Hannah's breath was taken away.
She hadn't expected a coherent answer from Maya... but she'd gotten one. And she did understand.
Maya had devoted her life to keeping Hannah and Thierry apart. Her long life. Her thousands of years. If
she lost at this point, that life became meaningless.
"You don't know how to do anything else," Hannah whispered slowly, figuring it out.
"Oh, enough of the press conference. I know how to do lots of things-you'll find that out. I'm through
fooling around with you, cupcake."
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.
I won't drink. I'll let myself drown first. At least I'll die before I'm a vampire....
But she found that it wasn't that easy to will yourself into dying from lack of air. Eventually, she choked
and swallowed Maya's blood. She wound up coughing and sputtering, trying to clear her throat and get
air. Maya sat back.
"There," she said, slightly breathless. She shone the flashlight into Hannah's face again.
"Yes." She looked judicial, like a woman considering a turkey in the oven. "Yes, it's going very well.
Once more should do it. You'd be a vampire now, if so much time since the first we hadn't wasted exchange."
"Thierry will kill you when he finds out," Hannah whispered.
"And break his sacred promise? I don't think so." Maya smiled and got up again, pottering with her
backpack. "Of course, this wouldn't be happening if he hadn't broken his promise to me," she added,
almost matter-of-factly. "He told me that you wouldn't come between us anymore. But the next time I
turn around-there you are! Shacked up in his house, no less. He should have known better."
Hannah stared at her. "He didn't even know I was there. Maya-don't you realize that? He didn't know-"
Maya cut her off with a gesture. "Don't expect me to believe anything you say. Not at this point." She
straightened up, looked at Hannah, then sighed. She switched off the lantern and picked up the flashlight.
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you for a while, now. I'll be back tonight to finish this little job.
Don't worry, I won't be late... after all, I have a deadline to meet. Tomorrow's your birthday."
"Maya ..." I have to keep her here talking, Hannah thought. I have to make her understand that Thierry
didn't break his promise.
She was trying to ignore the chilling question that ran just under her thoughts. What if Thierry had been
serious about what he'd told Maya? If he really wanted to be with Maya as long as Hannah was no
longer between them?
"Can't stay; must fly," Maya said, trilling laughter again. "I hope you won't be too lonely. By the way, I
wouldn't rock that pole too much. This is an abandoned silver mine, and that whole structure is unstable."
"Maya-"
"See you later." She picked up the backpack and walked away.
She ignored Hannah's yells. And eventually, when Hannah couldn't see the beam of the flashlight
anymore, she stopped yelling.