The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  Chapter Fourteen – Crixis

  “Hello?”

  I stood on the hill overlooking the cemetery in utter silence. There was always something about a cemetery that made me feel at ease, made me feel alive, made me feel human. It calmed me down.

  But that wasn’t why I was here.

  I wasn’t here because it was near the cemetery. I was here because the hill was close to the cemetery, which in turn was close enough to her house. At the perfect angle, I was able to see and hear everything that went on in that house. My senses were sharper than most.

  She creased her eyebrows as she glanced at the caller ID. Bringing the phone back to her ear, she said, “Who is this?” As if the little Purifier knew I was calling. I didn’t answer; she immediately hung up the phone, informing the man with her that it was a telemarketer.

  The man was going to pose a problem; I knew it from the moment he showed up on her doorstep with the Englishwoman. They were sent from the Council to purify me…if only they knew that their trip here was such a waste.

  They could not kill me. No one could. No one could purify me in thousands of years, thanks to Vexillion. I made sure that if she ever came back, she could do nothing to harm me.

  But now, I began to enjoy my time with these people. Torturing Kass and Raphael was amusing, and it was something I wanted to continue doing.

  Perhaps their journey here wasn’t a waste, after all. If they served their purpose, all would end well. With the combined knowledge of us all, I was positive there was a way we could unite and take her down.

  Chapter Fifteen – Kass

  A few Oreos were a good snack for a normal person. After about fifteen of them, they were a good snack for me, too. Add that to a massive glass of milk and you had a little slice of heaven at your fingertips.

  Taiton sat across from me, reading his book and occasionally sneaking an Oreo every now and then, probably thinking that I didn’t see it. But I did, I saw it. I saw it all, and I thought it was hilarious how sneaky the giant man was attempting to be.

  The high-pitched ringing entered my ears again, reminding me of a few hours ago, when I answered it in a second to hear nothing on the other side. No horror movie crap in this house. I wasn’t about to jump to answer the phone again anytime soon, so I just sat there and ate more Oreos, letting Michael, who was in the other room, walk into the kitchen to pick it up.

  “Hello?” Michael’s face hid a childlike smile. “Elizabeth. How are you? How was your first day?” He chuckled. “Good, good. A meeting? All right, I’ll push back dinner a few hours so you and the boys can have a warm meal. Fantastic. I’ll see you then.”

  I watched him set the receiver down before asking, “What’s going on?”

  Michael poured some tea in a new cup, stirring and replying, “Elizabeth has a meeting with the staff, and she doesn’t know how long it will last. Her, Gabriel and Max will be late.” His dark eyes met mine. “That’s all. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Were you able to find anything on Koath’s computer?” was my next question.

  Michael casually sipped his fresh tea, sighing and closing his eyes, as if it was the best thing he’d tasted in a while. Well, since his last cup of tea. And knowing him, his last cup of tea was finished less than ten minutes ago.

  A sufficient amount of time passed, making me wonder if Michael was thinking up of the perfect way to let me down easy. I didn’t really have my hopes up. I didn’t expect him to find anything on the computer.

  “No,” Michael finally said, “I’m sorry, Kass. I couldn’t find anything. I promise I will keep trying, though.” He heaved another heavy sigh.

  Who would have deleted everything on Koath’s computer? Koath wouldn’t do it himself, would he? Maybe the better question was: why did they wipe it?

  Michael headed towards the living room but stopped short when there was a rhythm of knocks on the front door. I couldn’t help but stare at him as he slowly opened it. What if it was…naw, Crixis wouldn’t bother knocking and waiting for someone to open it. If he really wanted to, he’d just come in and make himself at home.

  Claire poked her head in. “Hi.” She walked past a wordless Michael and into the house, lugging various textbooks in her backpack. She threw it on the kitchen table and sat beside me, setting her chin on her hand.

  “You got here fast,” I told her, knowing why she rushed here: Max. Too bad he wasn’t here yet.

