The picture came together quickly. If she took Nastia, then - she knows this priest!? And she obeys him?
Actually, it doesn't contradict anything. But where could she have met him? How did she meet him?
I grabbed my head.
- I don't understand anything...
- Julia, you're thinking the wrong thing," said Leonid quietly.
I slammed my eyelashes.
- What do you mean?
- You think Dosya's a handy Priest?
- Yes.
- And I think she is the Priest. She's the one we're looking for.
I opened my mouth. Then I closed it. And I shaken my head.
- Bullshit! Bullshit! This can't be happening!
- Because there can never be? Well, well... what about you?
I was thinking. But it didn't turn out well.
- Okay. The dock intersected with Lavric. And Alfonso. And the other victim? Tikhvin victim? With her how?
- At a concert? Or somewhere in town? Could you?
I shrugged my shoulders.
- Technically, I could. Practically, it's hard for me to say.
- But it's quite real.
- Yes.
- Then let's move on. Could she have killed those three - in time?
I put the tail to the nose. In time, I could.
- What's the power? Lavric would have resisted. And Alfonso? He has other tastes!
- Wrong, Charles quietly remarked. - Vampires at this age are absolutely bisexual.
- But for him to go with some human singer? Unbelievable!
Leonidas stopped the argument, mockingly noticing:
- Can I get you guys some coffee? Would you guess at the thick?
I snorted.
- The one left over from the instant coffee? You have to guess - kidneys or liver, stomach - or intestines - what's gonna happen before!?
- That's right. That's why wait. You just have to remember that this Priest, whoever he is, can be both alone and with an assistant. Okay?
Everything was clear to everyone.
We sat and waited.
* * *
Sskoro, sskoro, sskoro...
Pissed, pissed, pissed...
It's so nice. It's delightful to know you're going to be free today, and a new body. Young and pussy. What's more, the body of a newborn werewolf! You can do it before. But at midnight, it's better. My pussy pisses its peak at midnight.
The priest did a sssad. The drawing of the sssssossdan. And I've pissed enough to incarnate the body of an unborn child. But this woman is pregnant with twins. It's nice to feel her fears in Yazssyk.
He's just clubbing around me.
Ssssstrakh sssssstrakh sssstrakh.
She's a pussy and one of the two babies will serve me food.
And then we'll just leave. I'm gonna need some time to grow up. Of course, faster than a normal person. But at least five years. And those five years, we're gonna live somewhere in a table. A lot of people die there, it'll be easy to find food for me...
Ossbaloss wait until midnight to perform the ritual.
It'll make the other one a little uncomfortable. Who's gonna break my trap?
Who was the one who fought with my chassexuals?
Who could ever stand up to me?
Although... what's the piss?
No one can destroy me. Even then, these... shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. But they couldn't kill me. And it wasn't pissed off to anyone.
I'm immortal.
But it's gonna be pretty damn unpleasant to run into this person or people when I'm so close to the target. It's very unpleasant.
I can piss off these people. I guess so. But again, I'm gonna piss again...
Okay. You can't guess.
I release the tentacles and envelop the victim's mind. I soak up her fears, pain, despair. She doesn't even believe they'll find her. That's right. She's pissed that she's going to be pissed off with my food. But later. A little bit later. Until I piss on her food. Okay, I'm gonna hold on to it for a little while so she doesn't piss or run. My priest may not be able to piss off that werewolf.
I'll help.
How slowly time is dragging on.
* * *
Time stretched out like a day-old gum. Same stretchy, gray, disgusting to nausea. And this is for me. What Constantine felt was best not to even think.
Gleb forcibly turned it off. I mean, literally. He chose the moment when his comrade turned his back on him, pressed a certain point on his neck, injected a horse dose of sleeping pills and packed it like a box of porcelain.
- Yulka, don't let me down," he asked. - I'll hold him until dawn, but not any longer.
I sparkled with my eyes. The clever ones hurt. Until dawn. What if it's not even today?
What if I was wrong?
God, at least it'll be okay. I wish we could find Nastia.
Have we figured it out correctly?
My head just broke apart. It seemed to have too many thoughts in it. They collide there, shoving, unable to find a common language - and all have terribly sharp edges that are painfully pressed on the walls of the skull.
Yo, I'm not religious. Well, that's too bad. It's good to have someone to blame for all the trouble. We couldn't save Nastia, God's will. He threw away the Mecislav Lapti - the same thing. The bird shit on his head - it's God's will, too, my child. Lay on it and don't doubt it. And the fact that there is nowhere to spit because of such "polozhentsev" is not taken into account.
No. God had nothing to do with this. If this doesn't work out, it's all my fault.
And then what do we do?
* * *
It's been another two hours. Nerves were slowly rewinding into whooping coughs.
I was rushing around the office. Nastia. My God, how could this happen?
For what!?
Or is that my punishment!?
Werewolves looked at me with sympathy. They're hard to fool. I mean, they can smell it. And now they knew I was on edge. If only I could save her! What if I was wrong? What if we were wrong? If it's not a triangle? If, for example, a square or a pentagram?!
