Taming The Fae - An Exsilium Short Story (5 page)

“Nanini, wait!” I called after her but she
was already flying down the alley. I transformed as well and leapt
into the air. My wings were suddenly too wide for the alley and I
was forced to go above it. Looking down I could see Nanini chasing
the figure just below me. Suddenly, something jumped from a roof
and landed on her, taking her down hard.

“Nanini!” I closed my wings and dove towards
them. Pink fae bombs were lighting up the dark alley, and I knew we
had just stepped into a trap. At least six more waited for the pair
to hit the ground. I leaned forward even more, gaining speed
quickly. The moment Nanini and the other figure hit the ground, I
tucked and rolled, landing with my swords already drawn.

Three jumped on Nanini, trying to pin her
down. Three were heading towards me, shifting to their demon forms.
I braced my feet and steadied my swords. The first one went down
easily. His head ended up on the sidewalk. The second two were
another story. They worked together. One swiped at my torso another
got a hit on my thigh. I stepped back and turned, kicking one back
into the wall. Now alone, the other one wasn’t a much of a threat,
and I ended his life as well.
“Nanini!” I yelled, suddenly noticing that alley had grown dark
again. There were no pink bombs lighting it up anymore.

I turned to her direction and a sword cleaved
open my lower leg. I roared, and with that the dark vision on the
ally transformed into a red haze. I dropped my swords and grabbed
the demon. One hand around his neck, the other grabbed his hair.
With a triumphed roar, I pulled him apart and advanced on the group
that had Nanini. She was still hitting her attackers, but with her
head. Her arms were pinned by two, who held her arms tight enough
for the blood to stop, and also her bombs. One broke free and met
my advance towards them. Pulling back my hands, I punched his
torso. Ribs cracked beneath the punch, and his blood sprayed over
my face. But I did enough damage to leave him and get to the
others. The two holding Nanini’s arms released her and jumped up to
stop me.

The trailed of blood on her face ignited the
fury within me. Suddenly, my thoughts and actions were pushed
backwards into darkness. And an unholy roar echoed into the
alley.

Nanini

The roar had my attacker freezing. Luckily
for me, I had already heard such a roar.
Yep, I have another
‘born’ problem to handle
. But first… I held my hands together
over my chest and pumped up a major fae bomb. The moment he looked
down again, it was already in his face. The demon flew backwards
and hit the wall, bits of stone and gravel scattering from the
impact. Jumping up, I crouched and surveyed the scene. The
hellhound grabbed a demon and ripped him into pieces. I ducked in
time before I had demon chow for the night.

“Really? You have to rip them apart?”
Eeeuw
. The other demon was grabbed from behind .The
hellhound lifted him high, then brought him down face first,
totally squashing his face into the ground. An eye jumped out and
rolled over to me. Looking down at it, I knew I had a big freaking
problem. The noise coming from my left was the only indication
before I was hit with a knee right in the knocker. My nose broke
under the impact, and I swore like a pirate.

Holding my nose, I looked with a glassy
vision as the hellhound ripped the final demon apart.
Ah man,
now I have to do this with a broken and bleeding nose
.
Finished, the hellhound looked up and straight at me.
Oh
shit!

Okay, so what did I do the last time?
Oh yeah, I slammed him with a huge bomb, wrapped my legs around
his neck and tried to choke him.
I stood, wiping the blood of
my jeans. Dark, crimson eyes watched my every move.
Okay, big
boy, let’s rumble.
I stormed him and jumped into the air, going
for his neck. Mid-air I was grabbed.

“Oh crap.” I looked into those red eyes as he
held me suspended in the air.

“We can’t, perhaps, talk about this like a
normal pair of fallen, can we?” I asked.

Silence.

All he did was watch me.
Clearly not.
Alright, Lada said I could do this from a distance. I am sure being
held in the air qualifies at the moment. I concentrated, trying to
calm him
. What calms me? Oh, I know.
The feeling bubbles
always give me when I climb into the bath. The way they creep up my
flesh and goosebumps break out all over me. Then the amazing
feeling of being wrapped in warm water that smells like flowers. I
focus on the delightful smell each one would give off when it
popped, and how I would breathe in deep to collect it. Absolutely
the closest to heaven I could get. I pried my eyes open slowly, and
found a pair of blue eyes watching me intently.

