Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I always hated when anyone called me that.”

  “Anyone but me,” she whispered, deadly serious.

  “Anyone but you,” I was quick to agree.

  Alyssa inhaled, immediately addressing the one thing on my mind, the night I left. “You didn’t have to go. I grew up with two Vampire brothers. I’m used to the supernatural. I would’ve understood.”

  I turned from her, whispering, “I could not have asked you to waste your life.”

  “Who said it would’ve been a waste?”

  “You would’ve grown old, never been able to have a child.”

  Alyssa shook her head. “I never wanted kids. I only wanted you. And as for the aging part…” She moved in front of me, and before I could react, she gently caressed my face, wiping a stray hair from my eyes. “…I think I would’ve had the better half of the deal.”

  As I stared into her, feeling her warmth rush through me as it did when we were together, I suddenly grew sad. So very sad.

  “Raphael,” she whispered my name, “you are a good man. One of the best I have ever met, but you let your past guide you, not the promise of a future. Forget your past, forget your mistakes and your troubles. Live with me in the now. Let me show you. It’s not as hard as you think it is.” Alyssa cupped my face, and in the blink of an eye the distance between us was closed.

  She kissed me softly at first, and I kissed her back. It came so naturally, as if I had never left her, as if we’d been together all this time.

  “God,” I breathed into her neck, her smell one I’d missed dearly. “I have missed you.”

  Alyssa smirked, pulling me to the bed as she said, “Tell me that when we’re under the covers.”

  At that moment, I’d never been happier.

  Love was always a precious thing, and only fools voluntarily walked away from it.

  I was a fool, but I wouldn’t be a fool for much longer.

  I wasn’t going to run away this time.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – John

  I couldn’t decide how I felt about that journal. Even when it was no longer in my possession, I could still feel its weight. The lessons inside it were not lost on me, as I knew they were not lost on Raphael, either. He lived it, after all.

  With my hands in my pockets, I headed down the hall. As I went, though, I nearly ran smack-dab into Alyssa. She was going to see Raphael. Of course. There was too much between them, still, even after all this time. It was a weird thing to think about, me being her brother and all, so I tried not to think too deeply about why she waited until he was alone to see him.

  “John,” Alyssa spoke, smiling at me like she always had, like she did when she came home from school with an A in her hands. Always the overachiever. “I didn’t get the chance to ask how you’ve been.”

  “Fine” was my answer, though I didn’t know if it was true. There was something I had to tell her, though. “Kirk…” I stopped the moment she hugged me, wrapping her arms around me tightly.

  “I know,” she whispered, slowly pulling away. Our similar gazes met. “I felt it the moment he…” Even she could not finish her sentence. The pain was too much, for the both of us, but she was better able to hide it, quickly asking me, “You do not blame yourself for what happened to him still, do you? I know that’s why you left, but is it also why you stayed away this whole time?”

  I frowned, knowing my answer would only disappoint her. I had lived over two hundred years, yet she was the one with all the wisdom. She was the best of us, the best of Kirk and I. We raised her, we taught her, we cared for her…and now she surpassed me easily.

  Alyssa sighed softly, shaking her head gently. “John.” The way she spoke my name told me what she was going to say before she said it. “Don’t blame yourself. She would’ve taken him no matter what you would’ve done.”

  “She should’ve taken me.”

  “Life has other things in store for you,” she told me. “She’s out on the porch next door, if you want to talk to her.”

  I had to forcibly stop myself from rolling my eyes. “Why would I want to talk to her?” If Gabriel caught me talking to her, he’d probably take my soul and be done with it.

  Alyssa twirled, hands behind her back as she said, “Closure. You both need it before you can move on.” She disappeared into Raphael’s room, gently closing the door behind her, which was my cue to go and not think about what they would do behind that closed door.

  Closure? My mind echoed. We were never together, so why in would I need closure? Groaning, I exited the house and despite my better instincts, I glanced to the house next door, seeing that Kass was indeed sitting on the porch.

