Dark Before Dawn (The Protector Guild Book 7), page 36
There were no eyebrows visible on his face, but if he’d had any, his expression gave the impression that he’d be arching them. His lips were pressed flat, but I had a feeling that he was laughing at us.
My mouth dried up at the sight of him, and I could feel Darius’s curiosity, confusion, and anger radiating from him in equal parts as we all came to a standstill, unsure who—or what—we were dealing with here.
“So, you’re the girl.” The man, who I figured must belong to the council, turned his head, studying me—whatever he found in his assessment clearly lacking. “Consider your declaration of war heard—loud and clear. I can’t speak for the others, but I know I, personally, will enjoy watching your defeat.”
I stood taller, suppressed the wave of repulsion ripping through me at the metallic wrongness of his voice. My fingers itched for my blade, before I remembered I was a far more powerful weapon than any metal could be.
Fire flared to life through my fingers and I drew a line of it between us, a shield of sorts to keep the others safe.
I felt Darius coil, ready to spring at my side, reading his moves and patterns with the ease with which I knew my own.
“We’ll meet again soon, girl,” he said, not taking his eyes off the blazing barrier in front of him.
He didn’t seem afraid of the fire—if anything, he seemed almost envious of it.
My flames cut towards the man, hot and angry and mobilized by the rage I’d been fostering for years. But the councilman seemed unconcerned, only met my eyes briefly and then disappeared from sight.
“Did he just—” Dairus’s eyes narrowed as he studied the spot that had held a man only one second ago.
“Teleport,” I finished for him. “I didn’t think protectors could do that.”
Other than me—but I was more than just a protector.
Darius, frowning, reached for my hand as the flames died from my fingers. “They can’t.”
When we made it to the door, crisp fresh air beat against my skin. I invited it into my lungs, stunned by the sight before us.
Dozens—probably hundreds of people stood outside. Some of them wore familiar faces—Izzy and Arnell at the front—others carried themselves with the wear and tear of life within the labs.
“Max!” Izzy was eyeing a particularly frail girl who was leaning against a large tree when she caught sight of me.
Her body crashed into mine with a momentum that had me falling into Darius at my back.
“Thank the gods you’re fucking okay.” Her words were mumbled against my ear as she squeezed the life force out of me. “I was about two days away from hunting you down myself.”
“Good to see you too, Iz,” I pulled back and studied my best friend closely.
The bags under her eyes were fuller, darker than I’d ever seen them, but the flare of focus in her gray eyes was more vibrant than ever. Through the exhaustion, she’d come alive—found a focus, a sense of purpose that molded and shaped her into something even stronger than she was before. Which was saying something because she’d been a fucking force since the very moment I’d met her.
We had a lot of catching up to do, but it would have to wait.
“Did you get everyone out?” I asked.
I knew, at the very least, that the council had moved the younger students, the ones not yet assigned teams, to a secret location a few states away, in an attempt to keep them safe after the ambush—so no one unable to protect themselves would be harmed tonight.
“Of course I did.” She arched a cocky brow, then scrunched her nose in confession. “Well, Arnell did most of it. He hacked into their tech with the ease of a warm knife slicing through butter. Main building is clear. Pulled the teams a few miles away like we’d planned and then I made sure that everyone who’s with us stayed behind. Called in every favor I had, and it took some serious work but,” she shrugged, scanning the collection of protectors who were eyeing the freshly freed demons with more than a little trepidation and fear. A few seemed to have a vampire pinned who was snapping his mouth with a ferocity that spoke of a dangerous hunger. “I think we mostly pulled it off. Of course, we’ve lost our layer of anonymity and secrecy in the process. We won’t be of any more help to you here—we’ve played all of our cards.”
I squeezed her hand and walked into the strange crowd. Good.
I knew from the moment I stepped foot into our dreamscape that Izzy, Sharla, Arnell, and whoever else was with us, wouldn’t be spending another night at Headquarters. There was no going back from this. And after tonight, I’d make sure that there was no Headquarters to return to.
While many of the lab's former occupants were scattered around the grounds, I had no doubt that several had made haste with their unexpected freedom and dispersed. We just had to hope that they wouldn’t go on an attacking spree.
It was a problem for another day.
Most of them, however, seemed too weak to get very far. All of the demons remaining looked far weaker than Darius and Ralph had after their horrendous stay in the labs, so I knew that Tarren and the council had amped up their tactics. Massively.
The Guild was a rabid animal that had been backed into a corner—lashing out with a surge of strength.
Even though everyone looked more or less human at the moment, it was easy to tell Izzy’s collected protectors from the demons in the labs. The latter were predominantly either naked or dressed in hospital gowns that had seen better days. They were also almost all trembling with fear and the remnants of whatever drugs had been pumped into them to suppress or drain their power.
A few demons were coiled a few feet away, ready to attack—either each other or the protectors surrounding them—but the confusion and chaos had thankfully kept too many skirmishes from breaking out.
My fire flared to life, carving a tall hedge of flames between them, stopping three demons mid step.
