"Terence West - Darkness" - читать интересную книгу автора (West Terence)

down. Looking at them from all angles, she finally closed her mouth. They made her feel uncomfortable.
Now, more than ever, she resembled the prey she was sworn to hunt and destroy. Stepping to her right,
she moved fully into the remaining sunlight filtering in through her window-if only to make sure she didn't
burst into flames. As the warmth caressed her body, she found some relief. Still human , she thought.
Well, nearly human , she corrected.

A knock on her door startled the young woman. Grabbing her discarded robe from the floor, she pulled
it on while assuring her visitor that she was coming. Rushing toward her dorm room door, she caught a
glimpse of the darkening bloodstain running down the front of her robe. It was much larger than she
originally thought. Feeling quietly self-conscious, she shook her head and reached for the doorknob.
Pulling it open slowly, she found herself smiling brightly.

Reaching out, she jumped giddily into the arms of her visitor. "I did it!"

Returning the embrace of his student, Master Wraith Ben Quinn patted the young girl on the back and sat
her down. Neither hulking nor imposing in his stature, his face and movements instead showed the
wisdom of his age. His slight Asian heritage could be detected around his eyes and mouth, but was
subdued by the spiky dark brown hair atop his head and the thick goatee that splayed out from his mouth
in two solid straight lines and cut back beneath his chin toward the back of his face. A long braid of hair
with numerous colored bands was tucked behind his left ear and hung down to the collar of his coat.
Saint had helped him tie many of the colored bands into his braid, each a sign of a trial completed, or a
vampire killed. His dark black trench coat was battered and torn from years of service, yet he would not
be seen without it. Placing his hand on Saint's shoulder in a very fatherly gesture, he smiled at his prot├йg├й.
"I knew you could."

The two walked into Saint's room and sat down on opposing sides of the space, much as they had done
a hundred times before. They had not seen each other for almost three weeks, and after spending five
years in the field together, each could feel the hole in their lives. Saint adored and admired Quinn, and he
felt the same for her. He had grown from her instructor to the father figure she had craved in her life. At
least a hundred years her elder, his dedication to the Guard had ensured that his intentions were always
true. He was an excellent teacher as well. Always explaining anything he did, rather than just doing for his
student, he forced her to dig her hands in and solve problems for herself.

"It's been weird without you," Saint admitted as she sat cross-legged on the bed with her robe pulled
down over her knees. "I keep expecting you to be there when I turn around."

"I know the feeling," Quinn acknowledged. "When you spend five years with someone day in and day
out, you grow," he rubbed his goatee as he searched for the proper word, " accustomed to their
presence." He folded his arms across his chest and sat back in the wooden chair he had chosen. "But for
each beginning, there is an end," he reminded her. "And for each ending, there is a beginning."

Saint nodded. It was a lesson he had taught her before. She never seemed to understand the meaning
behind it, but she was starting to.

"There has been one nice thing about you being gone, though."

Saint's mouth fell open. "What? What is it?"

Quinn smiled slyly. "I've had the bathroom all to myself. It's been nice."