And then we danced.

Around and around we circled, our shoes squishing into the puddles of blood already on the carpet. Unlike his men, Slater didn't rush at me, thinking his superior strength and size would be enough to carry him through the fight. Instead, the smart, cagey b.a.s.t.a.r.d feinted in and out, testing me, trying to see how good I really was with the swords. He got the message when I sliced his bicep with one weapon and nicked his thigh with the other one.

Slater's hazel eyes narrowed. "There's more to you than meets the eye, Blanco."

I smiled. "Every day's a new surprise."

We kept testing each other. I got a few more wounds in, content to slowly bleed the giant out. Slater realized what my strategy was and decided to up the tempo and use his incredible speed to his advantage. He came at me swinging in a lightning-fast pattern. Punch-punch-punch. I dodged the first two, but his last quick blow caught me in the shoulder before I could sidestep away. The hard hit rocked my joint, and my arm and hand went numb from the sudden pressure. Owen's beautiful sword slipped from my fingers and thumped to the carpet. I darted forward and kicked it back and behind me, well out of Elliot Slater's reach. The speedy giant was dangerous enough by himself. If he got his hands on a sword, well, it wouldn't be good for me.

"Seems like you lost your toothpick," he mocked.

"And you've lost more blood," I replied, trying to shake the numbness out of my arm. "I'd say that makes us even."

Slater looked down at his shirt and pants. Blood covered both of them, and the rips that I'd made in the fabric made him look like a castaway whose clothes had been shredded by the elements. The giant smiled.

"Not for long, b.i.t.c.h," he replied. "Not for long-"

And then the worst thing in the world happened-Finn decided to get into the fight.

While I'd been circling around and nicking Slater, Finn had managed to get the chain holding his hands up off the peg above his head. Finn's hands were still bound together by the silverstone cuffs, but he used the heavy chain like it was a piece of garrote wire. He leaped up onto a sofa, threw the chain over Slater's head, and crawled up on the giant's back like a monkey.

I'd give Finn points for style, if not substance, because Slater immediately backpedaled and slammed him into the closest wall. Once, twice, three times in rapid succession. Finn groaned, and the chain slackened around Slater's neck. The giant threw off the metal and Finn, who fell to the floor, completely limp. Slater turned and stomped on Finn's ribs with his ma.s.sive foot.

"I'll deal with you soon, you c.o.c.ky b.a.s.t.a.r.d," he muttered.

I rushed forward, swinging the long sword above my head, but the giant was quicker than I was. So much f.u.c.king quicker. Slater used his ma.s.sive forearm to block my attack, then punched me in the face. Pain and blood flooded my mouth. I wasn't antic.i.p.ating the blow and staggered back, momentarily stunned. The giant pressed his advantage, charging at me. I managed to bring the sword up to hold him back, but it was only a temporary maneuver. Slater ripped the weapon out of my hands, tossed it to one side, and kept coming.

Since I was out of weapons, I reached for the only thing that I had left-my magic. My Stone power flooded through my veins, and I pulled the power up through my tissue and bones and muscles and joints, letting it pour over my skin, hardening it. Slater stopped short and eyed the gray, chiseled appearance of my skin.

"f.u.c.k, you're an elemental too. Just full of tricks aren't we-" The giant stopped his muttering and glanced over his shoulder at Finn, then back at me. Knowledge shimmered in his hazel eyes. "Well, well, looks like Mab had the wrong sister all the while, didn't she? Just think how pleased she'll be when I tell her that you're the one with the Stone magic. What was the middle brat's name again? Oh, yeah-h.e.l.lo, Genevieve."

f.u.c.k. Of all the things that could have happened, Elliot Slater guessing my real ident.i.ty had not been at the top of my list. Neither was the way the truth energized him.

Slater let out a loud roar and threw himself at me. This time I couldn't avoid him. The giant slammed me to the carpet and started punching me over and over and over again, just the way that I'd feared he would. He peppered my face and chest with blows, never slowing his cadence or losing his rhythm. Punch-punch-punch. Every sharp blow threatened to break through my hardened skin. My head already rang from his previous punches, and it took every thing I had to focus on my Stone power to keep myself from being beaten to death. I had no doubt that the giant could keep his promise to Finn. He could hit me for hours without tiring.

