Inferno of Darkness (Order of the Blade #8)

by Stephanie Rowe

  Inferno

  of

  Darkness

  The Order of the Blade

  Stephanie Rowe

  “Rowe is a paranormal star!” ~J.R. Ward

  Praise for Darkness Unleashed

  “Once more, award winning author Stephanie Rowe pens a winner with DARKNESS UNLEASHED, the seventh book in her amazing ORDER OF THE BLADE series…[an] action-packed, sensual story that will keep you perched on the edge of your seat, eagerly turning pages to discover the outcome…one of the best paranormal books I have read this year.” ~Dottie, Romancejunkies.com

  ***

  Praise for Forever in Darkness

  “Stephanie Rowe has done it again. The Order Of The Blade series is one of the best urban fantasy/paranormal series I have read. Ian’s story held me riveted from page one. It is sure to delight all her fans. Keep them coming!” ~ Alexx Mom Cat’s Gateway Book Blog

  ***

  Praise for Darkness Awakened

  “A fast-paced plot with strong characters, blazing sexual tension and sprinkled with witty banter, Darkness Awakened sucked me in and kept me hooked until the very last page.” ~ Literary Escapism

  “Rarely do I find a book that so captivates my attention, that makes me laugh out loud, and cry when things look bad. And the sex, wow! It took my breath away… The pace kept me on the edge of my seat, and turning the pages. I did not want to put this book down… [Darkness Awakened] is a must read.” ~ D. Alexx Miller, Alexx Mom Cat’s Gateway Book Blog

  ***

  Praise for Darkness Seduced

  “[D]ark, edgy, sexy … sizzles on the page…sex with soul shattering connections that leave the reader a little breathless!…Darkness Seduced delivers tight plot lines, well written, witty and lyrical - Rowe lays down some seriously dark and sexy tracks. There is no doubt that this series will have a cult following. ” ~ Guilty Indulgence Book Club

  “I was absolutely enthralled by this book…heart stopping action fueled by dangerous passions and hunky, primal men…If you’re looking for a book that will grab hold of you and not let go until it has been totally devoured, look no further than Darkness Seduced.”~When Pen Met Paper Reviews

  ***

  Praise for Darkness Surrendered

  “Book three of the Order of the Blades series is…superbly original and excellent, yet the passion, struggle and the depth of emotion that Ana and Elijah face is so brutal, yet is also pretty awe inspiring. I was swept away by Stephanie’s depth of character detail and emotion. I absolutely loved the roller-coaster that Stephanie, Ana and Elijah took me on.” ~ Becky Johnson, Bex ‘n’ Books!

  “Darkness Surrendered drew me so deeply into the story that I felt Ana and Elijah’s emotions as if they were my own…they completely engulfed me in their story…Ingenious plot turns and edge of your seat suspense…make Darkness Surrendered one of the best novels I have read in years.” ~Tamara Hoffa, Sizzling Hot Book Reviews

  ***

  Praise for No Knight Needed

  “No Knight Needed is m-a-g-i-c-a-l! Hands down, it is one of the best romances I have read. I can’t wait till it comes out and I can tell the world about it.” ~Sharon Stogner, Love Romance Passion

  “No Knight Needed is contemporary romance at its best….There was not a moment that I wasn’t completely engrossed in the novel, the story, the characters. I very audibly cheered for them and did not shed just one tear, nope, rather bucket fulls. My heart at times broke for them. The narrative and dialogue surrounding these ‘tender’ moments in particular were so beautifully crafted, poetic even; it was this that had me blubbering. And of course on the flip side of the heart-wrenching events, was the amazing, witty humour….If it’s not obvious by now, then just to be clear, I love this book! I would most definitely and happily reread, which is an absolute first for me in this genre.”~Becky Johnson, Bex ‘N’ Books

  “No Knight Needed is an amazing story of love and life…I literally laughed out loud, cried and cheered…. No Knight Needed is a must read and must re-read.”Jeanne Stone-Hunter, My Book Addiction Reviews

  Acknowledgements

  Special thanks to my beta readers, who always work incredibly hard under tight deadlines to get my books read. I appreciate so much your willingness to tell me when something doesn’t work! I treasure your help, and I couldn’t do this without you. Hugs to you all!

