So I'm going to bed. And if I'm lucky, I'll go to sleep without nightmares.
Chapter 9.
The question is, what will you do if your wife is kidnapped by an ogre?
Answer: I wasn't hired to save your ogres.
The new day started unsugary-- with a phone call.
Who ever woke up from this nasty rattle and realized that the dream was gone irretrievably, and now you have to get out from under a cozy blanket, lift your ass, even without lying in bed, and drag, answer the call of some alternatively gifted - I understand. I mentally promised to feed the caller Ramirez and crawled into the corridor.
The answering machine didn't work for some reason. Take him, along with the guarantee - and the salesman by the turnip. One twenty!
–
Yeah?!
- Good morning, Julia.
Rokin's voice from the tube didn't improve my mood. It was only two o'clock in the afternoon. And I went to bed at about 6:30, 7:00.
Eight o'clock, and they wouldn't let me sleep. And I have a young, growing organism! And he needs eight hours of sleep!
"How long have you enjoyed three or four hours of sleep without nightmares?! - mockingly whispered the woman from the mirror. - Communicating with vampires is clearly good for you..."
- What do you want?
Rokin jammed for a moment, but then he answered:
- I'd like to meet you and talk to you.
- I wouldn't. I've had enough of our last meeting to do the same thing.
- I know there's been some misunderstanding, but...
Mm-hmm. So it's a misunderstanding to procompost my brain and lose information like a hard drive?! And "Avatar" is the blue bird of happiness!
- Is that what you call it now? How's your butt doing, by the way? Have you thrown your hooves away yet?
- Alexi's father is in intensive care," Rokin said in a mourning voice.
I laughed at evil. And don't tell me that's not Christian. Feeling sorry? To this bastard?! You'd be mixed up with a broken file and tried to format it! Would you like that?! Well, I'm not happy about that.
- So he's gonna die. But I'm not sending a wreath. What did your bastard try to do to me...
- Yulia, I didn't realize that you... could be tried... to do this... - Rokin even started to stutter.
- I should have assumed, I should have," I whispered. - Or do you think you're so clean and disinterested?! I've never seen such a nasty aura as your ass. And do me a favor, unplug him from his equipment. He's gonna die anyway. It'll only hurt if you don't let him go.
- Julia, that's cruel...
- It's God's will, isn't it?
Rokin was quiet for a few seconds.
- Julia, you don't want anything to do with us?
I'd tell them a couple of things, but fortunately, yesterday's vampire orders came out in the sleepy gyrations of my mind, coquettishly waving their tails.
- Frankly, I don't want to see you or talk at all. If I cool down, I'll calm down, and then we'll deal with it. Okay?
- I have information that you must know - Rokin turned up, but I've already smashed a pipe on the lever.
It doesn't matter if the conversation went well or not. I've had enough! It's a pity I can't sleep. I got knocked down pretty badly. What the hell with them. I turned around and went to take a hot shower.
There, the mood finally fell below the skirting board. I could clearly see two holes in my neck from my fangs. Mecislav is a bastard. He's a toothed bastard! There's no dentist on him!
What will I do to cover them with?! Or should I say it's the consequences of a failed epilation?!
I spit in the sink with anger (yeah, they found a fool on the floor, I have to wipe it off...) and went under the shower. Must there be something good in life?!
* * *
The second call came when I, already awake and satisfied with life, in the same robes with the jaguars and wet head gutted the fridge. Big luck in life - there were still cutlets left. And if you disassemble a jar of olives, it's almost a side dish. And it is desirable to find some sea cabbage as well. Something pulled me on a pretty salad. You don't have enough iodine?
And then a nasty sobering sound came out.
–
Yeah?!
If it's Rokin again, I'll send it... just about, just there. But it turned out to be a voice I didn't know.
- Julia, hi.
- Hello from who?
At the other end it was jammed, but then it reached the giraffe.
- Oh, it was me... Seryozha... well Novikov, you also drew me... Well, yes. And also tried to seduce me. And I puked long and hard. The body doesn't take semi-finished products...
