She's the one from my vision. That flash of a girl telling me that Thierry was cunning. She's the one who warned me about him.
And she's the figure I saw behind Chess's car this morning. She must have been watching me then.
"I'm sorry if I scared you," the girl said now, smiling. "You looked so far away, and I didn't mean to startle you. But I'd really like to talk to you if you have a few minutes."
"I..." Hannah felt strangely tongue-tied. Something about the girl made her uncomfortable, in a way that went beyond the dreamlike weirdness of recognizing somebody she'd never seen in her present life.
But she's your friend, she told herself. She's helped you in the past; she probably wants to help you again now. You should be grateful to her.
"Sure," Hannah said. "We can talk." She added somewhat awkwardly, "I remember you."
"Wonderful. Do you really? That makes everything so much easier."
Hannah nodded. And told herself again that this girl was her friend, and nobody to be hostile to or wary of.
"Well..." The girl glanced around the porch, where there was dearly no place to sit. "Ah..."
Hannah was embarrassed, as if the girl had asked, "Do you entertain all your visitors outside?" She turned around and opened the back door. "Come on in. We can sit down." "Thank you," the girl said and smiled. In the bright fluorescent lights of the kitchen, she was even more beautiful. Hauntingly beautiful.
Exquisite features, skin like silk. Lips that made Hannah think of adjectives like full and ripe. And eyes that were like nothing Hannah had ever seen before.
They were large, almond-shaped, heavy-lashed, and luminous. But it wasn't just that. Every time Hannah looked, they seemed to be a different color. They changed from honey to mahogany to jungle-leaf green to larkspur purple to misty blue. It was amazing.
"If you remember me, then you must know what I'm here about," the girl said. She rested an elbow on the kitchen table and propped her chin on her fist. Hannah said one word. "Thierry." "Yes, From the way you say that, maybe you don't need my advice after all." The girl had an extraordinary voice as well; low and pleasant, with a faint husky throb in it. Hannah lifted her shoulders. "Well, there's still a lot I don't know about him-but I don't need anybody to tell me that he's dangerous. And I've already told him to go away."
"Have you really? How remarkably brave of you."
Hannah blinked. She hadn't thought of it as being so brave.
"I mean, you do realize how powerful he is? He's a Lord of the Night World, the head of all the made vampires. He could"-the girl snapped her fingers- "call out a hundred little vampires and werewolves. Not to mention his connection with the witches in Las Vegas."
"What are you trying to say? That I shouldn't have told him to go away? I don't care how many monsters he can call out," Hannah said sharply.
"No. Of course you don't. Like I said, you're brave." The girl regarded her with eyes the deep purple of bittersweet nightshade. "I just want you to realize what he's capable of. He could have this whole county wiped out. He can be very cruel and very childish-if he doesn't get what he wants he'll simply go into a rage."
"And does he do that a lot-go into rages?"
"All the time, unfortunately."
I don't believe you.
The thought came to Hannah suddenly. She didn't know where it came from, but she couldn't ignore it.
There was something about this girl that bothered her, something that felt like a greasy stone held between the fingers. That felt like a lie.
"Who are you?" she said directly. When the girl's eyes-now burnt sienna-lifted to hers this time, she held them. "I mean, why are you so interested in me? Why are you even here, in Montana, where I am? Is it just a coincidence?"
"Of course not. I came because I knew that he was about to find you again. I'm interested in you*
because-well, I've known Thierry since his childhood, before he became a vampire, and I feel a certain obligation to stop him." She smiled, meeting Hannah's steady gaze easily. "And my name ... is Maya."
She said the last words slowly, and she seemed to be watching Hannah for a reaction. But the name didn't mean anything to Hannah. And Hannah simply couldn't figure out whether this girl called Maya was lying or not.
"I know you've warned me about Thierry before," she said, trying to gather her thoughts. "But I don't remember anything about it except you telling me. I don't even know what you are-I mean, are you
somebody who's been reincarnated like me? Or are you... ?" She left the question open-ended. As a matter of fact, she knew Maya wasn't human; no human was so eerily beautiful or supernaturally graceful.
If Maya claimed she was, Hannah would know for sure it was a deception.
"I'm a vampire," Maya said calmly and without hesitation. "I lived with Thierry's tribe in the days when you lived with the Three Rivers clan. In fact, I'm the one who actually made him into a vampire. I shouldn't have done it; I should have realized he was one of those people who couldn't handle it. But I didn't know he'd go crazy and become... what he is." She looked off into the distance. "I suppose that's why I feel responsible for him," she finished softly. Then she looked back at Hannah. "Any other questions?"
"Hundreds," Hannah said. "About the Night World, and about what's happened to me in past lives-"
"And I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to answer most of them. There are rules against talking about the Night World-and anyway, it's safer for you not to know. As for your past lives, well, you don't really want to know what he's done to you each time, do you? It's too gruesome." She leaned forward, looking at Hannah earnestly. "What you should do now is put the past behind you and forget about all this. Try to have a happy future."