The Pearl of Paradise

by Jean Brashear

  Time enough… and love aplenty. All the riches of the world were his.

  Epilogue

  “Mom!” Gregory ran across the grass of their land adjacent to the temple. “Guess what Joanna and Ken did?”

  Lily dropped to her knees to accept his hug, welcoming the little-boy scent rising from his sweaty dark curls. “What, sweetheart?”

  “They took me to the Exploratorium!”

  “Again?”

  “Mom, you know it’s my favorite place, next to the park.” He glanced around. “Where’s Dad? I have to tell him something.”

  Lily pointed. “The last time I saw him, he was talking to Callie.”

  “Okay, I’ll try the shelter.” He raced off, legs madly pumping. Before he made it ten yards, Damon appeared through the gate.

  “Dad!”

  Lily knew she’d never tire of watching Damon’s eyes light up at the sight of his son. The man who’d had to spend far too much of his life deprived of love seemed to never get enough. Once a reserved man, careful of his gestures, now he touched them both at every excuse, pausing often during the day to whisper in her ear, or place a kiss on her nape… or sweep her up in his arms and stride off toward the bedroom with indecent haste.

  She drank in the sight of Damon scooping up Gregory and twirling him around, Gregory’s laughter ringing out across the green expanse.

  Mom. She’d never tire of the word, coming from her son’s lips. He’d taken the news surprisingly well, helped in great part by Joanna and Ken’s wholehearted support. She and Damon, in turn, continued to give them plenty of chances to be with Gregory. When Joanna and Ken’s long-awaited baby came in a few months, she knew they’d still try to give time to Gregory. If they couldn’t, she and Damon were more than ready to take up the slack.

  “Lily.”

  She turned and shielded her eyes from the sun. “Hi, Chang.” Seeing his serious expression, she asked, “What’s up?”

  He glanced across at Damon and Gregory, now rolling on the ground in a mock wrestling match.

  “I wanted to talk to you first.” Normally reserved, she’d never seen Chang so nervous. “I, uh, it’s about Callie.”

  Lily began to smile. Chang seemed to think they were all blind. “Yes?” Her sense of mischief wanted to drag this out.

  “Well, see, Callie and I—”

  He broke off, and Lily wanted to laugh. Chang was actually sweating, for heaven’s sake. She bit her tongue to remain still.

  “Oh, hell.”

  Lily raised an eyebrow at that. Chang rarely cursed.

  “We’re… well, we’re seeing each other. I—she’s important to me.”

  Lily smiled up at Damon, who was approaching, Gregory clinging to his back like a monkey. “We knew that, silly.”

  Chang’s head came up quickly. “You did?”

  Damon laughed, clapping Chang on the back. “One of the problems with running a women’s shelter, friend, is that there is too much feminine intuition around. We poor saps have no secrets.”

  Lily laughed, and even Chang smiled.

  “Well, that’s the other thing. See, we didn’t know if you’d want us both to keep working here if we were involved.”

  Lily shook her head. “What difference would that make?”

  Chang shrugged. “A lot of the women have had difficult experiences with the men in their lives. I didn’t know if it would make things harder.”

  “On the contrary,” Damon remarked. “Callie is our biggest success story, and this is just one further example. You’d be right there to show them how a woman deserves to be treated.”

  Chang snorted. “I think you already do that just fine.”

  Lily saw a blush stain Damon’s cheeks, and she laughed, cupping her hand on his jaw. “You’re absolutely right about that, Chang.” She never took her eyes off Damon’s.

  He met her gaze, his own heating rapidly. He leaned his face into her palm, then turned his head and planted a kiss there, his voice turning husky. “Nothing to it when the love of your life is at hand.”

  Turning back to Chang, he offered his hand. “We’d like you to stay. Callie’s a lucky woman.”

  Chang shook with him. “I’m the lucky one. I never expected to find someone like her.”

  Lily hugged her brother, while Gregory swung down from Damon’s back. “Dad, if I’ll be quiet, could I go with Uncle Chang to the temple and see the Dragon’s Pearl?”

  Damon ruffled his hair. “Sure thing.”

