The last name must be present at negotiations with vampires from other cities!
The surname must attend the negotiations with the Council members!
The surname must be present at negotiations with the local pack of werewolves!
In a word - the surname - must!!! By the coffin of life. And he has no life of his own. He has no personal life. No social life. No life at all. There's only the life of the vampire who ennobles it! And only this fanger has any meaning.
For obvious reasons, I wasn't happy with it.
Gratitude?
My will - I'd rather have the plague than get in touch with Mieczysław. Why? Because the plague is final, and a vampire can theoretically live forever. Or until there's a nuclear winter on the planet. Although I don't rule out the possibility that vampires will survive in this case. They're a living bastard. They'll be able to drink blood from mutant cockroaches - and go! And I have a good prospect of admiring that. The last name, alas, is a vampire appendage. Like an arm, a leg or an ear. It can live forever. Theoretically. Practically, Mechislav is alive - I'm alive too. If he dies, I'm ninety-five percent likely to put flippers next to him. Sad?
It's a fact.
Well, there are advantages. I've become much more resilient too. According to Mieczysław, I will remain alive and well, even if I am run over by a tank. I will be able to recover, even if my brain or heart is damaged. Sooner or later, one way or another, having been in a coma for twenty or thirty years...
According to Mieczysław, I will always be the same as I was when the First Seal of the Body was applied. Young, healthy and more or less pretty. The Seal "remembered" me just like that and it will restore me exactly like that in case of emergency. With a little reservation. If I'm strong enough. If a vampire is strong enough. If Mieczysław doesn't benefit from throwing me away like a lizard with a smitten tail... And that's quite possible. Vampires are creatures so calculated. So there's no need to relax.
But now I know exactly what to do if I decide to kill myself.
You just have to nail Mieczysław. I'll have a double pleasure. First, achieve my goal. I mean, go to heaven or hell. Second, I'll rid the world of at least one bastard. And I'll get even with this bastard for all his bullying.
Oh, easy on the devil.
The cell phone exploded with a familiar melody (imposed in the teeth until the grinding). And the handset exploded with the same voice intruded into the ears. It's warm. Velvety. Insanely sexy. We're sick of it! On the other hand, Mechislav, receiving periodic scandals for attempts at seduction, tries sometimes to dampen the effect of sound - the content. That's how it is now.
- Good evening, Fluffy. I'm madly glad to hear your voice. I hope you're all right? I'll be very happy to see you at the club tonight at half past eleven. I'll send Vladimir to pick you up.
And the beeps in the tube.
How does it feel?
No "answer", no "bye", no "goodbye, I'm waiting for a call." Nothing at all. Just as a courtesy, I'd ask how I feel. Oh, no. One order, and stand still, you bastard!
And by the way, when did he hear my voice!? If I couldn't even say "Hello"?!
And the day after tomorrow, the First of September!
I'll talk to the vampire today. I welded the tube away from me. Nadia was looking with that understanding smile.
- What!? - I spilled my hair.
A friend shook her head.
- It's okay. Julia, will Mechislav invite Dosa to sing at his club? Ask for my autograph, will you?
Ugh!
* * *
I automatically remembered a conversation that happened yesterday. I hadn't discussed it with a vampire yet. Well, you should. It looked like it.
My phone rang. Who's talking?
- Yeah?
- Julia? Good afternoon.
Better be an elephant. The IPF hasn't trusted me for some time. But I didn't want to send Rokin around.
- It was - kind, - I answered gloomyly. - And then you called. What do you want?
- Yoo-la...
He gave my name with such a truncated tone that I immediately lost all desire to reconcile and in general - to behave well.
- Yeah, I've been for 20 years. So what? What kind of crap do you want me to do this time?
- Nothing. Just wanted to invite you to our lecture.
I remembered being invited in the summer, and I shuddered. I remembered very well how they tried to brainwash me. It was clear. But for some reason, I didn't want to repeat that experience. The instinct of self-preservation? Well, better late than never.
