Hunt the Darkness (Order of the Blade Book 11)

by Stephanie Rowe

  Maria pulled herself to her feet and stepped forward. Her hands were on her hips, her shoulders back, her feet spread as she lifted her chin. With her black leggings, and blood red bodice, she looked as menacing as Lucien, but Sophie could see the sweat trickling down between her shoulder blades, the only indication of exactly how much effort Maria was expending to stay vertical and not collapse. “I’m off limits,” Maria snapped. “You don’t get to have me. No one does.” Her voice was steady and sharp, but her fingernails were digging into her palms so hard that Sophie could see droplets of blood on her skin.

  Lucien had tried to take Maria a number of times in the past, but she’d always fought him off. He was afraid to hurt her because of her value, and as a demon half-breed, she was the only woman in the kingdom who could actually defend herself against him.

  But right now, she was deathly weak, and Lucien had figured that out.

  Maria glanced at Sophie, her eyes filled with worry for the first time since Sophie had known her. They all knew what happened to the women Lucien selected. They died. Even Maria wouldn’t be able to withstand the poison of his semen. If Maria became contaminated, there would be no one to save her, and without her, there would be no light left for the women dragged into this hell.

  There would also be no light left for Sophie either. She didn’t need Maria for healing. She needed Maria’s friendship. Maria was all she had in this bleak, rotting world.

  Lucien strode forward, and Maria stood taller as he neared. He caught her chin in his hand, his twisted fingernail curving into her flesh as he lifted her face toward his. Sophie steadied Ashlynn, all three women waiting in silent anticipation of his next move.

  “A lust demon,” he said thoughtfully.

  Maria slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me,” she snapped. “I’m the vessel.”

  “Are you?” He leaned forward. “Here’s what I’m thinking. I think that if our prophesied demon queen was planning to use your body to come back to life, she would have done it by now. I think you’re not the half-human, half-demon vessel in the prophecy. I think maybe, it’s time to see exactly what a female lust demon can do for me.”

  Maria jerked back as he reached for her, and lost her balance, her body so weak she couldn’t stand. Sophie’s heart was racing as she leapt forward to catch her before she fell. “She’s too important,” she snapped as she pulled Maria behind her.

  “I’ll make that decision.” Lucien’s wings suddenly exploded from his back, massive, skeletal wings that slammed into the walls of the small room, knocking debris from the rock walls. He knocked the women aside with one stroke of his wings, and Sophie yelped as the women were flung against hit the far wall. Her heart thundered as Lucien grabbed Maria and dragged her over to him. “Mine,” he snarled.

  Sophie saw Maria’s hand move toward the dagger in the small of her back, and she knew her friend was summoning her power to fight him. But what was the point? She wasn’t strong enough to win, and the battle would sap what little reserves she had left. There was no way to stop him from taking what he wanted, and he wanted the one thing he’d never been able to take until now: Maria.

  “No!” Ashlynn leapt to her feet, and then fell. “Don’t take her,” she shouted. “Take me.”

  “You’re worthless.” He gripped Maria’s hair and dragged her over to him, his gaze pinned on her mouth. “One kiss and you won’t fight me anymore,” he whispered. “They never do.”

  He lowered his mouth toward Maria’s, and Sophie realized that he was right. The first kiss always incited such lust in the women that they were under his spell for the duration until the pain set in. Tears filled her eyes at the thought of Maria losing who she was for the bastard. “No—”

  Maria struck. Her moves were lightning fast, her fist sinking into his chest—

  He slammed her with his wing, and she crumbled to the floor, inert. Lucien laughed softly, then reached down to drag her to her feet. As his fingernails brushed Maria’s arm, she flinched and tried to crawl away. Tears filled Sophie’s eyes at the sight of Maria so weakened. She’d left herself defenseless to Lucien because she’d healed all the other women. Damn him! He couldn’t do this!

  Determination flooded Sophie. There was no way she could let Maria die. She was too important. “Take me!” she blurted out, leaping forward. “Take me.”

  Lucien went still, his gaze snapping to hers, as he gripped Maria’s arm. “You are not for taking,” he said, but there was no mistaking the gleam of interest in his eyes.

