Darkness Reborn (Order of the Blade #5)

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The Order of the Blade

Book 5

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Praise for Dawn at Birch Crossing

“Dawn at Birch Crossing
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

“
Dawn at Birch Crossing
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

“Dawn at Birch Crossing
is an amazing story of love and life…I literally laughed out loud, cried and cheered....
Dawn at Birch Crossing
is a must read and must re-read.”
Jeanne Stone-Hunter, My Book Addiction Reviews

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Darkness Reborn

ISBN-10: 985179287

ISBN-13: 978-0-9851792-8-1

Copyright © 2012 by Stephanie Rowe.

Cover design © 2012 by Peter Davis. Cover design and layout by Peter Davis at
www.loszombios.com
. Cover photos courtesy of iStockphoto.com.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, disseminated, or transmitted in any form or by any means or for any use, including recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the author and/or the artist. The only exception is short excerpts or the cover image in reviews.

Please be a leading force in respecting the right of authors and artists to protect their work. This is a work of fiction. All the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel or on the cover are either products of the author’s or artist’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author or the artist.

For further information, please contact
[email protected]

Dedication

There are no words to describe the depth of my appreciation for Janet Juengling-Snell for all her help and support on this book, and with all my books. Thank you, Janet, for everything. You are the BEST!

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my core team of amazing people, without whom I would never have been able to create this book. Each of you is so important, and your contribution was exactly what I needed. I’m so grateful to all of you! Your emails of support, or yelling at me because I hadn't sent you more of the book yet, or just your advice on covers, back cover copy and all things needed to whip this book into shape—every last one of them made a difference to me. I appreciate each one of you so much! I want to give a huge shout out to all my beta readers, who turned this novel around super-fast so I could get it out to my readers. You guys are the BEST! I also want to give a huge shout-out to all my Facebook friends, who supported me so much during the writing of this book when I was sure I would never get it done. Special thanks also to: Jeanne Hunter, Sharon Stogner, Jan Leyh, Summer Steelman, Teresa Gabelman, D. Alexx Miller, Holly Collins, Janet Juengling-Snell, and Phyllis Marshall. There are so many people I want to thank, but the people who simply must be called out are: Denise Fluhr, Dottie Jones, Alencia Bates, Emily Recchia, Rebecca Johnson, Nicole Telhiard, Denise Whelan, Tamara Hoffa, Jean Bowden, Linda Watson, and Ashley Cuesta. Thank you also to the following for all their amazing help: Judi Pflughoeft, Deb Julienne, Courtny Eskew,Julie Simpson, Mary Lynn Ostrum, Shell Bryce, Jacqueline Wilson, Jodi Moore, Christine Mabry, Casey Harris-Parks, and Amanda Tamayo. You guys are the best! Thanks so much to Pete Davis for such an amazing cover, and for all his hard work on the technical side to make this book come to life. Mom, you're the best. It means so much that you believe in me. I love you. Special thanks also to my amazing daughter, who I love more than words could ever express. You are my world, sweet girl, in all ways.

• Title Page
  
• Copyright Page
  
• Chapter 1
  
• Chapter 2
  
• Chapter 3
  
• Chapter 4
  
• Chapter 5
  
• Chapter 6
  
• Chapter 7
  
• Chapter 8
  
• Chapter 9
  
• Chapter 10
  
• Chapter 11
  
• Chapter 12
  
• Chapter 13
  
• Chapter 14
  
• Chapter 15
  
• Chapter 16
  
• Chapter 17
  
• Chapter 18
  
• Chapter 19
  
• Chapter 20
  
• Sneak Peek: Forever in Darkness
  
• Sneak Peek: Ice
  
• Sneak Peek: Kiss at Your Own Risk
  
• Sneak Peek: Darkness Awakened
  
• Stephanie Rowe Bio
  
• Select List of Other Books
  

Sarah Burns clutched the steering wheel tighter, her hands shaking so violently she could barely grip the leather. She swallowed, her mouth parched, sweat beading on her forehead as chills wracked her, the attack from last night taking a brutal toll on her body.

