Inferno of Darkness (Order of the Blade #8) Read Online Free

into the warrior's feet and tripped him, bringing him down in a jumble of flames.
    He skidded to the earth, and the flames erupted around him, charring the barren dirt. Dante saw then that the warrior was badly injured, barely even able to hold himself up. Townspeople rushed over, dumping buckets of water on him, but the flames grew even stronger as he rolled to his hands and knees, glaring at Dante through hooded eyes. "You stupid bastard," he gritted out. "You were supposed to stop the rogues. The Order was supposed to keep her safe."
    His mangled foot throbbing in pain, Dante limped over to the warrior and crouched down so that he was eye level with him. "I know. The Order has failed the people. It betrayed its birthright." He gave no excuses. "That's why it's over."
    "Over? No Order?" Outrage darkened the younger warrior's features. He tried unsuccessfully to struggle to his knees, but collapsed onto his chest again. "More will die," he gasped. "More innocents. Like my sister. Like her children. What happens when others fall victim to the sheva curse? This is what happens when the Order doesn't do its job. This! " He flung a bloodied hand out, and Dante saw he was gesturing to the bodies of a young woman and two small children crumpled in the dirt.
    Sudden grief rushed through him, and Dante ground his jaw, fighting to contain his emotions. He knew what would happen without the Order. That was why the Order had been formed, to protect innocents from rogue Calydons. A rogue Calydon was insanely strong, virtually unstoppable, except by those trained to be Order members and gifted with the protection of the Order's trinity of guardian angels. A rogue Order member was the most deadly Calydon of all, as Louis had shown. All Calydons were susceptible to going rogue, but those who met their sheva, their soul mate, were destined for a violent, bloody end that could not be stopped...except by those trained to do so. Except by the Order as it had once been. But not the Order as it had become. "I know what happens when Calydons go rogue. I know about the sheva destiny," he said quietly. "It is the way of our kind."
    Since the birth of their race, the Calydons has been subject to the sheva destiny: to meet their soul mate, to be unable to resist sealing their connection through the five bonding stages, and then, once the bond was complete, the male would go rogue and destroy all that mattered to either of them, only to be killed by his mate, who would then kill herself in despair of the loss. There was no way to stop the process once begun, no way to protect against the hell that awaited a Calydon and his mate. No way to stop it, unless one of the parties was killed before the final fate took them...and no one could defeat a rogue Calydon, except the Order, as it had been intended to be.
    "It doesn't have to be our way," Zach shouted. "It has to be stopped! You must stop it!"
    "I'm not Order—"
    "Yes, you are! I heard the rogue! You're the new leader! What are you going to do about it?"
    Dante's jaw tightened. "You know nothing of which you speak."
    "I know you're a fucking coward who got here too late." The flames bleeding from the other warrior's body grew higher, towering almost twenty feet into the air. "I'll do it," he snarled. "I'll take over the Order. Give me the fucking mark." His eyes were blazing with orange flames even brighter than the ones still cascading off him, and his body was rigid, flexed with the emotions raging through him.
    "No!" Dante shoved the warrior back to the ground. "You'll become that which you rail against even now! You have no idea of the power of the Order. It will destroy you. "
    "You're wrong." Zach was on his hands and knees now, glowering at Dante. "My family died today. I will never forget this moment. I will never become that which killed them. Never. "
    The intensity of the youth's words struck at Dante, and he leaned forward, studying him more carefully. The male had to be in his early