- Thank you, I remember how the last one ended for me. You have a nice day.
- Julia, what if it's safe for you?
- What, will everyone here be tied up in arms and legs? Otherwise, I don't trust you. I've had enough of your reverend goat to do the same thing. And I don't believe you've got enough of them. It's just me. And there's always a lot of bastards.
- Shame on you!
- It's embarrassing when you can't see. And you've got it all coming out, so now it's all coming out. Okay, I decided. - If you can prove to me that this lecture is safe for me, I'll go. And if I see one decent person in your organization, I'll even believe they have one. Okay? If I don't, I'm sorry. Goodbye.
- Julia... - tried to get Rokin to say something, but I cut him off again.
- I've made my point. You got it. Goodbye.
I hung up and rolled my eyes. The devils activated them all before September 1st!
* * *
Vladimir came to my house at exactly ten. Elegant as a piano in a cemetery. White ironed shirt, black pants, flawless arrows, perfectly stacked brown hair... It pulled him even a little bit wrinkled in his hands to look like a man.
Vladimir? One of Machislav's vampires. Not the youngest, not the oldest. Approximately five hundred years old. There's a third in the hierarchy of power. After Vadim and Boris. On credit for trust, too. But Boris Mechislav was sent to Tula and now he's exploiting Vovochka.
I mean Volodya. It's better not to call him a forger. Not in his eyes, not in his eyes. He reacts a little painfully to ridicule. In fact, he has no sense of humor at all. Actually, that means he doesn't understand even the simplest jokes. And he can chew his throat out for them. Well, there are worse shortcomings. But he is polite, obligatory, very pedantic and punctual. And very gallant with women. Anyway, he has a lot of virtues. But you can't see them right away under a thick, thick layer of nerdiness. It's even reflected in his aura. In elegant brown tones. It's like saying, "Came in brown, sat in the corner and ruined people's evening." Although it wasn't Volodya's fault.
- Good evening, Curly. The chief said to take you to him.
- Well, since the chief said, I was fooling around.
- Are you upset about something?
No, no! I'm the one who's so happy!
- Will! I have a school year on my nose. And your boss is acting like he doesn't see it!
Vladimir (I can be called Vova, Volya or Vladimir - at your choice, but not Vova and Vovochka...) rubbed his forehead.
- Yulia, did you ever think that the chief really didn't know?
- Not aware of what? He knows so much about my life that he even knows how many underpants I have and what color.
Volodya is blushing. Got it. Guessed it.
- And what kind of bastard, I'd like to know, has been digging through my closets?
The vampire realised that he was about to be interrogated by inquisition techniques, and he was redirected out the door.
- Curly, I'll wait for you in the car!
What-what, and these toothpicks' instinct for self-preservation is working great.
I was thinking for a second. Does a vampire really have no idea that there could be anything besides him? That I'm learning, that I like biology, that I want to be a specialist - and good?
It could be. It's like teachers at school. They're so obsessed with their subject that they just forget about everything else. That schoolch
ildren are living people. That there's a bloody dozen others besides their subject. That in everyday life no one needs field theory or, for example, Anna Karenina's suffering. That is, they can come in handy, but only if a person connects himself for life with this very profession. And if not? What do I care if Anna drowned herself or threw herself under a train? Apart from a broad outlook?
So is a vampire. He may just not realize that there's something interesting and necessary besides him and the other toothfangers.
Well. We'll just have to explain it to him. Sometimes Mecislav can be a perfectly reasonable creature. I suppose three or four scandals are more than enough.
* * *
Mechislav was waiting for me in his office. He obviously worked with some report, but when he saw me on the doorstep, he postponed the papers and stood up, smiling widely. The hospitable host, the fish, the zebra, the mother...
He looked great. Although Mieczysław doesn't have any other kind. Either he looks gorgeous, or stunning or delightful. If not, the end of the world is coming. Or at least a vampire is actively and seriously trying to end it.
