Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  You know, like a normal person. When you died, you should stay dead, unless you drowned or something. Me? Coming back after my neck was snapped? Not normal at all, there.

  Honestly, I thought I deserved a break. Ever since moving here, my life had been nothing short of crazy Demon sideshow after sideshow. First the Osiris ritual, then insane John and the Shifter who tried to kill Koath, then that stupid Sorcerer who transported me into another reality. After I got back, almost immediately I had to deal with Claire being a Morpher and Koath’s death. Then the whole Sephira thing, not to mention the Skinwalker Demon. Now Michael.

  Seriously. I deserved a break.

  No, I needed one. I was tired, and rightfully so, and I knew the Council would never willingly give any of their Purifiers a break. They wanted us to work until we were dead. Our death could be our break.

  The more I thought about it, the more I disagreed with it. I put myself at risk so many times—some smartly and some stupidly—and the fact I stood here, alive and semi-well today didn’t mean I should keep fighting.

  I was done.

  I was even more done when I thought about Gabriel. I missed my best friend, my cohort in everything, co-conspirator when it came to purifyings and life in general. I missed his random and usually inappropriate jokes, how two dimples formed on his cheeks when he smiled. It was immensely difficult coming to terms with the fact I might not ever see that side of Gabriel again. I wasn’t going to wait around and pray he came to his senses. I wasn’t going to be a doormat, even if I did…

  Even if I cared for him, even if I—

  My thoughts were interrupted by a short burst of wind as two people appeared before me. One of them was thrown haphazardly onto the floor, his limbs splayed out around him. Michael. A very unconscious Michael. Crixis stood over him, grinning wickedly. How I hated that grin, but at the moment, I hated Michael just a bit more.

  “Are we tying you up to the chair instead?” Crixis rose his dark eyebrows.

  I quickly stood. To my surprise and shock, Crixis kept his gaze level with mine; his eyes did not wander lower than my face, even if I was practically baring my entire torso. But, either way, I was past the point of caring. “No,” I said, moving aside. Pointing to the pile of rope near the chair’s legs, I added, “Make it tight.”

  Crixis mused, “You don’t have to tell me twice.” He hoisted Michael onto the chair, the ex-Guardian’s head lolling back and forth. With any luck, he’d have a blistering headache when he came to. He tied an ankle each to a chair leg and his wrists to the arms of the chair. He then handed me something, metal flashing.

  A dagger.

  An ugly dagger, one that was far more hideous than my beautifully-crafted rose blade. I lifted an eyebrow. I was supposed to use this thing?

  “Do with it what you want,” he told me. “I just thought that, since it’s the dagger he was going to kill you with, you ought to have the option of shoving it in his face.”

  Hmm. Not a bad idea, actually.

  I tore my gaze away from the dagger, glancing to Michael. If that was even his real name. “How long until he wakes up?”

  “Shouldn’t be too long. You could always cut him a little and see if he wakes—” Crixis paused, looking over his shoulder at the door. “We have company.”

  Max entered the room, followed by Liz. Neither of them looked too happy to see Crixis near me, but Max at least let out a sigh when he saw Michael. Liz blinked, her eyes growing watery. “Whatever you do,” Liz pleaded, “don’t kill him. We have to hand him over to the Council.”

  “What she means is,” Max explained, “give him your worst, but go easy on him at the same time. We just need to know who he’s working for, where they are. Then we can go after the source.”

  I wanted to quip something smart, like, Look at you. Coming up with the ideas. Congrats, Max. Now you’re a real Purifier. But I held back, knowing my sass and wit were at an all-time low. It’d just come out as bitchy anyway.

  Liz sniffed, holding a hand to her belly as if she were seconds from being sick. “I can’t watch this.” She turned and ran from the room, very unprofessional and immature of her. Like she expected me to go bananas on him, start cutting him and beating him senselessly without reason.

  I was at least going to wait until he woke up. Come on. I wasn’t that much of a barbarian.

  Max stayed with us, though he stood as far from Crixis as he could, which clearly amused the murderous Daywalker. “You found him fast,” Max remarked.

