Chapter 20
I woke up, shocked to death by a freaking siren going off. I was up and ready for battle, only to find myself in my room, all alone. It sounded like one of those sirens they used in the war, and man did it do the job.
Kali came marching into my room. “That’s so not funny!” she screamed over the noise, and I could see she was also near the point of a heart attack when it caught us off guard. The siren went dead, and finally we could clear our ears from the buzz. I looked at Kali.
“Yeah, makes your scream sound like a tweet,” I teased. I could see the plans turning in her eyes. Oh yeah, come tomorrow morning, these guys are in for one hell of a wakeup call. Damn, she’s as evil as I am. Smiling, I went back to sit on the bed. “Guess we need to get ready for New Orleans,” I said to her, looking up to make sure that this was still okay with her.
Smiling, she said, “Yeah, those guys need to see us in real action,” and strolled out to her room. Its official. I created a monster. Shaking off Kali’s newfound spirit, I got up and walked to the chair that my black leathers were hanging over. Look, I’ll do the normal clothes when I’m off duty, but when it comes to fighting, I know my leathers are my best asset. I got them and walked out to the lockers to find Kali putting on her pair as well.
I went to sit on the bench. “I thought you said we need to put it behind us?” I mocked her with a smile.
“Yeah, but when it comes to things like fighting, I agree with you. But that’s all I agree with,” she threw back. I started to laugh. Man, I was really enjoying this girl. Wouldn’t guess it was the same old diva who gave me crap back at The Hellhouse.
We got dressed, and then brushed our teeth and did our hair. Finishing up, we went back to our rooms to get our swords. Now fully ready for action, we marched down the hallways to the command room we saw yesterday. Inside, everyone was ready and waiting. Max gave me a once over look and smiled. I gave him a finger to say thanks, and he burst out laughing. Oh, he is such a pain in the butt.
“Okay, guys, here’s the scoop. According to our informants in New Orleans, we have a club on the outskirts of the city. We can expect about a hundred demons in it. The plan is simple: get in, kill, and get out alive,” Amon said, looking at all of us. Okay he so doesn’t have a clue when it comes to things like this.
“May I suggest something?” I asked, a better plan already forming in my head.
“Of course,” Amon replied and leaned against the table looking at me.
“If we all storm in like a police squad, most of them will just shift out to escape the attack, which will result in us seeing them in a few days. But what if we can take them out without them knowing about it to alarm the others?” I said, looking at them. Amon and Max looked at each other and I could feel the other guys’ eyes on me too, but I didn’t care. I just kept my eyes on Amon and Max.
“Okay, you have our attention. How will we be able to do that?” Amon asked, clearly intrigued by my idea.
I gave him my wicked smile. “By using a little feminine touch,” I replied. He looked at me, puzzled, but the look in Max’s eyes told me he already knew what I meant by those words. And he didn’t like it, which was too bad. I looked back at Amon and saw the moment it sank in with him, too.
“No, it’s too dangerous,” he said, looking back at the table and dismissing me. Time to change his mind.
I walked over to Max and the closer I got to him, the more he took small steps back. I smiled at him, but he didn’t return it; instead he regarded me carefully. He reached the wall and was trapped. So I moved in slowly. He kept his eyes on mine, and didn’t notice that I had my dagger in my hand. I walked up and lined my body with his; I could hear him take in a breath. Only inches away from him, I looked at him and smiled. His focus was only on my eyes; I leaned in as if to kiss him, and brought up my dagger hand.
His eyes grew heavy, and I could see the battle in his eyes. Should he trust me or not? I answered that question for him by placing the blade against his throat. The moment he felt the blade, his eyes turned to anger. Now I was so close to his mouth I could feel his breath on my lips, but kept my eyes on his. “As you can see, a female is more than capable of using her feminine wiles to get what she wants,” I whispered softly to him. He frowned and looked at Amon for help.
“Okay, Kas, that’s enough. You’ve made your point,” Amon said behind me. Still smiling, I looked at Max. His eyes were back on me and we were looking at each other. I looked down to his lips and my teenage hormones spiked back in place. Licking my lips to get myself under control, I quickly pulled away and turned around to go stand next to Kali. Who was looking at me totally shocked. Yeah, I know. I have no clue where the hell that all just came from, but damn, it worked. I returned my eyes to Amon, ignoring Max, who was still stuck to the wall.
