Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “Kass?”

  Hearing him made my heart both leap to new heights and sink to new lows. “How did you get this number?” I questioned, baring my teeth to the phone.

  He didn’t say anything.

  I decided to clue him in that I was onto him. “John,” I spoke in the world’s most intimidating, deadly voice, “I know what you are, what you did. I’m coming for you.”

  I lost the element of surprise, but I didn’t need it. I could take care of him myself without it.

  I knew one thing: John hadn’t been turned yet, for he still could talk. Nightwalkers couldn’t speak, nor could they think or use any higher brain processing. They were baseless Demons of the night, but as long as they got their food, they’d live forever.

  Forever was never worth that.

  Chapter Seventeen – Gabriel

  “How many are there?” I waited for Michael’s answer, but my impatience clear.

  “Seven Nightwalkers and the Hyena Demon,” Michael took his time answering without taking his gaze from the binoculars in his hands.

  “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s—” I began to stand, but Raphael yanked me down.

  “Wait. We need to think about this tactically. Not one of these Demons can live through this, especially the Hyena.” Raphael rubbed his temples, as if it helped him think.

  I clenched my jaw, grinding my teeth. I had the perfect plan, so they sure better go along with it. “I take the Hyena, you two split up the Nightwalkers and when you’re done, help me, if I haven’t already purified it.”

  Michael stared at me, eyeing me up slowly. “I don’t suppose you’ll follow any other plan.”

  I shook my head.

  “Then let’s do this. And Gabriel—” He grasped my shoulder. “—be careful.”

  I nodded in response. I was going to be as careful as Kass was when she rescued me that night three years ago. That was to say, I’d get the job done, no matter what.

  Michael and Raphael went opposite ways as I stood. The Demons didn’t even notice me as I crept into their crypt that served as their hideout. The Nightwalkers stood around a circular altar that glowed yellow as the Hyena Demon dropped a glassful of scorpion blood into it. They were strangely complacent, almost as if the Hyena had them under a spell. Normally there was a lot of drool, and a lot more aimless wandering.

  I was about ten feet away when it dropped the cat’s head and falcon’s claw in. It was when the Hyena was about to dump the body of the missing boy into the brew, muttering something inaudible, when I tackled it to the ground. Michael and Raphael burst in through the side windows.

  “I don’t think so,” I growled as the small, rotting corpse slid out of its disgusting hands. Seeing the little boy made me furious.

  Instead of replying, it shoved me off with strength I wouldn’t have pegged for it and rolled, reaching for the body. I was in no mood for this. Not at all.

  I thrust my sword into the hand that was inches away from the dead boy, twisting the steel mercilessly. This thing knew no mercy anyway. It hadn’t shown an ounce of it to that poor boy or his family.

  Michael and Raphael made good work of the Nightwalkers around me, and I had this thing by the balls. Hand, I meant.

  Except it decided to kick the back of my legs by twisting its own in a totally unnatural direction, making me lose grip on my sword and fall to the ground. I tried using my arms to push me up, but it placed a hand on my head, holding me down with force. “Stupid boy…” It croaked out, like it was just learning how to speak, “Too late…”

  “No,” I said, punching it hard in the face. Pretty good aiming, considering that I wasn’t even looking at it. I leaped up, watching it stagger back, and snatched up my sword. “It’s not too late.”

  Its eyes burned yellow as it came at me, landing blow after blow on my stomach. As we danced, I swung my sword in an arc through the air, cutting its injured hand clean off. It howled in pain, staring at the bleeding stump of its arm.

  It flashed its eyes to a whitish color, and I was frozen momentarily. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. All I could do was think.

  Without taking its white eyes off me, it slowly walked to pick up the boy, silently mocking me, and dropped him into the altar.

  Rage flashed inside me, and I broke free of the paralyzing stare. In the blink of an eye, I suddenly had my blade through its chest, pinning it to the altar. Faster than I ever moved before, quicker than what should’ve been possible. I didn’t question it; I only pinned the Demon down harder.

  It tried to pull out the sword with its only hand, but my newfound strength was too much for it. Soon it drowned in its own blood.

  “Too late…” It smiled, showing blackened teeth. It blinked at me, its black features twisting into a mask of amazement and wonder. “You…I didn’t know—”

  A light left the altar, a wisp of energy rising from the concoction, and flew out of the crypt.

  “What was that?” I shouted angrily, twisting the blade around in its chest while choosing to ignore its strange mutterings.

  It spoke, “Osiris…risen…girl…”

  “What?” My voice cracked, my worry for Kass growing to new levels.

  “…Marked…” The Hyena coughed blood, bending its head in reverence to…me? “I follow orders…master—”

  Orders? Master? Whatever this thing meant, I didn’t have the time to listen. I got to my feet and yanked the sword out, but in a second I heaved it straight through its brain, ending it instantly. Nothing could live through that.

  And, not waiting for Michael and Raphael, I ran. I had to run. What if the protection spell didn’t work? What if that light got to her, got in her, changed her? I couldn’t let that happen.

  I had to save her. I had to save my Kass.

