Nightwalkers Page 2

  “And I wonder why that is,” I stated slyly.

  “Hey,” Gabriel defended himself while getting some mashed potatoes. “You never know when it’ll come in handy.”

  “Tool,” I said simply. We all knew that’s what Gabriel was. Even Michael knew that. Every week he seemed to have seven new dates with seven new girls. And he never got serious with any of them. Once I even dared to ask him why that was. He told me that none of them were worth getting serious with.

  How…typical.

  “Hey, got to get practice in before I meet the one.” Gabriel’s expression was serious, but he couldn’t hold it for long. Soon he was laughing, and I couldn’t help joining him. He was such a bad boy.

  After I put all the food I wanted on my plate, I was ready to eat. But Michael stopped me, to say Grace.

  Right, I thought as my stomach lurched with hunger. This was a new house, a new town, and our formalities would be lost to us as soon as we made ourselves at home. If we had to say a prayer every time we ate, we’d never have any time to eat. Gabriel and I, we like food.

  A lot.

  Almost more than we like each other.

  My peaceful sleep was disturbed by a noise. Harsh, jarring, ear-splitting. When I finally came to, I realized that god-awful noise was actually coming from my alarm clock and not my imagination.

  Moaning as I tossed the warm covers off of me, I slammed the button. Today was going to be horrible. I was going to school. High school.

  Even though I already learned everything that was taught in schools, and then some. That was the whole point of our intense schooling session that started when I was eight and lasted for five years. Koath had taught me well. I remembered almost everything he taught me. Everything from chemistry to trigonometry to the history of art.

  After those five completely boring years, my training was focused on combat tactics on how to defeat various Demonic creatures.

  But now it felt as if that was all for nothing.

  Last night at dinner, Michael told us that this town was filled with Demons, which was the reason we moved here. And then he proceeded to tell us that we needed to look like we fit in and we had to get an inside look at everything.

  To do that, apparently, Gabriel and I needed to go to high school.

  Gabriel was fine with it, even joked about all the girls he would get.

  I, on the other hand, was not happy one bit. In fact, I think I swore, ran upstairs into my room, and promptly fell asleep.

  And here I was, woken by an alarm I didn’t even set.

  Dragging my feet to my dresser, I yanked out some clothes. Dark blue jeans, a black V-neck and a white undershirt, since the V-neck was one with a plunging neckline.

  I walked to the bathroom. Turning the handle, I found that it was locked. Then my ears heard the shower going.

  I hit my head against the wall. Sharing a bathroom with Gabriel sucked. Really, really bad. My head couldn’t fathom why a huge house like this only had one bathroom on each floor. It just didn’t make sense. Why would it have four bedrooms and only one bathroom on the third floor?

  If anything, I should have my own while Gabriel and Michael shared. That made more sense. But when I suggested that, Michael quickly killed that brilliant idea. He said as the eldest person in the house, he deserved something special. And that something was his own bathroom.

  Then I told him being thirty-five didn’t mean anything. In fact, to me it meant absolutely nothing and that he should share his bathroom with Gabriel anyway.

  I snapped out of my misery and banged on the door after I heard the shower stop. “Gabriel, hurry up! I need to get ready, too!” My hand was seconds away from hitting the door again when it opened.

  And I saw a sight I did not ever need to see.

  Gabriel. In a towel.

  I supposed some girls would kill to see what I was seeing right now. He worked really hard on his body, I’d give him that. His muscles would make any female swoon and his tattoos would allure girls from every clique. He wouldn’t hesitate to show any girl who asked to see it.

  This one time he actually lifted up his shirt in the grocery store for an attractive meat cutter. She was impressed and gave him her number. And did he ever call it?

  Nope.

  But that was what you could expect from Gabriel.

  You would think that a servant of God would treat girls and women better. Not a chance of that ever happening, though, especially with that one.

  I glared up at him. “Are you done primping, Prima Donna?”

  Gabriel pretended to be grossly offended by my name-calling. “I took a shower. And then you rudely interrupted me. So, I am being the nice one, as usual, and giving you the bathroom.”

