"Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse 03 - Club Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harris Charlaine)

The vampires in the predominantly Islamic nations had fared the worst. You don't even want to
know what happened to the undead spokesman in Syria, though perhaps the female vamp in Afghanistan
died an even more horribleтАФand finalтАФdeath. (What were they thinking, selecting a female for that
particular job? Vampires could be so smart, but they sometimes didn't seem quite in touch with the
present world.)

Some nationsтАФFrance, Italy, and Germany were the most notableтАФrefused to accept vampires
as equal citizens. ManyтАФlike Bosnia, Argentina, and most of the African nationsтАФdenied any status to
the vampires, and declared them fair game for any bounty hunter. But America, England, Mexico,
Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries adopted a more tolerant attitude.

It was hard to determine if this reaction was what the vampires had expected or not. Since they
were still struggling to maintain a foothold in the stream of the living, the vampires remained very secretive
about their organization and government, and what Bill was telling me now was the most I'd ever heard
on the subject.

"So, the Louisiana queen of the vampires has you working on a secret project," I said, trying to
sound neutral. "And this is why you have lived at your computer every waking hour for the past few
weeks."
"Yes," Bill said. He picked up the bottle of TrueBlood and tipped it up, but there were only a
couple of drops left. He went down the hall into the small kitchen area (when he'd remodeled his old
family home, he'd pretty much left out the kitchen, since he didn't need one) and extracted another bottle
from the refrigerator. I was tracking him by sound as he opened the bottle and popped it into the
microwave. The microwave went off, and he reentered, shaking the bottle with his thumb over the top so
there wouldn't be any hot spots.
"So, how much more time do you have to spend on this project?" I askedтАФreasonably, I
thought.

"As long as it takes," he said, less reasonably. Actually, Bill sounded downright irritable.
Hmmm. Could our honeymoon be over? Of course I mean figurative honeymoon, since Bill's a
vampire and we can't be legally married, practically anywhere in the world.
 Not that he's asked me.
"Well, if you're so absorbed in your project, I'll just stay away until it's over," I said slowly.

"That might be best," Bill said, after a perceptible pause, and I felt like he'd socked me in the
stomach. In a flash, I was on my feet and pulling my coat back over my cold-weather waitress
outfitтАФblack slacks, white boat-neck long-sleeved tee with "Merlotte's" embroidered over the left
breast. I turned my back to Bill to hide my face.

I was trying not to cry, so I didn't look at him even after I felt Bill's hand touch my shoulder.
"I have to tell you something," Bill said in his cold, smooth voice. I stopped in the middle of
pulling on my gloves, but I didn't think I could stand to see him. He could tell my backside,

"If anything happens to me," he continued (and here's where I should have begun worrying), "you
must look in the hiding place I built at your house. My computer should be in it, and some disks. Don't
tell anyone. If the computer isn't in the hiding place, come over to my house and see if it's here. Come in
the daytime, and come armed. Get the computer and any disks you can find, and hide them in my
hidey-hole, as you call it."