Читать книгу Rebirth - Dmitry Nazarov - Страница 16

I was quiet, letting Ri’er’s last words settle in my mind. I wasn’t condemned to death, but it was too soon to rejoice in the glimmer of hope, for the right to survive would have to be secured by my own efforts, and there was no easy way to return to the way things had been before. I wasn’t a great fan of sudden changes, much less radical ones, but when there wasn’t much choice, anyone would adapt. I was certainly determined to do so, and would naturally take his offer of help as a way to sort things out, despite all the annoyance that both the rude Ri’er himself and the others like him that I happened to encounter were causing me. Werewolves. They’re werewolves, Rory, and it’s time I got used to calling them that and finally acknowledged their real presence in the picture of the world I know, as well as the fact that I’m one of them now. Well, that’s just the way it is. Though obviously, no one is too happy about the appearance of people like me. It seems that the converted are a kind of unwanted children, and all the «care» for us for werewolves is through «I don’t want it.» It’s an unpleasant procedure, like sanitation, unloved by anyone, not at all honorable, but necessary. Yes, what associations I have.

– Plates! – Riher commanded in his inimitable «polite» manner, and this time I didn’t just poke at the crockery cupboard out of sheer pestry, but took them out and put them on the table myself.

Grabbing the pan by the handle, my… hmmm… alpha turned and quite gracefully placed a piece on his plate. As he picked up the second one, he hesitated, and it looked strange enough. Ri’er stiffened, tracing his eyes from the second piece to me several times, looking back at me with a nasty assessment and a frown, and back again. It felt like he was being «squeezed by a toad. That’s really what it felt like.

– I don’t eat meat, remember? – I snorted, intending to turn away. I should point out to myself that generosity of heart was clearly not his trait. Though I suppose that was common to all of them, given how eager they were to feed us there in the cages.

– Now eat! – Reer jerked his head slightly, as if annoyed with himself, and spat a piece of food on my plate with less grace than he had on his own. – Sit down and get on with it! It is not in my interest that you should be wobbling in the wind when you should be on your feet.

– I couldn’t eat a morsel if I were a meat-eater, after the way you’d been greedy just now! – I grumbled as I looked at the meat, the juice oozing from the punctures, which made me want to dip my finger in it and lick it off.

– I’ll have you know, it’s against our instincts for our species to share food! – Ri’er still looked annoyed, as if he’d ripped it from his heart.

– What, no one at all?

– Only family! Fork and knife!

Oh, I can see why he’s so angry. I’m not family or even part of his so-called pack. A temporary misunderstanding. And why does it hurt me so much? Distance between me and people in principle has long been normal. The distance between me and someone like Ri’er and his kind… werewolves is even superb. But still… infuriating.

– Are you sure you want them? – I broke off when I handed him the silverware.

– And you were expecting to see me tearing meat off with my teeth like an animal? – He snorted, and I just rolled my eyes.

– There’s nothing about you that turns me on at all! I have an acute allergic reaction to boorish people.

– Which is weird, considering you’re not a harmless hummingbird, but an angry firefly.

What on earth is wrong with Reer and all the fauna he’s comparing me to?

– An incendiary fly? – I squinted and clenched my fork in my hand, but again I noticed that look of curiosity and anticipation on Ri’er’s face. It was like he was looking forward to me lunging at him, eager at the very least to stick my weapon in his eye. And he’s no fun! It’s like I don’t realize I don’t even get a chance to scratch the asshole. – I think I like that better than «poopsie.»

– Oh, really?» Ri’er was clearly disappointed, and some demon that had settled inside me recently had the nerve to add to his not-so-pleasant emotion.

– Yeah, I’m getting used to it, you know.» I put on a very nonchalant face and stabbed my fork ruthlessly into the meat, directing the anger the jerk was provoking at the innocent meat, and asked nonchalantly: – What’s between you and this Vididid? It’s like one of you fucked the other’s girl once, and since then you can’t figure out who’s cooler and who has the longest…

I didn’t have time to finish because I was literally stunned by Rear’s roar.

– Shut up! – He yelled in a way that knocked me out of my chair. – Shut your goddamn mouth and eat that fucking meat before I really cut your tongue out!

