Darkest Before Dawn (A Guardian's Diary Book 1)(38)

He may not have been my blood, but he was my father. He’d taught me to know the difference between a boy and a man. A boy could make a child, but it took a man to raise them. I shared DNA with some stranger—well two, if you counted my traitorous, murderous mother. She’d been a part of the virus, not directly, but she’d kept it secret when it shouldn’t have been.

I squared my shoulders and leveled Maggie with a steady gaze. “I’m going to find Addy, who seems to have run off. She had a little scare the other day, and I think it’s got her upset. Grayson said she left a little while ago, but I should be able to find her. Keep a watch on my brother?”

“You know I will, Emma. You don’t have to ask me,” she said with a comforting smile on her face.

“Thanks,” I said as I headed to my room to redress, and grab a bug-out bag. It was getting dark outside and I needed it in case I got stuck outside for the night. “Lock the shelter down by ten, if I haven’t returned by then, I’ll find a place to pass the night.”

“Be safe,” she said as she placed her hand gently on my shoulder.



“Always am,” I breathed as I pulled away and closed the door.

I undressed quickly, and redressed in black. I had on loose fitting fatigues, with the Kevlar vest a hoodie tunic T-shirt that had a skull on it. My mind was on those damn tapes, and how Grayson would react to them. I slipped on the lightweight boots and stood up to do a check of my weapons.

They needed to be cleaned, but with everything going on, I’d been neglecting them. I tied my hair in a tight bun and hid it beneath the hooded shirt, and reached for the mask. I’d been leaving it off when going out lately, but my gut told me to bring it along.

I pulled on the bug-out bag and left the shelter with a heavy heart, knowing I’d have to face Jaeden, and ask him to not make my best friend immortal. In the movies, vampires were always reluctant to sire humans, but these vampires were nothing like the ones in books and movies, so who knew what they would do? Just being around Jaeden and some of the guys, my imagination was a pretty fertile place to imagine all sorts of wild scenarios.

I left the shelter without looking back. After the scene with the people at Addy’s house, Lachlan and his men had come back to the shelter to grab equipment and then left to scout for any signs of new rogue packs in or around Newport. I wished he was here right now, because Addy seemed to have a thing for him, and might not have run to the vamps without speaking to him first. Jaeden hinted that the werewolves were immortal too, so she might have paid more attention to him than she ever would me.

The walk to the estate was tedious, and surprisingly silent. It wasn’t until I reached the border of the woods and stepped into the clearing that the night came alive. I watched as men and women danced, and played around the leaping flames from the torches that surrounded the estate and tent city that had sprung up around it.

Were they serious? A friggin’ party? Music pumped through several speakers while some of the people ground their bodies together, in perfect sync with the pulsating beat. I wondered how many of these people were vampires and how many were humans that they had collected and travelled with them. Jaeden mentioned a while ago that he had over three hundred and fifty men and I wasn’t sure that was still the case as there seemed to be a lot more people here than that. There was a beautiful blonde that was currently in front of Jaeden, scantily dressed with her hips swaying seductively. My heart clenched as I took in the way he watched her.

The pair had history, and even from where I stood, I could feel it. His eyes were hooded as he silently watched her. It took every ounce of willpower I had to tear my eyes from them to look for Addy. I mean I get it, he was a hot-blooded male, and she was Barbie on steroids. I was just me; nothing special, nothing compared to her blonde perfection.

I stepped from the bushes and felt them before I saw them. Sven smiled with a wicked grin as I pulled off my mask.

“Emma, did you come to donate for the party?” he asked good-naturedly as he moved in even closer. His bright blonde hair was left long tonight with some of it pulled into a small herringbone braids at the sides of his head.

“Hardly,” I said, “I seemed to have misplaced my best friend.”

“Mmm, the sweet blonde,” he said as he licked his lips suggesting that he knew her better than he should. “She’s very enchanting, that one is.”

“Where is she?” I demanded.