  “No one can run from me” was Crixis’s unperturbed response.

  “Should I let Gabriel know we got him?”

  Both Crixis and I shot Max dirty looks. What kind of stupid question was that?

  “No,” I said quickly. “If he wanted to be here, he would. Leave him alone. I…” God, I sounded like a lunatic. A cold-hearted madwoman, vengeful and vindictive. Similar to how I usually sounded, but way more serious. “…I don’t want him here.”

  A lie, one both men in the room let slide.

  “Okay,” Max said quietly. “Then we wait.” He leaned on the wall, sliding down until he sat. He looked out of place in the training room when he wasn’t training or busy burying his nose in a book.

  Crixis strolled over to him, making a big show of sniffing the air. “My, my. Somebody smells like a Morpher.” He laughed when Max did nothing but ball his fists in his lap.

  The comment snapped me out of my self-imposed misery. Were they dating now? Were they technically together? Why didn’t either of them tell me? I knew they went on a date, but it was while I felt so awful, it was hard to pay attention and care about it.

  I was a terrible friend. All the more reason why they didn’t need me.

  With one more laugh, Crixis returned to my side. “I thought there were rules you Purifiers had to follow, especially when it comes to courting the supernatural.”

  “Nobody says the word courting anymore,” I muttered. Michael needed to wake up soon, otherwise I might start contemplating using the dagger in my hands on Crixis. The last thing I needed to do right now was anger the all-powerful, ancient Daywalker who until very recently had a thing for making my life a living hell.

  “Right. Hooking up?”

  I chuckled, a bit of my icy exterior melting. He was close enough.

  “Tell me,” Crixis said, “why haven’t you and Gabriel hooked up? Before now, you’ve clearly been in love with each other—”

  Okay, that caused me to snap.

  I whirled on him, lifting the pointy end of the dagger to his neck. He didn’t even blink. We weren’t…I wasn’t—

  “It’s not like that,” I hissed, sounding like a tried and true you-know-what. A teenager. Ugh. “It’s…complicated.” I slowly lowered the dagger, hooking it through a belt loop as I looked away, hyper-aware Max listened even though he tried desperately to look bored and lost in a daydream. Or nightdream. Or whatever-the-time-of-the-day-it-was dream.

  “Oftentimes, when people claim complication, they’re too lazy or frightened of change. Which one are you, Kass?”

  I glared at him.

  I wasn’t lazy or scared. The very opposite of both those things. I told him it was complicated because that’s what it was—complicated. Intensely complicated. Almost indescribably complicated.

  Gabriel and I shared so much history. We were like brother and sister for most of our lives, always competing, bickering with each other and rarely seeing eye to eye on things, but we got along under it all. We were super close. I’d risked my life for him three years ago when his first ever girlfriend was going to feed him to her pet Nightwalkers. I never regretted the decision of marching headfirst into danger, not when it included saving his sorry butt.

  Things were even more complicated ever since I came back from that other reality. The me in that world had died, turned into a psycho Daywalker by Crixis—was in a (yuck) relationship with Crixis—and the other world’s Gabriel had let everything descend into chaos. He’d come bac
k, tricked me into believing he was like my Gabriel, stole a kiss out of me…then I may have given him a night full of kisses he didn’t even ask for. He was older than my Gabriel, the blueness in his eyes held a certain sadness. He was more serious than my Gabriel, so downtrodden. I couldn’t help but be drawn to him.

  It was complicated because it was freaking complicated.

  Gabriel and mine’s story was just too long and twisted. Even if he did like me more than a sister, even if I loved him back, he didn’t want anything to do with me now, and my heart was too broken, too beaten and weary to try to change it.

  Plus, he burned me. Still kind of pissed about that.

  “It’s clear he needs you, even if he doesn’t see it,” Crixis said with a shrug. “I’m not rallying for the Devil-boy, but sometimes I am reminded of your age. Young and foolish.”

  “We can’t all be evil like you.”

