"Mercedes Lackey - Satanic, Versus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

at him. "So where do you think that leaves you?"

"Like Old Man Kangaroo, very much run after." He had the audacity to laugh at
her. "Have no fear, cherie. I shall evade the sharp little piranha teeth."

"I just hope I can," she muttered under her breath. Under most circumstances
she avoided the Romance Writers of the World functions like the plague,
chucked the newsletter in the garbage without reading it, and paid her dues
only because Morrie pointed out that it would look really strange if she
didn't belong. The RWW, she had found, was a hotbed of infighting and
jealousy, and "my advances are bigger than your advances, so I am writing
Deathless Prose and you are writing tripe." The general attitude seemed to be,
"the publishers are out to get you, the agents are out to get you and your
fellow writers are out to get you." Since Di got along perfectly well with
agent and publishers, and really didn't care how well or poorly other writers
were doing, she didn't see the point.

But somehow Morrie had talked her into attending the RWW Halloween party. And
for the life of her, she couldn't remember why or how.

"Why am I doing this?" she asked Andre, as she snatched up her purse from the
beige-draped bed, transferred everything really necessary into a black-leather
belt-pouch, and slung the latter around her hips, making very sure the belt
didn't interfere with the holster on her other hip. "You were the one who
talked to Morrie on the phone."

"Because M'sieur Morrie wishes you to give his client Robert Harrison someone
to talk to," the vampire reminded her. "M'sieur Harrison agreed to escort
Valentine Vervain to the party in a moment of weakness equal to yours."

"Why in Hades did he agree to that?" she exclaimed, giving the sable-haired
vampire a look of profound astonishment.

"Because Miss VervainтАФcherie, that is not her real name, is it?тАФis one of
Morrie's best clients, is newly divorced and alone and Morrie claims most
insecure, and M'sieur Harrison was kind to her," Andre replied.

Di took a quick look around the hotel room, to make sure she hadn't forgotten
anything. One thing about combining her annual "make nice with the publishers"
trip with Halloween, she had a chance to get together with all her old New
York buddies for a real Samhain celebration and avoid the Christmas and
Thanksgiving crowds and bad weather. "I remember. That was when she did that
crossover thing, and the sci-fi people took her apart for trying to claim it
was the best thing since Tolkien." She chuckled heartlessly. "The less said
about that, the better. Her magic system had holes I could drive a Mack truck
through. But Harrison was a gentleman and kept the bloodshed to a minimum. But
Morrie doesn't know ValentineтАФand no, sexy, her name used to be Edith Bowman
until she changed it legallyтАФif he thinks she's as insecure as she's acting.
Three quarters of what La Valentine does is an act. And everything is in
Technicolor and Dolby enhanced sound. So what's Harrison doing in town?"