"Melanie Rawn - Spellbinder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rawn Melanie)

Spellbinder
Melanie Rawn


MELANIE RAWN
A Love Story with Magical Interruptions

This is a -work of fiction. All the characters and events
portrayed
in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
SPELLBINDER Copyright ┬й 2006 by Melanie Rawn
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or
portions thereof, in any form.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
A Tor Book Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010
┬жwww.tor.com
Tor┬о is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
ISBN 10:0-765-31532-7 ISBN 13: 978-0-765-31532-8
CIP DATA-TK
First Edition: October 2006
Printed in the United States of America
0987654321
In memory of my mother,
Alma Lucile Fuik August 24,1928-June 19,2002
and in memory of our ancestor,
Mary Bliss
1625-1712
accused of witchcraft
(two trials, no convictions)
 Prologue
December 2001
SHRUGGING OUT OF HER OVERCOAT, Denise quickly stripped off the heavy
black velvet skirt and tunicтАФmaking a face as the embroidered designs of silver
moons and golden stars caught the shadows in her bedroom. The things she did to
please the masses . . . some of whom had seen Eyed Wide Shut a few too many
times. Cloaks and carnival masks, indeed. If only one of them had looked even a
little like Tom Cruise . . . but his movies had been spoiled for her by the film they'd
made of that damned vampire book. How she loathed that dreadful woman back
home in New Orleans тАФ that amateur, that fake, that smirking fraud with all her
worshiping sycophants тАФ
Well, one did have to play to the mundanes, after all. Although -what they
considered appropriate to the occasion still had the power to appall her. They
expected some sort of show, some nod to traditions they didn't even begin to
understand. She drew the line at conical black hats and brooms.
The face reflected in her bathroom mirror was anything but haggish. Of warts and
wrinkles there were none. Instead: bright green eyes flecked with golden brown,
cheekbones to kill for, a full red mouth that smiled as the tongue came out to lick the
last tastes from the lips. Shaking out her hair, she saw the smile fade as she surveyed
the tangles wrought by a night of phenomenal sex. It took her four seconds to