Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “They are Daywalkers and you brought them in?” Michael was alarmed.

  “Oh, don’t worry, they’re harmless.” Gabriel said, “Unless you get hurt by kissing, then you better watch out.”

  Michael’s eyebrows wrinkled as Rain eyed Gabriel with hatred. The tension rose considerably, so I decided to say, “Don’t mind Gabriel. He’s just—”

  But Gabriel interrupted me, saying, “Jealous that everyone else is kissing you but me.”

  “Okay.” Michael’s fingers gripped the bridge of his nose. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

  “You wouldn’t,” Gabriel said simply.

  “Well,” Alyssa’s soft voice entered the conversation. “I’m not a, uh, Daywalker. Kirk and John are the two Vampires in the family.”

  I blinked. “What? But you’re their sister.”

  “Yes, but I’m not related to them by blood. They found me years ago and took me in. They’re good people,” she said quietly, looking to the floor as her wild black hair draped around her face.

  Gabriel uncrossed his arms and said, “They’re good people? They aren’t even people. They’re Demons. Daywalkers, of all things. How can you say they’re good people when John’s the one who’s been going around, killing everyone? Terrorizing Kass? He’s not a good person.”

  “You know, he wasn’t always like that. John used to be a kind soul, who loved girls a little too much, but so does every teenage boy,” Alyssa defended him, although I didn’t think that John needed defending, on account of everything he did. When Gabriel moved to look in her direction, her eyes fell to her lap, her cheeks burning.

  Oh, yeah. I forgot she had a teeny crush on the blonde, as ridiculous as it sounded.

  “Yes. Except he’s not a teenage boy. He’s over three hundred years old, if he’s anywhere near that guy.” Gabriel pointed to Rain.

  Rain cut in, “You know nothing of Vampires.”

  Gabriel faced Rain. “I know more than you think.”

  “Do you? I doubt it,” Rain said.

  “Enough.” Raphael moved between the two boys. “There will be plenty of time to argue when John is taken care of.”

  “Yes. How are we going to deal with him?” I asked to anyone who had the answer to the question. “I can’t purify him with a stake, so what are we going to do?”

  “I have no idea.” Michael sighed.

  Alyssa looked from me to Rain. He shook his head, but she went on, “I think I can do something.”

  “What?” I stared at her, hoping with all my heart that she had the most brilliant idea ever.

  Alyssa’s kind brown eyes gazed into me. “I can curse him.”

  “What do you mean?” Michael asked her. “Curse him how?”

  Alyssa fooled around with her small feet. “The only thing that John would not be able to bear is becoming human again.”

  “You can do that?” I got excited. If he was human, would he be back to normal?

  “No,” Alyssa answered me, which saddened me quite a bit. “I’m not powerful enough to do that…but I think I can do the next best thing.” She fiddled with her shirt, uneasy with five pairs of eyes on her. “Take away his immortality. Make him mortal.”

  “Alyssa,” Rain spoke, “we talked about this. Last time you tried doing a spell like that you nearly died. I won’t let you do this.”

  “The choice isn’t yours to make, Kirk,” she told him. “It’s mine. And that is what we are going to do. If I don’t, who knows what he’ll do next? Who knows how many more people he’ll kill?”

  Rain thought for a minute. “Fine. But if that doesn’t work, we are going to do it my way.”

  “And what is your way?” Gabriel questioned. “Kiss him to death?”

  His jaw tightened. “No. Dismember him.”

  “And you do realize that, in movies at least, that never works?” Gabriel sneered.

  “This isn’t a movie,” Rain sneered right back.

  “All right.” I held a hand up. “But say Alyssa’s plan doesn’t work. How are we going to get close enough to him so we can dismember him like that?”

  “We wouldn’t. I would,” Rain answered me.

  “My plan will work,” Alyssa assured us, “I know it. But if, for some reason, it doesn’t, or something disrupts me when I’m in the middle of the spell, you can carry out your plan, Kirk. All I’m saying is give me a chance.”

