Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  I was hot and sweaty in Gabriel’s bed.

  Gabriel was beside me, not staying up and keeping watch, that’s for sure. His arm was around me, his large body behind mine. I groaned. We were spooning, and I never felt more mortified in my life.

  “Gabriel, I think it’s time to get up for school…” I whispered once I saw his eyes flutter open for a second.

  “No.” Gabriel shook his head and pulled me in closer, which, in turn, pulled my breath out too. “I’m not done cuddling yet.”

  Cuddling? That made me chuckle.

  “What?” His blue eyes opened lazily. “Most girls want a man who likes to cuddle, especially after—”

  I covered his mouth, somehow knowing that he was definitely going to say something about sex, because that’s just who Gabriel was. All we did was sleep last night. “You of all people should know that I’m not a normal girl.” His tongue came out and licked my hand. I yanked my hand off his mouth as he rolled on and over me, off the bed.

  “And you,” Gabriel said while shifting through a pile of clothes on the floor, “of all people should know that I know you’re not a normal girl.”

  I sighed. This bed seemed comfier than mine. How was that possible? I was pretty sure that we had the same type of bed, so why was it that I never wanted to get up and off this one?

  Gabriel noticed the look on my face and said, “Feel free to crawl into my bed next at any time, Kass. Anytime of the night. You always have an open invitation.” A stupid grin grew on his face and I couldn’t help but cover my face, asking myself, did he really just say that?

  Did he really just say that with a serious face? That was what I came to expect from Gabriel, but the vastly inappropriate nature of the comment made my cheeks burn for some reason.

  “Yes. I did just say that. And, Kass, inappropriate is my middle name. My second middle name, behind—”

  “What?” I got to my feet and walked over to him, eyeing him.

  “Now, I don’t mind you looking at me up and down…but if you want me to get naked, all you have to do is ask.”

  “Stop,” I quickly said, holding up a hand. “I don’t want to see you naked, Gabriel. How…” I observed him as he leaned down to pick up some pants. I didn’t know how to phrase what I wanted to say, because I couldn’t form it into words. I never spoke the word inappropriate. I only thought it.

  “Um, Kass, let’s think here. How else would I hear it? I’m pretty sure you said it out loud,” he said without turning to glance at me.

  Gabriel, look at me.

  “Why?” Gabriel stood up and looked at me. Just like I told him to in my head.

  Oh, my God. What the heck? Gabriel could read minds now? That was…unsettling.

  “It’s about as unsettling for you as it is for me, you know. I mean, who knows what goes on in that little head of yours. I don’t want to hear you daydreaming about me all day.”

  I rolled my eyes and walked out of his room, thinking, you wish.

  He called out to me, “I do wish.”

  Well, this day was off to a great start, wasn’t it?

  Alyssa sat there, trying to do the homework that was just assigned. And she was probably getting it all wrong. I bit my pencil. That meant she might ask me to come over again, which meant that I might have to say yes, get Raphael mad at me, and miss another lesson and come home late.

  And, oddly enough, that sounded appealing to me.

  It’s not like I didn’t want to do what I was supposed to do—yeah, it was like that. After the whole killing John thing, I had trouble doing things and following orders. Because…what’s the point?

  I looked down to my paper. My blank homework paper. We silently worked on tonight’s homework for twenty-five minutes, and all I had written down was my name and the date.

  God. My eyes glanced out the window.

  I couldn’t believe Michael made me come to school, even after seeing that movie that was left in my room. I wanted to stay home, research, and wait for the thing to come back.

  The bell rang. About time. I picked up my books and hurried to catch up to Alyssa. “How’s tonight’s homework going for you?”

  “Um…okay.” She shoved some hair behind her ears as she sighed. “I hate application.”

  “You need help today after school? I’m free to help,” I added, like it was a bonus that I was free, even if I really wasn’t. But whatever. I didn’t care anymore.

