Pure: Ignis Part 3

He took my hand and started in the direction of my house.

"William, wait." I said. "I don't think we can spring your presence on GM like this. I don't have any idea how she's going to react."

"Katie, don't be ridiculous," William said, exasperated. "Our situation is serious-manageable-but serious. And I need to be around more. I need to have your grandmother accept and approve of my being here."

"I know," I replied. "That's why we can't just surprise her today. It won't do us any good if she throws you out of the house as soon as she sees you. Let me talk to her alone first. Come see me tomorrow at school, and I'll let you know when you can see her."

William started to protest, but I interrupted him.

"It will be soon-I promise. Who knows? Maybe she'll even invite you to dinner."

William gave me a tolerant look. "All right, but make sure it is soon. The sooner everything is out in the open, the better."

"I'll bring GM around," I said. "I promise."

We started walking again, and we paused at the corner of my street, like we usually did.

"At least I know now why you never let me walk you up to your door," William said. "I realize that I should have been more suspicious."

"What did you think before?" I asked.

William shrugged. "Humans are often uncomfortable around vampires-even incomplete ones like me. I thought maybe she didn't like to look at me, and you were tactfully not telling me."

"William," I said. "I can't imagine anyone not wanting to look at you."

William shook his head. But I thought I could see the ghost of a smile on his lips.

"I'll see you tomorrow at school then, Katie," he said, turning to leave. "I'll be watching to see that you and your grandmother are safe tonight."

"William-I have one more question."

He turned back.

"What about that last thing that Innokenti said?" I asked. "What did he mean when he said that 'they' will not allow me to remain with you. Who are 'they'?"

William looked away from me. "As I said, I think this is all a trick. You don't have to worry about what Innokenti said."

"But you do have some idea of what he was implying?"

"I have an idea-but I can't be sure. In any event, you don't need to know. I'll see you tomorrow, Katie."

William gave me a small smile and walked off.

I stood looking after him with a familiar sense of disappointment. I wished he had trusted me with his suspicions.

Once William had disappeared from view, I walked up to my house and went inside.

I paused in the hall just by the door and tried to figure out how I was going to tell GM that William was in Elspeth's Grove and that I had been seeing him.

I knew it wasn't going to be easy.

To be fair to GM, I didn't know for certain that she disliked William. But the two times she had spoken to him had been difficult times, and William's entrance into our lives had coincided with the return of the past for GM. My mother, in her short life, had become deeply involved in the supernatural-she'd really had no choice. And the supernatural was something my grandmother had not believed in until it had burst into her house in October in a way that she couldn't deny.

Having the reanimated corpse of a man she knew to be dead break into her house was something even GM couldn't ignore.

But GM was stubborn, and her rational mind had rea.s.serted itself after the initial shock had worn off. She'd been able to convince herself that all of the bizarre things she'd seen had a perfectly normal explanation.

GM feared that I would fall under the spell of the supernatural and be consumed by it as my mother had been, and I had a feeling that GM saw William as part of that supernatural threat. She didn't know who and what he was, of course-to her he was just an ordinary young man. But he'd been involved in events that she'd rather forget.

And I was afraid that she would prefer that William were forgotten, too.

I continued to stand by the door in an agony of indecision, trying to force my mind to work. I tried to come up with just the right words to convince GM that she had nothing to worry about-that William was beneficial and not a danger. After a few moments, I began to wonder if GM would come out to see me before I'd come up with a plan-I knew she must have heard me come in.

But time pa.s.sed, and GM did not appear.

I took a tentative step forward. It was a little unusual for GM not to come see what I was up to as soon as I came home. But she had been distracted lately, and it was pretty obvious to me that something was on her mind. When I had asked her about it, however, GM had brushed me off rather expertly-she was very good at side-stepping questions.

GM had a way of talking around a topic and avoiding it without ever directly refusing to talk about it.

In a way, it was a gift.

After another few moments had pa.s.sed, I decided to take GM on without a plan. I would just go in determined not to lose. After all, there was no good reason for me not to see William-he had already saved my life twice. Surely, I could make her see that we were better off with him than without him.

