Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  I speedily opened the case and got another pair ready. My burning eyes glanced in the mirror. My real eyes seared through the colored contacts. It happened every now and then, and unfortunately, I couldn’t control it. That was why I always carried my sunglasses with me.

  My fingers precariously reached in my eyes to pick out the botched contacts. I dropped them in the sink and chose a pair of dark blue ones. The color brown was getting a little boring.

  After putting them in and blinking a few times, I closed the case and walked out of the diminutive bathroom. I barely had enough room to stand in there. I wasn’t used to such tiny, cramped spaces. Hotels did nothing for me, even if I did look remarkably good in the grimy mirror.

  Years upon years of training, I worked out like my life depended on it. And in a way, it did. My future did. My body, when everything else was gone and washed away, was all I had. It was all I needed, in truth.

  My body was the perfect weapon.

  Chapter Six – Kass

  The Principal had his hand over his mouth, the corners of his eyes bright with happiness. “My, you have certainly grown up in the last few years, huh? I hardly recognize you.”

  I was speechless.

  “Forgotten me already? Kassandra, I thought I taught you better than that.” He shook his head and rubbed his graying goatee, a keen smile growing on his face. He wore a suit and tie, something I’d never seen him in, before now.

  Finally, after a few unusually silent moments, I managed to say, “Koath?”

  The smile I had grown up with widened on his aging face. “How are you, Kass?”

  “Good,” I could barely find the words to say. How else was I supposed to react to seeing Koath, who I always pictured as my father figure, for the first time in almost five years? “I mean, I don’t know. Okay.”

  God, when did I turn into a babbling idiot?

  “That is…surprising, considering everything that has happened in the last few weeks,” Koath spoke, his expression turning serious. “I’ve been informed about everything. The Council made sure of that. And Michael made sure the Council knew.”

  I laughed. “Yeah. Michael still lives by the handbook. Well, practically,” I fixed myself. After all, if Michael lived by the handbook, then he would not have let John, Rain and Alyssa go. We would have purified those guys right then and done who knew what with Alyssa.

  “So,” I said, searching for the right things to say, “what have you been up to?”

  Koath fixed his tie, looking slightly uncomfortable. I wondered why? “I…have been on secret Council business for quite a while.”

  At that, I rose my eyebrows.

  “For the last year or so, I’ve been mentoring a remarkable young Purifier. I have not seen such talent in quite a while, actually.”

  “Really?” I feigned interest, when in reality I felt a twinge of hurt. He’d replaced me?

  “Yes. Max is a very talented young man. Very talented indeed, especially if you can walk into a room without noticing him at all.”

  “What?” My eyes glanced around the small room. There was no way I’d miss another person in this teeny office. However, in less than a second my gaze landed on an unassuming boy, leaning in the corner.

  I could see why I missed him.

  Max was a small boy, less than six foot, with a small frame, red curly hair, and glasses. That was not what I expected.

  “Max, come over here and introduce yourself,” Koath ordered, his tone light.

  Max stood and held out a scrawny hand to me. I simply stared at it for a little bit, not knowing what to do or how to feel about this.

  Begrudgingly, I shook his hand as I said, “Nice to meet you, Max.” I put on my biggest (and fakest) smile ever. I had to be nice to this boy even though he looked like a complete dweeb.

  A voice came out of his mouth that I did not anticipate from him, a low voice, “It’s nice to meet you too, Kass. Koath has told me a lot about you.” He probably meant it as a compliment, but I just stood there, not moving and not saying anything. Maybe I was getting distracted from his huge, nineties-era bug glasses.

  “Max is in many of your classes. I trust you will show him the ropes around here? Ah, Gabriel. It’s wonderful to see you again.” Koath smiled and puffed out his chest, like he was about to burst with the amount of happiness he held in from seeing us both again.

  I looked to Gabriel, who just walked in. He did a what’s-up nod to Koath and then pointed to Max and asked, “Who’s the geek?”

