Blood Dreams

'Join the club.' He shut the door on his side and stretched to ease stiff muscles, then glanced toward the cafe and groaned. 'Oh, hell, here comes Matt Condrey.'

'Friend of yours?' she asked, amused as she watched a sturdy bearded man about the same age as the chief deputy weaving among cars to quickly make his way toward Jordan.

'It's a myth that men don't gossip,' Jordan said, mostly from the side of his mouth. 'Because here comes the worst gossip in Prophet County. Bet you ten bucks the first words out of his mouth will be to ask why we haven't arrested anybody for the murders the public isn't supposed to know about yet.'

'I don't think I'll take that bet. Meet you inside.'

'Yeah, leave me to my doom. Thanks very much. You're a cruel woman.' He raised his voice to add, 'Hey, Matt. Something I can do for you?'

'Jordan, you and the sheriff have got to do something about those teenagers parking out at my place every weekend. I mean, I understand hormones, but…'

I should have taken the bet. Still amused, Hollis set out on her own wandering path among the cars and around the building to the side entrance. It was not the most obvious location for a 'front' door and was in fact one that would have hurt most businesses, but Jordan had told her this place made the best biscuits and gravy in four counties-and in the South, that was saying something.

Customers find your door when they really, really like what you're selling them, even if you make them walk around overgrown shrubbery and wedge themselves in between improbably placed stacks of lumber, presumably for some reno project as yet unstarted.

'Ow!' And get stung by bees-

Hollis stared at the object she found sticking in her thigh and for an instant was aware of nothing except total incomprehension.

Then she got it.

She had time only to wish with all her heart and soul that she had taken the bet with Jordan and remained with him back at the car to collect her winnings.

And then the world spun wildly on its axis, and everything went black.

* * * *

Dani turned off Marc's portable phone and set it back on its base, seeing her fingers tremble. 'Dammit. Bishop said Hollis and Jordan had gone out to get breakfast. Jordan called in not two minutes ago. Somebody stopped him in the restaurant's parking lot to ask about something totally unimportant. Hollis went on. When he got inside, she was just… gone. No evidence of a struggle. Nobody saw anything.'

'It never fails to amaze me how nobody sees anything when something completely extraordinary happens,' Marc said, handing her a cup of coffee. 'And yet how many UFOs do you suppose get reported every year?'

Dani appreciated the effort but refused to be sidetracked. 'Why the hell didn't I see this coming? Oh, yeah, I forgot-I did.'

'Don't be so hard on yourself.'

'Marc, I should have known how it would go. The vision kept changing, and every time the signposts were all but jumping up and down to get my attention. The different watches, warning me from the very beginning that time was important, that there was less of it than I thought. The baited trap, inescapable, unavoidable, waiting for us at the end of this. The sequence of potential victims baiting that trap, shifting easily no matter what I did, as if it hardly mattered which of them was there, Miranda or Paris or Hollis-'

'What?' he asked when she broke off.

'That was the biggest signpost of all,' she said slowly. 'And I kept missing it.'

'Dani, what are you talking about?'

'The bait. It was Miranda even after Bishop made sure she was out of reach, even though it never felt right to me. That was bait for him, to keep him in this-and separated from Miranda. His half of the trap. That's why he always leaves us in the vision dream, why he always goes alone into one side of the trap.'

'Separated from everybody else,' Marc said. 'Weakened strategically.'

'Exactly. That's partly what the trap-what this whole setup-was designed to do.'

'And the other part? The other side?'

'The side with the teeth. The side intended to capture prey for a psychic killer with his eye on someone else's abilities.'

'Why a trap at all?' Marc said. 'Why not just take what he wanted? The attack on you and Paris was nearly successful, so why not try that again?'

She frowned. 'I think… I feel… his abilities are limited, just like every psychic's are. So for him to be able to steal someone else's abilities, maybe the conditions have to be right. Electromagnetic fields. Energy. That's how he was able to try to take Paris 's abilities, because there was a storm threatening, and he was able somehow to tap into that. He needed the energy.

'And that explains the storm in my vision dream. It's part of the trap. He needs energy outside himself in order to attack any of us.'

'It makes sense,' Marc admitted. 'Must have frustrated the hell out of him that the weather didn't cooperate. He leaves Boston knowing the hunters are on his trail, comes here to take Paris 's abilities-and can't. You know, that could have been what triggered your first vision dream. He tried to get at Paris.'

'And wasn't strong enough to register with either of us-consciously,' Dani agreed. 'But my subconscious got it. And my abilities took over, trying to warn me. While he was figuring out what he needed, I was dreaming about a trap.'

'Maybe that's why the murders here were so vicious,' Marc offered. 'That was him, just pissed. No rain for weeks, no storms-no energy to attack in the way he needed to attack to get what he wanted.'

'And once his attack was delayed, then he knew he'd have to do something about the psychic hunters on his trail. I was right. He knew Bishop would be here, probably wanted him to be here. Bishop-specifically him. And specifically here, with Miranda far away and as separated from Bishop as she could be while both of them are still alive.'

'That connection of theirs?'

'That connection,' Dani said. 'Like Paris and me, Bishop has another half. Together, he and Miranda are incredibly powerful. Alone, either one is a lot more vulnerable. The killer had to know Bishop would be on his trail. And because the bastard had to wait for conditions to be right, or wait to be able to create them himself, then he had to make damn sure his enemy was as weakened as possible.'

'So he took away Bishop's other half. Without even lifting a finger against her.'

'I think so.' Dani drew a breath and let it out slowly. 'I think even Bishop has been playing into the killer's hands, reacting exactly as he was expected to react.'

Marc was frowning. 'Wait a minute. Wasn't it your vision that caused Bishop to make sure his wife was protected and far away?'

'Yeah,' Dani replied. 'How about that. It's like Miranda says. Premonitions are tricky beasts.'

* * * *

It was the chill that woke her, Hollis realized. She lay on a cold table in a room that was cold in every sense. She didn't open her eyes at first because she was very afraid she knew what she would see, and wanted to delay being forced to deal with that.

She had faced death more than once, and it wasn't getting any easier.

I've got to get a different job.

What had happened? She'd gone with Jordan to get breakfast, and… and what? She dimly recalled a distraction but couldn't remember what it was. Then something stung her leg, she reached down, and she found herself holding some kind of dart.

Shit. No wonder there were no signs of a struggle where the women disappeared… He's using drugs.

And just like with all the other women, Hollis had apparently been exactly where the killer expected her to be,