Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  I turned to Raphael. “What did he mean by that?”

  Raphael held my gaze for a few seconds, not knowing how to answer that. “It seems there are things you don’t know about me, Kassandra.”

  “Huh. I’d say so.” I leaned on a nearby pew. “You’re not wearing your priest’s clothes.” My vision was starting to blur, and I tried blinking it away.

  He looked down. “I haven’t worn those clothes in a long time.” Turning his back to me, he disappeared in a hole of blue light, walking into nothing and vanishing completely. Within half a minute he returned the same way, startling the crap out of me and holding a med kit.

  I practically fell into the pew, mouth agape. “What was that?”

  Raphael sat beside me, slightly suspicious as he unlatched the kit and started cleaning me up. “Rift-walking.”

  “Rift-walking?” I spoke, the words foreign on my tongue. “How do you do that?”

  “It’s one of my…many talents.” He carefully took the tourniquet off my arm, pouring antiseptic on the wounds. Raphael watched me grimace, amazement drawn on his features. I was too dazed to notice the amazement, though.

  “Remind me to ask you about that when I don’t feel like passing out.” I wasn’t too dazed, however, to ask about the current state of things. “How long have I been gone?”

  “Gone?” It was Raphael’s turn to repeat. “You…were never gone.”

  “Okay,” I said the word as slowly as I could, not understanding his answer. “Then tell Gabriel and Michael I’m here.” My eyes closed as he began stitching together the deepest and thickest of the bite marks. I might have been used to pain, but it still wasn’t too fun.

  “That might pose a problem.”

  My eyes opened, and I stared at him accusatorily. “Why?” When he remained silent, intently focused on my wounds, I added, “Then call Koath. Heck, I’d even take Max right now. Can’t believe I just said that.”

  “I don’t know a Max or a Koath,” Raphael stated simply, shrugging his shoulders.

  “You…” I trailed off. “You don’t know Koath and Max?” Grinding my teeth, I was wholly done with this conversation. Clearly it was leading nowhere. “Well, whenever you’re done, I’ll find them myself.”

  Raphael abruptly shut the med kit, catching my gaze and holding it. An unseen power came between us as he measuredly ordered, “No. You’re tired. So very tired. You will lay down and sleep.”

  My eyelids became heavy. I yawned. “You’re right. I am tired. A nap…is just what I need.” When Raphael stood, I stretched out on the pew, yawning again. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was Daywalker compulsion. I felt something similar when Rain came to help me in the cemetery. I couldn’t fight it then, and I couldn’t fight it now.

  My last thought before I fell asleep was not of Raphael and the very real possibility that he was more than he seemed, but of Gabriel.

  Where was my partner in crime?

  Chapter Seven – John

  I stood in the back room of the church, where Raphael used to store all his volumes and volumes of ancient tomes. They sat in piles on the floor, stacked to the ceiling. Two makeshift cots lay rolled on the floor, where we sleep. We became unlikely friends after the world turned the darkness. After evil rooted itself in our city.

  My fingers gripped my bow, absentmindedly drawing down its string as I pictured her face. How could losing her mean the end of the world? How could she be here, now, innocent of all the terrors this world created?

  I was more lost than ever.

  None of this made sense.

  Raphael appeared in the doorway, walking out of a blue rift torn in time and space. His eyes held equal amounts of confusion and suspicion. “Her wounds are cleaned and stitched. She’s asleep. I thought it was best while we…discuss what to do.” He set the first aid kit that hadn’t seen use in years down.

  “What do you think we should do?” I asked him, not only wanting but needing his guidance.

  To my disdain, he shrugged. “I don’t know. She…it would seem she knows nothing of this place. She spoke of people that she swore I knew. She asked after Michael and Gabriel.”

  I sighed, “Great.”

