The Beautiful, The Damned

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The second Nick Carraway in a family where the name Nick Carraway has a certain mystique finds himself in New York, just like his grandfather before him. Carraway quickly learns that the go-go 1980s have a lot in common with the hard-partying 1920s, including a mysterious man in a mansion not far from Carraway’s house. This man, who reminds Carraway of his grandfather’s friend Gatsby, also holds raucous parties and falls in love with the wrong woman. But this man has a secret that not even Gatsby would have comprehended. A dark secret. An immortal secret. With fangs...

“Like early Ray Bradbury, Rusch has the ability to switch on a universal dark.”
—the London Times

International bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won two Hugo awards, a World Fantasy Award, and three Asimov’s Readers Choice Awards. WMG Publishing has just reissued all seven volumes of her highly acclaimed Fey series, with three new ones on tap starting in 2013.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Jul 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476372921

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. She publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.   

Book preview

The Beautiful

The Damned

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Copyright Information

The Beautiful, The Damned

Copyright © 2012 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February, 1995.

Published by WMG Publishing

Cover and Layout copyright © 2012 by WMG Publishing

Cover art copyright © James Nemec/Dreamstime, Yahor Mahuchau/Dreamstime

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional,

and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

Table of Contents

The Beautiful, The Damned

Copyright Information

About the Author

The Beautiful

The Damned

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Chapter I

I come from the Middle West, an unforgiving land with little or no tolerance for imagination. The wind blows harsh across the prairies, and the snows fall thick. Even with the conveniences of the modern age, life is dangerous there. To lose sight of reality, even for one short romantic moment, is to risk death.

I didn’t belong in that country, and my grandfather knew it. I was his namesake, and somehow, being the second Nick Carraway in a family where the name had a certain mystique had forced that mystique upon me. He had lived in the East during the twenties, and had had grand adventures, most of which he would not talk about. When he returned to St. Paul in 1928, he met a woman — my grandmother Nell — and with her solid, common sense had shed himself of the romance and imagination that had led to his adventures in the first place.

Although not entirely. For when I announced, fifty years later, that I intended to pursue my education in the East, he paid four years of Ivy League tuition. And, when I told him in the early ‘80s, that, despite my literary background and romantic nature, I planned a career in the securities business,