Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  The suspicions inside me multiplied. What evils had Raphael seen or done that merited Alyssa asking me to forgive him? Did it involve Crixis?

  “Crixis is one of the most intelligent beings to ever roam the earth. He does not leave things up to chance and he does not kill for fun. It is not his way. He is a methodical beast that has evaded the Council’s watchful eyes since the beginning.” Raphael stood angrily, stepping out of the pew. “I am almost one hundred percent certain that Crixis does not want to kill you.”

  I eyed him up, watching him lean on the next pew, closing his eyes and breathing out slowly. I doubted Raphael in more ways than one. I was one hundred percent sure Crixis wanted to kill me. “Then what does he want?”

  “If I am correct, he has been after you for a long time. He is not striving to kill you. He is a creature born of chaos, and he revels in it. Only one thing would create more chaos around here than your death.” Raphael’s jade eyes met mine, appearing concerned. “He intends to turn you.”

  “What?” I got to my feet, mind flashing back to the other world. A sense of dread filled me as I remembered that world’s me, how despicably horrible and evil I was. “Turn me? I’d rather him kill me.”

  A long pause sat between us before he spoke again. “Crixis wants no one to know his true agenda. If he told you he is going to kill you, that is only what he wants you to think,” Raphael explained his reasoning. “He is doing all of this to see if…”

  “If what?” I stormed up to him, shooting him a famous death glare.

  “If you are worthy,” he mumbled.

  “Worthy?” I echoed, getting louder. “Worthy?” My voice resonated through the church, coming back once. “So, you think that since he’s trying to kill me, finding ridiculously outdated rituals and endangered Demons to take a swipe at me, that he’s really trying to see if I’m worthy of being turned? That’s—” But as I spoke, I wavered. I did have the evidence of the other world, after all.

  “You do not understand.” He faced me, growing flustered. “In Crixis’s eyes, no one is ever worthy. For him to come across someone like you, it must be beyond thrilling.”

  “Someone like me?” I repeated, face twisting in confusion and revulsion.

  “I only meant…a Purifier, such as yourself.”

  “Such as myself?” Crossing my arms, I glared at him some more. “Care to elaborate on that, Raphael?” Care to tell the full truth?

  “You have skills that no ordinary human possesses. Though you are terribly rash, you are intelligent.” Raphael stuck his hands in his pocket. The only skin that was visible was his face. “You have a silver tongue and are not afraid to use it, in any situation. I am certain he finds you physically appealing and fascinating to the point of insanity.”

  My anger was blindsided with confusion. Did he just say that I was pretty? Pretty and irritating? I felt the heat gathering in my cheeks and swiftly realized how lame I was. Firstly, this was Raphael. Secondly, I couldn’t let the fact that he called me physically appealing take away from the main point here.

  He was a liar.

  When I remained quiet, Raphael took a step toward me, saying, “Would you like me to continue? Because I will. You care about others more than yourself. You have a good heart.

  You—” He stopped when I held up a hand.

  “Okay,” I spoke faintly, the blushing finally fading, “I get it.” My hand sluggishly fell to my side as I made my way back to the pew to sit. Suddenly I was so very tired.

  He deliberately took his time sitting beside me.

  I waited for him to get situated before asking, “In all our years of training, no one ever mentioned Daywalkers. I assume it’s because they’re nowhere near as common. Is the process the same?” I absentmindedly rubbed my neck, where John had bit me when he was filled with Osiris’s power.

  If you got nicked by a Nightwalker’s tooth, even a teensy-weensy scratch, you would turn into one of the blood-sucking fiends in as little as a day or as long as a month. Apparently, the venom coating their teeth was very pungent.

  “The act of changing into a greater Vampire is a very ancient ritual. No one alive should know its secrets.”

  I elbowed him, saying, “But you do, don’t you? You know basically everything. Of course, you’d know this.” Sighing, I leaned and rested my back on the pew and my legs on Raphael’s lap.

