Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

Not while I had any fight left in me.

  Finally I had control of my legs, so I halted as soon as I saw someone standing by a tombstone, leaning on it and clutching a black rose.

  His eyes were closed, the blackened rose held up to his nose as he inhaled its scent. The silver moon’s light illuminated his black hair, his wide, strong frame. Dress clothes hung on his muscular body. For a moment, I thought I stared at John’s darkly handsome face, but it wasn’t his black eyes that opened to look at me.

  It was a pair of light hazel eyes, set in tan skin.

  Who was this guy? Why did he look so achingly familiar?

  “Someone left you this,” he was slow to say, twisting the rose in his fingers, its thorn pricking him. “It would seem that you have a demented secret admirer.” He took few steps closer to me, still gripping the black rose.

  I was frozen from sheer shock. Why did I feel like I knew this guy, that I met him before?

  “I don’t see why, though. You’re not stunningly beautiful or anything like that.” His intimidating stare sized me up. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re cute for a little Purifier. But looks aren’t everything, you know.”

  He knew I was a Purifier? That wasn’t public knowledge. The only people who knew about Purifiers were Purifiers, Guardians, and those who worked for the Council. Or…Demons, I supposed. Did that mean this guy was in need of some purification? If so, I wouldn’t object. He was pissing me off.

  He lifted the rose to his nose, inhaling the scent. “It does smell nice, I’ll give him that. But the color? Black? Who gives a girl a black rose? You see—” He stepped closer. “—if I were him, I’d stick to the old-fashioned color. Red.” The man blinked, changing his eyes from green to blood red. “Red is my favorite color.”

  “You…” I managed to choke out, the severity of the situation dawning on me.

  “Ah, so you remember me, I take it, little Purifier?”

  Of course I recognized him. His maroon eyes. I shook my head, not understanding what was happening. My mind flashed back to him beating the crap out of me three years ago, nearly killing me. I distinctly remember staking him. And then in the graveyard, during the Osiris thing.

  “But I…purified you, and then my friends wiped out all the Nightwalkers working with the Hyena Demon…”

  “True. The second one, at least, is very true. But I wasn’t there that night. I was watching you.”

  Bile rose in my throat. “Why?”

  The man cocked his head and glared at me with those violent, thirsty eyes. “Why what? Why wasn’t I there, waiting to be purified? You can’t purify me. You’ve already shoved a wooden stake through my heart, and I’m still very much alive.”

  “How?” I stammered out. This guy was something else. I could feel the evil flowing out of him.

  “I’m not a pathetic Nightwalker, as you call them. I’m something much worse.” He plucked a petal off the rose and flung it toward the ground, sneering as the petal drifted downwards.

  My breath became short as I said, “Then…” My mind searched for the answer.

  “Let’s take a moment and think about this.” He pulled another petal off, glare glinting maroon. “What’s the opposite of a Nightwalker…”

  I widened my eyes. “You’re a…Daywalker.”

  He grinned for a split-second, then threw another petal violently down. “Bravo. It only took you three years. Although I have to give you some credit.” The menacing smile left his face and a snarl replaced it. “No one has ever survived an encounter with me, let alone do it twice.”

  “Twice?” I repeated, as if I had never heard the word before.

  “Yes. Twice. That’s what I said. Are you hard of hearing, or do you want me to elaborate on that? I’m thinking a little bit of both.” He cocked his head, a growl rumbling from his chest. “Very well. Did you and your friends ever wonder how an insignificant Hyena Demon knew a complicated and primeval ritual like that? To think, I acquired the ingredients for it, I even led him to you, and it still failed.”

  “But…why?”

  “I wanted you to die,” he replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “In a very peculiar and cruel way. And I thought it’d be fun to help bring about something like Osiris. I heard it was a very sadistic Demon and thought it’d be fun to meet. After all, at that point in time, I think I was somewhere in Rome having so much fun that they decided to crucify me. As you can see, it didn’t turn out as they planned.”

