Darkest Before Dawn

by Amelia Hutchins

  “Fucking hell, you’re a natural at this, sweet girl,” he said with a heavy accent this time. He released one leg and his fingers slid over my very wet opening. “You’re already wet enough to fuck.”

  I pushed myself against his fingers, but he removed the hand. He leaned over me and smiled as his mouth claimed mine in a kiss of total domination. When he pulled away, he smiled, but the darkness was back.

  “Who is in control?” he asked.

  “You are,” I replied.

  “What do you want me to do to you?”

  “Everything,” I answered, surprising even myself.

  “You don’t know what you are asking for, but I damn well plan to show you.”

  His head lowered to my breast, where his fangs scraped across the skin painfully. I watched him as he lifted those sea green eyes to mine and bit into the soft tissue of my left breast. Pleasure erupted from deep inside of me, shaking my entire world, and spinning it from its axis. I moaned as he took the first pull, and then another. It was over as quick as it had started. He flicked one nipple, which was as hard as a pebble, and then the other.

  “Good girl,” he said as he moved from the bed and placed a full size standing mirror at the end of the bed so I could see myself and him when he rejoined me. His smile was devastating as he watched my reaction to my own nakedness. “That’s what you look like to me, Emma, absolutely perfect. Do you see how much I want you? And why I want you?”

  I looked as if I’d been replaced with some sultry pinup girl. My nipples were bright pink from where he’d flicked them. My core was exposed to his greedy eyes, and even from where I lay, I could see the slick mess he’d created. My hair was a mess, but it looked as if I’d planned it right down to the last strand. My lips were swollen, as if I’d spent the last hour doing nothing but kissing him.

  I tore my eyes from myself as he rejoined me on the bed. He was hard, and ready. But he didn’t use it yet. Instead, he smiled as one hand parted my core and the other inserted one finger, and then another. “So fucking slippery with need; can you see how wet you are? Can you hear it? Hear the sound it makes as I fuck it, and fill it with my fingers? You’ll take more, and you’ll beg for it, Emma. By tomorrow this sweet flesh is going to be swollen and sore from me fucking it. You’ll remember it for days, and then right when your sweet pussy starts to recover, I’ll fuck it again, only harder.”

  “Mmm, yes,” I murmured around moans. He inserted another finger, and then his thumb slid over my clit and I twisted in his hold.

  “Part your legs, now,” he growled and I tried my best to do as he asked. The noise of his fingers as they entered and parted my flesh eventually took over. “Fuck them,” he encouraged, and then smiled. “Like this,” he instructed as he pushed them inside, only to use his other hand as he slid it beneath my ass and lifted and then lowered at a steady pace. “Like that, now don’t take your eyes from mine. I want to see you as this pussy clenches against my fingers, and your sweet juices building to take more. Feel the way it’s sucking against them as it begs for more?” he stopped the hand which remained under my ass, as he inserted another finger until it was painfully full. “Fuck, you’re so tight.”

  “Jaeden,” I whimpered as I felt the growing tension coil in my belly.

  “Let it go, and come for me, Emma, come hard.”

  I shattered. My body felt boneless as blackness filled my mind. Stars erupted as my body continued rocking, even though his hand had stopped moving. I tried to keep my eyes locked with his, but I couldn’t see anything. I was still in that euphoric state when I felt him move between my legs.

  I moaned as I felt him nudge my legs further apart. “I can’t wait any longer to be inside of you,” he growled before he pushed his cock inside of me.

  There was pain. So much pain that I cried out as my body pushed away from his where he was tearing me apart from the inside. He groaned as I screamed, my nails cut through the soft tissue in the palm of my hand. “We don’t fucking fit! Get that damn thing out of me!” I wailed.

  “Emma, stop moving,” he replied gutturally. “There’s a lot of blood.”

  “Odin, Mercy, Fucking, Glory! Holy Satan’s golden dick, that shit hurts!” I babbled as I tried to get away from that thing.

  He laughed. He fucking laughed! His grip had tightened so I couldn’t move away from him. I tried to stop the need I felt to get him out of me. I could smell my own blood, and when I looked up at him, it was to find his eyes glowing red and his fangs dangerously long. No wonder he’d sounded all guttural and shit. I was fucking Dracula! It put an entirely different spin on Vlad the Impaler!

  He pulled out a fraction and moved it back inside. Tears trailed down my cheeks. His eyes locked with mine as he reached up and tore the ropes that held my hands in place easily. His hands captured mine, as he gathered my wrist in one of his large hands, brought them down against my stomach. His other hand lifted one leg, and then the other, until they both rested on his shoulders. He pulled out and began moving slowly.

  “You fit me like a glove,” he growled.

  “No shit! Dude, you ripped me open, that thing is never gonna be the same again!”

  He gave me a wicked grin. “I believe I told you that that was my plan from the start of this, didn’t I?”

  After a few moments of his gyrating hips, it stopped hurting and started to feel good. No, wait, it started to feel really good. The pleasure began to spike and throb. I bucked against him for more as my eyes closed. “Oh hell,” I growled, matching his own tone. “That’s nice.”

