Dark Knight of the Skye (19 page)
Read Dark Knight of the Skye Online
Authors: Robin Renee Ray
She swallowed the lump that had crept into her throat and walked past him, lowering her head as she went by. Grady had a smile on his face the whole time her back was turned, and was starting to become very happy that she was around. He knew his love for D`nae was one that he knew he could never fulfill, because of her love for Danny, and here stood a beautiful woman, one that had no idea how amazing she really was, and every time she spoke, his blood seemed to heat up like it had never done with another female. He found himself drawn to her scent, as if she were wearing a perfume that had the power to draw the strongest of men to her side. She was intoxicating, and he was starting to feel her poison, a drug she was clueless of having.
D`nae’s eyes fluttered as her limbs filled with the life of her former self. The first thing she felt under her hand was the faint beat of Danny’s heart. She raised her head to see him smiling back down at her, then she remembered where she was. She sat up, trying to focus her eyes in the pitch black death chamber.
“I want out of here, right now!” Then she quickly got up and started feeling her way to the double doors. Danny stood, reaching in his pocket and brought his lighter to life, giving the already eerie room an even more morbid feel. The pale yellow glow of the lighter made the room look like something out of an old Alfred Hitchcock movie.
“Danny, the doors stuck… I want out!” she panicked.
“Nae need tae worry, luv. Ah’m mair then sure yer frein lock it up tight.”
“I know, but I want out. I don’t wanna be in here anymore.”
“T’wull be a’ richt,” he softly said, taking her into his arms, letting the lighter go out.
“I know what happens when we go to sleep, and being in here just…” she fell silent, hiding her face in his chest, while pulling her arms up to her own. “Where are they?”
“Dae ye hear that?” he asked.
“What?”
“Tabitha be runnin,” he laughed.
“Open the door,” D`nae yelled, releasing Danny, and pounding on the door. “Tabby, please. I want out!”
“I am here, master!” she yelled back and ripped the incredibly heavy iron door clean off its hinges. “I told him you would be awake… stupid human.”
“Oh, thank you,” D`nae said, practically falling out of the door, wrapping her arms around Tabitha. “Never again. I don’t care if I fry like bacon, I ain’t never going in another one of those.”
Danny stepped out grinning, trying his best not to laugh out loud. Grady sprinted up, completely out of breath, sweat dripping off of his chin. He leaned on a headstone, dangling the keys out in front of himself. “Guess you don’t need these?” Then he started laughing, mixed with a few concerning coughs.
“Grady, are you alright?” D`nae asked, walking over to him and placed her hand on his bad shoulder.
“Sss!” he hissed in pain. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure sound fine. What the hell did you do to your shoulder?”
“It happened…” Tabitha started to say when he interrupted her.
“Just an infected scratch that I got from one of those thorn bushes back at the river.”
“You need to have it looked at,” she said, trying to lift his shirt.
“No!” he spat, taking a firmer stance with his feet. “Already had it cleaned up. No big deal, really.”
Tabitha controlled the fine tremor of a low growl, knowing he was lying to everyone, including himself. She could smell the change happening to his body, and also knew he would be one of the ones that would be able to make it through the transformation, or his body would already be dying, just as D`nae’s had. He was strong, mentally as well as physically. The more the curse took over his will, replacing it with a beast that he would have to learn to control, the weaker he would become, but the moment he turned, all his strength would return ten times that of a normal man.
“Fit wull we be daein tae nicht?” Danny asked out of the blue. “Ah wis thinin, wu’ll aw be fur needin tae feed.”
“I would like to have another foot dog, with the brown stuff. It was most enjoyable,” Tabitha smiled, getting everyone’s attention.
“You got her fast food?” D`nae asked looking back at Grady, who just raised his shoulder. “Way to go, dude. Sounds great, sweetie.”
“I have fed well, thanks to Mr. O’Brian. You may both take from me to appease your hunger.”
“I am hungry, lost all my dinner last night,” D`nae said, licking her lower lip.
