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

"I have other plans for Vampirella," said Westron. "You won't kill her, Nuberus will not have her soul!"
"He must have a soul! And this little slut's will do as -"
"Let him have yours!" Westron twisted her arm and plunged the blade into Lenore's chest.
Lenore toppled back and away from him as the blood began to stain her robe. "Ethan, I did so much forЕ" Death kept her from saying anything more.
Westron raised both hands high. "Nuberus has his second soul. The pact is completed."
Vampirella turned her head, watching him. "She called you Ethan."
Westron strode closer to the sacrificial altar. "I am Ethan Todd," he told her. "I was a warlock, a sorcerer, in 17th-century New England. It was I who started the Cult of Chaos in this country, although it has a long and illustrious history in the Old World. I have stayed alive all these years by sacrificing souls to Nuberus. Lenore and I were lovers then, in Salem, and we've been together ever since." He bent over Vampirella and placed a hand on her bare arm. His fingers were red with Lenore's blood. "After all these centuriesЕ well, who can blame me for growing bored with poor
Lenore? Nuberus requires two souls for each new life he grants. The soul which was to be sacrificed tonight was the final payment for more years of life for me. Lenore wanted that soul to be yours, Vampirella." From under his robe he brought a key. He began unlocking the chains which held her down.
"What about the real Tyler Westron?"
"Oh," said the warlock, laughing, "you've met him. In fact, he's taken quite a fancy to you. Broke out to come looking for you." He nodded at the shaggy man. "I really am a physician, you know. Your blood-sub is one proof of my ability. With Westron I tried out a different sort of experiment."
The chains fell away from her body. "What do you have in mind for me?"
"Nothing unpleasant, I assure you," said Ethan Todd. "You will stay here with me; with our powers, yours and mine, combined, we can do incredible things. We will see that the Cult of Chaos grows and -"
"I want no part of this, Ethan Todd." She sat up on the altar.
"Ah, but you have no choice, Vampirella. Do I have to remind you that without my serum you will go back to being what you were, nothing more than a bloodsucking little savage? Your life will be -"
"Even so, I won't serve you!" She took up The Crimson Chronicles, which Lenore had placed on the altar, and threw it toward the flaming brazier.
The ancient book landed on the blazing coals and began to crackle and burn.
"You idiot! If that book is destroyedЕ" The sorcerer pushed her aside and ran to grab the book from the flames.
The shaggy man gave a tremendous growl. The chains which restrained him burst. He hurled himself at Ethan Todd, at the man who had taken his place and made him into what he now was.
The two went stumbling across the cavern floor.
The followers of the sorcerer began to shout, to surge forward.
The pair fell across the body of Lenore. Blood streaked them as they fought and struggled.
"I should have killed you long ago." The warlock grasped the handle of the sacrificial knife which was still in Lenore's body and pulled it free. It made a rasping, grinding sound.
"Now you will die at last!"
Ethan Todd stabbed at the shaggy creature he had created. When the blade sank into the body, blood spilled out, matting the thick hair.
"Stop!" Vampirella, leaping from the altar, started for them.
The cave started to rumble. The stone walls shook.
"Nuberus is set free!" cried the robed figures. "The book is burned! He is free!"
Jagged stones rained down. The great circle inscribed on the wall split open, and the rocks broke apart. Roaring flames flowed through the enormous fissure. Flames which burned both scarlet and black.
The flames spilled out over the cavern floor. In the giant split in the circle a huge figure began to take shape.
"He is unleashed!" The worshippers scattered, running for the tunnel exits.
The flames, pursuing, caught at their robes and turned them into torches. Torches that screamed, burning with a night-black flame.
I'll get you out." The shaggy man scooped Vampirella up in his arms.
She had been watching the demon materialize and had lost track of Ethan Todd and the faceless man. "Where is Ethan Todd?"
"In hell by now."
Vampirella caught a glimpse of the broken body of the ancient sorcerer sprawled on the cavern floor. Then she was in a narrow tunnel, being carried upward.
The flames, spreading up through most of the tunnels, had eaten away at the old Victorian house. Now, as the first light of day spread, the sanitarium was gone, a burned-out tangle of blackened collapsed beams and walls. A charcoal scrawl across the white of the fields.
Vampirella stood watching the fire die out as the last of the old house fell in on itself. She turned to the figure of the man who had been Dr. Tyler Westron. "Please. Let me go for help for you -"
Westron was on the cold ground, propped against a tree. "I told you, Vampirella, I'm about done. I'm a doctor and I knowЕ those knife woundsЕ" He reached into a pocket of his tattered trousers. "HereЕ IЕ saved this after Lenore tried to take it away from youЕ"
It was the sheet of journal paper which held the formula for the blood-substitute serum. "Thank you," the dark-haired girl said, taking the sheet. "ThatЕ that demon down there. Will he come looking for us?"
"Not now. I think he got his fill of souls in the cavern. He'll return to where he came from, to the NethervoidЕ until someone else summons him. Him and the rest of the Servants of Chaos." The croaking voice was growing weaker.
"But Ethan Todd and Lenore are dead, and The Crimson Chronicles burned to ashes."
"There are other branches of the cult, other copies of that bookЕ Ethan Todd was in communication with a group as near as Feldenville." , She knelt beside him and took his gnarled, hairy hand in hers. "They'll have to be stopped."
"YouЕ maybe you can do it. He came hereЕ a year agoЕ he and LenoreЕ a patient and his special nurse, they saidЕ before IЕ they took over the placeЕ convened some of my patients and staffЕ sacrificed the restЕ turned meЕ into this thingЕ" The voice of the creature got smaller, smaller. "IЕ couldЕ get loose sometimesЕ but theyЕ they hadЕ power over meЕ I saw youЕ while I wasЕ freeЕ made up my mindЕ save youЕ ifЕ IЕ" His life whispered out of him.
Vampirella stayed there, holding his dead hand, until long after the bleak sun had risen.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Great Pendragon raised his wand and pointed at the somewhat scruffy top hat on the velvet-covered stage next to him. "Mortal eyes have never witnessed such a miracle (not to mention your piggish little orbs), my dear friends," he announced to the dozen scattered people who comprised the audience in his shed-like magic theatre. "What strange and wondrous things will blossom forth from yon topper (without the aid of one drop of fertilizer), my comrades? Ah, behold!" He gestured at the hat, "Xicara, Xacara, Xadrez!"
Roses, puffy pink-petaled roses, began to grow up out of the hat.
A couple of the carnival patrons made appreciative sounds.
"Incredible, is it not? (A little applause wouldn't be out of order, you rubes!) Yes, this legendary piece of magic has saved the crowned heads of Europe." He made a deep bow, almost losing his balance. "And now, lovers of magic (and bug-eyed cretins), our amazing hour of magic must end. I remain your obedient servant, the Great Pendragon."
Smoke swirled all around him. When it cleared, the magician was gone from the stage.