  She fluffed her short hair and laughed. “Yeah. Steven tends to speed.” I was seconds away from asking her what Steven had to do with anything, but she beat me to it, saying, “His is in the shop, so he had to borrow my car. Speaking of which—” Claire paused as she turned her cell phone on loud. “—he’s supposed to text or call me when he’s on his way.”

  Her new cell phone was a strange sight. I knew she had to buy a new one, since she dropped and broke it when she got the call that her father died. I was a first-hand witness to that.

  Her big, blue eyes flicked towards Taiton, who ignored the both of us and had his nose stuck in his novel. Odd how he was constantly reading that book now, especially when yesterday he stood with his arms crossed and stared directly above my head.

  Did this mean his guard was down, or was he just that good?

  “Claire,” I coughed, “this is Taiton. He’s kind of like my—”

  “Bodyguard?” Claire cut in, somehow knowing exactly what I was going to say.

  “Yeah.” The incredulousness in my voice was evident. It also felt ridiculous. I was a Purifier. I didn’t need a bodyguard. I was the bodyguard.

  “He was with you yesterday, watching you like a hawk,” she explained her expert reasoning, “and he’s here again. I put the pieces together and threw out a well-formed guess.” She threw an it’s-that-simple smile at me.

  I laughed and joked, “You’re good.”

  As Claire jabbered on about what I missed today, I came to a startling realization: everyone in her immediate family was dead. Steven wasn’t her blood uncle. She was more like me than I knew.

  Soon enough, after all the schoolwork was done, we rested in the living room, watching some cheesy soap opera, with Taiton sitting next to me and Claire on my other side. Michael was somewhere upstairs playing around with Koath’s laptop, and Raphael was locked in the library, searching the shelves for anything he hadn’t read in his nearly six-hundred-year lifetime. The guy was old.

  “When are you going to tell Max?” I broke eye contact with the terrible TV show to glance at Claire. She dropped her gaze to her lap. “Claire, I thought you were going to tell him?” Was I being pushy?

  “I am,” she defended herself. “I am. I just don’t know when, or how, for that matter.” Claire let out a muffled moan as she hit the pillow beside her. “Why does this have to be so hard? Why can’t it all be easy?”

  “Because life’s not easy?” I offered her a questionable answer.

  She began to laugh out a response, but a single knock interrupted her. “What?” Claire glimpsed at her phone as she stood and threw her backpack around her shoulder. “Steven said he was going to let me know—maybe he forgot.”

  Before I gathered enough energy to stand and follow her, she was already at the door and yanking it open. Claire dropped her backpack and whispered “You” as I jumped to my feet and ran by her side.

  His green eyes studied Claire. “Hello, Morpher.” We stood in shocked silence as he turned his head to me. He did nothing but stare. “Do not scream for your protector—”

  Yeah, like I’d listen to that.

  I yelled “Company’s here” at the top of my lungs the same moment I grabbed Claire’s hand and threw her behind me. My fingers clenched into two fists, and I rose them between us.

  The despised man’s eyes squinted as he flashed away the moment Taiton came within a few feet of him.

  Taiton slipped out a black box from his pocket and whispered, “This does not fit with his profile.” His eyes scanned the nearby area while his hand
s unlocked the box and drew a thin needle out.

  He was going to purify Crixis by pushing a needle in him? Good luck with that, buddy.

  I unconsciously led Claire up the stairs, slowly and backwards. Safety was my number one concern. Crixis was here for me, not Claire, so I had to get her out of here.

  The feeling of wind slapping my skin was startling; I moved too fast for my mind to register. One moment I was backing up the stairs with Claire behind me, and the next I was shoved against my bedroom door. We were alone in the only room of the house I called mine.

  His striking face was mere inches from mine as he leaned in to whisper “I told you to not call for him.” My mouth was open and a sarcastic comment was close to being said when Crixis turned his back to me and started pacing.

  He looked uneasy. Not that I cared. I went for the doorknob, figuring it’d be easier to double-team him, but he stopped me.