  It was a very odd position, but it was comfortable. It was a position I often took with Gabriel. This was the first time I did it with Raphael. The me from a few weeks ago might’ve scoffed in horror at this position, but the me now? I couldn’t care less. I was just so done with everything.

  Raphael took a look at my legs, sluggishly saying, “I do know, but if I tell you…you need to promise me you will not tell anyone, even Gabriel.”

  I hesitated for only a moment. “Promise,” I said, holding up my hand as if I were in the Girl Scouts.

  “Very well.” Raphael laid his head back on the pew. “I will tell you how a greater Vampire is created.”

  Chapter Thirteen – Raphael

  Kassandra was incredibly curious about every little thing I said. I did not blame her; if I were in her shoes, I would want to know everything as well. The secret of creating a greater Vampire was a secret that should never get out.

  But I found myself telling her the truth anyways. Well, part of the truth. The entire truth…I wasn’t certain that she was ready for it. Neither was I, truthfully.

  If she knew how one was turned, then she would be able to recognize the signs and hopefully prevent it. Crixis had told me numerous times that he wanted to kill her. So many times, in fact, that I was beginning to doubt it.

  He lost himself, buried inside his deepest thoughts. Crixis wanted to believe he was going to kill her. But the way he said it time and time again…

  I knew Crixis better than anyone. I knew his ways like no other. Crixis didn’t merely want to turn anyone anymore. He found it boring and wasteful. Unleash a world of predators and eventually the prey ran out.

  The last time he changed someone, a woman, it didn’t turn out well. Since then he’d given it up, but I feared that would change when he finally realized that Kass was something no one had ever seen, at least in a very long time.

  The pull, the attraction, the magnetism. There was something about her that drew me in, that drew us all in, like moths to flame. Alas, when the moth reached the flames, it died.

  I felt energized, alive. I felt empowered to be a good man and to never let anyone down ever again. Urges that I’d never experienced in a very long time rose to the surface while she was near. It was an amazing feeling. A peculiar feeling that I couldn’t help.

  A human could never incite such things this naturally. I came to the conclusion long ago that Kassandra wasn’t human. The mystery still remained, however, of what exactly she was.

  I sighed. “It is a very complicated ritual. The ritual itself is not the complicated part, though. The complications are usually dealing with the preparations.”

  Her vibrant green eyes stared at me, silently asking me what those preparations were.

  “A greater Vampire obviously has to be willing to perform the ritual. Usually, the Demon has its eyes set on a human lover, or even a close friend. In most cases—” My mind flashed back to Leliana. “—it’s the first one. The Vampire also must have found and procured a Zeny.”

  “A Zeny?” She twirled her hair around her finger, gazing at me intently, something dawning on her.

  “Yes. It is a three-legged Demon dog with eight eyes. A very frightening sight.”

  “Yeah,” Kass spoke, “I think Gabriel and I fought one of those. It was huge, and when it died, it—”

  “Burst into fire?” I finished her sentence confidently. It was an odd thing that they came across one, especially in America. From my research, the Zeny should have been extinct. Or nearly so, anyways. Perhaps it followed the Shifter here from England.

  She was confident, “Just like Ni
ghtwalkers.”

  “Yes. Nightwalkers originated from a single man who was bitten by a Zeny millennia ago. The toxin on their teeth kills instantly. Once it works its way deeper into the body’s dead systems, it reanimates it. That is how lesser Vampires came to be. They are driven on the same instincts as the Zeny, to feed. That is why if you are bitten by one, you will die and become one.”

  “I didn’t ask for a history lesson on Nightwalkers. Get to the Daywalker part.” Kass looked down, getting some brown hair in her face. “How does the Zeny tie in to the ritual?”

  “After the greater Vampire kills its human, the Zeny must bite him or her.” Part of me pondered if Kass wondered about how I knew all this.

  “The dead person? Won’t that just bring them back as a Nightwalker?”

  “Yes,” I nodded once, “normally. But not on a full moon. They come back to life in seconds after being bit when the moon is full.”

  “Why not as a Nightwalker?”

