"No one could help her. Even if we'd gotten her to the emergency room within minutes, the wound would still have been fatal."

"I couldn't stop it. I should have been smarter. I should have realized she'd try to stop me from going along."

"She surprised me too. And if you'd come along, you might have been shot as well."

"No, I'd have found a way to protect her. I knew it was coming. I'd have stopped it."

She felt him stiffen against her. "What?"

"Let me go." She pushed him away and swung her feet to the floor. "I have to get out of here."

"Sure, it will be good for you to be alone." He helped her to her feet. "And this mile or two of beach is deserted. Just don't go far. Okay?"

She didn't answer.

She was running from the bedroom, out of the cottage, her feet sinking into the soft sand. Her shadow cast a spidery imprint on the beach in front of her as she ran toward the far dunes.

Jessica.

She slid down the opposite side of a dune and lay huddled at the bottom.

Jessica.

Sister, mother, friend, savior. Sweet Jesus, why Jessica?

She rocked back and forth as agony tore through her. And, at last, the tears came. Painful sobs racked her body.

Jessica…

"Tough." Galen's gaze followed Travis's to where Melissa was sitting on the beach, staring out at the sea. "They were close?"

"You saw them together. What do you think?"

"I think life sucks sometimes."

"Like right now. Everything's going to hell and it's going to get worse." He paused. "You could bail out. I wouldn't blame you. You've done more than I've asked of you."

"So I'm an overachiever. I'll stick around."

"I don't need-"

"Shut up, Travis. This isn't only about you. That son of a bitch killed one of my men last night. Do you think I'm going to bow out before I take him down?"

"He's mine, Galen."

"We'll argue about that when we catch up with him." He looked back at Melissa. "But she's the one we'd better watch. Once she's over the first shock, she's going to harden into pure steel."

Staring at that fragile, lonely figure silhouetted against the sky, it was difficult for Travis to believe. "You could be wrong."

He shook his head. "She told me once that we were a lot alike. Brother and sister. I think she's right." He turned to go back inside the house. "Since you're keeping an eye on Melissa, I'll go check on Cassie. I'm very good at baby-sitting. Did I ever tell you I once baby-sat a wolf?"

"No, but it wouldn't surprise me." Travis's voice was abstracted as he watched Melissa. So much pain and sorrow. So much loneliness. He wanted to go to her and hold her and try to ease-

Not yet.

You had to face the first grief alone before you could accept comfort. Hell, maybe she wouldn't be able to accept comfort from him no matter how long he waited. After all, he'd been a primary part of that horror at the museum.

Why did he even want to help her? His modus operandi was to be emotionally detached. Yet from the first moment she had shown up on his doorstep, Melissa had managed to…involve him. She had aroused interest, anger, desire, amusement, and admiration, and now she was touching something deeper.

Pity?

What difference did it make? Self-examination was bull. He dropped down on the doorstep. So don't think. Just watch and wait and maybe do a little grieving of your own.

"You've been out here a long time" Travis said behind her. "Don't you think you'd better come in? It's almost three in the morning and the wind's coming up, Melissa."

" I don't want to go in. I'm not chilly." It was a lie. She felt ice cold, but it wasn't from the wind. "I have to think about a few things."

"Jessica."

"No, I've thought all I can about Jessica right now. It hurts…too much. I loved her…"

"I know."

"You couldn't know. She was everything to me. She brought me out of the dark and taught me how to live again." She rubbed her temple. "She always laughed when I called her Saint Jessica, but there was truth to it. She was so goddamn…good." The tears were starting again, and she brushed them aside. "See, I can't think of her without blubbering. I have to stop it so I can think clearly."

" I feel a little like blubbering myself," Travis said. "I didn't know her long, but it was enough to see what a fine person she was."

"You're being kind to me." She didn't look at him. "I wasn't kind to you when your friend was killed. I couldn't let myself soften toward you. You were the one leading Jessica toward the Wind Dancer."

"And I led her right into a trap. I suppose you blame me for her death?"

She shook her head. "No more than I do myself. She was the one who made you promise to bring the statue and Cassie together. It was like being on a runaway train. I knew what was coming, but there wasn't anything I could do about it."

He glanced away from her. "You…knew what was coming?"

"I've been dreaming about it for weeks. That was why I came home to Juniper. It was always the same. The Wind Dancer staring down at a pool of blood and Jessica lying dead on the floor."

"You didn't tell her?"

"Jessica never really believed in anything she couldn't see and touch. She wouldn't have paid any attention to me. But she had to pay attention when I joined with Cassie. I thought if I made the Wind Dancer a threat to Cassie, Jessica might keep away from it." Her lips twisted. "And then you offered the statue to her on a silver platter. I wanted to kill you."

"Then you do blame me."

She wearily shook her head. "I guess I never really believed you could stop the train from moving toward its destination, but I had to try. I only hoped I could prevent the wreck at the last minute." Her hands clenched into fists. "If there's a God, it wouldn't make any sense for Him to give me the dreams and take away the power to stop them from happening, would it?"

"Have you had these dreams before? Not about Jessica but about other people?"

"Twice before. The first was right after I started college. A little boy who lived next door to our apartment in Cambridge. Jimmy Watson. Brown hair, a sweet smile…I kept dreaming of him crossing the street and being hit by a van. I'd wake up crying. I thought I was going crazy." She paused. "It happened. He jumped out into traffic to get a toy and was run over."

"Killed?"

"No, but he had internal injuries. He was in the hospital for weeks. I went to see his mother and she must have thought I was nuts. She was very soothing and assured me that I had nothing to do with Jimmy's accident."

"You didn't believe her?"

"In my dream it was always a yellow and black florist van. He was run over by a van from Bendix Florist. What are the odds?"

"And the second case?"

"An old man who worked at the college as a janitor. I had a recurring dream that he slipped on the side of the lap pool and hit his head. I could see the blood in the water."

"And what did you do?"

"I went to him and told him about it. He was a nice man, but he didn't believe me. He patted me on the shoulder and told me young people watched too much TV these days. I asked him to at least please take someone with him when he cleaned the locker rooms and the pool area. He said he would."

"But he didn't do it."

She gave a sigh of anguish. "How did you guess?"

"Human nature. If he didn't believe you, he'd go his own way. It happened as you dreamed it would?"

"He drowned. It didn't have to happen. Maybe if I'd kept after him…" She shook her head. "Or maybe not. Maybe this is some big cosmic joke. Show me the future and then not let me change it." She turned to Travis and asked unevenly, "Now, wouldn't that be funny?"

"No, and I don't think you've given it a fair shot. The first time you didn't believe in it yourself. The second time it wasn't your fault the old man was too set in his ways to take care of himself."