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The smell of her was making him dizzy with longing. He shut the door
between them. "I ended up in the cemetery."
"Again? Why? Isn't that what we have each other for, to talk to and work
out these job stresses?"
"Yes, but . . . I forgot you were here."
As soon as the words were out he wanted to kick himself. Open big mouth;
insert big flat foot. An ominous silence answered from the other side of the
door. Garreth stripped off his clothes and jumped into the shower.
The bathroom door banged opened. Magpie jerked back the shower curtain and
turned off the water. "You forgot I was here?" she said quietly.
He grimaced. "I'm sorry."
The blue eyes bored into him. "What else happened besides the accident?"
"I don't know what you mean." He could not talk about the writer and
bloodmobile with her.
Her lips tightened. "Okay, you want to shut me out, I guess I can't do
anything about it."
The hurt in her voice ran through his gut like a knife. "Maggie, I'm not-"
"Yes you are," she said sadly. "You always do. Somewhere in every one of
our conversations there's a wall and part of you is shut away on the other
side. You're very skilled at putting up diversions to hide the wall, like when
you worm out of dinner invitations, but I see it anyway. I keep hoping that
one of these times we'll mean enough to each other that the wall will come
down. But maybe not."
He hugged himself. "Maggie, I'm sorry." He wanted to hug her, to take her
in his arms and soothe her hurt and somehow make it up to her for not loving
her as well as she deserved, but the scent of her blood beat at him. He was
afraid to touch her. "I don't know what else to say."
She sighed. "I don't either, Garreth. Maybe until we do-"
"Maybe what we both need is sleep," he interrupted. "There's that movie in
Bellamy you've been wanting to see."
"Witness."
"Yes. Why don't we go Monday, just have a good time, and then we can talk
afterward."
She stared hard at him for several minutes before replying, but finally she
nodded. "All right; we can try."
When she had gone Garreth turned the cold faucet and leaned back against
the stall with the icy water pelting him. We can try. Her tone held no
optimism. He bit his lip. He was going to lose her. It would be better for
her, but . . . he would lose one of his fragile ties with humanity, and he
would have nothing to come home to but the apartment and the ghosts waiting
there.
Lane's laughter echoed in his head.
10
He dreamed of fire. He stood in the shade of a tree at the edge of the
artificial island in the city's Pioneer Park. High overhead a summer sun
blazed in a heat-bleached sky. Lane lounged on the railing of the
old-fashioned octagonal bandstand in the island's center. A blood-red dance
costume cut up to her hip bones showed off the full length of her showgirl
legs. Even in the shade her hair shone rich mahogany, and her eyes gleamed red
as fire.
"Come here to me, inspector," she crooned. "Blood son. Lover. I need you.
We need each other."
"The hell I need you," he yelled at her. He wanted to leave the island, but
the wooden bridge lay in the full blaze of the sun. Just looking at it made
him feel weak. If only he could find his mirror-lensed trooper glasses.
Somehow he had mislaid them, though. He searched all his pockets in vain. The
thought occurred to him that perhaps Lane had taken them.
"But you do need me, lover," she called. "You don't want to be all alone."
"I'm not."
She laughed. "You're referring to your human friends? Don't be foolish.
They don't want you. See?"
She pointed. Following the direction of her finger, he caught his breath.
Massed at the shore end of the bridge stood Duncan, Maggie, Maggie's father in
his wheelchair, Anna Bieber, Nat, Sue Ann, Chief Danzig, and Helen Schoning.
And Julian Fowler, too.
"All in favor, say Aye," Duncan said.
"Aye," the rest of them chorused.
"Carried." From a box of kitchen matches in his hand, Duncan struck one and
tossed it onto the bridge.
"Maggie, stop him!" Garreth yelled.
Maggie turned away.
Smiling thinly, Duncan struck another match. "What's the problem,
Mikaelian?" He tossed the match. The plank it struck began to smolder. "All
you have to do is come over and stamp them out."
Garreth tried, but the moment he stepped out of the shade, the sun struck
him down like a sledgehammer. He reeled back into the shade, pain blinding
him.
Duncan struck and tossed another match. A second plank caught fire. "I
don't see what's so difficult. Just walk over the bridge and join us. Anyone
can do that. Any human."
But Garreth could not. The sun held him pinned in the shade of the tree. He
could only stand and watch helplessly while his single link to those on shore
blazed up.
"You see, lover?" Deceptively soft arms wrapped around him from behind.
Sharp teeth nipped his ear. "You're mine. I'm the only one who'll have you.
I'm the only one who understands. Now aren't you sorry you murdered me?"
11
Sunset woke him. Garreth scrambled gratefully out of sleep and stumbled out
of bed. In the bathroom a note on the mirror greeted him: Maggie tonight.
Don't forget this date.
As though that would save the relationship. True, she had been friendly
enough when he saw her Saturday and Sunday, but there had been a certain
reserve.
At least he had done better with her than with Duncan. An attempt Saturday
to smooth things over with the other officer when he found Duncan parked in
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