  “But why do you want me dead? Why not just kill me if my death is so important to you?” I spat out, momentarily gaining a huge amount of courage. He practically killed me that day three years ago. I ended up in a coma, for God’s sakes. Was he just unusually sadistic?

  Then I thought of something. Pieces clicked together, and suddenly the puzzle fell into place, laid out in front of me. He was the reason I had to kill John. It was his fault.

  A small, villainous laugh escaped him. “Why do I have to have a reason? I’m soulless. That should be reason enough.” He walked towards me, a sway in his hips that told me he loved the thick of the fight, his handsome face twisting into a cold, cruel sneer. He looked to be a few years older than Rain.

  But instead of running away, like a smart person would have done, I stood my ground and stated, “But that’s not the reason, is it?”

  “Ah, you happen to be right. You know why I want you dead? Why I want to kill you so brutally that no one will be able to identify your body? Because you got away from me last time. No one survives a battle with me. No one survives meeting me. Therefore, to keep that statement true…” He threw the rose down and stepped on it. “…you must die.”

  “I have news for you,” I muttered, growing irate at the balls on this Demon, “I’m not going to die. Not tonight, and not by your hand.” I moved my feet into fighting position, shoulder length apart.

  “And I have news as well,” Red Eyes spoke as he disappeared. I breathed in sharply as he emerged behind me. But before I could turn around to face him, he grabbed my neck. “You can’t beat me.” And with that, he squeezed my neck with his unnatural strength.

  Seeing stars, I tried breathing and was barely able to. His grip lessened considerably when he saw my bandaged wrists.

  “Oh? What’s this?” He whispered in my ear, like a complete psychopath, “Get bored with your life, or did you just want some attention?”

  I turned my palms to face the ground and flung him up and over me, tearing the stitching in both my wrists in the process. That meant that either this guy was going to kill me or I was going to bleed out. I lost either way, but maybe I could take this meathead down with me as I went.

  “The little Purifier has a rough side.” Red Eyes vanished from the ground. He appeared, standing less than a foot away from me, dusting off his shoulders. “I like it.” In a blink of an eye, he landed five direct blows to my stomach, ending with a swift punch to my face.

  Blood spurted out of my mouth, and I stumbled backwards. It felt like some of my teeth were getting loose. Disgusting. I had to get a hold of myself, fight back.

  A low growl seeped from his lungs before he lunged at me, pinning me to the ground. My wrists hurt so bad, it was as though I had no strength left. I couldn’t fight back. I couldn’t do anything. In fact, I was barely there. I already zoned in and out of consciousness.

  This guy, this Daywalker was going to kill me. And I couldn’t even say goodbye to Michael, Raphael or…Gabriel. I couldn’t say goodbye to any of them. Just the thought of never seeing them again made my heart hurt.

  A strong hand grabbed my neck and constricted. Red Eyes leaned down and said, “Ah, you’re no fun. Not a challenge at all, which makes me wonder how you survived our last battle.” His teeth grew to unimaginable size. The front teeth dripped venom, just like a Nightwalker’s teeth. The only difference between the two Demons were that his two front teeth were larger than the canines, a troubling sight.

  He licked his lips. “Let’s see if you ha
ve any taste…” His lips were on my neck. This was the end. I couldn’t have been more disappointed in myself.

  I heard a growl ring through the air. The growl didn’t come from the Daywalker, for it startled him. Someone else appeared, tackling him off me, so very fast. I blinked and they were both over a hundred feet away. I tried to stand up and get my bearings, shake off the coldness that crawled over me, but I couldn’t even make it to my feet.

  Just the way I’d always wanted to die.

  I had no clue what happened next. I was barely conscious. There was more intense growling and the next thing I knew there were tons of little stars in my vision, and I could have sworn someone was kneeling next to me.

  He picked me up, cradling me against him. Who was this guy? I attempted to sharpen my vision, fighting the urge I had to fall asleep from the blood loss, and was able to recognize the guy who held me.

  Rain.