  “Fuck, you’re so sweet,” he whispered as he pulled out to the tip and then drove his cock deep inside. “Too sweet, Emma, you need to come for me.”

  As if he needed to remind me? I was falling over that cliff like a cliff diver on steroids. It took exactly three more moments of him rocking those hips for me to find my happy place and jump. My nipples hardened and slick heat filled my center right before I detonated and screamed his name to the throaty sound of his laughter.

  I felt his body tense as his cock pushed inside harder, and then my legs were pushed to my shoulders and he let loose. The sound of flesh meeting flesh was erotic and filled the room. His grunts met my moans and I exploded again. I’d heard that virgins didn’t get off the first time normally, which, let’s just say, helped me keep my V-card for so long. What the fricking hell was the point in doing it if only he got off? Jaeden was proving everything but the pain part wrong.

  “Good girl,” he whispered as he claimed my lips. His entire body went tight and new warmth filled my center. He was coming, and his eyes held mine captive as I watched his pupils dilate with pleasure. And, after a few moments, his fangs retreated back to a normal size. This sexual tension between us had been leading up to this moment, and right now, I didn’t regret my choice.

  When he was finished, he got up and walked his very firm, very sexy naked backside across the room and retrieved a cloth. I watched him leave the room and return with it wet. He washed the blood from between my legs and then kissed the sensitive nub which now felt severely swollen.

  He crawled onto the bed and lay beside me, pulling my body close to his. “Thank you for the gift, Emma. It was worth the chase, and the blue balls to get it.”

  “I gave you blue balls?”

  “Woodpecker.”

  I blushed, but barely concealed the sultry smile from him. Fricking woodpeckers. “I’m glad I saved it for you.” I said as sleep overtook my eyes and mind.

  “Get some rest; round two starts soon,” was the whispered warning that filtered through my foggy brain.

  He pulled me close and tucked me into the protection of his arms. I slept, blissfully unaware of anything else in the world except for how cherished I felt locked in his embrace.

  Chapter 23

  I was sore. As in, I was
n’t sure walking was an option. I’d soaked in his tub sometime before dawn, since he said it would help. Guess what. He lied. He’d taken me until I was pretty sure my bones had melted and my organs had been beaten to mush with his magic stick. I’d screamed for more just as he said I would; had he warned me about the day after, I probably would have run away screaming instead. Last night, he had put a new meaning of stamina in my mental dictionary. It must have been at least two hours of him rocking my body until he came completely undone, and that had been the last of six other times he’d taken me.

  I had just woken up when I heard an angry hiss. I popped open one bleary eye to find Astrid’s unhappy face competing with the early afternoon sunlight for first place of ‘things I would rather not see today’. In the bits and pieces Jaeden had shared last night, one of which was the tidbit that he’d given her a divorce declaration in front of witnesses’ centuries ago, but she refused to be sent away. He also recommended that I stay away from her, not just because he said she was unbalanced, but because she was protected by Shamus and it was something he couldn’t go against. I’d been sharp enough to notice it was a sore subject and it was best to let it go—for now, at least.

  “What are you still doing here?” she demanded in a shrieking tone.

  “Awe, are you sad that your little Spanish fly crap didn’t work the way you thought it would?” I asked as I pulled the sheets around me and glared at the bitch.

  “He will want you gone by the time he returns. He never wants to see the bitches he fucks afterwards, so run on home.” She shooed her hands at me as she walked over to the only dresser in the room and pulled out female clothes.

  Why would Jaeden have her clothes in his room? I narrowed my eyes as she walked back over and tossed the worn jeans and tank top at me. “Obviously it won’t be an exact fit since you look more like a boy.” She sniffed disdainfully.

  Did she really just go there? “Well yeah, but not all women come out of a plastic mold from the Mattel factory. Some of us are actually real.”

  “Is that a compliment?” she narrowed her cold blue eyes on me with a threat bared in them.

  “Not at all,” I smiled as I used my best fake-bitch voice.

  “He’s mine,” she sneered.

  “Please, he was pretty clear that he got rid of your ass long ago. I think it was something like…he would rather fuck a flying monkey before he would touch you again.” Yeah, I was being catty and poking the bitch, but there was no way I was going to let her push me around or intimidate me.

  “You think you’re the first woman to catch his eye? I’ve watched hundreds of you walk into his room and you all have had one thing in common. He never fucks you again. Period. He chased me through the fjords of Norway and married me. I was his love and he showed it by making me his wife. This is all just a game and you are only here to piss me off; remember it.” She glared at me with a nasty little smirk. “What? You think he didn’t help me plan this little charade to get you in to his bed? I’m always in his plans; now get the fuck out of my bedroom.”

  I swallowed down my retort as last night’s events replayed in my mind. Had they set me up? No, he’d been too willing to get Lachlan if I’d wanted him and he had warned me she was cuckoo. I grabbed the clothes she’d tossed on the bed and dressed quickly before grabbing the pile of my things that were salvageable. I swallowed past the rage that was quickly taking root where the shame had been. Jaeden might have left, but he hadn’t sent her in here; she was bitter and it showed in her words. She’d be too easy to kill, but the fact that I was at an estate, surrounded by vampires soured that idea.

