Free Dark Knight of the Skye by Robin Renee Ray Page A

beast that stood a good two feet above them on bent hind legs. It had a humanoid torso with breasts, arms that ended in blade-like clawed hands, and a head she could only describe as dog-like: long snout, mouth full of gnashing, foamed drenched fangs and piercing eyes that only a predator could hold. The beast was huge in stature and most defiantly female. All D`nae could do was sit on the floor and shake her head in disbelief. She felt a hot piercing pain at the back of her skull, right before the stars burst behind her eyes and blackness took her away from the nightmare at hand.
    D`nae’s head pounded with a violent explosion as soon as she tried to open her eyes. She lay there thinking she drank too damn much last night when the reality of what really happened came to her. Her next breath froze in her lungs when she felt the chains that bound her body in a prone position on a hard cold surface, and that’s when her eyes flew open, and true panic set in. For a split second she thought she had gone blind, but the more her eyes adjusted, she could see a faint light coming from what she thought was the crack under a door.
    She could now feel the heavy weight around her waist and knew she had been shackled to some type of contraption that wouldn’t allow her any more movement than a mere few inches. The room was musky, damp and carried the same odor that came radiating out of her house the night her landlady had been murdered, which caused her imagination to run absolutely wild. “They have me pinned down to gut me, then they’re gonna cut off my head,” she thought as she began to struggle.
    She yanked the chains that bound her at the wrist until her wrist screamed in agony. The thoughts that flowed through her mind brought yells from her throat as she slammed her arms into the abrasive stone floor, in full desperation of freeing herself. Not even the warm streams running from where the chains had eaten into her flesh slowed her in her futile attempts. It wasn’t until she heard the sound of a loud click coming from the door that she gave way to her thoughts of freedom and careened headfirst into the world of her uncertain demise.
    She swallowed past the lump of unbearable anticipation that was stuck at the back of her throat as the door creaked open with a horrid screech, moving only a centimeter at a time, taunting her all the more. The door finally gave way to silence, leaving only the rhythmic rise of the beat that now pulsed throughout her body, coming to a rest at the base of her eardrum. She blinked several times trying to adjust to the light, which seemed like that of a thousand watt bulb, when the outline of what she thought was a woman stepped into the doorway.
    The figure with long wavy hair stepped back out. She could hear some shuffling type noises, then two figures came back in. “Why is she like this?” asked a male voice that had a slight accent.
    “I thought…” was all she heard before the sound of bones being crushed filled the silence, and then a solid thud colliding next to her legs as the door slammed closed.
    She felt the other person in the room move over her body, close enough for her to feel his breath and she screamed like she was pulling the air from the bottom of someone else’s lungs. “I will not hurt you… this time,” a man’s voice whispered, so close to her ear that she felt the fine hairs move on her skin. Her mouth closed and her eyes flew open the instant she felt it but no one was there. When her hands fell apart and she brought them to her chest, she knew someone had removed all the chains, but she could only come up with one conclusion as to why she didn’t see anyone. “I have a concussion and I’m blacking out,” she thought.
    She curled up on her side like a small child and closed her eyes. The pressure of a hand on her shoulder didn’t even make her flinch; she was past the point of her own perception. He stepped behind her, lifted her up in his arms and carried