Dark Knight of the Skye by Robin Renee Ray Read Free Book Online Page B

started to go in, but Grady grabbed her arm and pulled her back out of the way. “Wh…” He put his finger to his lips and pointed at her to be quiet and stay behind him. He pushed his gun on the solid wood door, slowly opening it wide enough to see inside. He reached in with his free hand and felt for a light switch. As soon as it was flipped, it was more than apparent that something terrible had happened.
    He tried to push D`nae back out of the door, but she had already seen the carnage that was once the sweet old lady who had greeted her with a cup of hot chocolate every night for the past three years. D`nae screamed as her body buckled into Grady’s arms, her mind threatening to blackout, while her body uncontrollably heaved almost losing everything she had consumed that day. The sight and smell were overpowering and far more than she could handle. The mere appearance of seeing a dead person was one thing, but to see one that had been decapitated and brutally torn apart was another. Remnants of Mrs. Martin’s body were spread throughout the foyer and halfway up the staircase. Her insides had become her outside and her head lay grotesquely upside down by her shoulder, looking back at the front door with agonizing fear still frozen in a death scream on her blood soaked face.
    The torso of the woman was an empty shell, filled with the remaining fluids of her body and the torn cloth of her floral print housecoat. It was as if someone had reached in, ripping through cloth as well as her flesh, grabbing both hands full of her digestive system, and then standing to sling them in a circle, making sure to get a piece of her in every part of the small foyer. Grady got D`nae back out to the truck and called the authorities. He was about to turn around and go back in when D`nae reached out and took his hand.
    “You can’t leave me out here by myself.”
    “I’m sorry you had to see that. Are you going to be okay?” He stepped up to her and moved the loose hair that was hanging in her face.
    She nodded and leaned out from the seat of the truck, lying her head on his chest. He stepped in slowly, wrapping his arms around her, finally holding the one thing that he had craved ever since the night her file slid across his desk. She had become the drive of this investigation in his area of motives, even more than finding the creatures responsible for the horrific string of murders that he had been tracking from the time he became a member of the A.A.D.F. Every part of his body carried a fine tremor as his hand massaged her back in small circular motions. D`nae sniffled, drawing in sharp breaths every few minutes, relaxing against his tepid body, not once thinking about anything other than the sight she had just witnessed.
    “They’re gonna want to talk to you about the woman inside,” Grady said, lying the side of his face lightly on the top of her head, taking in as much of her scent as he could. “If you’re not up to it tonight, I can try and set it up for you to go in first thing in the morning.”
    “I know I can’t handle this tonight, Grady. I can’t help but think about what would have happened if I would have been home. How can I think of myself when that poor woman is dead?” she said and began to cry.
    “Self preservation is a natural element built in every creature, and it’s very normal to think of our own mortality when something like this happens.”
    “Who would do something like this? She was just an old lady. She wouldn’t even kill a damn spider. She would just put it in the garden and laugh at me for freaking out,” D`nae proclaimed turning her head, wiping her nose on the back of her sleeve.
    * * *
    The officer that approached them was none other than Officer Hernandez, only this time the expression on his face looked a bit like humble pie. As soon as D`nae noticed who was coming toward them, the nausea that had just subsided crawled right back up to the base of her throat. If he had just believed