Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “Yes. Enhanced humans who have been trained to do one thing: purify the highest level Demons, including Daywalkers. They usually capture them, take them back to England, and put them before the Council, purifying them right there, under the Council’s watchful eyes, by injecting them with a special serum that has been in the works for centuries.”

  “So…a shot kills them?”

  “It’s not exactly the standard shot that the government uses on inmates on death row. This injection is infused with both unrivaled science and unparalleled magic from the oldest and most powerful Witches alive. The system they have going works exceedingly well. The only problem with it, is that now there are fewer and fewer Daywalkers and higher-level Demons left, so the method I just described to you is, in itself, becoming faintly outdated. It’s the lower level ones that society is having the most trouble with. Take Nightwalkers, for example. If they could do something similar with that situation, our lives would be much easier. They’re like rabbits.”

  “Do you think they’re ever going to do something like that for Nightwalkers?” My mind reeled with what Michael was telling me. And we hadn’t even really spoken about Crixis yet.

  “It is doubtful, unfortunately.”

  “But, you said…”

  “Kass,” Michael leaned forward, closer to me. “Do you have any idea how many Daywalkers were around thousands of years ago? There were more Demons than humans. We are on our way up, trust me. There is simply not enough time to get rid of them all, especially when we have things like the Hyena Demon popping up and threatening to destroy the world by summoning an ancient, evil spirit.”

  “Did the Council take care of Crixis?” I asked this question to Raphael earlier, not the exact question, but close enough. And he lied to me. Let’s see if Michael would pass my test.

  “Crixis…has been lost for centuries. He has found miraculous ways to blend into the ever-changing society and to make his murders look natural. I, myself, believe that he got into the habit of framing people for the killings he did. The murders that have been left unexplained. In short, the Council never found him. He is a very old and impressive Demon, and the Council is only human. There is only so much they can do. As much as I hate to admit it,” Michael paused, looking at me, “the Council cannot do everything. They cannot purify everything out there. They are not invincible.”

  Not quite the answer I hoped for, but at least Michael passed the test with flying colors. So then…why did Raphael have to fail with awful colors?

  A smile formed on my face. “That’s why they have us.”

  “Yes,” Michael agreed, “that’s why they have us.”

  Chapter Eighteen – Vincent

  My wet hair stuck to my face, but I didn’t care. I sat on my bed and opened the diary once more. I needed to know what happened to this girl.

  Years ago, I met a very mysterious man, and I had thought that I loved him. Now I realize that I had only been entranced and compelled by his Demonic side. He was not a gentleman. He was a Vampire. And he showed me a side of living that I wish I still had never seen.

  That night he took me to a flowery clearing. I knew it was foolish for me to go somewhere with a man that was not yet my husband unaccompanied by an escort, in the middle of the night. But I was too love-struck to care. That is when he snapped my neck.

  I remember blacking out and waking shortly after. My mouth was dripping with liquid and I was scarcely cognizant. I wiped a trembling hand on my lips and found that the liquid was blood. However, this blood did not belong to me.

  I remember his voice ringing through my head: ‘you are welcome.’ I screamed at him: ‘what have you done to me?’ He knelt to my level and cut his wrist, letting his blood flow freely. I could no longer control myself. I launched myself at his wrist, taking in the sweet, delightful blood. He told me: ‘it’s all in the blood. And not just any blood. My blood. The secret lies in my blood, which you are now filled with. Your blood is my blood.’

  I tore myself away from him, covering my mouth and looking up to him, not quite yet understanding what he was telling me.

  His body shook with venomous laughter: ‘But a Vampire’s blood only seals the curse.’ ‘Curse?’ I repeated. He nodded: ‘The moon has to be full. You have to be dead. And you also must be bitten by a Zeny. It’s a hideous little Demon dog with three legs and eight eyes. You were lucky enough that I found one before I took you here, otherwise I would have simply killed you. They are very hard to come by these days.’

