John’s mouth dropped open a little bit. I felt bad for him. It was bad enough that Gabriel told him we lived together and weren’t related at all, but now Gabriel was describing Raphael as if he were the perfect man.
I was shocked. I couldn’t even make myself move my arm and unbuckle my seatbelt. I couldn’t believe this was happening and that Gabriel was doing this. How embarrassing. I managed to shake my head. “Gabriel…”
“Hmm? Oh, you want me to unbuckle your seatbelt? Anything for you, Kass,” Gabriel leaned across me and unbuckled me.
But before he completely left the car, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him close so that my mouth was near his ear. His face was still looking at John, so Gabriel smiled awkwardly and said, “My shirt’s stuck. Hold on.”
In a voice I knew only Gabriel could hear, I whispered into his left ear, “Leave and go back into the house.” Gabriel started to say a but, except I cut him off. “Now, Gabriel.” I shoved him away.
“Oh, look. Shirt’s not stuck anymore. Sweet. See you later, John.” Gabriel stood erect and backed directly out of the car.
My eyes squinted towards him. Go, I mouthed. When I knew he was out of earshot, I turned to John. “Sorry about him. He can be a little…”
“Overprotective?” John offered. “Standoffish? Arrogant? Pigheaded? I think any of those words describe him perfectly.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. But that was a lie. I knew none of those words were really Gabriel. Except maybe the first one, in this particular situation.
“Can’t believe you live with him and you’re not related. How did that happen? Foster kids or something?”
I looked at him and saw him for what he really was. A boy. A real, live boy that was genuinely, truthfully, honestly jealous. I couldn’t believe it.
“It’s a long story.”
He held up his hand, waving my excuses away. “It’s alright. It’s a little weird, but it’s alright. I’ll, uh, see you Monday.”
“Okay.” I got out of the car and lightly shut the door. I leaned down by the window and smiled at him, saying, “Thanks for everything tonight, John.” Why did I egg on this relationship when I knew it could go nowhere? I waved and smiled as he drove off.
The walk up to the house seemed abnormally long. I had no idea how to describe what happened tonight. What that thing was, what was going on between John and me.
I only knew one thing: it wasn’t a Nightwalker. But I feared that statement wouldn’t be enough to do anything. That’s why I called Michael and told him to get Raphael over here. Raphael had to know something. He had to.
I reached the enormous front door, where Gabriel stood and waited for me. I was not happy with him.
He smirked, “Did he kiss you goodbye?”
I ignored him, fearing that my only response to that would be a kick to his most private spot. A really hard kick.
But, apparently, ignoring him wasn’t giving him the message to stop, for he continued, “Kass and John sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s—”
That’s when, after opening the door, I turned and stared at him. Just stared. Silently and menacingly. Of all people, he knew what I could do, so there was no need to voice any threats to him. Simply staring at him was enough of a warning sign.
He trailed off during his final letters, “Sorry.”
I stood and glared for a little while longer before entering the house. Sometimes Gabriel could be a jerk and very immature. But, still, he was my immature jerk and anyone who had a problem with him also had a problem with me. Unfortunately, when I had problems with him, there was nothing to hold me back. Not a good thing.
My mind wandered away from the whole Gabriel fiasco and back to the thing that I ran into just two hours ago. Was it really a mere two hours ago? It seemed like ages. But I could credit that longer-than-it-really-was time lapse to the scene that happened a few minutes ago. That was like torture. Pure torture.
“Kass.” Michael rose from his chair and met me midway through the living room. “What’s wrong? You look a little angry.”
“Ah,” Gabriel’s hand went up in the air, like he was guiltily admitting he stole the cookies from the cookie jar. He’d done that many times. “Yep. That’s my fault.”
“What did you do?” It was like Michael scolded a five-year-old kid. It was funny, though, because that’s what Gabriel was. A five-year-old boy.
“I teased her about her new boyfriend.”
