surprises me,' I said in a quiet voice. 'I thought you always had a dislike for bloodsuckers. Not to mention vampires who violated the Treaty... And you removed a criminal's registration seal?'
'Calm down, Anton,' Edgar said soothingly. 'When Gennady killed those Light Ones on the boulevard, it was only self-defence. And in Edinburgh... well, that was unfortunate. But it was self-defence too in a certain sense. Gennady didn't even drink the boy.
He didn't like the idea of drinking one of Kostya's friends, so he poured all the blood away...'
'And how did he reach the Higher level?' I asked, looking at Gennady.
The vampire opened his mouth just a crack, extending his fangs. He shook his head.
'His son left the recipe for "Saushkin's Cocktail" in his notes,' Edgar said coolly. 'Sure, Gennady increased his level illegally. But he didn't have to kill any people to do it... '
'Are you sure about that?' I asked, looking at Gennady. His fangs were moving further and further out. I wondered what Schrodinger's Cat would do if someone tried to bite me though its fluffy body.
'It's true, isn't it?' Edgar asked, reaching out one hand and taking Gennady firmly by the shoulder. 'Or is there something I don't know about my comrade-in-arms?'
'He's lying,' said Gennady. 'He's trying to set us against each other.'
'I don't think so,' said Edgar, still holding the vampire's shoulder, and perhaps even applying a little pressure to it now. 'You're very agitated, Gennady. Calm down.'
'I'm perfectly calm,' the vampire hissed.
'Have you killed people?' Edgar asked imperturbably. 'There wasn't any recipe for a cocktail e-mailed to you by your son, was there?'
'Yes, I've killed some,' Gennady said. He took the flask out again and shook it. 'But there was a cocktail! This is it, Kostya's cock tail. I didn't check the mail, I had too many things on my mind! So I only read the letter in the spring, and by then it was too late ... So what now?'
'They found fifty-two bodies drained of blood in his apartment. Perhaps you were wondering what had got the Watches so hot up? His own kind are ready to tear Gennady to pieces now. They've been left without licences for five years!'
'That's Geser being too modest again,' Edgar commented. 'In his place I would have demanded ten. It's outrageous. I had my own suspicions on the matter. Outrageous! Gennady, that's not the way to do things! We're all one team!'
'Are we still one team?' Gennady asked.
Edgar sighed.
'Yes. What's done can't be undone... But why did you do it?'
'How was I to know that you would come and find me?' the vampire asked. 'I wanted my revenge on Anton. And how can a weak vampire take his revenge on a Higher One? I had to build myself up. It's all his fault!'
This was an excuse that would never go out of fashion, I thought. Not only among the sons of Darkness, but among the most ordinary of human scum.
'It was all his fault! He had an apartment, a car and an expen sive cellphone, and all I had was three roubles, chronic alcoholism and a hangover every morning. That was why I waited for him in the gateway with a brick...' 'She had long legs, she was seven teen and she had a handsome boyfriend, and I had impotence, a porn magazine under my pillow and a face like a gorilla's. I just had to attack her in the hallway when she walked in, humming to herself, with her lips still hot from kisses...' 'He had an inter esting job, work assignments all over the world and a good repu tation, and I had a degree diploma that I'd bought, a petty job working under him and chronic idleness. That was the reason I fixed things so that he would be accused of embezzlement and kicked out of the firm...'
They're all the same, these people and these Others who are desperate for glory, money or blood and have discovered that the shortest path is always the Dark one.
There's always somebody who was getting in their way and somebody who was to blame...
Probably when Gennady Saushkin wanted to save his little son he really was trying to do good. He didn't have a soul, but in his mind and his heart he simply couldn't accept Kostya's death. Just as he didn't want to accept it now. And the Dark way had proved so simple and so short...
For a long time he had teetered on the very brink,