Radiance (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #3) by Eve Paludan Read Free Book Online Page B

Sisterhood of the Scythe.
    The second realization that came to me was that we didn’t have enough vampire hunters left to launch a sustainable offense against Nero, who had probably already figured out that Delilah wasn’t coming back. I assumed he had made a grab for Kristin. This thought chilled me to my core: We are in big, big trouble.
    After about four days, I finally slept in my bedchamber, for about eighteen hours.
    Almost a week had passed since Daphne and Lucas had been killed and I woke up one evening with what I hoped was a brilliant idea to save us as a group.
    I texted Ambra:
    Can you meet me in the library? 8 p.m. Important.
    She texted back almost immediately:
    Oui.
    I got dressed, went downstairs to the big kitchen and put some coffee on. I set water to boil for tea and got out the tea tins and lots of mugs. I made a fake continental breakfast for everyone—budget hotel-like fare of breakfast muffins from a mix in the back of the pantry, pounds of sausages that I microwaved straight from the freezer and cut-up fruit from the last of what we had fresh. I laid it out like I had seen Daphne do, in a self-serve buffet style with plates, utensils and napkins. I added a big box of muesli cereal and a pitcher of cream from the walk-in cooler. Corbin was the first one into the kitchen and took about a third of the sausages on his plate, as I had seen him do before. The werewolf certainly liked his meat.
    “Evening,” he said. “You cooked breakfast for everyone.”
    “ Tried to. I’m not as good at these things as Daphne is… was . Corbin, when everyone comes down, will you tell them to help themselves? I need to go to the barn and feed the dairy cow and the chickens, whatever we have out there that she used to take care of.”
    “ Way ahead of you, Rand. Already taken care of this morning and every morning since we lost Daphne. I fed the chickens and milked the cow, scalded the milk, strained it through cheesecloth and put it in that pitcher.” He angled his head to the pitcher I had found in the fridge. “You don’t feed farm animals at night. Just so you know. They are not nocturnal.”
    “ Of course not. What was I thinking?” I felt my face getting hot. City boy.
    “ No problem. I’ll try to cover for Daphne, but it’s a big job. Except for the full moon, when obviously, I am banished from the barn areas, I’ll keep the animals fed and their areas clean, but we’re going to need to hire outside help. We’re down about as far as we can go in warm bodies before this whole thing falls completely apart.”
    “ I know. It’s very serious. I’m on it and thanks for pitching in.”
    “ I didn’t know you could cook, Rand.”
    “ I can’t. I’m totally faking it. You’ll find that out if you hit the muffins.”
    “ Surely, you jest. I eat meat, meat, and more meat.”
    “ I know by your breath,” I joked. “It’s like trying to keep meat in the house for a dire wolf.”
    Corbin smiled. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Are you going to recruit new people soon?”
    “Yes.”
    “ Good. Any werewolf chicks?”
    “ I’ll certainly let you know if any female werewolves submit their resumes.”
    Corbin took a deep breath and let it out. “Am I forgiven yet? For the incident with Ambra?”
    “Yes, by me, but I can’t speak for her. Am I forgiven for stabbing your wolf body in the shoulder with my silver blade?”
    “ Yes. I’m all better now. Werewolves are fast healers. Thank you for not killing me.”
    “ Thank you for not making my girlfriend into a werewolf. It would have been problematic.”
    “ I know that now.”
    We shook hands and Corbin ate a couple more sausages. “I’m serious about the werewolf woman assistant. As the wolf pack gets larger, I really need a full-time assistant to help me with some research and care of the pack.”
    “I know we can afford it. Before I make inquiries, do you know any werewolves at all? Anywhere in the world?”
    “ Sadly, not still