Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “What?” I stood up. Another stupid joke?

  “Is your jetlag affecting your hearing? I said—”

  I held up a hand. I couldn’t believe he was going to repeat himself. This wasn’t going to happen. In a flash I was running down the stairs, yelling to Michael, “Why do I have to share a bathroom with him?”

  Michael looked up from cutting the meatloaf that was for dinner. “Um, because you’re not using mine?” A big house like this with only two bathrooms? Seemed a little ridiculous.

  “But,” I looked towards the stairs, where Gabriel appeared, grinning. “I’m a girl, and he’s a guy.” Way to point out the obvious, Kass, I told myself. Way to go. Points for originality.

  “Believe it or not, I am aware of the bodily differences between you two.”

  Stamping my foot, I cut in, “And he’s gross.” More points for sounding like a two-year old.

  “Whoa, I think I have to step in here, Kass.” Gabriel sat at the kitchen table and folded his napkin. Michael set the meatloaf down and took his place. It’d be gone faster than you can blink.

  Reluctantly, I took to my seat next to Gabriel.

  “I’m actually very hygienic. My breath is minty fresh and I make sure my teeth sparkle. And I always have a case of white Tic-Tacs in my pocket.” The blonde chose his slice of meat and placed it on his plate. “Well,” he thought for a moment, “that, or peppermint Altoids.”

  “And I wonder why that is,” I stated, rolling my eyes.

  Gabriel defended himself while getting some mashed potatoes, “You never know when they’ll come in handy.”

  “Tool,” I muttered. It was the truth. Even Michael knew it, though he pretended not to.

  “Hey, got to get practice in before I meet the one.” Gabriel’s expression was serious, but he couldn’t hold it for long. Soon he laughed, and I couldn’t help but join him. As if he’d ever settle down…like he’d live that long.

  Gabriel and I were both destined to die young. Welcome to being a Purifier.

  My peaceful sleep was disturbed by a noise. Harsh, jarring, ear-splitting. When I finally came to, I realized that god-awful noise actually came from my alarm clock. Stupid thing. Moaning as I tossed the warm covers off of me, I slammed the button.

  Today was going to be horrible. I was going to school. High school.

  Even though I already learned everything that was taught in schools, and then some. Purifiers weren’t just weapons in human form. We were homeschooled as well.

  Last night at dinner, Michael had told us that this town was filled with Demons, the reason we moved here. And then he proceeded to tell us that we needed to look like we fit in, to get an inside look at everything.

  To do that, apparently, Gabriel and I needed to go to high school.

  Gabriel was fine with it, even joked about all the girls he would get. I, on the other hand, was not happy one bit. In fact, I think I swore, ran upstairs into my room, and promptly fell asleep with a frown on my face.

  And here I was, woken by an alarm I didn’t even set.

  Dragging my feet to my dresser, I yanked out some clothes. Dark blue jeans, a black V-neck and my boots. If it was twenty degrees cooler, I’d pull out my leather jacket.

  I walked to the bathroom. The door was locked. My ears heard the shower going.

  I hit my head against the wall. Sharing a bathroom with Gabriel sucked, and it was only day one. I’d get used to it, eventually. Today was not that day.

  Snapping out of my misery, I banged on the door after I heard the shower stop. “Gabriel, hurry up. I need to get ready, too.” My hand was seconds away from hitting the door again when it opened.

  And I saw a sight I did not ever need to see. Gabriel, in a towel.

  Some girls would kill to see what I saw right now. He worked really hard on his body, I’d give him that. His muscles would make any female swoon and his tattoos would allure girls from every clique. He wouldn’t hesitate to show any girl who asked to see it.

  I glared up at him. “Are you done primping, Prima Donna?”

  Gabriel pretended to be grossly offended by my name-calling. “I took a shower, and then you rudely interrupted me. I am going to be the nice one, as usual, and give you the bathroom.”

  “Why?” I tilted my head. Gabriel was never nice to me, unless he had ulterior motives.

