The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

I smiled at the thought, but knew the truth. “Aren’t I?” I asked, looking up at him. “I tend to do stupid things and put myself in danger when there’s no need to. A good Purifier wouldn’t do that.”

  He breathed a slow breath and replied, “I will point out what you are missing. A good Purifier protects the people, and if that means putting themselves in danger and doing stupid things, then so be it. Every time you do something stupid, you are only thinking of others and what’s best for them.”

  I was speechless. I didn’t know how to respond to that.

  Raphael kept going, “No matter who the Purifier is, they are never safe. They are always in a constant danger, and you are no different. For the rest of your life you will never be genuinely safe.”

  He must have seen the smile growing on my face and became instantly confused. “Why are you smiling?”

  “I love being told that I’m going to die.” My mind flashed to my mother, who often appeared in dreams/visions, telling me I was going to die. It was imprinted inside my head from the day I took my first lessons as a Purifier. I was going to die. I knew that already.

  Raphael studied me. “Seems an odd thing to smile at.”

  “It’s not,” I told him sincerely, turning to face him. “I’m not afraid to die.”

  He frowned at me, still not understanding where I was coming from.

  My eyes left his because his stare was getting a little too intense for me. “Thank you,” I said softly. “And I’m sorry for hitting you.” Sheepish did not sit well on me.

  “Oh,” Raphael gently laughed it off, “no, don’t be sorry for that.” He brought his hand to his cheek. “I deserved it. Really, I did. There’s no excuse for what I said to you…or how I acted after. You…” His face broke into a wide smile. “You do know how to throw a punch.”

  “Do I?” I laughed faintly. “Then it’s a good thing I do it for a living.”

  “Yes, it’s a good thing.” Raphael continued smiling as he finished, “I do hope I’m not on the receiving end again, unless it’s a practice run.”

  “You better hope not,” I gazed up at him. “Because my skills can only improve.”

  Raphael laughed, and strangely, it was a nice laugh. A laugh I wished I heard more often, rather than his glares and his lectures.

  As we left the sparring room, I started to wonder why he was being nice to me.

  Regardless of what was up with Raphael, he was still a jerk.

  But then again, so was I.

  Chapter Forty – Raphael

  I stood in the sparring room for what felt like forever. I watched Kassandra go, eyes falling to places it shouldn’t. Even after everything, I couldn’t stop myself.

  After what happened, I never let myself think of such things…I never thought about love or lust or sex. It never sat right with me after everything. Yet here I was, her teacher and her tutor, and did that stop me from wishing things were different? Did that stop me from having dreams no moral man should?

  Of course not.

  Try as I might, wish as I may, I hadn’t been a moral man in quite some time.

  It was not on the Council’s wish that I instruct her. It was on my insistence. I felt her the moment she came to town, and I knew I had to be close to her. She was different, far different than the many beings I came across in my travels. I had to know her. I had to see her. I had to be with her.

  I simply did not predict the effect she would have on me, the way she riled me up and calmed me down at once. Even my precious Leliana did not have such a hold over me when she…

  My eyes closed, and I shook the far-off memories away. Now was not the time to relive the past. I had to look toward the future, toward finding a way to end Crixis once and for all. The blasted Demon was after her, for whatever twisted reason, and perhaps for my own twisted reasons, I had to find a way to stop him.

  Crixis had to die.

  I let him escape me once.

  I would not do it again.

  Chapter Forty-One – Kass

  Heaving a sigh, I leisurely walked to the stairs, but before I went down, I paused. The library’s door was open as well. It was closed last time I went by it. Me, being the curious type, I went and peeked.

  Koath stood over a lamp and reading a piece of paper. Vincent was nowhere to be seen. Maybe he was in the bathroom, getting changed.

  Moving to his side, I questioned, “What’s—”

  Koath shoved the paper in my hands and ran out of the room, saying, “I’ve got to call the Council, again.”

  That was weird.

  My eyes fell to the paper. There was a small note scribbled on it.

