The Living Night (Book 1) (2 page)

The vampire was ancient and well-known in the
area.

“That means they’ll be strong,” Jarvick said.
“And we’re not.”

They traded grim looks.

“What now?” said Sasha.

“There may be another way,” Jarvick said. “I’ll
go in alone.”

“They could kill you, too. To them, you’re no
better than Triboli was. Why don't we all go in together?"

"We'd only make them nervous. Then they’d
be in no mood to bargain."

"Fear is persuasive."

"Prudence is required, Sasha. Right now
they're stronger than any one of us and perhaps all of us together. They've had
blood—immortal blood—when we haven't had even a sacrifice in weeks."

"They're trapped."

Jarvick gave him a hard look. Sasha backed down,
turning to his men and twirling a finger. Together, they started riding in a
circle around the pillar, shouting obscenities and firing the occasional gun.

Jarvick entered the pillar. He paused at the
bottom of the staircase, staring out from the passageway he occupied into the
room, trying to locate the vampires. Ruegger and Danielle were nowhere to be
seen.

Reluctantly, Jarvick stepped from the bottom
step into the room. Instantly he was seized—the vampires had been waiting to
either side of the stairwell opening—and flung to the ground.

Ruegger shoved a foot on his chest and aimed a
.45 at his face, while Danielle held a sawed-off, pistol-gripped shotgun in her
hands. None of the guns could kill Jarvick, but they could prove painful and
maybe incapacitating. The best way to kill an immortal, any immortal, was
dismemberment, sometimes burning. Crosses, garlic and holy symbols were only
for the movies. Sunlight worked, too, but only for certain species.

Jarvick studied Ruegger and Danielle. Both had black
hair, dark eyes, and smooth, pale skin, an appearance which made them surreally
picturesque as far as vampire lore was concerned.

“You know who we are,” Ruegger said. “Please,
introduce yourself.”

"I'm Jarvick, leader of the abunka who've
been following you. Can I have a cigarette?"

Danielle threw him a pack, along with a lighter.
Awkwardly, he lit it, feeling the weight of Ruegger's foot on his chest. He
could feel the vampire's strength and knew that, although he was only half
Jarvick's
age, Ruegger was the stronger.

"Are you working independently or is there
a general hit out on us?” Danielle said. Her lithe attractiveness piqued
Jarvick’s
interest.

“General,” he said.

"Whose black list are we on?" asked
Ruegger. He was tall, though not as tall as Jarvick—probably a couple inches
over six feet, something like that. Lean and sinewy, with capable hands, he
moved with the sharp grace of someone who had lived through many battles.

"It's not my policy to ask," said
Jarvick. “I’m always hired by anonymous employers. Some of my boys figure it
has something to do with the Scouring, but I don’t think so.”

“The Scouring?”

“You’ve been out here too long. It’s been going
on, what, the last few weeks, I guess. High-profile shades all around the world
are biting it. No one knows who’s taking them out or why. Anyway, I don’t think
that’s who hired us—whoever’s behind it, I mean. You don’t fit the pattern.” He
waved the subject away. “I didn't come here to kill you."

"I suppose not. Otherwise you wouldn’t be
down here alone.”

“It occurred to me and my associates that you
might pay more to be rid of us than our employer had paid to be rid of
you
. If you see what I mean.”

“You won’t stay in business long with 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 Ruegger, still carried a heady
fragrance.

"I guess our vision quest is over,” she
said.

“We can’t continue it with death-squads after us.
Besides, it's almost time for the sled race."

"We wouldn't want to disappoint
Ludwig."

She sat down around a large blackened pit, which
looked to be a sort of fireplace, and Ruegger joined her. Immediately, a flame
came to life, and lusty smoke billowed from the fire. There didn't seem to be a
vent anywhere, but then the pit was mystical. The vampires stared into the
fire. The world grew red and violent for a while, but the odd flock stayed that
way, holding hands and taking comfort in each other.

“We need to leave,” Ruegger said. “Jarvick could
gather reinforcements or alert a more motivated team to our whereabouts—that’s
if he’s not out there right now, waiting for us.”

