In this case, we're dealing with rats, but there's not much difference! A rodent is also a rodent in Africa! I flew all over the basement, counting lumps and skeletons along the way. My soul was just singing! Twelve grand! Nine have already been eaten, three are finishing. And one of them, who's still being eaten, had a shiny shoe on his leg! That's when I realized what heaven on earth is. It is when all your abusers, whether real or imaginary, are immediately and tastefully rewarded on merit. And with your efforts! And I did my best! From the whole wide Russian soul!
The rats were finished and sprawled to the sides. I glanced around three skeletons with sadistic pleasure. There was still meat left on them somewhere, but very, very little. They could have been stored like that since the Egyptian pyramids. Now we had to decide what to do with the rats. After all, if I show up here in kind, where is the guarantee that they will recognize me? They'll clap for a sweet soul. And they won't blink an eye.
- To me," I called. - To me! To me!
There was a lot of fatigue. I wanted to get up above the floor so I wouldn't touch the rats, but I couldn't. Is that the first call? Isn't it time for us to go?
Rats surrounded me with a moving and squeaking live blanket. What would give them such good orders? Only one thing came to mind.
- You're free to go. You're free. Go away! Go away!!! Go away!!!
I couldn't believe my eyes when the rats started to split up. Gradually they sprawled one after another, in different directions. Heaviness was getting worse and worse. I moaned and squeezed my whisky fingers. By the minute, by the second, more and more fatigue was piling up. The rage was gone, the pleasure of looking at the corpses of my enemies was gone too, and I felt like I was hung over. I had to get out of here. I shaved in the air against the wall of the house. The body seemed to weigh a million tons and every cell of it, no matter how small, was electrocuted. But I'm stubborn! First I flew, then shaved, and if I keep getting so tired, I'll crawl on my knees! But I'll crawl! Yes, I will! I was walking slowly towards the car. The sunlight was pushing bricks on my shoulders. It seemed as if I still had more than one mile to walk. But I didn't! With each step, the car got closer and closer. And my body? I sat perfectly still, barely even breathing. Or did I not breathe at all? Danielle was staring me in the face with anxiety. What would he do if I couldn't get back? But for my own sake, I was hoping that this experience would stay off the record. I really wanted to live. And not as a ghost, but as a human being. How I overcame my last steps to the car is a separate story, full of tears and sorrows. I felt like I had a thousand kilotons of press on me. And that press is putting pressure on my shoulders. I also had a cast-iron weight chained to each leg. And the ice was replaced by hot coals for some reason. Higher Powers, it hurts! I wanted to get down on the ground and fall asleep. But I knew I couldn't give in to that desire! You can't! No way! Fight, Jane! Fight, Jane! Let's go!!!
I fell to my knees and I crawled all over the car. You could see through me all the ground.
There was only one thought knocking on my head with a hammer: "Just in time, just in time..." I didn't know I had time to make it. That's not what I knew. You can't stop. And I crawled to my body to reach out and grab my fingers right through the car door. And I fell into the darkness somewhere.
- Jane! Jane!!! Goddamn it, open your eyes! Jane! At least move it! Breathe! Don't you dare die, goddamn it! Don't you dare!
Whose voice is that? So familiar? I tried to move. I wish I hadn't tried it. The body burst so much pain, I unwittingly moaned.
- Jane!
Now there was a relief in the voice. And yet, whose voice is it?! I tried to raise my eyelids. A weak daylight cut through my eyes - and I immediately closed them. It hurt!
- Jane! Jane! You're alive!
I'm alive, I'm alive, why the hell would you yell like that?! The artist is a fucking delicate, sensitive nature! Danielle!!! Of course, Danielle! I tried to talk without opening my eyes. I did it! Well done!
- Do not yell like that! My ears hurt!
- Jane, what's my name?!
- You're Danielle. You didn't paint my portrait while I was asleep?
Now the voice has suffocated with rage.
- You're... you're...
- I, - I interrupted it without opening my eyes. - Danielle, what happened to me? Tell me, and then I'll tell you about my visions.
