Darkest Before Dawn (A Guardian's Diary Book 1)(48)

“I’m leaving,” I said as I looked over my shoulder to find a very angry Jaeden glaring at me.

I made it to my bike before he grabbed my arm and spun me around. “Why did you come here when you have an entire pack of wolves at your beck and call?” he growled.

I ripped my arm from his hold. “Go back to your life; I can find him alone,” I snapped with enough anger to turn him to ash. I’d just wasted my time when I could have been searching for Grayson. The cool crisp air was doing little to cool my temper.

“I’m not with her, nor will I ever be again. You can’t walk into my camp and demand I help you after a month of you acting like what we did didn’t happen. I have been brutally honest about who and what I am. I’ve been to your shelter once a day since you threw me out; did the wolf tell you that?”

“I needed time, Jaeden, I told you that. I didn’t come here for you. I came here for help. You told me to let you help and I’m asking you for it now. He’s my brother and he’s with someone who allowed people inside the shelter to kill them. You told me to trust you, so here I am, and what do you do? You let your friggin’ Barbie doll attack me. That doesn’t make me want to trust you. I knew you came each day, but if you can’t handle me taking a little time to come to grips with all of this and get my priorities straight, then maybe it’s for the best we just part ways.”

“You didn’t even acknowledge I was there. All I got was Lachlan telling me to get lost with your scent all over him. So tell me, Emma, just how close did you and Lachlan become in the last month while you pretended I didn’t exist, because according to him, you guys were pretty fucking close.”

“I’ve been with one man in my entire life if that’s what you’re asking, Vampire. It was you, in case I was so forgettable.”

“I’ve thought of nothing else.” He surprised me by saying that with a delicious grin on his lips. “I was made to believe you’d gone to him and accepted him in my place.”

“Uh, because I’m such an easy catch, right? Or because I’m just so fucking easy, Jaeden?”

He laughed but his eyes drank me in as if I was the most exquisite thing he’d ever seen before. “I should’ve known you wouldn’t choose a dog over me. Not after the way you screamed my name.”

“I don’t have time for this, Jaeden. I have to find my brother,” I said as I shifted the bike and kicked the stand up. “You can either help me because you want to, or don’t. Personally I don’t give a shit because you already know I’d give you anything for him.”

“I was pissed at the idea of you and the wolf, and before you accuse me of it, I knew you’d win against Astrid. You have something inside of you that’s scratching its way to the surface. You’re as dark as me, and it’s fucking sexy as hell, probably because you can’t even see it yet.”



“Jaeden, I need to find my brother and then you can be sexy and all dark and shit. First things first; focus.”

“Promise?” he asked.

“One night, that’s all I’m going to promise at this time and that’s only if we find him, because nothing in this world is more important than finding him.”

“Then let’s go find your brother. Cayla has him in her sights at the clearing over at Priest River,” he said as he pulled the bike out of my grasp and straddled it as if he owned it.

“Cayla?” I asked, confused as I climbed on the bike behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist.

“She’s been watching the shelter all month, just like I said she would. She told me he’d left, and who he’d left with, but I thought nothing of it. She decided to follow them when she thought something was off about one of them, other than how bad he smelled.”





Chapter 26





It felt right to be with him. I felt the flicker of my heart as I snuggled against his back. We’d just hit the bridge when he pulled the bike to the side of the road and parked it. We climbed off, and I looked around and watched as Lachlan and his pack walked up shirtless, and with purpose.

“They’re just beyond the bridge,” Lachlan said as he met us. “There is also a vampire tracking them.”

“Cayla was watching the shelter when they left. She thought it seemed off that they’d be out in only a pair, since most left in large groups, so she followed them to the clearing,” Jaeden offered.

“The people there are holding him and another man, but it’s unclear what they want,” Lachlan continued. “We didnae dare breach the clearing and chance them panicking while they had the boy.”

Several different visions rapidly flashed before my eyes. It was as if my mind was showing me photographs of an event. Jimmy was there, along with quite a few men who seemed to be holding Grayson prisoner. My mother was also there and she looked very good for a dead person, but there was another face I recognized and I felt as if my heart was being crushed when I saw it.

“Me,” I said woodenly as it sunk in. I was what they wanted, because if my mother hadn’t been insane, I was her newest Knight. The first time I’d listened to the recording it hadn’t made sense. She talked about Sentinels like they were pieces of a board game, one they’d been trying to figure out how to cheat on. “They’re here for me.”

“You can’t know that, Emma,” Jaeden said as he stepped protectively towards me.

“Is there a woman with the same color hair as mine over there?” I asked Lachlan.

“Aye, there is.”

“Emma,” Addy called softly as she walked up beside Liam.

“Why are you here?” I asked with a feeling in the pit of my belly that said we had too many pieces on our side. “Go back to the shelter. You’re the only one I trust to keep it safe.”

“I couldn’t, not after I listened to one of those tapes. I’m so sorry she did this, and the pain she put you through! I couldn’t let you do this without me. You know I use humor as a barrier, but I love you. I couldn’t let you do this without you knowing it. It’s me and you, always me and you, bitch.”

“What tapes?” Lachlan and Jaeden both asked together.

“My mother’s tapes, the ones she made right before she faked her own death,” I admitted. “They’re the reason why Grayson left the protection of the shelter with Jimmy,” I swallowed the anger. As an afterthought, I smiled at Addy. “I love you too, hooker.”

“I thought your mother was dead,” Jaeden said as Lachlan nodded his agreement.

“Yeah, me too,” I said as I took in the looks of uncertainty and regret as they put it all together. I’d had time to cope with my mother being a murderous bitch, maybe not a long time, but enough to not want them to look at me like this. “Don’t do that; I’m sure you all had a fucked up family at one time. Turns out, mine happens to be a lot more fucked up than I thought.”

They smiled as if I’d hit it on the head with my mental hammer. I was about to say more when voices erupted inside my head. My hands rose to my temples as I listened to them.

“So, what’s the plan?” Jaeden asked, but I ignored him.



“She’s coming, soon. Right now she’s standing with a vamp and a few mutts.”

“And the vampire watching us now, when do we kill her?”

“Soon; make no commotion that will spook Emma, we need her.”

“We’ll have her Trina, she belongs to us.”

“Can she hear us?”

“No.”

“Not yet, but she will once we’ve ended her mortal existence.”

“What are they saying?”

“Emma just asked them if they had a plan.”

“Emma?” Jaeden asked and my eyes lifted to his. “You okay?”

“Did she hear us? Why’s she spooked?”

“Sorry, I’m just worried about Grayson,” I said, hoping it led the strangers who obviously could hear us, astray. “What’s your plan?” Because it sure in the hell wouldn’t be the plan I went with now.

“Justin, come away from them. The vampire will sense you if you get too close.”

“No! I want to know his plan. It will give us an advantage.”

“Very well, but the moment you have it, pull away from them.”

There were three other people who I could hear, but I couldn’t give it away. They’d believed we were unaware that they could hear us, but I had a plan. I listened absently as Jaeden and Lachlan quickly sketched out a plan, and wasn’t surprised when Jaeden’s men and Shamus showed up.

“Shamus,” Jaeden said carefully.

“Can it; I love a good fight, you know that,” Shamus said before his eyes flickered to mine.

I wondered what had happened to make their friendship so rocky, but I had inkling she was busty, blonde, and bitchy. Shamus was her master, as Jaeden had called him, and she hadn’t seemed happy at all about it. I was about to speak when I was given something I couldn’t quite understand. A vision of my future, and it was pretty damn grim.

“Emma?” Lachlan said narrowing his eyes at me.

“Pull back; that’s a direct order, Justin.”