The intensity of the hellfire pulled everyone’s attention to me.
“Listen,” I cleared my throat, not entirely sure how to rally a large group of people who’d spent a lifetime learning to hunt each other. “Er, right.”
My eyes met Darius’s and he nodded, his hand finding mine in a show of solidarity.
“The Guild has lied to everyone.” I projected my voice as loud as I could into the silent, wide-eyed crowd. This message, I directed at the protectors, some looking confused, others mobilized by the events of the evening. “Fabricated a history of our world, of the hell realm. They’ve been stealing magic from the demons they keep in the labs—not to protect humanity or their supposed values—but to take the only thing they’ve ever cared about. Power.” I shook my head, trying to gauge how much I should reveal, how much I should tell them. But I’d had enough of lying, enough of half-truths. “No more. Because, honestly, The Guild is the least of our concerns. The sudden presence of the council, the urgency and shift in Guild tactics, the magical surges, the hell-realm breaches. These things are indicators of a larger problem. An existential one. The realms are dissolving, the magic crafting them is warping in unpredictable, uncontrollable ways. If we truly want to save humans, our loved ones, each other—we have to work together.”
My voice broke into the wind, and I paused, searching for what else to say. So many scared, angry, hesitant faces met mine.
But then my focus cut to Arnell, his dark eyes glistening in the soft light. He clenched his jaw tight, his lips twitching in an almost imperceptible smile, urging me to continue.
“There is a place not far from here. A place where protectors, other demons, and humans live and fight for a better world together—a place of community, of accountability. I’m extending an invitation to every one of you here, to join the community that we have become a part of—and if they won’t have us all, then to create something new with us instead—” I honestly had no idea if Charlie and Bishop could house this many people, but we’d jump that hurdle when we met it, “to fight to protect each other as we take on whatever this new, strange world will throw at us.” I paused for a moment, took a deep breath, “It has always been so, but we declare it together now—from this night forward—The Guild and their council are an enemy to us all.”
A few of the demons from the labs bristled, glancing at each other with skepticism etched into every line of their bodies. It was to them that I directed this next part.
“You don’t need to fight with us, of course. We won’t force anyone to join us. You’re free to leave this night, to forge your own path, if that’s what you prefer. I wouldn’t blame you if you found trusting a stranger difficult, especially after what The Guild has put you through.” I took a deep breath and straightened my spine, the hundreds of eyes pinned to me like tingling sparks along my skin. “You’re free to leave this place, so long as you do so peacefully. But make no mistake, if you attack or harm anyone who hasn’t directly harmed or threatened you, we will hold you accountable. You don’t have to join us, but if you go against us, the peace between us ends.”
“So you’re really just going to let us go?” a thin man with matted red hair asked. His arms were crossed, muscles tense with distrust.
I took a deep breath, cut my eyes from Izzy, to Darius and Atlas, then back to the redhead. I nodded. “Yes. We all deserve the chance to choose where our allegiances lie.” I cocked a brow and took a step closer to him, pulling my fire back so that it left nothing but a line of scorched grass in its wake. “This is yours.”
A short white woman with kohl eyes glared at me. “What reason do we have to trust you?”
Izzy snorted. “Um, did you miss the part where she just burned down the lab and made sure you weren’t in it when she did? I’d say that’s a pretty damn good first impression.”
I rested my hand on her shoulder, pulling her back before Izzy-best-friend-mode activated fully.
“Just so we could become soldiers in this supposed war we’re expected to buy without question?” The redhead shook his head. “Kind of seems like moving from one prison to another.”
I didn’t blame him for his distrust. It was warranted—I honestly had know idea what the fuck I was doing.
Hell, I’d only just met Charlie and the rest of the Defiance and I still had no idea whether Lucifer was leaning more towards good or evil. He seemed to fluctuate in my estimate as frequently as the sun rose.
But I was convinced, indisputably now, that if good and evil did exist, The Guild was the latter. It was the one thing driving my moral compass now. And the only thing I could do was just go with it. “Like I said, you’re free to go. And I don’t really have any answers or guarantees if you choose to join us. We’re sort of figuring things out as we go. The apocalypse, unfortunately, did not come with a thorough instruction manual. I’m simply extending the offer to join us, if you want it. If you need a place to go or a purpose to filter your anger and strength through. Otherwise, so long as we don’t get wind of you attacking innocents, you won’t hear from me again.”
The man’s posture remained tense, but he didn’t push any further.
“We’re taking down The Guild—the council that runs them—whether you’re at our side or not.” Darius’s voice was strong and deep as it projected over the group. His eyes were wild with light.
The hazy glow of dawn softened what had seemed like dozens of glowering faces, revealing the fear and anxiety that coated us all.
While some of the demons and protectors had split off from the group during my bumbling speech, winding their way through the woods, bent on their own paths forward, others eyed me—each other—with curiosity. Some, even with hope.
I wondered how many people in the labs were former members of The Guild. I was certain Atlas and Sarah weren’t the only ones.
We needed to get a move on. I heard rustlings in the distance, shouts, and knew that the team members Izzy and Arnell had sent out would be back soon—and filled with a rage I didn’t want to face just yet.