I walked through the house, but I didn't find GM in any of the usual places. Eventually, I found GM in her office where I had left her earlier, which was odd-she didn't usually spend much time there on the weekends. She said she wanted to keep her home life and her work life separate-even if they co-existed in the same place.

As I entered the office, GM's head was bent, and I could see that she was pouring over a letter. GM had been receiving a lot of letters lately-letters that she wouldn't talk about, but would hastily tuck away. I could see an envelope on the desk beside her. It had a number of colorful stamps on it-as if it had been mailed from overseas. I wondered-could GM be receiving letters from Russia?

"GM?" I said quietly.

GM turned in her chair, clearly startled. With admirable economy of movement, she swept her letter back into its envelope, and deposited the envelope into a drawer.

"Oh, Katie! I didn't hear you come in. How was your first time ice skating?"

"It was good," I said. "I didn't break anything, and I actually made it all the way around the rink several times." I paused. "Did you receive a letter from Galina?"

GM stood up. "Letter?"

"Yes," I said. "You had a letter in your hand when I came in, and the stamps seemed to be foreign. I was wondering if maybe you'd heard from Galina. I know you've been in contact with her."

Galina Golovnin had been a friend of my mother's. Although she was the same age as my mother, she had been a teacher of sorts to her-helping my mother to develop and hone her powers as the Little Sun. When I had encountered her in Russia, she had helped me too. Galina's life was deeply steeped in the supernatural, something GM had resented bitterly. But since our recent trip to Russia, GM's att.i.tude toward Galina had relaxed a bit. She was no longer determined to banish Galina to the past and pretend that she had never existed.

"Galina?" GM said. "Oh, no. No. I have not heard from her lately."

I waited expectantly.

GM, who was always so confident and self-possessed, suddenly seemed very unsure of herself. She wrapped her fingers around the silver cross she always wore and began to move the charm up and down on its chain in an agitated fas.h.i.+on. She looked around the room. Then she looked back at me.

"Enough about the letter. Forget about the letter. Solnyshko, I have something to tell you-to ask you, rather."

'Solnyshko' was a Russian term of endearment that GM often used for me-one that lots of people used. Oddly enough the word literally meant 'little sun.' GM had been using it for me for as long as I could remember. She had no idea how apt it really was.

I took a deep breath. "I have something to tell you, too."

"Excellent. Then we have news to share with one another. Let's go in the kitchen, Solnyshko. Are you hungry?"

"No, I'm not hungry," I said, as GM shepherded me out of her office.

"Some tea, then," GM said. "It is always good to have tea when one talks."

I wasn't really keen on the idea of having tea. I'd lost my taste for tea and for hot drinks in general after I'd discovered that my mother had been poisoned by tea laced with vampire blood. I had been tricked into drinking some of the stuff myself, and the memory of it was an unpleasant one. But if drinking some tea would make GM happy, then I would go along with it.

In the kitchen, GM waved me to a seat, and she put the kettle on. Then she sat down across from me and gave me a level gaze. We sat like that for several moments, and I began to s.h.i.+ft uncomfortably under her steady stare.

"GM, let's-"

"Not just yet, Solnyshko. Wait for the tea."

"Would you mind looking in another direction for a few moments, then?" I asked. "You're making me nervous."

GM gave me a wry smile. "My apologies, Solnyshko." She rose. "I need to get the tea things out anyway."

GM got out her blue-and-white china teacups-the same ones she had used on the night that Galina Golovnin and her son, Aleksandr, had shown up on our doorstep to warn us that Gleb Mstislav would soon be after me. GM had not believed them and had thrown them out.

But they had been right.

Soon the kettle was whistling, and GM poured out for us. I gazed into the golden depths of the tea reluctantly. I knew it was chamomile, and I knew it was untainted, but I couldn't help thinking again of the poisoned tea my cousin Odette had given me.

I s.h.i.+vered.

GM glanced up at me. "Are you cold, Solnyshko?"

I gave her a rea.s.suring smile. "No. I was just thinking. You know how sometimes a memory steals over you and catches you in a funny way?"

"I do indeed," GM replied.

She sipped at her tea and gave me a look over the rim of her cup. Then she set it down with decision.

"Katie, I know we both have things to say, and I hope you don't mind if I go first."

"Go ahead," I said.

