“We,” she was pained to admit, “are aware that he has done terrible things to you and many others over the centuries. Having a great deal of power, with an infinite amount of time and no consequences to speak of, did change him. He is not the same. But, perhaps fighting a common enemy will bring him back.”
What was she talking about, a common enemy? Who was our common enemy? No one I could think of. If anything, Crixis was the common enemy. There was no way someone else could be as evil and malicious as him. No. Way.
Even though my mind was made up, my mouth went ahead and said, “Common enemy?”
The woman straightened herself out, holding her son closer. “One of the first evils. If you have any semblance of survival, you will listen to him, for he will explain all.” Her face dropped in a frown as she and the boy faded from my view, into nothingness.
As I heard the all-too familiar tick of the abnormally loud clock, I exhaled and muttered, “Crap.” I ignored Taiton’s worried look and stood. “Sorry. It’s nothing.” Lie. “I’m just hungry.” Another…wait, that one’s not a lie. “That’s all.” That wasn’t all, but it wasn’t like I could tell him that. If anything, I needed to consult with Gabriel, or…no one.
Probably no one, which was stupid, I’d admit. If I talked to Gabriel about it, I knew exactly what he would say. It was about as good an idea as picking up a bloody hitchhiker holding a machete in the middle of the night.
With Taiton less than two seconds behind me, I wandered into the kitchen, finding Gabriel leaning against the counter and throwing goldfish into his mouth. It was as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening, and he was going about his daily eating rituals.
“Kass,” Gabriel munched on another helpless goldfish. He handed me the carton, being so kind to let me grab a handful before taking it back. “Quick question.”
Sighing, I ate one at a time. I was too depressed with my life to eat them all at once.
“Does my hair look any blonder than usual?” Setting the box between his arm and hip, he bent down so I was able to see. He twisted a small patch together, probably so that the color would seem lighter. When I neglected to give an immediate response, he prompted, “Well? Is it?”
I let out a laugh, saying, “No.” Gabriel huffed, acting offended, when I fixed his hair, returning it to its usually shaggy state. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes he did gel it up, but lately he let it go all natural.
“With your life in danger so often,” he said, squinting his blue eyes, “I don’t have the time to make myself pretty. Though maybe I should, because every guy you’ve ever had even a remote attraction to is going to be in this house, for God knows how long.”
“I thought I told you to not read my mind?”
“I didn’t have to read your mind. You face is an open book” was his chosen interruption.
“I hate you.”
Throwing up my hands, I decided to not reason with him and walk away. I found that’s the best (and sometimes only) thing I could do when he got like this. My foot entered the area where the stairs met the kitchen when he grabbed my arm, stopping me.
“In all seriousness,” Gabriel said, leaning down to my face, “we’re going to have beautiful babies. Two handsome boys and three beautiful girls.”
I blinked at him. Five kids? Heck to the no, especially not with him.
A knock on the door cut off my I-hate-you response. Gabriel reached for it, giving me a full view of the back of his head. I knew who the knock came from, but I was too entranced at the small, white patch of hair that was poking out behind his ear to do anything but stare.
What was going on with that boy and his freaking hair?
Gabriel gave one look to Rain, said “Sorry. Not interested in whatever it is you’re selling” and slammed the door in his face. As I ran to the door, he shrugged.
I was too pressed on time (Claire’s time) to dignify him with a reply.
“Sorry about that,” I apologized as I opened the door to see Rain’s irritated face and Alyssa’s curious one. I bit my lip to hold myself off from saying anything more. We didn’t have time for the small talk.
“Where is she?” Alyssa asked, reminding me that Claire was in the other room, dying.
All those times we laughed together at lunch. All those times we did our homework together in math class. All those freaking times seemed like they were years past, like they were had in another lifetime. Her voice was a little less soft, a little more forceful.
“Follow me.” I led her to the hallway that in turn led to Raphael’s room, where Claire was.
