Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

I felt bad for Max, who was silent in the front seat. The small, nerdy, red-headed boy was always quiet on our morning rides to school. Then again, no matter what the time was, Max was never a talker. He was an abnormally quiet Purifier and basically the polar opposite of Gabriel and me.

  “What is wrong with you two?” Koath eyed us using the rearview mirror.

  We answered “Nothing” at the exact same time.

  “Did you get into a fight?” His graying eyebrows lifted. “Again?”

  I kept quiet as Gabriel spoke up, glaring at me with an intense and ultra-blue stare, “Yeah. You know Kass. She’s not exactly the easiest person to get along with in the morning.”

  I opened my mouth to defend myself, but Koath said first, “I know.” I couldn’t believe it. Two of the most important men in my life, ganging up on me.

  Gabriel continued, “Or in the afternoon, or at nighttime.”

  “Hey,” I stuck up for myself. I knew I could get belligerent and hostile, sometimes, but not all the time.

  Gabriel ignored me and carried on, “Even when she’s sleeping she abuses me.” He turned his whole body to face me. “You know you punch and kick in your sleep, right?”

  “It’s a good thing,” I replied sarcastically, “because how else am I going to keep your hormones at bay?”

  “My hormones?” Gabriel forced out a laugh. “I think we both know who’d jump whose bones if given the chance.”

  I noted Koath’s concerned yet slightly amused face in the rearview mirror. “You’re making that up anyway,” I stated firmly, believing it was the truth. “I don’t punch and kick in my sleep.”

  “Why would I make that up? What purpose would making something like that up have?” Gabriel inched closer with every question, lifting a single eyebrow. “What would I have to gain by making that up, hmm?”

  I got in his face, playing the same game as him. “That’s funny, because I could swear that half an hour ago you said I couldn’t take you.”

  “Oh,” he squinted his eyes, “it’s a whole different ballgame when we’re sleeping. You have an unfair advantage.” Gabriel lifted a finger in my face, its tattoos hidden behind concealer. “I know your secret, so just admit it. When you sleep you get possessed by some kind of ancient Kung-Fu fighter.”

  Max chuckled in the front seat but soon realized that I was not in the mood to be laughed at, so he quickly covered his smiling face with a freckled hand. Koath, on the other hand, did no such thing to conceal his laughter.

  I couldn’t believe it. Koath was laughing at me. Koath, the man who taught me everything I knew. How to purify a Nightwalker, what two plus two equaled, and who King Henry VII was. That same man currently betrayed me by laughing at me.

  “He’s not betraying you, Kass,” Gabriel spoke into my face, “he’s just laughing at you. And, before you ask, there is a difference between the two.”

  I bared my teeth like a rabid dog and grabbed his paint-splattered t-shirt. Well, tried to grab it, anyways. The shirt was too tight, so there was nothing loose to get a hold of. I kept trying to get some fabric in my hands for the next thirty seconds before saying exasperatedly, “How’d you even get this thing on?”

  Even I didn’t wear things that tight, and I wore some pretty tight clothes.

  “I’ll freely confess that it took some time wiggling into it,” the blonde boy admitted, “but I did it for some specific reasons. Do you know what they are?”

  “No,” I kept my focus on his too-tight-to-be-possible shirt. I could not grab even a fold of the shirt in my hands. It hugged his toned muscles, and I fought my eyes to bring them to his face. No way was I going to let Gabriel catch me ogling his muscles. I wasn’t that kind of girl, even if I did make out with him in the other world.

  “Well, first and foremost, it shows off my amazingly tight body, which you seem to not ever get enough of. Lastly and secondly, I love this shirt and won’t throw it away.” Gabriel’s expression was smug. “Had it three years. Plan on going another three. I want my arms to

  bulge—”

  Instantly I tore my hands off of his chest, giving up the notion of grabbing some of his shirt. We were already in the school’s parking lot. Koath parked the car and I angrily got out, muttering, “You’re so dumb.”

  What a comeback, Kass.

  Gabriel laughed and scooted out of his seat, replying, “The important thing here is that I’m only dumb with you.”

