Dark Knight of the Skye (8 page)

“So, what do I have to do with all of this? I didn’t turn and Danny died. You know that, Grady,” she said pleading with her eyes for him to agree.

“We have a generator running, and you have everything you need in the way of food and drinks. I know you’re having a hard time finding all this to be true, but there’s not enough time to let things sink in. I need to show you how to use a few things for your own protection, just in case you should have any problems when you’re here alone.”

“All these men and you still have to leave me alone? That’s not something you do to someone you say you care about,” she said, turning her back to him. He slid her back around in the chair, putting both of his hands on her knees. Tears were streaming down her face. She tried to turn her head at an angle where he couldn’t see, but his hand was already reaching up. “No, Grady. Please don’t touch me right now or I’ll fall apart.” He ignored her, taking her in his arms and standing her to her feet. She leaned into his chest, holding her face tight in her hands and cried as the room cleared, leaving the two alone.

Once she had calmed enough, he spoke while lying his head lightly down on top of hers. “I’m doing this because I care for you more than even I care to admit, D`nae. I know your heart belongs to someone else, but is it really so bad to know that you have stolen mine as well?”

“Grady, it would be so easy for me to fall in love with you, and maybe a piece of my heart already has, but it’s just not that simple.”

He pushed her shoulders back and looked her deep in the eyes. “If Danny is dead, then who’s standing in our way?”

She couldn’t think of anything to say so she did the only thing that came to her mind, something she hoped would take Danny off of his: she kissed him. His response was timid at first, but before she could pull away, his arms locked around her back, pulling their bodies as close as humanly possible. His mind raced at a pace to match his heart, his mouth exploring every part of hers as his hand worked its way up to the back of her neck.

His mouth finally broke it’s embrace from hers, but his arms tightened in disbelief that the woman he had so longed to taste was now in his arms. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he whispered next to her ear.

“I still feel the way I did before, Grady. I’m not ready for a relationship.”

He kissed her on the forehead and started laughing.

“One step forward, two steps back… I’ll take whatever you choose to give me,” he said, kissing her on the cheek. “Now, let’s show you a few tricks of my trade.”

D`nae watched Grady remove bottles of holy water, crosses, blades and numerous other items she had no idea what to call, the whole time burning with a guilt for kissing Grady, knowing part of it was for the sake of Danny, and part was because she wanted to. The mixture of fear and death was overwhelming her to the very core. Strong arms to protect her in this most vulnerable time of insecurity was all she had wanted. Not knowing if she would be brutally victimized like the rest was more than any one woman could take. Grady offered the momentary connection of comfort that she so desperately needed, but now all she could think about was how disappointed Danny would be, regardless the reason.

As the men checked their ‘gear’ as they called it, Grady showed D`nae what to do if someone broke through the back door. He gave her a long silver pipe, told her to twist the top and throw it, but to get back quickly because it would make one hell of a blast. He then told her she could spray the holy water on the skin of a vampire and it would burn right down to the bone. He also gave her a silver cross to wear around her neck and a golden ring with a silver cross melted into it to put on her finger.

“Are you already giving me jewelry?” D`nae jokingly asked, taking the ring from Grady.

“Have you been paying attention? These thing can save your life, D`nae. You put that on and don’t take it off for any reason… do you understand?”

“Yeah, breathe, okay? I’m the one that should be biting people’s heads off right about now. No pun intended,” she said giving him a look that said “well”, with one brow raised high.

“Do you always have to be so damn cute? I know better than to ask if you always have to be right, I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to that.” They both smiled at one another, him looking at her more like a woman he could see himself with for the rest of his life, and her seeing more of a dear friend in the caring eyes that looked back at her.

She giggled. “Sorry, I guess getting told that a bunch of blood suckers want to kill me didn’t stop my blond roots from slipping through.”

“I can’t believe you just popped off a joke. I almost asked if you were really a blond,” he laughed. “We’ve got to take off. I’ll make sure the area is well checked before we hit our leads.”

“First, there’s no ‘in case’,” he said wrapping his arms around her. “And when are you going to learn that I would do a hell of a lot more than this… if you would just let me.”

She nodded against his chest and stepped back. He walked over to the door, stealing one more glance at her before stepping out and secured the door from the outside. The first thing D`nae did was pick up the phone and hit the two numbers that he had instructed her to and the back door flew open.

“Just checking,” she said with a smile as wide as she could get it. He smiled back. “I should’ve said emergency only.” He winked and was back out the door as fast as he had come in.

D`nae had been asleep for a good three hours when she woke all of a sudden. She rolled over on her cot to look at the time and saw that it was fifteen after two in the deep morning. She sat up, stretched her arms above her head then got up to see what there was to drink in the small portable fridge. No sooner than she stood something hit the back door with enough force to crack the wall that it was attached to. She screamed and ran for the phone. The first number she tried out of pure fear was her mother’s. When nothing happened, she franticly started hitting the end button.
Bang!
Something crashed into the window and she screamed again, almost dropping the phone.

