Dark Knight of the Skye

by Ray, Robin Renee

  “I’ve already checked the back door, so we’ll have to figure out how they got in before we make our entrance,” Grady explained as they got out.

  Grady went to the left, while the other three went to the right. He was almost to the side of the house before he turned to see them disappearing around the other side of the house. He hurried and caught up with them, asking why they went that way instead of following him. Tabitha said one word, ‘blood,’ and with that, he chose to stay quiet and hang back behind those who could see and smell things that he couldn’t.

  “There’s blad on this windae,” Danny said stopping by what looked like a bedroom window. Tabitha stepped up and sniffed the area around the window, then nodded her head once. Grady moved up, pulling out his blade, and used it to lift up the bottom of the screen, then he reached into his pocket.

  “Put these on,” he said, handing each of them a pair of thin rubber gloves. “We don’t want to be spreading around any unnecessary fingerprints.”

  Everyone put them on and the first two through the window were Danny and D`nae. Grady looked back to see if Tabitha needed help up, and almost laughed out loud. She had one glove partway on and was struggling with the other. He walked over and took her hands in his, causing her breath to catch in her throat.

  “I used to have hell with these myself,” he smiled, looking down at her. He slid the plastic gloves on fairly easy, then held her hand and walked her to the window. She put her hands on the windowsill, and as she jumped up, he took her around the waist and lifted. Her muscles rippled under the pressure of his hands, and a fine tremble quaked up her back. Once she was in, he lifted himself into the window and was soon thereafter yanked to his feet. She smiled and released his shirt, lowering her eyes, then immediately looked right back up at him.

  The stench of rotting decay filled the house and the deeper they made their way in, the worse it became. It was D`nae that found the first body when she stepped into the kitchen. There was a woman lying on her stomach in a puddle of her own bodily fluids. It was apparent that they had killed her right out, because her body was whole. Only her head was twisted around, and it was her own spine that had torn through her flesh, ripping open her artery that had bled her out onto the floor. There was a man hanging upside down from a beam in the ceiling in the middle of the family room. He was like many of Alasdair’s other victims; his abdomen split from pelvis to sternum, and his head sat near the sliding back door. The majority of the stench was coming from this room, because his intestines were spread across the linoleum.

  “I have to get out of here,” D`nae said, standing in the entrance of the hallway.

  She turned to hurry away from the horrible sight and tripped, falling to the floor. She pulled her knees up as she looked back to see what tripped her and screamed out. Danny yelled her name and ran to her side, jumping over the small corpse that she had fallen over. He grabbed D`nae and wrapped his arms tightly around her, rocking her gently as he covered her eyes with his hand. It must have been the couple’s child, two, maybe three years old. His small body had fang marks all over it, but remained otherwise intact. Grady slammed his fist into the wall three times before Tabitha got control of his arm. She pressed him into the wall and held him there until his breathing was more under control, then she ran her hands up his arms and walked him out of the hall.

  “You don’t understand. I have to take care of them.”

  “There is nothing that you can do for them now,” Tabitha replied, trying to keep him moving.

  “Don’t you see what they’ve done to the child?”

  “We have all seen.”

  “He wants the child to come back,” Grady claimed, turning back to face the others. “Take them out of here, Danny.”

  “This little boy won’t come back like us, will he? Will he, Danny?” D`nae asked, pulling down on the front of Danny shirt.

  “Aw Ah ken is that ye an Ah cam back.”

  “What are you going to do, Grady?” D`nae asked, watching him pull the long blade that he kept at his side.

  “Get them out of here, Danny!” Grady demanded, doubling his free hand into a fist. “Do it, now!”

  “Luv, ye must,” he said lifting her to her feet. “Wu’ll wait ootside.”

  “What’s he gonna do? Is he gonna…” she stopped, letting the rest of her thought be silent, not needing an answer to know he had to do something close to what she was thinking.

  Tabitha looked back once as she followed them out the same window they had come in. She knew what had to be done, yet she had felt no remorse for what he was about to have to do. The world she had come from was nothing like the one she had entered, and she could not comprehend the loss of composure that D`nae was displaying. Death was as much a part of her life as breathing had been, and what she had just seen was insignificant compared to what she had witnessed in the past, not to mention the demise that she had left in her own wake. Grady waited until he couldn’t hear them any longer, then did what no human should ever have to do. He removed the head of the small child, and just for good measure, removed the woman’s as well. Grady turned the knobs on the stove, after blowing out the pilots, then put a can of oven cleaner in the microwave, setting the timer for ten minutes.

  They were backing the truck out of the driveway when the first blast blew out the windows of the house. Grady slammed the truck in gear, and floored the gas right before the second blast took the house up in flames. The bright glow shined on the girl’s faces as they watched through the rear window of the truck. Tears glistened on D`nae’s face as she thought about what had happened to that unfortunate unsuspecting family, who had probably thought their cozy little home was as safe as could be. Her mind kept replaying what her eyes hadn’t even witnessed, Grady removing the head of that poor little boy. She grabbed her mouth and turned back around in the seat. Tabitha turned with her, watching the horror course across D`nae’s face. Danny also turned around in the front, reaching his arm over and lying his hand on D`nae’s leg, smiling at her as if it would comfort her in some small way.

