Dark Knight of the Skye

by Ray, Robin Renee

  The two excused themselves from the table, making it clear that their departure had nothing to do with the food or the conversation, and left the Hostel.

  “Sorry you had to hear that. I gather you had no idea about your boyfriend’s family,” Grady inquired.

  “No… to be honest, I don’t know anything about his family other than what he told me before he died. So, what happened to his body?”

  “Probably ended up a John Doe. Customs can mess things up pretty bad sometimes.”

  “That’s horrible, his poor family must have been devastated. What did Mabel mean about the empty box?”

  “Well, somehow the family ended up with an empty coffin and a letter that explained how Danny had died.”

  “Do you know what the letter said?”

  “Don’t you already know that?”

  “It’s a long story. Besides, I think I got as little info as they did.”

  “But I thought you were with him the night he was killed,” he replied, stopping to turn and look at her.

  “Just how the hell would you know that, Grady? And why are you here the same time that I just happen to show up?”

  “Look, don’t get all defensive. There have been things going on around here for the last three years that no one can answer, and all of a sudden we get a call that a so-called tourist decides to check in at a place that hasn’t seen a customer in almost two years. I had no idea that you were going to be Danny Gilmore’s girlfriend until you said so. I just happen to know the case.”

  “This is all freaking me out, so excuse the hell out of me if I get a bit defensive. I mean, how would you like to find out some of this shit after almost four years of thinking it was another way?” she said, turning her back to him.

  “Please don’t cry, Mrs. Creel.”

  She turned around so fast that he actually jumped and gave him the best go-to-hell look she could manage.

  “First off, I never cry and second, my name is D`nae. Mrs. Creel is my mother!” She started back toward the hostel, finished with their conversation.

  “I’m sorry,” he said running up beside her, taking her by the arm. “I didn’t mean to say Mrs. I meant Miss and there’s no reason to get this upset.”

  “You don’t know a damn thing about me. You have no idea what kind of hell that I’ve been through and I damn sure don’t need some nosey detective trying to hold my hand, telling me I don’t need to get upset!” she retorted, pulling away.

  Once she was back in the hostel, she went straight to her room and started repacking her belongings into her backpack. She made sure to take everything she would need for at least a three day hike around the Collin Hills, because she knew that Danny had told her his family owned a large piece of land in that area and she wasn’t about to ask anyone else around here, anything. She made it to the main check-in area when Mabel noticed she was leaving.

  “Aw ready backpackin Ah see. Are ye gaun south tae Teangue or maybe doon tae Armadale?”

  “No ma’am, I’m going to hike around Collin Hills,” D`nae replied.

  “Oh Lassie, tis almost gloaming oot. Why nae wait fur the morn?”

  “Thanks Mabel, but I’ll be fine.” She left before Mabel could say anything else.

  The village was small and it wasn’t long before she had made her way onto the outskirts of the village grounds, where the road curved in toward the land and left the sea to its back. She walked a good five miles when the sky started to fill with dark clouds and the earth below her feet swirled with a thick layer of dewy mist. The hills looked more like mountains and the trees were starting to get thicker the higher she climbed. She had taken a trail that she thought would bring her to a small campground, which she had seen advertised on a sign a few miles back down the road. The terrain seemed to change every time she turned around and she was beginning to feel stupid for not listening to the advice to stay put for the night.

  It was getting colder by the minute, and not taking the time to put on more appropriate night wear, she stopped to take off her backpack so she could put a sweater on under her jacket. She found a slope of rocks to lean on and began to unzip the top of the pack when she heard something whiz over her head. A soft whirl of wind swirled the mist around her legs and blew her hair across her face, causing more than just chills from the night air to crawl up her spine.

  “Okay then, I didn’t really need that sweater anyway,” she said out loud, grabbing the backpack and took off running down the trail as fast as her legs would move.