  Had to go. Koath, I’m sorry for attacking you. Tell everyone I’m sorry for all the grief I have caused. You need not worry about me or what I will do…I have decided to head up to the mountains. If you, or your ‘Council’ need me that much, I’m sure you’ll be able to find me. Good luck finding and killing that son of a bitch. It’s all up to you guys now,

  Vincent

  Chapter Forty-Two – Vincent

  The sun poked through the clouds, revealing itself for perhaps the first time all day. I blinked, getting my dark green contacts adjusted to my eyes. Reaching inside my leather coat’s pocket, I pulled out a new pair of sunglasses.

  I stared into the sun one more time before putting them on. And, boy, was I glad I did. There was a huge double rainbow across the sky. It was beautiful.

  My eyes dropped to the leather diary resting in my lap. I dug into my jeans’ pocket and retrieved a lighter. I stood and ripped the journal apart, taking the time to tear out all the pages and setting them in a pile.

  When I came to the last page of the diary, I stopped and skimmed it.

  He will be here soon. He is coming to kill me. I am sure of it. My love, my true love is going to kill me. All because I gave him eternal life. That is what I get for turning someone I love. Death.

  I am invincible, so I do not know how exactly he will kill me. All I know is that he is stubborn beyond belief and determined to end me. If he truly wants me dead, then he will find a way. My love will kill me.

  I cannot fight back. I cannot do anything, and not because I refuse to. If it would save my life, then I would kill him. But I am unaware of how to do so. And he…he is stronger than I. How that happened, I do not know. I think there was something different about his blood. It tasted like magic. I do not think he was human when I changed him.

  There is a knock at the door. I fear this is goodbye. Soon the locks will break, and my love, named after the healing Archangel himself, will show no mercy and kill me. Irony in its finest, one last cruel joke to play on me.

  Grimacing, I tore out the last page and set it on the top. Flipping the lid off the steel lighter, I threw it down and lit the pile into flames. That way, no one would get their hands on this journal ever again.

  Throwing the leather binding down in the fire, after I was positive that the pages were utterly destroyed, I turned and headed back to my motorcycle. My metal boots clunked, a welcome sound.

  Things weren’t going to be normal from now on, that’s for sure. But they were going to get better, I had a feeling.

  I said I was going to the mountains, and that was where I was going. But not the Appalachians. No, I was going past those and into the heart of America. To the Rocky Mountains. But Koath and the others didn’t need to know that.

  Before leaving this town for good, I gripped my orange amulet, vowing to never let it separate from me again. And with that, I kicked the stand up and rode towards the sunset.

  Part of me wanted to stay, because there was just something about Kass that told me to stay. But the other part of me said that she already had enough Demons after her. And, yes. I meant both after her life and her.

  This town was full of surprises, and I could only imagine what Kass and her group were going to do next. Hopefully they’d find that Demon and kill him for me. I would do the same, but after twenty years of seeking revenge on the
wrong man, it was time I did some soul-searching.

  It was time I found myself.

  My adventures, I had a feeling, were just about to begin.

  Sorcerers

  Chapter One – Kass

  There was an eerie feeling around me; it was as if I’d been here before. But I was positive that I never had been here. I would remember if I’d been in any body-filled rooms lately.

  Piles and piles of ripped apart corpses were scattered all about, seeping blood onto my bare feet. It was a gruesome sight, perhaps the worst I’d seen in my life. All these bodies missed chunks of flesh, as if something with ever-sharp fangs tore skin from bone. It was a wound I knew well—never receiving one myself, thankfully, but I had seen it on many a walking corpse.

  Nightwalkers did this.

  Nightwalkers only wanted two things. The first was skin and the second was blood. They were basically like mindless zombies, hungering for food. Not exactly the Vampires in the movies these days.

  No, I hadn’t met one, single Nightwalker that could control itself and was the least bit attractive.

  But Daywalkers, well…they’re a different story.

