"Laurell K. Hamilton - Meredith Gentry 1 - A Kiss Of Shadows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

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A Kiss of Shadows

Book 1 of the Merry Gentry Series

Laurell K. Hamilton, 2000




Chapter 1



Twenty-three stories up and all I could see out the windows was grey smog. They could call it the
City of Angels if they wanted to, but if there were angels out there, they had to be flying blind.

Los Angeles is a place where people, those with wings and without, come to hide. Hide from
others, hide from themselves. I’d come to hide and I’d succeeded, but staring out at the thick, dirty air, I
wanted to go home. Home where the air was blue most of the time and you didn’t have to water the ground
to get grass to grow. Home was Cahokia, Illinois, but I couldn’t go back because they’d kill me if I did, my
relatives and their allies. Everyone wants to grow up to be a faerie princess. Trust me. It’s overrated.

There was a knock on the office door. It opened before I could say anything. My boss, Jeremy
Grey, stood framed in the doorway. He was a short, grey man, four feet eleven inches, an inch shorter than
me. He was grey from his dark Armani suit to his button-up shirt and silk tie. Only his shoes were black
and shiny. Even his skin was a pale uniform grey. Not from illness or age. No, he was a trow in the prime
of life, just a little over four hundred. There were some lines around his eyes, along the thin mouth, that
made him appear mature, but he’d never be old. Without the aid of mortal blood and a pretty serious spell,
Jeremy might live forever. Theoretically. Scientists say that in about five billion years the sun will expand
and engulf the Earth. The fey won’t survive that. They will die. Does five billion years count as forever? I
don’t think so. Though it’s close enough to make the rest of us envious.

I leaned my back against the windows and the thick, hanging smog. The day was as grey as my
boss, but his color was a cool, crisp grey, like clouds before a spring rain. What lay outside the window felt
heavy and thick like something you would try to swallow, but you’d never get it down. It was a day to
choke on, or maybe it was just my mood.

“You look gloomy, Merry,” Jeremy said. “What’s wrong?” He closed the door behind him, making
sure it shut. Privacy, he was giving us privacy. Maybe it was for my benefit, but somehow I didn’t think so.
There was a tightness around his eyes, a set to his thin, well-tailored shoulders that said I wasn’t the only
one in a bad mood today. Maybe it was the weather or the lack of it. A good rain shower or even a good
wind would have cleared out the smog and let the city breathe again.

“Homesick,” I said. “What’s wrong, Jeremy?”