Chapter Two: Nightmare

One week later

The woman ran down the alley. She kept looking back over her shoulder. He could see it in her eyes as he followed her. She was terrified.

Good.

She turned into an alley, and instantly realized her mistake. Dead end. In desperation, she clawed at the wall at the end. She screamed, but now he was on her. In one swift move, he put a hand over her mouth and dragged her to the ground. She fought him, managing to scratch him. He growled in pain. He slapped her, stunning her. Then, with one swift move, he pulled back her hair, exposing her neck. He closed his eyes and literally sank his teeth into her.

Lindsay Monroe felt the life leaving her body…

"Lindsay!"

Danny Messer bolted upright in bed. It took him a moment to remember that he was in bed. In his apartment. He looked at his alarm clock. The green numbers blinked 12:00 back at him. A summer thunderstorm must have knocked the power out. He looked at his watch. 3:30 a.m.

He ran a hand through his blonde hair. Next to him, Lindsay Monroe blinked sleepily at him. "Danny? What's wrong?" She put her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. Lightning cracked outside.

"Nightmare," Danny said, catching his breath.

"Another one?" Lindsay asked. It was the third one this week.

"Yeah." Danny tilted his head so it rested on hers.

"Was it about me again?" she asked softly.

He nodded. "Yeah. The same one." Thunder punctuated the sentence.

For a week now, he'd been having the same nightmare over and over and over again. It was always the same. Lindsay was chased into a dark alley, and then someone sank a pair of fangs into her neck. The first time, Danny dismissed it as bad Chinese food, but the second and now, the third, time, he didn't know what to think.

It probably wouldn't have bugged him so much if his nightmares hadn't been coming true as of late.

He'd shrugged it off as just an intuition thing, especially with Lindsay, because it wasn't the first time he'd felt something was wrong with her. But now that they were happening again, Danny was sure they meant something.

This one had him stumped though. In truth, he hadn't told Lindsay every detail of the dream. He'd glossed over the fact that although someone bit her…it felt like he was the one doing it. That was the one part that really freaked him out. He hated it when he didn't understand the nightmare. He'd had that problem with the Greg Lohman case.

He knew he wouldn't hurt Lindsay. Ever. But the dream was telling him otherwise. It scared him.

Lindsay came out of the bathroom with a glass of water. "Here," she said, handing it to him. He took it gratefully and drained it in one gulp. "Better?"

Danny nodded. "A little, yeah."

"Have you…have you talked to Mac about any of this?" she asked him.

"No. I don't see why."

Lindsay looked at him. "Because, Danny. This is like what happened with the Greg Lohman case. You're seeing things. Things that might come true."

"Yeah, but I mean…vampires?" He rolled his eyes. "Mac'll throw me out on my ass," Danny said. "He doesn't believe in that junk. Hell, I don't even believe in that stuff."

"You should still talk to him," Lindsay replied. "He would want to know about the nightmare, anyway." Thunder rumbled, but farther away, now.

Danny looked at his watch. "You want breakfast?" he asked. "We gotta be to work in like, three hours. Doesn't pay to try to go back to sleep."

Lindsay hit him with a pillow. "Oh, it doesn't, huh?"

A smile flickered across Danny's face, and he settled back down under the covers. Lindsay tucked an arm underneath his head. "Mmmm…then again…"

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