***
I heard the words, “Wake up, Kas!” and grabbed onto them, pulling myself from the dream. My eyes flew open and Lada’s face came into view. My hand traveled to my cheek. It was burning like hell. Did she just whack me? I looked at her, the question on the tip of my tongue.
“Sorry, I had no choice. You wouldn’t wake up,” Lada explained, and I could see it took her a while to make that decision.
“Nah, don’t worry! You saved me from another nightmare,” I replied, and lay back on my pillow. Crap, I need to get something to keep this guy out of my dreams. Why on earth is he there in the first place?
“You need to talk to someone about these dreams you’re having. Maybe Maia can help?” Lada said, looking at me with concern.
“Yeah, I’ll talk to her when I get the chance. It’s not a priority at the moment,” I replied, my eyes drifting to Nanini, who was still fast asleep.
“Your screaming didn’t wake her. I think she really had a bad day yesterday. You go get finished in the bathroom and I’ll wake her up,” Lada said, getting up and walking over to Nanini.
I took a deep breath and got up. Lada’s right, I need to speak to Maia about these nightmares. Maybe she can do something to block him out of my dreams. Hopefully then I’ll get some peaceful sleep. I walked to the closet and got out a pair of jeans, a purple t-shirt I had always loved, and my track shoes. My denim jacket was the choice for the day. Next time I see my dad, I’m asking for new clothes. These ones don’t seem to fit anymore. I took my shower and got dressed, and then walked back to the room to find Nanini buzzing around again. “Good morning. Sleep well?” I asked her, trying to keep my eyes on her, but she was totally all over the place.
“Oh yeah, never slept that good in my whole life. Had a fabulous dream to top it off,” she replied, grinning and jumping at the same time. Well, at least someone in this room gets good dreams.
“So, you guys ready for hell again?” Lada asked, getting out her clothes to take in with her for her wake-up bath.
“Hell yeah, it’s tough, but man, I really get drained in the process. Absolutely love to feel all wasted,” Nanini answered, brushing her long blonde hair so hard I found myself wincing in pain.
“Nanini, you need help, girl! Sick isn’t the word for you,” Lada said, walking into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.
I walked over to the mirror and got out my brush. Standing next to Nanini, I started the process of brushing out my own mane. My dark brown hair was reaching the point where I needed to cut it again. When it got too long, I couldn’t keep it under control. After a while my arms started to ache from the effort of getting it into a pony. Failing miserably, I let go and it dropped to my back again.
“I need to get my hands on a pair of scissors,” I complained and looked at myself in the mirror. Not only did I still feel tired but I also looked exhausted, even old.
“No way, Kas. The length is just perfect. You just need to find your way with it when you fix it up for the day. Look at what I do and try and follow it,” Nanini replied, and I turned to look at her. It was pretty difficult. She was moving her hands so fast I almost couldn’t see.
When she was done and it was in a fancy pony twist, she looked at me. “Did you see?”
Nope, not at all. “Yeah, I saw. I’ll try it tomorrow. Just going to do the usual one today,” I replied and went back to the task of getting my hair into a pony. Finally, and with burning arms, I had it and put my brush back in the drawer. In the meantime, Nanini had made her bed and cleaned her section in a record time. Damn, still have to do mine.
Lada came out and Nanini flew into the bathroom, slamming the door at the same time. “Don’t slam the door, Nanini!” Lada yelled at her, and I had to laugh. The two of them made an unusual pair, but they balanced each other out at least. I walked to my bed and started my clean up. The moment my hand touched the covers, I had a flashback of the dream.
For some reason, it was at the beginning again, where my face was in the grass. I know that things in your day could pop up in your dreams again, but why on earth would I put the demon in the werewolf’s place? Now, thinking about it, where the hell did he come from? I’ve never seen a guy who looked like him. Did I make him up? Cleaning up and finishing my section, I ran a few scenarios through my brain but found no answer to my questions.
We went down and grabbed breakfast before our day of hell began again. As I took my last bite, Vulcan came into the grub spot. “Hurry up, Apprendos. The others are already waiting,” he said and walked out. At that, everyone started gulping down their food and drinks, me included. We finished up and then started the journey to the arena. Outside, everyone was waiting for us. Boy, we need to get a new wake up time. Looks like we are slacking.