I couldn’t stop my jaw from clenching and my fist from tightening. I was going to say that he wasn’t my boyfriend automatically, but what Michael said immediately caused me to be, well, speechless.
“Kass has a boyfriend? Against protocol, sure, but if I let you go out I don’t see why she can’t, too.” Michael was all believing, and I was so, so speechless.
At last I managed to mumble, “He is not my boyfriend.” Because, unlike Michael here, Koath taught me that relationships between a Purifier and a civilian were doomed to fail, they were basically pointless, and that the only hope I had of ever being in a real relationship that wasn’t a quick fling would be if I found another Purifier that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Purify evil with. Love and live and die with, emphasis on the dying part.
But Michael let Gabriel go about and do anything. The more dates with girls, the more of a man Gabriel was. In my opinion, though, he wasn’t a man. He was immature right down to his very core.
I was too deep in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice Raphael was beside Michael the entire time. When I noticed him, my mind became focused instantly. “It’s not just a group of Nightwalkers. There’s something else.”
“I was right about them being led by another Demon?” Raphael queried.
I looked down at his feet. That man was dressed as a priest even though it was eleven at night. Was there ever a time when he was not in those clothes? I wondered if they were comfortable.
Stop, I told my mind, which began to wander once again.
“I saw something tonight, and it wasn’t a Nightwalker. I…” I thought back, remembering every detail. “I’m not sure what it was. That’s why I told Michael to get you here, because I’d figured you’d know.”
Raphael smiled, and I think that was the first time he cracked one in front of us. That split second, he actually did seem like the perfect guy, minus the uniform, that Gabriel had described just five minutes ago. “Good. That is the only decent decision you have made so far.”
It is amazing how some people only compliment others when that compliment was coupled with a direct insult. I chose to ignore the insult part of the sentence.
“Can you describe it?” Michael pushed his glasses up while nodding hastily.
“It was a shadow. Like, there were no details on this thing except the eyes. Its eyes glowed yellow. It was fast and quiet, and when I looked into its eyes, I couldn’t move. My legs were just…frozen, like I forgot how to move.” I looked up to the three men that were intently watching me. “That’s when John came. When it saw John, I’m not sure if it was scared or surprised or…well, something else. It disappeared as quickly as it came.”
Michael was deeply in thought, looking down; Raphael’s hands were holding his elbow and his chin while he was thinking, eyes closed; only Gabriel still studied me, probably seeing if I was hurt from the encounter.
“Can you remember anything else, Kassandra?” Raphael’s question rang through my brain. That was the moment when I thought of its most identifying characteristic, other than its glowing eyes.
“It laughed.” But, apparently, that wasn’t enough of a description for Raphael, because he motioned me to continue. “It laughed a lot. It actually reminded me of…”
“Reminded you of what?” Gabriel prodded further, forcing me to say it.
“A hyena.” I looked up to Michael and Gabriel, who both were silent.
Raphael took a few steps closer to me. The look in his eyes said he knew something, but was not yet sure if that something was relevant. “
Did it speak to you, Kass?”
I bit my lip. Yep, he knew what it was. Good thing I told Michael to get him here. “Yeah.” And before he could ask me what it said, I repeated it, “Pretty girl. Need you. That’s all it said. It also sounded like a kid when it spoke, if that helps.”
Raphael nodded once. “You are right. This is no Nightwalker.” He stared at me straightforwardly. “You were right to bring me here. I am well-versed in Demonology, from all cultures and all times. Your first few descriptions were vague. It could have been dozens of Demons.” The intenseness of his eye to eye stare was beginning to become too much for me, but I dared not look away. “From the laughter and childlike speech you described, I believe I know what it is.”
“Well? What is it?” I asked swiftly. I was not patient. Not in a time like this.
“The Toozkie Demon, originating in Africa thousands of years ago. More commonly known as the Hyena, simply enough, for its vicious laughter and low speech skills. They were notorious for aligning with other types of lesser Demons, frequently—” Raphael finally broke the staring contest we were having to glance at Michael and Gabriel. “—Vampires.”
