***
Amazing what a person can do in fifteen minutes with the right incentive. And I had a lot of incentive. I charged to the head of the line at L’Amour Sauvage and didn’t wait for the bouncer to wave me through. I wanted to see Etienne and Adrian, and to find out what happened to Jean Lafitte.
Alex was on my heels. He hadn’t finished healing his own shoulder wound yet, but we needed everybody. Ken was babysitting Eugenie. As soon as he could calm her down and make sure she wasn’t in shock, he’d be meeting us here. I’d even called Rene, but he was out hunting in the wilds of north Louisiana with his brothers Claude and Cheney and couldn’t get back before midnight, though he’d been willing to try. I hoped everything would be over by then.
I’d taken a fast shower at Alex’s and thrown on one of his Ole Miss sweatshirts. It came almost to my knees but it covered up the grenade. My jeans, with their modified staff holster, were bloodstained. I had to wear them anyway. Pantless necromancerchasing? Not a good idea.
At the end of the bar, I stopped at the sight of Adrian sitting alone in a booth, his vampire significant other noticeably absent. He had his head propped on his hands as if he had the mother of all headaches, so he didn’t react when I slid in the booth facing him. I raised my voice to be heard over the din. “Where’s your feeder?”
He looked up at me slowly and blinked, his eyes bloodshot, face haggard, expression confused. It was a startling difference from the last time I’d seen him here with Terri, arrogant and making plans to resume our lessons in elven magic. “Etienne sent her on an . . . errand.”
His eyes darted around the bar, finally settling back on me and Alex. “I thought your house burned down and you disappeared. You were safe. Why the hell did you come back?”
Gee, and he sounded so happy to see me. “You must not have gotten my message. I managed to track the Axeman’s necromancer back to L’Amour Sauvage using some of my useless elven magic. And guess who the trail led me to?”
Adrian sat up straighter and assumed his normal—i.e., condescending—demeanor. He still looked like a cat that had been dragged through a washing-maching wringer, but it was an arrogant cat. “It might have led you to this bar, but it didn’t lead you to me. Etienne is in the back office with your friend Lafitte. The Regent was behind everything.”
“I’m not sure what part you played yet, but you played one.” I left the booth and started toward the back hallway.
Behind me, I heard Alex ordering Adrian to stand up. “You’re going with us.”
I hung a left at the hall and stopped outside Etienne’s office, resting my ear against the door to try and hear if anything was going on inside. The noise from the bar was too distracting, though, and the door was heavy. Wrapping my fingers around the doorknob, I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and turned it, making sure Alex was behind me.
I eased the door open, but I needn’t have bothered. I even looked behind the door and in the adjoining bathroom, into which Etienne, having no need of such facilities, had installed a roomy recliner and video setup. I did not want to know what went on in there.
“I thought you said they were here.” I turned to look at Adrian. “Or are you and your fangy girlfriend covering for her boss?”
“Don’t be absurd.” Adrian looked in the bathroom as if I might have missed a large French pirate and his vampire crony hiding inside, then prowled behind Etienne’s desk. “There’s a transport here—they obviously left.”
I circled the desk and stared at the floor. Damn it, he was right. An interlocking circle and triangle had been chalked onto the hardwood. I knelt and touched a finger to the chalk and a tingle of magic shot up my arm. “It’s fresh.” I looked up at Adrian. “But a wizard had to power it. Where did you send them?”
A deafening pop and a choked sound brought me to my feet. Alex lay on the floor, curled in a fetal position. Adrian backed himself into a corner. And the man who stood over Alex with a gun was redhaired and smiling. Jonas Adamson, our friendly new age necromancer.
Damn it all to hell and back. “You? Why?” Why would a registered necromancer risk getting messed up in this? “What happened to Green Congress solidarity and all that crap?”
Jonas Adamson shrugged. “Money, why else? Power. But mostly money.”
Adrian reached behind a chair and pulled out a length of rope. Good, he could slip up behind Jonas and choke him.
Instead, he knelt beside Alex and began tying his hands behind his back. Holy shit. They were both in on it? “Adrian, what the hell are you doing?” He worked for the Elders. His father was the freaking First Elder.
