Hellhound Born (Kasadya #3) by Karen Swart Read Free Book Online Page B

eyes. Everything was a big mess.
    “I will take you to another room,” he continued and shifted with me.
    We landed in a room I have never seen before.
    “Breathe, Kasadya,” he said while rubbing my back, projecting calming feelings into me.
    After a few minutes, my breathing returned to normal but he still kept me in his embrace.
     
    “We need to work on that. You will need to learn some breathing exercises and perhaps even some meditating,” he said as he steered me towards a huge bed.
    Glancing around the room, I could see a lot of paintings. I stopped dead when my eye caught a painting with the name Da Vinci scrawled at the bottom. I had never seen that painting by Da Vinci.
    “I bought it from him when he was still struggling to sell some paintings,” Chax stated, when he realized what had caught my attention.
    Holy crap! That must be worth millions.
    My eyes traveled over the other paintings. Everywhere, famous artists’ names were indicated on the drawings.
     
    “You like collecting artifacts?” I asked, sitting down on the bed and looking up at him.
    His eyes traveled over them.
    “It’s hard to keep memories when you live as long as I have. It helps me remember. The day I brought that painting, we battled a legion of demons. We lost three Fallen that day as well,” he explained.
    My eyes were riveted to him. To have lived so long, remembering all the crappy things that had happened to you, suddenly wasn't really appealing anymore.
    “I'm sorry,” I whispered. 
    The apology slipped out before I registered it, much less thought about his reaction. He looked down at me and smiled.
    “Come get some sleep. Tomorrow, first thing, we are starting the day with some meditation. I'm just beyond that door if you need me,” he said, indicating where the door was located. 
    He stepped towards it and, with a final nod, closed it behind him.
     
    I laid down on the bed, looking at all the paintings. Somehow, while gazing at the beauty around me, I started to drift off into the darkness.

Chapter 5
     
    “You must save them,” the child said as my dreams filled with white mist. I looked around, unable to see anything.
    “I'm trying,” I replied as I turned around and tried to find the child that kept popping up in my dreams.
    “The battle begins,” the child said.
    I saw the mist opening up and as it cleared, a scene was revealed.
     
    I looked down on the scene before me. In front of me, was a line, standing and waiting, There I stood, Max to my left and Zurita to my right. I scanned the other faces in the line, finding Lada and a few more standing side by side, their eyes fixed ahead. Further down the line I found more familiar faces. Chax and the rest of the other fallen stood ready in a second line.
     
    A sudden blast to my right grabbed my attention, snapping my head towards the sound of the blast. And there, in front of my eyes, a huge purple hole was forming in the air. Ballen's face was the first thing I saw when the hole started widening. There he stood, devilish smile in place, staring us down from the other side of the ever-expanding opening.
     “Destroy them!” He yelled as thousands of demons, already transformed, stormed through the hole towards us.
     
    “Hellhounds!” My voice rang out across the lines.
    Looking back, I saw all the hellhounds transform, including myself. They transitioned to hellhound form and then to the born form. My eyes focused on the dream Kas. She stood out above all the others, double the size of the other borns . The demons approached them and with a roar, the borns initiated the attack. Bones cracked and swords clanged together, their screams filling the air.
     
    Like a tsunami, the demons descended upon the Hellhounds. The rest of the demons stormed the line of Fallen waiting in the back. The deafening sounds of battle assaulted my ears. My eyes were focused on Chax as I saw him take the heads of his adversaries. Soon he was fighting masses of demons, as