Ignis (Book 2, Pure Series) (5 page)

           
We walked in silence again for a time before I asked the question that was weighing the heaviest on my mind.

           
"Do you really think they'll just take no for an answer?"

           
William looked at me, and a muscle worked in his jaw.

           
He did not reply.

           
Soon the trees we walked through began to thin, and we were in sight of my neighborhood.
 
The thought of vampires lurking near my house left me feeling deeply uneasy.

           
I clutched at William's sleeve, and he stopped walking.

           
"Do you think Innokenti and Anton will leave Elspeth's Grove?
 
Do you think they're watching us right now?"

           
William took my face in his hands.
 
"They aren't nearby right now—I would hear them if they were.
 
And I don't know what they are planning to do, but you and your grandmother will be safe.
 
I'll see to that."

           
"William, if there really is a price on my head—if there really are two groups after me—"

           
William interrupted.
 
"Have I let you down yet?"

           
"No, you've never let me down," I said.

           
"Trust me—I'll take care of it."
 
William smiled.
 
"Now, let's go see your grandmother."

           
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 reasserted 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 passed, 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 passed, 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 attitude 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 fashion.
 
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.