Chax, Seth, Arianna, and Dagon were waiting for us at the tree where we met yesterday. Okay, so my tree became the meeting spot, cool. The four of them were having a conversation and the moment we reached them, they stopped and looked at us. My eyes landed on Arianna’s face for some strange reason and for the first time, I saw her pissed off. When she saw me still looking at her, she quickly changed her expression and turned around, looking at the others also gathered in little groups. Okay, did I do something?
“Morning, Apprendos,” Seth and Dagon greeted, so I turned my eyes away from Arianna and looked at them. When I saw Seth, I felt a whole lot better. I don’t know what Arianna’s problem is and I don’t care. Walking to Seth, I greeted Dagon and Chax, who just looked at me and nodded. Yep, grumpy Chax is back today; let’s hope the werewolves can change his mood again. I looked at Seth and smiled at him. I got one back and that made me totally forget about the dream and Arianna’s look.
“Today we must improve on our techniques. We need to combine our abilities more to get the best result,” Chax said, and I turned to look at him. Okay, down to business as usual.
“I agree. We can do a lot more damage if we combine our abilities together. It’s finding the right recipe that’s the problem,” Dagon replied.
“Gather around, Fallen!” a guy yelled, so we all turned around to find Astin on the stage. “Dontalion has suggested that we try another approach to aid the training. Together, with their teammates, Dontalion and Annabelle will demonstrate the powers of a fully trained team. Study them well,” he finished, turning around to walk off the stage. The crowd in front of us began to separate, creating a huge circle. Standing in the middle was Don and his team. They took formation and transformed.
Don and two others were werewolves, but they also had a vampire, three fae, and a harpy. Four females and four males made up his team, which was nice. A redheaded female and seven others walked out of the circle and took their formation. They ended up in what looked like a triangle form, where Don’s team was in a circle. I watched as the redheaded woman transformed into a huge half lion, half eagle thing.
“What on earth is that?” I asked, awed by the female.
“She is a griffin,” Dagon replied. “Very rare Fallen species; the last ones are only found in Astin’s Fallen. If I’m correct, he has four. Annabelle would be the only female.”
Wow, I’ve seen a lot of griffin’s pictures, but this takes the cake. She started to pace slowly to the left, and then her team, consisting of two werewolves, one fae and the rest vampires, began to move with her. Don and his team were keeping still, their eyes on the others. The griffin team kept on slowly moving to the left, just looking at Don’s team.
This continued for a few more minutes, and I was starting to get bored. My eye caught one of Don’s team members taking a step inward, which in turn left their circle a bit out of place, and the griffin team attacked. The fae took to the sky, holding her hands at her side. The next thing I knew, three vampires were riding on tree roots ripping out of the ground. The roots lifted them up, meeting Don’s fae and harpy in the air, where they went over into super speed. Nice, she must be an earth fae.
The griffin stormed forward, two werewolves at he
r sides. While Don and the others were looking up, trying to help those above, the fae’s team attacked them. Wow, not only was the root thing a great attack but also a diversion; that’s something to remember. Don’s harpy then started to scream and everyone grabbed their ears, trying to lessen the sound. The griffin and the others immobilized by the harpy’s scream, Don’s team moved in, attacking them. They seemed to be immune to the harpy’s scream; it must be a team thing. Don’s team members were fast, combining their abilities to take the fae team down. The harpy’s scream was starting to hurt my ears, so I took my eyes off the team and grabbed them. Then suddenly, total silence. I looked up and saw the harpy was pinned to the ground by the griffin, who had knocked the harpy out cold, silencing her.
Don and the others were still fighting. A purple fae blasted a vampire out of her way, and then blasted the griffin, who was making her way to a werewolf. The moment the bomb hit the griffin, four roots jumped out of the ground and wrapped around the purple fae. The fire fae on Don’s side sent out firebombs all over the place, hitting the griffin, werewolf, and the earth fae. As the earth fae landed on the ground, a werewolf on Don’s side jumped into the air, and with one claw swipe, cut off the roots trapping their fae.
“Stop!” Astin yelled, and the battle stopped dead. My eyes trained on them, I watched as they turned back to normal, and then started to help their team members get up. After all of them were up and back in action, each team nodded to each other member and then turned to face the crowd, who stood there in total silence.
“Whoo hoo, that was totally wicked!” Nanini yelled next to me and everyone turned around to look at her. One by one, their faces turned from shock to smiles. The crowd turned back to look at Don and the others, applauding. A few more “whoo hoo’s” also followed. Don and the others were looking at each other with shock written all over their faces. They hadn’t expected this kind of reaction.