Max sat beside her, exactly where I left him all those hours ago. When we entered the room, his small eyes rose abruptly in our direction.
Even though this wasn’t the best time to do introductions, I motioned to the two people behind me, saying, “Max, this is Alyssa and—” I paused, mentally preparing myself to say Kirk and not Rain, since Kirk was his first name. “—Kirk.”
Max managed to steady his voice enough to say “Can you help her?”
“I can try,” Alyssa replied, setting her oversized purse on the nightstand next to the bed. “Could you leave for a little while? I need quiet.”
I nodded and grabbed Max’s arm before he could respond with a no or a why. Max would hopefully soon learn that there were things (like witchcraft, for instance) that were better off in the dark.
“Max,” I gently told the kid, “go to the kitchen and eat something. You haven’t eaten since lunch.” At least, that’s when I thought he last ate. I wouldn’t know. I wasn’t at school. I watched him silently turn and walk into the kitchen, and with any luck he was doing what he was told.
“I see your life hasn’t become any less difficult since we left,” Rain said, dark eyes meeting mine.
“No. It hasn’t,” I answered, breaking eye contact. A strange, awkward silence permeated the space between us, making me wonder if I should just leave. “So, how have you been?” Small talk reared its ugly head in me after all.
Rain acted like he was debating his answer, his mind switching between good and terrible. I was positive there was no way his life could be as terrible as mine. When he was seconds away from answering, an annoying ringing melody erupted from his pocket.
Who was calling Rain?
He quickly glanced at the caller ID, said “Sorry,” and walked away, giving me no further thought. How nice. How utterly charming of Rain to just walk away from me, even though he hadn’t seen me in forever.
Suddenly I remembered something.
Steven.
I needed to call Steven to let him know what happened to Claire. He was supposed to swing by and pick her up after his work meeting. My life was just full of terrible days, wasn’t it?
Chapter Seventeen – Gabriel
I never realized how far up the ceiling was. At least, it looked pretty high to me while I was slumped on the couch, staring up at it. I had nothing else to do, it was true. I couldn’t help the researchers in the library, I couldn’t help Alyssa do her spell, and I definitely couldn’t be in any other room of the house.
Why?
Because every other room in this place was filled with either John, Kirk, or Raphael. I didn’t like any of them. They could all screw themselves and stay out of our lives, even if they were only trying to help.
My paranoia, or possibly the fact he said he was on his way, told me that yet another man was going to enter the house, one that, until yesterday, I thought nothing of. Now, though, I wasn’t so sure. Kass mentioned Steven in the list of guys I was supposedly jealous of.
Using the world jealous loosely…sure, I was jealous of John, back before we knew he was a Daywalker. Yeah, I was jealous of Kirk too, because he was an older man, and chicks always dug older men. And, of course, I was jealous of Raphael. Everyone in the house knew that.
But Steven?
Steven?
Claire’s uncle Steven?
Yes, his next-to-white hair and dark eyes were an odd mi
x, and maybe the opposite sex found it appealing. I just never thought Kass was in that group. Kass was the opposite sex, obviously, but Steven?
Not to mention the busboy that had been eyeing her like there was no tomorrow. Even though I had no clue who the kid was, I had half a mind to punch him in the face.
“Gabriel.”
Creasing my eyebrows and hating that my tranquility was interrupted, I moved my eyes to glare at John. Weird. He seemed…smaller than he did before. Maybe he was off the Vampire diet of human blood.
“What do you want?” I readily snapped, fighting the urge I had to start a swearing match with him. And a brawl. A brawl that was filled with swearing and involved me somehow purifying the guy for good.
John’s eyes narrowed, letting me know that he hated being around me as much as I hated being around him. Wasn’t that the biggest understatement of the year?
“Actually,” I continued, giving him no time to say anything, “I don’t care what you want.” I shrugged. “Never really did. So why don’t you just do us all a huge favor and go back to where you came from.”
