Belle Chasse

by Suzanne Johnson

  Carl, who’d drawn the DJ card, was a muscular black guy with a killer body and a killer’s eyes. It would be a pity to set him on fire, but before he could get within two feet of me, I’d pulled out Charlie and pointed the staff at him. “Just try it, Carl. I can’t miss from this range.”

  My move distracted Dack enough that Jake had time to pull out his own pistol and point it at the werewolf.

  “I should warn you that my enforcers are shooting with silver bullets,” Zrakovi said.

  “Ain’t that a laugh. So am I, wizard.”

  Damn it, Rene. I closed my eyes, cursing inwardly as Rene stepped from behind Alex, his own gun trained on Zrakovi and the leprechaun. Mitchell looked like he was close to having an unfortunate gastric accident.

  Zrakovi stared at Rene a few moments before putting an identity with the face. “Mr. Delachaise, correct?”

  “Dat’s right.” Rene affected his heaviest parish accent. “Your mismanagement caused the death of my brother a few months ago, in case you done forgot.”

  Zrakovi managed to look startled, offended, and arrogant all at the same time. The man had a talent. “I believe it was Ms. Jaco who killed your brother, if you’ll recall. I’d suggest you walk out of here now and, out of respect for your father, I’ll forget you were here.”

  Rene spit on the concrete near Zrakovi’s feet. The First Elder took a step back, alarm and fury fighting for space on his face. “There’s your respect for my father, wizard. Noticed he wasn’t at your little trial today. Forgot the invitation to the representative from the water species?”

  “How do you know who was at the trial? Your father wasn’t told of…” Zrakovi seemed to realize he’d just stepped in his own shit.

  “That explains a lot,” I said, waving Charlie around so that Carl tried to move away from Zrakovi in case I tried to shoot him. “No representatives there from the water species. Only one of the two elven members. No at-large member. No leader of the weres and shifters … oh, wait … that would be the council member you were railroading for your own petty, vindictive satisfaction. I can’t believe you got Elder Sato to vote with you. What do you have on him?”

  Zrakovi’s eyes widened with every sentence I’d spoken. He looked like a bug-eyed cartoon wizard. “You were here,” he hissed.

  “I scryed the trial,” I said, giving him my sweetest smile. He’d always underestimated my elven magic. “It’s an elven skill. You really think I haven’t been watching your every move?”

  Okay, maybe I exaggerated a little. Or a lot.

  A hacking cough from the corner drew our attention, and I watched in horror as one of the first werewolves staggered into the aisle, his head pointing straight to his right side. He used a giant purple fleur-de-lis as a crutch.

  Zrakovi ignored him, but I couldn’t. He wasn’t armed but even with a half-broken neck he was more muscle on the other side. A wizard, a leprechaun, and two and a half werewolves against one wizard, two shifters, and two loups-garou, assuming Alex would fight and Collette was still here. I hoped Audrey had run for the hills.

  I liked our odds … until Mitchell began his blue magic again, and the giant Mardi Gras heads and torsos came to life.

  Holy crap. The twenty-foot Jean Lafitte was walking. If he stepped on one of us we’d be pancakes.

  “Kill them all,” Zrakovi said, flinging a burst of physical magic at me. It was nothing like what Gerry had been able to do, but it was enough to kill anyone it hit.

  I threw myself to the ground, aiming Charlie at Zrakovi’s right hand and knocking his gun halfway across the warehouse. He clutched his left hand around his right, looking down as if, perhaps, I’d burned him. Tough.

  Zrakovi flung another round at me, and I set his jacket on fire with Charlie’s next shot. He danced around like a go-go dancer and flung his jacket to the ground, stomping out the fire. Damn it, what was wrong with me? If I couldn’t bring myself to make a killing shot at Zrakovi when he was trying to kill me, what use was I?

  Around me, I was aware of fighting, growling, movement. But I stayed focused on Zrakovi and my own weakness of character. This was the man who was prepared to execute Alex. He’d taken my life from me figuratively, and wanted to take it literally. Why couldn’t I just kill the man?

  As the Mardi Gras madness continued around us, two shots rang out and both Zrakovi and I turned.

