I suppose I had a life as a warrior, she mused. I think that's where the cool wind voice comes from, just the way the crystal voice comes from Hana of the Three Rivers.
"I do care," Thierry said. His voice said he didn't expect her to believe it.
Hannah laughed. The combination of her dizziness and her body instinct was having an odd effect. She felt brashly, stupidly overconfident. Maybe this is what drunk feels like, she thought, her mind wandering again. "Hannah-"
Hannah made the stick whistle in the air, stopping him from coming any closer to her. "Are you crazy?"
she said. There were tears in her eyes. "Do you think that you can just attack me and then come back and say I'm sorry' and it's all going to be okay? Well, it isn't. If there was ever anything between us, it's all over now. There is no second chance."
She could see his face tense. A muscle twitched in ~ his tight jaw. But the strangest thing was that she could have sworn he had tears in his eyes, too.
It infuriated her. How dare he pretend to be hurt by her, after what he'd done?
"I hate you." She spat the words with a force that startled even her. "I don't need you. I don't want you. And I'm telling you for the third time, keep the hell away from me."
He had opened his mouth as if he were about to say something, but when she got to 'I don't need, you,'
he suddenly shut it. When she finished, he looked away, across the shortgrass prairie.
"And maybe that's best," he said almost inaudibly.
"For you to keep away?"
"For you to hate me." He looked at her again. Hannah had never seen eyes like that before. They were impossibly distant and shattered and still... like the peace after a war that killed everyone.
"Hannah, I came to tell you that I am going away," he went on. His voice was like his eyes, bloodless and quenched. "I'm going home. I won't bother you again. And you're right; you don't need me. You can live a long and happy life without me."
If he expected her to be impressed, she wasn't. She wouldn't believe words from him anymore.
"There's just one thing." He hesitated. "Before I go, would you let me look at you? At your neck. I want to make sure that"-another fleeting hesitation-"that I didn't hurt you when I attacked you."
Hannah laughed again, a short, sharp bark of a laugh. "How stupid do you think I am? I mean, really."
She laughed again and heard an edge of hysteria in it. "If you want to do something for me, you can turn around and go. Go away forever."
"I will." There was so much strain on his face. "I promise. I'm just worried about you getting indoors before you faint."
"I can take care of myself. I don't need any help from you." Hannah was feeling dizzier by the minute, but she tried not to let it show. "If you would just leave, I'll be fine."
In fact, she knew she wasn't going to be fine. The gray spots were swarming in front of her eyes again.
She was going to pass out soon.
Then I'd better start for Chess's, she thought. It was insanity to turn her back on him, but it was worse insanity to stand here until she collapsed at his feet.
"I'm leaving now," she said, trying to sound clear and precise and unlike someone who was about to fall over unconscious. "And I don't want you to follow me."
She turned and started walking.
I will not faint, I will not faint, she told herself grimly. She swung her stick and tried to take deep breaths of the cool night air. But tufts of grass seemed to be trying to trip her up with every step and the entire landscape seemed to rock every time she looked up.
I ... will... not... faint. She knew her life depended on it. The ground seemed rubbery now, as if her feet were sinking into it and then rebounding. And where was the light that marked Chess's house? It had somehow gotten over to the right of her. She corrected her course and stumbled on.
I will not faint....
And then her legs simply melted. She didn't have legs. The rest of her fell slowly toward the ground.
Hannah managed to break her fall with her arms. Then everything was still and dark.
She didn't go out completely. She was floating in darkness, feeling woozy even though she was lying down, when she sensed someone beside her.
No, she thought. Get the stick. He'll bite you; he'll kill you.
But she couldn't move. Her hand wouldn't obey her.
She felt a gentle hand brush her hair off her face.
No ...
Then a touch on her neck. But it was only gentle fingers, running lightly over the skin where she'd been bitten tonight. They felt like a doctor's fingers, exploring to diagnose. She heard a sigh that sounded like relief, and then the fingers trailed away.
"You'll be all right." Thierry's voice came to her softly. She realized he didn't think she could hear him.
He thought she was unconscious. "As long as you stay away from vampires for the next week."
Was that a threat? Hannah didn't understand. She braced herself for the piercing pain of teeth.
Then she felt him touch her again, just his fingertips brushing her face. The touch was so immeasurably gentle. So tender.
No, Hannah thought. She wanted to move, to kick him away. But she couldn't.
And those delicate fingers were moving on, tracing her features one by one. With the lightest of touches that sent helpless chills through her.
I hate you, Hannah thought.
The touch followed the curve of her eyebrow, trailed down her cheek to her birthmark. Hannah shivered inwardly. It sketched the line of her jaw, then moved to her lips.
The skin was so sensitive here. Thierry's fingers traced the outline of her lips, the join between upper and lower. The chills became a fluttering inside Hannah. Her heart swelled with love and longing.