Chapter One
    She ran for her life. The pitch black darkness closed in around her, robbing her of the air she was trying so desperately to suck into her lungs. Yet she continued to run with her hands before her, feeling her way, hoping the ground wouldn't disappear from beneath her feet, hoping there was nothing in her path. The muscles in her thighs burned, her legs were getting heavier and heavier, she could hardly lift them anymore.
    Her heart pounded in her chest, it pounded in her head. The only thing she could hear was her own breathing, the pounding of her heart, and the pounding of her feet against the dry, hard ground. She had to get away, she had to keep running. The monster was chasing her. Again.
    He was getting closer and closer. If she stopped now, he would have her. And then he would kill her. He would wrap his hands around her neck and squeeze the life out of her. He was strong, so strong. Her throat was sore from screaming, from trying to keep up this pace, from trying to outrun him. She didn’t have much time left, she could feel him reaching for her, could feel him closing in. And then…
    Lea Reynolds sat up in bed, fists flying as she fought off an imaginary beast. She opened her eyes and frantically scanned the room. Gulping for breath, sweat pouring off of her, she struggled to come fully awake. A dream,
she thought. But a very, very bad dream. She switched on the light by the bed, chasing away the shadows. She was home. She was in her own bed. There were no monsters. There was nothing chasing her. No matter how real the
danger had seemed, she was safe from the monster that pursued her, but somewhere, someone else was not so lucky. The thought made her sick in the pit of her stomach.
    She hated the dreams. She hated them because she knew that someone somewhere was running from a very real monster and she couldn't help them.
    She'd had the peculiar ability since she was very young. At around age three she'd dreamed that her uncle had gotten into a motorcycle accident. In that particular dream, her uncle had blood on his face, blood on his hands, and he
was coming after her. A few days later her father's oldest brother had gotten into an accident on a motorcycle and when he came to their house after he’d gotten out of the hospital, he'd frightened her. His face was scabbed over, red and raw. His arms and his hands were also scabby and raw from where he had rolled across the pavement. That had been her first precognitive dream.
    Unfortunately, it wasn't the last.
    She'd spent most of her childhood and teenage years being afraid of the dreams; the dream that her grandmother would die; the dream that her cousin would be killed in an accident; the dreams of other accidents; the dreams of
people she didn’t know, people she couldn't tell, people she couldn't warn.
    Back then, she'd believed that she was the reason those bad things happened to people. She’d thought it was her fault, that she'd dreamed them into reality.
    She thought it was her fault when people were hurt and it was her fault when people died.
    When she'd gotten older, she learned how to turn the dreams off. She used alcohol. She used drugs. But she'd also found she couldn’t live her life and be happy while in a drug or alcohol-induced haze all the time. So she'd gotten
clean and sober, and then the dreams returned. She sought professional help, and she'd sat in a psychiatrist's office three times a week, month after month, and when that hadn’t worked, she'd gone to psychics.
    And finally, there, she’d found understanding, she’d found a friend in Iris Collins, and she’d found someone who was willing to help her. She learned how to turn the dreams off without using drugs or alcohol. She learned how to distance herself from them, and when the dreams wouldn't turn themselves off, she learned how to change the channels on them. She learned how to wake herself up when the channels wouldn’t change. She learned how to differentiate between regular nightmares and the ones that meant something.
    It had been a long time since she'd had any dreams of the scary kind that she couldn't turn off, that she couldn't change the channel. Lying back down in her bed, she kept the lamp on and her eyes open. The soft light held back the monsters while Lea waited for daylight. An hour later, sunrise brought warm golden rays filtering through the windows. Taking a deep breath, Lea sighed with relief. She got out of bed, went to the bathroom, showered and dressed, and got ready for the day, all the while pondering her latest dream.
    It was impossible to ignore them when she knew they most definitely meant something. And this one definitely meant something bad. But there was nothing she could do about it now, not until she knew what might lay ahead.
    She slipped her feet into her shoes and went to the garage, locked the door behind her and started her car, then made the short drive to the flower shop she owned. She enjoyed her job. Working with flowers and plants gave her
peace of both spirit and mind. And peace was one of the things she'd had very little of in her life. There was something very calming about creating the arrangements, something almost therapeutic about digging in the soil. The simple tasks gave her a sense of self, a sense of belonging, and a sense of normalcy. And all she ever wanted was to be normal, to not have the dreams, and to not wake up terrified in the middle of the night.
    Flipping the sign over that said she was open for business, she began setting flowerpots and potted plants out in front of the store. The sun peeked through a hole in the thunderheads and reflected off the crystals hanging in the windows. The gentle breeze that would soon be a brisk wind moved the chimes, allowing them to sing. Lea took a deep breath and exhaled as she used her hand to shield her eyes and watched the clouds close in from the west, slowly blotting out the sun. It was a fitting simile for the way she felt. She walked back inside as the first raindrops began to fall.

Rating:

Reviewer: Cheryl

There is a psycho serial killer on the loose. Lea Reynolds lives a normal life running a flower shop except that she is having psychic dreams about the murders. The dreams have been getting worse lately since the killer has picked up the pace.  Lea knows she has to do something, so she turns to Detective Chase Montgomery.  At first Chase doesn't think Lea is for real but after one of her premonitions come true, Chase knows he will have to trust in Lea. The more time Chase and Lea spend with each other the more Chase wants to get to know her better. Lea feels safer now with Chase protecting her. Things start getting personal when she dreams about her own murder. Lea knows it is just a matter of time before the killer comes for her but will Chase be enough to protect her?

I thought the chemistry that Chase and Lea shared was great. Chase was sexy, tall and the kind of guy any woman would want to have by her side. Lea may have seemed like she was weak but when the occasion called for Lea to be tough, she could hold her own.  I really liked the fact that the author brought the reader into the mind of the killer. It made the killer more real and scary. Also the plot was really good and believable. I enjoyed reading Deadly Dreams by Rie McGaha and you will too if you don't have nightmares after reading it. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite.

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