In my memory, he did not look like a top model only when we were chased by the Andre Wolves - and in captivity. In all other cases, at least take the cover off.
- Curly! Finally! It's good to see you!
I was looking at the vampire grimly. Today, Mecislav was wrapped in dark blue jeans of some thin fabric - cut, cut - everything is flawless. These are obviously jeans. But the fabric fits all over his body like a glove, leaving no room for the imagination. What's there to imagine? And it's all tight! Not to say it's all wrapped up! The blue shirt was made of some thin mesh with shiny threads in it. And it looked like a vampire's torso had been wrapped in a blue cloud. The eyes of Mieczysław, shaded in blue, shone like two aquamarines on golden skin.
Black hair was stretched into a ponytail and thrown forward, on the shoulder. In a complex hairpin of yellow metal shone a healthy blue stone.
What do I bet it's a natural sapphire and gold? The vampire was madly disliked by fakes and plastics. This hairpin must be ten times older than me.
- Are you excited? Well, admire it while you can.
- What's wrong? - Mieczysław was wary. He's been in my bad mood more than once before. I carried his office five times in the first place. And how many times I tried to hurt that vampire... I even threw chairs at him.
I was dodging, you bastard. He also laughed - it's instead of a gym.
Right now, he probably didn't want to do sports.
- Tell me, do you look at the calendar sometimes?
The vampire stretched his whole body like a healthy predatory cat. I watched with admiration the muscles walking under a thin, transparent cloth. Beautiful... Madly, thoughtlessly beautiful. And just as thoughtlessly works for all women. Including me. And every time the heart pounds hard, and everything in the stomach is clenched in a lump. And time oozes out in tight, sweet drops.
Mecislav touched my cheek tenderly. When did he get there?
I shook my head, overcoming the desire to rub my cheek against this golden palm with thin, graceful fingers. You can't! It's dangerous to lose my freedom of thought!!!
I'd like that. And rub, and squeeze, and wrap yourself in his smell like a fluffy blanket. And run your fingers through his hair, feeling its softness and silkiness. Remove the hairpin, dissolve the black strands, and rub your face against them.
You can't. And anyway - Julia, get a grip on yourself!
I took a step back. The vampire was looking... understanding. I think he knew what I wanted, too. And what's so amazing about that? Next to him, any woman between ten and ninety-five wants it! Reflexes. Pheromones. Physiology!
- Calendar... I heard that word," the vampire purred. I sputtered, remembering why I was here. Where the attraction went!
- Okay. Was that before Petra Syphilitic or later?
- At the time of Peter the Great, I wasn't in Russia," a vampire cut me off suddenly, darker. You stepped on a callus? I wonder which one. I would have stomped on it again. - What are you trying to say?
- That the first of September is coming up.
- – И?
- I have an institute.
The vampire slammed his long lashes. It was very touching and sweet. I had to remind myself - the cobra, though beautiful, but it bites painfully.
- – И?
- What - and!? Here's the schedule! - I threw a notebook on the table. Some more papers fell on the floor. - Three or four pairs a day! Count on your fingers! You're always pulling me out all night! I'm gonna be busy in the morning. Five or six days a week. When will I be ordered to sleep? Rest? To meet my friends!?
- What kind of friends? - A vampire got close.
- What the fuck is your business?! Do I have to deal only with vampires and werewolves as your last name? No, fire me! I'm learning with humans and I'm not going to become a hermit crab because of your stumbling blocks!
Mechislav relaxed a little.
- So that's what this is about?
- In this one. Since trying to usurp the power with the tandem "Ivan - Ramirez", you just do not give me peace! I come here more often than my mother and grandfather! I'm tired of it!
Mechislav sighed and sat down on the edge of the table. He unbuttoned his hairpin, broke his hair and smiled charmingly.
- Sorry, curly. I really wasn't thinking.
- I noticed. So what are you gonna do now?
- Apologize. What form of apology would you prefer?
- Extremely material, I rubbed my legs. - I want a personal gun and a clip with silver bullets! Or better yet, two! I want one! And that's it!