“Alright, tell us your great plan, Kas,” Amon said, and I grinned like a schoolgirl. Yep, fae, you made one hell of a mistake taking on two girls for the job.
After laying out the plan, we all walked outside to some sort of helicopter pad. Max kept his distance from me because he was totally pissed at me. But hey, a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do, right? Standing on the pad I looked back up at Amon. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to fly us to New Orleans in a helicopter. I need to know that at least you are about ten percent still sane,” I mocked him.
He smiled and walked to the middle of the pad, stretching out his hands and looking at me. “No, that will be a waste of time and money,” he said, smiling. One by one the guys locked arms. Max and another took hold of his arms, and he gestured for me and Kali to take the last two open spots in the circle. Oh My Soul, he’s going to shift us all to the location. He is insane, but hey, let’s see how this works. I took the guy’s arm, and locked in with Kali, who also locked in with another guy.
Smiling, Amon shifted us all at once. The air shift was huge, compared to the air shift when a single shift takes place. We landed in a dark alley, and he looked at me like he wanted to gloat about it. Yeah, yeah okay, so the guy’s got talent, big deal. I ignored him and looked around. A street came into view, but no cars moved on it. It was quiet except for a soft beat I could pick up.
“Okay, the club’s around the corner. Kas, show us where you need us, and let’s get this over with,” Amon said, so I took lead.
Following the music I could pick up, we rounded the corner. I held my hand up for them to stop and give me time to assess the place. It was an old factory or something; various colors of light hit the widows over and over again. Yep, a club. I looked around to see that one alley was next to it, but most likely would be used for dark stuff.
I looked at the building across from it, an old abandoned factory. Great, that would be perfect. I turned around and walked to stand close to them. “Okay, we have an abandoned factory across from it. Take your positions there. Kali and I will lead them there, and then we take them out,” I finished and looked at Kali, who now had her game face on.
We parted from the guys and walked up to the club, where two huge bouncers were guarding the entrance. When they saw us they went into a defensive stance. Okay, demons, good, very good. I walked up to them like nothing was wrong. “Hey guys, tell me there are a lot of men inside,” I said to them, giving them a cute smile, or hoping so. The two looked at each other and then back at us.
“Fallen, leave now,” the bigger of the two said. I moved up to him and played with my cross necklace in my hands.
“Oh, come on guys. Ballen said we could get some action here. Was he wrong?” I asked, still playing nice. At the mention of Ballen’s name, they looked at each other, and then back at us.
“You are Ballen’s Fallen?” he asked.
“Duh, I just said that.” I replied, trying to throw a fit but failing very bad at it. Kali came to the rescue.
“Come on, Kas. Ballen will hear about this,” she said in an angry voice and turned around. Fear shot into their eyes.
“No, wait! You can en
ter,” the big one said and moved out of the way.
Smiling, we walked up to pass them. When I reached the big guy, I leaned forward and placed my hand on his chest.
“Now big guy, we’re going to have a huge party across the street. You’re not going to spoil our fun, are you?” I finished, licking my lips. I saw it on a movie once. Here was hoping it worked.
He smiled and was about to touch me, but luckily Kali moved in. “I’m hungry. Let’s get a move on,” she demanded and pushed me inside. Laughing like two drunken girls, we entered the building to find a hell of a lot of demons and humans inside; a hundred was an understatement. More like two hundred would do, but I just needed the demons. Humans meant nothing to me. I looked at Kali and we started our plan. We walked around looking for the meanest of the bunch; the others would follow shortly.
We found a group of demons dressed like bikers, holding two human females and drinking. I gestured to Kali, and we moved in. I walked over to the first guy I got to, and planted myself on his lap. “Well, here’s a delightful change. Don’t you think, Kali?” I said looking at him. The moment I landed, he grabbed me around the hips, locking me down.
“Oh yeah, but the question is, can they actually do something?” Kali went on, sitting on the table looking at another guy. Confused, they looked at each other and the one whose lap was my newfound seat looked back at me.
“Fallen, you play with fire,” he warned me.
“Oh yeah, now you’re talking. Ballen was so right; the guys here are intriguing,” I said, looking him in his eyes. Again, Ballen’s name spread fear into them. Okay, so Ballen’s a pretty big guy in this demon world, too bad.
“You’re Ballen’s Fallen?” he asked me. Smiling, I nodded my head and rubbed my hand over his chest.
“He said we could find suitable guys here to quench our thirst,” I went on, smiling the entire time. Gross, I was getting sick from all of this. He smiled and looked at me.