  Rain nodded, but I said, “Spell, huh?”

  “Yes,” Alyssa smiled at me, “spell. I’m a Witch.”

  “You’re a Witch?” Gabriel exclaimed, sounding vastly surprised. “Witches are real? I thought they were fairy tales.”

  “What, so Witches can’t be real but Vampires can? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense,” Alyssa said. And that was probably the first time she had sarcasm in her voice. I must have rubbed off on her. Her courage dwindled under the heavy gaze of Gabriel, so she turned to toy with the fraying edges of her skirt.

  Gabriel was going to throw a rebuttal out, but Michael said, “When are we going to do this, and how are we going to get John to come?”

  “I’ll make him come. And we can do it whenever you want. The sooner the better, I’m guessing?” Alyssa smiled slightly, mentally prepping herself for what she was about to do.

  “How long will it take for you to get ready?” I asked her. I wanted to do this thing as soon as possible and get things back to normal.

  “Give me one day.”

  “Tomorrow we’ll come here,” Alyssa told me as she and Rain began to leave. “Try to get some sleep tonight, for tomorrow, we will need all the strength we can get.”

  “I’ll try to,” I answered her honestly, for I wasn’t certain whether or not I’d get a wink of sleep.

  Alyssa turned and headed down the driveway to her car, but Rain remained. His dark eyes met mine and held them there. “Don’t worry about John. He’s nowhere near here. And if he comes back before we need him tomorrow, I’ll sense it and I’ll be over here in a flash to protect you.” His eyes tore away from mine as he noticed Gabriel stood behind me, giving him a dirty look. He went to Alyssa. He paused as he opened his car door and added, “We will get him, and we’ll stop him.” Rain got in the car and began to back it out.

  “I don’t like that guy,” Gabriel muttered into my ear.

  “I know, I know,” I replied as I closed the front door. I tried walking around him, but Gabriel got in my way every single time.

  “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

  “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s nothing I can do about it,” I said as I tried to sidestep him, but he still didn’t let me pass.

  “I want to kick his—”

  “Gabriel,” I said exasperatedly, “tell you what. You can beat him up after we deal with John, okay? Because until then, we need his help, whether you like it or not.”

  His blue eyes looked away. “Fine.” And with that, he ran up the stairs, taking two at a time.

  I went back into the living room and met Michael and Raphael. “They’re gone,” I said. “And unless you need me for anything, I’m going upstairs.” I saluted them like the weirdo I was and headed up.

  I sat on my bed, going through my pictures. For a person who never had a real family, I sure had a lot of them. Some with just me, others with just Gabriel, others with me and Michael. Me and Koath. Koath and Gabriel. All four of us, and every other combination.

  Honestly, I didn’t even remember taking these pictures.

  I didn’t know why I was looking at them, either. Maybe I was nostalgic about the past, about how things used to be so much better and simpler.

  A wet drop hit the plastic cover, and soon I realized that that drop came from me. Funny, I didn’t remember starting to cry. One tear. If it was only one tear, did that mean I still cried? Or did it mean that my eyes just leaked a little bit?

  I ran a finger across my cheek and felt no wetness. That meant the tear had fallen straight from my eye to the pictur
e book. What a movie moment.

  I stood and walked to my window. The night sky was abnormally clear. I could see the moon perfectly. Its craters, the spots that were darker than the rest, I could see it all.

  I wondered if Gabriel was seeing this, wherever he was. Wherever he had taken his date.

  Yes. Gabriel was out on a date. In a time like this. Last minute plans to get his mind off tomorrow, he said. The cute redhead from the bus. Michael let him go, which I couldn’t even pretend to understand.

  When he made his way out of the house, I wanted to yell at him. But I didn’t. All I said was have fun.

  Have fun. Have as much fun as you want, you dumb boy. Gabriel was an idiot. But that was what I came to expect from him.

  My eyes closed as a stinging sensation trembled across my cheek.

