I don't believe in vampires or reincarnation. But I know what I saw. I know things about Hana . ., things that weren't even in the story I told Paul. I know she wore a tunic and leggings of roe deer hide. I know she ate wild cattle and wild boar and salmon and hazel nuts. I know she made tools out of elk antler and deer bone and flint.... God, I could pick up a flint cobble and knock off a set of blades and scrapers right now. I know I could. I can feel how to in my hands.
She put the fork down and looked at her hands. They were shaking slightly.
And I know she had a beautiful singing voice, a voice like crystal....
Like the crystal voice in my mind.
So what do I do when they tell me it's impossible? Argue with them? Then I'll really be crazy, like those people in institutions who think they're Napoleon or Cleopatra.
God, I hope I haven't been Cleopatra.
Half laughing and half crying, she put her face in her hands.
And what about him?
The blond stranger with the bottomless eyes. The guy Hana didn't have a name for, but Hannah knew as Thierry.
If the rest of it is real, what about him?
He's the one I'm afraid of, Hannah thought. But he didn't seem so bad. Dangerous, but not evil. So why do I think of him as evil?
And why do I want him anyway?
Because she did want him. She remembered the feelings of Hana standing next to the stranger in the moonlight. Confusion... fear... and attraction. That magnetism between them. The extraordinary things that happened when he touched her hand.
He came to the Three Rivers and turned her life upside down.... The Three Rivers. Oh, God-why didn't I think of that before? The note. One of the notes said "Remember the Three Rivers."
Okay. So I've remembered it. So what now?
She had no idea. Maybe she was supposed to understand everything now, and know what to do ... but she didn't. She was more confused than ever.
Of course, a tiny voice like a cool dark wind in her brain said, you didn't remember all of it yet. Did you?
Paul woke you up before you got to the end.
Shut up, Hannah told the voice.
But she couldn't stop thinking. All night she was restless, moving from one room to another, avoiding her mother's questions. And even after her mother went to bed, Hannah found herself wandering aimlessly through the house, straightening things, picking up books and putting them down again.
I've got to sleep. That's the only thing that will help me feel better, she thought. But she couldn't make herself sit, much less lie down.
Maybe I need some air.
It was a strange thought. She'd never actually felt the need to go outside for the sole purpose of breathing fresh air-in Montana you did that all day long.
But there was something pulling at her, drawing her to go outside. It was like a compulsion and she couldn't resist.
I'll just go on the back porch. Of course there's nothing to be scared of out there. And if I go outside, then I'll prove there isn't, and then I can go to sleep.
Without stopping to consider the logic of this, she opened the back door.
It was a beautiful night. The moon threw a silver glow over everything and the horizon seemed very far away. Hannah's backyard blended into the wild bluestem and pine grass of the prairie. The wind carried the clean pungent smell of sage.
We'll have spring flowers soon, Hannah thought. Asters and bluebells and little golden buttercups.
Everything will be green for a while. Spring's a time for life, not death.
And I was right to come out. I feel more relaxed now. I can go back inside and lie down....
It was at that moment that she realized she was being watched.
It was the same feeling she'd been having for weeks, the feeling that there were eyes in the darkness and they were fixed on her. Chills of adrenaline ran through Hannah's body.
Don't panic, she told herself. It's just a feeling. There's probably nothing out here.
She took a slow step backward toward the door. She didn't want to move too quickly. She had the irrational certainty that if she turned and ran, whatever was watching her would spring out and get her before she got the door open.
At the same time she edged backward, her eyes and ears were straining so hard that she saw gray spots and she heard a thin ringing. She was trying, desperately, to catch some sign of movement, some sound. But everything was still and the only noises were the normal distant noises of the outdoors.
Then she saw the shadow.
Black against the lighter blackness of the night, it was moving among the bluestem grass. And it was big.
Tall. Not a cat or other small animal. Big as a person.
It was coming toward her.
Hannah thought she might faint.
Don't be ridiculous, a sharp voice in her head told her. Get inside. You're standing here in the light from the windows; you're a perfect target. Get inside fast and lock the door.
Hannah whirled, and knew even as she did it that she wouldn't be fast enough. It was going to jump at her exposed back. It was going to ...
"Wait," came a voice out of the darkness. "Please. Wait."
A male voice. Unfamiliar. But it seemed to grab Hannah and hold her still.
"I won't hurt you. I promise."
Runrunrunrun! Hannah's mind told her.
Very slowly, one hand on the door knob, she turned around.
She watched the dark figure coming out of the shadows to her. She didn't try to get away again. She Had a dizzying feeling that fate had caught up with her.
The ground sloped, so the light from the house windows showed her his boots first, then the legs of his jeans. Normal walking boots like any Montanan might wear. Ordinary jeans-long legs. He was tall.
Then the light showed his shirt, which was an ordinary T-shirt, a little cold to be walking around at night in, but nothing startling. And then his shoulders, which were nice ones.