Blood Dreams

with electrical energy remember, and there's a lot of it in the human body in the human brain. Trying to control that doesn't always work or doesn't work the way we expect it to.'

'Is that why you didn't take me into your dream? Because you've discovered it's dangerous?'

She half nodded. 'It's a rare ability apparently, dream-walking, so there isn't much concrete information on it. Hell, there's almost no information on it. But the theory developed by the SCU and all their doctors and research is that because I'm bringing someone else's consciousness into my mind-where the level of electromagnetic energy is higher than normal-it could damage that person. Nonpsychics aren't used to that kind of energy; their own brains aren't hardwired to handle it the way ours are.'

'Are you saying someone has been hurt because you brought them into your dreams? Or is it all just theory?'

'Just theory is all most psychics have to go on. To live with. At least until something very bad happens to change theory into reality. And that theory makes sense. So the only one I've taken into my dreams since I joined Haven has been Paris. She's psychic and my identical twin. We figured if anybody could handle it without being hurt, it would be her.'

'It didn't seem to affect me,' he pointed out.

Dani managed another shrug, this one jerky. 'Maybe for the same reason you can recognize psychic abilities in others.' Or maybe because there was always a different kind of connection between us.

'Or maybe because we were lovers,' Marc said calmly.

'Maybe,' she said, striving to match his calm.

'The connection between us is still there, Dani.'

'Yes,' she said. 'I know.'

* * * *

Hollis stood in the backyard of the vacant house, at the edge of what had been a lovely pool area before a monster had turned it into a scene of carnage now encircled by yellow crime-scene tape. The organs and other body parts had been removed, but bloodstains baked to a rusty tint by the hot Georgia sun still marred the lovely tile and stone, and the red-tinted pool was only partially drained.

She could hear flies buzzing.

Jordan cleared his throat when he noticed the direction of her gaze, and said, 'The drain's clogged. We have a call in to the pool-maintenance company. They may want to call a biohazard-removal company.'

'Everybody's a specialist these days,' Hollis murmured.

'And your specialty is being a medium.'

Hollis was tempted to go into the whole most-wounded-in-the-unit thing but decided not to. Mostly because she hadn't yet judged the tolerance level of the (really very good-looking) deputy; he had certainly handled everything thrown at him so far with apparent acceptance, but you just never knew what the tipping point might be.

'Yeah,' she said, 'that's my ability.'

'Is that why you wanted to come out here? Because you hope one of the victims will-will appear to you?'

'Well, don't make it sound like it would be from behind a magic curtain,' she said dryly.

'I didn't mean it like that. Honestly, I didn't. Just wasn't quite sure how to put it.'

Hollis thought about it, then shrugged. 'As good a way as any, I guess. And, yes, I thought I might see something. Or someone. I tend to, at crime scenes. Not always, mind you, but often enough to sort of expect it.'

Jordan looked around them somewhat warily. 'So… do you? See anyone?'

'Not so far.'

'Huh. We wait, then, I take it?'

Hollis was conscious of both amusement and curiosity. 'Tell me something, Deputy.'

' Jordan, please. I thought we'd gotten past that part, at least.'

'We have. Tell me something, Jordan. How come you're so tolerant of all the psychic stuff? Most cops aren't.'

'You're a cop.'

'Yeah. Well, barely. Anyway, I belong to a special unit where being psychic is the rule. What's your excuse?'

'Raised with it,' he said.

Hollis turned her head and stared at him. 'You're not the seventh son of a seventh son or anything like that, right?'

He smiled. 'No, nothing like that. Not the mumbo-jumbo side of the paranormal. My grandmother wasn't a gypsy fortune teller. But she had the Sight. It's been common in this area for generations.' He watched her brows rise, and added, ' Prophet County, for a reason.'

It was her turn to say 'Huh. That didn't come up in the research. I wonder if Bishop knows.' Then she shook her head. 'Oh, hell, of course he knows. Dani and Paris were born here, weren't they?'

'Yep. And their mother was a medium, like you. Marc was born here too; in his family, the gift has always been an interesting kind of variation. Not exactly psychic but with a better-than-average bullshit detector. The Purcells have always known who they could trust and who was lying to them; it's one of the reasons they've been so successful politically. And maybe why Marc has been so successful as sheriff.'

Hollis said, 'Huh,' again, and studied him more intently. 'What about you? Your grandmother had the Sight and…?'

'And I don't.' He shrugged. 'I've never really decided whether it's a regret or a relief, to be honest. But spending time around some of you who have to deal with it makes me lean a little toward relief. It seems to be more a burden than a gift.'

'Well, I've come to the conclusion that it's both. Sometimes a gift, sometimes a burden. But always an adventure.'

'That's probably a healthy way to look at it.'

The words had hardly left his mouth when Hollis became aware that something was happening. After all this time, her physical reaction was always the same: All the fine hairs on her body stood out as though electrical energy filled the air, and goose bumps rose on her flesh as if someone had abruptly opened a door into winter.

She looked around slowly knowing there was no mist really here but seeing it rising up from the ground. The creepy sight was difficult to ignore, but Hollis was able to when she saw a woman coming out of the pool, walking slowly up the steps out of the water, leaving no ripples behind.

She wore no bathing suit, but casual shorts and a short-sleeved top, and in fact appeared perfectly dry even though she had seemingly just left the red-tinted water. Her long, pale blond hair even gleamed a bit in the sunlight.

Hollis took a step toward her, so focused on what she was seeing that she totally forgot the deputy standing beside her.

'Who are you?' she asked. 'I don't recognize you.' She meant from the photos of the two missing women.

The woman glanced back at the pool behind her, and said, 'You won't find much else now.'

Hollis was surprised that the voice she heard was so normal but pushed that aside as unimportant at the moment. 'Who are you?' she repeated.

'You don't know about me yet.' She glanced back at the pool again, and her expression turned anxious. 'Never mind that. Look for her in the water. And be careful. The trail he's leaving for you isn't what you think it is.'

Hollis opened her mouth to ask another question, experience having taught her that these visitations never lasted long, but before she could-

'Hollis?'

She looked down at Jordan's hand on her arm, then at his concerned face, already aware that the temperature was hot again, that the energy in the area was gone. She looked back at the pool only to confirm her