Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  Shaking the strange feeling off, I walked to his dresser and took my time finding just the right things. Once I had it, I went to his shoe area and grabbed the nicest-looking pair. Here’s hoping they would fit Gabriel’s gargantuan feet.

  Gabriel was sitting in the exact same spot where I left him. When he saw me, he perked up. “What’d you get me? Anything faintly cool?” I dropped the shoes by his feet and held out the shirt and tie I had taken from his room. He stared at them, blinked, and then stared at them some more. “You really expect me to wear that?”

  There was no doubt in my mind that he was talking about the shirt. It was a nice shirt, all black, long-sleeved, and hardly ever worn by Michael.

  “Yes, Gabriel, I do.” I flung the shirt at his face. It drooped down, hanging on his wide shoulders.

  “Fine.” He seized the shirt and took the tie from my hand. “I hope it fits. And, by the way, if Michael comes to me asking why his new black shirt is ripped, I’ll blame you.”

  “Why wouldn’t it fit?”

  “Michael and I aren’t exactly the same size, you know. And if you don’t know that, then you must be blind, because how I could be mistaken for a guy who’s Michael’s size? He’s more of the research man.”

  I laughed. “Well…just try putting it on. You might have to do it without an undershirt because you’re going to need all the room you can get,” I gave him my advice as I walked out of his room, for it was time to change.

  “Wait,” Gabriel yelled for me when I reached his door, causing me to stop in my tracks. “You need to wear an undershirt with these things?”

  “I think most do. I can’t be sure, though, because I’m not a guy,” I said. “Google it.”

  “Okay, thanks for telling me because I was starting to wonder if—” I closed the door behind me, anticipating that it would make him stop talking. But it didn’t. He raised his voice to make sure I heard it. “—you were a man underneath that small-boned, girly exterior.”

  I had a feeling that wasn’t what he was originally going to say.

  My ears heard him yell, “You’re right.”

  I was right. Of course I was right. I spent too much time with him, because I knew him way too well.

  Chapter Thirty – Gabriel

  Okay. The pants were on. They were tight, but they were on. The shoes were on. They were tight too, but they were on. Only one thing left to go: the shirt.

  I uncoordinatedly took off the T-shirt that I wore, stumbling over the boots Kass had pulled out in the process. Once I was shirtless, I kicked them aside, making a mental note to throw them out later. After we get this funeral over with.

  I shouldn’t even be going. I didn’t even want to go. No one ever wanted to go to a funeral, though. I didn’t even know Claire that well. No one did. Kass only met her a few days ago. The same with Max. Me? I didn’t think I’d ever said anything to her directly.

  The only reason I was going was for Kass. Kass never did deal with death well, even though almost no one she ever knew had died. Just when the word death was mentioned, she got all quiet and gloomy.

  Death was something everyone had to face at one time or another, and she just found it hard to deal with. But I understood. Purifiers usually died around our age, in their twenties if they were lucky.

  I gripped Michael’s shirt that I was, for the moment, stealing. Quickly I realized that it was buttoned, making me wonder why it was buttoned and folded. Seemed like overkill to me.

  I wouldn’t know if that was normal or not because I didn’t own any shirts like this. Maybe these things needed some kind of special treatment. They were special shirts that needed special treatment and only to be worn in special situations.

  My fingers must have been at the same button for almost a minute before I realized that this was going nowhere. My fingers couldn’t undo this, they must have been too big. Hmm. I found myself grinning. Who around here had small fingers?

  I made my way to Kass’s closed door. I thought about knocking first, but then guessed that she was done already. After all, she wasn’t the one who just spent a minute trying to unbutton this shirt.

  And besides, if she wasn’t done, and she wasn’t fully dressed, then I wouldn’t feel bad because neither was I. I would see her almost naked and she’d see me shirtless. It was an even exchange, right?

  I threw open the door, causing her to jump and twirl around. Turned out she wasn’t done and, just like me, was having some problems with her clothing. She responded very promptly, but I had seen her bare back. Well, bare back with a black bra strap, that was.

