And I did not mind. These werewolves can reschedule a frontal meeting with the truck and stay alive, and I and "Zaporozhitsa" will be enough. If it gets smudged, it won't.
Constantine, while driving, expressed his opinion about this... bad world, these... dishonest shooters and these... completely unarmoured wheels. And a car that isn't a tank at all. And not even an APC. Shit, I'm gonna stay alive and ask Mečislav for a BMP. That's a wonderful thing. That's what girls should be given. Or clothes, tsatskis... Kalashnikov's automatic rifle, Maxim's machine gun and Makarov's pistol - these are the best friends of a fragile and weak woman! And also - defensive and offensive grenades.
The werewolf managed to keep the jeep on the move for a few seconds. It was a miracle. Then from the tyres, apparently, there were only rags left, we crashed somewhere - and the car froze.
There was silence. For how long?
Your zebra!
- Yulia, - Gleb spoke abruptly and clearly. - It's an ambush. We have to break through. They're probably going to kill us. You are to be taken alive. If you don't resist, Mechislav will get you out, wherever you are. So try to live to that point.
- Nastia, tell her that I love her. Let him name his son Bones," said Konstantin, who ducked somewhere under the wheel. The muzzle - not the face, but the fox face of a werewolf - stretched out. Fangs and claws on his left paw shone. In his right hand, while still in his hand, he was glimmering dimly with a black pistol.
- What happens to us?
- We're gonna get pulled out or taken out of the car. We're gonna fight. You wait for the fight to start, then you try to run away. They won't kill us right away. We'll try to hold them off. You can get into their hands, but you can get lucky. Don't think about us.
Gleb, still covering for me, started changing too. I could feel the bones moving in his body.
- Take this. - Constantine gave me another gun, smaller and made of some shiny metal. Silver and cool, it was comfortably in my hand. - And this.
I found a knife in my left hand.
- How to shoot, you know?
- You know how to shoot, you know?
I know. From where? My grandfather taught me. We always shoot at bottles in the summer. Grandpa's got perfectly legal hunting guns and a couple of pistols. And some guns from that war. I hit a fixed target eight times out of ten. In a moving target, five times. Except the moving target is ducks and boats at the shooting range. And they move strictly in a straight line. And then...
These are the enemies. And if I don't kill them, they'll kill me. That's it. Thoughts are at the end.
- Hey, there, in the car! We know you're alive and conscious! Come out with your hands up. Two minutes to think, then we'll use gas grenades.
The ringing voice has put an end to my doubts. It's either us, or us. And better yet, us. And what do we have?
I looked out from under a werewolf for some reason. Yeah, touched us. The front window's all cracked, and there's a couple or three bullet holes in the sides. If Gleb hadn't covered for me, I'd have been seen with pans on the other side by now. But I could hear my opponent very well. The voice was coming from the building across the street. Where did it take us? Usual private sector. One storey. There's a tree somewhere, but it's covered in plastic or brick. One single brick house, two floors. That's where our "friends" got settled in.
Too bad! The people are nasty! In broad daylight on the outskirts of town! Car bombardment! That was good in the '90s, but now?! What is this, Chicago?! And at least one bastard looked out the window... okay, locked the window and called the cops. That's where they are when you need them?! Well, at least one goddamn magazine was brought! Well, they didn't, did they?
- S-sooki," Gleb said.
- They need me, I'm sorely sore.
- Don't even think about getting out! - Constantine whispered from the front seat.
I smiled.
- You guys, I'm not suicidal. Scream that I was imprinted on something and I passed out. Let's see how much they need me, huh?
Gleb answered with the same grin. On the half-moon face with rows of sharp teeth, it looked... creepy.
- Hey there, ambush! Fuckin' hell! Yulka's hurt! We need an ambulance!
Silence.
We've been using it to the fullest extent.
- Konstantin, did you call ours?
Werewolf was feverishly dialing. Valentin was the first one to call. When he heard about the ambush, he woke up and promised to be there in twenty, thirty minutes. But how do you hold out?
