I shrugged. "The party was back in the woods. I didn't know where I was going, and I couldn't see because it was dark. I fell down a hill and landed in a briar patch."

"Funny," he said. "Because you look like you're covered with dust, not dirt."

I glanced down. The interior of the car was dim, but he was right. A pale gray powder covered me from head to toe, as though I'd had a bag of flour upended over my head. No, I didn't look like I'd been out wandering around in the woods.

"Well, aren't you observant," I sniped.

He continued on as though I hadn't spoken. "When I first saw you, I thought you were some haint, some ghost, that had wandered out of the woods."

Oh, I was a ghost all right, one who was going to come back and haunt Sebastian. No, scratch that. I was just going to kill him. More rage burned in my heart, but I plastered a smile on my face. No use scaring my chatty driver. He hadn't done anything to me-Sebastian had.

"You believe in haints?"

He grinned. "Don't you?"

I didn't answer, and he fell silent again. He made a turn that would take us to the downtown loop. The guy drove a few more miles before clearing his throat.

"Your boyfriend is a real d.i.c.k for leaving you like this," he said.

"You have no idea."

"You just don't do that to a girl, no matter the circ.u.mstances," he continued. "I hope you don't plan to see this guy again. He's a total douche bag, if you ask me."

"Oh, I plan to see him again all right. One more time, in fact, to tell him exactly what I think of him." Right before I rammed my knife into his heart, but driver dude didn't need to know that.

He nodded. "Good. I hope you give him a piece of your mind."

Out of sight, below the seat, my thumb rubbed over the hilt of the knife still in my hand. "Oh, you can count on that."

The guy hit the downtown loop, and ten minutes later, he pulled up in front of Finn's apartment building. I glanced up and down the street. Several cars were parked by the curbs, including a black SUV with a b.u.mper sticker that said Vaughn Construction, complete with that distinctive V made out of two thorns curving together. Through the windshield, I could see three giants inside, one of whom was talking on his phone, probably waiting for the final go order from Porter. I let out a tense breath. I had managed to get here in time after all.

Driver dude started to stop in front of the building, which would have given the giants a clear view of me in all my marble-dusted glory. Right now, the element of surprise was the only thing I had going for me, and I didn't want to lose it.

"Actually, sweetheart, if you don't mind, pull over into that lot right there," I said, pointing my finger down the street.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

He shrugged, but he steered the car into the lot. He pulled up to a side door, out of sight of the street and the giants' SUV. He killed the engine, then turned to look at me, his eyes serious once more. "So now that you're not seeing the d.i.c.khead anymore, what are you going to do with the rest of your weekend?"

It took me a second to realize what he was really asking.

I gave him a flat look. "Are you kidding me? I've just had the worst date in the history of the world, and you're actually hitting on me?"

An embarra.s.sed flush filled his chiseled cheeks. "Well, when you put it like that, it does sound really bad."

I snorted again. "You could say that. Although you and my foster brother would get along great. He would totally approve of your method of trying to seduce a girl when she's down."

"Hey, now," the guy said, seeming genuinely affronted. "It's not like that at all. You're not the only one who's had a bad . . . breakup. Trust me on that. But you just seem . . . interesting. More interesting than any girl I've met in a long time."

My heart twisted, because those were more or less the same words that Sebastian had so sweetly said to me, the first of many that he'd used to draw me into his sticky web of lies. Anger rose up in me again, along with more than a little hurt.

"Listen, pal," I snapped. "I'm a waitress. Just because you found me wandering around Northtown doesn't mean that I have money. Even if I did, you wouldn't be getting any of it."

He shrugged again. "I don't care what you do. I'm a blacksmith, so I'm not exactly rolling in dough either. Not yet, anyway. I have plans, though-"

"Good for you." I cut him off.

The guy fell silent, still staring at me. I shifted under his scrutiny. For some reason, it seemed like he could see all of my secrets written in the harsh lines of my dust-covered face.

"This guy who left you stranded, he really did a number on you, didn't he?"

