Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  I blinked once more, and soon I was only a few feet away from them. That was new, though I did vaguely remember doing something similar when I faced the Hyena Demon. I watched as Kass flipped him off her. I saw him lick his lips and say, “Bravo. That was smart. And fun. Let’s do it again.”

  That was when I had enough. I clutched the stake and threw it towards John. It was a perfect spiral, an epic throw through-and-through.

  John stumbled back and stared at the wooden stake. He acted as if I wasn’t here, saying to her, “Kass, tell Gabriel to leave. Or I will kill him.”

  Kass turned to me, like she was going to tell me to go. But that wasn’t an option. And even if it was, it’s not one I would do, anyway. I rose my hand and said, “No, Kass. Last time I screwed up, and this happened. I swear, I’m going to take care of it, of him.”

  Without a warning, John ripped the stake out of his chest and threw it at me. The stake had Vampire speed put into it, so all I could do was stand there and watch it land inside me. Pain seared through me, my heart punctured with its point.

  Kass screamed, “No!”

  But I hardly heard her. I was too busy collapsing.

  The ground rammed my knees, but that pain was nothing compared to the amount I felt in my chest.

  This wasn’t the end for me…was it? No. This wasn’t the last time I would fight a Demon. This wasn’t the last time I’d almost lose. And this certainly wasn’t the last time I’d see Kass. I knew that for a fact.

  A harsh breath flowed from my mouth. I blinked a few times as I came back to my senses. John stood ten feet away, glaring at me. Kass was laying on the grass a little farther off, her eyes wide in horror. The stake was lodged deep in me, in my heart.

  And yet I wasn’t dead. Instead, I was furious.

  I firmly gripped the wooden stake, yanking it out. It was dripping blood. My blood.

  Standing up, I saw they were both staring, mouths agape. Most likely wondering why I wasn’t dead. John at least. Kass’s thoughts were probably more thankful, not caring as to the why part.

  The symbols moved, and soon I realized my chest was unharmed. Not a scratch remained. I was fully healed. I didn’t know why, but I decided to take advantage of it. With a burst of speed and power, I smashed John’s dumbfounded face with my fist. And it felt good. Really good.

  John rotated and avoided my second punch. His foot came bashing against my stomach. He landed blow after blow on me. But I didn’t even notice. Maybe it was because any time I obtained a wound, I just healed up.

  That was pretty useful.

  I felt invincible, until John clapped his hands together, making a cloud appear directly overhead and a lightning bolt hit me. Yeah…after that, I felt defeated.

  For about two seconds.

  He hit me again and again with his yellow lightning, but I just got right back up, taking some serious joy in from looking at his face.

  John stopped with his damn lightning bolts and said, “What are you?”

  “I could say the same to you, but I won’t, because: one—” My heel shattered his cheekbone. “—I don’t care. And two—” My other heel came down on his back. “—it doesn’t matter.” I grabbed his neck and tightened my grip.

  His blackened eyes slowly lost their vice, and his normal brown eyes looked at me.

  Chapter Thirty-Two – Kirk

  “There,” Alyssa said softly as she pointed down to the map. Good thing she was so good at locator spells.

  I nodded and was off. In mere moments I stood on a hill that was miles away from town. I saw Kass, John, and someone else. Another boy. A scream rang through my ears, and I recognized it as Kass’s voice right away.

  John threw the stake to the other boy, landing it precisely on his heart. But the boy only fell for a few seconds. He didn’t die. I could sense that he wasn’t a Vampire, so he most definitely should have died from that. That meant this other boy was something else. On his own level.

  The boy got up and took the stake out. With Vampiric speed, he hit John. And John was hitting back, but the boy kept getting up. He kept healing himself. Even when John threw some lightning bolts at him. He acted as though he scarcely felt a thing and lunged at him, grabbing John by the neck.

  Wait a second. When did John get a power like that?

  I flashed myself beside Kass, who stared at me with defiant eyes. It was clear from the way she scowled at me that she remembered what I did the other night. “Come on,” I whispered to her, holding out my arm, “we need to get you out of here.”

