Force of Knight Magic (12 page)

“And the being that was nearly buried alive.
That was Theresa, correct?
They thought her alive and she killed the person?”
She was shaking her head even before Connor had finished.
“Then what?”

“They did think that Theresa was about to buried alive.
She kept…she would show up on occasion and lead the people in the town to believe that since she was misdiagnosed
,
she held a grudge against the whole town.”
Anye looked around before continuing.
“They think someone else, not her
,
had burned the person.
They all seemed to think that Theresa didn’t have the smarts or the ability to kill anyone.
She isn’t
,
by all accounts
,
very smart.”

Phil didn’t think she was nearly as stupid as they thought.
Nor did he think that she was incapable of killing anyone.
She was as cold
-
blooded as they came.

Theresa caught a scent as she walked around the streets. She’d been in town for three days now and still had no knowledge of the man she’d come to find and the woman.
But this scent, the scent of her first love
,
was close by and she followed it.

The streets weren’t as busy as she’d grown used to while in New York.
Night time
,
the
y
w
ere
just as busy as during the day, if not
busier
. She’d learned to hide more during the day because anybody could come across her and disturb her sleep.
She wouldn’t have been able to defend herself in the almost deadlike state she’d
awakened
from the few times it had happened.
Most of the time she sle
pt
in basements of houses that she knew
where
the people where gone during the day.
She’d only been caught once in all the time she’d been stealing into houses.

She stood outside a house where the scent of her Gregory was the strongest. There was another scent there as well, one she’d not smelled in a very
,
very long time.
Moving with caution she went up to the door.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw him on the porch sitting in a swing.

He looked older. Much older
,
as a matter of fact.
It had been years since she’d actually seen him
,
and then it had been from a distance.
She heard him snore softly and stepped closer to him.
He had been both her tormentor and her ally for so long she no longer knew what she thought of him.

His hair was white.
So white that it made his skin look papery and thin.
He needed a good shave and
she
wondered if the men of this time used the same strap and razor her father had.
She thought she’d look into that when she left here.
Gregory was heavier than he’d been when she’d first seen him and his belly hung over his pants so that there was no trace of his belt.
He still wore the bow-tie and she knew that it was a real one and not like the one she’d pulled off someone she’d been feeding from.

In his hand closest to her was a cup.
She could smell the whiskey in it mixed with coffee.
Theresa had never had coffee.
Her father had never drank it
,
so it had never been in the house when she’d been there.
She knew that if she dared a taste now it would only make her sick
,
so she only sniffed it for a bit and then looked down at the papers in his other hand.

She couldn’t read.
Not much at any rate.
There had only been the one teacher when she’d been a child and the woman had made Theresa’s schooling difficult.
Theresa smiled at that.
As soon as she’d learned what she could do, bite people and thus kill them
,
she’d wasted no time
in
finding Miss Platte and teaching her a few lessons too.
But the papers in his hand looked like something she could figure out.
Before she could even get past the first word, he stirred and she leapt back into the deepest shadows.

He dumped the cup into the bushes and staggered to the door. She didn’t think he was drunk
,
but old age made him clums
y
.
Going into the pretty little house behind him
,
she could smell the others.

A woman younger than him came from the opposite end of the house and smiled at him.
Theresa had hidden behind the door frame and held her breath.
She wanted to see what this girl meant to him and was suddenly very jealous of h
er
.
She heard the woman speak only seconds before Theresa was ready to jump out and kill her.

“Hello
,
Grandda.
I was just coming out to get you.
Dinner is almost ready.”
She kissed his cheek and Theresa felt anger surge up.
“Come on in and after dinner
,
we’ll go over a few more things in your box.”

“I got a few more notes you can add to that contraption of yours too.
I’ve been thinking about what that man said about a few things.
You think you can fix ‘em up for me?”
The girl laughed and Gregory and the girl fa
d
ed away deeper into the house.

Theresa watched the big television while they ate. Food made her ill whether she ate it or not.
There was nothing of interest on the thing, at least nothing she could figure out.
There was a lot of color
,
which she loved
,
but the sound must have been broken because she couldn’t hear anything.

When she heard him going into another room
,
she slipped into it behind him again.
This room was dark with all sorts of pretty books on the shelves.
While he played around with his papers and Theresa figured he waited for his granddaughter
,
she looked at the small toys and such on the shelves in addition to the books.

