by Karen Swart
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 dreamy 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. An 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, well, 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.
“Hell yeah, 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. 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. And he is available, too.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Nope, and if you want, you can even do a 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 increase the hellhound population.”
“Okay, I am so not doing the marrying thing, and children are definitely not in my future plans, but thanks. I wouldn’t mind hitting first base with him though.”
Laughing, another guy came in and greeted Lada and me. His name was Dagon and he was Lada’s Custos. After the introductions 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 else 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?” another male voice said from 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 stubble running around his mouth to his chin and jaw. It 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 walked 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, sir,” 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 alley in Harry Potter. Reading signs from food to weapons showed me that each shop provided something different. This must be their main street or market.
We reached a little shop, almost tucked away between two bigger ones. He walked in, the door opening on its own. Inside the little shop was something more like a house. A nice lounge greeted us as 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 as 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 staring 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 sized to bigger hands with sharp nails and fur spread all over them. Looking back at Chax and Maia, 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. Then I saw my wings sticking out from behind my back. Concentrating, I moved them. I have no idea how I did it, but I moved them.
They opened gracefully. I closed them again and repeated the action, looking at them with awe. They were definitely bat-like, but for some strange reason they were beautiful to me now. I looked at Maia to see Chax regarding me from behind her. He turned around again, not willing to show he was even a little bit interested in my hellhound form.
Smiling because he was only fooling himself, I turned to look at Maia. “Yeah, 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,” he instructed, walking to the door.
“But how do I turn it off?” I asked him, definitely not wanting to walk back looking like this.
“Just imagine it in your head, Kas,” Maia instructed, pointing her finger to her temple.
Imagine 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, no problem. I really can do this. I turned to the door to see Chax standing there, looking at me with an expression 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 noise from somewhere behind the buil
ding. Rounding the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. In front of me was the arena everyone had been talking about, a huge stadium-like thing. And there were pairs of creatures everywhere, sparring against one another, with their Custos standing around 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 the way at the last moment. The bird thing flew straight into another fight.
“Today, Kasadya!” Chax demanded. 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 will be sparring with him today,” Chax said, motioning to the two standing there. Lotan I had met earlier at lunch, so I just nodded at him and greeted Arianna properly.
“Take your places,” Chax instructed and I looked at him. What the hell then? So I looked at Lotan, who was taking a spot a few steps away from me before 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, so I guess 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 split second 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 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 once again 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. As I faced 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!” 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 back 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. Well, this is a great day for a huge embarrassing moment.
“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 replied.
Without a word they 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 replied. 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, then 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 once I passed him. Then the only sound was his footsteps as he followed 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 the
re 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,” he said as he offered me his hand. Nervous, I slowly raised my hand to his, and the moment we touched we shifted into a lounge 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 furniture. I followed him out a door to a garden with a wide open patch of grass. On the right side I could see a wide variety of weapons hanging on a wall. Someone needs a hobby. Clearly this guy was taking his job beyond the point of service.
“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, you follow.”
He walked over to a small bench, removed his jacket and dropped it there. 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; pissing him off even more was not an option.
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, the 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 beyond the horizon, leaving the sky orange and purple. I was totally wasted since he didn’t do time-outs during his training sessions. I was either going to build muscles like a gym jockey or I most likely wouldn’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 without nerves. 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 goodnight. Well, have a nice night, you ass.
Walking back to my room, I felt like a train had 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 past 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, crashing 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. 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 Lilly?” 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 traveled 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 to 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.
