Pirate's Alley (30 page)

Rand sniffed the vial, and for a moment I thought he was going to put on his petulant I-Am-Elf face. But he nodded, upended the vial, and waited a few seconds. Gritting his teeth, he jerked his left leg up toward his body. As soon as the beam lifted from that leg, he slid his right leg free and pushed on the beam with his foot. It tumbled away from him with a crash.

He spat out the stone and grinned at me. “It worked.”

I smiled but it was halfhearted. Jake might be over there somewhere, and instead of digging, Zrakovi stood there with his thumb up his ass, giving me a weird, assessing look. Useless.

“Can you walk?” I turned back to Rand, but he was already on his feet.

“Yeah, that stuff even cleared up my headache.”

Great. It hadn’t done a thing for mine. “Then help me dig.”

The potion wore off quickly, but Rand still had his prete-strength, so with his help we made quick work of moving rubble from the blocked-off area. Zrakovi finally got with the program and helped pull away pieces of lathing and chunks of plaster.

The closer we got to whatever was on the other side, the tighter my throat grew and the more labored my breathing, not from plaster dust but from fear. Jake had to be okay; he had to. He’d been through too much, and was finally finding happiness.

At last, Rand lifted off the last big barricade, and I heard the sounds of a struggle to our right. I ran ahead, stopped at the corner, and peered around, with Rand and Zrakovi right behind me.

Traces of two images disappeared so quickly I wasn’t sure I’d seen them—at least not until Rand said, “Melnick. And a big red wolf.”

“Jake,” I said. “Let’s go.”

I started toward the transport, but Zrakovi grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “You aren’t going anywhere.”

Excuse me? “Melnick just bombed Tulane University’s history building and tried to kill us. Jake Warin’s gone after him and we’re not going to follow?”

“We don’t have a warrant to arrest Melnick in Vampyre, only in New Orleans. We don’t have jurisdiction. And we don’t know there were bombs. It could be a coincidence. Besides, it couldn’t have been Melnick. It’s daylight.”

Voices wafted up from the stairwell. “And there’s another coincidence: the arrival of the fire department and a boatload of cops to an Interspecies Council meeting,” I said. “Do you want to stand here and explain things to them?”

“We’ll transport to Mr. Randolph’s house and continue our discussion there.”

Rand and I looked at each other.

Help me.

He nodded and walked to stand next to Zrakovi, placing a friendly hand on his shoulder. “Don’t you think it would be wise for you to go to Edinburgh to report to the Elders, and send DJ to Vampyre to make sure Jake Warin is safe? He’s one of your enforcers, after all.”

Halfway through that speech, Zrakovi’s eyes had glazed and lost focus. “Yes,” he said, “I should go to Edinburgh. DJ should go to Vampyre.”

“Is that a direct order, sir?”

“It…”

It might have been, if Jake hadn’t rematerialized in the transport right in front of us. He was still in his wolf form, and sat with golden eyes blazing and blood dripping from his teeth.

Judging by the mangled, crimson-covered body of Geoffrey Hoffman lying at his feet, it wasn’t Jake’s blood.

CHAPTER
25

As soon as Rand released his arm, Zrakovi looked around in confusion, heard the approaching humans, and snapped back into Elder mode.

“You fools, get in the transport.” We all crowded around the wolf and the former First Elder. I grabbed the bristly ruff of Jake’s wolf to keep him from bolting, which he seemed inclined to do, judging by his wide eyes. Now that I’d bonded with Rand, I couldn’t be turned loup-garou, but the humans rushing up the stairwell toward us certainly could. The first firefighter crashed through the emergency exit, ax first, just as we dematerialized.

I’d suggested the safest place I thought of to go—Alex’s house.

Poor guy. When we all materialized in the middle of his living room, Alex was sacked out on his sofa a few feet away from the transport, wearing a pair of baggy camo shorts and a black T-shirt, barefooted, his head buried in a copy of
Sports Illustrated
. He pretended to be cool about our arrival, barely raising an eyebrow, but his shifter vibes went from mellow to startled to confused in a matter of seconds, finally settling into annoyed.

I really, really needed to get back to Gerry’s frozen house in Lakeview and replenish my mojo bag. My own emotions were exhausting enough; adding so many others made me want to hibernate, and not from the cold.

