Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “Then why tell me now?” It was a legitimate question, seeing as how he’d been keeping tons of things from me.

  The bell rang as he shrugged. “I don’t know. Why does anyone do anything?” Koath smiled at my confused face before saying, “Now, I don’t want to make you late for your next class, so I’ll let you go.”

  “How does this look?” I hurriedly asked Raphael, who was busy sitting in a pew and reading one of his ancient books that I cleaned off. My hand rested on the broken altar that I fixed up. It was pretty nice.

  In my opinion, anyway.

  “How do you think it looks?” was the answer he gave without looking up.

  “How do I…no, I asked you first.” I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my hand and stomped the floor for an added effect.

  “And my answer to that was how do you think it looks.” Raphael’s green eyes broke contact with the book to stare at me.

  “I think it looks amazing. Wonderful, even. The best altar I’ve seen in my life,” I exaggerated. Truth be told, the altar was still a bit broken in the back, but I hoped he would look over that for now since I had a football game to get to and a good-looking boy to maybe meet.

  “This is a punishment, Kass, so I will not let you off easy just because you have places to go and people to see,” Raphael told me sternly. “The only way that will happen is if you finally tell me the truth about the staff. That is all it takes for this to end. The truth.”

  “But, Raphael,” I whined his name, probably pissing him off more by doing so, “you don’t understand, I’m needed at that football game. Really, I am.”

  Raphael appeared as if he didn’t give a flying ca-hoot about my problem, but he still said, “And why is that?”

  A) Claire was going to tell Max that she was a cougar Morpher, B) the sexy boy wanted to see me, and C) everyone needed my moral support for things to go right. Okay, so I might have made C up, but hopefully it was close to the truth.

  Instead of telling him all my reasons, I angrily sat back down and got to work on the altar. As I lifted up a screwdriver, I noticed my outfit.

  There was no way I could go to go to the football game dressed like this, covered in sawdust. That only meant that I had to go home before heading to the school’s field, which added about thirty more minutes to my snooze fest and subtracted the same time from my gorgeous boy time.

  If that thought didn’t make me work harder, I didn’t know what would.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine – Koath

  Max and Gabriel looked like two, normal teenagers who were going out on a Friday night to be with their friends. Nothing could have made me or Michael prouder, except if Kass was with them and not busy being put to work by Raphael. Purifiers masquerading as normal teenagers. They weren’t perfect at it, but they were good enough.

  I watched them leave Michael’s house and slam the door like the angst-ridden kids they were. I chuckled and leaned on the kitchen wall, staring squarely at Michael. “Isn’t it amazing?”

  Michael’s eye met mine. He pushed up his glasses, saying, “Isn’t what amazing?”

  “They’re growing up,” I answered curtly. “They’re becoming members of the society. It’s what all of us Guardians want, right?” Smiling, I sipped the tea Michael had been so kind to make me. Immediately, I held back a grimace. The tea was far too strong for my tastes.

  “Now that you mention it, it is bloody amazing,” Michael stated, walking into the living to fetch something.

  With a mouthful of tea, I smiled as much as I could while he left the kitchen. Once he was out, I made a quick dash to the sink and spat out the awful substance. Something just wasn’t right with that tea, or maybe it was the whole thing. There was always something about tea that I didn’t like.

  After all this time, I finally realized that maybe it’s the tea itself that I didn’t like.

  I wished I would have come to that conclusion sooner, for my sake.

  I set the cup down quietly when I became aware of the absolute silence that surrounded me. There was not a single sound coming from any direction. Where was Michael? If he was getting the paper from the other room, he should have been back by now.

  My gut told me to go to the living room, so I did.

  I found Michael. He layed on the floor, eyes closed.

  “Michael,” I anxiously said his name while falling to my knees beside him. I checked his pulse. He was still alive, only unconscious. My eyes saw red behind his collar, so my hand pulled it down to reveal choke marks.

