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Authors: Jack Conner

BOOK: The Living Night (Book 1)

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"How do you feel?" he said.

"Strange ... but I'm the one who should be
asking you that, Auggie: how do
you
feel?"

Weakly, he smiled. "Let's just say that I'm
not going to be retaining any water for some time.”

Despite herself, that made her grin a little.
"Let's go home.”

They left the warehouse and hot-wired one of the
vans out front, which Kristen drove to the Titan's building. Though they didn't
talk much, they frequently held hands. Eventually they reached the Titanic,
parked, and made their way down to the proper sub-basement, then to his
bedroom, where he called a doctor, who was to arrive within half an hour. While
Vistrot dressed and showered, she flung herself on the bed and tried to
pinpoint Amelia's scent. Did the kavasari wear perfume? Did Vistrot like
sleeping with a woman who was mature, voluptuous? She’d have to confront him
with these questions and more before her mind would be at peace, but now was
not the time.

When he emerged from the dressing room, she
patted the bed. He flopped down beside her, shaking the bed.

Unbidden, he said, "I'm sorry for Amelia. I
was weak and selfish, but that's no excuse."

She sniffed. "I'm sorry for Jean-Pierre. What
about him, now—are you going to ... take revenge?"

He fell silent for a moment. "No. Really, I
deserved what he did to me. I'll consider us even; let's just hope that he
will, too." He held her small hands in his. "Kristen, I really
respect what you did, standing up to me like that, but I couldn't bear it if
you cheated on me again."

"It runs both ways, Auggie."

"Of course ... but that's not what I
meant."

She felt something cross her face; seeing it, he
visibly grew excited, too.

"Don't tease me," she said, somewhat
nervously. "And I don't want you to tell me later that it was just one of
those in-the-heat-of-the-moment things."

"Believe me, it's not. I've been thinking
of this for a long, long time."

Seeing her eyes grow bright and her breathing
grow shallow, he rose from the bed and knelt beside her, her hands still in
his. His face red and his fingers trembling faintly, he said, "Kristen,
will you ..." He coughed. "Kristen, will you marry me?"

She smiled and threw her arms about him. It was
all the answer he required.

*

*

*

"Where
are they?" Max raged at Claude, who had one pair of arms folded across his
small chest, was defiantly scratching his balls with one of the hands from the
second pair and smoking a cigarette with the other.

"Up my ass," said Claude. "Where
do you think they are?" He spun to the albino. "You told me to give
them some time alone and that's what I did—don't think I'm owning up to any
culpability. It's really not my problem."

The albino let his eyes rove the scattered
freaks and could not find fault with any of them; as Claude had said, it wasn't
their mistake. Max was still admonishing the dwarf, but Jean-Pierre cut in.

"Max, it's a shame you didn't get your
goddamned blood, but don't take it out on them. Don't blame yourself, either; I
accept full responsibility. At the appropriate time, I will administer my
punishment. Unfortunately, Vistrot knows who you are, and, as he's still
living, I’d suggest going underground for awhile. From what he told us, I don't
think you'll have to worry about him for long."

"What do you mean?" Max said.

"Just what I told you." Jean-Pierre
glanced over to Sophia, comatose in a nearby chair. He’d given her his blood,
which would sustain her until she was able to procure sustenance on her own.
But what to do with her? Where he was going, she couldn’t follow.

“Max,” he said. “I want to repay you for what
you’ve done, but now is not the time. There’s somewhere I must go to sort things
out. I’ll make a deal with you; you look after Sophia for awhile, as
collateral, and I’ll come back for her. Soon. Then all debts will be paid in
full.”

Slowly, Max nodded. “It’s a deal.”

To the troupe, Jean-Pierre said, "Thank you
all for your cooperation. We'll meet again soon. Count on it."

With that, he turned to leave.

"Wait," said Max.

"What?"

The snake-oil salesman hesitated, but his eyes
were sincere. "Jean-Pierre, my friend ... you have no place to go, do you?
And you—you are a freak, aren't you? An albino, more or less. Well ..." He
gestured to the others. "We're all freaks here, Jean-Pierre. We could be
your home, your family. Why not stay with us?"

Jean-Pierre closed his eyes. Really, why not
indeed?

*

*

*

"When
the albino was interrogating you, you didn't say anything about how you were
supposed to kill Kristen, did you?" Amelia interrupted.

It was the night after Vistrot’s escape. Amelia had
come to visit the Titan's office. She wanted to know the details of his
absence, and he filled her in on recent events.

"Of course not,” he said. “For a long time,
she was in the room."

"That's a shame. I'm sure he would've
gotten a kick out of it. Anyway—continue."

When he told her of how Kristen had freed him,
she smiled. He was almost able to convince himself that it was a sweet smile.

"So I take it you haven't killed her."

"No, and I don't intend to. In fact, I
asked her to marry me, and she said yes."

"That was quite contrary to our
agreement."

"I won't apologize, Amelia. You'd no right
to ask me to do that."

"I wasn't asking, dear. Now isn't the time
for foolish valor. Now is the time for proving our loyalties to each other, and
you've more to prove than I do,
goddamnit
. I sought
you
out, not the other way around. Need
I remind you that if you won't kill her, I'll do you both?"

