Darkness Reborn (Order of the Blade #5)

by Rowe, Stephanie

  “What I see?” He could feel her desperation, and knew that she was still searching for more positive energy to cling to. God, this was taxing him to his limits. He could slay a thousand demons for her, but feed her stories of hope and faith? He had no foundation for playing that role.

  Ryland leaned closer, his shoulder bumping against Kane’s as he peered at Sarah. “Tell her that she has eyes more radiant than the turquoise feathers of the hyacinth macaw as it takes flight across the Brazilian landscape, with the sun reflecting off its wings.”

  “A Brazilian landscape?” Kane stared at his teammate in shock. “Are you kidding me? Aren’t you supposed to be nearly insane, almost rogue and a veritable bastard?”

  “This is an angel,” Ryland whispered reverently. “Don’t you get it? She’s why there’s any good left on this earth. All goodness comes from the angels. Without angels, it’s only darkness.” He bowed his head to Sarah. “We honor you and serve you.”

  Sarah laughed softly, and she brushed her fingers over Ryland’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

  Kane froze, his muscles going rigid the moment he saw her touch Ryland. Sudden fury burned within him as Ryland shuddered from the touch. A fierce possessiveness surged through Kane, and the brands in his arms vibrated with the need to unleash his weapons and take down his teammate for getting so close to her. “Back off,” Kane said quietly, unable to keep the threat out of his voice. “Now.”

  Ryland lifted his head and met his gaze. Defiance flared in Ryland’s eyes. “You don’t get to claim her, Santiago. She’s a gift to everyone.” Ryland’s fingers tightened over the handle of his machete. “You will not clip her wings and drag her into your personal hell.”

  Kane. Sarah’s voice was urgent, and she gripped his arm. I need you. Now. Her body was shaking again, and her face had paled.

  Fierce protectiveness surged through Kane, and he didn’t give a shit about Ryland anymore. Sarah was what mattered. Only Sarah.

  He hugged her more securely against his chest, as if he could protect her with his body. He would be the one to tell her what he saw when he looked at her, not Ryland. He didn’t have stories about love and hope, but this question he could answer. “When I look at you,” he said fiercely, “I see a woman who has fought bravely to save herself. A woman with courage, who, despite all that she’s dealing with, still has the ability to fight for hope and faith.” He tightened his grip on her as her eyes fluttered open and she met his gaze. “I have no hope in my life,” he admitted. “I kill to save the world, an endless spiral with no answers, and yet you touch my soul in a way I didn’t know was possible.”

  Kane. She set her hand on his arm. That’s beautiful.

  He felt himself falling into the blue of her eyes, tumbling so fast he couldn’t stop himself and didn’t want to. He took her hand in his, tangling their fingers together. “In you, I see a beauty and a purity that exists nowhere else in this world.” He didn’t just see it. He’d felt it from that first moment, a depth to his soul that he hadn’t accessed in so long. “I don’t know anything about you,” he acknowledged, “but you’re like this burst of humanity into my soul that I never thought I would feel.”

  Sarah’s eyes began to glisten with unshed tears. “You have such passion,” she said. “I forgot what that was like.” She rested her palm against his cheek, her fingers still trembling.

  Rightness cascaded through Kane, and he set his hand over hers, holding her palm against his skin. The moment stilled, intensity filling him with such desire and need for her that it physically hurt. He could feel the thud of his heart in his chest, the rush of blood through his veins, and the burning of fire in every cell of his body. It was agonizingly painful, as if his entire being was fighting to come alive, to tear down the walls that had kept it locked down for so long.

  He swore, tightening his grip on her as the darkness that had been chasing him for so long roared to life, trying to suck him away from this place that Sarah had brought him to. Agonizing loss assailed him, terror at losing this sense of humanity she’d given him. He didn’t want to retreat back into a place where he didn’t feel, where he couldn’t hear his own heartbeat. He wanted to stay in the light with Sarah.

  Her eyes widened, and she tightened her grip on him. “What’s happening to you?”

