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

We didnТt discuss sunlight again either. I didnТt tell her that my nickname at the coffeehouse had been Sunshine since before Mom had married Charlie. I didnТt know when I first met him that he said УHey, SunshineФ to all little kids, and I thought he was making a joke about my nameЧwell, what Mom had made of my name after she left my dadЧRae. SunТs rays, right? By the time I found out, Sunshine was my name. And then, because I was the only kid at that point that hung round the coffeehouse, the regulars started calling me Sunshine too. Pretty soon it was my name. It was so much my name that I didnТt think of it when my gran first told me that sunlight was my element. Most peopleЧeven my momЧstill call me Sunshine.
I dreamed all thisЧremembered and dreamedЧlying on the ballroom floor, with my head on a sack with a loaf of bread in it, and a vampire leaning against the wall twenty feet away. All of it was as clear and vibrant as if I were living it all over again, complete with the strange feeling of being a child again when you know youТre an adult.
Then the real dream began. I seemed to be back on the cottage porch with my grandmother, that first time, when we changed the flower, only this time we didnТt sit in the shade but in strong sunlight. The flower was in my hands, and her hands were over mine, but I was the adult I was now, and neither of us spoke. I closed my hands, and opened them, and the flower was now a feather. I closed my hands, and opened them, and the feather was three matchsticks. I closed my hands and opened them, and the matchsticks were a leaf. I closed and opened them again, and now I was holding her plain gold ring with the red stone. The red stone flared in a sudden bright ray of the sun before I closed my hands again. Close, open, and there was the baroque monstrosity twinkling with green. Close open. My jackknife lay between my palms: the little jackknife that usually lived in the pocket of my jeans, that now lay hidden in my bra. Close open. A key. A keyЕ
I woke up. It was still daylight, but the sky was reddening with sunset. I was painfully stiff from sleeping on the floor. It was all still true: I was chained by the ankle, trapped in an empty house with a vampire. What I had dreamed was only a dream, and the sun was setting. I was also still horribly, murderously tired; I couldnТt have had more than about four hoursТ sleep. If IТd had one of those hollow teeth that spies used to have in cheap thrillers, IТd have bitten down on it then. I didnТt see how I could face another night. BoТs gang would be back, of course. To see how we were getting on. And my vampireЧwhat a grotesque thought, my vampireЧwould have to decide all over again whetherЕhowever the question presented itself to him. Whether he was going to let Bo win or not.
I rolled over with a groan. He was sitting cross-legged in the precise center of the wall. Watching me. I pulled myself into a sitting position. My mouth tasted beyond foul. IТd left the water bottle within his reach, but he hadnТt had any more. I made myself stand upЧall my bones hurtЧrather than crawl, and went toward him and picked it up. I was getting used to approaching him. It was true, what youТve read, about how you canТt maintain a pitch of terror for very long: your body just canТt do it. I was sick with dread, I at least half wanted to die to get it over with, but I walked to within armТs length of a hungry vampire and picked up my bottle of water and drank out of it with no more hesitation than if heТd been Mel. УDo you want any more?Ф
He took it out of my hand, and disposed of half of what was left. Again I didnТt see him drink. When he handed it back to me I stood there staring at it. I wanted to finish itЧI was assuming BoТs gang would bring more, in the interests of keeping me УattractiveФЧbut I felt curiously reluctant to wipe the top off under his eye.
He said, УYou will contract no infection by sharing water with me.Ф
There was a curious new quality in his hitherto expressionless voice. I thought about it for a while. To do with the tone. Something.
He sounded amused.
I forgot not to look in his eyes. УWhat if youТve beenЧlike, drinking bad blood?Ф
УWhat happens when you pour water intoЧalcohol? It mixes, it is no longer water, it is alcohol, andЕclean of live things.Ф
Clean of live things. I liked that. УIt is diluted alcohol.Ф
УThis alcohol is still strong enough. And, as you might sayЕself-regenerating.Ф
His eyes were not so murky as they had been last night. Presumably it was the water. Diluting somethingЕelse. УPlease do not look in my eyes. It is coming night again, andЕI still do not want Bo to win.У
I jerked my gaze away. Bad sign that heТd had to tell me. Good sign that he still wanted Bo to lose. Good sign for what? Bo still had us. ItТs not as though this was some kind of trial, challenge, that when we got to the end if weТd survived theyТd let us go free. This was it. It was only a question of really soon or slightly less soon. I wondered what Mom and Charlie and Mel and the rest were thinking; if Aimil knew yet. I hadnТt not showed up on time to make cinnamon rolls in seven years. IТd never missed a morning till today. I never got around to taking holidays, and I was never ill. (Charlie, who never got sick either, used to say, УClean living,Ф which infuriated Mom, who had flu every winter.) Would they have told the police I was missing? Probably. But the police would have said that I was free and over twenty-one and to tell them again in a few days if I still hadnТt turned up. Pat or Jesse might be able to make them look harder once they were looking at all, but I wasnТt going to be alive in a few days. And our local cops were nice guys but not exactly rocket scientists. Not that rocket science would help me either.
