Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,33

pounds ago. The white button-down blouse with its little ruffled collar didn’t help. Her glasses were large and black framed so they dominated her face. Her hair was shortish and going from brunette to a tired gray. She’d also brushed her curls out in an attempt to straighten them, and it gave her hair the consistency of wool. When you have hair as curly as mine and Micah’s you can never, ever brush your hair. It breaks the curl and makes a mess of it. Jean-Claude, with his only slightly less curly hair, had taught me that. The woman had to be over fifty; you’d think somewhere someone would have taught her how curly hair works. Her only jewelry was a silver cross and a lapel pin in the shape of a crosier, the shepherd’s crook that is supposed to mean that a bishop or above is a guardian of his flock, when it’s carried in the life-size version. I’d never seen one as a pin.

‘Aunt Bertie,’ Juliet called out, and went toward the woman, who had flashed an unfriendly look past her to Micah and me. Maybe I was being paranoid about that whole ‘me’ thing, but fundamentalists of several flavors had hated me on sight; why should Aunt Bertie be different?

It meant that the man with her was probably Uncle Jamie. He was at least five-nine, but he seemed shorter because he was carrying his weight from chest to groin, with only his legs still thin. The legs gave an echo of what he must once have looked like. I knew women who took pride in their legs staying thin, even with the rest of the weight up top. I wondered if men thought the same thing; I’d just be worried about heart attacks.

The man was wearing glasses almost identical to the woman’s, but his suit fit better than hers, which probably meant he’d been at his present weight for longer. I just kept thinking I hoped there wasn’t any heart disease in the family.

Juliet and Deputy Al tried to intercede for Micah with the pair, but they were having none of it. He was not going to get to see his father without passing through them first. Oh, joy.

Juliet tried, calling out, ‘I thought you guys were down in the cafeteria making sure everyone got some dinner.’

Aunt Bertie said, ‘I told you we wanted to go with you to meet Mike at the airport, and you snuck off.’

‘I didn’t sneak off, but I told you they had people with them and there wouldn’t be room for you and Uncle Jamie.’

‘And how did you know there would be extra people with him?’ she asked in a voice that was unpleasant, strident.

Uncle Jamie was in front of us. He had a lapel pin that I thought for a second was a tiny, silver candy cane, then realized it was another crosier. Al stepped back with a shrug and a look of mute apology to Micah.

‘So, the prodigal son returns,’ Uncle Jamie said.

‘I just came to see my father,’ Micah said. He let go of my hand and took a step in front as if he wanted to make sure he was taking the brunt of it, or maybe he thought holding hands was a way of cowering? I’d ask him later, maybe.

Nathaniel and I kept on holding hands. It made me feel better and since I couldn’t shoot Micah’s aunt and uncle for being rude, it gave me something to do with my hands.

‘Who are these people with you?’ And Uncle Jamie managed to make people sound as if what he meant was fuckers, but was too polite to say it.

Micah introduced Nicky and Dev first.

Jamie eyed them up and down like he was thinking of buying them and didn’t think much of the sale. ‘What are they?’

‘People,’ Micah said, his voice cold.

‘Are they unnatural?’ he asked.

Unnatural? ‘Wow,’ I said softly. It hadn’t even occurred to me that Micah’s being a shapeshifter would be a problem with his family. I’d only worried about the sex part. Stupid me.

‘Yes, just like me,’ Micah said.

There was a sort of movement, or sigh, in all the police in the hallway. The uniforms, and the two in street clothes, all reacted almost like grass in a meadow when the wind stirs it. I wasn’t sure if they were reacting to the growing unpleasantness or if they didn’t like that at least three of us were ‘unnatural.’ We were in one of the handful