The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  I was next to Claire, taking the pen out of her hand. Maybe Crixis wasn’t going to kill me. Maybe it would be the shadowing being done by Taiton that would do me in.

  The pen was on the yellow pad, writing the number sign, when all was torn from my sight. Everything in my vision was ripped apart, sending me down, into the dankest depths of nowhere.

  A strange feeling surrounded my entire body, and I soon realized that feeling was water. I was in water. Pure, black water that seemed to be endless. An air bubble escaped me, making me aware of the fact that in this particular vision, my air supply wasn’t endless.

  I glanced all around, and I saw nothing. For a last-ditch effort, my watery eyes looked upward, and to my relief, there was a small, circular ray of light.

  Thank God. I kicked my legs and moved my arms, swimming to the light as fast as I could. I had some slight difficulties with that, especially because the light became more and more of a circle the closer I got. Yes, I was getting closer. Yes, the ray of light was getting bigger and bigger. Yes, I was beginning to think that I’d lose the remainder of my air before I reached the top.

  If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I swam up from the center of the earth. It was as if I was trying to surface from the bottom of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It was like I was twenty thousand leagues under the sea.

  My lungs ached as they twisted and turned inside me, searching for any hints of air and finding none. This was it. I was going to die in a vision. By drowning, nonetheless. If someone asked me how I thought I was going to die, drowning would be near the bottom of the list, right next to freak tanning bed incidents, random bricks falling out of the sky, and laser eye surgery gone wrong.

  Just when I was about to give up, I reached a hand out and felt nothing around it. No water. I was at the top. After emerging, my head flew back and my lungs inhaled deeply. Ancient stones circled me, making me aware of the fact that I was in a well. Closing my eyes, I used my tired arms to climb out and flop on the dusty ground.

  Was that really necessary? Why did I have to be stuck inside a well, at the very bottom? Why couldn’t I just have been transported here next to it, in an upright and standing position where there’s lots of air to breath?

  The sounds of lapping flames entered my ears, causing me to jerk up and wildly glance around. There were numerous fires eating up what cloth there was in the city I was in. The stone walls were broken and crumbling. I couldn’t tell you what century I was in. I couldn’t even throw out a guestimate.

  All that my eyes could see, besides the rubble and fire, were torn and bloodied bodies. All women and children. All bitten with the same teeth.

  I knew what Demon gave those marks. Those four, deep holes that hurt going in. Daywalkers. Daywalkers did all of this—killed all those women and children. What kind of sick monster could do something like that?

  The one who I’d already seen slaughtering an entire village was on the top of the list. Crixis. He had to be behind this. There was no possible way he could not be the cause of this mayhem and misery, this chaotic and limb-strewn scene.

  Something directly to my front drew my attention. There laid a woman and a boy, who I assumed was her son. They were just two feet apart, amidst the rocks and rubble. She was nearly missing an arm and had a fresh bite wound on her neck. The boy’s shaven head was splattered with blood, and as the blood ran down his lifeless body, I finally saw the numerous bite marks all along his arms and legs.

  Such a sad scene. What a terrible thing to do to a poor, defenseless boy. It made me both sick and infuriated.

  Golden armored soldiers ran past me, drawing their swords to ready themselves for what they were about to face. My stare locked on them, my eyes following in their direction.

  Four of the golden soldiers surrounded a blood-covered man who wielded double blades. He had a toned back, I could tell, even though it was underneath the blood and dirt. His black hair was knotted and the blood that soaked it was dry. As the golden soldiers took turns lunging at him, he expertly dodged each of their attacks.

  Crixis expertly dodged each of their attacks.

  I hated to be right, but I was right. Crixis was the root of all this. What a fiend.

  I could feel my hatred bubbling. Any time my eyes were on that sick freak, I wanted to shove a stake through his heart. Again and again. Well, a stake or my rose blade, which lately hadn’t gotten its fair usage.

  Who knew how many people this Daywalker killed? Who knew how many other villages he mass-murdered? I didn’t know, but he wouldn’t live long enough to slaughter another, if I had anything to say about it.

