'What's the difference?' My guest snorted. 'I'm a girl, I'm allowed to get it wrong.'
'You're not a girl, you're a werewolf I looked closely at her face. 'And I remember you.'
'You do? 'All her bravado suddenly evaporated. 'You remember?'
'Of course. Your name's Galya. You were the one who noticed the witch Arina when she kidnapped my daughter*
(*This story is told in the second part of the book The Twilight Watch.)
'You do remember,' the girl said, with a smile. 'And I thought you must have forgotten a long time ago.'
'No.' I handed her the glass of wine. 'Thank you. You really helped a lot that time.'
'You have a fine daughter.' She took a bold gulp of wine and frowned slightly. 'And your wife is very beautiful.'
I nodded and asked:
'What are you going to do now?'
'I don't know. Zabulon told me this is a very important assignment. He said I have to help you, even though you're a Light One. Protect you against everything.'
'But why you?' I asked. 'Pardon me for saying so, but you are very young. And you're only fifth level.'
'Because I...' Galya hesitated. 'Was I some help? Even though I am only fifth level?'
'Yes, you were.' I downed my cocktail in a single gulp. 'I'm sorry, I'm terribly sleepy'
'So am I. But I feel so afraid in there. It's all red and black. Can I stay with you?' She looked at me and lowered her gaze in embarrassment.
I put down my glass and nodded.
'Of course. Will the sofa be all right for you? I'll give you a pillow and a blanket.'
'Light One...' the girl said slowly in an offended voice. 'All right, I'll leave these heavenly halls and go back to my anteroom in hell. It will probably feel more cheerful in any case!'
She walked proudly out of the room, clutching the glass of wine in her hand. I glanced into her doorway - her suite really was decorated in crimson and black. On the floor I saw scraps of black wool ?the girl had transformed so quickly that she hadn't given her skin time to change completely.
As she closed her door, Galya stuck her tongue out at me.
And after I closed mine, I started laughing quietly.
Acceleration, emancipation and the sexual revolution! No, I won't lie, I liked the idea that this girl had fallen for me four years earlier. Or maybe not four years earlier, maybe she had fallen in love afterwards. Retrospectively, so to speak. When the flood of hormones brought the time for romantic emotions and vague desires.
And how hard she'd tried to seduce me! Crossing her legs like that, allowing her dressing gown to slip, making those eyes at me.
Yes, sometimes I felt it was a great shame that I was a Light One...
But I wanted to sleep so badly that I felt absolutely no desire to indulge in exciting fantasies about sex with a young female werewolf. I posted a few guardian and defence spells entirely auto matically ?it was the same kind of ritual as cleaning my teeth. Then I climbed into bed and listened to the sounds outside the windows ?the city was still enjoying itself, the city was in no hurry to get to sleep. I took my cellphone, switched it to the music function and closed my eyes. The age of cassette players had gone the same way as gramophone records, the age of minidiscs had never happened, and now the age of CDs was on the way out. Now there was just the cold code name MP3. But we'd got used to that. It didn't bother us any more.
This how the light begins
A dark night with no special signs.
But someone has entered into that gloom.
You still don't realise it will be the same way for you.
Yes, this sounds crazy, yes, it sounds like a pipe dream.
But this is exactly how the light begins, how the fear ends,
How the sound is born.
This is how the fear ends.
And you have drunk the potion of poisoned herbs
From the carefully hidden books.
Now each shout you make is also a clue.
So much unhappiness and misfortune.
So much meaningless suffering.
But this is the only way the light begins, the only way the fear ends,
The way the sound is born.
Soon is the day of funerals,
So dig that trench to the roaring of thieves and cawing of ravens.