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.

'I'm going to walk them in,' Deputy Al said.

'You do that,' Gonzales said.

'Why do you need bodyguards, Marshal Blake?' Rickman asked.

Micah answered, 'There have been threats because of my work with the Coalition for Better Understanding Between Human and Lycanthrope.'

'So they're your bodyguards,' Rickman said.

'Do you really think I'd bring guards to the hospital where my family could see them, if I didn't need them?'

The question seemed to throw Rickman for a minute. He changed tactics and said, 'He's not a bodyguard.'

Micah reached back and took Nathaniel's hand in his and drew him up beside him just like I was on the other side. He gave Rickman solid eye contact as he said, 'Detective Rickman, this is Nathaniel. He's our third, our significant other.'

Gonzales made an inarticulate sound that was loudish. Deputy Al whistled and said, 'Wow, okay.'

'What is it with you and all the gay men, Blake?' Rickman asked.

I laughed, I couldn't help it. It seemed to startle everyone, because most of them looked at me, except for Micah, who was staring at Rickman. 'One, if the men in my life were gay it wouldn't do me a lot of good, would it? Two, why the hell are you this interested in my sex life?'

Micah said, 'Three, why do you have a problem with Anita? You just met her.'

'It's okay, Micah. I make him nervous.'

'Why?' he asked, as if Rickman weren't still standing there.

'My reputation intimidates him.'

'Which reputation, Marshal Blake? The one as a cold-blooded murderer, the one as a voodoo queen, or your reputation as a ... gentlemen's woman?'

It took me a few moments to realize he'd just switched the sexes on the term ladies' man and not called me a slut, though somehow gentlemen's woman sounded like a cleaned-up version of mistress.

'That's enough.' Gonzales stepped in front of Rickman, and he was big enough that he blocked all our views of the detective. 'You,' he said, pointing at Al, 'take them inside.'

'You don't outrank me,' Rickman said.

'Rush Callahan has been my friend for over thirty years. We served together, bled together, saved each other's lives more times than I can count. We both joined Boulder PD at the same time. He offered to take me with him when he moved to being sheriff. I don't outrank you sergeant to detective, I outrank you because you are forgetting that a fellow officer is down, dying, and this is his son.'

'We do not need Blake here with her hocus-pocus. We do not need the Feds on this case.'

'Make your reputation some other day, Ricky,' Gonzales said. 'Tonight isn't the night for it.'

'I don't know what case you're talking about, but I'm here as Micah's girlfriend, fiancee, whatever. We're here for him and his dad, that's it.'

'You say you're the girlfriend, but you have a federal badge and you're fucking Preternatural Branch, which means you can do any damn thing you want.'

'I am the girlfriend and I don't know what the hell you're talking about.'

'You go' he motioned toward the hospital 'go be the girlfriend, be the fiancee, meet the family, but if you try to take this case over I will fight you for it and do everything in my power to make sure you regret stepping on our toes.'

'"Stepping on our toes,"' I said. 'Really, that's the best you can threaten?'

'Anita,' Nathaniel said softly.

He was right, but I'd be damned if I'd apologize to Rickman.