Dark Knight of the Skye (13 page)

He followed D’nae’s vibrations all the way into Austin, his minds-eye now seeing her lie on a brown couch, with a small lamp glowing, and a woman, who had something odd about her, asleep with her head on the coffee table. He spotted the two story house right as the vision of Grady reaching down toward D`nae rushed into his mind. She had been hurt badly and although he had no idea who had harmed her, this man was about to pay for that crime. Danny moved swiftly to the front door and stepped in, shocking all seven men in the foyer. His upper lip pulled back and he hissed out, being forced back two steps, not from the sight of them, but from the lingering stench of decay caused by one of his own kind.

“Don’t move, asshole!” one man yelled, holding out his gun.

Danny’s head twitched, as D`nae tried to open her eyes. His movement was so fast that the gun went off seconds after he was out of sight. Her bedroom door burst open in a thousand pieces, with Danny standing there, his hair blowing around his face. “Tak yer hand awa fae me Hen,” Danny growled, gritting his teeth. Grady raised both hands into the air, but made the mistake of glancing over at the kitchen. Danny’s head jerked around right as the dart flew past his shoulder. He took three steps in and yanked the gun out of the man’s hand and bent it in half. “Be gallus, or go,” Danny whispered in the man’s face then yelled, “Run!” All the remaining men took off, leaving only Tabitha, Grady, and Danny in the room with D`nae.

Danny had Grady by the throat and up against the wall before he could flinch. “Be awful fur this walkin deid tae pun in yer heid.”

“Stop, both of you,” Tabitha demanded, looking down at D`nae. “Your female is infected, and could die or worse if you do not help her.”

“Fit are ye? Yer nae Hen,” Danny said, tightening his grip on Grady, who was fighting to keep from passing out.

“Let him go, Danny,” D`nae said trying to sit up.

“Dinnae try tae move,” Danny dropped Grady, leaping over the couch, lying her back. “Ah wisnae cumin tae be agin yer frien. Yer caw’d tae me hert.”

“I can’t believe your here. I could feel you, but I thought it was because I wanted you here so bad.”

“Ah felt hauf me hert die when the Teuchter put hissel in me place,” he leaned close to her face, sniffing as he spoke. “Wha done it tae ye?” he whispered next to her ear, then slowly turned and looked at Tabitha.

“Ah nae ask agin. Fit are ye?”

“I am an animal. I become a hideous creature that has been caged by the master that hunted her down, because of your forefathers, for longer than you have been alive or dead. I did not mean to hurt her, I too was trying to grip the one behind the couch,” she glared over at Grady. “She will become like me if you do not drain the poison out of her body and make her one of your kind.”

“Ne’er!”

“I am a beast, master,” she claimed going down on her knees in front of him. “Believe what you see with your eyes.” Then she held out her hand as the fur began to cover her already elongating fingers.

“Ah wud ne’er hae her doin fit Ah hae had tae dae. Nae matter fit kind o de‘il ye are.”

Danny stared at her hand for a few seconds, and as it reshaped itself, he pushed it away. Tabitha held her hand to her chest, pleading to him with her eyes. He was still looking at her when D`nae’s body arched and a horrific scream escaped her lungs. Danny wrapped one arm around her waist then placed the other behind her head. She shook her head from side to side as the pain took the words from her mouth. Grady looked down from the back of the couch, wishing he was the one holding her and hurting because he had no idea how to help her. She began to relax, grunting as the sharper pains rushed through her side.

D`nae tried to talk, but all that happened was the simple movement of her bottom lip. Tabitha pulled Danny around and yanked him into herself. “Some die, you fool. Love a beast if you will, but can you take the chance that she may not be here when your sorry fanged self wakes at dusk tomorrow night?” The shock on Danny’s face was priceless. The strength of such a small woman took him by complete surprise. He looked back down at D`nae who seemed to have fallen unconscious. He stood and began pacing the room, Grady watching him like he was the only thing in his vision - the very thing he had been searching for, and the only thing that stood in between him having the woman that he loved. Danny held his chin, thinking as he came to a stop in the middle of the room.

“She does not have the signs of those who live,” Tabitha said, spinning Grady around. “I do not wish to take the chance. How could you, if you care for her?”

Tabitha became so enraged that she began to change into her animal side, and within seconds, she had Grady lifted off of his feet and plastered to the wall. “Now you have no choice,” she growled in a heavy deep voice. Danny watched it all with as much shock as he had when he woke in his own coffin the first night of his dark life. He slowly walked over to where D`nae laid, with Grady yelling in protest from the arms of a beast twice his size. Danny rolled her onto her back, and could feel that her heart was already beating slower than it should. He lowered his head down to hers, forehead to forehead, with her body laid out before him, and cried for the woman that carried his soul. “Forgive me,” was all that he said before he moved his mouth down to the faint pulse in her neck.

