Darkest Before Dawn (A Guardian's Diary Book 1) (27 page)

Chapter 32

Astrid’s words replayed in my head as I sat in one of the rooms we had set up with small forges so we could melt silver and pour it into bullet molds. We had also become pretty adept at filing it down to a fine silver nitrate type of powder that we could use in landmines; needless to say, the wolf pack avoided this room like the plague.

It was a shock to learn the truth, but then again, I should have expected it. I wasn’t sure why I had been surprised; Jaeden wasn’t the type to do anything by chance. I still planned to go with him to find Grayson, and Lachlan had offered to go with us.

Maggie was getting better and luckily the antibiotics had been in a sealed container and hadn’t been ruined by the icy water. She was at least on the mend and up and moving around, even though she should have been resting. She was a comforting presence for me as we took turns carefully pouring melted silver into the molds.

“There’s a very angry Jaeden that wants to speak to you outside, Emma,” she said as she took a seat beside me. “You want me to send him away?” I shook my head at her as I stood up and dusted myself off. “I’ll kick his ass for whatever he did this time, if you want me to,” she sang out to my retreating back.

I reached the door and wiped the hair from my face before I stepped through the different doors that led out of the shelter, including the door meant to withstand explosives. I sealed the door and watched as Jaeden prowled closer, his eyes latched onto my now very hard nipples from going from the scorching room to the snowy night’s chilled air.

I wore shorts, and a tank top, both white in color since it had been all I could find. I stunk, but I wasn’t trying to impress him, not anymore. “What do you want, Viking?”

“What the hell are you wearing?” he asked, still unable to take his eyes from the rose colored tips that showed through both the shirt and the bra. “I can see your nipples, and it makes me want to suck them, slowly.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and shot him an irritated look. “You don’t get that anymore, Jaeden, not from me.”

“You’re upset; I get it, sweet girl. I’m a vampire though, Emma, I have to feed.”

“I’m not upset that you fed from others, Jaeden. I’m trying to figure out where we stand. You and I meeting wasn’t an accident, and that makes me wonder about a lot of things.”

“Emma, Shamus supported this shelter and your family, I had no idea that you were the daughter of the man who built this place when I first met you. Yes, I had my orders, and after I met you, things took on a life of their own,” he said reasonably.

“Not good enough,” I said. “Look, Jaeden, this thing between us? It’s toxic to me. You’re hot and cold and I can’t do it. Not anymore. I’ll go with you to find my brother and help find anyone my mother has taken from you, if she’s involved in that, but us? We can’t happen…” One minute I’d been talking and the next I was pressed up against the shelter with his hand over my mouth and his eyes hard on mine.

“Do you know what I am? I’m a proud Viking warrior who used to fuck for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I’m immortal, Emma, but I still have to feed. I’m sorry for doing it, but I didn’t fuck them while I fed, and it wasn’t them I wanted, it was you.” I pulled his hand away from my mouth.

“I know what you are, but I’m not sure we can work out—ever,” I said stubbornly. “I get it now, what Lachlan said about you having to follow orders, and right now I need to focus on what is important, and that’s finding Grayson. Alive. So for now, I accept that we’re stuck in this together, but for the foreseeable future we’re going to be strictly platonic.”

“You think it’s that easy to walk away from me? You think I buy that shit, Emma? You want me even now. It’s in the curve of your lips when I say something you like, the way your mouth lingers on mine when I kiss those soft lips. That slow, deliberate way your lips maneuver down my neckline when I’m riding your body. You don’t have to admit it, sweet girl, that mouth of yours gives it away every time.

“It doesn’t matter what I want anymore. I have to save him and if this thing between us stops me, then
it
stops. I left the meeting because of you and the drama that surrounds you, and that can’t happen again. I need to be focused on what is important, and what my people need.”

“I should have kissed you longer,” he said as he stepped back and turned, leaving me standing alone.

