The Dark Rider

CHAPTER Twenty-Two



Nicola ran as hard as she could along the streets. Her head was swimming and emotions were running chaotically through her body. Guilt, terror, fear, desire, need, love. Images and feelings generated from the last hours of her experience were now totally out of control and swamping her until she could no longer think. Occasionally cars flashed past while darkened houses and streetlamps were a blur in her peripheral vision that no longer registered. Then, from deep within her mind energy stirred again sending a trembling fear and awareness through her, pulling her back with a force she could barely resist, yet still she ran for there was nothing else but him.

As she ran, her mind registered the ground flattening out, houses and buildings crowding in on either side, and she knew she was nearing the square. In her mind she held an image of him and she projected this outwards with all the force of her consciousness in the hope that he would sense it and find her.

She turned a corner. A tall shadow framed by orange light stood on the pavement in front of her. Before she could react she had slammed into it, knocking the breath out of her body. She felt hands like iron gripping her, expertly harnessing her momentum to spin her round and pull her to one side, and before she knew what was happening she was in an alley, everything dark, and she tried to scream but a hand was over her mouth. She kicked hard, her legs contacting nothing, yet still she struggled with all her might, desperate fear coursing through her.

“Nicola.”

A voice. His voice.

“It’s me, Paul.”

She carried on struggling wondering why now, at the end, she should hear his voice.

“Shh Nicola shh, calm down please, just relax, you’re safe now.”

She was still alive. No one was choking her or stabbing her or anything else to kill her. He was speaking to her, telling her to be calm for everything was okay.

She felt the hand leave her mouth, the grip on her lessen slightly. Her body registered this quicker than she did, the struggling lessening until she became still, a curled ball on the ground. All she could hear was the sound of her own rapid breathing, the pounding of the blood through her body. Slowly her eyes flickered open and she saw Paul kneeling over her, his face in shadow, his eyes gleaming faintly, and as she took him in her world began to fall to pieces around her.

“Paul,” she whispered in disbelief. She reached out to touch him, her hands moving across his face.

He responded, pulling her to him and kissing her urgently. Then he was hugging her tightly, feeling her tears against his skin.

“It is real,” he said.

“Don’t leave me again.”

His own tears flowed freely.

“We have to move.”

Reluctantly they pulled apart. Nicola looked into his eyes that held so many secrets.

“Are you going to kill me?”

He looked at her, unable to move or speak, his heart thudding heavily in his chest.

“He said you wanted to kill me. That you were the Rider, bound to somebody called Myrkur. He said you were bad.” Her eyes flicked between his, searching for some truth yet they gave nothing away. “Is this true Paul? Please tell me.”

She felt his body stiffen.

“Who said these things?” he asked.

“A man, Falk. He called himself a warrior of the forest, that he served someone called Gwen. Was that your Aunt?”

Paul remained kneeling, his body as heavy and unmoving as stone.

“He said she died saving me. I was there Paul. I saw the Rider, the same as I saw that night outside my hotel window.” She reached up as the tears fell down her cheeks, her hands caressing his face. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

He felt her touch on his skin and it burned until he could not breathe.

“I tried to wait for you after I was awakened but it made me go outside. I couldn’t control it. But you never came back.”

“I tried. I had no choice,” he said.

Her eyes fell away from him.

“They almost had me Paul, my neck...” She pointed to the darkened welt around her throat. “Are they really wolves?”

He saw the trauma, his blood chilling in his veins.

“They are real if that is what you ask,” he said. “‘Wolves’ is a fitting name for them.”

Her eyes were closing as her head span, tiredness overwhelming her. She forced them open again, focusing on him.

“Why are they doing this? Why are they hunting me?”

“To stop the awakening and end the Light,” he responded, watching as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

She opened her eyes again to gaze at him.

“And you,” she said her voice so quiet. “Why are you hunting me?”

“You ask me questions I cannot answer,” he said hoarsely, the words sticking in his throat.

“What’s it like Paul? Being the Rider, having the power to kill?”

He pushed himself away from her.

“When will you kill me?” she continued.

“You ask these things yet you do not run,” he forced the air across his vocal chords, his voice thick with suppressed emotion.

“How can I run from you?” she said so softly that for a moment he thought he must have imagined it.

“Gwen was wrong,” he said heavily. “I was betrayed.”

She smiled up at him, everything hazy and dreamlike, reality bending around them. “And now you will betray me?”

He looked down at her, his heart a dead weight in his chest, his body immobile.

“So you must,” she whispered, rising up to take his hand and pull him down, her mouth meeting his, her hands gently holding his head as she kissed him.


*****


Jason ran as fast as he could along the path. His legs were pumping like mad, lungs panting for breath. He was in the middle of the woodland now, a dark ominous mass that had appeared in front of him as the path arrowed away from the supermarket and the comforting orange light spill of the streetlamps along the road. Moonlight filtered down through the leaves to give a faint glow to everything, but there were still too many shadows. He forced himself onwards, keeping his eyes to the front, for if he looked to the side he would begin to panic. Instead he tried to keep the image of Nicola in his mind, but as he carried on deeper into the woodland he felt his courage begin to fail him, but he was committed now, and so he forced himself on.

Soon he began to feel a sharp pain in his side, like a stitch when he had ran too much when he was little, and after a few more steps he was forced to stop. He stood in the darkness with his hands on his legs, body bent over as he drew air heavily into his lungs. His legs were beginning to feel like jelly, and as he thought about it he realized it was probably the most running he had done in the last five years. Now he was stuck for he could not run any further, and here he was, probably only halfway to the square in the middle of nowhere with nothing around him but the trees and shadows.