  “Has anyone ever told you—” I walked farther into her room. “—that you have a sexy back?”

  Instead of answering my question, she ignored me and said, “What are you doing here? And why didn’t you knock?”

  “Silly old me thought you’d be done by now,” I answered her with a huge grin on my face. Kass’s hands were behind her back, holding up her dress, and her foot was on top of the other, as if that was going to help her zip it.

  “If you’re not done, how do you expect me to be done?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “All you have to put on is the dress. And I was having trouble unbuttoning these…” I babyishly held the shirt out to her. “Can you do it for me?”

  Kass’s hands fell, making the dress suddenly get looser. “Are you serious?”

  “Yep,” I spoke quickly. “I am. Tell you what, I’ll help you if you help me.” She acted clueless, so I carried on, “You help me with my shirt and I help you with your dress.”

  “What makes you think that I need help?”

  The grin reappeared on my face as I handed her my shirt and walked around to her back. Kass didn’t object further, she went to work on those buttons and I, in turn, went to work on the zipper.

  The thing made it halfway up and got stuck. Playfully I pulled her close and whispered, “Suck it in.” Though in reality she had nothing to suck in, I was sure of that. She acted offended as I managed to zip it up fully. “There. All done.”

  Her incensed green eyes flipped to me. She held out the shirt. “Good. Now it’s your turn.”

  “Why thank you, my dear raccoon,” I said, making a big show of taking the shirt and putting it on. I had a few problems getting the sleeves on my arms. Kass wore a huge smile on her face as she watched me fumble with it.

  Once everything was good, I tried fastening the buttons, but couldn’t. Me and these buttons didn’t get along. Giving up, I said, with the nicest tone of voice, “I need some more help.”

  Taking her hands off her hips, Kass replied, “I know. I can see that. I can’t believe you can’t button your own shirt.” She came closer and reached to me. “What do you do with your jeans, huh? When you need to go to the bathroom or something? Do you still use elastic?”

  I faked being insulted. “I do not use elastic. And those are jean buttons. They are totally different than these little Demons.”

  “Ah,” Kass nodded knowingly, “so they’re Demons now, are they?”

  “You bet,” I said, feeling a tingle when her fingers touched my skin. She had done a good job of buttoning all the way down and was now in the process of buttoning the ones by my abdomen. “Feel free to explore while you’re down there.”

  Her brown eyebrows rose as she tugged the shirt, causing me to jerk. “Suck it in,” Kass said to me. She would use the exact same line as I did, but that was part of her charm. She finished and smoothed out some wrinkles, saying, “There. Now where’s the tie?”

  “What?”

  “The tie,” she repeated more firmly.

  “My…tie. My tie. My tie!” I ran into my room, saying, “Tie, tie, tie, tie. Tie!” I searched for it, finally spotting it on my dresser. I grabbed it and walked back into Kass’s room. She was holding up the necklace I bought for her years ago, the one that cost Michael a lot of money.

  Flinging the tie over my shoulder, I whispered, “Here. Let me.”

  Kass handed me the nec
klace and spun around. She lifted her hair up. I reached around her and slowly secured the diamond-filled necklace around her neck. She let her hair down and went for my tie. At least I knew enough to flip up my collar.

  Kass stood on her tiptoes for better reach and carefully and meticulously tied a knot. I knew a tie knot was called something, but I wasn’t sure what. I reached to turn my collar back down, but Kass swatted my hands away and did it herself, saying, “Now don’t screw this thing up, okay? And don’t play with it at the funeral.”

  “Okay, as long as you don’t trip yourself in that obscenely tight dress. Deal?” I held out a hand to her.

  A warm smile entered her lips as she took my hand and said “Deal.”

  Were we a great tag team or what?

  Chapter Thirty-One – Kass

  I was never one for funerals. Yeah, I hadn’t been to any of people that I knew, but still. I didn’t like them. No one liked funerals. It was a thing that I wanted to avoid at all costs in the future.

  And today just happened to be the perfect day for one. You know the kind: wet, dreary, overcast. Everything was drenched. We brought umbrellas, but somehow the rain came down at an angle, spraying us all.

