“What did you do to me?”
She glanced up to see him looking at her. “Just siphoned off some of your excess pain.” She shrugged, then wished she hadn’t. With every breath, she felt his broken ribs; with every facial movement her body knew his bruises; with every bend of her wrists her skin burned. She tried to hold on to her smile but the pain was ebbing slower than she expected.
“I feel a lot better.” He blinked hard, finally able to open his other eye. Suspicion filled his gaze. “You feel it, don’t you? The pain you took off me.”
She couldn’t deny it. “I only took what I could handle. We need to get out of here soon. Get you home.”
“I know. Trust me, I’m ready to get the hell out of here.” With a great amount of obvious effort, he pushed to a sitting position, muttering quiet curses as he finally got upright. He let out a long exhale. “You’re something else.” He shook his head slowly. “Harley Goodwin, if I loved you before I love you twice as much now. I can’t believe how much you helped me.”
She smiled. “It’s what friends do.”
The one side of his mouth capable of movement hitched up in a grin. “I’ve never had a friend do this for me before.”
“I’m sure that’s only because you’ve never had a friend capable of doing this before. Also, you probably never had a friend who loved you like I do. Outside of Dulcinea, of course.” She made a face, rolling her eyes in a teasing manner.
He laughed, then grimaced. “Don’t be cute; it hurts to laugh.”
She stuck her tongue out, then pursed her lips. “I am what I am.”
Sighing, his injured half smile returned and the twinkle in his eyes took on a wicked bent. “If I could kiss you without causing myself more pain, I would.”
“I’ll take you up on that in a few days.” She rocked to her feet, the pain decreasing with every passing moment, but her hands hurting enough that she kept them from touching anything. “Stay where you are. I’m going to check with Dulcinea and see what’s going on, then we’re going home.”
He folded forward, resting his forearms on his thighs and letting his head drop. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good.” She headed for the suite’s living room. She found the goblin fae and the lieutenants surrounding the senator’s thugs. Sutter had a bloody lip and Dulcinea’s right hand was drawn back in a fist. “How are things going?”
Dulcinea dropped her hand and stepped away to speak to Harlow. “About as expected. They’re all pretty tight-lipped. Doesn’t matter. Cops are on their way up. They’ll all be in lockup before the sun sets.”
Harlow nodded. “Any idea where the senator is?”
“No.” Dulcinea frowned. “And not for lack of trying to find out.”
“I figured.” Harlow hugged her arms to her body. Exhaustion was setting in, causing her vision to go a little unfocused and the lingering pain in her body to seep into her bones. “If it’s all good with you, I’m going to take Augie home.”
“Yeah, totally, go, we got this.”
“Can you redirect the doctor to the house? Augustine’s in bad shape. He still needs to be looked at.”
Dulcinea pulled out her LMD. “I’m on it.”
The suite door opened and Cy, in his own form, walked in with a small squad of uniformed police officers behind him.
“Go,” Dulcinea said. “Get Augustine out of here before the cops decide they want a statement from him. I mean, they will, but they don’t need to do it now.”
Harlow gave her a little salute. “See you later.”
With a nod, Dulcinea turned to deal with their new company.
Harlow jogged back to the bedroom. Augustine hadn’t moved and for a moment, she thought he’d passed out again, but he lifted his head a few seconds after she entered, his lopsided smile greeting her. “What’s up?”
She pulled out her silver compact, flipped it open and flashed the mirror at him. “We’re going home.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
After an exceptional amount of fussing even for Lally, Augustine had been wrapped in blankets and relegated to the largest sofa in the library, which had also been wrapped in blankets to keep his bloody self from staining it. He lay there, waiting for Dr. Carlson to arrive, watching Harlow nod off in the chair closest to him. She was so beautiful, even with the tiredness of the past few days hanging over her like a shadow, that he was able to temporarily focus on something else besides how much his body hurt.
“Go to bed, Harley,” he whispered.
Her head snapped up. “What? I’m awake.”
He would have laughed if not for the pain it would have caused. He smiled instead, his face throbbing no matter what his expression. “You need sleep.”
“I will. Right after the doc looks you over.”
“I’m home now. I’m safe. You don’t have to watch over me.”
She tucked her knees into the side of the chair and curled up, eyes slightly more alert and twinkling with sass. “You’re not the boss of me. I’ll do whatever I want to do.”
Hell’s bells, he loved her. “Oh, I’m fully aware of that. But technically, since you’re now one of my lieutenants, I am the boss of you.”
“You keep telling yourself that.”
He shook his head slowly, completely amused and bewitched by her. He wanted to thank her for saving his life, to let her know that he’d been fully prepared to die, beaten to a pulp by Sutter and his iron bar, and that if not for her, that’s exactly what would have happened, but nothing he could think of seemed sufficient. “Thank you” didn’t cover what he was feeling.
Her head slipped down to rest on the arm of the chair and a few moments later, the rhythm of her breathing changed. She was asleep.