"Thank you." GM paused for a moment. "Do you remember what I said to you in Tblisi? I promised you that when that whole terrible business was over, that we would do some proper traveling?"

"I remember," I said.

GM took a deep breath, as if she were gathering courage. "What do you think about spending Christmas in Russia?"

I didn't know what I had been expecting, but that was not it.

Several memories flashed through my mind-all of them terrifying.

"Christmas in Russia?" I said.

"Yes." GM nodded her head in an encouraging fas.h.i.+on.

"In Krov?" I asked.

"Yes."

My head began to spin a little. I loved Russia-I really did. It was the country of my birth, and I thought it was beautiful. But going back to Krov seemed dangerous at this point-especially since I had just met two vampires who wanted me to do exactly that.

"Why do you want to go to Krov for Christmas?" I asked. "Does it have something to do with all the letters?"

"Letters?" GM asked innocently.

"Yes, GM," I said. "Letters like the one you were reading in your office just now. I've seen you with them before-and the envelopes always have a lot of foreign stamps on them."

"Ah, yes. It appears you have sharp eyes, Solnyshko. You don't have anything to be concerned about. The letters are not from anyone you know."

"Who are they from?"

GM shook her head. "Sometimes a grandmother needs to keep some things to herself. Do not distress yourself over the letters, Katie."

I decided to give up. Once GM decided she wasn't going to talk about something, she very seldom changed her mind. I stared back down at my tea.

"Solnyshko, forgive me," GM said, "but you do not seem very excited about going to Krov. I thought you would be happy. I thought we might go to Moscow, too. You would love all of the beautiful buildings in the great square. St. Basil's Basilica is a wonder in person."

I tried to think of how to put my thoughts into words, but what I wanted to say seemed to need more diplomacy than I was able to summon at the moment. I wanted to tell GM that I wished she would tell me what was going on and who had written the letters. I wanted to tell her that I had nearly died in Krov, and it was full of bad memories. I wanted to tell her that we couldn't go back to Krov because the village was crawling with vampires-and some of those vampires were eager for my return. But the right words just wouldn't come-especially for the last part. How could I hint at a danger that I wasn't allowed to name?

GM leaned forward. "What is it that is troubling you, Solnyshko? Are you worried about not having a visa? If that is the case, then you need worry no longer. I have already obtained visas for both of us. We can fly directly into Russia."

I was startled. When we had gone to Russia in October, we had actually had to fly into Georgia and sneak across the border because Russia required a visa for U.S. visitors while Georgia did not. If GM had visas for us already, then she had been planning the trip for some time now and had never mentioned it to me.

"GM," I said, "why won't you tell me what's going on?"

"It's Christmas, Katie. I haven't spent a Christmas in Russia in many years. I miss my homeland."

I felt a twinge of frustration. I knew GM was sincere when she said that, and to be fair, the reason she gave was a perfectly good one. But I couldn't shrug off a suspicion that that wasn't all there was to it. Then again, I wondered-what exactly was it that I suspected GM of? I really didn't know.

"Where are you thinking of staying in Krov?" I asked. "Odette's house?"

GM gave me a sharp look. "So is that what is troubling you? Your poor cousin? I can understand that it must be hard for you. It is hard for me, too, Solnyshko. You loved Odette and so did I. And hope is not lost entirely. People have been restored to their families after going missing for years, and Odette has only been gone a few months. We may yet see her again."

Seeing Odette again was one of the things I was worried about-as William had told Innokenti, it was entirely possible that Odette would return. She had gone missing. But she was not lost in the way that GM thought she was-in the way that an ordinary human girl would be lost. Odette had become a vampire, and in October she had tried to kill me. She had disappeared after that, and her house in Krov had been left vacant. If we settled ourselves into her house at Christmas, who was to say that she wouldn't return and resent our presence? I had seen Odette when she was angry-it was a truly terrifying sight.

So, Odette might come for me, and so might Innokenti and Anton-in fact, I had a pretty definite feeling that the last two would. If I went to Krov for Christmas, would I ever be allowed to leave again? Would I even survive whatever Innokenti and his fellow vampires had planned?

"GM, do we have to go to Russia for Christmas?" I asked uncomfortably.