Death Before Dawn

by Amelia Hutchins

  I lifted my eyes as I watched my abductor, who I had decided could keep the moniker of ‘Asshole’ after last night, as he walked into the kitchen and pulled a carafe of orange juice out of the refrigerator. He ran his hand through his hair as he poured it into a juice glass, keeping his back to me in the process. I considered leaving, but I wasn’t weak. I’d known what I was doing last night. I’d mentally prepared myself for what I was going to do, and even if the role had been modified, I needed to remain firm and true to the plan.

  He turned, rested his arms on the counter and looked me dead in the eye. We stared at each other; the Sentinel, like he was about ready to kick me out, which hell, fine with me. I, however, was shooting daggers his way. He’d hurt me, bad. He’d been making a point, but I was pretty sure there were other ways of getting his point across.

  He downed the orange juice in a single swallow and moved into the room I was in, walking past the steel door which abruptly swung open, surprising us both. A man burst into the room, looked at me, then at the Sentinel.

  “Azrael, we have incoming,” the man said breathlessly as he held out a picture that showed trucks moving down a road. “Twenty minutes tops and they’ll be at the door,” he explained.

  “Lock it down.” Azrael looked at me with warning in his eyes. “Stay with him and do not fucking try anything,” he growled, pointing to the man as he strolled in the direction of the front door. I moved swiftly, heading with him to the door. He stopped so abruptly that I ran into his back. “Don’t do this,” he warned.

  “I can help,” I offered, even though I had no intention of doing so. He’d be busy with whoever was out there, and I could run in the opposite direction.

  “Indeed,” he mused, looking over my head. “If Emma tries to escape, shoot her. In the head,” he ordered.

  “I hate you,” I muttered as my anger spiked. Shoot me in the head? Asshole.

  “Azrael?” the man questioned.

  “It’s a direct order; if she tries anything, shoot her. She’ll live through it.”

  And just like that, he was gone.

  I watched the door close and turned to the man, extending my hand, but he jumped back and looked at it like I was poisonous.

  “I’m Emma,” I said as I brought my hand back, and watched as he relaxed. “Who are those people, the ones headed here?”

  “John, and those guys are probably some assholes who want to take the house and bunker for their own,” he replied. “I need to lock it down and I really don’t want to shoot you, so please, ma’am, don’t try to escape.”

  “I’m not going to,” I answered as I shook my head with annoyance. “I’ve already searched for a way out, but the only one I know of so far is through that door, which is on lockdown, so tell me how to help you.”

  I didn’t want to be stuck here, but I also knew how bad people in large groups could be. I had no delusions that it was my group coming to save me. They wouldn’t be so bold as to come by road in trucks; those had been abandoned long ago. No, my group would sneak up and Azrael’s would never see them coming.

  “I need to lock it down into panic mode,” he said, and I tilted my head.

  “What about Azrael, out there, alone? What if he gets hurt?” I questioned.

  “Ma’am, he don’t get hurt.” His English sounded like he was from the backwoods. “He’s immortal, a God. He’s the best warrior I ever did see. He saved us all,” he whispered, with blind faith in his eyes.

  “He’s not a God,” I stated as my eyebrow rose with my skepticism, and wondered what the fuck he was giving these guys to drink. I started to move, but rapid gunfire outside the house drew my attention. So much for them being soundproof windows. We both moved towards the window. John’s math sucked; they’d made it here long before his twenty-minute timer was up.

  Azrael was in full body armor, his swords drawn, and his armor was deflecting a barrage of bullets. They ricocheted off his armor, hitting the windowed walls, and bounced as well. I flinched when one hit the glass right where I was standing. John stood awkwardly, like he wasn’t sure if he wanted to scream, cry, or run back to the bunker. I was betting he was about to do all three.

  “Where’s the panic button for the bunker?” I asked, but he shook his head as a tank pulled up in the yard.

  “They’ll get in…if they get in they’re going to kill us all!” he cried, turned, and ran back to the bunker as I screamed for him to stop.