There would be no reason to think SOF should get involved. Who else would Mom or Mel ask? Yolande. But she wouldnТt know anything either. TheyТd figure out that my car was missing. Would anyone think to go out to the lake and look at the old cabin? Not likely. Nobody else went out there but me, and I hadnТt been there in years. IТd never even taken Mel there when we went hiking. I didnТt think there were any regular patrols out there either; there wasnТt any known reason the lake needed patrolling. And there were the bad spots. But if someone had gone out to the cabin and found my car, then what? I wasnТt there, and I doubted vampires left clues. You heard about vampire trouble on the news when people started finding bloodless bodies with fang marks. And this house was very well guarded by the bad spot behind us.
I drank the rest of the water. I didnТt wipe the mouth first. I thought, is my arm or my dress likely to be any more sanitary?
I turned toward the window. I felt the vampire watching me. УI have to pee,Ф I said irritably. УIТm going to do it out the window. Will you please not watch? I will tell you when IТm done.Ф Since IТd never heard him move before, he must have made a noise so I could hear it. I looked, and heТd turned his back. I had my pee, feeling ridiculous. УOkay,Ф I said. He turned around and returned to watching me, his face as expressionless as before.
As he had seemed to grow smaller as the sun rose he seemed to grow larger as the sun set.
The last light waned and so did I. I was cold as well as sick and frightened, and my headache felt bigger than my head. I wrapped myself in the blanket and huddled as near to the corner as my chain would let me. I remembered the other loaf of bread, and pulled it out and began to eat it, thinking it might help, but it sat in my stomach like a lump of stone, and I didnТt eat very much. Then I hunched down and curled up. And waited.
It was full dark. The moon would be up later but at the moment I could see almost nothing. On a clear night it is never quite dark outside, but we were inside. The windows left gray rectangles on the floor, but I could not see beyond them. I knew he could see in the dark; I knew vampires can smell live bloodЕNo, I thought. That hardly matters. He isnТt going to forget about me any more than I am going to forget about him, even if I canТt see or hear himЧeven if IТve got so used to the vampire smell IТm not noticing it any more. Which just made it worse. I thought I would have to see him cross the gray rectangle between him and meЧI was pretty sure his chain wasnТt long enough to let him go roundЧI knew I wouldnТt hear him. ButЕI hadnТt seen him drink either. I bit down on my lips. I wasnТt going to cry, and I wasnТt going to screamЕ
I almost screamed when I heard his voice out of the darkness. УThey are coming now. Listen. Stand up. Fold your blanket and lay it neatly down. Shake your dress out. Comb your hair with your fingers. Sit again if you wish, but sit a little distance from the cornerЧyes, nearer me. Remember that three feet more or less makes no difference to me: you might as well. Sit up straight. Perhaps cross your ankles. Do you understand?Ф
УYes,Ф I croaked, or squeaked. I folded the blanket and laid it down. I wrapped the sack tidily around the remains of the bread. I put the empty water bottle with it. I shook my dress out. It was probably a mess, but there was nothing I could do about it. My hair actually looks a bit better if it doesnТt get combed too often, so I tried to pull my fingers through it the way I would have if I were in front of the mirror at home. I wiped my face on my hem again. I felt unspeakably grubby and grimyЧironically perhaps, since I was still whole, I felt denied. I certainly did not feel attractive. But I smoothed my skirt before I sat down again, just inside the darkness on my side of the gray rectangle, a good six feet from my corner. My chain lay slack, lazily curved.
УGood,Ф he said from the darkness.
A for effort, I thought. June Yanovsky would be proud of me.
УThey are comingФ is perhaps a relative term. It seemed to me, my nerves shrieking with strain, that it was a very long time before the chandelier suddenly rattled ferociouslyЧand then burst into light. The candles were all new and tall again. My gran had told me that setting fire to things from a distance was a comparatively easy trick, which helped explain why so many houses got burned down during the Wars; but the houses were already there, you didnТt build them first. That two-second rattle had given me enough warning to swallow any cry, to force myself to remain as I was, ankles crossed, hands lying loosely one in the other, palms upturned and open. I doubted I was fooling anyone, but at least I was trying.
There were a dozen of them. I hadnТt counted last night, so I didnТt know if there had been more or less. I recognized BoТs lieutenant, and the one who had been my other guard. There are some people who say that all vampires look alike, but they donТt, any more than all humans look alike. How many live people outside the staff in those asylums have seen a lot of vampires anyway? These twelve were all thin and whippy-looking and that was about the only clear similarity among them. And of course that they were vampires, and they moved like vampires, and smelled like vampires, and were motionless like vampires when they werenТt moving.
