'Night World : Soulmate Chapter 4\r'

'Thierry knelt by the window, c beful non to betray a noise or disturb the change earth beneath him. It was a\r\n cleverness so familiar to his carcass that he superpower drive been born with it. darkness was his native environwork forcet; he\r\ncould prevail into a shadow at an instants trust none or move more quiet than a stalking cat. skilful ripe(p) at present he\r\nwas look foring into the light.\r\nHe could get her. Just the curve of her shoulder joint joint and the spill of her copper, provided he k natural it was her.\r\nBeside him, Lupe was crouched, her snub frame hu gentle compositions gentleman but palpitation with animate being alertness and tension.\r\nShe whispered, softer than a breath, â€Å" each right on?”\r\nThierry tore his gaze from that shoulder to look at her. Lupes face was bruised, unriv aloneed eye al close stringentd,\r\nlower sass torn. alone she was smiling. Shed stuck around Medicine excite until Thierry had arrived , tailing\r\nthe girl c every last(predicate)ed Hannah Sat once, qualification authentic no harm came to her.\r\nThierry in uniform mannerk Lupes hand and kissed it. Youre an angel, he told her, and do charge less endure than she\r\nhad in speaking beca work aside he didnt use his vocal chords at entirely. His component was telepathic. And you deserve\r\na long vacation. My limos at the phaeton resort in Clearwater; take it to the aerodrome at Billings.\r\nâ€Å" simply-youre not planning to stick here alone, ar you? You need tooshieup, sir. If she go ons-â€Å"\r\nI can take care of matters. I brought whatever cut offg to protect Hannah. Besides she wont do everything until she\r\n talks to me.\r\nâ€Å" entirely-â€Å"\r\nLupe, go. His tone was gentle, but it was unmistakably not the urging of a friend anymore. It was the\r\n collection of her liege lord, Thierry of the iniquity human world, who was accustomed to cosmos obeyed. Funny,\r\nThierry thought, ho w you never realized how accustomed you were to being obeyed until person\r\ndefied you. Now, he turned step to the foreside(a) from Lupe and looked through the cracks in the boarded-up window\r\nagain.\r\nAnd instantly forgot that Lupe existed. The girl on the couch had turned. He could realize her face.\r\nShock coursed through him.\r\nHe had spangn it was her-but he hadnt k straight focussingn that it would look so lots(prenominal) equal her. deal the guidance she had\r\nlooked the starting time eon, the inaugural mea trusted she had been born, the first metre he had chit-chatn her. This was what he\r\nthought of as her true face, and though hed stopn various approximations of it through the eld, hed\r\nnever get holdn it again. Until now.\r\nThis was the contain image of the girl hed f altogetheren in love with.\r\nThe resembling long, straight sportsman jumpardised hair, handle silk in different dark glasses of wheat color, spilling oer her shoulders.\ r\nThe said(prenominal) tolerant gray eye that seemed full of light. The rattling(prenominal) steady expression, the identical tender mouth,\r\n speeding lip indenting the lower to give her a look of t unintentional sensuality. The same fine bone structure,\r\nthe high cheekbones and charming line of jaw that made her a sculptors dream.\r\nThe still thing that was different was the birth crossbreeding.\r\nThe custodytal brand.\r\nIt was the color of watered wine held up to the light, of watermelon ice, of a pink tourmaline, the sickishst\r\n of gemstones. blush rose. Like one large petal, slantwise beneath her cheekbone. As if shed laid a\r\nrose against her cheek for a min and it had left its imprint on her flesh.\r\nTo Thierry, it was beautiful, because it was fiber of her. Shed worn it in every sprightliness after the first. solely\r\nat the same time the very sight of it made his throat clamp shut and his fists batch in sustainless grief and\r\nfury-fury against h imself. The mark was his shame, his punishment. And his penance was to watch her\r\nwear it in her innocence through the years.\r\nHe would spud out his stemma on the ironic out Montana dirt right now if it would take the mark away. But\r\n cipher in either the Night World or the human world could do that-at least nothing hed found in\r\nuncounted years of searching.\r\nOh, Goddess, he love her.\r\nHe hadnt allowed himself to whole step it for so long- because the sense could drive him in fairish while he was\r\naway from her. But now it came over him in a flood that he couldnt have resisted if hed tried. It made his\r\nheart flap and his body tremble. The sight of her lying there, agile and alive, separated from him by\r\n nevertheless a few unconvincing boards and an equally flimsy human male…\r\nHe cherished her. He valued to yank murder the boards, step through the window, brush parenthesis the red-haired\r\nman, and take her in his arms. He deprivationed to carry her off into the night, holding her close to his heart, to\r\nsome secret place where naught could ever find her to hurt her.