  There are so many to thank by name, more than I could count, but here are those who I want to called out specially for all they did to help this book come to life: Alencia Bates, Jean Bowden, Shell Bryce, Kelley Currey, Holly Collins, Ashley Cuesta, Denise Fluhr, Valerie Glass, Christina Hernandez, Heidi Hoffman, Jeanne Hunter, Rebecca Johnson, Dottie Jones, Janet Juengling-Snell, Deb Julienne, Bridget Koan, Felicia Low, Phyllis Marshall, D. Alexx Miller, Jodi Moore, Judi Pflughoeft, Emily Recchia, Kasey Richardson, Karen Roma, Caryn Santee, Julie Simpson, Summer Steelman, Nicole Telhiard, Linda Watson, and Denise Whelan.

  And lastly, thank you to Pete Davis at Los Zombios for another fantastic cover, and for all his hard work on the technical side to make this book come to life, and for the most amazing website. Mom, you’re the best. It means so much that you believe in me. I love you. Special thanks also to my amazing, beautiful, special daughter, who I love more than words could ever express. You are my world, sweet girl, in all ways.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the Ladies and Gents of the Blade at the Order of the Blade Reader’s group on Facebook.

  Thanks for the support, the friendship, and for sharing your love of all things Order. You all inspire me on so many levels.

  You guys rock!

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Praise for Stephanie Rowe

  Acknowledgements

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Sneak Peek: Darkness Unleashed

  Sneak Peek: Darkness Arisen

  Sneak Peek: Ice

  Sneak Peek: Prince Charming Can Wait

  Stephanie Rowe Bio

  Select List of Other Books

  Copyright Page

  Chapter One

  In the beginning, many centuries ago…

  Calydon warrior Dante Sinclair braced himself against a tree, unable to hold himself up any longer. Sweat streamed down his lacerated back. His muscles shook with exhaustion. His mangled foot was getting worse, the poison leaching its way up his leg, contamination even he could not heal. The black streaks were like angry webs branching along his flesh, destroying more cells each day.

  He thought briefly of summoning Rohan, the one man on this forsaken earth he trusted, the one who had survived hell with him for over a hundred years, but he dismissed the notion the moment it crossed his mind. They’d had an agreement, and they would both stand by it. He’d let the poison take him before he’d call Rohan away from what he needed to do. But hell, he hadn’t expected this.

  Dante’s good leg gave out and he slithered down the tree, the rough bark tearing at his open wounds as he landed on the ground. Swearing, he let his head fall back against the trunk, closing his eyes for a moment.

  Not to rest.

  Never to rest.

  To listen. To focus. To track.

  There was one man left to kill. But even as he thought it, a whisper of hope rippled through him. What if he didn’t have to kill the one who was left? What if Louis cou
ld be the one to help him rebuild? What if…

  No. There was no chance. He had to stay focused. He had to kill Louis. He knew he would have to. And once he had done that, he could die. The legacy his father had twisted and mutilated into such darkness would finally be destroyed.

  Summoning strength that he shouldn’t still have, Dante reached out with his preternatural senses, searching for that telltale vibration he’d been tracking for the last three months. The acrid scent of blood. The cold vibration of evil. The heavy weight of ruthlessness and death. The tainted trail was all that remained of the legendary heroes of the Order of the Blade, the elite group of Calydon warriors who had been created to protect innocents from rogue Calydons, from the demons that turned good men into monsters. That was the mission of the Order, but his father had corrupted it into pure evil that did not deserve to exist, twisting his team into warriors who were beyond scum, fraudulent heroes who deserved an inglorious, dishonorable death. Warriors his father had trained and elevated to glory. The warriors who Dante was almost finished eliminating.