  “No,” Maria snapped. “Don’t be an idiot, Sophie. He’ll kill you, too.”

  Lucien and Sophie stared at each other. “You dissolve,” he said. His gaze flicked over her breasts, but Sophie knew he wasn’t really seeing them. All he was seeing was a chance at the woman no demon had ever been able to even touch, let alone bed.

  “I can stop.” That was, of course, a complete lie, which is why it was a safe offer. He couldn’t touch her, but if he thought he could, maybe he’d leave Maria alone.

  “Can you?” He released Maria and walked over to Sophie, ignoring Maria’s protests as Ashlynn hurried over to drag her away. He reached up toward her face, and Sophie felt her finger tingle where the ring encircled her finger. His fingers brushed her chin, but her skin dissolved a fraction of a second before he made contact.

  He snorted. “Liar.” He spun away toward Maria, and Sophie’s heart dropped.

  “Teach me,” she shouted at him. “Teach me what it’s like. Teach me how to be there for sex.” Even if she couldn’t learn to stay corporeal, if she convinced him to try with her, it would give Maria the time she needed to recover enough to be able to fight him off.

  Lucien turned back toward her, his gaze raking over her again. Slowly, he strode toward her until he stood right before her. The stench from his body was rancid, as if a thousand animals had died in his flesh and been left there to rot, but his muscles rippled in a body that was the ultimate physical specimen.

  He leaned forward, studying her intently.

  She lifted her chin, facing him. Her finger was burning, her body screaming at her to dissolve, but she fought desperately to hold her form. Slowly, ever so slowly, he raised his hand. She flinched, but he didn’t try to touch her face. Instead, he extended his index finger toward her shoulder, his eyes gleaming. “Tresses of gold,” he said softly.

  She realized he wanted to touch her hair. Clenching her jaw, she focused all her energy onto her hair, but she felt it begin to dissolve even before he reached it.

  “If I don’t feel your hair,” he said, “I will have sex with the half-breed right here, right now, and I will hurt her.”

  Fear tore through her and she snapped her gaze to his just as his fingers reached her hair. She froze, her heart hammering in fear, as she felt her hair move under his touch. He sucked in his breath, and she froze.

  Dear God. She’d felt that.

  Her hair dissolved, but it was too late. They both knew he’d succeeded in touching her. If it could happen once, it could happen again, and again, and again. Suddenly, too late, she realized what she’d done. She’d offered herself up as the ultimate challenge, and Lucien would not stop until he’d won, and he’d do anything to gain her compliance, including hurting Maria.

  “I accept the substitution,” he said. “You will come to my rooms at midnight, when you complete tonight’s Graveyard Hunt. I claim you.”

  And then, he spun on his heel and swept out of the room, retracting his wings a split second before they tore out the walls.

  “Sophie,” Maria said, her voice breaking in anguish. “What have you done?”

  She turned toward her friend, shoving her trembling hands into her pockets. Her ring finger was burning so badly she could barely keep the tears at bay. She felt as though the ring was tightening on her finger, digging through her flesh to her very bone. “I’ve bought us time,” she said.

  “No,” Maria said, leaning weakly against the wall. “You’ve bought you
rself death of the very worst kind.”

  Sophie managed a smile as she pulled her hand out of her pocket to rub her finger. The pain was increasing, getting worse by the minute. What was going on with that ring? Not that she’d take it off, no matter how much it hurt. The ring was the only thing she had from her past, and she treasured it. So, she just grimaced, and tried to massage the skin to take the sting out. “We’ll find a way out of it. We always do.” But as she said the brave words that had gotten them through so much, she saw the look on Maria’s face, and she knew that this time, it was different.

  This time, they were up against Lucien, the demon who had fought his way to the throne, acquiring his title through the sheer force of his power, his hate, and his evil. And now, she belonged to him.

  Chapter 5

  “We’re down to seven,” Ryland Samuels announced, striding right in front of Gabe Watson’s weapon.

