Dust to Dust by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online

that.”
    Melanie flushed. “There’s good and evil in life, we all know that. There’s a spark, or a soul, in all people, and some of those people are good and some are evil, and it doesn’t matter if they come from the U.S., Canada, Europe or Timbuktu, any more than it matters if they’re male or female, black, white, yellow, red or polka-dotted. I know there are things in this world that can’t be explained, but…”
    Maggie smiled slowly as Melanie’s voice trailed off. She said firmly, “You drew the four elements.”
    â€œAnd you called Lucien, and told him that he had to come here because of something I drew on a napkin?”
    â€œI told you—Lucien knew the minute the quake occurred.” She turned away, suddenly sweeping with new industry.
    The way Maggie was behaving was scary, Melanie thought. Like Lucien, it seemed that Maggie simply knew things.
    â€œMaggie?” Melanie asked. “What’s up?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Maggie said. She stopped sweeping and stared at Melanie again. “Okay, I’m concerned. Jade said that Lucien hadn’t been sleeping well.”
    â€œHe never sleeps well,” Maggie said. “I…we never sleep deeply.”
    Maggie shook her head. “He’s been having dreams.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œHe hasn’t really told her. But she thinks he’sworried. It’s just…Lucien having nightmares, you drawing weird things on cocktail napkins. And then a quake,” Maggie said.
    â€œI think that Lucien is…informing some of our other friends before he comes,” Maggie said. “I think something… big might be afoot.”
    Melanie knew that Maggie wasn’t referring to just any friends. She meant that Melanie had somehow started something that would require the presence of many members of their loosely knit group.
    The group they called the Alliance.
    â€œIt’s important that we find out if this does all mean something, don’t you think?” Maggie asked.
    â€œI was just sketching,” Melanie said. But her protest sounded weak even to her own ears, and she felt an odd mix of both anticipation and dread.
    â€œTonight, that man you saw? He wasn’t one of the Alliance?”
    â€œDefinitely not. I would know.”
    â€œThen for all we know, he’s part of what’s going on. It will be good to have Lucien and Sean here.”
    â€œSure. It will be great to see them, no matter what,” Melanie agreed, then picked up a bag of dog food and put it back on a shelf, trying to behave normally.
    Just what the hell was going on?
    And who the hell was the tall dark stranger who had come to the rescue, just like a modern-day knight in denim armor?
    Whoever he was, he was not like her, but there was… something about him.
    Â 
    It had seemed easy enough to Scott when he had been chasing the lowlifes who had decided to use the earthquake as an excuse for robbery, and attempted rape and murder.
    But after the burst of energy he’d expended disappearing as the cops closed in on the mausoleum, the walk home seemed to be a long one. It was bizarre the way one block showed so much damage, while the next appeared almost as if nothing had happened at all. But ever since he’d made L.A. his home, he’d become well acquainted with earthquakes and their aftereffects.
    As he made his way down Santa Monica, he stopped occasionally to help people. He managed to help a guy lift the end of his Mini Cooper off his front porch, and he moved a broken gargoyle that had landed on a woman’s steps, imprisoning her in her house. People were still out on the streets, but as he walked along, it seemed that they were already coping better with the crisis. Lights from streets with power cast a pale glow over streets that had none, neighbors were out helping one another, but mainly people were just standing around talking, trading