The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  Clearly, at least one was missed. I couldn’t help but wonder if any of the other Demons on their extinction list were also alive and thriving. If there’s one Skinwalker, there might have been others.

  There were quadruple the amount of Council Agents here, after the ordeal with Crixis and Koath. They assimilated into the town, taking jobs like the second shift janitor at the high school and the principal’s position. I could admit, I couldn’t get rid of the position fast enough. Being the principal in this city was like asking for trouble.

  I should do something, I decided, since the wait for the Skinwalker wasn’t going anywhere. If there hadn’t been any new bodies found, odds were that the Skinwalker was still in the body it jumped into. It was probably another student.

  I stood. I needed to get out of this town. I loved Michael, but I knew I couldn’t stay here. It was too much. I missed my desk and my paperwork, my orderliness and organization.

  That’s what I could do. I could clean.

  Within fifteen minutes, the kitchen was spotless, and I was aching for more to do. Michael never seemed to make his bed or dust his furniture, so I grabbed the duster and the Pledge and made my way to the stairs. I was only five stairs up when I overheard Claire and Max.

  “There’s a bookstore in the square,” Max said. “Have you ever been to it?”

  “Yeah. A few times. They don’t really have any new releases, but they have a lot of older books that you can’t find anywhere else,” Claire said.

  I leaned against the wall, clutching my cleaning supplies to my chest, needing to hear how this went. The girl was a Demon, but Morphers were one of the lowest on the Council’s radar. They usually kept to themselves and didn’t cause problems.

  Though, if the Council had their way, earth wouldn’t have any Demons, and that made me stumble, too, now. Claire wasn’t a bad person. She was athletic, smart, and nice. I knew Max would be in good hands if they became a couple.

  Maybe I just needed to hear some happy news amongst all that went on around here.

  “Would you…I mean, do you want to go tonight?” Max stumbled over his words a bit, but he got it out there. I could imagine his face: flushed, red, eyes darting beneath his glasses. He’s a sweet kid.

  It was a few seconds until Claire whispered a surprised, “Yes. I’d love to. I love books.”

  “Me too.”

  As they went back and forth, I smiled to myself and resumed walking up the stairs as quietly as I could. Didn’t want the kids knowing I was eavesdropping on their conversation. Max would tell me soon enough. I doubt he’d ever went on a date before. Guardians were instructed to tell their charges that dating was off-limits, but it was more of a guideline than a rule. After all, they were teenagers. They had the worst hormones of them all.

  As long as it didn’t interfere with his duties, I was completely fine with Max dating, even if he was dating a Morpher, something I wouldn’t have thought weeks ago.

  I went straight to Michael’s room, setting the spray and duster down before tugging the sheets and making the bed. I mechanically went through his room, dusting off his nightstand and dresser, deciding the wooden floors also need to be swept. My feet take me to the closet, and I start picking up the clothes he’d thrown on the floor. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was a child, with his living habits.

  I guessed I could forgive him, though, with what was happening with Gabriel.

  My arms were full of clothes by the time I noticed an engraved chest on the floor in the closet. A deja vu moment swept over me, and I recalled finding Koath’s computer tucked away in this same room. When I asked him about it, he said he was trying to restore the laptop for Kass.

  Its design triggered something in me, and I fell to my knees, carefully setting the pile of clothes to the side as I crawled closer to the chest. I pulled it out, into the daylight, running a hand over its design.

  A cross, but each side was the same length.

  “Where have I seen you before?” I muttered, fingers drawing down its front, finding a metal lock firmly keeping it closed. My brows came together. What would Michael need with a locked chest? It wasn’t like Kass and Gabriel were the type to snoop, and they were handier around weapons than Michael was.

  Waves of confusion erupted in my stomach, and I quickly pushed the chest back in the closet and hurriedly picked up the clothes. I’d do my best not to think about it. I trusted Michael. I’d known him for years. Whatever he had locked in that chest, he must have had a reason.

