Blood Dreams

So?

'I didn't see it turn into a driveway. Plus it was moving slowly and was awfully quiet.'

Looking for an address?

'At four in the morning? Do me a favor and sweep the area again, would you? I've got a bad feeling about that car.'

Gabriel didn't argue.

Okay. Hang on a second.

Roxanne waited, her uneasiness growing as she visually scanned the area as well as she could in the darkness.

Leave, Rox. Now.

'Gabe-'

Get the hell out of there. Don't stop to lock the gate, just go!

Roxanne moved immediately, smoothly drawing her weapon as she stepped through the gate. But as fast as she was, as careful as she was, she never saw or heard him coming, and never even got the chance to assume a defensive posture before powerful hands grabbed her gun arm.

* * * *

Paris refilled Dani's coffee cup and pushed it across the table to her. 'Look, Marc's right, especially about his mother. People get sick. The fact that you dreamed his mother would didn't make it happen-but it may have given her more time, because he used the warning to make damn sure she got to a doctor, pronto.'

'That's what he said.' Dani wrapped her fingers around the warm cup. 'And I pretended to believe him.'

'And he pretended to believe that?' Paris shook her head. 'He always did know you better than you thought, sweetie.'

Dani shrugged. 'It was a moment, maybe… and then it wasn't. I shut down, or he did. A deputy caught up with us to tell Marc that he was needed back at the station, and we went back. Bad timing, I guess.'

'Bad timing.' Paris was frowning. 'Did you dream last night?'

'Not that I remember.' She hadn't slept, too fearful of giving over control of her sleeping mind to the vision dream. Or to the voice that kept getting in.

The only upside, she had decided, was that she seemed better able to shield or cocoon her own mind, since even Paris seemed unaware of the struggle. For the first time, that realization caused Dani a twinge of worry.

It was odd, now that she thought about it, for something so profound happening to her to go unnoticed by her twin.

'So you didn't try to take Marc in?'

Dani dragged her mind back to the conversation. 'I told you, I have no intention of doing that. Look what happened the other night with you and Hollis-and both of you are psychic.'

'We're both okay. More worried about you, since you were the one with the nosebleed.'

'Yeah, and that still bugs me. I don't think it was from the strain of taking the two of you in.'

'Why not?'

'Because I didn't feel any strain at all, not even an effort. I wanted you two with me-and you were. It wasn't until we heard that ungodly scream that I felt…'

'What, scared? Because it sure scared the hell out of me.'

'No, it wasn't fear. I mean, I was scared, but I was feeling something else.'

'Like?'

'I don't know. Pressure? Something like that.' And the voice. The one you barely heard.

'You got the bends in a dream?'

'Funny. I don't know what it was, obviously.'

'But it felt like something outside yourself?'

It was Dani's turn to frown. 'Maybe.'

'Please don't tell me it was our psychic killer. I mean, I know we all heard his voice, or at least a voice, but he couldn't have actually done anything to you, right? He couldn't have caused the nosebleed?'

Dani's frown deepened. 'I don't see how.'

'I guess there's no way to know for sure.'

'Not unless I bump into him in the next dream.' Dani shivered. 'I may take you and Hollis in again just for company.' Then she shook her head. 'Scratch that. You two looked exhausted all day; going into my dream was clearly a bad idea.'

'It hasn't hurt me so far.'

'And maybe you've just been lucky.'

'Too dumb to know better, when we were kids,' Paris agreed. 'Thing is, we didn't know better. We had a playground inside your head.'

'Okay, that sounds really creepy,' Dani told her.

'However it sounds, it has had its uses, especially since we signed on with Haven.'

'Barely. Twice I've managed to take you into a relevant vision dream. Twice. In more than a year.'

'And it was useful both times. I remembered a few details you couldn't, and those details proved helpful to the investigations.'

'Didn't change what I saw. It never changes what I see, the outcome.'

'How do you know?'

Dani stared at her sister.

'Seriously, how do you know? Dani, maybe what you see is… the lesser of two evils. It's like what Miranda told us. Premonitions are tricky beasts: Do you see what happens if you don't intervene, or what happens if you do?'

'That's a hell of a possibility. I mean, that things could be worse than what I see. And you're about as subtle as neon.'

Paris sighed. 'Just trying to provide a little perspective, that's all. You've gotta get over this idea that you're a prophet-or prophetess-of doom, that your ability is entirely negative. It's been dragging at you since we were kids.'

'I just… For once, I'd like to foresee something positive.'

'Maybe the universe doesn't need help with positive. Isn't there some kind of entropy theory about how the natural state of things is disintegration?'

Dani stared at her.

'Hey, I consider ideas too. Sometimes. Anyway, maybe what the universe needs help with is keeping everything from falling totally apart. Why show you the happily-ever-afters if what's really needed is help getting there through all the dark stuff along the way?'

'Way to cheer me up, sis.'

'You're not getting it.' Paris wore an unusually intent expression, and her hazel eyes had darkened almost to brown. 'Look, at any given time I might pick up a few facts or bits of information, like the way I did with that bracelet-for all the good it did us. Anyway, those glimmers might or might not help me with an investigation or a problem or, hell, just help me get through the day. But people like you and Miranda and this Quentin we've heard so much about, the universe shows you guys signposts. Not hidden in the scenery the way they are for the rest of us, but lit up and glowing so you can't miss them. And whether those signposts are things to avoid or paths to take, it still gives you a leg up on everybody else.

'Dani, we're all wandering in the dark, and you guys have the lamps.' The distant look in her eyes vanished abruptly, and Paris chuckled. 'My metaphor wandered too, didn't it?'

'Just a little bit.' Still, Dani felt better about an ability she had for so many years viewed as usually ugly and depressing. But then she shook her head and added, 'Didn't Miranda also say there's a difference between a premonition and a prophecy? That a premonition is something you can influence, affect, and a prophecy is… written in stone? Inevitable no matter what you do to try and change it?'