important right now. I transformed back to human form and looked at Raphael.

  “You better hope nothing happens to my friends, Raphael. Because if something does, I’ll kill every last one responsible,” I replied, taking his hand. With a concerned look, he nodded and shifted with me.

  Chapter 2

  We shifted into Maia’s lounge, and found a lot of fuss coming from the back, so without an invitation I walked to the back rooms and followed the noise. I walked down a hallway, my heart pounding with concern. What if we were too late? What if she isn’t going to make it? No, I won’t allow it!

  “We need another healer, Chax! I don’t care where you find one, just get one,” Maia said as I walked into the room.

  “Lily’s team leader is not responding to my call, do what you can,” Chax replied, turning to look at me as I entered the room. Kali was lying on a bed; Maia, who was next to her, did not notice that I had come in, her concentration was on Kali.

  “How is she?” I asked. At my words, Maia turned to look at me and jumped away in surprise. Her eyes were huge, and her face paled a little. I now see where the term “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost,” comes from. She was trying to figure out which one I was, but I guess the blood and gore over me gave her an answer.

  “Kas, dear lord, where did you come from?” she asked, her colour still pale, but her eyes slowly returning to normal size.

  “She and Kali were shifted into Hell and kept against their will. We found them with your brother tonight,” Chax answered before I had a chance. At the word brother she turned to look at him.

  “My brother?” she asked, her eyes starting to sparkle from the tears building in them.

  “Yes, it would appear that Amon was not lost as we thought,” Chax replied, and her tears started to roll down her cheeks. Glad for her, but still worried about Kali, I had no choice except to get her back on track.

  “Is Kali going to be okay?” I asked her, walking over to the bed while staring at Kali.

  “Her wounds are very bad. I need another fae to help me stop the worst of the damage, and then we can work together on healing her. And finding one is not possible at the moment,” Maia replied and came to stand next to me, her hands on Kali again. Confused, I looked at her; what did she mean by that?

  “Don’t you have a lot of fae with the healing ability?” I asked her.

  “No, only Lily and I are left after the attacks. We lost too many,” she said without glancing at me, her concentration on Kali. Attacks? What the hell?

  “What do you mean attacks?” I asked, confused at her words.

  “We will get to that momentarily. Does one of your half-breeds not have the ability?” Chax said from behind me, so I turned to look at him. Funny, I was just thinking about that, but also knew the problems surrounding that thought.

  “Yes, Amon’s mate has the ability to heal, and she is also a qualified surgeon. But Amon is very protective of her; he won’t bring her to Exsilium and place her in such danger.”

  “What do you mean half-breeds?” Maia asked. I looked at her and tried to think of a way of explaining this, but luckily Chax saved me.

  “You’ll see soon enough. I will ask Amon to assist us,” he finished and shifted out.

  “Kas, what on earth is going on?” Maia asked, returning her hands to Kali and focusing on healing her.

  “Right back at you. What attacks where you talking about?” I asked her, grabbing a cloth and trying to wipe away the blood on Kali’s face, my heart sinking to see her in such a state. All that practicing and perfecting meant nothing when it came to Ballen. What on earth was I thinking that he could be dealt with by just one fallen? That’s just the thing, I didn’t think because once again, I messed up.

  “About a year ago, the demons started to attack our fallen families on the outside; we lost many before we knew what w
as happening. Many fallen children are now orphans. ‘The Hellhouse’ has now become an orphanage instead of a training facility. It was a very bad time for all of us, even I went out in the field and tried to save as many as I could,” Maia said, tears starting to fall down her cheeks again. I could see the weight she carried with that. Memories have a way of holding you captive; forgetting is sometimes impossible.

  So the demons attacked our Earth bound families, and from what I could see did some very heavy damage. “How is that possible?” I asked her, unsure of how such a thing could happen. How would they know where to find them? The answer whispered inside my head, yeah I just knew how they would know. Traitorous fallen scum. But to voice it now would probably not be a good idea. Seeing her tears, I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her what I knew.

  “We don’t know. Chax and Vulcan suspect that the demons gathered Intel all over the world. Then, knowing where all the families were, they attacked simultaneously. I can’t even begin to describe what we saw, Kas.”

  I just can’t imagine the chaos that took place. Parents trying to fight off demons and keep their children safe at the same time. It was unimaginable. As a team we stand a better chance of winning, but just two against a pack of demons—and with their children a concern while they fought—it would be a death sentence.

  “Is that why we could not shift into Exsilium when we escaped?”

  “Yes, the council thought it better to seal Exsilium. We didn’t know what other Intel the demons had gathered, and sealing it was the best solution.” True, with such chaos one would go the extra mile when it comes to protecting your people. But at what cost?

  “Yeah, I understand, but how many like us are still trapped out there?”

  She looked at me, and I could see the questions running through her mind. They didn’t think about the survivors, what would the children who escaped do? I felt the air move and watched as Chax shifted in with Amon and Melissa at his side. Amon didn’t look happy at all, but knowing Melissa, he didn’t have much of a say over the situation.

  “Oh dear heaven, what happened to her?” Melissa said the moment her eyes landed on Kali. She moved at lightning speed, shoving me out of the way, her hands on Kali and transforming to her purple colour. About three months after her spark she discovered that she could heal with her hands. From there she experimented a lot with human healing and fae, the results phenomenal. On one occasion, she actually saved one of the human’s hands that almost got bitten off by a demon. If not for her healing ability and medical knowledge, he would have had one hand missing today.

  “What in the world?” Maia asked, her eyes huge with the sight of Melissa, whose transformation was just half fae. Her hair purple, but the rest still human. Clearly someone would need to explain now.