  I closed the diary abruptly. A Zeny. Three legs and eight eyes.

  I killed a whole family of those back in England. And, according to my research, those were the last of their kind. What help was this journal if one of the things I needed was extinct?

  Chapter Nineteen – Kass

  Fire burned all around me. I wasn’t sure where I was, but wherever it was, it was hot. I felt the sweat beads rolling down my forehead like there was no tomorrow. And if I never got out of this house, there probably wasn’t going to be a tomorrow.

  Stumbling and coughing like a maniac, I made my way through the smoky house. I was pretty sure I walked in circles. It wasn’t like I could freely glance all around me, on account of all the smoke that built up. I dropped down to the floor and began to crawl.

  I covered my face as a woman was thrown to the floor in front of me. Well, I corrected my mind after I looked and found that she was dead, her body. She was disfigured terribly. Before someone took a beating to her face, I bet she was pretty. Her hair was long and brown, curled to the extreme. Her glassy eyes were open in my direction.

  This scene was definitely morbid. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen worse, because I had. Still, my stomach twisted.

  A man landed hard on the bloody floor directly next to the woman’s body. He cautiously lifted himself up on his elbows, revealing to me that he was also beaten badly. He was almost dead himself. His mouth drooled a steady stream of blood. He placed a shaking hand on the woman, stroking her bloodied face and then grabbing her hand.

  That’s when I noticed they both wore wedding rings. Oh, God. My mouth dropped open slightly. They were married. They were dying. They were married and dying together.

  Whoever did this certainly needed justice. And then a stake to the heart.

  He flipped himself over, so he was laying on his back. The only reason he did this, that I could think of, was so he could see and face their attacker. My eyes took in the sight of his battered stomach. His stubbly face was cut many times, deep gashes an ugly maroon hue.

  I saw the orange amulet that rested upon his chest. The same amulet that belonged to the man who I had visions of dying. The same man who died protecting his wife. His child must have made it through the desert, for this house, this fire, this scene, definitely was modern. Recent.

  His eyes lit a bright orange, the same color as the amulet. I heard footsteps. That definitely wasn’t good. Legs appeared in my peripherals, and I tried looking up at the attacker, but there was too much smoke. I made it to about his knees before everything went gray. The man’s eyes fell slowly to his dead wife.

  I woke to Gabriel shaking me awake. “Hey, I don’t want to be creepy, but,” Gabriel said, “I had this weird feeling that you were in trouble.” He rubbed his eyes and asked, “Are you in trouble?” Though it was the middle of the night, the moonlight shone through the windows, illuminating his worried face and the tattoos that he normally hid with coverup.

  “Um, no,” I answered him, “I just had a dream that was kind of weird.”

  Gabriel chuckled. “I guess the better question would have been when aren’t you in trouble? But it’s late…or early. I don’t know. It’s got to be one of the two,” he mumbled as his eyes closed and then opened. He was falling asleep right here, kneeling next to my bed, talking to me.

  “Gabriel, go back to bed,” I told him, hoping that he’d actually make it to his room before dropping over and sleeping like a baby.

  “But I don’t
want to,” he protested with his eyes closed. To me, closing his eyes canceled out the fact that he was trying to be obstinate.

  “Come on,” I whined, sinking back onto my comfy pillow. “Go to bed, so I can get some more sleep.” I felt like I spoke to a little kid, because that’s what he acted like.

  A small smile appeared on his drowsy face. “Will you walk me back to my bed?”

  “That depends,” I said, “are you going to play a joke on me?” He shook his head. “Do something that will piss me off?” He shook his head again. “Do something inappropriate?” I watched him wait a moment before shaking his head no once more. Of course, he would pick that one to act undecided about.

  A white grin spread across his face. “Yep. That’s me for you.”

  I moaned, threw the covers off and started to storm out of my room. I turned to look back at Gabriel, who hadn’t moved one inch. “What are you waiting for?”

  He answered me quickly and simply, like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world, “I’m waiting for you to take my hand. Don’t you know anything about taking people to bed?”

