Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “Okay,” Michael’s English accent was unusually thick on the other side of the line, “Max’ll be fine here. He can borrow some of Gabriel’s clothes for school tomorrow, or I suppose, he’d better fit mine.” I waited patiently as there was a pause. “Don’t worry, Koath. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”

  A half-hearted smile crossed my face. “Fantastic. I’ll pick them up at the normal time.”

  “Before you go,” Michael was inquisitive, “I’m a bit curious as to what you’re going to do tonight. Does it involve the Council, or is it something more…personal?”

  I chuckled as I responded, “Both.” Before he was able to say anything else, I said, “See you tomorrow,” and hung up. Sighing, I locked the phone screen and set it on the nightstand beside my bed.

  I walked to my closet and drew the doors open. Kneeling, I slowly brought out a dusty, hardly-opened leather box, one that I rarely pulled out of the bottom of my closet. One that’s been with me for the longest time. It meant a lot to me.

  Since I was still unaccustomed to this room, I picked the box up and looked for an outlet. Sadly, the only one that was visible to me was the one my alarm clock was inhabiting. Carefully balancing the great box in one arm, I pushed the clock and my phone onto my bed.

  In seconds I had the box resting atop the nightstand and yanked out the plug that belonged to the clock. After tossing it on the bed, I dusted off the box and unlatched it. Technology that was more prehistoric than my phone sat, staring back at me in its nearly untouched glory.

  I bent down and plugged in the cord. Noticing that the protective cover was still on the needle, I quickly pulled it off and set it beside the machine. The needle was in pristine condition; that was something Phoebe always made sure of.

  Slowly, I placed the needle in the all-too-familiar spot and sat at the edge of my bed before the tune made its way to my ears. The recognizable melody of the old, familiar song danced throughout the room, making me smile.

  Phoebe loved old music. Forties and fifties were her specialty. To suit her strange habits, she bought every single record player she set eyes on. This was the only one left. The only working one.

  Her favorite song came on, and I hummed to the slow, rhythmic beat of the music as I lifted the silver chain off my neck. My eyes fell to my hands, staring at the golden bands that circled the chain. My thumb stroked my ring finger, remembering how it felt around it.

  I closed my eyes and inhaled, imagining Phoebe’s long, brown hair. The way her eyes sparkled when she sang this song to me while baking dinner in the kitchen.

  Those were memories I’d never forget.

  To think it’s been almost seventeen years since…since she left.

  Chapter Twenty-One – Kass

  The conversation was light as Raphael and I walked to my house through the cemetery. If things kept going on like this, I’d know the cemetery better than I knew our house. And that’s not an exaggeration.

  We talked about food. We talked about favorite things. We talked about school. Basically, we talked about everything that you talked about when you had something you wanted to say, but you didn’t know exactly how to say it.

  When we rounded my driveway, I reckoned it was now or never. Well, now or later, to be more literal.

  “Raphael?” I spoke his name as if it were a question, cluing him in to the fact that I had something I wanted to ask him. “Do you know if the first Purifier knew Crixis?” I already knew what he was going to say, though.

  His hair fell over his right eye as he cocked his head, saying, “What makes you ask something so specific? Did you have a vision about it?”

  I nodded.

  He thought about his answer while we made our way to my front door. “I cannot say for sure if he did or did not. There are no records detailing his adventures, if that is what you want to call them, so I really do not know.”

  “Oh,” I sighed out the word. “That was not the answer I was hoping for.”

  A white smile spread across his lips as he laughed. “What were you hoping for?”

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged. But I did know—and I wanted the truth.

  Raphael knocked on the door after saying “Sorry to disappoint.”

  I eyed him, the door, and then him some more. “You do know I live here, right? It’s kind of pointless to knock on the door because it’s my house. What are they going to do, not let me in?”

  Gabriel swung the door open, looking too chipper to describe, and said, “Why, actually, that’s precisely what I was going to do. I’m not going to let you in.” His bright eyes turned to Raphael. “But I will let you in. Come on, we have five pies to eat. You, Michael and Max can share one while I eat the other four.”

