"Elrod, P N - Jack Fleming - The Vampire Files 02 - Lifeblood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

again.

I reappeared in time to see the smoke flaring away from its muzzle. Sled
launched himself away from Escott, grabbed the protesting woman on the
run, and dragged her off the battlefield.

Escott was leaning against the wall and had made no move to stop them.
He was doubled over, struggling to breathe, with his arms curled tight
around his stomach. His pale face stood out from the shadows like a
fun-house ghost. Even as I found my feet he lost his and sank to the
ground.

I was kneeling by him in a second, heart in my throat. "Charles?" My
voice was all funny, as though it were borrowed from some stranger.

"Minute--" he gasped. He shut his eyes, let his mouth sag, and
concentrated on drawing in air. I eased him more comfortably against the
wall and tried to check his damage, but he shook his head.

"How bad?" I asked.

He showed a few teeth, but I couldn't tell if it was a grimace or a
smile: with him it could go either way. His breathing evened a little
and his eyes cracked open. "Where's the stamp?" he whispered.

Stamp? What the hell did that matter? "I'll get an ambulance."

"No need, I'm not hurt."

"You're doing a good imitation of it. Just hold on and--"

One of his hands came up. "Give me a minute and I'll be fine."

"CharlesтАж"

The other hand came up. Clean. "I'm only winded."

"What the--

"My bulletproof vest," he said with an air of stating the obvious.

I checked; under the rumpled clothes was a solid-feeling something
encasing his torso.

"Unlike you," he continued, "I have no supernatural defense against
flying bits of metal and must provide an artificial one."

I was stuck exactly at the halfway point between relief and rage. He
wisely chose not to laugh at the expression I must have been wearing.