  “I don’t know,” he rasped out, fighting at the onslaught of darkness, against the void struggling to consume him. It felt like the closer he got to connecting with Sarah and his humanity, the stronger the darkness inside him became. A battle for his soul.

  “It’s happening again, isn’t it?” Ryland was beside him again, his face intense. “What the hell is it, Santiago?”

  “I don’t know.” Kane’s back bowed from the pain, and his soul screamed in protest as the blackness swirled through him. “Son of a bitch—”

  The air pressure shifted, and Kane instinctively threw himself over Sarah, reacting to the threat even before he’d had time to register what it was. He pinned her to the ground as a sickle careened through the air and slammed into his shoulder, right where her head had just been.

  Ryland leapt to his feet with a battle roar, while Kane shielded Sarah with his body as dozens more weapons hurtled through the air, slamming into his back in an attempt to harm her. “What the fuck’s going on?” He cradled his arms around her head, blocking her with his shoulders as he shouted at Ryland. Sarah curled beneath him, accepting his protection and burrowing into the shield he was offering her.

  “Remember those honeymooners from Hollywood?” Ryland grunted, as if he were striking hard against the assailant.

  Oh, yeah, Kane remembered the rogues with the manicures. “Yeah, why? Did they come back to life or something?” He grimaced as another blade slammed into his back, and he tucked Sarah more tightly under him, trying to cover every inch of her trembling body. He needed to get up and help Ryland fight, but he couldn’t move away from her. Every blade was coming for her, not him. Outrage surged through him at the realization that their assailants were trying to attack her. Who the hell took on an innocent woman?

  “Apparently, they have a big ass family and the reunion is here,” Ryland said.

  Damn. More rogues? Where were they coming from?

  It’s my brother, Sarah said, her face buried against Kane’s chest. He’s trying to destroy me.

  Your brother? And to think I always wanted to know who my family was. Kane turned his head slightly, and saw that it was the same warrior who’d been after Sarah when Kane had first arrived on the scene. How had he found them after Kane had teleported?

  But it wasn’t just the one guy. He’d brought a dozen warriors with him. All of them with red glowing eyes, unfashionably long claws, and the same intensity as the two rogues that had been such a tough take-down before. Kane itched to fight them, but he knew he couldn’t. His number one priority was protecting the woman in his arms. “We need to bail, Ry.” There was no way they could engage and keep Sarah safe at the same time.

  Ryland didn’t bother to answer. He just continued to defend Sarah and Kane with his weapons as he stepped on Kane’s ankle to create body contact between them. “Go!”

  Kane instantly dematerialized, taking Ryland and Sarah with him. But as the woods disappeared, he met the gaze of Sarah’s brother, and saw in them a glittering truth.

  The bastard would be right behind him.

  *

  Tears burned in Sarah’s eyes, as Kane teleported them away from her brother. “He’s not going to give up,” she told Kane, her heart aching at the thought.

  “Your brother?”

  “Yes. He’s the one tracking me. The others don’t have the blood connection to me, so they can’t track me without him. It’s Jacob.” Sarah felt the strength that Kane had given her when he’d shared his emotions with her begin to fade, chased away by the visceral reminder of Jacob’s betrayal.

  Dammit. No! She couldn’t afford to be weakened. She had to stay strong. Faith and hope were all
she had to sustain her. Fighting against the nausea, she opened her eyes to focus on Kane, to let him fill her world the way he had a few minutes ago.

  He was looking past her, searching the woods he’d taken them to. His jaw was whiskered, his eyes blazing with lethal determination as he rapidly assessed their situation, engaging in urgent discussion with his teammate as the two warriors evaluated their options.

  Kane was pure elemental Calydon, with his huge muscles, the black brands on his arms, and the gaping emptiness inside him. She’d felt Kane’s void all the way to her core. As empty as her brother was, Kane was all that, and so much more. There was nothing left of who he might have been: his humanity and warmth was so buried. All that remained was the monster, the shell, the demon that possessed good men and turned them into creatures of death, destruction and betrayal. Kane was everything that she’d feared for so long. He was the epitome of the creatures that had stolen everything from her. He was her greatest nightmare, and she was trapped in his arms.

