Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  Chapter Nine – Kirk

  This girl taunted me. She was standing here, in my house, taunting me. Like I was some stupid child who was unknowingly in over his head. And I was anything but a child. Or in over my head.

  Of course, I had insulted her, but instead of scaring her off and away, she insulted me right back. Deep down I couldn’t believe it. This girl sure had some nerve to stand up to me like that. But I didn’t let that feeling show. Instead, I said, “I’d destroy you.”

  But she didn’t run out of the house, cowering like a little girl. She responded with “I’d destroy you.”

  I glared down at her. We were too close, far too close. Which was a bad thing for her. She was so small, and yet that teeny body housed a very high and huge opinion of herself. I could break her neck in one second. One was all it took.

  Just one.

  Something inside me snapped. I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing her throat and shoving her against the fridge with all my weight put behind it. It happened in the blink of an eye. Hopefully she was too dazed to see how fast I actually moved.

  But, for some reason, she wasn’t dazed. In fact, she was glaring up at me with such hatred. Like she’d been in this position before, and that didn’t really surprise me, because I was certain she knew something about John’s disappearance. She had to.

  My mind wandered back to the situation at hand. Or, rather, in my hand. Her neck seemed oddly small. One of my hands almost made it all the way around her neck. With a flick of the wrist, a jerk of the thumb, I could easily kill her. Too easily.

  I stared down at the girl who gave me the worst look. My breath came out short. I could feel my eyes changing, along with some other things.

  No. I would not allow this to happen. I was not like my younger brother.

  “I’ll bring out the lemonade,” I managed to speak, once I got my breathing, and everything else, under control.

  There was something about this girl that made me want to go insane. She wasn’t the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, and yet I wanted to do some unspeakable things with her, to her..

  That…was a John thought, for sure. I didn’t have thoughts like that. It must have been related to what she was. Like a magnet. John was drawn to her even though he knew he shouldn’t be.

  My hand sluggishly released her neck, my dark gaze falling to her chest. In that confrontation that would scare any normal person, man or woman, she barely reacted. Her heart rate didn’t increase much at all. I moved my hand to the fridge, amazed.

  She huffed, “Hey, buddy, my eyes are up here.” And then she walked out.

  Chapter Ten – Kass

  I stormed out of the house, empty-handed, and back to my seat next to Alyssa. I sat and crossed my arms, literally steaming.

  She noticed right away, precisely what I didn’t want her doing. How was I going to explain why I was suddenly so pissed? I didn’t even understand why. Besides the fact that Rain just had his hand around my neck and my body was completely squished between the fridge and his. I wasn’t happy about either of those. Trust me.

  “What’s wrong? Where’s the lemonade?” Alyssa asked one after the other, without giving me time to answer the previous one.

  “Yeah. I mean…Rain said he’d bring it out. That’s what’s wrong. I walked in there for nothing.” Oh, yes. That was a good and believable lie.

  “You mean Kirk?” she questioned with a puzzled expression on her face.

  “Yep. That’s what I said.” Lie. It wasn’t what I said, anyone with a set of ears and a brain would know I was lying. Oh well. Once I started lying it was hard to stop. Too bad I wasn’t trained in the art of acting. Only purifying.

  She shook her head. Her black, curly hair flew in every feasible direction. “No, you said Rain.”

  “Oh, I did?” I put on an act of absentmindedness. “Well, I meant Kirk.”

  “Why’d you call him Rain?”

  Jeez. Was she full of questions or what? I had to make up something fast. “I don’t like the name Kirk.”

  “Not a Star Trek fan, I take it?” Alyssa laughed awkwardly.

  Star Trek? It took me a moment to realize what she meant. “Oh, yeah. That’s Gabriel’s department.” The truth, for once. Which was weird, because even though it was the truth, it still felt like a lie coming out of my mouth. Maybe because I was so used to telling lies that now the truth felt like a lie and a lie felt like the truth.

  “Gabriel?” She echoed, her dark eyebrows coming together.

