Читать книгу Rebirth - Dmitry Nazarov - Страница 15

Despite Rair’s orders, I was in no hurry to leave the bathroom. I had to dry myself carefully and slowly, hissing involuntarily as I touched the most painful places. By the end, it was starting to feel like I was hurting, from my feet to my scalp. The bactericidal spray wasn’t one of the things Reeher had confiscated, thank God, so I applied it generously, clenching my teeth and cursing frantically to myself from the burning. I stood there, letting it soak and dry, before I got dressed carefully. I had to give up the bra, though, because my ribs were so against it. But simple cotton panties and a T-shirt felt like a goddamn blessing. At last I wasn’t naked, and in my own clothes, which smelled sharp with my favorite vanilla-coconut conditioner. It was enough to make me feel a little happier, if only for a little while. As soon as I opened the door from the bathroom, I immediately froze, smelling something else. Other than that, there was some mumbling from the hallway, remotely resembling a gruff attempt at humming, and the soft, grinding sound of metal against metal. Someone had decided to break open my already hopelessly broken door? What nonsense. It was just a finger’s breadth away, and anyone could come in. I sniffed again, no longer trying to analyze why I was doing something so out of character recently. Whoever was picking my lock smelled… well, not human, apparently. He was also a man. And I don’t even want to think how I suddenly knew that. I crept to the corner of the hallway and looked out into the hallway. A total stranger with a fiery red disheveled rich hair was squatting in front of the ajar front door, poking my mangled lock with a screwdriver. He was dressed in his usual clothes: a black T-shirt with a worn-out face of some rocker, jeans and boots that had obviously been black. Also black. The song he was muttering to himself must have reached a climax in his mind, and the guy jerked his head as if in a convulsive fit, waved the screwdriver in the air as if he were drumming, and huffed out something that seemed particularly heartfelt. If I hadn’t thought, in light of recent events, that the presence of a stranger in my apartment was lethal, and had no idea of his not quite human nature, I might have found the redhead’s grimaces amusing. Now I was involuntarily wondering how I was going to get rid of him. And where the fuck was Riher, whose presence in the apartment I hadn’t sensed. But I didn’t have much time to think about it, because the guy flinched and turned toward me, all at once. One second he was twitching and howling relaxedly, and the next second he was still squatting, staring straight at me, looking like a predatory animal frozen before he jumped. I decided it was silly to keep peeking around the corner, so I stepped into the hallway, looking at the redhead with an open mind. He had a strange face. Narrow, with very, almost excessively high cheekbones, thin, tense lips, and, I’d say, a chin that didn’t make him feminine at all, but rather created and emphasized the impression of restrained, impetuous aggression. His eyes were almost invisible, for his disheveled red hair fell to his forehead and covered them, but the frightening keenness of his gaze that swiftly studied me was more than clear. It was as if I had been physically groped from head to toe in fluffy bright socks, lingering on them. And then the guy relaxed, stopped looking like an animal ready to throw, brushed away the unruly strands, and suddenly smiled. A normal, human smile, not an arrogant grin or a smirk, and I froze for a moment, because I thought suddenly that I’d seen a normal human smile in another life. In this unwelcome new one, it was nothing but nasty sneers and sneers and laughter that gave me the creeps.

– Who are you? – Asked in a forehead. It was hardly necessary to wonder what he was doing, it was clear enough.

– What a little girl you are! – Instead of an answer, the redhead said admiringly. I mean really admiring, not mocking or belittling like the rest of them, who didn’t smell human. – I could probably put you in my pocket and carry you away!

He said the last thing as he rose to his feet and, naturally, found himself much taller than me.

– I’ll get it for you! – Ri’er growled from somewhere in the stairwell and appeared in the doorway behind the redhead, giving me the opportunity to appreciate that he was both taller and wider than the stranger. – My bellybutton is my pockets!

I ignored the annoying nickname and poked the redhead quite unkindly:

– Who’s that?

– I – Witek! – The redhead stepped forward, holding out his hand. Well, I mean, tried to step, because Rier unceremoniously grabbed him by the collar of his T-shirt and pulled him back, practically throwing him out of the apartment.

