Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

‘I hate that you’re coming home to this, Mike.’

Micah nodded. ‘Me, too, Al.’ He turned to me and Nathaniel. ‘Al and I went to high school together.’

‘I was best friends with Richie. We went through boot together.’

Al assumed I knew the family tragedy that had turned Micah into a wereleopard, and he was right, but I thought the assumption was interesting. I was betting that Micah’s mother, or someone, had told him who I was, and then he said, ‘You must be Anita,’ and he offered to shake hands. Yep, someone had been talking.

‘How did you know …’ Micah started to ask.

‘Your mom said you’d be bringing your fiancée. Congratulations, we were all thinking you were going to be an old maid.’

It took me a second to realize he was still talking to Micah and not me.

‘I just had to meet the right people,’ Micah said. I don’t know if anyone caught the ‘people’ part, but the next officer stepped up and offered his hand and introduced himself.

Sergeant Michael Horton kept his Smokey Bear hat on; it went with his Colorado state trooper uniform. He was younger than all of us, except Nathaniel and Dev, though I’d noticed that people assumed Dev was older than he was, because he was tall. The taller you were, the more years people added to your age at an earlier age, just like they thought you were younger if you were shorter. Most people would have added years onto Sergeant Horton’s age because he was over six feet, but I didn’t add them; I knew better. He was twenty-five tops, which would actually make him a couple of years older than Dev and Nathaniel.

The hair that showed around his hat was buzz-cut short and if he hadn’t spent a few years in the military I’d lose a bet with someone. I would have bet even money it had been the Marines.

‘Sheriff Callahan is a good man,’ Horton said as he shook Micah’s hand.

‘Thank you.’

But Horton looked behind us all at Dev and Nicky, one big, physical guy sizing up the competition. That he discounted the rest of us made me take points off his I-would-depend-on-him-in-a-crisis card.

Sergeant Ray Gonzales stepped into the silence. He was with the Boulder Police Department. He was just under six feet, but built big like Nicky so he seemed taller. His shoulder width didn’t come out of a gym, and there was even a slight stomach bulge starting to fight with his equipment belt. Gonzales was just a big-framed man, built like a huge rectangle. He was going a little soft with age, which had to be closing in on sixty, but most of him was more solid than he looked. He reminded me of one of our guards, Dino, who looked out of shape and ran like a lumbering elephant, but all that bulk was solid and he was one of the few guards who I never, ever wanted to hit me for real.

He hugged Micah. ‘I’m glad you came, Mike. It’ll mean a lot to Rush.’

‘I just wish I’d come sooner.’

‘You’re here now, that’s what counts.’

‘I know,’ Micah said, and something about Gonzales had made him more emotional.

‘I’ve known Mike since he was a baby,’ Gonzales said, ‘and Al, too, come to think of it. Rush and I are the old guys now.’

‘I don’t know,’ the plainclothes cop said, and offered his hand to Micah. ‘Detective Rickman, Ricky; I work with Ray up in Boulder and I wish the younger officers were half as tough as you and Rush.’

‘I didn’t say we weren’t tough,’ Ray laughed. ‘I said we were old.’ He reached a hand out to me and used two hands to shake it. His smile was warm and open. ‘I’m glad you’re here with Mike.’

‘Thanks, me too.’

Detective Rickman said, ‘Your reputation precedes you, Marshal Blake. Nice to know one of our hometown boys could make you settle down.’

I didn’t like him, and I didn’t like the phrasing. I looked at Micah, asking with my eyes how he wanted me to play it.

‘I need to get them inside before Aunt Bea hunts me down,’ Juliet said. She actually started walking, trying to move us along.

‘Who are your friends?’ Rickman asked. ‘And what’s with the dark glasses at night? It’s a little Hollywood for here.’

I decided to be a distraction, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to give full names to Detective Rickman of our friends and sweeties. Nobody was wanted for anything, but it didn’t mean that everyone had unblemished records. I didn’t want to mess with it, and I’d just realized that no one here had seen Micah’s leopard eyes. He told me he’d had brown eyes once, and that was the color that everyone here would be expecting. ‘Detective Rickman, Ricky, no one makes me do anything, and as for settling down I’m not sure what you mean by that.’

‘Marriage, Marshal Blake, Anita; that’s usually what settling down means.’

Gonzales said, ‘Horton, go do the errands that Bea needs.’

Horton opened his mouth as if to tell Gonzales he wasn’t the boss of him, but something in the older man’s face made him stop. He looked at Rickman. ‘You okay with that, Detective?’

‘Yeah, we can handle it.’

Horton did what he was told, which was pretty obedient for a sergeant who wasn’t in their chain of command and wasn’t an old family friend. Either Gonzales had a great reputation or Horton was hoping to get on the Boulder PD and politically he was trying to keep both Ricky and Gonzales happy.

Micah said, ‘No one makes Anita do anything, but as for the dark glasses, did you know that if a lycanthrope is forced to stay in animal form too long that sometimes their eyes don’t come back to human normal?’

Gonzales and Al said, ‘No.’

Rickman said, ‘Are you saying your eyes aren’t human anymore?’

‘Yes. I know that most police are told to watch a lycanthrope’s eyes and if they change color then it’s the beginning of the shift, but my eyes don’t go back to human anymore.’

‘What color are your eyes now?’ Juliet asked. Her voice was full of some emotion that I couldn’t quite read, maybe sadness?

Micah slid the glasses off his face and turned toward the brightest light from the streetlights. Juliet made a sound that was almost a sob and put her hand over her mouth. Gonzales’s dark face looked like a world of sorrow had just climbed onto him. Al looked away and seemed sadder than before. Rickman flinched, but he wasn’t sad.

‘If you could all pass the word to the other local officers, I’d appreciate it,’ Micah said. ‘I’d really like to be able to concentrate on my dad and family without having to worry about being shot because someone sees my eyes and misunderstands.’

‘I’ll call up Gutterman and let him pass the word to the cops outside Rush’s room,’ Al said, and reached for his shoulder mic.

‘Good idea,’ Gonzales said.

Al spoke low into his shoulder mic and we all waited, while he said, ‘It’s the sheriff’s son, Mike Callahan, and his eyes are stuck on animal.’

A crackly voice said, ‘How the hell are his eyes stuck?’

‘Just one of those things that can happen with shifters,’ Al said. ‘Tell the other guys up there. Mike doesn’t need someone pointing a gun at him, thinking he’s about to shift while he’s here.’

‘Weird shit,’ the voice, I presumed Gutterman, said. ‘I’ll pass the word around.’

‘Thanks, Gutter,’ Al said.

Rickman asked, ‘You ever have anyone think you’re shifting when they see the eyes?’

‘A time or two,’ Micah said. He slipped his glasses back on, hiding the exotic flash of his eyes.

This was news to me. I turned and looked at Nathaniel, and the look on his face said it was news to him, too. If we hadn’t been with so many unknown people I’d have asked Micah to elaborate. Nathaniel gave a small nod, and just like that I knew we’d both be talking to our shared boy later.