"Charlaine Harris - Dancers in the Dark" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harris Charlaine)

lessons; she'd had good makeup, a good haircut, the good English of privilege. Could she be an
undercover operative of some kind? If she were, wouldn't she have taken the opportunity to work
for Black Moon, the only remotely interesting thing about Sylvia's enterprises? Perhaps she was a
rich girl on a perverse adventure.


His first fifty years as a vampire, Sean O'Rourke had done his best to conceal himself in the
world of humans. He'd stayed away from others of his kind; when he was with them, the
temptation to explore his true nature had grown too strong. Sean had been abandoned by the man
who'd made him what he was. He'd had no chance to learn the basic rules of his condition; in his
ignorance, he'd killed unfortunates in the slums of Dublin. Gradually, Sean had learned that
killing his victims wasn't necessary. A mouthful of blood could sustain him, if he had it every
night. He'd learned to use his vampiric influence to blot out his victims' memories, and he'd
learned to blot out his own emotions almost as successfully.


After fifty years, stronger and colder, he'd begun to risk the company of other vampires. He'd
fallen in love a time or two, and it had always ended badly, whether the woman he loved was
another vampire or a human.


His new partner this Rue, was beautiful, one of the most beautiful women he'd seen in centuries.
Sean could admire that beauty without being swayed by it. He knew something was wrong with
the girl, something hidden inside her. He hadn't watched people, observed people, all these years
without learning to tell when a human was concealing something. Maybe she was an agent for
one of the fanatical organizations that had formed to force vampires back into the darkness of the
shadows. Maybe she suffered from a drug addiction, or some physical condition she was hoping
to hide for as long as possible.


Sean shrugged to himself. He'd speculated far too much about Rue's possibilities. Whatever her
secret was, in time he would learn it. He wasn't looking forward to the revelation. He wanted to
dance with her for a long time; she was light and supple in his arms, and she smelled good, and
the swing of her thick mahogany hair made something in his chest ache.


Though he tried to deny it to himself, Sean looked forward to tasting her more than he'd looked
forward to anything in decades.


The practice room was a larger studio behind the room in which she'd met Sylvia and the others.
"Sean/Rue" was scrawled on the sign-up sheet for the six-thirty to eight o'clock time slot. Julie
and Thompson would be practicing after them, Rue noticed.
She was nervous about being alone with the vampire. He was waiting for her, just as still and
silent as he'd been two nights before. As a precaution, she'd worn a cross around her neck, tucked
under the old gray leotard. The black shorts she'd pulled on over the leotard were made out of a
shiny synthetic, and she'd brought ballet shoes, tap shoes and the T-strap character shoes she
wore for ballroom dancing. She nodded to Sean by way of greeting, and she dumped the shoes
out on the floor. "I didn't know what you'd want," she explained, all too aware that her voice was
uneven.