The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko Page B

on the railway lines. It was possible to be afraid of unpleasant things and at the same time know there wasn't much chance they would mess up your life.
    Now everything had changed.
    There were some things you couldn't hide from. Things that shouldn't exist, that couldn't exist.
    But vampires did exist.
    He remembered it all distinctly, the horror hadn't wiped his memory clean, the way he'd vaguely hoped it would yesterday, when he was running home, breaking the rules by running across the street without looking. And his timid hope that in the morning everything that had happened would turn out to be a dream had proved wrong too.
    It was all true. It couldn't possibly be true, but it was . . .
    It had happened yesterday. It had happened to him.
    He'd been late coming home, sure, but he'd come home later than that before. Even his parents who, Egor was quite certain, hadn't realised yet that he was almost thirteen, thought nothing of it.
    When he left the swimming pool with the other guys . . . yes, it was ten o'clock already. They'd all piled into McDonald's and sat there for about twenty minutes. That was the usual thing too, after training everyone who could afford it went to McDonald's. Then . . . then they all walked to the metro together. It wasn't far. Along a brightly lit street. Eight of them together.
    Everything was still fine then.
    It was in the metro that he'd started feeling uneasy. He looked at his watch, stared round at the other passengers. But there was nothing suspicious.
    Except that Egor could hear music.
    And then things that couldn't happen had started happening.
    Without knowing why, he'd turned into a dark, stinking alleyway. He'd walked up to a girl and a young guy who were waiting for him. They'd lured him there. And he offered his own neck to the girl, to her long, sharp fangs that weren't even human.
    Even now, at home on his own, Egor could feel that chill – that sweet, enticing tingle running across his skin. He'd wanted it to happen! He'd been afraid, but he'd wanted the touch of the gleaming fangs, the sharp, short pain, and then . . . and then . . . there'd be something else . . . there had to be . . .
    And no one in the whole world could help him. Egor remembered the way the woman who was walking her dogs had looked straight through him. An alert glance, not at all indifferent – she hadn't been frightened, she simply couldn't see what was happening. Egor had only been saved by the third vampire turning up. That pale guy with the walkman who'd started trailing him back in the metro. They'd fought over him the way hungry, full-grown wolves quarrel over a deer they've cornered but not killed yet.
    Then everything had got confused, it all happened too fast. Someone had shouted something about some watch or other, about the twilight. There was a flash of blue light, and one vampire just crumbled into dust right there in front of his eyes, just like in the movies. The girl was howling because she'd had something splashed into her face.
    Then he'd fled in panic . . .
    And now he realised something terrible, even more terrible than what had happened: he couldn't tell anyone anything. They wouldn't believe him. They wouldn't understand.
    Vampires don't exist.
    It's not possible to look straight through people and not see them.
    Nobody just burns up in a swirl of blue flame, and turns into a dried mummy, a skeleton, a handful of ash.
    'They do!' Egor told himself. 'They do exist. It is possible. It does happen!'
    But even he could hardly believe it . . .
    Egor didn't go to school, but he did clean up the apartment. He wanted to do something. Several times he went across to the window and looked carefully round the yard.
    Nothing suspicious.
    But would he be able to see them?
    They would come. Egor didn't doubt it for a second. They knew he remembered them. Now they would kill him, because he was a witness.
    But they wouldn't just kill him. They'd drink his blood and turn him into a vampire!
    The