Afterglow (Brotherhood of the Blade Trilogy #2)

Acclaim for the novels of Eve Paludan:

“Delightful romance-mystery combo with surprising ends!”

—
Douglas C. Meeks “Book Reviews @ Large”
on Eve Paludan and Stuart Sharp’s
Witchy Business

“As touching as
Highway to Heaven
, as romantic as
City of Angels
, and as enchanting as
Michael
!”

—
Geraldine Ahearn
, author and Top 1000 Amazon Reviewer/Vine Voice on Eve Paludan’s
The Man Who Fell from the Sky
(Angel Detectives Case #1)

“A Fall from the Sky into Love!”

—
George E. Tadd
on Eve Paludan’s
The Man Who Fell from the Sky
(Angel Detectives Case #1)

OTHER BOOKS BY EVE PALUDAN

Letters from David

The Man Who Fell from the Sky

Taking Back Tara

Tara Takes Christmas

Finding Jessie

Chasing Broadway

Ghost Fire

BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE TRILOGY

Burning

Afterglow

Radiance

WITCH DETECTIVES SERIES

with Stuart Sharp

Witchy Business

Witch and Famous

Witch Way Out

AFTERGLOW

Published by J.R. Rain Press

Copyright © 2013 by J.R. Rain Press

All rights reserved.

Book cover by Damon at
http://www.damonza.com

Ebook Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Afterglow

Reading Samples

About the Author

Dedication

For my children, Mark and Chrissy

Acknowledgments

J.R. Rain, thank you for your encouragement, brilliant ideas and hard work.

Thank you to Sandy Johnston for editing and other expert assistance.

AFTERGLOW

Chapter One

“You have to feed,” Griff said to Gabrielle, who was strapped to a hospital gurney, which they had pushed into her music recording studio.

“
I’m still a vegetarian,” Gabrielle protested, as he held out an eyedropper with blood in it. “I’m hungry, but I’m grossed out by the entire culture of blood. I can’t stand the sight of it, especially after all I have seen in Vlad’s stronghold.”

“
I forgot your aversion to eating meat,” Daphne said.

“
Just because I’m a vampire doesn’t mean I can suddenly drink blood when I’ve been a vegetarian all my life,” Gabrielle complained.

“
You’ll die if you don’t feed,” Ambra said. “I mean, I assume you will. It can’t be very comfortable to starve to death.”

“
I’m going to hurl if you try to force-feed me. And by the way, whose is it?”

“
It’s only pig blood. Fresh though, from the fat boar in the barn. He hardly missed it. I fed him mashed, sweet potatoes while I took it from him. He never even flinched.”

“
I don’t eat animals and I sure as hell am not going to drink Wilbur’s blood.”

“
Wilbur? I was unaware that our sausages had names,” Lucas said.

“
Hey!” she said. “Don’t talk about him like that.”

“
Don’t upset my patient, or I’ll throw you all out of here,” Griff warned.

“
Fine. Sorry. What are we gonna do with you, Gabby?” Lucas asked. “The reason you passed out is because vampires need nourishment, too.”

“
It makes me sick to even think about it. You can’t even imagine the feeding frenzies I’ve witnessed. I’m an anorexic vampire. I think I have PTSD from everything I have seen.”

“
Are you freaking kidding us?” Daphne said. “You’re a vampire with an eating disorder?”

“
I’m not going to drink blood from any creature. And if you try to force me, I will be extremely ticked off. You do not want to hear a vampire screech.”

Griff scratched his head for a moment. “How about a blood transfusion? With human blood, of course.”

“I don’t know if that works.
Maybe.
I mean, I am super hungry, but it seems like too much to ask of my friends.”

“
Shut up, Gabby,” Ambra said. “We’re not going to let you die.” She looked at Griff. “I volunteer to make a small contribution for a transfusion to see if it helps Gabby.”

“
As I recall, as your physician, your blood type is O-negative,” Griff said to Gabrielle. “Only one percent of the population has that blood type. And a person with O-negative blood can only transfuse from another O-negative.”

“
Oh,” Ambra said. “Well, it was just an idea.”

I squirmed. “This is uncanny, but I’m O-negative, too. I’ll help if I can.”

“Thank you,” Gabby said. “But Griff, as a human, my blood type
was
O-negative. I don’t know what it is now. What if my entire physiology has changed?”

“
Good point,” Lucas said, looking at Griff.

Griff took a deep breath and let it out. “This is all new for me. I’m a physician, but this is a non-human patient. Mind if I prick your finger and have a look under the microscope?”

“Go for it,” Gabby said. She squeezed her eyes shut and held out her hand.

