The Twilight Before Christmas by Christine Feehan Page B

going on, Kate?” Jonas asked. “Your sisters are all upset, and whatever happened last night to you and Matt sounds bizarre. You were so drained, even I could feel it.”
    She shook her head. “My sisters are still looking in the old family diaries for an explanation, but I don’t have any answers, Jonas. I wish I did.”
----
    Chapter
6
     

    The time, it was right, for a present or two,
    And the fog on the sand holds a secret, a clue.
     
    Jackson Deveau paced back and forth in complete silence. That was the first thing Kate noticed, how very silent he was. His clothes didn’t rustle, and the soles of his shoes didn’t make any noise. His eyes were as cold as ice, as bleak and as dead as she had ever seen in a human being. She sat down in the one good armchair and tried to repress a shiver. If the man had any gentleness in him, she couldn’t detect it.
    “I told you I didn’t need a damned psychiatrist, Jonas,” Jackson snapped, without looking at her. “Get her out of here. You think I want anyone to see me like this?” Sweat beaded on his forehead, dampened his dark, unruly hair.
    “I’m not a psychiatrist, Mr. Deveau,” Kate said. “I’m simply a friend of both Jonas and Matthew. I have a gift, and they thought it might help you in some way. Neither meant to upset you.”
    “Stop growling like a Neanderthal, Jackson, and let her talk,” Matthew said. “You’d think you didn’t have a civilized bone in your body.”
    “How strange that you would choose that particular description when my sisters said the same thing about you, Matthew,” Kate replied. “Did you have a particularly disturbing dream, Mr. Deveau?”
    Jackson whirled around and stalked toward her from across the room, his body moving like a large predatory cat’s. “What’d they tell you about me? That I’m crazy? That I have nightmares and can’t sleep? What the hell do you want me to say?”
    Kate noted both Jonas and Matt were close to her, ready to defend her if necessary. In spite of the shiver of fear, she calmly looked up at the deputy. “They didn’t say anything. They’ve told me next to nothing about you. Most of the children in town seem to have had a collective nightmare. So far, none of the adults have admitted to it, but everywhere we’ve been today, there’s unexpected tension. I thought maybe you would be able to tell me about it. I’m getting garbled accounts from the children, and so far no adult has been courageous enough to admit they had the dream too.”
    Jackson raked both hands through his dark hair, the muscles rippling under his thin, tight tee shirt. He looked from Jonas to Matthew as if expecting a trap. “Kids have been having nightmares?”
    Kate nodded. “Last night, after the fog rolled in, something bizarre happened. This morning, children from all over town were distressed and in tears, some traumatized by a dream they all seem to have shared.”
    “About what?” For the first time since she’d entered the room, Jackson sat down, his hands still gripping his head as if he had a violent headache.
    “They described a skeleton man in a long coat and old hat.”
    Jackson hesitated, clearly reluctant to discuss his problem with her. He looked from Jonas to Matt and finally capitulated. “The coat and hat were old-fashioned, a heavy wool, maybe. There was no real face, just white-gray bones. There was a woman and a baby and a shepherd, or at least someone with a shepherd’s staff.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I go after real people, real threats, but this thing, this was from a place I can’t get to, and I sense that everyone is in danger.” He looked at Kate. “More than the actual dream, it was the feeling the dream left me with that’s disturbing. The danger was real. I know it sounds crazy, but dammit, it was real!”
    Matt stiffened. Jackson Deveau had never feared very much, certainly not his own mortality, yet he was deeply shaken by the nightmare.
    “Then you