Death Before Dawn

by Amelia Hutchins

  “I said sit down,” he growled, and stepped closer after he’d placed the glass down. His armor obstructed any chance of me attacking him. I backed up; my knees hit the couch and buckled. Once I was down, he crouched between my legs, pushing them open as his eyes remained glued to mine. “You’re not in charge here, Emma. I am. There is no way out, not unless I agree to it happening. It’s in your best interest to keep me happy, and maybe I’ll help you find out what you are. Show you what you can become. We know you’re fucking clueless, we know you fucked Jaeden because you had no one there to help you so you used what you could for protection. I know and I understand, but it ends here. You are mine. You were created for me, and you’re here because you belong to me. Not him. You won’t be rushing back into his arms. That part of your life is over. It’s time to become what you truly are. You were created to help our race, to lure the evil ones in to the slaughter. You think he wants you? He doesn’t. He wants what you will become. The one thing he can never have: Life. You are a Guardian of Life, or will be soon, and he’s the undead. He craves you because he can never have you. I know, I understand why he craves you because it’s the same reason I desire and crave you.” His words were full of anger and bitterness as he stood up, turned, and left me staring at his back as he walked away.

  “You’re a vampire?” I asked, and watched as he stiffened, shook his head, and moved towards the door. Once there, he shielded the panel with his body. I heard the panel chirp and the door unlocked. He slipped through and the door closed with a finality that seemed to take the air in the room with it.

  Chapter 14

  Hours seemed to pass, although it probably was only minutes, as I contemplated his bizarre words and tried to figure a way to get back to Jaeden and back on the road to find my brother. Not knowing where the hell this place was made any sort of planning incomplete. Sentinels traveled ridiculously fast, so I could be hundreds of miles from where he took me. I stood up, happy to feel the strength in my legs returning, and removed the cold plate, which was now empty of bacon, and made my way towards the door. Once there, I pushed in a few codes until it blinked red. I looked around the room, and went to the kitchen and pulled out a knife. I walked back to the door, slid the knife into the box, and pulled it open.

  I stared at the mess of wires and tried to remember everything my dad had told me about what to cross, and what not to. I remembered dick. I crossed a few and something started buzzing, and then, all at once, alarms and sirens started screaming. The metal casings that had hung from the ceiling by the window walls slammed down, locking into place. A noise coming from the door indicated a secondary set of locks sliding into place; the sound of them driving home in the reinforced steel was like they were piercing my heart, sealing me in.

  An alarm began to bleat annoyingly; the lights dimmed, blinked, and turned red as they continued to blink. Panic mode. The entire fucking house had just locked down and gone into panic mode. My eyes searched for the cameras, which followed every step I took. I walked to one of the windows and tested the metal frame. It wasn’t budging. I picked up one of the chairs and threw it at the glass. It bounced. The cameras turned again, following me as I moved to another part of the house.

  At the end of the hallway, there was a door with another panel. The door had huge steel bars on the surface that were in a locked position. His bedroom, maybe? Or maybe the room that the video feed was playing into? I looked up as I heard a new noise, and winced as the sprinklers sputtered to life and water began to rain down.

  I looked at the camera in front of me and flipped it off. The white top I was wearing was now see-through. The shorts I wore weren’t much better, but it wasn’t like he’d given me back my own clothes. I walked back to the main living area, and he was there, standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, watching me. His head turned, lowering as he took in the wetness that was me. I moved into the room as if I didn’t care; my heart raced and I wanted to kick his ass, but that wouldn’t solve this mess.

  “Find a way out yet?” he taunted, his eyes seeming almost purple in the red hue of the room.

  “Working on it,” I quipped, moving past him. Before I could take two steps, I was picked up and pushed against the wall just as the red lights went out, plunging us into darkness. The alarm stopped, and the only sound was our breathing. I felt flesh, no armor. I used my hands to explore him, the smooth contours of his rock-hard body. It was a big mistake.