I shrugged, trying not to let him see how close he was to the truth. Sebastian had ripped my heart to shreds, but that wasn't the worst thing. He'd also made me doubt myself, especially my ability to tell the truth from a bald-faced lie. In a few short weeks, he'd undermined all the confidence that I had in myself as an a.s.sa.s.sin, and I hadn't even realized that I was being taken for a fool until it was too late. If I couldn't tell when a guy was playing me, then how could I ever be good enough to live up to what Fletcher had trained me to be?

How could I ever truly be the Spider?

But I couldn't think about that right now. What mattered was getting to Finn. Time to go. My fingers curled around my knife. Time to kill.

"Thanks for the ride," I said, opening the door and getting out of the car. "But I need to leave now."

"But you didn't even tell me your name," the guy protested.

"It's not like you told me yours."

"Owen," he said with a grin.

"Well, good night, Owen."

He hesitated, obviously waiting for me to tell him my name, but I'd learned my lesson with Sebastian, one that I'd never, ever forget. Finally, when it became clear that I wasn't going to give him any more information about myself, he nodded his head.

"Take care," Owen finally said.

"Yeah. You too."

He waved at me. "Until we meet again."

I wanted to tell him that the odds of that were slim to none, but his crooked grin made me hold my tongue. He'd done me a huge favor, and I'd acted like a total b.i.t.c.h during the entire ride. So I raised my hand and waved back at him, as though he were dropping me off at home after a late-night date. I sort of wished that he was. He seemed nice, this Owen.

The smile slipped off my face. So had Sebastian.

Owen gave me a final wave, then made a U-turn in the parking lot and drove off. As soon as his taillights had disappeared, I crept over to the side of the building and peered around the corner. Apparently, the giant had finished his phone call, because all three men were getting out of their vehicle and heading for the front door. It wouldn't take them long to get inside the building and make their way to Finn's apartment, and I wanted to be in place before they did.

I tightened my grip on my knife and disappeared around the corner.

I hurried over to the side door of the building. Unlike the front door, which was always open, this one was locked. I reached for my magic, and a few seconds later, I was bending over the door, a pair of Ice picks clutched in my fingers. It took me longer than I would have liked to pick the lock, but I managed it, then tossed the thin shards of Ice off into the bushes that lined this side of the building.

I slipped inside and shut the door behind me. I was at the bottom of a stairwell, so I crept up the five steps to the first floor of the building. I peered through the gla.s.s set into the top of a door there, which let me see into the lobby. The three giants now stood in front of the elevator, waiting for it to come down so they could ride up to Finn's floor.

I hurried up the steps, determined to beat them, even though I was sucking wind by the time I reached Finn's floor. I stopped in the stairwell and looked out through the gla.s.s in that door, but the giants weren't here yet.

I opened the door, stepped into the hallway, and hurried over to the elevator. Behind me, the door to Finn's apartment was closed, but I ignored it. This was a new building, and he was the only tenant on this floor so far, something he crowed about every chance he got. Good. That meant that no one else would hear the screams that were coming. Besides, I didn't need his help with this.

The lights on the elevator slowly lit up as the metal cart climbed from one floor to the next. I stayed where I was, right in front of the opening, and waited-just waited. I didn't mind being patient. Not for this.

Ding!

The doors slid back, revealing the three giants. They'd been talking among themselves, and they weren't even looking toward the opening, which gave me time to dart forward, raise my knife high, and slam it into the chest of the man closest to me. He screamed in surprise, and his buddies' heads snapped around as they wondered why some ghostly-looking chick was stabbing their friend to death.

I didn't give them time to wonder long.

I pulled my knife out of the giant's chest and slashed it across his throat. Blood sprayed all over the inside of the elevator, and me too, but I didn't care. I finally had a focus for my rage, and I was going to let it out.

The second giant raised his fists and swung at me, but I ducked down, twirled my knife in my hand, and rammed it into his thigh. He collapsed on top of the first giant, and I drove my knife into the side of his neck, feeling the blade sc.r.a.pe against the bones in his spine.

Before I could pull the blade free, the third and last giant dug his fingers into my hair and yanked me up and off his friend. He drew his hand back, as though he was going to drive his fist into my stomach, but I lurched forward, grabbed hold of his arm, and sank my teeth into the soft web of his hand between his thumb and index finger.

