"Christopher Moore - Bloodsucking Fiends" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore Christopher)

U.S. Copyright Law.

First Spike Printing: April 1999
First Avon Books Trade Printing: October 1999
Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges those people who helped in the research and writing of
Bloodsucking Fiends:
Mark Joseph and Mark Anderson for help with research in the Bay Area. Rachelle Stambal,
Jean Brody, Liz Ziemska, and Dee Dee Leichtfuss for their careful reads and thoughtful sugges-tions. My
editors, Michael Korda and Chuck Adams, for their clean hands and composure. And my agent, Nick
Ellison, for his patience, guidance, friendship, and hard work.



In memory of my father:
Jack Davis Moore



Part I
Fledgling




Chapter 1
Death

Sundown painted purple across the great Pyramid while the Em-peror enjoyed a steaming whiz
against a dumpster in the alley be-low. A low fog worked its way up from the bay, snaked around
columns and over concrete lions to wash against the towers where the West's money was moved. The
financial district: an hour ago it ran with rivers of men in gray wool and women in heels; now the streets,
built on sunken ships and gold-rush garbage, were deserted -- quiet except for a foghorn that lowed
across the bay like a lonesome cow.
The Emperor shook his scepter to clear the last few drops, shivered, then zipped up and turned
to the royal hounds who waited at his heels. "The foghorn sounds especially sad this evening, don't you
think?"
The smaller of the dogs, a Boston terrier, dipped his head and licked his chops.
"Bummer, you are so simple. My city is decaying before your eyes. The air is thick with poison,
the children are shooting each other in the street, and now this plague, this horrible plague is killing my
people by the thousands, and all you think about is food."
The Emperor nodded to the larger dog, a golden retriever.
"Lazarus knows the weight of our responsibility. Does one have to die to find dignity? I wonder."
Lazarus lowered his ears and growled. "Have I offended you, my friend?"
Bummer began growling and backing away from the dumpster. The Emperor turned to see the lid
of the dumpster being slowly lifted by a pale hand. Bummer barked a warning. A figure stood up in the
dumpster, his hair dark and wild and speckled with trash, skin white as bone. He vaulted out of the
dumpster and hissed at the little dog, showing long white fangs. Bummer yelped and cowered behind the
Emperor's leg.