  He laughed. “No, you can’t, but I would like to see you try, starting when he wakes up.” His green eyes darted to Michael, whose head was so far forward his chin touched his chest. If he didn’t wake with a headache, he’d at least wake with a severe neck ache.

  “Don’t bring up Gabriel again,” I said. I didn’t want to talk about him anymore. I didn’t want to think about him. If I thought about what I’d lost, how Gabriel acted, I’d surely lose what remaining sanity I had left.

  And that, my friends, wasn’t a lot.

  It was very tiny. So miniscule, in fact, that I couldn’t even measure it.

  Chapter Eleven - Michael

  The last thing I remembered was a feeble attempt at attacking Crixis. I knew enough about him, had seen enough first hand to know I wouldn’t win. I couldn’t. He was thousands of years old and more powerful than nearly any Demon I’d seen so far in my life. He was nothing, though, compared to what Gabriel could be, if I could just end Kass’s life.

  Really—who knew killing a teenager would be so difficult?

  I remembered Crixis lifting me up, my feet losing contact with the ground, gasping for a breath that just would not fill my lungs. A painful experience, one that made me pass out soon after.

  My mind was the first thing that returned to me, and as I gathered my thoughts, I might’ve groaned. My neck ached with a dull fire, my body sore, like I was a ragdoll thrown around without a care. I felt my chin touching my chest, and it took a lot of strength for me to lift my head.

  God, my neck hurt. But it was nothing compared to what I’d soon feel, if what Crixis told me was true.

  Kass wanted revenge, to interrogate me for information. Let us see how much she could glean from me, for I wouldn’t voluntarily tell her anything. I was trained to fight pain; she could peel my skin off inch by inch and I still wouldn’t tell her squat. She could gut me, impale me, poke needles into my eyes, and my lips would stay shut.

  The only way I would ever give up information was unwillingly, if Crixis used his greater Vampire power of beguilement. He would, probably, when enough time passed and I hadn’t told them a single thing of use.

  When I opened my eyes, I knew exactly where I was: the training room, second floor, right across from my bedroom. The cushioned mats in the room were folded up and moved to the side. My wrists and legs were tied tightly to a wooden chair that belonged in the kitchen.

  I wasn’t alone in the room, either. Three others stood near me: Max, Crixis, and of course, Kass.

  I stared squarely at Kass. “You recovered quickly.” My eyes danced to Crixis. “Did she have help? Is that why you’re so close to her now?” Kass ingesting Crixis’s blood—it was not something I would’ve guessed.

  “That is none of your business,” Kass snapped, her temper showing. She never was good at hiding it. Not like me. I was a master at concealing my true feelings, my real self. She should take a lesson from my book. “You’re not the one here who should be asking questions. You are the one tied up, if you didn’t notice.”

  Giving her a calm smile, I said, “In fact, I did notice. You could’ve come for me yourself, Kass, instead of sending your pet Demon. Why didn’t you? Were you afraid you’d lose?” My intent was to throw her off her game. Try to.

  “How could you do this, Michael?” It was Max who spoke next, the little nerdy Purifier who had always seemed a tad out of place in the duo that was Kassandra and Gabriel. “We trusted you.”

  “You really shouldn’t have,” I said, shrugging as much as I could, given my restraints.

  Kass’s spiky exterior faded, and her next question was spoken with a curious and innocent voice, “Was any of it real? Is Michael even your real name?”

  There was no harm in telling them that particular truth. “Was any of what real, Kass? My Guardianship? Yes, I was certified as a Guardian, but the entire time I had other orders. The accent was never real, the glasses weren’t real—and you know the most shocking thing? I hate tea.” I paused. “And I prefer Mike, thank you for asking.” I laughed when I watched her face twist in disgust, as if calling me Mike was the worst possible thing.

  “What were your orders?” Kass asked, cocking her hip and alerting me to the fact she held a dagger in her belt loop. Leather pants and a small black lacey thing covered her chest. She did not look like the Kass I remembered. Maybe she was finally breaking.