  His mouth found mine and I groaned as heat flooded my body; his hands released my hips, forcing me to tighten my legs around him. His mouth was hard, and the strangled noise that escaped his lips fed the fire. I pushed my tongue against his, exploring the minty depths of him, and it was all the permission he needed to turn the kiss from hard to demanding. It stirred a storm inside of me, and everything else faded away.

  When I finally pulled away, he yanked at my hair, dropping his forehead against mine. I tried to drop my legs, but he held them, his breathing labored. The sound of our need to gain air filled the room. The moment I’d thought he’d finally allow me down, he pushed his erection against my core and I moaned. He was steel against my silk, and his fingers bit into my flesh as he claimed my mouth again.

  The kiss lasted forever. Until I thought my lungs would collapse from lack of air. It wasn’t a gentle kiss, no; he kissed me as if his very life depended on it. What the fuck was wrong with me? I pushed at his chest and he laughed coldly.

  “You hate that you respond so naturally to me,” he murmured into the darkness.

  “I do, I despise everything about you,” I mumbled.

  “Yet you give in so easily? Perhaps he must not mean as much as he thinks he does to you,” he growled and I tried to slap him, but his hand was faster, and I had been aiming via sound. My body slid down his, his own proof of desire resting against my belly.

  “Go to hell,” I bit out as I tried to leave the room, only to find one of the smaller tables with my shin. I cried out, bent over and felt him as he pressed against me. He picked me up as I struggled in his arms and walked us to the hallway, where he somehow managed not to hit anything with his shins. Unfortunately.

  He stopped in front of the room I had awakened in, opened the door, and pushed through, moving us towards the bed. Once there, he dropped me. It hurt. Asshole. I glared up at the darkness where I assumed he was. I turned, crawling to the center of the very wet bed, when I felt it move with his weight.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “It’s wet, everything is wet,” he said, and sounded a little disgruntled.

  I laughed, and then I laughed some more until my stomach hurt. It wasn’t funny. But the entire place was wet. I lay back on the bed, and waited for the laughter to pass. It did, and then came silent tears.

  “Emma,” he murmured gently, as if he sensed my unease.

  “You’re an asshole,” I whispered. “You didn’t even save them.”

  “They didn’t need me to save them,” he replied.

  “You don’t know that!” I snapped.

  “If I told you that they lived, would you stop trying to escape?” he asked.

  “Never,” I whispered. “I’ll never stop.”

  “Good, because they never left that hellhole,” he growled, and a giant sob tore through me as I turned over on the wet bed and cried until I slipped into sleep.

  Sometime during the night, he held me; when I awoke the next morning, it was to the smell of him all over me. I glanced around the room and felt the bedding beside me; it was cold, indicating he had been gone for a while. I got out of bed, padded to the bathroom, and looked at the tub. The last time I’d taken a bath had ended badly. I’d ended up doing things to myself while imagining Jaeden. He had a front row seat for the entire thing, and judging by the look on his face, he enjoyed himself immensely.

  I moved into the bedroom again, looked at th
e door handle for a lock…no such luck. Shit, could anything else go wrong? I pushed the vanity in front of the door as a weak safety measure; at least if he tried to move that, I would hear him. I made my way back to the bathroom, looked around and paused. There was no camera in here. There were two in my bedroom, but not any in here. I walked to the tub, turned on the water and placed my hand under it. Cold water…no, warm…hot. Yes! I slunk around the bathroom, finding a few bath bombs, salts and other things which I tossed into the tub. It quickly filled with bubbles. The earthy scent of flowers mixed with the sweet scent of cotton candy, which was actually disgusting once it mixed together, but fuck it, a bath!

  I stripped and sank beneath the suds, and groaned as the aches and pains faded away. As I closed my eyes, I realized I could feel that he was still inside the house. He’d seen it all already, so who cared? I relaxed and started singing and rocking out to my own song, which sounded more like a country song than the rock hit I’d been trying to come up with. By the time I was done with my song, even I was thinking, ‘What the hell was that shit?’