  “No,” she spat, like a stubborn little girl. In a way, she was. “No. I’m not going with you. You’re just like him.” Kass pointed to John, who was still constrained by the other boy’s hand.

  “No, I’m not,” I tried to reason with her. “I’m nothing like him.”

  “Then why—”

  “Come now, questions later,” I interrupted her, sternly.

  “I’m not leaving without Gabriel.” Her fiery eyes glared deep into my soul. If I still had one, that was.

  Ah, so Gabriel was the name of the other boy. The one who still had John in a choke hold. I glanced over to them and saw that John’s eyes turned normal. So there was still some of the old him in there.

  John saw me, snarled, headbutted Gabriel and vanished. And I meant vanished as in he was now miles away, showing no signs of coming back. As much as I hated to even consider it, I knew we needed to deal with John.

  Directly.

  Chapter Thirty-Three – Kass

  I couldn’t believe it. Gabriel was alive? And okay? Even though he just had a wooden stake in his heart. How was that even possible?

  I didn’t know, but it relieved me. I didn’t know how I would have gone on, if I would even have had a chance to go on if he died.

  And don’t get me started on the tattoo that was all over him. It was like John’s…only thinner, and Gabriel’s moved. Yeah. I really mean that it moved. And not once, either. It was like a continuous moving body of tattoos.

  They were fighting and Gabriel, if it was possible, moved faster than John. That made me a teeny bit concerned. Humans didn’t move that fast and Gabriel was no exception. At least that’s what I’d been led to believe for the last seventeen years of my life. That’s what I held to be true.

  John zapped him with electricity, making me think immediately of my dream.

  I was still as I watched Gabriel pick John up by his neck, like a he picked up a piece of paper, nothing more.

  A gust of wind hit my back. Suddenly Rain was there, kneeling down to me. Rain. He was also a Daywalker. He saved me, true, but still. I was not happy with him either. No one saved me and then kissed me without my permission.

  “Come on, we need to get you out of here,” Rain told me, giving me one of his arms, like I was weak and I needed his help.

  And I didn’t. I rejected his offer and glared at him.

  “No. No, I’m not going with you. You’re just like him,” my finger pointed to John, who Gabriel still had a good hold of. I hated to associate the two brothers like that, but it was true.

  He seemed taken aback, like it was a shock or something. Like he’d never been compared to his evil brother before. And that I highly doubted. “No. I’m not,” he said, “I’m not like him.”

  Like I’d believe that. I protested, “Then why—”

  But he interjected, “Come now, questions later.”

  Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen. I was more of a kick-you-in-the-face-and-knee-you-in-the-groin kind of person. Then questions were asked. Then, and only then, did I come along like a puppy.

  It was actually very simple.

  But, if given the choice, I’d rather leave with Rain than with John. I had a feeling Rain would treat me a little better. Just a feeling. However, I was not going to move an inch, and I meant an inch, without Gabriel.

  So I told him that, “I’m not leaving without Gabriel.” I squinted my eyes and gritted my teeth.

  Rain
glanced to Gabriel, and I wondered if it was the first time he noticed him. But his gaze lingered there for too long, making me look over to see what was up besides the now-cloudy sky.

  Oh, God. John’s eyes turned brown. Normal. The blackness was gone.

  And yet I hardly felt anything for him anymore. It was strange how life and death circumstances could change the way you felt so quickly.

  After seeing us, John growled, headbutted Gabriel and was gone. Which was a fantastic thing. But, deep down I knew that we had to meet him again. We had to purify him. For good.

  Gabriel’s shoulders slumped as he turned and saw Rain. I forgot that these two guys never met before. For all I knew, Gabriel thought that Rain was an evil Daywalker, just like his brother.

  Which he wasn’t. He saved me, which was more than I could say about John.

  The Daywalker part, yeah. That was totally true.

  He took a few distrustful steps to him, saying, “Get the hell away from Kass.” Gabriel held up the stake, as if it would do something, even though it wouldn’t. He looked kind of silly with a bloodied hole in his shirt.

