Zrakovi leaned over and grasped the beam, but couldn’t budge it. “We will have to go for help.”
“No, no. I can find something.” I squatted down and pulled my portable kit out again. “Rand, is there some elven thing that can mimic telekinesis?”
He frowned, his facial movement cracking off a marble-size chunk of plaster from his forehead and sending it tumbling down his cheek. “The air and earth elves can do it, but not fire elves.”
I studied the neatly labeled vials in my kit, then the pocket containing three recycled mint tins filled with different gemstone chips. Aha.
Pulling out the tin marked BLUE, I scanned the blue and blue-violet stones. Maybe a sapphire, but … I picked up the small blue-green mineral chip called spinel. Its element was fire. I dropped it into an empty vial and poured holy water over it, then touched the edge of Charlie to the liquid. Might as well infuse it with the magic of the fire elves rather than that of a wizard.
Because no way would it strengthen me enough to lift that beam, or even Zrakovi. Rand was already super-strong, however. With him, it might work.
Once the mixture had boiled, then cooled off a little, I crawled over the rubble and held it out. “Drink this. Don’t swallow the stone, but just hold it in your mouth. Wait a few seconds and then try your hardest to push off that beam. I don’t have much of the mixture because the stone chip is so small, so it won’t last long.”
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