Staked!

by Candace Wondrak

  The hand holding the dagger fell to my side, my other hand coming up to my mouth. That was something my Gabriel would say. I felt my eyes tear up. This was too much.

  “—I know they’re the bad guys. I know we aren’t supposed to care about them,” he went on, “but I wanted to kill them. I felt the bloodlust, and even now, I don’t regret what I did. I’d do it again, if it would stop them…from…”

  I dropped the dagger. It was dumb of me for believing I could ever hurt Gabriel. I slowly moved around to stand before him, gazing down steadily at the hunched figure he was. He looked truly torn up about what he did, at least what he did to me. The Order, well…it was harder to grieve for our enemy. For Michael, who Crixis had probably taken care of by now.

  “Please believe me,” Gabriel whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for saying you should’ve died. I’m sorry for hurting you.” His eyes closed, and I saw a tear fall down his stubbly face. “I never meant for any of it to happen. If one of us has to die, it should be me. Not you. Never you.”

  God, I thought gravely, stupidly, and a bit confusedly, I love this boy.

  It hit me like a wall of bricks, hard and surprisingly fast. I loved him. I couldn’t hurt him, even if he told me he shouldn’t have saved me, even if he was going to end the world in fire. He was Gabriel. My Gabriel. I loved him more than I loved myself. Without him, I was nothing, and with him, I was everything.

  I collapsed to my knees, my arms flying around him, bringing his face to my neck. I hugged him like I never hugged anyone before—a bottomless wanting, a need I couldn’t fill without feeling him near me. I breathed in his scent: musky and smoky. Like a forest after a fire.

  I was home.

  “Kass,” Gabriel whispered, his hands finding me, gripping my back, my bare sides, pulling me closer until I was practically in his lap. I didn’t stop him, didn’t deny him. How could I, now that I knew how I felt? All the times we joked around, all the times he mentioned marrying me an off-handed way—it all took on a new meaning.

  This was serious. This was real. I loved this boy, ancient Devil soul and all.

  “It’s okay,” I said, closing my eyes as his hands traveled up my back. Once upon a time, Gabriel would’ve looked at me quizzically and asked what was with my outfit, that maybe I wanted to put on a shirt the next time I left the house. But this was not once upon a time. This wasn’t a fairy tale. This was us. “Everything will be okay.” Might’ve been a lie, but it was one I was more than happy to believe.

  His hands left my back, moving to cradle my face as he pulled back. His fingers weaved through my hair, thumbs on my cheeks. The pair of blue orbs staring at me was sadder than I remembered them, and it hurt to see them like this. “No,” he breathed out, resting his forehead against mine. Neither of us kneeled anymore; we both sat, leaning into each other at an almost uncomfortable angle. “No,” he said again, “it’s not.”

  It’s not? My mind raced. Did he mean everything wasn’t going to be okay? Why would he…

  Whatever thoughts I had after that vanished, utterly disappearing, never to be seen again, when Gabriel lowered his mouth to mine. I was like a doll in his hands, frozen and shocked, although honestly I shouldn’t have been.

  Like I didn’t see this coming. Like our touchy-feely hug was all we would do.

  No, I thought, I want more. I need more, especially if things aren’t going to be okay.

  The kiss was tentative, at first. Once I got my bearings, realized he was kissing me, I kissed him back. What was soft and slow turned into deep and hungry, too much passion for two teenagers like us. We kissed like it was going to be our last embrace, like we were long-lost lovers in one of those made-for-TV movies. We probably looked weird, if anyone happened to walk by, making out in a cemetery at dawn, but I didn’t care.

  I didn’t care at all. This was all I wanted. This was amazing. This—his tongue found its way into my mouth—this was good. So good. Too good. I never wanted it to end.

  Never breaking lip contact, I moved my legs so I sat on him, straddling him, my hands roaming his hard chest. My mind was full of thoughts about Gabriel, dreams of what we would do, what our future held after this thing was finished. The possibilities.

  Truthfully, I didn’t know why it took me so long to admit it. I loved Gabriel.

  Gabriel sharply pulled away, giving me a weird look.