  Son of a—

  Standing, I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the house phone. My fingers were quick to dial the emergency number as I started to walk out of the kitchen and back into the living room.

  “Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” A female’s voice said on the other line.

  “The address is…” My voice stopped the moment I noticed Michael’s laptop was suddenly on the coffee table, playing an oh-too familiar song. I dropped the phone in shock, but before it fell to the floor to break, someone caught it with inhuman reflexes. His eyes burned a hideously strange red. “Crixis,” I muttered, watching as he hung up the phone.

  Chapter Thirty – Kass

  “Raphael,” I paused, glaring into his emerald eyes, “that is as good as that fricking altar is going to get. I’m not doing any more of it tonight. If you want, I can be here all weekend to make it better. But not today. Not now.” I squinted my eyes to show him I was beyond serious.

  Raphael unexpectedly stood and closed his book, his gaze distant. His brows furrowed, and I saw him swallow. He looked more uncomfortable than I’d ever seen him, which was saying something. “I think you should head straight to the game. Perhaps I can escort you to the field.”

  “No,” I exclaimed, hissing out the word like I was a boy in the sixth grade. “I don’t want my few friends to see me with you. Plus, I can’t go looking like a carpenter in the middle of a wood shop, can I? I have to swing home first.” I studied him further, slowly saying, “And I really don’t need you to escort me anywhere.”

  Raphael was strangely silent, disappearing in the back room. With a slightly miffed frown, I walked through the pews and headed for the giant doors.

  The second I stepped foot on the green grass, I walked into a vision. A short one that lasted less than five seconds, but it was still a vision. And it replayed over and over, repeating and overlapping until I was able to make it out.

  My mother looking at me and saying, “Remember.”

  “What?” I said aloud, wanting to know what I had to remember.

  But she said nothing else. Nothing to clue me in to whatever riddle I was supposed to figure out. These visions, I’d had it with them. I was so tired of them not making a lick of sense until it was too late. What good were they if they couldn’t help me out once in a while?

  I hurried through the cemetery and down my street, and during that time I couldn’t stop wondering about the vision, and about how weird Raphael became at the end. So weird, he couldn’t even look me in the eyes. He didn’t even say goodbye.

  Was it going to happen? Was I going to die?

  I wondered these two things as we turned on my driveway.

  Well, I could have sworn I was going to die when I met Crixis in the graveyard a few nights ago, and I didn’t. Did that mean that today was the day? It was sooner than I hoped (obviously) and later than I thought it was going to be.

  No, I decided as I placed my foot on the first step of the front porch, nothing was going to happen. I was going to get changed and go to the football game. I was going to get Claire and Max together, and if I was lucky, maybe find that cute boy from school. It was as simple as that.

  As I headed up the stairs to the front door, I paused, a wave of anxiety settling over me.

  Something was wrong. So very, very wrong.

  It was then that I was swallowed by a vision, yet again.

  My straight brown hair was long enough that it could double as a mu
stache, and that’s what I wanted to show mom before she left. I knew I wasn’t supposed to see her, but I had to show her because it was so cool. I skipped to her favorite room, the one with the huge painted window, and held my hair above my lip.

  Maybe she wouldn’t even recognize me with my hair like this. I giggled at the thought of being mistaken for a boy.

  Smiling, I reached my tiny fingers to the metal door. My hand touched the knob as I heard her favorite song playing.

  I accidentally bit my tongue when I pushed open the door and walked into the room. My mom’s song was playing. Some old, boring song. Not like the ones on the radio. I hated it.

  The setting sun shone through the glass, making it hard for my eyes to see. I put a small hand over them and saw my mom standing before the window, a vacant expression in her eyes. A man was near her, studying her intently.

  “Mommy?” My voice came out like a squeak, causing the man to look at me.

  His eyes weren’t normal…they were red. I froze in fear.

  The man tilted his head as he slowly walked towards me. I didn’t move. All I did was watch as he knelt in front of me, putting his face close to mine. His eyes stared into me as I stuttered, “W-what did you d-do to…mommy?”