  When Koath said Max was in most of my classes, he meant two. Two out of eight. Math and English. Figured. The one class I needed help in, physics, was the one that we didn’t have together. From appearances, I couldn’t help but assume he was good at science stuff.

  My luck sucked.

  My lack of luck sucked.

  Sitting in physics, I held in a moan as Mr. Straum waddled over to me. At least it was a good change from his usual ceaseless of pacing back and force. Though, coming to me, he couldn’t have any good news.

  Today was not a good day.

  “I have a surprise for you, and I think you’ll be very happy with it,” Mr. Straum seemed proud of himself.

  “Okay?” My voice gave away the fact that I didn’t care one bit what surprise Mr. Straum had for me.

  “Come to the back room.” He started walking and, when I didn’t follow, he waved me over and said, “Sometime today. I do have a class to teach.”

  Great. I could only think of a few things that would be waiting back there for me.

  I was, unfortunately, so far behind the rest of the class it was laughable.

  As we rounded the corner into the small back office, I was relieved to find that someone else was back there. Another girl.

  “Kass, do you know Claire? She’s in my AP class. She has third period study hall and I got her to volunteer to tutor you. Now, uh, get tutoring.” Mr. Straum closed the door after walking out, smiling at himself.

  Claire looked at me from underneath her short blonde hair. “Hey.” And when I said short, I meant boyish short. She didn’t look like the type to be in AP physics. Or any AP classes, for that matter. She seemed more like a sports person than one interested in academics.

  I sat next to her on a little metal chair, noticing that she was bigger than me. She was taller, that’s for sure, but then again, I was not that hard to beat in that department. Her body was big too, though, as if her body frame belonged to a swimmer or a tennis player. Her shoulders were wide and her arms had visibly defined muscle.

  A strange sight to see on a girl who’s supposedly in AP physics.

  I could not shake the thought that she should be out in gym class being the aid and helping the gym teacher out because she loved gym. I knew no one loved gym that much, but still. It’s where I pictured her.

  “Hey, I’m—”

  But Claire interrupted me, frowning, “Kass. I know. Mr. Straum told me your name. Let’s get to business so we can get this over with.” She opened a nearby physics book and started lecturing me on speed and velocity.

  Well, wasn’t she just the nicest person?

  Gabriel waited for me at the lunch table, alone. The same table we used to share with John and Alyssa before everything happened. Now, I guessed we’d share it with Max, wherever the heck that boy was.

  “Last time I left him, he said he wanted to go check out some stuff at the library,” Gabriel answered my mind, eating a quarter of his sandwich in one bite. “Figures, we get a new buddy and he has to be a super nerd.”

  Trying to ignore the view of Gabriel’s mouth full of semi-chewed bologna and failing, I replied, “Don’t call him that. We have to be nice to Max. He’s got no friends here, you know.”

  “Oh.” Gabriel popped open a chip bag. “Kind of like you?”

  Harrumphing, I rolled my eyes and said, “Shut up.” Gabriel laughed, causing me to kick him under the table.

  His blue eyes became serious. “If you want to play footsie with
me, all you have to do is ask.”

  As Gabriel’s foot made its way to mine, I stood up and said, “I’ll go see if he’s in the library.” He got up to follow me, but I pointed a finger to his seat, saying, “No. I’ll go alone. I got this. It’s like a two second walk.”

  He fell down into his chair, muttering, “Well, that was an exaggeration.”

  “Just eat,” I told him. I walked out of the cafeteria and soon realized something. I had no clue where the library was. I was weeks into school and I didn’t know where the library was. How sad was that? I’d just chock it up to the fact that I always had better things to do.

  Until now.

  After a few minutes, I realized I walked in circles. I stood outside the cafeteria, like I had never left, which I was reasonably certain I did. I remembered passing Mr. Wood’s room.

  I decided to make another round of the school, making sure to turn in places that I didn’t before. After making a few random rights and lefts here and there, I saw the library’s double doors. I walked hastily to the doors, figuring I’d already spent the better part of my lunch looking for this kid so I was going to hurry this up.