  Though, not many people were here. Claire, Steven, Gabriel, Max, Koath, and I were among the only ones there. It was kind of depressing seeing how no one showed up. The funeral came up in short notice, but you would think that wouldn’t matter and that people would still come.

  He didn’t have any other living relatives besides Claire, so I could see why it was so empty. I wondered if this guy had some friends. Everyone had at least some friends. Maybe…he didn’t have any.

  Kind of like me.

  Though I did have Gabriel. And Koath. And Max. And Michael.

  Okay, so I had more friends than I thought. Whoo-hoo. So that’s a big f-o-u-r instead of a z-e-r-o? So what? And, besides Max, I’d known them my whole life, so as I saw it, they didn’t really count.

  My wet, drooping hair splattered on my face with the help of the wind. I reached up and stuck the criminal hair behind an ear. This place had more wind than I thought it would. Every day wind would come and make my hair a living pigsty.

  The priest finished speaking and blessed the coffin one more time. I glanced to Claire to see how she was. Truthfully I couldn’t tell if her face was wet with a mixture of tears and rain or just rain. Usually someone’s eyes got red and swollen when they cried. But hers weren’t. Did that mean that she hadn’t shed a single tear during her father’s funeral?

  That was not normal.

  Steven’s dark eyes met mine. He slowly came over to me, saying, “Kass. It’s good to see you, though the circumstances are…terrible.” His almost white hair was stuck to his forehead. The rain trickled down his pallid skin and seeped into his mouth. But he didn’t seem to mind. His eyes drifted from mine and saw the giant blonde-boy standing next to me. “And you are?”

  Was it just me, or did Steven have a little fear in his voice?

  “Gabriel,” he answered, stepping closer to me defensively. Was Gabriel on edge too?

  Maybe I was making all this up. Who knew?

  “I’m Steven, Claire’s uncle,” Steven told him, holding a welcoming hand to Gabriel.

  But Gabriel wasn’t having any of it. He replied, “In that case, don’t act so sad at her father’s funeral.”

  Wow. Really, Gabriel? I arched an eyebrow at him, as if that would make my point. But he was too busy ignoring me and glaring at Steven for whatever reason.

  Steven’s mouth tightened as his gaze fell back to me. I didn’t think he was taking the comment Gabriel said lightly. For a split-second, I actually thought he was going to try choking him. At least that’s what his eyes said he wanted to do.

  Then again, I was not the best eye-reader, if there was such a thing.

  Finally Steven told me, “He certainly gave the impression of a very polite young man.” I detected some sarcasm in his voice, and before I could respond, he was walking away, yelling to Claire “I’ll be in the car.”

  What. A. Nice. Guy. The both of them.

  Instead of flipping out, like I surely would have if I was Claire, she nodded solemnly and turned back to the casket. Well, someone had to stay with her, right? If I was her, I wouldn’t want to be alone, no matter how much I said I did. So…I guessed that someone was going to be me.

  After glimpsing at Claire once more, I looked at Koath, saying, “You guys go on home. I’ll stay.”

  “No, Kass,” Gabriel easily dismissed the idea before giving it a chance. “We can’t do that. We’ll wait.” His blue eyes pleaded with me.

  Gently I placed my hand on his arm. I knew he had good intentions for saying that. He was only thinking of my safety, as ridiculous as it sounded. But I was a Purifier, and I sure wasn’t going to let the threat of Crixis make me live the rest of my life in fear. “No, just go. I’ll be home soon.”

  Gabriel glanced to Max, and when he realized he was looking at the wrong person, Koath. He was obviously asking Koath to forbid me from staying.

  Sure, go ahead and try it. See how far that gets you.

  Koath wiped the rain off his goatee, at length saying, “I do not think it would be wise for you to stay here alone with her.” I began to point to Steven’s car, so he said, “And I am aware that Steven is still here. But if…he comes, then no one will be here to protect you.”