  I rested my head back, whispering, “I think you can guess what my orders were by now.” And if she couldn’t? She was stupider than I thought. Kass had never been the most intelligent of the group, but surely she was aware of the fact I’d tried to kill her. Surely. When she said nothing, I carried on in a careless tone, “I’m to kill you. Doesn’t matter how.”

  She stepped forward, leaning down, placing both her hands on top of mine, squeezing tightly. Ah, that wonderful Purifier strength. I felt my hands bend where they shouldn’t bend, my palms caving in onto the armrests beneath them to escape her sheer strength. “It’s over, Mike. You’re not going to fulfill those orders.”

  Giving her my best smile, I said, “Oh, it’s not over yet. Not even close. Even if I don’t kill you, one of the others will. I’ll be sure to tell them to laugh over your corpse—”

  Kass abruptly released her hold on my hands, punching me in the face, on the cheek. My jaw took the brunt of it, and my head flew back. I was dazed for a few moments after. She was strong, wasn’t she? Blood seeped into my mouth, and I felt a molar with my tongue that had suddenly gotten loose.

  “You and your friends won’t win this,” she hissed. She stood straight, retrieving the dagger and holding the tip against one of her fingers.

  That was my dagger, the one I was going to use to kill her. Figured.

  “Let’s talk about your friends, shall we?” Kass asked, using her hands to gesture as she spoke, flinging the dagger every which way. “We know what Order you come from.”

  “You do?” I sounded relieved. “Great, so I don’t have to tell you how big they are, or how they always get what they want.” I smiled, because right now, they wanted Kass dead. Gabriel might fight them, but once Kass was out of the picture, he would go with them when he realized the Order was only trying to save the world.

  It was Crixis who spoke next, “I do believe there’s a saying—first time for everything. I’ll be certain to help them through the disappointment of failure.” The grin that crept over his face was leagues away from my pathetic attempt at acting at ease. He was a king of monsters, a threat to all living creatures big or small. How could Kass trust him? Sure, he aided her now, but tomorrow? Tomorrow he would change his mind.

  That, I realized, wouldn’t be an awful thing.

  “We are everywhere,” I said, shooting a glance at Max, who remained terribly quiet behind both Kass and Crixis. “We have more eyes than you think.” My words held more than one meaning, but all of which none of them seemed to comprehend.

  My neck was met with the blade of the dagger. Kass held it steadily against my flesh, increasing its pressure to the point where, if she’d put just an ounce more, it would cut into me. �
��Why do the Templars want Gabriel? Why do they want me dead?”

  I chuckled, though the movement in my throat caused my Adam’s apple to scrape along the steel. “I’m not going to tell you that. It’s going to be a surprise—”

  As Kass increased the pressure, I felt the metal nick my skin, a sharp stinging pain on my neck. Crixis pulled her away, saying, “Did you have your fun? Shall I?”

  Kass’s eyes were closed for only a split-second before her free hand curled into a fist, connecting with my nose. A crack reverberated through my skull, and blood soon fell from each nostril, coursing down my lips and chin.

  Okay, that hurt. I could see how she’d broken Gabriel’s nose so many times before.

  “Now I’m done,” she stated, crossing her arms as she stepped aside.

  Turning to me, Crixis was as calm as ever as he gripped my face. Holding my head up, forcing me to gaze into his green eyes, his fingers dug into my cheeks, already bruising from Kass’s thrown punches.

  I felt the glamor sweeping over me, but I tried fighting it nonetheless. It was a useless endeavor, pointless in every way, but I still struggled in my mind to pull away from his jade stare. A feeling of tranquility encased me, enveloping me in a comfortable warmth. Like an ocean breeze. I was lost in his eyes in a matter of moments, not that I was proud of it.

  But, again, it wasn’t like I couldn’t not fall for it. A greater Vampire’s compulsion was a legendary thing; almost no being on this earth held immunity from it. Their far-reaching powers were the main reason the Council sought to eradicate them in its early days. However, clearly they missed a few, particularly one infamous man named Crixis.

  And if they missed one, well, one was enough, especially when said Vampire could create more of his kind with only his blood, like a self-procreating rabbit.