  She never saw the large stone that was waiting for her left knee to make contact, and when it did, she went down, disappearing in the murky mist, consuming all but her voice. “Mother-loving-son-of-a-bitch!” she yelled grabbing her leg, rolling around with the agonizing sharp pain. As soon as she said it, she heard someone walking toward her, not twenty feet away and froze.

  “Hello? Is someone out there?” she called out.

  Silence fell around her; she used the stone that took her down to help pull herself back up. She tried to stand but her leg wouldn’t take the pressure and if she hadn’t been holding the stone, she would have easily gone back down.

  “Ouch!” she hissed through clenched teeth, and no sooner than the word left her mouth, something crashed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground hard, causing her, and whatever had her, to start rolling over the sharp rocks and down the steep incline. As soon as they crashed to a stop at the bottom of a tree, two strong hands took her by the shoulders and flipped her onto her back. She began to fight the attacker, but he was overwhelmingly strong. She screamed when he pulled both of her arms over her head and pinned them down with one of his.

  He straddled her waist and in one swift motion, ripped the collar off of her turtle neck shirt. She tried to shake away the hair that covered her face so she could see the man who she thought was about to rape, maybe even murder her. She made one last attempt as he came down toward her and their eyes made contact. Her attacker froze in disbelief as he looked down into the same beautiful brown eyes that he had fallen in love with, and D`nae simply passed out.

  Danny stood and stumbled back. He had almost harmed the one thing that kept him from taking whatever life he had since he had woke in that coffin at the train station in Lochalsh. He knew what he had become the night those three creatures attacked him so many years ago and he had thought many times about the night that he would one day see his one true love again. How she would react was something he couldn’t even fathom. He was not the same man that she had given her heart to, but the time had come to find out what he had been asking himself every night that he had woken a creature of its embrace.

  He walked back to her and took her in his arms. He put his face against her hair and closed his eyes, breathing in the very essence that he had so longed for. He laid her back and as he looked down at her angelic face, he knew he could never lose her again and in one graceful leap, the two disappeared into the night sky. Soon after, he entered the stone walls that encased the castle on his family’s land. It was nothing more than ruins, but it was a place that he now called home.

  D’nae moaned every so often as he carried her down the long, curved stairway that led into what used to be the dungeons, and what was now his living area. He laid her down on the bed and covered her with his coat. He started a fire in the large stone fireplace, and once he was finished, he left the castle to retrieve her things and steal whatever else she might need that he didn’t have in the castle.

  While he was out, D`nae started to come around. She thought she was back at home in her bed dreaming about Danny, until she smelled the fireplace and realized she didn’t have one.

  She sat up a little too fast and went right back down, grabbing her head. “I must have knocked the crap out of my head,” she thought and tried sitting up a bit slower. She had no clue how she got here or where here was, but she was grateful someone came along and saved her from her attacker. “Did he look like Danny, or was I just scared out of my mind?
” she asked herself. “Hello!” she called out. When no one answered, she decided to take a look around.

  The walls were solid stone, dark gray in color and there were several pieces of extremely old furniture setting about. There were two high-backed chairs in front of the fireplace, which was big enough to actually stand in when not blazing, with a small round table between them and behind the chairs sat the bed she woke up on. It was one like she had never seen. The headboard was covered with intricate carvings on what looked like extremely old vintage wood that extended all the way to the top of the stone ceiling. The footboard had round posts two-foot thick that reached just as high. Faded maroon curtains encircled the bed, tied open at all four corners, and the comforter looked like it used to be a plush burgundy, but was now only a pale reminder of days past.

  The more she explored, the more she realized she must be underground: no windows, stairs that only went up, doors with iron bars that opened to God only knows where. The glow of the fire and the two candles that burned gave the place an eerie feel. “All this place needs is some shackles and it would make a perfect dungeon” she thought. Then it hit her. “I AM in a dungeon!” That thought drove chills up and down her spine, causing her to rethink her grateful thoughts about her so-called rescuer. She took the fireplace poker in one hand and started up the stairs.

