Moloch had arrived.
The dream shifted, wavered, and then coalesced.
No longer in the cemetery, she found herself standing on a railing. Behind her a thirty foot drop over the balcony stretched away to the ground below. A pair of open French doors faced her, and through them she could see an older man kneeling naked in the middle of the floor. His chest and face were stained with a dark, crimson crust.
Dried blood, she realized, as its tangy aroma reached her nostrils. Her mouth twisted into a wide, cruel grin.
Her tongue flicked forward, caressing her upper incisors, feeling their length and sharpness.
What the hell? a distant part of her mind wondered.
A voice not her own spoke, and a chill ran up and down her spine at the icy menace in its words.
'Give me the stone,' it said.
A hand, her own but not her own, reached forward and uncurled its fist.
She saw with growing horror that it wasn’t human.
There were only four fingers, each one tipped with a razor sharp claw, and when they curled into the palm and back out again, gesturing, she heard them clicking together like the rasp of steel on steel.
Her breath caught in her throat as she tried to scream…
She awoke, gasping for air, the sound of her scream still ringing in her ears. Something clutched at her out of the darkness, twined itself in and out of her legs, and she screamed again, thrashing her limbs frantically, fighting off whatever it was with strength born of desperate fright.
With a start she realized she was merely tangled in her bed sheets, the material clinging to her sweat- drenched skin.
'Oh, my God!' she said, her chest heaving as she fought to control the wild beating of her heart.
'It was a nightmare, just a nightmare,' she mumbled as she slumped back against the headboard, drained and exhausted.
Unlike most dreams, this one stayed with her; most of the details etched firmly in her mind. It had been shockingly real and frightening. She couldn’t imagine what had caused it; she hadn’t had such a vivid dream in years, certainly not one so violent.
Or so strange.
She sat up and glanced at the clock.
Three-thirty.
Hours before daylight yet.
She lay back down, willing her body to relax. In time her shaking finally stopped and her breathing lost its ragged edge, returning to its normal rhythm.
Though she hadn’t expected to return to sleep that night, her exhaustion worked to her advantage. Eventually the gentle sounds of her own breathing lulled her to sleep as easily as a child listening to a mother’s lullaby.
At her breast the red gemstone shone brightly with a crimson light all its own.
Across town, Moloch, the beast the stone had connected her with, continued with his bloody assault.
Chapter Sixteen: Premonitions
Katelynn awoke the next morning with a nagging suspicion that something was wrong. The dream remained with her still and all through breakfast images flashed before her, reminding her of the horror she’d seen. The face of the man on the balcony kept playing itself over and over again, haunting her, until she knew she would have to do something about it.
Although she was reluctant to admit it to herself, she knew that face in her dreams.
She saw the scene again in her mind.
The open balcony doors.
The symbols etched out on the floor.
The man standing in the center of the room, blood covering his face and chest, a sword held in his right hand.
She’d seen both eager anticipation and sudden fear in his eyes.
Katelynn couldn’t deny it any longer. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that the man in her dreams had been Hudson Blake.
She saw enough in the local news and had even gone to his estate to try and interview him at the start of her thesis. She could still recall his haughty dismissal of her request and the way he’d slammed the door in her face in dismissal.
What was he doing in her dreams?
Katelynn ate her breakfast, mulling it over, then picked up the phone and called Jake. She told him that she had something important to speak to him about, something that she had to do in person, and asked if they could meet. Jake agreed and told her he’d be at her place within the hour.
Good to his word, Jake arrived just on time. She let him in, and the two of them walked through the kitchen and out onto the deck, where they took seats next to each other on the patio chairs. It was a gorgeous morning, but the heat of the sun did nothing to thaw the chill in Katelynn’s bones.
'I want to go over to Riverwatch.'
Jake could see that she was agitated. 'Why?'
'I want to try again to get Blake to give me an interview for my thesis. I thought maybe you could help out.'
Jake laughed. 'Hell, Katelynn. The man can’t stand me. You’d probably have better luck going without me.'
'No, I don’t think so. He hired you, didn’t he? Maybe with you there he will be more apt to say yes.'
Katelynn didn’t like lying to Jake. He was a friend and deserved better, but she knew that if she told the truth, he would laugh in her face. Jake was too firmly rooted in reality to believe that something like premonitions could exist outside their weekly Swords and Sorcerers sessions. She wanted him there because she had a nagging suspicion that something would be horribly wrong when they arrived at the Blake estate. Jake had always been level-headed in a crisis, and she needed that rock-solid support if it turned out that she was right.
He protested for several more minutes, but eventually Katelynn wore him down. He had the day off due to the continuing police investigation at the Stonemoor estate. He had yet to hear when they would be resuming work, so he could use that as a pretense for going to see Blake. Reluctantly he agreed, if for no better reason than the fact that he enjoyed her company and had nothing better planned for the morning.
Jake waited while she cleaned up her breakfast dishes, then they went out to the Jeep. Loki was waiting inside and Jake let him out to greet Kate for a moment before they all climbed back inside.
The ride to Riverwatch passed in companionable silence, with an occasional chuff from Loki at a passerby on the street he found particularly interesting. It was a sunny morning, and Jake was feeling pretty good about things in general. He had time off from work with pay, money in his pocket, and good friends. He did his best not to think about the events from earlier in the week, not wanting to ruin the beginning of a great day.
When they arrived at the estate, Jake pulled into the drive and down to the front of the house. He parked directly in front of the entrance, knowing that it would probably irritate Charles, which was okay by him, and got out of the Jeep. Katelynn did the same. Before she could shut her door, however, Loki pushed his way past, shot up the front steps, and began barking furiously at the door.
'Shit!' Katelynn exclaimed.
'Don’t worry about it.' Jake said, shutting his door. 'Just leave the door open a minute and I’ll get him back inside.' He called to the dog, fully expecting him to return. He’d trained the Akita well, despite the aggravation and the time it had taken. Having such a large dog made the training mandatory in Jake’s view and since being trained Loki had always obeyed him. This time was no different. The dog stopped barking immediately and trotted back to