  Laughter erupted behind me and I glared at the wall. I was so over bathing in this new world. Seriously, did anyone believe in boundaries anymore?

  “That’s the next big song, don’t knock it,” I growled, turning to look at him over my shoulder. He was decked out in armor, as per usual. I was beginning to think he was afraid of me, because he never took it off around me, unless it was seriously dark, which gave him the advantage.

  “Indeed,” he mused as he tilted his head.

  “Indeed, asshole. Hand me the towel?” I asked softly. It was across the room, where I’d forgotten about it in my excitement of bathing.

  “No, get it yourself,” he dared, leaning against the door and crossing his arms.

  I glared, lifted a brow, pulled the bucket into the tub that I’d used to wash my hair and lifted it as I stood. His eyes moved down as I smiled, lifted the bucket, and tossed the water right at him. He didn’t even see it coming, not until it hit his armor and he looked up. I swallowed, his eyes were filled with heat, and it wasn’t anger. It was lust, naked and raw; I-should-have-run-my-ass-in-the-opposite-direction lust. I swallowed and shook my head. He stepped forward, I slipped, almost falling back into the tub before I jumped out, slipped on the water, and righted myself.

  He was coming around the tub, so I went the other way. He stalked me, not running, but slowly, methodically hunting me. I’d hoped his armor would shrink, or something! It didn’t. I slipped again, and he caught me, picked me up, flung me over his shoulder, and carried me into the bedroom. He tossed me on the bed and stared down at me.

  “You keep throwing me on the bed and I’m going to end up with shaken…baby…are your eyes red?” I gasped as I lost my train of thought. I sat up and looked closer but he blinked, and they returned to the startling blue. “Oh, shit, what the fuck are you?”

  “Now you’re finally thinking about what I am,” he seethed as he looked down at my still naked, suds-covered ass. “Soon,” he growled, turning to leave me on the still-damp bed.

  “Soon what?” I asked, sitting up.

  He stopped, turned, and I swear to God I saw him smiling through his armor. He stepped closer and I crab-walked my ass backwards. He stopped, paused, his head tilted and he growled. He shook his head, and then righted it. It made him look inhuman, and sent a shiver racing down my spine.

  “You’ll be mine soon, in every sense of the word, mate,” he gritted out softly. Although his tone was cold, his eyes were hot and full of lust.

  Chapter 15

  His words echoed in my ears; my heartbeat always seemed to be on overdrive, but I was learning to live with it. Three days had passed since he’d brought me here. Three days in which I worried about Lachlan and Jaeden. The last image of Jaeden I had gutted me, but I knew if anyone could make it through that ordeal, he could.

  He was immortal, and yet he’d been in one hellish state from the cannibals. They’d drugged them; otherwise this mess wouldn’t have happened. It just wouldn’t have.

  I was being held in some lavish prison being hand-fed bacon. I’d watched and observed the little things to try and understand where I was. I had noticed that the people here brought in fresh peppermint and other naturally grown herbs. Outside of a garden or hothouse, herbs such as the ones they’d harvested naturally grew in the forest and, based on the wooded areas surrounding us, they must not have gone far to get these plants.

  The toilet swirled counterclockwise, which told me I was still in the Northern Hemisphere. The thickness of the air told me we were at a higher altitude, and the directional flow of the waterfall that the house faced told me I was right.

  Last night I’d left my room to stare at the stars, and tried to judge where I was from the constellations, but what they told me couldn’t have been right. If they were, I was closer to home than I’d thought. Stars are tricky, though, the higher up you are the clearer they become. Newport is a high altitude; we didn’t notice because it’s what we were used to, but as soon as an outsider would arrive in town, it was the first thing they’d point out. I was currently higher than Newport’s altitude, because I now knew how those outsiders felt. It took a little getting used to, but I was handling it.

