"Alan F. Troop - Dragon DelaSangre" - читать интересную книгу автора (Troop Alan F)

"Maria will be your server. Just give her your order. I'll make sure the chef takes extra care with it." He
rushes off to calm his waiting throng.

Everywhere people consume meat. The aroma almost overpowers me. I can close my eyes and still
point to which tables have pork or fowl or beefтАФand where the rarest meat is puddling blood on its
plate.
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Maria looks almost too young to be waiting tables, a slightly plump girl with wide, strong hips and bright
black eyes. She is in her menses. The smell of it floods my mouth with saliva. I have to swallow before I
speak.

"I'll have a twenty-four-ounce Porterhouse steak, blood rare. Tell the chef it's for Mr, DelaSangreтАФhe'll
know how I want it."

She stares at me, asks what else I wantтАФsalad, potatoes?

I shake my head.

Still, she stares.

My own fault really. Father has laughed many times at my vanity. Like all of my people, I'm taller than
most men. My muscles strain against my clothes, especially at the shoulders and neck. But where
Father's face is angularтАФhis nose, long and sharp, his lips, thin and cruelтАФmy features are softer, more
middle-American.

"Your eyes," she says.

I grin at her.

"I've never seen such green eyesтАж like emeralds."

"They run in my family," I tell her. It's true. There's much about ourselves we can change, but no one of
the blood has ever been able to conceal their eyes. In the old days that's how they would find us.
Thankfully, such knowledge has long been lost.

Maria lingers at the table. "If everyone else in your family looks like youтАж" she coos, then blushes and
rushes off to place my order.

I grin again. I can hear Father saying, "It's your damn ego, calling attention to yourself."

Father will never understand. He was born well before this time. To him, all human forms are equally
unpleasant. "You might as well admire cattle.'"he says anytime I remark at a human's beauty. But I'm
young enough to have been shaped by the movies and later, television. It's only natural for someone like
meтАФbrought up in a world where appearances matter more than realityтАФto choose to improve his
looks.