The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  There were way too many teenagers in the cafeteria in my opinion, and unfortunately, my opinion meant nothing. I knew somehow this was a gigantic health hazard waiting to happen. Or an apocalypse. We moved here because it was supposedly filled with Demons and supernatural beings, and so far, that proved true.

  Almost no one I’d met here was normal. Witches, Daywalkers, Shifters, Morphers, Sorcerers, other Purifiers.

  I stopped my thoughts when I saw Gabriel appear at the opposite end of the cafeteria, making his way to our table.

  As Gabriel sat down beside me, I whispered something across the table to Max, who nodded in agreement. Having this dork in our group wasn’t so bad after all. Max motioned to Gabriel’s huge bag, saying, “Got any apple pie in there that you would care to share?” The nerdy kid chuckled to himself as he hi-fived me.

  Gabriel’s jaw tightened. “Think that’s funny, do you?” His blue eyes stared through me. “I got something even better. Hey, Kass, did you ever find out where Koath was last night?”

  I took one look at the boy’s smirk and wanted to tackle him. “No,” I growled, baring my teeth a little bit, like a rabid animal. Gabriel knew Koath’s no-show to the church was bugging me beyond belief, and yet he went ahead and said that.

  “What?” He peered at my upset face. “Did I strike a nerve? Push your buttons? Tell you something you didn’t want to hear? Good. You practically begged for that one.” Gabriel turned his attention back to his lunch.

  I counted to three to calm my anger down, otherwise I’d just go full out and break his nose again. For the twentieth time. When the majority of it subsided, I said to anyone who would answer, “Who’s going to the football game tomorrow night?” I bit into my sandwich to hide the smile that formed.

  Claire looked like she wanted to kill me. Oh, well. She’d get over it. Eventually.

  Everyone was silent, making me feel very ill at ease. Did I say something wrong?

  Gabriel eyed me up. “Don’t we always go to the games?”

  “Yeah,” I spoke the word slowly, hating that it was true.

  “Then why bother asking?”

  “What’s with the attitude?” I hissed back to one of the most immature people I knew.

  “Attitude?” Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have an attitude. I don’t even know what that means.”

  “Liar.” I lifted my finger to his face.

  “Get that finger out of my face.”

  At the same time, I said, “I will not get this finger out of your face.”

  “If you don’t get that finger out of my face, I’ll…” Gabriel stopped and glared at me. His blue eyes were intense, letting me know that he was serious about the finger-in-his-face thing.

  “Huh? You’ll what?” I asked, keeping my finger an inch away from his face.

  “I’ll bite it,” he answered me, ignoring the laughing and jeering that came from the other side of the lunch table and probably figuring that Claire and Max’s time would come soon enough.

  “You wouldn’t,” I tested him.

  Without a second thought, his mouth made a swift dash to my finger and his abnormally white teeth clamped down on my poor, defenseless digit.

  I shrieked as I used my other hand to shove the monster Gabriel away, concurrently yanking my finger out of his mouth. “You bit me. You really bit me.” I was shocked at the immaturity of it all.

  Shrugging it off, he went back to his lunch as if nothing happened. “I told you I would.”

  I muttered something under my breath, including the phrases I hate you and you’re stupid, and also a colorful collection of swearwords, because as of now, Gabriel was stupid and I did hate him, and my anger needed to be calmed by using some cusses that, if heard by any teacher, would have gotten me expelled for a good week, at least.

  But hey, maybe that would have been a good thing.

  Chapter Twenty-Five - Gabriel

  I twirled my dragon sword on the green grass, taking in the way the silver reflected the color perfectly. I was waiting patiently for my turn to fight Raphael. I was going to enjoy it a little too much. The pie fiasco was forefront in my mind.

  Max stirred next to me. He was sword-less, so he was stuck reading old books every time we trained with them unless Raphael gave him his own sword to practice with. Today was not one of those days.

