"James Herbert - Rats 02 - Lair" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert James)

They stretched all the way along the wall's length, dark red, clots of
black and brown hair sticking to the viscous surface. One of the cats
they had no names, he wasn't that sentimental was black and brown, with
white paws. Whatever had got hold of the poor bloody creature had
dragged it along the wall, and the frantic red scratch marks gave
evidence that the cat had still been alive at the time.

"Good bloody God," the farmer said in a hushed tone. He followed the
gory trail, anger quickening his strides. What manner of creature
could do such a thing? A fox? Been none of them around here for
years. Anyway, he'd never heard of a fox fighting with a cat before.
Some bloody dog's done it! One of them belonging to someone living in
the forest. Never kept their bloody animals locked up! Bad enough
with horses trotting all over the place! Well this one'll get my
bloody shotgun up its arse.

He reached the end of the wall and hurried round, anger blurring his
vision so that he failed to see the object lying on the ground before
him. His heavy boot crunched it down into the mud before he realized
he had trodden on something hard. He stopped, turned, and once again
stooped to examine the object on the ground.

Two sightless slits stared up at him, mud covering the lower portion of
the crushed skull. He pulled at a pointed ear and the cat's head came
free with a sucking sound, startling Woollard and making him throw the
skull into the air. It landed in the mud again with a plop, and lay
half on its side, a wicked, feline grin seeming to mock the frightened
farmer.

The man crawled on his stomach through the damp grass towards the prone
woman. She lay unaware of his stealthy approach, her face turned
towards the sun, surprised and happy to receive its warmth so late in
the year. She flexed her shoulders against the rough blanket, its
thickness protecting her from the wetness of the grass which even the
sun could not draw out.

The creeping man smiled and a gleam came into his eyes. A sound behind
him made him turn his head sharply and he frowned at his two
companions, silently urging them to remain quiet.

The woman sighed and raised a knee provocatively; the smoothness of her
legs caught the man's attention. His smile widened and he felt the
pressure of the earth against his loins. He was close now, close
enough to reach out and touch that wonderfully soft body. He tried to
control his breathing so that she wouldn't hear.

Bringing his arm forward, he snapped off a long blade of grass, then
pointed its quivering tip towards the woman's face. She twitched as
the fine point ran down the side of her nose, then twitched again as