Darkness Possessed (Order of the Blade) by Stephanie Rowe Read Free Book Online Page B

when my teammate is almost dead out there. You lost the chance for my loyalty a long time ago." He snarled at Rohan. "I'm leaving, and don't bother trying to stop me. We both know you can't."
    Again, a total lie, but Rohan didn't know that.
    "No. You will not leave without helping Trevor."
    "I'm here for Thano," Zach snapped. "Nothing else." Inadvertently sliding one last regretful look over the chained up warrior, wishing he was at liberty to help the poor bastard, Zach turned on his heel and strode back across the blue-lit area toward the place he'd entered. A part of him felt like he was betraying his own kind by not helping Rohan's warrior, but at the same time, he'd taken an oath to the Order of the Blade, and to Thano. Nothing trumped that oath. Nothing.
    Rohan's voice stopped him. "The same thing will save Thano and Trevor." The words were heavy with meaning and intent. "If you save Trevor, you will also save your man."
    Zach stopped in his tracks, inches from the edge of the darkness.
    Son of a bitch.
    Now he got it. Now he got it all.
    Rohan needed his help to save his teammate. Any good leader knew that his value was only as strong as the men who worked beneath him. Nothing was more important to Rohan than his mission, so he would be relentless to protect his team, which meant he would be relentless in forcing Zach to help him.
    Resentment coiled inside him, and he fisted his sai as he turned back. He opened his mouth to tell Rohan to go to hell, then his gaze flicked involuntary back to the dangling Trevor. He looked almost dead now, limp, like he was a meat carcass that had been strung up for carving. Was that Thano's fate, too? The handful of Calydons Zach knew who had come back from the edge of going rogue had been brought back by the women they loved, reclaimed by sanity before they had truly gone rogue.
    Thano was completely rogue, and he had no woman to save him. There was no out for him. No way home.
    What if Rohan was right? What if he could save Thano? If Rohan really believed this task would save Trevor from the hell of being rogue, and Zach sensed that Rohan did, then he wasn't lying when he said it would save Thano as well.
    Zach ground his jaw, looking over his shoulder toward where he'd left Thano and Apollo. He couldn't see them, but he knew they were there, waiting for him to work a miracle and save the day.
    He knew then that he had no choice. If Rohan believed Zach could save Thano and Trevor, then there was a very real possibility he might be able to do it. Zach couldn't walk away from even an infinitesimal chance of saving his teammate. Swearing, he lowered his sai and faced the man he'd never thought he would trust again. "Okay then. Tell me what you want me to do."
    Rohan smiled, a smug smile that settled in Zach's mind like a thorn. "You have chosen well, apprentice. We have much to prepare, and then we will talk."
    "Apprentice?" Zach narrowed his eyes as he shored up his mental shields. This was one warrior he wasn't going to let into his head. "I was never Dante's apprentice, and I sure as hell am no one's apprentice now. Give me the details. That's all I want from you."
    "No. You were not Dante's apprentice," Rohan agreed. "You are mine, and you always have been."

Chapter 5
    Her street seemed darker than it had been the last time she walked down it.
    Rhiannon realized it had been a mistake to stay at the office until after midnight. She, a girl who had once thrived in the darkness, now couldn't help but look over her shoulder as she hurried down the sidewalk. She froze suddenly when she thought she saw something move in the shadowy doorway across the street. She stared at it, her heart pounding, waiting to see if anything moved.
    Nothing did.
    She started walking again, then whipped around, and looked at the doorway again, trying to catch someone who might have moved when she'd stopped looking. Again, she thought she saw a whisper of movement, like the slipping of a wraith into a crevice,