In desperation, I threw my hand to one side and reached for my Ice magic. A jagged knife formed in my palm, and I snapped my hand up, determined to drive the weapon into Slater's eye or neck or whatever the h.e.l.l I could reach. But the giant saw the motion out of the corner of his eye. Once again, his quickness saved him. He grabbed my hand, stopping the forward motion, and glanced at the crude weapon that I had clenched between my fingers.

"An Ice knife. Cute," he said.

Then the b.a.s.t.a.r.d snapped my wrist.

It felt like someone had taken a hammer to my bones. I screamed with pain and fury. My control was slipping, and now it was only a matter of time before the giant killed me. But mainly, I screamed because Finn would die along with me. Because I'd brought my foster brother along for backup, and I'd failed miserably to protect him.

Elliot Slater drew back and smiled down at me. "Time to die, b.i.t.c.h-"

BOOM!.

Something slammed into Slater's chest and stomach, rocking him back. Blood sprayed onto my chest and face, and the acrid smell of gunpowder filled the air.

BOOM!.

Another sharp retort spat out, knocking Slater back and off me. Cradling my broken wrist, I immediately scooted away from the giant, who pulled himself up onto a silver-colored sofa. My head snapped around, looking for my mysterious benefactor.

Roslyn Phillips stood in the middle of the living room, a large shotgun cradled in her hands. The vamp popped two more red sh.e.l.ls into the gun and raised it up. I didn't know where the h.e.l.l she'd gotten the weapon or why she'd come back here when I'd told her to leave, but I was glad she had. Because the vamp had just saved my life.

Elliot Slater just looked at her in disbelief.

"What the f.u.c.k are you doing?" he snarled. "You're supposed to be upstairs, b.i.t.c.h."

"Sorry," Roslyn replied. "Gin was nice enough to arrange a change of scenery for me."

While Slater was distracted, I got to my feet and picked up one of Owen's swords. The pain from my many injuries threatened to overwhelm me, but I ground my teeth together and pushed the hot, searing sensations down into the pit of my stomach. I'd deal with the agony later. Right now, I had Roslyn to think about.

I moved to stand beside the other woman. The vamp gave me a curt nod, but she never took her eyes off Elliot Slater.

The giant's gaze flicked from Roslyn to me. His chest looked like hamburger meat-raw, uneven, b.l.o.o.d.y. A steady torrent of blood gushed from his wounds, not enough to kill him, but more than enough to weaken him. Roslyn was a better shot than I'd realized. Then again, it was hard to miss with a shotgun. Still, I wasn't going to complain. Because I would have been dead by now if not for the vampire.

Slater knew the score just as well as I did, so he changed tactics. "Come on, baby," Slater crooned to Roslyn. "Why are you doing this? I was just trying to teach you a lesson earlier. You know how much I care about you."

"Yeah," Roslyn spat out. "I know exactly how much you care about me, Elliot. The same way you cared about those other women you told me about tonight-all the other ones that you brought up here and raped and killed when you got tired of them."

Slater's chalky face tightened, and his hazel eyes narrowed with rage. "And you're just another notch on my belt, b.i.t.c.h. You really think you're going to get away with this? Mab Monroe will hunt you down and burn you to a crisp. You'll all die for this. Put down the gun, Roslyn, and I'll spare you. I'll tell Mab that you were just trying to help me. She'll believe me. She trusts me. If you don't, you know what will happen. Mab will come after you, and then after that sweet little niece and sister you love so much. Xavier too. You'll all be dead and burned and gone. Charred to f.u.c.king ashes by Mab."

Roslyn just stared at the giant, an unreadable expression on her face. I stood beside her, but I didn't say anything. This was the vamp's fight now. She had to stand up to Elliot Slater now, or what had happened these last few days would haunt her the rest of her life. More so, anyway, than it already would. Roslyn swayed side to side, and the shotgun shook in her trembling hands. For a moment, I thought that she was lost. That Slater had won this final round of cruel torture.