*~*~*

Two days later

The stage had been set and it included what I liked to think of, as an ‘army’ of wolves that had been changing humans into monsters. I’d listened to the tapes which had my mother’s plans on them, and had taken them to Shamus to see if he could make sense of her crazy ranting ways. He had some good ideas, but we needed more time to figure them out. Time wasn’t something we had a lot of, and with the rogues getting braver, we’d decided to do the fight on our own terms.

Five humans from my group stood in an open field within running distance to the shelter. Jaeden and Lachlan had planned it in advance, knowing the rogue wolves would show up if enough people’s scent flowed through the air. Lachlan assured me that their scent was like candy to the rogues, and so far, they’d been unable to stay away from it.

We now considered the possibility that while my mother had been a part of what started this, the wolves were taking advantage of it for their own reasons. My mom working with the people who started this was really throwing me, because Sentinels were supposed to protect humans, from what I gathered in her tapes. She was completely contradictory. While we knew the wolves were close, I could also sense the presence of a Sentinel close by.

I had no idea how my powers worked, or why I had them, but I knew I was linked to other Sentinels; I just didn’t really know what the link did or how it worked. I knew he was high up in a tree, to the left of the field, watching us. There was also the fact that I felt a connection, even though it was faint at best. As if we shared some kind of weird bond, which we felt.

It was as if we were at standoff, and it wasn’t until Jaeden moved up to my side wearing only jeans and a grin, that I gulped down air as I did a double take.  He wore a strap of leather across his chest, which held a shield in place behind his back. His biceps had intricate platinum bands around them, defining just how well-muscled he was. His hand gripped a large sword handle, and his eyes were on me as I took him in.

For a moment it was only he and I on what would soon become a battlefield. He didn’t move closer, but didn’t back away as I took an involuntary step in his direction. For a moment I forgot who I was, and didn’t care that on the other side of the field was a mob of fucked-up looking wolves who wanted to kill us.

In my head, I tasted his flesh and he was between my legs, pushing himself against my body and I’d caused all of that sweat. He was shirtless, and yes, I was pretty sure his naked chest had just made me almost spasm with the heated look in his eyes alone. He looked like a magical berserker, taken from another era and placed in front of me. Here, he was all Viking, and Vikings were hella hot!

I was momentarily distracted as our wolves took up their positions behind the vampires. It was almost comical that they’d worn kilts since they’d shed them if they had to shift in the middle of a fight. Maybe it was easier on them to get dressed after the battle; those old-fashioned kilts they had on
were
one size fits all. Bare-chested Scots and shirtless Vikings, how the hell was I supposed to focus with all this testosterone bared?

“What the hell are those?” Lachlan asked, looking off in the distance.

“Wolves?” I mumbled.  “Why aren’t they attacking us?” I asked as Jaeden moved closer to me.

“They’re waiting for orders; they must have an alpha now,” Bjorn answered.

“Emma,” Jaeden said with a sardonic smile on his lips as he walked up and pulled me closer. “Kiss for good luck?”

I smiled, and crinkled my nose as I giggled at his ballsy question. I stood up on my tip toes far enough that I could kiss his cheek.

I mean really, I was always myself, but at the moment, I was with Vikings so why not be one? His men hooted with him as if I was the shit, but then one of the landmines I’d set went off. We scrambled to our positions with the humans in the lead.

“It’s time,” I said to the few humans I led. “We work together, and when I give the cue, you run to the shelter. Addy is waiting at the door to close it.”

I held my hand up in the air, flat as I watched the wolves fall to the ground with the first of many explosions that would soon follow. It was amazing what you could do with immortals and a full night to prepare for the fight. This was going to be really cutting it close, to use silver against bad wolves and not hit the good guys was a really dicey proposition, so I’d helped Lachlan and his men clear the brush and some of the trees in front of the shelter so if the time came, they’d be able to run to safety.

I watched in horror as one after another went off, and silver nitrate was set loose into the air around them. They couldn’t breathe, and the pistons that had been inside of the landmines shredded their skin and when it had finished with them, only bloody corpses littered the ground.

