I filled him in on Eugenie’s pregnancy and Zrakovi’s orders, delivered via Alex. “I lied to him, Rene. I couldn’t do what Zrakovi had ordered.”
“It was a stupid order. Bet Alex didn’t like it either, but the shifter, he’ll always try to follow orders ’cause that’s how he’s wired.” Rene chewed for a moment. “Gotta tell you, my papa don’t like Zrakovi much. Says he’s too ambitious now that he’s seen an opening in the power structure. He don’t much like your new uncle, either.”
Rene opened the bottle of bourbon, poured a generous few inches into glasses for each of us, and shoved one toward me. “This is a big mess, babe.”
Tell me about it. “I thought about having Adrian send the tape to Alex, but he’s got a credibility problem, too. Jake is his cousin.” Plus, there was no way in hell I’d put Alex in the middle of this, making him choose between saving Jake and lying to his boss.
“Zrakovi’d believe Alex, though.” Rene slurped up a spoonful of rich, reddish-brown turtle soup that had a fine sheen of sherry floating on top. I munched a hunk of smoked sausage. Freakin’ elves.
“Probably.” As far as I knew, Zrakovi still trusted Alex.
“Definitely,” Rene said. “Alex is in Z’s back pocket, or at least Z thinks so. Papa thinks he’s angling for head of the shifter/were group. Notice they didn’t have a representative at the last meeting? Alex was filling in.”
I frowned. No, I hadn’t noticed. I’d assumed Alex was strictly security. But I thought Rene was wrong. Alex might be named head of the shifter/were group, but it would be because he earned it, not because he’d played politics. “Alex would never sell himself out for a seat on the council. He’s a good enforcer, and Zrakovi knows he’s loyal.”
I worried that he’d confused loyalty with blind loyalty somewhere along the way. To me, there was a big difference.
“What about your elf?” Rene asked. “Seems if anybody would be able to take on Mace Banyan, it would be Randolph.”
I’d thought about that as well. “It would be a stronger case if Rand were genuinely surprised by it during the council hearing,” I said. “Part of that’s selfishness on my part. Zrakovi’s already furious at me for running to Rand with his plans to get rid of the baby. He’d suspect that anything coming from Rand also involved me. The elf needs to be clueless.” Which is why I’d had my mental loins heavily girded throughout this conversation.
We ate and drank in silence for a while. In the background, the local weather forecaster broke in the middle of a sitcom to issue another freeze warning and blither on about another foot or two of snow expected overnight. New Orleans’ weather had become the focus of nationwide pontificating about global warming. The Weather Channel was broadcasting live from the Quarter daily now, with meteorologist Jim Cantore bundled up like an elf in a deep freeze.
“What about Christof?” Rene said. “He and Jake hang out some in Old Orleans and they’ve gotten to be buddies. Nobody on the council knows that except Jean and us.”
I chewed on my andouille and thought about it. Using Christof was an interesting idea. “Plus, he has no stake in this,” I said. “That’s perfect, if he’ll do it. We just need to make sure Jean has a way to get Jake out and back to Barataria in case everything blows up.”
Rene nodded. “You can set up—”
A knock on the door silenced him, and I crawled off the bed and went to answer it, returning with a folded sheet of paper. I stared at it a moment in horror. “Holy shit.”
Rene sat up. “What?”
I read: “Your presence is required at tonight’s Interspecies Council meeting. Please be prepared to testify regarding an incident in November involving Jacob Warin that allegedly left you exposed to the loup-garou virus. Also be prepared to explain how you were able to avoid contracting the virus and why the Elders were not notified. The meeting time has been changed to eight p.m.”
It was signed Willem V. Zrakovi, First Elder. No Acting in front of his name.
Mace had already struck. “This is an automatic death sentence for Jake. Why the hell does Mace want to destroy him? He doesn’t even know him.”
Rene sat, drank his bourbon, and thought a few seconds. “Jake’s just a means to an end, babe. Banyan wants it all.”
I crawled back on the bed. “How does getting Jake executed get him anything?” Other than ripping my heart out again and destroying a good man who’d worked hard to put together a life for himself. And destroying Alex. Surely Z wouldn’t order Alex to take out his own cousin.