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

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 tiring, I often took advantage of the
gift.

I materialized, annoyed and puzzled, in the bright light of the kitchen. "What is it, a fire?" I asked,
squinting.

"A call," Escott said, pointing to the phone on the wall by the pantry.

"Something wrong with Bobbi?" Past events made me more than a little anxious about the welfare of my
girlfriend.

"Miss Smythe is perfectly fine, so far as I'm aware. This has to do with that club of yours."