  I glared at him while Koath stood beside me, saying, “Let’s get this show on the road. It’s time for school, so stop your bickering, you two. Let’s not forget that I am your principal and we are now on school grounds, and I won’t tolerate this.” Koath broke into laughter and looked at me. “How’d I sound? Authoritative? Like an American principal upset at two ridiculous teenagers?”

  I couldn’t help smiling in return. Having him around made me remember the good old times, years ago. When things were simpler, when I didn’t have any visions whatsoever. “Like a dumb school principal,” I responded with an equally dumb smile on my face.

  Koath’s old eyes met mine. “Perfect. That’s just what I was going for.”

  We started our long trek across the parking lot when Gabriel whispered loud enough so just us four could hear it, “Yeah, it was pretty good. No one would be able to guess that you were sent here from the Council because the last principal was murdered by Kass’s evil ex.”

  “Gabriel.” I lightly hit his arm. He feigned an injury as I scolded him, “John is not my ex. We never dated.” Out of everything he just said, that’s what I took issue with? Not the part about screaming our secret across the parking lot?

  “Okay,” Gabriel didn’t seem to believe me, “then what should I call him? Your first crush who just happened to go insane?”

  I decided to bite the bullet and play his game. “What should I call the girl you first liked? The girl whose hobbies include young, blonde boys and feeding them to her pet Nightwalkers?” He met my question with silence, prompting me to say, “That’s what I thought.”

  Max pushed his bug glasses up his nose and opened his mouth for the first time all morning, “I think I’m missing some background expository here.”

  Gabriel was angry when he said, “Maybe Kass will tell you all about it at lunch today. About how she was right and I was wrong and all that other crap.”

  Max was clearly going to say something in response, but Koath came between the boys and gripped Gabriel’s shoulder, saying, “Wait a second…does that mean that you and Kass have slept in the same bed?”

  Way to put it together minutes later, Koath.

  Gabriel took his time to answer, thinking of the right thing to say. I bit my lip. This was great. Just great. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that, sir. Could you repeat the question?” Gabriel chose to play the stupid card. And by the look on Koath’s face, it wasn’t working. “Or maybe could I phone in an expert?”

  “I guess that’s my answer.” Koath looked from Gabriel to me. His tired eyes dug into me as it hit me. He was disappointed in me. He was freaking disappointed in me even though nothing happened between us.

  I had some self-respect. Maybe not in the other world, where Gabriel was a tortured soul, but here? I wouldn’t in a million years do anything with him. He was like a brother to me. A witty, talkative, sometimes annoying brother who often made inappropriate comments.

  Okay, I could see where Koath’s worry might come in, but that settled it. We were going to have a talk, whether Koath liked it or not. This mess needed to be cleaned up. Pronto.

  Physics, my third period class, greeted me with bitterness. I wholly expected Claire to not be in the backroom, waiting to tutor me. I knew all about the facts of physics. It was just the whole building part I had trouble with.

  I took one step in the backroom and saw the big-boned, athletic, super-smart girl sitting in her usual seat. Her short, boyishly cut blonde hair was at the length where it covered her bright blue eyes.

  Claire. The one who acted
like she hated me when she first met me. Claire, the girl who just lost her father because of Crixis. Because of me. Crixis had wanted my attention at a football game, and I had a gut feeling that he was the one who killed her father, who was in a critical state in the hospital. He practically came clean about it.

  Claire didn’t even have any other living relatives. Her mom died about a month ago in a crash, the same car crash that gravely wounded her father and sent him into a coma. Her weird, practically albino uncle, Steven, had moved in with her. He wasn’t even related to her by blood, but by marriage to her older sister, who was also dead.

  This girl had worse luck than I did.

  As I said a soft, “Hey,” I noticed her eyes were beyond sad, as they’d been for a while.

  “Hi.” Her voice was quiet, and she didn’t bother to even glance at me. “Do you remember where we left off?” Claire reached for the nearby physics book and opened it to the table of contents.

  I tried thinking back. It seemed like we hadn’t done this in forever.