And he hurt too bad to pick her up and carry her to bed. Anger at what Sutter had done to him welled up fresh and hot. He stared at the ceiling, knowing there was no outlet for his rage in the here and now, trying to store up what he was feeling for a time when he could act on it.
The sounds of movement and voices came from the back of the house and a moment later, Lally walked in, Fenton and Dr. Carlson behind her. Augustine put a finger to his lips, then pointed at Harlow.
Fenton frowned. “I think we should wake her. She’s going to have to see this sooner or later.” He pulled out his LMD and queued something up, shaking his head. “I wish you’d told me about this. I understand considering the stress you were under but this is going to be difficult to spin.”
“Spin what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He sighed. “Senator Pellimento held a press conference about thirty minutes ago.”
“Yeah, I knew about that. She wanted me to confess to the murder of her son—she had the confession all written out and everything.”
His brows rose behind the frames of his glasses. “So you’re saying you didn’t give her a taped confession?”
“Hell no.” Augustine narrowed his gaze. “Are you saying she aired one?”
Harlow stretched. “What’s going on?”
“Trouble,” Lally answered.
Harlow straightened in her chair. “Like what?”
“Like this.” Fenton set his LMD flat on the coffee table, then tapped the screen. The holoscreen flared to life with a video.
Senator Pellimento appeared behind a podium. “It is with the great sadness only a mother can know that I must announce my son, Robert Pellimento, was brutally murdered by the fae Guardian of this city.”
“What the hell?” Augustine’s bones heated with his anger.
Harlow was clearly awake now. “Didn’t you tell her Giselle was responsible?”
“Yes, but she didn’t care.”
The senator continued. “The only good news in this situation is that the Guardian, Augustine Robelais, has confessed.” The screen went black for a moment, then Augustine’s face appeared. The camera was zoomed in and showed only from his shoulders up. No sign of the chair he’d been in, the restraints on his wrist
s or the tarp that had been spread beneath him to keep the hotel’s carpet from absorbing too much blood.
His image began to speak. “I did kill your son.”
The senator’s voice could be heard off camera. “Why did you kill him?”
His image answered. “I hate humans. Not just the citizens of this city. All people.”
Augustine untangled his arm from the blankets to point at the holoprojection. “I never said any of those things.”
The color had drained from Harlow’s face. She stared at his image.
The senator’s voice asked another question. “Do you have anything else you wish to say?”
“The fae hate humans.”
“Why is that?” the senator asked.
“We understand what it’s like to have enemies.”
“So you’re saying that humans are your enemies? Why? What could humans want that the fae have?”
Augustine’s lip sneered. “Power.”
The screen went black again, then the senator reappeared at her podium. “With this shocking confession, I have no choice but to declare the entire state of Louisiana under martial law. New Orleans will be subject to a curfew starting immediately. No othernatural may be outside their home from sundown to sunup.” She held up a piece of paper. “I will also be passing emergency legislation requiring all othernaturals to be registered. I will not allow the human citizens of this great state to suffer the same tragic loss I have just because the othernaturals perceive us as a threat.” She lowered the paper and took a breath. “Thank you for your attention. I will be unavailable for further comment and wish that my privacy be respected while I see to my son’s final arrangements. Good night.”
As she strode away from the podium, the holoprojection ended.
Augustine looked at Fenton and Harlow. “I swear, I never said any of those things. When she turned on the camera, I made a statement about how she ought to be impeached.”
Harlow looked at him, pain in her eyes. “While you might not have said those exact things, you must have said those words. Did you have any idea she was filming you?”
“Not until I told her to turn the camera on.”
Harlow shook her head. “She must have had the camera on the whole time. Then she asked you enough questions to get the words she wanted, and had someone splice this lie together. That manipulative—” She tossed off her blanket and stood up. “She’s not getting away with this.”
Fenton pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know, Harlow. She’s a very powerful woman. This was a big step toward garnering the public’s sympathy for the othernatural restrictions she’s been secretly pushing.” He sighed. “The days of those efforts being secret are now behind us, I fear.”
Augustine tipped his head back and growled. “I wish Giselle had thrown the senator into that pond instead of her son.”
Harlow began to pace. “We need a plan, we need a way to counteract this—”
Fenton’s soft exhale interrupted her. “I appreciate your enthusiasm and while I agree with you, I don’t see how we can go against this woman in a way that’s going to make a difference. Do you have an idea?”
She stopped pacing to look at him. “We need to make a statement of our own. We need to make it public that she falsified Augustine’s confession, that Giselle Vincent is the one responsible for her son’s death, and we need to make people understand that they have nothing to fear from us or the varcolai or any of the othernaturals living in this city.”
Augustine picked his head back up. “I’ll give whatever statement you want me to but how are we going to get people to believe my word over hers? With the death of her son, she’s got their sympathy. And how are we going to get anyone to even see it?” He looked at Fenton. “Where was that press conference broadcast to?”
“At this point, it’s gone nationwide.” Fenton looked at Harlow. “We have very little hope of getting that kind of coverage.”