  I was about to leave the room to start a load of laundry when I nearly smacked right into Max. He pushed up his glasses as he readjusted himself, and I asked, “Did Claire leave?”

  He nodded.

  I waited for him to say more, because I knew there was more. Because I was so darned nosy.

  A minute passed before he said in a rush, “I think I have a date tonight. She said she’s picking me up at eight.” Beneath his huge glasses, his eyes were wide. “What do I wear? Does Michael have cologne I could use? I hate contacts, but I do have a pair. Should I—”

  I would set a hand on his shoulder, but my hands were full with clothes. I simply said, “Max. Just breathe. You’ll be fine. You hang out with Claire all the time, right? You wear what you normally wear. There’s no need for you to put contacts in. And as for Michael’s cologne, you definitely don’t need to wear cologne.” I gave him my best smile. “Everything will be fine. I promise.”

  I promise? I couldn’t promise such a thing.

  I couldn’t make any promises. It’s why I never promised Michael that I’d stay. This time, he knew enough to not ask me it. Last time, though, he didn’t know it, and when he asked me, I hated the look on his face when I told him that I’d never leave my position for a man.

  The Council was my life, even if I occasionally doubted them.

  Chapter Twenty-One – Crixis

  The gall.

  The audacity.

  The hard-headedness.

  I still couldn’t believe Kass told me I was weak for choosing to not think about them. It was so long ago—what would she know about it? She might see things in her visions, but she did not know them. She didn’t feel their loss inside her bones. They were not her burdens to bear.

  They were mine.

  I lived my life how I wanted. I killed when I wanted. They…they would not recognize me today, civilization and modern advances aside. I was not the father they knew, nor the husband they knew. I wasn’t even the same fighter. I reveled in blood and mayhem. I tortured and maimed just because. They would not recognize me, because I was not a man. I was a Demon, a monster, wearing the face of a man they once knew.

  Kass had no idea how time could change you. She was still so young. Until the day she outlived everyone she knew, until the day she saw the rise and fall of entire civilizations and watched societies grow and decay, she’d never understand. It was incomprehensible, unless you lived through it.

  I read through the classic tale of a black horse and a boy caught on an island, pausing to glance up at her every now and then. It wasn’t long before her arms started to shake and her expression darkened. It would be next to impossible for her to last as long as she did yesterday, I knew, but I wanted to push her as far as she could go.

  There was a time not so long ago when I wanted to break her. Now—what was I? The new and improved Raphael? I guarded the girl, in hopes that when he woke, he didn’t decide to kill me? Was that what I was reduced to in the face of a soul as old and powerful as Gabriel’s?

  Gabriel.

  That might’ve been his name, but it was not his original name. He was as old as the rest of them, his soul older than mine, older than Vexillion. He was capable of much bigger destruction than me. I’d like to think that I rather enjoyed the world. I didn’t want it to end. Without the world, there was no fun, no food. Nothing. What kind of creature would want to destroy existence itself?

  The boy might’ve started out as human. Perhaps he was
a normal boy who just was unlucky enough to get to house an ancient soul. Maybe he didn’t have parents. Maybe the man upstairs just sent him to earth for another chance. That was ridiculous in and of itself, because not everyone deserved a second chance. He didn’t.

  I didn’t.

  I didn’t want one.

  I didn’t need one. Second chances were useless. They couldn’t change anything. What was done was done and there was no going back, second chance or not. The past was one thing that could not be changed.

  When Kass’s arms finally gave out, and she tumbled to the attic floor, I closed my book and got to my feet. I’d barely set the book down before I barreled toward her, faster than a human, but slower than my Vampiric speed. And we fought.

  Well, mostly I fought. She did a lot of dodging and rolling, due to the small fact that she could barely hold her arms up. And when she did—each time, I couldn’t help it, I laughed. It was an amusing sight, seeing her so worn-out from such a simple task.

  It made the fighting boring.

