Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,28

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