Blade of Darkness Read online

  BLADE OF DARKNESS

  Copyright © 2017 by Dianne Duvall

  Published by Dianne Duvall, 2017

  www.DianneDuvall.com

  Editor: Anne Victory

  Cover Art: Syneca Featherstone

  E-book ISBN: 978-0-9864171-4-6

  Print ISBN: 978-0-9864171-5-3

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, printed or electronic, without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Blade of Darkness

  Return to the "utterly addictive" (RT Book Reviews) world of New York Times bestselling author Dianne Duvall's Immortal Guardians.

  Dana Pembroke has been able to glimpse the future of those she touches for as long as she can remember. But she never saw Aidan coming. When the tall, dark Celt with the charming grin yet world-weary eyes walks through her door, the future she sees for him is one full of violence, danger, deception… and passion. Because amidst the terrifying battles that unfold in her visions, she also sees herself in Aidan's arms and in his bed. Dana knows she should keep her distance, but the tender moments and laughter they share entice her even as she finds herself thrust into a world of vampires, immortals, and other preternatural beings.

  Immortal Guardian Aidan O'Byrne has been hunting and slaying psychotic vampires for nearly three thousand years, so visions of bloody battles don't trouble him. The battles Dana foresees, however, show Aidan's brethren turning against him, so he can't help but feel alarmed. While he spends as much time as he can with Dana, struggling to decipher her dire predictions, Aidan finds himself utterly smitten. Hope rises that he has finally found a woman who can banish the darkness and loneliness that plague him. But when vampires begin targeting Dana and a powerful enemy spawns chaos, will fate grant them time to find happiness together?

  "Fans of terrific paranormal romance have hit the jackpot

  with Duvall and her electrifying series."

  —RT Book Reviews

  "Full of fascinating characters, a unique and wonderfully

  imaginative premise, and scorching hot relationships."

  —The Romance Reviews

  Titles by Dianne Duvall

  The Gifted Ones

  A SORCERESS OF HIS OWN

  RENDEZVOUS WITH YESTERDAY

  Immortal Guardians

  DARKNESS DAWNS

  NIGHT REIGNS

  PHANTOM SHADOWS

  IN STILL DARKNESS

  DARKNESS RISES

  NIGHT UNBOUND

  PHANTOM EMBRACE

  SHADOWS STRIKE

  Anthologies

  PREDATORY

  (includes In Still Darkness)

  ON THE HUNT

  (includes Phantom Embrace)

  An Immortal Guardians Novel

  Book 7

  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  Dianne Duvall

  www.DianneDuvall.com

  © 2017 Dianne Duvall

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Books by Dianne Duvall

  Chapter One

  The thump of Aidan’s heavy boots echoed off the walls as he followed Chris Reordon down the long white corridor on Sublevel 5. Chris presided over the East Coast division of the network, which encompassed thousands of human employees who helped Immortal Guardians protect humans from psychotic vampires.

  What looked like a large-screen television took up almost the entire wall at the end of the otherwise barren hallway. If Aidan wasn’t mistaken, it displayed a live video feed of the sunny meadow beyond the network’s parking lot, like an oversized window.

  “That’s new,” he commented.

  Chris nodded without looking up. “Melanie hoped it would make living five stories belowground a little more palatable for the vampires housed here. If they like it, we’ll add similar faux windows to their apartments.”

  The doorways to Aidan’s right opened into Dr. Melanie Lipton’s office, a lab, an infirmary, a break room for employees, and Dr. Linda Machen’s office. The doors on the left marked a half dozen or so vampire apartments.

  “Tell me again,” Chris grumbled, “why I should give you an apartment here when my team put so much time and effort into providing you with a nice, comfortable house in the country.”

  Aidan shrugged. “Melanie and the other doctors were tired of me bunking in the infirmary.”

  “Why the hell don’t you bunk at your house?”

  Aidan stared at the back of the Reordon’s head. Chris pretty much loathed him. “Because I like it better here, where I can hang out with the vampires.”

  He had never done that before—befriended vampires. Those he encountered on his nightly hunts were always either raving lunatics or halfway down the road to insanity with no interest in avoiding the destination.

  But the vampires here were still lucid. And getting to know them was a new venture.

  When one did the same old same old every night for nearly three thousand years, new was good.

  No. He’d borrow a word from Cliff. New was awesome.

  Chris stopped before a heavy titanium door that had an electronic pad beside it. “This is your key card.” He held up a card. “You’ll need it and the code I wrote on the back to get inside.” His cell phone chirped. “Hang on.” Tugging it from his back pocket, he answered with his usual brusque, “Reordon.”

  “Mr. Reordon!” a woman nearly shouted from the phone. “It’s Veronica Becker. I work in—” Snarls erupted on the other end. She shrieked a curse. “I work in IT at the network!”