  Gabe averted his blade, frowning at Ryland’s interruption of the training session with their newest recruit. Gabe had been working out for over four hours with Drew Cartland, the son of their deceased leader Dante Sinclair. He’d been trying to get Drew’s skills refined enough to get him into active duty as an Order of the Blade warrior as soon as possible. Once a team of hundreds spread throughout the world, there were only nine left. Nine elite fighters to manage all the Calydons who went rogue and went on sprees of deadly violence.

  They needed muscle, and Gabe felt that Drew’s skills could be an asset. It was his temperament everyone was concerned about: too quick to trigger, and prone to use violence as a first option. Despite the hesitations about Drew, however, they were in need of warriors, so Gabe was trying to fast-track the youth.

  He held up his hand to signal Drew to wait, as he turned his attention to Ryland. “Seven what?”

  “Thano and Zach just resigned from the Order.”

  “What?” Gabe lowered his hook sword, staring in shock at Ryland, who was wearing the same black leather pants, heavy boots, and black tee shirt he always wore. He looked like a badass who would deliver death to anyone who breathed on him, which was almost true on some days. “They would never resign. No one resigns. The Order is for life.”

  The Order of the Blade was the elite group of Calydon warriors who protected innocents from rogue Calydons who had succumbed to their demon heritage. Very few beings were strong enough to stop a Calydon who had descended into the killing rage, so that was the Order’s job. Kill friends. Kill sons. Kill fathers. Do whatever it took to save innocents, no matter how much you cared about the Calydon you had to kill.

  It sucked, and at the same time, it was the greatest honor possible.

  No one left the Order. No one. And yet…Thano Savakis and Zach Roderick had left? What the hell? “Why?”

  Ryland’s jaw was tense. “Zach feels that his time is better spent protecting Rhiannon’s jungle.”

  Gabe ground his jaw at the mention of Zach’s new woman. “He’s leaving us for a woman? She’s not even his soulmate. She’s just…a woman.” What the hell? That made no sense at all. He couldn’t even comprehend that value system. He was all-in as a warrior, and there was nothing else in his life. How the hell did Zach justify abdicating to help a woman?

  Ryland raised his brows. “When you meet the right woman, you’ll understand.”

  “No chance.” Gabe had designed his life to ensure he never connected with his sheva, his destined soulmate. No casual women either. Ever. A lifetime of celibacy had been an easy choice, once he’d realized how dangerous women were to the Calydons who were destined to be their mates. He would never sacrifice his mission for a woman. Ever. “No woman’s getting to me.”

  Ryland just grinned, that same smug grin he’d been sporting since he’d found his own sheva and fought off the Calydon destiny that doomed every bonded couple to a fate worse than hell. Somehow Ryland, and seven other Order members had defeated that destiny…for now. Gabe wasn’t convinced that fate was finished with them yet, but even he had to admit that the bonded Order members had managed to keep from going rogue, despite the Calydon destiny to do the opposite upon bonding with his sheva. “Once you meet your sheva, all that will change for you. It’s different once you meet her, Gabe. Better. So much better.”

  “Better?” Gabe stared blankly at Ryland, barely even able to comprehend the fact that his teammate was smiling when all the shit was crashing down around them. “You’re talking about me finding a sheva? Don’t you even care that Zach and Thano bailed?”

  Ryland’s smile dropped off his face. “The Order saved my life. I care.” The steely edge to his voice told Gabe all he needed to know. Ryland was still committed.

  He nodded in acknowledgement, and then returned the conversation to the topic that mattered. “Why did Thano bail?”

  Ryland shrugged. “He said he had another mission.”

  “Another mission? What the hell does that mean?” Gabe ran his hand through his hair, tension sliding through him at the thought of losing Thano and Zach. They needed them. Badly. “The Order is critical to the protection of innocents.” There was nothing more important than the Order’s mission. “Without us, innocents die.”

  As hard as he’d worked for the last two centuries, there had been times when Gabe hadn’t been able to save everyone. The souls of every innocent he’d buried still clung to him, driving him forward. He worked relentlessly, trying to save everyone, but there were too many rogues, too many innocents, too many lives that slipped between his calloused fingers.

  Ryland nodded. “He knows that.”

  “Fuck.” Barely even noticing that Drew was listening avidly, Gabe turned away and pulled out his phone. He called Thano, and the warrior picked up immediately.