But as if the lines cut out on bodies, at combination gave also triangles.
What if it's not? If we were wrong!? If, if, if!! I hate that word!!!
Charles got tired of watching me throw, he came up behind me and took me by the shoulders.
- Calm down. So you're not helping her.
- And how can I help her!? How can I help her?
- Calm down, sis. You got it right.
- What's right!? - I'm sorry. - These triangles, circles, lines, these nasty... like vipers! They crawl, they drink a man dry... it makes me twitch when I look at them! I'm not afraid of snakes like these lines!
The dragon shaken his hands. And froze like thunder. I was even worried.
- Hey, Charles, are you alive!?
Finger clicks in front of the dragon's nose didn't do any good. He only woke up when Lenka shook him over the shoulders. And he grabbed the werewolf like a madman.
- I remembered! I remembered everything!!!
- And what did you remember?! - Lenka was trying to talk calmly. Or else she'll bite... who knows them dragons?
- I kept trying to remember what I heard about these rites! It was bad, but I didn't give up! And then Julia said...
- What?! - We're in the general choir.
What could I say!?
- I remember my dad talking about snake fans.
- Who?!
I felt like my mind was going over my head. What's the snake got to do with it?
- They worshiped a huge black snake with a human head that devoured human hearts. I tried for a long time to remember more...
The dragon slammed himself on the forehead.
- Charles, you'd better tell me in order, I complained.
The beginning was a beautiful one.
> - I'm a fool!
- But he's self-critical. So what?
Purple eyes glowed and sparkled, red sparks danced in them.
- Julia, I kept trying to remember what I remembered as the connection between snakes and Scandinavia! And I couldn't!
- The World Snake? - I tried to guess. Well, I'm not strong in mythology. Okay, I was leafing through encyclopedias once. And it just said about an overgrown viper, Loki's baby, eating the sun at the end of time. Or the earth. Anyway, something big and tasteless.
[20]
- No. And I couldn't figure out what the bloody eagle and the absorbed souls had to do with it. And then it all came to mind in an instant!
- Has that already happened? - I've had a hard time. - Has this kind of perversion been practiced somewhere?
- In a way. Do you know anything about Celts?
- It's not enough. British Isles. Fae. Druids. Pretty much everything.
- And the Celtic mythology?
- Ask me something simple.
We didn't go through this at school. And I haven't seen any books about the Celts. Although it's not fair! How are the Celts worse than the Greeks?
And the fact that England, where you can't get to, will shit everything!
Charles realized I couldn't do any good and looked at werewolves. They were even more incomprehensible than me.
- Tell me if you know anything, whether Leonidas asked for it or ordered it. - Don't pull the cat's tail, time is of the essence.
Charles nodded.
- I don't know how best to start. Do you know the name Guidion Fab Don?
- And Prince Gwedon is sitting there, he sent you a bow," I quoted.
- The fairy tale is a lie, and there's a hint of it, a good lesson for good men," Charles parried. - But you are wrong. Guidion Fab Don is one of the characters in Celtic mythology. The son of the goddess Dawn. And Don is the same deity as Dana, the foremother of the Tuatha De Danaan clan gods.
- So what?
I felt completely dumb.
- And Gvidion Fab Don was also revered under the name of Odin. Does that name look familiar to you?
- He is the supreme god of the Scandinavians.
- It's easier now.
- And he was thought to have been dedicated to the "blood eagle"?
- Take your time. Not him.
- And who!? - Leonidas exploded.
Charles shaken his white hair.
- Guidion Fab Don was considered the patron of men, a mentor, a teacher in all good deeds, "master of sorcery and fantasy" and, moreover, an eternal tireless fighter against the evil forces of the underworld, not willing to let go of those good treasures, the owners of which they were considered.
- Well, we didn't. We had the right.
- Here you go. There's also a legend of a great battle between the forces of good and evil.
- Yeah, well, you can eat those stories with a spoon. Each nation has three grand. It's the same Ragnarak!
I couldn't understand where Charles was going, so I interrupted and got angry. But the dragon wasn't offended. On the contrary, I had the feeling that he was trying to tie together scraps and pieces of his knowledge. And somehow give it away in a digestible form. It didn't look good.
- That's right. And the Celts had a legend that battles between light and darkness were fought all the time. Specifically, one of them. For three creatures - the dog, the deer and the chibi. So that these creatures could serve humans, Guidion Fab Don fought with his army against the forces of darkness. And it is there that the army on Hades' side mentions the cross snake, spilling with all its flowers. It devoured the people. But for a reason. Its body was made up of hundreds of souls of sinners, carrying this terrible punishment for countless sins.
I felt my mind go beyond my mind.
- What does that have to do with anything?
- Not all monsters were defeated in that battle. Not all of them. As my father told me, some managed to escape. Including that snake. Or the snake. And then he remained on the ground, escaping retribution.
- It's a fairy tale.
- Julia - Charles shook his head - I'm a fairy tale, too. Dragons do not exist. And there are no vampires. And werewolves. Don't you know that?
