Almost Alive (The Beautiful Dead Book 3)
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Authors: Daryl Banner
Almost Alive
(The Beautiful Dead #3)
by Daryl Banner
Books By Daryl Banner
The Beautiful Dead Trilo
gy
:
The Beautiful Dead
(Book 1)
Dead Of Winter
(Book 2)
Almost Alive
(Book 3)
The
OUTLIER
Series:
Outlier: Rebellion
(Book 1)
Outlier: Legacy
(Book 2)
Outlier: Reign Of Madness
(Book 3)
Outlier: Beyond Oblivion
(Book 4)
Outlier: Five Kings
(Book 5)
The Brazen Boys:
A series of standalone M/M romance novellas.
Dorm Game
(Book 1)
On The Edge
(Book 2)
Owned By The Freshman
(Book 3)
Dog Tags
(Book 4)
Other Books by Daryl Banner:
super psycho future killers
Psychology Of Want
Love And Other Bad Ideas
(a collection of seven short plays)
Acknowledgements
Madeline Sheehan, Chelsea Camaron & Claire Riley
You three have been with me since the beginning and I hope you’re with me to the end because it’s going to be quite a deathful, lifeful, frightful ride. I could not have done this without any of you, Mad, Chels, Claire. You’ve pushed me out of my tiny safe space and threw me into the world and I’ve never felt so un-alone as I do now thanks to having each of your friendships.
Chris Rivera
You kept the muse-fires burning and never let me down or ran away, even when the flames turned green. Thank you for never judging me, even when I had that one idea that never made it into the first book involving cats and skele-monsters and … wait, did I even tell you about that?
Jan Behrens
A whole ocean can’t stop your genius from reaching me! You keep me grounded and you keep me thinking and now you’ve gone and helped make my covers pretty. Thank you always
Mom
You’re the first person in the world to read my words, arguably even before
I
do. You let me be me, and I may never realize how lucky I am to have you in my life.
The Beautiful Outliers
A very deep and hearty thanks to this special group who get
in people’s digital faces and help spread the word on the street. Toni, Judith, Mary, Kristen, Shawna, Ariana, Iliana, Steph, Amanda, Angela, Valari, Sheryl, Julianne, Sue and Alex.
You
Thank you for embracing The Beautiful Dead again.
You’ve stayed with me since the start, and I hope you’re ready for the final chapter in Winter’s Undead story.
I certainly as hell wasn’t.
Copyright © 2015 by Daryl Banner
Published by Frozenfyre Publishing
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the
written permission of the author.
This book is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, groups, businesses, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual places or persons,
Living, dead, or Undead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover & Interior Design by Daryl Banner
Nature Photography for cover by Jan Behrens
ISBN-13: 978-1511546478
ISBN-10: 1511546476
L O V E I S E A S Y / T I M E I S N O T
F O R E V E R T H E B E A U T I F U L D E A D
I T S T A R T S W I T H A H E A R T B E A T
“May your every confidence
be great
and your every misconfidence greater.”
- Lynx
P R O L O G U E
There’s a blackbird at the window. Someone left the window open and the sleek, ominous creature found it to be the perfect invitation, it seems.
Julianne watches the blackbird. Her heart races and sweat gathers on her palms. Sweat, in the dead of winter, with the window open. Sweat. “Why am I sweating?” she asks the blackbird. “Why are you here?”
“Jules?”
She spins around. Samuel’s in the hall. He looks sharp in his black suit. His white-blond head of hair, more egg yolk when wet, is parted to the left today. She stares at him for the longest while, unable to recognize her own husband until he gently repeats her name: “Jules?”
Then finally: “Yes?”