Death Before Dawn

by Amelia Hutchins

  “Stupid girl,” Dagan hissed. “She didn’t need him,” he laughed darkly; spittle ran down his lips. “He was nothing more than a pawn, meant to be used for the greater good. He played his part beautifully. After we left you in Priest River, we met up at the Albeni Falls Dam, and the human scientist with us gave Grayson the first dose of the new virus. It killed him, and he came back, as Sentinels do. Unfortunately, he did not become a strong Knight as Trina thought he would. He was given another dose, and this time, sweet Emma, the little bastard died. I guess neither of her children turned out how she thought they would,” he laughed coldly.

  My heart dropped, and I had to force myself not to rush forward or scream at him. I couldn’t let him see how much his words were tearing me apart. Everything inside of me was demanding I do one or the other.

  “You’re lying. I know she wouldn’t kill him. Not without getting me first!”

  “Did you really think she’d keep him alive? He was weak, killing him was a kindness. She’d planned to catch you sooner, but you just can’t stop yourself from falling in with the wrong men.”

  “Grayson isn’t dead!” I screamed, the anger inside of me unraveling.

  “No? His corpse is still inside the dam, right outside the shitty little place you love so much. We made sure he wasn’t coming back before we left him there. Couldn’t have him interfering with what Trina has planned for you. We finally have a way to control the Sentinels; nothing will stop us now. Not even Death himself.”

  “Kill him,” I growled as someone gasped, and a woman beside me collapsed to the ground. “Azrael, kill him, please!” I pleaded through the tears blinding my vision.

  I could see Azrael studying me carefully; when he didn’t move fast enough, I lunged, only to have him catch me and hold me tightly as I struggled to get to Dagan.

  “If you spill his blood, more than is already leaking from every orifice, you could make matters worse,” he whispered against my ear as I struggled to get free. “He is goading you; he wants you to end his suffering. She left him here to die; look at him,” Azrael demanded. “He knows he has outlived his usefulness to her and we are his only hope of a quick death.”

  Dagan did look like he wanted us to end his suffering, but I wanted to slaughter him. I wanted to rip him apart for even saying my brother was dead without proof.

  “Grayson isn’t dead,” I repeated, more to myself.

  “He’s dead, Emmalyn, I assure you it’s true,” Dagan taunted. “He died screaming your name. Begging for you to save him, but you were too busy, weren’t you, Emma? You were too busy bedding down with your enemy while your sweet baby brother begged for you to save him. His death was painful; Trina wouldn’t allow us to end it prematurely, and so we watched. It took him hours to perish, where were you? He screamed for you.”

  I struggled in Azrael’s arms to get to Dagan, but he held me back and whispered soft words to calm me. I was barely keeping it together. I wanted to kill Dagan. I wanted to cut his tongue out to keep him from saying anything else.

  “Kill him, please,” I begged. “Azrael, kill him!”

  I was released, Azrael vanished, and Death stood before Dagan. He was dressed in Azrael’s clothing, and thick black lines now slid down and expanded across his exposed flesh; glyphs pulsed and slithered over his skin. Red eyes the color of freshly spilled blood looked at me.

  “You’re sure you want this?” he asked, and I nodded without hesitation. He reached out, his hands touched Dagan’s cheeks, and a scream ripped through the courtyard, loud, terrifying, and final. Dagan slumped over, and his body jerked; tremors pulsed through him until he was at last still. His remains decomposed at a rapid rate and left nothing but a skeleton and a smattering of ash. Azrael turned towards me and stepped closer, as one of the women screamed behind him.

  The virus was spreading.

  “Did I…?” I whispered, unable to finish my thoughts. I’d wanted vengeance so much that I’d begged for it. Had I just killed everyone?

  “No, it’s airborne.” Azrael’s features returned to his normal handsome self. “You’re out of time, beautiful,” he growled, moving until he stood in front of me. “Clear your mind, and listen to me very carefully, Emma. I took his life for you, now you return the favor. Save our people,” he murmured. His eyes filled with pain and something that scared me, trust.

