Ah, God. The horror of it choked her.
Someone had killed those precious boys, slaughtered them.
No, not someone, she realized in that next instant.
Some thing.
The cloaked figure that held the sword now was built like a man--an immense, broad-shouldered wall of a man. But from within the gloom of a heavy wool hood, glowing amber eyes burned like coals set into a monstrous, inhuman face. He wasn't alone. Two others like him, dressed similarly in hooded, heavy cloaks, stood with him, parties to the carnage. She couldn't make out their features for all the shadows and the flickering, low light of the flames twisting up the walls and support beams of the stable.
Not human, her mind insisted. But if not human, then what?
Savannah tried to get a better look as the image of the boys' attackers began to waver and dissolve.
No. Look at me, damn you.
Let me see you.
But the glimpse started splintering, visual shards that broke into smaller pieces, turning this way and that. Slipping out of her grasp. Distorting what she saw.
It had to be a trick of her unsteady hold on her gift.
Because what she was seeing from this vision of the past couldn't possibly be real.
From within the deep hood of the one now holding the sword, the pair of glowing eyes blazed bright amber. And in the instant before the image vanished completely, Savannah would have sworn on her own life that she saw the bone-white glint of razor-sharp teeth.
Fangs.
What the...?
A hand came down on her shoulder. Savannah shrieked, nearly jumping out of her skin.
"Take it easy!" Rachel laughed as Savannah swung her head around. "Don't have a damn heart attack. It's just me. Jeez, you look like you just saw a ghost."
Savannah's pulse was hammering hard, her breath all but gone. She had no voice to answer her roommate, could only stare up at her mutely. Rachel's gaze went to the sword. "What are you doing in here by yourself? Where did that come from?"
Savannah cleared her throat, now that her heart had finally vacated the area. She pulled her hands away from the blade, hiding them so Rachel wouldn't see how they shook. "I...I found it yesterday."
"Is that a ruby in the handle of that thing?"
Savannah shrugged. "I think so."
"Really? Far out!" She leaned in for a better look. "Let me see it for a second."
Savannah almost warned her friend to be careful, that she wouldn't want to see what Savannah had just witnessed. But that gift--a curse, today--belonged solely to her.
Savannah watched as Rachel picked up the blade and admired it. Nothing happened to the girl. She had no inkling of the horrific past secreted in the centuries-old weapon.
"Rach...do you believe in monsters?"
"What?" She burst out laughing. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Nothing." Savannah shook her head. "Forget it. I'm just kidding."
Rachel gripped the sword in both hands and pivoted on her heel, taking on a dramatic combat pose. Her wristful of thin metal bangle bracelets jingled together musically as she mock thrusted and parried with the blade. "You know, we shouldn't be handling this thing without gloves on. God, it's heavy. And old too."
Savannah stood up. She plunged her hands into the pockets of her flared jeans. "At least two hundred years old. Late 1600s would be my guess." More than a guess, a certainty.
"It's beautiful. Must be worth a fortune, I'll bet."