Griff washed his hands, put on some nitrile exam gloves, and took a tiny blood sample in thin glass tubes. He cleaned off her finger and had her hold the gauze on it to stop the bleeding. “I’m going to take this sample to the medical lab. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Sit tight, everybody.”

After he left the room, tears rose to Gabby’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Nobody’s even hugged me. Am I that repulsive?”

Ambra was the first to lean down to the restrained vampire. She held her gently. “I’m sorry, Gabby. I’m so sorry that Vlad hurt you. You’re not repulsive. None of this is your fault.”

“Thank you. It was horrible. You don’t even want to know what he did to me. I mean, besides turning me into a vampire, he is absolutely
depraved
. Just knowing the details would traumatize you. All of you.” Ambra held her old Sister of the Scythe in her arms.

“
He’s never going to touch you again,” Ambra promised.

Gabby’s stomach growled, loudly. “Oops,” she said. “You better let go of me, Ambra. I might accidentally turn my head, stretch my neck and bite you. I can’t even believe I’m saying that. But I’m starving. Literally.”

Ambra stood up quickly and moved away. “Thanks for the warning.”

“
I don’t want to do it, you understand, but I think my instinct for self-preservation might be a tiny bit greater than my need for emotional comfort. It’s getting harder and harder to hold back,” Gabrielle admitted. “Emotionally, I would rather die than bite my friends, but I am ravenous.”

“
Where’s Griff with the results of that blood typing?” Lucas asked, pacing the floor.

“
I’m ready to roll up my sleeve and donate some blood for you.” I added, “For a transfusion.”

“
Thank you. I just want to get well enough to be able to record my final music album. I’ll need both of my arms free for that.”

“
Sit tight,” I said, and patted her shoulder, then moved my hand away when saliva dripped out of her lips.

“
I can hear all of your hearts beating.” She wailed, “
Mon Dieu
, I am so grossed out by myself. It’s not fair! I don’t want this existence! Just kill me.”

“
We won’t do that. You were one of us. We can’t. And you still have your music,” Ambra said. “We’re not going to keep you tied down for too much longer. I hope.”

Gabby nodded, her eyes glassy. “When Vlad kept me prisoner in silver chains, and was torturing me, I made myself think of my music. While I was enduring stuff, I used music as an escape and I wrote another album in my head.”

“More French torch songs?” I asked.

“
No, it’s an opera and it’s beautiful, but so far, it is only in my head.” She smiled through tears. “Somehow, becoming a vampire has made me into some sort of a music savant. I mean,
all
the good things in me seem magnified, like my musical talent, my creativity, and even my intelligence. In my head is this opera about becoming a vampire and there are words, music, costumes, and characters. In my head, it’s like
Phantom of the Opera
meets
Les Miserables
meets
A Clockwork Orange
. But with vampires.”

“
Wow,” I said, and everyone else echoed that.

“
Please, please help me. I just need time and energy to release this opera from my head. I need my hands free to do all the tracks, and play all the parts, and I need my voice. My recording studio will become my haven, if not my heaven.”

“
That’s amazing, Gabrielle, that you could come back with this in your head, after all you have been through.”

“
Thank you. When I do finish my opera, I will have used everything bad that Vlad did to me and turned it into goodness. Except for not being nourished, I feel like I could do anything.”

At that moment, Griff came back in. “I have bad news. I am unable to type your blood. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before and I don’t want to risk a transfusion, which could be dangerous because blood-typing a vampire is unprecedented in known medicine. You are going to have to consume blood by mouth. It’s the only way you can survive, Gabrielle.”

“No!” she wailed and shut her eyes tight. “I don’t want to be a vampire! Nooooo!”

Quickly, while her eyes were closed and her mouth was open, I drew my blade from my boot sheath and made a shallow slice in my palm. The others looked on in horror as I held my hand high over Gabby’s open mouth. When my blood splashed on her tongue, she opened her eyes, lapped it up and swallowed.

“Forgive me, for what I am,” Gabrielle said, and sobbed as she drank and drank from my dripping palm that I held over her open mouth. When she turned her face away, sated, I took my hand away and pressed on it with a gauze pad to stop the bleeding. I saw her lick the last drops from her lips and smile gratefully through her tears.

“
Thank you, Rand,” she said as Ambra came with a wet paper towel from the restroom. After Ambra wiped off the rest of the blood from my hand, she handed me another paper towel to clean my blade.

Griff swabbed some brownish-orange liquid on my cut palm and bandaged it with supplies from his old-fashioned doctor’s bag.

Some color gradually came into Gabby’s pale face. “Wow, this is so refreshing. I feel so much better. In fact, I feel completely better.”