River Road (31 page)

I jumped out of the truck, reached in for my backpack, and gave a startled yelp. The elven staff lay on the front seat. It had been a while since the damned thing had followed me outside the house. I stared at it for a few heartbeats, then grabbed it and approached the building, scanning the area as I slipped around the side. The last thing I needed was Libby to see me before I saw her.

I flattened myself against the building and peered around the corner to the back. I saw Gandalf on the ground, but no sign of Libby.

Oh, thank God.
Gandalf raised his head, and sat up. He moved slowly and didn’t make any attempt to stand, but looked toward where I was hidden and whined.

I walked toward him him, looking around me and keeping the staff ready. Finally, I dropped to my knees beside him and took one more look around for Libby.

“What happened?” I asked Gandalf. No, wait. He couldn’t talk. But he could understand me.

“Are you hurt?”

Panting heavily, he grunted as he got to his feet, holding his right front paw off the ground. I moved around him and took it in my hand. The paw, sticky and wet with blood, took up my entire palm. A deep gash creviced the top of the paw almost to the elbow joint. Libby and her famous knife. Dried blood was already flaking off of it, though, so he was healing. An hour, and he’d be good as new.

“Can’t you shift back?”

He whined and flopped back to the ground, giving me a look of pure misery.

I’d take that as a no. “Stay here, I’m getting the car.”

I pulled my Pathfinder behind the cinderblock building, hidden from the road, and tucked the keys inside above the wheel—somebody would have to come and get it later. It was seven years old, driven to death, and got suckalicious gas mileage. If it got stolen, I’d buy something tiny and eco-friendly.

Alex’s clothes and gun were on the ground near Gandalf, and I rifled through his pockets for his car keys. I drove the Mercedes around the building and parked it beside him.

“Do you think you can climb in? I can’t pick you up.” Maybe me and a forklift.

He huffed to his feet and limped on three legs to where I held the passenger door open for him. He stopped and whined.

“You can jump up there, it’s—” What was I thinking? This was Alex. It wasn’t that he couldn’t jump in the car. He didn’t want to get blood on his upholstery. We had a murderous nymph on the loose, Alex was stuck in Gandalf mode for some reason, and he was worried about his car interior. “Oh, good grief. Wait a minute.”

I got his clothes, pulled out his wallet and cell and put them in my pocket, then spread his pants and shirt over the car seat. He turned and looked at me, and stuck his nose at the edge of the passenger floorboard.

I shook my head. “Fine.” I pulled off my light jacket and spread it over the floorboard. Satisfied, he used his three good legs to hop in the car and climb onto the seat.

Once we were settled and I’d started back toward Orleans Parish, I decided to see how far my dog-whispering skills could get me. “Okay, I’m going to ask you questions. Bark once for yes and twice for no. Got it?”

He gave me a withering look, then yipped once.

“Good. Can you shift back?”

Two barks.

“Did you meet Libby here?”

One bark and a curled upper lip.

My sentiments exactly. “Did she do something to keep you from shifting back?”

One bark, a deep growl, and hackles that visibly rose across his shoulders.

I wondered what kind of magic nymphs had. “Was it a potion?”

Two yips.

“A spell?”

He cocked his head and looked at me. Okay, something like a spell but he wasn’t sure …

“A curse?”

Yip
.

Okay, a curse. So Libby had put some kind of curse on Alex to keep him from shifting back. I looked at his paw. The bleeding had slowed, so whatever she had done to him hadn’t impacted his shapeshifter healing. “Do you need to see a doctor or … a vet?”

I swear he narrowed his eyes before giving me two snippy yaps.

“Okay, in that case, I’m calling the Elders.” Again. Twice in one day—or was this the third time? They were probably making bets on how long it would be before I called with another crisis. Hope Adrian Hoffman lost his shirt on that wager. I needed to get Zrakovi’s number on speed dial.

Hoffman sounded as snippy as Alex. “Who do you suspect is not human now, Ms. Jaco?”

Asswipe. “Alex—he’s stuck in dog mode after being cursed by the nymph you claim there’s no reason to distrust because she’s so simple and sweet.”

He didn’t have anything to say? Well, I had plenty to fill in his silence. “Libby called my house while I was out, wanting to meet with me. Alex intercepted the call and met her out in Plaquemines Parish. She used some kind of hex on him after he’d shifted into a dog and now he can’t shift back.” Or she made him shift into a dog. Same result.

