Bloodstone Read Online Free PDF Page A

to do. He had never been so sure of anything in his life.
    Instead he tried to run, going back west, but the farther he got the worse the dreams became, until they were coming during waking hours and with such force he had to pull the car over to the side of the road and wait them out like a bad thunderstorm. Visions now, in broad daylight. And always her face, in the pattern of leaves beside the road, in the raindropsrunning down the windshield. He turned back, because the visions would drive him crazy if he did not. He began to plan. The thought of not being able to find her never entered his mind; he knew that when he got to the right place she would be there. But he must be ready. Something told him she would not come with him voluntarily.
    “Finally, there you were. On the beach. I’d been looking for you so long, I could hardly believe it. But your face was perfect. I’d seen it a thousand times, I knew it by heart.”
    She studied him from the passenger seat, as if trying to decide how much to believe. “You said you were a dealer. I believed you.”
    That part had been easy. She was so desperate for a fix she would have followed him anywhere. He’d gotten her back to his car; I could use a little now , she’d said. Sure , he’d said. He’d opened the driver’s side door and the chloroform was right there on the seat and no one in sight. He was fishing for something, anything to make him stop when it hit him again like a sledgehammer to the face: dead people walking those who are born again DO IT DO IT DO IT NOW and he moved smoothly and quickly, forcing her head into the wet cloth. She bucked and crumpled against him without a sound, and he pushed her into the car ahead of him, setting her up in the passenger seat like she was asleep. He threw the cloth with the chloroform in it on the ground, looked around and saw no one. And that was it; he was gone.
    “In all that time I was looking for you, I never thought you’d be…”
    “What?” she said. “A user? A whore?”
    “No,” he said. “I never thought it would be so easy.”
    “Sorry to disappoint you.”
    They were silent for a moment. “I thought about finding some other way,” he said finally. “Believe me. Talking to you, trying to convince you to come with me.”
    “Then why didn’t you?” It could have sounded accusatory, but Angel said it without any tone at all.
    “Would you have come if I had?”
    “No,” she said. “I would have thought you were crazy.”
    “Do you think I’m crazy now?”
    She didn’t answer him. After a moment, recognition dawned. He said wonderingly, “So you’re dreaming about them too.”
    “No!” She glanced at him sharply. “I think you’re a psycho who kidnaps girls for the fun of it.”
    “You’re scared.”
    “Of course I am!”
    “I mean of the dreams you’re having. Of what you see in them. It won’t just go away. You know that, don’t you? You can’t just close your eyes and wish you were back on the beach. Jesus, something’s happening to us. We have to figure out a way to work together.”
    “Back on the beach,” she said softly. “Fuck that. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. There are all kinds of nightmares, you know.” This time he was the one to sit silently, unable to respond. But something felt lighter inside him. It was a small comfort to him, to know that he was not alone. He wondered how she was taking her addiction, whether it was eating her up inside. What had she wanted out of life? How had she ended up there, at the end of the world, an addict and a prostitute?
    “So where are we going, anyway?” she said. “Your own special world of dreams?” Her attempt at a smile died on her face.
    “I don’t know,” he said. “North. Maybe way up north. When visions come while I’m awake, I know I better change direction. They haven’t come in a while. I guess we’re headed the right way.”
    “That’s—”
    “What? Crazy?”
    This time the smile stayed. “You