by Swart, Karen
"Yes," I replied. All their eyes burned into me. They would not understand.
"Was that how you found her when Kali and the others took her?" Max asked.
"Yes, I tracked her with the charm." I had nothing to be ashamed of.
If she didn’t have the charm, she would already been dead, and I would have followed her. I didn’t expect any of them to understand my actions. Only Kasadya. I didn’t flinch, didn’t turn my eyes from them. I looked them all straight in the eye, waiting for their judgment.
"You know, when we get back, I'm going to tattoo your ass with one," Nanini suddenly said, looking at Max all serious.
I was taken aback.
"The same for you, little girl." He smiled back.
"That's really not a bad idea, hey, love?" Lotan asked Lada, taking her into her arms.
She giggled and blushed. "Nope, that's a fine idea."
Yes, it would seem that I have also lost my mind along with my heart. "This isn’t a game," I sneered out.
They turned to look at me. Max spoke first, "No, it's not. But I would feel a hell of a lot better if I knew that if anything happens to Nanini, I could find her. Even if she is taken to hell. Others might not agree, but I believe that mates would agree."
"Hell yeah!" Nanini jumped into his arms and kissed him. "And you bet your ass I would be coming for you too."
Raphael stood next to me, smiling. "Why are you smiling? Vulcan will be exploding when he hears of this."
"Because you used it for Apprendos, my old friend, when it was intended for mates. Your heart was in the right place, just not at the right fallen." He laughed and walked over to the female, still unconscious on the ground. I thought about his words. Maybe that was the problem. I should feel better about it, but I still feared what Kasadya would think about it.
"She is coming to," Raphael informed us.
I moved to take a stand at her feet, waiting for the demon to wake up and give me a reason to take her head. Kasadya no longer needed it, so it could be mine. Her eyes fluttered open, blinking rapidly. She looked around the cave and then down, her eyes landing on me. "Was that necessary?" She moaned and grabbed her head.
Weak, very weak. Interesting that she would have fallen so far in this world of hers. But still delightful. But the question remained - was her evil spirit also weakened? I looked over at Raven, her eyes on the female. She was having a struggle inside that stubborn head of hers. If not for the very thing she hated, she wouldn’t be standing here having this conflict. A demon saving fallen, unheard of, but apparently achievable. Raphael helped her into a sitting position and she growled, still holding her head. Her eyes snapped up to me. It was then that memories bombarded me.
"Kill them, Sire. Spare this world of their evil," I begged Him.
"No. I cannot. They are my children. It would be a sin itself." He turned and walked to stand at the edge, tears running freely.
"Sire, there is nothing left of your children. They are dead. Do not, I beg You, do not sentence this world to destruction by keeping them alive," I begged once more. I could see the evil in their eyes. The clear color was gone, replaced with a dull shine. Evil already infested them; there was no hope.
"Chax, mayhap time would change them back?" Gabriel said next to me. I looked at him. His heart was breaking. My eyes traveled to where his eyes were pinned. The female with the blue eyes held no smile. She was holding a cold sneer. She was lost to this world; they all were.
"Gabriel is right. With time, they could heal." Our Sire turned around, hope in His eyes. There was no hope for these creatures, no more.
"Sire, I will do it. Do not doom everyone's future. I beg you."
Resolve edged into our Sire’s face. He wasn’t going to listen. I looked back at Him then. A silent promise that today was only the beginning, and that this war would never end looked back at me. And so, Our Sire doomed not only this world, but all those connected to it.
"Chax?" Lada shook me. I stepped back from her and looked around the room. Everyone was watching me, waiting for me. "I'm sorry. I drifted off."
"Oh well, I do apologize if I was that dull," Luxuria snapped at me. Anger boiled to the surface.
"Do not temp me, Luxuria," I sneered at her.
Sadness quickly washed away anger. "I am no longer called Luxuria. My name was taken from me," she said as she stood up on shaky legs.
I rose my eyebrows at that statement. “Explain."
She grabbed the table and steadied herself. "Once your mate blew up the hole, chaos erupted all around us. She battled like a crazed being. Hundreds died before she finally took Invidia's head. The divinity grabbed hold of her, and she was rendered unconscious. That was when he took her for himself. But Ballen must have known that I was helping you. He turned on me, and before I knew it, my name was taken. I was declared scum in this world. I... I was so close to ending all of this!" She slammed her fist into the table and grabbed her hand as pain shot into it.
"Who has my mate?" I growled out slowly, advancing toward her.
Her eyes grew huge and she stepped back, fear evident. "H.. he has her." Her breath choked on her fear.
Anger, fury and finally fear stormed through my body as her words sank in. My mate was in his hands. I rubbed my arm and turned around so the others could not witness my weakness at this news. My heart beat wildly in my chest, and my breath came out fast and shallow. "Dear God in the heavens, protect my mate," I whispered in prayer.
"Chax, we will get to her, and we will free her," Max tried to calm me down.
