by Swart, Karen
I raised my eyebrows at her. Well, someone was pissed.
"Shut it, Alexia. We don’t have time for this. Forget the demon-eating new problem out there?" Raven fired back at her.
Alexia? Demon-eating problem? What the hell is going on?
"Does someone wants to fill me in what the hell is going on?" I asked, looking at them.
Abby was about to explain but a scuffle stopped her. Lotan came crawling through a small space with Lada on his heels.
"Crap, we’re in one hell of a crappy spot," he mumbled when he landed on the floor.
"Really bad," Lada enforced, joining him.
They looked up and froze when they saw me observing them.
"Holy hell, Kas, you’re back!" Lada flew up and stormed me.
I closed my eyes and braced for impact, which I knew was going to hurt real bad.
"Whoa, careful!" Abby saved me just in the nick of time.
"Ah, sorry, Kas. How do you feel?" Lada whispered next to me.
I peered through my one functioning eye and looked right at two brown ones. Lada was hovering just in front of me.
"Like crap, but alive," I replied, giving her a small smile.
More noise came from the entrance as Caim, Ben, and Zurita came flying into the cave. They crashed to the floor and landed on each other. The others were up and trying to help them onto their feet.
"That was too close," Caim said, jumping up and looking at the entrance.
"Okay guys, you are all really scaring the crap out of me. What the hell is going on?!"
Eyes landed on me, but once again, before anyone could give me a heads up, another figure came barreling through the small entrance.
At first I thought it was another hellhound. Giants wing were sending everyone down to the floor, creating a gust of wind to swoop up and slam into my face. But when I looked closer, I could see the wings had feathers. As the figure rose to his full length, I could make out that is was male. Tall, strong, and totally covered in blood and gore. Drops of total grossness dripped to the cave floor as he moved around and turned to look at everyone. Only then did I see the eyes, beautiful green eyes. "Chax?"
He froze to the spot and looked at me. In three huge strides he was hauling me into his grossly covered arms. "Kasadya, how are you feeling?"
"Um, okay, I guess. What's going on? Why are you covered in left overs and blood?" I was totally confused and no one seemed to be able to help me get back on track.
"Do you have pain?" he continued, ignoring my questions.
"Yeah, but I can manage. Chax-"
"We need to get her out of here," he went on.
Okay, clearly he was just going to ignore me. Bloody hell!
"How are we going to get past them?" Zurita asked.
"He's send them out to look for us. We just became the number one meal to them," Ben interrupted.
"Where are Max and Nanini?" Abby asked.
Silence followed.
"By the heavens!" Chax yelled and placed me on the floor again.
"Ah, hell no!" Lotan whined.
"We better make this quick," Caim continued on.
"Lotan, you and Lada stay here," Chax ordered.
Before I could utter a word, they were gone.
"Okay, what the hell is going on?!" I’ve had enough. Someone is going to explain right now!
"It's a very long story. I'm going to make this quick," Lada said and held up her hand, silencing me.
"We found a new problem down here. The bloody devil found creatures buried in amber for thousands of years. Their origin is unknown; we only know that they are the essence of evil itself. Then, he went even further and released them. We witnessed them feeding on demons and then these things turned into ash piles, only to rise up again ten times bigger and more powerful. Each time they eat, they grow. And trust me, these things make fighting demons looks like a picnic. They look like some sort of dragon, yet not. And they pack one hell of a fireball. To make matters worse, we just pissed off the one controlling them, so now we are officially the main course for dinner down here. And at the same time, the devil is looking for us. These things are protecting him. We have been fighting for a way to get out of this tomb for five days, and we have been stuck here since," she finished and gave me a chance to digest the info.
"How big are they?" was the only question my brains could fathom.
"They will take down the Empire State building with a flick of their tail. Biggest damn things I have ever seen," Lotan replied.
Okay, we’re officially in trouble, again.
Crap!
"Okay, we will get to that later. Someone mind telling me how Chax is sporting a pair of wings?" I asked, looking at them.
"Yeah, about that. Well, he hasn’t had a chance to explain anything yet. He sort of sprouted them when he took on the devil, whom by the way, looks exactly like him," Lada explain, kind of.
"Do you mean you guys have no clue?" I was dumfounded.
I meant, if someone suddenly popped a pair of wings, hell, I would love to know how they did it and why.
"It hasn’t been a joyride, Kas. For five days we have been fighting for our lives and yours. The last thing on anyone’s mind was how Chax become an angel," Raven threw at me.
My eyes darted to her. With her back to me, she was still prowling the entrance, her eyes never leaving it. I studied her closely. She was on the edge, which is understandable. I looked at the others. They were tense too, but not as epically as she was. "Raven, are you okay?"