  He wiped some of his black hair out of his face, looked back at my mom, who wasn’t moving, and gazed more at me. “I didn’t do anything,” his voice was slow and soothing, making me believe him instantly, “your mommy just…” His hand demonstrated. “…went away in lots of light.”

  “She…went away?” I squeaked again.

  He nodded slowly. “That’s right. Poof. You’re imagining that body there.” As he spoke, mommy’s standing form disappeared. I was alone with the stranger. “What’s your name, little girl?”

  “Kassie,” I said while sucking my thumb.

  “Kassie?” He echoed. “Is that short for Kassandra?” He smiled when I shook my head. “Did you know that in ancient Greece there was a woman who had the exact same name, and she was able to see the future?” A chuckle came from his lungs. “Maybe you’ll be just like her someday.”

  I kept quiet, not knowing what to say to the man.

  “Kassie…” His red eyes fell to my feet. “…you’re just like your mother, aren’t you?”

  “W-what?” I bit my thumb.

  “What could you possibly be?” The man paused as his red eyes flicked to the door. Someone else was coming. “Kassie, listen to me.” He grabbed my face in his hands and forced me to stare even deeper in his red eyes. “Forget all of this. Don’t remember anything before now. Forget all of it. Every, single detail of your life. Don’t remember…”

  My mind went completely blank.

  The man stood, looked from me to the door and said, “I know I’ll be seeing you again, Kassie.” In a flash of wind, he was gone.

  I was suddenly back in reality. How much of that was real? Did Crixis…murder my mother, make me forget it? And if he wanted to kill me so badly now, why didn’t he do it when I was younger, when I was just an innocent little girl?

  I’d never get answers.

  Shaking my head, I my hand lifted toward the door knob, but I hesitated. Which was odd, because I never hesitated. I was always gung-ho, totally diving in everything head-first.

  I knew something was wrong. I felt it in my bones. A gut feeling, intuition, instinct, whatever you wanted to call it. There was something so ungodly wrong, and I was seconds from finding out what it was.

  I stood at the front door to our house, and for a quick moment, I stared up at its height. In this particular moment, it didn’t feel like home. It felt like a foreign place. My stomach twisted as I barged through the door.

  The same low, old tune danced through my ears, and I ran to the living room, finding Michael’s laptop open and on YouTube, the source of the familiar song. I quickly hit the pause button, but the relief I felt by stopping the song evaporated the instant I noticed Michael laying on the floor, facedown.

  Without a word I was at his side, feeling for a pulse.

  Still alive. Thank God.

  He was unconscious, though, so I went for the house phone in the kitchen. We had a big kitchen. Wide, open spaces. For once, I didn’t use my Purifier training. I didn’t examine my surroundings.

  I should have.

  My hand was outstretched to the phone hanging on the wall, but before I could get to it, my feet slipped. I was so shaken, so caught off-guard that my reflexes, which were usually pristine, didn’t stop my fall. I fell backwards, landing hard on my butt. Almost immediately, something soaked through my shorts. I brought my hand to my face. Blood covered my palm.

  My heart nearly stopped when I finally realized that I wasn’t alone in the kitchen.

  Crixis sat at the kitchen table, thumbing through one of Michael’s cooking books, looking utterly unconcerned. He didn’t even glance up at me, didn’t even meet my gaze, probably because he knew I wasn’t looking at him anymore.

  I stared at the body on the floor, at his garish neck wound, at the pints of dark red blood that coated nearly the entire kitchen floor. His usually kind eyes remained open, his head turned unnaturally in my direction, so that I was staring into the dead eyes of the man who raised me, the man who taught me everything I knew, what it meant to be a Purifier, what it meant to help others, to save innocent lives.

  Koath.

  “No” my voice was a bare whisper. I frantically crawled to him, slipping on his blood numerous times. Never in my life had I been so inept, so…sad. “No,” I said again, kneeling beside him, holding his neck. But the blood had already stopped flowing, which meant his heart wasn’t beating. His skin was pale. His eyes glossy. The thing that I was hysterically trying to fix was just his body.