  They may be the better-looking type of Vampire, but they were also the most dangerous. They could walk in the sun, have a reflection, need no invitation to come into your house, and they couldn’t be killed by a stake in the heart. Or, the better word would be purified, because I was a Purifier of God and it was what I did.

  I purified things. Demons. But as I saw it, killing and purifying were pretty much the same.

  Gabriel and I had been doing this for almost our whole lives, actually. We weren’t exactly normal teenagers. The farthest from it. Speaking of Gabriel…where was that boy?

  Grimacing, I carefully stepped over an arm. Where was I, for that matter? I didn’t remember getting here, and yet…it was the strangest feeling. I felt oddly at peace. Like my fight was over and I had nothing more to worry about.

  But that was ridiculous for a few reasons: A) that meant I was dead (or something close to it) and I so wasn’t, B) Gabriel’s very protective of me (and he had this crazy idea that we’re going to end up getting married in Florida, which would never happen), so wherever I went, he’s always next to me…and he wasn’t here, and C) I had too much unfinished business.

  I still had to help Claire through her father’s death, teach Max (the new and dorky Purifier) the ways of the normal teen (which I just recently learned myself), and I had to deal with Crixis (the insanely evil/ancient Daywalker who’s trying to kill me).

  Oh, God. What if he finally succeeded? He had only been trying to do it for almost three years now, so it’s a miracle I lasted this long. What if I was dead?

  But if I was dead, wouldn’t I be in Heaven? Or…somewhere that wasn’t filled with ghoulish corpses?

  Yeah, maybe I wasn’t dead.

  My weary eyes spotted a stone door on the far side of the room. I made a dash for it, figuring I had nothing else to do. I was so close to it, too…and I would have made it. The only problem with that was that something pulled my foot out from under me.

  After I gathered myself, I looked down, realizing that a hand grabbed me. A bloody hand. I followed the hand’s wrist to its arm. And I followed that arm to its shoulder. So on and so forth.

  A ghastly shriek rang through my ears as I saw the being that the hand belonged to. Claire. Her tall stature, her muscular arms, her short, blonde hair. It was all covered in blood. Only one thing was missing: her bottom jaw.

  Her tongue dangled and her top teeth dripped with venom.

  Eyebrows furrowing, I recognized this. I’d seen her like this before…but where? Why couldn’t I remember anything?

  Her tongue fell out of her mouth, and it started slithering on the floor towards my apprehended foot. This was gross, and it was not going to happen.

  With skill, I kicked her face forcefully, stunning her enough that her hand released me. I stood and ran to the stone door once more. Unlike last time, I made it. I tried the latch. Ah…crap. I made it, sure, but would the door open?

  Nope. It wouldn’t even budge.

  Well, this was just great. Fantastic. Wonderful. Amazing.

  And please note the sarcasm there.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I gasped. All the bodies, even the headless ones, were on their feet and stumbling over to me. I knew one thing: I needed to get this door open ASAP.

  Putting all my weight against it, I pushed with all my might. Slowly but surely it started opening. After a few more frantic moments, I was on the other side of the door and closing it so those zombie things couldn’t get to me.

  Never thought I’d see the day when zombies were real.

  Though zombies didn’t have unusually large canines. That trait belongs to Nightwalkers. And Daywalkers too, but Daywalkers’ largest teeth were their two front ones. The canines were close behind in length, but the front-runner in size and sharpness was definitely the front two.

  “Kassandra…” Behind me, a woman’s voice spoke. A velvety voice, one that I’d only heard in my dreams.

  Flipping around swiftly, I asked, “Mom?” A sharp breath escaped my mouth before I covered it with my trembling hands. She was tied to the wall and had numerous cuts and scrapes all along her body.

  The light that she normally radiated was gone. She was pale, dirty and broken.

  “Know that I still love you. And that no matter what,” her dry lips paused, “you will always find your way home.”

  “What?” I asked, running over to her. “What does that mean?” I was going to untie her, but the more I ran the farther she got from me. Sense was something this place lacked. “No, come back,” I yelled as the floor released below me.