  Raphael nodded. “I don’t know what magic is at work here, if she’s a doppelganger or—”

  “No,” I cut in, vehement, “it’s her.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  “How can you not be? You felt her, didn’t you?” I motioned to the door with my bow-free hand. “That is her. She’s not some clone or whatever. I don’t know how, but it’s her.” I bit the inside of my lip, wondering if this was a second chance for us. For me. For the world.

  “Then we need to interrogate her when she wakes,” Raphael said simply. “We need to figure this out as soon as possible. If we feel her presence, it’s only a matter of time before…” His voice trailed off, and I thought I knew where he was going with it.

  “The King will find her,” I finish for him.

  Raphael shook his head gently. “That is not whom I refer to.”

  My mind came to the other, worse possibility.

  Suddenly no curse word seemed to cut it.

  Chapter Eight – Kass

  I ran as fast as my legs would take me. I was caught in a foggy forest, Demons at my back. What Demons they were, I couldn’t say. I was too focused on running to turn my head for a glimpse. My lungs felt like they were going to burst. My heart beat so rapidly it felt like it was going to pop out of my chest.

  Not a good feeling, let me tell you.

  Within minutes, I emerged from the forest, out into a grassy clearing. I soon recognized it as the local cemetery. My legs slowed, and I came to a stop before a new, tall headstone. The Demons halted in their pursuit, their eyes glowing a supernatural yellow. They huddled together, jeering and laughing at me, crowding around me with ample space.

  My heart froze as I studied the tombstone. Ten feet high, immaculately carved in granite, sculptures of angels and wings surrounded the name chiseled in it.

  Kassandra Niles.

  My name.

  Me.

  This tombstone belonged to me.

  My mother always came to me in visions and said I was going to die. Looked like she was right. Although, as I further read the stone, I realized no beginning or end dates were written upon it.

  A Demon slithered from the group, a wide, Cheshire smile upon its catlike features. Its clawed paws reached for me, but as it neared, a whooshing sound came from above, startling it and causing it, along with all the other Demons, to scurry and hide.

  I looked upwards to the full moon, my vision obscured by an incoming, giant object. It collided with me, bringing me to the grassy ground with such force I was knocked out cold.

  My eyes flew open to view the ceiling of the dilapidated church. I was no longer in the cemetery staring at my own grave. Demons weren’t chasing me. Whatever giant thing attacked me was just a figment of my imagination.

  I hoped.

  Sitting up, I found John and Raphael sitting a few pews away, staring me as if they were watching me sleep. Hovering, stalking, creeping. I had enough of that with John already. I didn’t need any more.

  “Can someone please explain what is going on?” I broke the silence, frowning slightly. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember falling asleep.

  John and Raphael met eyes, neither one moving to answer me.

  “Sometime this century would be nice,” I chimed in.

  Raphael was the one to finally speak, “What is the last thing you remember before…this?”

  Before this? As if I could forget the robe-wearing Demon with soul-piercing yellow gaze. It was after it flashed its staff at me that I opened my eyes in whatever alternate reality (or realistic coma dream) this was.

  With a sigh, I relayed everything I remembered about the Nightwalker fight, running into the woods to find weapons, and coming across the Demon. When I explained the Demon’s features, a light bulb w
ent on in Raphael’s head.

  “Sounds like a Sorcerer,” he spoke slowly, glancing to John beside him. “Some kind of spell.”

  “Spell?” I echoed. “So, he sent me, what, into the future? How far into the future?”

  “I don’t think he sent you into the future,” John said. “You mentioned things that never happened. The Osiris ritual.”

  My chin jutted out as I spoke through gritted teeth, “That did happen.” As if I would lie about something as horrible as that. Those days, those weeks were burned in my memory, and they’d go down as some of the worst times of my life.

  Not that I had too many good times to compare them to.

  “It didn’t,” John matched my irritated tone, leaning forward and nearly knocking his bow to the floor.

  Raphael held out his arm, seeking to calm the both of us. “Not here, at least. Where you came from, it did.” He stood and began pacing back and forth, reminding me of my physics teacher and his bad habit.