  “Why?” I tilted my head. Gabriel was never nice to me, unless he had ulterior motives of which I’d learn about after. This was a switch.

  “Because, judging from your normal appearance, you’ll be done with the bathroom after you throw your clothes on, brush your teeth, and apply deodorant.”

  “Hey,” I said while walking into the bathroom, feigning offense. I sure as hell wasn’t going to miss my chance. Who knows how long it’d be until he did something nice for me from the bottom of his heart?

  “Am I wrong, my dear raccoon?” He folded his arms across his chest, covering his Celtic cross tattoo.

  “No, not really…” I set my clothes down on the counter and put toothpaste on my toothbrush. Before putting it in my mouth, I yelled, “And raccoon?” It wasn’t as if I was expecting an answer, so I began my morning duties, being careful to spend a whole two minutes on my teeth.

  Gabriel walked in and hung his towel on the rack. To my surprise and relief, he was fully dressed. How he got changed that fast, I’ll never know.

  “Yeah, you’re not a morning person, Kass.” He grabbed his toothbrush.

  “So?” I asked after I spit.

  “Would you rather me call you my dear opossum?”

  “No,” I spit again. “They’re hideous.”

  Gabriel leaned above and over me, and possibly with the intent to gross me out, spit. Thank God it landed in the sink, because otherwise, I would have beaten him. Setting his toothbrush in the holder, he said, “Exactly. See, I was thinking of you all along.”

  “Right. And why do I not believe you?” I replied while pushing him out of the bathroom.

  “Let’s see…” He tapped his chin, like it was a real head-scratcher. “Oh, I don’t know…You have trust issues?” He threw a grin my way before disappearing from my view.

  I shook my head at him because I didn’t know what else to do. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Me? Trust issues? Hah. What a laugh.

  Unfortunately, it was actually closer to the truth than I wanted to admit. He knew me like he knew Star Wars. And he knew Star Wars pretty damn well.

  Just when I thought I had the bathroom all to myself, Gabriel strolled back in, covering his eyes like he thought I was stupid enough to change with the door wide open. “I’m not trying to invade your personal space, I just need my styling—”

  I threw the tube of non-greasy hair gel at his face.

  Catching it with one hand like a pro, he ran his free fingers through his wet hair. “Girls love the hair.” With a smile and a wink, he sauntered away.

  “What a loser,” I said aloud.

  It was a short while until I heard him say “Heard that” from the safety of his bedroom walls. He was yelling something about me liking his hair so much I was going to throw myself at him, but I didn’t dignify it with a response.

  My reaction to hearing his dirty comments was closing the door and clicking the lock.

  “Okay, you two look ready to go,” Michael stated after making sure we looked like normal high school students and not two teenagers who could use a pencil to purify a Nightwalker. It had to do with how you pushed it through, not necessarily pure strength. Piercing the heart with an unbroken pencil wasn’t that easy, take it from someone who’d
done it.

  I was definitely not ready to go. I never would be because I didn’t want to go at all.

  Still, like a good Purifier who followed orders, I had gotten dressed into the clothes I previously picked out, and I even added leather boots to it, a skull necklace, and my watch. I personally thought my outfit was rocking, until I saw Gabriel’s low-key simple choice of clothes.

  Gabriel had on jeans that hugged his features, as he would like to call them. His broad chest was covered by a snug black shirt. He also took the liberty to spike his hair into a small faux hawk, because, apparently, that was what girls loved.

  Before we knew what was happening, Michael handed us each a brown paper bag.

  I looked inside it. “A lunch?”

  “What?” Gabriel peeked inside his, incredulousness dripping from the word.

  Michael walked us out and down the long, winding driveway. It took us a few minutes to reach the side of the road.

  “Last time I checked, the cool people don’t bring their lunches,” Gabriel spoke slyly while staring down at Michael, who hadn’t even bothered to put on his glasses to walk us. A big, yellow bus stopped in front of the driveway. The blonde frowned as he muttered, “Or ride the bus.”