  She hadn’t got more than five or six steps when she heard a loud bang from somewhere up above. She turned and headed back down to find a hiding place, but the more she hurried the more panicked she became. The sound of hard soled shoes hitting each step rang in her ears as she frantically searched for a place to hide. She ran to one of the iron gates, but it wouldn’t budge. “No!” she whispered. Running back to the only place that was left, she went for the bed and tried to climb under.

  “D`nae, Ah dinnae think ye be fittin,” Danny said from behind her.

  She froze where she was; her head under the cover that hung off the bed and her butt sticking up in the air. When she didn’t move he spoke again. “Please, cum oot.”

  She slowly raised her head and when she saw who stood behind her, she dove across the bed, falling to the floor on the other side. She shot up, hugging the wall like a frozen statue. She stared for a few seconds as her mind wrapped around the possibilities and in disbelief, she started shaking her head rapidly.

  “How can this be? You’re… you’re not supposed to be alive.” He started to walk closer, but when her head snapped back and hit the wall he stopped.

  “Ah dinnae mean ye nae harm. Ah can explain sum, but nae aw.”

  “If you didn’t die, why the hell didn’t you call me or at least write and tell me you didn’t care anymore?” she demanded as tears welled up in her eyes. “I could have gone on with my life. You’ve been here the whole time, Danny?”

  “Ye dinnae ken me D`nae, naer thin’s as it seems.”

  “You’re right, I don’t understand, Danny! For three and a half years I have mourned your death and you’ve just been living it up here in Scotland.”

  “Ah be deid tae yer world,” he replied hanging his head and turned his back to her. “Ah cannae remember. Aw Ah dae ken is Ah woke in me coffin.”

  “Are you saying they put you in a coffin and you were still alive?”

  “Nae Hen!” he yelled spinning back around. “Dae ye nae see wi’ yer ain een’s.”

  She had barely taken in a breath to reply before he was next to her, using a speed faster than she had ever witnessed. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her in front of the fireplace, with her struggling the whole time. “Let go!” she said as she tried to pull away. He didn’t release his grip, even as she slapped and clawed at the flesh on his arm.

  “Keek at me eyes D’nae.” When she didn’t, he took her shoulders and lifted her off of her feet. “Noo, keek me in ma eyes.”

  She looked up and instantly stopped in her attempts to be free. She could now see that the beautiful blue of eyes had been replaced with a smoky gray and even in the dim firelight, she could see the pale white, which was once the healthy dark tanned hue of his skin. He could see the acknowledgement of his change spread across her face, and he slowly lowered her back to the floor. Her legs wouldn’t hold her, so he continued until they both sat on the rug in front of the fire.

  “Ah ne’er meant tae hurt ye,” he said as a single crimson tear ran down his cheek.

  “I’m losing my mind,” D`nae said, covering her face with her hands. “I must have hit my head too hard.”

  When she lowered her hands just enough to see over the tops of her fingers and he was still there, she threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes.

  “This shit’s not real, Danny. You’re telling me you’re some kind of neck biter like in the movies?”

  “Ah ne’er believe it t’wur real meself… until Ah woke ane,” he replied never looking up.

  “Danny,” she said slowly, a revelation suddenly becoming very clear. “Did you have anything to do with all those people that are missing?”

  He looked up in shock at the question she had just asked, and just as quickly lowered his head, because the question she asked was unexpected. He stood and walked to the far corner of the room, leaving his back to her so that she couldn’t see the shame of what he had done to do to survive on his face. She got up and walked over to him. She reached out as if to touch him, then pulled her hand back, but her heart spoke louder than her fear and she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, lying her body up against his back.

  “None of this is your fault, Danny. I was there that night, remember?” she said. “I’ve missed you so much.”