  I let her catch her breath, saying snidely, “What is with you? So tired already?”

  Kass straightened her back, staring hard at the wall next to her. She frowned, shaking her head. “I…I don’t know. I’m just worn out, I guess.” She made a disgusted face at herself, like she was disappointed in herself.

  I couldn’t blame her. We’d barely started fighting.

  “I need water. Fetch me some, David.” She waved her hand dismissively.

  I bared my teeth but played the part. When I came back with a bottle of cool water, I tossed it at her; she barely caught it. “Your reaction time needs work.”

  Kass sent me a glare before swigging half the bottle down. “Tell me about my mother.” She slouched against a beam, sliding to sit. “I’ve seen her, in some of my visions. Before Sephira, she kept telling me I was going to die.” She chuckled, though her mirth was far from genuine. “It got old.”

  I moved to the lone window in the attic, staring out at the street, at her house across the way.

  “I also had a vision where I came into a room full of blood, and you were there. You told me she poofed away.”

  I smiled to myself, for I didn’t recall it happening quite like that.

  She stood at the window, a full-length, floor-to-ceiling window that she could see her entire backyard from. It was a sunny day outside, rare, for a New England spring day. She wore a sundress, no shoes, her hair wrapped in a swirling braid on her head, a flower sticking out of its brown tresses.

  The husband was at work—for the Council, no less, finding more children they could use as Purifiers, while his daughter played downstairs.

  She was beautiful. She wasn’t a model, but there was an air about her that drew me in. Something that radiated from her, made me curious, made me want to tear into her.

  She moved a hand to the window, and even though I made no noise, she whispered, “I knew you’d come.” She turned her head to me, giving me a smile, and I froze momentarily, stunned as to how she knew I’d come, and why she smiled in the face of death.

  For that’s what I was: death on two legs.

  “I know why you’re here. It’s time.”

  I cocked my head. Behind me, the door was closed. No one would interrupt us. After I finished her, I’d finish the girl downstairs. And when the Councilman came home, I’d kill him, too. “You seem to know a lot of things.”

  Her light green eyes studied me, as if she were sizing me up. “I know many things. What was, what is, and what will be. It’s why I prepared them for this day. It’s one of my gifts.”

  Smirking, I asked, “And what other gifts do you have?”

  She gave me another smile. Unlike mine, hers held no ill-will, no contempt. “You’re about to see for yourself. They’re coming back.”

  I had no idea just what she was talking about.

  She took her hand from the window, gazing at the sunspots dotting her pale flesh. Flesh that I would so easily and so very soon tear into. “Miraculous what this world does to the body.”

  “I wouldn’t know. My body stays the same.”

  “Yes, and it will for a while, yet.” Almost instantly, the woman buckled, tensing up. “If you repent, He will forgive you,” she spoke through the pain of…what? What was happening to her?

  “I do not seek repentance. I do not care for forgiveness.” Venom dripped from my words, their strength making her grimace.

  Through whatever was happening to her, she moved closer. A light shone around her, startling me, dazing me. She reached out, confident, gently touching my cheek. A gesture no one had made in…I couldn’t even recall. “You have done terrible things. You will do more before your heart changes.”

  “My heart will never change,” I spat, unable to move from her hand. So soft, so…unearthly.

  “It will.” The woman’s hand slid off my cheek as she collapsed on the floor. She crawled to the window, wanting to see the sun once more. “She’ll…” Her voice halted, and various sounds of bones cracking took its place. A swirl of light engulfed the woman, and in a blast, a wave of invisible energy, blood splattered all over the room, even on me.

  What was this?

  I covered my eyes until the light dimmed, until I saw a floating being before me, her skin without moles or wrinkles or sunspots. Her hair floated, too, moving as if it were in water, the strands swaying together, no longer in a braid. She wore a white gown, something bright above her head.

  “Goodbye, Crixis. Do not forget His healing light—”

  As she spoke, I flashed to her…or, rather, through her. By the time I got there, she was gone, and I stood, hands against the window, the floor below me covered with blood, her old dress, and her wedding ring.