“Mr. Randolph, if you don’t mind, we need to discuss matters of concern to the wizard community.” Zrakovi was all brisk business now, back in charge and ready to herd Rand toward the front door. “I’m sure we’ll set up another council meeting right away to complete our business.”

I wondered what building we’d destroy next time? And what business was left?

Rand, would you call Jean Lafitte at the Monteleone and tell him Jake might be in trouble?

The elf looked out the front window, where the snow fell heavily again, the flakes coming down at a wind-driven forty-five-degree angle.
Sure. Think Alex would let me use the transport to my house?

I glanced at Alex, who’d returned from ushering a bloody Jake to the bathroom and now stood with evil eyes fixed on Rand. Zrakovi had knelt next to the body of Geoffrey Hoffman, whom I assumed was dead.
No transport,
I told Rand.
Just run fast.

At least he had his coat, dirty though it might be. My four-grand lambskin would be found amid the rubble of F. Edward Hebert Hall. Coatless again.

As soon as he left, I collapsed into one of Alex’s wooden dining chairs. I was too filthy to sit on his sofa.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I’m not hurt—just a bump on the head, thanks for asking.” I rubbed my aching shoulder, which hurt worse than my head. I’d undone all the benefits of my healing potion.

“Sorry.” He didn’t sound it. “What happened to Hoffman? Why are you guys covered in … dirt?”

“I’m not sure about Hoffman, the building exploded, and it’s ashes and plaster dust.” I went through my version of things, omitting the details of my dressing-down by Zrakovi and the mental conversation with Rand. “It looks like Garrett Melnick set off the explosives, but who he was after—Rand or me or Zrakovi or all of the above—I don’t know. When we got clear of the rubble, Jake and Melnick were dematerializing in the transport. Then Jake reappeared in wolf form with Hoffman and no Melnick.”

I left out the part about Rand using elven mind control on the Elder, too.

“How’d Jake get in the middle of it?”

“By doing my job, asshole.” Jake emerged from the bathroom, his face covered in cuts and bruises but clean, which was more than I could say for me or Zrakovi. I’d kill for a shower.

Jake sat at the table. “I didn’t kill Hoffman, no matter now it looks. I caught Melnick triggering the last explosive and tried to stop him. The bomb had a short trigger; we were fighting when it went off. We eventually fought our way into the transport and off we went. He threw the body in the transport in Vampyre and sent us back.”

Nobody had answered my burning question. “How could Melnick be there during the day?” I knew vamps could move around in light-tight areas and the Hebert Hall attic had no windows, but how had he known to transport directly into the attic?

“Melnick must have an open transport in Vampyre and knew where the meeting was being held,” Alex said.

Great. Future meetings should be held outdoors, where there would be no buildings to destroy and thus no surprise visits from bomb-happy vampires. The NOFD would appreciate it, no doubt.

Zrakovi joined us at the table. “Hoffman’s dead, and doesn’t appear to have been drained. He appears to have been chewed on. What would you know about that, Mr. Warin?”

Jake went through his story again, and I could sense Zrakovi’s doubt just as I could tell Alex wasn’t sure what to believe. He loved Jake; they were more like brothers than cousins. Jake was two years older, but Alex had always been the golden boy. Star athlete, star student at Ole Miss, star FBI agent, star enforcer. Jake was divorced, had been badly injured in his first tour of duty as a Marine, drank too much, and struggled with his identity as loup-garou—a rogue, non-pack werewolf with control issues. It would be easy to set him up for killing Geoffrey Hoffman, but why? Jake was a non-player in the grand scheme of prete politics.

“DJ,” Zrakovi said, breaking my reverie. “As difficult as it is to believe, this trouble doesn’t seem to involve you, so feel free to leave.”

He’d get no arguments from me. I got up and stopped next to the chair Alex had claimed. “We need to talk,” I said softly.

His voice was equally soft. “I’ll call you as soon as I can get free.” He reached out and caught my hand. “I really am glad you’re safe. Are we okay, the two of us?”

I stopped and thought about it for a second, then leaned down and kissed him, leaving a smudge of ash above his upper lip that looked like a milk mustache. I smiled. Yeah, we were okay. Somehow. So far. “We’re good.”

I walked to the transport, stopping when I realized Hoffman’s bloody body still lay in it, and Zrakovi looked annoyed that I was still there. I’d go to Eugenie’s instead.