  Shaking my head, I laughed. “Gabriel, I’m so hungry that my stomach is caving in. You can’t deny me pie.”

  His blonde eyebrows wrinkled. “I don’t know what that means, but it sure sounds impossible.” A wide half-grin came upon his lips.

  “Move it,” I commanded, storming my way past him and into the kitchen to see if the blonde boy was telling the truth about the pie situation. And, to my surprise and delight, he did.

  “Well?” I heard Gabriel’s voice say to an unmoving Raphael. “Are you going to come in or not? I’m standing here with the door open, letting in mosquitos.”

  Raphael looked as if he was about to turn him down when Michael came to the entryway, saying, “What are you doing? The Council has to pay for our air conditioning, you know. Oh. Hello, Raphael. Care to join us for some pie? I bought five. With any luck, there’ll be some leftovers for tomorrow.” He pushed his small-rimmed glasses farther up his nose.

  “What?” Gabriel was astonished. “You insult me by insinuating that I can’t eat all of this in one night?”

  “Please,” Michael said slyly, “be reasonable with the amount you eat, Gabriel.”

  “Please.” He held up a tattooed arm, stopping Michael instantly. The moment he got home, he washed off all his concealer, letting his tattoos roam free. “Don’t repeat that blasphemous statement again.”

  Michael ignored the snickering boy and turned his attention back to Raphael, who still stood on our concrete porch. “What do you say? It’ll be fun. The five of us can have some bonding time.” He said quickly, “That was an attempt at humor, and I now realize it’s hard to detect the sarcasm with my voice.”

  “Wait. Five of us?” I glanced around the room, half expecting to see Koath pop out of nowhere.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel told me, “you, me, Max, Michael and Raphael. That would be five, Kass.”

  “Max is here? Why?” I looked at Michael.

  “Koath is a bit busy, so Max is spending the night.” Michael’s dark eyes flicked to Raphael. “Please stay. Please.”

  I rolled my eyes, grabbed Raphael’s shoulder and pulled him into the house before shutting the door. That’s what he got for taking his time to answer. “Now that I made up his mind,” I said as I walked to the stairs and glimpsed back over my shoulder, “I’m going to take a quick shower. Don’t eat any pie without me.”

  Smiling to myself, I took the stairs two at a time. Did I really expect them to wait for me? No. Did I want them to wait for me? Yes. But you didn’t often get what you wanted. And in circumstances involving food and Gabriel, I never got what I wanted.

  That boy was the most gluttonous thing I’d ever seen. He should be fat with the amount of food he ate. I knew we ate more than normal people, but he could eat a whole box of pop tarts and three bowls of cereal.

  Somehow that seemed a little much, even with our boosted metabolism.

  Chapter Twenty-Two – Gabriel

  While Kass bathed and got rid of her workout stench, the rest of us sat in the living room and ate some of that delicious pie. Apple was first. It was the best thing I’d tasted since we had that pizza the other night. Too bad we were wasting a huge piece on Raphael, who was busy ignoring the hefty pie slice and talking to Michael.


  “What did you have her do this time?” Michael was genuinely curious. Just like me.

  “Yeah.” I shot him a steely-eyed stare. “What’d you have her do this time?”

  Raphael side glanced at me before replying, “I actually had her fix up an old armoire. It has been broken for God knows how long, and it took her all afternoon to repair one of its doors.”

  “My God.” Michael seemed astounded. Just like me, again. “You mean to say she did it all by herself without cutting any limbs or body parts off? Amazing. Bloody brilliant. I never would have guessed that she’d be able to do such a thing. Wow.” He went on and on.

  I leaned forward to pick another slice out. My head turned to Max as I said, “Want another?” The red headed nerd nodded, so I handed him the piece that was originally going to be mine and got one for myself.

  Kass was going to kill us for starting the fattening fest without her. I knew it. We all knew it. But did that stop us? Sure, for about half a second.