“You really like bubbles, don’t you?” The
smile broke out over his face, igniting my
fae pissed off
instantly
button.

I turned and ripped myself from his hands,
landing gracefully for a change. I stood up and turned to give him
a huge smack, only to walk straight into his chest.
Argh!

“Are you hurt? Why is your nose bleeding?” He
lifted my face up to look at it.

“I thought it would be awesome to have a
broken noise! The bloody demon did it! Now, let go of me and back
the hell away from me.” I glared at him, as he stepped back. His
smile was replaced with a frown.

“I told you to wait. Why don’t you ever
listen to me?”
Oh, he so going for a huge smack.

“I am the Custos. You are the Apprendo. I say
duck. You ask where. That is how it works.”

He looked around at the scene around us. “You
mean it’s supposed to work that way. Clearly I have more skills
than you, even as a so-called Apprendo in your world.”
He
didn’t!

“What! You have years to go to even try and
reach my level of awesomeness. Years, jerk. And let me tell you,
you
lost control here, not me!”

He crouched down and picked up his swords.
“Yes, I won’t deny that, but I also saved you in the process.”
Oh, hell no!

“Now, you look here. I am this close to
really showing you my level of awesomeness. You didn’t save me. I
was trying to figure out how to pin them down to get some
information from them. You know we are trying to find a loco harpy
and a demon price?” I was up, okay, well, sort of, in his face.

He looked down at me. “We already have
Kasadya to stress over all the time, Nanini. You can’t just storm
in like her. Watch. Gather intel, and then form a plan and
execute.”

Yep, my arm totally jumped up all on its
own.
The uppercut was short, sweet and bloody amazing. He held
his jaw, bent over. “And that’s why I am the Custos and you are the
Apprendo, Apprendo.” I turned around and walked away, my nose
pounding from the pain. No worries; in a few minutes I would be all
healed up.

“
Alright, fallen, let’s call it a night
and report back to Exsilium,”
Vulcan instructed using
Corra.

I stopped and turned around to look at the
jerk. He was standing over what was left of a demon, looking at it.
“We need to get back. Have you gathered enough memories from the
scene?” I taunted him. He didn’t move, didn’t reply, and I could
feel distress creeping over me.

“Max!” I yelled at him.

“What if you weren’t around? What if I went
born when I was alone? Would it be a human I would look at and not
a demon?” His voice was filled with regret, and fear.

“No. Even without me I think you are
way
to bossy to let your hellhound take control in such a
way,” I tried.

“He won, Nanini. Look at what he did when I
couldn’t keep him under control. Maybe… maybe it’s better if
hellhounds are destroyed when we become like this.”

I looked up at the sky filled with stars,
threw my hands up and silently asked,
“Seriously? Did I do
something wrong?”
No reply came from the heavens.

I walked over to him, and watched as he
looked up and at me. His face became ashen from the knowledge that
he could lose it completely and become an indestructible
devastating force. I stopped in front of him. Our eyes met, and I
hit him so hard he actually fell backwards.

“That’s for totally freaking me out! So you
lost control and killed a demon, who hasn’t? I suggest you suck it
up, hellhound, and get with the program. You either destroy them
before they destroy
us
, or you die. And just for your info,
I would have kicked your ass if you tried to hurt a human! That’s
why I am the Custos and you are the Apprendo. Got it?” I shifted us
home and landed in the hallway, upstairs.

“Now go get cleaned up and get your act
together.” I turned and stalked to my own bathroom.
I sure as
hell did not sign up to mother any bloody hellhound.

Max

There was just no use in arguing with her. So
I did get a shower and did get my act together. The little vixen
had a really powerful punch. My jaw struggled to heal from the two
hits she gave me. But I will admit that she is sly and fast. I
decided that I will not confront her again tonight; I’ll go and see
if I can get something to read. I reached the stairs and stopped
dead on the third one. Below, Nanini and Kas were standing at the
door leading to the lounge. Kas looked up and our eyes locked. I
looked at Nanini, and all I could see was fury. She was a handful,
and I mean that in a really bad and exhausting way.

