The Living Night (Book 1) Read Free

that
attitude,” Danielle said.
    “Yes. Well. Being rich is better than being
dead, and we hadn’t counted on you feeding first … and on an immortal.” Such
would make them immeasurably stronger, at least for however long Triboli’s
blood burned in their veins.
    “At the last pillar, we heard from the suka about Triboli coming through,” Danielle said. Darkly,
she added, “We saw what he left behind. The blood … We’d been on our anniversary
vacation, but after that …”
    “How about this?” Ruegger said. “We will pay you—”
    “Excellent,” said Jarvick.
    “—with your life.”
    “My associates will not like that bargain.”
Jarvick tilted his head, and the sound of gunfire and hooting drifted down.
    “That’s your problem,” Danielle said. “Hell, I’d rather kill you—all of you. You’re
killers. Murderers.”
    "Immortals kill humans, girl—that’s the way
of things," Jarvick said. “Immortals killing other immortals—that is a
sin, and to do so here, in the sanctuary, is blasphemy.”
    “We don’t worship your gods,” Danielle said.
    “Go,” Ruegger said. “Now, before we change our
minds. If you and your people are still out there in five minutes, we’re coming
out, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy the experience.”
    Jarvick swallowed. “Fine. But …” He started to
say watch your back , but then he
realized that it was better to go while he could. “Let me up.”
    When he returned to Sasha and the others, they
drew around him, hopeful that he had bargained a good sum for them.
    “We have five minutes and then they kill us,” he
said. It would have to do.

 
    *      *      *

 
    Ruegger
waited at the head of the stairwell until he was sure Jarvick and his people
were gone, then released his telekinetic hold on the entrance panel and
descended into the sanctuary, where Danielle had already laid the mortal man
and woman on the bed.
    She stared sadly down at them. “I know they
believed they were destined to die,” she said. “But like this ?”
    “I know.” He squeezed her shoulder. “If nothing
else, we avenged them.”
    Tears spilled down her cheeks as she nodded.
Silently, they carried the bodies upstairs and buried them in the sand.
Danielle said a short piece over their graves, and the two vampires stood
silent vigil for a time. As they started to go back inside, Ruegger sniffed the
air.
    “Blood.” He moved into the wastes, then swore at
what he saw, half hidden by a dune. Their camels had been led off and killed,
but Ruegger had been too distracted to notice their absence till now.
    “Jarvick did this,” Danielle said.
    “He and his people will be stronger.” Ruegger
scanned the dunes around them. “Let’s get back inside.”
    They backed down the stairs and sealed the door
after them.
    “Why is there a hit out on us?” she asked.
    To that there was no answer. They moved to the
water basin, which was the size of a hot tub, and splashed their faces. Danielle's
pale cheeks were shot through with pink, water dripping down from her eyebrows
to her lips.
    "Look, there's bottles down there."
She reached into the water and pulled one out—fat, long, dark and frosty.
"Chardonnay.” She stared at it, sighed, then lowered the bottle back in
the basin. "I’m no longer in the mood.”
    She was still grieving over the mortals, he
knew. It didn’t surprise him. Her compassion was one of the reasons why he
loved her so. She started going through the pantry, finding various foodstuffs
and things, a radio and some batteries—and cigarettes. Apparently the pack of
cloves she'd found earlier had been the only one of its kind, so she grabbed a
carton and lit up.
    " Dorals ?" he
sighed.
    "It's what they've got.” She threw him a
cigarette and turned her attention back to the room.
    He lit it, grimacing. She moved over to the bed.
Its cream-colored sheets were splotched in several places with something that
had taken on the color of rust and, to