“Well done, Astin. Indeed your Fallen teams are something to witness. I believe I owe you an apology,” Vulcan said, walking over to Astin and shaking his hand. Astin took it in return and smiled at Vulcan. Okay, so the moral of the story is don’t judge something before you take a good look at it. Like Astin and his Fallen, the outcome could be phenomenal.
Many walked out of the crowd and offered their hands to Don and the other Fallen, talking to them and congratulating them on a good job done. I must admit that the battle I just witnessed still had me dumbstruck. From everything I had to see and endure since my first day here, I was totally blown away by this. Even my dad was shaking the hands of Don and his team, asking questions and stuff. I could see he was really fascinated by their teamwork.
I turned around to look at Seth and the others, to find only Chax and I were still remaining. I turned my head back and saw that our group had also made their way to the crowd and were shaking hands. Nanini was jumping up and down in front of Annabelle, and I could see that she, in return, was having a hard time keeping her eyes on her. A smile broke out on her face, and then she burst out laughing. Nanini stopped her jumping, and the two started talking again.
“For many years I have tried to make the others see the potential Astin and his Fallen had, but it was always a failure. I watched these Fallen take on demons ours haven’t even seen yet and walk out victorious. Do you know how many lives could have been saved if they had just listened?” Chax said next to me, and I turned to look at him.
His eyes were on the crowd in front of us, but he turned to look at me. For the first time since meeting him I saw sadness and deep pain. He turned around and walked off to the direction we were training in yesterday. Surprised and worried, I kept my eyes on him as he made his way through the garden. I might have misjudged Chax. He may be a grumpy guy with no sense of interaction between people, but in his eyes, I saw a male that has lived and lost for others. I saw a reason.
“That is one Fallen I would gladly give my life for,” Don said next to me, but I didn’t turn to look at him. I was too concerned over Chax, unbelievable. “Never in my life have I met someone who equals him. Not only does he serve with all that he is, he also does it with his whole heart.”
“Yes, but it would appear to be a broken one,” I replied, my eyes still on Chax.
“We all lose something in this war, young one. Some fall to the loss. But some, like him, rise above it and try to save others from the same fate. There will be a day when this fate will cross your path. When it does, you will have to make a choice: fall and be conquered by it, or rise above it to do good for others,” Don explained, and started to walk in Chax’s direction. I kept my eyes on both of them, his words taking a place in both my head and heart. I will rise above it, I promised myself.
My thoughts were interrupted when two arms circled me and pressed me to a strong chest. After yesterday, I made a mental note of Chax’s scent and also Seth’s, to make sure I didn’t mistake the two again. The smell of oranges came to me so I knew whose arms were holding me.
“Everything okay?” he whispered in my ear, his mouth traveling slowly to my neck and giving me goose bumps.
“Yeah, everything’s just fine,” I answered, enjoying his affection.
“You looked sad there for a moment. Did Chax do something?”
“No, he didn’t do anything. Don and I just had a talk,” I replied, rubbing my cheek against his.
“Come on, you two. We don’t have all day,” Dagon said and walked past us to follow Don. The others joined him, and Nanini turned around and gave us the thumbs up with a smile. Lada took Lotan’s hand and the two followed the others.
“We really need to find some time to be alone,” Seth complained and kissed me on the cheek. He walked around to face me.
“I agree. This is getting to be too much,” I replied, smiling at him.
“Come on. The others will be on our case,” Seth said, and I started laughing.
“You mean Chax will be on our case,” I retorted, and he started laughing as well. I took a step and found that one foot was trapping the other. I looked down to see my laces were undone. “Damn,” I said, bending down.
“I’ll wait for you.”
“Nah, don’t worry. I’ll fix them and shift over. You go before the others freak out on us,” I replied, shooing him off. Laughing, he turned around and started walking off, so I took hold of the first shoe’s laces and got to work. I had just finished them when two guys walked past me. I didn’t look up to see who it was; I was concentrating too much on getting the shoes done. Finally, with the last shoe done, I got up and was about to shift, when two arms grabbed me from behind.
“Morning, bellus,” Marcus whispered in my ear. My heart stopped at his last word. My nightmare came crashing down on me. My heart was beating so hard I could feel it slam into my ribs. The part where I used my wings to get the demon off me came to mind, and I knew I had my ticket out of here. Dream or not, I’m getting out of his grip. I transformed, pushing my wings out and sending him flying. I turned around, spreading my wings to adjust them, and then snapped them shut again. He was on his butt, on the ground, looking at me, totally shocked.
