Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  “Okay, thanks Gabriel. I, uh, appreciate that…” I fidgeted with my hands, wondering how I should say this. “Does anyone know what time it is?” Gabriel coughed, making me realize that I had a watch on my wrist. “Oh, right. It’s two-forty-eight, so we have twelve minutes to decide—”

  Why did I wait until the last freaking minute?

  “Decide what?” Michael questioned. “What could there possibly be to decide?”

  “Give her some time and I’m sure she’ll tell you,” Alyssa snapped at him, startling everyone in the room. The quiet Alyssa hardly existed anymore.

  “It’s funny that you should mention Crixis.” I received some really nasty looks. “Because he came to me in a dream last night.”

  Raphael spoke, “So that’s why you wanted to see the list of Demons he’s devoured.”

  Gabriel’s blue eyes widened. “And that’s why you were asking for Raphael this morning. You were looking for some book. Don’t know why I thought it was an early-morning booty-call.”

  “Shut up,” I yelled at the top of my lungs, halting the fighting match that I knew was headed this way. “Just listen to me, please. Crixis told me there was a cure, and that he would help her if—”

  “He cannot be trusted,” Taiton declared, karate chopping the air in front of him.

  “But what if it’s true?” Max panicked at the thought. “It would make sense. He went after her because he knew he could use her to his advantage. He knew we’d go to him—”

  “Weren’t you listening to her?” Gabriel raised a hand in my direction, throwing an icy stare at the red head. “She said he came to her. She didn’t go to him in a dream. Wait a minute. Nothing happened in this dream between you and him, did it? Because, if so, we will have to take you to therapy, and there’s another name on my list...”

  The feeling of Crixis’s lips on mine surfaced, and I pushed it away. That was the last thing I needed to think about.

  The blonde boy glanced at me, eyebrows furrowing, and I hoped he wasn’t reading my thoughts.

  I ignored the multiple dirty looks I received as the room broke out into utter chaos again. I said, mostly to myself, “We don’t have time for this…” The only one that was paying any attention to me stared me down with his hazel eyes.

  Raphael directed a single inquiry to me, “What does he want in exchange?”

  Gabriel jumped up, getting between the path of Raphael’s stare and me. “He didn’t ask for your life, did he? I’m sorry, but you mean too much to us. We wouldn’t trade you for Claire—” Max and Steven mumbled their own responses, causing Gabriel to send death glares in their direction.

  “He asked for our help,” I spoke the strange words quietly, reminding myself of the old Alyssa in the process.

  “Help?” Michael repeated, sounding flabbergasted. “You’ve got to be bloody insane.”

  Taiton shook his head, saying, “We do not aid the enemy.”

  “I agree,” Liz was quick to say.

  “You’ve seen all that he’s done,” Steven shouted across the room, standing. “He’s tried killing you how many times? And you want to help him? What makes you so sure that he won’t go back on his word and kill you after you agree?”

  “You didn’t see his face,” I was instantaneously cut off by Gabriel.

  His blue eyes were past the point of being critical. They were just downright condemning. “How could you even think of this as an option, Kass?”

  Frantically, I glimpsed at the clock on the mantle. We were running out of time. Ah, correction: Claire was running out of time.

  Raphael was the last sane person in the room. “What did he want help with, Kass?”

  I shook my head, replying, “All he said was that we need to unite and take her down.”

  Gabriel lifted his hand. “See? What’d I tell you? That’s preposterous and vague. That could mean literally anything.” The rest of the room, minus Raphael, nodded in swift agreement. They weren’t even giving me a chance.

  “No,” Raphael spoke forcefully, shutting everyone up, “this could mean only one thing.”

  When he failed to go on, Gabriel prodded, “Well? What does it mean?”

  It was a few, impossibly long seconds before Raphael answered, “It means that someone is trying to bring back his maker, and if they succeed, we’re all doomed.”