  “No,” he growled, flashing me to the same chair Taiton’s been practically living in the last two days. With another flash, he pushed my dresser, which must have weighed hundreds of pounds, due to its size and the fact it was filled with clothes, in front of my door, securing it from any break-in.

  There were various pounds and swearwords on the other side of the door. “Crixis.” That voice didn’t belong to Taiton or Claire. It was Raphael. “Release her.” Why didn’t he sense his presence?

  Something wasn’t right here.

  As Crixis laughed at his pleadings, I scanned my room, wanting to find something I could use as a weapon. Anything, really. I didn’t care what, as long as I had something sharp in my grip, I felt better. Of course, I’d already shoved a stake through his heart, so it wasn’t as if that would stop him.

  I wished my rose blade wasn’t downstairs, sitting on the coffee table in the living room.

  Crixis crossed his arms. “They truly have no idea, do they?”

  I was too engrossed in my weapon-search to wonder if he wanted an answer to that question, or if it was more of a rhetorical one. There was not even a pair of scissors in here, was there? What kind of room was this?

  Just as I was giving up all hope, I spotted something on the floor near my dresser. It must have fallen off when Crixis threw it in front of my door. It wasn’t a weapon, but it would do. Five against one was better odds. The only thing was—how was I going to reach it?

  The path to it was a straight one, so that was good, but Crixis stood between us. Not so good.

  Courage rose up in me. If this was how I was going to die, so be it, but I’d go down fighting. I got to my feet and walked towards him. “Stop the games,” I told him while huffing myself up. “Let’s get this over with.” I began to circle him, like I was in one of those old western movies.

  And, to my amazement, it worked.

  He soon joined in the circling match with a curious expression on his face. “Not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but—”

  Once I stood near the dusty place where my dresser used to sit, I cut him off by lunging for the small, overlookable item.

  I knew he was fast; I just wished he would’ve been a second slower. He flashed on top of me and slammed me hard against the floor. That happened sooner than I thought it would. Ouch.

  “Just when I thought you were getting interesting,” he menacingly snarled, “you go and try to run away. The one time you and I are alone, and you want to run? If I had a heart, it would hurt.” A sick smile appeared on his face, twisting his attractive looks into something exceptionally devilish.

  I flicked him off.

  Crixis turned humorless, not that he was witty to begin with, and said, “I’ve seen better—”

  As he spoke, I grabbed for it. My hand fumbled with the object before firmly sliding it on. I forced out a laugh. “It takes a village, right?” Crixis’s confused expression faltered, and a few moments passed before I added, “Or maybe that’s for raising kids.”

  Talk about awkward. I ruined my own one-liner.

  Minutes ticked by, but each minute felt like an hour, and because of that, it seemed like I would never escape from being underneath Crixis. He was warm for a Daywalker. The air was filled with shouts and screaming. The dresser against my door pounded over and over again, moving an inch.

  “You should not have called for the Council Agent,” Crixis said, once he dismissed the whole village and ring thing. “Everything would have been much easier.”

  “Forgive me if I don’t care about making things easy for you,” I spat out the words.

  “Oh, that’s all right. I spoke only of it being easier for you. I quite enjoy the hard way, myself.”

  I didn’t have a witty retort for that before my breath was forcibly taken from my lungs as Crixis was lifted up and off me. It took me less than five seconds to get to my shaky feet and stare in the brown eyes of my savior.

  As Crixis recovered himself, my rescuer ran a hand through his pitch-black hair. “Sorry to butt-in,” he said, not-so-apologetically to Crixis, glancing at me. His kind eyes recalled things to my memory that I thought I had forgotten.

  “Ah. It seems we will never have some time alone.” Crixis glanced from me to the man, to the new figure that flashed inside the window. “You do have many friends, it seems.” He blinked, eyes turning red. “A shame no one will be able to save you.”

  Rain stepped between us. He had faced him down before, after Crixis beat the crap out of me last time. “I beg to differ on that one.”