  Except I was having some slight problems with actually making it to the door. And you would think that walking to the doors wouldn’t be a problem for me—but it was proving to be rather difficult, because for every step I took, I felt like I got farther and farther from those two doors.

  What was going on here?

  That’s when the school was pulled out from me. Or…maybe I was pulled out of the school? The doors, along with the surrounding lockers and walls faded from my vision. Fast.

  Oh, crap.

  Sand licked at my feet, causing me to look down sharply and wonder where I was. There was no sand where I lived. Nowhere close. Well, there was by the beach, but that was over two hours away.

  And besides, this sand wasn’t soft, seashell-ridden beach sand.

  It was hot, coarse desert sand.

  I spun, glancing all around and taking in the fact that I was in a lifeless desert. Sand dunes rose around me, wind whipping the sand into wavy patterns. The question that popped into my head was: why was I in a desert?

  “You. Come,” I heard a woman’s voice say, not too far a distance from me. From the tone of her voice, I could tell she was an utter you-know-what.

  Guiding myself around the huge, red rocks that erupted out of the sand here and there, I followed the sound of her voice until I came across a tent that was spread in front of an oasis. Water and flowering trees, a mini-paradise.

  The tent was decked out with golden columns and golden guards. It wasn’t their flesh that was golden, either, for their skin was burnt red from the hot desert sun. Their armor was golden and reflective.

  A part of me wondered if their greaves were made of real gold, but then I recalled how soft true gold was. They’d be stupid for making armor out of real gold.

  Two guardsmen stood, firm and tall, holding long spears that had a golden tint as well. When I got closer, I noticed that their chests and stomachs were showing, and that they both had muscular bodies.

  I slowly entered the tent, afraid at what I was going to see next.

  The woman who spoke was sitting on a golden throne, legs crossed as if she were the high and almighty God. She was hardly dressed. Her large chest was barely covered with a limp cloth that dangled down between her legs. Her black hair was drawn back in a thin, yellow band. Her eyes were painted in a serpent-like way, dark black kohl liner.

  Her full red lips were drawn into a sly smile. She leaned forward and I took in the fact that she had decorative black paint all along her arms and the sides of her legs. Standing up, she walked leisurely to the person who knelt before her. The woman brought her foot up to the man’s chin and forced him to look up at her.

  With a swift twist of her ankle, his neck snapped. The man, covered in shiny black armor was dead. She was a strong creature. I covered my mouth in horror. Not for the fact of witnessing a man’s death, but for the realization of what strength and power the woman had.

  Except…he wasn’t dead.

  Within seconds, the man trembled, struggling to stand once more, his head at a natural angle. I couldn’t see his face, but I could picture the way he looked at the woman when she said, “You pathetic, useless worm.”

  She paced the length of the tent, saying, “I order you to scope out that filthy Egyptian village and you procreate and disregard my commands.” In a flash she held him up at the neck. “No one disobeys me.” Her highly done eyes blinked, and she opened them, revealing they had turned black. “I may not be able to permanently kill you…” She licked her elongated teeth.

  Those teeth…I’d seen teeth like that before. Not on Nightwalkers, but on Daywalkers. On John. Her four front teeth were all over an inch long, but instead of her canines being the longest, like they were for Nightwalkers, her two front ones were.

  “But I can kill your whole family,” she finished. “However, I am in the middle of preparing a war, so I will give you one, last chance.” She motioned for an inside guard to come to her. Violently she unsheathed his golden sword and threw it on the ground, directly in front of the man. “Kill them.”

  A gasp escaped my throat as the library’s double doors came flying back to me. Well…that was weird. And not normal. It felt so real. Like I was really there. Looking at…the past? Or was it the future?

  No, it had to be the past. No one wore armor like that anymore, and no one had swords and weapons like that.

  I honestly didn’t know what to make of it. Whatever that was.

