Kasadya Hellhound Awakened

by Karen Swart

  Chapter 18

  After a long time standing there and trying to think of solutions, I gave up in defeat. I looked back up at them and told myself to get over it. I either end up mated, or be destroyed. I didn’t give a freaking damn anymore.

  “Okay, I got the message. Now, tell me what the hell you’re doing here with humans?” I threw back at him. He gestured for us to sit and took his place next to Melissa, continuing with his food. Kali and I sat down again. She dug back into her food, but I was too pissed off. I just looked at him and Melissa.

  “About thirty years ago, I was on a hunt, tracking down three demons that were becoming a menace to a small town. I traced them all the way to another town. By the time I got there, they had already started to attack some of the people. But instead of humans fleeing, there were four human males fighting back. They didn’t run away; instead they fought until the last one dropped to the ground, but the best was still to come. I was about to move forward to kill the demons, when the entire village stopped running and screaming. When the last human male fell, they all attacked the demons. The three demons were killed by them that day. By ordinary ‘helpless’ humans, not by Fallen.

  “Just like you, I was told that humans had no courage and would not stand to fight off demons to save themselves, but that night I saw a different version of humanity. Humans are strong, not like a Fallen, but together they make a good team. They have courage, more than I can say for some Fallen. But the most important element to them is their love and loyalty to each other. Yes, many humans will run and not stand for a fight, but humans like Melissa, Max, and the others are not like that. After that night, I decided to study humans and found more and more of them were standing up against demons and not running anymore; humanity was fighting back. I returned to Exsilium and addressed what I had seen before the council. I begged them to listen to me and to take some of the humans to train them, to see if we could be assisted by them in this war.

  “But like always, they just pushed it aside and clamped down on the law. I went back to the human world and continued my service. One night, I found Melissa’s father fighting a demon. Not willing to see another good human fall, I stepped in and killed the demon. Afterwards, her father and I talked. I explained to him about the Fallen and their war with demons. That night he rounded up about fifty men who wanted to train, who wanted to help. I never returned to Exsilium. Instead I started this facility and trained humans to kill demons.

  “The men you saw sitting here are the second generation of fighters I command. These are the sons of the first men who started this quest, and the generations to come will continue on,” Amon finished and sat back looking at us.

  Wow, now that’s another point of view. Okay, yes, I agree they have the courage and stuff for the job, but unlike us, they don’t make it past fight one alive. At least we have a fifty percent change of going to fight two.

  “I understand everything you’re saying, and yes, I know there are a lot of humans like your men who do fit the bill. But they also die easily. Don’t you think it’s a bit risky?” I asked him, leaning back in my chair.

  “Yes, indeed, and I can assure you that every time we lose one we feel the loss. Not only as a team but also as a family. But you underestimate my men; they are exceptional fighters.”

  “Mmm, don’t want to puncture that delusion you’ve got going there, but last night they didn’t do so well. If Kali and I hadn’t stepped in, they would most likely be dead.”

  Laughing, he looked at me with a smile. I didn’t see the funny point in what I just said. They could have died, and it was pure luck we all got out of there, so I frowned at him. “Kas, it was intentional. Max and Adian were scoping out the place. The entire team was waiting outside for the signal, but they never received it because you two intervened and shifted them across the country,” Amon replied, still smiling.

  “What? Are you mad? You can’t send two guys in like that to do freaking scoping; they were already covered in blood when they were herded in!” I went off on him. That was just such a stupid idea.

  Now he was laughing like there was no tomorrow. I looked at Kali and found that she didn’t think this was very funny either, so I looked back at him. “Did you go insane somewhere in this great plan of yours?”

  “No, my dear, I’m quite sane. The blood they were covered in was from the local butcher. We order about five gallons a week from him. You see, they cover themselves with it and stumble near a club. The demons then mistake them as easy prey and take them inside the club, where they will send back details of how many are inside for the attack to take place,” he replied, a huge smile on his face, and Melissa was sharing it.

  “You are insane; you can’t throw them to the dogs like that!” I yelled, now pissed that this Fallen basically played with fire when he sent these humans out to their deaths. No wonder he was an outcast; the council would have his head for this.

  “Oh, it was not my idea; Max came up with it about three months ago. So far, it works just fine. Except when two females try to save them and blow their cover,” Amon went on, laughing. Max entered the room and went to sit next to him, and yes, a huge smile was on his face too.

  “Dumb nut,” I threw at him. Can a human be any more stupid than that?

  “Kasadya, I can assure you that we pitiful, cowardly humans can teach the Fallen a lot when it comes to tactical elements of war,” Max said, smiling at me.

  “Whatever. Amon, can we have our weapons back, so we can get the hell away from your stupid men and their ideas?” I threw back at Amon, ignoring the cocky human at his side.

  “Of course, you are free to leave. Come, let’s go to my office and I will get them out of the safe. I’ll escort you outside,” he replied, all smiles gone, and stood up. Melissa and Max followed him, so we all walked out of the room. They walked in front and Kali and I were at the rear.

  “I agree. They are cuckoo,” Kali said next to me, making a circle at her temple. At least one person agreed with me.

  “We just need to check on something. Then we will continue,” Amon said and turned into a door. Kali and I followed them in and found a room filled with computers and stuff. Some of the men at the dinner table were working on them; others were looking at a huge screen with the globe on it. I stopped at the screen and looked at it. Green, red, and orange dots were all over it. Each country and continent were covered in them.

  “What are these?” I asked and turned to look at Amon, who was now standing next to Kali, looking at it too.