The more he drank of her tainted blood, the more the pain went into his body. Once he had taken her to the point of death, he laid her back and rushed for the front door, losing what he had consumed in the hallway. He looked back and witnessed the little finger on her hand twitch and knew that she was no more. He stepped back in, holding his stomach. Tabitha lowered Grady with a hard thump, then went and stood behind the couch, as if guarding D’nae’s temporary leave from this earth. Grady sat up, placed his head in his hands and broke down. The very being that he had hunted and killed would now be the very being that he would want. He and Danny looked at each other from across the room, each brimming with a knowledge of uncertainty, both knowing that the following night would bring on a whole new ballgame once D’nae woke up as a creature of the dark.

Tabitha and the others had moved D`nae’s cold corpse to the bedroom of her apartment, no one speaking other than to give orders as to what needed to be done. The windows were blacked out, and Grady had placed lookouts in several different areas around the property. Dawn was at hand and Danny was feeling its pull. He began clearing out the bottom of her closet, making enough room for himself, just in case Grady got the idea to open one of the windows while he slept. Tabitha had calmed enough to change back to the small woman that no one would know could harm anything, much less become a beast that stood two feet higher, covered in claws and fur. She had borrowed some of D`nae clothes to replace hers that had torn apart when she shifted.

“No, he took a great deal. I can give her all the strength she needs when she wakes. He could never control both parts of my being,” she explained, covering D`nae with a shawl. “I did what I had to do to survive.”

At that very moment, Danny gained a true liking for Tabitha. She had spoken the words that burned inside his body like the hot coals of a smoldering fire. He had done many things to survive, using animals to fill his need, but it was the sweet grandeur of human blood that gave life to him like no other. He walked over, kissed his sleeping beauty on the lips, then knelt down and prayed to the Lord, not knowing or caring if He was listening. He asked that she be given back to him, that her crimes were not so bad that she need be taken right away. He spoke of how he loved her, and would die a thousand times to see her open her brown eyes again.

“Ah made it tae Austin, Faither, cud be me arms be makin it tae heaven. Ah’ll go whaur ere me lassie be.” He then went to make the sign of the cross over his chest, and hissed out in pain.

“Best let me take her necklace off, there’s a cross on it.”

“Why dae they hurt me eyess? Me flesh cannae stan the touch either,” he said pulling the top part of his shirt open, showing her a small scar. “Tak it, but be leavin the ring.”

“I cannot answer your question, but I know that none of your kind can withstand it’s power. My weakness is anger.”

“Ah wud hae tae be galoot tae nae see that wit me own eye,” he smiled, going back to the closet. “Yer a guid hen. Ye hae me thanks.” Then he closed the door.

Grady tried several times to get into the room the next day, getting no further than Tabitha’s outreached hand when he brought her a tray of food that still sat beside the couch when he came back in later that evening. D`nae’s clothes looked bright against Tabitha’s dark filthy skin. Her hair was so matted and dirty that is was hard to tell its true color. Grady gave one last effort to get her away from the door by offering her a break to take a bath.

“If you do not like the way that I look, then by all means… leave the room,” she replied, looking down at her dirt encrusted nails.

“You are fine where you are!” she stated, and he stopped. “There is nothing new in there to see, no matter how badly you wish that to be different. I have seen this many times before, and she will not wake until after the sun has fully set.”

“You’re right. I know enough about this to know she’s not going to walk out of that room like nothing ever happened,” he replied sitting down on the couch, reaching back to scratch his shoulder.

The sun had set and Danny was now by D`nae’s side. Tabitha stood at the foot of the bed, and Grady stayed back by the closed door, biting on his fingernails.

“Cum back tae me, luv,” Danny whispered, kissing her cheeks then her lips. “Ye be the lock to me glen.”

They all watched as her deathly white skin and purple lips started to change. The texture of her flesh became soft, and the first sign of her waking up was the flutter of her eyelid. D`nae opened her eyes and smiled over at Danny.

“I had a bad dream.”

“Yer fine noo, luv,” he smiled as red tears stained his cheeks.

“The pain’s gone, Tabitha,” she grinned looking up at her. When she did, she felt her new fang grace her lower lip. “What the hell’s going on?”

D`nae sat up putting both hands to her mouth, then she reached down and yanked the bandages off of her side. Completely healed. There were no signs that anything had ever happened. She didn’t say a word, just pushed herself around Danny and rushed into the bathroom. The next thing they heard was her blood piercing scream. “How the hell am I gonna have lunch with my mom next week?” She came out of the bathroom fuming, looking at each of them in turn. “Why?”

“You were in trouble. The poison of my claws was either going to make you like me, or take your life. I begged him, master. I cannot be without you,” Tabitha explained, dropping to her knees.

“Yeah, didn’t know if you wanted to follow around a wolf, or a vampire, because we all know how much you hate them, right? Enough to use me as bait!” D`nae retorted in anger.