  “Me, too,” the other brother growled as he slid the dresser away from the door, letting it fly open and the crowd of people behind it file in. I paid no attention to the white cougar that leapt in the room, the flash Raphael created when he appeared by my side, or the urgency in Taiton’s facial expression. Surrounded by so many supernaturals, Taiton was probably crapping his pants, thinking I didn’t bring enough needles for this.

  I couldn’t even wonder what was going to happen to Claire and Raphael. I would defend them to him, to the Council—provided I lived that long.

  Everyone stepped toward Crixis; a miniature army on my side. I felt like stomping the floor and shouting Spartan-style.

  There was a hint of something in his maroon irises, something that I couldn’t place. Just as soon as it appeared, it was replaced with anger. Crixis spread his legs into a fighting stance, mirroring his stance in my vision.

  “Crixis,” Raphael warned, “look around. You are alone. It would be wise to surrender.”

  A sinister half-grin crossed his face, sending tingles down my spine. “A true warrior fights to the death—” There was a pause. “—but you wouldn’t know that, would you, Raphael?” With a gust of wind, Crixis was shirtless and in the process of unbuttoning his pants.

  “Stop!” Taiton commanded, lunging at thin air. The needle was more than ready to go, it was just that the act of shooting Crixis up with the liquid was harder than it looked. And it looked pretty hard.

  The first to glance behind us was the cougar-Claire, and the rage boiling in her eyes was unmistakable. Her icy glare met a red-eyed one. One that belonged to a six-legged black wolf. There was no longer a naked Crixis in the room—the black wolf took his place, and I wasn’t too sure that was a good thing.

  Suffice to say, this wolf was extremely fierce. Even though I’d seen it before, multiple times, it still stopped my heart. The black fur melted with the air, creating a surreal sensation. It was as if the dark fur dissolved into black energy that, in turn, faded into the surrounding air.

  It was clear to me that nearly everyone in this room expected the wolf to lunge at me, but I knew the second he rotated his head to face Claire that he had other things on his mind.

  In a blur of movement, the black wolf pinned the white cougar down. Black and white, yin and yang, but they weren’t balanced. Evil overtook the good easily.

  Claire never stood a chance. Sure, against a normal person, she would have done great, but Crixis wasn’t a normal person. He wasn’t really a person at all.
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br />   Before anyone could make a move to get his snarling face away from Claire, he sent his razor-sharp teeth down, onto her neck. My no was drowned out by her ferocious roar. I tried running to her aid, but there was too much testosterone in my way.

  An ear-splitting howl rung through the room before Crixis flashed out of sight.

  “Claire!” I frantically yelled, pushing the men out of my way. Michael was in the process of covering her nude body with his over shirt as I fell to my knees. She shook, her face twisted. She was in agony.

  This was my fault. This whole thing was my fault. Crixis attacked Claire because of me.

  Blood seeped from the gaping wounds on her neck and onto the floor of my room. Lately my room saw way too much blood, but it’s not like I could help it. Blood and/or bloody situations always seemed to find me, especially when I was in my room.

  Her mouth fell open, and croaking sounds came out. Claire couldn’t form real words…why? I gripped her convulsing hand and squeezed, thinking something along the lines of: God, please let Claire be okay. Let her come out of this alive.

  My head flipped towards the three Daywalkers in the room. “Someone help her!” I demanded, not fully knowing what any of them could do. I knew their blood healed, I witnessed it myself that night in the cemetery, and I hoped that that would be enough to save her.

  Taiton set the needle back in the case, simultaneously saying, “We need to stop the bleeding. I will find the first aid kit.” The dark giant hurriedly walked out of the chaotic room, as if he knew where the first aid kit was.

  Michael rushed to his side, mumbling, “I’ll show you where it is.”

  Rain glanced from his brother to Raphael, who, if I remembered correctly, he’d only met once. “I’ll do it,” he muttered, flashing beside me. He blinked, letting his entire eyes become black and his teeth grow. Using his fangs, he bit into his wrist to let the blood flow freely. He held the dribbling wrist over Claire’s open mouth, making sure to land a good amount of the gooey substance in her throat.