  Instead of going back to the same seat, I decided to sit beside my best friend. Raphael. There was the little not-eating-the-pie situation that I had to deal with. I plopped down and shoved two mouthfuls of pure heaven in my mouth, and at the same time saying “Is there a hair in your pie?”

  While Raphael thought of an answer, Michael and Max both studied their own pieces to make sure no follicle was there. “No.”

  I cut him off, “Is there a finger?”

  “No.”

  “Any chemical substances, such as laxatives or narcotics?”

  “I certainly hope not.”

  I put another heap of the pie in my mouth. I was not known for good etiquette, whatever that meant. Okay, I was kidding. I knew what that meant. Of course, I didn’t know until I asked Michael a few years ago, but still. I knew now what etiquette was.

  “Then why haven’t you touched your pie?” I directed the police-like question at his face, taking in the way his demeanor changed from normal to defensive.

  Just when Raphael himself was going to answer, thunderous thumps came from the stairs. Kass, in all her wet-headed glory, ran around the corner and looked utterly pissed off. As she began her why’d you start without me speech, I bit my fork.

  Everyone else in the room was listening intently to her rambling, but not me. Oh, no. I was too busy glowering at the way Raphael watched her. Okay, everyone in the room was watching her (except me), but he was watching watching.

  Maybe it was just me, maybe no one else in the room noticed it…but I saw it. I saw how he looked at her. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. I wasn’t jealous or anything, just a strange mixture of weirded out and irritated.

  Lately, I’d known something was off about the guy. When we first met him, Kass and Raphael would butt heads every day, and now…well, it changed. It morphed from being a simple and appropriate student-teacher relationship to something darker and more twisted.

  I believed they called it mantherism. At least that’s what I called it, anyways. You know, like how an older woman was a cougar when she went after younger men? Ah, whatever.

  Even though he wasn’t our real teacher, or even a real priest for that matter, it was still wrong. Sure, he wasn’t that much older. At the most this guy could be twenty-five or thirty. I still didn’t like it. I didn’t like him. And I sure didn’t like the way he looked at her.

  He was stepping in my territory. And he knew it.

  Kass finished her lecture and sat beside Max, across from Raphael and I. While the rest of the group started talking and laughing, I kept my gaze focused solely on Raphael. The way his green eyes followed every little move she made. I recognized it.

  Because I usually had the exact same look.

  This wasn’t an alpha thing. It wasn’t the fact that I was here first and that I could kick him out. It wasn’t totally based on that.

  There was something about him that set me off. There was something that wasn’t right. Truthfully, I wouldn’t be surprised if, next week, we found out he was a serial killer. I just got that vibe from him. The killer vibe.

  Realizing that I’d been staring at him for the last five minutes, Raphael slowly faced me and asked, “What?”

  I bit down harder on my fork. “Nothing. I’m just really upset you’re not eating your pie.”

  “Gabriel, calm down,” Kass told me. She was totally naïve as to what I really meant. “It’s just a piece of pie.” She tried being the rational one here, which was ludicrous for two reasons: Kass was never rational and I wasn’t talking about the actual pie.

  “Yes.” Raphael cocked his head at me, repeating, “It’s only pie.”

  But it wasn’t only pie. It was something much bigger and much more important than pie.

  Chapter Twenty-Three – Kass

  “Yes, it’s only pie,” Raphael stated simply, probably wondering why Gabriel was making such a big deal out of a slice of pie. “What’s your problem?” His green eyes sparkled in his direction.

  “My problem?” Gabriel dropped his empty plate and abruptly stood. “My problem?” He faked a short laugh. “My problem is that you want this pie.” He pointed to the piece. “You want to eat this exact piece. But you can’t eat it, because it’s mine. I want that piece of pie.”

  I observed in awe as he angrily bent down and retrieved Raphael’s untouched plate.

  “You can have any other pie in the world,” he furiously told him, “blueberry, raspberry, key lime, boysenberry, heck, even Oreo, but you can’t have apple. You can never have this apple pie.”

