“Bathin. I do not know why he is so fascinated with the place. It’s all very…mundane.”
“Ordinary,” I said, not bothering to hide a smirk. “It’s all very ordinary.”
“Yes, it is. And yet, he refuses to leave.” She yawned, then opened her eyes a slit. “I don’t suppose you understand why he’s staying here, do you?”
“Get some sleep, Xtelle. I’ll leave out some oats for you.”
“No need,” she mumbled. “I’ll make myself at home in whatever passes as a kitchen here.”
I grunted. I was beginning to understand why Bathin didn’t like unicorns.
“Please,” I suggested.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. “Now leave me alone.”
I gave up. She wasn’t listening to me. Agreeing to be her host was turning out to be a bad idea, even if I’d mostly done it to bother Bathin.
And why was I making life decisions just to spite a demon?
You know, my heart said.
Yeah, I wasn’t listening to it either.
~~~
The late afternoon sun hung over the ocean, only a thin beadwork of clouds streaking the sky. The wind was calm, the ocean the kind of blue you only saw in dreams, and the bonfire was crackling.
Roy’s retirement party had drawn more than just those of us on the police force, his wife and kids, grandkids, and friends. It had drawn half the town.
We had a beach full of humans, supernaturals, and the few gods in town: Athena, Frigg, Hades. The only demigod, Piper, whose day job was waitressing at the Blue Owl diner, laughed over a beer with Chris Lagon, our local gill-man and award-winning craft brewery owner.
The guest of honor was enjoying the free beer and giving grilling tips to Jame Wolf, a werewolf and firefighter, and his brothers who were all manning the massive mobile barbecue they’d muscled down to the sand.
We even had a good showing of vampires, though Old Rossi, the head of them all, hadn’t arrived yet.
He was still recovering from a very-near-death battle that had lost him one eye and almost put him in the grave, permanently. It had only been a year, but he hadn’t even left his house for the first six months, and then only on moonless nights.
Jean and Delaney, along with Hogan and Ryder, were lounging on driftwood logs brought over to surround the bonfire. We didn’t make a big deal about it, but since all of Ordinary’s police were here instead of patrolling, drinking was at zero in case we got a call.
Of course, with half the citizens here, we weren’t too concerned about the few hours we wouldn’t be out on the street.
“Myra.” Hera, owner ofMOM’S Bar and Grill,strolled over and dropped down onto the sandy blanket beside me, pointing her bare feet toward the ocean just like me. “How are you?”
Herri, as she preferred to be called, was tall and graceful, her long, dark hair streaked with blood-red highlights. Her faded jeans were fashionably distressed, and her light jacket fell back off the white tank top embroidered with a peacock feather she had on beneath it. Her skin was that gorgeous all-year tan I envied.
“Good.” I pointed my chin toward Roy, who had his head thrown back as he laughed at something the werewolves were saying. “A little sad. I’m going to miss him being a part of my every day, you know?”
She tipped back her beer, then pulled her hair off her neck with one hand before letting it fall again. “I think so. It’s easy to get used to things being one way, isn’t it? Easy to think life will continue in the same routine we like or are familiar with.”
“Yeah.” She was the goddess of women, marriage. I’d always thought she was really easy to talk to, which made her a great bar owner.
“What made you come back to Ordinary?” I asked.
“Are you asking for yourself, or is this going to be recorded in the Reed journals?”
I pushed the blanket to one side and dug my fingers in the soft sand. “Both. If you don’t want me to record something, you know I’ll honor that.”
She curled her legs up, sitting with them crossed. “Well, one: I missed it here. There is peace in setting the power at rest. Two: I enjoy being among humans with predictable human wants. The rest of the townsfolk are pretty amusing too.” She pointed her beer at the werewolves and vampires challenging each other to some kind of game that involved a football and several tennis rackets.
