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 of unwrapping the feeder people for him?

He didn’t mind being hit with the sharp thing, 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.”

He pulsed 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 now, 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.”

It was only when he answered the cell phone that Theo realized one of Burton’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?” Gabe said, 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 for Burton.”

“You said there were a bunch of people there?”

“They’re all out of it, 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 naked?”

“To deter them from coming into the cave.”

“To deter them from coming into the cave,” Theo said into the phone.

“Well, that didn’t work very well, did it?” Gabe said. “Why didn’t she scare them off with the creature?”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you, Gabe. They’re here to be with the creature.”

“Fascinating. And Molly has control over him?”

Theo looked at the dragon spit running down his jeans. “Not exactly. Gabe, please, bring Val and get your ass up here. You can claim to be here for scientific reasons or something. Val can say she’s a trained hostage ne-gotiator. These people are her patients; that should help her credibility. Bring as many people as you can.”

Molly grabbed Theo’s arm again and shook her head. “Just the people who already know.”

Theo cursed under his breath. “Scratch that, Gabe. Just you and Val. Don’t tell anyone else.”

“Mavis and Howard and Catfish know already.”

“Just them. Please, Gabe, borrow Mavis’s car and get up here.”

“Theo, this isn’t going to help you much. We might keep you from getting killed, but Burton is still going to arrest you guys. You know it. And once he gets you in his jail, well, you know.”

“One thing at a time.”

“Theo, we’ve got to preserve that creature. This is the greatest…”

“Gabe,” Theo interrupted. “I’m trying to preserve my ass. Get going, please.”

“You’ve got to get that creature out of there, Theo. They might not shoot you if there are witnesses, but they won’t let the creature go.”

“He won’t move. He’s in the back of the cave, sulking.”

“Sulking?”

“I don’t know, Gabe. Just come, okay.” Theo disconnected and sat down. To Molly he said, “Gabe’s right. We may just be delaying the inevitable by bringing in witnesses. Maybe we should rush Burton before SWAT gets here.”

Molly picked up the AK-47 from the floor, released the clip and tilted it so Theo could see it was empty. “Bad idea.”

“Hostage negotiator?” Val Riordan said. “I did my residency in eating disorders. The closest I’ve ever come to a hostage negotiation is talking a sugar-jagged actress out of purging fourteen quarts of Ben & Jerry’s Monkey Chunks after she lost her part on ‘Baywatch.’”

“That counts,” said Gabe. He’d related everything that Theo had told him and was ready to run to the rescue, but Val was reluctant.

“I believe the flavor is Chunky Monkey,” H.P. said.

“Whatever,” said Val. “I don’t see why Theo needs us if he’s got a whole cave full of my patients.”

Gabe was trying to be patient, but he could feel a clock ticking in the back of his brain, each tick taking away his chance to save his friend and lay eyes on a living specimen from the Cretaceous period. “I told you, Theo says they’re out of it.”

“Perfectly logical,” said H.P.

“How so?” asked Val, obviously irritated at the stuffy restaurateur’s tone.

“The tradition of making sacrifice is as old as man. It may be more than just a tradition. The Babylonians sacrificed to the serpent, Tiamet, the Aztecs and Mayans sacrificed to serpent gods. Perhaps this creature was the serpent to which they sacrificed.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Val said. “This thing eats people.”

H.P. chuckled, “People have been loving vengeful gods for thousands of years. Who’s to say it isn’t the vengeance that inspires that love? Perhaps, as Dr. Fenton has pointed out, there is some symbiotic relationship between the hunting habits of this creature and the brain chemistry of its prey. Perhaps it inspires love as well as sexual stimulation. That feeling needn’t be reciprocal, you know. He could be as oblivious to his worshippers as any other god. He takes the sacrifices as his due, with no responsibility on his part.”