"I am sorry, Chax. I tried to reach her before the others, but he was just too powerful and too fast. And I believe it was because of that action that Ballen figured out who was betraying them," Luxuria explained further.
I whirled around. "Why would you want to save my mate?! You are evil, a demon!" I snapped at her.
Hurt flashed over her face at my words, and then finally my memory of her returned. "Alexia," I breathed her name.
"I am not her anymore; I haven’t been her for thousands of years!" Tears ran freely now.
I should have recognized her after all this time, but with so many years and so many faces, it was difficult to make a connection. But here she stood in front of me, alive, and a demon still. "Never call me that name again!" she continued on, turning her back on me.
I remember her birth, training, laughter. I remembered everything about this female. But most, I remembered that day. "Chax... I...I am sorry." Her last words to me before she was sealed in here with all of them. She was about to complete her divinity, about to become an Archangel, for heaven’s sake. Anger rolled over me again, and I turned away from her. I needed to focus on my mate. This I will deal with later, much later.
"Chax, we need to move soon. Can you still track her?" Raphael asked me. I nodded, fear still driving my heart and voice. Would she survive him?
"Can you feel her?" he continued.
I reached for my arm and closed my eyes. There was the signal. Kasadya was in pain and weak, but I could hear her heartbeat. She was still alive. Not a surprise. He would torture her for centuries, enjoying it over and over. Evil, vile creature that he was. He should have been destroyed that day. This world could have been so much different if he would have just been destroyed.
"I will help you reach her; I know my way around. I will help you get to her," Alexia surprised me.
I turned to her, wondering what she was up to. It was a trap, most likely. But I didn’t care. As long as I reached Kasadya fast enough, I would deal with everything else. "I will accept that offer. Prepare, we leave the moment the hour is over." I rubbed over my arm, excitement replacing my fear. I will tear apart everything until I have her back, even hell.
Chapter 3
The hour passed and Alexia turned to look at us. "I will shift us all to a location that is less...active," she said, offering me her hand.
I nodded to the others and took it. Pulling the others along, we landed in a deep ravine of sorts
. She let go immediately and scanned the area.
"Okay, it looks clear," she announced.
I reached for my arm and concentrated on the signal. Thud. Thud, thud. Kasadya's heartbeat slammed back into me. "North, we go north." I started forward, the others following. Alexia came up in front of me, scanning and moving at the same time. We moved silently but fast until we reached a hill top. At the other end, we could hear a crowd behind it going wild. Alexia stopped and placed her hand in the air, indicating we should follow and stop.
"Dammit. Ballen's realm," she said, rubbing her head again.
"What is the problem?" Max fired back, scanning around with his eyes. We were all constantly scanning around us, just waiting for demons to appear.
"Hello? Demon, freaking lord!" Raven snapped at him. He wasn’t pleased.
"Raven, if-"
"Don't even try. I am so sick of it. I am paying attention to what is said around me. You, however, didn't. That's your freaking problem, not mine," she snapped back before he could continue.
I smiled. She had Kasadya's spunk.
Max rumbled a few words about girls, and why he was always stuck with them. Nanini punched him. "Focus!" I snapped at them. "This is no time to play around." I looked at Alexia, waiting for her to give us a way around them.
"There is no other way. And when he took my status, he gave it to Gluttire. The bastard. He now has control of my entire legion," she growled, rubbing her head again. She isn’t healing fast enough. I frowned at that.
"Then we go through them," I announced as I made my way up to the top of the hill to get a better look.
"Against thousands of Haplai and Chiddigul? We stand no chance." Alexia reminded me of a huge problem.
I stood there at the top, looking down at some sort of arena. In the middle, two demons were fighting each other. The crowd around them roared and cheered as the battle continued on. At the front, under some sort of canopy, I could see a male being entertained by females. "How do we get past them?" I asked her in return.
Silenced followed as we stood there trying to think of a plan. Below us, another pair of demons had started to fight, after one of the others had taken the head of the loser. I had no grand plan. After thousands of years, I was still as weak to the incubus and succubus creatures as any other fallen. We were, how would Kasadya put it? Screwed.
"Can we shift?" I asked Alexia
"No, they would sense the shift in the air and pinpoint our destination. Shifting isn’t a good thing down here if you are a fallen. Demons might get away with it, but you all leave a light trail as you shift."
Indeed, screwed. I looked back at the scene and frowned.
"I can help," Abby spoke up.
I turned to look at her. Since we concluded that they would be punished, both of them had remained remarkably quiet. "How?" I urged her on.
"Haplai and Chiddigul can only entrance us if they can reach our brain waves. I thought we might run in all kinds of demons, so my backpack," she lifted it up, "is filled with all kinds of ‘in case’ stuff. And I have just what we need to make sure they don’t reach our brain waves. But this will also mean that we would need to communicate telepathically." She pulled a device from the pack and held it up to me. I reached for it and saw that it was one of those things Nanini was always throwing fits over.