  “Bye, Mom. See you later.”

  “Bye, sweetheart.”

  They stood quietly, watching him head off with his uncle. Lily spoke first. “It’s so odd for someone that young to be so attached to something like the Pearl. He watches over it like he was the Dragon.”

  Damon turned to her. “If you believed in reincarnation, you’d almost think Fan Lee was still guarding it.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I believe, but I do think Fan Lee would be happy. I wish he were here.” He pulled Lily into his arms, lowering his head for a kiss.

  “Maybe he is, Damon,” she murmured. Losing herself in Damon’s magic, she sent her own thoughts skyward.

  The Dragon and his Pearl are one again, Fan Lee.

  ~THE END~

  (Author’s Note: The historical facts are accurate, to the best of my knowledge. The legend of the Pearl, however, springs entirely from my imagination.)

  The Legend of the Pearl of Paradise

  It is said that the Pearl of Paradise was once part of a jade statue known as the Dragon’s Pearl, created in the tenth century by a Shaolin priest in concert with Ao Kuang, the Dragon-King of the Eastern Sea, who Increases Virtue. Ao Kuang made his will known to the priest that he wanted the statue to honor the love that he bore his sacred concubine, known only as the Pearl of Paradise. Through this statue, the strength of their union would live throughout time. In the hands of a virtuous man, the Dragon’s Pearl will strengthen his virtue and make him a powerful force for good, provided it remains on sacred ground. In the hands of an evil man, darkness will reign.

  In the mid-seventeenth century, when the Manchus invaded China, destroying the leading Shaolin temples, the Dragon’s Pearl disappeared. It was said that the White Lotus Society, a secret organization aimed at overthrowing the Manchus, had hidden the statue until the time that the Manchus were expelled from the territories they had overtaken.

  Two hundred years later, the Manchus were still in power and the hatred of the White Lotus Society had reached a fever pitch. For safety’s sake, the Pearl of Paradise was placed separate from the Dragon. They would be united when the hated Manchus were gone.

  But in the bloody T’ai P’ing Rebellion in 1850, a schism developed within the brotherhood of the I Ho Chuan (The Fist of Righteous Harmony), the major sect of the White Lotus. A young monk killed an older one during a mock battle and was expelled from the brotherhood. He vowed vengeance, fleeing with the Dragon but unable to retrieve the Pearl. The Fist closed ranks around the Pearl and declared eternal enmity against the Red Spear brotherhood, a tong of evil men drawn together by the renegade young monk.

  The Red Spear dedicated itself to finding the Pearl, reuniting it with the Dragon, and claiming the awesome power of the Dragon’s Pearl. Fifty years later, during the Boxer Rebellion, all hope of reuniting the two vanished when many of the Shaolin priests fled to Taiwan, and the remaining members of the Fist crossed the seas to America, establishing a new temple outside San Francisco and consecrating holy ground. The Manchu government would not last much longer, but by then, the Dragon and its Pearl had vanished into the mists of memory.

  The guardian of the Pearl of Paradise, known as the Dragon, is forbidden to leave the Pearl unguarded, nor can he take the Pearl from sacred ground, for somewhere out there is the jade Dragon, and the two united can be a powerful force, for good or for evil, depending upon into whose hands the statue falls. Failure to heed this warning will cost the guardian his life.

  To the person who rem
oves either the guardian or the Pearl from sacred ground, a curse will extend from that day for one thousand lifetimes through the evildoer’s bloodlines, putting them outside the wheel of life, deprived forever of rebirth. To a devout Buddhist, there is no more terrifying fate. Death is nothing to fear, but the destruction of the individual karma is too horrible to contemplate.

  Bound forever to his oath, the guardian must watch over the Pearl—until the Dragon and his Pearl are one again.

  If you like romantic suspense, you might also enjoy one of my other romantic suspense titles listed below.

  If you liked THE PEARL OF PARADISE, I would be very grateful if you would help others find this book by recommending it to your friends on Goodreads or by writing a review on Smashwords. If you would like to be informed when my next release is available, please sign up for my newsletter here.