“Vulcan said I couldn't kill him,” Nanini
mumbled to Kasadya.

I could see the shock those words brought to
Kasadya. She leaned in and whispered something to Nanini, who
rolled her eyes and then walked into the lounge.

Feeling suddenly old, I slowly made my decent
down the stairs and met Kas at the bottom.

“How are you?” I asked. She looked as tired
as I felt.

“I'm ok, considering the circumstances. But,
alive is good,” she replied.

I nodded, not finding more words to say. It’s
over between us, but it still hurts a little. But more amusing, it
wasn’t the problem that was really eating away at me. It’s the fact
that I barely made any progress with Nanini. She simply hated
me.

“It’s hard. She doesn't want anything to do
with me,” I murmured, rubbing my hand over my face.

“It’s going to be alright. She just needs
time to get used to it,” Kasadya said and placed her hand on my
arm, trying to give me some comfort. I didn’t reply, but tried to
give her a reassuring smile. I looked into the lounge trying to
find Nanini, and instead saw a young girl with black hair breathing
hard as if she was about to collapse.

“Who's the kid?” I asked, making my way to
stand in the doorway, stopping only to observe them.

“A lost hellhound we found. She was left
behind during the attacks. A real pain in the ass,” Kasadya
replied, walking over to lean against the door frame.

A lost hellhound? “That’s not good,” I
replied, moving closer to look at the young female.

“How is it possible that you have survived
this long out there?” was the first question that jumped out.

She looked at me, but had difficulty
replying. Breathing hard, she looked at Chax again.

“It’s going to be alright, Raven,” Chax said,
worry etched into his face. The girl looked at me again, her eyes
pleading for whatever she was experiencing to end. Whatever she saw
behind me had her narrowing her eyes and taking a huge leap to
recovery.

“You!” Raven exclaimed as she pointed at
Kasadya standing behind me.

“You suck!” she continued her rant.

“Nothing new there,” Kas replied with a
smile.

She flew up and I grabbed her, holding her
back.

“I'm going to kick your ass!” Raven all but
screamed at Kasadya.

That is all we need, another female who is
going to make us grey before our time. “Great, another feisty one,”
I joked with Chax as I pushed the young female down.

“I like her,” Nanini commented, smiling at
Kasadya.

I have a feeling this is just the beginning
of a lot of trouble for us.
Lord, give me strength.

“Calm down, Raven,” Chax soothed her as he
shot a disapproving look at Kasadya.

Raven breathed deep, but I could see the fury
inside her eyes. Clearly Kasadya and the young hellhound didn’t get
off on the right foot. Chax suddenly jumped up, and my eyes flashed
to Kasadya, who was standing just a feet or two away from us. And
she was livid.

“Calm down. Go and see where the others are,”
Chax instructed Kasadya.

She glared at him, and stormed out of the
room.
This is not good.

“So, Raven,” Nanini came and pushed Chax away
to sit down next to her, “Where ya from?” she continued.

The young hellhound looked at Nanini, and I
could see in her features that Nanini’s presence was really
appreciated. I smiled at my little vixen. I froze.
Did I just
referred to her as my little vixen?
Well now, it would seem
this mating business moves fast, really fast.

“Well, I grew up in Kansas, but my Dad was
transferred to Rome for business.” She looked at all of us. “I
didn’t even know that he was moved there to kill demons. He said
that a fallen pair had a newborn and he had to fill in for them.”
The sadness that washed over her face had me worried.

“Raven, what was your father’s name?” Chax
asked.

“Jeremy Black, and my mom was Emily Black,”
she replied, but the sadness in her voice grew worse.

“I knew your father; he was a great warrior,
and your mom was an amazing harpy. I am sorry for your loss,” Chax
continued.

Raven nodded and looked at the floor, her
eyes blinking rapidly. I looked at Nanini, seeking assistance.
“Now, enough of all the sad talk. How many demons have you killed
so far?” Nanini asked, her smile as beautiful as always.