"You're bluffing. Not only am I sure of
that, but to be on the safe side I've given instructions to Cloire, who will
have rounded up both Ruegger and Danielle shortly, that if I die, she should
kill them both. Which won't be a problem for her, if that's what you're
thinking—in fact, I believe Cloire's been looking forward to the job."

Amelia’s face went still. "You've hung that
over my head for too long, Titan. It’s given you some leverage, I admit, but
now I realize that if I'm to stay true to my vision—a beautiful world, free of
crime and superstition—that I may have to sacrifice certain nonessentials. If
it's your desire to kill the odd flock, I won't stop you. But you'll kill
Kristen regardless."

He felt genuinely unnerved. "Christ ... how
can you have such little heart? My love of Kristen won't affect anything! She
doesn't need to die."

"No, but
you
need to kill her, for the same reason you sent Jean-Pierre to
kill Danielle: to rid yourself of that baggage and to prove your loyalty. The
albino faltered; are you as weak as he?"

Vistrot stared. "Is that what this is?
You're making me do this to Krissy in order to punish me for sending
Jean-Pierre to kill the Gutter Angel. That's it, isn't it? A taste of my own
medicine, and at the expense of the most innocent person involved in the whole
affair."

"That just makes it all the sweeter,
doesn't it? Even if she doesn't deserve it, you do."

"That’s perverse."

"Perhaps. But, then, Vistrot, you're a
perverse man. You're just lucky that I'm equal to it. So: now that you
understand why I'm making you do it, I expect Kristen to be dead by
tomorrow—and trust me, her death at your hands will be much more pleasant than
at my own."

She blew him a kiss and left the room.

*

*

*

That
night, as he watched Kristen sleep, Vistrot thought of all their times together
and all of their times to come. He couldn't wait to see how bright her face
would become on their honeymoon to Hawaii—hell,
it would only
start
in Hawaii.

They could go around the world endlessly, buying
a beach house there, a lodge in the mountains there, a flat in Paris ... he could make
her so happy, and now they had all eternity to spend together... How could he
wrap his gigantic hands around her delicate, milky-white neck and squeeze the
life out of her? He tried to imagine what advice she would give on the matter
and for the briefest of moments thought of waking her, but no, that would be
madness. God, Amelia was so ... so evil, wasn't she? How could Ruegger have
been her lover all those years? Of course, the Darkling had more than ably
demonstrated his own talent at sin, hadn't he?

So had Vistrot, if truth be told, all for the
sake of his business, his empire. Kristen had often accused him of loving his
business more than he loved her, and of course he'd denied it, but they both
knew that there was a certain truth in what she said. By killing her, he'd only
be proving her right. Even during the years he hadn't been sleeping around,
he'd always had a mistress, and her name was Power.

Could he ever expect to leave his business
behind and dote every waking moment on Kristen? How preposterous. After all, he
was on the verge of a power so great, so global, that he could not possibly
turn his back on it now, could he? Shed his burdens and go gallivanting around
the world with the one person he truly loved—

What a ... what a joke ... what a cosmic fucking
…
joke
it had all turned out to be, wasn’t
it?
Go on, convince yourself that what you're doing is right so that you can
strangle her and be done with it, then go on to be King of the World—now that would
be grand, wouldn't it?

He put
his hands over his face and cried silently for a long time, but not silently
enough.

Kristen opened her eyes. Groggily, she said,
"What is it, baby? Bad dream?"

"Yeah," he replied. "Bad
dream."

"Here, want me to make you some milk or coffee?"

"No ... no, that's okay. Kristen, you know
I love you, right?"

"Of course, baby." She smiled.
"You've only said that a thousand times today, although you know I
couldn't hear it enough. And you know I love you, too. Here, want me to hold
you while you fall asleep?"

He smiled sadly, wiped away his tears and stroked
her hair. "No, that's okay. I just need to think for a little while. You
go on back to sleep. Sweet dreams, darling."

She patted his hand and closed her eyes, her
head resting gently on the silk pillow. Soon she was fast asleep. He watched
her for two straight hours, wrestling with himself. Finally, he breathed a
great sigh, placed his large hands around her smooth, creamy neck, and
squeezed
.

THE END

OF VOLUME ONE

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Thank
you for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading
The
Living Night: Part One
as much as I did writing it.
Part Two
is now available. You can find it here . . .

. . . in the US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJJL29U

. . . and here in the UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KJJL29U

If
you enjoyed my book, it would be greatly appreciated if you left a review so
others can enjoy it too. It will not only help other readers discover
The Living Night
but is incredibly
rewarding to me to see how people liked it, as well as learning any ways I can
improve.

In
fact, to encourage you to leave a review, if you liked the novel and review it,
just email me at
[email protected]
and I’ll gift you a free copy of Part Two. This offer is good for the first
fifty reviews.

In
the US,
go here to leave a review:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KJJT8E6

In
the UK
go here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KJJT8E6

Did
you spot any flaws? Typos? Plot holes? Just plain bad writing? Email me at the
address above and I’ll fix it! I love to make my work even better.

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Thanks, and happy reading,

Jack

PS:
Turn the page for a complete listing of my other books.

BOOKS BY
JACK CONNER

Song of
the Broken World, an epic fantasy series

The
War of the Moonstone: Part One . . .

.
. . in the US:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GZX6OLU