The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  I slowly yanked the bottom pane down, locking it with steady hands. The click the lock made was music to my ears. Hopefully, this time it’d stay shut.

  Once I was certain the window was securely closed, I turned to head back to my super comfy bed. Only my bed wasn’t there, and I wasn’t in my room. I was in a cemetery, the one we always patrolled in.

  “Oh, my God…” I whispered, eyes landing on the remains laying haphazardly atop each tombstone. Bodies were on each stone, just hanging upon them, limp and still. Some were torn into pieces, limbs missing. Others had big gaping wounds around their necks, blood pouring out.

  It was a grisly sight, that’s for sure.

  I felt a drop of rain on my forehead, and soon the clouds were letting loose of all the moisture in them, creating a downpour that soaked me in seconds. Lightning struck a few feet ahead of me.

  That’s strange, I thought. I could feel all of my hair, on my arms, my neck, and my head, standing straight up from the electricity. It felt oddly realistic, like this wasn’t another dream/vision.

  Another bolt hit the ground, just like the first one. But this time it was closer. Way too close.

  I turned and started running in the opposite direction. I felt an electric surge through my whole body, and then I felt like I was being pushed back. With a jolt of energy, my legs gave out and I flew back a good twenty feet, slamming my back onto a gravestone. As the stone crumbled behind me, I collected my breath, realizing that the lightning must have hit me. My whole body felt hot, the smell of burnt flesh in the air.

  This didn’t bode well.

  “Kass.” It was Gabriel’s voice. What was he doing here? I couldn’t move as I watched him run up to me. My heart momentarily stopped, and I sat there, shocked. Pun intended. “Are you alright?” He knelt in front of me, our eyes level.

  “Yeah,” I said, “I guess.”

  “Okay, good. Now come on, we have to—”

  I blinked as I heard something close to me explode and a gooey substance hit my face immediately. As I hesitantly opened my eyes, already knowing what happened, I saw that Gabriel’s head was gone; replaced by a gore-filled view of his spinal cord and tongue that fell onto his chest.

  “No!” I yelled as his limp body fell to the ground. Kneeling over him, I wanted to put him back together. I wanted to fix him, but his head was almost completely gone, and it looked like it exploded from the inside.

  How was this possible? It was the most disturbing thing I’d ever seen, the goriest.

  I repeated his name over and over, like it would bring him back. I wiped my face and saw that there were practically buckets of his blood all over me. My stomach lurched. No. This couldn’t be real. I must have been dreaming. I had to be.

  A laugh rang through my ears, an electric laugh that zapped me through and through. “This is real.” The voice sounded mechanical and motorized, and extremely monotonous.

  I frantically glanced all around me. My eyes landed on a ball of electricity. A ball of enormous electricity. Slowly but surely that ball formed into the shape of a person. A huge, yellow, electric person that was ten feet tall, but I could still see the basic outline of a person: head, arms, torso, and legs.

  This wasn’t good.

  It took steps closer to me, setting fire to the grass below it, even though it was raining cats and dogs.

  Nope. Definitely not good.

  I knew I should stand and fight, but whatever this thing was, it was nothing like I’d ever faced before. It was powerful, and it commanded electricity. I struggled to stand, my breath not yet returned to me after witnessing Gabriel’s head going boom-boom, and as I did, the rain reddened, meaning that the rain was no longer water.

  It was blood.

  It laughed again as two electric tendrils shot out of its stomach area and grabbed my wrists.

  “No!” I shouted, even though I knew it would do nothing. Two more shocking vines rushed out and lingered right above my knuckles. The two that had a death grip on my hands forced them over, so my bare wrists were visible.

  My resolve hardened. This might have been freaky and beyond frightening, but it was just a dream. This thing was haunting me, and I wasn’t about to let it get the best of me. Not today, anyway.

  Teeth grinding, I muttered, “Go ahead, then. Give it your best shot, Demon.”

  And with that, the electric being laughed a hearty laugh, right before lowering the hovering tendrils to my wrists and cutting them over and over, sharper than razor blades. To my surprise, I felt it.

