Blood Dreams

and he had been ready for her.

Not that the discovery was a hell of a lot of help to Hollis now, except to provide the answer to one of the questions that had nagged at her.

And to give her a couple more minutes' grace before facing the inevitable. But just a couple, and by then Hollis was wide awake behind her closed eyes and could hear him, somewhere nearby, humming.

The monster had her.

And if there was anything they knew about him, it was that her chances of survival had just dropped to something close to zero.

The best part about facing death, Hollis had discovered, was that after the first moments of skin-crawling, soul-shivering terror, it was curiously liberating, at least for her. A kind of survival mode kicked in, and all her concentration and energy went into whatever effort was required to better her chances.

She did not want to die.

It was, perhaps not coincidentally, also exactly the right state of mind necessary for the best use of her mediumistic abilities. So Hollis wasn't terribly surprised, when she finally opened her eyes, to see Becky Huntley bending over her.

'Be very still,' Becky whispered. 'And you can't get loose anyway, we all tried our best. He thinks you're still out. As soon as he knows you're awake, he'll want to get started on you. And you don't want that.'

Instantly, Hollis closed her eyes again and forced her body to go limp, and it wasn't just because it was still unsettling to her, this absurdly easy communication with the dead.

Is there anything else you can tell me, Becky? She knew she didn't have to ask out loud, which was a good thing but also still strange to her.

'We'll try to help. But… we don't have much energy. Karen is so sad because she wanted to be a mother, and Shirley can't believe it's over for her. And he's… he's not human anymore, Hollis. Do you think he knows there's a hell? Do you think it would matter to him?'

Not if he isn't human anymore…

But Hollis wasn't sure about that, so she didn't dismiss the information. Any bit of knowledge could be a tool, a weapon that could save her life.

If she figured out how to use it.

And when to use it.

'Your friends are trying to find you,' Becky told her. 'We think there's a chance… maybe. If Dani remembers what she can do.'

Without asking what that was, Hollis merely thought, Go remind her, will you?

'She wouldn't see me. Or hear me. Just the way he can't see or hear me. I'll try to make him see me, because it might take some of his attention off you, but so far it's taken more energy than I have, than any of us has, to break through. Be very still, Hollis. He's coming over here. Try not to let him know you're awake.'

Oh, Christ.

* * * *

Dani said, 'I don't think he caused or altered my premonition. I could be wrong about that-easily-but I don't think so. I think he had targeted Paris, and when I showed up, when he realized, then he decided it could work to his advantage.'

'That sounds an awful lot like luck.'

'No, I don't think he leaves much to chance. His original plan was to take Paris 's abilities, especially the one that let her channel energy. The one ability that can become a weapon in the right hands. Or the wrong ones. He wanted that potential weapon. That never changed; he just added to the blueprint.' She shook her head. 'But I meant what I said: I don't really care how he's doing this, or why, not now. I just want to find him and stop him, hopefully before he hurts Hollis and before he has a chance to go after Paris again.'

'All right. Look, we both know following the paper trail and searching warehouses is going to take longer than Hollis has, probably longer than Paris has. So why don't we take a shortcut?'

'What kind of shortcut?'

'Dream-walk.'

'Marc… we might not have gotten much sleep last night, but we did get some, and I can't do anything in my dreams unless it's a natural sleep. Trust me, I'm about as far from sleep as I've ever been in my life.'

'I don't think you have to sleep, Dani. Not anymore-and maybe you never did. I may not know a lot about psychic abilities, but one thing I do know is that psychics have been putting themselves into trances for a long time in order to tap into their abilities.'

'I've never been able to do that. I was taught all the right meditation techniques, we all are at Haven. It works for a lot of psychics. But I could never put myself into a trance.'

'How hard did you try? Be honest.'

She hesitated. 'I don't know. I mean… I thought I was trying, but…'

'But you were still running. Then. Not now. And now you have every reason in the world to put everything you have into the effort. I'm betting that'll be more than enough.' He took her hand and led her into the living room and to the sofa. 'I'll help.'

'How? Have you ever tried this before?'

'No. But my passive psychic ability, remember, is to recognize the abilities in others. I have a hunch that isn't quite as passive as I've always believed it to be-or else it's just evolving because I've used it so much more lately. Or because of the connection with you. No way to know for sure, but for whatever reason, I think I may be able to help you focus and channel.'

She didn't have a clue if it would work, but the clock in her head was ticking louder; a glance at the clock on some of his electronics in the room told her it was now 9:05.

Paris and Hollis were both running out of time.

'Okay,' she said. 'Meditation techniques. Deep cleansing breaths-'

'Screw all that,' Marc said. He took her other hand and held them, half turned toward her so that they faced each other. He was smiling slightly. 'Energy follows intent; I think if you want something badly enough, you find it. Just close your eyes and think about Hollis and places monsters might hide.'

Dani would never have believed it could be that simple, but she closed her eyes, very conscious of him and of the connection between them that their night together had quite definitely intensified, and did exactly what he suggested.

She thought of Hollis and where monsters might hide.

Unlike all her past experiences, this time the transition was effortless and almost instant. She wasn't sitting across from Marc in his living room, she was standing beside him on Main Street in Venture. A very recognizable Main Street, with noise and people and cars, and only one slight peculiarity.

'I meant to ask years ago,' Marc said. 'Why is there always so much purple?' He was studying a purple fire hydrant plunked down improbably in the middle of the sidewalk near them and not far from where three purple cars were parked.

'I like purple.' She'd never really thought about it but supposed that was as good a reason as any other. It was, after all, her dream world.

Marc shrugged philosophically. 'Works for me. Why are we in downtown, though? Oh, wait-you did this before, years ago. Picked a recognizable landmark to start off from. Said it anchored you.'

'Yeah. And now that it has… I need to know where Hollis is. I need to know where monsters hide.' It wasn't like she was making a wish of a magic lamp but rather telling her own mind, her dream self, how her energy needed to be directed.

And, either because of the need driving her or simply because so much else had changed, the familiar scenery around them shifted in a rush of color and sound, and they found themselves in another not-so-familiar but recognizable spot on the very edge of Prophet County.

'Shit,' Marc said. 'This is no warehouse. It was an asylum, back in the days when they were called that. And didn't somebody try to run a hotel from here when we were kids?'

'I think so. Didn't last long, though. Marc, the basement of that building has to be huge.'