  Chris frowned. “I know. What’s—?”

  “I got a flat tire,” she interrupted breathlessly, “and two vampires— Shit!”

  “Where are you?” Chris demanded.

  “Sax-Beth Church Road just off Highway 54.”

  Chris looked at Aidan.

  “I know where that is.” Aidan pictured the location in his mind. The hallway around him darkened as a feeling of weightlessness engulfed him. Fresh air ruffled his hair as he found himself standing at the intersection of Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Road and Highway 54.

  A full moon dominated a cloudless sky. The croak of frogs, hum of insects, and rustling of other nocturnal creatures filled the night. As did raucous laughter.

  He looked to the west.

  Vampires. Taunting their intended victim until howls of pain split the night.

  Aidan’s nose twitched at the sharp scent of pepper. Running up the winding, two-lane country road, he traveled at speeds most drivers would deem unsafe. Two headlights appeared in the distance. Stationary. Flickering as bodies moved back and forth in front of them.

  “Please hurry
,” he heard Veronica cry. “I can’t hold them off much longer. And I think one just—” She swore again.

  There. A woman. Small. Perhaps five feet two inches tall. Armed with a tire iron and the biggest can of pepper spray Aidan had ever seen.

  He grinned. Smart woman.

  Her cell phone lay on the hood of the car behind her. Chris’s voice swam out of it, expressing concern without tipping off the vamps that an Immortal Guardian now hunted them.

  Two vampires danced around her, flashing fangs, their eyes glowing bright blue. When one blurred and sped toward her, she doused him with pepper spray. To a vampire with extremely heightened senses, it would feel like flames searing his eyes, nose, and lungs.

  The vamp bent forward with a yelp and scrubbed at his eyes.

  Veronica bashed him on the head with the tire iron, then pepper sprayed and whacked his friend. But the vampires recovered quickly and weren’t as stupid as they looked.

  Even as Aidan raced toward them, one of the vampires tossed the woman a sneer and backed away to the other side of the car.

  Michael!

  Aidan heard her panicked thought and noticed for the first time a toddler slumbering in a car seat inside.

  Fury rose. If the madness that afflicted vampires hadn’t fully taken hold, the vamp would use the child to torture the mother. And if the madness had fully taken hold…

  Aidan stopped running long enough to focus his energy and send a sharp telekinetic push.

  Both vampires flew backward, away from the car and Veronica.

  Drawing his short swords, Aidan swept forward.

  Scrambling off the ground, the vampires drew long bowie knives and lunged at him.

  Neither scored a hit as Aidan tore into them, his blades opening major arteries.

  Unlike immortals, vampires tended to bleed out very quickly when they suffered such wounds. Much like these, who sank to the ground and—seconds later—gasped their last breaths.

  The odd symbiotic virus that infected them began to devour them from the inside out in a last, desperate bid to live despite the cessation of blood flow. By the time it finished, nothing would remain of the two but their clothing, watches, and dental fillings.

  Silence fell in the wake of the brief battle. Even the insects made no sound, as though they were stunned by the violence they had just witnessed.

  Aidan turned to face the woman. “Veronica?”

  She gave him a shaky nod. “Yes.”

  “I’m Aidan. Are you okay?”

  “Yes. But I think the tall one might have called…” She trailed off as Aidan raised a hand.

  Tilting his head, he listened carefully.

  A few insects nearby tentatively made their presence known.

  In the distance, several figures raced toward them at preternatural speeds.

  Aidan swore. “Get in the car.”

  The woman lunged for the driver’s door and yanked it open. “Are more coming?”

  “Yes.”

  She scrambled into the car and slammed the door shut.

  Door locks snicked even as she swung around to check on the boy in the back seat.

  The toddler’s face scrunched up in a frown as he slumped deeper into his car seat and continued to sleep.

  “Sit tight,” Aidan said, loud enough for both Veronica and Chris to hear. “I’ve got this.” Leaping over the car, he plunged into the forest and barreled toward the vampires. This would go better if he stopped the vampires before they caught sight of the car and its occupants.

  Tall trees thickened and blocked the moon’s illumination as he continued forward, leaving him in darkness his preternaturally sharp eyes had no difficulty penetrating.

  Tiny lights flickered in the distance. Blue. Green. Silver. Always in pairs.

  The faces that housed those glowing eyes swam into focus seconds before the vampires struck.

  His own eyes glowing amber, Aidan swirled and struck and fended off blows. Though they outnumbered him six to one, he actually had the advantage. Aidan had been born in a time when all wars were fought with blades. He had begun training with master swordsmen as soon as his noble Celtic father had deemed him old enough to hold a wooden sword.

