Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  Chapter Twenty-Seven – Kass

  To my surprise, Koath managed to be on time today, unlike last night, when he was a no-show for whatever strange reason. The past few nights, during the walks home, I had practically a bazillion questions to ask him. Tonight was different, because I wanted to know only one thing: where he was last night.

  But seeing as how I was incapable of prying the answer from him this morning during the car ride to school, I didn’t know why I expected tonight’s results to turn out any differently.

  It was the least he could do, since he forced Max to stay the night. That was torture. I could deal with Max during school, but not all the time. Not twenty-four/seven. Luckily for me, and unluckily for Gabriel, Max slept in his room. That nailed me some alone-time.

  This morning I asked Gabriel if they talked before they went to sleep, and he said biochemistry. What kind of kid talked about biochemistry before they went to bed? Oh, right. Max.

  Don’t even get me started on how weird it was to have me, Gabriel, and Max share the same bathroom before school. It was strange, gross, and I never wanted to do it again. It was one thing to share it with Gabriel, who was the most hygienic boy I’d ever met, but it was a completely different matter to share it with Max, who as it turned out, wasn’t as hygienic as Gabriel, by a long shot.

  I told my wandering mind to focus on what I had to ask Koath. If I was so comfortable with this man, why did it always feel awkward when I needed to ask him something very important?

  “Can I ask you something?” I said, carefully stepping over a fallen headstone. The newer graves were in such awful conditions; someone should really come by and fix them up. Honor the dead like they should be honored.

  “Speak your mind,” he replied, keeping his gaze set on the path we were taking.

  Not exactly the answer I was looking for, but it would do. “Koath, why won’t you tell me where you were last night? Why have you been dodging that question all day today?”

  “I dodge the question because it’s none of your business,” he told me harshly. Koath immediately regretted snapping at me, I could tell by the way he sighed and placed his hands in his pockets.

  My eyes fell to the dewy ground.

  “It was Council business” was what he said next.

  I shook my head, saying, “But it’s always Council business. There’s no other kind of business with you.” My voice cracked on the last few words, showing Koath that I was sick and tired of all the Council this, Council that crap.

  That’s how it was for the last eighteen years, so why should it be any different today?

  Koath was slow to say, “Do you really want to know, Kass?”

  I moved my head up and down once, eyes pleading with him. All I wanted was an answer and the sooner he gave it to me the sooner everything could get back to normal. Koath was never late or a no-show, so of course I was going to be naturally curious why he chose to make last night his first.

  “I was dealing with the Council,” his wrinkled hands rubbed his stubbly face, “it was a follow up to something that happened many years ago. They like to do an interview about it once every year, to make sure they still have the facts right, that I don’t suddenly remember something, things like that.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows, saying, “What was the interview about?”

  “Remember the Shifter? Well, as you already know, I was the one who found his murdered family, and the Council forces me to take part in a yearly follow up.” Koath became quieter, “They never believed me when I said Crixis was the culprit.”

  I tore my eyes from him, not sure if I trusted what he told me. Koath wasn’t one to lie, but this just seemed so…no. No, I was choosing to believe Koath because he gave me no reason not to. If he said that’s where he was yesterday, then that’s where he was.

  But that still didn’t tell me why he refused to tell me this this morning in the car.

  “Oh…” My voice dragged out the word as I scanned the area. I quickly spotted a furry, white being staring at me at the edge of the forest.

  The white wolf, A.K.A. Steven. His brown eyes blinked as I realized he followed us. Or, more likely, me. Steven was following me—why? To protect me? Make sure I didn’t get into another tussle with Crixis?

  It pissed me off that everyone thought I needed to be protected.

  I glimpsed at Koath, who was completely unaware of the wolf, and said, “What do you think of the white wolf?”

  “Hmm…” He thought for a moment. “I don’t believe any of the theories about it. Some people think that wolf’s been causing the murders that occurred weeks ago, but you and I know that’s not true. It’s still around and, knock on wood, there hasn’t been any new victims of Nightwalkers or Crixis lately. None that we know of, anyway.”

  “What do you think it is, just a normal wolf?” Soon enough, everyone in our group was going to know about Steven and Claire, so I was going to have some fun before that happened. And that involved finding out what everyone thought about it before Claire came out to Max, which in turn would make Steven come out as well.

  “I highly doubt it. It’s too large and unnatural for this area to be a normal wolf. There’s many different possibilities. It could be anything from a historic Indian deity to a fairly common Morpher. I’m more inclined to believe it’s the second one.”

  “So it’s not a werewolf?” I joked, remembering what Steven had said to me when I asked something similar. Werewolves weren’t real—a good thing. That was a good thing. No Jacob or Alcide for me.

  Koath laughed with me, replying, “Definitely not. You know werewolves don’t exist.”

  I laughed at myself for even bringing it up.

  “Traditional ones, at least.” We turned onto my street as Koath gradually said, “There is a supernatural being called Vexillion.”

  “Vexillion?” I repeated, saying the world cautiously, like if I pronounced it wrong, the Demon itself would come and kill me. “That doesn’t sound like any Demon I’ve heard of before.”