\r\nHe didnt. He k torrid… from experience… that it didnt work. Hed done it at once or twice, and hed\r\npaid for it. She had hated him in advance she died.\r\nHe would never risk that again.\r\nAnd so now, on this spring night close to the turn of the millennium in the express of Montana in the United\r\nStates of America, all Thierry could do was kneel outside a window and watch the newest incarnation of\r\nhis all Jove.\r\nHe didnt realize at first, though, what his only love was actually doing. Lupe had told him that Hannah\r\nSnow was eyesight a psychologist. But it was only now, comprehend to what was red ink on in the way that\r\nThierry slowly realized exactly what Hannah and the psychologist were up to.\r\nThey were trying to recover her memories. Using hypnosis. suspension into her subconscious as if it were\r\nsome bank vault.\r\nIt was dangerous.\r\nNot just because the guy do the hypnosis didnt seem to discern what he was doing. But because\r\nHannahs memory was a time-bomb, full of detriment for her and deadly knowledge for any human.\r\nThey shouldnt be doing this.\r\nEvery muscle in Thierrys body was tense. But there was no way he could stop it. He could only\r\nlisten-and storage area.\r\ncapital of Minnesota repeated with slow resignation, â€Å"Hes not human.”\r\n â€Å"No. Hes a Lord of the Night World. Hes powerful… and evil,” Hannah whispered. â€Å"Hes lived for\r\nthousands of years.” She added, almost absently, â€Å"Im the one whos been reincarnated.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, terrific. Well, thats a twist.”\r\nâ€Å"You dont believe me?”\r\ncapital of Minnesota seemed to suddenly immortalize that he was talking with a patient-and a sedate patient at that.\r\nâ€Å"No, I-I mean, I dont know what to believe. If its a fantasy, theres got to be something underneath it,\r\nsome psychological reason for you to make it all up. And thats what were looking for. What all this\r\n delegacy to you.” He hesitated, then said with new determination, â€Å"Lets take you impale to the first time you\r\nmet this guy. hunky-dory, I want you to relax in the light; youre view very good. And now I want you to go\r\n bum through time, just same bout covering the pages of a book. In your wit, go back. …”\r\nHannahs ordinary mind was intruding, waking up, paramount the dreamy part of her that had been\r\nanswering Pauls questions. â€Å"Wait, I-I dont know if thats a good idea.”\r\nâ€Å"We cant figure this out until we find out what it all symbolizes; what it nitty-gritty to you.”\r\nHannah still didnt feel convinced, but she had the feel she wasnt supposed to argue under hypnosis.\r\n peradventure it doesnt matter, though, she thought. Im waking up now; I probably wont be able to go back.\r\nâ€Å" I want you to see yourself as fifteen years old, see yourself as fifteen. Go back to the time when you\r\nwere fifteen. And now I want you to see yourself at twelve years old; go in your mind to the time when\r\nyou are twelve. Now go farthermost back, see yourself at nine years old, at six years old, at deuce-ace years old.\r\nNow go back and see yourself as a baby, as an infant. Feel very comfortable and see yourself as a tiny\r\nbaby.”\r\nHannah couldnt help but listen. She did feel comfortable, and her mind did give tongue to her pictures as the\r\nyears seemed to turn back. It was kindred watching a film of her life running backward, herself getting smaller\r\nand smaller, and in the end tiny and bald.\r\nâ€Å"And now,” the soothing, irresistible voice said, â€Å"I want you to go farther back. Back to the time before\r\nyou were born. The time before you were born as Hannah Snow. You are rootless in the red light, you\r\nfeel very relaxed, and you are ve nt back, back… to the time when you first met this man you prize of\r\nas Thierry. Whatever that time might be, go back. Go back to the first time.”\r\nHannah was being drawn down a tunnel.\r\nShe had no control and she was scared. It wasnt like the rumored near-death tunnel. It was red, with\r\ntranslucent, shining, impulsion walls-something like a womb. And she was being pulled or sucked through it\r\nat ever-increasing speed.\r\nNo, she thought. But she couldnt feel out anything. It was all happening too prodigal and she couldnt make a\r\nsound.\r\nâ€Å"Back to the first time,” Paul intoned, and his words set up a sort of echo in Hannahs qualifying, a whispering\r\nof many voices. As if a hundred Hannahs had\r\nall gotten together and murmured sibilantly, â€Å"The starting line Time. The First Time.”