Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  The wind caressed my face and suddenly I realized that everything was more vibrant. The red roses were redder. The violets were bluer. The daisies were yellower. The grass was greener. It was like I was seeing everything for the first time.

  I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and saw a woman, hovering above the ground in white clothes. She was beautiful, ageless.

  Her head tilted slightly. “Kassandra.”

  Even though I never saw her before, deep down I knew who she was. “Mom?” I asked, like I wasn’t entirely sure. And I supposed I wasn’t.

  “You’ve grown up wonderfully. I couldn’t have asked for more,” her voice seemed like velvet, seeping out of her mouth with ease.

  But instead of running towards her, like I always imagined, I stood my ground and asked, “Why did you leave me?”

  “Honey, I left because I had to.” Her kind, light eyes looked sad.

  “Why?” I asked, sincerely wanting to know the answer. The truth, for once in my complicated, Purifier life.

  She waited a few moments before she spoke, “Someday you will understand.”

  “What is someday never comes?” I sounded angry, which was so not how I wanted to talk to my mother, even if it was in a dream.

  “Honey, it isn’t time yet.”

  “Time?” I questioned. “Time for what?”

  Her eyes clouded over. “Your death.”

  I breathed in sharply, soon shaking my head. None of this made any sense. Well, I knew I was going to die, but I hoped it’d be in the far future, after I got married, had kids and grandkids. All that jazz. After I lived my life. A pipe dream if I ever heard one.

  Odds were I wouldn’t make it to twenty-one.

  “My…death?” I echoed, sounding like a broken record.

  “For some, death is only the beginning.”

  “Yeah.” I yelled. “For Demons. But I’m not a Demon…am I?”

  Her head shook slightly. “No. But you are marked by Him.”

  “What does that mean?” Now my head was filling with questions that I probably wouldn’t get answers to. Fabulous.

  “He chose you, Kassandra.”

  And with that, she began to fade. The whole field began to fade, flower petals tearing from their stems and rising to the ever-blue sky, and I fell into nothingness.

  “Oh, my God,” I shouted as I sat straight up in my bed, waking everyone else in my room up. They all came running over to me, asking what was wrong. I shook my head and said, “Nothing.” I placed a hand on my head. I wasn’t going to think about it.

  I glanced at Gabriel’s unruly hair and down to his face. I definitely wasn’t going to think about it.

  “Kass,” Michael unfolded his glasses and put them on. “Your wrists.”

  “Huh?” I turned my hands to look at my wrists. The stitches were gone completely, the wounds healed miraculously. Even with Purifier healing skills, I would at least have scars. But I had nothing. Nothing at all.

  “How did that happen?” Gabriel asked, taking a swift glance in Michael and Raphael’s direction.

  “I do not know,” Raphael said as he studied my clean wrists. “It certainly is strange.”

  “It is,” I agreed. “Well.” I tossed the sheets off me. “I’m going to take a shower.”

  “Me too,” Gabriel countered, a little too eagerly, a smug grin on his face.

  “No,” Michael held up a hand. “You won’t.”

  “Fine. Be that way.” Gabriel pouted and crossed his arms, huffing, “It wasn’t like I was going to look…much.”

  I laughed and grabbed some clothes out of my closet. Right. Gabriel, not trying to sneak a peek at my naked, wet body? That was worth a good, hearty, five-minute laugh. As I headed to the bathroom and breathed in the morning air, I felt ready to face the day. Ready for anything.

  I felt oddly good.

  As I showered, I wondered how far Gabriel had to be to not hear my thoughts. Was it a room-by-room basis, or did distance not matter? If we were in separate countries, would he still be able to hear them? Hoping it was safe, I let my mind think of my dream.

  My mother said I was going to die. Not her exact words, but it was pretty much the same thing. I leaned against the wall, letting the hot water pelt my back. Why would she tell me that? Was it going to happen soon?

