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The Saga of Larten Crepsley 1-4
Darren Shan
The complete collection of the epic saga of Larten Crepsley – vampire, hero and victim of fate… Prequel series to The Saga of Darren Shan.BIRTH OF A KILLER: When Larten escapes the terrible workhouse in which he toils, he doesn’t know that he is running from an early death… into another kind of transformation. After meeting the mysterious vampire Seba Nile while sheltering for the night in a crypt, Larten finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of the vampire Clan.Larten finds himself enjoying the adventure he has always dreamed of but begins to discover something else, too. Much like death, becoming a vampire is something you can’t come back from…OCEAN OF BLOOD: Free from their mentor Seba Nile, Larten Crepsley and Wester Flack join the Cubs – wild young vampires with little respect for human life, and a taste for mindless enjoyment.But soon fate throws Larten into another spin as he finds himself far from the Vampire Mountain and its rules. Sick and alone, he must decide what kind of vampire he will be. Whether he will stand firm, be true to his master and his principles – or whether he will lose himself in blood…PALACE OF THE DAMNED: Lost in the Arctic waste, Larten faces the darkest time he has ever known.But hope has a way of shining through, and just as Larten reaches the end, a new beginning presents itself. The trouble is, the violence of Larten’s 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?BROTHERS TO THE DEATH: Just as Larten is finding a new place for himself in vampire society, and helping vampires escape the Nazi menace, horrifying tragedy falls on his own family thanks to the nefarious Vampaneze.With his old friend Wester calling for war against the ancient enemies of vampires, Larten finds himself a figurehead of the campaign. But there are more evil things than just the Vampaneze stirring. And soon, Larten might find himself grieving again – as he faces the worst and final betrayal…
THE SAGA OF LARTEN CREPSLEY
DARREN SHAN
THE COMPLETE COLLECTION
Birth of a Killer
Ocean of Blood
Palace of the Damned
and
Brothers to the Death
Copyright (#ua2ebb3a3-019c-5c75-9e93-c154a75784ad)
HarperCollins Children's Books A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith London, W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Birth of a Killer: Text copyright © Darren Shan, 2010 Ocean of Blood: Text copyright © Darren Shan, 2011 Palace of the Damned: Text copyright © Darren Shan, 2011 Brothers to the Death: Text copyright © Darren Shan, 2012 Cover illustrations © David Wyatt Cover images © Shutterstock.com
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Darren Shan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Source ISBNs: 9780007435470, 9780007441570, 9780007455423, 9780007478385
Ebook edition © December 2014 ISBN: 9780008126018
Version: 2014-12-09
Contents
Cover (#u15480937-59d3-57d6-82e1-c23e8be9009f)
Title Page (#uc7f8801f-1d6f-5c0b-bcec-b2401ca80ae0)
Copyright (#uecddab3f-4d8f-5c2d-8071-cec316b74021)
Birth of a Killer
Ocean of Blood
Palace of the Damned
Brothers to the Death
Back ads (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
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For:
Pearse and Conall — children of the night!
OBEs (Order of the Bloody Entrails) to:
Rachel Clements — one year down, only a couple of hundred to go!!
Isobel Abulhoul and all of the Shantastic gang
in Dubai
Editorial Mentor:
Nick “the blood ninja” Lake
General Masterminds:
Christopher Little and his Princely clan
Contents
PART ONE
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
PART TWO
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
PART THREE
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
PART FOUR
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
PART ONE
“Are cobwebs a treat where you come from?”
CHAPTER ONE
When Larten Crepsley awoke and yawned one grey Tuesday morning, he had no idea that by midday he would have become a killer.
He lay on his bed of sacks packed with straw, staring at specks of dust drifting through the air. The house where he lived was cramped and dark, and the room where he slept never caught the sun except at dawn. He often woke a few minutes earlier than necessary, before his mother roared for the family to get up. It was his only quiet time of the day, his one chance to lie back idly and grin lazily at the world.
There were six children in the room, five of them snoring and shifting in their sleep. Larten came from a crop of eight, but two had died young and his eldest sister left a year ago to marry. Although she was only fourteen, Larten suspected their parents were glad to be rid of her — she had never been an especially hard worker and brought home little money.
“Up!” Larten’s mother roared from the room next to theirs, and pounded the thin wall a couple of times.
The children groaned and crawled out of bed. They bumped into one another as they tried to find their way to the bedpan, the older siblings cuffing their younger brothers and sisters. Larten lay where he was, smiling smugly. He had already done his business while everyone else was asleep.
Vur Horston shared the room with the five Crepsley children. Vur was a cousin of theirs. His parents had died when he was three years old, his father in an accident at work, his mother of some disease. Larten’s mother had been keeping a close watch on the sickly widow and moved in quickly to take the baby. An extra pair of hands was always useful. The boy would be a burden for a few years, but children that age didn’t eat much, and assuming Vur survived, he could be put to work young and earn his foster parents a nice little income.
Larten felt closer to Vur than to any of his real siblings. Larten had been in the kitchen when his mother brought the silent, solemn boy home. After giving Vur some bread soaked in milk – a rare treat – she’d stuck him by Larten’s side and told her son to look after the waif and keep him out of her way.
Larten had eyed the newcomer suspiciously, jealous of the gift his mother had given the stranger. In return, Vur had stared at Larten innocently, then tore the bread down the middle and offered his cousin the bigger half. They had been best friends ever since.
“Up!” Larten’s mother roared again, slamming the wall just once this time. The children blinked the last traces of sleep from their eyes and quickly threw on their clothes. She would come crashing in on them soon, and if they weren’t dressed and ready to go, her fists would fly.
“Vur,” Larten murmured, nudging his cousin in the ribs.
“I’m awake,” Vur replied, turning to show Larten his smile.
“Don’t you need to go?” Larten asked.
“I’m bursting,” Vur giggled.
“Hurry up!” Larten shouted at one of his younger sisters, who was squatting over the bedpan as if she owned it.
“Go in the bed if you’re that desperate,” she jeered.
“You might as well,” Larten said to Vur. It wasn’t uncommon for them to wet the bed — the great thing about straw was that it dried swiftly.
“No,” Vur said, gritting his teeth. “I can wait.”
Larten’s clothes were on the floor next to the bed. He pulled them on, not removing the thin vest which he slept in. Larten’s mother was an orderly woman. She did the family laundry every second Sunday. All the children had to wait in their beds, naked beneath the covers, until their clothes were returned. Then they would wear them without changing for the next fortnight.
Larten’s sister finished on the bedpan. Before his youngest brother could claim it, Larten darted across the room, snatched it and passed it to Vur, careful not to spill the contents.
“My hero,” Vur laughed, loosely aiming with one hand while he rubbed yellow crust from his eyes with the other.
Although Vur was Larten’s age, he was much smaller — a thin, weak, mild-mannered boy. He seldom fought for anything, happy to go without if he was challenged. Larten often stood up for his cousin, even though Vur never asked for help.
“What’s keeping you?” Larten’s mother screeched, sticking her head in and glaring at the children.
“Coming!” they roared, and those nearest her ducked through the doorway even if they weren’t finished dressing.
“Vur!” she yelled.
“Just a second!” he panted, straining to finish.
