"Hamilton,.Laurell.K.-.Anita.Blake.-.8.5.-.Girl.Who.Was.Infatuated.With.Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

"I am sorry, Ms. Mackenzie, for both of you."

She shook her head. "Don't be sorry for me. She's seventeen,
beautiful, intelligent, honor society, and, at the very least, she's
going to lose a leg next week. She has to use a cane now. Her
friends chipped in and got her this amazing Goth cane, black wood
and a silver skull on top. She loves it, but you can't use a cane if
you don't have any legs at all."

There was a time when I thought being a vampire was worse than
death, but now, I just wasn't sure. I just didn't have enough room to
cast stones. "She won't lose the leg if she's a vampire."

"But she'll lose her soul."

I didn't even try to argue that one. I wasn't sure if vampires had
souls, or not; I just didn't know. I'd known good ones and bad
ones, just like good and bad people, but one thing was true:
vampires had to feed off of humans to survive. No matter what you
see in the movies, animal blood will not do the job. We are their
food, no getting around that. Out loud, I said, "She's seventeen,
Ms. Mackenzie, I think she probably believes in her leg more than
her soul."

The woman nodded, too rapidly, head bobbing. "And that's my
fault."

I sighed. I so did not want to get involved in this, but I believed Ms.
Mackenzie would do exactly what she said she would do. It wasn't
the girl I was worried about so much as the vampire that would be
bringing her over. She was underage and that meant if he turned
her, it was an automatic death sentence. Death sentences for
humans usually mean life imprisonment, but for a vamp, it means
death within days, weeks at the most. Some of the civil rights
groups were complaining that the vampire trials were too quick to
be fair. And maybe someday the Supreme Court would reverse
some of the decisions, but that wouldn't make the vampire "alive"
again. Once a vamp is staked, beheaded and the heart cut out, all
the parts are burned and scattered on running water. There is no
coming back from the grave if you are itty-bits of ashy fish food.

"Does the friend know what the vampire looks like, maybe a
name?"

She shook her head. "Barbara says that it's Amy's choice." Ms.
Mackenzie shook her head. "It isn't, not until she's eighteen."

I sort of agreed with Barbara, but I wasn't a mother, so maybe my
sympathies would have been elsewhere if I was. "So you don't
know if the vampire is male or female."