  “You’re not sick,” I pointed out. I felt nausea as it rushed through me. “How is that possible? I saw the blood.”

  “Trina doesn’t know enough about Guardians to make an effective virus against us; no one does,” he stated, his eyes turning red as he watched me. “We are running out of time. Focus on me. You’re the only one who can save them. I am able to kill and purge the live virus from my body. I can’t do the same to them without killing them in a worse fashion than the virus could. There has to be a way for you to take the virus from them. You just have to figure out how to do it.”

  “Azrael,” I whispered, terrified. I had no idea how it worked, or if I could even do it. “I don’t know how to do it,” I choked out through trembling lips.

  “Clear your mind and stop doubting yourself,” he said softly, as more cries erupted.

  I looked around as people watched us, some already sick with the virus. They’d walked the virus right through the front gates, and now everyone was dying.

  “Azrael, I can’t do this,” I pleaded. I had no fucking idea what he expected. I had no idea how to control my powers, or even what they were.

  “Do you trust me, Emma?” he asked as he pulled out a dagger.

  “Are you going to stab me?” I asked, already backing away from him.

  “Yes,” he said grimly, as he bowed his head and pulled his shirt up and away from his body. Black ethereal wings expanded, and his crimson eyes watched me. He totally looked the part of the Angel of Death in this form. “I’m going to kick-start your powers the only way that I can think of. If we don’t, they’re dead. Do you trust me, Emma? Say you trust me, because we’re out of time, little phoenix.”

  “I don’t have wings,” I whispered, not sure he was playing with a full deck. Maybe I’d misjudged him. Maybe I was as crazy as he was, but not enough to think I would grow wings.

  “You’re a Guardian of Life, Emma, you have wings.”

  “You drunk?” I asked, backing away from him. “I really don’t have wings.”

  “Hayden, catch her and hold her down,” Azrael ordered. His armor formed around him, and his wings folded back and lay neatly tucked against his armor as he got closer to me.

  I turned to run, but Hayden caught me. “Sorry about this, Emma,” he said sheepishly. “Remember, it’s for a good cause, yeah?”

  “Let me go!” I screamed, as I struggled to get away from him. “Don’t let him cut me; I don’t have any fucking wings. I’m not a chicken!”

  I was pushed to the ground as I struggled to get free; my face was shoved into the dirt and I felt the blade cut through the flimsy material of the shirt I wore as he exposed my spine. His fingers probed my back until they found a ridge just above my shoulder blades that I wasn’t even aware was there.

  “Azrael, no!” I sobbed, as I felt the blade touch my flesh and sliced. The second cut sent me over the edge. Something inside of me snapped. I growled; white light filled my vision and then I was up. Hayden was thrown to the ground, his mouth wide open as I spun on Azrael and the blade he wielded. “Don’t. Cut. Me. Fucker!” I screamed, the sound echoing through the courtyard as I felt my fingers flexing as I prepared to fight him. I slashed at him with my hand, watching as it tore through his armor. I looked down, finding claws where my fingers had been. I hissed, my eyes locked with his as I lunged forward, only to be caught by him as he vanished and appeared behind me. His arms wrapped around me, pain and feathers erupting as I screamed.

  “You have beautiful wi
ngs, love,” he whispered gently. “Fuck, Emma, you’re fierce.”

  “I’m going to tear you apart!” I snapped.

  “No, Life, you’re going to do what you were created for. You’re going to save their lives. You’re going to save our people.” He released me and I exhaled, planning on ripping his dick off to repay the pain he’d just put me through. Instead, I was lost in the sea of faces that needed me.