  Her shoes were off, and her bare legs were tucked under her backside as she simply sat in the waning sun. Shadows danced off the muscles on her arms. Her dark hair was down, messy and wild as it usually was. Kass never gave off the vibe that she cared about her appearance or even put a lot of effort behind it, but maybe that’s why at that moment, I thought she looked so beautiful.

  Before the world ended, the other kids at school would call me a player. A tool. A douche. That’s all I wanted to be, after the things I had done, those women who’d never return home because of me. The lives I took before I knew control. I didn’t want to care about anyone other than Kirk and Alyssa. Honestly, I didn’t think I had it in me.

  I didn’t want to go over to Kass, and I was sure she didn’t want me over there, either. Somehow my legs weren’t on the same wavelength as my brain, for I walked up the porch and sat beside her.

  For a few minutes we sat in silence. I stared down at my hands, tracing my knuckles with my thumb. It was impossible for me to deny the pull I felt toward her. Yes, I was attracted to her, but that wasn’t what I meant.

  There was something else. Something that spoke to my Demon side. Some light my dark inner self was drawn to, like a moth to flame. Strangely, I was the moth in the analogy. In the past, I’d always been the flame. I couldn’t help but wonder if other Demons felt it, too, if they felt the magnetism like I did. Maybe that was why Gabriel wanted her so badly. No one wanted the light more than the Prince of Darkness.

  Suddenly I felt a heavy weight, and I turned to meet her light eyes. There was something on her mind, and I was slow to ask, “What is it?”

  “It’s…weird,” Kass eventually said. “Every time I look at you, I picture the bloody mess that you left in the school office for me. Everything you did after Osiris’s light went inside you, all those people you killed…it was because of me.”

  I held in a smirk, for it seemed like everyone had some self-blame they had to sort out. None of us were perfect, although Kass was the closest out of all of us. “And why is it because of you? You didn’t make the other me do any of those things.” I wasn’t there, so it was hard to reassure her. I did my best.

  “You did everything to get to me. Instead of ending the world, like all signs pointed to, you were obsessed with me.” Kass shrugged once. “Maybe that was a good thing. Kill a dozen but keep the world intact.” She gripped the bench, shaking her head. “Osiris’s evilness was meant for me. It was supposed to take me. I was marked as its vessel, but then you…” She chuckled, recalling, “I thought you were an agent for Osiris. I thought I couldn’t trust you. I liked you, but I thought you were trying to kill me. But then…then you saved me.”

  “Sometimes I’m known to do the right thing,” I was slow to say, slightly taken aback at everything she told me.

  “If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know what would’ve happened.” Kass then asked, “You did like me, didn’t you? You didn’t chase me just because you’re two hundred years old and like young girls, did you?”

  At that, I couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t know what you think about us, but greater Vampires are not that common, so you might not know that we don’t mentally age. Being forever eighteen sucks. I get the hormones and the risk-taking with only small amounts of lesson-learning.”
/>   Kass grinned. “Like any normal eighteen-year-old boy.”

  “Yeah,” I spoke, feeling warm under her gaze. “And for the record, I did like you. A lot.”

  For a moment, neither of us said anything more. After a while, Kass stood and moved to the front door, lingering as she traced the wing on her necklace. “Do you think we would’ve dated?” There was a pause before she added, “Or were we doomed from the start?”

  The question stumped me. I never was one to think hard about the future. Even if we did date, there was the problem of my Vampirism, the problem of Kass’s duty. Raphael told me about what her and Gabriel were chosen to do. Imbued with strength from God, they were his mortal instruments to help purify the world and make it a safer place for his children, for humans.

  It seemed the Old Man in the sky chose poorly when he picked Gabriel.

  “I don’t know,” I spoke measuredly. “There was a lot between us, and a lot in between us.” Of course, I referred to Gabriel, but I dared not say his name aloud, fearing he would hear me. Then again, he probably eavesdropped on this entire conversation, somehow. I’d never put the Devil past anything.