  I placed my hands on my hips. “No. Because no one’s ever put me to sleep like that.”

  “Well, after tonight, I’ll be sure to take you to bed like that every night,” Gabriel spoke as he held out his hand.

  I stood there, not moving and giving him the worst death glare I could muster. But since his eyes were closed, he didn’t notice my famous death glare. “Fine,” I said angrily as I made a big show of walking back over to him, forcefully grabbing his hand, and walking out of my room and back to his, which was right across the hall.

  Right across the hall. Right. Across. The. Hall. That’s all he had to walk by himself. That’s not far. And it’s not that hard to see in the hallway, since the moon was almost full. And, considering the fact that he was the one who came to me, I didn’t think that I should have to do this. Mothers did this, and I certainly wasn’t a mother.

  After successfully escorting Gabriel to his room (which was a huge surprise to me, since I felt like strangling him the whole way there), and after letting go of his hand (which I had been debating on squeezing really hard and making his fingers go numb), I started to turn to walk out of his room (because I had nothing else to say to this boy).

  But, like the little boy he was deep down, he called for me, “Kass, you have to tuck me in.”

  “No,” I told him frankly, “I don’t. I really don’t.”

  “Yes, you do. You really do,” Gabriel said, blue eyes suddenly more awake then they should have been this early in the morning, “Or else I’m just going to get right back up and make you take me to bed again.”

  “You couldn’t make me do this again.”

  “Even if your life was at stake?”

  I nodded. “Even if yours, Michael’s, and mine were at stake.”

  “What if I say that…that…there’s many small garden gnomes having a war right outside my window and I want you to come make sure they won’t break in and slit my throat in the middle of the night?”

  I pretended to glance out the window, even though it was on the far side of the room. “No, you’re good. But you do have to worry about the cranky girl who lives right across the hall from you, because I’ve heard that she’s not too nice when someone wakes her up in the middle of the night.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” Gabriel snuggled in his bed. He patted his covers. “Now come here and tuck me in.”

  My teeth clenched. “I’d rather die.”

  “No, you wouldn’t. Don’t say that,” Gabriel said with a devious smile on his stubbly face. “Hey, don’t make fun of my two,” he paused as he glanced at his alarm clock, “thirty-o-clock in the morning shadow.”

  I repeated him, “Two-thirty-o-clock in the morning shadow? I don’t think that’s what they call it.”

  His broad shoulders shrugged. “It’s what I call it. Now stop it and come here. The more you procrastinate, the longer this’ll take and the less sleep the cranky girl who lives across the hall from me will get.”

  He had a point there. I ignored him as he said “Yes I do” and listlessly made my way over to him. I glared at him with all my might as I pulled the covers up and tucked them in around his body. This was so weird, and I honestly couldn’t believe he was making me do this.

  It was ridiculous. That was the only word for it.

  I was about to leave when he fought the sheets I had just worked so hard on getting around him and held his arms out. “Wait. I need my goodnight hug.”

  My eyebrows rose. “Seriously?”

  Gabriel rose one, single eyebrow in response. “Seriously.” Sighing, I stepped closer and held my arms out. But while I was waiting for him to hug me, he said, not moving, “You have to hug me, not me hug you. And, before you ask, there is a difference.”

  “I hate you,” I said as I bent down and wrapped my arms around him.

  “Oh, that’s so sweet,” he mocked, “I hate you, too.”

  “Okay,” I slowly said, “let go now. I gave you a hug.”

  “Yes, you did, but,” Gabriel leaned back down in his bed and looked up with sapphire eyes. He tapped his cheek, saying, “I still need my goodnight kiss.”

  “Kiss yourself,” I said heatedly.

  “I could, but it’d be much more satisfying if you’d kiss me, you know. If you don’t, then I’m just going to get up and make you go through all this again,” Gabriel reminded me.

  “You wouldn’t,” I tested him.