  And he had been born with advanced DNA that bestowed upon him special gifts. Teleportation. Telekinesis, which aided him in deflecting blows whenever he had a second to focus his energy. Telepathy, which warned him of the vampires’ next moves. And the ability to heal with his hands.

  That advanced DNA also shielded him from the more corrosive aspects of the vampiric virus that infected him. Humans were not so lucky. Humans infected with the virus turned vampire and suffered progressive brain damage. So even the kindest amongst them swiftly turned into psychopathic killers.

  Like these. They knew a woman and child waited somewhere behind Aidan. The vamp who had called them had told them as much. And their plans for the duo sickened him.

  Blood sprayed when Aidan sliced two of the vampires’ carotid arteries. As they stumbled backward, their hands going to their throats, Aidan severed another vamp’s arm and opened the femoral artery of another.

  Four down. Two to go.

  The fifth went down easy. The sixth took off running.

  Cursing, Aidan raced after him. No way would he leave that monster alive to prey on other innocents.

  Dashing through the forest at preternatural speeds could be dangerous, particularly if one became distracted.

  Reaching into his coat, Aidan drew a dagger and let it fly.

  The vampire grunted as the dagger buried itself in his back. Glancing over his shoulder without slowing, he ran headlong into a tree.

  Aidan winced at the sound of bones snapping and puncturing organs. Skidding to a halt, he watched as the vamp sank to the ground.

  The heart inside that battered body still beat.

  Aidan crossed to him, then lopped off the vampire’s head to spare him a slow, torturous death. Poor bastard. He might have been a good man before the virus had taken its toll.

  Once he’d wiped the blood from his blades, Aidan sheathed them and teleported back to the car.

  Veronica shrieked when he abruptly appeared beside the driver’s door. Wilting with relief, she thrust open the door and stepped out into the night. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. And you?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “Were you bitten?”

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  “Aidan?” he heard Chris Reordon call.

  His eyes went to the cell phone on the hood of the car. Picking it up, he held it to his ear. “Yeah?”

  “Did you kill the vamps?”

  “Aye. Two of them on the road and six more in the forest to the west.”

  “Does Ms. Becker require medical assistance?”

  Aidan examined her again. “Do you require medical assistance?”

  Eyes wide, she shook her head. “No. I’m okay.”

  “She’s fine,” Aidan told Chris. “Just a little shaken up. I’ll see that she gets home safely.”

  “Thank you. I’ll send one of my guys to collect the vampires’ weapons.”

  “You have the location?”

  “Yeah. We LoJack all employee cars. I know where she is and can have a guy there in five minutes.”

  “Do you want me to stay until he arrives?”

  “No. That won’t be necessary. Thanks again for helping Ms. Becker.”

  “Happy to do it.” Aidan ended the call and handed Veronica her phone.

  Her fingers trembled as they closed around it. “I left it on the car.” It took her a couple of tries to get the phone in her pocket. “When you told me to get in the car, I forgot to grab the phone first.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I know movies like to pretend otherwise, but people rarely think clearly in an emergency. Although I have to say, the pepper spray was a brilliant move.”

  “Thank you. I hoped it would hurt more with their heightened senses.”
<
br />   He smiled. “I’m sure they found it quite painful.” His own eyes burned a bit just from being near it.

  “I can’t seem to stop shaking,” she said with a hint of embarrassment.

  “That’s normal. Try taking deep breaths.” He drew in a long deep breath, held it, then released it to demonstrate.

  She followed his example.

  If he weren’t splattered with blood, he would’ve offered her a hug to help calm her. “May I ask you a question?” he asked instead, hoping a distraction would help.

  She nodded.

  “What does LoJack mean?”

  She smiled. “Did Mr. Reordon say he’d LoJacked my car?”

  “Yes.”

  “It means he can track the location of the vehicle at all times and get the GPS coordinates.”

  “Ah.” Aidan and his fellow immortals spent their nights hunting psychotic vampires, so they had little time left over to learn all the fascinating things the latest technology could do. “Well, he’s sending someone to clean up our mess here and said we’ve no need to wait for him.” He motioned to the car. “If you don’t mind my dirtying up your front seat a bit, I’d be happy to escort you home.”

  Her pretty features smoothed out with relief. “Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”

  “Would you like me to drive?” he offered.

  She shook her head. “I’m okay. I’m not shaking so badly now.”

  “Then give me a minute to change your tire and we can be on our way.”

  Reaching into the car, she popped open the trunk.

  Aidan changed the flat in less than a minute, then tucked the old tire and tools in the trunk and closed it.

  As Veronica got back in the car and closed the door, he glanced at the first two vampires he had slain.

  All that remained were their clothes and weapons.

  Aidan kicked the lot of it off the road, then circled to the passenger side and settled himself in the car.

  “So,” Veronica said as she started the engine and drove forward. “Why were you late?”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Late?”