She glared at the door. "I guess we can call
a helicopter to get home—I mean, without the camels, and with Jarvick …”

She crossed over to the computer in the corner,
booted it up and accessed the internet, which was surreal to have out here, but
the
suka
didn’t skimp on providing for their gods.
After she digitally summoned a helicopter, she checked their email.

"There's a message from Ludwig," she
said, referring to Ruegger's oldest friend. Ruegger and Ludwig had met while
still human and crossed over into immortality within a month of each other. Now
Ludwig lived with his wife in their ice-encrusted compound in Northern
Alaska.

"What's he say?" Ruegger asked.

"He says …” Danielle made a face “… there's
a hit out on us and for us to get our asses up to Alaska for his annual winter solstice
dog-sled race."

"We should check our email more
often."

She considered. "The solstice is only a few
days away."

"He knows we'll be there. We always
are."

"How does he know we're on a black list,
though? This message is three weeks old!"

"Strange. Maybe …” He frowned. “Could
Ludwig know who's after us?”

Chapter 2

Ruegger
stared out into the pulsating violet that surrounded them, sitting with
Danielle on the floor of the plane that they'd sent for in Anchorage. Wrapped up in an orange patchwork
quilt, the vampires jounced to the small plane’s rhythm as it tore its way
north during the middle of Alaska's
annual three-month night. Lightning flickered below.

"Don't you love the storm?" Danielle
said, exhaling spicy clove smoke.

“Always.”

Mardi Gras jazz knocked its way up from the
dusty speakers of the private room, mixing with the swirl of incense, hash, and
cloves. Multi-colored lava lamps (red, orange, blue and green) swelled
luminously from different pockets of the compartment, the only light except for
a Chinese paper lantern that rocked from the ceiling. The lights cast strange
and comforting hues across the interior of the plane as the vampires shared the
cigarette and let their sweat mingle beneath the patchwork quilt.

Danielle sucked in another clove-flavored hit as
she moved to the window and peered out, and the cigarette crackled as she
inhaled. How she could tolerate those things Ruegger didn’t know, but he
pretended to enjoy them for her benefit.

He watched as she made her way back to him,
seeing her lean nude body, small firm breasts, ribs just visible, pubic hair
damp and soft below her skinny stomach and the gentle slope south of her navel,
where a single silver loop gleamed.

He held the quilt aloft and she slid smoothly
in, her lips brushing his shoulder.

"
Ahh
," she sighed,
tilting her head to better listen to Frankie Ford's fast-paced,
steam-whistle-blowing rendition of "Sea Cruise".

“Reminds me of New Orleans,” she said. Turning to Ruegger,
she said, “I bet you can’t wait to see Ludwig.”

"Good bet.” With every mile that took him
closer to his old friend, the memories of their times together grew in him.

“Go on,” she said. “Tell me. You’ve told me so
little about your past.”

 
And for good reason
. “Well, we were
joined at the hip for years, you know. Ludwig and I. I’ve told you that much. Back
in the old days, we'd spend all our time together, just knocking about Europe without a care in the world, except what to fill
our stomachs with. Mostly beer, as it turned out."

"You’ve changed so much it’s eerie."

He laughed. “We were vagabonds, wanderers, both
still mortal at the time. Until we wound up in the French Revolution …”

“Yeah?”

In his mind’s eye he saw blood, and lots of it.
A limp form dangled from long arms, and a cold face stared at him, blood
dripping from its mouth.

“Another time,” he said.

She seemed about to protest when the cockpit
door opened and a man wearing a snake-skin jacket stepped out. He didn’t seem
bothered by the fact that the vampires were naked.

"We're beginning our descent,” he said,
then hesitated.

“Yes?"

"It's just ... I don't know. We're getting
some weird readings on the instruments ... and the weather reports don't make
any sense. Strange cloud formations and wind patterns." He shrugged and
returned to the cockpit.

“What do you think it means?” Danielle said.

“I don’t know.”

Wanting to see the odd cloud formations, Ruegger
moved to the window. She joined him, and they watched the clouds give way to an
all-consuming whiteness. Soon Ruegger could distinguish land features, then
Ludwig's compound itself, an arc of large buildings against a very white
nowhere; Ludwig called it Liberty.

