Radiance (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #3) (22 page)

“
You just missed my heart with your silver blade…and you left me for dead in the snow. Sloppy, Rand, sloppy. I was grievously wounded, but I recovered.”

We advanced on Delilah, Samantha Moon and me. Kristin pulled my arm.

“Don’t. Stay behind me, Kristin.”

“
Daddy! No! She helped me! She brought me here for safety when Nero forced us from our little place in Griffith Park!”

“
You lived in that little utility shed?”

“
Yes.”

“
She didn’t keep you a prisoner?”

“
No!” Kristin cried. “She saved me from Vlad Tepes, who briefly captured me during the time you were trying to make contact with me on my Kindle, but that got taken away by Vlad. She rescued me from him and kept me from being turned by anyone else. She took care of me almost this whole time. I tried and tried to find you, Daddy!”

“
I’m sorry, Kristin. I was looking for you, too.”

“
I figured you were.”

“
I even emailed the Navy to see if they could find you.”

“
Oh, my God.”

“
It was a long time ago. They never answered my email. They probably thought it was a prank.”

“
Why here, after all that happened here?”

“
When we got kicked out of Griffith Park by the other vampires, I thought I would just go home and wait for you to show up. She came with me to keep me safe, not just from vampires, but from everything. The other vampires have no idea we’re here.”

“
You live outside?” I asked. “You’re homeless?”

“
Yeah. We camp out and we go to the all-night health club and take showers. During the day, I go places on my bike. I’m in online school. It’s free and I do it at the library.”

“
Wow,” I said. “You made a life for yourself.”

“
We
did. I make art and sell it online, but it’s not enough money. Delilah has a part-time job as a night janitor for offices and I go with her sometimes. She helps buy my food and clothes.”

“
But the sun…” Samantha said.

“
In the daytime, Delilah goes to Great-grandma’s root cellar on the south end of our land and she sleeps down there.”

“
It’s dirty and unsafe, full of spiders and mice,” I said.

“
I wouldn’t make Kristin sleep in there,” Delilah said. “And when she sleeps here, outside, I keep watch so nothing happens to her.”

“
All this time, Delilah, you knew where I was and you didn’t tell Kristin,” I accused her.

“
Yes,” Delilah said quietly.

“
I don’t believe it,” Kristin said. “You wouldn’t do that to me, Delilah. You couldn’t!”

“
I wanted a…daughter. I’m sorry, Kristin.”

Kristin gasped in anger and hurt.

I said, “You should know that Delilah once came to the castle in Switzerland where I live.”

“
I came there to try to tell you. You didn’t give me time to explain that I had Kristin. You quickly killed me, or thought you did.”

“
You tried to kill Corbin.”

“
Who’s that?” Kristin asked through her tears.

“
My friend.”

“
It was the first time I had ever crossed paths with a werewolf,” Delilah said.

“
Wait a minute, Dad. Your friend is a werewolf?”

“
Yes.” I looked at Delilah. “You were strangling him and about to suck his blood.”

“
I do feed on furry mammals, but it was certainly not my intent to feed on a werewolf. He changed into a man, just as I was about to kill him. And then you showed up and we did not make a good first impression on each other. I didn’t have time to explain before you pierced me with your silver blade.”

“
You are one of the most feared vampires of the old ones. Or were.”

“
I’ve evolved, as some vampires do when they grow tired of the life. Once upon a time, I killed hundreds of people, and I made lots of new vampires, too, but only because I didn’t know what I was doing. No one ever taught me things. I had to learn them the hard way, mostly by heartbreak. I haven’t drained a human being, or bitten one, for a couple of centuries now. I kill small animals, like rabbits and gophers and take their blood about twice a week. That’s all.”

Looking at Delilah, her voice shaking, Kristin said, “You told me my dad once tried to kill you. You didn’t say you knew where he lived.”

“I was going to tell you, eventually. I just knew that once I did, I would never see you again. I couldn’t bear the thought. The weeks turned into months.”

“
How could you have done that to me, Delilah?” Kristin said, her voice raised an octave. “I
trusted
you.”

“
Your father is a vampire hunter. I am a vampire. I think you understand.”

“
What I understand is: all of this time you could have returned me to my dad but you kept me for yourself.”

“
Yes.”

Delilah looked at Samantha. “Hello, vampiress. I don’t know you
.
”

“
You still don’t. After tonight, let’s pretend we never met. As far as I’m concerned, you’re a rescuer turned kidnapper.”

I nodded. “Well said, Sam.”

“Please listen! I wanted a daughter to replace the one I lost. I had a baby girl once, a love child with Samson. He was a Nazarite and I was a poor girl from the Valley of Sorek who caught his eye. When the child was born, they took her away and slayed her for being illegitimate.”

“
I’m so sorry,” Sam said. Despite her sympathetic words, I knew she was still on the alert.

“
If you had had a boy?” I asked.

“
He might have been saved by Samson declaring him a Nazarite. But a girl? Nothing could be done to save her from their judgment.”

My jaw dropped in horror.

Kristin said, “Daddy, I know she’s killed people, but she never hurt me. More than that, she protected me. Even if she was a kidnapper, you shouldn’t kill her because it will really traumatize me.”

I sighed.

Kristin continued, “I’ve already been through so much with people fighting over me and dying by Delilah’s hand. Who knows what would have happened to me if Vlad or Nero had me. I would either be dead or a vampire, if not for Delilah.”