  Next to me, Rene wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm. The werewolf whose head had halfway straightened itself wasn’t coming back this time. His head lay three feet from the rest of his body.

  Alex and Jake stood side by side, the bodies of Dack and Carl at their feet.

  “Damn you all.” Zrakovi looked at me. “Can’t kill me, eh, little girl? You aren’t your father’s daughter after all. At least Gerry St. Simon could kill his enemies.”

  My voice was soft. “I’ve never considered you my enemy, Elder Zrakovi.”

  He looked surprised for about half a second. “We’ll see how you feel about me after this. Obviously, you care nothing for your own life, but there is one you care about.”

  “No!!” I screamed a second too late, as he flung a strong burst of physical magic, so strong that it was white, straight at Alex.

  I didn’t remember raising my arm. I didn’t remember aiming the elven staff at Zrakovi. I didn’t remember sending magic shooting at the man I’d once admired and respected.

  I only became aware of the dark, of lying on the ground, still holding the staff, of something holding my legs down.

  Above me, I heard crying. “Audrey?” God, please let her be okay.

  I shoved against whatever was plastered to my legs. “Stop that, babe. You’re gonna break a rib. I was just gettin’ you out of the way in case they tried to shoot you.”

  “I wish they had.” I shoved him again, and he finally rolled off me. As I got to my feet, the emergency lights came on. I saw Alex moving in my peripheral vision, so I focused on the scene directly in front of me.

  The first thing I saw was Zrakovi and Mitchell, both lying on the floor. Dead or unconscious, I wasn’t sure which. Smoke rose from Zrakovi’s clothing; his face was red in some spots, charred black in others. If he was alive, the pain he felt would be no more than he deserved.

  I turned to look at Audrey, who was sobbing. Tears coursed down her cheeks and around the fingers of both hands, which she had clamped over her mouth. Frail tendrils of smoke drifted from her amethyst ring. Mitchell looked as dead as Zrakovi but he hadn’t been burned; had she killed him?

  “No no no, please no.” A woman’s voice morphed into the howl of a wolf, and I twisted to see Alex sitting in the floor, holding Jake in his arms. His lips quivered, his jaw muscles clenched, but it wasn’t enough to stop his tears.

  Jake was dead, a scorched strip of shirt marking the spot where Zrakovi’s magic, meant for Alex, had hit Jake instead. Even a loup-garou couldn’t come back from a magical shot to the heart.

  “He jumped in front of me.” Alex held Jake’s body against his and rocked back and forth. “It should be me.” He looked at me, tears flowing freely. “Why did you bring him here? Why couldn’t you listen to me, just once?”

  I was frozen in place. I wanted to run to him, whether he wanted me to or not. And I wanted to run away.

  A red wolf nosed against Alex’s arm, and he lowered Jake’s body to the floor. Collette lay on the concrete with her head on Jake’s chest and howled again.

  Footsteps rang from farther down the warehouse, coming closer. I spun toward the noise, holding my staff at the ready. If you had just shot Zrakovi when you first got the chance, this wouldn’t have happened. I readied myself for a makeup shot. I wouldn’t hesitate this time.

  Unless, of course, it was my uncle, which it was.

  “What the bloody hell happened?” He stopped a few feet from Zrakovi, knelt, and felt for a pulse, then did the same with Mitchell. “This man is dead, from an attack of physical magic. Zrakovi is still alive, but badly burned.” Lennox loo
ked up at me. “You did this?”

  “Yes, sir.” If I could do one thing here, it would be to keep Audrey out of it. “Zrakovi was trying to kill Alex and I used the staff on him, and the other guy—”

  “I killed him with my magic.” Audrey stepped from behind me, then burst into tears again.

  Lennox walked to his daughter and pulled her into a hug. They talked, but I couldn’t listen to them. I couldn’t take my eyes off Jake, remembering every time he’d called me his “sunshine,” of the man he’d been when I first met him, his amber eyes filled with laughter and the light glinting off his sun-streaked hair. He was a good man, and he was my friend.

  Rene slid an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him. He and Jake had been friends, too, but for the moment his aura held pure fury.

