Gray's Shadow (Kings of Hell MC 4)

The man was dressed in tight breeches and a light coat, but the pale front of his vest had angry red stains. While his features were too vague for Gray to recognize at first glance, the sudden rigidness of Elliot’s body was impossible to miss.

“Ah, there it is. My body is back for its master,” William Fane said, stepping lower in a dance-like gait.

Elliot yelped and took a step back so fast he tripped over his own cane and fell to his ass. “You’re dead! He was dead, Knight!”

Shadow pulled Gray back while Fane descended the staircase like the lord of the manor. Shock screwed Gray’s feet to the floor as he watched the real-life monster who’d damaged the lives of so many people. He did not resemble the grand character from surviving illustrations and paintings. His handsome face had much sharper angles, and the hands, while surely not present in the material world, looked as if they had the necessary strength to strangle and twist flesh.

But this couldn’t be right. Gray didn’t see ghosts, and yet he could swear Fane was right in front of him, his presence as clear as everyone else’s.

“Come here, Elliot,” Fane rasped in a low tone that somehow was as loud as a scream, “Or I’ll tie you up for my hounds to use. And then, when you can no longer serve that purpose, I’m going to cut you up and throw them your flesh.”

Elliot’s face was ashen. Gray had never seen anyone become so pale, but the color of Elliot’s skin was that of a dead man. He was shivering all over, in a state of shock that prevented him from backing away.

Knight stepped between Fane and Elliot, his knuckles creaking when he ran up the stairs, uncaring that the old wood might break under his weight. “You sick fuck! I’m gonna send you where you belong!”

Knight’s hands went aflame with blue light around Baal’s sigils, and they crackled with the intensity of the energy being used, but when Knight punched Fane through the chest, the ghost only stepped forward, seemingly unbothered.

“You can’t touch me here,” Fane laughed straight into Knight’s face. He took two steps forward and passed through Knight, focused on Elliot only. “You will regret the day you chose to betray me.”

Elliot didn’t care about Gray or Shadow’s presence, and as soon as he scrambled to his feet, he ran for the door, even leaving his cane behind. His scream was shrill and full of pain, as if he were being impaled alive. “Stop it! Make it stop!”

Knight, who stared at Fane with wide eyes, stumbled down the stairs, once again trying to grab at the ghost. The more rapidly he moved, the shriller became the ghost’s laugh, which soon echoed throughout the house so loudly pieces of plaster crumbled off the ceiling.

“You have no power here,” Fane said, and within the blink of an eye, he stood by the entrance, holding Elliot by the neck. Knight gave a choked sound when Fane produced a knife and buried in Elliot’s chest.

Gray stared, stuck in place, and watched Fane move his hand until he ripped Elliot’s stomach open and pushed his hand between the twisted guts. They made a horrible, sploshing sound, and then blood drizzled out of Elliot’s mouth.

“I’m taking him, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Fane said before tossing the body through the door. When it swung open, Gray spotted Elliot outside, still pale as a sheet but alive and breathing.

Was this all an illusion?

Knight roared, but when he threw himself at Fane, his body flew right through him, and landed on the porch outside with a loud thud.

The door shut, and Fane was gone.

For a moment, Gray could only hear his own breathing, but then he saw Fane again. He was back on the stairs, gently leaning on the railing.

“And what about you?”

It took Gray a few seconds to realize Fane wasn’t speaking to him.

Shadow stood by the staircase, unfazed. “What about me?”

“Are you up for another game of cards?”

Shadow gave Gray a disoriented glance. “Would we be playing for the ruby?”

.“What ruby? Don’t you remember how I slit your throat open and it gushed all over the card tab—” Fane cocked his head as if he’d only now figured something out. “You should be dead.”

‘He knows only your body,’ Gray tapped against Shadow’s back in Morse code, barely able to breathe in this tense atmosphere. He was a man of action. He could deal with brutal fights, gunshots, he could stitch wounds, and disarm bombs. But this? He had neither the experience nor the means to deal with this kind of threat.

Shadow walked on upstairs, and Fane backed off at the same pace.

“I don’t know how you’re still here, but maybe it’s for the better. More fun for me!” The blood-stained illusion was getting more agitated as Shadow’s presence pushed it back upstairs. “Do you remember that I fucked you while you were bleeding out? Such a pretty man, and yet you have no sense of self-preservation.”