  “Can’t I just offer to do something for you, my dear raccoon?” He folded his arms across his chest, covering the Celtic cross tattoo on his pectorals.

  “Hmm.” I set my clothes down on the counter and put toothpaste on my toothbrush. Before putting it in my mouth, I asked, “And raccoon?”

  Gabriel walked in and hung his towel on the rack. He was fully dressed. How he got changed that fast, I’d never know.

  “Yeah, you’re not a morning person, Kass.” He grabbed his toothbrush.

  “So?” I asked after I spit.

  “Would you rather me call you my dear opossum?”

  “No,” I spit again. “They’re hideous.”

  After doing a quick once-over of his teeth, he spit into the sink and said, “Exactly. See, I was thinking of you all along.”

  “Right. And why do I not believe you?” I replied while pushing him out of the bathroom.

  “Let’s see…” He tapped his chin, like it was a real head-scratcher. “Oh, I don’t know. You have trust issues?” He threw a grin my way before disappearing from my view.

  I shook my head at him because, well, because I wasn’t about to agree that it was true.

  But just when I thought I had the bathroom all to myself, Gabriel strolled back in, covering his eyes like he thought I was stupid enough to change with the door wide open. “I’m not trying to invade your personal space, I just need my styling—”

  I threw the container of hair gel at his face.

  Catching it with one hand like a pro, he ran his free fingers through his wet hair. “Girls love the hair.” With a smile and a wink, he sauntered away.

  “What a loser,” I said.

  It was a short while until I heard him say “Heard that” from the safety of his bedroom walls.

  Well, yeah. That was the point of saying it so loud.

  “You two look ready to go,” Michael stated after making sure we looked like normal high school students and not two teenagers who could use a pencil to purify a Nightwalker. He looked remarkably well put together even though the sun was just starting to rise.

  I had dressed as quickly as I could and threw some makeup on. Gabriel wore jeans, and his broad chest was covered by a snug black shirt. He also took the liberty to spike his hair into a small faux hawk, because that was what girls loved.

  Who ever knew that I wasn’t a girl because I didn’t love it?

  Michael handed us each a brown paper bag, holding a cup of tea in his other hand.

  I looked inside it, stomach dropping. “A lunch?”

  “What?” Gabriel peeked inside his as he frowned.

  Michael walked us out and down the long, winding driveway. It took us a few minutes to reach the side of the road.

  “Last time I checked, the cool people don’t bring their lunches,” Gabriel spoke slyly while staring down at Michael. A big, yellow bus stopped in front of the driveway. The blonde frowned as he muttered, “Or ride the bus.”

  “And how would you know?” Michael asked, eyebrows risen.

  He looked at Michael like he was crazy for not knowing. “I’ve seen my fair share of teenage movies, Michael. I do know things, as shocking as that might be.”

  Michael acted like he was going to—shudder—hug us, in front of all the kids who were already on the bus, but Gabriel quickly cut him off by telling him, “Bye” and dragging me to the bus’s open doors.

  “Don’t worry, Kass, in a week all the cool people will be clamoring to ride this yellow love machine,” Gabriel told me.

  Shrugging him off, I walked till I found an empty seat. “Oh, that’s comforting.”

  “That’s wha
t I’m here for. Sorry, Kass,” the blonde boy spoke as he kept moving, “but there’s a lonely redhead in the back who is practically screaming my name.”

  I silently watched him go. He didn’t even give me a second glance. He abandoned me for a pretty girl already. I wasn’t jealous, of course, because it was Gabriel. He was like my brother. Those feelings didn’t exist inside of me.

  The trees rolled by, the bus picked up more kids, and within the hour we pulled into the high school’s parking lot. The place was huge, and the teenagers…well, there were many. Way too many. It was like Disneyland.

  My hands shook as I stepped off the bus. For someone who’d seen as much as I had, faced death on an almost nightly basis like me, I was strangely nervous for something that was so normal to regular kids. I took a few steps forward and looked back to see that Gabriel had his arm around the redhead. She looked happy. If only she knew what his real intentions were, that smile would fall off her face faster than gravity would allow.