  Only one remained alive, the one that Dante had kept for last, hoping that warrior would be worthy, that Dante would be able to spare him. But Louis’s trail had become dark and evil, and Dante knew there was nothing left of the man he had once known. Weary with the weight of what he had to do, Dante reached out with his senses to locate the last of his prey.

  For a moment, he couldn’t sense Louis, and panic flooded him. The poison wouldn’t let him live long enough to start the search from scratch. He had to find the bastard now. Frantic, he sprang to his feet, adrenaline chasing away the pain and exhaustion as he spun around, sending out pulses of energy in every direction. When had he lost the trail? Had he been too exhausted to notice when he lost it? Swearing, he went still, holding his palms face up, as if in supplication to the powers that had fueled the Order, the powers that should still answer to him despite his repudiation of the entity.

  A dark, circulating energy surged through him, so intense that he shouted in pain. He dropped to his knees, bracing his hands on the earth, screaming as a thousand shocks knifed through him ruthlessly. With a roar of fury, he summoned all his energy and tried to shield himself from the assault, but he could do nothing to block it. Just an endless circle of pain and hell and—

  It stopped.

  Gasping for breath, Dante bowed his head, struggling to find strength in his beleaguered body. What the hell had that been?

  There was a sudden pulse of energy through him again, only this time, it was warm and powerful. Calling him. Summoning him. His head jerked up, and his gaze went directly to the towering mountain range to the south. Snow caked the summit, and a spiral of black smoke spewed from the highest peak. But his attention was drawn halfway down the northwest side, where the forest was thick and the snow had been replaced by lush vegetation. There. There. Something in that spot was summoning him. Something violent. Something powerful. Something…steel. It was a weapon. Not his, not the ones branded onto his forearms that were his to call. A weapon he didn’t know, but he could tell it was the same energy that had attacked him moments ago. It had attacked, and then summoned him. Had it been testing him? Deciding whether he was worthy?

  Was it the sword that had been haunting his dreams for the last few weeks? Was the image that he’d been imagining actually real?

  He lurched to his feet, studying the spot he’d targeted. An image flashed in his mind of a sword. Just a faint blurry image that was more of a sense than an actual picture. Calling to him. Demanding he go to it, to that spot, to where it was waiting for him. The urge to respond to the summons was surreal, a command so powerful that he actually took a step. And then another. And then—

  He caught the ripple of feminine energy mingled with the sword. A woman.

  Dante stopped dead, sifting through the information the wind gave him. She was suffering. In pain. But at the same time, dangerous. Deadly. Sensual. Protecting. The guardian of the sword? Conflicting responses rose fast and hard. The need to find her and protect her. The compulsion to track the sword. The need to—

  A loud scream ripped through the night, the piercing scream of death, the sound Dante had heard so many times in his life, the sound that still haunted him every minute of every day, the scream that never ceased in his mind, ever.

  He knew who caused that kind of suffering. There was only one beast. One creature. One being that did not even deserve to be called a man. A Calydon of the Order of the Blade. The warrior he’d been hunting. The last of his kind.

  Dante was too late, again.

  With a roar of fury, Dante whirled around and sprinted toward the sound, the relentless, horrifying wail of suffering and pain beyond what any living creature could endure. It seemed to bounce off the sky and plunge right through his flesh. He ran harder, leaping over fallen logs, stumbling each time his mangled foot hit the ground, but he did not slow. He had to stop him. He had to end this before it was too late.

  Tonight, the Order of the Blade would be wiped from this earth, and Dante would be able to die, his job finally finished, his father’s legacy finally destroyed, his own destiny wiped out.

  ***

  Zach burst out of the healer’s hut, tearing into the night as the screaming pounded in his ears. Horror congealed in his stomach as he saw his sister sprawled in the dirt in the center of the village, slumped at the feet of a massive warrior covered in blood. “Christina!” Around him were a dozen bloodied bodies, and more people screaming as they tried to run away.

  “No!” The anguished roar tore from his throat as the warrior raised his arm to the sky, a bloodied Calydon dagger clenched in his fist. His eyes were red, blood red. He’d gone rogue, and targeted Zach’s sister.