  And yet, in his embrace, tucked against his bare chest, she felt safe. As if he’d erected some tremendous shield that could keep the danger at bay. She should fear him. For heaven’s sake, he knew she was an angel. Both men did. And yet neither one of them had moved to hurt her. How was it possible? Was there more to them than the deadly creatures she’d grown up defending against?

  But even as she asked the question, she knew the answer was yes. The depth of Kane’s pain was extraordinary, so tremendous that it had touched her heart. A man with nothing but emptiness and death in his soul wouldn’t be capable of feeling such pain. She wanted to heal him, to help him, to give him relief.

  Sarah’s chest tightened at the realization, at the gift that he offered her by making her want to help him. It had been so long since she’d wanted to reach out. She’d been focused only on her survival and doing her duty, and she hadn’t had the energy or inspiration to help or heal anyone else for so long. Until Kane.

  He looked down at her, and a smile flashed across his face. “Nice to see you looking conscious.”

  She smiled, her heart warming at the way his face lit up when he looked at her. “I think you can put me down.”

  “No chance.” He actually tightened his grip on her. “What’s the deal with your brother and his buddies? How can they teleport? Why do they want to kill you—”

  Her brother flashed beside them, grabbed her and then began to dematerialize again, snatching her right out of Kane’s arms. Her skin lit up in self-defense before she could even think about it, the white light bursting over the clearing in a blinding attack. Jacob swore and dropped her, but before she’d even hit the ground, another one of Jacob’s teammates grabbed her and started to disappear. She took him out, and then another, and another and another. So fast, milliseconds between each grab and attack. She had no time to regroup, no time to heal, just more death, more pain, more—

  “Come on!” Kane flashed beside her, yanked her out of another male’s arms and dematerialized.

  She didn’t even know where he took her. Didn’t even know where they landed. The agony was too intense from the aftermath of using her powers to harm and the weight of her brother’s betrayal. It all had hit her too soon, when she was barely recovered from the last time. The cost ate away at her, ripping through her humanity, eviscerating the very part of her that gave her life. The pain in her head was crushing her like a vise, her skin fragmenting, her blood boiling over, burning through her veins, poisoning her body.

  “Hang on, Sarah,” Kane ordered. “Don’t die on me, sweetheart.”

  Even through her pain, Sarah almost laughed at his command. The man had so much to learn about angels and women if he really thought that order was going to work. Then her body began to convulse, and she forgot about everything but trying to stay alive.

  *

  Kane swore as Sarah’s body spasmed in his arms. With her brother tracking them so closely, he had no time to stop and help her. He had to keep them moving until he could get far enough ahead to stop. “Don’t let go of me,” he shouted at Ryland. “We need to keep going.”

  Ryland’s face was grim, and his fingers dug into his arm as Kane flashed them to another spot. They’d barely materialized when he teleported them again. And then again. And again. A dozen times, in a myriad of directions, until his senses were screaming from overload and strain.

  He didn’t dare wait or delay, knowing he needed to create a tangled web long enough to give them breathing room. Again and again he took the three of them, his body bowed under the strain. He felt Sarah weaken in his arms, drained by the effort of dematerializing and then rebuilding.

  Kane finally stopped by a stream, a hundred miles from where he’d begun, a place in southern Oregon he knew well from years of training as an Order member. The woods belonged to Quinn Masters, one of the most deadly Order members alive, and it was his acreage that they used to train. In these woods, they were on Order turf, even if the rest of the team wasn’t actually present.

  Kane gently lowered Sarah to the damp earth, and Ryland dropped beside him, his head bowed as he fought for breath.

  “Damn,” Ryland gasped, his hands braced on the ground. “You should hire yourself out for kids’ parties. You’d make millions. That was impressive, Santiago. I had no idea you could do that.”

  “I’m a talented guy. What can I say?” Kane set Sarah down and scooped water out of the pure stream, ignoring the trembling of his own muscles. He’d never attempted anything like he’d just done, and quite frankly, he was damned pleased he’d managed to do it without leaving body parts strewn all over Oregon. “Drink, Sarah.” He propped her up and eased water into her mouth, relieved when he saw her swallow. Sarah. Concentrate on me. Just hang in there a little longer.

