"P. N. Elrod - Vampire Files 07 - A Chill In The Blood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

"They're only just cracked a little."

"CharlesтАж" Rising impatience in Coldfield's tone. Couldn't blame him.

But Escott's attention was centered on me. "Jack? Are you up to seeing Dr. Clarson?"

I shook my head. A doctor meant an examination, which meant that the first time he tried to take my
pulse he'd find out I was a bit more than just half-dead. In fact, I'm Undead, which was why I'd had such
a tough time with the free-flowing water of the lake. Right now I didn't want to bother dealing with
anything beyond getting out of my freezing wet clothes and maybe crawling into a nice hot oven for a few
hours.

"What are you asking him for?" Coldfield demanded.

"I thought I'd give him a choice in the matter."

"Huh. Shape he's in he couldn't think straight if you gave him a ruler. Same for you."

"I'm also trying to keep the number of people involved in this mess to a minimum."

"Clarson's family, he won't talk."

"I know, but I'd rather not put him to any unnecessary risk."

"It's inmy territory, I'll be the judge of what's a risk for my people."

"ButтАФ"

"Charles, just shut the hell up and let me drive."

Escott subsided. As far as I could tell through my fog of nausea and disorientation, he seemed perfectly
unoffended by Coldfield's manner. They were old friends from back in the twenties when they'd both
been actors in some touring company in Canada. A decade and then some goes by and now Escott's
calling himself a private agentтАФI suppose it's got more class than "keyhole peeper"тАФand Coldfield's
heading one of the larger criminal gangs in Chicago's Bronze Belt. How they ended up in two such
opposite fields and remained friends I was still trying to figure out.

Coldfield drove fast and the car got pretty warmтАФfor them. I was only just starting to feel a little less
like an iceberg, but my bouts of shivering gradually shortened, and the teeth-chattering business finally
ceased. I could still taste the sour metallic flavor of the lake in the back of my throat, but that would go
away if I could make a quick visit to the Stockyards to feed before dawn. Not much chance of doing that
with Shoe Coldfield along; he didn't know about me being a vampire.

I'm not like what you saw a few years back in the Lugosi movie. There're some similarities between me
and old Count Dracula, but I don't turn into animals or quake at crosses or silver bullets, flop in a coffin
or stuff like that. I do drink blood to keep body and soul togetherтАФstill have one of those as far as I
knowтАФand it's usually animal blood, butthat little detail can still hit people the wrong way. Because of it
I hadn't made up my mind whether to let Coldfield in on the news yet.

Escott knew all about it, of course, and could more easily break it to his friend, but once told me it was