  Claire’s small kitchen hit me like a cold slap in the face. The yellow notepad resting on her refrigerator was still without any information, unless you wanted to count half a number sign. But that didn’t really qualify as information.

  “Do you remember your locker number?” Claire put her back against the fridge, enjoying the cool reprieve from the humidity and the heat. “Or your combination?”

  “Um…” I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to focus on what was in front of me and not the vision I just had. That vision, or something like it, was predictable when talking about Crixis. He was the monster who killed Koath. But for now, that would have to get locked in the back of my head until further notice.

  “Yeah,” I said, shaking off the mental image of the boy who had been murdered near his mother.

  When the last of the numbers and teachers’ names had been put down, I handed the pen to Claire and told her, “Thanks again for this.”

  “Oh—” She waved it off. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” I started to turn to, you know, walk away since we were done, but Claire stopped me short by saying, “How is Max?”

  “What?” I was caught off-guard by the question.

  “Max,” she repeated, tugging at the back of her super short blonde hair. “I haven’t seen him since—I know I don’t know all the details, but he must have known him like you did, huh?” Her blue eyes were filled with worry for the red head.

  My head was slow to nod. “Yeah, he did. Why didn’t you just talk to him?”

  “I,” Claire caught herself, “Steven and I thought it’d be best if we were just there for moral support. We didn’t want to make a scene.” A sense of regret came over her. “Steven made me stand back and be quiet. I should have talked to him at least a little. God, what was I thinking?”

  I debated on putting a hand on her shoulder, but then thought against it. “Don’t beat yourself up.”

  Claire nodded in swift agreement. “You’re right.”

  “Well, when you come by to drop my crap off—” She laughed at my bluntness, or possibly the evident hate I have for school. “—you can talk to him then. He’s moving to a house closer to mine, so I’m guessing he’ll be around more.”

  She blinked. “Really?” I could tell her mind was working, wondering how she could be over my house all the time to see him more.

  A teeny, tiny, minuscule, ever so small twitch of a smile crossed my face for a few seconds. She did seem to like Max a lot, and that was good. They would be great together, Gabriel and I were never lying when we said that, but seeing her get all excited about him that easily made me wonder why I never felt that way.

  That made me wonder, did I really like John, or did I like the thought of liking him?

  “I’ll see you there,” I said while walking to her open front door. “And, Claire?” Her eyes were on me, waiting. “You have to tell him that you’re a cougar. Or mountain lion. Maybe going with mountain lion wouldn’t give him any wacky ideas.” Like, for instance, Claire was a cougar: meaning she liked younger men.

  A sad smile came upon her face when she answered, “I will.”

  After waving one last goodbye, I met with Gabriel and Taiton, who waited in silence on her porch. It was a good thing Taiton listened to me when I told him to wait there, otherwise how would I have explained to Claire why he had to follow me everywhere?r />
  On account of the no car situation, it took us twenty minutes to reach the bottom of our driveway after the hike from Claire’s house. And that’s with us cutting across people’s backyards.

  Before today, I never knew how weird it was when you stumbled through some bushes and into a family’s barbeque. Now I did.

  As we began the long trek up the winding driveway, the blonde boy felt it was his duty to talk. “Do you ever talk?” Gabriel spoke to Taiton. When the man didn’t answer him, he turned his blue eyes to me and said, “Wow. It’s like we got a puppy. A big, black, beautiful, bone-crushing puppy. How often can you say your puppy’s the size of a horse?”

  Making sure to not trip on any random rocks, I side glanced at Gabriel. He was practically begging to be punched in the face by Taiton. What an idiot.

  Gabriel’s voice got quiet as he turned to Taiton, “Do you need to use a bigger toilet, or can you fit your ass on the normal ones just fine?”

  “Before you get the crap beat out of you—” I stepped between the ever so talkative one and the absolute silent one. “—I’m going to tell you to stop right there, Gabriel. Don’t keep talking.”