  Thanks!

  Jean

  Romantic Suspense From Jean Brashear

  THE LIGHT WALKER

  THE CHOICE

  THE PEARL OF PARADISE (novella)

  TEXAS REFUGE

  TEXAS STAR

  TEXAS DANGER

  Please enjoy the following excerpts…

  THE LIGHT WALKER

  Newly-minted detective Jace Carroll’s innocuous first case plunges her into a world of shifting realities. At the center of the tangled knot is the mesmerizing and mysterious Dante Sabanne, a wealthy recluse whose proficiency with ancient poisons, mystical lore and exotic sexual practices makes him by turns a crucial expert witness, a devastating lover…and possibly the man behind a cult whose profane rituals have turned from depraved to deadly.

  The powerful attraction between them complicates everything, as the Jace who thought she knew exactly who she was and what she wanted becomes both pawn and queen in a battle between the dark and the light. Innocents will die if she makes the wrong choice between the evidence before her eyes and the yearnings of a heart she is no longer sure she can trust.

  A scorching tale of suspense, passion and magic from USATodaybestselling author Jean Brashear

  The mage lay on the earthen floor inside the circle he’d warded with runes, clad in a simple woven robe embroidered with spells of focus, of strength, of protection for his physical shell as his essence cast outward.

  One last time, he sought the Light. The Song that would lead him to the Soul Star which animated the amulet he’d once sworn to protect.

  The Eye of the Magos, gone twenty years now.

  He was the last of the Light Walkers, a people descended from the star voyagers and older than the Romany they favored.

  But his skills had faded with his faith. He could still see the starbursts, but he could no longer separate them into the ribbons, the hues he had once Walked as his father had done before him. As he’d done so easily in his youth.

  Before. When he’d believed in the legend.

  The Eye of the Magos heals when honor defeats hate, when love vanquishes lies

  Love breeds Light

  Light grants Power

  Only in Darkness does the Eye lose the True Path

  Before he’d lost his only love, watched her die as he stood helpless.

  Before his birthright had been stolen, and his heart had grown colder with each passing year, his powers diminished.

  His father had told him of the existence of a Prism able to separate Light into its colors, that could, in times of great need, show the Protector the path of the Song that would lead to the Soul Star. He’d searched the world over for the object, investigated every belief system, every religion, every rite, however obscure, hoping that somehow one would lead him to the Soul Star and onward to the stolen amulet.

  Here in these high desert mountains, studying the Ancient Ones, was his last stop…and he’d found nothing.

  You will be a powerful mage, possibly the most powerful of all, his father had told him.

  You were wrong, Papa. I have failed all the generations before me, father to son back in time to the first of our people. The grief he’d thought to be done with, once more assailed him.

  One more time, he would try, but this would be his last. Slowly he slipped from this world into the Other Sky as he slowed his breathing, as he began to chant in a tongue few would recognize. He floated, searching even as faint hope waned…aimless, every direction the same to a man gone blind, rendered deaf…

  The world cracked.

  Abruptly he plummeted. Spiny, poisoned tentacles slithered around him. Stung him until his skin burned. Grime and filth swirled through the opening, covering him, drowning him…

  Gasping, he awoke on the hard-packed earth, the hem of his robe stained, his feet smeared with unspeakable filth.

  And in the dark recesses of his lost soul, the Eye of the Magos screamed.

  The amulet was found, and Evil had claimed it.

  The mage shuddered, but inside him, hope was born. At least he knew that the amulet still existed.

  He was its only Protector. There was no time to waste.

  …Excerpt from THE LIGHT WALKER by Jean Brashear © 2011.

  Get THE LIGHT WALKER

  THE CHOICE

  Deep-cover FBI agent Drake Cullinane is driven by guilt over a terrorist attack he couldn’t prevent. It’s taken him years to become the trusted head of security for arms dealer Klaus Hafner, the man responsible for that attack, and he’s within days of taking down Hafner and his whole network.

  Jillian MacGregor found a splashy way to apply to be one of Klaus Hafner’s bodyguards, and she’s out to kill the man the mysterious Cullinane is sworn to protect, seeking revenge for her sister’s death at Hafner’s hands.