Meanwhile, I called Mieczysław.
- Yes, Fluffy?
- We've been shot at and are going to do something bad. The vampire wailed too, as if I had cracked his forehead with a cross. And you can understand him. Tomorrow the Prince of Tula arrives, really in the morning, and then there's...
- Damn it, r-r-r-r-r-r-r! Where?!
- Where are we?! - I barked at the werewolves.
- Lobachevsky Street, - snapped at Konstantin.
- I heard everything. Wounded, killed?
- We're hanging in there for now. We've got weapons, we'll take the attack. The first one. Then we're done.
- Hold on for at least half an hour. I'm gonna get everyone who's there and I'm leaving.
- Careful, or you'll get yourself shot.
What a fool, I found someone to teach! If Mechislav has lived so many years - and survived... But the vampire did not snap, but instead asked with a velvet voice:
- Are you worried about me, Fluffy?
The vampire voice slipped on my skin like something warm and cozy. I went out of my way to get the urge, and I answered abruptly, angry at myself:
- I don't care about your skin, but who's going to get me out if you die?
- Hold on. I'm on my way out now.
I turned my phone off and I looked at the guys.
- How do our opponents know there's alive here?
- Not the kind of blows that would make a werewolf pass out at least.
- Get her out of the car! - were born in the house.
- We don't want to take any chances! Spinal injury!
Good girl! What a clever Gleb!
- Then come out on your own! Slowly, hands on the back of the head...
In response, Gleb thoroughly sent his opponents to a short farm for butterflies and offered them to shoot - with great probability to finally kill me.
- And Julka is not a werewolf's tail, so shoot, you bastards! It's better for her to die now than for you scoundrels to be in the clutches!
- We have a lady with us, you rude tram, - Konstantin whispered.
- She is not a lady, but a comrade-in-arms," said Gleb. At the same time he safely hit me with his elbow on his shoulder, but I kept silent. I even somehow warmed up. Maybe I should ask Mecislav to give me a couple of werewolves instead of hot-water? Otherwise, we're always not drowning and before the heating season I have time to catch a couple of colds.
- We have to protect her, not teach her to rewind!
- I'll teach you myself," I whispered. - Aminoacylsinthese your zebra about deoxyribonuclease through triphosphate and five mitochondria into meiosis!
[10]
Werewolves were joking around on adrenaline. We all knew we couldn't hold out much longer. One hope is that the attackers will, too. We can't count on the police: the place is deaf, the Church of the Protection of the Holy Virgin stands on the outskirts of the city, and we have to get to it through the private sector. There are a lot of roads, you can drive anywhere, and if the enemies have someone else and they put up signs "Road repair" and "Bypass" on both sides, they definitely have about twenty minutes.
The militia? Yeah, where are those times when conscious citizens, not having time to envy a hooligan or robber, grabbed the phone, and a minute later arrived dashing policeman? Or a patrol car...
They fell into oblivion with the Soviet Union.
Eh, and I'm not a fighter...
Is that so?
A woman with animal eye
s was smiling.
And on whose orders did the rats eat twelve werewolves then?
It was a moment in my life that I always remembered with horror. But if there's no other way...
How was it then?
- Guys, do whatever it takes to stall," I whispered. Gleb shouted something to the enemy, and I covered my eyes.
The house. A stone one. Two floors. It's made of white bricks. A sharp pyramid roof. Weather vane as a rooster. Six windows. Four on the first floor, two on the second floor. There's a balcony on the second floor at the corner. The veranda, where it's convenient to sit and drink tea. And above it there's an awning in a red and white stripe.
The house stood before my eyes as if it were alive. And I reached out to it in my mind.
This time it was quicker and easier. I also saw myself from the side, saw werewolves near me, and rose above my body like a balloon on a thread. Eh, I'd like to do a few experiments, but there's no time.
So I slipped through the roof of the car.