  I felt pain.

  “What did you do?”

  Gabriel’s voice. Thank God. Regardless of the pain, it was just a stupid dream. I tried opening my eyes to see the blonde boy, but they were like stone, too heavy and obstinate.

  “Bring her to the bathroom. I’ll get the first aid kit.” This time it was Michael’s voice. He sounded upset.

  Though my eyes were closed, I sought to open my mouth and ask just what they thought they were doing in my room in the middle of the night, but I found that nothing came out. No words escaped me.

  I felt the covers being tossed off me and two arms digging beneath me. I would move and help with whatever is going on, but since I couldn’t even open my eyes or speak, that might be a problem. I felt a heaving chest on my face as Gabriel carried me to the bathroom.

  Hold on. Why did Michael say he was going to get a first aid kit? Who needed a first aid kit? It wasn’t me, was it?

  And why couldn’t I open my eyes?

  I was placed in the bathtub. I tried one more time to open my eyes, hoping that they would follow orders. And they did. It was a struggle to get them to fully open, but they did. “Gabriel,” I managed to croak out, his name cracking on my lips, “what’s…” My voice stopped abruptly when I saw my wrists.

  Cut and bleeding. Cut and bleeding a lot.

  Growing lightheaded and woozy, I could barely form words in my head, let alone speak them out loud.

  “Kass, what happened?” Gabriel buried his face in his hands, unable to look at the sight of me bleeding, probably wondering if I did this to myself. I would never do that. It was the electric thing in my dream…but if it was a dream, then why did this happen? “I didn’t hear anything come in.”

  I leaned my head over to him, but my head did more bobbing than leaning. “I did not do this. I’m not suicidal.” Michael appeared next to Gabriel, which made me say, “Hey, Michael, my man. When’d you get here?”

  “I’ve been here for quite some time, Kass,” he said while searching through the emergency kit.

  I laughed. I didn’t know why I laughed, and it merely made clear to me the fact that I did seem crazy. And dizzy. Crazy and dizzy. Those were some funny words. I laughed some more.

  “Here we are,” Michael exclaimed as he held up a needle and some thin string.

  “Ooh, what’s that? That looks fun, I like needles. I love needles. They’re so pointy and so…pointy.” I babbled like an idiot. I had no control over what I said. Everything came out.

  Michael turned his face and glanced at Gabriel. “She’s delirious. We need to get those stitched up. She’s losing too much blood far too quickly.”

  “Stitches? I never got stitches before. I think they’re cool. I love them…you know what else I love?”

  “Grab the towel and softly dab her right wrist,” Michael ordered while sterilizing the needle. Gabriel nodded and gently held my hand, patting my wrist like he thought he might break me.

  I rattled on, ignoring everything that was going on around me. Michael just stuck the needle through my skin, but I soon decided that I didn’t care and kept going, “I love all of you. You’re my family, okay? You picking up what I’m putting down?”

  Michael was now almost done with the first wrist, so Gabriel moved on to dab the second one. “I love you so, so, so, so much. Know what we should do? Go on a cruise. Yeah, I always wanted to go on a cruise. And to Disney World.” I paused and looked at Gabriel. “That’d be
so much fun, right?”

  Chapter Thirteen – Gabriel

  There was so much blood. It was everywhere. In Kass’s hair, on her clothes, dripping down her arms. How could she lose this much blood and still be conscious?

  She was staring at me now, expecting an answer to her question. “Yeah,” I said quietly, “that’d be really fun.” Her mind was a mess right now. I couldn’t help myself from hearing all her random thoughts. Frogs, Africa, Steve Carell, semi-trucks, tennis shoes, pizza, brooms…the list could go on and on, seriously.

  But what she said next I did not expect.

  “Let’s get married.”

  I jumped up and away from her as Michael pushed me out of the way to reach her other wrist. Michael always joked that Kass and I were an old married couple, but hearing those words from her, even if she was incoherent, was another thing entirely.

  Michael stole a swift glance at me before continuing. I probably looked priceless; that’s why he had to look at me after that one.

