Pirate's Alley (35 page)

I winced. Rene wasn’t the most sensitive guy, but I adored him anyway. The idea of Eugenie getting mixed up with the Faery Prince of Winter made me physically ill, however, so I changed the subject. “How’d your date go the other night?”

He shrugged. “It was okay. I need to find a good mer woman, but I’m related to most of ’em around here. Might have to go on an ex-plo-ra-tory trip over by Lafayette this summer. Need to widen the gene pool … get it? Gene pool?”

“Don’t tell me—an old merman joke.”

“Yeah, you right.” Rene leaned over to get a better look at me. “You don’t look like a corpse anymore. Wanna go?”

“Sure.” Some days, not looking like a corpse was the best one could do, I guess.

Snow blew straight into our faces as we hunkered down and made our way to the NOMA loading dock. “Can you unlock one of these doors?” Rene had to shout to be heard over the howling wind. Christof had outdone himself tonight.

“Yeah.” I half walked and half skidded my way down the dock, and touched the edge of the staff against the lock. Might as well save my native magic in case the staff got taken away from me, although I had a feeling Charlie would always find me eventually. I felt rather than heard the dead bolt sliding open, and pulled the heavy door toward me.

Once we got inside, it took another twenty minutes of wandering the bowels of the building to find our way to a stairwell. When we found the meeting room on the second floor north gallery, the clock on my cell phone read seven p.m. One hour until showtime.

The gallery had been transformed into an art-filled conference room, which we observed from an alcove across the hallway. A couple of Blue Congress wizards were experimenting with different coverings for the conference table: a burled wood, a dark cherry, an oak. They finally settled on mahogany. Lives were at stake tonight, and these twits were debating proper veneer etiquette.

“Sometimes I hate wizards,” I muttered.

Rene grunted. “Me too, babe. I been trying to tell you.”

“There aren’t any rooms off to the back, so reckon where they’ve got Jake?”

“No idea.” He looked up and down the hallway. “This place is bigger than it looks from outside. He could be anywhere.”

“That means you’re gonna have to stage his rescue from the council room, most likely.”

Rene nodded. “I agree. I’m gonna leave you to it and find the shortest route out. Two things first.”

He grabbed my arms and turned me to face him. “We ain’t leaving you, so don’t make one of us get killed trying to find you.”

I nodded; we’d see what happened. “What’s the other thing?”

“Can you take that thing off your head? It has smiling frogs on it, babe. Ain’t nobody gonna take a woman serious when she’s got frogs smiling on her head.”

I snatched off the babushka garden flag. “It’s all I had.”

He grinned and, with another look up and down to make sure things were clear, slipped away.

Next, I had to decide how I’d make my entrance. I was pretty sure Zrakovi expected me either to not show up or come in wearing Alex’s handcuffs. If I walked in with Rand, it would show a certain defiance—or stupidity. I could walk in last, wielding the staff and making a grand entrance.

Or I could walk in and zap Mace Banyan, although the satisfaction would last only as long as my death sentence.

The big question was what Rand had up his sleeve. I was pretty sure he’d gone to Elfheim, probably to make some kind of deal with Mace. I figured he’d protect me if he could, simply because it was in his best interest.

I hoped Rene was right about me thinking on my feet because all I could do tonight was react.

My heart took a nosedive into my ankles when Zrakovi strode by with Lennox St. Simon. I bet he no longer considered me a good role model for my cousin Audrey. No doubt Zrakovi had filled his head with stories about how much like Gerry I’d turned out to be.

Funny thing, that. I’d started sometime in the last twenty-four hours to consider it an asset.

I finally spotted Alex, dressed in black and leaning against the wall near the second-floor landing. A swell of love filled my chest, making it hard to breathe. When pushed to the wall, he’d chosen me. That’s all I needed. It would give me the courage to do what I needed to in order to protect him from whatever happened.

I knew how I needed to make my entrance. I stepped out of the alcove and waved to get his attention, then motioned him toward me. My pulse thumped so hard I could feel it throughout my body.

Then he was there, fear and love and hurt and anger, all wrapped up in one snarly shapeshifter ball.

“Does Zrakovi know I got away?”

“Not yet. What the hell are you doing here, DJ? We had it worked out.”

I held out my wrists. “Bind them, and take me in, or whatever you were supposed to do with me.”

