Radiance (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #3)

J.R. Rain Presents

RADIANCE

Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #3

by

EVE PALUDAN

Acclaim for the novels of Eve Paludan:

“Delightful romance-mystery combo with surprising ends!”

—
Douglas C. Meeks “Book Reviews @ Large”
on Eve Paludan’s
Witchy Business

“As touching as
Highway to Heaven
, as romantic as
City of Angels
, and as enchanting as
Michael
!”

—
Geraldine Ahearn
, author and Top 1000 Amazon Reviewer/Vine Voice on Eve Paludan’s
The Man Who Fell from the Sky

“A Fall from the Sky into Love!”

—
George E. Tadd
on
The Man Who Fell from the Sky

BOOKS BY EVE PALUDAN

Letters from David

The Man Who Fell from the Sky

Taking Back Tara

Tara Takes Christmas

Finding Jessie

Chasing Broadway

Ghost Fire

WITCH DETECTIVES

Witchy Business (with Stuart Sharp)

Witch and Famous (with Stuart Sharp)

Witch Way Out (with Stuart Sharp)

Witch Bones

BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE TRILOGY

Burning

Afterglow

Radiance

Radiance

Published by J.R. Rain Press

Copyright © 2013 by J.R. Rain Press

All rights reserved.

Book cover by
Damon at
http://www.damonza.com

Ebook Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

For my children, Mark and Chrissy

Acknowledgments

J.R. Rain, thank you for your encouragement, brilliant ideas and hard work.

Thank you to Sandy Johnston for editing and other expert assistance.

Radiance

Chapter One

The moment I roared Delilah’s name, the wolves scattered into the forest.

I leaped high toward the ancient vampire, nailing her left hand with my roundhouse kick that knocked away the bronze knife. When she dropped Corbin’s throat from her right hand, he fell naked into the snow and wheezed the frigid air into his lungs.

“
The first breath after almost being strangled is such a bitch,” Corbin choked out.

In any other fight, I would have bet on Corbin. However, earlier tonight, I had wounded him with my silver blade, which had rendered him temporarily weak.
Damn!
I could have used him in this fight, but he was in bad shape.

“
Run, Corbin!” I yelled. He did, but he didn’t go far.

Strings of saliva dripped from her parted dark-red lips.

I thrust my blade—she dodged it casually and without retaliation.

Delilah’s topaz eyes bored into mine with curiosity. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“I’m a vampire hunter!” I said to intimidate her and because
she
was intimidating—I sure as hell didn’t want her knowing my name if she didn’t already know it.

“
I know exactly
what
you are. Now tell me
who
you are.”

“
Let me introduce you to Aurora, my silver blade!”

We squared off and I jabbed, but—almost in a blur—she feinted toward one side, but again sidestepped my attack on the other side. Clever! As my silver blade whooshed by her chest, she turned her shoulder into me and knocked me to the ground. I scrambled up from the snow. She was quick, strong, and savvy—obviously a seasoned fighter.

I would have to unleash the dirty tricks. First up:
Hair pulling.

With my left hand, I made a grab for Delilah’s dreadlocks on her left, jerking her neck to her right and throwing her off-balance. I heard a distinct crack in her neck, but she didn’t go down. She stumbled and tried to twist away, but I held her hair so tightly that she couldn’t escape.

“No!” she screamed.

She was as tall as me, but I couldn’t see her body under the obscene coat made of human scalps. I gave her a spinning kick in the shin just above her hiking boots before she twisted away. She cried out in rage at the big hank of her yanked-out dreadlocks in my left hand.

She should have been knocked flat by my kick-charge, but she wasn’t. The way I had pulled her hair would have easily snapped a human neck. Her lips curled back from her scary teeth, her eyes narrowed and I heard a growl emanate from deep in her throat.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Corbin’s freckled butt scramble into the bushes—a trail of blood from his shoulder had smeared across the snow and showed me exactly where he had gone.

Delilah’s topaz eyes flickered after the blood trail.

“
Leave him alone!” I shouted. “He’s an endangered species!”

“
As am I,” the vampire replied, whirling her body at me faster than I’d ever seen anyone spin.

With my right hand, I aimed my silver blade upward in the vicinity of her heart. I jabbed again, but my silver blade couldn’t penetrate her heavy coat that spun around her. It caught my blade in its folds and almost tore it from my hand so I pulled back.

When she stopped spinning, I ran at her and stabbed again at her chest. How was my blade not penetrating her coat?

I screamed, “Die!” as if I could make it so. Furious that I couldn’t stab through her blasted coat, I turned my blade to the flat side and beat her shoulders and arms with it.

“Stop!” she shrieked, and leaped forward to head-butt me. It was as if someone had smashed my face with a brick.

A cry of surprise escaped me and I fell back in the snow, stunned and seeing flashing lights before my eyes. My nose was bleeding like an artery had burst. I tasted blood, metallic and salty. I had also apparently bitten my tongue when she’d head-butted me. The pain of my broken nose hadn’t yet hit, and I knew I only had about ten seconds before it did.