УBo said youТd hold out just to be annoying,Ф said BoТs lieutenant. УBo understands you.Ф
I thought, heТs frightened. That was supposed to be an insult, BoТs understanding, and he canТt pull it off. And then I thought, I must be imagining things. Vampire voices are as weird as vampire motion and as unreadable as vampire faces. Hell, I canТt even tell the boy vampires from the girl vampires. How do I know what vampire fear sounds like? If vampires feel fear. But the thought repeated: heТs frightened. I remembered how reluctant theyТd seemed last night, bringing me here. УLetТs get it over with,Ф BoТs lieutenant had said. I remembered how they didnТt want to get too close to their Уguest,Ф and how they did most of their talking from near the door, farther than his chain would stretch; how the vampire whoТd held me had dropped me and run, when he realized his friends were leaving him behind.
УIs she still sane, though, Connie? ItТs harder if you keep them till theyТve gone mad, you know, and the bloodТs not as sweet. Bo finds this very disappointing as IТm sure you do, but thatТs the way humans are. You wouldnТt want to waste what we brought you, would you?Ф
They were all standing just beyond the chandelier, so not quite halfway across the room. They had fanned out into a ragged semicircle. As BoТs lieutenant spoke, he took an ambling step toward us. The others fanned out a little more. My poor weary heart was beating desperately, hopelessly, in my throat again. This reminded me of any human gang cornering its victim; and however wary they were of BoТs Уguest,Ф they were still twelve to one, and the one was chained to the wall with ward signs stamped all over the shackle. I couldnТt help myself. I curled my stretched-out legs under me. I wanted to cross my arms in front of my breast, but I reminded myself that this was uselessЧjust as curling my legs up was uselessЧso I compromised, and leaned on one hand, and left the other one in my lap. I managed not to squeeze it into a fist, although this wasnТt easy. The vampiresЧ all except the one sitting against the wall next to meЧtook another slow, floating, apparently aimless step forward. I was pressing my back so hard against the wall my spine hurt.
I wished I knew what was going onЧwhy were Bo and his guest old enemies? But then, even if I did know what was going on, how would that help me? What I wantedЧto get out aliveЧdidnТt seem one of the options. So I might as well distract myself with wanting to know what was going on.
They didnТt want to get too close, but they were still moving closer. I couldnТt think of any reason this could be good news.
I never saw it coming this time either. They were vampires. I heard BoТs lieutenant saying, as if his words were coming from some other universe, УPerhaps you just need a little encouragement, Connie.Ф The words happenedЧseemed to happenЧat human speed. Presumably that was because he wanted me to hear them. In the universe where my body was, I was picked up, and something sharp sliced high across my breast, just below the collarbones, above the neckline of my dress, and I was then thrown down, and my face banged into something hard, and I felt my lip split.
I heard: УSince you donТt seem to like feet,Ф and the goblin giggle from last night.
And then they were gone.
And I was lying across my fellow captiveТs lap. The cut in my breast had been so quick that it was only starting to hurt. The cutЕI was bleeding, bleeding, fresh warm red blood, all over a half-starved vampire. I felt his hands on my bare shouldersЕ
I snatched myself away, at what was no doubt good speed for a human. He let me go. I slid backward on my knees, skidding on my slippery red skirt, clutching at my front, feeling the blood sliding through my fingers, dripping on the floor, leaving a blood trail, a pool; more blood oozing from my lip, leaking down my chin.
He still hadnТt moved. But this time, when I felt him looking at me, I had to look back. I had to look into his eyes, into eyes green as emeralds, as green as the stones in my grandmotherТs awful ringЕ
You can stop me or any vampire if your will is strong enough.
I felt my hands fallЧtumbleЧfrom my breast. I leaned forward. I was going to crawl toward him. I was kneeling in my own blood, smearing it across the floor as I crept toward him. My blood was spattered on his naked chest, across one arm, the arm with the weal on it. DonТt look. Look. Look into his eyes. Vampire eyes.
Еif your will is strong enough.
Desperately I tried to think of anythingЧanythingЧmy grandmotherТs ring, which was the color of these eyes. My grandmother. Sunlight is your element. But it was darkness here, darkness barely lessened by candlelight. The candlelight was only there so that my weak human eyes could be more easily drawn by mesmeric vampire eyes. But I remember light, real light, daylight, sunlight. Hey, Sunshine. I am Sunshine. Sunshine is my name. I remembered a song Charlie used to sing:
You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
I heard him singing it. No, I heard me singing it. Thin, wavering, with no discernable tune. But it was my voice.
The light in the green eyes snapped off, and I fell backward as if IТd been dropped. I turned, and scuttled for my corner. I burrowed under my blanket, and I stayed there.
I must have slept again. Silly thing to do. Was there a sensible thing to do? Perhaps I fainted. I woke suddenly, knowing it was four a.m., and time to go make cinnamon rolls. But this time when I woke I knew at once where I was. I was still in that ballroom, still chained to that wall.
I was still alive.
I was so tired.