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

really my decision and my job. It would save a lot of trouble right now, but dammit, I was just too tired
to open that can of worms tonight. You can't just tell people that you're a vampire and have them accept
it, you have to prove it to them and then give out the whole history of how you got to be that way. In my
case, I fell in love with a beautiful, but unusual woman, and we exchanged blood. Last summer I was
killed by a mobster, but much to his surprise I didn't stay dead. How I got back at him for my murder is
another story.

Half an hour or more passed with no one saying a thing. I liked their silent company. It was nice, so
very, very nice to be with people who didn't want to kill me. That and the warm air helped me relax until
I was as near as I could get to dozing. I don't sleep, not like I used to when I still breathed regularly; at
night I'm always solidly awake for the duration. When dawn comes, I'm so close to being dead it ain't
even remotely funny. I've no control over it, and lately it's been damned inconvenient, if not downright
dangerous. I miss a lot.

I opened my eyes when the car came to a halt, but it was only for a street signal. Coldfield was in the
thick of the city now and began driving sedately, easing into the start and stop of the wee hours' traffic,
signals with care. Maybe he didn't want to jar us more than necessary, but you could also figure that he
didn't want to attract cops. Too many of them were still on the take despite attempts to clean things up
since the Feds whisked Capone away on that tax rap, and as Escott said, people like Miss Angela Paco
could have eyes and ears anywhere in the town. It was because of her I ended up in the lake tonight,
another casualty in her gang war.

"Where we going?" I asked, blinking against a barrage of neon from an all night drugstore's sign.

Coldfield seemed surprised I'd spoken. "Someplace safe and warm."

" 'M all for it. Where's Isham?" He was one of Coldfield's men and had been with them earlier. He'd
tried his best to pull me to safety when all hell broke loose at Angela's place earlier this evening.

EscottтАФbad ribs, shiner, and allтАФhad been her unwilling guest, and I'd snuck into her house to try
getting him away, but we tripped a burglar alarm on the way out. Her thugs started shooting at us; Isham
started shooting at them, and there was a lot of yelling and noise as Coldfield tore across the grounds in
his armored Nash trying to get to us. Isham and "Escott managed to reach the car, and I'd almost gotten
aboard, but little Angela started throwing hand grenades, which screwed everything up. They'd quite
sensibly hightailed it out of there with me weakly waving them on. Coldfield's Nash was tough, but not
that tough.

"I told him to get scarce after Charles made his call to arrange to get you back from Angela Paco," said
Coldfield.

"She was going to do a double-cross. Try to kill him."

"I'd figured that much by now. You wanta tell us what happened?"

I shrugged, staring straight ahead at the dashboard. "Tried to walk home from a boat ride. It didn't work
so good."

"The hell you say."

"Would you care to expand a bit on the subject?" Escott asked. "We rather lost track of you when Miss