“If you ever touch me again, you’re dead!” I yelled at him. During my dream relapse, my fear had turned into fury, and now I was at the boiling point.
He laughed at me and then with an evil smile said, “So much spirit, so much fire. Indeed you are a trophy for any male, but you will be mine.” And then he got to his feet, moving towards me.
There was no way in hell I was ending up with this ass, so I did the inevitable. I waited for him to get about two steps from me before I attacked, punching him in the face. The moment he stepped back from the punch, I used my wings for a little lift-off and kicked him in his face. Dropping down, I watched as he landed on his back, transforming into a werewolf. Okay, game on.
He stormed at me, but at the last moment I stepped aside, bringing up my knee and slamming it into his torso. He bent over from the blow, so I backed away to put some distance between us.
“I’ll teach you how to respect a male!” he bellowed and turned around, jumping for me. When his face came into view, I did a turn kick and smashed my foot into his face, sending him to my left.
“I warned you, wolf!” I yelled back at him, trying to get him to back down and stop this. But no, he got up again and jumped me. My back hit the ground hard.
I forced my hand under his snout and grabbed his throat, squeezing for dear life. He started to laugh at me. “You’re not strong enough for that, hellhound,” he said and licked me on the face. Oh, freaking gross! I slammed my head straight into his and he lifted back just enough for me to get my wings up from under me. Using them, I lifted both of us off the ground, and then turned to the side, pinning him down.
“Now, this is more like it,” he leered, and grabbed me around the waist, pressing me against him. I brought up my fist and planted it in his nose. Blood spurted all over my face. Howling, he let go of me and grabbed his nose. Seeing my chance, I got up and stepped away from him, ready for the next thing he threw at me.
“Does is hurt, wolf?” I asked sarcastically. He wanted it? He got it; just not the version he was looking for. But hey, I did warn him. He flew up from the ground and came at me again. This time I readied myself on the balls of my feet, my wings snapping close to my back. He jumped through the air straight for me. But just as I was about to kick the hell out of him again, he was attacked in the air by another wolf, and someone grabbed me around the waist and shifted out with me.
I looked around to see I was in Chax’s garden; the circle we practiced in was just in front of me, the wall full of weapons on my right. Well, now I know who shifted me out, so I turned my head to look at him. He kept his grip on me, not letting go. I transformed back and gave him a wary look, so he finally released me.
“Are you okay, Kasadya?” he asked, frowning at the same time.
“Actually, no, I was in the middle of something and you shifted me out. Why?”
“You were fighting a full grown Fallen male, with years of experience. One that lives very close to his Fallen nature. What were you thinking?”
“Hmm, let me think, oh yeah, now I remember. I was thinking that if he grabbed me one more time, I’d kill him. If he said that I was going to be his female one more time, I was going to kill him. So, I pretty much was going to kill him, Chax.”
He looked at me and I could see the surprise in his eyes. Yeah, didn’t think I’d slam him back with sarcasm. I liked to pick fights with full grown Fallen males, which according to him, embraced the wolf part of himself, dumb nut.
“Did he touch you?”
“I believe I just said that, Chax. Now, take me back so I can finish this. Interfering is not helping.”
Now real surprise flashed over his face; I got the message all right. You either fight back and stand your ground, or you’re going to be very sorry afterwards. This pretty much slammed into my brain when the dream was running through it. Can’t wait for tonight’s nightmare. I’m going to go full Fallen on the demon, and kick him out of my dreams, or better yet, kill him in it.
“Yes, you are right, but I can’t stand by and watch my Apprendo get hurt by another Fallen. That would not make me a good Custos. I understand that you wanted to defend yourself, but in this case, you would have ended up hurt, or even worse.”
“The way I see it, I was winning the battle.”
“Yes, you did really well for the first few minutes. But he was playing with you, trying to incite you. The moment blood came into the picture, his Fallen nature surfaced. He was attacking you to kill you. Yesterday, Seth had the same misfortune. Training turned into a real battle, Kasadya.”
“For me it was real from the start, so I don’t see your point.”
“The point is, if Seth and I didn’t intervene, you’d be dead!”
“Oh for Pete’s sake, what was I supposed to do? Let him touch me and stuff!?”