She had punched the first number when the window and a form crashed through, shards of wood and metal slammed into the wall behind her. She dove to the side, landing hard on the floor and when she opened her eyes, to her own amazement the phone was still in her hand. She did not hesitate to hit the second number. She felt the pressure around her ankles seconds before her body was being yanked to the middle of the floor. The creature that stood above her knocked the phone out of her hand. D`nae saw one of the small bottles of holy water laying on its side not two feet from her. She rolled for it and was immediately swung back over onto her back. She popped off the small top and gave her attacker a face full.

The male creature started to scream, grabbing at the skin that now sizzled and melting from its face. The back door came down like it was hit by a steamroller and what she saw next drove her insanity to a whole new level. Two young men walked around the fur-covered beast that stood a good two feet above them on bent hind legs. It had a humanoid torso with breasts, arms that ended in blade-like clawed hands, and a head she could only describe as dog-like: long snout, mouth full of gnashing, foamed drenched fangs and piercing eyes that only a predator could hold. The beast was huge in stature and most defiantly female. All D`nae could do was sit on the floor and shake her head in disbelief. She felt a hot piercing pain at the back of her skull, right before the stars burst behind her eyes and blackness took her away from the nightmare at hand.

D`nae’s head pounded with a violent explosion as soon as she tried to open her eyes. She lay there thinking she drank too damn much last night when the reality of what really happened came to her. Her next breath froze in her lungs when she felt the chains that bound her body in a prone position on a hard cold surface, and that’s when her eyes flew open, and true panic set in. For a split second she thought she had gone blind, but the more her eyes adjusted, she could see a faint light coming from what she thought was the crack under a door.

She could now feel the heavy weight around her waist and knew she had been shackled to some type of contraption that wouldn’t allow her any more movement than a mere few inches. The room was musky, damp and carried the same odor that came radiating out of her house the night her landlady had been murdered, which caused her imagination to run absolutely wild.
“They have me pinned down to gut me, then they’re gonna cut off my head,”
she thought as she began to struggle.

She yanked the chains that bound her at the wrist until her wrist screamed in agony. The thoughts that flowed through her mind brought yells from her throat as she slammed her arms into the abrasive stone floor, in full desperation of freeing herself. Not even the warm streams running from where the chains had eaten into her flesh slowed her in her futile attempts. It wasn’t until she heard the sound of a loud click coming from the door that she gave way to her thoughts of freedom and careened headfirst into the world of her uncertain demise.

She swallowed past the lump of unbearable anticipation that was stuck at the back of her throat as the door creaked open with a horrid screech, moving only a centimeter at a time, taunting her all the more. The door finally gave way to silence, leaving only the rhythmic rise of the beat that now pulsed throughout her body, coming to a rest at the base of her eardrum. She blinked several times trying to adjust to the light, which seemed like that of a thousand watt bulb, when the outline of what she thought was a woman stepped into the doorway.

The figure with long wavy hair stepped back out. She could hear some shuffling type noises, then two figures came back in. “Why is she like this?” asked a male voice that had a slight accent.

“I thought…” was all she heard before the sound of bones being crushed filled the silence, and then a solid thud colliding next to her legs as the door slammed closed.

She felt the other person in the room move over her body, close enough for her to feel his breath and she screamed like she was pulling the air from the bottom of someone else’s lungs. “I will not hurt you… this time,” a man’s voice whispered, so close to her ear that she felt the fine hairs move on her skin. Her mouth closed and her eyes flew open the instant she felt it but no one was there. When her hands fell apart and she brought them to her chest, she knew someone had removed all the chains, but she could only come up with one conclusion as to why she didn’t see anyone.
“I have a concussion and I’m blacking out,”
she thought.

She curled up on her side like a small child and closed her eyes. The pressure of a hand on her shoulder didn’t even make her flinch; she was past the point of her own perception. He stepped behind her, lifted her up in his arms and carried her out of the dark, death-filled room. The next time she opened her eyes, she was looking up at the face of a man who was carrying her up a flight of stairs. The torches they passed showed him to have hair that lay in waves well past his shoulders, deep red in color, and only then did she realize it had not been a woman at the door the first time it opened, but rather this man who came to save her.

He stopped at a landing, taking the door to the left as opposed to continuing up to the next level. It was a large room right out of the medieval times. The fireplace was big enough to walk in and the two high back chairs that sat in front of it looked like something one would see in an old King Arthur movie. On the far side of the room, opposite from the fireplace, was a fantastically elaborate bed made of dark oak wood, detailed with intricate hand carvings of cherub angels and winged dragons.

“Think you’re up to sittin’ by the fire?” he asked looking down at her.

She didn’t say anything, just nodded once and realized she wasn’t being saved the way she had hoped for, but was completely grateful to still have her head. He slowly lowered her into to one of the chairs and kneeled beside her. He took her hands into his, and turned her hands palm up.

“I am, and you’ll find out soon enough.” He stood and walked over to the side of the fireplace and pulled down on a rope that was hanging from the ceiling. “I have children to scold.”

He walked out of her line of sight, and she was glad. She brought her knees up to her chest and became as small as she possibly could. He came back over a few minutes later and sat down in the chair next to her, putting his elbow on the arm of the chair and his finger on his temple with his eyes closed. She glanced over, waiting for him to move or say something but he was a still as a marble statue, and very much resembled one. A small tap sounded at the door.

“Enter,” Alasdair called out.