  Max blinked in confusion, telling me that I wasn’t the only one who was a teeny bit baffled at what that blonde boy was saying and doing. He sniffed. “Is he allergic or something?”

  Max’s question was serious, causing Gabriel to storm up the stairs and say, “He wishes.”

  “Oh.” Michael’s eyes flicked from the wall to Raphael. “All right. Well, I am sorry for that. Running the risk of getting beaten by Gabriel, would you like another piece?”

  “No, thank you, though.” Raphael stood. “I think it is best if I leave for now.” He headed to the front door after saying “I will see you all tomorrow after school.”

  “Bloody hell.” Michael’s face fell into his hands. “Kass, will you please find out what is wrong with Gabriel?” A heavy sigh left him. As our Guardian, Michael knew just as well as I did how ridiculous the boy was being.

  “I guess.” I got to my feet and ran up the steps, trying to take three at a time and failing. I had to settle for two at a time. That was one of the drawbacks of being five-foot-three.

  In seconds I busted through his door yelling “Gabriel, what’s…” I stopped myself when I saw the untouched apple pie in the trash can and the blonde boy sitting, hunched over, on his bed.

  My shoulders fell as I sat next to him. I made sure my voice was soft before I began, “Gabriel, are you okay?”

  “Of course, I’m okay. I’m fine. Great,” he mumbled the response under his breath and without eye contact, meaning that he was not okay, fine, or great.

  “Then what was with you, Raphael and the pie?” I motioned to the garbage can. “After all that, you didn’t even eat it.”

  “Not just any pie,” he swiftly corrected me. His blue eyes locked with mine. “Apple pie.”

  I laughed at his sincerity. It was so intense that it had to be mock sincerity, otherwise it just wouldn’t make sense. “Since when do you like apple pie so freaking much?”

  “Always.” He stood and flipped around, staring down at a puzzled me. “I’ve always liked apple pie so freaking much. God,” Gabriel said with a sigh, and took up his spot beside me, placing his undone hair on my shoulder.

  That must have been a really uncomfortable position for him. But whatever worked worked, right?

  “I just,” he whispered, “really, really love my apple pie, you know?”

  Smiling, I placed a consoling hand on his head and stroked his platinum blonde hair. “I had no clue apple pie meant this much t
o you.”

  “Then you’re an idiot,” he mumbled loud enough that I barely heard it.

  Closing my eyes, I unexpectedly pushed him to arm’s length. I opened my eyes to stare into his surprised face and said, “If you really love apple pie so much, then why did you throw the piece you stole from Raphael away?”

  He straightened his back and said, “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  I nodded along in fake-agreement. “Uh-huh. Now tell me the real reason.”

  Gabriel sighed, simultaneously saying, “I didn’t steal the pie. I took what’s rightfully mine. I didn’t want him to have any of my,” he emphasized the word to the extreme, “apple pie.”

  “Apple pie isn’t just yours.” I could not believe I just said that. “It’s everyone’s.”

  “No,” he argued with me, “it’s not everyone’s, it’s just mine. It’s my apple pie. Always will be, no matter how many people try to eat it.” A smile erupted on his serious face, breaking the humorless guise. The normal Gabriel was back. About time. “Isn’t that right, Kass?”

  “Uh, sure, sure,” I replied quickly, standing up and heading to the door. The moment my hand touched his wooden doorframe, I asked, “By the way, do you know what Koath had to do today?”

  “Nope. Koath’s a mysterious man,” he joked. “Eh, not really. Why?”

  I shook my head, said “No reason,” walked to my room and closed the door, shutting Gabriel and the rest of the world out. There was a reason I asked. I just didn’t quite know what that reason was.

  “Why, my love, why?” A raspy voice spoke above the baby flames. “I love you…” The beautiful Daywalker woman pleaded with the man cloaked in black. “I did this for us, so we could always be together.” Her human eyes blinked at the hooded man. “Please let me go. I still love you.”