I lowered my blade and asked Delilah, “Were you a vampire when you cut Samson’s hair and he brought down the temple?”

Delilah hung her head in shame. Either that, or she was quite the actress. “Is everyone I ever meet going to bring that up? Here’s what happened. Samson shaved off his
own
hair for a sin offering at the temple for laying with me, a non-Nazarite. When he burned his own hair as a peace gesture to Yahweh, it set in motion these terrible rumors about me cutting his hair to deprive him of his power while he was drunk and passed out. The truth is, I would have never hurt him, even though he failed to save our baby daughter.”

“
You were totally innocent?” I asked in disbelief.

“
Of course not. My past was downright wicked. But I did love Samson and I certainly loved our baby.”

“
Samson made you a vampire?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. Disgraced and scorned after the murder of my baby daughter and the fall of the temple…and the death of my poor Samson…it was ordered that I become a vampire’s food.”

“How horrific,” I said.

Delilah continued, “They threw me into the cage of a vampire gladiator, and he fed on me to make him strong before a fight. I became one of the undead, as you are, beautiful vampiress.” She nodded respectfully at Samantha Moon.

“I’m sorry for you but,” Sam said, “you’re a kidnapper. You can’t do this again, steal someone’s child! No matter what the circumstances.”

“
I know.” The two vampires regarded each other and I felt the negative vibes they gave each other.

Gooseflesh rose on my arms.

“That was thousands of years ago.” Delilah’s eyes flashed at Samantha.

“
Daddy! She tried to kill the guys who killed Mom. She went after them a whole bunch of times!” Kristin said. “But they were too strong for her because she only drinks animal blood. They had this creepy religious cult in Romania and she tried to infiltrate it. She made that yucky coat from wigs to intimidate the other vampires because they bullied her to try to make her drink human blood.”

I addressed Delilah. “I heard you tried to sell Kristin to Vlad at Raven Citadel.”

Kristin said, “That was just a ruse to get us in, so she could see if Gabrielle was there.”

“
You knew about Gabby?”

Kristin burst into tears. “Yes. She wouldn’t leave with us because she was trying to sneak out the blood servants, kind of like that Oskar Schindler guy. She saved little kids, Dad! Delilah helped, too. They got so many out.”

I lowered my blade and put it in my right boot. “What are we going to do with you, Delilah?”

“
Please Dad, let Delilah go! She did hurt people a long time ago, but she didn’t hurt me and she promised not to kill you.”

“
She broke my nose.”

Delilah said, “I was trying to have a conversation with you and all you wanted to do was kill me. I was trying to make you listen, if you remember and admit that.”

I felt ashamed, but not enough to apologize. “You could have spit out, ‘I have Kristin’ at the get-go.”

“
Wouldn’t you have perceived that as a direct threat?”

I sighed. “Yes.”
Damn it.

“
Kristin,” Delilah said, moving away. “I’m sorry you lost so much.”

“
I know,” Kristin said in a small voice. Her chin trembled.

“
Sun’s coming up,” Samantha said. “I have sunscreen you can use.”

“
You should go to the root cellar, Delilah,” Kristin said.

Delilah didn’t reply.

I looked at my watch. “You need to apply sunscreen and a cover up,” I said. “You’ve got about one minute before sunrise.”

“
No. It’s time.” Delilah took off the horrible coat and stood in a gauzy white sleeveless dress that billowed in the morning breeze.

“
Oh, shit,” Samantha said and ran toward Delilah, tube of sunscreen in hand.

“
Let me be!” raged Delilah. Sam halted. “What gives you the right to choose for another vampire?”

Samantha nodded and put her sunscreen in her jeans pocket.

Kristin pleaded, “You’re a good person now. You don’t have to die. You could go somewhere new and start over.”

“
We talked about this. I promised you when you were safe in your father’s arms that I would go into the radiance.”

“
Dad, don’t let her,” Kristin begged.

“
What do you want, Delilah?” I asked. “Forgiveness?”

“
You can’t give me something you don’t feel,” Delilah said.

“
True.”

“
Rand Sebastian, I believe there’s something greater than this in store for me. I want to become a being of light.”

Sam stepped into the shade and put on her huge Jackie-O sunglasses. “Ten seconds, Delilah. I have sunscreen. Come here. Don’t do this in front of a little girl.”

“Daddy, help her!” Kristin yelled.

I shrugged off my jacket and threw it to Delilah. She let it fall to the ground in an arc and raised her arms to the sky just as the sun sheared away the remnants of night with its brilliant yellow rays.

She stretched out her fingers, reaching for the light. “Look at the radiance! I haven’t seen the sky like this for centuries. It’s beautiful. It’s warm. It’s purifying me.”

Her skin started to sizzle and smoke. Kristin screamed and buried her face against my chest.

When Delilah caught fire and cried out, Kristin turned around and watched her burn.

Slowly, the ball of flame that was Delilah burned brighter and brighter until we had to squint to look at her and then, it got weirder. I was amazed to see that fireball slowly lift off the ground. The ball of flame rose higher and higher into the rising sun until it became a part of the bigger light and could not be distinguished from it.

“She’s gone!” Kristin said.

“
I’m sorry. I know she did care for you.”

“
Daddy, I didn’t even know she was a kidnapper because she was so kind to me. After all that happened, I thought she was the only person I could trust. She kept that secret from me, that she knew where you were.”