"Karen Koehler - Slayer 02 - Dragon Blood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Koehler Karen)

Slayer:



DragonтАЩs Blood by Karen Koehler




1


It all started with the party. Which was ironic when he thought about it. He hated parties. Many things
had changed in his life, but that was one thing that had remained true despite it all. He hated the inane
small talk and the posturing, the clink of the Waterford crystal and the clank of the gold-plated
dinnerware, the diamonds and brooches and cufflinks and the insistence on propriety when he didnтАЩt
know what that meant to these people. These people. They were not his people. They were show
mannequins, models, cartoon characters in gaudy attire, caricatures of themselves.

But more than that--they were human and he felt terribly out of place among them.

It had never been like this before, but since things had changed he was acutely aware of the meridian
that existed between himself and this creature that called itself a human being. It was a warm, rosy thing,
short-lived, bad-tempered, and yet infinitely precious. Now it seemed to him almost an alien species. He
had dwelt in the dark for so long, the proverbial light hurt his eyes.

Alek drank some of the rosy champagne and wandered among them. They were pretty in their own
way. Like pictures.

IтАЩll bet they taste pretty, tool.

Stop it, he told Debra.Behave yourself.

Or?

Or IтАЩll leave. Simple.

You donтАЩt want to leave. You came to seeher.

That was true enough, though he was loathed to admit it. Frowning, he moved to the opposite end of
gallery rather than continue the argument with his symbiotic sister--as if that were an escape!--and
innocently took in the art. There were sixteen pieces on double-facing boards. Each work was set under
shatterproof glass. Each had a plaque in gold with some caption on it. Each was accompanied by a short
history. Daydreams, this one read. It was a farm girl in a meadow, tilling the ground. So simple. Yet when
Alek looked at it from the corner of his eye he saw an imposed image: a ballet dancer in the vast clouds
of the sky behind the girl.

тАЬMs. Keith redefines brilliance,тАЭ a small pot-bellied man said beside him.

Alek looked over. The pink ribbon on his suit coat said he was with the American Cancer Association.