Pure (Book 1, Pure Series) (28 page)

           
"It's too late to rent a car tonight," GM whispered to me.

           
GM and the driver spoke animatedly in Georgian once again, and she gave the driver more money.
 
Then he drove off into the night.

           
We went into the hotel, and GM switched back to Russian as she asked if there were any rooms available.
 
We were in luck, and before long, we had a room, and I sank gratefully onto an actual bed.
 
It was nice to be able to stretch out after all those hours on the plane and in the marshrutka.
 
After all my napping, though, I wasn't actually tired.
 
I told GM as much.

           
"That's jet lag, Solnyshko," she said.
 
"You should try to sleep now – try to get your body in sync with local time."

           
I wanted to ask GM if the feeling of being watched had left her, but I decided against it.
 
If she was feeling safe, I didn't want to raise the specter of paranoia in her mind.
 
Instead, I got ready for bed and tried to sleep.

           
As I lay in the dark, I felt a nervous fluttering in my stomach.
 
We were getting ever closer to Krov.
 
Would I really find the answers there that I was searching for?
 
GM believed my mother had died of a fever, and Galina believed that my mother had been killed by Gleb Mstislav – who himself had died and had somehow become reanimated – and was now after me.
 
It seemed impossible – could that horrible white-faced creature that attacked our house really have been Gleb?
 
And if so, what could he want with me?
 
And had William escaped?

           
A sharp pain lanced through me as I thought of William, and tears sprang to my eyes once again.
 
I had to believe he was okay – the thought of losing him left me feeling completely desolate.
 
I didn't know anything for certain yet – I told myself that over and over again.
 
There was still hope.

           
I brushed the tears from my eyes and drew in a ragged breath.
 
I had two aims in life now – to see William alive and healthy again and to stop some kind of undead monster.
 
A little giggle of hysteria escaped from my lips.
 
It was a good thing I didn't have any other difficult things to do.

           
I struggled for some time to relax, but I fell asleep at last, and when I awoke, sunlight was streaming into the room, and GM was braiding her long silver hair.

           
"Good morning," Solnyshko," she said.

           
"Good morning," I replied.
 
It took me a moment to remember where I was – in a hotel room in Sochi, Russia.

           
"Are you ready to begin the last leg of your journey home?" GM asked.
 
There was a curiously sentimental look on her face.

           
"Home?"
 
I sat up and pushed my hair out of my face.

           
"If not for the premature death of both of your father and your mother, Solnyshko, we would never have left Krov.
 
It's the town you would have grown up in.
 
Things would have been very different."

           
I had a feeling that this was GM's way of saying she missed her daughter.

           
GM shrugged her sentimental mood off.
 
"The weather is quite pleasant, Solnyshko, just like it was in Tblisi.
 
You will not need to dress too warmly.
 
Sochi is a resort city."

           
I showered and dressed quickly, and then we packed up – a task that didn't take long.
 
We ate breakfast in the hotel restaurant, and then GM arranged for a rental car, and we checked out.

           
Soon we were on the road again, and I was back to struggling with the persistant feeling that someone was following us.
 
I turned to look behind us.
 
There were other cars following ours, but that was only natural.
 
To try to keep my mind off my paranoia, I picked up the map GM had acquired when she'd taken possession of the car, and I tried to work out our route.
 
I was having trouble finding our destination on the map.

           
"Where's Krov?" I asked.

           
"Behind the great gate at Kiev," GM said with a little smile.
 
"You won't find Krov on the map – it's far too small.
 
I picked out my route using a town nearby."

           
She gave me the name, and I soon located it.
 
We had hours to go.
 
I thought that it was odd that Krov had such a lurid name and that such bizarre stories were associated with it – murder, the occult, monsters, undead creatures.
 
I remembered being happy as a child in Krov, and I couldn't quite believe that all the terrible things I'd heard were true.
 
How could our pretty house with its roses and its apple tree have existed alongside such horrors?

           
"Where are we going?" I asked.
 
"In Krov, I mean?
 
Are we going to see my cousin first?"

           
"We will go to see your cousin eventually," GM replied.
 
Her hands gripped the steering wheel a little more tightly.
 
"But first, we will go to see Galina and Aleksandr.
 
Unfortunately, they are the only people who will have the answers we seek."

           
"And Aleksandr is Galina's son?" I asked.
 
I thought I'd heard that, but I wanted to be sure.

           
"Yes," GM said.

           
"What is their last name?"

           
"Golovnin," GM said.
 
That was what William had said, too.

           
GM's replies were rather forced, so I decided to drop the rest of the questions I had about Aleksandr and Galina.
 
Since we were going to see them, I would find out about them soon enough.

           
I turned and looked out the window and simply watched the scenery for a long time.
 
As I watched, civilization gave way to rugged countryside, and cars going in our direction began to thin out.
 
