Disclaimer- I do not own the dark jewel books.
I know that this is a rewrite and all. But it is finished and I did change a lot of things. I hope you like it.
Chapter one.
24 years after the purge.
Hell Cat, or Hellie to her few friends, had been sent out on her first lone mission. The excitement was almost too much even for one so old as her. She had seen friends born and than wither and die, and yet she remained the same a body in its prime. But her mind was stuffed with the knowledge that she had acquired. She had survived in the assassins' guild of men and had come to be one of their deadliest weapons, when they would let her out in to the world. Before now she had a whole army of assassins around her making sure that she would not be harmed. They had told her that she was like a fine blade, perfect in every way but if you use it with out care than it will be destroyed and they liked her too much for that, well at least some of them liked her, she thought as she crouched under a window. She wanted to prove to the guild master that she could be the best thief in the guild so she choose the hardest place that she could think of to steal from. The Keep. At least that is what some people call it. Now mostly it is known as The Home of Witch. The High Lord of Hell is her adopted father and she is married to one of his sons and is surrounded by the most powerful people and kindred in the world protecting her from everything. But she could take most of them, she wore the black and only two people for sure could match her in strength here. No one really knows what the Twilight Dawn jewel could do yet.
She would not hurt anyone this time it wasn't in the job description, all that she had to do was go in and take key that hung around the high lords neck. This was going to be fun all right. She hadn't had something to challenge her in along while. But after a few centuries life does become pretty boring. She smirked as she climbed trough the window. Easy she thought moments before she felt a deep humming down to her bones. She froze and stood there listening for any sound that was out of the ordinary. Nothing came, so she continued on more carefully than last time. She looked down at the floor to watch were she could put her feet. Her heightened cat senses going all over the keep. She was thankful for those senses, as they had saved her life many times. She always listened to them. Ever since the blood ceremony in the guild were the master had mixed her blood with the ancient blood of a kindred cat, which was saved millenniums just for the right person. Her body had changed that night, she could now grow claws at will, all her senses heightened so much that they almost drove her mad at first. But the most amazing change, and the most unexpected was that now she could break any shield no matter how powerful and she could mask her physic scent so it wouldn't give her away or attract any more unwanted attention than she was already getting. The pain paid off that night. The change that she liked the most was that her eyes had changed form deep gold to a pale green with a cats slit, and her hair would go form midnight black to blood red. Her hair and eyes only change with intense emotion or when she called upon her full cat power. Of coarse there was always the down side of every gain. Back to the present Hellie, she told herself. You need to focus on your job, what would the others say if they could see their Hellie now. She was almost to the room she needed. She had gotten the designs to the house form a boy that was a groom here and had liked to talk after you had given a few to any cups of ale. She had her hand on the door when it burst open and she came face to face with the man she was supposed to steal from. He didn't have a shirt on over his chest and no shoes only pants his jewels, and a sword. His gold eyes meet her gold and green eyes in a flash.
"You… you were the one the keep was reacting to. Who are you?" he said reaching out his hand to grab her. She knocked his hand a way and lashed out with one of her many daggers, she didn't even remember drawing it. She got him across the face right under his eye. It wasn't very deep just a distraction as she reached up and ripped the key from around his neck. She could feel him drawing on his jewels as he realized what she was after. She brought her own power up to the surface, pushing trough her scent barer. She felt his eyes widen as he realized what he was facing. She smiled as she swept his legs out form under him and he hit the ground hard. She took off running before his head even hit the floor. She was off using all of her cat speed to hurl down the halls. Doors were opening on all sides of her. She could feel power building all around her. She flew around a corner to see an Eyrien warrior at the other end with a stick in his hand. She didn't even pause; she griped one of her whips that was on her waist and snapped it at his hand, making the stick fly though the air. He instantly went to a fighting stance, his wings extended so she couldn't go around him, as she approached him still at a run. He expected her to stop and fight, she thought with a smirk on her lips. But she didn't have time for that, she had to get out of this house it was abnormal. Her whip still in her hand she quickened her pace and right before she hit him she slid on the ground right in-between his legs. She saw his face as she went through and she almost doubled up in laughter. She would bet a lot of apples that no one had gotten the best of him in a long time. But she wasn't done yet at the very last second she took the whip that was still in her hand and swiped it around his leg and pulled bringing him down face first into the ground as well. She rounded another corner and found to her surprise a cat as large as a pony sitting there waiting for her.
"Hello little sister" He said in her mind.
She came to a complete halt so suddenly that her floor length hair blew up around her face. She and the huge cat sat and stared at each other. She saw intelligence and deadliness in his eyes, he seemed so familiar to her too, and that scared her and that didn't happen all that often. That thought alone pushed her into action. She didn't say a thing she just bolted in to the closest room. She got in, looked around and to her great annoyance, realized that there were no windows. Shit she thought. Oh well it is better than being out there with that huge talking cat, she thought as she threw her cat shield up around the room and than her own black shield right behind it, just in case. She placed the key that was still clutched in her other hand around her neck, than she took the other whip off her side and faced the door. She knew they would get to her sooner or later. She could feel all the power in the house coming to gather outside the door.
Out side the door stood Saetan and his large family. Jaenelle and Daemon stood to his right and Lucivar, who had just come limping around the corner with murder in his eyes. He spoke first, "I am going to kill that girl as soon has she teaches me that move." All who knew Lucivar had to choke back on their own laughter. The rest of the first circle stood ranging behind their witch. Jaenelle stood there looking between Saetan and the door to his study.
