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?"