Free The Keeping by Nicky Charles

passed on to him.
    The sounds from
outside continued, and he was muttering darkly under his breath
when a scream pierced the air, drilling into his brain with
unmerciful sharpness. He shot upright, ignoring his protesting body
and swung his legs out of bed. Some corner of his mind noted that
he was still dressed in last night’s clothes and only needed to
slip on his shoes. A second scream followed the first, and he was
out the door before the sound even died out. What the hell were
Bryan and Daniel doing? They were scheduled for patrol duty and
shouldn’t be fooling around. He muttered darkly about their demise
as he ran down the front steps, moving with surprising ease for
someone who, just moments before, was feeling like death warmed
over. They knew better than to bring a female here. And what were
they doing to make her scream like that?
    Both the howls and
the screaming stopped abruptly before Ryne was even at the end of
the sidewalk. He froze and cocked his head to the side, trying to
catch any sound that might indicate what was happening. Footsteps
approached—two individuals—one set sounding a bit heavier with some
shuffling mixed in, almost as if the walker was carrying something.
Ryne crossed his arms and leaned against as nearby tree. There was
no point in him rushing down the driveway when it was obvious that
they were coming to him.
    It only took
moments for the source of the footsteps to appear. Bryan and Daniel
came into sight, glaring daggers at each other; obviously they’d
had one of their famous arguments about who was at fault for the
most recent predicament they found themselves in.
    Bryan was carrying
something—no, make that someone—in his arms. From the way the arms
and legs hung limply, it was obvious the person was unconscious.
Narrowing his eyes, Ryne realized the 'someone' was a woman and no
doubt the origin of the screams that had woke him up. Shit!
    He straightened
from the tree he was leaning on and widened his stance, his whole
demeanour conveying his displeasure. The two men looked up and
noticed him. Immediately, they slowed their pace as if trying to
delay something unpleasant. Ryne sneered. How right you are my
friends. This will be unpleasant.
    As soon as they
were within hearing distance, he began. “What the fuck did you do
this time?”
    Daniel ducked his
head and shuffled his feet. Bryan kept his head up, but averted his
gaze. “We found her on the propriety.”
    “And you decided
to what? Go hunting with her as the prey?” Ryne raised his brow and
snorted derisively.
    Bryan flushed, but
didn’t back down. “No. We just thought we’d scare her off. You
know, chase her a bit and she’d run back to wherever she came
from.”
    “Your plan doesn’t
appear to have worked very well since she’s now here at the house.”
Ryne folded his arms and jerked his head towards the unconscious
woman. “What happened?”
    Daniel decided to
speak, shooting glances up at Ryne as he spoke. “We...um...we
stalked her a bit and she was backing up towards the road, but
moving real slow—”
    “So we thought a
bit of noise might hurry her along—” Bryan explained. “But then she
tripped or something, just as the barking started and she began
screaming—”
    “And then it was
the weirdest thing, just liked you’d see in a cartoon.” Daniel
jumped in, his wonder at the event he was describing causing him to
momentarily forget he was in trouble. “She turned to run, and
bang!” Clapping his hands together, he gestured to show what
happened. “She ran right smack into a tree and then just sort of
slid down the trunk.” He shook his head. “I never thought that sort
of thing happened in real life.”
    Ryne bit back the
chuckle that the mental picture evoked. “Is she all right?”
    “I think so.
There’s a lump on her head and that’s why we brought her here. We
didn’t think we should just leave her lying there on the ground.”
Bryan shifted the woman in his