Anton kills the male vampire

Anton Gorodetsky's killing of the male vampire in a Moscow alley is the violent climax of a week-long hunt that has pushed the Night Watch analyst to the edge of his own humanity, forcing him to confront the physical and moral cost of field work. The event is the first time Anton has killed a supernatural being, and it sets in motion the entire chain of consequences that defines the novel's first story: the boy Egor's escape, the female vampire's flight, and the discovery of Egor's immense potential as an Other.

The Hunt and Its Cost

For five nights Anton has been tracking a vampire duo that has been poaching in Moscow, a mission his superior Boris Ignatievich assigned as a test of Anton's suitability for operational field work after five years in the analytical department. To attune himself to the vampires' senses, Anton has undergone a grueling preparation: he drinks pig's blood instead of human blood, consumes drugs that alter his perception, and subsists on half-raw steaks and meat juices. The transformation has taken a severe toll. On the morning of the hunt, Anton wakes in a cold apartment, brushes his teeth, then drinks a gulp of thawed pig's blood from a saucepan and follows it with icy vodka to warm his stomach. He admits to himself that his gums itch, his throat is parched, and he craves real human blood. The week of preparation has not been wasted, he reflects; he has begun to sense vampires, but he has almost gone over to the Dark Side himself. When he encounters his young neighbor in the stairwell, his fangs have already sprouted, and he dares not even say hello.

The Call and the Chase

Riding the metro for six hours, Anton listens to Manfredini's Fifth Symphony on his Walkman. At about eleven o'clock, he feels a sudden cramp running from his toes to the back of his head and spots a young woman with a black vortex spinning above her head — a stabilized curse cast by an experienced Dark Magician. He drains his onyx amulet in a futile attempt to displace the vortex, but the curse is too powerful; it zigzags back to its victim. The amulet is now discharged, leaving Anton without his primary weapon. Almost immediately, he senses the target of his hunt nearby. He jumps off the train at Kurskaya station and begins tracking the vampire through the metro system, guided by the physical signs of the hunt: dryness in his throat, itching in his gums, the insane pounding of his heart, and the faint taste of blood on his lips. He follows the feeling through the circle line, switching trains, narrowing his candidates to four potential targets: two girls, a young man, and a boy. At Exhibition station, the boy steps off the train, and Anton hears the Call — a slow, gentle melody that soon weaves in a female voice. He jumps out after the boy.

The Confrontation in the Alley

Anton buys a cheap bottle of vodka from a kiosk and calls the Night Watch office, warning Pavel that he is in pursuit near the Cosmos hotel and that his amulet is discharged. A police patrol stops him, but Anton uses a simple suggestion — "I'm not here" — to send them off to buy vodka. He enters the Twilight, the parallel dimension of the Others, by summoning his shadow and stepping into it. The world dims; colors fade; cars on the avenue slow down as if bogged down. He runs toward the Call, which for him is an alarm stirring his blood, the opposite of the alluring enchantment it is for the boy. In the alley, he finds Egor standing before a female vampire who has already extended her fangs, slowly taking off his scarf. A male vampire stands beside her, and Anton senses immediately that he is the leader, the one initiating her into the scent of blood. The male vampire has a Moscow registration tag, which Anton notes with disgust — a registered vampire is bound by the Treaty, and this one is poaching. The male vampire mistakes Anton for one of his own kind, smiling calmly and saying "Hi there." Anton announces himself: "Night Watch." He holds out the discharged amulet and orders them to leave the Twilight. The female vampire, lacking self-control, throws herself at Anton with a long, drawn-out howl. Anton splashes the vodka from the open bottle into her hideously transformed face; vampires tolerate alcohol poorly, and the liquid causes her skin and grayish flesh to shed. The male vampire swings around to flee, but Anton grabs the cord of his registration tag, which unravels on command. The vampire clutches at his throat, extends his fangs, and transforms as he lunges. Anton gives the silent order, and the energy implanted in the seal — a blue glow on the vampire's chest — floods into the dead body. The vampire's skin shrivels taut as parchment over his bones; slime gushes from his eye sockets; his spine shatters. The twitching remains collapse at Anton's feet.

Aftermath and Consequences

The female vampire regenerates and flees across the yard, taking huge bounds while still in the Twilight. Anton captures a 3-D image of her gray, desiccated, rotten aura. The operatives Igor and Garik arrive and give chase. Anton emerges from the Twilight, scrapes the vampire's feather-light remains into a plastic bag, and scatters dirty snow over the alley to work the final dusty remnants into the slush. He feels good — very good — knowing the senior vampire is dead, the operatives will pick up his girlfriend, and the boy is alive. But the consequences are immediate and far-reaching. The boy Egor, who should have been a helpless puppet, flees instead of fainting, demonstrating superb magical potential. Boris Ignatievich later tells Anton that Egor is potentially more powerful than the boss himself, and that the balance of power in Moscow would collapse if the boy goes over to the Dark Side. The female vampire, now wild and hungry, becomes a new threat. And Anton's discharged amulet, wasted on the black vortex, leaves him vulnerable. The boss rebukes Anton for his mistakes but acknowledges that his ill-considered pity — trying to save the cursed girl — may have postponed an Inferno that could have destroyed half of Moscow. The killing also strains Anton's friendship with his vampire neighbor Kostya, who later confronts him, saying he knew the dead vampire and that he was "fun to be around." Anton explains that the vampire had killed innocent people and initiated a girl by force, but Kostya's grief and anger reveal the personal cost of Anton's duty. The event forces Anton to articulate the moral logic of the Night Watch to Egor later, when he admits that vampires can hunt with a license and that the Watch's job is to prevent poaching, not to stop all killing — a truth that drives the boy toward the Darkness.