Read Online Burning (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #1) by Eve Paludan - Free Book Online Page B

do you know about Rudolph’s death?” I asked suddenly. “Gabby knew the names of his killers. Your group was much further along than I ever was.”
    “ We know he went off on his own. Always, he was looking for leads on who murdered your parents. Truth is, Rand, the vampires have stolen from all of us—and we are all driven to hunt.”
    I nodded. “He wanted to meet with me. He had news.”
    “Yes, he had discovered...something. We tried to stop him, however, as we believed he was being set up. Even Rudolph himself believed he was being set up, but he went anyway, even ditching Gabrielle in the process.”
    “ Reckless. Sounds like him.”
    “ There’s a lesson in that,” said Ambra. “To cleave to the safety of the group.”
    “ Well, that didn’t help Gabby.”
    “ True.” Ambra turned away, bit her lip. she looked back at me. “You snagged this coin in Griffith Park, before the police got there?”
    “ Yes. It’s the key to the killer’s identity. Nero.”
    “ Is there a coin near where you found your wife’s body?”
    “ Her charred hand is curled around something metal. It looks like a bronze coin but it’s bonded to her burned flesh and bone.”
    “ Let me take a look.”
    Already I heard sirens. It was amazing it had taken them this long to respond. True, my home was in the most secluded plot of land here on the peninsula—a regular fortress—but there was no mistaking billowing smoke rising hundreds of feet into the air. Luckily, my nearest neighbors were miles away.
    “You’re going to have to hurry.”
    “ Right.”
    Ambra got out a Swiss Army knife from one of the pockets of her slim-fitting black cargo pants and slipped over to my wife’s body. What happened next was too horrible for me to fathom.
    Ambra came back a moment later, discreetly concealing the bag that now contained my wife’s charred hand.
    “ Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    I nodded, sick to my stomach. “I need to fetch something first.”
    And I did.
     
     
     
    Chapter Fourteen
     
     
    We drove.
    As we did so, and as the sick scent of soot and death clung to my nostrils, it occurred to me that Despite all of my precautions—booby-trapping this whole property—I now had no wife and my daughter was missing. I had no brother, no parents and no home. Except for clinging to the hope that Kristen still lived, everyone and everything else that I loved was lost.
    “ I want to kill every last vampire,” I said suddenly, as we passed by a fast-approaching fire engine, “and I won’t rest until—”
    “ Until you get your daughter back,” said Ambra, glancing over at me.
    “ Yes. However, once I find her, I want to disappear with her,” I said, quite choked up. “Just be her dad and nothing else.”
    “ When you find her, the safest place for you two will be at the castle. It’s becoming a fortress and with your expertise, even more so. We need you to help us retrieve Gabrielle, if she still lives.”
    “ It should be a no-brainer for me to join your league of extraordinary vampire hunters, but I have my own way of investigating, pursuing and killing vampires. And what makes you think Gabby isn’t a vampire by now? She killed Elizabeth Bathory, Vlad the Impaler’s lover. In his twisted mind, I wonder if he means to replace Elizabeth with Gabrielle.”
    “ It’s a certainty.”
    “ If that’s the case, I almost pray for her death.”
    Ambra teared up. “Don’t say that. She’s my dear friend, a member of the Sisterhood of the Scythe. I love her.”
    “I’m losing it, Ambra.”
    “ We’ll help you, but we need you, Rand. Our ranks are thinning. We enhance who we are as vampire hunters and give each other support. Most of all, we help keep each other from getting killed. What’s that worth?”
    I looked out the passenger side window. “I don’t bond easily with others.”
    “We all have trust issues, Rand. Get past them if you want to find your daughter alive.”
    “ What would be my