  She seemed surprised at my offer. “Really? You would help me again?”

  “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”

  “Well, yesterday it seemed like you needed to get home in a hurry and…” Her light voice trailed off. That or I could no longer hear her over the bustling disorder of the hallway.

  “And…?” I urged her on. And what?

  She appeared reluctant, but she answered me nonetheless, “There was…I mean, I noticed some tension between you and Kirk.”

  “Tension?” I asked, hoping she would give me an answer.

  “Yeah. I don’t know how to explain it.” Alyssa stopped at her locker, but instead of continuing without her, I stopped with her. She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Like…tension. There was tension between you two.”

  “Tension?” I echo. “There wasn’t tension.”

  Alyssa stunned me by interrupting with a heavy nod of black, curly hair. “Oh, there was. Maybe you didn’t feel it, but I definitely did. It was…awkward. Especially since I know John likes you.”

  I blinked. “What does that have to do with it?”

  She got out her history textbook. “It’s just…I’d hate for Kirk to ruin what’s between you and John, wherever he is.”

  I was still dumbfounded at what she getting at, partially because she had no idea John was dead and never coming home. “Why would Kirk get in the way?”

  “I want them both to be happy. They’re my brothers,” Alyssa told me seriously. “They don’t really get along well.” With a sad, shy smile, she spun on her heel and walked away, leaving me with a jaw on the floor.

  Happy brothers, Rain and John. Yeah, like that would happen, now that John was dead and Rain was an extra large jerk.

  My locker was being a jerk. It refused open, no matter how many times I put in my combination. Although, I realized after the third time, I might be passing the numbers because I was in a rush. You know, since the bell rang about three minutes ago. And apparently, barely passing the right numbers was enough for it to not recognize my combination.

  Happy brothers. Dead brothers. Stupid brothers.

  After the fourth time my locker denied me access, I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. This was getting a little ridiculous. I was sure no one else—and I meant no one else—was this bad at opening their locker. In an empty hallway. Five minutes after class started.

  Gripping my math book tighter, I slowly tried the combination again. For the fifth time.

  It still didn’t open.

  That meant I had to go down to the office and ask Mrs. McCafferty if she could open it with her key. This would be the second time that I had to do this, the first time being on the first day of school, about a week ago, on account of the fact that I had never opened a locker in my life, since this was the first year I actually went to school.

  I walked quickly to the main office, where Mrs. McCafferty sat in her usual spot: right behind her desk. Imagine that.

  She saw me approach from practically a mile away. “Hello, Miss Niles. Is there anything I can help you with?” Her round face swelled in a huge, kind smile.

  “Um, yeah. I think my locker’s broken, or something,” I said, immediately thinking, lockers break, right? Crap. I liked making a fool of myself, because I swore before I came here I never felt like this this often.

  “Oh? It’s jammed?”

  Jammed. Yeah. That’s the word. Not broken. Silly, silly me. I nodded.

  “Oh, you poor thing. Let me get my keys, and I’ll see what I can do.” She reached in her botto
m drawer and searched its contents. In a few moments she was standing up and walking hurriedly to my locker. She inserted the key and twisted. Mrs. McCafferty glanced at me underneath her wide-rimmed glasses. “Did you close it on a folder or anything like that?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Hmm.” She tried twisting it once more. “This is a stubborn one, that’s for sure.”

  I watched her slightly chubby fingers fumble with the key for another minute. I could probably open this locker in two seconds. “Can I try?”

  Mrs. McCafferty chuckled and said, “Go ahead. Just don’t force open it. Can’t have the key broken.”

  I stepped in front and turned the key. I pulled with my Purifier strength and soon the locker opened a few inches.

  “Wonderful.” She clapped her hands and extracted the key before heading back to her office. “Have a nice day, and if you come across any other problems, let me know. I’ll see if I can get you a new locker.”

  “Thank you,” I yelled after her.

