***
“Hey, Hunter,” Shanna called out as she poked her head into a small closed room in the library. “Amelia said you asked for me.”
Hunter and Natalia were gazing down at some papers spread out on a large mahogany desk, but Hunter smiled up at her when she appeared. “Ah, Shanna. Please come in. We’ve been waiting for you.”
Shanna strode into the room slowly, taking in the piles of thick books on the desk and stacked on the floor, precariously leaning against the desk or walls so they wouldn‘t fall over.
“I told you awhile ago that I would look into Diana for you and I’ve brought some background information for you to look over,” Hunter said. “I thought you’d like to see it.”
“Oh,” Shanna replied, startled. She’d been expecting more on The Dream Demon, not…that. She glanced over at Natalia. Only those present in the room, and Rachel, really knew about the Diana stuff, so she was glad that he’d had her come to a private room for this conversation, but…the timing seemed odd. “Any luck finding other prophecies?”
“Not yet. I’ve requested some more texts to be sent to me, which may contain some of them, but I haven’t found anything in our collection in Lime Bay.” He paused. “Shanna, I know that Rangda was speaking to you on that audio you listened to in Greece. I don’t wish to expose you to too much of her insanity, so I’m searching for anything in her words that may be referencing you. I don’t want you to get too caught up in this, but like I said before, I fear in the end it may be inevitable.”
“I understand,” Shanna told him. “And I’m not afraid. I’ve dealt with enough demons to know what to watch out for. I can handle myself here. Promise.”
Hunter nodded and glanced back at Natalia, who was watching them carefully. “Okay, then. I put some materials on the chair in front of the window if you care to dig in now. I thought it would be a welcome distraction from the Sandman research. Otherwise, I can have them sent over to your room later.”
“Oh, no. I’m anxious to read up on this...woman.” Shanna smiled and walked over to her window seat, nodding to Natalia as she passed.
Shanna loved the smell of old books. There was something about them that seemed to lift her spirits. It made her think of a happier time in her life, when she was young and she would read on the carpet of her living room, a book spread out before her, sunshine bathing her body, making her flesh tingle. Her father would read the paper on the couch, her mother would be reading some paperback or another. They would all be content to read together in that little room, happy to be in each other’s presence, yet apart in their own little worlds.
Smiling to herself, Shanna took a seat and set three thick books down at her feet, careful to pick up the first one, its pages yellowed and sporadically torn. It seemed so fragile. She opened it to a page marked with a Post-it. Her own face peered out at her, causing her hair to stand on end. She still couldn’t believe that she was connected to this woman. She’d never believed in reincarnation, yet here was the proof. She knew she wasn’t the same person this woman had been, but could they have really been composed of the same energy? Did she have all of her memories locked up inside somewhere? Or were most of them lost to time and books such as these?
Shanna sighed and read the condensed history offered on the page before her, which contained much of the information that Hunter had already relayed to her. “Diana was turned into a vampire when she was a virgin, by Vlad the Impaler, who made her his queen. She named herself Diana after the virgin goddess of the hunt, finding irony in how she’d died as such an innocent. Diana was responsible for countless deaths, often urging Vlad in many of his most horrifying massacres, including The Hollow Oak Massacre of 1515. In the end, their castle in Russia was raided by a group of villagers who’d been guided by a leading vampire hunter at the time, Sir William Carter II. Diana dressed up in men’s clothing, posing as the one the hunter sought, Vlad the Impaler, leading them away from her master so that he could escape. But she herself was captured and tortured for weeks before she was finally cast out into the sun to her fiery death.”
Shanna sat forward as she pondered over how Diana had saved her master. Despite being a horrible creature, she did have some fine qualities mixed in there. Shanna shook her head as she continued to read. “The late vampire Diana, it seemed, was gifted with some psychic elements that had made her appealing to Vlad, appealing enough to change her into a vampire in the first place. Not only was she extremely resourceful and cunning, but she could speak in demon tongues, understand the language of the Ancient Ones. This made her an invaluable asset to bring together the various worlds of darkness. She was key in many monster relations in the seventeenth century, ties that have gone on uninterrupted to this day, including the formation of La Faer Noir.”