  Crap.

  Now I had to make up something else. Why would I bring Gabriel up? Now I had to go and give a whole fake story…unless I just told her the truth.

  The truth? That was preposterous.

  “What?” I decided to continue to play the dumb card. I didn’t know what else to do.

  “Gabriel, as in…the Gabriel?” Her face was incredulous, but not as dubious as mine, because she just said the Gabriel. She gave him a title, for God’s sake. Why? I said nothing, just stared at her while she continued her description of the Gabriel. “The one with sexy blonde hair, the hottest face I’ve ever seen, the one with the perfect body, the—”

  “Okay, please stop,” I interrupted her. I wasn’t about to let her keep going. Truthfully I didn’t need to hear any girl describe Gabriel in that fashion. Or in any fashion really. I saw enough of the guy all day, every day.

  “What? Why? You don’t think he’s hot, sexy, and swoon-worthy?” Alyssa looked worried as if I was going to say Oh, no. Gabriel’s actually as ugly as sin, has the sexuality of a dead worm dried up in the sun, and was as swoon-worthy as me after a ten mile run in the hundred and ten degree heat.

  “Um…” I paused, hoping to stall out this stupid conversation, even though it was my fault for bringing him up.

  That’s when, thank God, Rain came out with a tray of lemonade. The perfect distraction from this awkward conversation.

  “Ooh, yay. The lemonade. I hope it’s tart. I…” I met eyes with Rain, voice trailing off. “…like it sour.” Before saying anything else that would sound abnormal, I hurriedly took a glass, starting to drink it right away. “Delicious,” I stressed each syllable when I noticed that both Alyssa and Rain were silently staring at me. “Very tart.”

  She opened her mouth, probably going to say something else about Gabriel, so I stood up, finished the yellow drink, and said, “Sorry. I have to go.” As I scurried from the lawn after grabbing my backpack, I was hyper-aware of Rain’s dark eyes watching me as I went.

  What’s with that guy?

  When I got home, instead of going through the front doors, I went around the house and climbed up to my room. Three floors of bricks, by the way, which wasn’t easy to do. Only, when I reached the top, my window, I realized the windows were shut. And locked. Crap.

  I propped myself up better on my windowsill, peering inside. Someone was in my room. Double crap. Dropping a glance to the ground, I gave up and knocked on the glass. I watched the figure slowly make his way over and take his time to unlock it.

  I flung myself inside, on the ground, luckily on a round carpet, and laid there with my chin on my hands. “What’s up Raphael?” Given the circumstances, I thought I acted pretty nonchalant and unconcerned, even though I was laying on the floor, gazing up at him, and Raphael was in my room unaccompanied.

  Well, it’s not like I kept a diary detailing my whole life’s experiences and thoughts. So if Raphael searched through my stuff, all he found out was what kind of clothes I liked.

  “Kassandra,” Raphael said, motioning to my bed, “have a seat.”

  I placed my head on my hand. “I’m comfortable where I am, thanks.”

  He sat on my bed, crossed his long legs and replied, “I somehow doubt that.”

  I exhaled. “Okay. You caught me. This is actually the worst position I’ve been in all day…” My mind thought back to just fifteen minutes ago at Alyssa’s house. “I take that back. It’s the second worst position.”

  My
legs stood and made my way over to him as he said, “Do I even want to know?”

  I shook my head no, because he, in all probability, didn’t want to know the position I was in with Rain, John’s brother. Alyssa’s brother. Things were getting way too complicated and weird, if you asked me.

  “We need to talk.”

  Oh, great.

  “About…” I said, trying to drag whatever he wanted to say out of him, so he could get up and leave as soon as possible.

  “About what you are doing” was his answer.

  “What does that mean?” I questioned, instantly irritated.

  His severe eyes gazed at me. “You know exactly what that means.”

  “No.” I jumped up and turned to look at him. My anger flared and there was no stopping it. “No, Raphael, I don’t. So please, please tell me everything there is to know about what I’m doing.”