  He felt a flicker of a response from her, but no words. Shit. She was too far gone. Urgency thrummed through him. He had to get her alone, get the space and time to heal her. “Here’s the plan,” he said as Ryland shoveled the cold water over his own head. “I’ll drop you at the mansion, and you alert the team. I’ll give you ten minutes to assemble them, and then I’ll come back there and stay. Our pursuers will land at the mansion and keep going if I’m not there, so let them go through the first time. When I’m back and the bastards show up, we’ll be ready.”

  Ryland nodded grimly. “Good. I hate running. Let’s take these fuckers down.” His eyes flickered toward Sarah. “How’s the angel?”

  “Not good.”

  Ryland met his gaze, flecks of green in his dark eyes. “I can’t believe you’re the one who can help her. Lucky bastard.”

  Kane grinned. “It’s because I always go to church on Sundays.”

  Ryland snorted. “Hah. You’ve shed more blood on hallowed ground than any of the rest of us. You should burn in hell for even touching her.”

  “You can take that up with her when this shit is done.”

  “I will.” Ryland’s eyes darkened, and he set his hand on Kane’s shoulder. “I don’t like bullies who try to hurt angels. Let’s bring these bastards down.”

  “You got it.”

  Kane.

  His heart jumped at the soft voice, and he looked down at her, hoping to see her looking at him, but her eyes were still closed, her body limp in his arms. Sarah?

  Don’t kill my brother. He has to live.

  Kane grimaced. Sweetheart, he’s the one who’s bringing those assassins to you. He has to be stopped.

  Her agony filled him, slicing through him like a great wall of pain. No, he has to live. Promise me.

  The intensity of her voice was so strong, Kane knew he couldn’t say no. I’ll try, but if I have to choose between you and him, it’s going to be you. He wanted to offer her the world, but he wouldn’t lie to her. If he had to make a choice, there was only one decision he would make.

  You’re my only hope, Kane. You’re all I have. Her eyes flickered open, and he felt his soul stop at the anguish in those blue depths. Please.

 
He swore, and looked at Ryland. “She says her brother has to live.”

  Ryland grinned, respect flashing in his eyes instead of the aggravation Kane had expected. “That’s just like an angel, isn’t it? Wanting to save the man who’s trying to kill her?” He slapped Kane’s shoulder, his amusement fading. “This chick is so going to get fucked up hanging out with us, Santiago. We need to get her away from us as soon as possible. I won’t destroy an angel.”

  “Yeah, me either.” Kane tucked Sarah more closely against his chest. Tremors were wracking her body, and he knew that they were almost out of time. Could she even survive the next fifteen minutes that he had planned for her?

  She had to. He would make sure of it.

  Chapter Four

  Kane stumbled as he materialized for the second time in the courtyard of Dante’s mansion, the former abode of their deceased leader that had become the working headquarters of the Order of the Blade. Ryland caught him as he almost went down, his black eyes blazing. “We’re ready.”

  His head still spinning from the magnitude of energy he’d had to expend to keep teleporting himself and Sarah, while ensuring their safe recovery each time, Kane looked around and felt intense relief fill him at the sight of the Order of the Blade surrounding him. His boys had his back, as they always did for each other.

  Almost the entire team was assembled, weapons out, battle stances engaged. Ryland. Quinn Masters, their acting leader until Dante’s replacement could be identified. Gideon Roarke. Thano Savakis, with his damned arrogant grin that hid a lethal talent that far surpassed the thirty-five years he’d been alive. Elijah Ross, who had finally begun to put on weight since his ordeal. Zach Roderick and Gabe Watson rounded it out. All accounted for except Ian Fitzgerald, who had vanished several weeks ago, carrying the body of the woman who looked like his dead sheva. No one had been able to find him since, and that wasn’t good. Ian was a dedicated team member, and to have him disappear without a trace was an indication of something being seriously wrong.