  My back hit the stone wall of the church. Max had it so good, he didn’t even know it. Him and Claire were great for each other; they each had a secret of their own, but they would come out to one another. And, as far as I knew, there were no uncanny, older, priest-outfit wearing men that were digging Claire as much as Max was.

  Me? I wasn’t so lucky. I had one of those uncanny, older, priest-outfit wearing men that dug Kass almost as much as me. And I said almost because no one could beat me in that department.

  No one else seemed to recognize it, but I did. Oh, I did. But the thing that I wondered was if Kass noticed it. Odds were that she was as clueless as everyone else, but what if she wasn’t? What if she knew Raphael liked her?

  And worse—what if she liked him back?

  Sure, Raphael, to the opposite gender, would be considered attractive, but so was I.

  I was never one for relationships after what happened with the first girl. Almost getting fed to her pet Demons was a good enough sign for me to stay away from lasting relationships. I almost got Kass killed three years ago because of it.

  So far Raphael hadn’t almost gotten anyone killed, yet. Things might change, but chances were that they weren’t going to any time soon. Still, just because he hadn’t caused any near-death experiences didn’t make him better for Kass than me.

  From now on I was going to be the biggest pain in the rear to Raphael.

  Footsteps broke my deep concentration. His green-eyed stare fell on me as he said, “Max, take this and practice with Kass.”

  That was another thing. He started out calling her Kassandra. What was with him calling her Kass lately? That was for me, Michael, Koath, and basically everyone else in the world but him. He shouldn’t call her Kass. That was too familiar. He should be more formal with her.

  Max shut the two-thousand-page book and set it on the ground. He took the sword and left. Raphael glared down at me. If I was anything less than what I was, it would have gotten to me. Good thing I was awesome and had a huge ego to match, and I was modest enough to admit it.

  I glanced up at the man I despised most. “What do you want?” I spat the words out as if I were talking to Crixis himself, the Demon I despised most.

  Raphael motioned his head as he clenched his jaw and furthered the distance between us and Max and Kass. I stood and followed him, clutching my sword and not letting it go for anything.

  “What I want,” he said slowly, with a twinge of resentment, “is to know why you have been acting like this recently. First you glare at me all the time, then the pie incident that happened last night, now this.”

  “Cut the crap,” I told him simply, “we both know that last night wasn’t about pie.”

  “It wasn’t?” He played the oblivious card. But he was too smart for that, and I knew it.

  “I know. No one else does.” I pointed my thumb at my chest, saying, “But I do.”

  “And what is it that you think you know?” Raphael squinted his eyes.

  I laughed curtly. If it wasn’t for his abnormal strength, I could take him down. He was about six inches smaller than me with a lot less muscle tissue. In reality it shouldn’t be much of a fight. But underneath his average physique probably lied more muscles per square inch than anyone could guess.

  “Give up the act.”

  His head lifted, meeting my determined stare with one of his own. “What act?”

  Stepping closer, I whispered, “I know your secret. I see the way you look at her. It’s obvious.”

  “Interesting” was all he said.

  “You’re not denying it.”

  �
��I did not,” Raphael said slowly, “but I also did not affirm it, either.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Raphael.” I grunted, “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you. Weren’t you the one who met me in Starbucks and gave me advice on her?”

  “Ah.” Raphael smiled a superior smile, asking, “So you did understand what I was talking about.”

  “Don’t change the subject.” I shoved my fingertips roughly on his chest, saying, “You knew then that I liked her, and now…now, what? You just don’t care? I know we’re not best buds, but that does violate the man code.”

  His lips curled into half a smile. “I told you to not wait forever, did I not?”

  “Yeah,” I got in his face, saying, “last time I checked, forever hasn’t passed yet.”

  “I told you to not wait until it was too late.”

  I was slow to say, “It’s not too late.”

  “If you are confident with the way things are with her, then you should have nothing to worry about, especially with me. Am I right, Gabriel?” Raphael crossed his arms, looking stern. Very controversial coming from him.

