"Elrod, P N - Vampire Files 09 - Lady Crymsyn E-Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

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Copyright й 2000 by P. N. Elrod.
First edition: November 2000

ISBN 0-441-00724-4

Printed in the United States of America



Thanks to:
Teresa Patterson
Keven Topham
and
Jean Marie Ward

And a special thanks to:
Joe James
Sherry LaBelle
Gardner Pourcio
Ruth Woodring
and
Roddy McDowall



1
Chicago, June 1937

I woke up in my basement sanctuary to the sound of a man's shoe heel cracking
hollow against linoleum three yards over my head. It was exactly sunset so I'd
be awake anyway without the alarm call; this was just my partner's way of
telling me something was up and to get moving.
Having fallen into my daylight stupor still wearing a bathrobe and slippers,
there was no need to don them as I rose from the army cot that was my humble
bed. Being completely unconscious while the sun was high meant that comfort
wasn't the big concern so much as having a layer of my home earth sandwiched in
between two sheets of oilcloth on the thin mattress. No coffins for me; the
damned confining things give me the creeps.
Escott thumped the floor again like a flamenco dancer with no rhythm and called
down at me. "Jack? Are you there? Jack?"
It was a perfectly reasonable question. Sometimes I slept the day over at my
girlfriend's place. Escott hadn't bothered to lift the hidden trapdoor under the
kitchen table to see if I was in.
"Yeah, yeah," I muttered. My bricked-up alcove with its cot, desk, chair, and
lamp vanished into a gray nothingness, and I shot upward until encountering the
resistance of the ceiling. Like invisible vapor through a grille, I sieved
swiftly through the minute spaces and cracks in the barrier until fully clear.
How the process worked, I couldn't really explain, it just did, and though