  White-hot attraction flares between them, but both are hiding dangerous secrets. Only one of them can win—and if they cannot learn to trust each other, both of them could die.

  She’d nailed her audition.

  One more door, and Klaus Hafner would die even sooner than Jillian MacGregor had planned. She hadn’t really expected to get this far when she set out to break into the fortress that was the arms dealer’s home, but she wasn’t complaining. Holding her breath as she reached for the door handle, she squeezed the knob gently while she turned it.

  Air stirred behind her.

  Too late, she pivoted.

  A muscled arm seized her throat.

  Then…darkness.

  …Excerpt from THE CHOICE by Jean Brashear © 2011.

  Get THE CHOICE

  THE PEARL OF PARADISE (novella)

  An unabashedly romantic tale of sacrifices made in the name of love…

  Five years ago, covert operative Damon Alexander became guardian of the sacred ivory carving, the Pearl of Paradise, and he sacrificed any chance for a life with the woman he loved to save her from being killed by his archenemy, Kwan. The vow curses him to die, should he leave holy ground, but his enemy is back and is picking off those Damon cares for most, taunting Damon to risk the curse to stop him.

  Lily Shen has spent five years closing off her heart from Damon after his devastating betrayal, but hearing that he means to sacrifice his life to stop the killing, she knows that she may have the only means to save him—by revealing to him that he has a son. When Kwan kidnaps their child, the love that never died draws them together in a race to find some means to break the curse and save the son Damon has never met.

  “If Damon leaves Sanctuary, he will die. Is that what you want, Lily?”

  Lily Shen stared out the window of her tiny San Francisco apartment as her elder half-brother Chang spoke. She’d spent five years banishing Damon Alexander from her mind.

  Learning to hate him.

  “But the curse…” she said. “He knows he’s in danger the second he steps off sacred ground.”

  “Kwan has murdered two of the women Damon was sheltering. He’s as clever as he is depraved. He’ll keep picking off those Damon cares about until he comes out.” Chang paused. “And I don’t think Damon cares about his own survival.”

  “What abou
t the sacred oath he swore to Fan Li as guardian of the Pearl?”

  “That vow is all that’s keeping him in place right now, but it won’t hold him long, however much he loved Fan Li.”

  After a five-year disappearance, the man who’d hated Damon for most of his life was back, seeking revenge for the humiliation and defeat he’d suffered at Damon’s hands. Kwan had breached sacred ground against all taboos and killed the holy man, Fan Li. Damon’s skills as a warrior had been the only thing that prevented Kwan from stealing the Pearl of Paradise, as well.

  “I can change that.” She turned from the window.

  “Why? Damon broke your heart five years ago. Sent you away. You hate him.”

  But once I loved him with every breath in my body. She studied the weak bar of sunlight slanting across the scarred wooden floor. “Hatred is a difficult emotion to sustain.”

  “Kwan manages. Don’t be foolhardy, Lily. Damon is safe as long as he guards the Pearl.”

  “Fan Li wasn’t.”

  “No one in a thousand years has dared harm the Guardian. Kwan paid with the loss of an eye. He won’t repeat that.”

  “I can’t let Damon die.”

  “So you still care.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “How will you stop him?”

  She returned her gaze to the brother she hadn’t met until she was ten. “I can tell him he has a son.”

  “Are you so sure he’ll care?”

  Yes. I know his past. What it did to him. But that was information Damon didn’t share.

  “He cast you aside like you were nothing to him.”

  “He didn’t know I was pregnant. I didn’t know.”

  “Just because he hasn’t left Sanctuary in five years doesn’t mean he’s unaware of what’s happening outside.”

  “He couldn’t know about Gregory, not unless you’ve told him.” Their eyes locked, then it was Lily whose lowered. She had no right to challenge her brother’s ethics. They might have grown up in different worlds, she as a half-breed orphan, but she knew his sense of honor, his discretion. He saw Damon almost daily, but he’d never broken faith with her. He’d said he’d keep her secret, and he would.