Eventually, we appeared to be alone.
 
That should have made me feel more secure, but the feeling of being watched refused to leave me.

           
As we drove along a winding road, a blue car passed us, and as it did so, a little blond boy looked out the window and stuck his tongue out at me.
 
I made a face at him, and he giggled.
 
Then the car and the little boy zoomed off and disappeared into the distance.

           
GM clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
 
"Those people are going far too fast."

           
A little while later, we were nearing GM's town of reference on the map, when we passed the same blue car, which was stopped by the side of the road.

           
A woman wearing a kerchief was getting something out of the trunk.
 
The little blond boy was standing by the side of the road, watching us, and as we passed him, he stuck his tongue out at us and threw something out onto the road in front of our car.

           
There was a loud popping sound and a jolt.

           
GM frowned.
 
"Solnyshko, I think we may have a flat."

           
"It was that little boy," I said, turning around in my seat.
 
"He threw something at our car."

           
GM pulled the car over to the side of the road, and we both got out.

           
The woman and the boy were already back in their car, and I watched as they drove off in the opposite direction.

           
"I can't believe they just left us," I said.

           
"If the little boy threw something, probably the mother didn't even see it," GM said reasonably.
 
"She likely had no idea why we pulled over."

           
I walked over to the road, looking for what the little boy had thrown.
 
I found a tennis ball-sized chunk of twisted, jagged metal.
 
It was heavy and mostly sharp edges.
 
I carried the chunk of metal over to the side of the road and threw it into the grass so that no one else would run over it.
 
Where had a small boy gotten a dangerous thing like that?

           
I walked back to the car, where GM was examining the damaged tire.

           
GM looked up at my approach.
 
"It's pretty badly torn up."

           
She went around to the back of the car and looked in the trunk.
 
"Also, we don't have a spare."

           
GM went to her purse and got out her cell phone.
 
After a few minutes she put it away in resignation.
 
"It appears that I have no service out here."

           
I looked around.
 
The day was wearing away, and we were on a lonely country road.
 
That blue car was the only car we had seen in a long time, which was one of the reasons I had noticed it in the first place.

           
GM looked up and down the road and sighed.
 
"Well, Solnyshko, we may be here for some time.
 
I don't think it's a good idea for us to go walking around looking for assistance.
 
It will be dark soon, and as you can see, there are no lights on these country roads.
 
It would be too easy for us to get lost.
 
It will be much safer to stay with the car until morning.
 
I am glad now that I bought the extra things that I did back at the mall."

           
We stood watching the road in both directions, hoping for a sign of movement, but all was still.

           
As GM had prophesied, darkness was soon upon us.
 
"I have a feeling we won't be seeing anyone pass this way tonight," she said.
 
"I think it's best that we get in the car."

           
GM got the blankets, travel pillows, and flashlights out of the trunk.

           
Then she settled into the front seat, and I settled into the back.

           
"I am not suggesting that you go to sleep right away, Solnyshko," GM said as she passed over two blankets and a pillow.
 
"But you should make yourself comfortable.
 
There are many hours between now and dawn."

           
I wasn't particularly tired, but as neither GM nor I was inclined to be talkative at the moment, I lay down on the seat, and despite myself, began to drift off.

           
I was awakened abruptly when I heard a car door slam nearby.
 
It was quickly followed by the slamming of a second door.

           
I sat up and turned to look out the rear window.
 
The bright glare from a car's headlights streamed in and dazzled my eyes, forcing me to hold up my hand to shade them.

           
Footsteps approached the driver's side, and I heard GM's window rolling down.
 
I looked out my own window, and blinking and squinting, I could just make out the silhouette of a man and a woman standing next to our car.

           
GM drew in her breath sharply.
 
"Aleksandr?
 
Is that you?"

           
I heard a man's voice.
 
"Indeed it is I."

           
"Aleksandr?
 
The one who was in our kitchen?" I asked GM.

           
"The very same," she replied.

           
GM got out of the car, and I quickly followed her.

           
Sure enough, the young man with the cinnamon hair whom I had glimpsed for just a moment in our kitchen was standing before us now.
 
Despite the lack of proper lighting, I could see that his expression was relaxed and amused expression as he looked at GM.
 
His eyes shifted to me, and I felt the same feeling of strangeness I had felt when our eyes had met as I'd peered around the banister at him.
 
Up close, his eyes were the same odd color as his hair, which increased the feeling of strangeness.
 
I quickly looked to his companion.

           
Standing at Aleksandr's side was a young woman of about twenty-one.
 
She was very beautiful with red-gold hair and a face that was familiar.

           
"Odette!" I cried.
 
I lunged forward and threw my arms around her.
 
Though it had been eleven years since I had last seen her, I would recognize my cousin anywhere.

           
The young woman stepped away from me and gave me a quizzical look.
 
"Who are you?"