  “You want me to keep talking? Okay. I am a little curious if our puppy the size of a horse in a certain spot—” Gabriel placed a tattooed hand on his chin, rubbing it gently, as if he seriously thought about Taiton’s manhood.

  “Oh, God.” I held my hands over my ears, trying to la-la him out. I couldn’t believe he just went there.

  “What? I just said what we were both thinking” he whispered in my ears when I made the mistake of taking my hands down.

  I shot him a glare, as did Taiton.

  Gabriel was the first in the house, saying, “I hope they’re done getting to know each other again.”

  Stepping up the three steps that were on our deck, I was mere seconds behind him when a movement off to my left caught my eye. I turned my head, noting that the movement was now stationary.

  A small boy no more than ten feet from me, staring at me with teary eyes. I recognized him right away as the boy I saw during the vision, the one who died near his dead mother. His green eyes were bright, and he was missing all the wounds he had in my vision, but there was still something off about him.

  He was pale, dirty and sad. Maybe because he was dead.

  My usual confused face formed when I glimpsed at the open front door for one second before returning it to the boy. But the kid, who must have been five years old at the most, was gone.

  I stood there, unmoving, and wished for the boy to come back.

  Was this going to signify my death? Some innocent boy, welcoming me in my final moments?

  Gabriel appeared at the door, an intense look on his handsome face. “Oh, good. I thought you two turned into stone or something. Well, since your limbs are rock-free, are you going to come in the house?”

  Shaking my head as I walked by him, I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I wanted to strangle that boy.

  Chapter Seven – Cleo

  I enjoyed the hot steam from my recent shower when I heard the doorbell ring. Slight aggravation took hold, because I usually basked in the steam until it was mostly gone. And since I had just stepped out of the shower, it was mostly there.

  Walking hastily past Max’s closed door, I rolled my eyes at the thought of living in Koath’s house, with Max, forever. It was something I wanted to avoid at all costs, and I could only hope that whoever knocked was here to take the kid away.

  It was indescribable how desperately I wanted to move back into my apartment. Alone.

  I opened the door to see Michael and a woman, who by the look of her, was the same woman who called here yesterday asking for directions. What was her name?

  Liz.

  “Michael,” I made the tone of my voice so pleasant I actually forgot it was faked, “so nice to see you’re doing good. Why the sudden visit?” I baited him, wishing he would simply take the boy and go.

  His wiry hands pushed up his glasses before replying, “Elizabeth is here to take Max. I just came here for the ride.” He flicked his brown eyes to hers.

  It was obvious to me what was went on between them. It was also obvious that their ride must have been really good. I could practically feel it in the air. It was nauseating.

  Liz walked into the house, looking around. “It’s good to see you in person, Cleo. And thank you for the directions yesterday. You were our savior. Now, where is Max? I’d like to take him off your hands quickly, so you’ll be free to go home after we leave.” She smiled at me. “And don’t worry, we’ll take care of the house and everything in it. In fact—” She paused, motioning outside. “—provided that you don’t have much to pack up, you can go right now.”

  Was she serious? Could I really leave now? Fantastic.

  Her warm smile was met with a strained one from me as I said, “Let me get my things and I’ll be out of your way.”

  She nodded, saying, “Of course.”

  Faking calmness, I took my time walking up the stairs and into Koath’s room, but once I was in there and the door was shut behind me, I rushed. I had no idea they were going to come this soon. Yes, I wanted Max gone before I even got him, it was true, but I had set up shop in this room, expecting to be in for a while longer.

  I picked up my luggage from the corner of the room and set it on the bed, unzipping it with a quick hand. The flap flew open, revealing another, smaller bag inside it. Taking a breath to ready myself for the packing marathon that was about to take place, I fell to the floor and collected all my ingredients.

  All of the non-breakable, more sturdy things went in the bag first. Pure salt. White lilies. Nightshade flowers. Ginsengs. Mandrake roots. Bowls. Matches. Stirrers. I zipped up the main compartment and opened the side ones, where the more fragile stuff went. A big jar filled with newt eyes. And on the other side went the blood of Vexillion.