Harlow snorted. “You two really don’t know what I’m capable of, do you?” She looked at Lally. “Will you put a pot of coffee on? I can’t sleep yet. Too much to prep.”
“You got it, sugar.” Lally took off for the kitchen.
Harlow turned her attention to Dr. Carlson. “Get Augustine as patched up as you possibly can, but make sure all his visible injuries are documented with pictures. Include those photos in his file.”
Dr. Carlson nodded as he stood up, bag in hand. “Absolutely.”
She tipped her head at him. “And I don’t want Augustine sedated. Give him something for the pain without knocking him out. I need him sharp.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Augustine almost snorted. Dr. Carlson was a wise man not to contradict Harlow, not with the way she’d come to life and taken charge.
She focused on Fenton. “Do you have a way to contact the senator?”
“Yes, but why?”
“Because I need you to set up a meeting with her. Tell her if she wants an othernatural to crucify, Augustine will be happy to turn over the witch responsible for her son’s death. Let Pellimento think he’ll come alone. Make sure she does the same.”
Augustine sat forward, even though it shot fresh pain through his body to do so. “Are you crazy? One, Giselle needs to be handed over to the NOPD. Two, there’s no way I’m meeting with Pellimento again. And three, I appreciate the help but I don’t think—”
“Trust me.” She faced him, her earnest desire to help shining in her eyes. “Where’s a place you’d feel safe meeting her?”
“Nowhere.”
Harlow sighed. “Sutter and his men are behind bars. And she’s probably riding pretty high right now, feeling like she’s bested you. She might actually come alone.” She pointed at Fenton. “Talk to your NOPD contact. Work it out so that she gets no police escort—or if she does, at least one that’s on our side.”
He nodded. “I’ll get right on it. Would you like to share your plan?”
“I have recording equipment, too. And if things go the way I think they will, I won’t need to splice a thing.” She smiled. “We’re going to turn the tables on her.”
Fenton’s mouth twitched. “I like that. How do you suppose we’ll get eyes on this masterpiece of yours?”
She laughed, a sound that healed Augustine’s soul. “Oh, Fenton. You know what I can do.” She wiggled her fingers at him. “All you two need to do is play your parts. I’ll take care of broadcasting it to the world.”
Giselle huddled in the middle of the cell’s barred wall, as far from the salt as she could get. The howling and wailing that had answered her first calls for help had died away, but now and then something lifted its voice in an attempt to be heard. Those constant, eerie cries combined with her inability to use her magic had her cringing at the slightest noise.
Her eyes had finally adjusted to the dim, phosphorescent light, which was both a blessing and a curse. The place was as dank and dreary as she’d imagined, but at least she could make out her surroundings. Even so, she refused to focus on whatever was being held in the cell across from her after glimpsing a shape that was in no way human.
She’d done some crying herself. Those tears were gone now, replaced by the realization that while she had no idea how long she was going to be here, there had to be a way to survive this ghastly place.
Unless they were going to let her starve to death. She swallowed, suddenly thirsty, and rocked her head back against the bars. Her stomach growled as if on cue.
Something scurried across her foot. She screamed, then lunged for it, grabbing the ratlike creature with both hands. If the fae thought she was just going to wither away and die in this place like a hapless victim, they were sorely mistaken. Giselle Vincent was not a quitter. She took a deep breath and snapped the creature’s neck.
At least dinner was no longer in question.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Dr. Carlson had done what he could for Augustine, but Harlow knew by the way Augie was movin
g that he was still in a great deal of pain. Asking him about it wasn’t going to help, so she kept him talking about anything and everything else. She glanced at the back door they stood beside. “What’s the name of this place again?”
“Le Belle et Le Bete,” he answered. “Beauty and the Beast. It’s the oldest othernatural bar in the Quarter.” He rapped on the brick wall beside the door. “And with the built-in protection this place has to hide it from humans, Pellimento will never know Sydra, Nekai and the goblin boys are inside for backup.”
“You’re sure? Because it sounds like there’s a huge party going on inside there.”
“There is.” He smiled. “But to a human, this building not only looks abandoned; it sounds just as empty.”
“I’ll take your word on it.” They were hidden behind a dumpster, awaiting Pellimento’s arrival. She had seven minutes before she was late.
Augustine leaned against the wall. “You’re sure all your stuff is where it needs to be and all in working order?”
“Positive.” She pulled out her LMD, brought up the cam app and showed it to him. Six different screens showed six different views of the alley.
“I hope this works.” He seemed on edge.
She couldn’t blame him for that. His life was on the line here. “I promise you it will.”
Two stray cats, a dusty gray and a bulky black tom, sauntered past the dumpster. Augustine smiled at them. “Nice of you two to make it.”
The pair stopped and sat in front of them.
A second later, Harlow was looking at Dulcinea and Cy. She shook her head. “I’m never going to get over the fact that you two can do that. And Cy, I didn’t even know you could do animal forms.”
Garden of Dreams and Desires Page 28