"03 - Circus of the Damned 4.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

Hamilton - ABVH 03 - Circus of the DamnedeVersion 4.0 - see revision notes at
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Circus of the Damned


by
Laurell K. Hamilton


Book 3 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series




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Chapter 1



There was dried chicken blood imbedded under my fingernails. When you raise the
dead for a living, you have to spill a little blood. It clung in flaking patches
to my face and hands. I'd tried to clean the worst of it off before coming to
this meeting, but some things only a shower would fix. I sipped coffee from a
personalized mug that said, "Piss me off, pay the consequences," and stared at
the two men sitting across from me.
Mr. Jeremy Ruebens was short, dark, and grumpy. I'd never seen him when he
wasn't either frowning, or shouting. His small features were clustered in the
middle of his face as if some giant hand had mashed them together before the
clay had dried. His hands smoothed over the lapel of his coat, the dark blue
tie, tie clip, white shirt collar. His hands folded in his lap for a second,
then began their dance again, coat, tie, tie clip, collar, lap. I figured I
could stand to watch him fidget maybe five more times before I screamed for
mercy and promised him anything he wanted.
The second man was Karl Inger. I'd never met him before, He was a few inches
over six feet. Standing, he had towered over Ruebens and me. A wavy mass of
short-cut red hair graced a large face. He had honest-to-god muttonchop
sideburns that grew into one of the fullest mustaches I'd ever seen. Everything
was neatly trimmed except for his unruly hair. Maybe he was having a bad hair