  “Shit!” I growled as I ran to the panel leading to the bunker and started pushing buttons. Nothing happened, and the sound of the tank as it moved into position made my stomach roll. A fucking tank, seriously? How the hell had they found this place? My eyes swept the room for a panic button or panel that I may have missed before. Last time I’d cut wires on the panel to the front door, which I wasn’t sure I should do this time. I turned and looked at Azrael, who was a blur, zigzagging between trees and trucks, his inhuman speed helping as he killed those closest to the house.

  I made my way to the glass and started pounding on it. If he died, I’d be stuck in here until someone from the bunker below could let me out. If that tank hit the glass, yeah, I could escape, but I wasn’t going to leave his people to die either. He turned mid-slice and looked at me, then his eyes seemed to sweep the glass walls that separated him and our attackers from the room I stood in. He moved so fast my eyes could barely follow him, as he stopped short in front of the window and peered in, shielding his eyes to look for John.

  “He’s gone!” I shouted, pointing at the bunker door. “Where’s the panic button?” I asked, and then screamed as a man in tactical armor raced towards him. My heart leapt to my throat and I watched as a sword pushed through the armor Azrael wore, hitting the glass.

  Fuck! I blanched as he turned, sword still sticking out from his side, and ran the man through with his own blades as if the man was nothing more than an annoyance. He pulled the offending sword out and dropped it to the ground without even stopping or flinching. He turned, pointed at a wall, and I turned my head, located the button and rushed towards it. The long barrel of the tank swiveled as it zeroed in on its target; that much we both could see, and if they shot it…we’d all be in a really bad place. Judging by the way the bodies were falling, Azrael was working his way through the remaining men to get to the tank, and, seeing that it hadn’t fired yet, they must not have used it very often and they were probably trying to figure out all the controls.

  I slammed my hand down on the button and watched as the red lights began blinking and sirens began blaring as the door to the bunker locked down. Azrael’s eyes met mine, and he nodded with a jerk of his chin as he jumped to the top of the tank and ripped the hatch off. Men scattered, dispersing into the woods as he took control of the tank. It was all I saw before the metal shutters for the windows closed, and the only lights inside the house were flashing red ones.

  I sat on the couch and pulled my legs up, wondering if those people could find this location, why hadn’t Jaeden and Lachlan? Lachlan could track scents, and Jaeden was a tracker. They didn’t come, though, and it had been days. It made me wonder if they hadn’t escaped, and by choosing to try and free Jaeden, if I’d condemned Lachlan to the same fate.

  I rested my head on the couch and must have dozed off, because I awoke to the sensation of being carried. When I opened my eyes, it was to find Azrael carrying me down the hallway leading to the bedrooms. I wrapped my hands around his neck, noting the way he stiffened when I did it.

  “Are they gone?” I asked, enjoying the heat his body offered.

  “They’re dead,” he replied. “None escaped to tell anyone else where this place is.”

  It was cold, but I understood it. I would have done the same if a bunch of people had arrived at the Ark with the intention of invading or trying to take over, or hurt those in my care. The world was a scary place right
now, and only those who were strong enough to make the hard choices would survive in it. That hadn’t been an easy lesson to learn.

  “You don’t approve?” he asked as he sat on the bed, cradling me in his lap. His arms tightened, and I wondered about it. He had people here, but I hadn’t seen him without his armor around them. Only with me did he remove it.

  “I hate that this world is so cold that you have to do what you did to ensure the safety of those you protect,” I replied softly as I shifted my position on his lap. He winced, and my mind rushed back to the fact that he’d been stabbed. “You’re hurt.” I struggled to get off his lap. I moved into the bathroom and returned with a cloth and a small bucket filled with warm water. “Take it off.”

  “It’s already healing on its own,” he mumbled as he watched me warily.

  “Let me help you. You need to make sure that it doesn’t become infected,” I replied, not caring if he wanted help or not. I watched as he stared at me, but I wasn’t backing down. After a moment he removed his shirt and laid back.

