Hannah ignored the threat-and the insulting endearment. "But it won't do you any good," she said, *
genuinely bewildered, as if she and Maya were discussing whether or not to go shopping together.
"You're going to kill me, sure, I understand that. But it won't help you get Thierry. He'll just hate you
more... and he'll just wait for me to come back."
Maya had knelt by the backpack, rummaging in it.
she looked up at Hannah and smiled-a strange slow smile.
"Will he?"
Hannah stared at those red lips, feeling as if someone were pouring ice water down her backbone. "You
know he will. Unless you kill him, too."
The lips curved again. "An interesting idea. But not quite what I had in mind. I need him alive; he's my prize, you see. When you win, you need a prize." Hannah was feeling colder and colder inside. "Then he'll wait." "Not if you're not coming back." And how do you arrange that? Hannah thought. God, maybe she's going to keep me alive here... tied up and alive until I'm ninety. The idea brought a wave of suffocating fear. Hannah glanced around, trying to imagine what it would be like to spend her life in this place. In this cold, dark, horrible... Maya burst into laughter.
"You can't figure it out, can you? Well, let me help." She walked to where Hannah was sitting and knelt.
"Look at this. Look, Hannah."
She was holding up an oval hand mirror. At the same moment she shone the flashlight on Hannah's face.
Hannah looked into the mirror-and gasped.
It was her face... but not her face. For one instant she couldn't put her finger on the difference-all she could think was that it was Hana's face, Hana of the Three Rivers. And then she realized.
Her birthmark was gone.
Or ... almost gone. She could still see a shadow of it if she turned her head to one side. But it had faded almost to invisibility.
God, I'm good-looking, Hannah thought numbly. She was too dazed to feel either vain or humble. Then she realized it wasn't just the absence of the birthmark that made her look beautiful.
Even in the unnatural beam of the flashlight she could tell that she was pale. Her skin was creamy, almost translucent. Her eyes seemed larger and brighter. Her mouth seemed softer and more sensuous. And there was an indefinable something about her face....
I look like Poppy, she thought. Like Poppy, the girl with the copper hair. The vampire. Wordlessly, she looked at Maya. Maya's red lips stretched in a smile. "Yes. I exchanged blood with you when I picked you up last night. That's why you slept so long... you probably don't realize it, but it's afternoon out there. And you're changing already. I figure one more exchange of blood... maybe two. I don't want to rush things. I can't have you dying before you become a vampire."
Hannah's mind was reeling. Her head fell back weakly to rest against the post. She stared at Maya. "But why?" she whispered, almost pleadingly. "Why make me a vampire?"
Maya stood. She walked over to the backpack and carefully tucked the mirror inside. Then she pulled out something else, something so long that it was sticking out of the top of the pack. She held it up.
A stake. A black wooden stake, like a spear, about as long as Maya's arm. It had a nice pointed end on it.
"Vampires don't come back," Maya said. Suddenly there was a roaring in Hannah's ears.
She swallowed and swallowed. She was afraid she was going to faint or be sick.
"Vampires... don't... ?"
"It's an interesting bit of trivia, isn't it? Maybe it'll be on "Jeopardy!" someday. I have to admit, I don't exactly understand the logistics-but vampires don't reincarnate, not even if they're Old Souls. They just die. I've heard it suggested that it's because making them vampires takes their souls away, but I don't know.... Does Thierry have a soul, do you think?"
Everything was whirling around Hannah now. There was nothing solid, nothing to hang on to.
To die ... she could face that. But to die forever, to go out... what if vampires didn't even go to some other place, some afterlife? What if they just suddenly weren't?
It was the most frightening thing she had ever imagined.
"I won't let you," she whispered, hearing her own voice come out hoarse and ragged. "I won't-"
"But you can't stop me," Maya said, amused. "Those ropes are hemp-they'll hold you when you're a vampire as well as when you're human. You're helpless, poor baby. You can't do anything against me."
With a look of pleasure in her own cleverness, she said, "I finally found a way to break the cycle."
She left the backpack and knelt in front of Hannah again. This time when the red lips parted, Hannah saw long sharp teeth.
Hannah fought. Even knowing that it was hopeless, she did everything she could think of, lashing out at Maya with the strength of sheer desperation. But it wasn't any good. Maya was simply that much stronger than she was. In a matter of minutes, Hannah found herself with both hands pinned and her head twisted to one side, her throat exposed.
Now she knew why Maya had forced her to drink vampire blood before. It hadn't just been random cruelty. It was part of a plan.
You can't do this to me. You can't. You can't kill my soul....
"Ready or not," Maya said, almost humming it. Then Hannah felt teeth.
She struggled again, like a gazelle in the jaws of a lioness. It had no effect. She could feel the unique pain of her blood being drawn out against her will. She could feel Maya drinking deeply. I don't want this to be happening.... At last the pain faded to a drowsy sort of ache. Hannah's mind felt dopey, her body numb.
Maya was wrestling her into a different position, tilting Hannah's head back and pressing her wrist to Hannah's mouth.