  I began to say something, but he shushed me and picked up my arm. He tore out the remaining stitches on both of my wrists. He slowly brought my right arm up to his lips. I barely was aware enough to see what he was doing. He steadily dragged his tongue across my wrist, taking in the blood. And also healing me.

  My brows creased and I wanted to object, to command him to tell me what that was all about, what he was, but no voice came from me.

  Rain licked his bloody teeth and lifted the other one up to his lips, doing the same. I tried struggling to get away from him. I knew this guy was no good the moment I saw him, I felt it, and it wasn’t simply the fact that he looked like John. Now I knew he wasn’t human; sadly, I couldn’t do anything about it right now.

  He cut his own wrist and held it to my mouth, seeking to drip his own blood inside me. I shook my head feebly and turned away. Regardless of how delirious I was, I was still conscious enough to know that drinking his blood was something I did not want to do, grievous injuries or no.

  “Kass, I healed your external injuries. But we still have to deal with the internal ones,” his voice was low, deep. Rain knew what he was talking about, because every breath I took was labored, my guts torn and twisted inside of me.

  “No,” I managed to say.

  He showed his unusually sharp and elongated teeth and bit his wrist, sucking in his own blood. I wanted to fight him. Rain was like Red Eyes. Why? Why couldn’t anyone in this town be normal? Was John...

  I tried fighting him, tried moving away so his mouth, full of his own blood, wouldn’t land on mine. But I was too slow, or maybe I didn’t try hard enough. I felt his lips on mine, trying to pry my mouth open. It must have been my body’s reaction, because under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t let Rain, or anybody for that matter, feed me, mouth to mouth, their own blood.

  But my lips were open, and his warm, metallic blood filled my mouth and dripped down my throat. And it tasted terrible. I was forced to swallow, otherwise I’d choke. I gulped, but when I did, his lips didn’t leave mine. I blacked out for a few seconds as he kept our lip lock going. Except his mouth was now empty, which meant one thing.

  He was kissing me.

  Rain, the infuriatingly suspicious older brother of John, was kissing me, and I was too weak to sock him in the nuts and ask him just what he thought he was doing.

  Ugh. I wanted to go to sleep.

  Chapter Seventeen – Kirk

  There was a commotion in the cemetery. Two people were fighting. But that wasn’t what drew me in. It was the smell. I could smell her from a mile away. Kass was here. I ran and, even though I had started out over three miles away, made it there in mere seconds.

  The sight of that guy on Kass made me very angry, even though it may have mirrored a situation I had put us in not too long ago in our home.

  I bared my sharp teeth, body slamming him off her, and soon we were hundreds of feet away, tousling and fighting, more equal to each other than Kass was. I snarled, sounding like a lion.

  The guy in my arms did the same, exposing his extended teeth and red eyes. Whoever this guy was, he was old. I could see it in his eyes. He was so ancient, deep down, underneath his twenty-something outside, that he was far different than me.

  And by different, I meant that he wasn’t born like this. He was made this way. How? I had no idea how things like us were made. I may not have been born like this either, but I was born with the curse of my family. The Vampirism wasn’t always there, awakened. It was dormant. It wasn’t awakened until John set the curse in motion all those years ago.

  That stupid fool.

  The man shoved me back, his muscles rippling under his fancy shirt. I had to grab a close gravestone to keep myself from spinning in the air. He was strong. Stronger than me, definitely.

  I glanced back at Kass. She laid on the wet grass, bleeding massively. Turning my attention to the man, I felt my chest rumble louder than it did before. I felt the adrenaline changing my eyes. I couldn’t help it. I breathed out, calming myself as much as I could.

  In an instant I opened my eyes, revealing a blackened stare and extended fangs. All of them. My lips curled in a sneer.

  The man’s malicious red eyes switched from me to Kass, and back to me. A small smile appeared on his face as he vanished. He was nowhere near here, I could feel it. He left us on purpose.

  My head jerked toward Kass and shortly I was holding her in my arms. She was barely awake. I licked my fangs. It was now or never. The blood dripping down her arms looked so…delicious.

