Bride of the Fat White Vampire (eBook)

Andrew Fox (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2004 | 1. Auflage
448 Seiten
Random House Publishing Group (Verlag)
978-0-345-47861-0 (ISBN)

Infos

After morphing into 187 very large white rats in the name of self-preservation, Jules Duchon is back to his portly self, a member of that secret class of New Orleans citizens known as the undead. Though he would like nothing better than to spend his nights raising hell and biting flesh in his beloved French Quarter, duty calls when an exclusive club of blue blood vampires demands that the 450-pound cabbie find out who is attacking its young and beautiful members. Adding insult to injury, he has to enlist the help of a former foe: a black vampire named Preston.

What's a vampire to do? Without the love of a woman to ease his pain, Jules isn't convinced that his undead life is worth living. He doesn't desire Doodlebug (she may be a woman now but Jules knew her back when she was just a boy) any more than he longs for Daphne, a rat catcher who nourishes a crush the size of Jules. No, only Maureen will do. Once a beautiful stripper with nothing but curve after curve to her bodacious body, now she is mere dust in a jar. But Jules will move heaven and earth to get her back . . . even if it means pulling her back from the dead.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Textauszug

When he was ten feet from the gate, something scurried near his feet. He saw something run into the underbrush, a mouse or squirrel or maybe a small rat. Doodlebug smiled a wistful smile. The tiny mammal had made him think of Jules. As he had innumerable times during the past eight months, Doodlebug wondered how the Fates had been treating his vanished friend. He hoped with all his heart that Jules had found happiness. The iron gates towered before him like the entrance to one of Dante's inner circles of Hell. Doodlebug pressed the cold steel button that protruded from the marble gatepost. A disguised panel slid open, revealing a video screen. A dignified, somewhat haughty face appeared, a computer-generated image, Doodlebug realized, since the butler was himself a vampire and could not be photographed. Above him, at the top of the entrance archway, a small camera tracked his movements. All it would reveal to the viewer on the other end was a knee-length black dress, pale ivory lace hosiery, sensible black pumps, earrings, and lipstick of a modest shade of red. 'I'm Rory Richelieu,' Doodlebug said. It felt odd to call himself by his birth name, normally he went by Debbie, and whenever he'd returned to New Orleans to see Jules or Maureen, he'd always slipped back into his childhood nickname, Doodlebug. 'I flew out from California. Georges Besthoff asked me to come.' Asked was too pale a word, demanded was more like it. The face on screen appeared to be examining a list. 'Yes. Mr. Richelieu. I've been told to expect you. Master Besthoff is awaiting you in the library.' The massive iron gate swung open as smoothly and silently as silk on silk. The scent of pomegranates reached him on a cool breeze. Blood apples. High above, at the center of a cloud-dimpled sky, a half-moon illuminated stately groves and manicured gardens, all of which would appear quite at home surrounding the ancient fortress-estates of Moravia or Romania. Doodlebug had not set foot within the gates of the compound of the High Krewe of Vlad Tepes in decades. Not since 1968, just after he'd completed his thirteen years of study in Tibet, when he'd been planning to leave New Orleans for California to establish his Institute of Higher Alpha-Consciousness. As grand and beautiful as this walled assemblage of mansions and gardens was, he'd never felt any fondness for this place. Most of the vampires here were far older than he was, immigrants from Eastern Europe, one of the cultural hearts of world vampirism, and had amassed their impressive fortunes over hundreds of years. The wisdom of their collective centuries had not brought them enlightenment, as it had to Doodlebug's Tibetan monk teachers, instead, it had taught them to pursue their own narrow interests with scientific precision. As a fledgling vampire, he'd considered himself a catfish among tiger sharks in his dealings with the masters of this place. He'd always suspected they'd granted their support to his California project only because they'd judged him to be an interesting, potentially useful freak. Doodlebug hadn't heard a peep from the High Krewe's masters in a quarter century. What did they want with him now? Besthoff certainly hadn't ordered him to fly across the continent for a social call. He had been infuriatingly evasive in his communiqus, as he always was. But he'd left no doubt that he was willing to pound the stake through Doodlebug's most precious aspirations if Doodlebug failed to comply. Doodlebug walked briskly past fountains illuminated with beams of green, red, and white, the colors of the old Hungarian monarchy. He sensed an unfamiliar dampness under his smooth arms, despite the...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.8.2004
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror ► Horror
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• ISBN-10: 0-345-47861-4 / 0345478614
• ISBN-13: 978-0-345-47861-0 / 9780345478610