The Wolf Came on Christmas (Johanna and Alexander) novel Chapter 17

Claim

Alexander was trusting that I would help him with his children, at the very least. And both of them were small. I felt heartless, reducing the children to mere subjects of analysis. I couldn’t help it, I suppose, because I was still worried about everything that remained unsaid: about the mother’s whereabouts, the reason for the shots the father had taken, and worse still-who had shot him, and where that person was. Why did he need to mask his scent by hanging rue all over my house? Did it have anything to do with whoever had wounded him like that? Alexander hadn’t given many clues, but I sensed that it did. That enemy-was it like him a superior creature? I was afraid again, but no longer of Alexander and his nature-rather of what didn’t know.

The first thing I wanted to do was go downstairs and ask him all of that, but my courage failed me and I preferred to stay a while longer staring at the empty screen and the wallpapers rotating one after another. After a few minutes, I opened the browser again and typed in a few words. Little by little, the search led me down familiar paths and into online business magazines. I spent another half hour wandering the web, but beneath the threshold of my consciousness my brain was making associations, as it always did. My only clue to the true identity of this “Alexander

Baryshnikov” was his apparent high level of education. Someone like him had at least a doctorate

or a master’s degree, and with so many languages under his belt, he worked in international business. What else would he need so many skills for?

In short, he HAD to appear somewhere.

And I kept searching until, almost without realizing it, I struck a vein.

I went down the stairs with my pulse racing. It was seven in the evening, and all I had in my

stomach was a Snickers bar I’d found in my drawer and some water. The lack of food and rest

pushed me into doing something stupid-that’s the only excuse I can give.

Alexander was sitting on the couch with his two children, CNN tuned in, and I noticed that Andre

had a ceramic bowl in his hands (one of those I myself never used for fear of breaking them) filled

with freshly prepared instant soup. Sasha was awake with a bottle in her mouth, in her father’s

arms. There was nothing strange about it-the cordless phone was in its place, and the whole

thing looked like a typical family scene from some popular sitcom, where everything is peaceful

before the episode’s conflict begins. In fact, it was so homey that I felt bad about having to break

that peace. With a quick glance, I noticed yellow and green markers, pens, and a graphite pencil

scattered across the coffee table, along with drawn sheets of paper and a notepad with a few things written in Cyrillic.

All three of them turned to look at me immediately. Even the baby.

When I reached the foot of the stairs, I triumphantly waved a freshly printed sheet in a way that was probably very imprudent, and blurted out:

111

174

Chapter 17:

“I knew I’d seen you somewhere before! You’re Illya Valinchenko’s son!”

Claim

Alexander frowned and pulled the bottle away from his daughter. Sasha got upset and protested with a spoiled snort, but not even the adorable baby gave me enough strength to remain as firm as I’d been at the beginning, when I arrived brimming with excitement to present my theory.

I couldn’t deny it-the way Alexander looked at me.

“I wrote and coordinated a supplement for a newspaper in Minneapolis, that’s all. I didn’t go out on the street for stories and things like that.”

“But you are press. Does this mean I have to double my offer to keep your mouth shut?”

Ah-his superior tone offended me again.

This time, it didn’t intimidate me. I clenched my fists and faced him, stepping closer until I was only a pace away. I think that if I had been aware of how close we were, I would have fainted on the spot.

“About what?” I spat angrily. “That you’re a supernatural being, or that you’re alive? I understand there’s something you don’t want known, but what is it?”

“Johanna, the less you know, the better. I’ve already contacted all my people, and they’ll be here within forty-eight hours at most. In two more days, it will be as if nothing ever happened, so you don’t have to-”

“How did you stay hidden for so long?” I insisted, ignoring his protest. “With the technology your father has at his disposal, if they haven’t found you yet it’s because they didn’t want to. There are endless ways to track someone by satellite or using a cellphone-it’s impossible that… I don’t understand it. Was it because of this? Because you became what you are now?”

&

Alexander growled from deep in his throat, trying to intimidate me.

This time the sound was exactly like that of a wild animal-hollow, deep, and dark-but even heavier, more cavernous and harsher, Rougher, It made me shiver, Given how things stood

between us at that moment, it only managed to keep me quiet for an instant, which was all it took him to say:

“Johanna, please-don’t continue.”