  That’s not what I thought was going to come out of her mouth. Ever.

  Kass seemed hurt. “You don’t want to get married?” Her words were slurred terribly, but I still understood. She started shaking, like she was trying to cry. “Why? Do you hate me?”

  “No, Kass. It’s not that. I don’t hate you.” I leaned down next to her while she stared at me through misty eyes. “I just…would like to get married in Busch Gardens instead of Disney World.”

  She laughed and passed out. I gulped. That was an awkward conversation, even though she was faint from all her blood loss.

  Michael stood and eyed me after throwing the bloody towel and needle in the sink. “Busch Gardens, eh? Make sure to invite me. I’ve always wanted to go there.”

  “I’ll be sure to do that. You can be the best man and the best woman, since neither of us have any friends.” I did not wait for a reply. I just walked back into my room. I exhaled and leaned on my dresser. Why were things so bizarre and terrifying around here?

  It was this town. It had to be. Ever since we moved here more bad things were happening, more Demons popped up and threatened to destroy the world, and more weird situations were taking place with me and Kass.

  Not that I minded those situations, because I didn’t. In fact, I looked forward to them. It’s the whole Demon part of our lives that screwed with my head.

  The Demons here must have something to do with the color change of my hair and my ability to read Kass’s mind. Nothing like that had ever happened before. Of course, I knew what Kass was thinking sometimes, but that was only because I knew her so well. It wasn’t because I could read minds.

  Just her mind, too. I couldn’t read anyone else’s. Why? I didn’t know. Nothing made sense to me anymore.

  I felt an odd sensation moving through my left hand. My eyes noticed the engravings that appeared there, growing on it. Like tattoos. It looked like symbols of a sort, ancient symbols whose meanings were unknown to me, which confused me even more.

  One second the mark was there, growing into my skin, and the next second it disappeared, fading into me and leaving nothing visible to show what had just taken place before my very eyes.

  Something was happening to me, but what?

  Chapter Fourteen – Kass

  I shook myself awake. I was still in the tub, wearing the same pajamas as last night. The same bloody pajamas. I glanced to my wrists. They hurt, and they looked terrible.

  Oh, God. People were going to think that I did this myself, weren’t they? This was unbelievable.

  I tried standing, but simply fell down in the tub and hit my back on the porcelain bathtub. I winced in pain and gave up, resting in place while wondering how this happened to me.

  The corner of my eye saw Gabriel walk in the hallway. “Gabriel,” I called out to him.

  It took him exactly five seconds to make it in the bathroom and ask me, “What’s wrong? Does something hurt?” His light blue eyes were staring intently at me, patiently waiting for me to answer.

  “Well, I think the answer to that is obvious.” I held up my wrists so he could share in my agony. “And also, my back hurts because I fell on it. But besides that, I’m just peachy.”

  “Peachy, are you?” Gabriel laughed. “I’d say you’re more of a coconut.” I lifted my eyebrows at that one, making him continue, “You know, hard and rough on the outside but sweet and yummy on the inside…” His voice trailed off. “That could be taken two ways. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which one I meant.”

  A smile surfaced on my face, cracking my utterly dry lips. “Alright. Thanks for that.”

  “Anytime. You think you can clean up and come downstairs? Raphael’s over and I finally got him to agree to play Scattegories with me and Michael. I’m sure he won’t back down even if you play. I came up here to get it.”

  I didn’t even have to make up my mind on that one. “It’s been forever since we’ve played board games. Anything to get my mind off of whatever the heck is happening to me.”

  The look he gave me said it all. Gabriel lent a hand down. “I’ll help you.”

  I gripped his hand and he yanked me up, causing me great throbbing in the wrist area. He walked me to my room. “You are too kind,” I mocked, like I couldn’t have gotten up and came here myself. And then I realized…I probably couldn’t have, so I felt kind of stupid.

  Gabriel made a big show of bowing like a gentleman. “Don’t feel stupid in my presence. You are the smartest person I know.”

  For a moment I just stayed in one place, leaning on my closet door. I had momentarily forgot that he could read my mind. “Oh, gee, thanks. That means a lot, considering you only know, like, four people.”