  I had all intents on switching out my books and heading to my next class, but I froze at the sight of something inside the locker’s shelf. My mouth dropped. It was doing that often. But this…this situation called for my mouth to be agape, trust me.

  A black rose sat atop the books that laid untouched in my locker.

  Oh, please. Not another one.

  Chapter Seven – An Angry Man

  This place was amazing. Day or night, there were tons of people dancing and pissing their lives away. Who would notice if a few went missing from this crowded club? No one.

  I breathed in the air. The hot, sweaty, sex-filled air. It was a dark, seductive environment. Perfect.

  Honestly, I didn’t know which one to have first. They all looked so tasty. So delicious. I could feel the blood pumping all around me. It filled my body with adrenaline. And it felt great.

  No. Fantastic.

  A blonde woman stumbled up to me; it was obvious that she drank far too much for her small body to handle. “Want to dance, sexy?”

  I looked at her. Most of her skin was free of clothing, which I enjoyed. She was curvy, which I liked, a few inches shorter than me, but I adored women with long, thin legs. Still, if those legs happened to be short, I was down with that, too.

  Now that I thought about it, I didn’t want to drink filthy blood. Sure, it may be good, but it just wasn’t the same as drinking untouched blood. There was something so much better about the act of tainting someone and then killing them.

  Instead of answering her, like she wanted, I simply walked around her and looked around for my next meal. I licked my teeth. I grew restless.

  That’s when I saw her. She was short, about five feet tall. She wore a very conservative dress, covering everything but her arms and the bottom of her legs. She wasn’t the most voluptuous girl around, but her light brown hair, the way the strobe lights hit her face…she looked just like her.

  An unearthly hunger grew inside of me. I must have her.

  I slowly wandered over so I was beside her. She was unsuspecting. So young. So beautiful.

  She noticed my stare and smiled up at me, awkwardly. Like a man had never checked her out before, which might very well be true.

  But I wasn’t exactly a man.

  A half grin entered my face. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

  Her face became even cuter, if it was possible, as she thought of where we might possibly know each other from. “Um…no. I don’t think so” was her answer.

  But that didn’t satisfy me. “Really? Because I swear I’ve seen you before.” I waited for her to look me in the eyes once more. And when she did, I had her. “We’ve met. Remember?”

  A false recognition crossed her face. “Oh, yeah. I do remember.”

  “It’s been too long, let’s go somewhere to catch up,” I told her without breaking eye contact.

  “Yes. Let’s go.”

  I held up my arm. “Take my arm.” She did, and soon we were both walking out of the club, into the fading light of the afternoon.

  Chapter Eight – Kass

  “I understand if you don’t feel comfortable being around here.”

  Alyssa’s statement rang through my head, but I shook it off. “No,” I reassured her, “of course I want to help you.”

  She cocked her head at me. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay.” She flipped her pages, not stopping until she found the right one, the one that tripped her up during class.

  I laughed and leaned closer, speedily remembering the lesson. “Sometimes it is hard to not fall asleep in that class.”

  “Yeah. But don’t get me wrong. When Mr. Wood is up there writing something on the board, I pay attention.” Her lips were smiling, and I knew exactly what she meant. How could she be so calm with her brother missing?

  “He isn’t a bad looking guy,” I said slowly, because it was true.

  While Alyssa was busy scribbling a problem down, I reclined on the plastic lawn chair and closed my eyes, enjoying the sun. We weren’t in her room today; we chose to sit outside and get some vitamin D.

  “I made some lemonade the old-fashioned way. It should be chilled by now. I’ll go get it,” Alyssa said as she started to close her book.

  I wasn’t going to let her off that easy, because she was in the middle of a problem, and if she stopped now she might not ever finish. Plus, I was closer to the door, so it made more sense for me to jump up and go grab it.

  I held up my hand. “No, I got it. Keep at that problem. I’ll be back in a flash.”