Her head snapped towards me, eyes piercing mine. "Yes. I'm just anxious to get out of here," she all but hissed out.
Okay. Clearly I woke up at the wrong time.
The others made it back, fighting and shuffling into the cave. Nanini was the first to dive through the entrance followed by the rest. Chax was the last one to enter.
"Max, are you alright?!" Nanini screeched and grabbed hold of him.
She turned him around to look at his chest. He had a huge hole in his side with blood gushing out. Around the wound his skin was charred.
"Yes, I'm fine. Are you okay?" he asked, looking up at her. She nodded, trying to reach the wound.
Zurita and Lada zeroed in on him and were ripping away his shirt to get to the wound.
"I'm so sorry. I tried to get him off me, but he just kept at it." Nanini whispered, holding his face in her hands.
"Leave the bravery to me next time. You are too important to me," he replied and kissed her.
A hand grabbed hold of my chin and forced me to look away. Green eyes held me captive.
"It's going to be alright. We'll get out of this." Chax eyes roamed mine.
I didn’t reply. I was still trying to process everything. How did things become so bad? Everything would have been alright if they just stayed put and went on with their lives. Now, because they just couldn’t let it be, we are all trapped and fighting for our lives. It should have been only me. It was my destiny, not theirs. Why the hell could they not just leave it be?!
I pulled my face from his hand, furious with all of them. "Why the hell did you come for me?! Everything would have been okay if you guys had just left me!"
"Ka-"
"No, don't even try. All of us are in danger now. It was my burden to carry, not theirs!" I cut him off, my anger spiking to a dangerous level. I knew he was behind it all.
"Never. I will never give up on you," Chax stated and I heard him turn around.
I refused to look at him. Damn him, everything would have been just peachy if he just left it alone. Okay, not all peachy, seeing that I would still be tortured for eternity. But still, it was my burden to carry, not theirs. Now their lives are in danger because of me.
"See to their wounds. Alexia, can you find us some food?" I heard him ask.
Alexia? Who the hell is that?
"Yes, I'll be back in a few minutes," Luxuria replied and I looked at her. She shifted out of the tomb before I could fire another assault.
"K
eep watch," Chax said to someone and then I heard him climb into the entrance again.
What the hell is he doing? I should stop him. But I was still really pissed at him. Biting my tongue, I watched the tip of a wing disappear.
"That was uncalled for and just selfish!" Nanini bombarded me.
"Yeah, Kas. The man loves you. We all love you. We all made the decision to come and get you," Lada joined in.
"Really, did you miss the part where you just almost lost your mate?!" I fired at Nanini.
"No, I didn’t, but I would have joined him a second later. Living without him is not an option anymore. Don’t you understand that, Kas? We can’t be without them anymore. They are a part of us, and we share a soul. To expect Chax to pick himself up and go on with his life is not possible anymore. It's not possible for any of us anymore."
"And I would join you in a second as well," Max chimed in and traced his thumb over her face. A loving smile greeted him back.
"All of you are in danger because of me." I dropped my head back and let it rest on the cave's wall.
"Stop trying to save us all the time. We choose to join Chax, and that's the end of it. Just stop trying to carry all the weight on your own. Your mate just faced not only the devil but his creatures too, all for you. If fate permits it, don’t let him walk away again, not like this." Lada's words boomed in the cave.
I'm never going to get it right, am I? No matter how hard I try, I'm just never going to be able to handle a situation without messing up. The air moved and I looked up to see Luxuria standing there with a pouch. She handed the pouch to Lotan, who unwrapped it. Inside was some cans of food and what looked like old bread. My stomach rumbled but I didn’t even move an inch. He reached for a dagger to open the cans and I decided to look away. My eyes landed on the demon princess.
"Why did Chax call you Alexia?” I thought your name was Luxuria?"
She looked at me and rubbed her face, fatigue settling in. She was really weak.
"Luxuria was my name when I was still a demon prince. Now that my powers have been taken from me, I am nothing more than what I was centuries ago," she replied, not even trying to look at me.
"Were your powers taken away?"
"Yes, he decided that I was a traitor for helping you. He gave them to Gluttire. I am now at the bottom of the food chain around here."
"Oh, I see. And... Alexia? Where did that come from?"
"None of your business," she hissed as her head snapped towards me.
Okay, someone is pissed off.
"Here Kas, you need to eat to speed up your healing." Lotan offered me a can.
"Have the others eaten yet?"
"Kas, we’ve got it. Please just eat something; you’re going to need your strength to get out of here. We can’t carry you all the way," Lotan urged me on.
I took the can from him and ate the little content that was inside. We sat in silence, waiting for Chax to return. Minutes ticked by and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Finally unable to fight it anymore, I dropped down to the floor and gave in.