As he stood there his imagination began to run riot again, and he felt adrenaline begin to pump into his system. A sudden breeze swept through the trees ruffling the leaves and making him jump. Circling around slowly he tried to make out anything in the darkness but he could see nothing.

“Come on Jason,” he said to himself. “It’s only a wood, nothing to hurt you.”

It was then that he heard it, louder than when they were in the car park, a low moaning that, now he was on his own, sounded suspiciously like the howl of a wolf.

Trembles ran up and down his body as his brain processed this new information and sent panic signals to his nervous system.

“This is not happening,” he told himself. “There are no wolves in this country. It’s just a trick of the wind.”

He breathed deeply trying to calm himself. “Let’s just carry on to the square and meet Nicola.” He took a step forward but then another low moan sounded out across the wood, this time from behind him. His head shot round, eyes flashing wildly from left to right.

“Shit,” he whispered his heart thumping in his chest. An answering howl came from in front, a lot closer than the first.

“Shit,” said Jason again, a huge surge of adrenaline coursing through his body causing him to shake violently. He looked up and down the path seeing nothing except darkness and then, wait. He looked back. Was that shadow moving? His eyes tried to focus in the darkness, and he rubbed them and looked again but the shadow had gone.

It was too much for Jason. Turning, he ran as fast as he could back up the path, but after a few steps he stumbled on a tree root and felt his ankle roll with an almost audible snap. Sharp pain lanced up his leg and he hopped along a few paces before sinking to the ground clutching his leg and moaning.

Then he heard a new noise, like the panting of a large dog, or something worse, and it was coming inexorably towards him along the path. He began to scramble along the ground trying to get away. Pushing himself up he tried to run again, but as soon as he put weight on his leg his ankle collapsed, and in a sea of pain and he fell back onto the ground.

“Go away,” he shouted. “I haven’t done anything.”

Then, behind him, he heard a second low panting noise and then a growling, and he felt sudden wet warmth flowing down his leg as he wet himself with fear. As he did so his face was suddenly lit by a flashlight and he felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull him roughly upright.

“Where is she?” a voice growled into his ear.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jason said, his voice quivering an octave higher than normal. “Let me go.”

The hand shot out and grabbed his throat.

“Now, listen to me very, very carefully.”

Jason nodded, his eyes filled with terror.

“You were in the car with her. If you try to deny it, or lie to me again, you will choke to death, and a dog walker will find your battered body dumped in this wood tomorrow morning, do you understand?”

Jason nodded again as a second voice came out of the darkness.

“We don’t have time for this, just do it.”

Jason began to struggle in the man’s grip, his mouth opening as he tried to scream, but only a rasping sound came out as he fought for air. The first voice spoke again.

“Now, everything was going swimmingly until a few minutes ago when she shielded.” The man came closer, his voice raised. “How did she do it? Who showed her?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” gasped Jason. “Please, please let me go, I won’t tell anyone.”

The flashlight swung suddenly in front of him and he felt a crack across the bridge of his nose followed by sharp pain.

“Oh God,” he muffled through the blood now pouring from his broken nose. The flashlight was shining back in his face.

“Now, I won’t ask you a third time.” The man paused and then spoke the words slowly and ominously one by one. “How did she shield?”

Terror struck, Jason looked into the emotionless eyes that were just a gleam behind the torchlight.

“I don’t know,” he whimpered, sobs beginning to well up from his belly, the taste of iron on his tongue. “Please let me go, please, I haven’t done anything.”

The man began to growl, a low threatening rumble in his throat that made Jason’s stomach constrict. The dark outline of his face seemed to shift, white beginning to reveal itself as he curled his lips backwards, the torchlight reflecting off teeth that were changing, getting longer and sharper until long jagged canines hovered in front of him. The man’s eyes became larger, yellow color burning into Jason’s mind as the face of a monster straight from his nightmares filled his vision.

Jason felt his mind caving in, as if the wolf was in his head searching every nook and cranny of his consciousness, and he began to whimper uncontrollably. In front of him the man’s face seemed to slide back to normal and he turned to the other.

“He doesn’t know.”

“Finish it,” replied the second man. The first turned to Jason whose eyes widened, his head shaking in disbelief.

“Noooo,” Jason choked out.

“He may still be of use to us,” said the first man pulling something out of his jacket pocket and pushing it into Jason’s hand that was slick with sweat. His face moved closer again.

“Find her for us and we may let you live. My number is on the card.”

Jason began to nod viscously, a glimmer of hope filling him.

“Yes, yes I will,” he spluttered.

“You make one mistake and I will find you and hunt you down. You’ve seen it now.”

Jason nodded again.

“Thank you, yes, yes, I won’t let you down.”

He felt the grip release from his throat and he sank to the ground gasping for air.

The second man, who he now recognized as the ponytail man, squatted down in front of him, pulling his face up by the chin and staring into his eyes. Jason tried to look away as he trembled. The man let go of his chin, pushing it away.

“What a piece of lowlife scum,” he said as he stood up. “You don’t know how lucky you are that my friend spares you. For now that is.”

He began to walk away along the path following the first man. After a few paces he turned, fixing Jason with a warning, animal-like gaze.

“Cross us and you die.”

Jason nodded again before collapsing to the ground and squeezing his eyes shut hoping everything would go away, that this was some kind of bad dream he would wake up from. He opened his eyes again but he was still lying on the path in the wood, his nose and ankle throbbing with pain. He knew what he had to do now. Fingers shaking so hard he could hardly pull his phone from his pocket, he eventually managed it and hit a speed dial key on the third attempt. After a few rings a disembodied voice cut across the air.

“Jason, do you really want me to come round and do you in?”

“Sorry TJ,” mumbled Jason. “Something else came up and I need your help. We have to find her.”