  “What?” Did I do something wrong? Bite his lip too hard? Did I not do something I should’ve?

  “I heard you,” he whispered, a slow smile spreading across his face. “I heard you—it’s the first time since before—”

  I wanted to disentangle myself from him and run away. My thoughts? He heard my thoughts? Great. What a perfect time to start doing that again. I thought about unwinding my legs from him, but the boy probably wouldn’t let me go even if I tried.

  “No,” he laughed softly, the hands in my hair loosening as they fell to my bare shoulders. He traced my collarbone, making me shiver with the light touch. “No, it’s good, because I love you, too. In fact—” He swept my hair aside and started to nip at my neck. “—I loved you first.”

  “Yes, yes, you win,” I said, my voice breathy and feminine. I hardly sounded like myself. I didn’t really feel like myself. Like I walked on air, or sat on it, given my current position.

  His mouth traveled up my neck, his teeth grazing my earlobe as he murmured, “I do win, don’t I?” His finger traced a circle on my lower back. “What’s my prize?”

  “Would you take a knuckle sandwich?”

  “No.”

  “The dagger that Michael was going to kill me with?”

  “Hell no.”

  Hmm. Well, I didn’t have anything else to give at the moment, did I?

  The hand that moved my hair fell to my stomach, toying with the bottom lace of my bralette. “I want this,” he said, kissing my cheek once. He continued to toy with it, apparently enjoying making me squirm in his lap.

  I swatted his hand away. “We’re in public, Gabriel,” I said, giving him a glare. Besides, we couldn’t go from zero to one hundred that fast.

  “Sure we could,” he responded to my thoughts. “Every day I’ve died inside, waiting for to hear you say that, and you know what? You never even said it out loud. I want to hear you say it, with your voice all soft like that.” Gabriel gently bit my jaw, moving to kiss me before he added, “Say it. For me.”

  Ugh. I wanted to roll my eyes at him, tell him to screw off, that I’d say it if and when I wanted to. Maybe it was the mood set by the rising sun, the ambiance, or maybe it was the fact I was a little high on his kisses, but whatever it was, I whispered, “I love you…you dork.”

  “Don’t you know who I am? I could smite you for that insult,” he chuckled.

  “I’m pretty sure only God does the smiting, not…not you.”

  Gabriel’s blue gaze was sincere as he asked, “So you forgive me? For what I did?”

  I couldn’t pretend to know what went on in his head. I couldn’t imagine how it felt to be what he was, or—I supposed—what he could be, so I was slow to nod. I went to kiss him again, hard and fast like I couldn’t get enough.

  He picked us up, rolling us on the ground, laying on top of me. When did Gabriel get so big? So wide? So…hot? I felt him smile into my lips. The jerk was still listening to my thoughts. Fine. I’d let him have it this time. Once the honeymoon phase was over, though, my mind was going to be my mind.

  His hands ran along my body, certain parts of him pressed harder against me than other parts. This felt so good, so right. I hoped this didn’t mean anything, this wasn’t the one sunny patch in an otherwise cloudy future. When the hero and heroine got together, it usually meant a lot of crap was headed their way.

  I put my palms on his chest and pushed him up. His brows were furrowed, and he muttered, “Dude.”

  Frowning, I mentally said, I’m not a dude.

  “I know, but why can’t we just—” Gabriel tried lowering himself
back down to me, but I turned my head at the last moment. His mouth landed on my cheek. “You are cruel,” he murmured against my skin.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not very sorry at all, “but I don’t think we should be making out on top of Koath.” I thought about saying on top of his grave, but just the thought of it left a bad taste in my mouth. After all this time, still, it was hard to call him my dad or father aloud.

  He sighed, leaning his head against mine. “Yeah, I guess we should get back to…to that.” Gabriel had a tough time saying it. I couldn’t blame him. He had killed a lot of people. More than John did when he went psycho, and a lot faster, too.

  As we both stood and dusted ourselves off, I looked him in the eye and said, “Those people were going to kill me and take you with them. Even though you weren’t in your head at the time, you did what you had to.”