  “How is Alex going to live with this?” I asked him, not expecting an answer because there wasn’t one. I’d imagined myself being killed. I’d even imagined the possibility of losing Alex. But not Jake. After all he’d been through, he’d finally found a way to be happy.

  “Why are you here?” Audrey asked her father.

  “DJ.” Lennox stepped between me and my view of Alex. When I tried to move around him, he put his hands on my shoulders and forced me to look at him. Beside me, I felt Rene’s fury ratchet up another notch. “I have news. You need to listen.”

  I tried to pretend I didn’t see Alex still sitting with his head bent, or Collette’s wolf, licking Jake’s lifeless face. “What news?”

  Lennox looked around at werewolf bodies, wizard bodies, and Jake. “The rest of the Elders are on their way to New Orleans. The elves have taken their stand against the wizards, claiming Florian and his followers as allies. All negotiations have ended.”

  He gave me a hard look, then looked back at his daughter. “The preternatural world is officially at war. God help us all.”

  CHAPTER 36

  A full moon shone over Maison Rouge, Old Barataria. I sat on the verandah with my legs dangling off the edge, looking into its milky brightness and thinking about character. Strength of character. Weakness of character. Failure. I’d been stuck in this mode for the three days we’d been back to Lafitian headquarters.

  A quarter-mile down the beach, a wolf sat on the sand, emitting an occasional howl of pain that raced across my skin like knife cuts. Collette had disappeared for two days after Jake’s death, but had returned this morning in her wolf form. So far, she hadn’t shifted back.

  “Can I sit with you?” Audrey stood next to me, waiting for me to turn her down again, as I had since we returned. This time, I nodded and patted the wooden verandah next to me. It smelled of fresh cypress, as did much of the front part of the house that had been either rebuilt or reinforced after the hurricane.

  “How can it look the same when everything has changed?” The same beautiful full moon shone over the same black waves. The flambeaux had been lit, casting shadows over the banquette stretching to the same narrow sandy beach.

  “I don’t know.” She sat next to me without talking for a while, then finally said, “Have you heard from Alex?”

  “No.” He had refused to come back to Barataria with us, and I didn’t blame him. It wasn’t because of Jean, but because of Jake.

  We’d held each other in the middle of that warehouse while Lennox paced around us, frantic for us to leave in the new transport he’d drawn before the rest of the Elders arrived. Elders who didn’t know me, or Alex, or Audrey, or Jake. Elders who’d known Willem Zrakovi for years, like Elder Sato. Elders who might well believe whatever he said.

  His anger at me had been short-lived, and we held each other until Lennox tried to physically pull us apart. “I have to take Jake home, to his parents, to our family.” Alex’s eyes were rimmed in red, and still the tears fell. “What am I going to tell them?”

  I brushed off his tears with my fingers, something he’d done for me a hundred times. “You will tell them he died bravely. That he died protecting the people he loved.” Those things were true.

  “Will you come to me after you’ve taken him home? We’ll go wherever you want. We’ll figure out how to make a life for ourselves.” I was so afraid once the shock wore off, he’d blame me as much as I blamed myself. That he’d never be able to look at me again without seeing Jake lying in his arms with the life burned out of him by wizards’ magic.

  “I don’t know yet. I can’t think that far ahead. I can’t…” He’d looked away, unable to finish, and that’s how I had left him, without a kiss or a protestation of love. Just that I’d respect whatever he decided.

  Audrey hadn’t heard it all, but she’d seen and heard enough. “He’ll contact you. One of these days, soon, you’ll look out there and see a plastic bin with a note in it, asking you to meet him somewhere.”

  I gave her the best smile I had left in me. “I hope so.” It’s why I stayed out here, watching, waiting for something that might not happen. “Have you heard from Lennox?”

  “Dad, on the other hand, sends notes every day. Twice a day, actually.” She smiled, which made me smile. I was happy that my uncle had turned out to be a good guy. He wasn’t going to throw himself on his sword and give up his position to clear us, but I thought he had the guts to stand up for his principles. We’d see where that got him.

  “Any movement in the war-that-isn’t-yet?”

