Blood Dreams

suspicions.

No woman or spirit stood at the edge of the red-tinted pool.

'What the hell just happened?' Jordan demanded.

'I'm not really sure,' Hollis answered slowly. 'When did you say the pool-maintenance people were coming to clear the drain?'

'Supposed to be here tomorrow or Monday.'

'Call them,' Hollis suggested. 'Tell them to be here tomorrow. Early.'

* * * *

'And that connection doesn't mean anything to you?' Marc demanded.

'Should it?' She was trying hard to keep her voice level and unemotional. Trying-and failing.

'You tell me.'

'What do you want to know, Marc? Whether there's a man waiting for me back in Atlanta? There isn't. Whether I found that normal life I wanted so badly? I didn't.'

'Dani…'

'But I found a kind of peace eventually.' Once she got going, Dani couldn't seem to stop herself. 'When I accepted the fact that there was no escaping this gift of mine, that I couldn't run far enough or fast enough to leave it behind. When I accepted the fact that sleep would never be dreamless for me and nightmares would be the norm. When I accepted the fact that with knowledge comes responsibility, that God, or the universe, or just my own damn stupid moral compass won't let me walk away, let alone run away even when I see things that scare the living hell out of me.'

She forced a laugh and heard the brittleness in it. 'Once I accepted all that, once I made peace with it-'

'Bullshit. You haven't accepted anything. Least of all yourself.'

'You don't know what you're talking about.'

'Don't I? Dani, I'm the guy who got left behind, remember? I'm part of what you were running away from.'

'Don't flatter yourself.'

'Oh, I don't consider it a plus in my life, believe me. In fact, I must have been dumb as hell not to see you already had your bags packed and one foot out the door about the time I was congratulating myself on a relationship so solid you were willing to share your dreams with me. Literally.'

'I did not mean to do that,' she said tightly.

'Oh, sure you did, Dani. No matter what you believe, you were testing your abilities even back then. And me, I thought it was a sign of trust. But that wasn't it, at least not the kind of trust I wanted. Limits, Dani. Even then you were testing them. You just wanted to find out if there was a connection between lovers even identical twins couldn't know, a bond so strong it would open doors you'd never been able to open before.'

Dani stared down at the file open before her, the words-describing a vital life cut short in Boston -blurring. Her chest ached, and she wasn't entirely sure she was breathing.

Softly, Marc added, 'You wanted to find out. But when you did, when that connection opened the door, threw it wide, it scared the hell out of you. So much so you wanted to run the first time. But even then you were courageous enough to try again, I know that now. I was… awed… by the experience, and I asked you to do it again. So you did.

'I didn't know what I was asking, what it was costing you in sheer energy. And you never said a word. Until that last night, when the dream you took me into was one of your visions.'

Dani looked up finally, staring across the table at him. 'I saw your face when we woke up. I saw the horror.'

He shook his head, never breaking eye contact. 'The horror was for the dream-not for you. Nobody wants to see their mother die of a terrible disease, and that's what you showed me.'

'It's always someone's doom, what I see. Don't you get that?'

'I get it. So what? You're supposed to be to blame for that? Dani, I never blamed you for showing me something that was going to happen, even if it was terrible.'

'I don't believe you.'

'I know. But you will. When you're brave enough to try again.'

She drew a breath. 'I am not taking you into that dream. Not that one. You're already in it, part of the vision. God knows what would happen if-if-'

'Let's find out.'

Dani rose to her feet so abruptly that her chair nearly tipped over behind her. 'No. We won't. Not tonight. Not ever.'

In her panicked rush to get out of the room, she nearly ran over her sister in the doorway.

'Whew.' Paris came in and sat down at the conference table. 'Been waiting awhile for that cork to blow. Thank you.'

Marc sighed. 'You say that like it's a good thing.'

'It is. Trust me. Dani needed to let go of some stuff, and she's been so busy giving me my space so I can deal with stuff of my own that I haven't been able to help her. I think maybe you just did.'

'Really? Because it looked to me like she was still suppressing and avoiding like crazy.'

'I saw her face. She's in the ladies' room having a good cry.'

Marc leaned back abruptly in his chair. 'Well, that makes me feel like shit. I didn't want to hurt her.'

'You didn't hurt her, you just shook her up. Which she needed.'

'How the hell do you know that? The clairvoyance?'

'That, and'- Paris made a vague gesture with the fingers of one hand-'the twin thing. Don't worry, she's fine. She was standing paralyzed at a crossroads, and you gave her a shove.'

'I don't think I care much for the metaphor.' Paris smiled. 'That's okay. I've got a million of 'em. Can you pass me that file, please?'

* * * *

Hollis waited until she was back in her motel room that evening to report in-and there was a lot to report, even if much of it was unhelpful at best and speculation at worst.

Par for the course when it came to the SCU, Hollis thought.

'If Dani has established a connection,' she said to her boss, using the cell's speaker capability to talk to Bishop while she dug through her suitcase to find something decent to wear for pizza and brainstorming at Paris's house, 'it could help us-or be dangerous as hell for her. Or both.'

'It could be worse if he's the one who established the connection between them.'

'No kidding. Any way for us to determine that? I mean, before it blows up in our faces?'

'We're in unknown territory here, Hollis.'

'Are we ever in anything else?' She sighed. 'Just tell me. What can I try?'

'If Dani's willing, you can try a dream walk. Between you, you and Paris might be able to sense another connection.'

'What if we wind up in her vision dream?'

'Be very careful.'

Hollis sighed again. 'Anybody ever tell you that you can be frustrating as hell, boss? Never mind-rhetorical question.'

'We need to know if Dani does have a psychic connection with the killer, Hollis.'

'Yes, of course we do. And it would be nice to know who my blond ghost was. It was so late by the time Jordan and I got back to the station that I didn't have a chance to talk about that with the others. Though Jordan checked, and there've been no more missing women reported. So there's not much to talk about.'

'She said to look for her in the water?'

'Yeah. Her. Referring to somebody else, or at least that's how it sounded. But she