Page 15 of Blood and Bone

Eoghan nodded and then turned back to the gap. “He put away the gun, Elroy. Come on out.”

After another slurpy sound followed by, “Okaaayyy, Sssapphiiire,” a small body appeared.

At first glance, Ari thought it resembled a salamander with a longish, scaly, bright green body, propelled by six squat legs. It couldn’t have been more than six inches long and threeinches tall. He noticed that the front half of the creature was bent upward, resembling the shape of a minotaur with two more legs—well, arms really—complete with tiny hands that wiggled with three multi-jointed fingers.

The creature had a series of glowing yellow eyes all over its bulbous head with two floppy things hanging all the way to the ground from the crown, looking very much like long bunny ears. They dragged along the asphalt on either side of the slithery body and for the first time, Ari noticed a slender tail almost half the length of its smoothly scaled body. It whipped around behind the creature and then lifted like a periscope in a deliberate fashion as if testing something in the air around them. When it turned toward him, it began to shiver. Only then did Ari notice the neon yellow eye at the very tip which opened and shut behind a vertical eyelid.

“Ooohhh…ssstraaangeeer,” the lizard thing hissed.

Eoghan laughed and squatted down in front of the creature. “No, not a stranger, Elroy. Like I said, this is my new partner. His name is Aristotle but you can call him Ari.”

“Aaarrreee,” Elroy repeated.

“That’s right. Ari is my new partner.”

“Bufffeee’s an asss,” Elroy said.

“No,” Ari said, poking his chest with his thumb. “Ari, not Buffy.”

Eoghan started laughing as he met Ari’s confused gaze. “No, Elroy’s talking about Frank Buffy, one of the marshals Chief Deputy Priest tried to have me work with after Glad died. Elroy wasn’t a fan of Frank.”

“Bufffeee trieeed to step ooon Elroooy,” the little green guy said. His smooth, scaled skin momentarily lit up with a thousand neon purple spots before returning to green.

Ari chuckled. “Well, I promise, Elroy. I’m not an ass and I’d never step on you.” He glanced behind him as he spottedmore glowing, yellow eyes peeking around the back of the machine. “Oh, are there others with you?”

Elroy’s head bobbed and then turned to look back at the crack between the pop machine and wall. He said something in a strange, hissing language, and Ari watched as two more creatures which looked much like Elroy cautiously came out. They joined Elroy, standing on either side of him and stared up at Eoghan. His partner held out a hand and the three reached out and tapped his fingers with their tiny hands. It was like watching him get a high-five from three tiny lizards. Ari watched the entire display as he felt humor fill his whole being with warmth.

This job is so fucking cool.

“What are you doing here?” Eoghan asked. “When Frank and I saw you last, you were on your way to Reno.”

“Reno?” Ari asked, snorting.

Eoghan glanced up at him. “It’s not that far from here and Powmays are shameless gamblers.”

“Gamblers?” Ari asked, dumbfounded. “How the hell—?”

“Underground alien gambling joints,” Eoghan said. “There’s a shitload of them in Reno but if you think that’s crazy, you should see how many there are in Vegas.”

“Vegaaasss…” All three Powmays started clapping their little hands and stomping their tiny feet.

“Are we talking Tatooine here…or is it more like the vampire bar at the beginning ofBlade?” Ari asked.

Eoghan screwed up his features, clearly trying not to laugh, and then huffed a breath, not answering before turning back to Elroy and holding out the palm of his hand. The creature crawled into it before Eoghan straightened to his full height.

Ari watched Elroy cock his tiny multi-eyeballed head to the side as he examined him. His tail eyeball stretched over hisback almost to where his shoulder would have been if he’d had one. Ari assumed it was so he could get a better view of him. The eye watched him closely, blinking several times with that odd vertical eyelid.

“The underground bars in Vegas are more like Tatooine than the vampire bar inBlade,” Eoghan said. “Let me put it this way…you’re not going to get drowned by blood coming from sprinklers, though, you may see a lot of creatures who resemble those Tatooine aliens fromStar Wars.” He shrugged as if what he’d just said was the most normal thing in the world. “I’m sure you’ll get to experience an underground alien gambling joint at some point. Usually, the Vegas I.S.R. takes care of any incidents which arise with them, but every once in a while, they call us for backup.”

Ari couldn’t do anything but shake his head and laugh. This whole conversation was ridiculous. He glanced at Elroy once he’d regained his composure. “What are the Powmays doing here?” he asked.

Elroy turned to look at Eoghan and then glanced back at Ari. He made one of those strange slurpy inhales before speaking. “It’s tiiime for hybernaaashunnn,” Elroy said. “We mussst get foood.” He glanced down at where the others had been standing and said something in a garbled language. A moment later, Ari watched as there was movement behind the pop machine. Sure enough, the two Powmay went back and then reappeared, dragging something out from the gap. When Ari saw that it was what appeared to be an ancient, forgotten Twix bar, in a dusty, plastic wrapper, he chuckled.

“Twix? That’s the food you hibernate with?”

“Twixxx!” all three Powmays hissed at the same time, stomping their feet.

“Good-food, Aaarrreee,” Elroy said.

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