  “Where is he?”

  “Gone,” she answered as her big mountain of a servant moved into the room silently and stood behind her. In the little bit that Jaeden had shared, he said that Astrid had acquired the Moor around the time Shamus was in Spain; he was originally a eunuch slave that had his tongue cut out. She found him in a slave market, purchased and turned him. He was extremely dangerous and would do anything for Astrid. As much as I resented his involvement, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

  “Where?” Didn’t they hand out brains at the Mattel factory?

  “He left for Seattle this morning,” she said coldly.

  He’d left? Without a freaking word! Bastard. “My friend?”

  “Well-serviced; she’s somewhere down with the other cows I’m sure.”

  “Cows?” Was this bitch for real?

  “Your kind,” she said sickly sweet.

  “My kind keep your kind alive, remember that, Barbie.”

  I managed to keep in the sheer rage I currently felt for Jaeden and the need to bury this bitch out back, which was looking really good in my head right now. I’d given myself to him and he’d left like thief in the night without so much as a goodbye or thank you. I mean, I realize it wasn’t the best timing or planned at all, really, but was a little heads up too much to ask after I’d been pretty damn understanding about his crazy, Barbie doll looking ex-wife drugging me. So why the hell would he leave without saying anything?

  I rounded the corner and left the manor in an angry huff. I found a very embarrassed Addy sitting outside one of the massive tents that surrounded the estate.

  “You look pissed, Emma,” she said warily.

  “Are you done here? Or I don’t know, do you need to fuck a few more guys before I can take you home?” I snapped. I regretted it, but I was trying not break down and become some sniveling little sissy who cried over a little spilled…blood. It was a vicious cycle, one that happened whenever I cried when I got pissed, and I hated it.

  “Emma, what the hell is wrong with you?” Addy demanded as she rushed to keep up with me.

  “I slept with Jaeden,” I snapped as I spun to face her and then turned and started forward again, leaving her wide eyed with her mouth hanging open.

  “You hussy!” She squealed happily and I swear she skipped a little. “Are you okay, Emma? It’s a big step…you little slut!”

  “Me? I heard you were being passed around! What the fuck is wrong with you! Why the hell would you leave the shelter to be changed?”

  “I didn’t come here to be a vampire, I came to ask them questions about them being vampires, and yeah, I’m pretty sure I was plastered and then shit happened and well, I’m pretty sure I had three and none making deposits in the same—”

  “Eww, too much info!” I plugged my ears as I beat feet through the woods as if I was running a marathon. We made it to the little clearing where the jagged rocks were, when I smelled the first sign of smoke. My heart dropped to my feet as I ignored Addy’s questioning look and took off in the direction of the shelter.

  “No,” I screamed as I ran the rest of the way with what little strength I had from not sleeping. Adrenaline kicked in as I stopped cold in front of the shelter. Bodies were charred and littered around the front of it, burned beyond recognition.

  “Grayson!” I screamed as loud as my voice would go, pain lanced through me with the realization that I’d been screwing a vampire while the shelter had been under attack. “Grayson! Answer me!”

  “Oh my God. Who would have done this?” Addy asked as her eyes searched the charred walls of the entry to the shelter.

  “Grayson!” I shouted as I stumbled into the charred opening of the shelter, but beyond that point it wasn’t burnt. It was spattered in blood, and Grayson was there, sitting beside Maggie. “Grayson, oh my God,” I said as I fell to my knees beside him and pulled him into my arms.

  “Where were you?” he accused, tears tracked down his cheeks. “You talk all this shit about protecting us but where the hell were you when we needed you!? Emma, where the hell were you! You left us!”

  “I need to get Maggie to the medical center. Help me, Grayson,” I pleaded as I swiftly turned his rage against me into help. I deserved it, I
got it. I’d fucked up, big time. “Who did this?”

  “I don’t know, I didn’t see. Maggie hid me, and locked me in your bedroom. I just heard the screams, oh, Emma, the screams were so bad. They were looking for us I think. Maybe Dad is alive? Maybe he sent them. Maybe it went bad, and he thought they were good guys.”

  “Grayson, dad wouldn’t send anyone who would attack us to find us,” I assured him. It didn’t bode well for us either way. “They take anything? Food, supplies, weapons…anything like that?”

  “I don’t know, I just heard them.”

  “Okay, help me get Maggie up, Addy, check for pulses on those people outside. Try to get everyone organized—those who are wounded worst, in for treatment first. I’ll do what I can.”

  I did a surface test on Maggie, which included running my hands over her looking for any blood wounds, or anything protruding. She had blood leaking from her chest, and a lot of it. Grayson brought the gurney I’d stolen from the med center, and together we hefted Maggie up and on to it.

  When we got her to the sterile room, I stripped out of my clothes and into the scrubs before I washed and put on gloves and a surgical mask. It wouldn’t be perfectly sterile, but I had some pretty good antibiotics I’d taken from the CDC when they’d deserted their post. I put on the surgical headset, and flipped on the light before working to intubate her after I discovered she’d stopped breathing.