“She said meeting Jake had made her happier about her life, but sad that she couldn’t have kids. That she might even be willing to have a wolf kid if it were possible but it isn’t. Meeting someone made her feel that loss more.” Eugenie looked out the window, although somehow I didn’t think she was looking at the rundown buildings of Central City whizzing past. “I don’t care who this baby’s daddy is, DJ. I don’t care that it will probably be able to do stuff that scares me or I don’t understand. It’s still part of me. It’s still a gift.” She looked at me, and the tension wafted off her. “Is that, I don’t know, irresponsible? Crazy?”
“No.” I wasn’t surprised, and I might have reached the same conclusion if I’d been in her shoes, even knowing more about the ramifications than she did. “It won’t be easy, Eugenie. As much as you don’t like it, and neither do I, Rand’s going to have to be involved. He’s the only one who can tell us if there are special things you need to be doing.”
Or maybe not. I realized with a jolt that there might be one other person who could fill us in on elven pregnancies, and it was a wizard. Only problem was, I didn’t know where Adrian Hoffman had escaped to when the whole courthouse melee went down. Maybe he was still in custody and I could talk to him; Alex would know. Adrian knew a lot about elves. He might have learned it from books and secondhand sources, but he knew it.
I shifted my gaze to the rearview mirror and caught the cab driver watching us. He thought he was hearing juicy gossip, and would probably go home and laugh with his wife or girlfriend or buddies about the Uptown women trying to figure out what to do after getting knocked up. If he only knew the daddy was an elven chief.
“I know you’re right about Rand being involved, but he’s so unpredictable,” Eugenie said in the understatement of the century. “How do you think he’ll react?”
“Maybe he’ll be reasonable.” I didn’t believe it for a nanosecond. At best, my non-husband would react like an entitled jerk. “I think I should be there when you tell him. Maybe Alex needs to be there, too.” Maybe with a gun.
The cab pulled to a stop in front of Eugenie’s house, and I was relieved to see no signs of Rand either banging down her door or visible inside Plantasy Island across the street. Unfortunately, Alex’s SUV wasn’t in his driveway, either.
“Can you wait here while I run in and get a bag?” I asked the cabbie.
“Sure, sure. But run meter.” English was not his first language; I think that was a requirement for cab drivers around the country. Old-timers like Arnie were a vanishing species.
It wasn’t until I’d retrieved my overnight bag, checked again to see that Alex wasn’t home, and settled back in the taxi for the return trip to the Quarter that I had a moment to reflect again on the trip to Barataria. It had been good to see Jake and meet Collette. Eugenie wasn’t the only one who’d found it relaxing to get away for a few hours. Another dose of healing potion on my shoulder, a hot shower, and a nap would do wonders.
I wondered what crazy business deal Rene and Jean were up to, which reminded me of Rene’s friend Christof. Where had I seen that guy? His face had looked familiar, but not the hair. Not the clothes or the …
Crap on a freaking stick.
Now I remembered where I’d seen him. His hair had been brushed back and styled. He’d been wearing all white, with a fur-trimmed coat. He’d been at the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Building, yelling at the blond firebug.
Christof was one of the princes of Faery.
Which led to the burning question: Why the hell was a faery prince visiting Jean Lafitte?
CHAPTER 10
By the time I checked into my room at the Monteleone, knocked on the door to the Eudora Welty Suite to confirm that Jean hadn’t returned from the Beyond, and took a quick shower, I’d decided Christof must have been slumming, getting a few hours away from Faery. God knows I’d want to escape that wackadoodle Florian and their floating queen.
Christof might know Jean from Interspecies Council business, or at least know of him. Rene’s father, Toussaint, also was a council member, so he could’ve met the merman before. Maybe he liked the music and beer at Tipitina’s and Rene took him to Barataria to warm up.
Because any other reason for his appearance at Jean’s house—a conspiracy between the pirate and the fae and maybe the water species, for example—gave me a big, nasty headache.
I eyed the king-size bed, which was fluffy-pillowed and ready for napping, but decided I shouldn’t put off the things I needed to do.
The first one was a long shot, so I tried it first, pulling a vial of iron filings from my portable magic kit and forming a small summoning circle on the floor of the bathroom—the only windowless space to which I had ready access. I couldn’t summon Adrian Hoffman unless he was in the Beyond, but by all logic he should be there, unless he wanted to be arrested again or unless he’d been arrested again. I hoped he was in Vampyre, giving dear old dad a hard time.
I couldn’t summon him to my room. Vampires didn’t die at dawn like in the movies, but they didn’t trot around in sunlight, either. If I were going to summon him to this side of the border, I’d have to give him a light-tight space.