Darkness at Dawn: Love & Monsters, #1

By Devin Harnois

Finding a naked woman on his patrol is the last thing Richard Everson expects. The world has been overrun by nasties, nightmarish creatures who make survival impossible outside the walled city. She must be one of them, a monster in human skin. Yet he can't bring himself to kill her.

Jennifer loses her humanity every night, taking on the werewolf form that was forced upon her. Everson is a precious link to the remains of the human world.

Each dawn, their brief encounters kindles a hunger for more and they grow ever closer despite the danger. Will Everson allow duty to win, or will he risk everything for a sliver of hope in a broken world?

Warning: This book contains strong language, nightmarish creatures, a violence-loving hero, a very naked woman, werewolves, forbidden desire, and post-apocalyptic monster-killing mayhem.

Short story: approximately 13,000 words

*PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BY SAMHAIN*

• Language: English
• Publisher: October Night Publishing
• Release date: Apr 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781393391999

Book preview

Darkness at Dawn

Devin Harnois

About Darkness at Dawn

Finding a naked woman on his patrol is the last thing Richard Everson expects. The world has been overrun by nasties, nightmarish creatures who make survival impossible outside the walled city. She must be one of them, a monster in human skin. Yet he can’t bring himself to kill her.

Jennifer loses her humanity every night, taking on the werewolf form that was forced upon her. Everson is a precious link to the remains of the human world.

Each dawn, their brief encounters kindles a hunger for more and they grow ever closer despite the danger. Will Everson allow duty to win, or will he risk everything for a sliver of hope in a broken world?

Warning: This book contains strong language, nightmarish creatures, a violence-loving hero, a very naked woman, werewolves, forbidden desire, and post-apocalyptic monster-killing mayhem.

To all my writer friends, near and far.

CHAPTER ONE

The night shift was the most dangerous—starting at twenty-two hundred hours and lasting until sunrise. It had the highest casualty rate, the highest breakdown rate, the highest turning rate. His last partner had been turned. Didn’t show up for check-in and never came back. Never came back human anyway. Everson had come across him two months ago and had blown what was left of his ex-partner into chunks of ghoul-feed. He’d told the boss no more partners. Although it was against standard practice, the boss had agreed. Everson knew the risk he was taking, but without a partner there was no one to lose.

The dark was still thick, but he felt sunrise coming. Felt it in his bones. He thought the nasties must feel it the same way, know it was coming and start dreaming of whatever it was they called home. The sound of his boots echoed in the silence. Everson had his night-vision goggles flipped up as he scanned the dark street. It made him much more vulnerable to attack, but if he kept the goggles on too long it felt like the greenish light was burning his eyeballs.

A cry echoed from somewhere and Everson gripped his gun a little tighter. It was far away though. Sounded like one of those bird things. Small but nasty. Another sound, much closer, put him on full alert. There was a rustle in the overgrown bushes off to his right. Everson flipped his goggles down and turned off his gun light. Some nights things died down about now. Other nights this was when it got the worst.

The rustle came again and he started toward it. The bushes kept whatever it was hidden. He took a few more steps and heard another rustle, a little louder, and a snapping twig. C’mon, you son of a bitch, he muttered. Come out and play. Halfway down the front yard, the bushes parted. There it was—waving antennae, segmented body, legs like an army on the march and ten feet long, easy. Everson took two shots and the nasty screamed, flailing. More of it emerged from the bushes and he revised his estimation—twenty feet. The centipede nasty rose up on several segments and came at him. God, these fuckers are fast. Everson put several rounds in it and the thing jittered, slowed, stopped.

He fired a few more bullets into it while it twitched on the ground. All that noise was sure to draw attention. When he was sure the centipede wasn’t going to get up, he glanced around. Yep, here they come. Everson reloaded his gun and made a quick check of his other weapons. All ready. A pair of jackal beasts slinked through the yards across the street. A humanoid shambled down the middle of the street. Something that sounded considerably larger was coming from a block over. Everson brought his gun up again.

Come on, you fuckers!

He was so busy fighting that he almost didn’t notice the light filling the sky, didn’t notice the sun had cleared the horizon until the nasties started disappearing. Some of them did it literally, fading into a wisp of smoke. The rest hurried off to whatever holes or dens they hid in for the day. There were only a few kinds of nasties that moved around during the day, and none of them seemed to be in Everson’s vicinity. He flipped up his goggles, blinking a little in the light, and tipped his gun up to rest it on his shoulder. Quitting time.

He was currently breaking three rules: no partner, no AV and he