“What do you need?” he asked. I continued the playful rubbing.
“About five guys at a time.” I said, looking shy. His eyebrows shot up and he looked startled. “Ballen has a wicked way of keeping us in shape,” I went on and rubbed my cross again, trying to tell him that I had a lust charm on that made me do it. Hopefully he’d fall for it.
I saw the moment he got the message, and he smiled, looking over at his friends. “Leave the humans. We have a duty to perform,” he said, standing up and taking me with him. I expected him to put me down, but no, he held me tight against him. “Where do you need our service?” he asked, looking at me. I looked back at Kali, and she quickly stepped in.
“We saw an abandoned factory across the street. It might make a good place to have some real fun,” she replied and dug her nails into the male holding her. Pain shot into his face, followed by one hell of a wicked smile. If Amon and the guys were not there, I’d kick them back to Russia.
“Come on,” I instructed, pushing myself away from him and grabbing Kali’s hand. We moved to the exit. I looked back to make sure they were following us. Yep, sure as hell, all five demon males were walking behind us, all smiles.
We reached the bouncers, and I stopped to address them. “These will be our first, but we’re coming back for way more,” I told them, giggling like a schoolgirl and walking off with Kali. I kept looking back to make sure they all still followed us, and was delighted to see they had. One guy was even taking off his jacket. Kali and I pushed open the door and walked in, the guys following us. When the last one was inside and closed the door behind him, Max stepped out of the darkness, taking his head. The head fell to the floor, the body following a second later. The other males looked on as the head rolled to stop at my boot. Looking up, they caught the sight of Kali and me, fully transformed. “Let’s play,” I said, and we all attacked at once.
I took the head of the one who was still grossing me out, and Kali took the one that she scratched. In seconds all of them were dead. Amon walked over to each demon and opened a small bottle, dropping liquid followed by the Latin prayer to make them go poof. He then turned around and looked at us. “Good job,” he acknowledged, and looked around to make sure everyone was still standing.
“We have a problem,” I said to him, and at that his eyes grew dark.
“What’s the problem?” he asked, ready for action.
“Your hundred is more like two hundred. With this plan, Kali and I will be at it for a day. We need to think out another one.” I replied, looking at Max to see the delight he took in it. Yeah, so my plan would have worked if it was just fifty or so.
“Max?” Amon asked, looking at him.
Max kept his eyes on me and smiled. “Just like always, we go in and kill.” he finished, still smiling at me. I rolled my eyes. Oh for heaven sake, why do I always get the ass in the pack?
“Then let’s go. Lock in and I will shift us inside,” Amon commanded, and the guys started to move to him.
“Wait,” I said. They stopped and looked at me. “Kali and I can help with the shifting; that way we can get them from more than one angle,” I explained, looking at Max to see his smile gone and replaced with a frown. I looked back to Amon.
“Yes, that will work. I’ll take the bar. Kas, you take the floor, and Kali, you take the exit. Make sure that we get as many as possible,” he said, and the guys started grabbing us. For some insane reason Max decided to grab my arm; I looked at him and saw that he was looking at me real funny. Shrugging it off, I looked at Amon. “On the count of three. One. Two. Three,” he finished and we all shifted to our locations. The moment we landed, all hell broke loose. Still in Fallen form, I went into action, using every bit of skill I gained in my life so far.
Moving and slicing my way through the crowd, I almost ended up slicing off a human’s head, a demon using her as a shield. “Coward!” I yelled and grabbed the girl from him. She went flying and I took his head, his blood spraying all over me. Ready for the next one, I moved forward, when all of a sudden Max was in front of me. “What are you doing?” I yelled at him.
“Hel-…” He stopped dead and looked down; I followed and saw that a blade’s point was sticking out of his stomach. Fear grabbed me and I moved, pulling him forward and out of the blade, taking the human girl’s head behind him. Shocked that I just killed a human, I stood there until Max’s voice came to me. “You had no choice,” he struggled to say.
Two demons came at us, so I went in overkill mode, taking their heads in two swift moves. Crouching down next to Max, I peeled away his hand; his body was covered in his own blood. Oh hell, this is not good. “Leave… me. Get t...hem,” he struggled to say, blood now flowing out of his mouth. I have seen many deaths, most caused by me, but I wasn’t ready to see this one. I grabbed him and shifted to the compound.