As she sped along the twisted mountain road, she watched the sun dropping lower and lower in the sky, and a cold fear gripped her.
Please God, don't let the sun set yet.

She grabbed her phone and dialed the same number for the thousandth time that day.

Her grandmother answered on the first ring. "We didn't find him, Sarah."

Tension rippled through Sarah, and the fresh bruises on her body began to throb even more. "It's almost sunset," she whispered, her throat still raw from screaming all night, from the clawed hands that had gripped her throat so ruthlessly, trying to cut off her cries for help. "You have to find him."

"We've looked everywhere. We have no idea where his lair is."

His lair?

Tears burned in Sarah's eyes. Yesterday, her brother Jacob had been sleeping in his bed on the porch, a charming eighteen-year-old who had sworn to protect Sarah and his grandmother against the hell that stalked them, determined to be the man who would stand up and be their protector. He still blamed himself for failing to protect her seven years ago, even though he had been only eleven at the time, and he'd ruthlessly committed his life to making sure no one ever got to her again. He'd been so eager to have his dream and to become powerful enough to protect her against the monsters that hunted her. Jacob, her protector, her guardian. They had all believed he would do it.

Last night, she'd heard him tossing and shouting as he had the dream battle that would either turn him into a Calydon warrior or kill him.

Jacob had survived it, and he'd woken up with the brands on his arms that marked him as a Calydon, a warrior who could turn into one of the deranged monsters that had been hunting their village and Sarah's kind for so long. Some Calydons took years to go insane. Not her brother. One night.
One night
was all it had taken for him to turn against Sarah, and the fact she loved him gave him the power to truly destroy her.

And now, he was somewhere in the woods around their village, waiting for the sun to set so he could track down Sarah and finish what he'd started last night. "Nonny, we have to find him before dusk. As soon as it's dark, he'll come after me again—"

"We have to go inside now, Sarah. We can't be caught outside after the sun goes down. There's nothing more we can do." There was a loud thud, the sound of the door slamming shut as her grandmother began to set the nighttime safeguards, which included bolted doors, talismans, and spotlights that lit up the yard like it was midday.

Sarah bit her lip as she looked around the SUV she was driving. Glass windows. Metal siding. No protection. Nothing to help her. "I can't die," she said, dread filling her as the sky began to glow with the pink and red of a glorious sunset. Sunset had been a nightmare her whole life, a beautiful image preceding endless nights of danger. Tonight, it held a far more deadly promise than it ever had before. "You know I have to live.
I have to.
"

"Sarah." Her grandmother's voice was firm and unyielding. "You survived last night. You'll find a way to survive tonight, if they find you again."

"Oh, they'll find me." The sun dipped lower in the sky, only the top crescent visible across the mountain range. She took a deep breath, fighting against the fear and the dizziness, her head still throbbing from the beatings. Nausea churned in her belly, the aftermath of using her powers so violently all night still hitting hard. "You know they will."

"Then you survive." Her grandmother's voice was fierce. "You do whatever it takes."

Sarah covered her mouth against the urge to break down and cry, to beg for someone to help her, for the sun to suddenly, miraculously zoom back up into the sky, for a reprieve. She never cried. She never bemoaned her fate. She simply accepted it and closed her heart to any kind of weakness. But last night had broken through her emotional shields. It had been hell far beyond what she ever could have imagined, and the thought of going through it again... She looked down at her arms, at the bruises and claw marks on her skin, and she shuddered. "Nonny, I don't know if I can get through another assault. Last night—"

"Is over. And tonight won't last forever. You only have to survive until dawn."

An owl moved in the trees, making Sarah jump. How many minutes until night hit and they found her? She punched the gas, making the truck leap forward. Her view of the sunset disappeared as she drove deeper into the woods, the trees closing down on her like a canopy of death, trapping her.

