"Wanton Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (King Sherri L. - Horde Wars 2 - Wanton Firevoto6[htm)

УWhat the hell does that mean?Ф Obsidian asked.

УIndustrial and techno are types of music. Very loud, very heavy music with complex beats and such. ThatТs all I know. I was a fan of very few bands in my youthЧI didnТt really have much time for music.Ф

УWould you look at these humans?Ф Edge muttered in their Shikar tongue so as not to offend the natives. УThey look so somber with their white faces and funeral garb.Ф

УNot all of them.Ф Cinder tried not to gawk when he saw a woman sporting a two-foot high Mohawk in various colors and shades of the rainbow. Her piercing struck Cinder as particularly interesting. She had rings and bars in her ears, eyebrows, nose, lipsЕshe even sported silver studs lined in a row up each alabaster forearm. HeТd never seen their like before. She wore a clear plastic top with red dots positioned just over her nipples, and a long red velvet skirt. УWow,Ф Cinder breathed, unable to tear his eyes off of the spectacle.

УWell. LetТs go in.Ф

УWait. You canТt be serious, baby, surely.Ф

УI donТt want to go in there any more than you do, Sid. But we have toЕthatТs all there is to it.Ф

Cady produced a thick wad of human currencyЧTryton kept them well supplied for their ventures above the surface, though how he obtained the funds was a mystery and probably better left as suchЧand paid their entrance fees. Cinder walked in ahead of the group, curious about what lay in wait for them in this strange place. They passed through a door into a dimly lit foyer. There, a shirtless man in black latex pants asked them for proof of ID. Cady produced their documentsЧhigh quality forgeries procured through TrytonЧfor the man to view, and they were admitted through yet another door.

Here was a place of thundering, shadowy chaos. Blinding white strobe lights pulsed about them in the dark, revealing in flashes a huge group of undulating human bodies. The Shikars were on the outskirts of a dance floor, swallowed by the throng of people that pumped and swayed to the heady music. Cinder winced. The air was thick as syrup with the noise. It pulled at him like a weight, and every bass-ridden beat of the music thudded in his chest with the force of a physical blow.

УThis isnТt so bad.Ф Cady yelled to be heard over the din.

УAre you mad? This is horrendous. It reminds me of the GatesЕexcept the air is easier to breathe,Ф Edge yelled back.

УI expected much worse. The DJ is pretty good.Ф

УWhat the hell are you talking about?Ф Edge was growing more and more agitated as the music swarmed around them like the thunder of the HordeТs giant heartbeats.

УDJЧdisc jockey. I wonder who it is?Ф

УI give up. YouТve lost me entirelyЧbut I donТt care. I canТt stay here. The noise, the crowd, the lightsЕitТs all too much. What, by Grimm, are we supposed to find here?Ф

УI donТt know.Ф Cady had the gall to laugh when Edge glowered at her. Cady never lacked for gall.

Cinder looked around them. The place was swarming with humans. It was such a wild and busy place, this nightclub. HeТd never witnessed its equal in chaos and celebrationЕfor that seemed what the humans were intent on doing. Celebrating. They drank heavy spirits, kissed and fondled in a sea of damp, tender limbs, and danced in rhythm with the music. He saw them all as they probably would have least liked to appear. Fragile, vulnerable creatures who were not long for the world they so took for granted. A small woman bumped into him, then turned and rubbed her soft, plump body against his. He took her in his arms and undulated back against her, marveling that so small and luscious a creature could approach one as dangerous as he without a care for her own safety.

УDonТt stray too far, Cinder.Ф He heard Obsidian call out behind him but was more riveted by the sea of bodies that moved to swallow him up. His partner rose up, pressing her scantily clad body even more firmly against him, and kissed him full on the lips.

Cinder tasted alcohol and amphetamines on her breath, but he kissed her anyway. Her lush, precious mortality clouded over him like a thick perfume. Their kiss ended and Cinder clearly saw in her eyes the invitation for more serious play. But he set her back with a gentle smile and used his preternatural speed to escape without her notice. He was sure she was too inebriated to notice his seeming disappearance. He let the crowd take him deep.

The music had changed tempo but he couldnТt remember when. Now it was not so fast as it was thick and plaintive a tune. The lights flashed so that he could find no peace from their invasion, even when he closed his eyes. Men and women alike rubbed against him in a brutal, sexual dance that had his senses reeling. HeТd never felt so out of control, so in tune with a chaos that beckoned with the promise of fleshly love and lust even as it bludgeoned him into madness and confusion. Time lost all meaning. The music played on and he was forced to worship it, along with everyone else.

Cinder gasped for breath that did not have the salty-sweet taste of human sweat. He could catch no sight of his group in the flashing confusion, and upon realizing just how long heТd been immersed in this pagan dance, he searched for a way to the edge of the dance floor. He finally broke free and had a moment to look around, to collect himself and his drunken senses.

A flash of pink hair caught his eye and held it riveted. The vibrant hair belonged to a woman, young in form and face. A lovely woman. Cinder could see, even from this distance that she was heavily painted, heavily submerged in the roleЧwhatever it wasЧbest suited to the atmosphere of this strange place.

Her lips were glistening, glittering red, a full and delicious looking mouth. Her large hazel eyes were rimmed in thick black lines, her lashes dripping with similar cosmetic adornment. She wore a tight outfitЧa shiny second skin of some strange man-made materialЧconsisting of a sleeveless top, which also left her toned abdomen exposed, pants that rode low on her boyishly slim hips, and chunky-heeled, thigh-high boots. Of all the people in the club, she looked as though the clothes had been made especially for her. She wore them with a negligent style that drew the eye and held itЕat least in his case.

She stood on a dais or stage of sorts, bathed in a halo of blue and red lights. She wore a strange headset at her ear as she moved in time to the music. Her lusciously kissable lips were pursed in concentration as she studied the table before her, and the discs that spun upon it. Cinder instinctively guessed that the music mercilessly pounding through the place played forth at her orchestration. She was responsible for the otherworldly tempos stealing through him like a thief in search of his soul.

He couldnТt pull his gaze away from her. There was just something indefinable about her, setting her apart from the humans gathered around at her feet. She seemed some kind of pagan goddess as the crowd raised supplicant arms to her, begging her for more, crying out for the music to keep flowing. HeТd never seen anything like it in all of his many years as a warrior. HeТd never seen anything like her.