  I hadn’t seen him all day. It was nearing dusk and I’d been left to my own devices. I’d wondered where he went for hours, but came up empty. He hadn’t returned with supplies, so that crossed sourcing off my list. No herbs, so he wasn’t out picking them. Out torturing other captives? That was possible.

  I was lost inside my head, staring at the sunset as the sun began its descent behind the falls and dusk set in. Red and pink hues fanned across the sky, mixing with soft purples and blues. For a brief moment, I forgot where I was, and who I was with. It seemed surreal that, for once, I was looking beyond the horror and finding something beautiful that remained in this world. I had been about to turn away from the window when I caught the image of a shadowy figure a few feet behind me.

  The window was reflecting his image, and he wasn’t wearing armor. Startling cerulean blue eyes framed with thick black lashes watched me carefully. He had high cheekbones and a strong jawline with a trace of a five o’clock shadow gracing it. His chest was bare, his tattoos startlingly dark against his flesh. I could make out one on his shoulder, a male skeletal figure kissing a sugar skull girl with blonde hair. There were a few other tattoos here and there that I tried to make out in the reflection; one above his ribcage had ancient writing, or maybe a dead language scrawled across it. Either way, I couldn’t make out the words. A fallen angel with huge black wings took up most of his side, wrapping around his hip, which drew my eyes to the V-line that descended into his pants. He wasn’t as thick as I’d thought he would be, muscle-wise, but he was sleek, well-defined. Water dripped from his hair, still wet from the shower he must have taken before seeking me out. Dark hair clung to the tip of his shoulders, and I watched as a stray droplet slowly slid over the sleek ripple of muscles until it rolled down to the V, and lower.

  I wanted to turn around, but somehow I knew if I did, he’d do whatever magic he did to call forth his wicked armor.

  “There’s a storm coming,” he commented, disturbing the silence of the room. “I’d like to walk you through the setup, since I will be out of the house when it arrives.”

  “Okay,” I replied, unsure why I remained still, and were those butterflies in my stomach? I started to turn, but then stopped as I felt him getting closer. I paused, felt the butterflies follow my lead as his fingertips slowly danced across my shoulders. One hand gripped my neck, with his eyes continuing to remain locked with mine in the tempered glass. His lips touched my neck softly, sending a thrill of sensations over my flesh. His lips brushed against my ear and I swallowed the moan that tried to escape, closing my lips to deny it exit.

  “The house is run on solar paneling, similar
to what you have at the Ark; only mine is a lot more advanced. The house itself is built of stone in case of any wildfires in the mountains or valley; it’s protected. The glass is sealed to prevent flooding; it is also bulletproof. You cannot penetrate it with anything inside the house, so do avoid attempting such an act.” His hot breath fanned against my throat and his eyes remained locked with mine as he spoke. “We have three wells; each are monitored and tested daily. The house will automatically run on backup generators in the event of the solar cells being damaged or running out for whatever reason. We are in a locale known for its sun, so the chances of having an issue are fairly remote. We have acres of farmland just beyond that wooded area and inside the bunker below our feet is an area designated to grow plants as well. Sunlamps run from the solar panels grow the plants. I also raided several pharmacies for basic medication that may be needed for the humans. Should they need something else, we can get it. There’s a medical ward in the bunker as well; it’s set up for over a hundred people should the need arise. It’s well stocked with emergency personnel; equipment and life-sustaining machines. We are well equipped to face most storms, or whatever Mother Nature may throw at us. I also have a brig built inside this house, one large and strong enough to hold you, should you try escaping me.”

  He pulled away, his armor materializing over his flesh, and I turned, looking at him as he watched me. I wasn’t sure all those details were for the upcoming storm, or just him wanting me to know that I would never escape this place. After the house locked itself down and went into panic mode the other day, I had pretty much figured that out without his little pep talk.

  “There’s a backup switch in your room should the power go out. I will be gone for a day, two at most,” he continued, his eyes following me as I moved to the couch. “Is there anything you need while I am out?”