  “True.”

  I rummaged through my closet, finding some baggy jeans and a T-shirt. It’ll do. After all, I had nowhere to go today, and I had dried, crusted blood all over my arms. I thought about washing up, but my wrists hurt too much. I’d have to take some pain relievers.

  Once I had a firm grip on my outfit, I flipped in Gabriel’s direction. “I need to change.”

  He nodded eagerly. “I know. And I figured that you might need help, in which case...” I threw a nearby candle at him. “Okay, okay. I’ll be right outside your door. If you need anything give me a holla.”

  I laughed and waited until he exited the room, securely closing the door behind him. It was going to be very hard changing, that’s for sure. But I had to do it myself. Otherwise, it would be plain weird.

  But I got myself through the painful process by replaying what Gabriel had just said. He said the word holla. He really, truly just said the word holla.

  My wrists. My poor, poor wrists. They hurt, they ached, and they sent pain all the way up my arms. Changing did a number on them. This was pretty much the worst day of my life.

  Well, all things considered, maybe the second worst day.

  Did something sneak into my room and cut me up, and my mind had that crazy dream with the electric man in response, or were they connected? Better yet, why weren’t we in full research mode? Though, I guessed, I didn’t really feel like doing any research right now anyways.

  I walked out of my room, expecting to see Gabriel. But he wasn’t there. He must have gotten tired of waiting for me and went back downstairs with the game. I wanted to tell him about my dream. The one with the electric thing.

  I made my way down the stairs, taking it slowly. My head started to hurt, but whether it was from thinking too much or the pain that was shooting through my arms, I wasn’t sure.

  “Kassandra.” Michael stood up. “How are you feeling?”

  I started to answer, but Gabriel said, “She’s a coconut.”

  “A…coconut?” Raphael spoke ever so gradually, as if he had never been more confused in his entire life.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel shrugged his broad shoulders. “You know, hard and spiky on the outside but—”

  Shut up, Gabriel, I screamed in my mind.

  And he did. Ha
d to say, having this mind reading thing between us was useful sometimes. I could totally yell at him while other people were in the room and no one would know. How awesome was that?

  “Pretty awesome,” Gabriel exclaimed. He was met with two puzzled stares. “Um, I mean, it’s pretty awesome that we are playing this game like it is the nineties,” he caught himself.

  For some reason, he chose to keep his mind reading ability from Michael and Raphael. It wasn’t my secret to tell. I’d wait on Gabriel’s call.

  “Just to clear the air,” I told them, sitting down on the couch beside Gabriel, “I didn’t cut myself. I had a…dream, woke up and—” I held up my bandaged wrists. “—these were like this. I don’t know why.”

  Raphael pursed his lips, pensive. “Perhaps I can do some research—”

  Holding up a hand, Gabriel cut in quickly and loudly, “After the game. We all need some more fun in our lives, right? What better way than to bond over board games?” His facetious statement caused Michael to chuckle, despite the circumstances.

  I bit my lip as Gabriel set up the game and handed out the pieces.

  For the next half hour, we competed, made teams, and had fun. Time passed in a blur, and for once, I didn’t worry about what was going on with me, with Gabriel. I didn’t think about Demons or John. I did a lot of smiling, laughing so hard I teared up when Gabriel voted against one of his words.

  “You make no sense,” I told him.

  I expected him to argue with me. “No.” Gabriel jumped up, pointing. “No, you don’t make sense.” But he wasn’t pointing at me, or at anyone in the room. He was pointing at the fireplace. He walked over to it, paying no attention to the three pairs of eyes that stared at him. “I swear this is new.” Gabriel picked up a picture.

  “Of course it’s new. Everything’s new in here. We did move in not too long ago, you know,” I reminded him, playing the role of the smart-alecky Captain Obvious. The Council always bought us new stuff. Only the best for their foot soldiers in the war against darkness.

  “No. I mean, it’s new new. Like, I’ve never seen this before.” He returned to me and handed it over. “Here. Look at it.”