The Night Watch Read Online Free Page A
Author: Sergei Lukyanenko
wouldn't do me any damage. What I wanted was blood.
Not pig's blood, or cow's blood, but real human blood. Curse this hunt . . .
'You have to go through this,' the boss had said. 'Five years in the analytical department's a bit too long, don't you think?' I don't know, maybe it is a bit too long, but I like it. And after all, the boss himself hasn't worked out in the field for more than a hundred years now. I ran past the bright shop windows with their displays of fake Gzhel ceramics and stage-set heaps of food. There were cars rushing past me along the avenue, a few pedestrians. That was all fake too, an illusion, just one facet of the world, the only one accessible to humans. I was glad I wasn't one of them.
Without breaking my rapid stride, I summoned the Twilight.
The world sighed as it opened up. It was as if airport searchlights had suddenly come on behind me, casting a long, thin, sharp shadow. The shadow swirled up, gaining volume, the shadow was drawing me into itself – into a dimension where there are no shadows. The shadow detached itself from the dirty tarmac, swirling and swaying like a column of heavy smoke. The shadow was running ahead of me . . .
Quickening my stride, I broke through the grey silhouette into the Twilight. The colours of the world dimmed and the cars on the avenue slowed, as if they were suddenly heavy.
I was getting close to my goal.
As I dodged into the alleyway, I thought I would just catch the final scene. The boy's motionless, ravaged body, drained dry, the vampires disappearing.
But I wasn't too late after all.
The boy was standing in front of a girl vampire who had already extended her fangs, slowly taking off his scarf. He was probably not afraid now – the Call completely numbs the conscious mind. More likely he was longing to feel the touch of those sharp, gleaming fangs.
There was a young male vampire standing beside them. I sensed immediately that he was the leader of the pair: he was the one who was initiating her, he was introducing her to the scent of blood. And the most sickening thing about it was that he had a Moscow registration tag. Bastard!
But then, that only improved my chances . . .
The vampires turned towards me in confusion, not understanding what was going on. The boy was in their Twilight, I shouldn't have been able to see him ... or them either.
Then the male vampire's face began to relax, he even smiled – a calm, friendly smile.
'Hi there ...'
He'd taken me for one of his own. And he could hardly be blamed for his mistake: I really was one of them now. Almost. The week of preparation had not been wasted: I had begun to sense them . . . but I'd almost gone over to the Dark Side myself.
'Night Watch,' I said. I held my hand out, holding the amulet. It was discharged, but that's not so easy to sense at a distance. 'Leave the Twilight!'
The male vampire would probably have obeyed me, hoping that I didn't know about the trail of blood he'd left behind him, that the whole business could just be written off as 'an attempt at unauthorised interaction with a human'. But the girl lacked his self-control, she didn't have the wit to get it.
'A-a-a-agh!' She threw herself at me with a long, drawn-out howl. It was a good thing she still hadn't sunk her teeth into the boy; she was out of her mind now, like a desperate junkie who's just stuck a needle in his vein only to have it jerked back out again, like a nymphomaniac after her man's pulled out just a moment before coming.
That dash would have been too fast for any human, no one could have parried it.
But I was in the same dimension of reality as the girl vampire. I threw up my arm and splashed vodka from the open bottle into her hideously transformed face.
Why do vampires tolerate alcohol so poorly?
The menacing scream became a shrill squeal. The girl began whirling around on the spot, beating her hands against her face as it shed layers of skin and greyish flesh. The male vampire swung round, all set
Not pig's blood, or cow's blood, but real human blood. Curse this hunt . . .
'You have to go through this,' the boss had said. 'Five years in the analytical department's a bit too long, don't you think?' I don't know, maybe it is a bit too long, but I like it. And after all, the boss himself hasn't worked out in the field for more than a hundred years now. I ran past the bright shop windows with their displays of fake Gzhel ceramics and stage-set heaps of food. There were cars rushing past me along the avenue, a few pedestrians. That was all fake too, an illusion, just one facet of the world, the only one accessible to humans. I was glad I wasn't one of them.
Without breaking my rapid stride, I summoned the Twilight.
The world sighed as it opened up. It was as if airport searchlights had suddenly come on behind me, casting a long, thin, sharp shadow. The shadow swirled up, gaining volume, the shadow was drawing me into itself – into a dimension where there are no shadows. The shadow detached itself from the dirty tarmac, swirling and swaying like a column of heavy smoke. The shadow was running ahead of me . . .
Quickening my stride, I broke through the grey silhouette into the Twilight. The colours of the world dimmed and the cars on the avenue slowed, as if they were suddenly heavy.
I was getting close to my goal.
As I dodged into the alleyway, I thought I would just catch the final scene. The boy's motionless, ravaged body, drained dry, the vampires disappearing.
But I wasn't too late after all.
The boy was standing in front of a girl vampire who had already extended her fangs, slowly taking off his scarf. He was probably not afraid now – the Call completely numbs the conscious mind. More likely he was longing to feel the touch of those sharp, gleaming fangs.
There was a young male vampire standing beside them. I sensed immediately that he was the leader of the pair: he was the one who was initiating her, he was introducing her to the scent of blood. And the most sickening thing about it was that he had a Moscow registration tag. Bastard!
But then, that only improved my chances . . .
The vampires turned towards me in confusion, not understanding what was going on. The boy was in their Twilight, I shouldn't have been able to see him ... or them either.
Then the male vampire's face began to relax, he even smiled – a calm, friendly smile.
'Hi there ...'
He'd taken me for one of his own. And he could hardly be blamed for his mistake: I really was one of them now. Almost. The week of preparation had not been wasted: I had begun to sense them . . . but I'd almost gone over to the Dark Side myself.
'Night Watch,' I said. I held my hand out, holding the amulet. It was discharged, but that's not so easy to sense at a distance. 'Leave the Twilight!'
The male vampire would probably have obeyed me, hoping that I didn't know about the trail of blood he'd left behind him, that the whole business could just be written off as 'an attempt at unauthorised interaction with a human'. But the girl lacked his self-control, she didn't have the wit to get it.
'A-a-a-agh!' She threw herself at me with a long, drawn-out howl. It was a good thing she still hadn't sunk her teeth into the boy; she was out of her mind now, like a desperate junkie who's just stuck a needle in his vein only to have it jerked back out again, like a nymphomaniac after her man's pulled out just a moment before coming.
That dash would have been too fast for any human, no one could have parried it.
But I was in the same dimension of reality as the girl vampire. I threw up my arm and splashed vodka from the open bottle into her hideously transformed face.
Why do vampires tolerate alcohol so poorly?
The menacing scream became a shrill squeal. The girl began whirling around on the spot, beating her hands against her face as it shed layers of skin and greyish flesh. The male vampire swung round, all set
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