- What do you want, older?
- Yul, I'd like to see you.
- You'll get over it, I cut it off.
- Yulia, honey, please... just for a few minutes! Am I not even worth it?! I hate to talk to you! I know we got off to a bad start, but give me a chance! Please! Or I'll ambush you in your driveway! I'll shadow you!
I'm stuck. Yes. Mecislav was going to break his legs anyway. What if this great-aged child starts following me with a tail?
A vampire would break his legs and everything else. He'll keep me alive, too, with a shiv of my conscience.
It's not that I'm worried much. My conscience's been through so much already. And it'll hold out if it needs to. But why do you have to go to all that trouble?
Is that the only way I'm gonna get in touch with him? So the werewolves wouldn't know? Oh! I've got it!
- Wait for me in an hour...
- Why don't you meet me at the square? It's quiet, it's quiet, there's no one there... At the 60th anniversary monument of Victory?
- Okay. In an hour.
- Is it early?
- Seryozha, do you have a conscience?! I just got up, I still have to eat breakfast, get dressed...
- I got it. An hour later, in the monument's square.
- That's a good one. Okay, bye.
I blew a pipe. I guess werewolves aren't sitting in the driveway waiting for me. So it's safe to go out through the attic into the next driveway and get away from surveillance. I'll meet you, explain to the guy that he's wrong and we don't need to meet anymore. It won't take long. Well, if he insists... then I'll really turn him in to Machislav. For reasoning. Three months in a cast, traumatology is a great way to put your brain in place. I highly recommend it.
I'll come back the same way.
The good mood is dead by the clothes closet. What do you want me to wear? A turtleneck? In the summer? There's nothing else that closes my throat so well. On the other hand, whose doggy business is it?! Do I owe anyone a report here?! I'm gonna tape the holes with a flesh-colored band-aid and put on more jewelry. And a normal guy. I have a beaded collar and the same cuffs. It was a matter of a minute to match the clothes to the tone. A short white skirt, red and black top, black and red beaded jewelry, white sandals and a bag - and I'm ready to get away from werewolves. Hair - in a tall ponytail. Cosmetics? What else is missing. Here's the dark glasses - sure.
The attic was locked, but I had a key. You bet you did. I'm always walking to my grandfather's next door, so we hit the locks ourselves. I mean, we invited a locksmith, of course. But the locks were picked so that the key could be opened from the outside and from the inside. Sometimes I even grease them.
I got out of the next door and hurried to get away.
I think it's worth explaining. There are six entrances in our nine-story building. It's built in the shape of a "T". Four entrances are on the same side of the long "T" bar, one of which I live in. And two are on the other side. One of them is where my grandfather lives. That's why I was able to get out unnoticed. But you can't spin a number like that often. They'll understand, they'll catch... they'd better get back quickly.
The square was a ten-minute walk from my house.
It's a short excursion into the history of the city.
You see, our last victory was over
Hitler. Then it was all defeats. That's why our government's been sticking that war out. What do they remember about Afghanistan?! Chechnya? Perestroika? I suppose they can be beaten up for the 20th anniversary of perestroika. Although who knows... America will finally eat us up - and we'll celebrate Perestroika, democracy, and the collapse of the Soviet Union... Sadly enough. Sorry, I was interrupting.
Ten to fifteen years ago, in honor of what seems to be the fiftieth anniversary of Victory, our mayor smashed this square. And then some clever head came up with all the "Fifty-five Years of Victory", "Sixty Years of Victory" monuments and so on, to sneak up here and install in one place. A little bit of squirrel waving in a decent park. It's for the best, too. At least the kids and the dogs have a place to run.
The monument (a healthy brick with a commemorative inscription, fuck you) had no one else. And where is this Seryozha? Sirozha, Christmas trees! I looked at the watch. Okay. He has five more minutes. I got here early.
Shall we listen to the e-book? I got the "History of Catherine's Reign".
But I didn't have time to enjoy it. Something gave me a bad shot in the arm. A wasp?
