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.The memory of their kiss came to him again.He leaned down and kissed the top of her head.Her hair smelled like honeysuckle shampoo just as it had when they were in high school.Something stirred inside of him.“None of this makes any sense,” Levi muttered.Donny got the impression that the Amish man was talking to himself rather than to them.When Levi looked up again, he almost seemed surprised that they were still there.“Are you sure you’ve told me everything?”“The kiss,” Marsha said.For a moment, Donny thought she was talking about the kiss they’d shared in the bushes, and then he realized what she meant.“They leaned over each person as they killed them,” Donny said.“And then they kissed them.”“Kissed them? How do you mean? A gentle kiss on the forehead to honor their victims in some way?”“No.This was.obscene.It’s like they were sucking the air from their lungs or something.”Levi became alert.His eyes blazed.Donny thought at first that he’d said or done something to anger the man.“What is it?” he asked.“Sucking the air from their lungs.or the souls from their bodies?”Donny shrugged.“I don’t know about that.”“It’s okay.I do.This still doesn’t make sense, but at least now I know what they might possibly be after.”Levi placed a hand on Donny’s shoulder, and Donny was surprised at the man’s strength.He felt it radiating through him.“Tell me how to get there,” Levi said.“The street where you first encountered them.”“You don’t need directions.If you want to find them, just follow the closest scream.”Something fluttered softly in the darkness.All three glanced upward and saw a large black crow perched directly above them atop the eaves of the house.It tilted its head and croaked, almost as if mocking them.“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Levi whispered.“It appears that they’ve found us instead.”SEVENThe crow cawed again.The sound echoed through the night, loud and obnoxious.Then the bird spread its massive wings and swooped toward them.Donny and Marsha stood transfixed, gaping as it approached.Levi stepped in front of them.“Stay behind me.”“It’s just a bird,” Donny said.“No, it isn’t.This is something else.”The crow landed in the yard and then seemed to blur.It grew, changing shape, transforming into a tall man.The entire process took only seconds.Behind him, Levi heard Donny and Marsha gasp.He knew how they felt.The transformation was simultaneously incredible and terrifying.He’d certainly never seen anything like it before, and he’d seen a lot in his travels.Encountering it like this left him momentarily stunned.He knew of therianthropy and zoanthropy, of course.They were two terms that described the same thing—the metamorphosis of human beings into animals, and vice versa.His library back home was full of examples, and although he had never witnessed it personally, Levi knew associates and peers who had, and he’d heard their stories.Werewolves were the most obvious example, but the phenomena extended far beyond mere lycanthropy.In many Native American, Chinese, West African, Central American and Pacific Island cultures, there were incidents of people turning into dogs, cats, bears, boars, owls, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, lions, lizards and even sharks.Some scholars believed that this was where stories of centaurs and mermaids had originally come from, as well as human-animal hybrid deities like Ra and Anubis, but Levi knew better.Indeed, most of what passed for mankind’s collective knowledge regarding religion, the paranormal and their own human history was incorrect.Man’s understanding of shape shifting was no different.“Holy shit,” Donny said.Marsha whimpered in agreement.The figure took form, rising to its full height.It was a man, dressed in black, archaic clothes that made Levi’s outfit seem positively risqué.Looking at the Puritan-style hat, cloak and garments, Levi was reminded of the “Terror of Salem”—the Reverend Cotton Mather, scientist, theologian and witch hunter.The man’s face seemed hidden in perpetual shadow.Only his cruel eyes and crueler mouth were clearly visible.The sight filled Levi with dread.So fast, Levi thought.It changed so quickly.What am I facing here? What are these things, Lord?Whatever its identity, this was no mere shape shifter.If a human being turned into a wolf or bird or anything else and then transformed back to their human form again, they’d have an aura.All living human beings had auras.Levi had been able to see auras since birth, and his father and grandfather had taught him how to read them when he was just a child.Just like snowflakes, no two auras were alike.Their colors varied, encompassing the entire spectrum.A trained eye could tell if a person was healthy or sick, happy or sad, just by noting the color of their aura.Different colors meant different things.Levi learned a lot about the man standing before them by reading his aura.It was black, just like the shadows concealing his face and the strange garb covering his body.Human auras were never black.That meant the man was something else.Something inhuman [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]