  “This is the result of twenty years of hard work. Each dot represents a club or place where demons converge or do business. The green dots are places we already hit and cleared; we evaluate them each month to ensure they don’t reopen. The red dots are places still in service, and the orange dots are places starting up again,” Amon explained. In the middle of all that I kept the dots in my view.

  Almost every continent was covered in red and orange dots. So many. How can this be? I looked at all the dots and found a few purple ones in between.

  “And the purple dots?” I asked. He didn’t mention any of them.

  “The purple are places that were attacked by Fallen. As you can see there aren’t many. It makes you wonder what’s up with them,” Amon replied and suddenly I remembered the shifting problem. Oh my soul, does Exsilium even exist? Are they even there?

  “Amon, we tried to shift to Exsilium but nothing happened. Do we need to know something?” I asked, walking to stand in front of him and getting his full attention. I also wanted to see his eyes, in case he tried lying to me.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t tried to shift back to Exsilium since that night. Are you sure you can’t shift in?” he asked, concern on his face as he looked at me. I closed my eyes again and this time focused in on the fountain. Nothing. I tried the garden at The Hellhouse, again nothing. It’s like it doesn’t exist anymore. I opened my eyes and looked at him.

  “No, nothing.” I replied, my voice breaki
ng on the last word. What will we do? Where would Kali and I go?

  I turned around and looked at her. I found her in the same state I was in; her eyes were big and I could see tears gathering in them. “Kas, we don’t run into Fallen that much, but I don’t think something happened to them and Exsilium. It’s impossible,” Amon said from behind me. I turned around to look at him.

  “Like it wasn’t possible for a demon to reach us in Exsilium?” I asked him, my father’s face in my mind. Was he still alive? What about my mother, Chax, Nanini, Lada, and all the rest?

  He looked at me, contemplating my words. Yeah, nothing is impossible anymore. Kali and I are living proof of it. We survived just to get out to find everyone we loved and cared about was gone.

  I turned around and walked to Kali when I heard her sob. I reached her and placed my arms around her. I had no words of comfort; I had no words of hope. We were alone. After all we survived, we were alone in this. I closed my eyes and held her, keeping my eyes closed to hide my own tears. Oh, yeah, and there goes my hope to live. Now it’s just a matter of time before I go insane and need to be destroyed.

  “Kas, you and Kali are more than welcome to stay here until we can find a solution to this. There are more than enough open rooms, and we will accommodate you with everything you need,” Melissa said from behind Kali. I looked up at her and saw the pity on her face. Yeah, I’m getting used to people looking at me that way. What a pitiful excuse of a creature I have become.

  “That will be great, thank you,” I replied, taking the invitation, knowing full well Kali and I didn’t have anything to survive on out there.

  “Come, I’ll take you and show you some rooms. You can pick any of them,” Melissa instructed, gesturing for us to follow. I pressed away from Kali and looked at her.

  “I’m still here, and we do this together,” I soothed her to give her some hope. She smiled and wiped her face.

  “No, you have all of us,” Amon said. I looked at him.

  “Yeah, looks like you got two more additions to your insane crowd, not like we have anything else to do,” I replied and smiled at Kali.

  “You are free to join us, but you’re under no obligation,” he replied. I looked at Kali to make sure this was something she was okay with too. She smiled.

  “Not like we have big plans, huh?” she said. No, we don’t.

  “Okay, Amon, we will pick out a room, and then you will need to do a crash course with us,” I said, smiling at him, or at least I tried my best.

  “Yes, of course,” he replied, and so we turned and walked out behind Melissa and followed her as she led the way. We walked in silence. My parents’ faces flashed in my mind. I was no fan of my mom but I still loved her in a weird kind of way. I really hoped this was just some glitch or something. Maybe we were in hell too long? Maybe our shifting got screwed up some way or another? Who knows? I haven’t been at this very long and the knowledge I do have is mostly about a demon world.

  “Here you go. All the rooms in this hall are open. You can choose any that suit you. I’ll arrange for some girl stuff to be delivered today; for the rest, you would need to give me a list. I have some extra clothes I can get if you wanted to change,” Melissa offered as she walked and pointed to rooms, and then finally stopped to look at us.

  “It’s okay. The ones we have are charmed so they don’t go bad like human clothes do, but if you could bump us a pair of pajamas, that will be great.” I replied, walking into a room. Well, it wasn’t The Hellhouse, but at least it wasn’t a cell. All the rooms had one bed in them, a small table and a chair. Some had books, TV’s and other things in them, too. I chose the first one; there was no reason to be picky. Kali chose the one next to me. Yeah, we don’t trust that easily, a lesson well learned in hell. With our rooms picked out, we returned with Melissa to Amon’s office, where he was waiting.

  “Alright, they picked a room, and I have some shopping to do. I’m leaving them in your hands. Don’t mess up,” Melissa told Amon and walked out, eager to go shopping. Man I miss those days.

  “Let’s get your swords,” Amon said, walking to a wall and punching in a code on a pad mounted on it. A small section of the wall parted to reveal a safe, and he then started on another pad. Finally my swords came into view, and I felt a little better knowing at least I was armed and ready for whatever came my way.

  “I removed the demon’s charms when I took them. If you leave them on, it’s easier for them to find you again. Only Exsilium could block their range,” he explained, handing them over to me. Kali’s swords were next. I took them and glided my hand over the blades. Yeah, this is better, no charm to stop me from taking a few heads this time. I can’t wait to run into Draco or Ballen.

  “Okay, now for the fun part. Let’s go introduce you to the team.” Amon smiled, gesturing for us to follow him. Yeah, let’s go meet this insane bunch of mortals.