  Jerking up straight, I groggily held a hand to my head. That was a terrible dream, and I hoped with all my heart that it wasn’t a vision. Because if it was, and it did come true, then we’re all screwed.

  And that’s not a good thing.

  My tired eyes glanced at the alarm clock that rested on my nightstand. It was four in the morning. My ears distinguished a laughing track, making me notice that the television across from my bed was still on and playing reruns of some old show.

  Groaning and feeling too lazy to get up and turn it off, I decided that I was just going to ignore it and go back to bed to get some good, un-vision-filled sleep. But as soon as I finished rolling over, I smacked into someone’s body.

  I propped myself up on my arms and beheld the sleeping boy. Gabriel, the giant, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy. He slept as if he was totally ignorant about the fact that he was in my bed and that he was also on the verge of falling off.

  Smirking to myself, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to annoy him and possibly shake him awake, hopefully waking him up and scaring him enough that he’ll freak out and fall off my bed. It sounded mean, but in reality, if I pulled it off, it was going to be hilarious.

  After all, if the positions were switched, wouldn’t he do the same to me? Yes. Yes, he would. That, or do something totally inappropriate. Either one, really. Maybe even both.

  A small breath of air came from my mouth and onto his face, right over his nose. I got no response. Taking a finger, I gently touched the tip of his nose with it. He stirred under the covers. Under my covers.

  I swore this boy had no boundaries. He was probably shirtless under there, too. It’s not like I hadn’t seen him shirtless or in a towel before, because I had. Many times. I’d known him for almost my whole life and lived with him for the past five-ish years, so I could see why he had no boundaries.

  I, however, would always have boundaries.

  My finger touched his nose again, a little harder this time. His eyes stayed closed, but his stubbly face twitched. I did it one more time, causing him to roll to his right, say “I’m drowning in furniture catalogues” and fall off my bed.

  I quietly suppressed my laughter at my maniacal plan as I laid back down and pretended I was still sleeping. />
  I heard Gabriel get up, saying, “Weird dream.” I felt his presence on my bed once more. He didn’t leave. Gabriel crawled back into my sheets and whispered into my ear, “If you want me to leave, all you have to do is ask.”

  Oh, yeah. This boy also could read my thoughts. Just my thoughts, too. No one else’s. Talk about weird. And he could heal himself. Not to mention the thin, intricate tattoo all over his body. He also had a Celtic cross on his chest.

  But there was a key difference between those tattoos. The Celtic cross he got tattooed on. The other one just appeared in his skin one day, pulsating and moving. It was a good thing he bought a ton of cover-up that he wore daily, otherwise the schoolboard would certainly ask questions. Then again, my old Guardian, Koath, was our new principal, so maybe they wouldn’t.

  Gabriel did all that and I had visions/dreams that came true or hinted at something. We weren’t exactly the most typical teenagers, I was told.

  I groaned, giving up my sleeping façade and opening my eyes. “You caught me. Happy?”

  “No. I won’t be happy until you kiss my elbow,” he paused, holding it out in front of my face, “I landed hard on it because of you.”

  “Keep dreaming.”

  “Oh, I’m not dreaming. Because if I was,” I could see the glint of his blue eyes, “then I’d ask you to kiss something else.” I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. He was so serious. “I am serious. If I was dreaming, you and I would be—”

  “Gabriel?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do me a favor and stop talking.”

  “But don’t you want to know what we’d be doing in—”

  “No,” I told him, beginning to shove him off my bed. “I want to go back to sleep.”

  “Okay, then let me get in next to you,” Gabriel spoke quietly, coming back in even though I had just succeeded in pushing him off.

  “Your room is right across the hall,” I whined, head falling back on my pillow.

  “Oh, it is? Thanks for telling me. I thought this was my room. Truthfully, I was starting to wonder why you were always in my room, especially at nighttime,” his voice was dripping sarcasm. Standard Gabriel procedure. “Though, it’s not like I mind. I actually like having you next to me when I wake up in the morning. For some odd reason, you don’t get morning breath, which is so tough to find in a girl.”