  Raphael stood up, but he stepped no closer to me. “I am thrilled to have your permission now.”

  My eyes rolled. This talk was going to be good.

  “First—” He held up one finger. “—you need to control your emotions. If you do not—”

  “I’ve heard this before. I’ve heard this whole talk before.” I threw my hands up in desperation and started walking to my door, which was cracked open. But before I could reach it to make my escape, Raphael was there, closing it and standing firmly in front of me. The man sprinted fast, apparently.

  “I am not done.”

  “Then hurry it up.”

  “Why?” Raphael countered. “Why? So you can continue to act up some more? Continue to force Michael, Gabriel and I to worry about you? Not one of us knew where you were today, or yesterday. Kassandra, you need to learn responsibility.”

  “I have plenty of responsibility.”

  “Do you? Do you have responsibility? Because, quite frankly, I doubt it. Do you know why? You are always disobeying orders and running headfirst into danger. A responsible girl would not do such a thing. A responsible girl would have called Michael or me and asked if it was okay to go over a friend’s house to help her study. A—”

  I interrupted him, not to try and make him mad, but because I was curious. “How did you know where I was?” I never told Michael today. I made sure of that. I did tell Gabriel, though. That boy was dead.

  But instead of answering, Raphael carried on, “A responsible girl would know that there are three people who deeply care for her, and that she should never make them worry when there’s no need. A responsible girl would know that she has to face and deal with her guilt before it completely overwhelms her.”

  He had a point there. But it didn’t change the fact that it was hard dealing with all my guilt. I killed John, after all. I was pretty sure I should feel a tad bit guilty about that.

  Raphael’s tone lightened, “You must confront your guilt.”

  Coughing, I looked away. “I don’t want to think about it.”

  “You must.”

  I bit my lip, shrugging lightly. “It’s hard, Raphael. Doing this. Going on like nothing’s wrong.”

  “No one said it was going to be easy. The life people like you lead is not for the faint-hearted, the cowardly, or the delicate. The life you live is brutal, and more often than not fleeting. You must learn to cope, for this may be the first, but it won’t be the last time you need to make a sacrifice.”

  “But I liked him,” I said, as if it was the perfect excuse for behaving like this. And to me, it was. To Raphael, it wasn’t.

  “You had to. There was nothing else you could have possibly done. You need to believe that yourself. If you hadn’t done so, he would have wreaked chaos upon the world. You saved all our lives by doing what you did, you know that, right?”

  Deep down, I knew it. It didn’t make me feel any better, though.

  “I understand what you are going through, have faith in me, I went through a similar situation years ago, and I know what it’s like to lose someone close to you…and be the culprit.”

  “What do you mean?” I blinked, astonished at what he said.

  “Come here.” Raphael motioned to the bed once again. “I will tell you.”

  I stared silently as he started speaking, beginning to narrate what happened to him.

  “It was years ago, but I remember every single detail of that day.” Raphael reached up to his neck to loosen his priest’s clothes. “I was…involved with someone. She was…a bright, young, beautiful girl who loved life. I was naïve about her true nature.”

  “Naïve?” I echoed, not quite understanding what he meant.

  “I loved her, and I thought that would be enough for her. But it wasn’t. She…” Raphael paused and looked at me. “She wasn’t entirely human. She had showed signs of being Demonic, but I overlooked it. I was young and in love, which is an awful combination.”

  I could tell this was hard for him. We never were on good terms, so to open up to me like this must have been difficult for him.

  “She wanted to change me, turn me into what she was, so that we could be together. Forever. I…could not let that happen. She was a Demon, she had fully revealed herself to me; I was obligated to purify her. There was a fight…I almost died. But, nonetheless, I did my duty to the world. I purified her. And, believe me when I say that I did not handle it well.”

  Raphael gave me a harsh look, but soon the severity turned into empathy. “I chose to not think about it, which was the wrong choice. I tormented my soul for years after that, living day by day because I no longer cared about anything. My love was gone, and it was my fault.”