  I ripped out what remained of her stitches for easier access. She hadn’t had them earlier, and I didn’t want to know what they meant. A slow, fervent pant came out of my mouth. I could do this. I could control myself. I could save her.

  No. I had to do this. I had to control myself. I had to save her.

  I brought her wrist to my mouth and licked the wound, healing it as well as taking in the taste of her. My eyelids fluttered to a close. This was harder than I thought. I never expected her to taste…so good.

  Picking up her other hand, I did the same. I licked my lips. Why did she have to be so tempting? Why did her blood have to taste so good? Out of all the years I’d been like this, I’d never tasted anyone quite like her. Soft, tantalizing. Like a pair of wings extending from the skies and offering to take out all the darkness in the world. Like pure, sweet sunshine.

  My blackened eyes studied her. She was bruised awfully, and I was positive that she had some internal injuries. She needed my blood, and she would die if she didn’t get it. She lost too much blood. I could hear her heartbeat slowing; she was in and out of it already. My blood would speed her body up, making the process of creating more of her blood faster, stitching together her wounds.

  Much faster. As in, tomorrow morning, she’d be fine.

  I slit my own wrist and held it up to her mouth. It soon trickled a thick line of blood as she gently shook her head. “Kass,” I spoke quietly, “I healed your external injuries. But we still have to deal with the internal ones.”

  She whispered, ever so delicately, “No.”

  But what she didn’t understand was that this wasn’t up for debate. She was going to drink my blood, even if I had to force feed it to her. Which, I realized, was what I had to do. I bit my wrist and retrieved a mouthful before I healed.

  I grabbed her face with my hands, stopping her from vainly struggling. I closed my black eyes and placed my mouth on hers, locking it firmly. When I was certain the path was clear, I let loose the blood from my mouth. It went into hers, and I could feel her under my hands swallow reluctantly.

  I knew I should draw back, pull away, but I let my lips linger on hers for too long. Far too long. I couldn’t stop myself, not after tasting the sweetness of her blood. Really, it wasn’t a wonder why I felt drawn to her, why John had, too. With blood like that…

  I kissed her, ignoring the fact that she was scarcely awake and that a small stream of my blood oozed from her mouth. I knew it was wrong. It was so wrong, but I didn’t care. I had her all to myself. So what if my teeth were
still sharp? So what if my eyes were still completely black? So what if it was wrong?

  I could avoid it no longer. The pull was like magnetism. If this is anything near what John felt, I could not blame him for wanting to be near her.

  The way her blood tasted. The way I felt with her in my arms. I tried desperately to ignore her, to ignore the pull, but it was for naught. I could restrain myself no longer. It was a miracle I lasted this long.

  What was she?

  When I finally managed to tear my lips off hers, I said, “Tell me where you live.”

  And she was weak enough that she fell for my compulsion right away. “Raven Street. Big, brick house.” Her voice was quiet, tender. I never heard a sweeter sound in my life.

  I smiled. She didn’t even know her address, though what she had told me was enough. I’d passed that house before and I remembered thinking that something was off about it.

  And now I knew that nothing was off, per say. I was simply sensing her.

  “You will forget all of this. The last thing you remember doing is laying in your bed and falling asleep. Now.” I stood, picking her up effortlessly. “Sleep.” I watched her head bob back. She now peacefully slumbered in my arms.

  Yes. She needed to forget about what just happened. I didn’t want her to, but I couldn’t let her go while knowing what I was. About what I could do. About how I could heal with my blood and my saliva. About how I could move miles of distances in a blink of an eye. About my true nature.

  I couldn’t let her remember that I was a cursed Vampire.

  Chapter Eighteen – Kass

  My eyes flew open and I glanced around. I was laying on the floor. On a grassy floor. Weird. I stood up and felt the sun on my face. I was standing in the middle of a flowery field. In a dress. The last time I wore a dress—well, actually, I didn’t remember ever wearing a dress.

  But whatever/wherever this place was, it didn’t matter. I felt like all my worries were gone. I felt free. And that, in itself, was fantastic.