  “Hey, hot stuff,” Thano said, with his typical irreverent demeanor. “Did I forget your birthday or something?”

  “You’re leaving the Order?”

  Silence. Then. “Yeah.”

  “Why?”

  “I need to be somewhere else.”

  Gabe’s fingers tightened around his phone. “You know damn well you’re one of our best warriors. We need you.”

  Thano laughed, sounding too damned relaxed for a guy who’d just broken his oath to the Order. “I know you guys are all going to be getting arthritis soon, but you’ll just have to pop some aspirin and invest in some ice packs for after battle. I need to do this.”

  Thano’s familiar ribbing about how he was so much younger than the rest of them almost made Gabe laugh, forcing him to pause for a second to regroup. It had been so long since he’d seen Thano, and hearing his irreverent sense of humor made Gabe realize how much Thano’s absence had left a darkness over the rest of the team. Thano’s light-hearted sense of humor was often the only thing that kept the team loose when things were tense. He’d always thought that Thano was going to be the one to eventually take over the team and bring them out of the darkness. They needed Thano back in a major way. “What exactly do you need to do that’s so important? We can help, and then you can get back here—”

  “I’m not coming back.” Thano’s humorous tone vanished. “The Pacific Northwest isn’t my job anymore.”

  Gabe looked at Ryland, whose face was grim. Thano was as dedicated to the Order as the rest of them, and something in his voice told Gabe that Thano wasn’t leaving on a whim. Something had happened. Something critical. “Thano, whatever it is that’s going on, we’ve got your back. We always do—”

  “Not this time. Hang on.” There was muffled conversation, and then Thano came back online. “I gotta go.”

  “No! Don’t hang up—” But Thano had already disconnected. Shit.

  “The Order’s in trouble,” Drew said, looking back and forth between them. “Except for Gabe, everyone has either compromised themselves for a woman or bailed completely. It’s been fragmenting since my dad died. We need my dad back.”

  Gabe ground his jaw, well aware that Drew spoke the truth. Dante was the only one with the wisdom, strength, and vis
ion to unite a band of volatile alpha warriors. Quinn Masters had been chosen as the interim leader, and he was as good an option as they had: experienced, level-headed, and skilled. But even he hadn’t been able to stop the fragmenting of the Order. “I know we do.”

  Pain flickered through Ryland’s eyes, grief that he kept hidden. Dante had been Ryland’s savior, and the bond between the men had been deep and powerful. “Dante’s with us in spirit. That’s all we get now.”

  In spirit. Gabe thought about Ryland’s comment, and suddenly something occurred to him. “You spoke to Dante when you were in the underworld, right? You guys encountered his spirit, right? So, he’s still alive in some way, right?”

  Ryland nodded. “His spirit still lives, yeah, but he’s not corporeal. His physical body disintegrated and went back to the demons we are descended from when he died. Somehow, he managed to separate from his physical body so he didn’t return to the demon realm with his body, but without it, his soul has nowhere to land. In the underworld, our connection was strong because of where we were, but out here?” Deep grief flashed in Ryland’s eyes again, but he shoved it aside as quickly as it appeared. “He’s gone. His job with us is finished. It’s up to us to step up.”

  “Step up?” Drew broke in, his voice tight with anger. “We’re failing! How many rogues have killed innocents this week alone? They’re getting stronger, and we can’t keep up.”

  “Enough.” Gabe understood the youth’s reaction, but irrational anger wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “Listen, Drew, this isn’t your problem. You just need to keep practicing.” He looked at Ryland. “Do the others know Zach and Thano quit?”

  Ryland nodded. “Yes—”

  “Not my problem?” Drew interrupted, his hand tightening around his spear, one of the twenty-one weapons he was able to call to serve him. All Calydons had one weapon. Ever since Drew had been possessed by the ancient Calydon who’d tried to destroy the Order a year ago, he’d had twenty-one weapons to call. It made him a formidable warrior, but at the same time, there was now an edge to Drew that made Gabe wary. “The Order is my father’s legacy,” Drew snapped. “The mission my father stood for doesn’t exist, and someone has to start it over.” Anger glittered in his eyes. “I’ll do it, if none of you will.”