The wheels on the SUV spun as she drove further and further away from Akara, the village that was her home, trying to put as many miles between it and herself before sunset struck. The further she was from Akara, the longer it would take for her brother to get to her once he woke up. Every muscle in her body was aching, pain was shooting through her back, and the chills were getting more violent. "I didn't get a chance to heal from last night," she said quietly. "I don't have much power left."

Her grandmother was silent for a long moment. "You didn't go to the fountain this morning to restore your powers?"

The fountain in the burned out section of their village had been standing for over a thousand years, filled with water that gave the gift of life to Sarah, but the flow had been getting weaker and weaker over the last several years. "The fountain was dry, and I didn't have time to try to dig out the water. I had to leave. I had to try to make Nashoba before dusk." But she wasn't going to get there in time. "I'm still three hours away from it." Nashoba was rumored to be a village like hers, and she was headed there to get help in dealing with the creatures haunting Akara and to find a new source of water. She'd tried to contact people there, but had come up empty. Jacob's turning had made it impossible to wait anymore, and she'd had to take the chance she could complete the drive between sunrise and sunset.

But she had to make it there before sunset, and it wasn't going to happen.

Traffic was a bitch sometimes.

"Sarah." The exasperation in her grandmother's voice made Sarah's throat tighten with fear, because it was the acknowledgement of death, the reality that there was no way Sarah could sustain herself through another night like the last one if she hadn't rebuilt her defenses after last night's assault.

They both knew it. Sarah had risked everything to try to make it in time, and the payoff was not happening the way she'd needed it to.

"You keep driving, do you understand?" There was a loud crash from over the phone, and Sarah jumped. It had sounded like the deadbolt had just been released.

"Nonny! What are you doing?"

"I'm going back out there. When they start hunting, they're going to find me before they find you."

"What?" Chills rippled down Sarah's arms at the thought of her grandmother heading into those woods to take on the creatures who had tortured her all night. They didn't want Nonny. They wanted Sarah. There was no reason for Nonny to throw herself in their path. "No! Don't! You'll never survive." Sarah heard the scrape of wood and knew that her grandmother had just pulled open the heavy door that barred the nightmares. "Nonny! Stop!"

"You're more important than I am," Nonny announced, like some damned martyr.

What was wrong with her? Martyrs weren't cool! "Oh my God, Nonny! What kind of statement is that? Go back inside!" Sarah wanted to scream with frustration as she heard the tap of her grandmother's feet on the front porch stairs. "They'll kill you!"

"As long as it takes them three hours, it's worth it," her grandmother declared. "I've got a few tricks of my own. I'll knock them on their asses a few times before they can get to me."

"God, no!" The devastating weight of loss swept through Sarah like a chasm of emptiness. There was no way she could handle it if her grandmother was killed. Nonny was the only person left in her life that mattered to her, and the thought of her dying...
No.
Sarah's trembling became more violent, the pounding in her head more intense as waves of despair crashed down around her. "Nonny, stay inside! It won't help me if you die. It will break me. I need your faith and hope to make it."

"That's a bunch of bullcrap, Sarah. You have plenty of hope and faith of your own. What you need is time, and I'll give that to you."

"Nonny!" she shouted, wishing she could swing the vehicle around and handcuff the stubborn old lady to the bed and never let her go. She would, if she could get back there in time. But that was impossible, so all she could do was cajole, threaten and beg, hoping to get through her grandmother's thick head. "Don't you dare do this! I'll find a way. I always do."

Nonny's footsteps crunched on the gravel as she walked down the driveway. "You survive tonight, do you understand? You're the only hope, Sarah. The only one, by God."

"I don't have hope or faith anymore," she retorted. "It's gone, and if you die, then I've really got nothing left." Her brother and his crew had taken the final shreds of hope from her last night when Jacob had walked up to her and jammed his claws into her throat. Having her beloved brother turn on her had shredded her faith in life, in humanity, in goodness. Without faith and hope, she would die, because those elements were what gave her soul life.

