The Nightwalkers Saga: Books 1 - 7

by Candace Wondrak

  We stood outside of a building, in a cool, dreary city. With my skin turning grey, I hardly felt anything. Hardly heard the cars as they drove past, the people as they walked by, ignoring the three-story building that was nestled near others. Marble steps, stone columns; old architecture.

  The other me said, “There will be a choice in your near future. What happens after will depend on what you do here.” He waited a moment before saying, “Are you ready to see what needs to be done?”

  I nodded.

  In the end, my rage would blind me. And I was fine with that.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Michael

  Still no change in Gabriel’s condition. If he didn’t wake before I finished Kass, the Order would step in. Their doctors were discreet and better able to handle such a condition. The hospital hadn’t even run his blood through a tox-screening. If they had, they would’ve discovered that his coma was not natural in the least, and that, with the levels in his blood, he should have died.

  The Order would surely punish me for my mistake. I knew it, and I wouldn’t try to escape it. If there was one thing I was loyal to, it was the Order.

  That night, Kass stayed in bed, declaring she was sick.

  Liz played the part of a worrying mother well, even though she had told me numerous times that she never wanted kids. She fretted over dinner, telling Kass that if she didn’t feel well come tomorrow, she didn’t have to go to school. They’d all need to be in top shape to sniff out whatever supernatural was stalking the halls.

  I didn’t even know what they were talking about. I was so laser-focused on my mission the last week that I didn’t even say anything.

  Kass didn’t look too good. Her skin was pale, dotted with sweat. Her eyes had bags underneath them. She could barely walk straight.

  She’d probably stay home from school tomorrow, and as Liz took Max, I’d strike.

  Tomorrow, I’d end Kass once and for all.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Kass

  My head felt like stone, like it weighed a thousand pounds. I could barely lift it as my alarm rang. I tried hitting my clock, to shut the thing off, but my vision swayed as I sat up, so I just decided to yank the stupid thing out of the wall and throw it halfway across the room.

  Not an overreaction, right?

  A headache coursed through me, and I struggled to get to my feet. I wasn’t going to stay home today. I was going to school, and by God, I was going to catch that Skinwalker and make it wish it never came to this town.

  Last night, Liz explained how to purify it, should I encounter it. Whoever it crawled inside of was a goner. They were unable to be saved. If the Skinwalker had remained in the same body this whole time, the insides of the human were almost all gone by now. If this was anybody else’s life but mine, I would’ve asked what would happen if the Skinwalker had already jumped ship into another body that wouldn’t be at the school.

  But I knew better, because this was my life and odds were, I’d stumble across the thing when I was least expecting it. That’s how my life seemed to go.

  Long and gruesome story short, I had to catch the Skinwalker body suit-less. And, if it wouldn’t crawl out on its own, I had to beat its human body so bad that it couldn’t linger inside it.

  I was fit for that, wasn’t I?

  My feet drawing along the floor, I found an outfit in my closet and scurried as best I could to the bathroom. The first thing I did was open the medicine cabinet and find some anti-migraine pills, caffeine and other goodness loaded in those white things. I popped two of them, putting a hand under the running faucet and cupping some water. I brought it to my face and gulped it down, pills and all. I brushed my teeth, ran a comb through my rat’s nest of a head, threw on my clothes after applying some deodorant, and was out the door in less than five minutes.

  I did everything I could not to think about what Crixis told me yesterday. Me, loving Gabriel romantically? What a joke. Sure, I might’ve made out with him in the other world, but that was…that wasn’t the same. It wasn’t the same Gabriel. It was a fluke.

  Right?

  The more I thought about it, the more unsure I became, so I decided to just push it from my mind, for it didn’t matter too much anyways. Gabriel wasn’t here, and odds weren’t too good that he’d rejoin me anytime soon.

  At the top of the stairs, I paused to inhale, to calm my nerves and ready myself to pretend that I was fine.

  And then I went down.

  Liz and Max were in the kitchen, discussing the day’s plans. Neither one of them expected me to come down, apparently, nor did Michael, who walked in from the living room with a cup of tea in his hands.