  Bellowing in rage and terror, Zach sprinted across the square toward the enraged Calydon, trying frantically to draw his attention away from his sister. Unnoticed by the rogue, Zach called out his weapons, tapping into the power of a Calydon to harness the weapons that were branded on his forearms. There was a crack and a flash of black light, and then a sai appeared in each hand. He hurled them instantly as the warrior grabbed his sister by the throat and lifted her up.

  “Take me, you bastard!” he screamed as both his sai plunged into the warrior’s stomach in a one-two-hit of deadly accuracy.

  The warrior didn’t even flinch. He just spun around to face Zach, tossing Christina aside like a rag doll. Jesus. For him to shrug off that kind of blow, there was only one explanation. The warrior was an Order member, one that had gone rogue. Jesus. A rogue Order member? How could he possibly stop him?

  The rogue hurled his weapons so quickly Zach had no time to react, and they hit him in the throat, in the same one-two strike that he’d done. He gagged and fell to his knees, clutching his neck as the warrior roared his victory and called his weapons back. They tore out of Zach’s flesh and hurtled through the air back to his hands.

  Zach called his own weapons back, but in an unprecedented move he’d never seen before, the warrior grabbed them as they ripped out of his body, keeping them from returning to Zach, and rendering him defenseless.

  His eyes still glowing, he spun around and grabbed Zach’s sister again.

  Gasping as he croaked his protest, Zach tried to crawl, but it was too little, too late. He would never get there in time. Desperation tore through him as he grimly called upon the one other tool at his disposal, the one he had no control over, the one that he would not try to contain today.

  Fire erupted instantly from deep within him, spewing off him in all directions. Zach fell to his side, life draining from him as he held up his arm. Flames streamed toward the sky, a hundred feet into the air, as a fireball formed in his palm, spinning faster and faster, growing bigger and bigger as the bastard aimed his knife toward his sister. Not my sister. With a sobbing gasp, Zach hurled the fireball.

  It slammed into the warrior’s chest, and he dropped Christina again, screaming in agony as the flames ignited his flesh. He spun
around, fighting the fire as Zach crawled across the blood-soaked earth, focused only on his sister. Her eyes were glazed with pain, but she saw him coming. She stretched her fingers toward him.

  Christina. He collapsed once, then shoved himself to his elbows, dragging himself over the dirt. He reached for her, his hand outstretched, as if he could drag her away—

  A shadow moved above them, and he looked up as the warrior plunged the dagger toward Christina. Zach lunged forward, throwing himself over her, trying desperately to turn his flames away from her, to stop himself from burning her—

  The dagger meant for Christina plunged into his back. Beyond the realm of his consciousness, Zach heard new screams, the cries of children, and deeper fear knifed through him. The children. Had they come out of the healer’s hut? Had they abandoned the refuge he’d ordered them not to leave? “No!” With a roar of desperate fury, Zach surged to his feet and slammed another fireball at his assailant. And another. And another. Until they were consumed by a blazing inferno, until Zach could see nothing but orange flames and smoke—

  There was a sickening, insane cackle of laughter, and then the smoke parted, revealing the face of his assailant. His eyes glowed red with the light of the demon, and Zach went cold with sudden fear. How was the bastard still standing? He grabbed Zach around the throat and hurled him aside. Zach flew through the air and crashed into a boulder, his body shattering from the impact. More screams of innocents being hurt filled the air, wrenching at his insides. Flames poured from his body as he tried to get up, but his body was broken. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t—

  “It ends now!” There was a loud cry, and Zach looked up to see a Calydon warrior charging across the square toward the rogue. The warrior was taller than any he’d ever seen, with more muscle. His body was bleeding from a hundred deep gouges. His right foot was blackened and deformed, and yet somehow, he was moving with surreal speed, sprinting through the village. “You die, Louis! You die!” With a howl of outrage, the warrior leapt through the air, his body arcing thirty feet above the earth as he hurled his spear.