Сергей Лукьяненко - Day Watch

Yes, three vampires weren't really enough for the shape-shifter…

"Vitaly!" Lemesheva commanded. The mental command slid through the Twilight and our werewolf dashed toward the entrance of the house, throwing off his clothes and changing into a wolf on the way. We continued feeding Edgar with energy and he started moving forward again, even managing to squeeze Garik back into the apartment. Then a huge wolf appeared from behind Edgar and rushed forward, paying no attention to the magicians.

It was a good idea. But inside the apartment the appearance of the werewolf was met with a bolt of fire. One of the Light Ones who had been kept in reserve had joined in the struggle, and he'd immediately shown that he was serious.

The werewolf's thick brown fur burst into flames and he leapt up into the air and fell on the floor, thrashing his paws about and rolling over and over, trying to put the flames out. If he had continued the attack, he would have had a chance to get to the magician before he could prepare a second fireball…

But he'd obviously been on watch duty for far too long.

Vitaly kept trying to put out the flames, and new charges kept striking him from out of the darkness. A second, a third, a fourth… Blood spurted out and burning lumps of flesh went flying through the air. The wolf howled and fell silent-only its back legs were twitching now, with its tail lying between them, blazing like a firework. It was actually quite beautiful.

The amulet hanging at my chest-a small crystal jug with a drop of red liquid sealed inside-crunched and shattered into tiny fragments. That was bad. It was a signal that my Power was running out and it simultaneously released my final reserve. A drop of the blood of a woman who has died giving birth to an Other is a very powerful source of energy, but even that wouldn't last for long.

" Lena!" Lemesheva ordered.

I felt the wordless command again and Lena left the Circle, moving slowly, like a sleepwalker. My right hand was left empty and the trance receded for a few seconds, before Anna Lemesheva reached out to me. But it was enough time for me to see something standing in the center of our Circle-a small folding table of black wood, with a slim blade of burnished steel lying on it. And Lena was already standing by the sandbox, frozen over the playing children as if she were choosing between them…

"The girl!" Lemesheva shouted. "One girl is more use than a dozen boys!"

Now I understood everything. Apart from one thing, that is. How had Anna Lemesheva been granted the right to a human sacrifice, and why had she decided to waste such tremendous Power on saving some ordinary witch?

But then Lemesheva grasped my hand and at once I became a mindless part of the Circle of Power.

Edgar was already squeezed back into the corner of the stairwell-they weren't just pushing him back now, they were trying to crush him against the wall. He threw up one hand: "Stop!"

A terrible pain…

The Circle was draining the very last drops of energy out of me, and Olga wasn't giving any more at all. She'd been wrung completely dry and she was standing there with us, twitching as if she were holding a bare power cable, and Zhanna was groaning quietly too, her head gradually sinking down onto her chest…

"We have the right to a sacrifice," Edgar said coolly. "If you don't let her go…"

The Light Ones froze. I saw the way they looked at each other and Garik shook his head.

But Semyon seemed to believe it right away.

A sacrifice provides a massive discharge of energy, especially if it's the sacrifice of a child; more if it takes place inside a Circle of Power; and even more if it's performed by an experienced witch. Lena Kireeva was standing inside the Ring, the knife already in her hands and the girl lying on the black table.

If we transferred the liberated Power into Edgar, the Light Ones wouldn't be able to stand up against it. Of course, they had extreme methods of their own, but did they have the authority to make use of them?

The shape-shifter tigress sprang out into the corridor. She must have been battering the vampire brothers on the balcony and seen what we were preparing to do.

"You can't stand against us," Edgar said aloofly. "We'll take what is ours anyway, and a human child will die. And you'll be to blame."

The Light Ones were dumbfounded. It was hardly surprising: The situation behind this particular conflict didn't seem particularly important in any way. It wasn't a matter of states threatening nuclear strikes against each other if their agents were arrested for spying. Others don't threaten to use first-degree magic in the case of a petty conflict between operational agents.

But the Light Ones were still keeping up the pressure on our magician. They were maintaining the press, if only by inertia, and we had no more Power left to share with Edgar. Olga had gone rigid and lost consciousness, and now she was standing in the ring like a limp wooden puppet. Zhanna was already sinking to her knees, but heroically maintaining a grip with her hands and giving a few final crumbs of energy. Lena 's face contorted in an agonized grimace and she raised the knife above the twitching little girl. She was conscious, otherwise the discharge of energy would have been reduced, but she was restrained by a spell of silence. My body felt as limp as cotton wool and I was beginning to sway. I wish they'd hurry… I won't be able to hold out …

"Stop!" shouted Semyon. "We surrender the witch!"

Hold it… hold the Circle . I tried to draw energy out of the surrounding space, out of the little girl who was frightened to death, out of the people walking by a little distance away and diligently paying no attention to what was going on.

It was useless. I'd been completely drained of everything. It was Lemesheva… that was why she was standing there stronger than everyone else, the lousy… We were all going to die here for an old woman no one needed, and she'd be left, that vile creature.

But the Light Ones had already shoved a scruffy, plump woman in a dirty housecoat and torn slippers into Edgar's arms. She didn't understand a thing-she was staring all around and trying to cross herself.

"You'll pay for this" were Semyon's last words.

Edgar pulled the witch's arm behind her back with a sharp jerk-he had no time for explanations and no strength left for magic. He dragged her down the staircase.

Hold the Circle…

A sacrifice is an act of such great Power that it is best held in reserve. The right to use it might have been won twenty or thirty years earlier by the cunning use of intrigue and provocation. That was why Kireeva was still standing stony-faced above the little girl, with the knife gleaming in her hand, ready to cut out her heart in a single swift movement, while Deniska monotonously recited the words of the appropriate spells. At any moment we could have received a powerful stream of energy… only it was better to do without it.

Hold the Circle…

My fury was the only thing that saved me. Fury with the entire unsuccessful day, with all the failures of the last year, and with Lemesheva, who clearly knew more than she was saying.

I don't know where I found those final crumbs of Power, but I did! And I drove them through the limp bodies of Olga and Zhanna, so that Lemesheva could transmit the thin stream of Power to Edgar…

The first to jump into the minibus were the vampire brothers… those damn useless field agents… Then Lena let the little girl go and she went rushing off, howling. Deniska stopped reciting spells, picked up the little table, and tossed it into the back of the minibus. And it was only then that Lemesheva broke the Circle.

Everything was swimming in front of my eyes. For some reason I started coughing as I tried in vain to free my hand from Olga's rigid fingers.