  I couldn’t tell if she was happy with the response, or saddened by it, for she slipped inside the house, not saying another word.

  Well.

  I couldn’t say whether that talk brought any closure or not.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Kass

  I sighed.

  The shower was nice and hot, the whole room steamy, just how I liked it, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what John said. There was a lot between us, yeah. I knew that. A lot of awkward, intense feelings that I never had before about anyone. I never let myself, because I knew after what happened with Gabriel, relationships were cautionary tales. I was going to die young, so why not focus on my work? On purifying and fighting?

  Those moments, before John went psycho, where we talked and laughed, almost kissing but not quite…those moments were nice, and I couldn’t help but wonder how it was to be a normal teenager, with nothing else to worry about except boys and maybe grades and a small job.

  But he also said there was a lot in between us. That was what confused me. A lot in between us? He wasn’t referencing Gabriel, was he? Maybe he meant my job as a Purifier, or his tortured past as the brother who was always out of control.

  With yet another sigh, I turned off the water and wrapped myself up in a towel, slowly stepping out. The instant I was out of the tub, though, I wasn’t in the bathroom. Odd, right? Odd for anybody but me.

  I stood in a field, clad in my towel and sopping wet hair. When I turned, I saw my mother floating a few feet away, her flowing white dress defying all laws of gravity. She was no older than thirty, however old she was when she died. At least, I assumed she died. Koath never told me about my real parents. Guardians were forbidden, actually. They were supposed to be the parental figures in a Purifier’s life, ones who wouldn’t stop us from fighting until our death. A true parent would do the opposite, never wanting their kid in danger.

  She was pretty, her appearance similar to mine. I just knew in my gut she was my mother. Whoever my father was, wherever he was, whether he was alive or dead, I had no idea, and truthfully, I didn’t care. Not then.

  It was always my mother.

  “Hello, Kassandra,” she spoke kindly, smiling.

  “Yeah, hello. Hi. Is it, uh, too much to ask to not be in a towel?” As I asked the question, I glanced downwards, finding that I was suddenly in a bright, clean white dress very similar to hers. I picked at the sides, lifting them once and letting them fall. My hair was instantly dried. “A dress. It doesn’t feel weird on me at all.” When my mother did nothing except smile, I added quietly, “That was sarcasm, because dresses and I don’t get along.”

  I thought back to all the other visions I had of her, what she told me in every, single one.

  “If you’re going to say I’m going to die,” I told her, “let me be the first to say that you’re starting to sound like a broken record.”

  My mother reached out, gently touching my forehead and then my cheek. A tingling sensation spread from where she touched me, the electricity causing my heart to practically skip a beat. “I am so proud of what you have become. But time is growing short. Your hand changes anything it touches.”

  When she said nothing more, I deadpanned, “What does that mean?”

  “You must be careful of what you face. The creature who took you in this world will lead to your undoing in yours.”

  I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “Can you speak in anything besides riddles?”

  She laughed. “Do what you do best: save the world. I can think of only one person in any world who should be there next to you.”

  “Easier said than done,” I told her. “This world’s Gabriel is a little…” I lifted my hand, tilting it back and forth, the sign for iffy.

  “Keep him with you. He is the only one other Demons fear. Teach, and learn, that it’s okay to feel.” My mother leaned down, planting a tiny kiss on my forehead. “Good luck, my child.”

  I closed my eyes when I felt her lips on me, slowly opening them once she was gone, finding that I was once again I the bathroom, in a towel, hair dripping to the floor. I did not feel any better after that encounter.

  Was that supposed to make the upcoming fight for the staff easier? Because, from past experiences, during the end of a mission, there was always a big fight. I had a feeling we were going to go toe-to-toe with the man they called the King.

  I couldn’t wait.

  That night I could scarcely sleep.

