"(ellora) Mary Janice Davidson - Monster love" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davidson Mary Janice)

and there were forty bodies to be interred. Plus they'd cornered Darak and set him on
fire. Yes, things had been positively hopping in the small town of Millidgeville, pop. 232 (actually 191 now). They were in no rush to get me in the ground. They had more
important things to worry about.

"I was thirstier than I had ever been in my life. And strong...I meant only to pop
open the door to the coffin, and ended up ripping it off the hinges. I lurched out of the coffin and realized instantly where I was. And I knew what Darak was...I'd read Bram
Stoker as a teenager. But even through the mad haze of my unnatural-or so it seemed
to me then-thirst and the disbelief of my death, the main thing I remember is the relief. I was dead. I was free. I silently blessed Darak, and went to find someone to eat.

"Being a vampire is wonderful. The strength, the speed, the liquid diet...all solidly in
the plus column. The minuses-no sunbathing (so?), sensitivity to light (sunglasses
fixed that nicely), no real relationships other than those of a transitory nature (callgirls!)-are bearable.

"I miss women, though. That's probably the worst of it. No more sunsets? Phaugh. I
saw plenty of them on the farm. But I haven't had a girlfriend since...er...what year is
it? Never mind.

"I can't be with a mortal woman, for obvious reasons. She'd never understand what
I was, what I needed. I'd constantly fear hurting her-I can lift a car over my head, so being with a mortal woman is not unlike being with a china doll. And being dead hasn't affected my sex drive one bit. I was a young man of lusty appetite, and while I still look young, my appetite has increased exponentially with my age.

"I've only met six other vampires in my life. Of the six, four were women, and let
me tell you, they were complete and unrepentant monsters. They ate children. Children!
I killed two, but the other two got away. I could have gone after them, but I had to get the child to a hospital and-well, I wouldn't have wished their company on my fiercest enemy, much less welcomed them to the marriage bed.

"Yes, I'm lonely. Another price to pay for the eternal life and the liquid diet. But I'm young for a vampire-not even close to a hundred yet. Things are bound to look up.
And even if they don't, my patience-like my thirst-is infinite."

Chapter One

A monkey. A fucking monkey!

Janet Lupo practically threw her invitation at the goon guarding the doors to
the reception hall. Bad enough that one of the most eligible werewolves in the pack-
the world!-was now off the market, but he'd taken a pure human to mate. Not that
there was anything wrong with that. Humans were okay. If you liked sloths.

She stomped toward her table, noticing with bitter satisfaction the way people
jumped out of her path. Pack members walked clear when she was in a good mood.
Which, at the moment, she was not.

Bad enough to be outnumbered a thousand to one by the humans, but to marry
one? And fuck one and get it pregnant and join the PTA and...

The mind reeled.

Janet had nothing against humans as a species. In fact, she greatly admired their
rapaciousness. Homo sapiens never passed up prey, not even if they were stuffed-not
even if they didn't eat meat! They'd kill each other over shoes, for God's sake. They had fought wars over shiny metals and rocks. Janet had never understood why a diamond
was worth killing over, but a pink topaz was hardly worth sweating about. Humans
had fought wars over the possession of gold, but iron ferrite, which looked exactly the same, was worthless.