"Damn," Danielle whispered. "Do
you see that?"

One of the main buildings along the arc appeared
burned, almost as if it had exploded, and its debris was scattered over the
snow. Ruegger had no idea what to make of it. Maybe some drunk revelers had
bombed the building.

“Think it can have anything to do with us?”
Danielle said. “That we’re wanted dead?”

“I don’t know, but keep an eye out.”

The float-plane dove for the iced-over lake as
the vampires threw on clothes. Engines screamed and the winds howled. The
aircraft shuddered to a stop near the peer.

A man on the outside helped Ruegger and Danielle
open the door. They stepped down onto the wooden planks, where they were given
snow-shoes. The ice-cold temperature didn’t bother Ruegger much, but he knew
Danielle must be freezing, and he caught her checking the buttons on her coat.
She said nothing about it.

“Some welcoming party,” she said, only
stuttering slightly.

Those who’d come to greet them included five
baggage-carriers, ten armed (but casually-dressed) shades whose postures were
so straight they had to be soldiers, a werewolf named
Damaini
,
who was the Chief-of-Security for and third-in-command of the compound; and
Maleasoel, Ludwig's wife and vice-president of Liberty.

She belonged to the immortal race of the
jandrow—winged creatures that fed off of human hearts, though another animal
could do in a pinch. Long black hair cascaded down her back, and bright green
eyes blazed from her beautiful face under a sharp black beret. Her wings were
hidden within the thick folds of her coat, which was part of a clothing line
designed and tailored especially for jandrows. Of course, she didn’t need to
hide her true nature here of all places, but the outfit kept her wings warm.

She embraced Ruegger and Danielle both.
"Welcome back to Liberty,
my friends. Come with me. My associates will get your bags and
Damaini
will accompany us. Would you like your old
room?"

"That would be great," Ruegger said.

They all followed her as she set off, moving between
two buildings and emerging on the inside of the arc, an area referred to as the
Commons. Soldiers patrolled in large numbers, and a well-organized crew tended
to the remains of the gutted building, apparently trying to repair the
extensive damage. Burn marks stained the walls of the buildings to either side.

“Dear gods,” Danielle said, and pointed.

A line of ten or so immortals lay on the cold
ground, stripped naked and bound by heavy titanium chains. Various spears and
blades stuck through their midsections, making the victims writhe in pain.

Ruegger suppressed a shudder. "What's with
the Inquisition?"

"Dissidents," Maleasoel said.

Ruegger frowned, prompting her to continue.

"They destroyed that building over there,
one of our barracks,” she said. “It's disrupted some of our activities and made
sleeping accommodations rather awkward. Also ...” Her voice lowered. “Some of
them were involved in a plot to kill me a few days ago. I took it
personally."

Danielle indicated several shades that sat on
stools beside the dissidents. "Who're they?"

"Our strongest
mindthrusters
.
They make sure that the dissidents aren't able to use their telekinetic
abilities to get free."

"Right." Danielle arched her eyebrows
at Ruegger.

He shook his head, trying to light a cigarette
against the wind. Now wasn’t the time to talk.

"Where's Ludwig?" he said.

"Attending to something of vital interest,
I'm sure." Maleasoel laughed. "This whole place has gone to hell. I
remember twenty years ago when we had it built, we were so full of shit then.”

Ruegger had thought so, too, but at least their
intentions had been noble. The dissidents and something about
Malie’s
tone suggested something had gone terribly wrong,
however.

“What’s happened?” he said.

“Well, you know,” she said. Her wings ruffled
under her jacket. “We wanted to raise an army of immortals and take over the
world, ‘not to enslave humanity but to set it free’. Ludwig’s words, not mine. Thought
mortals were destroying the world and themselves in the bargain, and we could
do a better job of it, help them out.” She sniffed. “Shades taking over the
world! It's been tried before, I guess, and it'll be tried again. Well, we've
got over two hundred soldiers now in this compound alone. There’s three smaller
compounds you may not know about; two in Europe and one in Antarctica.
Just enough Libertarians to set some of our plans in motion. And now, when
we’re finally ready to do something, Ludwig's starting to falter—not that I
blame him, really. My enthusiasm's diminished, too.”