She was just admiring a shell when she heard the door open.
Hiding deeper into the darkened corner
,
she watched as the woman sat down at the desk and opened a computer, another thing that she never got to play with.

“Okay, tell me what you have.”
He handed the woman a small sheet of paper like the one he’d had in his hand outside.
“Okay.
Do you want me to address this to the same man or to someone else?”

“The same
.
”
H
e handed her something that looked like a picture and the woman got up and put in on something else.
“You have no idea how much I appreciate you helping me out with this
,
Mary Kathleen.
I would still be struggling with the first letter.”

“You know I don’t mind.
It’s sort of fun really. I know that it’s been hard for you, all that mess
,
but for me it’s an adventure without all the gore.”

They worked for
a while
longer and it wasn’t until they were shutting down the computer that
Theresa
thought about getting back out of the house.
When they both walked out onto the back porch, she slipped out of the front door.

She didn’t know what they were talking about and that pissed her off.
She wanted to go and demand that he tell her
,
but knew that wouldn’t work either.
The picture
,
when she’d gotten a glimpse of it after they’d gone outside
,
was of her.
Theresa didn’t even remember posing for the stupid thing.
But it was her al
l
right.

She decided that tomorrow night she was going to go to Gregory and tell him that she wanted answers. She wasn’t sure what she’d get
,
but he’d tell her or she’d…she’d just kill that girl of his.
Standing a little taller
,
she thought about killing the girl and having him watch.
Yeah, she thought, he’d tell her whatever she wanted to know.

The next night he wasn’t on the porch.
She had to wait for someone inside to come to the door and that was taking too long.
So she rang the doorbell and hid.
When the woman came out Theresa threw the small stone into the bushes and she did just
what
she wanted her to.
As soon as she walked off the porch to see, Theresa went into the house.

The house smelled strongly of the humans.
There was also a cat inside
,
but Theresa ignored it.
She looked all through the lower part of the house and didn’t see Gregory so she went up the stairs when it was clear.
She was pe
e
king into one of the rooms when Gregory came out of one behind her.

“You.
What are you doing here?
Get out of my granddaughter
’
s house this minute.”
He shooed at her with a newspaper and she growled.
“Go on. I said to get out and you’d best not be harming her either.”

“You will tell me what you were doing with my picture.
I saw you with it yesterday and I want to know where you got it.”
She moved toward him
,
always startled by how fast she could move.
“Where did you get it
,
old man?”

She lifted him by his neck and carried him to the room that smelled like him the most.
When she put him down on the floor again, he nearly collapsed.
She had to keep reminding herself how strong she was
,
but
she
didn’t tell him she was sorry. She’d had enough of that
,
too
,
telling people she was sorry all the time.

“How did you do that? How did you lift me that way you being a little girl?”
She snarled at him and he backed to the bed and sat down.
“Didn’t mean to make you upset.
But you are a little bitty thing.”

“Tell me about the picture. Where did you get it?
How did you take it without me knowing?”
She felt the anger surge, the horrible anger that made her feel like an animal.
She started pacing when she felt the room tilt.
She turned to look at Gregory and could barely make him out with all the red haze.
“Gregory,” she said softly just before it all went black.

~~~

“It’s important that you find who did this as soon as possible. I have people screaming in the streets that there’s a wild animal on the loose.”
Holly wrote down everything her boss said to her as she glanced at the timer.
Thirty-one seconds left.
“And make sure you report all your findings to the local yokels.
They want this solved yesterday.”

She had ten seconds left when she ended the call and snapped the phone in two then took out the battery.
She was tossing the pieces into the jar of nitric acid when Phil finally spoke.

“You do know that I’m going with you, right?” She nodded
,
relieved that he was going too.
“And as for what is killing these people who do—
”

“It wasn’t people but a person.
I think you should call that woman again.
The guy
’
s name is Gregory.
I don’t know why
,
but I think it’s your girl, the rogue.”
She stiffened when he stood up suddenly and lifted her too.
“Phil?”

“Tell me everything.
Starting with why do you think it’s this rogue?”
She watched him stretch his neck then he stepped back.
“I’m sorry. It’s just that she killed so many people and had come so close to…please tell me what you have found out.”

She laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes.
They had to leave soon
,
but she needed this very badly and suspected he did too.
When he ran his hand down her back she looked up at him.

“His granddaughter found him.
Her name is Mary Kathleen Matthews and Gregory has been staying there since he left New York.
Do you think she followed him there?”