The giant screamed and tried to shake me off, like a cat attempting to snap a mouse's neck. I pulled back just long enough to bite him again. This time, he flung me away, sending me flying into the opposite side of the elevator car. But I bounced off like a wrestler on the ropes and went right back at him.

The giant held his hand up, trying to block me from getting close enough to bite him again, but that wasn't my intention. Instead, I darted forward, plucked the gun from the holster on his belt, put it against his chest, and pulled the trigger three times.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The giant's body m.u.f.fled the blasts, although it still sounded like I'd let off a series of firecrackers inside the elevator. The giant slid to the floor, joining his two dead friends.

Ding!

The elevator doors kept trying to close, but they couldn't, given the arms and legs of the dead men that were blocking them. I pulled my knife from the giant's neck and kept the gun in my other hand. Then I stepped over the bodies, went to Finn's door, raised my hand, and rapped politely on the wood with the b.l.o.o.d.y barrel of the gun.

No answer.

I raised the gun and rapped again, a little more forcefully this time.

"Go away." Finn's voice rumbled through the wood, along with the faint sounds of smooth jazz. "We're busy."

A soft, feminine laugh accompanied his statement.

"Put your pants back on and open the d.a.m.n door," I growled, loudly enough for him to hear. "Right now, Finn."

Silence. Finn let out a curse, but the door cracked open, and I found myself staring into his green eyes-eyed that widened when he noticed all the blood, dust, and grime on me.

"We have a problem-"

Ding!

The elevator cut me off. Finn opened the door wide enough to stick his head outside. His gaze flicked to the dead giants sprawled in the elevator. He sighed and shook his head.

"You just had to come here and make a mess, didn't you?" he sniped. "I've only had this apartment for three months. Now I'm going to have to move."

"I don't care," I said. "We have a situation. The old man's in danger."

26.

Finn opened the door and let me inside. I left my b.l.o.o.d.y knife and the giant's gun on a table just inside the door, then followed him through the hallway and into the living room in the back of the apartment. Too bad I'd forgotten that he wasn't alone.

Roslyn Phillips, the vampire he had been ogling at the party earlier, sat on the overstuffed white couch. Up close, she was even more beautiful, and I could see why Finn had been so keen on getting her attention. A couple of gla.s.ses of red wine perched on the table in front of her, while jazz music oozed out of the sound system in the corner. But it seemed as though I'd interrupted them before anything had happened, since she still had on her dress and Finn had only shrugged out of his tuxedo jacket.

The vampire's toffee-colored eyes widened as she took in my ruined dress, bare feet, and the blood spattered all over me. Her crimson lips pursed together in thought, but she didn't say anything, and she didn't ask any of the obvious questions. Finn stepped forward and plastered a smooth smile on his face, as if a blood-covered woman showing up at his apartment in the middle of the night was a common occurrence.

"Roslyn Phillips, this is my foster sister, Gin," Finn said. "Gin, Roslyn."

"Pleasure."

"Me too," she murmured.

"Gin's been in a bit of an . . . accident," he said, trying to explain.

Finn hurried over to a phone on one of the tables and picked it up. I knew that he was trying to reach Fletcher, so I decided to distract Roslyn from what he was doing.

"A car accident," I said in a sweet voice. "Just down the street. That's why I came here."

Concern darkened Roslyn's eyes, and she kept staring at all of the blood on me. "Are you all right?"

"Sure," I deadpanned. "You should see the other guys."

Finn winced, but he didn't say anything. A minute later, he shook his head and hung up the phone. Seemed like there was no answer at Fletcher's.

"You need to take me home. I was headed over there to check on the old man when I had my . . . accident."

Finn gave the vampire his most winning smile. "Roslyn, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to cut our evening short. Family comes first. You understand, don't you?"

"Of course," she murmured, getting to her feet. "Just let me get my purse."

I looked at Finn. "But the elevator's broken right now."

He blinked, remembering the dead giants and their blood splashed all over the elevator walls.

"Ah, Roslyn, why don't you make yourself comfortable in here?" Finn said. "Gin and I have something to take care of, but I should be back in an hour-"