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"It’ll be okay It will"

She looked up into his eyes, as if looking for a hint of disdain, then not finding it, she kissed hiher Power

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?

- Revelation 13:4

Twenty-three

Steve

What horrors can a dragon dream? A creature who has, in his oay, ruled the planet for y man mammals have built temples, a creature who has known no predator but tihten hi?

Under a stand of oak trees, sexually satisfied and with a bellyful of drug dealers, the dragon dreamed a vision of time past The eternal now that he had always known suddenly had history In the dream he saw himself as a larva, tucked into the protective pouch under his ue until it was safe to venture out under her watchful eye He saw the hunting and the , the forms he had learned to enerations, but through regeneration of cells He saw thehe had borne as a fe the Blues He reo, from female to male, and he remembered all of it in pictures, not in mere instinctual patterns and conditioned responses

He saw these pictures in the drea with the warmblood, and he wondered why For the first time in his five thousand years, he asked, Why? And the dream answered with a picture of all the oceans and swas and trenches and mountains beneath the sea, and they were all eh the cold black at the end of the universe, where light gives up hope and time chases its tail until it dies frouys

Val

"Oh my God, the rat brains!" Gabe shouted

It was a different response to loveht not be hurt, feeling vulnerable as she ith her knees in the vicinity of her ears, a biologist on top of her, and her panty hose waving off one foot like a tattered battle flag

Gabe collapsed into her arms and she looked over his shoulder to the coffee table to check that they hadn’t kicked the wineglasses off onto the carpet

"Are you okay?" she asked, a little breathless

"I’ on with this creature"

"That’s what you were thinking about?" Yes, her feelings were definitely hurt

"No, not during It caht after Somehow the creature can attract mamot, what, a third of the population running around in antidepressant withdrawal?"

She was pissed now, not hurt She dumped him off her onto the floor, stood up, pulled her skirt down, and stepped away He scrambled into his pants and looked around for his shirt, which lay in shreds behind the couch

He had a tan that ended at the neckline and just below the shoulders; the rest of hiap between the couch and the coffee table with a pleading in his eyes, as if he were looking up from a coffin in which he was about to be buried alive

"Sorry," he said

He wasn’t looking her in the eye, and Val suddenly realized that he was talking to her exposed breasts She pulled her blouse closed, and a battery of insults rose in her mind, ready to be fired, but all of the but make them both feel ashamed He ho he was, and he was honest and real, and she knew that he hadn’tis what got me into this in the first place

She plopped down on the couch with her face in her hands Gabe moved to her side and put his arood at this sort of thing"

"You’re fine It’s just too ht his aro and I’ll hunt you down and kill you like a rabid dog"

"I’ll stay"

"No go," she said "I understand"

"Okay, I’ll go"

"Don’t you dare" She threw her ar him back down onto the couch, and within seconds they were all over each other again

That’s it, she thought, no uy is aroused bysweaty pile on the floor and the idea of crying was light-years away

And this tilass overturned by her head, a cabernet stain bleeding over the carpet "Is it salt or club soda?"

Gabe pulled away far enough to look into her eyes and saw that she was looking at the stained carpet "Salt and cold water, I think Or is that blood?" A drop of sweat dripped off his forehead onto her lips

She looked at hi about that creature that doesn’t exist, were you?"

"Just you"

She smiled "Really?"

"And a hacker, for so"

"Uh, yes, I’ of you"

"So you don’t think I’m a horrible person for what I’ve done?"

"You were trying to do what you thought was right How could that be horrible?"

"I feel horrible"

"It’s been a long time I’m out of practice"

"No, not about this Abouton them?"

"It’s just a theory There may not even be a creature"

"But what if there is? Shouldn’t we call the National Guard or so Theo"

"Theo isn’t even a real cop"

"He deserves to know"

They lay there in silence for a fewthe sweat run down their ribs, and listening to the beat of each other’s hearts

"Gabe?" Val whispered

"Yes"

"Maybe we should go to couples’ counseling"

"Should we get dressed first?"

"You were serious about the hacker, weren’t you?"

"I don’t knohere that iood couples’ guy in San Junipero, unless you’d rather go to a wo to call the National Guard"

"Only if it co, When we tell the shrink about this, I’

Theo

Is there anythingthan people who have just been laid? Especially when you have not Not for a long tih Molly’s front door, waking Theo for the second tirill on an old Chrysler, Val Riordan wearing jeans and al and blushing like children Theo wanted to puke He was happy for them, but he wanted to puke

"What?" Theo said

Gabe was obviously a not to show it He put his hands in his pockets to keep fro them around "I" - he looked at Val and smiled - "we think that this creature, if it exists, may be attracted to prey with low serum serotonin levels"

Gabe bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for his state at hie in expres-sion froh the door He guessed that he was supposed to say so now

"Molly was here," Theo said "The creature exists It ate Mikey Plotznik, and Joseph Leander, and who knoho else? She said it’s a dragon"

Gabe’s grin dropped "That’s great I reat from a scientific point of view I have another theory about this species I think it has some specialized mechanism to affect its prey Have you been horny lately?"

"There’s no need to be arrogant, Gabe I’ood time, but there’s no need to rub it in"

"No no, you don’t get it" Gabe went on to explain about Val Riordan’s decision to take her patients off antidepressants and how the lowering of serotonin levels could lead to increased libido "So Pine Cove has been full of horny people"

"Right," Theo said "And I still can’t get a date"

Val Riordan laughed and Theo glared at her Gabe said, "The rats I found alive near this trailer, where we think the creaturewhen I found theive off a sex pheromone that attracts their prey In some species, the behavior of the male - a display, a dance, a scent - will stimulate the ovaries in the female of the species without any physical contact I think that’s what’s happened to us"

"Our ovaries are being stiotta be honest with you, Gabe I’ it"

Val turned to Gabe "That’s not very ro This ant predator that the world has ever seen"

Theo shook his head "I have no home, no job, no car, there’s probably a warrant out for my arrest, and you want me to be excited over the fact that we have a monster in town that makes you horny so he can eat you? Sorry, Gabe, I’ the positive side of this"

Val chimed in, "Itpot so easily"

"Pardon me? Easily?" Theo wanted to jump off the couch and bitch-slap the before?"

"She could be right, Theo," Gabe said "If this thing affects serotonin, it could affect other neurotransood," Theo said "Let’s open a detox clinic We’ll feed half of the patients to the monster and the other half will recover I can’t wait"

"There’s no need to be sarcastic," Gabe said "We’re just trying to help"

"Help? Help hat? Bar fight? I can handle it Skateboard theft? I’m on it But my law enforce with this"

"That’s true, Gabe," Val said "Theo’s little more than a rent-a-cop Maybe we should call the sheriff or the FBI or the National Guard"

"And tell them what?" Theo asked Rent-a-cop? I’ht

"He has a point" Gabe said "We haven’t seen anything"

"That old Blues singer has," Val said

Theo nodded "We need to find hi with Estelle Boyet," Val said "I have her address in my office"