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

"Infamous," said the old man. "The perverse Bible of the Companions of Chaos."
"Some kind of goofy religion?" asked the sheriff.
Van Helsing said, "A cult, an evil-worshipping cult which I believed long dead. This book hereЕ it means the Cult of Chaos is still alive. And the girl, Adam, she's involved with them in some way."
"We don't know that for sure."
The old man struck his chest. "I know!"
CHAPTER EIGHT
The manikins sat, forever smiling, around the patio table, plastic ice in their cocktail glasses, painted grass beneath their feet. The black bat came down through an opening in the department store skylight directly over their heads. It was an overcast night, and the aisles of the deserted store were exceptionally dark.
The bat circled the garden party tableau, then hovered in the air a few feet from the floor. There was a shimmering moment, and Vampirella stood next to a stunning blonde mannikin in a mesh bikini.
"Don't get up," the dark-haired girl said, "I'm only passing through." Hands on hips, Vampirella surveyed the midnight store. "Camping equipment, notions, camerasЕ ah, apparel."
She walked along a shadowy aisle and into the area which offered women's clothing. After selecting a dress and a belted raincoat and putting them on, Vampirella looked around. "Let's seeЕ shoes over there. Then I'll need a suitcase. Won't look right checking into Feldenville's most fashionable hotel with no luggage."
Within half an hour she'd selected a tan suitcase and filled it with extra clothing and accessories. She'd also borrowed $112 by rifling several of the cash registers. "Altogether I owe you about $300," she told the dark and silent store. "You'll get it all back, once I take care of a few more immediate problems."
This particular department store, the largest of the three in the moderate-sized town of Feldenville, had an alarm system which could be switched off from within the store. Vampirella shut the alarms off and carried her suitcase out of a side door into an alley.
She waited until the police patrol car, whose pattern she'd checked before her rather unorthodox entry of the store, had rolled by out on the main street. Then she went striding away, heading for the lights of the centre of town.
"It's a burden," complained the big, sad-faced man. He sat cramped in a bentwood rocker, hugging himself, rocking slowly. His chair was close to a large stone fireplace in which a fire still blazed. Around his thick neck was wrapped a heavy woolen muffler. He had on a peacoat over a thick ski sweater. "That's all it is, Ma, a burden."
"A burden to help your sadly afflicted mother? A burden to look after her in her declining years, Lemuel?" The old woman was thin, with a sunken face of ice-blue color. She rested in an antique wheelchair made of copper and wicker.
"I mean it's all a burden," said her son, "being alive and all. I didn't ask for them to make me alive again."
"Don't let them hear you say that," warned his mother. "You were meant to serve the Master. That's all there is to it."
"Why should I be afraid of them? Worst they can do is make me dead, and I already been that."
The old woman shook her head. "There are worse things than that, Lem. Worse things by far."
The doctor opened the door of his suite. "Yes, what is it?"
"You're the hotel physician?" Vampirella asked him.
"If you're ill, you must contact me through the desk. If you're not, it can wait until tomorrow. It's after one A.M." He was a middle-aged man, too fat.
Vampirella said, "Look at me, doctor."
"I don't have time forЕ" His eyes were caught by hers.
"Look at me, listen to me. You will do exactly what I ask."
"Yes, I will do what you ask."
"Are you alone?"
"Yes, my wife, as usual, is visiting her dreadful mother in New Mexico."
"Do you have a lab here?"
"A small one," answered the now-hypnotized doctor, "adequate."
"Do you haveЕ" She recited the list of ingredients and equipment required to manufacture the blood-substitute serum.
"Yes, I have all that."
"Good, then we'll go to your lab right now." There was a moment, as she followed the doctor into his rooms, when Vampirella felt it would be much simpler to take the blood she needed from him.
But, no. She was going to use the serum from now on. She would not kill again.
CHAPTER NINE
Professor Crowder thrust his pipe into his tobacco pouch. This may sound strange coming from one whose lifelong special interest has been things occult," he said as he filled the bowl of the pipe. "Still, Van Helsing, I have to admit I don't put much faith in the sort of ESP hunches you operate on."
The blind old man said, "They're considerably more than hunches, Crowder. I have a definite ability in this area."
"Dad's right, Dr. Crowder." Adam was sitting in a comfortable chair near one of the windows of the professor's office. A light morning rain was pattering at the glass. "We've tested this out a good deal ourselves before accepting the fact that Dad's hunches are usually right."
Crowder was a large pink man of fifty. He chuckled, lighting his pipe. "Well, let's pass that matter up for the nonce." He exhaled swirls of smoke. "I am pleased to have men of your reputation visit me here in Feldenville. Since I came to the state university some years back, I've felt a bit cut off from my colleagues in the field of supernatural studies."
"I'm not here for shop talk," said Van Helsing. "We have good reason to believe the Cult of Chaos is active again."
Crowder puffed and nodded. "Granted, as you told me earlier, you found evidence of at least a small recurrence of the belief in Chaos and his Seven Servants in the ruins of the Westron place, Van Helsing," he said. "I don't see how that leads you here."
"Dad's already explained that, Dr. Crowder. One of his hunches."
"Then I'm correct in assuming you don't have any tangible proof?"
"Tangible enough for me," said the blind one. "I am certain there is cult activity in Feldenville. Furthermore, the girl we're seeking is here."
Professor Crowder removed his pipe from his mouth. "Girl?"
"My brother Kurt was killed by a vampire," said Van Helsing. "We have trailed her here."
"I was sorry to hear about Kurt's deathЕ I didn't realizeЕ the newspaper accounts indicated he'd died as a result of the plane crash."
"All mention of a vampire was kept out of the press," Van Helsing told him. "Adam and I will handle the matter."
"And this vampire is, you say, a girl? A young girl?
"Yes, a deadly young girl, who must be destroyed."