Knight stopped every two hours or so for a cup of sweet tea and a good, healthy piss. Even with that, milking the time on the road, going the speed limit or just above it to keep smokeys off his back, he made it to the Barony of Hawkwood at dusk.
He stopped at a Doubletree Inn, getting a room there. He was so close to his quarry…
You’re an apex predator, he heard Mal’s voice say in his mind. Why stop now? Knight played with his bracelet that he had gotten from Mal. Mal was right, of course: he was a predator. He could use the shadows and keep to the woods…but first he needed to scope out where his quarry happened to be. Were they at a suburb? In an apartment?
He looked at the address he had written down. There was no apartment number, so it could have been a house. Or a townhouse or a duplex.
“Goddammit,” he hissed at himself, and stormed out of the hotel room. He got onto the bike, roaring it to life, and it settled down to a low rumble. If he was going through the suburbs, they would notice. If he was going into a city proper, it may not be as noticeable. He had to at least try.
He punched in the address in his GPS and started down the road. He soon left the shopping malls and the bright lights surrounding the hotel behind him, following the GPS religiously, not allowing it to recalibrate. He took the freeway for a few miles, and exited onto a very dark road, with a minimum number of streetlights. He looked around, smiling. This was far better than he expected.
Knight followed the GPS’s directions. He found himself going along a twisting, curving road, eventually taking his second right from the exit – the couple of miles or so on his right had been woods the entire time. He almost missed the right turn, it being so dark.
Again, he followed a twisty road, going slowly because here, the only lights were from the houses. There were no lights on the street. He heard the GPS say triumphantly, “In 500 feet, you will reach your destination…” He slowed down even more, the bike roaring in the quiet of the darkness. He passed by the house – no car in the drive, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t in the garage, and all the lights were out except one in the front.
He paused, probably longer than he should have. The house was a single-floor ranch, at least it looked like that from the road. The windows were dark. There was no movement. He glanced at the GPS’s clock – it was only seven. But where would they be at seven o’clock on a Monday night? And was it any of his goddamn business?
“Damn right it is,” he muttered, and took off down the road. The road ended, and he found himself taking a right. He wanted to find his way into the woods that he had just passed by. This road ended in a cul-de-sac, with three houses at the end, all fenced in. No where to park the bike. He went back, past the street he had come from, to see where the other end led. It dumped him back onto the main road. Here, however, was a convenience store/gas station that looked like it hadn’t had a customer for years. Most of the items in the window were faded, except for the posters for cigarettes and Lotto. Knight parked the bike near the rear of the store, and went inside.
The kid behind the counter was a pimply-faced just-barely-turned-drinking-age. He looked up with lazy eyes from his graphic novel.
“Hard pack o’ Marlboros,” Knight said, and the kid got up, pulled out the pack. Knight handed over a ten and took his change from the boy. Then, he went outside, unbuckled his saddlebags. He stepped out of the light, into the near-darkness of the woods, and stripped. He shifted, then gathered his clothes in his mouth, putting them inside the saddlebag and nudging it closed with his jaw. He looked around to make sure no one saw, then bounded off into the woods.
By instinct, he ran quickly among the shadows and across lawns, blazing through pools of light, letting his beast run freely through the woods behind houses. He leaped over fences, ran around tall fences, avoided fallen logs and trees. He was his own GPS, knowing where he had passed by and where he was headed.
He approached the house from the rear. There was no tall fence in the back, just an old wire fence that looked like it had been there since the dawn of time. It had been painted over on one side, but on the other it was still rusty. Why bother painting it, he thought. No one was going to see the side that faced the woods, anyway. He easily jumped over the fence and walked the few feet to the back door deck.
Suddenly he heard the muffled sounds of a dog barking. Not a small dog, either, but the barks of a larger dog, like a retriever or even a shepherd. A dog, he thought. Really?
He jumped up, putting his paws against the window to look inside the house. The curtains weren’t drawn, which meant to him that either they never drew these curtains or no one was home. He saw a baby seat and some toys strewn about the room he was looking in, TV room. The barking was coming from beyond this room, but no dog had come to the window, frothing at the mouth wanting to get at him. This meant that the dog was in a crate.
Knight jumped down from the window, of two minds now, and started to pace. If this was really Rosie’s house, was he needed? This was a nice house, set in some semblance of country living; she had toys, and a dog; she had a mother who loved her, and her adoptive father probably loved her, too.
He had planned to confront Julie in the morning, to tell her about the trust fund she was going to establish for Rosie, for her to go to college, to make a name for herself. He was going to tell Julie that he wanted to do the responsible thing. He wanted Rosie to know who he was, to be part of her life when she was ready. Somewhere in that dream was to have her meet Uncle Malcolm, to be spoiled rotten by him, by both of them – their little princess. She would want for nothing, he would make sure of it.
His dream shattered the moment he heard the car’s brakes in the driveway. He heard doors open, and the dog went crazy. He heard Julie’s voice, “I know you’re tired honey, mommy’s tired too, but we’re home now, and you’ll take a bath–”
“Jesus,” said a man’s voice, “Bailey’s going nuts.”
Knight’s eyes narrowed. Lord Raynard. Knight had plenty of time to turn around and get out of there before the dog came out. A door opened, and Raynard said, “Hold on, I’m coming…” Lights went on, spilling onto the deck.
You’re an apex predator…
But I don’t need to kill a dog.
But I want to see Rosie.
Plenty of that for tomorrow. You don’t want to risk a fight with a dog.
He heard a squeal, and the dog barking louder now, the dog at the door. Knight was still below the windows, in between the light on the deck and the shadow of the house.
As soon as he heard the indoor door open, he bolted like a shot, easily clearing the few feet to the fence and into the woods. The dog came running out – a mutt with parts of what looked like a small Labrador and possibly Cocker Spaniel due to the feather for a tail. The dog ran up to the wire fence and barked like crazy into the woods. Knight stayed out of reach, still close enough to see what was going on.
“Bailey, that’s enough! There’s nothing out there!” Raynard walked over to the fence and looked out into the woods. Knight hunkered down, his cat eyes wide and reflective, and he knew that if Raynard saw anything, it would be two golden eyes staring out of the woods back at him.
Either he saw them, or he got a chill, because he shivered. He grabbed the dog by the collar around his neck and dragged him from the fence. “C’mon, Bailey. How about some Ol’ Roy?” He half-walked, half-dragged the dog back into the house.
Knight waited a few minutes before standing up. He saw Julie look out into the woods before shutting the blinds, and all that he could see was light and shadow.
He’d seen enough. Tomorrow would be a dream come true, or his most disappointing nightmare.