“Do you think that I wanted to come back, that I was yearning for the day when Kass needed our help so that I could make my heroic return?” John paused, giving his sarcastic remark some time to set in. “Trust me when I say that I never wanted to come back here.”
“Then why are you here?” I cocked my head, ignoring the small, blonde wisp of hair that made its way over my right eye. “Because I know Kass never wanted to see your ugly face again.”
“I came back because Alyssa told me to.” John spun his head, breaking eye contact. “If it were up to me, I’d live nowhere near here. I’d go as far as possible.” There was a hint of dejection in his voice, and it was too bad I was too wound up to care.
Standing in a hostile position, I fixed my hair and said, “Then why don’t you? What’s stopping you from running far, far away and never returning?” I couldn’t help myself.
“They wouldn’t allow it.” John’s furious gaze returned to my own death glare, something I learned from Kass. “And believe it or not, at our new home there are people who care about us.”
“I find that very hard to believe,” I mocked, wondering who could care about a monster like that. No one who was in the least bit sane.
“Things have changed since you’ve last seen us.” John dug his hand in his coat pocket. “Alyssa’s been training. Kirk’s dating. And me? I’m doing my best to control the urges from both the Vampiric side of me and the Osiris side.”
“Oh.” I clapped the clap—the annoying, slow and loud clap. The kind kids did in class when they were trying to be funny. “Oh, that’s great. As long as you’re trying not to murder innocents. It doesn’t really matter if you slip up every now and then—”
That was John’s department, wasn’t it?
“You should watch what you say.” John took a step in my direction.
“I think you should watch what you say—” My own threat was cut off by an Englishwoman’s accent.
“Please.” Liz looked sharply at me, as if this was all my fault. As if I was the one who egged him on first. Maybe I did, but that was beside the point. “I don’t know what you two are arguing about, but I want it to stop.” There was something in her light brown eyes that made me hesitate.
“But—” I started, and she held up a hand, stopping me.
“I do not wish to hear it, Gabriel. I don’t care who started it—” It was like she knew exactly what I wanted to say next. “—but I am going to be the one who ends it.” She twirled in her tiny heels before saying, “If I hear another peep from either one of you, I swear…” Her voice slowly disappeared as she walked back up the stairs.
Sighing, I looked to John to see if he was still on the brink of going all black-eyed and sharp-toothed. To my surprise and irritation he was fine.
John remained firmly planted where he stood. “I did not come here to start a fight.” He dug his hands in his pockets, probably to conceal his curled fists.
I felt my facial muscles twisting and contorting. It took every ounce of my willpower not to sock him in the face right there.
He continued to stare at me, glaring long after I gave him the middle-finger salute.
Chapter Eighteen – Kass
Biting your fingernails was a terrible habit. Fact. One could always argue that terrible was a subjective word, but whatever. To me, biting nails was a terrible habit, one that I should stop doing. Right now.
Could I stop? Yeah, sure. Theoretically, I could stop chewing on them any moment now.
Would I stop? Nope. No freaking way. There was no way that I could physically force myself to stop biting my nails. I, personally, blamed it on the stress that my life had been racking up.
What else could I blame it on?
Taiton hovered over my shoulder like my own private dark defender.
Huh. Look at that crack on the kitchen table. How long had that been here? I decided to tear my nail from my teeth and play with the crack I freshly discovered, picking at it absentmindedly. A movement in the corner of my eye disrupted my anxious table-picking. Alyssa sat quietly across from me, dark eyes digging through me, like she had something important to say.
“Your friend—”
I interrupted her without a second thought, “Claire.”
She straightened herself out, correcting herself, “Claire is not doing well. From what I already know, I was able to slow the poison, but I’m afraid that she doesn’t have much time left.”
A tense hand ran through my hair and before I knew it, I said, “Well, couldn’t you do some research or something? Don’t you know of anything that could cure her?” I watched her shake her head.