  Alyssa’s face seemed unsure, but I wasn’t going to let her stop me. I already had my back turned and walked up the steps when she finally said, “Okay.”

  I kept it to myself that I wanted to see Rain, and more importantly, get some answers out of him and see what he knew.

  I slid the screen door open and put a foot inside. He was nowhere to be found. Great. I closed the door behind me, as silently as I could so I wouldn’t alert him to my presence in the house. But that didn’t work, because as soon as I took a few more steps, he was there in the kitchen, going toward the fridge. He tensed somewhat when he saw me.

  “What are you doing in here?” Rain asked with his hand firmly on the fridge’s handle.

  My eyes squinted. He looked like he was hiding something. “Getting some lemonade.”

  His jaw locked before he responded, “I told Alyssa I’d bring it out.”

  “She wants some now.”

  “Why didn’t she come and get it herself?”

  “I made her keep working on her math homework. Is there a problem, Kirk?”

  “No. There’s not a problem. Why would there be a problem?”

  I took a step closer to him, noticing how he backed away but kept his hand locked on the refrigerator. “No reason. Say, Alyssa’s out of ear shot,” I lowered my voice just to make sure, “so let’s have a grown-up discussion here.”

  His brown eyes stared straight through me as he said, “I don’t have grown-up discussions with children.”

  He thought he could hurt me saying that? Insulting me was a bad plan. He had another thing coming. “Good. Seeing as how there are no children here, you should be fine.”

  “It’s odd to hear you say that, because I’m looking at one right now.”

  “Hmm. That’s strange. I don’t see any mirrors around here.” I glanced around, to make my point. If he wanted to go back and forth with insults, I was too happy to do so.

  “I don’t need a mirror to see the child in front of me.”

  I breathed in. If this took too long, Alyssa might start to ask questions about why I was in here for this lengthy period of time. After all, I was only supposed to be getting the lemonade and bringing it straight out. “Good one. I’ll give you that.”

  “Fantastic. Now get out.”

  I crossed my arms and huffed myself up, acting more confident than I felt. Let’s just sa
y my confidence level equaled next to zero when I stared up at Rain’s face. It looked so much like John’s it hurt. “Make me, Agent Rain.”

  A small smirk crossed his face. “You wouldn’t want to see me try.”

  “Oh. You think so?” I placed a finger on my chin and pretended to think. “You wouldn’t want to see me resist your try. I’m better than I look.”

  “You are? So instead of being a spider with two legs, you’re one that has three? Useless either way.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from taking a few more steps closer. He kept his ground this time. “I don’t know what your eyes are seeing, but let me tell you: I’m a girl with two legs, two arms, and a brain that can outsmart you even on your best day. And, I can kick your ass any time I want.”

  Rain stepped closer to me so that we were hardly a foot apart. “I’d destroy you.” He breathed out of his mouth, hard, hitting me in the face with his hot breath. At least his breath didn’t smell bad.

  “I’d destroy you,” I repeated him, putting emphasis on the fact that I’d beat him. Because, let’s face it, I would. He might be a very attractive and tall man who looked remarkably like John, but let’s remember: I killed John. And I liked him. Just imagine what I would do to Rain, because I didn’t even like this guy. I hated him.

  Yes, he looked excellent shirtless and he’s all tall, dark, and mysterious. But personality wise, he lacked, I had to say.

  Before I could realize what was occurring, I was picked up by my neck and shoved against the fridge. Fast and powerfully. Like I weighed nothing or this guy had incredible muscle structure. Incredible meaning inhuman.

  Luckily, my feet were on the ground, so I wasn’t being strangled by his hand. Just choked a little. Yeah, yeah. Like there’s that much of a difference. But I’d rather be choked a little than strangled.

  Unfortunately, Rain caught me off guard by that move, so much so that I simply stood there and took it. Which was so not what I normally did. Usually, if anyone attacked me, they were dead/purified in a matter of minutes.

  But this man…not so much.