'It was after sunset on the evening of the next day, as I was preparing to leave, that suddenly the camp that I was in came under a ferocious attack. Screams came from all around us in the darkness. I looked out of the tent, in which I had been talking with three other officers, to see two figures that I recognized as Andrei and Iakov Alfeyinich creeping towards the sentry who stood guard outside. I could only see the sentry's back. He could see the two Oprichniki that approached him and his head turned from one to the other in disbelief. Eventually, he fired his musket at Andrei and without doubt the musket ball passed through his chest, but hindered him no more than would a brief gust of wind. Iakov Alfeyinich dived for the soldier's legs. The soldier responded by stabbing his bayonet hard down into Iakov Alfeyinich's back. It was as ineffective as the musket ball had been.
'Iakov Alfeyinich's attack brought the sentry to the ground and in the same instant that he fell, Andrei launched himself upon his throat. What I saw then is beyond any comprehension of a civilized man. My upbringing never allowed any of the myth and folklore that is the staple for so many of my contemporaries. From what little I heard in the schoolyard of vampires and werewolves and other such abominations, I was glad to have been spared such nonsense. Even those who did hear those stories as children do not grow up to believe them. But any man must believe the evidence of his own eyes.
'Andrei sunk his teeth deep into the man's throat and tore off a sliver of flesh. The soldier was still alive and struggling for freedom beneath Andrei's firm grasp as Iakov Alfeyinich fell upon him and took a similar bite from the other side of his neck. Then the two lay there beside him, their mouths to his neck, lapping away at the blood that seeped out of him. It was only when the sentry had ceased to breathe that the two Oprichniki raised their heads from his throat and exchanged between themselves a glance of pride and self-satisfaction.
'Before they could rise, three more soldiers were upon them. Again, the damage inflicted by shot and by blade had little impact. They killed by the same method – with their teeth – but now they did not linger to drink the blood of their victims. Time had become too pressing for them to enjoy the aftermath of the kill.
'I turned back to speak to the other officers in the tent with me and was horrified by what I saw. Two of them lay dead upon the floor. The third remained upright, showing on his contorted face a look of agony that was matched only by the terror revealed in his staring eyes. Over his shoulder I saw the face of Simon, looking down to where his teeth were sunk into the man's neck. Behind his teeth, Simon's tongue flicked back and forth between the man's sinews, to taste every drop of blood he could find, much as a dog's tongue probes every crevice of his bone in search of the last tasty morsel of marrow.
'Behind them, I saw the rip in the side of the tent through which Simon had entered. Before Simon could look up and see that I had observed him, I felt a heavy blow to my head from behind and I collapsed into unconsciousness.
'When I came to, it was still dark. I saw Andrei's face looming close to mine, and I feared that it was now time for me too to become a meal for these creatures. Instead, Andrei displayed concern. I feigned amnesia until I had heard enough from them to understand what they thought had happened. It turned out that they were under the impression that I had been captured by the French. They had attacked the camp by chance, but when they recognized me, they transformed their attack into a rescue mission. I played along with them, and also managed to convince them that I remembered nothing of my liberation – that the blow to my head had wiped away all images of what I had seen of their methods of killing. Their concern was so much concentrated on finding out whether I knew their true nature that they showed no inquisitiveness whatsoever into my true nature. The fact that I had been captured by the French was universally accepted and the possibility that I had voluntarily walked into the French camp was never even mooted.
'They suggested that I should rest and recover from the head wound that – it turned out – Andrei had inflicted upon me, while they would continue to harry the French as best they could. The plan was that we meet again in Goryachkino in four days. I agreed, happy that this would give me plenty of time to engineer their downfall.
'Once it was daylight, I returned to the camp where the previous night's events had taken place. Not a soul remained alive. The Oprichniki had made some effort to cover their tracks. Many of the corpses had bullet wounds or bayonet wounds which, it was clear to my eye, had been inflicted after death. A number of fires had been started, but these too only superficially hid the stomach- churning throat wounds which I found on every carcass.
'The Oprichniki had not killed the horses at the camp, but had released them from their pens so as to add to the general impression of chaos. I got hold of one, and so my journey to Goryachkino was rapid. For a few days I attended the meeting place – the farm building – that we had arranged there, but neither you, nor Vadim, nor Dmitry, nor any of the Oprichniki showed up. By the twenty-fourth of August – the night when I had arranged to meet my three Oprichniki – the French were almost upon the village and were preparing for the great battle at Borodino. I left a brief message for you, simply saying that I had been there, and then went back out to the French lines to prepare the trap that I had planned for the Oprichniki.
'I told the guards at the camp that I would be sending three enemy spies to them that night. I described what they would look like, what direction they would come from and even the incorrect password which they would use when challenged by a sentry. I instructed the guards simply to capture them, bind them hand and foot and then hold them until my return. I told them to make sure that the captives were not held in a tent, but outside next to the fire. You may be surprised, Aleksei, at how easy it was for me to issue orders, but once my bona fides had been proved, the men in the camp were all too eager to help capture the Russian infiltrators.
'I went back to Goryachkino and waited. Soon after dusk, Andrei, Iakov Alfeyinich and Simon arrived. With them, they had brought Faddei, whom they had met somewhere along the way. My enthusiasm at seeing the opportunity to destroy four of these creatures, rather than the three that I had originally planned, was, I suppose, my undoing. I told them that I had found an isolated French camp that was perfect for them to attack. I told them the weakest points in the perimeter and even what the day's password was (which, incidentally, I said you had supplied for me, Aleksei).
'Faddei was not keen to join the raiding party. He felt he should get back to Vadim and the other Oprichniki under his command. I persuaded him that the French camp was a sitting duck, and that he would be a fool not to go. The description I gave of all those young, innocent, healthy soldiers must, I think, have whetted his appetite. They departed and I lay back and waited until dawn.
'Soon after the sun rose, I returned to the French camp into which I had sent the four Oprichniki. My instructions that they should be tied up and left in the open air had been a test of them and a test of my own credulity – something akin to the trials of witches in the Middle Ages. Despite my blinkered education, I had gathered some slight knowledge of the legends of the voordalaki. It seemed preposterous to me that mere sunlight could have such a devastating effect on their physical being, but no more preposterous than what I had already discovered to be irrefutably true. If the legends proved correct, then I would enter the camp to find four dead vampires, otherwise I would find four live ones, tied up and ready for death by firing squad. Either way, the twelve Oprichniki would be reduced to eight. A third of the battle would be won.
'Already, before my arrival, there was much commotion in the camp. A lieutenant, who recognized me from my visit the night before, dashed over to me and took me to the remains of the Oprichniki – three scorched patches of grass. They had been sitting, I was told, on wooden stools, of which only a few charred lumps remained. Some scraps of shoe leather and fragments of material were all else that was left to see. I asked what had happened to the fourth. He had escaped, I was told. They had been expecting only three and so the fourth had been able to get away almost before anyone saw him. As someone who has been lying throughout my adult life, Aleksei, I have long become used to disguising the fear of discovery, but there was little I could do to suppress the fear I felt then that one of the Oprichniki was out there, somewhere, aware of the trap into which I had sent them. I managed outwardly to retain my composure, but inside me every voice shouted that I should flee. I have been fleeing almost ever since.