Shanna inhaled sharply. Diana had created La Faer Noir? She looked over at Hunter with wide eyes, but he was busy doing something with Natalia. Had he seen this? Of course he had. But this was…a huge revelation. No wonder La Faer Noir had taken such an interest in her when she’d appeared with her striking resemblance. They must have seen it as something of a second coming.
Pondering this for a moment, Shanna realized that this information corresponded with her visions of Diana as of late, her ability to speak other languages, be a mediator. It made sense that she would unite the demon world. And, of course, Shanna had demonstrated such an affinity for language herself in Greece.
Shanna was startled when Hunter and Natalia began to play the audio that they’d listened to in Greece, of Hunter’s interview with Rangda. But she quickly tuned them out, vying to search for more on Diana. When she could find no more information in the book she held, she set it down and picked up the next book in the pile, looking back at Hunter and Natalia. She tilted her head to hear where they were in the tape and sat up straight, her eyes wide.
“Ah, Hunt,” Rangda’s voice purred from the tape recorder. “I have your attention now, don’t I? Diana was an interesting creature, was she not?”
Shanna swallowed hard and stood up, knocking her chair over in the process. Hunter and Natalia noticed her distress and looked at each other, then back at her.
“Don’t you hear it?” Shanna demanded of them. “How could you not have noticed this before?”
“Shanna,” Natalia said. “All we hear is Rangda humming or...or singing, chanting.”
“They can not hear me,” Rangda said. “You know that you have a special gift over language, Hunt. Diana is still inside of you. Asleep, but still there. The monsters all around you can feel her.”
Shanna let out a deep shuttering breath.
“You want to know what I want,” Rangda went on. “I want your attention. I want you to know me, listen to me. Are you listening, Hunt? Do you want to hear what I have to say? I think that you do. Much of it has to do with you and your friends. Your sleeping friend, in particular. Your research won’t be successful. You’re going about this all wrong. You have some control over your dreams, but will not be able to touch a creature made of dreams, especially one as cautious as The Sandman. You have to draw him out of your dreams the same way his sand is left behind with your physical forms. With physical contact.”
“Shanna?” Hunter asked, frowning.
Shanna held up a hand to silence him.
“But he is too smart to let you touch him in the dreaming,” Rangda went on. “Much too smart for that. You’ve seen how he keeps himself at a distance. You must draw him to you. Use your new weapon. You know the one I refer to.”
Rangda suddenly stopped and Shanna heard Hunter call out on the tape.
Hunter switched the tape off immediately and looked up at Shanna expectantly. “Well, what did you hear?”
Natalia looked at Hunter like she was a little angry with him, but also turned to Shanna to hear what she had to say.
Shanna put a hand to her head. “Oh, God, Hunter. I...she’s i
nside me. She could hear them talk and so can...so can I.”
“Rangda?” Hunter prodded. “Or do you mean Diana?”
“Diana. The prophecy says she will rise again from the ashes,” Shanna whispered. “Do you think...do you think that means she’s going to surface? Come out of me? Take over me?”
Hunter put a hand on her shoulder. “No need to get hysterical here. Prophecies are vague and the ones that I’ve read are all positive from what I can recall. Nothing about this reincarnation causing chaos or anything. You’re going to be just fine.”
“But she’s in me,” Shanna insisted. “She...I use her powers.”
“Powers that came with the energy she was made up of. I promise you’re still you.”
“But Rangda...”
“Is a demon,” Natalia said with authority. “You, for one, should know that demons are liars. Manipulators.”
Shanna nodded, suddenly feeling a little foolish for overreacting. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.” She let out a deep breath and stood up straight. “But if we can trust what she told me, we might be able to beat this thing.”
Hunter raised an eyebrow and looked over at Natalia, who met his gaze steadily. “Tell us everything.”