  I ran my fingers over the torn flesh, noting that his skin was indeed healing. There were little flecks of silver around the wound, so I dipped the cloth into the water and wrung it out before I gently slid it over the wound. He tensed as the cloth cleaned the wound, but he made no sound as I washed away the debris. My fingertips touched his flesh, and he closed his eyes; before I knew what I was doing, I’d bent over and kissed the seductive V of his hips.

  He sat up so fast that I ended up half in his lap, half on the floor as he caught me when I tried to back up. He pulled me onto his lap, and my heartrate shot up, and my eyes widened as I cried out in surprise, but he didn’t kiss me. He just held me there, his forehead dropped against mine and we sat there, motionless together.

  “You play with fire, woman,” he whispered after a few moments had passed in silence. His forehead lifted and he kissed the side of my throat as I held onto the curve of his neck. I swallowed a moan, but the sound of it vibrated through me. His lips found mine and instead of pulling away, I kissed him first. He rolled us onto the bed, with me beneath him, and kissed me gently. My legs wrapped around his waist and I gave in to temptation for a few moments. The tense situation had made it harder to resist him. I needed a few moments to know that I wasn’t alone. It was a weakness, but it was one I’d own up to. He pulled away from me and looked down with a soft smile.

  “Maybe I should get stabbed more often if it leads to this,” he teased, and I smiled. I giggled nervously, and his eyes watched me as the slow trickle of a tear slipped from my eye. “You were afraid for me today?”

  “A little, but more so for the humans,” I admitted. “I didn’t know how to send the bunker into lockdown, you left that part out of your briefing; that asshole John freaked out and lost his shit when he saw the tank and ran back into the bunker without locking it down first.”

  He leaned down and kissed me again until my toes curled. He rolled off of me, and lay on his back on the bed beside me. “You did well today, Emma. You could have caused problems, but you chose to help us. Thank you for that,” he said softly. “They each have a purpose.”

  “They?” I asked.

  “Everyone inside the bunkers,” he explained. “They’re engineers, farmers, gunsmiths, soldiers, medical professionals. I handpicked them, brought them here with their families, and protect them. They follow the rules; they get to live. We even found some leather crafters, blacksmiths, and electricians.”

  I sat up and looked down at him. “You’re planning to rebuild?” There was a master list my father had; most of those occupations had been included in who he was looking for to rebuild and get the grid back up and running in Newport. It was the ideal location. It had its own dam; the grid was small because the town itself was small. “You built an Ark, but instead of animals, you collected people who were needed to rebuild the grid and make a functional society.”

  He smiled. “You’re quick, Emma. Not many could do the math and find that equation so quickly. To answer the question, yes, I’m collecting people who are needed to rebuild cities.”

  “And you said bunkers. As in plural,” I whispered.

  His grin faltered but his eyes continued to smile. “Did I? I don’t recall,” he mumbled as his eyes closed and I lay back down beside him.

  “If you rebuild a town, people will try to take it by force,” I mused. “Like they tried to do to this place,” I continued as I snuggled into his warmth and he wrapped his arms around me. “It’s the light. They must have seen it from far away, didn’t they?” He nodded, but his eyes remained closed. “It would be a beacon, but they made it here with a tank. So somewhere close is a main road.” His eyes opened and turned cold. “We’re in a valley, so they must have seen it from above. They found the road and followed it here,” I swallowed.

  So why hadn’t Jaeden and Lachlan done the same? I swallowed harder; my eyes burned as I turned on my side, facing away from him as I put all the pieces together. They weren’t coming for me. Either they’d been slaughtered, or they’d left me to my fate.

  Chapter 18

  I woke up cradled in his arms. His scent filled my senses. I breathed it in and nestled my head against his chest. I went back to sleep, feeling protected, and for once, I didn’t feel as if the weight of the world clung to my shoulders. I’d never felt this with Jaeden, but then again his priorities had never been mine. Yeah, I’d felt protected for the most part, but I hadn’t felt as if I could allow my guard to drop around him. My relationship with Jaeden had been turbulent and rough, even the sex. It had been hot, to the point of burning my flesh, but he’d never allowed me to believe that I was more important than his orders.