A syringe. Damn it!
I tried to go somewhere with people, but I didn't have time. There was a hand behind my back and it jammed my mouth. The other hand wrapped it across my body. I tried to turn around or at least kick the enemy, but it wasn't there. The consciousness went to the far side.
The last thought was, "Why, when it's necessary, isn't there a rabid grandmother with a heightened sense of observation and inclination sitting in this square?!"
* * *
The awakening sucked. The head broke, mutated, the stomach was full of olives and begged for free. It was out of the question to fake oblivion and listen to what the kidnappers were saying, or to look around quietly.
I abruptly turned my head sideways so I wouldn't choke to death, and I threw up really well right on some guy wearing light jeans and a white shirt.
And there's nothing to kidnap decent girls! Nothing!
The guy who spit on me (not to say spit up) bounced off and told the world about his relationship with my mother and some species of animals for five minutes.
I'm twisted again.
Someone came up, turned me on my side, and even wiped my mouth with a napkin.
- I'm sorry, Yulia Yevgenyevna, we didn't know you had such a strong reaction to sleeping pills.
I spit and whispered:
- Give me some water. I'll die for sure. What did you shove me in?!
- Four-oxiazochlorine..." said the same voice.
The guy I spit on flew out the door. And there was another guy behind my back and he brought an open bottle of mineral to my lips.
The name of the compound didn't tell me anything. I once again spat on the floor (it's not from the uncultured, it's too late to protect it anyway) and sucked on the neck.
I drank a liter and a half in less than a minute.
- I don't know what it is, but I am really allergic to a number of drugs. Like, a group of novocaine.
Now I could even look around. What's the use, though? It's obviously a private home. Even lying on one side you can see the thick walls, the low ceilings... that's what they built at the beginning of the century. The walls are whitewashed, but not wallpapered. I'm lying on something like a bed. An old, you know, one with a net and nickel-plated balls. I can also see two chairs and a table. Some crooked-legged and ugly furniture from the '60s. It's scary, it's scary. And to sit down and look. It's a challenge to taste good, not furniture. It's all chipboard.
I can't see the windows, can I see if they're there? There's an electric light in the room. But I couldn't stay here till nightfall, could I?
- Your body decomposes drugs remarkably quickly. It's almost like us werewolves. But you're not one of us.
- It's for the best," I gurgle. - It's for you. I would teach you to love your homeland.
- I don't think you'd be able to do that. But I don't want to give you another dose. Still, you're human, even though you have the Seal of the Vampire. Possible poisoning, allergies...
At that moment, my stomach decided to rush outside... I threw up for five minutes. The guy ducked and now he was supporting my head. Well, he's gonna get that. I'm gonna hurt him painlessly.
Finally, I'm not being turned around anymore. The guy turned me on the other side so I wouldn't inhale "all stomach flavors," and took another bottle of water. Mineral water.
- You want some more water?
- Yes, I do. But I want more answers to my questions.
- The master ordered me not to communicate with you.
I squinted when I looked at the guy. It was disgusting to see the aura. And the dizziness immediately began to spin even harder. But what to do?! If you want to live, you won't be so excited.
The colors were blurred, flowing, blurred, but I managed to pick out the silver pattern. And I lowered my eyelids with satisfaction.
- You're a werewolf. So your master is a vampire.
The head gradually cleared up. No, it still hurt badly, but it was already capable of reflection and conclusions.
- Why kidnap me?
I tried to roll over on my back and found it very uncomfortable to do that with my hands tied in front.
- And why tie me up? I'm not even a normal jock, not even a werewolf.
- But you were able to handle a vampire. I know about Vlad.
- I'm not gonna rip my ass off, not to jump on you and get down your throat! And I'm gonna puke halfway down the road! You get fucked and tied up and wash your face and go to the bathroom! Are you going to take my pants off personally?! Oh, the gentleman wouldn't praise me.
- Are you going to be quiet and not try to run away?