  “Because…a full moon was the night the original greater Vampires were created. The Originals are descendants of a human and a Zeny that procreated on a full moon. A bit of magic, I suppose.”

  I jerked back when Kass yelled, “What? That’s not biologically possible. I’ve never seen an Original, but I’ve got to assume they’re mostly human. Humans and dogs don’t, uh, do that.”

  “Oh, but it is possible. A Zeny is not an animal, not a dog. It’s a Demon. It does not follow the rules of nature.” I chuckled at the expression on her face and continued, “Full moons are sacred to Witches and Demons alike. The moon slows the Zeny’s toxin.”

  She flipped her hair to her other shoulder, asking, “So if I got bitten by one on a full moon, I’d be fine? I wouldn’t turn into a Nightwalker?”

  “Not until the full moon was over,” I answered, breaking eye contact. “If the ritual was not properly done or completed on time, the person would turn into a Nightwalker.”

  “Okay…so, after being bitten and coming back to life during a full moon, what’s next?”

  “Then the greater Vampire would feed some of its blood to the human, securing the person to higher Demon-hood. Then—”

  Kassandra stopped me, saying, “The bloodrush?”

  Staring quizzically at her, I wondered how she knew that. The bloodrush was something only greater Vampires had. If she had no idea how they were created, she shouldn’t know a thing about the bloodrush.

  “Michael mentioned it to me,” she answered my puzzled eyes.

  “You are correct. The bloodrush. Usually the greater Vampire helps its protégé to overcome it, so as to not lose control. With help, the bloodrush can be avoided altogether.”

  If a Vampire, say, Crixis, left his newly-turned Vampire protégé without teaching it the ways of the world, bad things would happen. Very bad things that would alter lives that were never meant to be touched.

  “Hmm. Good to know.” Kass appeared happy that she knew the truth.

  But she didn’t know the whole truth. Not yet.

  “Crixis is different,” I told her seriously, noting the worry returning to her magnificent eyes. “There is something else inside of him that gives him more power. If he consumes something, be it human or Demon, he gains their strength, their power. Crixis did devour a Zeny before the Council hunted them down.”

  “What are you saying?” Her tone was alarmed, and for good reason. “He can turn someone whenever he wants?”

  “That is exactly what I am saying. If he bites you on a normal day, you eventually die and become a Nightwalker, but if he bites you on a full moon and feeds you his blood in return, you become one of him.”

  “Crap.” She blinked.

  “But,” I said, placing a reassuring hand on her back, “you should not worry. You have everyone on your side. You will be fine. Perhaps you should avoid wandering in the cemetery alone any time soon, though.” As I said this, I bit the inside of my cheek, my mind a mile away, as it always was when Crixis was mentioned.

  “Give me some credit.” Kass laughed and pushed my hand away. “I’m not that stupid.”

  “You are not stupid; you merely lack good judgment on occasion,” I said as I heard the doors to the church opening. Turning my head, I noticed Koath walking down the aisle. He was early. We stood and met him halfway.

  “Sorry to cut your punishment short,” Koath glanced at Kass, “but I figured you and I could go out to dinner. Like old times. I hope that’s all right with you, Raphael?” He turned his aged eyes on me.

  What was I supposed to say? All I said was “Of course” with a smile on my face to hide my true thoughts.

  “Great.” Koath laughed and motioned for Kass.

  Grinning, she side-glanced at me and walked with Koath out of the church.

  Alone once more. That’s how it always turned out for me. I was not complaining, but I wished that things were not as they were. That I was as I was all those years ago. What a simpler existence.

  When the doors closed, I turned to face the giant cross.

  Kassandra had no idea what she was, I knew it. And I also knew that what she was had an effect on every Demon she met. Those feelings would draw any Demon without restraint off the edge. John/Osiris included.

  I had my theories why John liked her as much as he did before and after being purified by Kass. The attraction was too much for his Vampiric self to keep away from her and too strong for even Osiris to resist.