  I looked down to the drain, watching the water circle around it then dive in, not knowing where it was headed next. In a weird way, I felt like that water, going wherever the pipelines of life took me, no control over my destination. If I was destined to die, there was nothing I could do to stop it, right?

  Not pleasant to think about.

  I didn’t want to die any time soon, but I knew that if that was my destiny, my fate, to go and die, I couldn’t change it. It was going to happen sooner or later. And this was just a guess, but I was thinking it’s going to happen more sooner than later.

  I turned the shower off and reached out, going for my towel. The moment I wrapped the towel around me and stepped out of the shower, Michael knocked. I unlocked the door for him, noting that the daily paper was in his hands, as it usually was.

  He rubbed his eyes behind his glasses, oblivious to the fact that I was in a towel and nothing else. If it were Gabriel that entered, I was certain I’d be getting an earful of sexual remarks.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked while running a brush through my knotted hair.

  “It’s…horrifying…” Michael was barely able to speak.

  “What is? Is it in the paper?”

  Michael nodded and handed it to me.

  That worried me. It must have been really bad if he couldn’t even repeat what it was about. I held in a gasp when I read the first few sentences of this morning’s headline.

  A naked woman’s body was found in a tent. She was mangled and all her blood was gone. Well, I corrected myself, most of it was sprayed all over the tent. And, adding on to all that, about twenty feet away was a camper containing four more bodies. A whole family. A father, mother, and their two young children.

  An eleven-year-old boy and a nine-month-old baby girl.

  Dropping the newspaper on the ground, I covered my face. Who would do something like that? No, it’s more like what would do something like that?

  I shook, rage boiling inside me at a possibility. “Do you think this is the same one who…” My fingers grasped the edges of the bathroom counter, my eyes staring hard at the mirror, at my angry reflection.

  But I didn’t have to finish my question. Michael said, “The same one who is after you. Possibly. Probably.” He paced to the door. “This town doesn’t seem to have coincidences. If that’s the case...” He turned his head back to look at me. “...then we have to be ready.”

  Chapter Nineteen – An Angry Man

  “Hello. Here for another pick up?” The florist smiled, wrinkles forming in her old face.

  Hands in my pocket, I nodded.

  “Great. Come on back.” The old woman motioned for me to follow her into her back room, where she kept my black roses. She went over to a bundle and picked up her clippers. “How many will it be this time, dear?”

  “Just one.”

  “Just one again?” She repeated, as if she didn’t hear me. I nodded. The old woman bent down and snipped one off.

  I sighed and stared at the tiny television she had on the local news station. They were doing reports on the bodies a hiker had recently found. I snickered. The bodies I left. This was great. No one suspected me, and I loved it.

  She straightened herself out, dusting the dirt off her apron. She placed the fresh rose in a small vase and handed it to me. Noticing where my gaze was, she shook her head and said, “There sure are some crazy people out there, aren’t there?”

  “Yeah. Only a monster would do that to anyone, let alone a family with a newborn,” I agreed. I set the rose on the counter, adding quietly, “How she wailed. But there’s nothing better than a fresh innocent.”

  Her elderly eyes widened
. “You…”

  I shrugged my broad shoulders and turned to fully face the elderly woman. “The taste is to die for.” I studied her gaunt frame. “You, on the other hand, I fear would taste utterly dry.”

  She backed up a few steps, scared beyond words.

  “Let me get this off my chest, I killed that family. I killed that woman after a wild night.” I smirked. “What can I say? Lately, I’ve been feeling very…unstable. Very volatile.”

  She reached for her phone, trying as casually as she could to call the police, undoubtedly.

  I held up my hand. “Stop right there.” She stopped. “Drop it.” She dropped the phone. “Now come here.” She made her way to my side, fear in her eyes.

  I laughed. “You know, I can kill you without laying a single hand on you. Enlarge your brain until your skull can no longer hold it, causing it to violently explode from all the pressure. A fancy new skill I’ve picked up. Now—” I tilted my head at the woman, who looked like she just pissed her pants. “—doesn’t that sound like fun?”