- Escape? - I'm genuinely outraged. My stomach ached mercilessly, and it made my sincerity fountain. - And miss this chance to deal with the scoundrel who caused us so much trouble?! If I run away, we'll never find him again! He'll be quiet under the snag and not come out for twenty years, like my lady's son!
[16]
No, no, I have to see him. And talk to him...
The hands somehow squeezed themselves into their fists. I wasn't lying. I didn't want to make a promise, so I should have told the truth and only the truth. I'd love to talk to this "master". But it's better not to come to you, but to us. I'll talk to you. When he's securely locked up at Mečislav's... where? Well, were there supposed to be some cameras left after Duška?! As a last resort, you can just roll an unknown bastard into concrete. So that only the head and the ass stick out. Then he won't run away for sure.
The shape-shifter looked at me with disgust.
- I will untie your hands if you give me your word not to attack.
You fool, take my word for it.
- Lady, I immediately agreed. - Still, I'm not fit for anything in this condition. Just tell me what you're going to do with me first. I warn you, my grandfather won't pay the ransom for me, he'll rather send a rifle squad to you. He's against any negotiation with terrorists.
- We don't need the money. The gentleman ordered me to kidnap you and bring you here. He'll come tonight and talk to you. Try not to hurt yourself until then.
I snorted a snort.
- Will you relax and try to have fun? Would you do that if you were me?
- I'm a man," a werewolf outraged.
Only now I could see that he was very young. Twenty-five, twenty-seven years old. Quite tall, skinny, in a sort of Spanish style: black hair, dark brown, almost black eyes, a nose with a hunchback, chubby lips ... Dad was Georgian? Or, as it is fashionable to say, "face of Caucasian nationality"? And he reminded me of someone. At least kill me. Someone who's been seen recently.
- And the vampires are bisexual, - vindictively I whispered.
The guy looked at me with disgust.
- What's your name? What, it's hard to introduce yourself?! I'll get it from your "gentleman" anyway!
The guy kept quiet for a few min
utes, but then he decided:
- Carl.
The name fell on his sick head with a stone.
Damn it! Damn it! Shit!!!
The wheels in his brain turned slowly and stood still.
Carl stole the corals from Clara, and Clara stole the clarinet from Carl.
- Karl Karlovich Karelov," I said without a shadow of a doubt.
The shape-shifter recoiled, scolded half his voice (he was far away from my first spitting) and flew out of the room. And I finally had a puzzle.
Vintiki were reluctant to move in the sick head, but the picture was too obvious. So Clara has a brother. And that's him. It's very unpleasant.
You say it's impossible to calculate my brother's acquaintance with the fox?! Nizzia! But it's possible to tamper with him!
Memory has kindly slipped a picture. Clara is sitting on the couch.
"...I was still a nurse in the hospital! And then Slava got there! With an open fracture in his left leg. I was taking care of him.
- And how far did your courtships go?
- So far that I fell in love with Clara..."
I didn't ask under what circumstances a fracture was obtained. What did I have to understand: was it all set up? A cute nurse is good bait. Especially when you're wearing a white transparent robe.
Somehow Slavka lighted up - where? I don't know, but I suppose he was already seen in Tula. Our last name is quite rare. Leoverenskaya - it's not any Goncharova. There's plenty of them all over the place, five pages in each handbook. And I'm not enough. Our middle name is the same as Slava's. And someone who knew me...
And who knew me?! That's a good question.
We should ask Mečislav how our winter history has spread. I don't think vampires produce any "Fang Weekly". What would they write there?
Just today! Just for us! Just for the IPF and for you! The latest news from the world of tusks and claws!
Today, vampire N knocked vampire M's fangs out for brazenly pawing vampire N. The fangs were threaded down with rhinestones and presented to the surname as a compensation for moral damages. Dentist Z - best dentures! Two teeth for money, the third is free!
Vampire X has fashioned rope bathing suits. They turned out to be very comfortable for hanging your enemies. We recommend them. The manufacturing firm will supply you with a kit with a hook and a hammer.
Ring of Madness Page 118