  The King killed me in this world, that much I knew. The way my mother spoke, it sounded like whoever the King was would end up killing me in my world, too. Did that mean everything that happened here was going to happen back home the second I bit the dust?

  If so, great.

  Just great.

  No pressure at all, really.

  Slowly, I rolled out of bed, moving before the window. This spell-filled warehouse even had a full moon to grace its starry nights, closer and clearer than the one outside that constantly loomed over the world.

  It was true I wasn’t afraid to die, but that didn’t necessarily mean that I enjoyed hearing it, or thinking about it. I didn’t want to die, that was for sure. I didn’t know anybody that did.

  I felt the goosebumps on my arms, and I rubbed them with my hands. Couldn’t Alyssa turn up the heat a few degrees in this warehouse? Maybe this house had a thermostat. It had running water, after all, so why not something to control the temperature?

  An innate feeling told me I wasn’t alone, and my gut was right when I heard someone say in a tone that was eerily familiar yet different at the same time, “I could think of another way to warm you up.”

  In spite of myself, I smiled, and continued to smile as Gabriel’s reflection appeared in the window, taller than mine. “Now that,” I whispered, turning to face him, “is something my Gabriel would say.”

  “We are almost one in the same, aren’t we?” he asked, the emotion behind his blue stare heavier than ever, emotions I’d never seen inside my Gabriel. That, or he was really good at hiding them.

  I studied him, examining him hard. His face, his expression, the beginning of wrinkles around his eyes. Even his hairstyle, the way he carried himself—none of it reminded me of my Gabriel. Not immediately.

  “After everything,” I finally said, locking gazes, “I still don’t know.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help you decide?” Gabriel whispered the question, and the way his voice glided over each word, I found myself growing flushed in the face. He took a step closer to me. “Anything I can say, or show you?” Another step.

  I held up a hand between us, saying, “What I said before…it—it still holds.” I didn’t sound half as confident as I wanted to, and Gabriel heard it. He walked into my hand, for it was no barrier, a half-hearted one at best.

  “You don’t sound too sure,” Gabrie
l said, angling his head downwards.

  I remembered the kiss in the house, remembered liking it. I also remembered the lies he told me, how he hid what he was, what he became after he lost this world’s me. The necklace was a thousand pounds around my neck. All the bad, and I still couldn’t shake off the memory of that stupid kiss.

  After a moment, I spoke honestly, “I’m not.” A very breathy sigh escaped me when he grabbed my face, backing us up to the wall beside the window. My heart beat so fast I was afraid it would pop right out of my chest.

  I wanted to say that we couldn’t, but the truth was that we could. I knew we shouldn’t—that doing anything would first off go against everything I ever said to my Gabriel, and secondly go against my Purifier purpose. He was the Prince of Darkness, the Devil. Somehow, someway, Gabriel was not just Gabriel.

  This wasn’t my Gabriel. I wasn’t his Kass. Yet here we were, me pinned against the wall and him, doing the pinning.

  “Dear God,” I muttered, realizing that I wanted nothing more in that moment than to kiss him again. What was wrong with me?

  Gabriel’s face was inches from mine as he whispered, “Even God can’t save you now.”

  Then it was over.

  My eyes were closed, my will to deny the attraction crumbling. His lips were on mine, his hands cupping my face. They would’ve stopped me from running, from turning my head like I did to poor John that day in his car. But today, or tonight, I should say, I didn’t feel like running. I didn’t feel like turning my head and avoiding it.

  God help me, I wanted it.

  I wanted him.

  As it turned out, there was nothing more tempting than the Devil himself, especially when that Devil had the aged face of someone you cared about, someone you loved…someone you would die for.

  His breath was hot on my face, his mouth moving to my neck and planting countless kisses on every inch of my neck and collarbone. God, I never thought it could feel so good. Our bodies, well used from years of fighting and purifying, fit against each other’s like puzzle pieces.