  She was silent, quivering.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Leaves a pretty mess too. Feel that?”

  I let her speak, “No.”

  “Good, because I haven’t started yet.” I laughed again. Who said monsters didn’t have a sense of humor? I might have a twisted one, but it was there. I felt the blackness take over, the tattoo growing all over my body. “Now, relax…”

  Blood began to pour out of her ears, her nose, her mouth, her eyes. It was a sight I’d never tire of. Speaking of her eyes, they started bulging.

  “This’ll hurt a hell of a lot.”

  I blinked, smiled, and laughed once more as the old woman’s head blew, spreading pieces of her brain everywhere. The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Well…besides one.

  I picked up the rose and brought it to my nose. I breathed in the scent and walked out, saying, “Thanks for all the roses, but I’m afraid this is the last one I’ll need.”

  Chapter Twenty – Kass

  Turned out, on the second floor of the house, along with Michael’s bedroom and private bathroom, was a library full of ancient texts and falling-apart tomes. There was also a training room, with padded walls and axes and swords hanging in displays.

  “Kassandra.” Raphael stood gripping a metal sword. “Come at me.”

  I swung my rose blade around and readied myself. I did not miss this in the last few days, that’s for sure. “Wait.”

  Raphael’s head slumped a little. “What is it now?”

  “Why didn’t we just train here instead of at the Church all those times? I mean this place has padding and—”

  “Exactly. The fights you have with Demons are usually never in a padded room in your house. Now, begin.”

  I sighed. “Fine.” And then we fought. I lost. Then we fought some more, and I lost some more. Imagine that. My heart just wasn’t in this. I knew why, but I couldn’t say it aloud. I couldn’t even say in my head, since Gabriel sat by the window talking to Michael.

  Raphael’s sword came inches away from my neck. “You need to take this seriously.”

  “I know,” I said, exasperated. “I’m trying. But…I just can’t.”

  “You can’t, or you don’t want to?” Raphael had me there, because it was a little of both. “Fine. Gabriel, get over here. Let’s see what you can do, since Kassandra is feeling like she doesn’t need this training.”

  Gabriel sighed and stood up, walking over and giving me the evilest look he could muster. But I was the master of the death glare, not him. His glare made me laugh. Which wasn’t the point of a deathly glare.

  I headed out the door, saying, “I’m going to go put this in my room.” Michael got up to follow me, but I held a gloved hand up. “It’s right upstairs. I think I can handle five seconds on my own.”

  Michael was unsure. “Perhaps—”

  “Seriously, I got it,” I told him. “If I’m not down in a minute, come get me. Problem solved.” Without waiting, I turned and walked down the hallway to the stairs. I’d take any alone time I can get. Who cared if that alone time only lasted about fifteen seconds?

  I took the stairs two at a time, which was hard for my small legs to do. Gabriel could do it without problems, but he was also over six feet tall. Pretty much a giant. He had almost a foot on me. His legs were long, mine were short. He could reach the top cabinet in the kitchen, I could not. He could screw in a light bulb standing on his tiptoes, I had to stand on a table to do it.

  I pushed my door open and walked in. I was alone for the first time in two days. It was strange. I walked over to my dresser and placed my rose blade on its side, leaning against it. Then I noticed the necklace that Gabriel gave me on his birthday.

  A week ago.

  It was so beautiful and expensive. A diamond heart and cross necklace. He told me he bought it right after I saved his butt three years ago. It meant a lot to me when he gave it to me, so how could I have forgotten it?

  I reached out for it, deciding that I was going to put it on. Taking it, I headed over to my mirror. But as I moved my hair aside, I saw someone’s reflection, a reflection that didn’t belong to anyone in this house.

  I dropped the necklace on the floor.

  “Remember me?”

  “You aren’t real,” I spoke to the mirror, to the image in it, the man holding the black rose. “You aren’t real,” I repeated again and again.

  “I’m not? Hmm…that’s news to me.” He lifted the rose up to smell it. “I definitely have myself fooled, then.”