  He placed his hand gently on top of hers and let out a breath as if he had been holding it for an eternity. He kept hold of her hand and turned in her arms. “An Ah hae missed ye like the loch wud miss the glen.” He bent down and the two kissed a simple brush of lips that quickly turned into a maddening embrace of long lost lovers. D`nae couldn’t hold her emotions and burst out crying, sliding her mouth from his as her body started sliding back to the floor. That was probably the first hard cry she’d had since she thought he was dead.

  “Nae luv, please dinnae cry,” he said, taking her into his arms.

  “I came all this way to tell you goodbye. If I had only known you were here.”

  “But ye knows noo.”

  “I’m so sorry, Danny, I should have come sooner.”

  “D`nae,” he said pushing her back enough to see her face. “Yer here noo, that’s aw that be’s matterin tae me.”

  “How are we going to do this? I mean, you’re a… and I’m…” She started sobbing all over again, which made Danny start chuckling. “Well, I’m serious. I think we have a little problem,” she hiccupped.

  “Ye be me same precious wee lassie. Yer looks hae changed a bit, but nae me, Hen,” he laughed. “Fit did ye dae tae ye hair?”

  “Are you kidding? You want to know about my hair with everything else going on? I guess I can say you’re the same ole Scot I fell in love with,” she said, giving him the first smile he’d seen since that fateful night. “I stop putting color in it. I pretty much stop caring about everything when… well, you know when.”

  The two walked back over in front of the fireplace and sat down on the rug. Danny reached up and moved a piece of hair that was lying across D`nae’s cheek. She closed her eyes and laid her head into his hand, turning her face enough to kiss his palm. She put one hand on each of his knees and leaned into his body until her lips were right next to his ear.

  “Do you still want me, Danny Gilmore?” she asked softly.

  “Are ye nae afraid o me?”

  “I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and this is going to be another bad dream. Just because you have whiter skin and a few new teeth, doesn’t change the fact that I have never once stopped loving you,” she responded and pulled a chain out from around her neck. “Do you remember giving me this?”

  “Sae yer sayin, ye hae ne’er taken another?” he asked looking down a
t his grandmother’s ring.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  He took her face in both of his hands and kissed her full out, lying her back onto the rug as he did so. His lips never left hers as he ripped the front of her shirt open. He broke his embrace and made his was down her neck and onto her breast. She pulled at her sleeves to free herself from the remaining cloth, while Danny worked his way further down. It wasn’t until he opened his eyes to look up at her that he saw the scars that his lips had somehow missed.

  His actions slowed as he reached up to trace the scar closest to him, the one that lay across her side. When she saw what he was doing, she grabbed her shirt and tried to cover herself, but he tore it from her hands and threw it across the room.

  “What in aw the heavens hae happen tae ye, luv?”

  “It happened that same night. I should have told you before you saw it this way,” she said, still trying to cover herself with her arms.

  “Ah dinnae ken ye wur hurt,” he said, anger flooding his pale gray eyes.

  He stood so fast she didn’t see him move, and within seconds, he had slammed his fist into the end post of the bed, shattering it into a hundred small splinters.

  “Danny, please don’t!” she cried. “It’s in the past.”

  She sat there on the rug, covering herself with her arms, rocking like a child as she watched to see what he would do next. He stood with his back to her, arm crossed, feeling less of a man because he didn’t protect her.

  “Ah shoold hae been there fur ye. Tis ma fault, Ah let `em dae this tae ye,” he proclaimed as he looked back at her. “Ne’er cover yerself, D`nae, yer bonnie as they cum. There nae be athin under the blae sky or o mither earth that can tak yer bonnie… nae from me eyes.”

  She reluctantly lowered her arms, tears already forming small crystal rivers down her cheeks. She reached around and unfastened her bra, letting it fall from her shoulders. The marks were worse on her breasts than the rest of her abdomen, but even in her deepest shame, she never once took her eyes off of him, even when his moved down her body. He could see her chest rise and fall far faster than it should, along with the small quivers and shakes that her body made every time she inhaled.