  “No, sorry,” I apologized. “We can start anywhere you want.”

  “I guess we can start with acceleration,” she mumbled as she flipped to the corresponding page. I knew we already did that, but I wasn’t about to argue with a girl in mourning. All I did was nod and hope with all my heart that this class was going to end soon.

  My eyes flicked to the clock. Only forty-nine more minutes to go.

  “So, Kass,” Gabriel began as he took his spot next to me at our lunch table, “about this morning…”

  I perked up and stared in his direction. He said not another word while he emptied his bagged (and huge) lunch. It was like the scene from Breakfast Club, only with more food. I had the exact same lunch size, too. All the training and fighting and God-given strength made us eat a bit more than our normal peers.

  Max uncoordinatedly dropped his tray on the table as he tried pulling out a chair for himself. “Oh, fiddlesticks,” he said, licking ravioli sauce off of his finger. The dork ran to the condiments cart and grabbed a heap of napkins.

  I turned my attention back to Gabriel, who was busy shaking his head and saying, “Fiddlesticks? Who says fiddlesticks? Sometimes I do wonder how that kid can throw a punch without knocking himself down.”

  Claire came over, clutching some large book about cats. Before seeing Max’s mess, her expression was sad and depressed, but once she saw the splatter of the red-orange sauce, she quickly started to panic, for the gooey substance had started to ooze onto her own seat. The girl stood there, not knowing what to do.

  I almost laughed.

  Max rushed back, carrying a load of napkins that only a person who just lost half their blood would need. His too-deep-for-his-body-type voice directed itself at Claire, saying, “I am so sorry. I had a little incident with the chair and the tray.”

  Gabriel and I glanced at each other as Claire burst out in a short fit of laughter. “That’s okay,” she said, smiling weakly, “it happens.”

  As she carried on a cute and awkward conversation with Max, I looked to Gabriel and said, “Is it me, or does it seem like…”

  He held up a hand, replying, “It’s not you. I swear it’s like we’re two feet from dorky heaven.” A handsome smile crossed his face as he opened his…fruit rollup. “Look,” he stuck out his tongue at me, “this one gives your tongue tattoos. Want one?”

  “No,” I quickly dismissed it, “thanks. So, what were you saying before Max dropped his whole lunch on our table?” I shot an it’s-okay look to Max, who looked thoroughly embarrassed for himself.

  Gabriel chewed the rest of his fruit rollup while he thought back to what he said a mere minute ago. “All I said was, so, Kass, about this morning…” I waited for him to continue. But he didn’t. All he did was open up a baggie that was filled with Oreos and stuff his face full.

  “Well?” I prodded. “Aren’t you going to finish?”

  He glimpsed up sharply. “Finish what?”

  “Your apology.”

  “What?” Gabriel was taken aback. “No, you got it all wrong. I wasn’t about to apologize to you. I was waiting for you to apologize to me.” At the correct times he pointed to me and then to himself.

  “Oh, I’ll give you an apology,” I growled as my fists clenched.

  Gabriel turned serious in seconds. “Please say it involves you, me and a dark room.” Seeing my I’m-going-to-kill-you face, he laughed. “I’m kidding. The room doesn’t have to be dark. Anywhere would be fine.”

  “I hate you,” I spoke through gritted teeth.

  “If by hate, you mean love,” he speedily corrected me, “then you would be right.”

  “Would someone who loves you do this?” I asked, grabbing his second fruit rollup from his pile of food. His mouth dropped open as he watched me tear the wrapping and shove the whole thing in my mouth, tongue tattoos and all. The chewy snack food was gone in a blink of an eye in the most disrespectful of ways.

  “Mark my words,” Gabriel leaned in, deadly serious, “I’ll get you back for that when you’re least expecting it.”

  The school day was over, thank God, and I hustled through the halls, zigzagging through the hordes and hordes of teenagers who were still gossiping about what they did over the weekend.

  I bet I could have beaten all of their stories put together. I definitely would have dominated the gossiping pool, if I could talk about my extracurricular activities.