  “You’re just another vision. Not real,” I whispered, mostly to myself, because it had to be true. This had to be just another one of my premonitions. If it wasn’t…it just couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be real.

  His intense dark eyes stared at me, tearing me up on the inside. “Surprised? You shouldn’t be. I’ve been here all along, watching you, sending you messages. I am stunned that you didn’t put two and two together.”

  “No…” I managed to say.

  “Yes.” He nodded enthusiastically. “The roses. The DVD. The picture. It was all for you. Maybe you’re not as bright as I thought you were. If I were you, personally I would have realized after seeing the cover of the DVD. That was a dead giveaway, Kass.” He smiled that million dollar smile I knew all too well.

  “No.” No was about the only word I could say.

  “I thought you were never going to be alone. Truthfully I was getting a little impatient waiting for you. But don’t get me wrong, I’d wait for eternity for you.” He took a few steps closer to me, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen with shock as I stared at his face.

  He finished, “Even though you killed me.” In a flash he was on top of me, holding the black rose in my face. That’s when I saw that the rose was splattered in blood.

  That’s when it hit me. “You’re the one who—”

  He placed a finger on my lips. “The one creating mayhem in this pathetic town, the one who cut your wrists, the one who’s making your life a living hell. Yeah,” he breathed down, bringing his face closer to mine, “that’s me. You know about the girl in the tent? Do you know why I picked her? She looked so much like you.” His greedy eyes looked me up and down, making me even more uncomfortable than I already was.

  Another death because of me. Actually, all those deaths were because of me. Their blood was on my hands, and that weighed heavy on me.

  “Short. Light brown hair. Cute. Virgin.” He ran his tongue across his teeth. “But I’m betting you’ll taste much better than her. Am I right, Kass?” He grabbed my face and turned my head, so that he now looked upon my bare neck.

  His dark eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. “You know…if I didn’t know better, I’d say you have Vampire blood in you. I can smell it. But whose, is the question. Tell me.” He moved my face back. I was now staring him squarely in the eye. In his amazing, dark brown eyes, that until recently, I would’ve done anything to see again. “That’s not my brother’s blo
od in you, is it? If it is, he and I need to have a talk about you. You’re already mine, and he can’t have you.”

  “I am not yours,” I was able to say quite confidently, considering the circumstances. I knew I should push him off me, I knew I should fight him, try to rid the world once and for all of him, but as I stared at his face, I couldn’t help but recall all those days together, at our maybe-dates and almost-kisses.

  “Oh, is that what you think? You’re very wrong.” He bared his teeth, licking them as they grew to incredible size. A half-grin entered his face. “You are mine, whether you like it or not.” He threw the rose and took hold of my face with his two hands. “It’s so fun tormenting you and your little friends…” He was about to bring his lips down on mine when Gabriel burst in through my door. He stopped short and looked up at him. His territorial tone hissed, “Gabriel.”

  Unlike me, Gabriel responded without missing a beat, “John.”

  “We’re in the middle of something here, boy, so please leave before I kill you, too.” John glared at him, spitting venom.

  “I’m only going to tell you once,” Gabriel said, ignoring the threat that was just posed at him. “Let her go.”

  John stared at him and laughed. “And if I don’t, what are you going to do, pretty boy? Do my hair?”

  My common sense returned to me, and I elbowed him in the gut. All John did was laugh at my pathetic attempt to free myself. It was hard to fight when your face was caught in a deadlock.

  “Tell you what—” John glanced down at me. “—I’m getting a little bored, so I’m going to disappear for a while.” He returned his eyes to mine, muttering, “Until next time.”

  “No,” Gabriel spoke through clenched teeth, beginning to lunge at him, his dragon blade in hand.

  But it was too late. When Gabriel was within reach, John flashed us to the window and grabbed my neck, landing his lips on mine. So deceivingly welcome, until his enlarged teeth pricked my lips and made me bleed.

  John flashed, disappearing from our sight, leaving me with a terrible feeling in my gut.