CHAPTER 29
I punched in Alex’s speed dial and he picked up on the first ring with a very piratelike lack of greeting. “We have to talk. Where are you?”
Hello to you, too, Alex. “At Eugenie’s.”
“Come here. You can use the transport.”
I paused. “Is Zrakovi there?”
“No. God, no. We need to talk without him here.”
Wasn’t that the truth, and it did my heart good to hear Alex admit it. “On my way.”
I took my bag and the staff, powered up the transport in Eugenie’s living room, and a few seconds later, stood facing the man I loved. How could we survive this mess?
He looked the same as the day I met him, just after Hurricane Katrina. He had the same beautiful eyes, the perfectly shaped, strong mouth, the wonky shapeshifter energy. He had the same dutiful sense of right and wrong, except life no longer matched up to his black-and-white sensibilities. The world had moved on, but Alex hadn’t figured out how to move with it. Eugenie had been right. He was miserable, and even his enforcer shielding powers couldn’t hide it from me.
“I’ve missed you,” I said.
His gaze softened, and he smiled. “Me too.”
I finally stepped out of the transport and hugged him, breathing in his scent as if it might be the last time. His arms slid around me and squeezed for a few seconds, then he kissed me, hard and deep. I slid my hands beneath his sweater, desperately needing to be with him. He stepped back. “We can’t. I want you so bad I ache, but we can’t. We have to talk.”
I was so damned tired of talking. “Yeah, we do.”
We sat at the dining room table, which is where we tended to have uncomfortable conversations. When we talked on the sofa, we ended up not talking. “Did you get your subpoena?” he asked.
I reached in my bag and pulled out the sheet of paper. “If you mean the letter sent to my hotel room, yes. I gather Mace Banyan has decided it’s time for Jake to be sacrificed in the name of power and greed and the elven way.”
Alex winced, and nodded. “It’s worse than you know. Mace visited Zrakovi this morning, and Willem came here just afterward, breathing fire.”
That didn’t surprise me. “Mace wants to take down Rand, and this is the first step.” I paused. “I hope you told him the truth about not finding out about my bond with Rand until after the fact. You only knew about Jake infecting me, and for most of the time you didn’t even know where Jake was. I don’t think Jake would want you lying for him either; he has a life in Old Barataria now, and a fiancée. The council can’t get at him there.”
Alex stared at me as if I had andouille growing out my ears, which was possible. “Jake has a fiancée?” Then he shook his head. “No. Don’t tell me. I can’t deal with anything else. And, yeah, I told Willem the truth. With Hoffman dead, I don’t see any way to help Jake other than to sneak him out of New Orleans, but they’ve already arrested him despite his insistence that he’s innocent. Even if we spring him, I’m worried about the rest of Zrakovi’s agenda.”
That I probably didn’t want to hear, and a deep pang of dread knifed through me at hearing Jake had been arrested. Arrested wasn’t dead, though. They wouldn’t do anything until after the council meeting.
I took a deep breath and hoped Alex could handle one more surprise. “Would it change anything with Zrakovi to know there’s proof Jake didn’t kill Geoffrey Hoffman?”
Again, Alex stared at me, eyes wide. “Proof? What proof?”
I’d been trying to figure out how much to tell him. I didn’t want Alex stuck in the middle of this huge cluster, but he was already there. I didn’t want him having to lie to Zrakovi any more, but I also didn’t want him telling Zrakovi anything that would keep us from getting Jake out safely.
“Adrian Hoffman saw the vampire Vice-Regent, Garrett Melnick, killing his father, and he heard Mace Banyan give the order. Mace and Melnick set Jake up.”
Alex sat back with a frown. “How do you know this? And why would they want to set up Jake?”
My laugh was bitter. “Adrian wants out of Vampyre, and he went to Jean Lafitte seeking asylum.” Alex blinked but didn’t comment. “And setting up Jake accomplishes a lot. It weakens Zrakovi, since he clearly doesn’t have control of the people working for him—me or you or Jake. Rand is discredited because of his bond with me and the way it came about. Mace wants Rand dead, so he’ll probably charge him with treason against the elves. Zrakovi will have to rely on Mace to hold the wizard-elf truce together, so it gives Mace a lot of power.”
Alex closed his eyes. “And all the while, Mace is secretly working with the vampires to stab Willem in the back.”