  “I’m okay… I just want that son of a bitch dead,” she hiccupped a sob. “You hear me, Grady? Dead!”

  “I want the same thing.”

  “Really? Then why haven’t you and your people killed him by now? Y’all have been seeing this kind of crap for years…why haven’t you done it already?”

  “Give it enough time and you’ll see for yourself. He didn’t get so old by letting the likes of me and my men get close enough to take him out.”

  “But…”

  “No buts, D`nae. You were there, you saw for yourself how he has others do his dirty work while he runs for safety.”

  “Hae ye eer cam close?” Danny asked.

  “Once, but the man that was caught in the room with him paid one hell of a price. We found him with his shoulders pinned down by his hips, back snapped over like a twig. Still don’t know how he got away, but it was like he vanished into thin air.”

  “Do some of us have different gifts, you know like in the movies?” D`nae asked, causing Danny and Grady to look back at her. “What? It’s a good question.”

  “He can fly, but there’s no turning to mist or anything like that, if that’s what you’re asking. And if there is a special gift, I sure haven’t heard of it,” Grady explained.

  “He can claim the color of almost any wall that he is near,” Tabitha interjected.

  “He can what?” Grady asked, swerving the truck.

  “It is true. The first time I saw it, I thought he was coming through the wall. Later, he stepped back up to the wall, and waited there while his others brought a man in to be questioned. I watched the whole thing from my cage.”

  “Did he show the others that he could come out of the wall?” Grady asked.

  “No, he waited until they had gone, then stepped out shaking his head. I do not understand why he did what he was doing, but he indeed disappeared when he leaned on the wall.”

  “Can you
do anything like that?” Grady asked looking over at Danny.

  “Wud nae even ken how tae.”

  “That must be how he got away. The bastard was there the whole time.”

  “Are we going to the other home?” D`nae asked, scooting up to lean on the front seat.

  “We have to, then we have to keep going the way that they are.”

  “What about me and Danny?”

  “What about you and Danny?”

  “Sun, ashes, the whole burn us up thing, remember?”

  “We’ll stay at the next place if we have to.”

  “Like hell we will. I’m not staying in a house where people have been slaughtered,” D`nae yelled, throwing herself back.

  “Listen, I don’t mean to be rude here, but we stayed at your place.”

  D`nae reached over the seat and slapped Grady in the back of the head, not realizing her own strength. Grady’s head flung forward and the truck went off the side of the road. Danny grabbed the wheel and took control of the truck, bringing it to a stop in bar ditch. Grady was slumped over like a rag doll. D`nae grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back up in the seat.

  “Grady? Grady?! I just popped him in the back of the head.”

  “Ye’ll nae be a wee toty anymair, luv. Ye may keek the same, but ye’ll nae be.”

  “Oh shit, I really didn’t mean to knock him out,” D`nae said, looking over at Tabitha.

  “Maybe next time he will not be so quick to use foul words with you,” she replied.

  “Well, Tabitha,” D`nae snickered. “I think I like the way you look at things.”

  “Tis nae laughin matter, lassies. Ye cud’ve broke his neck, fit a footer aboot that wud be.”

  “Grady, talk to me. Oh God, I didn’t kill him, did I?”

  “Ye dunt his heid is aw, luv. Ah can hear the beat o’ his hert. Me thin it’s makin me want’s a wee neeble.”

  “Don’t you dare, Danny Gilmore,” D`nae laughed.

  “Just a wee taste. Hissel wull ne’re hae ane idea,” Danny winked.

  “No! Now slide him over so I can drive.”

  “An whaur ye be gauin?”

  “Just shut up, and move him. Tabitha, how do you track, sweetie?”

  “I smell, of course,” Tabitha replied, wrinkling up her brows.

  “No, I mean can you do it now. Can you tell where the house is if we drive in the right direction?”

  “Had you not hit him, he would have soon turned to the right.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “The scent goes into my mind. They have left a good blood trail. Do not forget that Alasdair knows who travels with you.”

  “Sorry, babe. I should have known you were the one to be leading. You just tell me where to turn, sister, and we’ll catch that beast ourselves… no offense.”

  “None taken,” she replied, then actually snickered under her breath.

  Tabitha told D`nae where to turn, and they drove down a bumpy dirt road, while Grady’s limp body leaned on Danny’s shoulder. Halfway down the road he started to moan, then sat up too fast, grabbing the back of his head.

  “What happened?” he slurred. D`nae looked out the window and kept driving, not wanting to be the one to say that she popped him in the back of the head. The lights were on inside the little white two-story home when they pulled up in front of it. Grady was still rubbing the back of his head, and Danny was smiling with the satisfaction of a cat that had finally landed that mouse he’d been trying to catch for a year.