“I’m sorry, Kass,” she was quick to say, “I slowed the poison’s path, giving her more time—another day, at best—but I could do nothing else for her.” Alyssa shook her head, creating a whirlwind of curly black hair. “I’ve never encountered anything like that. If you don’t mind me asking, what was it that did this to her?”
“Crixis,” I stated the simplest answer.
She blinked. “Crixis? Who’s that?”
I could have said many different things. One: the insane psychopath who’s been after me since I was born. Two: the guy who’s nearly killed me on multiple occasions. Three: the root of the whole Osiris thing. Four: the Daywalker who killed my mother and my father. Five: the evilest monster around.
I chose to say the most obvious thing. “The reason I put on the ring,” I said, fiddling with the ring that was still on my ring finger. I supposed I could take it off now.
“What is he?”
Alyssa was just one with the questions today, wasn’t she? It was natural, since she’d been gone for a while and she basically had no freaking idea what went on around here.
“He’s a Daywalker,” I paused, not knowing how else to describe him. “An ancient one. But he’s not normal. He can gain the power of anything he eats. His bite’s venomous because of that.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Alyssa was measured to say. “And, um—” She gained her awkward Alyssa charisma that I used to know so well. “—who is that?” Her small finger lifted nonchalantly toward Taiton.
I glimpsed at Taiton, stone-silent once more. If you didn’t know him, he would seem intimidating. Who wouldn’t feel threatened when staring up at Taiton as close to eye-to-eye as you could get?
“He’s my bodyguard.” Hearing the phrase out loud, my eyebrows furrowed.
She shifted in her seat, eyes falling to her lap. “And does he know—”
“That you’re a Witch? Yes, I know,” Taiton spoke plainly, glancing at Alyssa for only a moment before turning his eyes to me. “I also know about the other greater Vampires.”
I was off to defend the guys without realizing it, “What Vampires?”
“There are three currently in this house. Don’t try to hide the truth from me. I can sense them.”
“Amazing.” Alyssa had a look of wonder in her brown eyes. “How is that possible?”
“It’s what I do” was his answer.
I bit my lip. This wasn’t good. The Council Agent knew about the Daywalkers and the Witch. “Are you gonna—” My voice stopped when I watched Taiton shake his head.
“I am contracted to purify Crixis,” he paused, “and only Crixis. I will do nothing against your Vampire friends for now.” Friends was a bit of an understatement/overstatement, depending on which Daywalker we were talking about. “But I do have to write it in my report. The Council will do with it what they want.”
I feigned a smile, my inner self knowing that the Council was anti-Demon all the way. There were no good Demons. Claire, Alyssa, Rain—they’d all get purified before the world could rest and the Council thought itself was no longer needed.
Great.
There was a knock on the door, and I went to answer it. I already knew who it was.
“Where is she?” Steven commanded while I was still in the process of opening the door. His white hair sat ruffled, sticking every which way, and his brown eyes held apprehension. Didn’t surprise me, considering what I told him over the phone an hour or so ago.
For some reason, I couldn’t formulate a response, so I simply turned and led him down the hallway that, until recent times, I had barely known. Now I knew this hallway like Gabriel knew Star Wars.
The metal doorknob was cold on my hand, and I wanted with all of my heart to pretend that this wasn’t happening. But it was happening, and I had to face it, just like everyone else did. Breathing in slowly, I turned the handle and pushed the door open.
“Claire” was Steven’s only uttered word as he walked around Max and gently sat on the foot of the bed.
My feet took me to his side, my hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, eyes falling to the sweat on Claire’s brow. Right now she was in a peaceful state, meaning that she wasn’t shivering in seizure-like fits.
“How did this happen?” Steven blinked, stunned.
“Remember the Vampire you saved me from?” I watched the recognition dawn in his eyes. “He came here and…attacked Claire.”
The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7 Page 94