  Letting out a sigh, I made my way through the populated entryway and into the office as Gabriel followed the girl to her locker. He was busy saying something, and she laughed. I thought about waiting for him, but he clearly was busy.

  Inside the office, the plump secretary’s brown eyes landed on me. “What do you need, dear?”

  I clutched my black backpack harder. People being nice always made me uncomfortable. Call me weird. “Yeah. I’m Kassandra Niles. I just transferred here.”

  “Oh!” She jumped into a standing position. “Wonderful! Welcome, welcome.” She walked around her desk and shook my hand. “I’m Mrs. McCafferty. If you have any problems today, or just need a teeny break, come see me. Principal Wilkes has your schedule and a map for you. Follow me.” Spinning on her one-inch heel, she walked through the main office area and led me to a door. “Whenever you’re ready, Kassandra.” She smiled, creating wrinkles on her kind face, and walked to her seat.

  Whenever I was ready.

  Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever be ready, but I couldn’t say that aloud. I had to do this. If I could take on five Nightwalkers at once and live, I was fairly certain I could survive one year of high school.

  I didn’t know what I expected to see as I went in, but as I looked around, I was caught at a loss for words. The words cluttered and musty couldn’t begin to cover it. Yearbooks, newspapers, art projects. So much crap.

  I happened to glance towards the window, where Principal Wilkes stood. A small man, shorter than me. That was saying something; I was five-three. He had a full head of hair and a graying goatee. His cheeks caught my attention instantaneously—they were unusually pale.

  In my line of work, that was always a bad sign.

  “Hello, Miss Niles. Take your time. It is always important for one to get used to one’s surroundings, especially when—”

  Great. I already had Michael and Gabriel lecturing me, as if that wasn’t enough, and now I had my new principal doing it, too. Did I have a face that just told everyone I met that I was compliant and naïve?

  “Now, I pride myself in being close with all of my students, so if there’s anything that I can do to make your transition here more comfortable for you, just let me know. Here’s your schedule and a map of the school grounds. Oh.” He reached inside one of his drawers and pulled out a small, black book. “And here’s your agenda. Feel free to use it to write down your assignments and anything else you want. It’ll also double as your hall pass.”

  An awkward smile crossed my lips for a second, and then I quickly got rid of it. I wasn’t going to let myself become one of those weird, awkward new girls. “Thank you, Mr. Wilkes.” Turning, I was about to walk out when he ran around me and held open the door for me.

  “Make sure to come to the football game this Friday. Go Pirates!” He seemed quite giddy about this. It was kind of amusing. Was he what was considered a normal person? Hopefully I didn’t have to purify him in the future.

  “I will,” I said, faking a smile. Not. When I was out of eyeshot, I rolled my eyes and had to force myself to walk out of there. Because, deep down, I wanted to run. Run away from Mr. Wilkes, through the office, and out of this damn school.

  I held my breath as I knocked. All went quiet inside the classroom, making my nerves bug out even more. I couldn’t believe I was already late to my first class. What a great start to this being normal thing.

  As it turned out, not ever having a locker before sucked. I took one look at that lock and had no idea which way to turn it or how many times to skip a number, so I had to go back to the office and have Mrs. McCafferty come and show me how to do it, step by step.

  I felt like an idiot. A total, complete moron. I still did. Personally, I didn’t think that feeling would go away anytime soon.

  “Come on in,” a male voice said.

  Self-consciously, I walked in and was met with twenty-something pairs of eyes.

  Way too many people sitting in the same room together. It was a hazard, had to be. Nothing about this school seemed safe.

  “Hello. Are you Kassandra Niles?”

  My attention changed to the teacher, who sat on his desk in the front of the room. A younger guy, almost right out of college. “Yeah.” The half grin on his clean-shaven face caused me to stutter and further explain, “I…had trouble with my locker.” I wasn’t sure why I felt like I needed to explain myself, but I did. So much for not being the awkward girl.