  But Rain stood his ground. “I am not your enemy.”

  “Oh, you aren’t?” Gabriel played with the wood in his hands. “If I had a nickel every time a Demon told me that. Well, I’d have one nickel, but still. Step away from her slowly.”

  I laughed at him. The laugh felt weird, but I kept laughing anyway. This was definitely not a laughing situation, and yet I couldn’t help it. This was one of the strangest situations I’d ever been in, so I thought it deserved a small laugh.

  The two males looked at me, both silently asking if I was insane. We all knew the answer to that question. Although, I did feel a bit insane as of the moment.

  “Ask her,” Rain muttered, low and quiet.

  Squinting, Gabriel finally looked to me for the answer. I didn’t have to answer, since he could read my mind, but I still felt like it needed to be said aloud: “He’s fine. I guess.” I mentally remembered the night in the graveyard and then shoved the memory out of my brain.

  Gabriel’s blonde eyebrows rose. “What was that?”

  Oops. My bad for giving that memory away.

  “Gabriel.” I got on my feet. “It’s nothing.”

  Rain appeared confused as Gabriel responded, “What do you mean, it’s nothing?” He turned to glare at Rain. “I don’t even know this guy. How did he save you? And why did he make out with you after? That guy looks like he’s ten years older than you—that’s illegal.”

  Rain’s brown eyes narrowed. “Three hundred and eighty-six.”

  “What?” Gabriel looked like he just got the wind knocked out of him.

  I knew I had a lot of explaining to do.

  “Yeah,” he nodded impatiently. “You do.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rain’s brown eyes stared at me, making me promptly remember that Rain wasn’t in our little mind reading circle. Though, it’s more of a line. Or a segment, if you want to get technical about it, since there were only two of us.

  “Come on.” I turned and started walking out of the field, where I thought the closest road was. “I’ll explain everything to the both of you. And Michael and Raphael.” I bit my lip, I really wasn’t looking forward to doing that, but it had to be done. “And I only want to do it once.”

  In a few minutes we came across the road, and at the exact same instant a car pulled over by us. Alyssa got out, yelling, “You’re okay. And Kirk—what about John?”

  This was weird. I rose my eyebrows and glanced at Rain. “You have some explaining to do too, buddy.”

  Alyssa stared from me to Gabriel to Rain. She was slow to say, “I’ll drive you guys home…?” It came out like a question, like she knew that I knew what she was and now she wasn’t sure if I liked her.

  And I reserved judgment. For now.

  “Do you have a cell phone?” I asked, dividing my time up between staring at Rain and Alyssa. The car ride so far was downright awkward, and my question was the first thing that was said the whole time.

  Alyssa didn’t take her eyes off the road when she shook her head no. Gabriel said, “Turn right here,” sounding like a GPS. A very angry GPS. Every few seconds he’d shoot a glare at Rain, just to make sure he wasn’t making out with me again against my will.

  “Rain?” My eyes took in his locked jaw and his clenched fists, and I realized he was as angry as Gabriel.

  Without a word, Rain unclenched one hand and reached in his pocket, pulling out a phone shortly after. His brown eyes stared through me as he gave it to me.

  I turned to look out the window as I dialed Michael’s number. Our house number. I heard the all-too-familiar answering machine. I decided to leave a message anyways, figuring either Michael or Raphael would have to listen to it eventually.

  “Hey. It’s Kass. Any of you there? We’re on our way home and I hope you guys get there soon, because—” I quickly glanced at Rain and Gabriel, who sat the farthest from each other. “—I’m not sure how much longer the boys will be able to tolerate each other.” I remembered to say, “Oh. And I’m fine. See you in a bit.”

  I closed the phone and handed it back to Rain. “Thanks.” I faked a smile, even though the last thing I wanted to do was smile.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel huffed, “thanks. Thanks for making out with her while she was pretty much unconscious.”