  I could see the sickness inside of them. It was crystal-clear. I could see the mutated virus spreading through their bodies, killing live tissue and cells. It was literally eating them from the inside out. I opened my mouth to reply to Azrael to tell him to go to hell, but no words came out. Instead, I felt my body jerk and I could see my hands glowing; I could feel the sensation of my entire body glowing and burning. Light burst from my eyes and mouth, engulfing everyone in the courtyard and blinding me; everyone began to scream. The screaming was horrifying and terrible. I covered my ears as blackness filled my vision. Pain erupted inside of me, and before I could ask Azrael to end it, to end me, everything went dark and numb.

  Chapter 27

  I woke up pressed against something hard and warm. I struggled to open my eyes, only to find them caked with something that refused to allow them to open. Pain filled my head, and I groaned as hands softly smoothed my hair away from my face.

  “You’re safe, sweet girl,” Azrael’s voice filled my ears.

  “I’m blind,” I moaned. I felt something wet and warm being pressed against my eyes.

  “There’s dried blood on your eyes, I’m cleaning you now,” he explained.

  “What happened?” I asked. The last thing I remembered was blinding light, and screaming.

  “You took the virus, and it ran its course,” he elaborated. “It was most…unpleasant.”

  Most unpleasant?

  “Am I contagious?” I asked, wondering what the hell I’d really done. He was sugarcoating something.

  “I am sure you are,” he replied.

  Okay, so maybe he wasn’t sugarcoating it.

  “You asked me to take the virus from them, and I did. Now you’re telling me I’m contagious? Like a walking plague?”

  “It will pass,” he promised.

  I coughed and wiped my mouth with my arm as he worked on clearing the dried blood from my eyes. I didn’t feel sick. In fact, I felt great. Tired, but other than that, not sick. As the blood was gently wiped away and I was finally able to open my eyes, I saw Azrael; his clothes, face and hands were splattered with blood.

  “Are you hurt?” I asked, my voice raw and rough.

  “It’s not my blood, Emma.” His voice was soft as his eyes carefully watched me.

  “Did you take a hatchet to someone?” I countered. It was a lot of blood. It looked like he’d either stood in front of something that had an arterial blood splatter, or someone who…shit. “It’s mine. You didn’t leave me while I was sick?”

  “I wasn’t going to leave you when you were in pain,” he admitted as he continued to wash the blood from my face.

  In this moment, I loved his stupidity and his inability to leave me. I laughed, and shook my head. I’d bled all over him. He was splattered in it, and looked like a serial killer.

  “You look like you slaughtered a village and then bathed in their blood,” I laughed, the sound throaty and a little sadistic.

  “You kept crying my name,” he whispered as he kissed my forehead, ignoring the fact that I was covered in blood and God knew what else. I was a mess.

  “You sure I wasn’t begging for death? Like, kill me?” I giggled.

  “You called me by name, not by what I am.” He picked me up carefully. “Let’s get you cleaned off, shall we?”

  “Grayson,” I whispered as tears filled my eyes and my stomach dropped to the floor. “Oh my God, what if he is there? What if she killed him?”

  “We will go check once you are no longer contagious,” he offered. I looked around the room, noting that we were sealed in. They’d erected a hazmat room. Thick red plastic covered the walls, the floors, and tape had been patched around anywhere air could escape.

  “We have to kill her,” I whispered. “She can’t continue to do this to people.”

  “By sending Dagan in, she’s done nothing more than confirm her guilt with the virus against the humans. She won’t go down without a fight, Emma. She’ll take as many as she can down with her. I’m not sure we can afford to meet her head-on until you’re ready to counteract the virus she’s turned into a weapon. You’ve been out of it for days,” he said.

  “Days?” I tried to figure out how that was even possible. I hadn’t been down for days. Hours maybe, but days?

  “You have been fighting the virus; your body may be able to contain it, but you still had to live through it. I’m not sure how your power works, but when I give death, it’s simple. It’s as easy as breathing. You’re different. Messy. Just like life.” He smiled.

