"Mckinley,.Robin.-.Sunshine" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

I had an egg-and-Romaine sandwich on two slabs of my pumpernickel bread at six, and went to bed at seven. I gave up. I wore the nightgown IТd been wearing four nights ago, and got between the sheets. I had a little trouble going to sleep, but it was as if my thoughts were spinning so fastЧor maybe it was effect of the poison winning at lastЧeventually I got dizzy and fell over into unconsciousness.
When I woke up three hours later he was there. Darkness, sitting in my bedroom chair. Darkness, I noticed, barefoot. I couldnТt remember if heТd been barefoot the other night or not.
I sat up. I was too sleepy and too relieved not tell the truth. УIТve been worrying about you.Ф
IТd figured out last time that vampires donТt move when theyТre startled, they go stiller. He did that different-kind-of-stillness thing.
УYou know,Ф I said. УConcern. Unease. Anxiety. You said youТd come back two nights ago. You didnТt. ThereТs this little threat of annihilation going on too, you know? I thought maybe youТd got into trouble.Ф
УThe preparations took longer than I anticipated,Ф he said. УThat is all. Nothing toЕworry you.Ф
УNothing to worry me,Ф I said, warming to my theme. УSure. The annihilation threat includes me and IТm wearing a poisoned wound that is slowly killing me. I wouldnТt dream of worrying about anything.У
УGood,Ф he said. УWorry is useless.Ф
УOhЧФ I began. УIЧФ I stopped. УOkay. You win. Worry is useless.Ф
He stood up. I tried not to clutch the bedclothes into a knot. He pulled his shirt off and dropped it on the floor.
Eeeeek.
He sat on the edge of my bed again. He had one leg folded under him and the other foot still on the floor, sitting to face me cringing into the headboard. I thought, okay, okay, he still has one foot on the floor. And he only took his shirt off.
УDo you still have the knife you transmuted?Ф he said. УThat would be the best.Ф
The best what. I knew this was going to have blood in it. I knew I wasnТt going to like it. And that particular knife, of courseЕУUh. Well, yes, I still have it.Ф I didnТt move.
УShow me,Ф he said. A human might have said, whatТs your problem? So where is it? He just said, show me.
I opened the bedside table drawer. When my jeans went in the wash, the contents of my pockets went in there. The knife was there. It was lying next to the glyph as if they were getting to know each other.
The light was visible at once in the darkness. I picked the knife up and cradled it in my hand: a tiny, clement sun that happened to look like a pocketknife. In ordinary daylight or good strong electric light it still looked like a pocketknife. I held it out toward him.
УThis has beenЧsince that night?Ф
УYes. It happenedЧdo you remember, right at the end, I transmuted it again, into the key to my door?Ф
УYes.Ф
УIТm pretty sure thatТs when it happened. It had been something-in-the-dark-colored when I pulled it out. I donТtЕit was something to do with making the change at night, I think. I think IТm not supposed to be able to do stuff after dark. But I did do it. I felt somethingЕcrack. Snap. In me. And since then itТs been like this. I shifted it back to a knife the next dayЧdidnТt notice till evening what had happened. I thought it would fade after a while, but it hasnТt.У
I think IТm not supposed to be able to do stuff after dark. I had done this somehow though. And I happened to have been being held in the lap of a vampire at the time. That had been another of the things I hadnТt been thinking about, the last two months. Because if it was something to do with the vampireЧthis vampireЧwhy had my knife become impregnated with light?
I hadnТt told anyone, shown anyone. It was very odd, finally having someone to tell. I hadnТt wanted to tell anyone at the coffeehouse, any of the SOFs. When I spent the night with Mel, I was careful to keep my knife in its pocket. I was still trying to be Rae Seddon, coffeehouse baker, in that life. Even after IТd exposed my little secret that it had been vampires at the lakeЧthat I was a magic handler and a transmuterЧI still hadnТt wanted to tell anyone about my knife. The only person, you should forgive the term, left to tell was him. The vampire. The vampire I had now agreed to ally myself with in the hopes of winning against a common enemy.
It was a relief, telling someone.
I wondered what else an unknown something breaking open inside me might have let loose, besides a little radiant dye leak. I wondered if the jackknife of a bad-magic cross would glow in the dark. Sure. And when I went nuts it would transmute into a chainsaw.
He looked at it, but made no attempt to touch it. УThat helps to explain. One of the reasons it has taken this extra time for me to come to you is that it has puzzled me you are not weaker, having borne what you bear two months already. I have been seeking an explanation. It could be crucial to our effort tonight.Ф He paused. When he went on, his voice had dropped half an octave or so, and it wasnТt easy to hear to begin with because of the weird rough half-echo and the tonelessness. УWhat you show me is a judgment on my arrogance; it did not occur to me to ask you for information. I have much to learn about working with anyone, for all that I believed I had thought through what I said to you last time. I ask pardon.Ф
I gaped at him. УOh please. Like IТm not sitting here half expecting you to change your mind and eat me. Oh, sorry, I forgot, IТm poisonous, I suppose IТm safe after all, I get to bite the big one without your help. IТm your little friend the deadly nightshade. But thatТs just it: humans and vampires donТt ally. WeТre implacable enemies. Like cobras and mongooses. Mongeese. Why should you have thought of asking me anything? If there is going to be pardoning between us, it should be for lunacy, and mutual.Ф
At least he didnТt laugh.
УVery well. We shall learn together.Ф
УSpeaking of learning,Ф I said. УI take it you have learned what to do about this,Ф and I gestured toward my breast. УSince youТre here.Ф
УI have learned what will work, if anything will.Ф
УAnd what if it doesnТt work?Ф
УThen both of us end our existence tonight,Ф he said in that impassive weТre-chained-to-the-wall-and-the-bad-guys-are-coming voice I remembered too well.
Oh gee. DonТt pull your punches like that. I can take the truth, really I can. I said something like, УUnnngh.Ф
УI believe it will work.Ф
УIТm delighted to hear it.Ф
УYour wound is worse.Ф
УOh well. No biggie.Ф I was a trifle preoccupied with his little revelation about our joint even-more-immediate-than-Bo impending doom. HeТd said he wasnТt sure what he was doing. УIt comes and goes.Ф
УWill you remove the bandage?Ф
Or you will? I thought nervously. I unbuttoned the top two buttons of my nightgown again and peeled the gauze away. Ouch. Of course the cut began to bleed at once.
УErЧI donТt suppose you want to tell me what youТre going to do?Ф
Badly phrased question.
УNo,Ф he said.
УWill you please tell me what you are going to do.Ф
УIf you would take your knife, and open the blade.Ф
My heart, having tried to accustom itself to vampire in the room, began to thump uncomfortably. The knife lay between us on the bed, where I had set it down. I looked at him a little oddly as I picked it up, and he, I suppose, well accustomed to blood-letting and thinking nothing of a little more or less of the same, misinterpreted my look.
УI would prefer not to touch your knife, it will burn me. And it is better if you cut me yourself.Ф
EEEEK.
УCut you?Ф
УYes. As you are cut. Here.Ф And he touched the place below his collarbones. A lot less bony on him, it occurred to me. I hadnТt registered it before, but he was a lot more filled-out-looking generally than he had been when we first made acquaintance.