  “Oh, believe me, I would,” he told me.

  “Fine.” I pointed furiously to the side. “Look over there, and don’t try anything funny or else I’ll show you how cranky the girl who lives across the hall can be.” Gabriel moved his head. I bent down and, hesitantly, placed a delicate kiss on his unshaven cheek. I was slowly drawing back when Gabriel turned his head, aligning his nose with mine.

  A grin flashed on his face as he said, “Now that wasn’t so hard—” His breath was hot on my face. “—was it?” If I hadn’t known him nearly my whole life, I would’ve thought he was suddenly ten times better looking at this degree of closeness.

  Alas, I had known him for far too long, so I knew how to deal with his crap.

  I smirked and pushed him back down to the bed. Without saying another word, I exited his room, closed the door and jumped into my own bed. Sleep took a while to come back to me, and I made a mental note to kick Gabriel’s butt when morning came.

  Max met me at my locker. Which was weird for two reasons, one: we didn’t have class together next period, and two: I never told this boy where my locker was. Kind of creepy. Well, as creepy as a little red-haired nerd in huge bug glasses could be.

  “Koath…” Max got quiet before getting loud to correct himself, “I, uh, mean Mr. Elsin wants us to go to the game.”

  “Yeah…” I nodded, because I had figured we were going to go anyway, since we were here to blend in. And, apparently, in order for us to blend in, we needed to act like actual teenagers and go out to the school’s sporting events. Imagine that. “So?”

  “So…have you ever been to one of these things before?” Max seemed at a loss for words, and that in itself was astonishing.

  “Yeah,” I said, fumbling for my physics book that was lodged between my English and calculus books. How that happened, I had no clue. In a few uncoordinated moments, the book was resting in my stressed arms. Getting that book out had been way harder than it should have been.

  “What,” he shrugged, like he was asking something normal, like what the math homework was and not what the football games are like. Though, I didn’t exactly know what normal was, so I couldn’t talk. “What goes on at these games? Are there many people? What do we do there? Do we watch the game, or are we supposed to stalk out everyone else and make sure they’re not Demons…uh, I mean—”

  A girl passing by in the hallway gave him a strange look, making him say, “De men we have to talk to…”
>
  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. That was a terrible save, but it served its purpose. But still. Terrible save. “Max, it’ll be okay. I’ve only been to one, and those circumstances were…different.”

  His eyes lit with curiosity. “Different how?”

  My mind flashed back to everything that happened with John and the Hyena Demon. “It was just, different,” I said, not feeling like I wanted to explain everything to him. “Don’t worry. Michael and…Mr. Elsin will tell us what to do. Stop worrying, okay?”

  Max sighed, fixed his glasses, smiled, and walked away from me. Then the bell rang, which was the indication that I was late to third period.

  Okay, I had no idea how this was going to go, because the last time I saw Claire, we were on pretty good terms. But then again, she seemed to jump from happy to sad to angry in mere minutes. Because her mother was dead and her father in a coma. And her weird uncle was living with her.

  If I was her, I’d be an emotional roller coaster too.

  I walked into physics class and immediately felt grateful that no one paid attention to me. As sneakily as I could, I made my way around the front desk, where Mr. Straum wasn’t, and went into the back room, where Claire waited for me.

  “You’re late,” she said bluntly.

  “I know,” I replied, starting to make up some silly excuse.

  But she interrupted, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Mr. Straum. He wouldn’t care anyway.”

  “That’s good,” I said, sitting down next to her. But instead of opening the book right away, like she normally did, she sat there, completely silent. “Is something wrong?” I asked, even though I knew something was wrong. Her mom just died for God’s sake, so there was bound to be something wrong.

  Claire fiddled with her muscular hands before saying, “Yes. I need to ask for a favor.” I stayed quiet, letting her continue, “I know I haven’t been the friendliest person in the last few days, and I want you to know that I do appreciate you coming into the library and inviting me to your lunch table. It was good to feel like I had friends again, and—”