“I had no choice,” Adrian said, kneeling and binding Alex’s hands and feet. He dragged Alex into Etienne’s private screening room and closed the door. Alex wasn’t conscious yet, but the bullet had hit his thigh and he’d cracked his head on a chair when he fell. I didn’t see enough blood to think it had nicked an artery. I thought he’d be okay. I, however, was in the room with two lunatic wizards.
I moved away from the transport, easing toward the office door, but Jonas’s gun barrel tracked my movements without wavering. Adrian looked nervous, but the necromancer was cool and steady.
I focused on Adrian. “It’s not too late to get yourself out of this. Whatever they’re offering you, it can’t be worth it.”
He looked at the floor, and for once his voice didn’t hold an ounce of arrogance. He was scared. “This wasn’t about money. One of the elves, Lily, found out my father was First Elder. She threatened to expose my involvement with Terri. It would jeopardize his position and I’d never . . .” Adrian broadcast a swirling mix of fear and shame. “I was just supposed to let them know where you were, nothing more.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “It got out of control.”
No kidding.
So it had been Lily all along. Rand’s theory that she might be making a play to gain control of the Synod was probably right. It would put her in a position to break truce with the Elders and then fight for top position in the Interspecies Council. If a war broke out, she’d have gotten rid of the only wizard who could fight elven magic with elven magic. And with Jonas, she had her own wizard weapon in hand.
Adrian proved he couldn’t keep his mouth shut by continuing to talk. “I need you to understand. At first, Lily just wanted the staff out of your hands, even though no one else could use it. Jonas and the Axeman were supposed to scare you into giving it up—you weren’t supposed to be hurt. Once she saw your elven magic went deeper than just using the staff, she wanted you dead. Then you bonded with Randolph, and that sealed it.”
Damn it. “And keeping your father from knowing about your vampire girlfriend was worth helping them kill me?”
He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “It’s out of my hands now.”
“You can still salvage this, Jonas.” I turned to the necromancer, who’d been listening to Adrian with amusement. “I’ll pay you
not
to kill me. Whatever Lily offered you, I’ll pay double.” Jean Lafitte had deep pockets and would be delighted if I owed him even more favors.
Jonas raised an eyebrow. “And make an enemy of the elves? Forget it. They’re nuts. If Lily didn’t kill me, your mate would. And if he didn’t kill me, sooner or later Mace Banyan will find out about all of this. Hopefully, by then, Lily will be in charge and I’ll be a rich wizard living in Elf heim.”
Mace Banyan was innocent?
“You are both pathetic losers, you know that? Look, I’ll make a deal—”
A sharp pain in my head cut off further words, and I had a brief glimpse of something new before darkness overwhelmed me: a close-up view of a woman’s shiny black pumps.
***
I heard the voices long before I was able to slit my eyes open to the same hardwood floor. I was still in the office at L’Amour Sauvage. Above and around me as I lay on my left side, an argument was in progress between Jonas, Adrian, and a woman. I recognized Lily’s voice. She must have cracked me over the head with something when she slipped in behind me.
“Let Lafitte kill her.” Jonas’s voice grew louder and softer, in and out, up and down—he was pacing. “You said Randolph told you the staff is broken. Without it, she can’t win.”
Good for Rand. He’d given me an advantage, at least. “Quince Randolph can’t be trusted.” Lily’s voice came from right in front of my head. “He went too far in bonding with her. Kill her now, one of you. We can’t risk her escaping from Lafitte and ruining everything.”
A well-toned pair of ankles in black heels moved in front of my shuttered eyelids and I fought a wave of nausea. I gritted my teeth, sending sharp pains through my jaw and into my skull. What the hell had she hit me with? At least I could lay here and recuperate while they argued about who was going to kill me. Lily didn’t seem to want to get her hands dirty, and my fellow wizards were stalling.
“I didn’t agree to kill her, not that she doesn’t deserve it, arrogant little twit. I’ll have nothing more to do with it.” Adrian’s voice was muffled—he was farther away than the others. “You said let you know of her whereabouts and you’d keep your mouth shut about Terri. That was the deal. Nothing more. I shouldn’t have let it get this far. Now we’ve shot the enforcer.”
Lily’s shoes clicked out of sight and I heard the video room door opening and then closing again.
“The enforcer needs to die too. You have no choice unless you want your father to find out about your little vampire habit, Adrian. Think you’ll ever make Elder if they know?” Lily laughed, a musical, tinkling sound that set my heart thudding. She’d sounded a lot like that at my elven regression.