My eyes lifted to the tree line and spotted the Sentinel watching me. He had cold blue eyes, longish brown hair, and olive colored skin. He also looked younger than the others who’d come with my mother had been.
Knight
. I smiled up at him not because I found him cute, which he was, but because I’d solved the puzzle of why my mother referred to Sentinels as chess pieces. It was because you could see it, but it was only a brief showing. One moment he was dressed in jeans, and a leather jacket and then he sort of shimmered for the briefest of seconds and then he was wearing the armor of a black knight. He shimmered again and was back to normal. I wasn’t sure what it meant, if anything, because I didn’t see any of the Sentinels at the bridge do that.

It made perfect sense as I thought about it, since the Knights were normally placed where there would be action. They were best used on the board where the opponent’s pieces would be clustered together. It made even more sense now that they hadn’t all shown up, since the Knight was the only piece who could be moved at the beginning of the game, without needing to move the Pawn.

The wolves moved through the field, but this time, there were no landmines left, or if there were, they hadn’t gone off. I closed my fist and lowered my body to aim the silver bullet filled automatic AR-15 at the field and opened fire along with the armed humans, vamps, and Lachlan’s men. Another wave had been stopped from gaining the field.

“To the shelter,” I screamed to be heard. “Now!” I watched as Lachlan, Jaeden and their men took the place of my people at the front of the line, protecting us from attack as we retreated. I watched as the humans made a line that ended with the last one closing the door. “Close it,” I mouthed as Addy met me at the glass door. I placed my hand on hers, and smiled. “I love you, wench.”

“Always,” she replied.

As I turned around, it was to watch the vampires and Lachlan’s men throw themselves into the fight. They took the field gloriously, battling together to rid the field of the rogue wolves. Jaeden, Shamus, Bjorn and Sven all worked together in a tag team system as they dropped wolves together. Lachlan and his pack fought in human form so they wouldn’t be mistaken and killed in friendly fire. Raphael was quick on his feet, and spun with a pace I could barely keep up with. He’d shouldered his bow and now long and short swords were almost a blur around him as he cut through the wolves.

I pulled silver knives from their holsters and moved to the fray, watching as the Knight moved through the fight. I ignored the wolves and everything around me as I made my way in his direction. He too was coming for me, but there was a cold detachment to him that left me unsure of which side he was on. His icy blue eyes had a luminous glow to them and it was disorientating to watch as he seemed to blink in and out of existence around the battlefield as he advanced on me, almost like short spurts of teleportation.

“My brother,” I growled when I was close enough for him to hear me.

“I know not of what you speak,” he snapped.

“You took my brother, I want to know where you took him!” I screamed angrily before I moved to slice his arm open, but he dodged the attack effortlessly.

“I know nothing of your brother; I came here because you called to us. But I find you here with our enemies, and that screams traitor,” he said before he moved with lightning fast speed. A long blade I hadn’t seen him holding cut through my arm.

I cried out as the metal tore through my flesh. He seemed different than the others that had come with my mother. “I didn’t call to anyone, you’re one of Trina’s flunkies,” I accused.

“Trina and Dagan have betrayed our order, and are marked for death for what they have done. Any Sentinels with them have been marked as well,” he growled. “You smell of her and your being here shows your guilt,” he spat out before he did his super speed move again, but this time he captured me from behind. One hand was a manacle around my wrist, shoving my arm at a painful angle behind my back and then other held the long knife against my neck. “You’re the vampires’ whore?”

I didn’t answer him; his blade was pressed against my throat. “I’m no one’s whore,” I finally said, and turned my head slightly to look up at him. “I was human, until I wasn’t. I died, and this is what happened to me. I have no idea what I am, and you all seem to want me dead so I’m better off here, with them.”

“No one claimed you?” he asked. His hand adjusted the angle of the blade slightly away from my throat. “Are you with the vampires and wolves, or are you Sentinel?” he continued. “We protect the humans, and we don’t mix with other creatures. You seem to do it all; the order needs to know where you stand.”

I was about to answer him, when a silver tipped arrow pierced his shoulder, and he disappeared. I looked to where Raphael stood, his bow now pointed at the ground.

“No!” I shouted as I looked around. “He knew what I was, and he wasn’t working for my mother!”