“Explains the ancient ritual to bring back Osiris,” Michael said what we were all thinking but were too stunned to say.
Raphael nodded once more. “Yes. It does make sense. But the Hyena Demons haven’t been seen since the fifteenth century. They were supposedly hunted to extinction in the Inquisition. They are parasites to those who are more powerful than them. One touch and they can steal a higher Demon’s essence…” Realization dawned in Raphael’s eyes.
Oh my God. It all made sense now. “The Hyena Demon is working with the Nightwalkers to bring back Osiris, but not for their salvation…” I trailed off. Things just got worse and worse today.
“So it can take Osiris’s power. This is just great,” Gabriel exclaimed, rubbing a hand through his blonde hair. “Hold on a second. Does Osiris even have any powers? If he doesn’t, then we don’t have to worry as much.”
“Unfortunately, yes. Osiris had many abilities. Inducing comas and hallucinations, brain enlargement, turning men into sandstone,” Raphael rattled off. He could probably have kept going, but maybe he figured that what he said was enough for us to know that Osiris could not be brought back.
And these ancient Egyptians worshiped it. Wasn’t that a laugh. Not a hyena laugh, but a figurative laugh. I did some research on the Internet, and all the websites said nothing about Osiris being an evil Demon. A few sites even said that it was beneficent. In reality, Osiris was a very bad Demon. Who would’ve thought it?
“Hmm…well, brain enlargement doesn’t seem so bad,” Gabriel stated.
“You are right.” Raphael replied, mockingly, “If you don’t mind your head exploding from size of your new brain.”
“Oh…” Gabriel was shocked into silence, for a moment, anyways. “Yeah, that’s probably not good.”
“I began, my words invading the silence of the room like an unwelcomed guest, “So we all agree that this Hyena is using the Nightwalkers to bring back Osiris so it can steal its power?” I was met with three nods.
To think we’d only been here less than a week, and already the world was pretty much doomed. Welcome to my life.
That night, I slept a total of three hours. Which, even though I was not a normal person, was still not enough sleep for me. I just couldn’t turn my stupid mind off. Half the time I thought about the whole Osiris thing.
Why was the Hyena Demon doing this? For revenge? And how much longer did we have until they acquired the other things they needed? When they got those items, were they going to do the ritual right away, or were they going to hold off a bit? Did we know everything about their plan? Or was there still something else that we hadn’t discovered?
See what I mean? Once my mind raced, it very rarely came back anytime soon.
The other half of the time I spent thinking of John. Would he still talk to me during school? Or was he going to give me the cold shoulder? Would he still try chasing after me, or would he just give up on me because of all the things Gabriel said?
Even after I woke up in the morning, my mind roamed, replaying the conversations over and over, seeing if I could have done anything differently to get a better outcome.
But as Koath always said, everything happened for a reason.
I knew a lot of people said that, but Koath was the only one who ever said that to me.
Koath.
I missed him. I loved Koath like a father, since I didn’t exactly have a father. Of course I had one somewhere down the line, but I didn’t really have have one. My real father was out there somewhere, being someone. Someone real. Not like me, living a lie every day, putting myself in danger all the time, and purifying evil so society can remain. My father was a real person. Something I could never be.
I was a real person in that I was tangible and had a soul. But…sometimes it didn’t feel like it.
Sometimes I wished that I was normal. That I lived a normal life, ignorant to evil and Demons and all that. Sometimes I wished I had known my mother and father. That we celebrated every little holiday, every little achievement that I’d accomplished in school or sports.
And sometimes I wished that I didn’t wish as much.
After all, no matter how hard I wished, things wouldn’t change. I was who I was.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved being me. I loved the relative freedom I had, I loved the men in my life (though sometimes it was hard not to strangle them), and I loved the fact that I could kill a Demon using nothing but my right foot and a toothpick.