  “Thanks.” I laughed nervously.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he amended. “I figured you’d be immune against it, and able to nullify it. You didn’t. You took their sickness from them. They were in different stages of the virus when light exploded from you. The others started screaming as the light engulfed them; it was like the light pulled the virus out of them as it receded back to you,” Azrael explained as he arranged me comfortably on a chair then started the bathwater. “You disappeared from my senses. I thought I was losing you. I tried to stop whatever was happening, but you were incoherent and then, one by one, they started to rise with no symptoms. So yes, it was messy. After the last Sentinel rose, you started exhibiting signs of the virus. I took you from the courtyard and we sealed off this room. You whispered my name through the worst of the pain, crying out for me if I left your side. So, other than a brief period where I had to take care of some business, I stayed, I held you as your body exhibited each phase of the virus.”

  “That couldn’t have been easy,” I mumbled, wondering why he hadn’t just left me to rot. If it had been anything like the virus that had swept through the humans, it started with thick black lines that looked like spider webs; after that, the fever ravaged the brain, and blood would escape from the body through every orifice it could. The body would tremble, shake, and, eventually, death would take over.

  “You seemed immune to most of the pain,” he acknowledged.

  “I meant for you,” I countered. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to hold me through it.”

  “It wasn’t, but I wasn’t about to leave you alone through it. I’m not going anywhere, Emma,” he said gently, as he helped me to stand and remove the blood-spattered clothing. “It looks like your mother made the virus that killed the humans into a weaponized version of the plague so she could target Sentinels. I’m guessing she doesn’t even have a cure for it. Luckily, we have you.”

  “No one died?” I asked.

  “Trina’s people that were taken with Dagan survived because of you. I interrogated them and killed them. We couldn’t afford for any of them to escape and get close enough to communicate with your mother to let her know that we had survived. We need the element of surprise if we are going to win this war.”

  “I don’t blame you for killing them,” I admitted. “I hadn’t even thought about them communicating with her. I guess it’s time you teach me to be like you, Azrael. I can’t just go into this fight blindly. You can train me, so that when I need them, I know how to use my powers, right?” I asked, as he hooked his fingers through my panties and pulled them off.

  “Most of your abilities can’t be learned traditionally.” He held his hand out and helped me into the tub that was sweetly scented with lavender. “I can teach you to fight, and what triggers mine. Anger, fear, anything that pulls enough emotion from you can trigger your abilities. You just have to find
that trigger and pull it.”

  “Do you think they killed Grayson to trigger me?” I asked as a sob built inside of me. Dagan said she wanted my humanity gone. Without Grayson, I wasn’t sure I would be able to hold on to it. I was losing the battle; this world wasn’t making it easy to hang on to much of who I had been before the virus.

  “I hope not, but Trina doesn’t value life, Emma. She values power, and he had very little. If I wanted to kill what little of you was left, what I thought kept you holding onto humanity, I would have killed him, too. As you said, you raised him. He is and will always be your anchor, but he’s also a weakness. Any enemy would have chosen to use him against you.”

  “I’m not sure I want to go on if he isn’t here,” I whispered through the constriction of my throat as tears threatened to choke me. “I hate not knowing where he is. It kills me to even imagine a world where he isn’t in it.”

  He crushed me against his chest and held me as I pulled my emotions together and brought them under control. He held me until I pulled away; his beautiful eyes searched mine and then he released me to sink down in the tub. He didn’t join me. Instead, he knelt beside the tub and leaned against it.

  “We will figure out what they’ve done with the boy, and we’ll go to the Ark before we leave for the Olympian peninsula. According to one of the men I interrogated, your mother is most likely there with some of her scientists. I know about Jaeden’s maker, and Lachlan’s sire. You shouldn’t allow yourself to believe that they’re savable. I’m pretty sure she’s either killed them, or turned them into mindless beings by now. She’s cold, it’s how I feared you might become, but you’re not cold at all, little phoenix,” he smirked, splashing me with water.

  “If she’d stayed, I fear I would have been like her,” I admitted. “I think her leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me, even though at the time I felt otherwise. I don’t remember all of it, but I think you’re right. I think deep down I’d always thought she was still out there. Like I could feel it, but didn’t understand it at the time.”