Mechislav raised his eyes to grief.
- Well, why are you so bloodthirsty?
- Who are you going to talk to? I snapped at you. - You're all fluffy and harmless here!
- Of course," the vampire confirmed without blinking an eye.
- Yeah, I succumbed. - Especially werewolves on a full moon. Fluffiness is elevated. Fanginess, too.
- Well, you love them anyway, - shrugged Mechislav. - When will Nastia give birth?
- In a month and a half. That's if it goes right. It'll be another full moon. The twins are even born a little earlier. You know, a week in the hospital. And Nastia takes the pack into the forest right after the birth.
Mechislav nodded. The problem of a pregnant werewolf worried us a lot. In summer, in July, it was discovered - unexpectedly for me - that I could see auras. Not only that, I can manipulate them. And a wolf werewolf named Nastia was my first test animal. I didn't mean to, honestly. Well, it just so happens. Wonderful excuse, huh?
Usually that's how you make excuses by doing things. In my own case, it worked out better than any expectations.
Werewolves can't have babies. So they get pregnant, but then they have to miscarry. It's about five months. Just when the baby's body is too big to bear the mother's changes and too small to change on its own.
Nastya... she wanted children madly. And she was just five months pregnant.
I did it by a miracle. I shut her down for about a month. And there was no miscarriage. The shape-shifter sat at home, watched children's movies, drank motherwort in commodity doses, and listened to meditative relaxing music. On the next full moon, she and I repeated the ban on transformation again. There was another full moon left - by my conservative estimate.
Then she'll give birth. It doesn't matter if it's a C-section or a C-section. For werewolves, any option would be fine. If anything, Nastia will recover well. Any wounds on werewolves heal in about an hour to a week. Except for brain damage. Heart, they say strong werewolves can heal.
- What's the prognosis?
- Wonderful. Nastia feels great, not to mention her strong irritability. Has Raoul called?
- I did. And we need to talk about that, too.
- Yeah?
- Curly, I called you for a reason.
- What's wrong with us again - apart from our governor's ne
xt fling?
- Alfonso da Silva promises to come this week.
- Your crocodabra! That asshole couldn't come before!? Anyway, write to him and tell him to come in October!
My outrage was quite justified. Alfonso broke for the rest of the summer like a... like a gingerbread! Pulling, arguing, indignant... Then the conditions don't suit him, then he's got things to do, then one thing or another... and now that he's on the nose of the school year - he agrees!? May the IPF catch him and give him a bath in holy water!
Asshole!
- Just don't tell him that.
- What am I saying out loud?
- Yes. And there's only one thing that makes me happy. is that in moments of great turmoil, you can get together.
- I'm happy about it, too," I said.
Would you be happy? So we have another gubernatorial fling the other day. The day after tomorrow, the first of September. That is, you have to go to lectures, attend practices, learn something, I, by the way, in the third year, a year later I have to start writing, if I want to go to postgraduate school at all...
And then there's happiness! Mecislav will not give peace. Alfonso is a big problem. Not to be shorter and harder to say. The fox sneaked up and started biting.
- What's our schedule for the next five days - and what do you want to throw at me?
Mecislav took a piece of paper from the table and handed it to me. I ran through the eyes of the line and frowned.
- All right. I'm gonna meet the women of the bear pack tomorrow. Do we have a lot of them?
- Here's the folder. You can look at it at your leisure.
I nodded. Okay. My business, my slippers. I'd rather honestly explain to the bears what and how. I mean, how they're doing and what they're getting at in terms of breeding. That's for tomorrow. In the afternoon.
- Can Valentine or Leonid accompany me?
- Yes, they can. It's up to you to decide who.
I was thinking. Valentine is closer to me. And Leonidas is more harmful. When negotiating with a friendly pack, it's better to have a specific bastard like Leonidas around. That's not gonna miss out on the benefits. Not ever. And mine, too.
Ring of Madness Page 131
