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

  Crap!

  Chapter 4

  “Funny, most mutes can sign.”

  I pointed to my throat, and shook my head. His eyes however, slid down my body slowly making my libido kick into drive, and that stupid heartbeat was back, and throbbing between my legs. He smiled, and bit softly into his full bottom lip.

  “As a matter of fact, you don’t smell like a boy, either,” he continued casually, reiterating the statement he’d made the day before.

  I didn’t smell like a boy? Note to self, roll in dirt next time.

  “Remove the mask,” he said, and I shook my head slowly as I stepped back. He followed. “Scared I won’t like what I see, boy?”

  Oh friggin’ hell bells! He was gay, and I was playing a boy! It friggin’ figured that I’d find the only hot gay guy left on planet earth and it seemed only fitting that said gay guy thought I was a boy! Someone in hell was laughing pretty damn hard at my misfortune, I was sure of it.

  I shook my head and took a step closer to the window. The door was being chewed open, and I made a mental note to put an ASAP order on removing the dead, because we had enough crap to worry about. Wild animals putting us below them on the food chain was just not one of them.

  “I’m guessing you do speak, but for some reason, you won’t,” he tipped his head, and his blond hair met the sunrays. I tried to keep my eyes locked to his, I really did. However, they went to the golden strands, and it took effort not to remove my gloves and test their silkiness. “I don’t bite too hard.” He grinned as he moved closer to me.

  I tore my eyes from his hair and palmed the knife in my holster at my hip.

  “I wouldn’t try that,” he warned, but I was being backed into a corner, and I wanted out. “If you pull that, I will kill you.”

  Between the door being attacked by a hungry wolf, and him warning me about my impending doom, I was freaking out. He stepped closer, and I at the pulled the knife, only to find myself slammed against the wall. I cried out, and he stopped. His eyes widened as his hands made contact with my chest.

  “Fucking hell, if I didn’t know better, boy, I’d say you have a perfect set of breasts,” he grinned. He palmed them as his hands slid beneath the vest I wore. I growled, and took advantage of his brief distraction, pulling the knife. I held it against his throat, and then pressed harder when he just continued to grin at me.

  “Back up,” I said and continued to hold it against his flesh. “I said back up!”

  He did as I asked, but only a step or two.

  “You’re female, so why hide it? Why not use it to your advantage?” he asked without blinking.

  “And what? Become someone’s whore? Or be raped by some loser until nothing of me is left but some mindless, sobbing mess? No, I don’t think so,” I replied. It was sounding like the Cujo that was growling, slobbering, and clawing at the door had a few friends join him and they were trying to eat it now.

  “Remove the mask,” he purred.

  “Hey buddy, notice the knife?” I warned. Man, he was so not gay! I was trying to remember how to breathe while working my way to the window inconspicuously.

  “Yeah, I see the knife. Not worried about that. I’m more curious to see why you wear the mask? I’m thinking it’s because you’re scarred, or hideous?” His head shifted from side to side with curiosity trying to get a look behind the mask.

  I snorted. Seriously snorted and shook my head in disgust. Did he think he could goad me into removing it with that?

  “Hands up, or I’ll shoot!” Greta’s voice said from outside the window.

  The man slowly placed his hands on his head, but it looked like a sexy relaxed pose instead of a worried one. “That’s my cue,” I said, and smiled beneath the mask.

  “More of you masked ladies? I think I might like this town,” he grinned as he stepped back and I replaced the knife in the holster.

  “I wouldn’t stay here,” I warned, feeling cocky again.

  “You planning on kicking me out?” he asked, and for a brief moment, I caught a warning in his tone.

  I turned and looked at Greta, who had been stripped of her gun and was now between two beefy men. I went to reach for my knife, but I was pressed up against the wall, and my mask was lifted, baring only my lips. One moment I was about to scream, and the next, I was being kissed. By kissed, I mean it was curling my toes, and the moment his tongue pushed past my lips, I moaned. Hello Hussyland! I am your new leader. Follow me!

  His mouth was clean and tasted of mint. His kiss was soft and yet hard as he demanded I open my jaw wider to accept his kiss. I was lost in it, as if the world had been sucked down a black hole, and only he and I remained. When he finally pulled away, his eyes were wide as if he was as shocked as me by the electrical sizzle that had shot through my entire body.

  “You kissed me,” I said in puzzlement. He hadn’t even removed the mask fully, and yet he’d kissed me! “You kissed me!” I said with more anger. How dare he think it was okay to just go around kissing women!

  “I did,” he replied mockingly. He smiled, and I narrowed my eyes behind the mask. “And I’m already making plans to do it again.”

  “You wouldn’t,” I said indignity rampant in my tone.

  “Oh, I would. In fact, watch this,” he replied huskily before he pushed the mask up and kissed me again. This one was in no way soft. This one was fierce and his teeth scraped across mine as he held my face immobile. He growled from deep in his chest, or hell, maybe it had been me. His tongue captured mine and they danced, as if there was a musical beat only they could hear. His hands lowered and cupped my face even with the mask in the way. When he pulled away, I didn’t need to see his lips to know he was smiling. Nope, they were still against my skin, and I felt them move into a smile. “You kissed me back,” he whispered and pulled away from me. “Bjorn, Sven, let the girls go,” he said to the men outside.