- As you command, Curly!
There was so much poison in the vampire's voice that I couldn't stand it.
- Danielle!
- What did you expect?! - Danielle easily took the second octave and went for promotion. That's a falsetto I've only heard once - when a neighbour's cat got his tail pinched by the door, by accident. - You've been sitting here for two hours, not moving, not talking, hardly breathing, not responding to anything! I almost lost my mind!
- But he didn't!
Well, you shouldn't have said that. Danielle immediately broke out with an outraged speech about my pig behavior. It seemed to be a long time. And I didn't want to hear it at all. You'd think I didn't know I was a pig! I know! I know everything! But you can't survive otherwise! In fact, some scientists believe that the closest thing to a man is pigs, not monkeys. That's what I say as a biologist!
The vampire kept going on with his monologue, and I was getting bored. In that case, every woman has two choices. The first is to send a dear friend where everyone knows where and mind their own business. It's very likely that a dear friend will not come back from there. The second is to listen in silence, wait for the heat to drop, and in fifteen minutes (men can't stand it anymore, the people are unhardened! It's either us women! If we start, it'll be for three hours!) Mind your own business. In life I prefer the number one option, but I still needed Danielle. I had to wait and try to deal with the brutal itching in my whole body. It was as if my hand had rested, only much stronger. Gross!
Well, at least Danielle turned out to be a record-breaker! He did it in record time. The volcano exploded, and the anger blew out in exactly six minutes. And then there was the preaching. Like you don't know where you're going! Of course I don't know where you're going! If I did, wouldn't I have gotten into such... such a fly bait! And I know very well that I'm clumsy, cheeky, headless and so on... But to repeat it to me at such a moment?! I interrupted a vampire.
- Look, don't you have something to do?!
The eyes were already opening quite freely. The pain was gradually fading away, and I suddenly felt a terrible hunger and an equally cruel thirst.
- Danielle, there's a grocery bag in the backseat. Be human and open me a bottle of mineral. And print out the Snickers. It's disgusting, but it restores calories by five.
- Can't you do it yourself?!
- Can't! Danielle!!!
The vampire wasn't arguing anymore. He silently took out a liter bottle of mineral from his big bag, tore the cap off with one movement of his fingers, and carried the neck to my mouth. That's very nice of him. I couldn't even hold the chamomile stalk myself. I was greedily drinking water, spilling it on my sweater. Danielle looked at me with a crooked look.
- What else have you done, girl?!
I reached out my trembling hand, clung to the Snickers, and started literally devouring it. I've never had food as satisfying as this semi-chemical chocolate bar. I've already eaten the second chocolate as a person. Then I drank them with water and leaned over the back of the seat.
- Now I can talk. Danielle, what did I look like?
- Disgusting! You were lying there like a dead body! You were dying! You were clearly in a trance! I touched your skin, and it was fiery! That's a temperature no man could take! And the last few minutes before you talked, I was ready to run to Andre for help! You're all cold, your heart wasn't even beating! You're almost dead!
I remembered a thousand tons of press, I remembered crawling to the car, I remembered the rage that enveloped me in the cabin, and I nodded.
- It's a time match.
- At what time?!
&n
bsp; I sighed.
- Danielle, first answer me one question.
- Yes, curly?
- And don't call me that!
- As you command, Fluffy.
- Shit! Okay! Tell me, can any of the vampires just command animals?! I somehow lost sight of it!
The vampire's eyes were confused.
- Animals? Yes! A lot of them! If a vampire like Andre controls werewolves, he can control simple foxes. Although simple foxes may not obey him. They're even better protected than werewolves. They're not smart enough to follow other orders. Although if a vampire can give them a mental picture of what they must do...
I realized that Danielle was about to be rebuked with pure theory, and that was too much for me. I'd have to deal with the practice. I had to interrupt.
- And the rats?
- And rats can be controlled, too. I could control the rats. As you say, theoretically.
- What do you mean?