  “Right. Just know that I’m watching you. And if you do anything to her…” I leaned down to his face to get a better scary effect, “I’ll end you in a heartbeat.” And leaving it at that, I walked away as awesomely as I could under the circumstances, just to let him know that I was serious about the whole I’ll-kill-you part.

  I hoped I was as badass as dream Gabriel was.

  Chapter Twenty-Six – Raphael

  As Kass kept busy with her work with the broken altar, I sat on my bed in the back room and sighed. The talk with Gabriel did not go as I expected it to. His threat hung heavily on me, more than it should. I’d never act on any impulses I had for Kass. There was that one time in the house, but I liked to believe that I’d recovered and grown from that incident.

  He said I was obvious, but I didn’t believe him. It was easy for a man to see other men in love with his woman when he himself already head over heels. If I was obvious to anyone else, including Kass, they were all quiet about it.

  Gabriel yelled at me. He scolded me. I still couldn’t believe that part. He acted as if he were the adult and I was the child. He thought he was higher on the playing field, but he was not. If anything, we were on the same level.

  I did understand where he came from, though I did not respect the way he said it. I knew he’d been fond of her since before I met them, and that’s why I gave him that advice all those weeks ago. When I said that he shouldn’t wait forever to tell her, I meant it. Of course, I didn’t have ulterior motives. I hadn’t said it as a warning that I would swoop in and take her. Even thinking it, it was wrong.

  What was amusing, though, was Gabriel saying that if I hurt or did anything to her, he’d kill me. What a laugh. That boy was too foolish to know what he was messing with. I bit my tongue and held in what I wanted to say back.

  The same goes for you was what I would have said. I didn’t say it because it was indecent and unnecessary. I knew Gabriel would never hurt her, just as I wouldn’t, but he didn’t know that about me. He trusted me as if I were John turned good again. I was much better than he gave me credit for.

  There was a pit in my stomach, a dilemma, though. Half of me wanted her all to myself; she pulled me in like no other. The dark side of me, the side I always kept in check. But the other half was more reasonable, saying that we could never be together, and that Gabriel was the better one for her.

  It wasn’t up for discussion. I wasn’t going to let the dark feelings inside me grow. I’d allowed my heart to open up once and look how it turned out. I wasn’t about to do it again, regardless of how oddly alluring Kassandra was.

  Time, time that usually passed so slowly for me, flew by when I was with her. I didn’t care about anything except her. I had no worries, no regrets, no anything. It was a beautiful thing to feel. And regardless of how crazy or cliché it sounded, I’d never felt anything like it before.

  Which begged the question of her origins. I’d been around dozens of Purifiers. Countless humans. None drew me in quite like she did. None came close.

  Was she indeed human, or was she something more?

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Kass

  To my surprise, Koath managed to be on time today, unlike last night, when he was a no-show for whatever strange reason. The past few nights, during the walks home, I had practically a bazillion questions to ask him. Tonight was different, because I wanted to know only one thing: where he was last night.

  But seeing as how I was incapable of prying the answer from him this morning during the car ride to school, I didn’t know why I expected tonight’s results to turn out any differently.

  It was the least he could do, since he forced Max to stay the night. That was torture. I could deal with Max during school, but not all the time. Not twenty-four/seven. Luckily for me, and unluckily for Gabriel, Max slept in his room. That nailed me some alone-time.

  This morning I asked Gabriel if they talked before they went to sleep, and he said biochemistry. What kind of kid talked about biochemistry before they went to bed? Oh, right. Max.

  Don’t even get me started on how weird it was to have me, Gabriel, and Max share the same bathroom before school. It was strange, gross, and I never wanted to do it again. It was one thing to share it with Gabriel, who was the most hygienic boy I’d ever met, but it was a completely different matter to share it with Max, who as it turned out, wasn’t as hygienic as Gabriel, by a long shot.