“Come, you can feed in the truck. Mr. O’Brian finds our ways repulsive,” Tabitha claimed, glancing over at Grady as they walked by.
He just shook his head, knowing that no matter what he said, they would all know it was a lie, because even the thought of D`nae feeding from another’s body was more than he could handle. After seeing all the mutilation since he started looking for Alasdair, the thought alone was enough to make his stomach sick. D`nae took from Tabitha, but Danny chose to look elsewhere for his meal. He took to the sky, returning close to thirty minutes later, smiling with a red smear on the side of his face.
“Where have you been?” D`nae asked, wiping the blood off of his face.
“Ah wis doon the road. They’re be a fine keekin ranch.”
“You fed off of a farmer? Did you kill him?” D`nae asked excitedly.
“Nae, Hen. Ah ne’re even saw meself nae crofter. Ah drank fae one o his coo’s, nae be me first time either,” he replied, wiggling his brows.
“You’re so crazy,” she kissed his cheek and smelt the musk fur of the cow. “Yep, you been suckin cow, alright.” Then she started laughing.
“I think Alasdair will keep moving north,” Grady said changing the subject, showing that it still bothered him seeing them together. “If we can somehow get ahead of him, we could possibly prevent some innocent people from dying.”
“Ah agree. Ye aw take the wheels, an Ah’ll take the sky.”
“Like hell you will, what if we lose you… each other?”
“Can ye nae feel me hert beatin in yer chest, luv. We’ll be ane frum eer lastin.”
“Let’s move it,” Grady interrupted as their lips embraced.
“Be careful, and if you see anyone, or anything out of the ordinary, you better damn well come find us. I mean it, Danny!”
“Yes, Meither. Noo, gae feed oor frien. Ah’ll be watchin ye.” He kissed her one more time then yelled as he leapt into the night air.
“Show off,” D`nae said, then jumped up several times.
“What are you doing?” Grady asked, semi-laughing.
“Nothing,” she replied sheepishly, then pushed Tabitha towards the truck.
They drove through a drive thru and got Tabitha her ‘foot dog’ and fries. D`nae licked her lips and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths of the aroma into her lungs. Temptation got the best of her and she picked up a french fry, and popped it into her mouth. A few seconds later she began spitting like her mouth was on fire.
“Did you try one?” Tabitha asked with chili covering both sides of her mouth. D`nae nodded, then spit in Grady’s back floorboard a few more times.
“What’s going on back there?” he asked, looking in the rearview mirror.
“She placed food in her mouth,” Tabitha snickered.
“I didn’t know it would turn to fuckin’ ashes that taste like shit.”
“It just tastes that way, but it did not turn to ashes. One such as yourself should never attempt to eat or drink what you did in your life as a mortal,” Tabitha explained, doing her signature tilt with her head.
“It smells so good, but I sure won’t do that again. So, nothing, huh?”
“Some drink a dark red wine of age. It works on your kind like a strong whiskey would, say on a small child.”
“So, I can still party… how interesting.”
“Just remember, everything comes with a price.”
“Yeah, kind of just found that out,” D`nae said spitting one last time for good measure.
“Not meaning to change the subject, even though anything would be better than hearing you spit in my floorboard,” Grady coughed. “I’m passing the last place now, so keep your senses open.”
Tabitha and D`nae both stared out the window down the little dirt road that led to the elderly couples home, then looked at each other, remembering the sight they had walked away from. “Wonder how long it will be before anyone finds them?” D`nae asked, sliding down in the seat and kicking one leg over the front.
“Hey, do you mind?” Grady grumbled pushing her foot back over the seat. “You need to keep your eyes and ears open.”
No sooner than the words left his mouth, something crashed into the hood of the truck, then smashed the windshield on the passenger side. D`nae instinctively threw herself over, taking Tabitha with her. “Hang on!” Grady yelled, trying to get control of the truck, pulling it to a stop sideways in the bar ditch. He held the wheel in a death grip catching his breath, before he asked if they were okay. Both just nodded their heads and pushed themselves back up in the seat. Grady looked over at the damage, and wondered what the hell could have hit so high on the hood of a four by four truck. He opened the door to get out when Tabitha grabbed his wrist.