  Chapter Eighteen – John

  I craned my neck to look up at her house. It was certainly a beautiful one. It was just like the ones I was used to. I shook the uneasy feeling that was growing in my stomach as I walked to the door and knocked. My peripherals saw Kass peek out at me from behind a curtain.

  “Kass,” I said impatiently, loudly, “I need to talk to you.” So come out here. “I know you can hear me. I think you should come out so we can finish this.”

  I spun on my heel and started walking ever so slowly away from her house, making sure I gave her enough time to think about it before doing so. “Three. Two. One,” I whispered to myself. I could time her so well. It came with practice.

  The front door opened, creaking in its swing. “John,” Kass’s voice spoke quietly, evenly. She was ready for whatever would come, I knew.

  I stopped walking away and turned to face her. Even in this circumstance, I still wanted her. How sad was that? I was pathetic.

  I stepped closer to her. “Kass,” I said, still acting clueless. “What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to me?” Was I a fantastic actor or what?

  I had a lot of practice.

  “Why do you think?” Her hand gripped her sword tighter. That confirmed my suspicions. Why else would she have a sword in her hand if she didn’t know the truth about me? “Because I know.”

  She held the sword as though she were an expert. It would seem I wasn’t the only actor around here. She wasn’t as helpless as she appeared.

  “How do you know?” I asked, genuinely wanting to know, so that if in the future this happened again, I could avoid this part. My ignorant façade was gone, washed away in what I knew appeared as arrogance.

  A strange laugh escaped her. “It’s pretty obvious, now that I’m thinking about it.”

  Was it? I wanted to ask her. Either it was obvious, or she was just good.

  The look on her face made me feel terrible. It made me regret it all. I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t be doing this now, here. The thought should never have crossed my mind. What was wrong with me?

  I took another step closer to her, this time feeling really bad about myself. “I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.”
I was strangely desperate for her to believe me. And I didn’t care anymore.

  “Whatever,” Kass spat out, the hate in her voice was tangible. “I just can’t believe—”

  I saw a light spiraling toward us.

  Chapter Nineteen – Kass

  Knock, knock. I peeped through the window, seeing who it was, even though I knew. Better he come to me than me go looking for him, I guessed. Saved me the time and energy.

  “Kass,” John yelled so loud that I heard him through the door, “I need to talk to you.”

  I crouched down, below the window, gripping my rose blade as I began formulating a plan. He couldn’t come in, but I could go out.

  “I know you can hear me. I think you should come out so we can finish this.”

  I smirked. He thought he knew all there was to know? He thought he had me pegged for someone I wasn’t? John was about to learn the hard way not to be so smug.

  I peeked out the window. John had turned and started to walk down the driveway. That son of a gun was walking away. Not if I could help it.

  Standing, I moved to the door and yanked it open after unlatching the locks. I stepped outside, away from the safety of the house and out of the incantation Michael and Raphael did. “John,” I spoke his name like it was acid on my tongue, slowly walking down the steps to his level.

  Despite it all, everything I’d learned and grown to accept in the last day, my heart still fluttered in my chest the moment he spun around.

  “Kass,” he said, walking up to me, acting completely oblivious to the sword in my hand. Or maybe he chose to ignore it. “What’s wrong? Why won’t you talk to me?” I hated that I found him attractive still, that his dark eyes drew me in like they did every day I’d known him, that I wanted nothing more than to drop my sword, say forget about it and kiss him to make up for that day in his car.

  But I couldn’t do any of that.

  “Why do you think?” I asked, just for kicks to see if he would own up to anything. His face was clueless, so I gave him one. “Because I know.”

  His handsome face twisted in confusion and then realization. “How do you know?” For the first moment, he didn’t look like the John I knew. He looked older, darker, a man harboring many secrets.

  I laughed, even though nothing was funny. “It’s pretty obvious, now that I’m thinking about it.”

  “I wanted to tell you. But I couldn’t,” John whispered, intensity in his gaze.

  I held up the hand that was sword-free. “Whatever. I just can’t believe—”

  For some reason, John felt the urge to move me. Instead of attacking like any Demon-spawn or soon-to-be-soulless would, he swapped places with me, so that I stood where he had been. We switched places, and I was too confused to ask why. Then I saw it.

  The light. The same light I saw in my dreams, spiraling to us. John must have seen it too, and traded spots with me. But…why? Why would he do that if he was a part of it?

  It must have been too late for the light to switch courses, because the radiance flew straight into John’s back and didn’t come out again.

  I stared at John’s stomach, mouth agape, hoping that didn’t really happen. I looked up at John. His eyes glazed over. Instead of their usual brown, they were black as night. And not just the pupil. The whole eye was black.

  No.

  This couldn’t be happening. This could not be happening. Was this…was it all a big misunderstanding? Was John not truly evil? I was horrified. Did I mistake the meaning of my visions?

  John slowly released his grip on me and clawed at his own neck, probably trying to breathe. I remembered the way it felt in my dream. The way the darkness felt as it took over my every move, my every thought, making me lust for violence. Making me want to kill. Making me go insane until there was nothing left.

  His blackened eyes fell upon me. I stared at him, my sword growing heavier in my grip.

