Page 41 of Blood and Bone
“They’re not all bad,” Eoghan said. He turned to look at Ari. “Elroy and his crew are nice.” Ari nodded in agreement.
“Who’s Elroy?”
“He’s a Powmay,” Eoghan said. “Basically, he’s a little gecko type alien who’s the nicest guy in the world.”
“O—kay,” Alo said looking even more hesitant.
Ari sipped more lemonade and grinned.
“So, we haven’t talked too much about your clan,” Eoghan said. “Clearly, you’ve got different shifters. Riversong and her brother are opossums, her husband Jack is a squirrel, and you two are grizzly bears.”
“Yes. Funny how we can accept shifters but aliens makes us feel uncomfortable.” He laughed. “But the variety is typical with larger reservations. We shelter many kinds of shifters on tribal lands. Think of our reservation like you would any human community. You have all kinds of people with different genealogical backgrounds living in the same place. You might have a Mexican-American family living next door to a Chinese immigrant family and so forth,” Joe said. “We’re no different and we often marry outside of our own classification just like humans have interracial marriages.”
“And when you have a mixed shifter couple like Jack and Riversong who have children, what kind of shifters do the children end up becoming?” Ari asked. This stuff fascinated him.
“In the case of their family, the kids could end up being either an opossum, a squirrel, or not a shifter at all,” Joe said. “Look at it this way. Everyone has multiple genes which all carry a trait. Some are more dominant. That’s why a person might have three children, all with different colored eyes or why a dwarf couple might have an average sized child. It’s the same with shifters.”
“We have a girl in our IT department with a human parent and a snow leopard shifter parent. She can’t shift.”
“And neither can a lot of shifter offspring when they have different types of shifters for parents. In the case of the girl in IT, she can’t shift because of the human parent. In Jack and Riversong’s case, they have three kids and they won’t know whether theycanshift and what kind of shifter they will be until they’re around seven or eight years old,” Alo said. “Some kids of shifters don’tevershift for whatever reason. Unless they’re born of same species parents who are full blooded shifters, they might not ever shift. It’s all in the genes, man. I’m not a scientist. What do I know?”
“So two bear shifters will have a bear shifter,” Eoghan concluded.
“Yes.” The chief grinned. “Because of the dominant trait in both halves of their blood.”
“We did have a bear couple on the rez with a child who shifted into a mountain lion once,” Alo said.
“Oh, that’s right!” Joe started laughing. “Oopsie.”
“The mother had an affair with a mountain lion shifter?” Ari asked, stunned.
“Their next-door neighbor,” Joe said. “Super awkward.”
“Oh, you think?” Eoghan asked, laughing.
“Both couples are divorced now.” Alo shook his head.
Ari and Eoghan did the same. Ari caught him checking his watch. “Time to go back?”
“It’s a little after two.”
“We should get back to the station. I shouldn’t take long lunches out of the office, and Riversong and her escorts are due back at two thirty,” Joe said. “She’ll want to meet you two, I’m sure.”
“Oh, she’s met me, remember?” Eoghan said. “She might not be too happy to see me again.”
“That’s right. You arrested her. I completely forgot,” Two Trees said. “But this is a whole different thing. The circumstances are nothing alike. And if Colt Wilkins was abusing her and set up her husband for the grand larceny he’s currently serving time for as we suspect, then there’s a damned good chance she’ll want to see you.”
Eoghan shrugged. “If you say so, but I’m not so sure when she learns about us invading her privacy and reading her diary the way we did.”
“I know so,” Ari said. He watched Joe pick up the check folder and slide several bills into it as Ari reached for his wallet.
Joe stuck out his hand. “I’m not taking your money. This one is on me. You can grab lunch the next time you’re here in Tahoe.”
“Good enough, thanks,” Eoghan replied as they all stood up and walked to their vehicles.
Back at the station, Ari waited in the conference room while Eoghan used the restroom. The chief and deputy had gone back to their desks to return messages and make a few calls when the station door opened, drawing Ari’s attention out to the bullpen. Riversong walked in with two young children and carrying a toddler. He immediately recognized her from the mugshots he’d seen as well as the family photos in her house. She was accompanied by two men Ari assumed were the escorts who’d brought her back.
He watched as the chief walked out of his office and greeted her. One of the female deputies took the children into the break room where there were couches and a big chest of toys for visitors to the station who had kids.