  The room entered a state of deep silence. Doomed? It wasn’t as if we hadn’t heard that before. There were multiple occasions of which we were doomed. Being doomed on a regular basis was just part of the job.

  Gabriel shifted in his seat. “And the big deal is?”

  “The big deal?” Raphael was startled by his question. The guy’s been around us long enough that by now he should know the word doomed was as frequently used as like was by regular teenagers.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel said, stopping Raphael from making any other ridiculous comments. “So what, Captain Obvious? Thanks for telling me the sky’s blue and the grass is green, Skipper. Tell me something I don’t know, like how the platypus is a mammal and lays eggs.”

  Raphael’s jaw set, creating a tension in his face that I wished I could have stopped from forming. “We cannot let this happen.” He shook his head.

  Hopefully to help flustered Raphael out, I decided to ask him, “What do you know about his maker?” I knew all about her. More than I wanted to, anyways. Maybe if the rest of them heard what she was like, they’d agree to help Crixis.

  Disclaimer: I did not want to help Crixis, but I knew that if we did, he’d heal Claire. That was my priority right now, not anything else. If we had to team up to take down an ancient, big bad evil, then it was just another day’s work. And after that day’s work, we’d get rid of Crixis for good.

  I hoped.

  His eyes clouded over as he spoke, “She is a first-generation Vampire, meaning she is unlike anything any of you have ever faced.” Well that explained the whole nail-growing and ear-sharpening thing. “She has more power than any of the newer generations. I have heard tales of her, and they rival with those deeds committed by Crixis over the centuries.”

  “I’ve never heard of anything like that,” Liz muttered under her breath before asking, “Where has she been all this time, hidden in a bleeding cave?”

  A shrug was her answer. “I cannot say for sure,” Raphael glanced at me, “I only know that the way Crixis dealt with her was merely a temporary solution. I believe this time he wants to team up because he wishes to find something more—”

  “Permanent,” John whispered.

  I nodded along with Raphael. “Exactly. That’s why we need to team up. He needs our help and we need his, whether we want to admit it or not.” I couldn’t believe what I was saying. In this entire room, I should be the last person to say anything like that.

  “No,” Michael declared, “this is ludicrous. I will not allow this discussion to continue.”

  Slowly Michael became aware that I stared him down from my opposing position. My famous death glare made him instantly uncomfortable, I could see it in the way he sharply looked away and jiggled his glasses.

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Max accused the Englishman with a scrawny finger, raising his voice to an unimaginable volume. “You don’t have a friend who’s dying as we speak!”

  Taiton quickly defended him, “Crixis will only betray you once he gets what he is after, and I will not give consent. There is no possible way I could justify this to the Council—” He was cut off by a furious Max.

  “To save a life! A—” Max paused, and to me it was completely clear that he wanted to call her something else. Something that would probably not have gone over well with Steven. At least, not now. “—civilian!”

  “You’ve been after him ever since the Council formed.” Gabriel breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down. We all knew he didn’t calm that easy. “We’ll save Claire, help stop the all-powerful maker lady, and then you’ll have Crixis right where you want him. Take care of him then,” he
told Taiton, “and we all get what we want.”

  “A Vampire as learnt as him?” Michael shook his head. “There’d be no way. He’d see right through us…”

  Gabriel leaned to his Guardian, almost falling off the couch while doing so. “Would he? Maybe he’s too wrapped up in the resurrection of his maker. This might be the one and only shot we get to purify. We all want him dead. Doing it and preventing the destruction of the world? Win-win. What have we got to lose?” His sapphire eyes locked with mine, not daring to drop my gaze.

  Frantic, worried, anxious eyes flicked from one pair of frantic, worried, anxious eyes to another. No one knew what to say next, because Gabriel did have a point. He had a very good point…up until his last question.

  In reality, we had everything to lose. Wait, no, Claire and I had everything to lose. Everyone else? They’d just be caught in the cross-fire and get out alive. Maybe.

