Read Dark Knight of the Skye Online
Authors: Robin Renee Ray
Dark Knight of the Skye (20 page)
“What happened to you, sweetie? You just scared the holy shit out of me, ya know it?” D`nae said holding back a few tears.
“I forced myself to change back.”
“I thought you could do that at will,” D`nae replied, helping her up and into the sweats.
“It is true, but when I change from anger, it is a much more difficult process to control the creature that lives inside. Even I do not understand, I just know it is a harder ordeal.”
“But, you’re alright now?” Grady asked in a low voice.
“I am, and thank you for coming to my rescue, it was a very brave thing to do.”
“Hey, it was nothing. I just didn’t want you to kill him,” he said, then stopped when he saw the hurt look on her face. “You would have done the same for me. Glad you’re alright,” he added, then went over to Danny, and the enemy who was now moving.
The male opened his eyes, rolling them into the back of his head several times before actually being able to focus on his captors. He went to scoot back and bumped into Tabitha, who looked down and shook her head back and forth very slow. He made a move for the side, and Danny slapped him so hard his body lifted off the ground and he landed back by Tabitha’s feet. “What are you going to do with me?”
“Aw depends on fit ye be fur yackin aboot.”
“Where’s he at, Andrew?” Tabitha asked, stepping around and in front of him.
“He’ll kill me.”
“Cum, Andra. Dinnae tell that ye were nae gaun tae kill oor lassie here.”
“He told me to grab her, bring her back.”
“Bet you won’t be doing that again,” D`nae snickered, getting a stern look from everyone but the man on the ground.
“Where is he, Andrew?” Tabitha asked again, squatting down as her eyes began to glow.
“Hold your temper,” Grady said placing his hand on her shoulder.
“He said something about making all of you come to him. Knew the way he said.”
‘Where!” she screamed as her face began to elongate.
“Buddy if she changes, it’s your ass.”
“Said he was going to Colorado…” he paused. “After he made a few stops on the way.”
“What stops? What the hell are you talking about?” D`nae asked stepping up.
“You’ll find out. He really wants you for taking his dog,” Andrew replied laughing up at D`nae.
Tabitha made a move to go for him, when Grady’s gun blew off his head. He looked at the others, then took a few steps back and walked off. Tabitha kicked what was left of the body. “He was no more than a dog himself. Alasdair would have told him nothing.” Then she too walked away.
Danny put his arm over D`nae’s shoulder and kissed the side of her head. They explained to Danny what had happened to the truck, while Grady went over a few of his maps. He drew a line that ran all the way from Austin to the center of Colorado State, then hit the tip of it down.
“He could be anywhere, hell he could be watching us right now,” Grady claimed, looking down at the map.
“He’ll nae be round here.”
“Danny’s right. I would feel it if he were that close,” Tabitha added.
“You didn’t know ole Andrew was here.”
“You will soon find out the difference between a new creature and one that has been around for more than two hundred years. They have a different smell, a very powerful scent of strength,” Tabitha proclaimed, bumping into his bad shoulder. “It would pay to remember that.”
D`nae got into the truck with Tabitha, while Grady and Danny stood outside and talked amongst themselves for a few more minutes. Tabitha sat quietly, contemplating on whether or not to tell D`nae that Grady’s emotional flips were due to the scratch that she had given him that night. She could see that he was bouncing from smiling one minute to growling the next. His skin was a consistent red tint, and his eyes were taking on a glow every time his temper flared. She looked a D`nae with a worried scowl on her face as the boys got in the truck, and D`nae mouthed the words, “Are you okay?” Tabitha lowered her eyes, then looked back up at the back of Grady’s head, slowly glancing back at D`nae.
“Where to now, Grady?” D`nae asked, looking over at Tabitha.
“I think Alasdair’s going to be having his little goons on us no matter where we go. I say we head to Colorado.”
“I think we should find a place that we can relax and make a good stand, at least until we have a better plan. No way in hell are you sticking us in a damn cemetery again,” she replied putting her hand on Danny’s shoulder.
“We have a good seven hours of night that we can drive,” Grady snapped argumentatively.
“It’s three against one, Grady.”
“And it’s my damn truck!” he yelled, swerving on the road.
“Then let us out right here!” she demanded, causing Danny to turn around and look at her. “No, if he wants to be an ass, then let him.”
Grady slammed on the brakes, and D`nae hurried Danny up by pushing him on the back. Tabitha glanced back at Grady, then slid out to join the others. He hit the gas and left them in the wake of his dust.
“Noo fit?” Danny asked smiling.
“We walk,” D`nae replied and started north up the road.
“I should have told you this before,” Tabitha said, walking up behind D`nae and Danny.
“Told us what?” D`nae stopped in replied.
“Grady is changing.”
“Well, hell honey we already knew that. He’s been acting like a real jerk.”
“When my claws went through your flesh, they marked him as well.”
D`nae just stood there staring at her.
“Are ye sayin that he’ll be fur cumin ane o yersel?” Danny asked with a shocked look on his face.
“You telling me that Grady’s turning into a werewolf, Tabitha?” D`nae asked taking her by both arms.
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
D`nae’s head went back and the sound of laughter reverberated throughout the woods that surrounded them. Tabitha blinked her confusion while Danny smiled, shaking his head. D`nae held her stomach, regaining her composure, and then put her arm over Tabitha’s shoulder.
“It serves him right, sweetie. Maybe he will see the light once he gets out of that stuffy human shell.” They talked while they made their way down the road, until they saw that Grady’s truck was pulled in behind an old abandoned gray house a few feet back from the road. The closer they got, they could see him leaning over the front of his truck, holding his side and throwing up.