  “The guns?” one of the two beefcakes asked.

  “They’re only women and they need them for protection. They won’t use them against us, will you…?”

  I considered saying yes, but ammo was hard to find, and guns was nearly impossible. “I can only promise that if you promise not to kiss me again.”

  “Why would I stop kissing you, when you respond like that?” he asked incredulously as he folded his tattooed arms over his wide chest.

  “Because I told you to, and I wasn’t kissing you back. I was just planning on how best to gut you.”

  “You can lie to yourself, sweet one, but I know when someone is kissing me back and when they’re planning to kill me.”

  “Get that often do ya?” I smiled as I said it.

  “The kissing part? All the time,” he replied casually and I felt something furl in the pit of my stomach at the thought of him kissing someone else as he had just done to me. The door chose that moment to splinter open, and wood shot through the air. I was taken to the floor hard, and the wind was knocked out of me painfully. “Kill!” he shouted, and bullets exploded from guns from outside, as the sound of shells hitting the ground echoed in my ears.

  “Stay still,” he warned, as I looked to the right where a pile of wolves now lay. “It’s almost over,” he assured as his thumb rubbed the soft tissue of my cheek. “I should have known this skin was too pretty to belong to a boy.”

  “Is that so?” I said without lifting my eyes. The wolves were huge, and didn’t look right. I wiggled my hips against the pressure of his body and the hard floor. And froze. “Please tell me you have a banana in your pants?” Because it was large, favored left, and holy friggin’ cat snouts! He was hard and on top of me! I pushed against him struggling to get out from underneath him.

  “A banana? No sweet girl, that’s a cock,” he mused.

  “Get off me!” I shouted and hit panic mode. With the last of th
e shots fired, he allowed it. He was huge, and I felt seriously uncomfortable with Mr. Happy poking my ass!

  “Hey, it’s okay. I was serious; we don’t mean you any harm,” he cautioned with his hands held up in mock surrender. “For now, anyway.”

  “Is that a threat?” I asked, and then wondered why I was wasting time. There were dead wolves in a pile, my girls were outside with men who looked like they’d been models for muscle magazines…Okay, that part wasn’t that bad, but still, I needed to get out of there. “Don’t answer that,” I supplied and moved to the window. When I got through it, I looked back at him to find him watching me openly.

  “See you around, Sweet Lips,” he taunted and grinned at me.

  Sweet Lips? Next time, I’d bite him! It would stop that name from ever leaving his mouth again.

  “Doubt it,” I replied and looked at Greta who was currently eye-banging one of the men. “Let’s go.”

  We headed away from the men, but as we entered the parking lot of the hospital, it was to find about twenty more men, and a couple of scantily dressed women watching us curiously. I didn’t blame them, or the men who watched us with caution. We walked past them without any problems, and the moment our feet hit the blacktop, we bolted as if the hounds of hell were chasing us.

  We made it to my motorcycle without any problems and took off in the direction of the girls. “You came for me, why?” I yelled over the motorcycle and then resented my tone.

  “You took too long, and you’re never late,” she shouted back. “I worry about you, ya know? You hold us together and I know you have to do certain things which are going to leave their mark on you.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered and wondered if she had heard it over the quiet purr of the bike.

  She held on as we rounded the corner and found the others slowly piling the bodies of the town’s less fortunate into a pile. I waited for Greta to climb off before I joined her. My lips still burned from his kiss, and the tingling in the pit of my stomach hadn’t stopped yet. The cold reminder of why we were here did little to cool the ardor in my system.

  We walked in silence, absently slipping back into our roles as we moved to help the others with the bodies. I wasn’t paying attention, because if I had been, I would have heard the music from the car that was sending dirt up in the air. I raised my hand, pointing it straight in the air. It was the signal for the women to hide. Nope, I had been contemplating that kiss, and its electrical pulse which had managed to slip into my panties and stay there.

  When they had slipped into the shadows, I followed them. I was between a building and a house when the Jeep slowed and then stopped by the pile of bodies. Had I been paying attention, we’d all be close together instead of scattered. The occupant of the Jeep got out and pulled on a thin length of leather. I had to swallow the bile that tried to come up as a small, thin girl who could be no more than thirteen climbed out and went to her knees in front of him.

  The guy looked methed-out, and his words were slurred as he smiled cruelly at the girl. They seemed to be alone, which worked out well, considering I was out of range for hand signals.

  “This looks like a good enough place to pass the night, whore,” he sneered and held out his boot which she then lowered her face to—and licked. Oh my God, he was so going to die for that. He kicked her and told her to clean it better, and I couldn’t stop myself from lunging and walking out to meet him.

  “What the fuck is this?” he asked. “You want some of my cock too, boy? I really couldn’t give a fuck less as long as it’s tight. Right, whore?” He didn’t even look shocked that I was wearing a mask, or that I was dressed in all black. Most people who saw us had the instinct to run, or try to kill us. Him? Not so much; his reaction was to abuse me. Yup, he was either on drugs, drunk, or both. I was going with both.