"Sleep, Kas. We've got your back," Abby whispered as she lifted my head and placed it into her lap.
Chapter 10
"Kasadya, you have to wake up." Chax’s voice disturbed my dream.
"Hmm, what's going on?" I asked, opening my eyes and finding his just above me.
"We have to move. We can’t stay here anymore," Chax whispered and rubbed a thumb over my chin.
His expression was filled with a mixture of love and concern. But damn, he was still as sexy as hell. I reached for his face and tried to rub away the dried blood and other remnants of battle. I failed at it, but just touching him help ease my own concern.
"I'm sorry for what I said. I'm just afraid for the others," I whispered to him.
He nodded. "I know. We'll get out of here. But first we need to see if you are able to walk on your own." He picked me up and settled my feet to the ground.
I was still a little weak but at least I could see with both eyes and couldn’t feel any wounds anymore. Chax released me when he was convinced I wasn’t going to fall over. I took a tentative step forward and was greeted with a sharp pain in my ribcage. I bit down, not wanting the others to know that I was still not at one hundred percent. No way in hell was I going to be carried and become a burden to someone else. Chax moved to stand in front of me, eyeing me for any clues of pain. I quickly mustered a smile.
"See, all well," I reported.
"Indeed," he replied and turned around to face the others.
I got a face full of feathers and froze, looking at them. They were freaking beautiful. White feathers ran down towards the ground and every now and then a golden one popped out to give it a streaked-like effect. The edges of the wings were rimmed with pure golden feathers, and they had a bluish rim around them. Without thinking, I reached for them and gently rubbed over them. Chax snapped his wings close to his back and whirled around to look at me, his expression one of shock.
"Why do you have wings?" I blurted out.
He frowned at me. "We can discuss that later. Now, we need to move." Chax ignored me once more and pushed me to the middle of the others.
"They look like archangel wings," I continued on.
Silence.
Holy heck, I was going to go insane if they all keep this up. I'm not a freaking child, for heaven’s sake!
"Later, Kasadya," Chax hissed at me.
"What did you do?"
"Kasadya."
"Um, are we going?" Zurita chipped in.
"Tell me." I wasn’t giving in.
"I said later! We need to move." His voice was filled with impatience and anger.
Oh please, been there, done that and have the bloody T-shirt to prove it!
"Did you die?!" I asked in a little hysterical voice.
"Kasadya!"
"Freaking tell me!"
"I just reclaimed my place!" His voice boomed in the cave, bouncing of the walls to create an echoing effect.
I just looked at him, the others joining me.
"Reclaimed your place?"
"Kas, please, we can do this later," Caim urged on.
I turned to look at him, confused like hell.
"Please, Kas, give it some time," Caim continued.
What the hell happened when I was gone? "Okay," I replied numbly.
Chax grabbed my arm and moved to the entrance, pulling me along. He pulled his body into the small entrance, his wings close to his back to ensure that they weren’t going to be a problem. Why doesn’t he shift back to human form? The more I looked at those feathers, the more I knew that with them would come something dreadful. Max urged me on to go next. I reached for leverage and pulled my body up, pain shooting up from my ribcage. For a small moment, my sight was blurry. I bit down again and crawled behind Chax, whose damn wings were everywhere. If he was an archangel, does that mean that he can’t be with us anymore? Fear and heartache settled in and a small tear dropped from my left eye, hitting the rock foundation. I know why this wasn’t something to discuss now; I already knew what was going to happen. Chax’s body suddenly disappeared before me and I was greeted with a faint light. I reached the end of the tunnel and gently crawled out. Chax was there to get me back up to my feet. I didn’t meet his eyes, afraid to see the truth. He dragged me behind him towards a corner and leaned to the side to peek around it. Slowly and a bit noisily, the others joined us in the bigger tunnel. It was dark in here, the air clammy and humid. A small bead of sweat dropped down the side of my face and hit my collar bone.
"It's clear that we need to move fast. The moment we hit the open tunnel, we shift to the location," Chax instructed.
We moved quietly through the tunnel, Chax in the lead and at the rear, Caim. The walls around us were pitch black jagged rock, water running down from them. I was expecting to see some moss or something living to break the monotony of the black rock, but no, nothing. Black and dead, the tunnel was just more and more black rock as we m
oved down the within it. We reached an even bigger tunnel and Chax stopped. He looked around and I couldn’t help but look at him. It was only then that I noticed his eyes had changed as well. They were even lighter than before, as if they were glowing. I dropped my eyes to the ground, unable to look at him anymore. Should be used to this by now, I thought. Disappointment was part of my damn life.
