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was very simple… I did the adaptation course and started working in the analytical section… Nothing much really changed in my life. I became one of the Others, but I didn't notice any big difference in my life. The boss wasn't too pleased, but he didn't say anything. I was good at my job, and he had no right to interfere in anything else. But a week ago this vampire maniac turned up in town, and they gave me the job of neutralizing him. Supposedly because all the agents were busy. But really to get me out there in the firing line. Maybe they were right. But during the week another three people were killed. A professional would have caught that vampire duo in a day…"
    I really wanted to know what Olga thought about all this. But the owl didn't make a sound.
    "What's more important for maintaining the balance?" I asked anyway. "Giving me some operational experience or saving the lives of three innocent people?"
    The owl said nothing.
    "I couldn't sense the vampires with the usual methods," I went on. "I had to attune myself to them. I didn't drink human blood though, I made do with pig's blood. And all those drugs… but then, you know all about those anyway…"
    When I mentioned the drugs, I got up, opened the little cupboard above the stove, and took out a glass jar with a tight-fitting ground-glass stopper. There was only a little bit of the lumpy brown powder left; it made no sense to hand it back in to the department. I tipped the powder into the sink and rinsed it away—the kitchen was filled with a pungent, dizzying odor. I rinsed out the jar and dropped it into the garbage pail.
    "I almost went over the edge," I said. "I was well on the way. Yesterday morning, on my way back from the hunt… I ran into the little girl from next door. I didn't even dare say hello; my fangs had already sprouted. And last night, when I felt the Call summoning the boy… I almost joined the vampires." The owl was looking into my eyes.
    "Why do you think the boss gave me the job?"
    A stuffed dummy. Clumps of dusty feathers stuffed with cotton wool.
    "So I could see things through their eyes?"
    The doorbell rang in the hallway. I sighed and shrugged: It was her own fault, after all; anyone would be better to talk to than this boring bird. I flipped the light on as I walked to the door and opened it. Standing there in the doorway was a vampire.
    "Come in, Kostya," I said, "come in."
    He hesitated at the door, but then came in. He ran his hand through his hair—I noticed that his palms were sweaty and his eyes were restless.
    Kostya was only seventeen. He was born a vampire, a perfectly ordinary city vampire. It's really tough: With vampire parents a child has almost no chance of growing up human.
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    "I've brought back the CDs," Kostya muttered. "Here." I took the pile of compact discs from the boy, not surprised there were so many. I usually had to nag him for ages to bring them back: He was terribly absentminded.
    "Did you listen to them all?" I asked. "Did you copy any?"
    "Well, um… I'll be going…"
    "Wait." I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him into the room. "What's going on?" He didn't answer.
    "You already know?" I asked, beginning to catch on.
    "There aren't many of us, Anton," said Kostya, looking me in the eye. "When one of us passes away, we sense it immediately."
    "Okay. Take your shoes off; let's go into the kitchen and have a serious talk." Kostya didn't argue. But I was desperately trying to figure out what to do. Five years earlier, when I became an Other and the Twilight side of the world was revealed to me, I'd made plenty of surprising discoveries. And one of the most shocking was the fact that a family of vampires was living right over my head.

    I remember it clearly. I was on my way home from classes that seemed so ordinary, they reminded me of my old college. Three double class periods, a lecturer, heat that glued the white coats to our bodies—we rented the lecture hall from a medical college. I