  Chapter Thirty-Four – Gabriel

  I rested my head on the table at Starbucks. Why was I sitting at a table alone in Starbucks? To get out of the house. Why did I say that I had a date with a girl from school? To make Kass jealous.

  But did she get jealous? No. All she told me was have fun.

  Right. Like I could have fun with any other girl that wasn’t her. That pissed me off. Why did she act like she didn’t care if I went out and fooled around with other girls? Why didn’t she get jealous, like me? Like how I used to get around John and how I now get around Kirk?

  Why did she have to act like she didn’t care? She had to.

  I brought my head up and sipped my coffee, nursing it like a child. Maybe she didn’t care. Maybe I was totally wrong.

  A body sat across from me, at my table. I blinked, realizing that it was Raphael. “What are you doing here?”

  “I followed you.” He glanced around the almost empty Starbucks. “Where’s your date?” He asked the question as though he already knew the answer.

  I ran my fingers around the lid and said slowly, “I don’t have one.”

  Raphael nodded. “I thought so.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked defensively.

  “It means that I know you lied, Gabriel. And I know why, too,” Raphael replied, leaning back on the metal chair. “But do you know why?”

  I quickly said, “Yeah. I couldn’t stand being in that house. I had to get out.”

  Raphael’s light eyes gazed at me, making me feel greatly uncomfortable. “Is that what you think? If so, you are more foolish than I thought you were.”

  I ignored what he said and countered angrily, “Why are you even here? To tell me you know I lied? Ooh, so what? It’s not like you’re Santa Claus and I’m suddenly on the naughty list. I don’t care.” I repeated, shrugging my shoulders, “I don’t care.”

  “Stop. You do care, and that is why you are here,” Raphael retorted matter-of-factly.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I was getting very agitated with this conversation. The dude didn’t even like me. Why was he here?

  “You know exactly what it means.” Raphael leaned forward and pointed to the table, as if he was now yelling at it and not at me. “You care. Don’t try fooling yourself that you don’t. Because you do. You care a lot.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I over enunciated each syllable, each word, as if saying it slowly would make it true. I did know what he was talking about. I knew what he meant. I didn’t want to admit it.

  “I came here to give you some advice.” Raphael folded his hands and stared at me expectantly. “Do you want it?”

  “Advice. From you.” I pretended to think. “This is something I just have to hear, or else I might keel over and die right here.” The sarcasm in my voice surprised even me.

  “Don’t wait forever. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

  I stared at him, watching him stand up and leave. After waiting a little bit, I got up and threw away my coffee, which had been empty for the last few minutes. What crappy advice. Don’t wait forever for what? Don’t wait until it’s too late for what?

  Despite all my protests, I knew precisely what he meant.

  Chapter Thirty-Five – Kass

  Once again, I didn’t dream last night. Why? Why didn’t I dream like normal? Because this wasn’t a normal situation, probably. Because everything was so screwed up.

  Michael finished his tea, asking us, “Ready to go?” I nodded. “Are you sure you want to go? Now’s your last chance to change your mind, Kass.”

  “I’m sure, Michael. I’m sure. I’ll be fine,” I assured him as he grabbed his keys.

  He turned to the stairs. “Gabriel. Come on. We’re leaving.”

  “Michael, you don’t have to drive us. We’ll be fine on the bus, you know,” I said.

  “No, no. It’s the least I can do, really.” Michael yelled to the stairs, “Gabriel. What’s taking that boy so long?”

  I shrugged. “I have no—” Gabriel walked down the stairs, wearing a tight shirt that showed off his flat stomach and broad shoulders, dark jeans that made his legs appear longer than what they really were, even though they were normally long. But that wasn’t what made me stop.

  It was the tattoos. They were still there. Like, permanently there. And those tattoos were a reminder of everything that I’d gone through in the last few days.

  “—idea,” I finished as I came to my senses.

  “When—what are those?” Michael asked him.

