Page 5 of Silent Knight

“Games.” Creepy dude tsked. “Your friend is only alive for as long as we feel she’s valuable. If you won’t answer us then she isn’t important.” He waved his hand toward the creature holding Gia and I reacted.

I tossed the tray full of tea and cookies at the thing in front of me. “No!”

“What…” He shook off the moisture like I didn’t just scold him with hot water. “You’re a bother.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. Let my friend go and I’ll take you to him.”

I had no idea where he was, who he was, what he was…if there even was a person to take them to. But I didn’t want Gia dead.

“This isn’t a Hollywood movie, human. Faith isn’t something I have. Your friend dies when she has no value left. Take us to him.”

“I can’t do that if I know you’ll kill her after I do.” I was talking out of my ass.

The creature cocked his head and took two more steps toward me. Now he was flush up against me. I had to crane my neck to see his face since he had to be pushing over six foot five.

“You don’t get it, do you, little one.” He growled. “These are not games we play. You aren’t understanding…let me make it clear.”

He looked over his shoulder and jerked his head. I didn’t even get a chance to scream. The crack of Gia’s neck breaking, the crash of her body going through the glass table, the smell of blood.

“Are you understanding me now, human?”

Gia. Her big brown eyes were staring at me, lifeless. My only friend, all I had. Gone. Happy birthday to me.

“Take him,” I heard the creature order and suddenly I was being swept up into someone’s arms. As I was dragged from Gia’s home, I looked into her eyes until I could no longer see her.

The sound of her body breaking echoed through my mind. I was so far gone I didn’t even realize air was whipping around us. I blinked and saw clouds around me. Sky…I was flying.

“Sleep,” whoever held me said, and darkness surrounded me.

I openedmy eyes to a dark room. The scent of musty, moldy, dustiness filled my nose and I sneezed.

“Awake, finally.” The creep who was in Gia’s home stepped forward. “Life means very little to me. I understand humans have guilt, a conscience. This is something my kind don’t possess.” He tilted his head, his red eyes narrowed. “You got your friend killed. Tell me something, Ezra, how many more will have to die for your stubbornness?”

I didn’t know what they wanted from me. I’d tried to save Gia, I thought…no, I was playing games.

“I lied.”

The creature hummed. “Yes.”

“Not about what you think. I don’t know who you’re looking for, I don’t know anything about whatever this is.”

The creature lifted his gray hand and long black nails scraped over my cheek.

“All these years, you never realized you were protected? How any who dared trifle with you was lost to this world. How anyone who slighted you disappeared?”

The prickle on the back of my neck, the feeling of never being alone.

“There it is.” The creature smiled, razor sharp teeth and a tongue as dark as night. “You knew.”

“I felt?—”

“Something.”

I nodded. “But I never saw who it was. I don’t know who it is.”

“Hmm.” He stepped back. “Perhaps that is true.” He ran his fingers over the stone wall of the room, and the sound made my teeth rattle. “Whenever you were in need, he’d show.”

“Sometimes after. He never showed himself.”

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