  He held up his hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s your first day, I’ll let it slide. Now, take a seat behind—” The young teacher paused to point. “—Ken, by the window. Ken, raise your hand for Kassandra.”

  I looked at the boy who raised his hand and smiled.

  He looked like the stereotypical boy who let loose farts during class.

  “Okay, let’s get serious here. Who actually did the homework I assigned over the weekend?” The teacher shifted his weight and crossed his legs, surveying the room with only three raised hands. “Well, I’m glad we can be so honest with each other. Since you all were so kind enough to tell me the truth, I’ll inform you that you’re going to have a pop-quiz in five minutes.” The news was met with groans and moans across the room. “Alyssa, would you care to summarize the lesson? Let’s do some practice—number thirty-three of your homework.”

  The girl who was Alyssa tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Should I go up to the board?” I was surprised at the soft, wispiness of her voice. I barely heard it, and I was only a row and a few seats away.

  Mr. Wood shook his head and laughed. “That might be a good idea.”

  Alyssa was measured in standing, her feet slightly pointed inward. Her slim, frail body was dressed in flowing, earthy garments, layers upon layers. A moon pendant sat on her chest. A hippie lookalike.

  This was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Two – Kass

  The cafeteria was bustling, and I had no idea what to do or where to sit.

  I looked down at my brown bag. Thank you, Michael, I mentally barraged him, for making me feel even weirder. That was something I did not need.

  I wanted to sit with Gabriel, but I saw him surrounded by jocks and laughing girls. No, I couldn’t handle that. Forgoing my inclination to sit with him, I walked in the opposite direction and chose an empty table. It was just as well. I didn’t need to make any friends.

  As I checked what food laid inside the paper bag, I acted oblivious as a girl hesitated to make her way to me. Of course I saw her coming from a mile away. I could smell the incense fumes seeping from her layered clothing all the way across the room. I didn’t need any Purifier-trained senses to know who she was.

  “May I join you?” a soft voice asked.

  It was Alyssa, who happened to be in every one of my classes so far, minus physics. So far I’d gleaned that she was smart but quiet. She didn’t talk much to other students.

  Giving her a nod, I said, “Sure.” It wasn’t like I could turn her down.

  “Kas
s?” Alyssa carefully set her tray down before sitting. There was a tiny smile on her pale face. Did these people never go out in the sun? Paleness around here was a bad thing, especially in my line of work.

  I nodded again while opening a protein shake.

  “Trying to build some muscle tone?” A guy came and sat next to me. He obviously did not care about that age-old adage of personal space, for the side of his arm practically rubbed against mine. His square jaw housed a wide smile as he sized me up and introduced himself, “John.”

  I stared at the boy, blinking slowly. He definitely had the tall, dark and handsome thing going for himself. If I could handle stabbing a Nightwalker who was once a good-looking guy in the heart, I could take on John in a normal, everyday conversation. “Um, no. And I’m—”

  John flashed his pearly, obscenely white teeth. I nearly went blind. “Kass. I already know you. How could I not hear about the new girl in the badass leather boots?” Two deep dimples appeared on his cheeks. “Not a fashion choice many would make around here.”

  I chugged the shake as I decided to ignore him. Why couldn’t these people leave me alone?

  Alyssa threw a food wrapper at him, though I didn’t think it had the same impression as she hoped. If you wanted to scold someone by throwing something at them, then you didn’t throw a wrapper. You threw a brick, possibly a stake.

  “Don’t mind him. He’s just my idiotic brother,” she added quietly.

  “Idiotic? I think you mean handsome, dear sister,” John defended himself, sounding—gag me—much like Gabriel.

  Unfortunately for him, all I could think was that Gabriel had some competition…but judging the fact that he was over here talking to me, that meant he had been through every girl here. However, once those thoughts died down, a strange feeling emerged. I kind of felt flattered. Although it still didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t allowed to date anyone. Civilians were especially off limits.

  The sad truth I was taught from an extremely early age.