  I told my wandering mind to focus on what I had to ask Koath. If I was so comfortable with this man, why did it always feel awkward when I needed to ask him something very important?

  “Can I ask you something?” I said, carefully stepping over a fallen headstone. The newer graves were in such awful conditions; someone should really come by and fix them up. Honor the dead like they should be honored.

  “Speak your mind,” he replied, keeping his gaze set on the path we were taking.

  Not exactly the answer I was looking for, but it would do. “Koath, why won’t you tell me where you were last night? Why have you been dodging that question all day today?”

  “I dodge the question because it’s none of your business,” he told me harshly. Koath immediately regretted snapping at me, I could tell by the way he sighed and placed his hands in his pockets.

  My eyes fell to the dewy ground.

  “It was Council business” was what he said next.

  I shook my head, saying, “But it’s always Council business. There’s no other kind of business with you.” My voice cracked on the last few words, showing Koath that I was sick and tired of all the Council this, Council that crap.

  That’s how it was for the last eighteen years, so why should it be any different today?

  Koath was slow to say, “Do you really want to know, Kass?”

  I moved my head up and down once, eyes pleading with him. All I wanted was an answer and the sooner he gave it to me the sooner everything could get back to normal. Koath was never late or a no-show, so of course I was going to be naturally curious why he chose to make last night his first.

  “I was dealing with the Council,” his wrinkled hands rubbed his stubbly face, “it was a follow up to something that happened many years ago. They like to do an interview about it once every year, to make sure they still have the facts right, that I don’t suddenly remember something, things like that.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows, saying, “What was the interview about?”

  “Remember the Shifter? Well, as you already know, I was the one who found his murdered family, and the Council forces me to take part in a yearly follow up.” Koath became quieter, “They never believed me when I said Crixis was the culprit.”

  I tore my eyes from him, not sure if I trusted what he told me. Koath wasn’t one to lie, but this just seemed so…no. No, I was choosing to believe Koath because he gave me no reason not to. If he said that’s where he was yesterday, t
hen that’s where he was.

  But that still didn’t tell me why he refused to tell me this this morning in the car.

  “Oh…” My voice dragged out the word as I scanned the area. I quickly spotted a furry, white being staring at me at the edge of the forest.

  The white wolf, A.K.A. Steven. His brown eyes blinked as I realized he followed us. Or, more likely, me. Steven was following me—why? To protect me? Make sure I didn’t get into another tussle with Crixis?

  It pissed me off that everyone thought I needed to be protected.

  I glimpsed at Koath, who was completely unaware of the wolf, and said, “What do you think of the white wolf?”

  “Hmm…” He thought for a moment. “I don’t believe any of the theories about it. Some people think that wolf’s been causing the murders that occurred weeks ago, but you and I know that’s not true. It’s still around and, knock on wood, there hasn’t been any new victims of Nightwalkers or Crixis lately. None that we know of, anyway.”

  “What do you think it is, just a normal wolf?” Soon enough, everyone in our group was going to know about Steven and Claire, so I was going to have some fun before that happened. And that involved finding out what everyone thought about it before Claire came out to Max, which in turn would make Steven come out as well.

  “I highly doubt it. It’s too large and unnatural for this area to be a normal wolf. There’s many different possibilities. It could be anything from a historic Indian deity to a fairly common Morpher. I’m more inclined to believe it’s the second one.”

  “So it’s not a werewolf?” I joked, remembering what Steven had said to me when I asked something similar. Werewolves weren’t real—a good thing. That was a good thing. No Jacob or Alcide for me.

  Koath laughed with me, replying, “Definitely not. You know werewolves don’t exist.”

  I laughed at myself for even bringing it up.

  “Traditional ones, at least.” We turned onto my street as Koath gradually said, “There is a supernatural being called Vexillion.”

  “Vexillion?” I repeated, saying the world cautiously, like if I pronounced it wrong, the Demon itself would come and kill me. “That doesn’t sound like any Demon I’ve heard of before.”