You didn't have to go at all. Flying was much more comfortable. You don't even have to straighten your hands. And you don't have to wave them either. It's an inimitable feeling to fly like a bird.
- So shoot, you bastards! - Gleb finished his tirade.
- No, we're not going to shoot, - gently uttered in the evening air someone surprisingly clear and strong voice. - Why should we shoot? Boys, get out of the car. And let Julenka lie inside, we don't want to hurt anyone...
The werewolves have turned pale. It's just that you can't see much under the wool.
- The calling fox!
I didn't need any more - clear and without words. What is this? Mecislav - calling tigers, Dyushka - calling foxes... was. Danielle could have called for rats.
- I can't take much longer," Konstantin whispered.
And now what? The boys will come out, they will be shot, and I can be taken with my bare hands, I am not a formidable opponent at all. I'll hurt who I can, but then they'll twist me and kick me for all the good things. Shit! Goddamn it...
What can I do now? You don't come near, you don't shoot... Rats hound him like those werewolves in the winter? That's the way to do it.
Come on...
To me... to me... to me...
I tried to call the rats. But for some reason it didn't work out this time. There was no blood? Or was it just that no one was tortured in front of me? No adrenaline? Rabies?
Rabies can't explain that if it doesn't come now, then there's no one else. But instead of rage, there's only mockery.
Both his ineptitude and the ineptitude of the vampire who was trying to break Konstantin and Gleb's resistance now. The guys were holding on, which means there's not much he can do.
You want to subdue my friends, Fanger? Why not the other way around? Any connection works both ways. If the caller can order the foxes, why can't the foxes order him? The stick has two ends!
But will I now see the link between the caller and my werewolves?
I squint. No. Absolutely nothing. You can't see anything on the street. What if I fly closer? I could still walk anywhere. Who can catch a ghost? Ghostbusters?
- Ghost busters! - I've been spending time mimicking a cartoon.
And I rushed decisively through a stone wall.
They were on the first and second floors. On the first floor, three men in camouflage, suspiciously resembling fox werewolves. Why is that? A very similar silver drawing in the aura, and she herself...
Now I was calmer than the first time, and I saw the world clearer. And the haze of the aura around each werewolf's head took the shape of a fox's face so well... Folded, shimmering like in old photographs. I have one in my closet with a young girl. If you turn it at one angle, the girl's eyes are wide open. If you turn her around, she winked her left eye and for a second she was even more beautiful. It's the same here. You look at her from one angle, and the aura opposite her face is folded into a fox mask. Under the other, there's a man in front of you again.
There were three on the second floor too: two tall pale vampires and one werewolf. I didn't even notice the fox. But I was seriously interested in vampires. One, a tall brunette, was standing by the window with a rifle. The other one, with short blond hair, was just reaching out for his hand. I didn't see a face. And I didn't want to fly out the window and hang out in front of them.
- You didn't go out? - asked the one with the rifle.
- No. They're fighting back.
- For you? For that long? You're not qualified?!
- Shut up, you're losing focus!
- You've got some beasts... What do you think, it's hard to lure two out? I'm already tired of holding my finger down!
- Shit! They're stopping, you bastards! No way! It's like I'm taking the baby away from them!
- Don't they know what's going to happen if they come out? Wouldn't you resist if you were them?
The vampire didn't say anything. He just led with his fingers somehow. And I fell back into the slimy muck of his aura again.
* * *
His name was Peter. A long time ago. Probably nine hundred or more years ago. The unusual boy was born into the family of a Norman lord. He looked like an ordinary boy: short, strong, grayish, with a kind face. There was only one strange thing about him.
He was adored by all the animals.
Adored?
They recognized him as a friend, a brother, a master...
He's never been barked at by even the meanest dog. Cats would rumble at night with lullabies. He could calm the excited knight's horse with just a few words - and the stallion, trained to trample on enemies, calmly took an apple from his hand. And when the bull broke out at the fair, it was enough for Peter just to touch the beast's fur, that he stopped mowing on the sides with his eyes poured with blood and let himself be taken back to the place. Peter was calm in his life and happy. He never wanted to be even a knight. He had enough room to manage the castle. And the older brother knew he couldn't find a better assistant.
