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

dawn was bedtime in his heavily curtained palazzo in Venice. However, this story was making me
shivery, and to cling to him was of little help since his body wasn’t at blood-heat but many degrees lower.
That’s why I usually had a rug over me except in the hot smelly Venetian summer, when the touch of
Silviu’s cool limbs was enchanting.

By the way, vampires never empty a victim’s veins – would you want to drink five litres of soup for
supper? – but often on a Friday or Saturday night vampires are thirstier than usual and their victim’s
blood pressure drops too low to sustain life. Thus not too many vampires tend to live in the same city,
otherwise the number of semi-exsanguinated corpses might arouse suspicions.

Silviu had mesmeric powers, and influential local contacts. Consequently stories appeared in
IlGazzettino di Venezia, blaming McDonald’s for the semi-exsanguinated corpses which the Carabinieri
fished out of the canals or found in alleyways. Anti-Americanism was popular, and it’s well known that
capitalists are blood-suckers, so many people believed that the seats in McDonald’s contained
anaesthetising needles which sucked blood from customers, to be replaced with cholesterol. Thus
Venetians ate their hamburgers standing up, whereas Americans always need to sit down. Where
possible at the weekend, Silviu hunted fat tourists.

“Vlad’s spaceship was made of armour in Gothic style held together by interior leather straps riveted to
the plates—and reinforced with internal braces so it wouldn’t be too flexible, unlike armour which needs
to be flexible.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I was on that expedition.” Quickly I revised my estimate of Silviu’s age.

I didn’t much wish to ask the next question, but the point had been niggling.

“Um, why were those candidates’ stakes only semi-sharpened?”

“Because otherwise they might die too suddenly from shock. However, after leaving Earth’s gravity
behind, the stakes used for the Impalement Drive were fully sharpened because in outer space there’s no
weight to impale you.”

“Um, what happened to the strap-on boosters?”

“Once we achieved escape velocity, those were unstrapped from within the ship. By then the bodies
were frozen solid. Ice-corpses rained on what are now Romania and Hungary.”

“Were you all wearing space-armour inside the ship?”

“No, my little dove. Vlad needed to limit the weight. As you know, cold means little to a vampire and we
don’t need to breathe, although sometimes we pretend to, as when I make love to you. Vampires are the
best astronauts.”

“But what about those Impalement Drivers? Didn’t they need air?”
“You mean the successful candidates who pushed the ship along paranormally, strapped to the inside?”

“Yes, them.”