Nightwatch

«Come closer, Anton,» the tigress roared, without turning around. «There she is!»

Bear was standing closer to the vampire than Tiger Cub. He looked even more terrifying. For this transformation he'd chosen the form of a polar bear, but unlike the real inhabitants of the Arctic he was snowy white, just like in the pictures and children's books. No, he had to be a magician, not a reformed shape-shifter. Shape-shifters were limited to only one form, two at most, and I'd seen Bear take the form of a pigeon-toed brown Russian bear (when we arranged a carnival for the Watch's American guests), and the form of a grizzly, at our demonstration classes on transformation.

The girl-vampire was standing right on the edge of the roof.

She looked worse, a lot worse since the first time I met her. Her features were even sharper now and her cheeks were hollow. During the first stage of the body's transformation, a vampire requires fresh blood almost constantly. But I wasn't about to be fooled by the way she looked: Her exhaustion was just her appearance; it was agonizing for her, but it didn't take away her strength. The burn mark on her face was almost gone; I could just make out a faint trace.

«You!» the vampire's voice rang out triumphantly—as if she'd summoned me to be slaughtered, not for negotiations.

«Yes, me.»

Egor was standing in front of the vampire; she was using him to shield herself from our operatives. The boy was in the Twilight she'd summoned, so he hadn't lost consciousness. He stood still, not saying anything, looking from me to Tiger Cub and back. We were obviously the two he was counting on most. The vampire had one arm around the boy's chest, holding him tight against her, and she was holding her other hand against his throat, with its claws extended. The situation wasn't that hard to assess. Stalemate. Both sides stymied.

If Tiger Cub or Bear tried to attack the vampire, she'd tear the kid's head off with a single sweep of her hand. There's no cure for that… not even with our powers. On the other hand, once she killed the boy, there'd be nothing to stop us.

It's a mistake to drive your enemy into a corner. Especially if you're going to kill him.

«You wanted me to come. So I've come.» I raised my hands to show they were empty and started walking forward. When I was midway between Tiger Cub and Bear the vampire bared her fangs:

«Stop!»

«I haven't got any poplar stakes or combat amulets. I'm not a magician. And there's nothing I can do to you.»

«The amulet! The amulet on your neck!»

So that was it…

«That's nothing to do with you. It protects me against someone incomparably superior to you.»

«Take it off!»

Oh, this was bad… really bad… I grabbed the chain, pulled the amulet off and dropped it at my feet. Now, if he wanted to, Zabulon could try to influence me.

«I've taken it off. Now talk. What do you want?»

The vampire twisted her head right around—her neck easily turned the full three hundred and sixty degrees. Oho! I'd never even heard of that one… I don't think our fighters had, either: Tiger Cub growled.

«There's someone sneaking up here!» The vampire's voice was still human—the shrill, hysterical voice of a stupid young girl who has acquired great strength and power by accident. «Who is it? Who?»

She pressed her left hand, the one with the extended claws, into the boy's neck. I shuddered, picturing what would happen if a single drop of blood was spilled. The vampire would lose control! She pointed to the edge of the roof with her other hand in a ludicrous gesture of accusation, like Lenin on his armored car.

«Tell him to come out!»

I sighed and shouted:

«Ilya, come out…«

Fingers appeared on the edge of the roof, and a moment later Ilya swung over the low barrier and stood beside Tiger Cub.

Where had he been hiding? On the canopy of a balcony? Or had he been hanging there, clutching the strands of blue moss?

«I knew it!» the girl-vampire said triumphantly. «Trickery!»

It seemed she hadn't sensed Semyon. Maybe our phlegmatic friend had spent a hundred years training in ninja techniques?

«What right have you to talk about trickery?»

«Every right!» Something human flickered briefly in the vampire's eyes. «I know how to deceive! You don't!»

«Fine, fine. You know how, we don't,» I thought. «Just you keep on believing that. If you believe the only place for 'white lies' is in sermons, that's just fine. If you think that 'good must have hard fists' only applies in old poems by a ridiculed poet, you just keep right on thinking that way.»

«What do you want?» I asked.

She paused for a moment, as if she hadn't given it any thought:

«To live!»

«Too late. You're already dead.»

«Really? And can the dead rip people's heads off?»

«Yes. That's all they can do.»

We looked at each other, and it was strange, so pompous and theatrical—the whole conversation was absurd, after all; we'd never be able to understand each other. She was dead. Her life was someone else's death. I was alive. But from where she stood, it was all the other way around.