“You decide to change your mind, O’Brian?” D`nae asked walking closer. “Hey, you okay?”
“Fine… I’m fine,” he replied, then collapsed to the ground.
“Danny!”
“Richt here, luv,” he replied, picking Grady up and tossing him over his shoulder.
“Is this normal, Tabitha?’ D`nae asked as Tabitha walked up.
“It is. He should change within the next twenty four hours. I will stay with him until he is alright.”
“When will that be? I mean, how will you know?”
“If he was not going to make it, the curse would have killed him by now.”
“Like it would have killed me?”
“Yes, your system was too weak, but he has not suffered the way that you did. Alasdair drained several times, or you may have made the transformation.”
“I’m kind of glad Danny came along. No offence, but I think I’m where I’m meant to be.”
“No offence taken. Your temper would have kept you in more trouble than mine does me,” she smiled, and they both followed Danny into the abandoned house.
The girls piled old couch cushions up to make a bed for Grady, who was now falling in and out of consciousness. He mumbled words that made no sense to anyone, swinging his arms in the air every few minutes. Danny removed his shirt, while D`nae got the first aid kit out of the truck. The hiss that came from Danny had Tabitha closing her eyes in remembrance of her own walk into the life of becoming a shape shifter. His back was a massive mess of red whelps, all running from the one wounded shoulder, disappearing into his pants from hip to hip. They had started to wrap themselves around his ribs, as smaller lines traced up the side of his neck. The once white gauze that Grady had placed there that morning was now a yellowish green on the outside, and when Tabitha pulled it back, taking the scab that was stuck to the pad with it, blood poured down the back of his arm. Tabitha got down on her knees and leaned his head back, holding it with one hand. She looked up at Danny, who held his body in place, then lifted his eyelid with her free hand.
“He will not change in twenty four hours,” she proclaimed.
“Is he going to die?” D`nae asked coming through the door.
“Of course not, but he will shift very soon, sooner than I would have thought.”
“Wull he be hissel?” Danny asked, rolling Grady to his side.
“He will be like a wild animal when he first changes, but he will have me to show him the way. I will take him out into the woods. Once he feeds, his mind will start to return,” Tabitha explained, holding the first aid kit open for D`nae.
“Ah’ll gae tak a keek at the dungeon. T’wull nae need tae be any whaur round when he gae’s intae ane o yer fur balls then.”
D`nae was snickering before he was halfway finished.
“Fit sae funny?”
“It’s called a basement here, babe. And you’re really not any better being a blood sucker and all,” she replied, causing Tabitha to laugh out loud, what was more than likely her first good laugh.
“Hey noo, gangin up isn’t ane bit funny. Tae hens? Mither Mairi, o Joseph, ye’ll both be fur killin me,” he laughed and got to his feet.
He left the two laughing women and went down the debris filled hall to find the door that led to the ’basement’. He smiled, kicking past the mounds of old newspapers at the end of the hall, turning down another one, disappearing from their sight. He found the door hanging from one hinge in the back of what used to be a fairly large kitchen. The cabinet doors laid strewn about the floor, with only a few hanging on with what little life they had left by the rusty screws that threatened to break if touched. The sink was gone, as well as all the appliances that were once used to help run a house that sheltered a family. Danny lifted the door up and the whole thing fell from the rotted frame, so he leaned it against the wall, and began making his way down the extremely wobbly wooden stairs.
Back in the room where the others sat, another drama had begun. Grady had pushed himself off the homemade bed, getting to his hands and knees.
“What’s happening to me?” he yelled flipping to his back, arching, making an excruciating face from the agony of the pain. Tabitha scooted close to him, looking back at D`nae, who needed no words to tell her to get out of the room and find Danny, which was the very thing she did. She stood, backing up, watching as the skin on Grady’s chest began to break open. Once the pink tinged fluids ran down his sides, she turned and ran down the hall. She ran into the kitchen and saw the glow from Danny’s lighter. She rushed into the open door and onto the top of the stairs.
“Danny!” she said, quickly going down to meet him on the middle of the staircase.
“No, stay where you…” Danny was starting to say when the staircase collapsed, taking them both to the basement floor.
The dust was so thick, it found it’s way up and out into the kitchen, before settling back down to the floor. Danny sat up and started moving the broken boards off of the parts of his body that were completely covered.
“D`nae!” he yelled “Luv, whaur ye be?” He got to his feet, rushing to the sound of her coughing. He found her lying face down on a portion of the stairs that actually stayed intact, but like him, she was covered in a fine layer of dust from head to toe.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as he picked her up.
“Ne’re ye mind, luv. T’wur gaun tae fall nae matter.”
“How are we gonna to close the door?”
He smiled, and in the little light coming from the open door, she could see the glint that he got when he was about to do something sneaky. He stepped back, bowed at the waist, then leaped up in the air. He spun around, smiling down at her, then slowly made his way to the opening, grabbed the door and set it firmly in place. Danny came down behind D`nae, gripping her shoulders, rubbing gently with his thumbs, as his feet once again became one with the debris on which she was still standing. He leaned in and lightly blew the dust off the side of her cheek and laid a light kiss, then rubbed his short stubble beard along her neck.
“Not on your life, buddy!” she giggled, bashfully pushing him away with the back of her hand, as she stepped down off the mess she had made.
Danny leaped into the air and landed in front of her. “Fit aboot a wee, fit ye caw it? Lip lockin?” he asked, stepping closer to her.
“Danny Gilmore, I am a girly girl, and no way in hell are you putting your hands on me…” she looked down, “…looking like this.”