Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,85

and I wasn’t going to let this asshole kill anyone else in it. Lysander could beat me in magic, but I had resources he didn’t know about: friends, weapons, and knowledge. I wasn’t going to lie down and die.

Not that it would do any good if I did, I thought ruefully.

My phone rang, and I checked the screen. Elise. I swallowed hard to clear my sore throat, hoping she wasn’t going to tell me about another body. I hit “Talk” and said, “What’s buzzin’, cousin?”

“Allison,” said a hollow, unpleasantly familiar voice. “We need to finish our conversation.”

Chapter 34

I stomped on the brake, halting the Kia in the middle of a deserted street. Lysander had Elise. And in a split second, I knew how: someone had been following me on Pearl Street the other night. And I’d led him straight to someone I loved.

My foot stayed planted on the brake, and everything else inside me hardened at once. My muscles went tense, my fingers clutching at the phone. I felt my abdominal muscles contract, along with my lungs. I forgot everything around me. My focus was absolute. “Where’s Elise?

“It is unfortunate that you have brought us to this precipice. Today could have gone very differently.”

I pushed the words through clenched teeth. “Where. Is. Elise.”

“She is with me. She is even still alive, although that will change very soon.”

“What do you want?”

“I want what I came for,” he said, and for the first time his voice took on an edge. “Maven dead, and you in my service.”

“What does that mean, in your service?” For some reason I didn’t think he wanted me to swear an oath of loyalty. He wanted me for something. I was just hoping it wasn’t the thing with my uterus.

“Emil will collect you at the sculpture garden. Do not inform your friends. This is a family matter.”

I opened my mouth to scream at him, to demand to talk to Elise, but of course he’d already hung up the phone.

I squeezed the cell until my knuckles ached, looking around at the darkened street. Quinn was expecting me back at John’s any minute now. What was I going to do?

I could call Quinn and tell him everything. There was no question that he and Simon and Lily would help me take down Emil and Lysander. But how did I know Lysander didn’t have someone watching me right now, or monitoring my phone? Hell, Emil could be doing that. Just because he was meeting me at the sculpture garden didn’t mean he was there already.

I looked down at the phone in my hand. If Quinn didn’t hear from me, he’d track my location. If he showed up at the sculpture garden, Lysander might kill Elise just to punish me. I couldn’t risk it.

I drove farther into town until I reached one of Boulder’s many coffee shops. It was closed now, but I set the phone on the concrete sidewalk next to the door, behind a little shrub. If Quinn tracked the phone to the coffee shop, he’d assume I was there, still talking to Kirsten. As long as he didn’t Google the coffee shop’s hours, it should buy me a little time.

I looked at the small duffel bag that lay in the footwell of the passenger side. Be smart, Sam’s voice warned. But what was the smart move? At the moment, I could really only see one move.

Spring the trap.

I parked several blocks away from the sculpture garden and approached on foot. I’d changed into dark clothes from the duffel, and I crept along the row of hedges to circle the side. I got low to the ground and peeked between the bare branches. I was expecting to see Emil waiting there with a smug grin. If I could catch him by surprise, maybe I could get the drop on him. If Lysander would trade Emil for Elise—

But as I turned the last corner, my hopes were dashed into the spring grass. Emil was there, all right, standing in front of the bench near the Crossing the Prairie sculpture with a smug little grin. He wasn’t alone. I had half-expected Lysander, but instead there were six vampires standing in a circle around Emil, obviously there to protect him. One of them bent her head and whispered something to him, and he nodded.

“Hello, little sister,” he called. “You might as well come out—you’ve been spotted. Well, scented, anyway.”

Crap. I stood up and strode around the corner. “How’s it going, Emil?” I asked,