  “No,” she said, picking a splinter out of her finger. The new verandah hadn’t yet been sanded and painted. “He says there are reports of a lot of activity in Elfheim and in Faery, and that the vampires are courting all sides, looking for the best offer. You haven’t seen anything in Elfheim?”

  “Nothing, but my access to Castle Rand is pretty limited.” As in, I transported to Eugenie’s wing of the manor house, visited, and then transported back. The one time I’d tried to slip into the main house, an imperious elven housekeeper had shooed me away. “Eugenie’s doing great, though. She doesn’t see Rand that much, but she likes the midwife and the crabby housekeeper, and she has run of the house except when I’m there. He’s behaving himself so far.”

  Although I trusted Rand about half the distance to the frog that was hopping along the banquette a few feet away.

  Adrian was on transport duty, and until he stood up, I didn’t notice that someone was wading in. I scrambled to my feet; I knew those broad shoulders and slim hips anywhere.

  My throat closed up so tightly I could barely breathe.

  Alex stopped for a few moments, talking to Adrian, who pointed toward the house. Did I need to warn Jean? Walk in with Alex to remind Jean that he’d promised him twenty-four hours’ asylum—never mind that his offer had been issued three days ago?

  Alex strode up the banquette, and I saw with alarm that he was heavily armed. He carried his big .45 semiautomatic in his shoulder holster, a rifle in his left hand, and had a knife sheath clipped to his belt loop.

  “Alex?” I had to stop him. He was just asking Jean to shoot him. Thank God it had been Adrian on guard duty instead of Dominique, but even Adrian shouldn’t have let him pass carrying this much gear.

  “I need to talk to Lafitte.” He stopped and gave me a quick kiss. An almost brotherly kiss, void of emotion. “It can’t wait. Will you tell him I’m here?”

  This was not any version of Alex I’d seen before. He was somber, his voice steady but soft. He spoke without a trace of warmth.

  “I’ll tell him,” Audrey said, and disappeared through the study window.

  “Are you okay?” Dumb question, DJ, of course he wasn’t okay. “Are we okay?”

  A faint trace of a smile finally showed up. “We’ll talk. There’s something I have to do first.”

  I nodded and looked around when Jean appeared in the main doorway into the house. I’d lay odds there were pirates with guns trained on that entry parlor from a half-dozen directions. As for Jean, he had pulled on his formal jacket, the one I called his “captain coat,” a deep indigo blue with gold epaulets and buttons.

 
; “Monsieur Warin, you wish to see me?”

  “Please.”

  “Come inside, then.”

  Jean turned and disappeared. I followed Alex inside and stood next to him.

  “Jolie, would you please allow Monsieur Warin and me to speak privately?”

  Oh hell no.

  “DJ, do as he asks.” Alex’s voice had that somber, even tone again. Damn it, they were throwing me out.

  “Fine. I’ll be in the study with Audrey and Rene.” Eavesdropping.

  I went in the room and closed the door behind me. “What’s going on between Jean and Alex?” Audrey whispered. Rene put down the book he was reading.

  “I don’t know—they tossed me out. But I’m gonna find out.”

  I knelt in front of the door and quietly pulled the large key from the keyhole. I loved these old antique doors. They were perfect for spying, and the subjects of my snooping stood only a couple of feet from the door.

  “What may I do for you, Monsieur Warin?” Jean was neither angry nor friendly. Like Alex, he was extremely formal.

  Alex laid the rifle on the floor in front of Jean, unclipped the knife sheath and lay it next to the rifle. He reached in one boot, then the other, pulling a dagger out of each. They joined the pile.

  Finally, he took off the shoulder holster, threw the holster on the floor, and handed the gun to Jean, butt first.

  “Captain Lafitte, we’ve had our differences but I’ve learned something that DJ has been trying to teach me for a long time.”

  Jean looked down at the gun but didn’t take it. “And what is that, monsieur?”

  “That loyalty and truth are more important than blind duty. That one must think for himself and follow his heart. It was a hard lesson to learn.”

  Jean nodded, and for a moment he allowed sorrow to show on his face. He had truly liked Jake, had considered him more a friend than an employee. “The price for that lesson was very, very high, Monsieur Warin.”