  “John,” I spoke extremely quietly, “I’m sorry. This...is my fault.”

  His blood turned black; I could see his veins start to darken. His skin grew darker too, greying. The evil spread rapidly. There was no time for me to feel sorry for myself or him any longer. I had to finish this while there was still time.

  The wind whipped my hair around, making it flail wildly. “I’m so sorry,” I said one, final time, my heart hardening in preparation of what I had to do.

  My first boyfriend wasn’t going to kill me. I was going to kill him.

  In that split-second, I came full circle about all my visions and dreams. The signs had been there all along. I just read them wrong. And because of that, John had to die.

  My eyes were dry as I lifted the sword and pushed it through his heart.

  Chapter Twenty – Gabriel

  I was about twenty feet away when I saw Kass shove her sword through John’s heart. I felt a burst of relief. I knew it was wrong to feel such relief, but I didn’t care. I didn’t care that John laid dead in our driveway; I only cared that Kass was safe.

  How did Osiris’s light go into John and not Kass? I wondered, but again, I didn’t truly care. My Kass was safe. That was the only thing I wanted.

  Running up, I could feel his pain. I could feel him changing into something terrible before Kass pushed her blade through him. I could feel it a mile away. I wasn’t sure how I felt it, though.

  If it had been Kass, and I came too late—I didn’t want to think of the possibility. If she didn’t listen to reason, I might actually have let her just kill me, because there was no way I could ever kill her, Demon or not.

  Kass stood staring at the lifeless body, mouth closed, looking like she wanted to scream, but nothing came out. She wasn’t crying, but her body trembled as if she wanted to.

  I ran up and embraced her, simultaneously spinning her so she faced the opposite direction. Holding her close and peering above her head, I stared at his body, wondering how we were going to take care of that.

  John was definitely dead. He looked like stone. The black that traveled along his body faded into something, like a tattoo, marking his transition to Osiris. But he was dead, and that’s all that mattered.

  He was dead, and Kass was safe and sound in my arms.

  Michael’s car pulled into the driveway. He was the first one out and started to say something, but I gently shook my head. Our Guardian glanced at the body, for the first time taking in the dead boy that lay on his driveway. We met eyes.

  What were we going to do?

  Chapter Twenty-One – Kass

  When I got in my bed that night, I never wanted to get out, ever.

  I killed John.

  Michael said he was sorry. Raphael said I did the right thing, the only thing I could have done and that I was, indeed, prepared for the worst. Gabriel said nothing, only looked at me with those knowing eyes of his.

  I should have known. I should have known all along. My dreams, my visions. All of them had John. Why didn’t I realize that he wasn’t the evil one, and that evil was going to get him? What was wrong with me?

  I killed John.

  How was I going to be able to go on, living with this kind of regret? How was I supposed to go to school tomorrow, like nothing happened tonight? Like I hadn’t killed my almost-boyfriend?

  How was anything ever going to return to normal?

  I cursed myself. I thought he was bad, that he worked with the Hyena all along. But he wasn’t. He was just a normal boy. A normal boy that I killed. How could I even suspect him of something like that? Not all boys were evil Demons; Michael’s own words.

  I couldn’t believe how stupid I was.

  My ears heard the door slowly open. “Kass,” Gabriel’s voice was soft, softer than I’d ever heard it. He walked in and sat on my bed.

  “What. Do. You. Want.” I hid my face under my pillow.

  “Are you okay?” When I said nothing, he added, “Kass…” I felt him place his hand on my back.

  I couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Gabriel, get out.”
/>   “But—”

  “Now,” I snarled as violently as I could. I heard him walk, and then slam the door, leaving me alone in the darkness of the night. Truthfully, being alone in a dark room at nighttime was the last thing I wanted right now.

  But you’d have to be in my head to know that.

  I felt like I wanted to cry, that I should cry, out of respect for John, for what I’d done and what I’d lost. There would be no more goofing off in physics with him. No more drives home in his comfy car. No more of John’s delicious scent. No more of his smile. No more John.

  John was gone. Forever.

  My whole body shook with a mixture of sadness and rage. I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. My eyes were as dry as ever, like deep down I expected this to turn out as awful as it did. This day was horrible.

  Suddenly a body crawled into bed next to me. I was too busy hating myself to move, too busy wallowing to push his strong arm away, too busy wishing I could cry to resist when he pulled me closer to him.

  Why didn’t he leave, like I told him?

  “Kass,” Gabriel whispered into my ear, “I’ll never leave you.”

  “Gabriel,” I said once my emotions were somewhat under control. “Things aren’t going to be the same, are they?” I didn’t know why I asked. I already knew the answer.

  “Of course not.” I knew it. “I’ll make sure they’re better now. Things will get better, I promise.”

  “How do you know?” The question rang through my head, which was starting to hurt.

  He waited, stroking my hair before saying, “Trust me.”

  “But...”

  Gabriel covered my mouth, shushed me, and settled in the bed by pulling the covers over us. He wrapped his arm over me and held me all night, playing with my hair when I was awake because he knew it relaxed me and watching when I slept like my own guardian angel.