- That's it. I'm not strong enough to control them. One day, in two hundred or three hundred years, I'll be able to do that, too.
- Has it ever happened that animals are not run by a vampire, but by his family name?
- It never happened. Never.
My fingers are getting cold.
- Then we have to enrich science with new material.
- I'm sorry?
- We're going to go to this house now. And we'll find twelve skeletons eaten by rats, three sleepers and two maimed vampires.
Daniel's eyes were slowly and confidently climbing not even on his forehead but on the back of his head.
- WHAT?!
I sighed, and then I told Daniel everything that happened to me in a trance. As short and as easy as possible without going deep. In detail and in paint, I will tell Mieczysław when we get him out as well. He's a rare bastard, but he's smart. Smart and intriguing. Don't forget about it! And you shouldn't trust vampires too much. On the other hand, who should we trust? Who to tell all this to?! Who else can tell me what the hell is going on with me? HSE teacher? A priest? A quack in the "jinx off, hanging in my ears" series?
Danielle looked at me with stunned eyes.
- Jane, are you telling the truth?!
It's an idiotic question.
- You feel like I'm not lying, too.
- But do you know what you're saying?!
Really, what am I saying? Maybe I just had a nightmare! Did you get hamburger poisoning?
- I don't understand. Does it matter that much?
Danielle looked me right in the eye. I don't know what the hell he saw or what he wanted to see, but he waved silently, turned around, and started getting out of the car.
- Should I take that as a notation? - It was me.
The vampire came back in the seat and burned me with an evil look.
- Jane, when this is all over, I'm gonna kick your ass so hard you won't sit on it for a week!
- Take a health risk! - I felt it.
- I'll take that chance! Take your word for it!
- Okay. I believed it. Now be a good girl and help me get out of this car!
- What for?!
- And here's to it! We're going in the house! There's Boris and Vadim! I won't leave them there!
- Are you crazy?!
- Danielle, take my word for it, there's nobody there but skeletons and vampires. We can handle both easily!
- You can't handle a mosquito right now! You're not standing on your feet!
- And you're going to help me get there!
- I'd rather go alone!
- What would you have found out there without me?! And then, it's my business and my vampires. And I have to personally stick my nose in every hole!
- I always knew you were crazy.
- And now he finds out how crazy I am. Are you happy?
The vampire sewn through his clenched teeth:
- Jane, you are unbearable!
I sighed. We need to turn off the tension before we fight. I reached out and stroked the vampire's cheek.
- Danielle, honey, understand me!
The vampire was sitting like a marble statue.
- Danielle, it's my fault they got caught! Me and no one else! If I could have woken them up that morning...
- I couldn't," the vampire turned around and looked at me point-blank range. My hand froze on his cheek, Danielle intercepted me by my hand and put his fingers to my lips, kissing a vein. - I couldn't. You woke Mieczysław because you were bound to him by the Seal. Now it's two. That's why you dosed him. And I haven't slept yet. We were lucky. But it's not your fault they got caught! It's not your fault!
I put my eyes down.
- Danielle, there's a lot to say. But I have to do something to get rid of that feeling! I was there. I was a ghost. But I saw and heard everything! It was my fault they were tortured. My fault and that of Mieczysław. And one of us two has to fix what happened.
Oops! Malfunction! You shouldn't have talked about Mecislav! The vampire immediately looked at me with cold gray eyes.
- Are you going to correct all the injustices your master has done? You're not going to have enough life, girl!
- Thanks to you, not a girl anymore, I hit the ball. - And then, he's not my boss. Danielle, I have the Seals. It's true. But I did it for you. Swordsman himself is bloody handsome, charming, attractive, and women faint when they see him, but I don't need him.
- You're lying.
- What a lie, I confessed easily. - A little bit. Just a little bit. But just like him, I would look at the work of art. Any work of art. And that's the pure truth. I know how to appreciate beauty. By the way, have you ever tried painting it?
- He has a couple of portraits of my work.
- Danielle, will you draw me?
