Blood Dreams

'No. I'm sorry.' She felt as if she'd been apologizing to this man since she met him. Hell, she had been.

That isn't right. He apologized to me. The first words he said to me were an apology. Because of Paris. Because he used Paris as bait.

Bait…

Am I figuring out the trap?

Or am I part of it?

Roxanne was frowning. To Bishop, she said, 'Great. Wonderful. You're psychically blind, Gabe and I are useless except to hold guns, and we're in a huge burning building without a freakin' map.'

'Which is why Dani is here.' Those pale sentry eyes were fixed on her face.

Dani felt a little dizzy but oddly confident as well. 'All I know is that he's down there somewhere.'

'And Hollis?'

Hollis. Oh, my God.

She's the potential victim.

The monster has her.

'Dani?' Bishop's face was even more strained.

Hollis. He asked about Hollis.

And she had an answer for him. Of sorts. 'She isn't dead. She's bait, you know that. She was always bait, to lure you.'

'And you,' Bishop said.

To lure me?

To lure us.

Always bait, to lure us. But he only ever wanted to catch one of us. He just wanted you distracted, disarmed-

'We have to go, now,' she heard herself say urgently. 'He won't wait, not this time.'

The conversation had taken only brief minutes, but even so the smoke was thicker, the crackling roar of the fire louder, and the heat growing ever more intense.

'We're running out of time on every level,' Marc said, his fingers tightening around Dani's. 'The storm may roll around us like the last few have done, so we can't count on rain. It's been dry as hell for weeks, and this place is going up like a match. I've called it in.'

Bishop swore under his breath. 'Marc-'

'Don't worry, they know it's a hostage situation, and they won't come in. But they can damn well aim their hoses outside and try to save the nearby property.' He paused, then added, 'Am I the only one who suspects this bastard planned out every last detail, including this place being a tinderbox?'

Roxanne said, 'No, you aren't the only one. We're on his timetable, just like he wants.'

Bishop turned and started toward the rear of the building and the south corner. 'I'll go down on this side. You three head for the east corner.'

Dani wondered if instinct was guiding him as well, but all she said, to Roxanne, was, 'He doesn't care whose timetable we're on.'

'I noticed that. Why do I get the feeling he blames himself for this mess?'

'He couldn't have known-'

'According to everything I've heard about him, he certainly could have known. Maybe he did. Part of this, at least. Something that might have stopped things before it got this far. Come on, let's go.'

Dani and Marc followed, but she had to ask, 'Do you believe it's his fault?'

Roxanne paused for only an instant, looking back over her shoulder-

And for an instant, Dani saw Paris instead.

And then Hollis.

And then Miranda.

And when Roxanne replied, she sounded like an eerie blend of four different voices. 'He played God one time too many. He thinks he can stop the prophecy. And we're paying the price for his arrogance.'

We're paying the price.

We are.

Prophecy? What prophecy?

Dani held on to Marc's hand even tighter as they followed the other woman. She could hardly breathe, her throat tighter despite the fact that, as they reached the rear half of the building, the smoke wasn't nearly as thick. They very quickly discovered, in the back of what might once have been a small office, a door that opened smoothly and silently to reveal a stairwell.

The stairwell was already lighted.

'Bingo,' Roxanne said.

Useless to warn them. We all know it's a trap. Why are we just walking into it?

Wait.

I know this. The trap was the whole idea.

It wasn't about killing women. Not here, not in Venture. That was only… window dressing.

That was the first part of the trap, to lure… us.

Us. Bishop because he's the threat and had to be… disarmed. Paris because he wanted her ability. And now he knows it's mine, so the trap is for me.

This trap was always for me.

Roxanne shifted her weapon to a steady two-handed grip and sent Dani and Marc a quick look. 'Ready?'

Dani didn't spare the energy to wonder how anyone on earth could ever be ready for this. Instead, she just nodded.

Marc squeezed her hand, then released it and took a half step closer to Roxanne, saying to Dani, 'Stay behind me. You're the only one of us without a gun.'

'She doesn't need a gun,' Roxanne said.

At least I know now why I don't need a gun. If she means what I think she means.

'Maybe not, but I still want her behind me,' Marc said in a tone that not many would have argued with. 'Let's go if we're going.'

Roxanne had only taken one step when a thunderous crash sounded behind them and a new wave of almost intolerable heat threatened to shove them bodily into the stairwell.

The roof was falling in.

They exchanged glances and then, without emotion, Roxanne said, 'Close the door behind us.'

Oh, shit.

It always ends this way.

Dani gathered all the courage she could find, and if her response wasn't as emotionless as the other woman's, at least it was steady.

'Right,' she said, and closed the door behind them as they began their descent into hell.

Chapter Twenty-one

Monday, October 13

8:30 A.M.

'THIS IS ONE MORNING when I definitely need more than donuts, with or without sprinkles,' Hollis said with a yawn as she climbed out of Jordan's cruiser in the parking lot of a small, moderately busy cafe one street back from Main in downtown Venture. 'I just can't pull all-nighters like I used to.'