  Gabriel muttered something incoherent as he grabbed my hand and started pulling me along, stopping only to pick up the dagger I dropped. I glanced down to our hands, our fingers intertwined.

  Right. So we’re doing that.

  “Hold on,” I said, pulling him back. I gently kissed the fingertips on my free hand and set them against Koath’s stone. I didn’t visit as often as I should; hardly ever, really, since my life was so hectic. I was a terrible daughter.

  “You’re not,” Gabriel said. “You were everything to him, just like you’re everything to me.”

  A smile broke on my face, and I shook it off, still not quite over the fact we were doing this. Us.

  Weird, right? Me and Gabriel. Who would’ve thought?

  Chapter Sixteen - Kass

  By the time we got back to the house, the little ball of light that was the sun had fully risen into the sky. We might’ve taken the long way around, strolling slowly. Not once did his hand let go of mine. It was still so weird to me, what happened, how we were together now. How it took this long for me to realize how I felt about him.

  All the signs were there. I needed him more than I needed air. I couldn’t even think of hurting him, even if he was capable of levels of destruction and evil Crixis couldn’t match. He might’ve aggravated me, annoyed me sometimes with the stupid stuff he said and did, but I always adored him anyway. How could I have been so stupid, so blind for so long?

  Of course, my luck would dictate that I realized it now, when we faced one of our worst enemies. A numerous foe that paraded around as good and holy, their apocalyptic desire born from a wish to rid the world of Demons and sinners. The problem was, innocent civilians would die too. And the Council, the Order—whoever the heck they were—they weren’t God. They weren’t judge, jury, and executioner. They had no right to sentence anyone to death, especially in the fiery inferno they wanted Gabriel to create.

  The Council was the Order.

  Just…how? All this time, we were all lied to. Every single Purifier, and by the look of her after she found out, Liz. It was clear that not everyone in the organization knew about their ulterior motive.

  Couldn’t say I regretted quitting.

  Gabriel and I headed up the long, winding driveway to the front door. It was a good thing the house was far off the road, otherwise I had a feeling the cops would be here constantly, with all the bodies our driveway had at one point or another.

  From the look of it, Crixis had been busy while we were gone. No blood, no bodies, no trash stacked in bags by the front door. I didn’t want to know what he did with them.

  After walking up the few steps leading to the porch, I was the first one in the house. Just like the outside, the bodies were gone, though some of the blood stains remained. Max sat in the living room, nose deep in a laptop, while Liz spoke to someone on the phone near the mantle. The pictures I’d shattered and torn open were picked up. Besides the blood stains, the only thing looking out of place was the sheet of wood covering the hole in the wall.

  When they noticed my presence, they both snapped to attention. Liz muttered, “I’ll call you back.” Max simply stared at Gabriel, then at our intertwined hands. “My sister,” she explained, moving closer to me, shooting an uneasy glance at Gabriel. “She’s going to let us stay in her flat after we cross the pond.”

  Pond. By pond she meant ocean.

  “She’s a teacher,” Liz felt the urge to explain, “a regular teacher, so she’s not involved in all this.” Her voice wavered, and she couldn’t stop staring at Gabriel. The fear in her light eyes was evident and showed in her posture. “So…is this, is this a thing now? Are you…”

  Gabriel looked at me. I wasn’t the one who had to reassure her. That was his job. “I’m sorry if I scared you,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to. I was…confused, even though I know it’s not an excuse.”

  I tugged at his hand, giving him a look that said, go on.

  “I’m not confused anymore. I know we’re the good guys, they’re the bad guys. I wasn’t myself, and believe me when I say I didn’t mean to act psycho. We have enough of those around here already. Speaking of psychos,” Gabriel paused as he glanced around the house, “where is our resident psycho, Crixis?”

  I glared at him. I really hoped the boy wasn’t going to still be jealous over whatever he thought was going on between us. Nothing was happening there, and nothing ever would happen. The Daywalker killed Koath. It was not something I could forgive.

  “He is procuring us a plane. I told him I didn’t want to know what methods he would use, only that he did not harm anyone by doing so. He seemed rather confident we would be in the air before nightfall.” Liz fiddled with her cell. “He also mentioned a man named Maurice.”

