Day Watch

And then the world stopped and I groaned, clutching at his shoulders and scratching, moving after him, not wanting to let him go. The pleasure was as brief as a flash of lightning, and as blindingly bright. But he didn't stop, and I was buoyed up again, balancing on that wave of sweetness-and at the precise moment when his eyes opened wide and his body went totally rigid, I came again. But this time in a different way-the pleasure wasn't as piercing, it was long and pulsating-as if it were following the rhythm of his sperm, spurting into my body.

I couldn't even groan anymore. We lay beside each other- I was on the towel and Igor was on the sand-touching each other, caressing each other, as if our hands had a life of their own. I pressed my cheek against his chest, catching the salty smell of the sea and the sour smell of sweat, his body shuddering under my hand. And I didn't even realize when I started kissing him, moving lower and lower and burying my face in the rough hair, caressing him with my lips and my tongue, feeling the excitement mounting in him again. Igor lay there without moving, just touching my shoulders with his hands. And that was right, that was what he should do, because now I wanted to give him pleasure. And when he came again with a quiet groan, unable to restrain himself, I felt as happy as if he had been caressing me.

Everything was just the way it should be.

Everything was like nothing that had ever happened before.

No orgy, not even the very liveliest, had ever given me so much pleasure. I had never felt such happiness, not with one man or two or three, never felt this feeling before… this feeling of… completeness? Yes, that was it, completeness! I simply didn't need anyone else.

"I love you," I whispered. "Igor… I love you."

He could have answered that he loved me too-and he would have spoiled everything, or almost everything. But he only said, "I know."

When Igor got up and took something out from under the heap of clothes on the sand, I could hardly even believe my eyes at first.

A bottle and a glass. A crystal glass. Just one.

Igor smiled, the cork went flying into the air and the foaming champagne poured into the glass. I took a mouthful. Brut, and cold too.

"Now am I good or bad?" he asked.

"Bad," I said, holding out the glass to him. "For hiding a precious treasure like that!"

Igor smiled and drank the wine. Then he said thoughtfully, "You know, I think I'm getting that feeling again…"

He started, and stopped speaking, straightening up abruptly. I jumped up-just in time to see an indistinct shadow slip away into the night from behind a beach parasol not far away.

"That's not good," Igor whispered.

"Who was it?" I asked. The realization that someone had been watching us didn't increase my excitement as it usually did. Completeness. Total completeness. Even the sip of champagne was just a pleasant extra after sex now, but not really necessary. And I certainly didn't need any outsiders.

"I don't know… it looked like one of the children." Igor was clearly upset. "That's really bad… how stupid."

"It's no disaster," I said, putting my arms around his shoulders. "The little ones are already asleep, and it's good for the older ones… it's part of their education too."

He smiled, but he was obviously concerned. That's people for you… always making a big deal out of nothing…

"Let's go to your room," I suggested.

"Okay," said Igor with a sharp nod. He looked at me. "But remember, in that case you won't get any sleep today."

"I was just going to warn you about that," I said. And it was true.

Chapter six

–«¦»-

When I was a fully functional Other, I could easily go without sleep for five or six days. But even now I wasn't feeling sleepy at all. Quite the opposite. I could feel my blood simply seething with energy.

I got back to our summer house half an hour before reveille and looked in on the girls-some of them were tossing and turning as they woke up, but everything was all right. No one had run off to go swimming and drowned, no one had been kidnapped by evil terrorists, no one had got it into her head to go looking for their brigade leader in the middle of the night.

I went into my room with a smile of stupid satisfaction. I got undressed slowly and lazily, standing in front of the mirror, then ran my hands sensuously over my thighs and stretched like a satisfied cat.

An insane night. A magical night. I must have done just about all the wild things that a woman can do when she's in love with a man. Even things I hadn't liked before had suddenly become tantalizing pleasures that night. Surely I couldn't really have fallen in love with a human being? It wasn't possible… Not with an ordinary man, even if he did understand me better than anyone else in the world.

It just wasn't possible.

"Darkness, let him be an Other," I whispered. "Great Darkness, I implore you…"

It's a dangerous game to bother the primordial Power with such petty requests. Although… I don't believe the Darkness is able to hear a simple witch. But I expect Zabulon can shout loud enough for it to hear him…

Zabulon…

I sat on the bed and covered my face with my hands.

Only two days ago nothing would have brought me more joy than his love. But now?

Of course, he himself had suggested that I should amuse myself. And of course, he couldn't give a damn for banal human dogmas, especially those that made up the repertoire of the Light Ones. Infidelity meant nothing to him. And as for jealousy… he wouldn't even say a word against it if Igor and I…

Stop! Where is this taking me?

"Alisa, you've lost your wits…" I whispered.

Was I really still so much like ordinary people? Could I really think-what a terrible thing to say-of getting married? To a human being? Of cooking him borscht, washing his socks, bearing his children and raising them?

It was just like the old saying: The Watch by day, disgrace by night…

But yes, I could…

I shook my head, imagining how the other girls would react. No, there was nothing unusual about the actual fact. Most witches are married and, as a rule, to human beings. But…

It was one thing to cast a spell on some wealthy and influential man, an oligarch, or even a deputy of the State Duma or some major Moscow gangster. But a simple young guy, a student, without any money or contacts? I imagined the kind of jokes that would be hurled at me… and with good reason- that was the most terrible thing!

But it wasn't the sex that was driving me insane.

What was it that was happening to me?

It was as if I'd been enchanted by an incubus…

I shuddered at the monstrous thought. What if Igor was an ordinary incubus? A colleague… from one of the primitive types of Dark Ones?

No. It was impossible. An incubus would have sensed that I was an Other. A Dark Other, even if I had been temporarily deprived of Power. And he would have never turned his Power on a witch, knowing the price he would have to pay for that. I'd grind him into dust if my Power returned and I discovered love had been imposed on me…

Love? So it was love then? "Oh, Alisa…" I whispered. "What a fool you are…"

Well all right, so I am a fool!

I took a clean pair of panties out of my bag and went into the shower.

I dashed about like someone possessed all day long until the evening. Everything went quickly, but that didn't bother me in the slightest. I even had a bit of a quarrel with the camp commandant when I was trying to get good places for my girls at the movie festival. But I got them, and I think I left her with an improved opinion of me. Then they gave out the pieces of dark glass that had been brought from somewhere in the town of Nikolaev for watching the next day's eclipse of the sun. Five pieces of glass were given out to every brigade, but I managed to get hold of six. I hadn't even expected anyone in Ukraine to think of making them, but since they had…