  For the first time in days, I was able to open my locker on the first try. Weird. That was the first time ever.

  I thought nothing more of it as I exchanged my books, shoving them all farther in. I had practically no homework, and the homework I did have, I could finish first period tomorrow before the tardy bell rang.

  Standing there for a few extra seconds, I took my time closing my locker. Silly, silly old me for thinking that I would be able to close my locker without hurting myself, like I had numerous times before. But, unfortunately, my finger got caught in something right as it clicked shut.

  I jerked my poor index finger out. A thin line of blood dripped down from the cut. I thought about putting it in my mouth but decided against it because it reminded me too much of a Daywalker/Nightwalker habit.

  After bracing myself for the annoyance of going against the crowd of teens that wanted to get out of this school as quick as they could, I made my way to the nearest bathroom.

  The moment I stepped foot in the ultra-tiled bathroom, I heard muffled sounds. Forgetting all about my injured finger, I asked the seemingly empty bathroom, “Hello? Are you all right?” The sounds became steadily louder as I went farther down the row of stalls. Coming to the final one, I bent down to see two feet.

  “Claire?” I said once I regained my posture. “Is that you?” I took a step back as the stall door slowly swung open, revealing a red-faced and puffy-eyed Claire. It was a good thing she didn’t wear makeup, otherwise she’d look like a…well, like a crying girl who wore makeup.

  “Yeah,” she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “What are you doing in…” Claire trailed off at the sight of my finger. “Kass, you’re bleeding.”

  “What?” I blinked, suddenly remembering that was the reason I was in here in the first place. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. It’s just a scratch.” I faked a laugh as I glanced down to my lacerated finger. My false laugh ended abruptly when I noticed that the flow was steady and heavy. My whole finger hand was covered in the red liquid and there were a few drops on the floor. “I guess it’s worse than I thought.”

  “Come on,” Claire grabbed my arm and dragged me out, “you might need some stitches. That looks bad.”

  “You’re kidding, right?” I echoed as we exited the school. I let her drag me along. “I’ve had worse.”

  Claire froze in front of me and flipped around, eyes wide in fear and confusion. She seemed hurt that I said that.

  “How bad could it be?” I held it up. The sight of my bloodied hand made my confident voice waver. “Okay
, maybe it could use a band aide.”

  “It’s probably worse than it looks. You know how dirty the school is? Do you know how often they clean it?” Claire threw one question right after the other. I had nothing to say, and I didn’t really care, so she kept going, “Not often enough, it turns out. That might be infected already.”

  What a nut.

  “Well, that’s true,” I gave in to her theory, “but…I have had worse.”

  “At least come to my house. Steven can take care of it,” Claire offered promptly. “I hate to admit it, but he’s very good at handling things like this.”

  I thought about it. Why not? I had nothing better to do.

  That was a lie. I had to go with Gabriel and Max and train with Raphael, but I did want to avoid that as much as possible. I was already spending way too much time with Raphael after he caught me in a lie about the Sorcerer staff. Pissing him off was my specialty. What’s a little more rebellion?

  That man was just plain silly for thinking that making me spend more time with him was going to get me to fess up and tell the truth.

  “Okay,” I agreed. “But let me run and tell my ride.” Claire nodded, and I ran to the back parking lot.

  Chapter Five – Gabriel

  That Kass was in for a beating. Raphael was going to be pissed off that she was missing the lesson. Or part of it. I really didn’t know how long she’d be gone, since all she did was wave her hands in the air and run away.

  She was probably going to spend some quality time with Claire and comfort her about her dad’s death. But you know what? At least she had the chance to know her dad before he passed. Kass and I, we weren’t so lucky. I felt a ping of jealousy somewhere deep down, but I buried it, refusing to think more of it.

  Koath started up the engine. “Does she normally do this?”

  “Yep,” I said the word slowly because it was undeniably true.

  The middle-aged man in the driver’s seat was quiet for the next few moments before saying “Gabriel, I need your help with this, because I’ve been wondering it all day and can’t come up with a logical reason.”