Lilit19: переводы

→No more was said about magic, and we soon reached the main strip downtown, where the Thai restaurant was. We placed a giant carry- out order and were told it would take about fifteen minutes. Sonya and I lingered out- side, admiring downtown Palm Springs in twilight. Last-minute shoppers were out before the boutiques closed, and al the res- taurants were hopping with those coming and going. Many of them had outdoor tables on the sidewalk, and friendly conversation buzzed around us. A large fountain, tiled in bright colors, fascinated children and in- spired tourists to stop for photo ops. Sonya was easily distracted by the various plants and trees that the city used to beautify the streets. Even without spirit’s ability to affect living things, she was stil quite the gardener.

→“There must be something. Everyone has a price.”
“Sorry.” There was no price in the world she could offer to get me to shirk my duty to Jil and the Alchemists. A restaurant clerk stuck his head outside and caled that our order was ready, mercifully freeing us from Lia. Sonya chuckled as we loaded up on our bags and headed back down the street to make the walk to Adrian’s. The sky was stil purple with the last of the day’s light, and street lamps made whimsical patterns on the sidewalk as they cast their light through the leaves of palm trees.

→Usualy, they were just casual affairs that resulted in the reproduc- tion of more dhampirs. In addition to the scandal of even being involved, Mikhail had actualy wanted to hunt down Sonya when she was a Strigoi to free her from that twis- ted state. Rose had attempted the same with Dimitri, believing death was better than be- ing a Strigoi. with Dimitri, believing death was better than being a Strigoi. Mikhail had failed, but their love had re- mained steadfast enough through the ordeal that when she’d defied the odds and been re- stored, they’d immediately gotten back to- gether. I couldn’t even begin to imagine love like that.

→“What do you see?” I asked in a low voice.
“Colors,” she said. “Shining around al living things. Eddie and Dimitri have different col- ors, but they have the same reactions.” She changed the picture on the screen to one of a factory spiling black smoke into an otherwise clear sky. “Neither of them like this. Their auras dim and turn troubled.” She flipped to the next image, a smile on her lips. Three kit- tens appeared on the screen.

→In turn, Adrian and Sonya watched the dhampirs closely and made notes on paper. I almost wished I could see the bands of color and light and wondered if there realy were any noticeable differences. Studying Eddie and Dimitri, I sometimes would notice a change in facial expression when particularly cute or horrific images in facial expression when particularly cute or horrific images showed up on the screen, but for the most part their work remained a mys- tery to me.
Curious, I walked over to Sonya when they were about halfway through.

→Adrian’s lips tightened, and he made no fur ther protest. Maybe it was because he felt overruled, but I had a feeling it was because he just didn’t want to engage with Dimitri. With the attention off me, I settled into the living room with a book and tried to stay awake. They didn’t need me. I’d simply come to keep Eddie company. Occasionaly, I’d check the others’ progress. Dimitri and Eddie watched as Sonya flipped through different images on her laptop.

→“I stil say it’s a waste,” said Adrian. “They’re both dhampirs, but that doesn’t mean we can assume any different reactions they have are because Belikov was a Strigoi. Everyone’s unique.
Everyone’s going to respond differently to pictures of kittens or spiders.
“My old man? He hates kittens.” spiders. My old man? He hates kittens.”

→“We want to do another aura study,” said Sonya. Looked like poor Eddie would be do- ing some more sitting around.
“Last time we focused on any sign of spirit. This time, we want to show both of you some pictures and see if they trigger any color changes in your auras.” I nodded in approval. A lot of psycho- logical experiments attempted similar tech- niques, though they usualy monitored physiological responses instead of mystical auras.

→“And now they warm up. Affection is very easy to spot in an aura. So far, they react in normal ways. There’s no sign in Dimitri’s aura that he’s different from Eddie.” I returned to the couch. After a couple of hours, Sonya caled a halt.
“I think we’ve seen what we needed to. Thank you, Eddie.”
“Happy to help,” he said, rising from his chair and stretching.

→Eddie regarded me with sympathy. “I’l stay, but you don’t have to. Go sleep. I’l get a ride home.”
“No, no,” I said, stifling a second yawn. “I don’t mind. What are your other ideas?”
“I was hoping to do something similar with Eddie and Dimitri,” she explained. “Except this time, we’d use sounds instead of images. Then I’d like to see how they respond to dir- ect contact with spirit.”

→He seemed relieved both that it was over and that it had involved something slightly more interesting than staring off into space. He was active and energetic, and didn’t like captivity.
“Although … we’ve got a few other ideas,” she added. “Do you think you guys can power through a little longer?” Naturaly, she asked just as I was yawning.

→“Adrian,” said Sonya. “We’ve already been over this. I respect your opinion but stil think we can learn a lot.” I was actualy impressed that Adrian had an opinion. So far, I’d kind of felt like he was just going along with everything Sonya and Dimitri told him to do and that he didn’t give these experi- ments much thought. And, although I wasn’t familiar with the auras that surrounded al living creatures, I could understand his point that individual differences would throw off their research.
“Al data is useful in this case,” said Dimitri. “Especialy since we haven’t found anything so far. We know there’s something different about former Strigoi. We can’t rule out any chance to observe it.”

→“We should probably get to work. We’re losing time.” That was Dimitri, getting us back on track.
“Right,” said Adrian. “This is five minutes of valuable research wasted. Up for more fun, Castile? I know how much you love sitting around.” Because they were trying to find something special about Dimitri, Sonya and Adrian would often sit the two dhampirs side by side and study their auras in fine detail.