“What?” Alex blinked. “Why, DJ? Why not let them think you outsmarted all of us? Why did you even come here tonight?”

Maybe he didn’t know me that well after all. “Because I want to have my say. I owe that to Jake, and to you, and to myself.” I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, willing away the urge to cry. I didn’t regret a thing I’d done. I was finished apologizing for putting people before politics.

He blinked once, twice, and looked away. “DJ, I don’t want this.”

I stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “I know.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Absolutely. Just remember that Rand is an unknown factor, and Mace will be desperate once he’s exposed. Be prepared for anything.”

He pulled out handcuffs and snapped them around my wrists. “Where’s your bag? You didn’t bring your staff?”

“I have it. It’s hidden.” Charlie was currently tucked inside the leg of my Harry Potter pajama bottoms, which were beneath my jeans, but that fell under the category of TMI.

“Did I ever tell you how smart you are?”

If I was that smart, I wouldn’t be marching into the Interspecies Council meeting in handcuffs.

CHAPTER
31

I was pretty sure protocol called for Alex to grasp my upper arm and steer me to a bench that stretched along an inner wall—the prisoner area. I also was pretty sure protocol did not call for him to walk me in with his arm around my shoulders, almost protectively. Well, except for the whole part about me being handcuffed.

Zrakovi and Lennox had been talking, but Lennox stopped mid-sentence when he saw me. I thought a small smile crossed his lips before he squelched it. Zrakovi turned and his aura virtually leapt with joy to see me this way. “Good work, Alex. I can’t tell you how disappointed you’ve made me, DJ.”

How did he really expect me to respond to that? Apologetically? I wanted to say “Blow me,” but instead I smiled and kept my mouth shut. Lennox reached out and grasped my wrist as I walked past, which he really shouldn’t have done. I could read him like a first grade
See Spot Run
primer. He was excited, which I didn’t understand.

He stepped closer to me. “Hang in there, love. You’ve done the right thing, and we’ll get this overblown toad out of office before long.”

I smiled at him, too, mostly to keep from letting my mouth hang open in shock. Lennox was a player; that much I knew. What I didn’t know was his game. Right now, it appeared to be
Get Rid of Zrakovi the Toad
.

“Will you be okay sitting here?” Alex stopped in front of the bench.

“Sure. Is this where they’ll bring Jake and Rand?”

My ploy to find out Rand’s status worked. “Jake’ll be here in a minute. We never found Rand to even deliver the warrant.”

I’d spotted a familiar halo of wavy blond hair near the doorway. “There’s your chance.”

Alex whirled. “Shit. I guess he didn’t know we were on to him.”

Oh yeah, he knew, thanks to his non-wife. But what he’d done about Mace—that was the question. Rand scanned the room until he found me, and treated me to a wide smile.

Whatever I say, just go along with it, Dru. When you get the chance, make a run for it. Stay gone for a while, until I give you the go-ahead to come back. It’s gonna be fine.

Oh, I so didn’t like the sound of that. Alex approached Rand, who turned a sunny smile in his direction and said a few words that caused Alex to shoot a bug-eyed look toward Zrakovi.

Alex shrugged, though, and walked back to me.

“He doesn’t get handcuffs?”

“Not yet,” Alex said. “He says we don’t have jurisdiction to arrest him here since he wasn’t served with the summons, but that if we want to get one trotted over here, he’ll be happy to comply.” He looked back at Rand. “He’s up to something.”

Yes, he certainly was. This was going to be interesting. I felt relatively sure that Rene and Jean would be able to get Jake out safely. I had no idea what I’d do, and I hated that my fate lay in the hands of an overly ambitious wizard, a temperamental faery, and a freakin’ elf.

Christof was the first of the contingent from Faery to arrive, and I was glad to see he’d abandoned his Justin Bieber face for a Viggo-Mortensen-as-Aragorn look, complete with the dark shirt, black, distressed-leather hooded cape clasped at the neck, and two-day stubble. Nice. Except for the little chocolate problem, being a faery could be fun.

Except oh-em-gee Eugenie could get into such trouble with him.

Florian was pink-haired and wearing a floral suit tonight, and Sabine had gone conservative with a severe black pantsuit and white blouse. The effect was ruined only by the rhinestone peacock pin and green glittery heels.