Until the wind blew the shreds of my dress up and treated my nether regions to a subfreezing assault of icy wind, I’d forgotten I was not only coatless but half dressed.

I hurried as fast as the heavy snow would allow, calling Eugenie on the way, thankful my phone had survived the blast. “Let me in before I freeze,” I shouted before she’d even gotten out a hello.

By the time I skated across her frozen front porch, she had the door open. “Lord, girl, what are you wearing?”

“Not much.”

She laughed. “Yeah, I see that. You have more chalk on you than clothes. I guess that’s chalk. Is that chalk?”

I shook my head. “Plaster dust. It’s a long, ugly story. Can I get a shower and borrow something warm?”

Here, at least, I felt at peace. No politics, no relationship worries, no judgment, no marauding vampires or elves. At least for the moment, no imminent baby crisis.

The shower helped rinse away the last of the post-meeting aches. I towel-dried my hair and smiled at the clothes Eugenie had brought me. The teal sweater, my favorite color, was cashmere, which she could afford even less than I. She’d given me her best, which was so very typical.

“DJ?” She knocked softly on the door. “Rand’s on the phone and wants to come over. Should I let him?”

“Only if you’re comfortable with it.” As much as I hated to admit it, Rand had behaved better than my boss today. Zrakovi had been contemptible.

She smiled when I walked out of the bathroom. “I always liked that sweater better on you than on me. It’s a good color for you.”

Since Jean and Alex thought so, too, it must be true. I followed her into the living room. “Is Rand coming?”

“Yeah, I thought about it a lot last night, and I figure I’m gonna need him. I mean, I don’t know anything about his people, and this little guy”—she rubbed her belly—“is going to be a part of that world. I’m just gonna have to stop looking at what he’s done in the past and keep looking forward, you know?”

Yeah, too well. I curled myself into one of the armchairs near the fireplace and rested my head on the chair back. “I’m so tired.”

“You want to stay here tonight? You can, anytime. Or are you staying at Alex’s? When’s he gonna put some heat in your house?”

That would be never, the way things were going. Then again, it wasn’t his job to install a heating unit in my house; it was my responsibility. If I wanted to be treated like a strong, independent woman, I needed to act like it. When I could find enough time between crises.

“I’ll probably go back to the Monteleone tonight, but thanks for the offer. Or maybe I’ll go to Alex’s if he finishes up with Zrakovi in time.” Alex wasn’t angry, which was a relief, but I still felt a widening gulf between us, partly because of our different personalities but mostly because we couldn’t find time to be together. We badly needed some alone time.

“I think Alex has changed,” Eugenie said out of the blue. “Or maybe he hasn’t changed, but the world around him has. He doesn’t seem to be handling all this political mess very well, at least from what I’ve seen. He always seems, I don’t know, restless.” She chuckled. “Of course, what do I know? I didn’t have a clue your world even existed a few weeks ago.”

Eugenie might be sensitive about not having a college degree, but she was plenty smart and had good intuitions about people—well, except for the whole hooking-up-with-Rand business. “Tell me what you mean.”

She tucked her feet under her on the sofa. “I just mean with the pretes all living here now, coming and going when they want to … Alex is a guy who has it fixed in his mind that the world’s a certain way and he’s comfortable there. Then the world changes, and he doesn’t like it. And it keeps changing. Seems like something new comes up every other day.”

Or a few times a day. I’d thought Alex’s problem was only with me and the chaos that always seemed to surround me. But maybe I was just a symbol of the chaos he saw infecting everything. It was easier to blame my nature for his discontent than to fight windmills and shadows, or elves and vampires who demanded equal access to the modern world.

“I think you might be right.” I rubbed my eyes, which felt like a bucket of sand had been poured into each one. “Unfortunately, I think he sees me as part of the problem.”

Eugenie laughed. “It’s because he doesn’t understand you, DJ. He wants you to be like him but you’re not. You’re okay with change. You roll with it where he fights it and gets thrown off-balance by it.”

“But I—” A knock sounded from the front door. “That’s probably Rand.” I didn’t know what else to say anyway. Even if Eugenie was right and Alex was having trouble adjusting to our crazy new world with its lack of absolutes, I wasn’t sure how to help him if he saw me as part of his problem.