  My shaking legs took me closer to the doors of the library, and this time I actually made it. Thank God. At least I wasn’t trapped in some dumb déjà vu thing. Pushing them open, I looked around for Max, or, more correctly, his unmistakable red hair. That color was visible miles away.

  I went around to look at the computer lab. No one was there, save for one girl who sat by herself at a table eating her lunch and reading a huge book.

  Claire.

  Miss I think I’m better than you. That was the general attitude I got from her, anyway.

  Shrugging my angry feelings off, I walked over to her. I needed to find Max and maybe, just maybe, she saw him.

  As soon as I was within ten feet of her she glanced up, glaring at me. “What are you doing here? Get lost going to the bathroom?”

  Though she wasn’t half wrong about the lost part, I inwardly growled at the insulting question, holding back my Purifier instincts to kick her butt from here to the office.

  “No,” I said with a smart tone in my voice. “I’m looking for someone.”

  “No one is in here except for me,” Claire replied too quickly.

  “Are you sure? You haven’t seen—”

  She cut me off, “Yes, I’m sure. I’m alone. Can you go look somewhere else and leave me be?” Her eyes were back on her book.

  My anger flared. I was pissed.

  Why was she so mean? Did I do something to her when I wasn’t looking and I just didn’t notice? That was highly doubtful, but stranger things happened. I let my mouth go without thinking first, “I can see why you’re alone.” And with that I stormed out, not looking back once.

  The bell rang, indicating that it was the end of the day. After getting my homework from my locker, I walked out of the school and headed to the buses without waiting for Gabriel. After all, he had sent me on a wild goose chase during lunch.

  Remember how I went looking for Max in the library and ran into Claire instead? Well, it turned out he just took really, really long in the lunch line. When I came back empty handed, without Max, I found him and Gabriel sitting together. They both were really quiet and really awkward.

  In a few minutes we were heading home. Gabriel jumped seats so he was next to me. “Hey, you’re still mad about lunch, aren’t you?” The bus pulled in front of our house and I stumbled over him without giving him an answer.

  After all, I didn’
t have to. He already knew that I was mad.

  “Yeah.” Gabriel threw his backpack down in the kitchen. “But I don’t understand why. Why are you still mad? I said I was sorry and that I didn’t see him standing in the line.”

  “Gabriel, it’s not that. I didn’t get to finish my lunch.” I opened the refrigerator door and pulled out some fresh strawberries. The carton was calling my name.

  “True. I did.” Gabriel stole one from the box and shoved it all in his mouth, chewing like a dumb boy, which he was—both dumb and a boy.

  I sat on a stool and let my back slump. “I saw something.”

  “I see lots of somethings.” Gabriel moved himself into the stool next to mine. “What’s so special about this something?”

  “I meant a vision,” I said, taking a huge bite of another strawberry.

  “Oh. Well, tell me about it. Or think about it. Either way works, I guess.” Gabriel shrugged.

  I closed my eyes and mentally relived it. The sand. The woman. The gold. The man. Everything she had told him. Everything.

  Gabriel spoke first. “That was…intense. Who was she?”

  I pushed the strawberry container to him and stood up. “I have no clue. Hey,” I said, totally changing the subject of our conversation, “aren’t we supposed to go to the church to meet Raphael?”

  Though he wasn’t a priest, he insisted on wearing the all black with white collar attire, day in and day out as he taught us. Raphael took over our tutelage in this town. It’s not like I hadn’t had enough schooling about Demons, history, and fighting techniques already, right?

  Sarcasm. That was sarcasm, because I’d been learning about it ever since I could remember.

  “Nope,” Gabriel answered me matter-of-factly. “Michael said he’s coming here in about an hour. Today’s lesson is supposedly all about our knowledge.” He put the word knowledge in quotation marks. “Although, I personally, have no knowledge of anything besides the history of the Hallmark channel, the mating habits of the leafy sea dragon and the route our mailman takes.”