Stephanie Rowe - Darkness Unleashed by Stephanie Rowe - Darkness Unleashed Read Free Book Online

need to set her up to go there, so we can deal with her after we get you guys fixed. We need her to think we won't be headed there, so she'll decide that is the only place she can go to escape us.
    Thano winked, then his face darkened. "You want to stay here and search for her? Fuck the girl, asshole. Zach's dying from the talrak bite. He's our priority, not some woman who we don't even know for sure is the one we're looking for." Is he really dying?
    Not if we can get to the village in time to get the antivenom. "We've been hunting her for three weeks," Ryland snapped, allowing his true frustration to show. "We're so close. Another day—"
    Thano called out his halberd and had it at Ryland's throat. Despite the weakness of his body, his grip was firm, his weapon steady. "Shut the fuck up, asshole. This is about Zach. We're going to that village up ahead to the north, and we're going to get help. You can hunt the woman after we save Zach." Shit man, this is great. I've been wanting to pull a weapon on you for years. Can I stab you, too? He pushed the tip of the halberd against Ryland's throat, pricking the skin.
    You're a pain in the ass. But Ryland was amused by the irony that the most easy-going guy in the Order was playing the asshole. Thano was actually pretty convincing, which was a little weird. Thano wasn't supposed to have that element to him.
    Ryland called out his machete, but before he could level it at Thano in what he hoped was a convincing show of men being stupid-ass men, Zach swore.
    "No. Thano's wrong. You're both wrong." Zach stirred, and with a flash of black light and a crack that split the night, he called out his sai and leveled it at Ryland's heart. His eyes were still at half-mast, but Ryland felt the press of his mind as he joined their conversation. I couldn't miss out on the chance to call a weapon on Ryland. Why should Thano get all the fun? "Fuck the village," he snarled. "Too many people there know Ryland. We can't risk it. We're turning back, and we're doing it now."
    Ryland narrowed his eyes, well aware that Zach's hostility was not completely faked, and that both warriors were too damned pleased to be holding him at the end of their blades. But he made a show of lowering his machete, even though his natural reaction was to take their threat and turn it on them. He wasn't a man who stood down for anyone, and that included a couple of arrogant bastards like them. But he wasn't going to let anyone die on his watch, and this was the only way to do it. "You both are complete bastards," he snapped.
    "I'll take that as a compliment coming from the king of the bastards." Zach flicked his sai. "Turn around, asshole. We're going home, and since you're the only one who knows about this talrak shit, you're coming with us. I haven't survived five hundred years of battle to die today. Move it."
    Thano's eyes glittered with amusement, and he poked his weapon further into Ryland's neck. "Yeah, start skipping along, old guy. Get your saggy old ass back on that trail."
    Ryland narrowed his eyes. You bastards are enjoying this way too much.
    Thano grinned. Of course we are. The other guys are going to be so jealous when we tell them what we got to do. Come on, finish it out, Ry. Bow to our greatness.
    Zach snorted, and there was no mistaking the pleasure he was getting out of holding a weapon on Ryland.
    He glared at them both, and then nodded his acquiescence. "Zach comes first," he agreed, making a show of frustration. "Let's go. I found Catherine once, I'll find her again. We'll circle around. Zach's correct. We have to skip the village."
    He gave one last look back at the graveyard, but could not see her, and had no way of knowing if she'd heard the conversation. He needed her to be safe, dammit. He needed her to go to that village where he could protect her. Instinctively, he pushed at her with his mind, even knowing that she wouldn't be able to hear him. Calydons could talk telepathically only with their