"Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia - Beloved Vampire of the Blood Comet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

Beloved Vampire of the Blood Comet

by Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia



Story Copyright (C) 2007, Ian Watson & Roberto Quaglia.
Images Copyright (C) 2007, Rudy Rucker.
4,300 Words.




Nowadays aristocratic vampires hang out far away from Transylvania, which is only for tourists.
Aristo-vamps live in posh places such as Antibes and Baden-Baden or Venice, and they bank in
Switzerland.

Incidentally, they only bank money and gold and jewels, never blood. Plenty of blood-banks exist, but
after a few months bottled blood isnтАЩt at its best тАУ and supposing interest was paid on a blood deposit,
would this come from the veins of shareholders? Blood must continue circulating, otherwise it loses
value.

A few hundred years ago Transylvania was the cutting-edge place to be, as my beloved vampire
explained to me.

His name was Silviu Romanescu. He was tall and slim, with shoulder-length white hair, and he looked
about forty years old, though probably he was at least 200. SilviuтАЩs charm was extraordinary. By now I
had been captivated for a year.

тАЬWell now, my little dove,тАЭ he narrated to me, тАЬthe first expedition into outer space was actually an
expedition of vampires led by Vlad Tsepesh (speaking phonetically, as one usually speaks), aka Dracula.
History tells a lot of nonsense about Vlad. That business about him impaling his enemies on account of
sadism and to inspire horror, for example! Horror wasnтАЩt the reason at all. Vlad needed a method of
propulsion to lift a heavy body into outer space.тАЭ

тАЬThere were no rocket fuels at the timeтАжтАЭ

тАЬExactly. So he needed to use a paranormal method.тАЭ

тАЬHe needed to find people who could levitate something by the power of mind?тАЭ

тАЬWhat better motive to levitate a heavy weight than if that weight is yourself impaled on a semi-sharpened
stake! So he, shall I say, auditioned, tens of thousands of, shall I say, candidates. Those who
succeeded, he used as strap-on boosters and as on-board propulsion тАУ the Impalement DriveтАФfor the
Transylvanian spaceship.тАЭ

тАЬIt sounds cruel. This is supposed to be my bedtime story, Silviu!тАЭ
Silviu and I were lying on a bed of compost in an open twin-size coffin, and Silviu liked to have worms in
the compost, which would tickle me, sometimes very intimately like boneless fingers. The worms keep
the soilfresh, was his reason. I was accustomed to unusual bedtime stories, told at dawn of course since