Blood Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

sheriff now, but Dani felt the need to comment. And to change the subject. “I never thought you’d end up in law enforcement.”
    “Yeah, well, things change.”
    Not everything changed, Dani thought, but she felt unnerved and uncertain and was very aware that they were standing on the sidewalk in front of the pharmacy in downtown Venture, in full view of God and half the town’s citizens, and that everybody south of God was taking it all in with interest.
    “I should be going,” she said abruptly. “My ice cream is melting.”
    To her utter relief, he didn’t respond to that lame comment as it probably deserved, but merely said, “You were digging for your keys, I think. Find them?”
    Dani produced the keys, used the remote to unlock the Jeep parked only a few yards away, and, as its headlights flashed in acknowledgment, accepted the bags he held out to her.
    “Take care, Dani.”
    It held the sound of finality, something she should have accepted gratefully, but he hadn’t moved more than a few steps away from her when she heard herself speak. And even as she did, she was aware of a fatalistic certainty that she was turning a critical corner in her life.
    And had no idea what lay ahead.
    “Marc?”
    He paused and looked back at her, eyebrows lifting but otherwise expressionless.
    “Has anything…bad happened in Venture lately? In the county? I mean, anything really bad? I read the paper, but—”
    “Are you talking about a crime?”
    “Yeah.”
    He was frowning now. “Nothing really out of the ordinary. A few robberies, domestic disturbances, possession, a couple of meth labs busted.”
    “Nothing else?”
    Slowly, he replied, “Two missing persons I’ve been uneasy about.”
    “Women?”
    “One teenage girl; her parents believe she ran away a couple of weeks ago. One wife whose very scared husband insists would never have left him of her own free will.”
    “How long ago was that?”
    “Last week. And no sign of her yet. What do you know, Dani?”
    “Nothing. I don’t…know…anything. Just…be careful, that’s all.”
    He took a step back toward her and kept his voice low even though nobody else was near. “What have you dreamed, Dani?”
    She couldn’t look away from him. And she couldn’t lie.
    Not to Marc.
    “There’s nothing concrete. No name or face. Not even a crime I can be sure of, except…except that it’s bad.” She thought of a missing teenager, a missing wife, and felt cold despite the warm early-afternoon October sun. “I know that it’s bad, that it’s a poison here. Somebody evil, I don’t know who.”
    “Dani, we both know evil doesn’t wear horns and a tail to signal that it’s with us. If there’s anything else you can tell me—”
    “There isn’t. Not yet, at least.”
    Marc’s frown deepened, and he took another step toward her. “You’ve had this dream more than once?”
    She nodded, unwilling to admit that it was pretty much a nightly occurrence now.
    “Okay. Tonight, come get me. Take me in with you.”
    Dani realized only later that she wasn’t nearly as shocked by the idea as she should have been. In that moment, however, she just shook her head and said, “I can’t do that.”
    “Sure you can. You’ve done it before.”
    “That was years ago, Marc. Another lifetime ago.”
And I had no idea how dangerous it was.
    He took another step, and now he was standing in front of her, so close she had to tilt her head to look up at his face.
    “It never made
my
skin crawl, Dani,” he said softly. “It never creeped me out. It was never something I hated. It never made me think of you as anything other than the unique and remarkable woman I loved. Just in case you didn’t know that.”
    She had the vague suspicion that her mouth was open.
    “Come get me tonight,” Marc repeated. He turned and walked away.
    Somehow Dani managed to get herself and her bags into the Jeep. She thought the homemade raisin cake she’d bought was probably crushed,