  “And how would you know?” Michael asked while tying his robe tighter.

  He looked at Michael like he was crazy for not knowing. “Why, all the teenage movies starring Lindsay Lohan, of course. They air them all the time on ABC Family. Don’t you know?”

  Michael sighed. “No, I didn’t know that, but—”

  “You should really check them out. She has really big you-know-whats.”

  “What the fresh hell are you talking about?” He acted taken aback and thoroughly confused, which might have been a first.

  I rolled my eyes. “She has big boobs, Michael. Big boobs.”

  Gabriel started laughing and Michael covered his eyes. Looking down, I realized I was motioning the size of them on my own. Things turned awkward very quickly, so I said “Bye” and headed towards the bus. Heaving a heavy breath, I walked inside, followed shortly by Gabriel.

  “Don’t worry, Kass, in a week all the cool people will be clamoring to ride this yellow love machine,” Gabriel said after putting a hand on my shoulder.

  Shrugging him off, I walked till I found an empty seat. “Oh, that’s comforting.”

  “That’s what I’m here for. Sorry, Kass,” the blonde boy spoke as he kept moving, “but there’s a lonely redhead in the back who is practically screaming my name.”

  I silently watched him go without turning back. What a jerk. I was already alone, and the day hadn’t even started. I hated being alone. Although, I reminded myself, as a Purifier of God I was destined to live and die alone. That much I was taught since I could remember.

  You can’t be deeply or emotionally involved with another, Kass, Koath told me. It would endanger not only you, but them, too. And heaven forbid, we couldn’t have that.

  A bunch of crap.

  But that’s what my whole life pretty was: bullshit.

  Anyways, I was almost positive that no man could handle me. I’d been told on countless occasions that I could get really crazy.

  The trees rolled by, the bus picked up more kids, and soon we pulled into the high school’s parking lot. The place was huge, and the teenagers…well, there were many. Way too many, if you ask me.

  To tell the truth, it kind of surprised me. Since this town was apparently filled with Demons and filthy abominations, I figured there wouldn’t be so many.

  My hands shook as I stepped off the bus. For someone who’d seen as much as I had, I was strangely nervous for something that was so normal to regular kids. I took a few steps forward and looked back to see that Gabriel had his arm around that same redhead. She looked happy. If only she knew what his real intentions were, that smile would fall off her face faster than gravity would allow.

  Well, here went nothing, I mentally sighed. I made my way through the populated entryway and into the office, squeezing my way past the gossiping teenagers, a sneer of derision and disgust on my face.

  The plump secretary’s brown eyes landed on me. “Can I help you?”

  I clutched my black backpack harder, which was hard to do on account of the sweaty hands. “Yeah. I’m Kassandra Niles. I just transferred here.”

  “Oh!” She basically jumped into a standing position. “Wonderful! Welcome, welcome!” She walked around her desk and shook my hand. “I’m Mrs. McCafferty. If you have any problems today, or just need a teeny break, come see me! Principal Wilkes has your schedule and a map for you. Follow me, I’ll show you to his office.” Spinning on her one-inch heel, she walked through the main office area and led me to a door. “Whenever you’re ready, Kassandra.” She smiled, creating wrinkles on her kind face, and walked to her seat.

  Whenever I was ready.

  Honestly, I didn’t think I would ever be ready, but I couldn’t say that aloud. I had to do this. If I could take on five Nightwalkers at once and live, I was fairly certain I could survive one year of high school.

  My hand reached out slowly and turned the knob. I didn’t know what exactly I expected to see as I went in, but walking into the office, looking around, I was caught at a loss for words. The words cluttered and musty couldn’t begin to cover it. The room was filled with yearbooks and newspapers. I immediately assumed they had one copy of every yearbook ever made and every paper the school’s students had published shoved haphazardly into the overly crowded bookshelves.

