Palace of the Damned

Palace of the Damned
Darren Shan

In the third instalment in the creepy, captivating Larten Crepsley series, Larten finds out what it means to love… but is he also damned to find out what it means to lose?Lost in the arctic waste, carrying a baby whose love he could never deserve, Larten faces the darkest time he has ever known.But hope has a way of shining through even the smallest of cracks, and just as Larten reaches the end, a new beginning presents itself. The trouble is, for Larten, the violence of his youth is never far from the surface… and those he loves are the ones he hurts the most. As Larten experiences heaven and hell, and tries to save the soul of a child, the question is: can he save his own?

Dedication

For:

Luca, Daniel and Jemima – children of the damned!

OBE (Order of the Bloody Entrails) to:

Paul Kenny, 40 years a scoundrel!!

Damnably edited by General Nick Lake!!!

The palace of Shan is admirably maintained by

Christopher Little and his “pretty things”!!!!

Contents

Title Page

Dedication (#ubce3c71d-3f41-5be6-b722-e4c9b1c1855f)

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Part Two

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Part Three

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Part Four

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Part Five

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Other Books in the Series The Saga of Darren Shan (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

A huffing Larten Crepsley mounted a treacherous, icy ridge and stared across a frozen sea of jagged peaks. He had visited most parts of the world in his decades as a vampire, but this was the harshest wilderness he’d ever experienced. A plateau of ice peppered with rocky outcrops. Whipping snow that could blind a man in minutes. Temperatures so low that each breath stung his throat and lungs. It was a hostile, alien, unforgiving landscape.

Larten threw back his head and howled with mad delight. He was loving this! There was no better place for a vampire to perish than in an area where no human would dare tread. This would make for a brutal, lonely death and he deserved nothing better. A fitting end for a savage killer.

The baby he was carrying moaned softly and shivered beneath the covering of the vampire’s shirt. Larten was holding him clasped in one arm, sheltered from the wind and snow as much as possible. He felt a stab of guilt at the baby’s cry and paused to puff a breath of warm air down the neck of his shirt. The boy gurgled happily, then shivered again.