Peter was happy in his humble place. He didn't need anything.
Except sometimes to spend the night in the woods. Peter would never admit to anyone that he understood animals. Not even like that: it was as if animals recognized him as a leader, trusted him, obeyed him, told him about their worries... Wild, domestic... Peter couldn't eat meat just because... and you could eat a chicken that an hour ago shared with you the problem of hatching chickens?
No one knew about that. Any weirdness? Well, who doesn't have them. Peter was more than useful in his place, and his older brother wouldn't let anyone touch him.
Everything changed in one moment. When my brother's fiancée arrived.
The young Frenchwoman, Guillomette de Troy, was just charming. Red hair, brown eyes, lively manners - and a figure to which men's hands were reaching. Plus the title and the good dowry. What else do you need for happiness? It was enough for the older brother. Not to Peter.
From the beginning, he suspected something wrong. What? He didn't know how to explain it himself. But more and more he thought that Guilomette wasn't as simple as it seemed.
Dangerous?
No. Peter instinctively felt that she wouldn't hurt him. But to him. And to his big and beloved brother? And why is that? Why him, exactly? Because he's the only one who can sense the danger coming from an always smiling and careless girl.
Peter was ready to cry out to the moon. But he didn't even dare to hint at his suspicions. And what could he say?
"I feel the danger in her..."
And who would believe him?
A young French woman charmed the whole castle in one moon. She was sweet, friendly, her voice was always ringing a bell, and there was a tender smile on her lips. The servants, on whom she never raised her voice, called her "sun" and "golden ray". The knights asked her for a ribbon to tie up her sleeve. And the pagias and the squire were just in love with her.
And what was Peter to do?
Keep an eye on her. Keep an
eye on her, keep an eye on Guillometta again. Watching, carefully and cautiously, like a beast of prey found accidentally in the woods. Keep an eye out until the predator gets into its den or den. Except that they couldn't get away with Guillometta.
He didn't like Guillomette or her father, the Baron de Troy, a redheaded giant two meters tall, a wine and song lover. Peter, with his gut feeling of a friend of the beasts, caught the inappropriateness of their behavior.
Why does the Baron prefer meat with blood and red wine to all products? No wonder, many men love both products, but the Baron cannot live a day without them. And what does it look like when meat and blood are written by a fragile girl? And Guillometta just loved it. The Baron laughed, Peter's older brother said that such a girl should bear strong sons...
And why every time after that phrase something evil flickers in a girl's brown eyes?! Nobody noticed that rage, but Peter literally felt it. For some reason, Guillometta could not calmly look at the children playing and always tried to find them some job. The children were Peter's only allies and spies in a secret war, which he, unexpectedly, even for himself, announced to Guillomette. Children who adored the young man, willingly joined the game and began to watch the "red witch" as they nicknamed the beauty.
And the further, the scarier Peter became. The pretty girl would only ride in a carriage. And the horses were nervous when they saw the girl. Any other animal would be nervous, too. Even the omnipresent dogs, which were spinning under the tables, asking for scraps from people drinking - and those bypassed her and the Baron.
It was not enough: animals began to disappear into the woods. And the rest of them were leaving. They were frightened. They tried to tell Peter that terrible creatures had appeared. Dangerous creatures. Enemies.
They couldn't describe the enemies. Show them? They couldn't. It's scary. They said something about giant foxes, huge paws and teeth, foxes on two legs...
Fear ran through the forest.
And pet fear was the main symptom. Neither Guillemotte nor her father ever entered the stables or rode. Neither did their personal lackey and maid. One day Peter sent their servant to the stable to get a whip for a test, and then he had to calm the mad horses for a long time. And then the mad baron, who yelled that he wouldn't let anyone dispose of his servants! And how did that servant look when he came out of the stables with a whip...
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