Blood Dreams

'Audrey, don't make me angry with you. You never call me Mister, for heaven's sake.'

She stared up at him, her eyes wide. 'Uh… the shots. I c-can't remember.'

'Darling. You call me darling, Audrey. Always.'

'I'm sorry. I'm sorry-darling. I won't forget again, I promise.'

'I certainly hope not.' He reached for the shampoo. 'I don't want to get angry with you, Audrey. I really don't.'

'No, darling,' she whispered. 'The last thing I want… is to make you angry with me.'

Chapter Twelve

A VICIOUS SERIAL KILLER was bad enough, Dani thought; a vicious serial killer in possession of an unknown number of psychic abilities was, literally, the stuff of nightmares.

Her nightmares.

Everyone's nightmares.

Finally, Marc moved his shoulders as though casting things off, and said, 'Okay, we deal with that possibility-or probability-when we have to. For now we work the case, get up to speed on the investigation in Boston so far, and continue our investigation here. Any arguments?'

None were offered.

It wasn't really a question when Marc asked Hollis, 'You'll be reporting in to Agent Bishop ASAP?'

'With your permission, in about five minutes. It'll be on the QT, of course, at least unless-until-we find enough evidence to convince the Director this is the same killer. Or until the media gets wind of it and he starts taking heat that way.'

Paris asked, 'How much time do we have, realistically, before all that media attention starts?'

Marc shrugged. 'You know we don't have a local TV station, and our daily newspaper isn't exactly known for its hard-hitting journalism. Plus, geographically we're fairly isolated, so we don't get many strangers or people just passing through. There's a lot going on in Atlanta right now, as well in as the other major cities surrounding us, so plenty of news elsewhere.'

'But two victims of a brutal killer,' Dani said, 'is news no matter how small the town. Especially these days, the way the media latches on to anything sensational. Once word starts to spread…'

Hollis looked at the sheriff with raised brows. 'Hard to really tell from the photos, but I gather the crime scene was fairly remote to say the least. How secure was it? How soon before word does leak out?'

'My people won't talk. The families of the victims are going to be in shock for a while once they're told. Bob and Karen didn't have any kids; Becky's parents are older and tend to keep to themselves. I don't see any of them going to the media-or being very receptive if the media comes to them.'

'Even to make a public appeal for justice? That seems to be the thing these days.'

'Maybe in a few weeks or months. Not for a while.'

Hollis nodded. 'Are they likely to go public in a smaller way, reach out to the community maybe for emotional support? Churches, that sort of thing?'

Marc looked at Jordan, who shook his head and replied, 'The Huntleys don't even belong to a church, far as I know. And Bob Norvell was never known as a joiner. Surprised me when he married.'

The room was silent for a few moments, and then Paris stirred and said, 'Am I the only one who feels guilty because I know what happened to two missing women before their own families know?'

'You get used to it,' Hollis said. Then she shook her head. 'Actually, no, you don't. At least, I never have. Who is informing the families?'

'I am,' Marc said. 'Or I will, when we have some kind of positive I.D. Either the DNA results or…'

… or we find the rest of them.

Not that he needed to say that.

* * * *

'Why didn't you take me into the dream last night, Dani?'

Dani looked up with a start from the file she was studying, realizing only then that she and Marc were alone in the conference room.

'Don't panic,' he said. ' Jordan took Hollis out to the crime scene, but I'm sure Paris will be back in here any minute. The dream, Dani. You had it again last night.'

'I wasn't going to panic.' She was about to remind him that they'd been alone together in his office but then fought a shiver as she wondered if they really had been.

'Dani?'

He saw too much-even without the benefit of psychic abilities. There was, she thought, probably something profound in that.

'It's just… even though I didn't take you in, you were there this time. You were part of the vision dream. You were there, and Hollis, and Bishop. And I had Paris 's abilities.'

'What?'

Dani nodded. 'I think I did before, it's just that last night I became aware of it. That she wasn't there, when she should have been. That I had her abilities. More than her abilities, I think. Hollis seemed to feel that I… had some kind of weapon, that I didn't need a gun.'

'Wait. You had Paris 's abilities? I wasn't aware you and Paris could share abilities; I thought you could just enhance each other's.'

'We can't share them. At least, we never have. I've never been clairvoyant or had her secondary ability. And she's never had precognitive dreams or visions.'

'Or been able to pull other people into her dreams?'

'No. She's never been able to do that. And we tried, as kids.'

'Not since?'

Dani conjured a smile. 'Somewhere along the way, it stopped being a fun secret we shared and started being our lives. Exploring our own psychic limits wasn't really the priority, not for a long time. Since we started working for Haven, we've done more of that, of course, especially because John and Maggie believe siblings can make the best partners and they needed to know if we could be.'

'Found out yet?'

'Not really. We knew that we were always stronger individually when we worked together, just as you said, that my vision dreams are more vivid and Paris is more clairvoyant.'

'But no ability-sharing.'

'I wouldn't even know how to try to do that.'

'But there are signs that your abilities, at least, are evolving.'

'Maybe. Okay, probably.' Dani managed a shrug, despite the tension she felt. 'The sort of high-stress situations we get involved in can be life-altering in every way.'

'What do you mean?'

It was not a conversation Dani had wanted to have with Marc, but she found herself going on. 'Just like the SCU team, members of Haven are seldom called in except when all the more conventional methods have failed. And the stakes are usually very, very high. So we push ourselves.'

'You always did do that.'

'Not the way I've pushed myself since signing on with Haven. The truth is that we don't know what our limits are, none of us. Investigations, situations like this one… test the limits we believe are there. Maybe push us past them.'

'But?' He was watching her intently.

'But… sometimes the results aren't all that positive. We get pushed into unknown territory Marc. We're dealing