  “How did you…you know, get over it?” Once I asked that question, I realized it was kind of stupid, because he was probably headed in that direction anyway.

  “I had to find a new purpose for my life, which was changed forever by that day. It took me a while, but I settled with this.” Raphael gestured to his clothes. “I knew that I had to do God’s work and teach others to not make the same mistakes as I.”

  “But what’s my—”

  He cut me off immediately, which made me think that he’s a hypocrite since he despised it when others cut him off. But I shrugged it off, paying extra attention to what he said next. “I am surprised that you even have to ask. To me, it is painfully obvious.”

  “What’s painfully obvious?” Nothing right now was painfully obvious to me.

  Raphael shook his head and stood up. “You need to figure that out yourself. It is not my place to say.”

  I sat, not moving, while he headed to the door. This was a nice talk. A sad one, but it did make me feel better. There was still something I was curious about. “Raphael?”

  He turned his head to glance at me after he placed his hand on the doorknob. “Yes, Kassandra?”

  “What was she?”

  There was an awkward silence before he answered, “Something bad.” And he walked out.

  That clarified absolutely nothing.

  After I sat there, wallowing for a while, I got up and headed down the stairs. I took my time to walk down the steps to the first floor. Raphael was gone, but no doubt he wanted to train with me all day tomorrow since I missed the last few days. That sucked for me, because all I wanted to do was sleep.

  And that was weird, because lately I dreaded going to sleep.

  “Ah, so the prodigious Kass returns. And not through the front door, bloody remarkable. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you snuck around the house and climbed up to your window,” Michael said, gently pushing the glasses farther up his nose.

  I held my hands behind my back, feeling extremely guilty because he nailed it flawlessly.

  “Good thing I know better. Well, no. If I’m being honest, Raphael told me.” He sipped his tea and handed me the newspaper. “Read this.”

  But before I could do as I was told, Gabriel snuck up and grabbed the paper from my hands. “What’s this? There’s a sale at Macy’s or something?” He grinned down at me, but I wasn’t in the mood for his nonsens
e.

  Gabriel, you’re stupid.

  His eyes squinted and I laughed. He heard me, or my mind. How could he know what I was thinking? I still hadn’t a clue. First his hair and then this? It was pure weirdness. Weirdness we would have to tell everyone eventually. But not now.

  Michael breathed out a loud breath. “No, Gabriel. Flip it over.”

  “Oh, okay.” Gabriel flipped the paper and started reading the article. “What?” He quickly glanced up at Michael and then at me.

  “What?” I asked as I tried to take a look at the paper. But Gabriel wouldn’t hand it over. “What is it?”

  “Animal attack. A couple was found last night, dead in the park.”

  “Nightwalkers?” Gabriel and I asked in unison, which happened.

  Michael took off his glasses and breathed on them, rubbing them on his shirt. “No. I don’t believe this is a Nightwalker’s attack. Or multiple Nightwalkers. The state of the bodies, the way they were hidden, and the fact that the skin was still on them leads me to believe that it was something worse. Something that knows what it’s doing.”

  “What does that mean?” I tried wrapping my head around that idea, and it didn’t make me feel too good about living in this town. One thing after another here.

  “I think it may be a…” Michael trailed off. “Demon of some sort.”

  Gabriel and I just stared at him, both of us probably thinking: Obviously.

  Chapter Eleven – An Angry Man

  I tilted my head.

  No, this wasn’t right. This wasn’t right at all.

  I laid in a tent that I killed a family for. A small laugh came from me. Did they go camping on the wrong weekend or what?

  The tent was small, but it was just the right size for me and the girl I took from the club. Man,, she was good. Too bad it was over. Too bad she was gone now.

  I turned my head sideways and glanced at the corpse laying naked next to me. She was the perfect one to take, the perfect one to taint, and the perfect one to kill. Her body was mangled because I failed to control myself once I started on her.