Her face flushed with anger. “What right do
we
have to enslave humanity? For God's
sakes, we're just as human as they are, in our own way. This whole compound was
built on arrogance and it needs to be destroyed. But these dissidents ...
they're mad at Ludwig for not wanting to go through with his plans, for
remembering
his humanity. They'd like to depose him and continue on with his plan. They constitute
a large faction, and their numbers are swelling."

Ruegger won his battle with the wind and lit his
cigarette. “Doesn’t sound good,” he admitted.

“What’re you going to do about it?” said
Danielle.

“I don’t know,” Malie said. “It’s up to Ludwig.
All he really wants, you know, is to fight the system. Not even that. He just
likes to
talk
about it. When it comes to bloodshed, his enthusiasm dries
out in a hurry. Me, too, for that matter.”

Ruegger nodded. "The happiest I remember
him being was back during the French Revolution. He loved the energy, the
conspiracy, the
aura
. That's what he was trying to get back when he
started this place. He's always held a special place in his heart for
anarchists, you know."

"Oh, I do.” Maleasoel’s hardness cracked a
little. “Sometimes he asks me to wear my beret to bed.”

Danielle laughed. They made their way through
the Commons toward the smallest building along the arc, a four-story bar and
nightclub that ran twenty-four hours a day during the three-month winter night.
Here they could see more of the "civilian" element of the immortals
here, those shades who'd come a long way for Ludwig's annual dog-sled race,
which historically was one of the wildest party-going activities in recent
times. Hard rock blasted from the building amid screams and shouts, and Ruegger
could see a few shades already passed-out in the snow, where the faint smell of
vomit hung in the air.
So much for
Gothic.

Maleasoel stopped before the bar's entrance.
"Well, I'm afraid I must leave you here, for now. Things to see and people
to do. Ludwig said he'd meet you here when his chores were done. Half of these
guards will stay with you at all times; the rest are mine. I hope you don't
mind the inconvenience." She turned on her heel and marched off,
Damaini
and five soldiers right behind her. The other five
stayed with the two vampires.

Danielle looked at Ruegger skeptically.

He gestured toward the entrance. "After
you.”

They squeezed into the nightclub’s main room, a
large, buzzing place, escorts at their heels. After unfastening their snow shoes,
Ruegger and Danielle moved to the bar, and it wasn't long before he recognized
a familiar woman fending off admirers.

Sophia—the so-called Ice Queen—had won the sled
race seven years in a row and was expected to win this one, too. Supposedly her
title had sprung up long before her mastery of sled-racing, though. Still, she
was the immortal daughter of one of Ruegger’s friends, and he figured he should
say hello.

“It’s good to see you,” he said, giving her a
hug, which she shrank from.

“Too good, possibly,” she said.

“Evening,” said Danielle.

“Yes,” the Ice Queen said dryly. “It is.”

Ruegger hid a sigh. “How’s your mother?”

“She lives in New York. Ask her yourself. Oh, that’s
right. You two can’t really
return
there, can you?”

“We can go anywhere we want,” Danielle said.

“Bullshit. You’re wanted dead, and guess what
nice death squad lives in New York?”

Ruegger spotted another familiar figure sitting
alone at a booth, drinking a Bloody Mary.

"Hauswell!”

Ruegger bid goodbye to Sophia, who was only too
happy to see him go, and, with Danielle, moved over toward the Vampire Hauswell,
one of the most powerful crime lords in America,
basing most of his operations out of Las
Vegas. At one time, he and Ruegger had been very close.
Now, only decades later, they weren't much more than casual acquaintances.
Even for us, time is the enemy.

Hauswell smiled at Ruegger and Danielle and
invited them to take a seat. "I was wondering when you'd spot me," he
said. In a tailored suit, he looked to be a sixtyish gentleman, hair mostly
gray but showing some faded red in his sideburns and at the edges of his
medium-sized mustache. His English sounded very American, but he was a German
from way back.

"Why didn't you come over, then?"
Ruegger asked, sitting down.

"I'm trying to keep a low profile, not
attract any more attention than I have to. I'm glad I found you two, though;
you're one of the reasons I've come here."