  A sigh escaped him before he said anything. “That’s because it’s not a Demon as you’re accustomed to. It’s much worse. Ancient. Primordial. One of the worst Demons to ever exist, actually.”

  “Primordial?” My gaze fell to the concrete below my feet.

  “Yes. Bigger, more powerful, much stronger than the Demons you purify today.” Koath paused and looked at me. His eyes weren’t worried, which to me, was a little strange due to the content of our conversation. “There are many different types of Demons, but for each Primordial, there’s only one. One Vexillion.”

  “And this Vexillion is like a werewolf?” I clarified.

  “No. Vexillion is evil and has no natural weaknesses. It’s nothing like a werewolf, but it’s the closest thing to it,” Koath corrected me as we reached my front door. “But you have nothing to worry about. Vexillion has been locked away for millennia, and I’m sure that we will soon learn what the white wolf truly is.”

  My hand touched the knob and I turned to smile at him. He had no freaking idea.

  It was two-thirty in the morning. Everyone was sound asleep. And since it was two-thirty in the morning and everyone was sound asleep, that meant I was finally able to sneak down the stairs, past Michael’s room, and into his personal library to look for the diary.

  I tossed the sheets off and slowly crept out of my room and down the hallway to reach the stairwell. I tip-toed down the steps, fearing that dreadful movie moment where the person who’s trying to sneak somewhere steps on the creaky stair, rubber ducky, or anything else that made lots of noise.

  Luckily, all was quiet. Michael’s door was the first one on the right. His bathroom was the second one and the library was the third. The entire left side of the floor was the sparing room, fitted with anything and everything you could think of. Too bad we hardly ever used it.

  When I reached the library’s wooden door, I caught my breath and opened it.

  Using my back to close the doo
r quietly, I flicked the light switch and caused temporary blindness to myself. My eyes became accustomed to the light quicker than I thought they would. But that was good. I needed to hurry this up before I woke Michael up.

  I started at the bottom of the right wall, going up and over as quickly as I could without missing a binding. I had to be sure that I wasn’t overlooking it, but at the same time I didn’t want this adventure to last all night. I was a human being; I needed some sleep.

  Thirty minutes passed, and to my surprise, I had already made it through more than half of the library. Unconsciously, I skipped over a shelf because it was filled with books that had blue binding.

  But something caught my eye. I brought my eyes back to the shelf to see what that something was. And that something wasn’t there—a small, empty space stood between two books that caved in on each other.

  My expression turned into confusion while I outstretched a tentative hand and touched the dusty barrenness. Images of Raphael lecturing us in the library flashed through my mind, and I strained to see what had laid here before now.

  Brown leather. Torn binding.

  This was it. I gasped and tore my hand off of the shelf, staring at it quizzically. This was it, but it wasn’t here. Why not? If it wasn’t here, then where was it, who took it and why?

  Still…it was here before. Michael had the Daywalker woman’s diary. How did he get it? Just another mystery to add to the countless of others. It sucked that I got no answers from this venture.

  I couldn’t stop my shoulders from falling as I spun on my heel and walked to the door. I turned off the lights before twisting the handle and walking out. Dejectedness took over while I slowly headed for the stairs.

  I was never going to put together the puzzle, was I? Things just weren’t working out this time, and I had no clue why.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight – Kass

  I rolled my eyes at the girl sitting next to me, who fidgeted and agonized over how she was going to tell Max that she was a Morpher, and a cougar at that. It did explain her athletic build, so it wasn’t like Max would refute it.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she whined, picking at the eraser on her mechanical pencil. “I don’t know what I’m going to say. Why does this have to be so hard?”

  My shoulders shrugged as I responded, “Because everything in life is hard?”

  “I guess so,” she mumbled, setting her head down gently on the physics book.

  “It’ll be okay,” I assured her, “just be happy that it’ll soon be over and then you won’t have to worry about it.”

  Claire’s head lifted, and it looked like she was going to say something, but a voice behind me spoke, “Kass?”

  My eyes met with a pair of bright blue ones that were hidden under shaggy light brown hair. His cheekbones were high and pronounced, and his jaw was square and defined. Judging from my seated position, the boy was around six feet, maybe a little less.

  Whoever this guy was, he was hot.

  I mentally snapped out of it, remembering how badly John turned out. Not good. Hormones or not, I had to keep myself in check. “Yeah?”

  A small smile formed on his face as he said, “Mr. Elsin wants to see you.”

  “Mr. Elsin?” I said aloud, my mind drawing a blank. Who was Mr. Elsin?

  Behind me, Claire laughed at my apparent foolishness. “The principal?” She offered when her laughter died down somewhat.

  “Oh, right,” I shrugged my mistake off. Maybe if I didn’t know Koath so well out of school, I would have remembered what his last name was. I looked back to the good-looking boy. “Now?”

  He nodded.

  I sighed and stood, looking back to Claire only once before following the kid out of the science room. All the while I wondered why Koath wanted to see me. What reason could he have to call me down during school that couldn’t wait until later?

  “You’re, uh…new this year, aren’t you?” The boy walked next to me, twisting his head to get a better look.

