The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

seriousness. There was no way he was letting Theo get away alive. "We'll talk it over!" Theo shouted. His head was throbbing from the pistol whipping he'd taken and the vision in his left eye was blurry. His cell phone chirped from within the pile of pilgrims' clothing and he scrambled through the clothes and pill bottles to find it. His vision went black with the movement and he had to steady himself until it cleared. He found the phone nestled in a pair of panty hose and hit the answer button.
    Steve He knew an enemy when he saw one. He could sense waves of aggression and fear coming from them, and he had felt those things coming from his warmblood lover. He could feel the fear even now as she approached him through the feeder people. Why, if she was going to find another mate, did she go to the trouble ofunwrapping the feeder people for him?
    He didn't mind being hit with the sharpthing, that felt good, he thought she wanted to mate again, but when she put it in his eye, he knew she would have killed him. He felt it. She had turned her loyalties to another. He considered biting off her head to show her how badly he felt.
    He tucked his head under his foreleg as she approached. She rubbed his gill tree and he sent a bolt of scarlet over his back to tell her to stop.
    "I'm sorry, Steve. I don't have many friends. I couldn't let you eat Theo."
    He could sense benevolence in her tone, but he didn't trust her now. Maybe he would just bite off an arm as a test. His back pulsed magenta and blue.
    "You have to go, Steve. There's a SWAT team coming. You can get past that guy outside without a problem. In fact, you can eat that guy outside if you want. In fact, I'd really appreciate it if you'd eat that guy outside."
    She stepped back from him. "Steve, you have to get out of here or they're going to kill you."
    Hepulsed a dull olive drab to her and tucked his head farther under his foreleg. She wanted him to go away, he could feel it. And he wanted to go away, but he didn't want her to want him to go away. He knew she could never be what he wanted, and he understood never how, but he didn't want the warmblood to have her either. Colors ran like sorrow over his scales.
    "I'm not rejecting you," Molly said. "I'm trying to save your life."
    She pushed through the pilgrims, who were all on their knees sobbing, and one woman, a thirtyish redhead with gravity-defying fake breasts, grabbed her arm. "I can sacrifice," the woman said. "I can."
    Molly pulled her arm away from the woman. "Fuck off lady," Molly said, "Martyrdom's easy, it comes with the plumbing."
    Theo It was only when he answered the cell phone that Theo realized one ofBurton 's blows had caught him on the ear. "Ouch! Goddamn it. Ouch!" Theo limped around in a circle, despite the fact that his limbs weren't injured at all.
    "Theo?" Gabesaid, his voice tinny in the receiver.
    "Yeah, it's me." Theo changed the phone to his other ear, but still held it a few inches away, now that it had bitten him once.
    "Where are you? Who answered your phone?"
    "That was Molly Michon. We're in that cave up on the ranch where the mushroom farm used to be.Burton has us pinned in here and he's called in a SWAT team."
    "Have you seen it?"
    "Yeah, I've seen it, Gabe. I think you were right about the brain chemistry thing. There's a bunch of people here all tranced out saying they were called to give sacrifice. They all have prescriptions written by Val."
    "Wow," Gabe said. "Wow.What's it look like?"
    "It's large, Gabe."
    "Could you be more specific?"
    "Look, Gabe, we need some help.Burton is going to kill us. I need witnesses up here so he can't claim that we fired on his men. Call the TV station and the paper. Get a news helicopter up here."
    Theo felt Molly grab his shoulder. He turned to see her shaking her head."Just a second, Gabe." He covered the mouthpiece with his hand.
    "No reporters, Theo."
    "Why not?"
    "Because if they find out about Steve, they'll put him in a cage or kill him. No reporters. No cameras."
    She gripped his shoulder until it hurt and tears welled up in her eyes. "Please."
    Theo nodded. "Gabe," he said into the phone, "Forget the reporters. No news people. No cameras.
    You guys come, though. I need witnesses here that don't work forBurton."
    "You said there were a bunch of people there?"
    "They're all out ofit, I don't think they're worth a damn. Besides, they're naked."
    There was a pause. Gabe said, "Why are they naked?"
    Theo looked to Molly, "Why are they