Chain of Souls (Salem VI) Read Free

other part of the world, but she was walking into terrible danger."
    "It was a nightmare."
    "Yes," he said in a halting voice.
    "But you think it was real somehow, don't you?"
    He ran a hand over his face. "I can't help but think . . . I just don't know."
    "John," she said, laying a hand on his arm, "you've been through unbelievable stress. We both have."
    "I know," he said, wanting to believe that she was right and stress was the cause, "but I keep thinking about my last conversation with Andrew Card."
    Amy nodded. "And he told you there are Covens other places."
    "Yes."
    "But they're not here. That counts for something."
    John shook his head. "That's not true. I killed the leaders of the Coven, but I'm sure that wasn't all of them. We have no idea how many others there are. Rich Harvey, my
friend,
was one of them. I look around this city and every person I see, I wonder if they're a member of the Coven. I wonder who I can trust, who I'll ever be able to trust."
    "You sound paranoid."
    "That's because I
am
paranoid. Aren't you?"
    She was quiet for half a block before she said, "Yes, I'm feeling very paranoid, too, but it really pisses me off. I don't want to worry that every person in this town might be a secret Devil worshipper. I don't want to think that this is just
our
problem."
    "You're suggesting that we're supposed to ignore them?"
    She shook her head and looked at the ground. "No, of course not. I just feel like these people have invaded our lives, and I want them gone. I want the world to be what I always thought it was before a week ago, a place where there were a few bad people but mostly good people and the Devil didn't really exist."
    "But the world wasn't
really
that way at all. We just thought it was. Do you really want to be ignorant?"
    She let out a humorless laugh and put her arm through his and gave it a squeeze. "No, but I also don't want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, wondering if the person behind me on the sidewalk or in the supermarket line is really a Devil worshipper who wants to kidnap me and kill me in a blood sacrifice."
    "So, how do we keep from letting that happen?"
    Amy shook her head, but then she seemed to get a fresh burst of spirit. "Tell me about your dream. Where did you think this girl was? Vermont?"
    John shook his head. "It could have been, but I'm pretty sure it was England."
    "Why England?"
    "I don't know, maybe the stone walls or the hills and the sheep, maybe the gray sky."
    "Where in England?"
    "Haven't got a clue."
    He felt a shudder go through her, and she asked, "What do you think you're supposed to do about dreams like that?"
    "I don't know."
    The walked another half block in silence, but then Amy let out a reluctant sigh. "You're right. If you have dreams like that and you think they're real, you can't just do nothing."
    John nodded, finally putting words to what had been bothering him since he woke up. "I know. If I try to ignore them, they'll drive me insane, but how do I do something to save a girl who's walking on a road and I don't know where in the world it is?"
    She squeezed his arm, but she could offer no good answer.
    He stopped walking and looked at her, trying to fight the sense of panic that welled up inside when he confronted how little control he had over the direction of his life. "I already called Andrew Card before you came down."
    "Good, that's what you should do."
    "It's not the first time I've called him since . . . everything happened. It's probably the fourth or fifth, but he hasn't returned my calls."
    "He's probably busy tying up loose ends. Calling Card is the right thing. I just don't think you should try to get involved any further, at least alone."
    "What do I do if Card doesn't call back, or when he finally does he tells me he can't do anything?"
    "Maybe there's nothing you can do, either. Neither you nor I have the resources to go flying around the world, and even if we did, we don't have the knowledge or the authority to