“I smell blood, better let us get out with you.”
“Why? You think the human can’t take care of himself?”
“No, because we can see and hear better than you, saving the human the trouble of losing his head,” Tabitha sarcastically replied, pushing the passenger seat up and opening the door.
They stepped out at the same time, while D`nae twitched her lip, holding them as tight as she could to keep from laughing. Her thoughts of Tabitha being too submissive just went right out the window, and she loved it. She slid out of Grady’s door, and walked around the back of the truck. Tabitha pushed the round solid object around with her foot then wiped the tip of her shoe on the paved road, marking it with a red smear.
“What is it? A head?” D`nae asked leaning down.
“No, it’s a bloody rock,” Tabitha replied.
“As in ‘bloody hell’?”
“As in blood coated, soaked,” Grady said, reaching down, already donning his latex gloves, and picking it up. “Can you get that black bag, there’re a few trash bags in it.”
“Glad you put those on before you picked that thing up, who knows what’s on it,” D`nae said reaching for the bag.
“Kinda been doing investigations for a while now,” he retorted, lowering the rock into the trash bag.
They walked around to the front of the truck and all eyes went to the sky. The dent was a good foot from the front of the hood and so indented that it almost pushed down into the motor. “Get back in the truck,” Grady demanded, pushing them toward the driver’s side door. He was facing D`nae when Tabitha screamed out. They turned back to see her being lifted into the air by a male that neither of them knew. Tabitha shifted in mid-air, and both went down somewhere in the trees about a hundred feet away. Grady pushed D`nae into the front seat then jumped in, hitting the gas so hard that the truck slid even further sideways before the front tires grabbed enough traction to put them back onto the paved road. He slammed on the brakes where he thought she might have gone down and was out the door without hesitation. D`nae was not only on his heels but passed him as soon as she was over the fence.
“Tabitha!” D`nae yelled.
“There, in the water!” Grady yelled from behind her, changing his direction, going straight for the tank.
Tabitha’s beast of an arm came shooting out of the water, then slammed back down on the head that was just breaking the surface. Grady threw his gun to the right and billfold to the left, never once missing a beat with his feet. He was knee deep when he threw his body forward and began swimming like a crazed man. The two fighting went under then came back up with the slender male vampire striking at Tabitha’s head, doing his best to get away from her massive jaws that were snapping mere inches from the front of his face.
“Don’t kill him, we need him,” Grady tried calling out over the waves rushing up and over his face.
Another dark figure came down from the night sky like a falling star, slamming into the water right beside Tabitha and the vampire. Grady began swimming as fast as he could to help a creature that once would have been his target, but was now becoming his friend. Two figures shot out of the water, leaving Tabitha’s wolf form to stare up at them, while she clawed at the water in anger.
“Whaur wud ye like me tae drop this de’il?” Danny asked, holding the unconscious vampire by the back of his clothes. Grady could be seen by the white of his teeth, then soon after as his body lifted up out of the water onto the shoulders of none other than Tabitha. He grabbed a handful of fur and held on tight as she made her way to the shore, with extreme speed for such a large being. She lowered him to the ground about the same time that Danny brought down the other man. D`nae ran up to Danny, as he rolled over the one that had attacked Tabitha. She walked over, still in beast form, her nose wrinkled and her breathing becoming more labored.
“Do you know him?” Grady asked, looking back up at her.
Tabitha nodded her head once then closed her eyes, backing away as her body began to change. She was on all fours, screaming out in pain when her transformation was complete. Grady and D`nae both rushed to her side. Her stomach was contracting with every gulp of air she sucked in, and when she exhaled, a huge moan of agony rolled from her lips. Grady ran to the truck and grabbed a long sleeve shirt and a pair of sweat pants. He pulled a towel out of his personal bag, then took it all back to D`nae. She began drying off the gunk that covered Tabitha every time she changed, and by the time she had the shirt over her head, the color had made its way back into her cheeks.