Jean arrived with a flourish, wearing the suit he’d donned on our only official dinner date. Buttery fawn trousers with a cobalt-blue waistcoat that matched his eyes. He was smiling and greeting the fae contingent until his gaze fell on me and immediately dropped to my hands, cuffed in my lap. His face lost its animation and his eyes sparked with the blue fire of fury. That man could shift emotions faster than anyone I’d ever seen.

I made a face at him, bobbing my head to try and get him to come close enough for me to tell him it was okay. He leaned over and spoke to Rand, who apparently appeased him enough that he took a seat. He did not look happy, however.

“Hey, sunshine. We have matching jewelry.”

I looked up and my heart broke a little at the sight of Jake. His blond hair had been brushed back, and his face had already healed of its cuts and bruises. “Sit down, we have to talk fast,” I said through my grin.

He slumped on the seat and waved a cuffed hand at his guard, a grim-faced shifter I’d never seen before. Speaking of which … I looked around the room and saw that, once again, there was no shifter representative. Toussaint Delachaise had arrived. In fact, the only missing council member was Mace Banyan.

What in God’s name had Rand done?

“What’s up?” Jake leaned his head against the wall with his eyes closed and whispered out the side of his mouth.

“We have proof that you didn’t kill Hoffman.” I tried to talk without moving my mouth, but I’d never make a decent ventriloquist. “Mace told everyone about the loup-garou incident so there’s no getting around that, though. Stay on alert. Rene and Jean will bust you out. There’s a transport right behind the museum so you can go to Barataria.”

“What about you? DJ, you can’t stay here.”

I sighed. I didn’t want to run away because I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong. Surely once Mace was exposed, the new First Elder would see that.

Zrakovi called the meeting to order. “If the council doesn’t mind, I’d like to wait a few more minutes to allow time for the head of the Elven Synod to arrive. He has obviously encountered a delay.”

“No, he hasn’t.” Rand stood up. “Mr. Banyan will not be attending tonight’s meeting. If I might address the council?”

From at least twelve feet away, I could feel Zrakovi’s blood pressure starting to spike again. If the council had many more meetings, he was going to stroke out and Lennox would get his shot at First Elder without having to work for it.

“Mr. Randolph, I don’t feel it’s appropriate for you to address the council, given your involvement in tonight’s agenda. So if you don’t mind…” Zrakovi lifted a brow.

Rand gave him the sunny elf grin. “No problem. I can wait.”

Christof stood and cleared his throat, and I swore Zrakovi dropped an f-bomb under his breath. “Elder Zrakovi, I have something that was delivered to me anonymously this afternoon which might explain Mr. Banyan’s absence.”

Zrakovi’s brows lowered in confusion, and, I was pleased to note, so did Rand’s. He knew about Mace’s plot, but not the proof. Jean maintained a pleasantly blank expression, and I bit my lip to avoid giggling. One should never giggle in handcuffs unless one were naked. I was sure I’d read that rule somewhere.

Of course, naked reminded me of Alex, which made me look at him, and the tense look on his face wiped out my amusement.

“You know what this is about?” Jake whispered, leaning slightly toward me.

“Just watch. It’s good.”

Christof walked to the front of the room with a laptop, which he set next to Zrakovi’s chair. He held out a disk in a plain white envelope. “Shall I?”

Zrakovi nodded, a sour look frozen on his face, and watched while Christof slid the disk into the computer and adjusted the sound.

A jittery picture fuzzed in and out until it finally focused on Adrian Hoffman. There was mumbling in the room until Adrian began talking. Alex moved to the side to see better.

“Most of you know me,” Adrian said in his oh-so-proper British accent. “My name is Adrian Hoffman, and for many years I was employed by the Congress of Elders.” He went on to explain briefly what happened to him, and his father’s role in having him turned vampire. He also took responsibility for his part in what happened to me.

“I was weak, and Sentinel Jaco paid for that weakness, as did Captain Lafitte, and Enforcer Warin.”

There were a few others he owed apologies to, but that was a good start.

“I apologize for delivering this testimony by video rather than in person, but I believe you’ll understand why I now fear for my life. I recently overheard conversations between two individuals who were planning the death of my father, Geoffrey Hoffman, as well as the bombing of the Interspecies Council proceedings.”