“Fine. Tell whoever you want.” Adrian’s boots came to rest in front of my face. “Kill her yourself, or let your chum Jonas do it. I won’t help you anymore.”
“You two are cowards.” Lily’s feet stopped an inch from my nose. “Jonas, do you have control of Lafitte?”
“Not yet. He’s been taken to the site and restrained but I have to get closer to control him. I’m still sending orders to the Axeman but he isn’t responding. I think he’s been caught.”
I had to think smart if I was going to live through this. There were too many factions involved. My biggest advantage was the staff, pressing into my leg from inside its sheath. Lily and her buddies thought it was broken. I had no idea where my bag, premade charms, or cell phone were.
I had another weapon too. I closed my eyes and focused my mind on Rand, visualizing his face, his voice.
In trouble. L’Amour Sauvage office. Need help.
I didn’t know if it would work with me in New Orleans and Rand in Elf heim, but it couldn’t hurt.
Adrian’s loafered toe tapped on the hardwood near Lily’s pumps. “Why don’t you just fry her brains with your elven magic? It almost killed her before.”
“It doesn’t work on her since the bonding.” Plus, Lily needed her hands to stay clean if she were going to overthrow Mace as head of the Synod and then take on the wizards for control of the Interspecies Council.
Lily’s shoes disappeared from view. “You know, I rather like the idea of using Lafitte against her, and forcing him to do something he objects to.” Her voice came from behind me now. “We can’t kill him, but he’ll suffer because of what we make him do. Jonas, you’ll be living in Elf heim and he won’t dare come after you there. You’re the only one implicated except Terri. Etienne’s kept his hands clean. Adrian, the pirate doesn’t know you’re involved and if you want to continue drawing breath, I’d suggest you keep your mouth shut.”
Every freaking one of them was a part of this except, ironically, the two I’d been most angry with—Rand and Mace.
Something fell to the floor with a bang, and I prayed they hadn’t seen me flinch. Thank God I had on Alex’s huge sweatshirt or they’d see my heart pounding. How could I slip the staff out without them see—
“Ow!” What felt like the sharp toe of a high heel whacked my upper back. Damn, that hurt, and I couldn’t stop the instinctive arch as the muscles around my spine drew in on themselves. I rolled to my back and Lily leaned over me, her pale hair and face made even more washed out by her basic black dress.
I smiled at her. “You really should wear pastels. Black looks like shit on you.” My words were tough, my shaky voice far from it.
She assumed the same smug smirk I’d seen on Mace Banyan and Rand. The elves must practice it. “You’ve rested enough, my meddling wizard. Time to go and see your friend the pirate.”
I tried to sit up, but as soon as I raised my head, the room spun. Whatever she had hit me with had probably given me a concussion. From behind, Jonas jerked me to my feet, then had to hold on to my arm to keep me from toppling over again. I couldn’t decide which hurt worse—my head or my back or my bruised ribs.
“Let’s get this over with.” Jonas shook me like Sebastian with his rubber rat, making the room tilt. I might have to throw up. “I have dinner plans.”
God forbid my death should interrupt his dinner. I snaked my right hand toward my thigh—these people needed to meet Mahout in a bad way. Before I could get my hands on it, Jonas shoved me roughly toward Lily. She stepped out of the way so I hit the floor inside the transport. Jonas chanted behind me, and his words, plus the compression of air around me, told me we were going on a trip to Six Flags.
A
cold front had pushed in from the north, and an icy rain was falling when we landed in the transport at Six Flags. After Katrina, the park’s electricity had been cut to everything except the streetlights in the outer lots. Along with the rain, the sporadic lighting added shadow- buildings and giant mutant roller-coaster ghosts to the general ambience.
I heard Jean before I saw him. I couldn’t understand the words, but I recognized the sentiment. He was giving someone a verbal beat-down in French. Shivering, Alex’s sweatshirt growing heavier as it soaked up the rain, I finally saw him near the big laughing clown head, arguing with Terri while handcuffed to one of the dead light poles. He stopped speaking when he saw me, something like sorrow and resignation crossing his face.
Jonas shoved me toward them. I tripped over a concrete barrier and stumbled into Jean.