  Everything, minus the blood, was for me and my spells. The Vexillion blood was next to impossible to get, and it seemed a little old to boot, but I didn’t ask the dealer how or when he got it. I didn’t need to; I could feel it was him. When the ritual was complete, and the lioness awakened for the first time in thousands of years, she would need to taste him in order to track him.

  At least, that was what I’d been told.

  I set the bag in my luggage and threw my pile of clothes over it, covering the black bag. I closed the luggage and set it on the floor, rolling it after me. When I was safely out of the room, I tossed one look back into the empty room, at his laptop that was tucked under his bed, exactly where I put it.

  It was nothing more than a wiped laptop, reset to its factory setting.

  Chapter Eight – Kass

  Taiton stood with his legs shoulder-length apart and his hands behind his back, without moving. For fifteen minutes straight. Impressive.

  Gabriel and I sat on the couch and tried not to stare at him in awe. We were entranced in his lack of movement for a good while, and I’d admit, we probably looked like creepers.

  Raphael walked in the room, carrying one of the books from Michael’s library. At first he was unaware of the three people in the living room, and his green eyes were glued to a page in the ancient book. It was when he suddenly decided to glance up that he noticed us.

  He looked from me to Taiton, ignoring Gabriel completely. Raphael and Gabriel did not get along; they were at each other’s throats constantly, which I understood. I still wanted to beat the liar up myself.

  “What is going on?” Raphael’s eyes were locked on Taiton. “And who is that?”

  “That’s Taiton—” I explained as he did a short head bow. “—he’s a Council Agent.”

  “He is?” Raphael eyed up the large man. He stayed silent, probably reliving earlier parts of his life. He was the first Purifier, after all. “Interesting. And why—” He turned his gaze upon me once more. “—are you watching him?”

  “I...” My voice quickly trailed off. How was I going to explain why we
were sitting here, on the couch, watching Taiton in total silence? “I don’t know.”

  His fingers tapped the book. “That is a tad bizarre.” Raphael turned his head, revealing the golden chain around his neck and the tips of the black tattoo-like symbol on his back. After sitting on the couch opposite us, he let out a sigh.

  I tore my eyes from him to look at Gabriel. There was an alpha-male tension in the air that I could literally reach out and feel. Raphael slowly brought his own eyes up, meeting Gabriel’s glare with his own. Both men were intimidating in their own way.

  When we were staring at Taiton, we were sitting in silence, but this type of silence was totally different. This absolute silence was filled with things that both boys wanted to say to each other. I wanted to say something to break the mute tension, but thankfully I was interrupted by the opening of the front door.

  Michael was the first one in the house, followed shortly by Liz and Max. She was busy saying “We’ll go get the rest of your belongings tomorrow, while you’re at school.” Her brown eyes flicked to me. “We’ll also collect Koath’s personal property, so you’re free to accompany Michael and I, Kass.”

  I nodded to show her that I was going to come with them. I knew it needed to be done, sooner than later. For some reason, it still came as a shock. When we went through his things, Koath was really gone. Every, single piece of him was going to disappear.

  Gabriel abruptly stood and looked to Michael, who was too entranced at Liz’s long, wavy hair. “Dude. You said dinner will be ready at five. Last time I checked, it was a minute after five. You, my banging Guardian, are late.”

  Liz giggled as she tore her eyes from Michael’s chest, said “That would be my fault,” and insinuated something I hoped was just in my imagination. Judging from Gabriel’s my-mind-went-the-wrong-way-on-that-one expression, I wasn’t wrong.

  “I have an idea.” Michael pushed his glasses up. “Why don’t we go out for dinner? All of us. We can try out that buffet on Coral Street.”

  “Sweet,” Gabriel said under his breath as he ran to the door and held it open. “Let’s go. I’m starving.” His blue eyes fell on me, he was probably wondering why I hadn’t moved an inch.