  If something as powerful as Osiris couldn’t resist her, how could Crixis be any different?

  Chapter Fourteen – Kass

  “Hello,” the man behind the hot dog stand smiled a toothy grin, asking, “what’ll you have?”

  Without thinking for one second, Koath answered, “Two, please. One with everything.” That man knew me too well. All I ever wanted on my hot dog was ketchup. I was the normal one out of the two; Koath was the weird one with his hot dog covered in everything known to man.

  Yeah. He wanted to take me out for dinner, anywhere I wanted. The only place I’d been dying to try (and the only place I knew about in town) was the hot dog stand in the middle of the park. The same park I first ran into Vincent, the Shifter.

  Koath paid the man, and as he readied our order said, “Can’t believe this is what you want. If I said I’ll take you anywhere to Gabriel, he would have picked the most expensive place and got the priciest meal.”

  Shrugging, I said, “What can I say? I’m a simple girl, deep down.”

  A simple girl that could die at any moment, any time. And what’s worse? I could get turned. I mentally cursed Raphael for telling me all that stuff. If only knowing made me feel better. It didn’t. Sometimes the truth just made things worse.

  The chubby man handed us our hot dogs and we scurried to a nearby bench. As I held the wiener up, I wondered if it was going to taste as good as it looked. Michael refused to make hot dogs because he believed they were wholly unhealthy. That might’ve been true, but they were tasty anyways.

  Taking a giant bite, I reveled in the scrumptiousness. When was the last time I had a hot dog this good? Years, probably.

  Koath caught some of the radish before it fell onto his lap, saying, “I faxed the last of the papers over to the Council.”

  “Oh, yeah?” I turned to face him, swallowing before I continued, “What about?”

  “Sending over an Agent to help deal with Crixis,” he replied with a mouthful.

  “Really?” I was incredulous. “That’s…” So incredulous that I could not form another sentence, apparently.

  “That’s good, Kass. That’s good.” Koath wiped his scruffy face with a napkin.

  “Yeah,” I managed to say, “do you know who they’re sending?”

  He shook his head, much to my disappointment. “I do not. The papers were ratified Saturday night. The Agent should be here in a week, at the absolute latest. I, myself, am hoping he’s here by Thursday.”

  Sighing softly, I said before chomping a huge bite, “Why is the Coun
cil always so slow at everything?” It was a legit question, because from everything I’d heard, the Council moved at a snail’s pace. Maybe even slower than that.

  After a while we stood and walked to the trash can.

  Koath wandered us to the trail that wound around the huge lake in the center of the park. “The Council is very careful. They make sure everything’s in order before acting upon anything. I’ve been part of the Council for the last twenty-two years, and they’ve never been faster.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Hard to believe.”

  “I know.”

  A random, but reasonable question came in my head, like they most often do. “Koath, where does the Council get people like us? Like Gabriel and me. Where do they find us?”

  He seemed to think on this for quite a while before saying “Most Purifiers are orphans. The Council adopts kids who show a strong potential for intelligence, physical fitness, and integrity.”

  My eyes became glued to him as runners passed us by. “What about the others?”

  Koath rubbed his stubble with his left hand and dug his right in his pocket. “The others are…saved from disaster.”

  “Disaster?”

  “If the Council spots a potential recruit, they place tabs on them, making sure nothing bad happens to them, or their family. If something does happen, if the father decides to murder his wife, for example, the Council would step in and take the child.”

  A grin of skepticism swept across my face. “They kidnap kids?”

  “Not technically, no,” Koath was slow to say, “they never kidnap anyone. Everything they do is legal. Granted, some it pushes the limits, but legal it is nevertheless. I answered your question, now you answer mine.” He paused, “Why won’t you tell Raphael where you got the staff?”

  I chuckled. Seriously? Raphael told Koath to ask me this? Lame. Although, under his stare, I felt like coming clean. But that wasn’t going to happen, because I wasn’t going to let it. The lie would continue because it was just too hard to explain the truth. Plus, Raphael didn’t deserve the truth.