"William Mark Simmons - Undead 3 - Habeas Corpses" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons William Mark)

Lynn (Mama Yard Dog) Stranathan
Rhonda (Help, Help Me Rhonda) Eudaly for editorial service above and
beyond . . .

Finally special thanks to:

Marla (The Dog Ate Your Homework?) Ainspan
And the Rest of the Folks at Baen for their patience on my long
recovery on the medical and technological fronts.

This is a work of fiction.
As always, any resemblance to people living,
dead, undead, or some stage in-between,
is purely coincidental.




Chapter One
At first glance Deirdre looked human.
Of course, Deirdre always got more than just a glanceтАФeven back when she was human.
Once upon a time she had been a stunning beauty with pale skin, blue eyes, and auburn hair. That
was before she died last year.
In death she was transformed by the twinned viruses the undead carry in their blood and saliva. As a
vampire she had gone from "stunning" to "unearthly" on the beauty meter. Her auburn hair turned the
color of arterial blood; her sapphire eyes replaced by haunted rubies and her skin a whiter shade of pale
and as luminous as the moon.
The fangs, of course, went without saying.
 But she had undergone another extreme makeover in drinking my mutated blood a few months ago.
Now her sharp, pointy teeth were all but gone. More obviously, her skin was approaching the mocha
and cream shade that came from a daily regimen of sunbathingтАФsomething you rarely see in a redhead
and never in a vampire. Which was the point, I suppose, as Deirdre was no longer technically undead.
My unique hemoglobin didn't make her human, again, you understand. The crimson eyes were an
obvious clue that she was no longer the girl next door. That and the fact that she could still bench-press a
small truck. But while I couldn't give her back everything that she had lost in her original transformation,
she seemed content: being "un-undead" suited her just fine.
If only Deirdre's situation suited Lup├й, as well.
My significant other understood, of course, that I needed a security chief and bodyguard who was
conversant with the unique nature of my enemies, could stop a bullet without flinching, and
couldтАФwellтАФbench-press a small truck. She also understood the unique obligations involved as
(technically speaking) I was the one who had brought Deirdre "over" and (literally speaking) I was the
one who had brought her "back." Lup├й knew something about blood-bonds and curses and
debts-that-do-not-die even when we do the mortal coil shuffle.
Still, Deirdre was major eye candy. Worse, she had made it clear that, when it came to swapping
body fluids, we needn't limit ourselves (as we had on the two previous occasions) to blood alone.
It required frequent reminders to all and sundry that my heart belonged to Lup├й.
Deirdre, it seemed, had someone else's heart right now.
She was holding it in the palm of her hand.
And it was convulsing as if it were still alive.