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PEARSON WOULDN'T LET the vampire burn. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and went outside. Edward followed him with his rifle still at his shoulder. The rest of us did the same, except for Damian. I told him to stay inside. He wouldn't burn in the sunlight, but he'd watched his best friend and shield brother burn to death because the Wicked Bitch of Ireland had forced him into the sunshine. I'd shared the memory with Damian and could still hear the evil melodious voice: One to keep, and one to burn.

I wasn't going to let her add to the trauma she'd already caused him. The vampire was completely engulfed in flames; only Logan's jacket was slow to burn so that it was almost like a movie effect for the Human Torch, but the body standing screaming in the middle of the street wasn't fireproof. Pearson had to get right up on the figure to use the extinguisher. Edward and Domino stayed right with him, rifles to their shoulders, just in case. Vampires burn hot enough to melt human flesh and rupture bones from the heat. I didn't agree with what Pearson was doing, but that close to the flames it was like standing near the door to hell. It was incredibly brave, and I didn't understand why he was risking his life to try to save someone who had killed one and probably three of his officers. I'd have let the bastard burn. Logan could have been bloodlust, but the others at the door weren't.

The rest of us stayed out of the way. If they needed backup, we were there. A police officer came out with a second extinguisher and moved to help Pearson in his humanitarian effort. The fire did go out, but a few seconds later the flames started again, because the vampire was still in the middle of the sunlit street.

Jake leaned in to me and whispered,

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