The beatings last night hadn't been about killing her with violence. It had been about breaking her soul by having those she loved beating her, and by forcing her to use her powers to hurt others. The way to destroy her was to strip her of all hope and faith, because those emotions were what sustained her. Without it, she could not exist, and if she didn't exist...

God, no, she couldn't think like that.

She rubbed her neck, bile churning at the feeling of those five puncture wounds, at the reminder that the brother she loved more than anything had led the assault on her last night. One of the best ways to destroy her was to force her to use her powers to hurt others, especially those she loved. It was devastating to watch men she'd once known and loved suffer and die at her hands, and each time she'd done it, another part of her heart had died.

She had so little hope and faith left after what had happened seven years ago, and last night had almost destroyed her completely. Another night like that? She knew she didn't have the resources to survive it. "If you die, I have nothing left, Nonny. You're the only thing left in my life I can believe in. I can't do it without you."

Her grandmother swore. "You'll die if they get you tonight, and you'll die if I get killed? What kind of crap is that? Toughen up, Sarah. I won't sacrifice myself if you're just going to roll over and give up just because the night gets a little rough!"

"I'm not going to roll over! Don't sacrifice yourself!" Sarah jammed her foot on the gas, ignoring the sweat streaming down her temples, the nausea roiling in her belly, and the aching of her body. "I'll survive tonight. I'll find a way. Just go back inside. Please, you're all I have left, Nonny." Her voice broke, and she had to fight to hold back the tears.

Seven years ago, everything she believed in had been destroyed when the man she had loved with all her soul, who she'd known since childhood, had turned on her after becoming a Calydon. He'd murdered her parents. He'd slaughtered their baby girl, tearing her from Sarah's arms as she fought to protect her. And then he'd come after Sarah, his eyes blazing red as the demon consumed him.

Grief filled Sarah at the memory of her husband sprawled on the ground, crawling toward her to get in the final killing blow before he died, his life bleeding from him, spilling into the earth like black poison into dust.

To stop him, she'd killed him. She'd murdered the man she'd loved, and he'd killed almost everyone she cared about. The old anguish flared deep and agonizing again, brought to life by her brother's turning on her. If she couldn't trust those she loved, who could she trust?

The debilitating emotions she'd fought so hard to suppress for so long swelled inside her: the despair, the hopelessness, the doom, all the feelings that would finally destroy the soul that had been dying for the last seven years.

She rubbed her hand over the scar on her stomach, from the blow that had nearly killed her. The eleven months in the hospital with nothing to do but obsess about Mason's betrayal, her unforgivable failure to protect her daughter, and the loss of so many who she loved so dearly. The loneliness and guilt had been overwhelming, and Sarah knew her spirit would have broken if it hadn't been for her grandmother sitting by her bed, haranguing her relentlessly to survive for one more day.

To lose her grandmother now? Her only rock? Sarah knew it would be more than she could take. "Nonny. You can't sacrifice yourself for me. You can't!"

"Bullshit, Sarah. Of course I can. It's your time to step up, and it's my job to help you. Your life is worth more than mine. Godspeed, child."

"Nonny!" Sarah gripped the phone frantically as the line went dead. Her hand shaking, she frantically dialed again, and it went right into voicemail. "No!" She screamed her denial, her anguish, her protest useless in the empty cab of the truck.

Her damned curse, her blessing, her fate, whatever name you attached to it, had stolen everything. And now it was going to take her grandmother, the woman who had held Sarah's broken body, refusing to let her die after the man Sarah loved had attacked her and killed their child.

Sarah couldn't do it without her grandmother. She knew she couldn't. It wasn't simply her life that her brother had been trying to take from her last night. It was her soul, her hope, her faith, the very things that gave her power.

Nonny was the only light left in Sarah's life, the only beauty, the only sign that there might be something good in this God-forsaken existence she'd been cursed with. Without Nonny, there was nothing left inside Sarah. No hope. No faith. Nothing.