Suzanne Johnson - Elysian Fields

“I’m not sure what part you played yet, but you played one.” I left the booth and started toward the back hallway.

Behind me, I heard Alex ordering Adrian to stand up. “You’re going with us.”

I hung a left at the hall and stopped outside Etienne’s office, resting my ear against the door to try and hear if anything was going on inside. The noise from the bar was too distracting, though, and the door was heavy. Wrapping my fingers around the doorknob, I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, and turned it, making sure Alex was behind me.

I eased the door open, but I needn’t have bothered. I even looked behind the door and in the adjoining bathroom, into which Etienne, having no need of such facilities, had installed a roomy recliner and video setup. I did not want to know what went on in there.

“I thought you said they were here.” I turned to look at Adrian. “Or are you and your fangy girlfriend covering for her boss?”

“Don’t be absurd.” Adrian looked in the bathroom as if I might have missed a large French pirate and his vampire crony hiding inside, then prowled behind Etienne’s desk. “There’s a transport here—they obviously left.”

I circled the desk and stared at the floor. Damn it, he was right. An interlocking circle and triangle had been chalked onto the hardwood. I knelt and touched a finger to the chalk and a tingle of magic shot up my arm. “It’s fresh.” I looked up at Adrian. “But a wizard had to power it. Where did you send them?”

A deafening pop and a choked sound brought me to my feet. Alex lay on the floor, curled in a fetal position. Adrian backed himself into a corner. And the man who stood over Alex with a gun was redhaired and smiling. Jonas Adamson, our friendly new age necromancer.

Damn it all to hell and back. “You? Why?” Why would a registered necromancer risk getting messed up in this? “What happened to Green Congress solidarity and all that crap?”

Jonas Adamson shrugged. “Money, why else? Power. But mostly money.”

Adrian reached behind a chair and pulled out a length of rope. Good, he could slip up behind Jonas and choke him.

Instead, he knelt beside Alex and began tying his hands behind his back. Holy shit. They were both in on it? “Adrian, what the hell are you doing?” He worked for the Elders. His father was the freaking First Elder.

“I had no choice,” Adrian said, kneeling and binding Alex’s hands and feet. He dragged Alex into Etienne’s private screening room and closed the door. Alex wasn’t conscious yet, but the bullet had hit his thigh and he’d cracked his head on a chair when he fell. I didn’t see enough blood to think it had nicked an artery. I thought he’d be okay. I, however, was in the room with two lunatic wizards.

I moved away from the transport, easing toward the office door, but Jonas’s gun barrel tracked my movements without wavering. Adrian looked nervous, but the necromancer was cool and steady.

I focused on Adrian. “It’s not too late to get yourself out of this. Whatever they’re offering you, it can’t be worth it.”

He looked at the floor, and for once his voice didn’t hold an ounce of arrogance. He was scared. “This wasn’t about money. One of the elves, Lily, found out my father was First Elder. She threatened to expose my involvement with Terri. It would jeopardize his position and I’d never . . .” Adrian broadcast a swirling mix of fear and shame. “I was just supposed to let them know where you were, nothing more.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “It got out of control.”

No kidding.

So it had been Lily all along. Rand’s theory that she might be making a play to gain control of the Synod was probably right. It would put her in a position to break truce with the Elders and then fight for top position in the Interspecies Council. If a war broke out, she’d have gotten rid of the only wizard who could fight elven magic with elven magic. And with Jonas, she had her own wizard weapon in hand.

Adrian proved he couldn’t keep his mouth shut by continuing to talk. “I need you to understand. At first, Lily just wanted the staff out of your hands, even though no one else could use it. Jonas and the Axeman were supposed to scare you into giving it up—you weren’t supposed to be hurt. Once she saw your elven magic went deeper than just using the staff, she wanted you dead. Then you bonded with Randolph, and that sealed it.”

Damn it. “And keeping your father from knowing about your vampire girlfriend was worth helping them kill me?”

He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “It’s out of my hands now.”

“You can still salvage this, Jonas.” I turned to the necromancer, who’d been listening to Adrian with amusement. “I’ll pay you not to kill me. Whatever Lily offered you, I’ll pay double.” Jean Lafitte had deep pockets and would be delighted if I owed him even more favors.

Jonas raised an eyebrow. “And make an enemy of the elves? Forget it. They’re nuts. If Lily didn’t kill me, your mate would. And if he didn’t kill me, sooner or later Mace Banyan will find out about all of this. Hopefully, by then, Lily will be in charge and I’ll be a rich wizard living in Elf heim.”

Mace Banyan was innocent?

“You are both pathetic losers, you know that? Look, I’ll make a deal—”

A sharp pain in my head cut off further words, and I had a brief glimpse of something new before darkness overwhelmed me: a close-up view of a woman’s shiny black pumps.

***

I heard the voices long before I was able to slit my eyes open to the same hardwood floor. I was still in the office at L’Amour Sauvage. Above and around me as I lay on my left side, an argument was in progress between Jonas, Adrian, and a woman. I recognized Lily’s voice. She must have cracked me over the head with something when she slipped in behind me.

“Let Lafitte kill her.” Jonas’s voice grew louder and softer, in and out, up and down—he was pacing. “You said Randolph told you the staff is broken. Without it, she can’t win.”

Good for Rand. He’d given me an advantage, at least. “Quince Randolph can’t be trusted.” Lily’s voice came from right in front of my head. “He went too far in bonding with her. Kill her now, one of you. We can’t risk her escaping from Lafitte and ruining everything.”

A well-toned pair of ankles in black heels moved in front of my shuttered eyelids and I fought a wave of nausea. I gritted my teeth, sending sharp pains through my jaw and into my skull. What the hell had she hit me with? At least I could lay here and recuperate while they argued about who was going to kill me. Lily didn’t seem to want to get her hands dirty, and my fellow wizards were stalling.

“I didn’t agree to kill her, not that she doesn’t deserve it, arrogant little twit. I’ll have nothing more to do with it.” Adrian’s voice was muffled—he was farther away than the others. “You said let you know of her whereabouts and you’d keep your mouth shut about Terri. That was the deal. Nothing more. I shouldn’t have let it get this far. Now we’ve shot the enforcer.”

Lily’s shoes clicked out of sight and I heard the video room door opening and then closing again.

“The enforcer needs to die too. You have no choice unless you want your father to find out about your little vampire habit, Adrian. Think you’ll ever make Elder if they know?” Lily laughed, a musical, tinkling sound that set my heart thudding. She’d sounded a lot like that at my elven regression.

“Fine. Tell whoever you want.” Adrian’s boots came to rest in front of my face. “Kill her yourself, or let your chum Jonas do it. I won’t help you anymore.”

“You two are cowards.” Lily’s feet stopped an inch from my nose. “Jonas, do you have control of Lafitte?”