  “Are you sure this is the place, Tabitha? It looks different than the other one.”

  “It may look different, but the blood remains the same,” she replied, sliding across the seat to better see out the window.

  “What the hell happened to my head, and why am I sitting in the middle?” Grady asked, looking right at D`nae.

  “Next time you spout off about me or my home…think about it.” Then she got out of the truck.

  Grady looked back over at Danny and asked, “What did I say?”

  “Enough,” he shrugged with a smile, then he too got out.

  The four walked up to the house, all three of the non-humans smelling the death on the inside, but none saying a word. “Can you guy’s smell that?” Grady asked walking up next to them. Tabitha looked at him sharply, then just as quickly turned away. She knew what he denied so desperately, but now even the signs of slow transformation had begun. He smelled the same stench as the three of them, and that was only possible if he were closer to being like them than he’d ever hoped to be. The door was ajar and Danny was the first to make his way up. Tabitha followed, using her extra senses to make sure that there were no others waiting to give them more of a surprise than they were already expecting.

  “Keek, blad dreepin aff the dyke,” Danny whispered, pointing at the wall inside the front door. “Fit eer wen an in here, wis nae fer ye eyes, luv. Gae back an wait,” he said, turning around and looking at D`nae.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” D`nae replied. “I might as well get used to it, it’s not like I’m ever going back to my old life.”

  Danny froze as if he had been shot through the heart. She noticed and wrapped her arms around his waist, rubbing her face into his chest. “I’m right where I have always wanted to be, babe.” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

  “Thank you,” he said, low enough for only her to hear. She squeezed him, then stepped back, smiling up at him. He encircled her in one arm and the two followed Tabitha and Grady inside. Blood was spread in every direction that they looked. It was dripping from the ceiling fan in long thick droplets, splattering on the wet tile floor below. All the lights were on, so nothing was hidden from their view.

  “There is a body in this room,” Tabitha said standing next to a closed door.

  Grady rushed to her side, pulling out his gun. He took her arm and moved her back. She looked back at the others and frowned. D`nae shook her head and raised her shoulders, mouthing the words, ‘he’s a man’, then smiled at her. Tabitha rolled her eyes and stepped back up behind Grady, just in case something jumped out that she needed to catch. Someone has to protect the weakest of the three, she thought as he opened the door with the tip of his gun. He put his hand back, touching her stomach. She grabbed his wrist, and put one hand on his back, indicating for him to keep going. The room they were entering was one of the only rooms that had the light turned off.

  Grady hit the switch and took two steps back, leaving Tabitha where she stood. The two old people lie in their bed, gutted like cattle. Their heads had been placed on each other’s torsos, and their insides were what was spread all over the house. While they were in there, Danny became curious as to why blood would still be dripping from the ceiling fan, and reached up, finding a heart on each blade. “Four?” he said under his breath. He walked in and saw the two elderly people, before stepping back out.

  “Twa mair else whaur.”

  D`nae backed out of the room with her hand over her mouth and nose. She turned and put her back up against the wall, closing her eyes. When she opened them, she saw Danny holding both hands full of what looked like fresh meat. She ran for the front door and lost everything that Tabitha had so freely offered earlier. She came back in, wiping her mouth, and watched him lay the four mounds of meat on the coffee table for Grady to view.

  “Two more bodies,” he said, standing back up after examining what Danny had placed on the table. “My men never said anything about two more.”

  “Have you heard anything from those men since they sent you the last message from here?” D`nae asked walking up beside Tabitha.

  Grady turned around and looked at her, then took off searching the house. They all did, but found nothing, not even in the basement that was torn apart, every window broken out. It seemed that no one wanted them to be using this home for a refuge at any cost. The moment Grady stepped out the back door, he knew that Alasdair was taunting him. Both of his men were hanging upside down from
the tree in the backyard. They were placed in the same position as that first victim he had seen during a case of the A.A.D.F., the very case that brought him in as an agent. Both were hanging by their left leg while the other dangled freely out into space, their arms waving above where their heads would have been had they not been removed by his tempter. The abdomens were opened and their insides were like morbid ropes hanging from jetting rib cages, just like the old mans, and he knew it wasn’t just Danny that Alasdair was playing with.

  “He’s watching us,” he said staring at their remains.

  “How do you know?” D`nae asked, walking up behind him.

  “He knows whose coming.” Then just pointed to the tree.

  D`nae’s mouth fell open when she saw what he was staring at, stepping back into Danny who was already looking at the carnage. Tabitha was the only one that wasn’t looking up. She was too afraid that she might see the one who placed them there, pass by, if Grady was indeed correct.

  “Let’s move. We’re running out of time to find you guys a place for the day,” Grady said, then started walking around the side of the house instead of going back through.

  “Fit aboot the bodies?” Danny asked catching up.

  “Leave `em, no time,” Grady snapped like a soldier.

  “Where will go?” D`nae asked, walking next to Tabitha.