  “Kass,” Michael spoke, his English accent thick, “you should be sleeping.”

  “No,” I said, standing tall and firm. “I’m fine. I’m going.”

  Liz moved closer, setting a hand on my back, comforting me as she said, “Max and I can handle it. Plus, there are other Council agents stationed at the school. Together, we’ll figure it out. I don’t want you to be put into danger when you’re not feeling one hundred percent.”

  I moved away from her, grabbing my backpack. For once, my stomach wasn’t hungry. It felt…bad, and eating was the last thing I wanted to do. I slipped on my shoes. “I’ll be in the car.” And then I left them, waiting not-so-patiently to be driven to school.

  Skinwalker, here I come.

  The ride to school was torturous. Every little bump in the road and my stomach threatened to heave. But if there’s one thing Michael and Koath always said I was, it was stubborn. And I was dead set on finding this Skinwalker.

  As Liz pulled into the parking lot and we all got out of the car, I happened to glance at Max, remembering that I never went to him yesterday to ask about his date with Claire. I made a mental note to do it as soon as the Skinwalker was taken care of. Then I could help Claire with her disappointment and Max with his over-enthusiasm.

  Ironically, that morning I managed to unlock my locker without messing up once. Funny, how when I felt like utter crap, I was able to do some things better than I did when I felt normal. I grabbed the textbooks of my first few classes and went to work.

  My headache was mostly gone, but the sick feeling in my stomach remained. Plus, I felt a little chilly, which was an odd thing to say in this humid, hot Carolinian air. The school was air conditioned, of course, but my skin was colder. I should’ve worn a hoodie.

  As I went to class, walked through the halls and as I sat in class, I studied everyone, even the teachers. I was alert as I could be, given the situation. I watched for their mannerisms, waited for anyone to start acting a little weird, but for the first three periods, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

  I went to physics, heading straight for the backroom, where Claire and I spent our time ‘tutoring.’ At one point, she actually did teach me, but now, we often spent the time chatting about stupid things. Like Max.

  After setting my books down and coming to the idea of the Skinwalker being inside Mr. Straum (I wasn’t a fan of him, anyway), the man himself poked his head through the door. “Class and I’ll be outside testing the trebuchets.” His beady eyes didn’t see the second person of our duo, so he asked, “Is Claire here today?”

  “Yeah, I think so.” I set a hand on my chin.

  “All right. Well, if she doesn’t show up, feel free to come outside and watch. Maybe you’ll actually learn something.” The way he said the last bit, as a fun little joke, made me roll my eyes, because I didn’t need to learn anything from this class. From any class, really.

  I nodded, which was enough to get him to leave me alone. Leaning back in the chair, I closed my eyes. Going through the school day, on constant alert, had to have been the most difficult thing I’d done in a long time. I set a hand on my stomach, feeling the sudden urge to vomit, and I sluggishly sat straight and opened my eyes, glancing to the clock.

  It’d been fifteen minutes, and Claire still wasn’t here.

  Claire was never
late.

  I stood and went to the hall. It was empty and eerie, and I knew I should’ve at least faked a hall pass, but there wasn’t time. The urge to throw up subsided, and the need to find Claire took its place. I passed the guidance office as I wove my way through the halls, seeking Claire’s locker. Once I found it, my feet stumbled to a halt.

  Liz and the new, well-built principal were talking in front of it. It’s metal door hanging ajar, wide open, books on the floor around it. Liz spotted me instantly, motioning for me to come near. “Kass, there’s been a development, and I’m afraid—”

  “No,” I cut in, whispering, “it’s not Claire.”

  “Well it’s not looking good,” the principal spoke. “Another student reported her locker like this a few minutes ago. Her car’s not in the parking lot, but she’s not showing as absent. She was here today, but now no one can find her.”

  We all quieted as another student walked by. When we were once more alone, I said, “Excuse me from class. I know where she lives. I can check there.” Not sure if I could walk there, but I’d do my best.

  With a heavy sigh, the principal nodded. “Go.”