«I'm not to blame for this.» Her voice had suddenly become calmer and softer. The hand on Egor's neck relaxed slightly. «You, the ones who call yourselves the Night Watch… who never sleep at night, who claim the right to protect the world against Darkness… where were you when my blood was drunk?»

Bear shifted forward slightly. A tiny little step, as if he hadn't moved his powerful paws at all, just slid when the wind pushed him. I knew he'd continue slipping forward like that for another ten minutes, the same way he had been doing for an entire hour since the standoff began. Until he thought he had a good enough chance. Then he'd pounce… and if he was lucky, he'd be able to tear the kid out of the vampire's arms with no more harm done than a couple of broken ribs.

«We can't keep track of everybody,» I said. «It's just not possible.»

This was terrible… I was starting to feel sorry for her. Not for the boy who'd been caught up in the game played between Light and Darkness, not for young Svetlana, with the curse hanging over her, not for the entirely i

«In any case you still had a choice,» I said. «And don't tell me you didn't. Initiation can only take place by mutual consent. You could have died. Died honestly. As a human being.»

«Honestly?» The vampire shook her head, scattering her hair across her shoulders. Where was Semyon?… How hard could it be to climb to the roof of a twelve-story building? «It would have been good to die—honestly. But the person who signed the license… the one who earmarked me as food. Was he acting honestly?»

Light and Darkness…

She wasn't simply the victim of a vampire on the rampage. She'd been marked down as prey, chosen by a blind throw of the dice. She had been destined to give up her life for the continuation of someone else's death. But that young guy who had crumbled into a heap of dust at my feet when he was incinerated by the seal had fallen in love with her. Really fallen in love… and he hadn't completely sucked out the girl's life; he'd turned her into his equal.

The dead can do more than rip off heads; they can love too. The trouble is that even their love requires blood.

He'd had no choice but to conceal her, since he'd turned the girl into a vampire illegally. He'd needed to feed her, and only live blood would do for that, not the bottled blood of naive donors.

So he'd started poaching on the streets of Moscow, and then we'd started to pay attention, the keepers of the Light, the valiant Night Watch, who hand victims over to the Dark Ones.

In a war the most dangerous thing is to understand the enemy. To understand is to forgive. And we have no right to do that—we never have had, not since the creation of the world.

«Even so, you still had a choice,» I said. «You did. Someone else's betrayal is no excuse for your own.»

She laughed quietly.

«Yes, yes… good servant of the Light… Of course. You're right. And you can tell me a thousand times that I'm dead. That my soul has burned away and evaporated into the Twilight. But if I'm so malevolent, can you explain to me what the difference is between us! Explain that… make me believe it.»

The vampire lowered her head and looked into Egor's face. She spoke in an intimate, almost friendly tone:

«And you… boy… do you understand me? Answer me. Answer me honestly, don't take any notice of… my claws. I won't take offense.»

Bear made another tiny movement forward. I could feel his muscles tensing as he prepared to pounce.

But then Semyon appeared behind the vampire, without making a sound, with a movement that was smooth and quick at the same time—how did he manage to move that fast in the human world?

«Wake up, little one!» the vampire said coaxingly. «Answer! Only honestly! And if you think he's right and I'm wrong… if you really believe that… I'll let you go.»

I caught Egor's eye.

And I knew what he was going to say.

«You're right too.»

A cold, empty feeling. No strength left for emotions. Let them show on the outside, let them blaze like a bonfire that people couldn't see.

«What do you want?» I asked. «To exist? All right… give yourself up. There'll be a trial, a joint court of the Watches…«

The girl-vampire looked at me and shook her head:

«No, I don't trust your court. Not the Night Watch or the Day Watch.»

«Then why did you call me here?» I asked. Semyon was moving toward the vampire, getting closer all the time…

«For vengeance,» the vampire said simply. «You killed my friend. I'm going to kill yours… while you watch. And then… I'm going to try… to kill you. But even if I fail…« She smiled. «… you'll always know you didn't save the boy. Won't you, watchman? You sign licenses without thinking about real people. And the moment you do look… out creeps your morality… your rotten, false, cheap morality…«

Semyon pounced.

And Bear pounced in the same instant.

It was beautiful, and it was faster than any bullet or any spell, because in the final analysis all that's left is the body striking the blow and the skill acquired over twenty, forty, a hundred years…

But I still pulled the pistol out from behind me and jerked the trigger back, knowing that the bullet would fly through the air slowly and lazily, like a «high-speed» shot from a cheap action movie, still leaving the vampire a chance to dodge, a chance to kill.