Pure: Ignis Part 40

Even though he was moving away from me, I knew exactly who it was.

It was William.

Chapter 20.

I jumped off the bicycle and let it drop to the side. The terrain of the Wasteland appeared to be rough, and I figured that the bike would only slow me down. In any event, William wasn't far away.

He was moving quickly, but surely I could catch him.

I ran across the blighted plain toward him.

"William!" I cried. "William!"

But he did not turn around.

He continued to move ahead swiftly, and I ran after him, keeping him in the beam of my flashlight. I never took my eyes off of him-I was sure of that, but without warning, he suddenly vanished.

I stopped and swung my flashlight around in an arc and back again.

William was nowhere to be seen.

I ran toward the spot where I had just seen him a moment before. A tiny voice in my head warned me that this could be a trap-what if someone was showing me what I wanted to see? But I ignored the voice and kept going.

"William!" I cried. "Where are you?"

Just when I thought that I must have overshot the spot on which William had last stood, I felt a tingle run through my entire body, as if I had just run through a field of electricity.

The air around me rippled, and I suddenly found myself standing on a cobblestone street. I spun around in disbelief.

The Wasteland had disappeared.

In its place was a narrow, poorly lit street lined by dingy houses. I saw to my shock that a dark castle rose in the distance.

I was positive that none of what was before me had been here a moment ago.

And William was nowhere to be seen.

I took a few tentative steps forward, and my footsteps sounded unnaturally loud in the quiet street.

"William?" I whispered. I had a feeling that this was not a place where it would be a good idea to make my presence generally known.

All the same, I didn't want to go back to the Wasteland. I was positive I had seen William, and if there was any chance that I could be with him again-even for a moment-I had to take it.

And at the moment, everything seemed safe enough. No one had pounced on me when I'd stumbled into this place-whatever it was. In fact, the street before me seemed to be completely deserted.

I moved forward, clutching my flashlight. I walked along the street, until it dead-ended in a building. Then I turned onto the street that ran perpendicular to it. I continued on, on zigzagging streets, into what appeared to be a town of some kind.

I decided to make my way to the castle in the distance.

I soon realized that the place was not as deserted as I had thought. Shadows glided past me, and then melted back into the greater darkness. Eyes peered at me from dingy windows and from around corners, and then disappeared.

I was just pa.s.sing a row of shabby houses, when a door opened in one of them, and a young woman with golden curls looked out. I turned my flashlight on her, and she drew back into her doorway in alarm. I lowered my flashlight.

She looked out again, and she smiled at me shyly.

"I've not seen you here before." The girl's voice was soft and musical. "Are you lost, little one?"

I was wary of the girl before me. I knew only too well that a pretty, innocent face could hide a heart full of treachery. But the girl seemed awkward and a bit frightened herself.

"I'm looking for a friend of mine," I said. "I saw him come in here. Then he seemed to vanish."

The girl blinked, and a look of fear suffused her young features. "He isn't a vampire, is he? There are a lot of them around here."

"Well, yes, he is-kind of," I said.

The girl's eyes widened, and she drew back.

She moved to close the door.

"No-wait. Don't go," I said.

She hesitated for a moment. "Are you a vampire?"

"No," I said.

The girl stepped tentatively out onto her doorstep.

"If you're not a vampire, then why are you looking for one?"

"Like I said, he's my friend."

"If he's a vampire, won't he hurt you-or even kill you?"

"No, he's not like that."

"Would he hurt me, do you think?"

"No, I'm sure he wouldn't."

"You're a strange girl," the young woman said, looking me over. She took a step closer and smiled at me. "But I will help you."

"What is this place?" I asked.

"Lower your voice," the girl whispered, glancing down the street. "There are a lot of dangerous people in here."

I followed her gaze. A tall, thin man had appeared at the end of the street. He was staring at us steadily. Or rather, he seemed to be staring at me.

"Look here," the girl said. "I don't have any shoes on. You'd better come inside. I'll get dressed properly, and then I'll help you find your friend."

I looked down. Her tiny feet were indeed bare. I glanced toward the man at the end of the street. He seemed to have moved closer.

"Maybe we would be safer inside," I said.

The girl beckoned to me. "Quickly now. I don't like the look of that man over there."

I started forward, but stopped, startled, when the girl in front of me suddenly cried out and clapped a hand to her cheek as if she'd just been struck in the face.

A moment later, five razor-thin wounds opened on the girl's ivory skin, and blood began to run down her face.

"You stay away from my cousin!"

I turned. Odette, her eyes bright with fury, was standing by my side. My eyes were drawn to her right hand-her pale fingers were stained red.