“Melissa!” I yelled as loud as I could to get some help for him. He was semi-awake, there but almost not. “Hold on,” I told him. Melissa came running into the room and stopped dead.
“Oh no, not Max,” she wailed, her hand covering her mouth and tears beginning to form in her eyes.
“Help him!” I yelled at her to keep her cool and save his life.
She snapped out of it and walked over to look at the wound. Her head fell and I could see the answer: he wasn’t going to make it. She burst into tears, turned around, and looked at me. “Please, Kas, help him,” she begged. Startled, I looked at her.
“I can’t. I don’t know how,” I replied to her, my eyes on him. My heart was breaking for her, and him.
“Can’t you give him your blood or something, like in the movies?” she asked. Shocked, I moved away from her.
“No, my blood is poisoned. A demon drank from me, and something bad happened,” I told her, backing away slowly.
She looked at me, her tears running over her cheeks. “Kas, he’s not a demon. He’s a good man. I can’t lose him; I’ve known him from birth. Please, I beg you,” she went on. Images of Draco on his knees gasping for air ran through me. Then one int
eresting thing came to me, the one where Lada and I talked about our blood, our tainted blood. But is my blood tainted in a good way or in a bad way? Is that why Draco was affected, because he was evil, and would it do the opposite to Max? There was only one way to find out.
I moved to him, pushing her out of the way and grabbing the dagger I kept on my thigh. “Max, I can try and help, but you’ll be half Fallen or maybe full Fallen. But the worst is that you’ll carry our curse and would need to serve to reach heaven. Do you understand?” I asked him, holding his face in my hand.
“Yes,” he replied, very weak.
“You need to drink my blood,” I finished. His eyes were so glassy from the blood loss; he wouldn’t last much longer.
“Fine,” he whispered. I almost couldn’t make out what he said. Laying back his head, I cut my wrist and held it to his mouth.
God, please let this work. We were not enough to stop them, and we needed him. I said a prayer, hoping this worked. My blood ran down his mouth and he swallowed heavily. A minute later my wound closed by itself, and I took a step back to watch. Nothing happened, and I saw him stop breathing. Feeling defeated, I turned around and looked at Melissa, who still had hope. She was looking at him intensely.
I was about to take her outside when I heard a deep breath inhale from behind me. Shocked, I turned around. Max was looking at me with no glassy eyes, and then he grabbed his stomach, starting to scream and go crazy. Oh my God, I poisoned him. Damn stupid girl! I told myself, and tried to subdue him. It went on for a long while, and then he stopped screaming and went still. Amon shifted in behind me. “Max?” he said, and came to stand at his other side. He looked dead; it didn’t work. I’ve only killed him faster. I turned around and walked out of the room. Kali was standing there looking at me, and without a word I kept on walking to our rooms.
I need to learn to keep myself under control. Stupid ideas like these will cost me dearly one day. Looking up, I noticed the hall was filling up with the other guys. One look at me and they knew Max didn’t make it. Feeling my throat closing up, I knew I wasn’t far away from tears, so I doubled up on my walk, trying to escape my latest failure. Why on earth would I have thought that it would work? Amon’s right; I’m going insane. Just look at what I did tonight. First flirting with freaking demons to get them out just to kill them, and then thinking my blood was only deadly to demons? Stupid, stupid girl!
I walked all the way to my room, went to the closet and grabbed some clothes. My leathers weren’t covered in blood anymore, but I felt it on me; I could still smell it. I walked to the lockers and undressed, and then opened up the shower with only cold water. I got in and the second the first cold spray hit me, I took in a deep breath, biting down on the cold. “I need this,” I told myself, and branched my hands on the wall, letting the water run down my back.
I was standing there for a while, just letting the water run over me and trying to forget everything. Yeah, Kali was right; I’m one hell of a piece of work. Where ever I go, disaster follows. It would be better if I did go insane and they had to destroy me. At least I wouldn’t have to take any more of this.
“Kas, you need to come see this,” Kali said from behind me. I turned to look at her and saw her face in total shock. Ah hell, what now?
“Kali, I’m not in the mood,” I replied and turned my back to her again.
“Didn’t think you’d be the boring type who wouldn’t take interest in something new,” a voice said from the locker’s entrance. Now, in my short life, I’ve been through much. It takes quite a bit to shock me. When I heard that voice, however, my entire body went into lockdown and I froze. It couldn’t be.
“Max?” I said shakily, still bracing against the wall for support.