  “Let me get my things.” I met Liz’s amber eyes, and for a moment, something wordless passed between us. She thought Claire was the Skinwalker. She wasn’t. There was no way. This was just some huge misunderstanding. I spent way too much with Claire the last week. I would’ve known if something was off about her.

  Liz said nothing as I spun and returned to physics, to the teacher’s nook where my books were. I grabbed them, stuffed them in my locker, and walked out a nearby side door. I headed toward the road along the school’s exit lanes when I froze.

  Claire’s car, idling, at the stop sign.

  I sprinted to it, which, after doing it and nearly doubling over by the time I reached the car, wasn’t the best thing to do. I felt terrible. It’d been a while since I was sick, it was true. This did not feel like an ordinary sickness.

  It felt like I was dying.

  The driver’s seat of the car was empty, as was the rest of it. I reached for the door when a wave of nausea overtook me, and I tripped, falling against the car just as someone crept up behind me.

  A cloth over my mouth, and then…

  And then nothing.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Kass

  My hands bound. My ankles tied to a chair. My head lolled back, eyes closed. If I felt like I was dying before, I felt deader than dead now. I guessed I shouldn’t have gone to school after all, because on a good day, no one could sneak up on me, except maybe Crixis.

  Hindsight’s twenty-twenty, wasn’t it?

  “What is she?” a low, male voice spoke, and a frightened one answered it.

  “I told you, I don’t know.”

  I would’ve sighed with relief, because I recognized that second scared voice. Claire. She wasn’t the Skinwalker. Thank God I didn’t have to purify one of my only friends. I tried to open my eyes, and they were so terribly slow at moving upwards. What I saw I did not like.

  A room that, at one point in the past, was mostly white tile. It still had the tile, but most of it was coated in thick, red, coagulated blood. A few steel machines were scattered around, their stainless surface smudged with bloody handprints. A metal table sat in front of me, the middle object drawing my gaze: a scalpel.

  Beside me, Claire sat, tied to an old kitchen chair, her lip bruised and her eye swollen. Zip ties were the Skinwalker’s choice of restraints for the both of us.

  “This,” I spoke, coughing, “is exactly what I always imagined a serial killer’s basement to look like.” As I coughed, I felt liquid in the back of my throat. Was it because of whatever cloth he put over my mouth to knock me out? Was I chloroformed?

  I couldn’t see anyone else in the room, though there was a dark shadow under the staircase that led up. It wasn’t much of a guess to say that the Skinwalker hid under there, waiting for the right moment to come out and say ta-da.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I egged our captor on. I wasn’t in the best of shape to purify anything, but I’d rather go down swinging than just sitting here waiting to die. Although, maybe I should let the Skinwalker know that me and death didn’t get along too well.

  “The bird mocks me,” the male voice said, and within a second, a third figure appeared in the room, walking out from underneath the stairs. It was a young face, one I knew well enough. A cute face. Shaggy black hair, bright and shiny teeth, lips that sort of reminded me of John. The boy who’d asked about me cheering him on at a basketball game.

  “What was your name again?” My voice wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be. It came out kind of gurgly. I coughed again. “Sorry, I’m not feeling too good today. You’ll have to excuse me.”

  “You remember my name,” he said, standing before us.

  I did. Of course I did.

  Seth.

  “It’s not your name,” I said.

  “No, I suppose it’s not. But I like it. It makes me feel young.”

  “And how old are you?”

  The Skinwalker smirked under Seth’s skin. “Asking me questions to see how good you’re tied up? Don’t bother. You won’t escape.”

  “I’ve escaped worse.” Another cough. This time, my head bent and some of the liquid in the back of my throat came up. My gaze sharpened on my lap, where splatters of bright red sat, all over my jeans.

  Was that…blood?

  The Skinwalker leaned closer, inspecting. “Ah, such a shame. You’re sick.” Before I knew what it was doing, a rough hand grabbed my face, harshly tilting it so that I stared straight into his eyes. They were cloudier than they should’ve been. “I was hoping to get inside of you and save your Morpher friend for later, but it looks like I’ll have to make do with her.” He let me go and wandered to the table with the small, precise cutting tools.