"No way! You brought Ipod's!" Nanini beamed and grabbed one from her.
"Please tell me this is not filled with Nanini's music?" Max face spoke volumes.
"No. Just some of mine." Abby smiled at him.
Abby handed Lada the last one. I turned to survey the others putting theirs into their ears. Max frowned when he pushed a button for the music to play. We all had one, except for Alexia, who still watched the fight below. "Don’t you have enough?" I asked Abby.
"Sorry, I wasn’t counting her in when I packed," Abby said, wondering what to do.
An idea came to mind. I walked over to Alexia and spooked her when I grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?" she asked as I plucked some cotton from her wound wrapping.
I rolled two balls with them and handed it to her. "You won’t be able to communicate with us, so stay close and alive," I replied as I prepared my device.
"What am I supposed to do with them?" She looked at the two balls.
"Place them in your ears," I instructed her as I did the same. I pushed the button and was slammed with a screech. Frowning, I looked at Abby, who was smiling at me. "Katy Perry" she informed me. I shrugged it off and walked to the edge. Scanning the area, I saw our path to take.
"We move using the right side. Try and stay hidden with those boulders. I move, you all move. Understand?"
"Understood," they replied in unison.
I drew my swords and rolled my shoulders, preparing for what was most likely going to be bloody. I moved first, moving at a fast pace down the hill. We were lucky they didn’t see us coming down. At the bottom, I quickly led them around the crowd who was still fascinated by the fight. Just when I thought we might actually make it through without being detected, a Dragonraiser walked out of the crowd and right in front of me. At first he was confused, but then his brains seemed to think better. After his howl, the crowd went silent instantly. "Spread out a little. We are about to fight our way through this."
"Crap!" Lada hissed.
Crap, indeed. The crowd soon surrounded us. To my left started to open up as someone walked towards us. As soon as his face was visible, my entire body hummed with anger. I removed one bud of the device. "What is this? Fallen in my realm? Tsk, tsk. Trying to sneak past my legion?" He strolled to stand just a few feet from me. Ignoring him, I surveyed the crowd. The Haplai and Chiddigul were licking their lips, just waiting for the order.
Laughter followed. "Is that you, snowflake?" Ballen teased Alexia. She stood her ground, lifting her chin defiantly. When no answer followed, I could see the rage surfing on Ballen's face. He was about to try and attack her. Sorry excuse for a male creature. He moved fast, but I was faster. I sent him flying backwards into his own legion. As he plowed through them, demons scattered to all sides. His momentum eased down and he stopped just outside the crowd. The crowd was silenced, all eyes on the floored demon lord.
Ballen shook off the blow and sat up. The hatred on his face reminded me so much of that day. I moved forward slowly, making sure that my team was behind me. I waited for him patiently. He looked around, embarrassed that he was knocked down in front of his legion. "Destroy them!" he growled out. Demons snapped to it and turned towards us. I quickly replaced the bud.
"Form a circle and stay back to back. Max, get that demon female in the middle. She won’t be able to survive this." I fired the orders and hit the demons in front of me with g-force punches, sending them back into their brethren. Haplai moved forward, focusing hard. I ignored their attempts and sliced the heads in front of me. With a quick turn, I took the legs of two attacking Lotan to my left. I rolled up and sliced another demon from his hip straight to the other side.
"The iPods are working but we won’t last long. We need to get out of here," Raphael said, slicing heads with centuries of training.
"Indeed. All of you be ready; I am going to use my g-force punches and send them backwards. Each time, I need all of you to move forward with me. Max, grab the female and make sure she stays in the middle." And with that I lowered my hand and gathered the energy in the air, releasing the punch into the crowd.
Demons flew back, I moved forward, and the others followed. I jumped into the air to gather more energy, my punches not giving me the effect I was looking for. I came down to the earth and released the punch again. This time it was more effective and we moved forward a few more feet. I repeated the action over and over, moving my team forward with each one. My team was slicing and fighting their way with me. We were a force together.
"Chax!" Max yelled behind me. Turning towards them, I saw a demon dragging Alexia into the crowd.
"Shift out of here. I will get the female," I ordered
them as our options ran out. They didn’t hesitate and shifted out. I stormed into the crowd where Alexia had disappeared. With punches and swipes I cleared it out, but stopped the moment I saw her face.
I looked at the pair standing before me. Ballen's hand was wrapped around her neck and choking her. She fought him, but was no match against him. He spoke again, but with the device in my ear, I could not make out what he was saying. Angry at my silence, he started to shake her. Her eyes rolled back and she went limp, but still he continued his ranting. I surveyed the crowd around us. Demons stood their ground, waiting for their next orders. I would need to be quick. When he yelled again, I shifted and released my punch while grabbing Alexia around the arm. Ballen flew back into the crowd for the second time, and I shifted out with Alexia still unconscious.
