The Living Night (Book 2) by Jack Conner Page A

your
birthday."
    "Yes. The time is ripe for you to take
her."
    "But Kharker ...”
    "What?"
    Jean-Pierre frowned. "Yes," he muttered.
"I suppose it is."
    He stepped into the room and watched as the girl
retreated from him, backing into a dirty corner.
    "Thank you," he whispered over his
shoulder.
    "You're welcome, my son. Now I will leave
you. Please, take your time. Say and do what must be done. But remember—she is
the ghost of Danielle that haunts you. Only by obliterating her entirely will
you purge your system, once and for all, of Danielle."
    "Yes," answered Jean-Pierre, a trace
of sadness in his voice.
    The Hunter shut the door and walked away.
Ruegger had been right, he thought: he never had been a creature to let
something go to waste. Even before he rounded the corner, Kharker heard the
girl screaming behind him. Proudly, he smiled.

 
 
 
 
    Chapter 6

 
    "You
asked that an unarmed human be released into the woods, sir," Gavin said.
"It’s been done."
    "Thank you," said Ruegger.
    Leaving the manservant by the catacombs
entrance, he moved off into the jungle, as lush and sultry as ever. This time,
there seemed to be some malice to it, some tension that Ruegger couldn't
fathom. It breathed green venom.
    Shaking it off, he pressed deeper, tracking his
mortal quarry. It had been a long night, and he had thoughts he needed to
process. Things were moving very fast. Faster than he
would've liked. He would appreciate some time to just sit down in peace
and think for awhile, without the distraction of Kharker or Jean-Pierre, the
Scouring or the War of the Dark Council, but that, he realized, wasn’t going to
happen.
    Danielle, however, was a distraction he wouldn't
mind. In fact, she was the one thing at that moment that he really wanted, that
he desired with every bloody snapping fiber of his being. Still, he recognized
that he needed to give her time. She had her own demons to exorcise. Or kill.
    Suddenly, blood filled the air and he heard a noise
up ahead, and he stepped towards it. The sound issued from behind a tangle of
bushes. Slowly, he parted them. There, somewhat below him, was the human—a
white man, he saw—that he’d been hunting. In his fervent desire to escape, the
man had tripped down a slope and fallen into a narrow ravine.
    With care, Ruegger moved down the slope toward
him, even as the fellow's eyes widened with terror.
    "Easy," the Darkling said. "I'm
not here to hurt you."
    Within touching distance of the man, Ruegger
could tell that he had broken his leg, the blood from the wound clouding the
shallow water that flowed about him.
    "Don't," said the mortal, trying to back
away, pushing with his hands against the muddy slope and sliding further up the
bank only to slip again.
    "It's okay," Ruegger told him. "I
was only going to take a little blood from you, anyway, and now it looks like I
don't even have to use my teeth because you've done the work for me." He
smiled to show it was a joke, but the man's face screwed up in fear, and he let
out a miserable moan. Gingerly, Ruegger slid his hands beneath the mortal and
hauled him out of the wet murk, then staggered up the hill and set him down
again on level ground.
    Before bending to feed from the wound, Ruegger
said, "I'm sorry about this, friend, but I was in a bit of a scrape
tonight and I really need the blood. Don't worry. I'll only take a little. Then
it's back to the mansion with you."
    Bitterly, the man said, "Go ahead and kill
me, you bastard. I'm dead anyway, don't you know that? Whether it's you or one
of the others, I'll be dead in a week. Please don't get righteous on me."
    Ruegger paused. "I could release you into
the woods."
    "And be picked up by one of the retrieval
units? No thanks. I've been picked up by one of them already, and they beat the
shit out of me before hauling me back. Just do what you came here to do, you
goddamned monster. Remember, though, God is watching, and when you're in Hell
I'll be laughing down at you