“Last I saw, she had Bjorn and Aydan in one of the tents,” he said, and turned to leave me standing at the edge of the woods.

I marched across the clearing, ignoring the looks I was getting for crashing the party. So help me, if she was offering sex for immortality, I was going to slap her. I made it about twenty feet before a large man stepped in front of me. He was about the same build as Jaeden, if a little taller, with shoulder length black hair and startling blue eyes. He was beautiful and yet the sharpness in his eyes told me he was so much more than just a pretty face.

“Mademoiselle,” he said as he caught my hand and kissed it. “Such beauty,” he said as a wicked smile spread across his face.



I turned to catch Jaeden watching us as the Barbie continued her bump and hump the pole routine. I turned back to the black haired man who I assumed was a vamp and smiled. “Thanks, but I’m only here to find my friend and leave.”

“Please, stay and drink with me,” he said with a sparkle in his eyes. I was sure he’d left hundreds of hearts broken in his wake. He had player written across his forehead.

“I’m flattered—”

“Raphael,” Jaeden’s voice said from behind me. I hadn’t even seen him move, but a quick glance to where the pumped up Barbie stood glaring directly at me proved he had. She took long angry strides in my direction, which made my heart increase its rate, and once again I backed close to Jaeden for protection without knowing it until I was pressed against him.

“I have something that belongs to you,” Jaeden whispered against my ear. “Come with me if you want it back,” he said. I didn’t wait; I turned and left Raphael and blondie watching us as we left them.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Emma,” Jaeden growled once we were out of earshot of the others, at least I hoped it was and wondered how far they could hear.

“Addy is here; you should have expected me.”

“I wasn’t aware that you knew she had slipped out, much less that you would think of looking here first.”

“Addy’s been on a tear about you guys for the past few days, so it was a good guess that she was probably here.”

“And you came to beg me not to change her into the monster I am?” He raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Pretty much,” I shrugged.

“What would you give me to keep her mortal?”

“Are you bartering with Addy’s life?” I snapped angrily.

“I’m not a good person, and I want you. I’m willing to play the bad guy as long as it ends with you at my mercy,” he murmured in my ear, his nose slightly grazing my neck.

I snorted. “So you want me in your bed helplessly chained, and Addy stays human?” The mental picture made heat form in my limbs which traveled directly to my pussy. Oh yeah, I was a slut around him.

“Yes. That’s exactly what I want.”

“So basically you want me, in exchange for my best friend?” I asked as he held me locked against his body uncaring of who was watching us now.

“If you actually think you can barter sex for my best friend, that makes you a monster. Not the fact that you’re a vampire.”





Chapter 20





“Come in, Emma,” he purred as we reached his office.

“You want me to come into your office right after you told me you wanted me chained to your bed? I’m not an idiot, Jaeden.”

“Never thought you were,” he smiled as he moved to close the door, leaving me no choice but to enter the office.

“You know your mood swings are seriously giving me whiplash.”

“Is that so?” he asked as he closed the door and moved to his desk, leaning casually against it.

The room was huge, and opulently decked out in old Viking era pictures and designs. My heart hammered wildly from being alone with him, I shouldn’t have followed him to this office. There was a chemical reaction between us, one that made me a brainless hussy. My knees were weak, and my heart hammered against my chest. I could already feel the moisture pooling between my thighs from the thought of what he’d already done and what else he could potentially do to me. It was simple seduction, which he was skilled in.

“I want to make a deal with you,” he purred with a thin layer of silk in his tone.

“What kind of deal?”

“I want you,” he smiled as I sucked in air.

I swallowed past the sudden dryness of my tongue. “Excuse me?”

“I want you,” he stood to his full height using his tall frame for intimidation. His blue-green eyes raked over my face with interest. “We’ve played cat and mouse enough; I want to taste you and touch you at my leisure. I want to see what is under here again,” he said as he reached out and ran his long, tapered finger over my left breast. “To put it bluntly, Emma, I want to fuck you. I think I have made that clear on multiple occasions.”