“Bloody hell.” That was as close as Hoffman would get to admitting he was wrong, so I got a smug sense of satisfaction from it. “Where is he?”

“Sitting beside me in the car, looking like a big unhappy dog.” Gandalf’s tail thumped slowly against the door. “I should be able to do a general counter-hex on him and change him back, but it will take a while. If you know a faster way, I wouldn’t mind hearing it.”

“Hold please.” I heard him talking sharply to someone in the background, then he returned to the phone. “Without knowing exactly what she did to him, the counter-hex is probably the only thing we can do,” he said, sounding resigned. “Anything more drastic might backfire and make the curse permanent. Elder Zrakovi will inform Mr. Jacob Warin of the situation and he can pursue the murder suspect. Your job is to get Mr. Alexander Warin back to normal.”

“I also need someone to get my SUV from behind an old closed convenience store in West Pointe a la Hache.” I gave him directions and the location of the key. “I’ll let you know what happens.”

“You do that.”

Jake was going to be sent to hunt down Libby after all—by himself, on his first field assignment as an enforcer? What a freakin’ mess.

*   *   *

Gandalf walked despondently beside me as I unlocked the back door and entered the kitchen. Inside, he stilled as Sebastian came galloping out of the parlor to greet him and laid the rubber mouse at his feet. Sweet. The cat always did like him better.

I’d asked Alex once how much his human sentience stayed in place when he shifted into canine form. Most, he’d told me. He could understand conversation and situations, but higher reasoning could spin away if he didn’t really concentrate. He’d be trying to figure out what to do about the bad guy coming his way when suddenly he’d be thinking:
Hey, that lady has a hamburger!

He and Sebastian now sat in tandem, staring at me as I flipped through my mail.

“What?” They were ganging up on me. “Are you hungry?”

I dumped some cat food into Sebastian’s bowl, and pulled out a big Pyrex bowl for Gandalf, filling it with cat food as well. I didn’t have any dog food.

While Sebastian inhaled his own dinner, then moved over to the big bowl for part deux, Gandalf stared at me.

“It’s all I have,” I told him. “You know I don’t keep much food in the house. You want a protein bar and some Cheetos?”

He curled his upper lip and showed me a row of shiny white, very large teeth.

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll order a pizza. You want your usual vegetarian?”

Two barks.

“Pepperoni?”

One.

Good. As Gandalf, he was much less worried about his sodium and fat intake.

I called in the pizza order, then got a warm washcloth from the bathroom and washed off his leg and paw. “Most of this blood is dried—it’s already healing. Want me to use a potion on it to speed it up?”

Two barks.

“Okay then, shifter. Heal thyself.” I went upstairs to change into pants and a sweater that didn’t have blood on it.

When the doorbell rang a half hour later, Jake Warin stood on the porch with the pizza, which he’d intercepted and paid for, a couple of oyster po’boys, a six-pack of Abita, and the keys to the Pathfinder, which he and Ken had picked up. I wondered what he’d told Ken.

He grinned as he took in the sight of Gandalf sitting on the sofa. “Where’d you get the big ugly dog?” he asked, coming inside the front parlor and piling the food on the coffee table. He flashed dimples at Gandalf, who flashed big white teeth in return. Jake kissed me on the cheek, earning a low, rumbling growl from Gandalf. I almost growled myself.

“Don’t piss him off more. He’s had a hard day.” And besides that, buddy boy, you haven’t called me on non-business since our disastrous date, so don’t use me to tick off your cousin.

Jake chuckled his way to the kitchen to fetch plates, a bottle opener for the beer, and a diet soda for me.

I put pizza slices on the plate and set it on the floor. Gandalf turned his head and stared in the opposite direction.

“You are totally dependent on me right now, so it would behoove you to stop being such a pain in the ass,” I said, picking up the plate of pizza, setting it on the coffee table, and dragging the whole thing in front of him so he could eat from his perch on the sofa.

“You forget who you’re talking to,” Jake said, stealing a slice of pepperoni and sitting on the sofa next to Gandalf. “He specializes in pain-in-the-ass behavior.”

Gandalf ignored him, holding the crust of the pizza between his paws and eating it almost daintily like an ice cream cone.

I settled into one of the armchairs with a po’boy. “Did Zrakovi call you about Libby?”