I hovered, swallowing hard and staring into his twisted face with rage, because one look into the yellow-green eyes blazing across his face, which were now completely inhuman, was enough to know that he could really make his threat come true. And no matter how much I tried to resist, my own gaze was drawn downward against my will. It was as if an irresistible force was bending my neck, and my body was cringing with the need to become as small and invisible as possible to the anger emanating from him at that moment.

– You’re a fucking psycho! – I whispered in pure stubbornness, and, almost without knowing what I was doing, I cut off a piece and put it in my mouth. No salt, no spice, but damn… it suddenly felt right and delicious, which was quite distracting from the fear the man across the hall was instilling. Yeah, I’ve heard of stress-eating, but fear-eating I haven’t. Although fear of anything is the source of stress. So…

We ate in silence, and nothing but Ri’er’s progressively quiet sniffling, methodically and extremely carefully chopping and carefully chewing meat, reminded me of the recent outburst. I called myself a brainless provocateur a minute later, and I vowed never to talk about the damned Vidid. And I could tell at a glance that there was no love lost between Ri’er and him, but from the way he reacted this time, it didn’t look good at all. Well, I’d have to restrain my immature desire to respond in kind to the irritation that Ri’er was causing me. I’m no match for him physically anyway, plus I have to cooperate with him to survive, not to confront him at all. The next stab at random might well turn out to be self-mutilation for me. Do I want that? That’s right, not a bit.

– And how, exactly, are we going to find this… bite me? – I spoke first, trying to show my willingness to negotiate. It’s psychologically more comfortable to take the initiative myself, and leave some illusory semblance of free will behind, rather than wait for Ri’er to start giving orders again. Alpha squinted his eyes once more, not angrily, but rather mockingly, and sniffed, making it clear that he could see right through my maneuver, and I expected him to snarl something like «speak when I say so,» or «do as I say,» whatever, but to stress that no «we» acting together could happen, but only me, like a trained lapdog obeying his commands.

– For starters, we’ll just go out into town tonight and take a walk,» he answered instead, earning my dumbfounded look.

– Where shall we go?

– It’s your choice of direction and location, poops! – He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, looking completely relaxed, as if he hadn’t just yelled at me like I was crazy. – Let’s go to those places you usually hang out with your friends.

– I have-" «No friends» would have sounded too pathetic and given him another reason to bite. – No such places. I don’t go to clubs and bars at night, looking for adventure on my ass.

– So, tonight we’re going to open up a new and exciting world of urban nightlife for you, and turn you from a boring, uptight homebody into a party girl,» Ri’er grinned happily.

– I’ve been through enough transformations already,» she frowned back.

– Don’t worry, you’ll be a normal liberated woman for a little while, and then you can go back to your cat and the four walls, waiting for the prince to come for you, cute and not rude. If they don’t finish you off.

– Do you have to say that last one again? The prospect of dying in the process is not the best motivator for trying.

– That’s where you’re wrong. There is no better motivator than the will to survive. – Ri’er shoved the empty plate toward me and stood up.

Okay, getting into an argument with him, trying to prove that constantly poking a man with a threat hanging over him is no incentive at all to try harder.

– What time do we start these… activities? – I just clarified.

– After ten o’clock. In the meantime, go to bed.

I twitched, tensing momentarily, and now Ri’er rolled his eyes, snorting demonstratively.

– Don’t get your hopes up, baby! You’re going to bed! – He laughed defiantly. – You have to be at least six inches taller and rounder in some places for you to attract me. Yes, in fact, in all!

– Then it’s a good thing you can’t, because you’re the last man I’d want to be attracted to. – I snarled, and then mentally kicked myself when I saw Riir’s unkind squint. Don’t fight him, Rory, don’t fight him! Ignore the pestilence and don’t respond in kind, because nothing hurts men like this smug contagion more than someone’s complete lack of admiration for their undeniable attractiveness.

– So, the last one? – he smirked, but this time I kept my mouth shut and my eyes fixed on the dishes I was washing.

In the bedroom, of course, I didn’t put a chair up against the door. It wouldn’t stop someone like Ri’er if he wanted to come in. Unless I’d lose the piece of furniture I needed. Falling asleep while he watched TV and rambled on the phone almost nonstop in the next room seemed problematic to me. But, strangely enough, I passed out almost as soon as I stretched out on my own bed, and my body and all my senses recognized it as my own.