  I happened to glance towards the window, suddenly noticing that Principal Wilkes was standing there, staring at me. A small man he was, shorter than me. And that’s saying something since I was five-three. He had a full head of hair and a graying goatee. His cheeks caught my attention instantaneously—they were unusually pale.

  In my line of work, that was always a bad sign.

  “Hello, Miss Niles. Take your time. It is always important for one to get used to one’s surroundings, especially when—”

  Great. I already had Michael and Gabriel lecturing me, as if that wasn’t enough, and now I had my new principal doing it, too.

  Too bad I would most likely have to kill him.

  Sorry, not kill. Purify. I would have to purify him. My bad. I apologize for using the wrong terminology. Guess I was growing a little cynical. No wonder we died young.

  “Now, I pride myself in being close with all of my students. So if there’s anything that I can do to make your transition here more comfortable for you, just let me know. Here is your schedule and a map of the school grounds. Oh.” He reached inside one of his drawers and pulled out a small, black book. “And here’s your agenda. Feel free to use it to write down your assignments and anything else you want.”

  An awkward smile crossed my lips for a second, and then I quickly got rid of it. I wasn’t going to let myself become one of those weird, awkward girls who everyone ignored and who loved the popular jock.

  That was so not me.

  I was enough of a jock for myself.

  And besides, I was dying young and alone, if the typical stereotype of a Purifier rang true for me.

  “Thank you, Mr. Wilkes.” Turning, I was about to walk out when he ran around me and held open his door for me.

  “Make sure to come to the football game this Friday. First home game of the season! Go Pirates!” He seemed quite giddy about this. It was kind of amusing. I thought he was literally going to start jumping up and down with pom-poms. But that would have been crossing the line.

  “I will,” I said, faking a smile. Not. When I was out of eyeshot, I rolled my eyes and had to force myself to walk out of there. Because, deep down, there was nothing else I wanted to do but run.

  Run away from Mr. Wilkes, through the office, and out of this damn school.

  I held my breath as I knocked. All went quiet inside the classroom, making my nerves bug out even more. I couldn’t believe I was already late to my first class. What a start to this
being normal thing.

  As it turned out, not ever having a locker before sucked. I took one look at that lock and had no idea which way to turn it or how many times to skip a number, so I had to go back to the office and have Mrs. McCafferty come and show me how to do it, step by step.

  I felt like an idiot. A total, complete moron. I still did. Personally, I didn’t think that feeling would go away anytime soon.

  “Come on in,” a male voice said.

  Self-consciously, I walked in and was met with twenty-something pairs of eyes.

  Way too many people sitting in the same room together. It was a hazard. It had to be. Nothing about this school seemed safe. And to think that I thought schools were supposed to be safe, a place of refuge, of learning and all that crap.

  “Hello. Are you Kassandra Niles?”

  My attention changed to the teacher, who sat on his desk in the front of the room. “Yeah.”

  This teacher was good-looking for a thirty-something guy. My mind instantly went to the numerous news reports about young and attractive teachers having illicit romances with their students. I never thought it was wise for a school district to have handsome teachers. Too much temptation to break the law on both sides.

  Not that I was going to have temptation in the slightest degree.

  The half grin on his clean-shaven face caused me to stutter and further explain, “I…had trouble with my locker.” I was not sure why I felt like I needed to explain myself, but I did. So much for not being the awkward girl.

  He held up his hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s your first day, I’ll let it slide. Now, take a seat behind—” The young teacher paused to point. “—Ken, by the window. Ken, raise your hand for Kassandra.”

  I looked at the boy who raised his hand and smiled.

  He looked like the stereotypical boy who let loose farts during class. Great.

  “Okay, let’s get serious here. Who actually did the homework I assigned over the weekend?” The teacher shifted his weight and crossed his legs, surveying the room with only three raised hands. “Well, I’m glad we can be so honest with each other. Since you all were so kind enough to tell me the truth, I’ll inform you that you’ll have a pop-quiz in five minutes.” The news was met with groans and moans across the room. “Alyssa, would you care to summarize the lesson? Let’s do some practice—number thirty-three of your homework.”