  I swallowed. Hard. “Yep.”

  “I’m glad I finally met you,” he spoke genuinely, “I’ve actually wanted to talk to you for a while now, but I figured you were with John, and then he transferred.”

  My voice was a little too quick to respond, “I’m not with John.”

  “Oh.” He blinked back in what I guessed was confusion. “So you’re not his girlfriend?” The second I shook my head no, he continued, “That’s great. I mean, I think it’s great. Good. That’s good.” He handled the other paper slips in his hand. “I, uh, better go deliver these…and also stop making a fool of myself in front of you. I’ll catch you later.”

  I said “Okay” as I watched him walk backwards down the hall. This guy was nice and cute and, since I had no idea who he was, he didn’t have a reputation as being a player. John had two out of those three.

  A broad smile swept across his chiseled face and he asked, “You going to the game tonight?”

  “Yeah,” I breathed out the word, not believing this was happening. Was this kid asking me out or something?

  “I’ll see you tonight.”

  I smiled my own awkward smile as I turned and walked to the office doors. That so didn’t just happen, did it? It did. It did really just happen. I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Astounded. Amazed. Astonished.

  Wait a second.

  I didn’t know the kid’s name.

  Cleo, the school’s secretary and also a Council lackey, glanced up from whatever she was typing. Her eyes were covered by her newly-trimmed bangs, but I could still tell she was looking at me. She fixed her baby doll shirt before saying, “Hello, Kass. He’s ready for you in his office.”

  “Thanks.” I smiled at her because I didn’t know what else to do and walked around her desk and into the principal’s room.

  Koath stood with his back to me. His gaze was fixated on something outside.

  I cleared my throat to signal that I was here, and also wondering why I was here.

  He flipped around, saying, “Oh. I didn’t hear you come in. Please.” Koath pointed to the door.

  I followed his instructions and closed the door, all the while thinking that this talk couldn’t be a good one if he made me close the door for it. I sat cautiously in an old leather chair that was opposite his after he motioned to it.

  “Don’t worry,” Koath said after taking in my freaked facial expression, “you’re not in trouble, or anything like that. I wanted to discuss something a little more personal that’s been on my mind a lot as of late.”

  My eyes flicked to the door.

  “No one can hear us, I made sure of that,” he answered my questioning eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” I could think of no other way to put it.

  “Nothing’s wrong.” Koath rubbed his tired eyes. “I want to tell you the truth.”

  “The truth?” I repeated. “The truth about what?”

  His voice was distant, along with his eyes, “The truth about why I left you three years ago.” Koath sat in his chair, leaning back and folding his hands across his lap.

  “The Council called you away.”

  He was quick to cut in, “The Council did call me away, but not because they needed me over there. The old chairman, Xavier, died and the line of succession was blurry. Once it was all sorted out…” Koath’s voice trailed off, leaving me clueless.

  I kept silent, figuring that was the best thing to do. Sooner or later he’d start talking again, because that’s what Koath did.

  “The new chairman heard of me and my situation, and forced me to undergo tests and interrogations, and once she thought I was well enough, more training. Eventually she assigned me a new Purifier, Max, and I was lucky enough that at that exact moment, they needed someone here to fill this position.”

  My mind tried piecing it all together, and it was surprisingly easy, except there was one, huge piece missing. “What was your situation?” I inquired slowly, fearing that if I said it too fast I’d have to re
peat the question and that was something I didn’t want to do for the life of me.

  Koath sighed, replying, “My background isn’t perfect. There’s a lot of empty places, and normal Guardians don’t have that. Guardians are supposed to be flawless citizens of immaculate moral character with no bounty or criminal record. And most are.”

  My posture straightened out. “What does that mean? You…do?”

  “Believe it or not, I did have a run-in with the law many years back.”

  “What did you do?” Gosh, was I quick to jump to conclusions, or what?

  Koath’s eyebrows furrowed, saying, “I didn’t do anything. The police suspected me of a murder.”

  “Who?”

  “My wife.” His eyes fell to his lap. This must be hard for him, coming out and telling me all of this, after all this time. I never even knew Koath was married. He never spoke of his life before all this. “They thought I was the one who killed her, when in reality it was a Demon. I couldn’t defend myself properly, because Demon’s don’t legally exist, but Xavier pulled some strings and got me out of there. I owed that man my life. The new Chairman read my file and obviously thought that I wasn’t fit to take care of you.”

  “And she made you go back to England?” An unbelieving chuckle left me. “What a—”

  “Now,” Koath held a hand up, “don’t badmouth her. She was only doing her job, even though it wasn’t handled as it should have been.”

  “Okay,” I said, eyes scanning the cleaned room. No more school newspapers or yearbooks cluttering the room like they did when the other principal was alive, well, and working. Too bad John went psycho and changed all that.

  Biting my lip, I said, “Why didn’t you tell me this before? Why wait all this time?”

  “I was ordered to keep it a secret. Technically, I’m still not supposed to tell anyone, even you. The Council doesn’t want stories like this getting out,” Koath added the last sentence as an afterthought; at least that’s what it seemed like.