I thought my life had upended when the murders happened and the Council told me they’d arranged for me to have help from our alien hosts. Now, I felt as if I’d stepped into some sort of other reality. The sheer audacity of the deception we were living under staggered the mind. “Is this the place?” Pilar asked me as the tavern came into view.
“Yup,” I replied on autopilot. “They’ve got a couple rooms they rent out by the night for folks visiting family.” And trysts but given the unresolved sexual tension between us, I did not want to even go there. To my relief, I spotted Kilroy tied up at the hitching post. Richard was here, no doubt to flirt with the omega that worked the tables here. He had it bad for him and I hoped it was going well for him. He deserved some happiness in the shitstorm we were in. I swiped a hand down my face. Richard didn’t know the half of it, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t tell him what I’d discovered? Besides, the facts might somehow pertain to our case so having this information might very well help us crack it. That, and I wanted to get his thoughts on it all. He was my best friend as well as my deputy, so if I couldn’t confide in him, who could I?
“Richard’s here,” I informed Pilar. “Hopefully he’s not too deep in his cups for me to catch him up to speed.”
A look of surprise, quickly masked, crossed his face as he turned his head to regard me. It vanished so fast that if the moon wasn’t illuminating everything so brightly and I’d gotten pretty good already at reading his expressions, I’d have thought I’d imagined it.
“Isn’t this still rather far from your home?”
“Yeah, kinda, but he has a thing for one of the omegas working here.”
A look of understanding crossed his face. “Ah. Love knows no distance.”
“Yeah,” I replied, guiding Winnie into the yard. “I keep telling him that he should stick to just coming on his days off, but he says twice a week isn’t enough. He’s down here at least another couple of nights, more if he’s responding to a night call out and it’s anywhere close by. I don’t know how he does it, with it eating into his sleep.” I shook my head at Richard’s besotted folly, pulling Winnie to stop. I dismounted moments before Pilar did the same, both of us quickly tying them to the hitching post. Both beasts lowered their heads, gratefully drinking in the water provided in the trough.
“I’ll have someone come out to give them some buckets of feed,” I said.
Pilar nodded, saying nothing. I watched as his expression shuttered, Pilar the playing-things-close-to-the-vest man becoming Pilar the Ilyirzi Hunter in all his inscrutable glory. Both personas were magnificent but I felt a twinge of disappointment at the loss of my chattier companion.
“I doubt they’ll have anything completely suitable for you,” I said regretfully as I walked over to the heavy wooden door, pushing it open.
“I have some provisions,” he reminded me. “I’ll eat some local fare then have some of my own once in my room.”
The inn’s bar area was less than half full, unsurprising given how close to daylight it now was. Folks would either have mosied off on home or be tucked up in bed upstairs. I just hoped they had a place for us to stay.
Paul, the innkeeper, was at the bar polishing a glass dry, talking to Richard at the bar, Richard’s crush wiping down tables. Paul’s hands stopped moving when he caught sight of us.
“Sheriff,” he said, staring openly at Pilar.
“Hello, Paul. We’re about to get caught by daylight, so I’m hoping real bad that you’ve got a couple of rooms.”
“Just the one, I’m afraid,” he replied slowly, his gaze never leaving Pilar’s face.
“I didn’t expect you back so soon,” Richard interjected. “Everything all right?”
“I’ll fill you in once I get the room settled. We’ll take it.” There wasn’t any other choice; the sky had begun brightening and soon the sun would be out.
“You and the vampire will have to share the same bed,” Paul informed me, looking scandalized.
“If you’ve got extra blankets, I can bunk down here in front of the fire,” I said, tilting my head to the fireplace in the room.
“If there is space on the floor, I can also camp down here.” Pilar’s tone was even, devoid of emotion. The accent he spoke with added pure honey to the words anyway.
Paul smiled then. “I can set a cot up in the room like I do for when guests bring kids. Your feet might hang off a bit though, Sheriff.”
“You should have led with that,” Richard chastised him gently.
Paul scratched his beard. “I wasn’t sure they’d be okay sharing the same room.”
“It’s fine,” Pilar reassured him. “We are work colleagues and tired from our journey.”
“I ain’t never seen a vampire before,” Paul blurted out. “You look so human, yet not.”
“Ilyirzi,” I corrected him. “He’s no mythical monster. He’s an Ilyirzi and his people were kind enough to let us settle on their world.”
Pilar shot me a look of surprise. Paul flushed a deep red.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean nothing by it.”
Inwardly I seethed. The decision our ancestral leaders had made led to this schism, and something told me it had been deliberate on their part. But why? What had they to gain?
“Could you please see our beasts get fed? They’re tied up out front. Also, I don’t suppose there’s anything left to eat?”
“I can bring you some stew,” Paul murmured, hustling away himself to deal with it.
“Can we have it brought up to our room?” I called out after him.
Paul turned around, scurrying back. Grabbing a key from the wall by the back of the bar, he jerked his chin. “Yep, just follow me.”
Richard stood up to follow, knowing me well enough to understand that when I said I’d fill him in, I meant now rather than later. The three of us followed Paul up the stairs to the promised room. I still felt as if I was walking in a dream. Maybe I was a lot more tired than I thought. I knew that wasn’t the whole reason why, but it was nice pretending that after some sleep, things would feel normal again.