  “Sister, this is my mate, Melissa. She is a half-breed fae,” Amon said, moving to stand next to Melissa while looking at Maia. His eyes carried a mixture of happiness but remained frightened for Melissa. I was glad to be in Exsilium again, but worried about what was going to happen to us.

  “Amon? What on earth is going on?” Maia asked, her eyes roaming over Melissa, and then moving towards him. She was about to freak out totally. I stepped forward with my hands raised, about to try to calm her, but I was too late.

  “That is what I want to know, too,” a female voice said from behind us. We all turned to look at a female fallen, and oh crap, the Dominus Custos fallen from the council. Chax moved to block her view of Melissa and I followed, transforming on the first step, weapons drawn. If she even thought about hurting her, she would be dead.

  “Jules,” Chax said, nodding with his head to greet her.

  “Chax, what is that creature standing next to the bed?” she asked, her hand pointing at Melissa.

  “I will explain later, we first need to heal the harpy,” Chax replied. He was readying himself on the balls of his feet, and that made me even more edgy. If he was preparing for a fight, then this was really not a good situation.

  “You will explain now! As a council member, you know that such things should be reported immediately,” she threw back at him, her eyes resting on me. “The rogue hellhound? You bring our enemy to our only place of safety? I would have never expected you of such a betrayal,” she said, looking at him with a mixture of anger and hurt.

  “I have explained to you and the council that my brother reported her to be a prisoner. She is no rogue,” Chax said, moving to take her on. His face close to hers, he stopped.

  “You have no proof of that, she left Exsilium because of her punishment. She became a rogue. Was it not your own words that she preferred to walk away with the demons?” Jules replied, pushing her face into Chax’s. Oh great, so Chax totally messed up my life in Exsilium. Nice going, idiot!

  “Glad to see some things are still the same. I would really suggest you don’t try anything, Jules. Except for Kas, I will not hesitate when it comes to the safety of my mate,” Amon said next to me, moving forward to stand next to Chax.

  Jules looked at him, and her eyes went even wider. Stepping back, she looked at all of us and shifted out. Oh crap, here we go. Time to get the hell out of here!

  “We need to get Kali and Melissa out of here now,” I said turning around, and transforming back to normal. I marched over to the bed and started to place my hands under Kali, but Maia grabbed my arms.

  “Kas, we are immortal to a certain point. If we don’t heal her fast enough, she will die. You can’t move her.”

  “We have no choice, Maia. As you can see, we are not welcome in Exsilium,” I sneered. Damn them all.

  “We will take that step when the time comes, Kasadya. Now step away and let the fae heal Kali. I won’t let her die because you are afraid,” Chax said from behind me. At the word afraid I released Kali and turned to look at him. Oh, he didn’t just call me a coward!

  “Afraid? Chax, do you even know what Kali and I had to face down there? Do you really think that I am afraid of you or your friends? Let’s get one thing straight. If I have to eliminate a few fallen to ensure my friends—whom have stuck with me through everything—are safe, then I will. I will not hesitate, and I will not back down for you or anyone else. So you better get that very quickly. If your friend is about to make a wrong move, she and everyone that tries with her, will die.” When I finished, I was looking down at him. Somewhere in all that I transformed and didn’t even know I was doing it. The look on his face said he got the message.

  “I understand.” His eyes were fixed on mine.

  “Kas, it’s okay. I will not let anything happen to Kali; she is as much my friend as yours. If we need to fight our way out of this we will,” Melissa said from behind me. I turned around and looked at her. Smiling, Amon walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek.

  “My little fireball, always ready for a fight. Kas, we do this as a team,” he said, grinning at me, but I didn’t feel like returning it. I had a really bad feeling about this. Suddenly, a huge fight came from the lounge and all three of us moved to see what was going on. Halfway there we found Max, Ben, and Ryan trying to push past Caim, Lotan, and Don.

  “You need to relax. Nothing will happen to them,” Don said to Max, but he just pushed him away, and stormed forward with Ryan on his heels.

  “Yes, because we will be there to protect them,” Max threw back at Don, who was trying to get a hold on him.

  “Okay, you can chill. We are still alive and kicking,” I said and they all turned to look at us. Max’s face went from pissed off to relieved. He marched forward and stopped in front of me.

  “You guys okay?” he asked, and knowing the look on his face he was ready to tear down this place and take some heads in the process.

  Rolling my eyes at him, I turned around to get back to Kali. “Yes, of course. You name one day that someone wasn’t trying to kill us. We should be used to it by now,” I replied, catching Chax’s eyes as I walked past him to the room.

  “How is she?” Ryan asked from beh
ind us, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Kali. Yeah, she looked bad. Her skin colour was a blue grey, which indicated that she had lost a lot of blood, and the black under her closed eyes didn’t help much.

  “Is ... is she going to be okay?” he asked, walking slowly to stand at her feet. Maia and Melissa were holding her and concentrating like hell to heal her.

  “She will be fine, Ryan. You know her, always a fighter,” I replied, walking to stand next to him, both of our eyes on her. I really hope that fighter part is true; she looked really bad from where I stood.

  “Come, we will wait in the lounge and let the fae have their space to attend to her,” Chax said and walked out. The rest followed him, but Ryan and I were still standing there looking at her.

  “Come you two. Let’s give them the space they need,” Amon instructed, pulling Ryan out of the room. I took a last look at her and hoped to hell she was going to be okay, then followed them to the lounge where I found everyone crammed into the space. The whole gang, from ours to Chax’s, was waiting. Chax was leaning against the wall, looking down at the floor with a frown.