"She's mine, Odette!" the girl screamed, still holding her bleeding face. "I found her! You go away! Go hunt for yourself!"

"This one isn't for you," Odette said. "And she isn't for anyone else in here either. Touch her, and you'll have me to deal with."

The girl stared at Odette with hate-filled eyes, but took a step back. She hurried into her house and slammed the door.

I glanced down the street toward the man who'd been staring at me.

The man had vanished.

I looked back at the closed door through which the golden-haired girl had disappeared.

"She was going to kill me, wasn't she?" I said.

"Yes," Odette replied shortly.

"Was she a vampire?"

"Yes," Odette said. "And you are a fool."

She grabbed me by the wrist. "You have got to get out of the street. I can hold most of them off as individuals, but I can't fight them all if they attack in a pack-which they might do. Food doesn't often wander so innocently into our midst."

Perhaps it was my imagination, but I thought I could feel the chill of Odette's hand all the way through my gloves.

She hauled me down several streets and into a tall stone tower. I found myself standing in a small, round room with a few sticks of furniture and a wavering, sickly candle. A staircase in the center of the room spiraled up into the darkness above.

Odette pushed on the metal door behind us, and it slid closed so heavily that the walls around us seemed to shake.

I realized I was shaking myself. I wasn't afraid of Odette-at least not at the moment. But the encounter with the golden-haired girl had left me shaken. She had seemed so harmless that I had succ.u.mbed to her trap without feeling any suspicion at all.

If not for Odette, I probably would have been murdered tonight-and then I would have disappeared completely.

No one would even have known where to look for my body.

"Thank you, Odette," I said.

Odette glared at me. "It should not have been necessary for me to rescue you."

"How did you know the girl was going to attack me?" I asked.

"I already told you she was a vampire."

"Yes, I know. But she seemed so scared. She actually seemed to be afraid of me."

Odette's lips curved into a smile, and there was a hint of admiration in her eyes. "Very effective, isn't it? That was Veronika, and that's the trick she plays on all her human victims. She's really only got the one, but it's nearly one hundred percent effective. No one expects a frightened girl to be a predator. She acts like prey, and that sets the prey at ease. I understand it's particularly effective on the males."

Odette tilted her head on one side. "You need to learn not to be so trusting. In any event, I don't need to know Veronika's favorite trick in order to know that she'll attack you. Everyone here will attack you."

Odette sat down in a rickety chair. "The question is-what are we going to do with you now? I'm suddenly in the very awkward position of being responsible for you. I've never been responsible for anything before. Suppose you start by telling me what you're doing here?"

"Where are we?" I asked.

"You are in the village," Odette replied. "Zamochit Village-and we have only one type of citizen here. I'll give you one guess as to what it is."

A fresh wave of panic washed over me. "So, I am in a village entirely populated by-"

"Vampires. Yes. You are familiar with the term 'zamochit,' are you not? It's a recent term, as far as we are concerned, and it refers to completely breaking a body-just as our souls are broken."

"How did I get here?" I asked.

"I believe I just asked you that myself," Odette replied.

"I was walking-no-running across the Wasteland," I said. "And then I felt the air around me ripple-or s.h.i.+mmer-or something like that. And suddenly I was standing on a street full of houses, rather than in an empty field. I don't have any idea what happened."

"There's a barrier around Zamochit Village-a supernatural one," Odette said. "You aren't supposed to be able to cross it-no non-vampire is. Some of us-like me-have special gifts-certain advanced abilities. Vampires like that created the barrier. And there's another one in the Pure Woods-it surrounds the original vampire community in this area. But the original community was much smaller and the vampire population eventually overflowed its boundaries. So, the village was built here. Humans don't like the Wasteland anyway, so they tend to avoid it. And the charm of the barrier hides the village from sight and confuses the humans, warding them off if they do wander out here. They just keep walking around the perimeter of the village-never realizing that there's a huge swath of the Wasteland that they can't cross."

"It certainly fooled me," I said.

"Now tell me," Odette said sharply. "What were you doing out in the Wasteland? I thought I told you to go home before you got killed."

I hesitated. Would Odette help me to find William? Or would she force me to leave?

"I'll tell you what you're doing here," Odette said when I didn't reply. "You came out here looking for Timofei Mstislav, didn't you? I already told you that you can't fight a creature like that. All you can do is run."

Odette stood suddenly and seized me by the arm. "You're going home right now."

"Odette, wait!" I cried. "I saw William. I was following him. That's how I ended up in here."

Odette released me. "William Sursur? The one who's up at the castle? The one everyone makes such a fuss over?"