– He’s nobody and he’s getting out of here! – He shook the boy roughly at my slave master. – Get your stuff and go, Vitrice.

– No tea for you, either? – It seems that the redhead did not take offense at this boor and continued to stare at me and smile.

– She has no tea, only herbal morsels! – Riher cut off and then snapped at me, – Go to the kitchen, why are you standing here in the draught.

– And I’m not proud, I’ll drink my own rubbish! – Witek wouldn’t let up. – I can even rush to the store for a cake and some wine to toast my acquaintance.

– Vitrice! – Ryer barked out, in a «I’ve had enough of you’ tone, and he finally gave up smiling.

With a sigh of exaggerated sorrow he gathered his tools from the floor into his leather backpack and staggered out the door.

– At least now I know where you live! – He winked at me, and that must have exhausted Ri’er’s patience.

– And now he’s just forgotten all about it! – he ordered.

He poked the redhead in the chest and was clearly about to slam the door.

– My name is Aurora, and thank you for the repairs! – I managed only to shout out hastily. Rather, not out of gratitude, but because it pissed off the invader of my personal square footage. It’s not like he’s going to keep bugging me.

– Did I ever let you scratch your tongue with anyone? – He turned and stalked toward me menacingly as soon as we were alone.

I had nowhere to run, though I suddenly wanted to, so I stayed where I was, stubbornly staring into Ri’er’s unkind face.

– Then don’t bring just anyone into my house! – I retorted. – And I don’t recall forbidding anyone to talk to anyone!

He squinted his eyes at me for half a minute, and then he glanced down my body, lingering, like Witek, on my green and badly pink-striped fuzzy socks, and raised an eyebrow. What the hell with those socks!

– If I didn’t say you could, then you can’t by default! – He muttered, and strode past me into the kitchen. – Hurry up, I’m hungry! And we need to talk.

It was only now that I noticed he was holding a bag with the logo of the butcher shop around the corner from my house.

– I couldn’t find any real food at your place. It’s not strange that you look more like a sparrow than a woman of normal size! – He informed me, flinging the bag on the table. – I feel like the only person in this house who’s had enough to eat is that fat, furry bag of cat shit!

First I’m a poopsie, now a sparrow, what’s next? Guinea pig?

– You can’t argue with genetics no matter how much you eat! – I snapped. – And I’m normal size, it’s just someone else here is an overgrown mutant. And I don’t eat meat at all.

– Now eat up, pookie. By the way, that lost stinker of yours that made you cry and snot all over the place is doing pretty well in apartment 19, two floors down, at some granny’s place. Halt!

I rushed for the door as soon as I heard about Bars, but Ri’er instantly shifted and blocked my path.

– He’s staying right where he is! – He jabbed a finger across my chest. – Not while I’m here! Not while I’m here he won’t be, and if I were you, I’d leave him there for good. I don’t think you two are going to get along now.

– And how long are you going to stay in my apartment and take over? – I frowned, letting it slip my mind that I might have become a complete stranger to my own cat, and that I probably shouldn’t take him away, if I have anything left…

– That would depend on the intensity of your desire to help me track down the one who turned you,» he explained what I already knew. – Put the frying pan on!

– Why would I want it when you told me I’d be ruined if I caught him? – I took the object out of the cabinet and shoved it at Rair. He’s got to do it, let him do it. I took a carrot out of the fridge and put it under the hot water, washing it off. Ri’er watched me with a «well, well, well,» look on his face, but he put the pan on the fire himself.

– I never said you were finished! – he threw over his shoulder. – I said I wouldn’t bother with you no more after that. We’ll get the jerk, and you’ll get the drum on your neck, boy. Do what you want, live your life… unless, of course, you get killed in the process.

– You’re a humanist and an optimist, I see! – Snape sniggered, taking a bite of her carrots.

– You bet I am! – He was neither offended nor embarrassed, Ri’er threw two big dark red chunks of meat upon the hot surface, and the sight of them stuck in my throat, but there was a sudden surge of saliva in my mouth. – If you don’t get eaten and act like a good girl instead of a bitchy pest and ask me for help, I’ll train you in what rules to live by now, if you plan on doing this for any length of time.