  “Gabriel,” I scolded him softly. He acted a jealous teenage boy, and frankly, Rain’s inappropriate actions were the least of my worries. “Rain, ignore him. He’s just—”

  “If I had the chance to go back,” Rain spat right back out, “I’d change nothing. I’d do it the exact same way. Does that bother you, Gabriel?”

  I covered my face as Alyssa glimpsed at me. “What are they talking about? Kirk kissed you? When? And why hasn’t anyone told me about any of this?” She questioned me, like I had the answers to them. I did, but I really didn’t feel like answering.

  I opened my mouth to reply, but stopped short when I heard Gabriel say “Yeah. It does. Know why? Because you’re ancient. You’re a pedophile. A creep. And I don’t want those kinds of people, or Demons, to kiss Kass.”

  Rain whispered, “She is not yours.”

  “She’s not yours, either.”

  After listening to them rant and rave for a few more minutes, I said, “Now I’m thinking that letting them share the backseat was a bad idea.”

  Alyssa forced a smile, but it was strained, just as everything and everyone was strained. Join the club, sister.

  Michael waited for us right outside the front door. “You’re alright. I was worried.”

  Raphael exited the house and said, “They left a message. Kass is fine and she’s…” He trailed off as he saw the four of us. “Coming.”

  “Good to know, though I would have liked to know that right when we got back. I need to learn to check that blasted receiver.” Michael motioned to the house. “Come in. We need to talk.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “You have no idea how badly.”

  “It’s bad,” Michael stated, finally noticing that two people were standing behind Gabriel and me. “Who are they?”

  “That’s only one of the things we need to discuss.” I walked in the house, followed shortly by him and everyone else. I pounced on the couch and didn’t move, enjoying the softness of the cushions.

  I heard everyone’s footsteps stop and looked up, saying, “You can go first, Michael.”

  Michael sat down on his chair and rubbed his hand on his stubbly chin. “Did you…happen to visit the main office today at school?”

  Oh, my God. I totally forgot. Mrs. McCafferty and her missing head. Yeah, that was not a pleasant sight. Did that make me a horrible person, that I could forget something like that so easily?

  “Well, we came to your school looking for you two and we ran across it. The bodies. So—” He shot a look at Rain and Alyssa, not knowing if he should continue. “—I called the Council. They’re
taking care of it.”

  “Taking care of it?” I echoed as I sat up. “What do you mean, taking care of it? Clean-up?”

  Raphael answered for him, “Their people cleaned it up and they’re sending someone to take the principal’s place.”

  “What? How did they clean it up already? How did they get here so fast? Do we know who’s coming?” The questions came flying out of my mouth without me taking a breath.

  “The Council has people stationed everywhere in America. It took them minutes to arrive on the scene,” Michael replied, cleaning his glasses like he always did. “And…no. We do not know who will be sent here to take the principal’s place. I only know that they must realize this city is a dangerous one, otherwise they wouldn’t send one of their own.”

  “One of their own…” I got excited. “Do you think that they’ll send—”

  Michael shook his head, saying, “I wouldn’t get your hopes up. There are dozens of Council members. The odds of them sending him are slim to none, given how close he is to you. It would…complicate his priorities.”

  “Wait a second,” Gabriel spoke for the first time. “Are you guys talking about—”

  A genuine smile crossed my face. The man who was my father figure. The man who had taught me how to survive the hellish life I lived. The man who had to go away and leave me years ago, giving me to Michael, who already had Gabriel to look after. “Koath.”

  “Now, who are they?” Michael pointed to Rain and Alyssa.

  Gabriel crossed his arms and pouted, mumbling something that I could not hear.

  “Michael, Raphael,” I gestured to them. “Meet Rain. I mean, Kirk and Alyssa.” Michael got up to shake their hands, Raphael stayed motionless, and Gabriel sat glaring at Rain. But I finished, “John’s brother and sister.” Michael halted instantly, Raphael was unmoving, and Gabriel still had a death glare going on.

  “They’re Daywalkers,” I finished. Michael’s mouth dropped slightly, Raphael looked like someone had just told him something he already knew, and Gabriel…he still had his arms crossed and looked like he wanted to kill Rain.