  Koath was dead.

  I couldn’t even cry. I couldn’t even breathe. My old Guardian, my friend, the man who was like a father to me…was gone. Everything that could’ve been, won’t be. Everything that was, would never be again. I wanted to weep, I wanted to scream, but I was motionless, caught in the web of reality.

  Reality was never this awful.

  “I don’t suppose it’s any consolation to know that his last words were of you,” Crixis spoke from his position on the wooden chair. He flipped a page, adding, “As much as it pains me to say the dreaded L-word, he loved you.”

  The words felt like a slap in the face. Before I even knew what I was doing, I lunged for him. By the time I reached his chair, he flashed to the opposite side of the table. Smug. He was too smug for what he just did. Without thinking, I kicked the nearest chair, breaking it into pieces. With a broken leg in my grip, I jumped onto the table, about to lunge at him when he spoke again.

  “Ah-ah-ah. Remember the last time you fought me? There’s no one here to save you now. You sure you really want to do this?”

  The only thing I did was glare at him. I’d never been so certain in my whole life. Purifying wasn’t what I wanted to do to him. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to be in as much pain as I was in. I wanted him dead. Revenge. I never understood the concept until now.

  “Before you say anything you might regret, let me call attention to the other man in the room.” He motioned to the edge of the counter and cabinets, where the garbage can sat. “Well, if you could call him a man, considering.” With a smirk, he vanished in thin air, leaving me staring hard at the man cowering by the trash.

  He sat with his legs drawn to his stomach, holding his bloodied hands out before him. His light head was bent, his eyes squeezed shut. His priest uniform, similar to my clothes, was covered in Koath’s blood.

  “I tried,” was what he attempted to say.

  I leapt off the table, inept no longer, grabbing his throat with my empty hand and lifting him to stand. My other hand held onto the makeshift stake tightly. I couldn’t speak. What was there to say?

  He was slow to open his green eyes to me, saying, “I…am so sorry. I tried to stop him, but I—”

  “You what?” I shouted
in his face, regaining my voice. “You couldn’t? Or you didn’t want to?”

  Raphael glanced to the stake, then back at me. “I am sorry, more than you could ever know.” Before I could say anything in return, a shimmering blue portal opened up behind him, and he stepped backwards. The portal closed around him, leaving my hand against the wall.

  When I withdrew it, there was a perfectly shaped handprint of blood.

  I was too shocked to really think about what I just saw. Instead of thinking about Raphael and his lying face, I turned back to the mess, to the blood, to the body. My eyes were dry as I calmly walked through the puddles of blood and reached for the phone, still holding the stake.

  I speed-dialed one. As soon as I heard someone answer, I stated in a very mechanical tone, “This is Kassandra Niles. I’d like to report an attack. Demon. Crixis. One fatality. My

  Guardian—” There was a pause as I came to the conclusion that Koath would never be my, or Max’s, Guardian again. “—has been injured. We need cleanup and medical attention.”

  I quieted as the woman on the other line gave me instructions.

  “Thank you,” I said, not bothering to hang the phone up. I let it drop onto the floor, in the blood, and it shattered. I was in a haze as I went to the bottom of the stairwell, sitting on the first step, facing the front door.

  I slowly looked into the living room on my left, seeing Michael’s feet on the floor. I then looked into the kitchen on my right, at the blood on the tile. My face twitched, like I knew I should cry. But nothing came out.

  This was the worst day of my life.

  Chapter Thirty-One – Gabriel

  Our team made a touchdown, causing everyone in the stands to jump, cheer and applaud, including Max and Claire. I had no idea if either of the nerds made a move on each other, and frankly I was too worried. And not about Claire’s decision to hold off on telling Max what she was.

  There was something much worse happening, only I had no idea what that was. I felt it; deep down I felt something was wrong.