Even if it was only Atlas, Sarah, Izzy, Arnell, and Darius coming back to The Lodge with me, I couldn’t teleport us there. I was drained from lending so much strength to Atlas.
And judging by the numbers Izzy had gathered, there would be far more people joining our trek back than just the six of us.
Hope bloomed sweet in my chest, curling through my limbs like a cool breeze.
This—whatever this was, exactly—wasn’t nothing.
I had no idea what this revolution would look like tomorrow, but the promise of it sparked a new clarity in my bones.
We had each other, and that was a hell of a lot to fight for, to hold onto.
“We need to go,” Arnell said, nodding to the group of people gathered behind him.
I turned around, studied the large, castle-like building that stood tall and ominous behind me. “You’re certain everyone is out?”
Izzy nodded.
Sirens roared their fury into the early morning air, the fire alarms screamed their agony around us, preemptively receiving the message I was going to send loud and clear.
My last conversation with Cy reverberated in my mind, louder and with a new sharpness.
Cy originally left The Guild because he no longer believed it served the greater good.
Seamus stayed because he wanted to fix things from within, to mend the broken system, rather than destroy it and start anew.
I hadn’t been sure where I stood—had been straddling the line between both approaches.
Until now.
I was done working with a system that did nothing but try to break us—a system built and designed for us to fail.
I’d seen first-hand what The Guild stood for—how they lied to, tortured, and used so many of us. No more.
Cy was right, and I’d honor his death by leaning into that truth.
It was time to break this fucking system and act. To live by a code that we all believed in, one grounded in truth.
With a deep breath, I pulled the spiraling heat deep into my center, stoking and nurturing the flames until I felt like I would combust.
And then on an exhale, I let the heat flare out of me, as hot and angry as anything hell could conjure—the perfect mirror and extension of my rage.
Flames licked up the walls of the beautiful building I’d entered only months ago, naive with wide-eyed excitement. I threw my arms out to the side, watching as my fire scorched the grounds that I’d spent so many mornings running through with Ro.
Smoke billowed from the training center where I’d met Izzy, trained with Six, been forced to fight to the death against Darius.
I left only the cabins, the small spaces of home that the teams created together—a small token, an offering. Let them gather their things, their communities, and decide for themselves where their loyalties would lie from this moment forward.
If The Guild wanted to destroy us—wanted to mobilize against us—fine.
Let them do what I did and rise from the ashes.
We’d see if they had the same strength.
My muscles relaxed at the sight of my flames—vibrant shades of orange and blue and purple. As beautiful as they were deadly.
We stood there, together—Darius brushing up against me on one side and Atlas on the other—watching with awe, with pride, as the very power The Guild feared swallowed it whole.
25
ELI
“Wake the fuck up.” I shoved Wade again as I tried to swallow the panic threatening to clog my throat.
“Whmm,” he mumbled, bleary eyes barely opening at first, but when he caught sight of my expression, they rounded wide with concern. He sprang up, expression thunderous as he rummaged around through his things on the floor, no doubt searching for his blade.
“She left. Declan and Ro are in the living room.” I threw a hoodie that was laying casually over his lamp at him. “Get dressed. We need help.”
“And the vamp?” Wade’s voice was muffled as he pulled on the sweatshirt and followed me to the cramped living space.
Ro was pacing feverishly, his hair sticking out at every direction, whether from sleep or from taking out his frustration, I wasn’t sure.
Declan’s eyes were fire, her voice cracked with gravel. “We’re assuming he went with her. That they went to get Atlas.” She rubbed the tension in her forehead, eyes pinched tight. “I should’ve fucking heard her leave. I can’t believe I slept through that.”
“Do we have any idea when she left?” Ro asked.
I’d been pretty restless in the night, woke up once to take a leak, but hadn’t heard anything.
Declan sighed and shook her head. “Could’ve been hours ago.” She bunched the bottom of her t-shirt tight into her first. “Fuck.”
“Every fucking time she leaves with that fanghole, it’s bad news.” My jaw hurt from grinding my teeth together so hard.
The last time she’d ditched us with him, she wound up locked in Lucifer’s dungeons. Who knew what the fuck would happen to her now.
Declan considered me for a moment. “She’s stronger now. Maybe—”
Hope clenched at my chest too. If Max could pull off her asinine rescue mission, it was possible we’d start the morning with Atlas and Sarah back where they belonged—with us.
But The Guild was an entity, and as powerful as she was, she was still just one girl.
And a deeply unpredictable vampire.
Tarren was also a formidable opponent in his own right, especially if the force of the entire council was stacked behind him.
Everyone was hunting for her. The moment she stepped foot on campus and was spotted, she’d be on a nonstop mission to get him and get out as quickly as possible.
I tugged my boots on with more force than was necessary. “If she’d just fucking waited until morning, we could have helped, could’ve gotten them out of there together.”
Generally, I both loved and hated how impulsive Max was, how much she threw herself into the things that she believed in. Right now, I only hated it.