  I narrowed my eyes and pointed at myself. This guy had to be on something, because he couldn’t keep his attention on me or the poor girl for more than a few seconds. Drugs are bad, m’kay?

  Yep, it was official. Only the scum had been spared from the flu, and lived. He kicked her in the face and she cried out as she fell back. “I’ll do better, master, I promise. Please don’t do what you did to Diana to me, I’m a better whore!”

  “Nasty little bitch, you’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”

  I gagged. She nodded, and from the crazed look in her eyes, I believed she would do anything he asked her. She probably had done unspeakable things just to stay alive.

  “Go suck that boy off, while I fuck his ass,” he smiled coldly revealing blackened teeth.

  I pointed at myself again and tilted my head; he was serious!

  Yup, time to die. I pulled my crossbow from the cord and nocked an arrow before he could blink.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, you weak little piece of shit!” he screamed as spittle ran down his face. I knew the moment the others stepped out from their hiding places, because he turned white. “You won’t get away with this! My friends are coming! They will kill you all, but not before they make you feel pain.” I pulled the trigger, releasing the arrow, and watched as he fell to the cold ground with the other dead people.

  I wasn’t ready for the girl when she attacked me, and Greta had to pull her off of me. “You killed him! You killed him you fucking punk!” she screamed and clawed at Greta as she tried to get at me. Ok, up close and personal with crazy, I now saw that she was closer to seventeen or eighteen.

  “I did you a favor. He can’t hurt you anymore!”

  “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you! I’ll sell you to Ted and I’ll become his main whore! I’ll never want for anything again!”

  I shook my head, and then looked at Greta.

  “Can you change? Will you change?” I asked with desperation in my voice.

  “I’ll kill you!” she screamed and the moment she lunged, I pulled the knife and slipped it between us. Tears left my eyes to stream down my cheeks as she cried against my chest. “Kill…you.” My stomach clenched and rebelled against me.

  She gurgled, and when I could no longer feel her breathing, I picked her up and carried her to the pile. Mercy killing, but it left a mark on my soul, one I’m sure I’d remember forever.

  “You couldn’t bring her home with us, and you couldn’t chance letting her go to bring men back here to us,” Greta said softly and the others agreed. This was why she was worried, and I understood it. This poor girl wasn’t my first mercy kill, and unfortunately, she wouldn’t be my last.

  “It’s done,” I said, and stopped them from saying more. I couldn’t handle the look in their eyes, or their pity. I cocked my head to the side and listened as the sound of vehicles moving swiftly traveled through the air. “Get to the top of the building, go!” I shouted as I moved to the saddle bag on my bike. I grabbed it and ran for the Humvee, lifted the hood and pulled out a handful of cords so it wouldn’t start. If they took the gas, so be it, but they were not getting the damn thing.

  Next I ran to my bike, pulled out the keys, and booked it up the front set of stairs to hide behind the door, but the cars had been moving faster than I’d predicted. Shit!

  “Look….what the fuck!” A male’s deep voice tore through the air. “Spread out, and find who did this! I want their heads!”

  “And if it’s a woman?” someone else asked.

  “Then bring her to me, alive, she’s mine.”

  I made myself flush against the wall as I pulled out a grenade from the saddlebag. I pulled the pin and stepped into the doorframe, then tossed it like I was bowling for pins. I slipped silently back into the shadows and listened as I counted.

  “What the….” Boom! I dropped the bag, since I’d only counted four men outside, and I knew at least one was dead. I pulled the crossbow from my bag, set it and aimed at the man furthest from me. It struck him
in the chest, and he looked down, surprised that it was there.

  “Run!” one of the other men shouted, but as I lifted my crossbow, reset it and took aim, I caught a glimpse of a shadow stepping out from behind one of the abandoned cars on the street. I released my breath and watched as my mystery man swung a wicked looking axe and cleaved the unsuspecting guy’s head in half. He didn’t hesitate as he went after the other guy. I watched him as he swung his axe again, and removed the guy’s head. Ewww, he was so cleaning that one up.

  I stepped from the building to survey the damage. The car they’d driven here in was toast. Pieces of the leader were scattered on the ground. I looked up to the top of the building to find the three candy skull masks still staring down at me. I turned my head as mister sexy walked back up to me, his axe still dripping blood.

  “Get your girls, and get out of here. This group has more people, and I’m willing to bet they are on their way here,” he said as he stepped over the body pieces and walked up until he was nose to nose with me. He lifted the mask with no warning, exposing my lips again. His thumb trailed over where a single droplet of blood remained from being hit. “Be careful, there are bad men out on your streets, my fierce Valkyrie.”

  “Why did you help me?” I asked, because this wasn’t the first time. I’d have been puppy chow earlier, and he had plenty of time to attack me between his men and Greta getting there.

  “Is it wrong to help people?” he asked, surprised by my question.

  “If you expect something for it, it is.”

  “Have I demanded anything from you?” he countered as he stepped closer. I pretended not to be intimidated, but I was. I whistled for the girls, and watched him as he continued until he was inches from me.

  “You will, and when you do, remember, I have nothing to give you.”