  I didn’t know how long I stood there, fuming, hating that she somehow got the better of me, wondering just what she was. Nothing I’d ever seen before, and I’d seen a lot. The way the light shone around her, her magnetism, the pure radiance…

  The sound of a door creaking open caused me to whirl around, eyes red, teeth bare. It was the girl from downstairs. She was excited to show her mother something, but she stopped the moment she saw me.

  This girl…was she like her mother?

  Big, innocent hazel eyes, fluffy brown hair, chubby face that hadn’t quite yet matured. It was a stretch.

  “Mommy,” she cried, tearing up as she saw the blood.

  I flashed before her, startling her, grabbing her shoulders so she would not run. “Your mother is fine,” I compelled the child, “she had to leave.”

  “Will she come back?”

  I shook my head solemnly, saying, “No. She won’t come back. It’s just you now. Forget your mother. Forget your father. Forget it all.” Her eyes, wide and pliant, nodded along in her head. I smelled her. “Don’t remember.”

  Just like her mother.

  I smiled. Oh, yes. I’d be back for her. I’d wait a few years until she grew up—it was always more fun when they were older. Plus, I was never a fan of killing children. Something about it didn’t sit right with me.

  I flashed outside, far enough that the husband and father wouldn’t see me, but close enough that I’d hear what went on in the house after he got home. It was a little after five when he arrived. When he stepped into the house and found his wife wasn’t waiting for him, found the toys left in the living room floor, he ran up the stairs, shouting for them.

  Oh, the sounds he made when he came upon the room and the blood, when he hugged his daughter close and asked if she was all right. Kassie, her name was. I couldn’t stop the laughter from coming when she pulled away from him and asked, “Who are you?”

  Yes, there was nothing better. I wished I could’ve been in the room to see his face.

  The plans I had for her. I’d wait, and then I’d come back and do to her what I wanted to do to her mother.

  Devour her.

  That was the plan.

  Now that I was here, I realized that things hadn’
t quite gone according to plan at all. Every attempt on Kass’s life had been met by the pathetic squad, and she’d somehow been spared. At first, I was just having fun. And then, then I needed to kill her. I wanted her to pay for escaping me. That’s why I killed Koath.

  Seemed like a stupid reason, now.

  I wanted to kill her, and then feed on her. I wanted to gain whatever powers she had, whatever strengths and skills she had inherited from her mother. To use Vexillion’s powers of assimilation, I had to drink more than a drop. I needed all of it.

  And then, somehow, Sephira killed her, I learned that Gabriel was no mere boy, and Kass…the alluring quality of her mother was amplified in her. It drew lesser and greater Demons alike to her. She was a calling card for them, a beacon in a rough, stormy sea.

  What was she?

  “More or less, that’s what happened,” I eventually told her, not wanting to rehash the details, especially since she was still upset about Koath. I couldn’t blame her for it. His death was not something I was proud of, but it was there.

  “More or less?” Kass echoed, shooting me a dirty look. “What does that mean?”

  “It means what it means.” I sighed. “Your mother was…not human. I was—” I shook my head, incredulous at myself for admitting it to her. “—hunting her, for a while.”

  “Hunting?” Kass stood, finished with her water bottle. “You were hunting my mother?”

  “I could feel her presence from miles away, and I’m sure other Demons did, too. She was more than human. She had to be. I wanted to—”

  “Trust me,” she cut in, “I know what you wanted to do.”

  “But I didn’t. She beat me to it. She knew I was coming, and by the time I found her, she started…” I trailed off, unsure how to explain it. “She started to change.”

  Kass stared at me for a while before asking, “Change into what?”

  “Into her true form. When I found her, she had freckles and sunspots and a few wrinkles around her eyes. After she changed, she didn’t have any of that. It was like she was born anew. She floated, had this shining light around her, like…like she was a—”