  I hated pacers.

  I got to my feet, throwing my hands up in the air. “So…what are you saying?”

  “You don’t belong here” was Raphael’s response after minutes of pacing-filled silence.

  That much was obvious.

  He saw my blank look and explained, “There’s…we already knew a Kassandra Niles.”

  I noticed his sad tone, saw the way John squeezed his eyes shut. “Knew? As in, past tense? Did she…did I…die?” I felt weird saying it.

  Raphael was quiet, but John managed to mutter a harsh, “Yes.” He shot me a glare that chilled my spine. It also made me blush. Apparently, I still had some residual feelings for the guy, despite everything he did.

  That only said how screwed up I was, didn’t it?

  I turned away from John’s heavy gaze. “So, what? The Sorcerer transported me to another reality? Just plucked me from my world and put me in yours?” It sounded ridiculous, yet I found myself looking to Raphael for approval.

  “In a sense, yes. I do believe that’s what happened.” Raphael set his hands on his hips, glancing to the floor.

  I softly rubbed the bandage on my arm. “So where is my team? Where’s Michael and Gabriel? Koath? You said you didn’t know him, but he has to be somewhere around here.”

  “You’re barking up the wrong tree,” John stated, leaning back on the pew.

  “What? Why?”

  It was Raphael who responded, “Your Guardian hasn’t been seen in years, and Gabriel…is long gone.”

  Hearing that was akin to a knife in my gut. “Then,” my voice cracked, “we need to call the Council.”

  Raphael acted uncomfortable. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”

  I was afraid to ask why again, so I kept quiet and let John do the explaining.

  He stood, angry. “Because the Council is gone. Everything is gone. Everything that kept the world safe is gone. Everyone who protected it is dead,” John hissed, practically growling at me. He was before me suddenly, looking down on me as if he cared for me. His clenched fingers relaxed, and his anger subsided somewhat as he whispered, “It all started the day you died.”

  Great.

  So this was all my fault.

  Chapter Nine – The Prince

  Darkness lingered. It was always here, ebbing, flowing. This was where it belonged, where I belonged. Where I reigned. For the longest time I was not an I, but an it. An entity. Eternal. I was not anywhere, yet I was everywhere. A strange feeling, feeling nothing and everything at the same time. Pain. Agony. Hearing the screams of those trapped. Judgement, not by me, but by others.

  I never judged the souls that came to me. I never judged their actions or their thoughts, regardless of how malicious or impure they were. It was not my place to be the judge. Only the executioner.

  My land of endless darkness amused me for a time, my reach was infinite. It was a land out of time, yet the beings inside it had nothing other than time. Contradictory statements were my specialty, though nothing I said was conflicting. I was as honest as those up above, but lies came to the tongue without effort.

  How many years had passed? How much time had gone by, but not gone by? What had I lost to gain everything, but nothing at the same time? This dark world was not tangible, but it was mine. Everything that was in it was mine.

  Nothing mattered. I cared about nothing anymore. The withered screams of human souls and Demons kept me alive, reminding me that I would never be like them. This was my destiny. To rule.

  Yet…something pulled at me. A speck of light appeared in my dark world, causing the spirits to dissipate and gather all at once. If I was sleeping, I was asleep no more. I came alive, and my rage would burn brighter and hotter than all the fires around—if it were anger I felt. But it was something else that tugged at me.

  What was left of me wanted to ignore it, but I could not. It was not a feeling I’d had, in my dark realm, but it was one I could never forget. One I wished I felt time and time again in this land of un-time.

  Hope was not my forte. It was something I’d given up long ago. Or was it yesterday? Whatever. It did not matter. This feeling, whatever it was, would soon go away, like everything else did.

  But it didn’t. It remained with me, for how long I could not say, forcing me to glance upward. My form was incorporeal, ages since I last graced the world, but I had more than enough strength to materialize and crawl, rise from my lower world and into the world of the still-living. The middle earth.