  “They came on me last night,” Gabriel answered as we walked to his car. Michael was in front of us, so I got his attention and mouthed liar. He just smiled and got in the car.

  “You know,” Michael inserted the key into the ignition. “It’d be nice if you told me these things when they happened.”

  I still couldn’t believe school was in session. The Council did fast, clean work. The murder of the principal and secretary weren’t even in the news.

  “How are you doing, Kass?” Mr. Straum, my physics teacher, asked me as he watched me fumble with the marble shooter. The same marble shooter that John and I worked on together. The one that was due last week. The one that I was failing miserably at fixing.

  “I’m fine,” I said, testing it out. Again. And once more it landed only a few inches from me.

  But it was obvious he wasn’t content with my answer, for he said, “I have no problem with you staying behind and trying to get this shooter fixed, but you are aware that the rest of the class is two projects ahead of you?”

  I nodded. Everyone else was getting ready to go outside near the road to measure the speed of cars passing by using only a timer and a measuring tape. I wasn’t an idiot. I just couldn’t, for the life of me, fix this marble shooter.

  “Alright. Do you know when John’s coming back from vacation?”

  “What?” I blinked and stared at Mr. Straum. He repeated himself, but I was lost in my mind. Vacation? Was that what Alyssa and Rain told the school board?

  “Um, no. I don’t.” I looked back down to the shooter.

  “Oh, well, for your sake,” Mr. Straum joked, “I hope he comes back soon. I don’t know how you’ll keep up otherwise.”

  A student called his name, “Mr. Straum. Come on!”

  “Kassandra, are you going to be alright in here by yourself?”

  I nodded again and returned all my attention to my marble shooter. As he left with the class, I thought, of course I’ll be alright here by myself. I was pretty much always alone, so it’s normal. Even though this class was the only place I really didn’t want to be alone in, but whatever.

  I sat across from Alyssa, who was busy wracking her brain for a good spell. Or, good words to create a good spell. “How,” I began, “can you concentrate with all this racket? Don’t you need silence?”

  She laughed lightly and shook her head. “No. The environment doesn’t matter. It’s just…” Alyssa flipped the paper so I could read it. There were lots of scribbles and x’s. “…I can’t think of what to rhyme immortality with. Besides that, the spell is almost done.”

  I searched through
my mind for a word that rhymed with it, but I was interrupted as someone sat next to me. It took me a little while to realize that it was Gabriel. Looking to his normal table, the one filled with all girls, I inquired, “What are you doing over here and not over there?”

  “Well,” Gabriel said, “for one thing, I can’t enjoy their company with our impending fight tonight. Figured I’d be better off with the team.”

  I laughed at his bluntness. “But they’ll miss you so much. They’re all in love with you, probably.”

  His wide shoulders shrugged as he answered, “I’m…done with that.”

  “Done?” I repeated, not quite understanding what he was trying to say. “What do you mean, you’re done?”

  “I don’t know,” he mumbled as he took the paper from Alyssa. His blue eyes studied it.

  “Hold on.” I grabbed the paper and gave it back to Alyssa, who sat there watching us. “Does this mean what I think it means? Is Gabriel the player gone?”

  Gabriel turned his head, his steely stare inches away from my face. “Kass, you’re an idiot.”

  “What?” I bit a chunk off my sandwich as I studied his face. That came without warning.

  “Immorality rhymes with immortality. God, can’t believe you two didn’t think of that.” Gabriel smiled at me, white teeth sparkling.

  Alyssa lifted her pen and said, “That works.” She started jotting down the word and working it into the spell.

  But I was still shocked that he called me an idiot. I was positive that he didn’t call me an idiot because I didn’t think of that word. There was another reason, one I couldn’t presently think of.

  That’s when Gabriel whispered in my ear, “You’re right.”

  And then he stole my Oreos, making me yell, “Jerk!”

  This was weird. And I didn’t mean that it was weird to stand in the kitchen and discuss what we were going to do about John with his brother and his sister. I meant that it was weird having Gabriel and Rain in the same room.