- Of course, - his face softened, became almost human. - I want to draw you lying on the bed, on scarlet silk sheets, completely naked.
There was so much warmth and tenderness in his voice that I smiled back.
- And put up that portrait in the living room?! Or where do vampires put up this kind of creativity?
- At home, in my living room. Or a club. So everybody can look at me, lick my face and be madly jealous. Because you're my woman, not theirs.
- Prove it," I demanded.
The kiss came out long and wet. The fangs almost kicked the lip, but they didn't scratch it. But it didn't last long. Danielle pulled away.
- I'm sorry we don't have much time. And it's daytime. It's better to finish it before the vampires wake up. Sooner or later in the evening...
There was this promise in his voice... I blushed. The vampire smiled at me.
- Is the storm of werewolves embarrassed? Look at that, her ears are pounding!
I poked him in the chest with my fist.
- Nahal!
The vampire somehow cleverly grabbed me by the wrists and pulled me to his body. Under my palm, his heart was beating deafly and distinctly.
- And for letting go of your hands, mistress, you're fined two more kisses!
I didn't mind. Really, what a mess! There's not enough time for such an important matter. And a car with tinted windows would be nice! For some reason, the jeep hasn't been tinted yet. Recently bought? Danielle was the first to come off my lips and look at me with a little stray eyes.
- Jane, either we're going now or I don't care about all the decency.
- Come on, I chose decisively.
- Then try to blind me," said the bloodsucker.
My ears got a little suspiciously hot. I didn't even notice when I got my hands behind a vampire's back. I had to pull back and pretend I was innocent. It didn't turn out well, though. Danielle was frankly mockingly looking at me.
- Well, can you get out? Can you actually move?
- Five minutes ago you didn't ask me that, I couldn't resist. What a fucking language!
Danielle immediately darkened and looked at me coldly.
- Come, my lovely?
- Oh! - I remembered a useful thing. - Wai
t a minute, Danielle! Turn around!
- What else?!
- I have to get the crosses!
- What?
- Come on, crosses! There are three vampires in coffins. And each of them is gonna process me for pancake mincemeat! Turn around so I can get them out and move them without the solemn illumination!
- As you command, Curly!
Danielle turned his back. I just shook my head. I got hurt. If Danielle uses the nickname given to me by Mieczysław, then he's definitely offended. Damn my too poisonous tongue! But you can't pull it out! And a vampire is good! You could have missed the ears! And it's like he's skinless and don't say anything like that in front of him, and don't do it all at once! Except now I don't have time to treat his ego with pills. It's gonna overstretch. It's better with Medislav in this respect. Whatever you say, he'll just laugh. And Daniel is serious, all to his heart! It's horrible!
I got a bag of crosses out of the glove box. Twenty grand. Better more than less. But you should have seen the look on the butt in the church! Yeah, yeah, that's where I bought the crosses, fair enough to think I needed the sanctified goods. Or at least one in which more than one divine service was held.
- Why do you need so much? - I was wondering about the poor guy.
I gave a stupid answer to a stupid question.
- And I'll pickle with them. Very good taste! And if it's garlic and horseradish...
That's enough. The crosses were sold to me, and I was happy to leave the church. I always get the stench of church... okay, let it be the incense... my head hurts. And there's no fucking hissing at me! Have you smelled what the church smells like for a long time?! Frankincense, one! Evaporation of badly washed bodies - two! Alcohol (I don't know where it comes from, but it stinks!) - three! Candlelight burning - four! Not enough? And in the mixture it's just killer. I'm not talking about homeless people and parishioners' cologne. For me, with my subtle sense of smell, it's a vomit mixture!
- Did you take that shit away?
- The crosses? Cleaned it up.
I rushed them into the sheepskin pocket, Danielle helped me out of the car and we went to the cabin. A vampire hugged me at the waist like the hottest lover in the world. I didn't mind. My legs were barely holding me, sniffing and cracking in my knees. And in this condition, I'm going somewhere?! My head is a garden head, my life is a deck of oak.
Ring of Madness Page 58