I reached my left hand into my left boot for one of my silver darts. Now, I had a weapon in each hand.

With my left hand, I flung a silver dart at her as she bent over to pick up her yanked-out hair—apparently, Delilah had a hair fetish of some sort.

My dart stuck in her forehead instead of her chest. With a sharp cry, she pulled out the dart and flung it in the snow. A thin line of blood trickled down between her eyes.

“
Where is Rand Sebastian?” she demanded.

I was startled at hearing my name. “You’re
fighting
him, you despicable creature!” I staggered toward her with my blade. I was dizzier than if I’d been riding the teacups at Disneyland, but with renewed rage, I aimed my blade for her heart.

Blood sprayed all over the snow as I panted while running at her.
My blood.
And as I got closer, it sprayed her, too.

“
Cease!” she said again. She backed up against a tree and raised her fists in a boxing stance
.

What the hell?
I’d never seen vampires do that.

My ears were now ringing. Her head butt had been ruthless and I knew that my nose was busted badly. The warm blood and bubbling snot streamed down my face, and steamed in the cold air. I wiggled my face and realized the whole mess was freezing on my skin. I licked my lips and knew my own blood, and suddenly, horrific pain bloomed.

“Is this what you wanted from the werewolf? His blood?”

“
I thought he was a wolf!”

“
Leave our wolves alone!” I flicked my head at her, spraying her with blood drops. She didn’t even lick her lips. She was that unflappable.

“
I only kill animals for my food. I don’t touch human blood.”

“
Liar! You killed my brother in Griffith Park!”

“
I thought Rand was blond.”

“
I see that now you know who I am. Did the revenge in my distinctive blue eyes give you a clue that I, too, am a Sebastian?”

“
You dye—”

“
No, you die, Delilah!”

“
Listen to—”

“
Listen to a vampire’s lies?” I rushed at her again through the crunching snow and she dodged my next silver dart, which stuck into the tree behind her. When I got close enough, she gave me a groin kick and I landed on my back in the snow, writhing and gasping.

That vampire bitch!

Unexpectedly, she didn’t leap on me and go in for the kill. It might have been because I raised my silver blade aloft, so that if she fell on me to feed, she would have been pierced.

I screamed in rage as the pain radiated and spread from where I’d never been hit in a fight with a vampire. With my left hand, I adjusted my bruised man jewels and shot up out of the snow like an Arctic fox after a rabbit. Limping and swearing, I ran at her, but she kept…
talking.

“
This is—”

I slashed her multiple times with my blade, shutting her up. I stabbed her cheek, her neck, and even cut off her ear.
Thank you, Joan, for the fencing lessons
, I thought.

Delilah finally flinched and raised her hand, grabbed my long dark hair and pulled me down. I was weak, compared to her. Plus, I was moderately injured.

I tried to crawl away and regroup, but she chased me and it wasn’t hard to catch me. I back-kicked her in the face and she let go of my leg with an angry squeal.

Corbin came naked out of the bushes with a big stick aimed at the vampire’s back. He slammed it into her and she turned around with a shriek and knocked him flat with one blow.

“Begone, werewolf!” she said, as if she could make it so by magic and just dismiss him. Of course she wasn’t magic and even injured, Corbin wasn’t turning tail and running away from the fight. Even as jacked-up as he was, and naked, too, he was trying to help me to the best of his ability.

She took a couple of big strides, knocked me down again and flipped me over. My face in the snow, she put her foot in the middle of my back and grabbed me by the hair again. I twisted away and she pulled out some of my hair, too.
Oh, that hurt!

“
I see you’re living up to your legendary reputation as a malicious barber!” I again leaped up to challenge her.

“
You know not of what you speak!”

“
I think your sick coat makes it pretty clear what you do after you drink someone’s blood! You give them a final haircut to add to your ‘Cruella de Vil’ coat.”

“
You have no idea what my coat is about,” she said and charged me.

“
Hey, vampire! Come and get a piece of me!” Corbin shouted and frantically made snowballs and threw them at her face. That was about all the naked guy could do to help me.

Delilah ignored him. After all, he had no weapons. And she had no desire to suck the blood of a werewolf, or she would have already done so.

As I came at her with my blade in one hand and my last silver dart in the other, I saw her face change into a fearsome mask that repulsed me and yet, drew me in. I could have sworn that I saw her skull without her skin on it. It was a chilling trick of the light that I was looking at a grinning skull and one that mesmerized me and made me stop in my tracks. I could barely move.

“
Don’t look in her eyes!” Corbin shouted. “She’s trying to compel you! Look away!”

He was right. I tore my eyes away from her direct gaze. So that’s how they did it. I realized I had narrowly escaped compulsion by a vampire. I was then able to move again.

“You killed my brother!” I choked out, realizing that I was breaking every vampire-hunting rule by letting this fight descend into something this personal and emotional. Worst of all, I was letting her know it. I launched my body at her.