"Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake 15 - The Harlequin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

He actually showed surprise for a moment before he got control of his face. He played human too much
for the media; he was beginning to lose that stillness of features that the old ones have. "I don't know."
Even his voice was no longer smooth.

"Did the vamp do it to taunt you, or was it arrogance?"

He shook his head. "I do not know."

I had a moment of revelation. "You came here because you think Jean-Claude should know, but you
can't let your congregation see you going to the Master of the City. It would undermine your whole
freewill thing."

He settled back into his chair, fighting to keep the anger off his face, and failing. He was even more
scared than I thought, to be losing it this badly in front of someone he disliked. Hell, he'd come to me for
help. He was desperate.
"But you can come to me, a federal marshal, and tell me. Because you know I'll tell Jean-Claude."

"Think what you like, Ms. Blake."

We weren't on a first-name basis anymore. I'd hit it on the head. "A big, bad vamp checks your church
out. You aren't vampire enough to smoke him out, and you come to me, to Jean-Claude and all his
immoral power structure. You come to the very people you say you hate."

He stood up. "The crime that Sally is accused of happened less than twenty-four hours after he, it, they
came to my church. I do not think that is a coincidence."

"I'm not lying about the second order of execution, Malcolm. It's in my desk drawer, right now, with a
driver's license picture of the vampire in question."

He sat back down. "What name is on it?"

"Why, so you can warnтАж them?" I'd almost said her, because it was another female vamp.

"My people are not perfect, Ms. Blake, but I believe that another vampire has come to town and is
framing them."

"Why? Why would someone do that?"

"I don't know."

"No one has bothered Jean-Claude or his people."

"I know," Malcolm said.

"Without a true master, a true blood-oathed, mystically connected master, your congregation are just
sheep waiting for the wolves to come get them."

"Jean-Claude said as much a month ago."

"Yeah, he did."