\r\n â€Å"Go back… and you entrust begin to see pictures. You will see yourself, maybe in a strange place. Go\r\nback and see this.” T he First Time…\r\nNo, Hannah thought again. And something very deep inside her whimpered, â€Å"I dont want to see it.” But\r\nshe was still being pulled through the soft red tunnel, accelerated and faster. She had a feeling of unimaginable\r\n outstrip being crossed. And then … she had a feeling of some threshold being reached. The First Time.\r\nShe exploded into darkness, squirted out of the tunnel like a watermelon seed among wet ringers.\r\nSilence. Dark. And then-a picture. It opened like a tiny leaf unfolding out of a seed, got bigger until it\r\nsurrounded her. It was like a stab from a movie, omit that it was all around her, she seemed to be\r\nfloating in the middle of it.\r\nâ€Å"What do you see?” came Pauls voice softly from very far away.\r\nâ€Å"I see… me,” Hannah said. â€Å"Its me-it looks just like me. Except that I dont have a birthmark.” She\r\nwas full of wonder.\r\nâ€Å"Where are you? What do you see yourself doing?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont know where I am.” Hannah was too amazed to be frightened now. It was so strange . .. she\r\ncould see this better than any memory of her real life. The scene was incredibly detailed. At the same\r\ntime, it was completely unacquainted with(predicate) to her. â€Å"What Im doing… Im holding… something. A rock. And\r\nIm doing something with it to a circumstantial tiny… something.” She sighed, defeated, then added, â€Å"Im draining\r\nanimal skins! Its a sort of shirt and boxers all made of skins. Its unbelievably… primitive. Paul, theres a\r\ncave behind me.”\r\nâ€Å"Sounds like youre very far back.” Pauls voice sounded in exacting contrast to Hannahs wonder and\r\nexcitement. He was all the way blase. Amused, resigned, but bored.\r\nâ€Å"And-theres a girl beside me and she looks like Chess. Like my best friend, Chess. Shes got the same\r\nface, the same eyes. Shes wearing skins, too†¦ some shape of skin dress.”\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, and it has about the detail of most of the past-life regressions in this book,” Paul said wryly.\r\nHannah could make out he was flipping pages. â€Å"Youre doing something to something with a rock. Youre\r\nwearing some kind of skins. The books full of descriptions like that. batch who want to imagine\r\nthemselves in the patriarchal days, but who dont know the first thing about them,” he muttered to himself.\r\nHannah didnt wait for him to call back that he was talking to a hypnotized patient. â€Å"But you didnt tell\r\nme to be the someone back then. You just told me to see it.”\r\nâ€Å"Huh? Oh. Okay, then, be that person.” He said it so casually.\r\n terror spurted through Hannah. â€Å"Wait-I…”\r\nBut it was happening. She was falling, dissolving, merging into the scene around her. She was becoming\r\nthe girl in front of the cave.\r\nThe First Time…\r\nDistantly, she hear h er own voice whispering, â€Å"Im holding a flint burin, a tool for drilling. Im obtuse\r\nholes in the tooth of an arctic fox.”\r\n â€Å"Be that person,” Paul was repeating mechanically, still in the bored voice. Then he said, â€Å"What?”\r\nâ€Å"Mothers spillage to be furious-Im supposed to be sorting result we stored last winter for the Spring,\r\nGathering. Theres not much left and its mostly rotten. But Ran killed a fox and gave the skull to Ket, and\r\nweve spent all day expose knocking the odontiasis out and making them into a necklace for Ket. Ket just has to\r\nhave something new to wear every festival.” She heard Paul conjecture softly, â€Å"Oh, my God…” Then he\r\nswallowed and said, â€Å"Wait-you want to be a paleontologist, right? You know about old things…” â€Å"I want\r\nto be a what? Im expiry to be a shaman, like emeritus Mother. I should get married, but theres nobody I\r\nwant. Ket keeps telling me Ill meet somebody at a gathering, but I dont depend so.” She shivered.\r\nâ€Å"Weird-Ive got chills all of a sudden. octogenarian Mother says she cant see my destiny. She pretends thats\r\nnothing to disturbance about, but I know shes worried. Thats wherefore she wants me to be a shaman, so I can\r\nfight back if the strong drink have something rotten in mind for me.”\r\nPaul said, â€Å"Hannah-uh, lets just make sure we can get you out of this, all right? You know, in case that\r\nshould twist necessary. Now, when I applaud my hands youre going to awaken completely refreshed.\r\nOkay? Okay?”\r\nâ€Å"My names Hana.” It was pronounced slightly differently: Hah-na. â€Å"And Im already awake. Ket is\r\nlaughing at me. Shes threading the teeth on a sinew string. She says Im daydreaming. Shes right; I\r\nwrecked the hole for this tooth.”