him,' the tutor said. 'Initiated ten years ago. A magician. Fifth level. Not an active member of the Watch.'
The trainees looked at their tutor admiringly. Then Andrei turned his head back and blurted out gleefully:
'Oh! On the bench! A Dark Other! Undead! A vampire! A Higher Vampire! Not registered
The boy had begun lowering his voice at the word 'undead', and he had pronounced the words 'not registered' almost in a whisper.
But the vampire had heard. He folded his newspaper and stood up. He looked at the boy and shook his head.
'Go,' said the tutor, tugging Andrei by the sleeve and dragging him behind himself. 'Everybody go, quickly!'
The vampire walked towards him, taking long steps, reaching out his right hand as if in greeting.
One of the male trainees took out a phone and pressed the emergency contact button. The vampire growled and started walking faster.
'Halt! Night Watch!' said Vadim Dmitrievich, raising his hand and creating the Magician's Shield. 'Stop ?you are under arrest!'
The vampire's silhouette blurred as if from rapid movement. The young woman trainee screamed as she tried to erect her Shield but couldn't manage it. The tutor turned to look at her, and at that instant something struck him in the chest, tightened in a hot, prickly fist ?and ripped out his heart. The useless Shield fizzled out, dissipating into space. The tutor swayed, not falling yet, staring helplessly at the bloody, beating lump of flesh lying at his feet. Then he started leaning down, as if to pick up his heart and stuff it back into the ragged, gaping hole in his chest. The world around him turned dark, the asphalt leapt up towards him, and he fell, clutching his own heart in his hand. His teaching career had not been a very long one.
The young woman squealed when the blow descended on her and she was tossed between the trees to the very edge of the roadway. She lay there across the kerb, still squealing and watching a car the same colour as the dirty asphalt driving straight at her.
The car managed to brake in time
The young woman squealed again as she tried to get up, and only then felt the terrible pain at her waist. She lost consciousness.
Andrei was suddenly jerked up into the air, as if someone wanted to look him in the eyes or sink their teeth into his throat. A voice whispered:
'Why did you have to see me, A-student?'
The boy screamed and began struggling in those invisible hands. He could feel a shameful damp patch spreading across his jeans.
'Have you been taught to record auras?' the voice asked out of thin air. 'Remember, I can sense a lie.'
'No!' Andrei shouted, squirming. The invisible vampire's grip slackened slightly.
And just at that moment the boy's eyes were blinded by a bright flash. One of the male trainees had managed to gather enough Power for a battle spell after all. Well, of course, it wasn't only young kids who liked to peep into the next sections of the textbook...
Andrei was jerked through the air, the world spun round him ?and he landed with a splash right in the middle of the pond, frightening the fat, lazy swans and the sly, brazen ducks. From there he saw the male trainee who had thrown the Shock spell fall, and the other trainee, who was making a phone call, take to his heels.
Andrei swam to the structure meant for the swans and scram bled up onto the wooden platform. The little house smelled of bird droppings. But the boy still preferred to sit there in the middle of the pond until the operations group arrived. The following day his action was described by Geser as the only correct thing that he could have done in the given situation, and the boy was un officially requested to think about working in the Watch. As Vadim Dmitrievich had used to say when he was alive: 'Dead heroes serve in a different place.'
Considering the nature of the situation, there weren't many casu alties. Only the tutor and one of the trainees, a mathematician by education. Perhaps he hadn't had enough time to calculate what kind of opposition an untrained fifth-level magician could offer a Higher Vampire.
Or perhaps he simply hadn't bothered to calculate anything.
Part Three CHAPTER 1
I SAID HELLO to Garik, who was discussing something with a colonel of the militia. The colonel was an ordinary man, but he was involved in our work ?he knew something about the Watches and helped