  Was that how the Skinwalker jumped from body to body? It cut them open like that? What about the pre-modern times, when there was no such thing as a scalpel?

  Grisly thoughts of him dragging another student to the bathroom on the side of the school no one used entered my mind, of the Skinwalker cutting into him as Seth tried to scream.

  As it grabbed the scalpel, Claire shook. It took all my energy to swivel my head around ask ask, “Why can’t you morph?”

  “He knocked me out in the school, and when I woke up here, he stuck me with something. It’s like it’s locked away. I just…can’t.” Claire’s blue eyes widened when she saw him pick up another injection after setting the scalpel down.

  “Don’t worry, kitty, this isn’t for you.” The Skinwalker flicked the needle, its liquid clear, as he squirted a bit out. He held it in front of me. “It’s for you.” He knelt before me, his other hand on my knee, squeezing it, touching me like he knew me. “I should thank the Council, for this.”

  Then I remembered: Taiton had a similar needle when he was here to fight Crixis and bring him in. Was this from Taiton’s stash? Did the injection nullify every supernatural’s power? And why…why was he going to inject me with it?

  “I’m not a supernatural,” I said, meeting Seth’s eyes.

  A sick smile grew on his lips. “You’re not a good liar, Kass.” Right. He knew me because he had Seth’s memories. He’d taken them the moment he took Seth’s body. “You are. I can sense it.” His head bent toward Claire. “She can sense it.”

  “No,” I stated, weakly tugging at my restraints. “I’m not.”

  I was a lot of things. Daughter, friend, charge, Purifier—but I was not a supernatural. I was not the kid of an Angel. My mother was just a normal woman who…faded into light and came to me offering advice I was free to take or leave as it was.

  “I’m just a Purifier.”

  The Skinwalker frowned. “Still, I’ll take no chances. If there’s anything I’ve learned in the last few decades, it’s about laying low. Though, I must admit—” He stuck the needle into my neck and injected me with each drop of it wi
thout warning. “—lately I haven’t been doing such a good job, and I think that’s because of you. You make me…” A finger ran along my jaw, down my neck, over the bruised area where he’d injected me. “…feel things.”

  I made him feel things? All right, maybe I was something, because I certainly wasn’t pretty enough to warrant half of the attention I got from John and everyone else. How did Claire and Crixis describe it? I was like a fire, like a magnet or a battery or whatever. They were drawn to me, because…

  Because I was the daughter of an Angel?

  “Don’t touch her,” Claire hissed, sounding like me on a normal day. “You want me, let’s just get it over with already.” Her tough act didn’t last long, for he moved to her side, grabbing her jaw, covering her mouth with one hand.

  “Hush, Morpher. It will be over for you soon enough. First, I plan to have a little taste test.” His eyes, glimmering with ill intent, looked to me. “I have to know if she’s worth keeping alive.”

  Keeping me alive so I can be a living blood bag? Uh, no thanks.

  I muttered, “I didn’t know Skinwalkers drank blood.” Truthfully, I didn’t know much about them at all, save for the basics and how to purify one. With my hands tied like this, and my energy waning, I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to.

  “Oh, we’re not like Vampires. Some of them only drink blood, others will eat the flesh, too.” The Skinwalker shrugged, talking as if it were no big deal, like he was talking about the weather instead of eating someone, “So picky. My kind make a meal out of it all. Blood, skin, muscles, organs, bones. It’s all so good.”

  “It’s a good thing the Council wiped most of you out, then, isn’t it?”

  The Skinwalker backhanded me, right across the cheek. The wind was knocked out of me, stars in my field of view. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d been backhanded like that. Such a pathetic, wussy move. “You speak of your Council as if you know them. Your precious Council campaigns for the genocide of all Demonkind, even your Morpher friend.” His fingers entwined with my hair, and he roughly pulled my head back, exposing my neck. “Tell me, Kass, would you purify your friend if your Council demanded it? Because make no mistake, they would and they will.”