His face turned into anger, and I could see that he was taking my point of this argument into consideration. But he bit it back and said, “That’s why you have a Custos. If you ever have another problem with anyone, you come to me and I will address it. Do you understand?”
Oh yeah, I understood. If I couldn’t take the punch I had to run crying to him and he would save me. No more. I had endured enough of this crap. From the moment I set foot in this place, I was told I had to survive or I’d die. Well, so be it. I shifted to the wall, grabbed the two swords he had me practice with and shifted back to the training grounds. My team was standing there talking to each other and didn’t notice me. I searched with my eyes and found Don and Marcus talking a few yards away. When my sight landed on Marcus, something inside me kicked into place. I could feel something more, something rising up. I let it spread over me and shifted to Don and Marcus. Don turned around the moment I landed and his eyes went wide.
“Kas, wait,” he demanded, holding his hands up in surrender.
“Enough! Get out of my way. NOW!” I replied, and started to move forward so fast he couldn’t stop me. I sidestepped him, and using my wing, pushed him away from us to ensure he didn’t end up in the middle of the fight. Marcus’s eyes also went wide and he shifted. I looked around and found him a few yards away. “What’s wrong, Marcus? Don’t you want to play?” I asked him, shifting to him on the last word. I could hear Chax yelling at me, but just didn’t care; This was my moment. No more will I let someone walk all over me, I had had enough.
Marcus transformed and stood his ground. “Hellhound, back down now, or you’ll regret it,” he said, taking backward steps. I felt the air next to me move and knew someone was shifting in to stop me. The moment the air stopped, I flung my wings out, sending the person flying.
“No, wolf. Today regret is reserved just for you,” I responded, and I attacked him. He dodged my blades for a while, but was too slow and a hit went to his thigh. Howling, he jumped away from me, his paw going to the wound.
“Chax, stop her!” he yelled to Chax. No, not this time, my dear Custos. Chax shifted in behind me and I flung out my wings, again sending him flying.
I moved again, swiping with my left arm. He dodged it but didn’t see my right arm coming in for the blow. My blade ended up in his side, halfway to his heart. As my blade pierced him he howled and froze. I stopped the attack and looked him in his eyes. Shocked and in pain, he looked back at me. “What’s wrong, wolf? Am I not so beautiful anymore? Still want me as a trophy?” I taunted him as his eyes growing wide with fear.
“Kasadya, stop!” Chax yelled, and shifted in next to Marcus. His hand went to my blade to stop it from going in. Pissed off, I looked at him.
“Is this not what you wanted me to be? What, still not strong enough according to you?” I asked him and at the same time I felt someone shift in behind me. The air stopped and the person grabbed my wings before I could fling them out.
“Kas, please stop. This is not the way,” Seth said from behind me. I turned my eyes on Marcus.
“Kasadya, Seth is right. This is not honorable. Stop this,” Chax went on. Marcus transformed back to normal, my blade still inside him, and I could see that it hurt him way more than the blade going in.
“You touch me again, wolf, and you’ll be looking at your headless body a few steps away. Do you get me?” I said into his face. In pain, he nodded his head, his eyes closing because the movement brought on more pain.
Satisfied he got the message, I quickly withdrew the blade and took a step back, Chax removing his hand just in time. Marcus slumped to the ground and Chax followed, lifting up his shirt and looking at the damage. There was one clean cut where the blade went in, and a lot of blood coming out from it.
“Kas, give me your swords,” Seth said from my left side, and I complied without taking my eyes off Marcus and Chax. He took them from me and moved away. Chax looked up at me with confusion in his eyes. Yeah, you wanted a warrior, and at the same time wanted a little girl to come running to you for help. Well, I fixed it. No more
little girl.
“Kasadya, go back to my house. I’ll be there shortly. Seth, go fetch Maia. It’s very deep,” Chax said to Seth and me, without taking his eyes from mine. The air moved and Seth shifted out. Angry, I turned around to look at the others. When my eyes met them they took a step back, fear in their faces. I stopped and took in the picture. Why on earth would they do that? What, is this the first time they saw a girl win a fight or something?
Feeling warm liquid on my hand, I looked down to see it was covered with Marcus’s blood; then realization hit me. No wonder they were afraid, look at what I had done. In my tantrum to prove myself, I became the very thing I was supposed to hunt. Enraged and disgusted with myself, I shifted out without looking at them again, the look on their faces trapped in my mind. What have I done?!