  I shook my head. I knew where he was coming from, because seeing Crixis while being alone was on the top of my to-don’t list, but Claire needed someone with her, even if that meant just standing next to her and being silent. Gabriel crossed his arms and had an I-told-you-so face on. “But…”

  “However,” Koath was reluctant to say, “I do recall what happened last time I tried forcing you to do something that you didn’t want to do. That bruise lasted for weeks.” He rubbed his arm, as if reliving the moment. “You do know how to karate chop, I’ll give you that. So…if you really want to stay, then I can’t stop you.”

  “But I can,” Gabriel said quickly. “You don’t have to do anything. I’ll throw her over my shoulder and—”

  “Gabriel,” Koath interrupted, “that would be highly unacceptable.”

  “What?” He shrugged it off. “I’ve done it before.”

  “My boy, we can’t lock her up in an unassailable bubble that we keep in an eye’s view at all times,” Koath explained, “even if that may be helpful in the fight against Crixis. If she thinks she’ll be fine here, then I’ll trust her.” His aged eyes were upon me now. “And I will also trust that if you run into trouble, you will not do anything reckless.”

  “I won’t,” I said, sneaking a superior smile towards Gabriel.

  His mouth dropped a bit, giving me the impression that he was greatly stunned at what Koath said. “But that’s…” Gabriel looked to Max for assistance. All Max did was take off his glasses and try wiping the water off them.

  And, since his shirt was wetter than his glasses, I guessed that was a useless attempt. Plus the fact that it was still raining.

  “Fine,” Gabriel harrumphed. “Fine. I see how it is. Take her side more often, why don’t you?” Without saying another word, he stormed over to the car and angrily got in.

  Koath gave me a stern stare. “Kass, I expect that this will not take long. You should be home very soon, do you understand?” He paused, looking back and watching Max get in the car beside Gabriel. “I fear that Gabriel will be on a warpath while you’re gone, so hurry, okay?”

  I nodded as the wind came and tried sweeping me away. If I wasn’t so soaked with rain, maybe it would have succeeded. Or maybe not, because that’d still have to be a very strong wind.

  He set a hand on my shoulder, gently saying, “Good luck. I’ll see you. I imagine I will be waiting for the man to wake up for quite some time, so I should be there when you get home.”

  I nodded once more and hugged Koath. He seemed to be surprised at my sudden hug outburst, but then he recovered h
imself and laughed. I spoke into his wet coat, “It’s good to have you back.”

  Koath stroked my dripping hair once as he said, “It’s good to be back.”

  I stepped away, ending the hug, and watched him go. Hoping that she hadn’t already left when I wasn’t looking, I turned my attention back to Claire.

  Nope. Still there.

  Sighing, I gathered my courage and walked up to her.

  Claire didn’t even glance at me when I reached her. Tucking some uncontrollable hair behind my ears, I said, “How are you?”

  After a minute, she shrugged. Well, that was a delayed reaction if I ever saw one. And I’d seen some.

  “I don’t know…” Her voice was melancholy. Understandable. “A few weeks ago, I didn’t think that I could live through this…but now, it’s like I knew it was coming. I’ve been bracing myself for this for a long time. And now that it’s happened…what am I going to do?” Her eyes stared out at me from under her short hair. “What am I going to do?” She repeated.

  I was silent for a moment, because I had no answer. It wasn’t like I could just break it down for her. So I settled for saying, “I’m here for you, Claire.”

  Sniffing, she responded, “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Claire choked out the last few words, ultimately collapsing on my shoulder. At first I was a little stunned; I didn’t quite know what I should do. I decided to gently pat her back. That was normal, right?

  “I know everyone says this, but why did this have to happen to me? Why me? Oh,” Claire sobbed into my coat, “God, why me? What did I do to deserve this?”

  “Claire, you didn’t do anything,” I assured her, continuing to pat her back.

  “Then why me?”

  Light illuminated the darkening sky, signaling that more rain was coming. Thunder echoed through the air, making the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. We needed to get out of dodge. That storm was headed toward us, no doubt.

  Suddenly it hit me: how alone I was. I was putting Claire in danger by being here with her. What was I thinking when I told Koath that I wanted to stay here? I could answer that question: I wasn’t thinking. At all.