  I finally tore my eyes away from Gabriel’s stare, because, deep down, I loved staring in his eyes, and I wasn’t about to give myself the satisfaction. Not at a time like this.

  The second hand was abnormally drawn-out in its journey to the twelve. Five seconds and counting…four…three…two…one…

  Three o’clock.

  A shrill, irritating ringing erupted from the house phone near me, shattering the apprehensive silence. No one moved a muscle, no one except me. I did what I had to: I walked to the phone, picked up the receiver and said, “We’ll help you.” I hung up the phone.

  “Kass, we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Gabriel spoke, coming out of nowhere behind me, startling me a bit. “Everyone will understand.” He pulled me from my uncomfortable location on the wooden doorframe and hugged me.

  What was with all the freaking hugging?

  Claire was on her deathbed. My father was just murdered. I was angry at all times. And I agreed to help the same Demon who caused all of this. That didn’t mean I wanted a hug every fifteen minutes.

  “No,” I wrangled out of his grasp, “I have to do this. We all have to do this.”

  “There’s still time.” His hands cupped my face, forcing me to look up at his towering figure. “You can change your mind.” His thumbs, which were softer than I imagined them to be, caressed my cheeks.

  “I can’t, for Claire’s sake,” I murmured under his smooth touch. Somehow his hands ended up on my shoulders, and I was thoroughly enjoying the rub. Gabriel was mind-blowingly amazing with his hands. It was the moment when he draped his kneading hands on my back that I recovered my usual manner and deadpanned, “As much as I’d like you to give me a full body massage, Gabriel, I need to concentrate.”

  Raising an eyebrow, his smile sent butterflies into my stomach. What was wrong with me? “I owe you one, then, after this. I can only hope you’ll concentrate on my skillful hand abilities as much as you are this…you know what? Never mind. That sounded better in my head.”

  “I bet,” I managed to laugh out.

  “Hey, look on the bright side,” Gabriel told me seriously.

  Quizzically, I responded, “What bright side?”

  His blue eyes dashed to the kitchen, and I knew he was probably thinking about food. Food, at a time like this, no less. What a boy. “Anyways.” He attempted to change the subject, but I hit him in the stomach. I wanted to know what this so-called bright side was.

  “Tell me what the bright side is.”

  “You are temporarily without your infallible bodyguard, Taiton,” Gabriel answered, as if it should have been known from the beginning. Actually, I should have noticed that from the beginning. “Which, to tell the truth, would make having intimate relations especially easy.”

  I was about to scream his name, the way I always did when he made comments like that, but was stopped short by a single knock on the front door.

  “Kass,” Gabriel warned as I reached for the knob, “you still have a chance to…” His voice disappeared when he took in the fact that I wasn’t about to stop. And the door was already opened to a relatively unperturbed Daywalker.

  “Oh,” the blonde boy’s tone changed right away, “if it isn’t the most despised monster of all time. Tell me three things: how do you sleep at night knowing you’ve murdered thousands of innocent people, how do you live for so long without going bonkers, and how do you keep your hair looking so good after all this time?”

  I used all of the restraint I had to keep myself from slapping Gabriel. Harassing Crixis wasn’t a good idea.

  Throwing him a glare, Gabriel shrugged.

  “I very rarely get more than two hours of sleep, I keep myself in check by interacting normally with humans, sometimes without killing them, and my hair’s naturally windswept,” Crixis answered with an evil half-grin. “A God-given gift, I suppose.”

  That response shut Gabriel up immediately.

  His bright green eyes turned to me. “Why, aren’t you a vision today?”

  “A vision?” Gabriel soon regained his sarcasm.

  “You are certainly the charmer,” Crixis said while taking a step in the house, nearing within a foot of me. His sinful gaze was upon me once more, making me extremely nervous and on edge. My mind ran through the dream I had last night, recalling the feeling of his mouth and the sheer coldness that enveloped me before I woke up.

  He parted his lips ever so slightly, saying, “It—” I could feel Crixis’s eyes eating me up, and it sent shivers down my spine. “—is a wonder why you haven’t claimed her yet. You’ve had plenty of time.”