  I felt Azrael move and I lifted my head to look at him, trying for my best glare since I had no intention of cuddling. I’d enjoyed it, but that was beside the point.

  “Morning, beautiful,” he murmured huskily.

  “Morning.” My reply sounded shorter and crankier than I expected it to, as I started to sit up. There are a lot of things I’m ready for in the morning. Things like coffee, reports, headcounts, and daily chore lists. Finding myself rolled beneath a hot as fuck man wasn’t one of them. Neither was the fact that his dick was hard, and pressed against me exactly where I needed and wanted it buried. “Azrael,” I whispered. His head lifted, as he stared at me intensely.

  “Say it again,” he swallowed.

  “Say what?” I asked, and then it dawned on me. “Azrael?”

  He closed his eyes, lowered his lips to the hollow of my neck, and kissed it softly. His fingers lifted my shirt and the rough tips skimmed across my flesh. I moaned, which only encouraged him as he continued his slow seduction. My hands found his wide shoulders, and I held him to me; I wanted more, needed it, even. I needed him like I needed air in my lungs. His hand slipped into my lounge pants, and I moaned as his lips found mine, taking the noise inside his hungry mouth. He touched my pussy, and found it wet and ready for him.

  He nudged my legs apart, and pushed a finger deep into the heated depths. Another filled me and I lifted my hips as his mouth took control of mine, plunging his tongue in to take control of that, along with the control he was taking of my body. Sweat beaded at the base of my spine as the orgasm threatened to send me cascading over a cliff. The moment I thought I was about to fall over, he stopped; his breathing was as labored as my own.

  “Tell me to go,” he whispered as he withdrew his hand and held his body above mine. “Tell me you don’t want this thing that’s between us, and to leave your bed.”

  I didn’t want to. I wanted to pull him closer and investigate whatever this thing between us was. I wanted him to take me over the cliff, and hold me while I fell into the depths below. I wanted the painful ache he created to go away, to be replaced with the sated feeling you got after vigorous, rough sex.

  “Go,” I whispered relucta
ntly, and he rolled from the bed as I bit my lip to keep from calling him back. His back was muscled, his obliques defined; the thick cords of muscle in his sides were exposed from where his pants rode low on his hips, and I wanted to explore them with my fingers and tongue. I was thankful he’d stopped, because I wasn’t sure if I would have, but it physically hurt to watch him leave the room.

  Once he was out of sight, I let the air expel from my lungs as I sat up and I punched the pillows in frustration. I sucked at seduction. That much was clear to me. The idea of allowing him to go all the way with me sat like a rock in my stomach. I waited a while before even attempting to move from the bed. One stroke and I’d go over that cliff he’d left me teetering on.

  I stood up, stretched a bit, and listened as people milled around the front of the house. It didn’t sound like there was any happy chatter, but then again, after what happened yesterday, I was sure there were a few bodies to be burned, not to mention a wrecked tank that probably needed to be relocated. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel bad about the men who’d attacked us and lost their lives. I dressed in soft jeans and a cashmere baby blue pullover.

  After wrapping my hair into a ponytail, I made my way into the main living area just in time to see Azrael as he stepped closer to John. It was the first time I had seen him around others without armor as he spoke loudly, emphasizing John’s abandonment of his post. I understood it; John had run like a bitch to the safety of the bunker. If the house had fallen to the men outside, he would have been to blame for those assholes getting into the bunker. I stood silently, watching it play out and secretly admiring how Azrael looked in a black Henley with the sleeves pushed up, and a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips.

  John was shaking his head, swinging his arms in wild movements as he protested and tried to defend his actions. I almost snorted at one point, as he’d almost made it sound as if I’d told him to go. The fact that he thought I was a Goddess to Azrael’s supposed Godhood almost made me snicker.