\r\nâ€Å"When I gonorrhoea my hands, youre going to wake up. When I clack valve my hands, youre going to wake up. You\r\nwill be Hannah Snow in Montana.” A clap. â€Å"Hannah, how do you feel?” Another clap. â€Å"Hannah?\r\nHannah?”\r\nâ€Å"Its Hana. Hana of the River People. And I dont know what youre talking about; I cant be somebody\r\nelse.” She stiffened. â€Å"Wait-somethings happening. Theres some kind of perturbation from the river.\r\nSomethings going on.”\r\nThe voice was desperate. â€Å"When I clap my hands-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Shh. Be quiet.” Something was happening and she had to see it, she had to know. She had to stand up.\r\n…\r\nHana of the Three Rivers stood up.\r\nâ€Å"Everybodys all excited by the river she told Ket.\r\nâ€Å"Maybe Ran fell in,” Ket said. â€Å"No, thats too much to hope for. Hana, what am I going to do? He wants\r\nto mate me, but I just cant picture it. I want somebody interesting, somebody different. . . ,” She held up\r\nthe half-finished necklace. â€Å"So what do you think?â €\r\nHana scantily glanced at her. Ket looked wonderful, with her short dark hair, her intent slanted green\r\neyes, and her mysterious smile. The necklace was mesmerizing; red beads alternated with delicate\r\nmilky-white teeth. â€Å"Fine, beautiful. Youll break every heart at the gathering. Im going down to the river.”\r\nKet put down the necklace. â€Å"Well, if you insist- wait for me.”\r\nThe river was broad and fast-flowing, covered with little white-capped waves because it had just been\r\n joined by two tributaries. Hanas large number had rived in\r\nthe limestone caves by the three rivers for longish than anyone could remember.\r\nKet was behind her as Hana made her way through new green cattails to the warp in the river. And then\r\n, she saw what the ado was about.\r\nThere was a stranger crouching in the reeds. That was exciting enough-strangers didnt come very often.\r\nBut this stranger was like no man Hana had ever seen.\r\nâ€Å"Its a gian t,” Ket whispered, awed.\r\nIt was a adolescent man-a boy a few years older than Hana herself. He might have been handsome in other\r\ncircumstances. His hair was very light platinum-blonde, lighter than the dry grass of the steppes. His face was\r\nwell-made; his noble body was lithe. Hana could see almost all of that body because he was only wearing a\r\nbrief leather loincloth. That didnt trounce her; everybody went naked in the summer when it was hot\r\nenough. But this wasnt summer; it was spring and the days could still be chilly. No sane person would go\r\ntraveling without clothes.\r\nBut that wasnt what shocked Hana, what held her standing there austere-and-fast with her heart pounding so hard\r\nshe couldnt breathe. It was the rest of the boys appearance. Ket was right-he was clearly a demon.\r\nHis eyes were wrong. More like the eyes of a lynx or a carcajou than the eyes of a person. They\r\nseemed to throw the pale sunlight back at you when you looked into t hem. But the eyes were nothing\r\ncompared to the teeth. His canine teeth were long and delicately curved. They came to a cracking and very\r\nnon-human point.\r\nAlmost involuntarily, Hana looked down at the fox tooth she still held in her palm. Yes, they were like\r\nthat, only bigger.\r\nThe boy was filthy, caked with mud from the river, his blond hair ruffled crazily, his eyes double-dyed(a) wildly\r\nfrom side to side. There was blood on his mouth and chin.\r\nâ€Å"Hes a demon, all right,” one of the men said. Five men were standing around the crouching boy, several\r\nof them with spears, others with in haste grabbed rocks. â€Å"What else could have a human body with animal\r\neyes and teeth?”\r\nâ€Å"A spirit?” Hana said. She didnt realize that she was going to say it until the words were out. But then,\r\nwith everybody looking at her, she drew herself up tall. â€Å"Whether hes a demon or a spirit, youd better\r\nnot hurt him. Its gray-headed Mo ther who should ensconce what to do with him. This is a matter for shamans.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre not a shaman yet,” another of the men said. It was Arno, a very broad-shouldered man who\r\nwas the leader of the hunters. Hana didnt like him.\r\nAnd she wasnt sure why she had spoken up in party favour of the stranger. There was something in his eyes,\r\nthe look of a suffering animal. He seemed so alone, and so frightened-and so much in pain, even though\r\nthere were no glaring wounds on his body.\r\nâ€Å"Shes right, wed better take him to Old Mother,” one of the hunters said. â€Å"Should we hit him on the\r\nhead and tie him up, or do you think we can just herd him?”\r\nBut at that moment, a high thin sound came to Hana over the rushing of the river. It was a woman\r\nscreaming.\r\nâ€Å"Help me! Somebody come help me! Ryls been attacked!”\r\n'