But was it too much to ask that we celebrated my A plus in calculus every now and again? That we went to the grocery store together, like a real family? That we took corny holiday pictures and plastered them onto an extravagant Christmas cards?
Then again, now that I thought about it, there were a lot of things I wanted to do before I died. Go to Hawaii, climb Mount Everest, hike down the Grand Canyon, fall in love, get married, have kids, live to see grandkids. Yeah, living to see grandkids would be nice.
Odds were, though, none of those were going to happen.
Being in my profession meant nothing was guaranteed. Not even life. But, hey. Someone had to do it. If not me, then who?
I rolled out of bed. Today was Saturday, and undoubtedly there was some surprise waiting for me downstairs. And by surprise I meant something involving Raphael and learning.
If this day never started, it would be too soon.
I didn’t even bother changing out of my pajamas. That’s how much I didn’t care.
I walked downstairs and was greeted by the sight of Gabriel and Michael doing a Michael Jackson dance while making breakfast. It was a funny thing to watch. Laughing, I took a step closer and was going to join them, but then I noticed that they were making pancakes.
I did not like pancakes. They were gross little flat things.
That’s when Gabriel turned and saw me. Still dancing, he smiled and told me, “Don’t worry, my raccoon. I’m making you waffles.”
Thank God. Waffles I loved. Pancakes not so much. I knew they were the same thing, made of the same batter, but I hated pancakes and loved waffles. It was just a thing of mine.
Then it occurred to me why Gabriel was making me waffles. It was his way of telling me he was sorry for what he did last night. And if that was the case, he needed to make me about a thousand waffles. Every morning.
I sat at the table and watched the two guys do their thing. The Michael Jackson song went off, and a Journey song came on. Gabriel slid a plate to me, with three golden brown waffles on it. Freshly buttered and just the way I liked them. I took the fork and started cutting when Gabriel sat across from me.
“Listen,” he began after I put the first piece in my mouth, “I’m sorry.”
That made me choke instantaneously. Gabriel never apologized. Ever. Never ever. Not once could I remember him saying the words I’m and sorry in the same
sentence, next to each other. I wanted to ask where the real Gabriel went, if this alien Gabriel was dangerous, but I let him continue with his apology, savoring every second of it.
“About last night. I didn’t mean to make you mad. I just wanted to…” Gabriel got quiet, but I gave him a you-better-keep-going-or-I’ll-shove-this-fork-in-your-eye glare, forcing him to continue. “I don’t know. Scare him, or something. Tell him that if he messes with you, he’s messing with me. You know, that kind of thing. Except, I guess it didn’t really come out like that.”
I agreed, because last night it didn’t seem like he was concerned about my well-being. It kind of seemed like he was…jealous.
Okay, there. It’s out.
Last night Gabriel seemed jealous. I didn’t know why, though. We lived in the same house, we saw each other all the time, we even brushed our teeth together. So why would he be jealous? Unless he didn’t want John to…take me away from him?
Hah, right. Like that was the truth. No, I was sure that last night Gabriel was feeling a little upset that I left with a stranger like John, in the middle of a mission. Yeah. That seemed closer to the truth.
“I just,” Gabriel chose his words carefully, “don’t want you to get hurt. Boys are pigs, you know. They only want one thing.”
I could not believe this was the direction he took with his apology.
“They want one thing, Kass,” he repeated, as if I didn’t hear him the first time. Which I did. “Once they get what they want, they leave. Unless they love you. Then they might stick around, maybe. But I don’t think that’s the case with John. Because I’m sure it takes more than a few days to fall in love. I mean, I’ve heard it takes quite a while, you know, to love someone. The whole process...John seems like a player. Not that a player can’t love someone. I’m not saying that. It’s just…”
The phone rang and cut through his apology. Michael was reaching for it, but Gabriel yelled, “No! Phone, I got it.” He jumped out of the chair and sprinted towards the phone, as if he was running away from finishing his apology.
Staked! Page 7