"So what is going on here?" She asked with a bite of humor in her voice it wasn't every night when the whole first circle, and most of their children were gathered for a fight. Saetan turned to her and she saw the blood on his cheek for the first time. She went cold, and began to gather her power. But Saetan next words stopped her.
" It can't be possible," He said sounding shell shocked.
" What isn't possible father?" She asked.
He acted like he didn't even hear her. "They said she was dead. After Tersa told me what that traitorous bitch had done." He said with a hiss. " I search and search for her and I found that the maid had died in a coach robbery and the child was supposedly died with her. But by the time that I looked, it had happened so long ago no one remembered much."
" Who father? Who is supposed to be dead?" Jaenelle asked, a little worried that they might have to catch Saetan if he fainted.
" What is this about Tersa." Daemon asked putting his hand around Jaenelles shoulder knowing already that the answer was going to have an impact on all their lives.
Saetan looked up at them and told them with a shocked expression. "My daughter. A woman I once trusted, gave birth to her fourteen years after Lucivar was taken form me. My daughter is alive." He said softly hope growing in his eyes like a spark.
"I have a sister." Daemon said in a quit voice, faintly echoed by Lucivar. As one the three of them, turned toward the door and tried it with their jewels again, and once again nothing happened.
"She is stronger than the black." Saetan said feeling like he needed to sit down.
Kaelas padded over to stand in front of the group. "No she is not." He said directing his speech to everyone there. "She is part kindred cat. I do not know how. So don't ask. But my pard and I can go through the shield. And wear her out, than you can come through the door." He said addressing his queen. Jaenelle nodded her head regally, still thinking about what had just been reviled. The cats moved in to start the game.
Hell Cat stood facing the door she could hear voices and could fill them testing the door, than she felt someone start to gather power and she broke out in cold sweat, but suddenly the power creased, and than there was a push of two blacks, and an Ebon Gray against the door. They couldn't get in not with her cat shield around her. But than she felt a lot of other kind of power come at her shield, and it felt a lot like her cat power. She knew that they would get through her shield and there were a lot of them. She tightened her hands on her whips and was ready for them in the darkened study. She called all her cat power of sight, smell, sound, and speed, to the surface. She had never called this much power to her at once, her hair changed from its dark red to a red so bright it almost flared like a fire. Ten cats appeared as though form thin air. They all froze as both her whips snapped out at the two closet cats almost on the nose. But she pulled back her strike before it could hit. Kaelas knew that she was frightened. So he tried to reach out to her. "Child it is all right we will not hurt you."
"Great, the really big talking kitty isn't going to eat me, I feel so comforted. And don't call me child, I am not one, I just look like one." She said aloud, with a pout at the irony of being so old but looking so immature. "And act like one sometimes." She finished under her breath as she realized what she sounded like.
"But you are part cat like us." He tried again sitting down as to not look threatening.
"So you're what kind of blood they put in me." She said off in her own world as she relived the memories.
Kaelas watched this and saw his opportunity to take her down. He and his pard all hit her form all different sides. First they grabbed her hands with her whips in them, with their teeth as gently as they could, and brought her down to the ground with her arms and than two other cats sat on her legs while Kaelas stayed in his place on top of her.
"You said you wouldn't eat me." She cried tears of frustration forming in her eyes.
"We are not going to eat you we are simply holding you." He said as he saw the tears. He tried to comfort her and started rubbing his huge face along the side of her jaw. The other cats started purring as well. Hell Cat started to relax for some reason having all this furry heat around her was comforting and like a forgotten memory. Kaelas saw this and took the opportunity to place a sleeping spell on her. He watched as she closed her eyes and knew that she wouldn't be waking up in a very long time. She needed her sleep any way the thought with a very un-cat like snort. It was going to take awhile for him to gain any trust with her after this. He felt when her cat shield dropped. He was filed with pride at how well it was done. Than he felt Saetan, Daemon, Lucivar, and Jaenelle gently take down the black shield. He stayed by her side as all the people in the hall rushed in to see what happened. Saetan stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the form on the floor.
"What did you do to her?" He bellowed loud enough for the chandelier on the ceiling to shake.
"Nothing, High Lord" Kaelas snapped back at him. "She is just sleeping."
Saetan said nothing, just stood staring at the figure on the floor. She was dressed all in black and she had more weapons on her than Lucivar had on a bad day. Her hair was scruffy and in tangles around her face. There was even smudges of dirt on her nose. What had happened to her to make her the way she is. What kind of life has she led. What would happen when she woke up. Jaenelle looked at her adopted father than at her husband seeing that they were both in about the same state as Lucivar, who had yet to recover fully form the news of a sister. She decided to take charge. Using craft she levitated the girl into the air.
"I am going to put her in a bed and clean her up a little. We can talk to her when she wakes up." She said on her way out the door. Kaelas followed her out first with his pard. Than Saetan and Daemon and Lucivar followed slowly behind her. While the rest of the first circle, and their children, went back to bed to get some sleep for tomorrow. They all had a feeling that it was going to be a very long day.
"Were are you all going." Jaenelle asked Kaelas and his pard.
"We are going to sleep with her tonight to make she is okay and that when she wakes up she wont escape." He said like it was the obvious thing to do. They put her in to a bed in a guest room and Saetan came up to remove the hall key form her hand when a glint of silver caught his eyes it was the locket he had given that woman so long ago. Tersa had said that the woman had sent it with the child. He gently removed it from around her neck. He touched the side of her face.
"We will talk when you wake up, little one. Welcome home."
Even in her deep sleep she heard this. Oh well, must be another dream, she would figure it out when she woke up. She slipped further into her sleep world as she felt many warm bodies settling around her.
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