I knew it. Anyway, I'm dreaming about all this, aren't I? But I open my eyes and it turns out I'm just Alice from the madhouse.
- Are you saying...
I was afraid to negotiate. But Charles didn't suffer such little things.
- I want to. This creature remains on earth. It was him who was worshipped by cutting out the "bloody eagle" and thus letting the human soul out. So not to the will, but by dedicating... a snake. And it must be assumed that with certain rituals, the soul was absorbed by the monster.
- But here the ritual is different!
- The principle is the same. An open ribcage is the difference between front and back. Severed heart, dried in ashes. An absorbed soul.
- Were the hearts taken then, too?
Charles lowered his eyelashes a little.
- It's barely gotten to your time. And that's good.
- What's so good about that? It's not like we know anything about this creature. No name, no fight, no...
- Yours... and...!!! - Leonidas suddenly exploded. - Are you... are you telling me... that we should cling to some ancient evil?!
- That's about what I'm saying. Which may be true," Charles confirmed in an icy tone.
The shape-shifter spit on the floor.
- And how? If it was a battle of the gods?
- I'm sure it's not God.
- We might as well be tailing God for that...
I was shaking my head. The mind would go behind the mind and not come back.
- Charles, hold on one more second. If I got it right, is this some kind of Celtic evil? We take it as an axiom that it is not God! Otherwise, you don't have to rattle. We lift our legs and start cutting birds out of each other.
- I don't know. You know, this is what I remember.
- Or maybe it's not?
- Yes, it can. Strictly speaking, it's just a pretty cucumber-tailed piece of legend I heard from my dad.
- So something like that really was...
Charles shrugged his shoulders.
- The world is full of inexplicable things. Maybe there's this evil thing too. Or maybe it's something else. But if I'm right...
- That?
- We're in big trouble.
- We've already understood that," Leonidas twisted, but Charles did not lead with his ear.
- I don't know how to fight it. Not even remotely.
- Did your father keep quiet about it?
- When he told me all this, he warned me that there are forces in the world that are not even in the teeth of a dragon. And certainly not in my present state.
- Yeah. In less than a year, or even three, we're not gonna get you back to normal," I nodded. - That's if it's still good and the curse isn't caught anymore. You've been living with him too long. And who's left in the barricade, then?
- You," just said Leonidas. - We all did. And vampires, if they make it.
- If that's the case, we don't do much good here. But we still want to stay," a low woman's voice sounded at the door. And as I turned around, I saw a bear leader there.
- What the hell are you... I mean, hello.
That's all I needed.
- And that's why we're here. When Dasha shared the news with me, I decided we didn't need this in town. So we came to see you for help.
I went up to the bear. I stopped across the street and looked her in the eyes. Straight and straightforward.
- Can you tell when I'm lying?
- Yes.
- Well, then listen. I don't know if we got it right. I don't know how much truth Charles has in his words. I don't know how many of us will lie here if it's true. Are you going to decorate our mass grave with your carcasses?
- Sister's.
The joke didn't work.
- W
hy don't you leave us to take care of all this on our own? Why do you have to get into this?
- You don't trust me?
- And I'm not taking you on scouting.
I don't believe it. So what? I do! Who are they to me? Relatives, so you can trust them? Not for a minute! And if I don't know what to expect from a man, it's better not to contact him. My grandfather explained that to me.
- Can you tell the difference when I lie?
The bear was staring at me. But I shook my head.
- No.
- It's bad. But understand, we came to your rescue. Without a second thought.
- You're lying.
Charles said that. And all eyes crossed on him instantly.
- I'm not Julia. And I can see that you're lying, bear. What do you want from us?
Their eyes crossed - and for a moment it seemed to me that two laser beams flashed, crossing in a fierce fight and scattering hundreds of sparks on the sides. Purple-blue and sky blue. And the scarlet won.
- From you, half-breed, nothing.
- So it's from Julie?
The bear had something to say, but she stumbled under Charles' eyes. For a few more minutes they were watching, and then the bear sighed.
- Everybody out. Okay?
Leonidas looked at me questioningly. I nodded. And two minutes later, the three of us were left. I, Charles, am a bear.
- Make yourself comfortable," I showed you the hospitality. - Tea, coffee?
- Water. Do you have any?
Having received half a litre of minerals, the bear swallowed it in an instant, exhaled and smiled at me.
- Thank you.
- Closer to the subject," Charles barked.
I didn't say anything. The dragon was doing a great job as it was. In fact, let it gain self-confidence.
- I'm pregnant," the bear exhaled as if throwing herself into icy water.
I'm freaking out. That's what we missed! Will I pull two werewolves? We'll have to talk to Peter. If only with his help. I'm not a walking panacea either, and because of this lousy maniac, our amulet work ended up where it started, that is, at the start.
- Dasha was talking about you then?
- No. About another one of us. No one knows about me yet.
All right, two pregnant bears...
Nastia makes you feel like a squeezed lemon here. And with two, how? Hang yourself in advance? But I didn't say that out loud. I just sat there and kept quiet, like a owl on a branch.
- I don't want anybody to know about this. Do you understand?
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