“He did. My job tonight is to keep an eye on you in case she shows up.” He took a sip of beer and smiled at me. “That’s an assignment I didn’t mind at all.”

I wanted to hug him, and then slap the shit out of him. Talk about running hot and cold. I didn’t know whether he was still interested in me, or if I was just an assignment and he was a born flirt, or if this was all a show to get a jab at Alex while he couldn’t defend himself. Probably a little of all three.

Worse than not knowing how Jake felt, I wasn’t sure how I felt. Even if I could do a little empathic mojo and figure out Jake’s motives, it wouldn’t help with mine.

After dinner, we put on some music and went upstairs to the library. I filled Jake in on the case while I pulled out books and notes on hex reversals. “Since you have to babysit, want to help me bring Alex back?” I wished I hadn’t said the word babysit; it reminded me of what happened to the last person who stayed with me to make sure I was safe. It hadn’t worked out well for Tish. I couldn’t live with one more person being hurt or killed on my account, and Jake had already had his turn.

“I don’t know, short stuff. I kind of like Alex better this way.”

I expected Gandalf to bite Jake, but he held his furry head high as he sniffed past us and went next door to my bedroom. I heard a thump as he jumped on my bed, thus ensuring no one else would be using it anytime soon. Sebastian followed him.

My life was an utter zoo.

I sorted the papers on my worktable, and began reading while Jake listened to music and did a close inspection of my shelves. “Don’t touch anything,” I warned him. “Some of it bites.”

He stepped farther back but kept looking. He’d known I was a wizard since Katrina and had been to the house quite a few times before and after, but he’d never been here, in my workspace.

Each glass container on the floor-to-ceiling shelves held magical herbs, stones, or metal shavings. A small refrigerator kept perishable materials usable. Candles stood like colorful sentinels guarding several shelves, different colors for different types of spells. Then there were the oddities I’d occasionally need: alligator skin, a rooster’s claw, a jar of cat’s-eye marbles, old iron containers.

There were also the books, of course. Jake pulled out a pamphlet on the historical undead, and settled into a chair while I worked.

I finally found three hex-reversal potions I thought might do the job. Two were fairly simple; the third not so simple but guaranteed to work. I made sure none of the ingredients would hurt Alex if the reversal didn’t take, and picked the first of the easier ones.

“Want to help?” I asked Jake.

“Sure.” He put the pamphlet aside and returned to the worktable, which I’d cleared of everything except the big wrought-iron cross permanently affixed to the center.

Jake fingered it absently. “All this craziness I never knew existed. You have to believe in God to stay sane, don’t you?”

I nodded. “You have to believe there’s a reason behind it all, that at least in the end, the good guys win.”

“Just wish I knew why things happen.”

I thought of what Jake had been through between Afghanistan and werewolves, and the fact that he was still standing here, willing to find his place in a new world. I thought of Katrina. I thought of Tish. “I’m not sure we ever really understand the reason. We just have to believe there is one.”

I made a list of ingredients for the first potion and had him gather them from the shelves while I pulled out the bowls and pans I’d need. While he finished, I went into the bedroom. Gandalf was stretched across the bed horizontally, head on his paws, looking morose. Sebastian snored softly on top of the dresser.

I stretched out on the bed next to Gandalf and scratched his head. “I found three things to try. If they don’t work, they won’t hurt you. I want to try the simplest ones first because if they work, they’re faster. Are you willing to experiment?”

He rolled over in a dead cockroach pose, and I rubbed his tummy.

“Sorry to interrupt such an intimate moment, but the stuff’s ready.” Jake stood in the doorway, a half smile on his face I couldn’t interpret. I sent out a few emotional feelers, but got very little. On top of his new garou nature, his enforcer training was showing; he’d learned how to shield his mind. Interesting that he thought to do it around me.

I got to my feet and headed for the library, Gandalf padding behind me and Jake bringing up the rear.

The first potion was four simple ingredients: a piece of string for memory, a bit of a broken mirror for self, some ground horehound for reversing sorcery, and something of Alex’s. I clipped a small corner from his wallet and added the leather bit to the other items in a small box of onyx, used for breaking bonds. I sat on a floor cushion in the corner, where I did my grounding rituals in the mornings, and shut my eyes, gathering my magic and channeling it into the box. I might have to use the staff later tonight, but I’d put it off as long as I could.