"Goulart, Ron - Vampirella 01 - Bloodstalk" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

VampirellaЕ you are to remain here, and to be, shall we say, obliging to me. Do that and you get your blood-sub. Otherwise it's out in the snow with you." He laughed.
"You want me to be your mistress," said Vampirella. "What did you do before I arrived?"
"I have been involved withЕ one of my nurses," said the doctor. "Lenore, I'm afraid, has grown increasingly tedious. Lord, if you knew how long I've actually had toЕ no matter. All you need concern yourself with is pleasing me. Since you're still recuperating I won't make any demands on you as yet." Dr. Westron put one hand on her shoulder, the other inside Vampirella's nightdress. He fondled her breasts as he kissed her.
She allowed that.
"Oh, and one other thing," he said, getting off the four-poster. "There have been some peculiar rumors about the recent crash of that airliner up in the mountains. The condition of one of the passengers was very strange. Seemed the poor devil lost an enormous amount of bloodЕ and yet there was no blood at all around the place where he was found. Things like that do happen with a crash, I suppose, and yetЕ" He bowed in her direction. "Ah, but so long as you're pleasant and well-behaved, Vampirella, no one need know what really happened up there in the mountains." With a smile he left her.
CHAPTER THREE
The murmurings drifted up to her from far below.
Silently, the long-legged Vampirella left her bed to cross the night-dark bedroom. Wearing only the nightdress, she eased the door open and stepped into the h airway.
Shuffling feet, droning voices. Down on the first floor of the old Victorian mansion.
It must be nearly midnight, a strange hour for Dr. Westron's patients to be up and about.
Vampirella moved to the banister and looked down. At least a dozen men and women, fully dressed, were marching slowly along the ground floor hallway. Each carried a lighted candle. In the yellow flames the golden medallions worn around each neck flashed and sparkled.
The figures passed out of view. Then there was only silence from below.
Vampirella started down the curving staircase.
"Midnight parades aren't standard therapy," the dark-haired girl told herself as she descended. "Something more than psychiatry is going on here."
A footstep, a creaking floor board.
Vampirella, halfway down the stairs, pressed back against the wall.
A pretty blonde girl had stepped out of a room on the first floor. She clutched a thick, ancient-looking book beneath her arm. She, too, wore a gold medallion around her neck.
Vampirella was close enough to discern the medallion's design - a strange horned head, a severed circle.
As she watched, the blonde walked directly up to a buff-colored wall. The wall swung open, and the girl stepped through.
Vampirella waited until the wall had closed before continuing on downstairs.
Although she didn't think much of Dr. Westron's bedside manner, she'd come to realize in the past few hours that his blood-substitute serum actually worked. She had felt absolutely no craving for blood since drinking the serum, not even any anxiety. If she could take the serum every day, then she could live as she pleased. No more fears, no more guilts. Well, yes, guilt over what had already been done. That she'd never really get rid of, but from today on, she wouldn't have to worry.
"But I can't accept the good doctor's terms," Vampirella thought. "I wonder if that blonde with the book is Lenore, the one I'm supposed to replace."
She reached the doorway the blonde girl had come out of. After listening, Vampirella opened the door and crossed the threshold. She found herself in a large library, a book-walled room lit by a single Tiffany lamp which sat on a heavy-footed circular reading table.
"No desk in here," Vampirella soon determined. "So Dr. Westron must keep his notes in his office or his lab. Have to find out where they are. If I can get hold of a copy of that formula, I can -"
"Suffering from a touch of insomnia?" It was Tyler Westron. He had stepped from behind a high bookcase in one corner of the room.
"I thought I heard some noise down here."
"No doubt you did." He smiled, crossing to her. "A sanitarium is never completely quiet." He drew a pill bottle from his pocket. I'll give you something to help you sleep, Vampirella."
"I don't need anything."
Westron shook two capsules into the palm of his hand. "Take these." His free hand gripped her arm.
Vampirella was confident she could defend herself against him. The thing was, until she found out the secret of the blood-substitute serum she had to remain here inside the sanitarium. No use tossing Dr. Westron into the wall and walking off. "All right," she said, plucking the capsules from his palm and swallowing them.
"Now I'll escort you up to your room, Vampirella." Westron gripped her bare arm. "You mustn't let anything about my sanitarium frighten you." He led her upstairs to the door of her bedroom, opened the door, and gestured for her to enter. "Good night. I have some other duties to attend to tonight."
When she was back inside the bedroom, Vampirella heard him lock the heavy door.
Grey dawn showed at the leaded windows.
"Wake up, you little slut!"
A hand was shaking her by the shoulder. Vampirella sat up, awake. "Don't do that," she warned the blonde who stood over her.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Probably Lenore."
Lenore Goodwin was holding the ancient book. She slammed it angrily down on the bedside table. "He's told you about me, then?" she said. "I thought he had. He was late last night for theЕ he was with you last night, wasn't he?"
"I saw Dr. Westron for a few minutes last night, around about midnight."
"A few minutes?" Lenore's nostrils flared. "I'm warning you, Vampirella, that Tyler is mine. Mine now and mine as far back asЕ you're to leave him alone!"
"You're shouting at the wrong side of the triangle," Vampirella advised her. "I suggest you talk to Dr. Westron."
"Don't patronize me, you little bitch!" The blonde nurse slapped Vampirella across the face.
After a second of hesitation, Vampirella slapped her in return.
Lenore, surprised, went stumbling away from the bed. Her face went white, then blazing red. She fell backwards over a footstool. The golden medallion danced on its chain as she hit the floor. "IЕ I'm warning-"
"Let me warn you." Vampirella was standing beside the bed, hands on hips. "Any problem you have with the good doctor, you take up with him. Come near me again, Lenore, and I'll toss you out."
Lenore, pale again, rose from the thick rug and smoothed her dress. "I'll see to it that youЕ" The sentence was swallowed in an angry snarl. The blonde turned away, stalked from the room, and slammed the door.
After watching the door for a moment, Vampirella smiled. Her strength was coming back. She picked up the thick old book Lenore had left behind. Burned into the cover were the words The Crimson Chronicles. Below the title was a drawing, a drawing of the horned creature and the broken circle.
Vampirella opened the heavy book. Though she still had much to learn about the history of her adopted planet, the raven-haired girl knew this volume was centuries old. It had not been printed, but was lettered by hand. The first letter of each paragraph was illuminated, decorated with tiny demons, night shapes, graveyard haunts.
Lowering herself to the edge of the four-poster, Vampirella began to skim through the pages. "Е And the Great God Chaos, as well as his seven demonic servants, was defeated and exiled to the NethervoidЕ But these chronicles survive for those who would serve his cause. Those who would achieve incredible power, those who would work for the day when Chaos and his Seven Servants shall gain strength. The day of triumph when Chaos shall war again and win and thereafter rule all -"
"Not the sort of light reading I recommend for patients on the mend." Dr. Westron had entered her room, but not by way of the door. He took The Crimson Chronicles from her hands. "A book Lenore borrowed from my collection of occult materials, Vampirella. Much too unpleasant for you."