  Right. Old man Maurice, the guy living across the street, whom Crixis had been sharing a house with and, weirdly, taking care of, acting like he was his son. Maurice seemed a capable enough older fellow, but I did worry because it seemed that occasionally, he lost a few marbles and couldn’t find them.

  “Crixis is living across the street?” Gabriel exclaimed, hand tightening around mine. The boy was strong. “This whole time? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Liz grew alarmed. “He was nearby the entire time?”

  “No,” I said quickly. At least, I didn’t think so. I was pretty sure, more like reasonably sure he just moved in with Maurice recently, ever since his new wardrobe started to include hideous Hawaiian shirts with patterns no living eyes should see. “And I just found out not that long ago, so don’t go jumping down my throat, okay? Maurice is the old man who owns the house.”

  Liz frowned, asking, “You don’t think he meant he had to go kill Maurice, do you?”

  I remembered how caring Crixis acted toward him, how Maurice seemed to genuinely enjoy his presence, even though Crixis wasn’t his real son. It infuriated me Crixis could act so kind toward some random old man, but so malicious and murderous when it came to Koath. Still, I didn’t think he meant he had to go kill Maurice. He probably meant he had to say goodbye.

  “No,” I said again. “That’s not it. As weird as it might sound, I think Crixis likes Maurice. He’s probably telling him goodbye and making sure he’ll be all right while we’re gone.”

  Which only meant one thing: Crixis was coming with us.

  I didn’t know why I didn’t think about that before, but I didn’t. I didn’t realize the Daywalker would tag along on this mission. I was all for more numbers on our side, considering how numerous the Council/Order was, but to have both Gabriel and Crixis together? A recipe for disaster, given some recent events.

  Gabriel squeezed my hand, hearing my thoughts.

  Oh, yes. That boy and I had to have another talk about privacy.

  “Okay,” Liz spoke slowly, almost incredulously. “You should spend the day packing what you’ll need and resting up. If we have three days until their meeting adjourns, we don’t have much time. And they’re hours ahead of us. When we fly, we’ll lose quite a bit of time. Time we don’t have.” She closed her eyes, silently moaning to herself.

  Max set the laptop aside, moving besid
e Liz, extending a flat palm. “Can I take the keys to visit Claire? I’m already packed. Been living in a suitcase since…” Since Koath’s death? Since his previous Guardian’s death? Max had seen death just like me.

  With a hand on her stomach, Liz grumbled as she reached into her pocket and complied to his request. “Be back in a few hours. We’ll probably have to drive to wherever our plane is.” As Max smiled and went for the door, she added, “A Purifier and a Morpher. What is happening around here?”

  With everything going on, a Purifier and a Morpher in a relationship was the least of her worries.

  Gabriel studied Liz, how she looked queasy. “You all right?”

  She recoiled at his question, standing straighter, puffing out her chest a little like she was some tough councilwoman who hadn’t just been betrayed by everything she’d ever known. “I’m fine. This whole ordeal is taking a toll on me. I need to lay down.” She headed for the couch; she’d probably sleep there instead of Michael’s room. I couldn’t blame her. As she reclined, she muttered, “Max found the address Michael gave. I’ll work on getting the blueprints in a bit so we can decide how to best go after them.”

  Gabriel and I left her to her nap, heading up the stairs. I broke away from his hand with the intent of looking in the training room on the second floor. Not looking just to look, but…I did need my rose blade. If Crixis commandeered us a plane, I doubted we’d have to go through customs or use passports.

  “So, Max and Claire, huh?” Gabriel asked as we went. “That’s new. How long has that been going on?”

  “A little bit ago. They went to a bookstore, I think,” I said, trying to remember. Honestly, I’d been a terrible friend to both of them. I didn’t listen to them when they talked about their date; I didn’t care enough to, at the time, because I was so worried about Gabriel. I stopped in front of the training room; its door was closed.

  Gabriel leaned on the wall near me, crossing his arms. “Huh. Max and Claire. Who would’ve known? Oh, wait. We did. We called it from day one.”