  I followed the calling, the tug, the pull that I knew so well. For once, I was not the flame, but the moth. I was drawn inexplicably to a tall cathedral in the middle of an overgrown street. A building long forgotten, but one that had found use again.

  The darkness lapped around me, licking at my being until I was one with reality. Until I was flesh once more. My clawed feet dug into the ground, my grey skin reflecting the silver moonlight.

  For the first time in a long while, I felt what I could only say was doubt.

  Doubt…and hope.

  Chapter Ten – Kass

  I stood with my arms crossed, biting my lip. This was my fault. Of course it was. I shouldn’t be surprised. Everything always seemed to be my fault. John turning into a psychopath, the alternate reality turning to hell. My fault for dying here, apparently.

  “There has to be something we can do,” I stated, glancing between both men. “I can’t stay here.”

  Raphael nodded once. “That much is clear. This world is not the one you know. It is more dangerous.”

  I harrumphed, rolling my eyes and lifting my injured arm. “Yeah, I think I got that, thanks.”

  John turned away from me, muttering, “If you think whatever did that was bad, just wait. A magnet like you will draw all sorts of Demons.”

  Taking aggressive steps towards him, I questioned, “What is that supposed to mean?” This particular John was an expert on getting on my nerves.

  “It means that you’re trouble,” he met my stance, fingers clenched. His precious bow sat on the pew he had been sitting on. “And that you’ll bring all your trouble straight to us.” His dark gaze was heavy as he added quietly, “I’ve had enough trouble because of you.” He tore his eyes away, brooding.

  “Fine,” I said. “It’s not like I asked to be here, to see you again. I just want to go back.”

  Honestly, I couldn’t believe I was fighting with John. If anything, I should be bickering with Raphael. For once, though, his superior, know-it-all, haughty self wasn’t irritating me. He wasn’t lecturing me. Yes, we’d gotten into fights, and there was that one time in Michael’s library, but that was water under the bridge compared to the tall Daywalker.

  John, on the other hand, I couldn’t handle. We had too much history. Too much bloody history. Too many people died because of us, even if this wasn’t the same John. I couldn’t separate the two.

  “And we will get you back, somehow,” Raphael cut in, the only calm one in the church. “Forgive John, Kassandra. This…is not
easy for him, for any of us.” He lowered his head. “He lost more than most when you were taken from us. Not only his infatuation—” As he said it, John grumbled in the background, throwing up his hand and storming off, into the back room. “—but also his brother.”

  In all this time, it never occurred to me that there were two brothers. I never wondered where the older, more mature brother was; I was too busy thinking of some reason why these two would become close friends.

  I completely forgot about Rain.

  “His brother?” I asked softly, losing my aggressive manner. I wanted to hit myself. A new thought entered my head. “What about his sister, Alyssa?”

  “She is….alive, but not with us.”

  I held in a sigh. I didn’t know what else I expected him to say. It was obvious she wasn’t here. “Why are you two alone out here?”

  “Keeping to ourselves seemed the best way to avoid trouble,” Raphael spoke with a slight smirk. “But now you’re here. John’s not wrong. Trouble will come knocking for you.” His hazel eyes shut as he finished, “And this time, we cannot let you die.”

  “How did it happen? How did I die?” Probably not the best questions to ask, but I was never one to avoid a topic just because it involved death.

  My death.

  “That…is not something you want to hear, trust me.” Raphael swiped at the hair strand that had fallen out of his short pony tail, moving it out of his vision. “I should…do some research. There must be a way to return you to where you came from.” Without another word, he disappeared in a flash of blue.

  Rift-walking.

  That was something I’d never get used to.

  It was also something I’d have to ask my Raphael when I got back to my world.

  My Raphael. That was a phrase I never thought I’d use.

  John sat in the rafters, polishing his bow in silence. I found myself gravitating towards him, wanting to apologize for my words after hearing about what happened to his brother. Apologize, or say something empathetic. Neither of which I was too good at, mind you.