  He was speaking to Gabriel while staring at me. Talking as if I were a possession. Sexist.

  Gabriel was stunned speechless. I, however, was not. “This isn’t the fifteenth century,” I seethed, “I am not a prize to be won or something to be claimed.”

  “Think what you want,” Crixis replied, leaning down over me and causing Gabriel to quickly pull me back to put some space between us. “The man who claims you will indubitably have his hands full.”

  Squinting my eyes, I ignored his previous statement and commanded, “Shut up and follow me.” I spun on my heels and took him to the room Claire was still in. No, scratch that. The room everyone was in.

  Once the door was pushed open, and the eight pairs of accusatory eyes were on us, I said, “Now go fix her.”

  Crixis carefully guided his way through the crowd of fuming people, avoiding the intimidating and threatening poses and postures in the room, and reached Claire’s side. I was mere seconds behind him.

  The tension in the room was palpable. Having your worst enemy and relying on him for help tended to make people uneasy. I’d never experienced this feeling before, and it truthfully wasn’t easy to handle.

  Studying the ghost-like girl on the bed, Crixis sighed. “She isn’t doing too well, is she?”

  “You—” Max yelled, lunging at the responsible Daywalker, but Michael held him back, knowing he’d be no match for the ancient Demon.

  Crixis rose a finger and swayed it back and forth to Max, saying, “Temper, temper. If I were you, I’d watch that. One day it might get you killed.” He ended his sentence with a twitch of a smile.

  “Was that a threat?” Max snarled, struggling free of Michael’s grasp and dropping his bug glasses on the floor in the process. I watched the red-head bend over and pick them up. If we were lucky, Max would hold off and wait until our agreement with Crixis was complete. He could go Rambo on him later.

  “Just a suggestion. Calm down, boy,” Crixis laughed, “it’s as if...” Recognition dawned in his evil eyes. “Oh. Sorry, I had no idea that you and this Morpher were together.”

  Max abruptly looked away, whispering, “We’re not.”

  “But you wish to be.”

  I cut through Crixis’s speech by saying, “Did you bring the cure?”

  “That goes without saying,” he replied, receiving numerous jeers from the other people in the room. “But before I heal her, I need your word.” His jade eyes glanced around the small room. “From all of
you, that if I do this, you will help me in return.”

  “I promise,” I was quick to say. I thought we were done with this stuff?

  A few more evil chuckles from him sent more shivers through me, raising the hair on my arms. “Not from you, though it is welcomed. I meant them.” His head motioned to the remaining people.

  I glanced around the room, without a thought saying, “Promise him.” When no one responded, I repeated at an increased intensity, “Promise him. I don’t like this anymore than you guys, but we have to do this.” I hoped my little speech would make them hurry this thing up.

  “How do we know,” Gabriel was the first to speak up, “that after we help you, you won’t return to your normal hobbies of terrorizing Kass and killing everyone she’s ever loved?”

  “You’re still alive, aren’t you?” Crixis let a long, dramatic pause interrupt the flow of his rebuttal. “You all are. The fact of the matter is that you’ll have to trust me. If you help me with my predicament, then I will leave you alone. I will leave you all alone.” With an intense look from his green eyes, he said, “I promise.”

  Gabriel growled. Yes, he literally growled like a feral dog at Crixis, simultaneously saying, “Fine.” His fine was trailed by several nods and whispered pledges. Taiton was the only one who said and did nothing.

  Crixis, though, obviously didn’t care about Taiton enough to make a big issue of it, because he bowed over Claire and opened her mouth. In a flash, he bit his wrist. With another grotesque flash, his bleeding wrist dribbled large amounts of blood over her mouth.

  His blood was the cure?

  “The blood should make its way through her system in a few minutes,” Crixis said after a single lick to his wrist. “The Morpher will be fine.” His glances to everyone in the room caused them to freeze.