"Christopher Pike - The Last Vampire 03 - Red Dice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

He hesitates, then sighs. "I told them too much. But they don't know you're a vampire." He, too, peers
through the curtains. "They were getting suspicious about how the others died, torn to pieces. They had
my file on Eddie Fender, including where his mother lived. They must have tracked us here that way."

I shake my head. "I cannot surrender. It is against my nature."

He takes my hands. "You can't fight them all. You'll die."

I have to smile. "More of them would die." I lose my smile. "But if I do make a stand here, you will die
also." I am indecisive. His advice is logical. Yet my heart betrays me. I feel doom closing in. I speak
reluctantly. "Talk to them. Say what you think best. But I tell you--I will not leave this house with-out
setting it ablaze. There will be no more Eddie Fenders."

"I understand." He turns for the door, then stops. He speaks with his back to me. "I understand why you
did it."

"Do you forgive me?"

"Would I have died?" he asks.

"Yes."

He smiles gently, not turning to look at me. I feel the smile. "Then I must forgive you," he says. He raises
his hands above his head and reaches for the doorknob. "I hope my boss is out there."

Through a crack in the curtains I follow his prog-ress. Joel calls out his identity and a group of FBI
agents step forward. I can tell they're FBI by their suits. Joel is one of them. He looks the same as he did
yesterday. Yet they don't greet him as a friend. In an instant I grasp the full extent of their suspicions.
They know that whatever plague of death has been sweep-

ing L.A. is communicable. Eddie and I left too many bodies behind. Also, I remember the cop I freed.
The one whose blood I sampled. The one I told I was a vampire. The authorities may not have believed
that man, but they will think I am some kind of demon from hell.

Joel is handcuffed and dragged into an armored vehicle. He casts me a despairing glance before he
vanishes. I curse the fact that I listened to him. Now I, too, must be taken into the vehicle. Above all, I
must stay close to Joel. I don't know what he'll tell them. I don't know what they'll do with his blood.

Many of them are going to die, I realize.

The SWAT team cocks their weapons.

They call again for me to surrender.

I twirl the striker on the lighter and touch it to the wood I have gathered around Eddie's body. I say
goodbye to his ugly head. Hope the Popsicles you suck in hell cool your cracked and bleeding lips.
Casually, while the inferno spreads behind me, I step out the front door.
 They are on me in an instant. Before I can reach the curb, my arms are pulled behind me and I am
handcuffed. They don't even read me my rights. You have the right to a pint of blood. If you cannot