But then, Roslyn's face hardened underneath the blood and bruises, and a cold, terrible light filled her dark eyes. Her back straightened, her fingers tightened on the shotgun, and once again, I saw a glimmer of the hard-a.s.sed vampire that I remembered. The one who'd bared her fangs at me when I'd once dared to threaten her niece.

"Maybe I won't get away with it," Roslyn snarled. "But at least I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you're dead. Go to h.e.l.l, Elliot."

Roslyn stepped forward and fired the gun.

BOOM! BOOM!.

Elliot Slater's head exploded in a ma.s.s of blood and brains and bone. The giant twitched once, fell to the floor, and was still.

29.

Roslyn just stood there, staring down at what had been Elliot Slater's melon-size head. I put my hand on the smoking gun and slowly lowered it.

"It's over, Roslyn," I said in a soft voice. "He's dead now. You killed the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. You did it. You took care of him-forever. He's never going to bother you again. Never. Do you understand me?"

After a moment, Roslyn pulled her gaze away from the dead giant and looked up at me. Tears filled her eyes, and her hands started shaking once more. I pulled the gun out of her hands, let it fall to the floor, and gingerly, slowly, carefully, put my arms around her, not sure if I should hold her, touch her. Not sure how I could help her through this, but determined to try nonetheless. The vamp sobbed and screamed and pounded her fists against my back. I let her, just let her get it all out. All the pain and fear and misery. All the rage and helplessness and terror. All the relief and horror and sorrow.

I don't know how long we stood there, Roslyn screaming and crying, me just holding her. But eventually, her sobs quieted, and the vamp drew away from me.

"He might be dead, but he's right," she whispered. "I'll never get away with this. Mab Monroe will come after me, after my family, after Xavier."

"You're right," I replied. "You won't get away with it."

Roslyn gave me a look of pure horror.

"But then, you're not going to be the one who's done anything here tonight."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"This is what we're going to do," I said.

The torture was over-at least for now. I sat slumped in the chair, only the heavy ropes holding me upright. Sweat and tears dripped from my body like rain, and my hands felt like all the skin had been burned off them. Now I was glad that I was blindfolded so I couldn't see my hands. Couldn't see what a b.l.o.o.d.y, blistered mess had been made of them.

But the Fire elemental had gone, taking her cruel, p.r.i.c.king magic with her, vanished into some other part of the smoking house, leaving me tied where I was. Still, I knew that it wouldn't be long before she came back and finally killed me- A scream echoed through the house. Faint and small and weak, but I still recognized the high pitch in her voice, still recognized the person that it belonged to.

"Bria," I whispered through my cracked lips.

Another scream sounded, and my breath caught in my throat. I strained my ears as hard as I could, listening, trying to determine where the sound was coming from. Then the cold realization hit me. The Fire elemental and her men. They must have found Bria where I'd hidden her. That was the only reason I could think of why my sister would be screaming.

At that horrible thought, new energy flooded my body. I struggled against the heavy ropes once more, even though I knew that it was no use, knew that I couldn't get free of them. I ignored the searing pain in my hands and brought my stiff, blistered fingers up to my face, managing to slip the blindfold off my head. Smoke filled the room I was in like a dark, somber fog.

A third and final scream erupted from somewhere, before being abruptly cut off. I listened closely, but no more sounds came. No more sounds. I knew what that meant. That the Fire elemental had Bria-that my baby sister was being tortured even now.

At that awful thought, something deep inside me twisted and snapped, like a taut bowstring finally being loosened. This cold, great, terrible power filled me. More power, more magic than I had ever felt before. And then I started to scream.

I screamed for everything that had happened tonight. Everything that I had lost. Everything that had been done to me and my family. The power poured out of me the way my tears and sweat had a moment ago.

And it felt good ... right somehow.

I kept screaming, pushing everything that I had left into that one echoing sound. All my pain. All my hurt and fear and rage and desperation and helplessness.

I felt the stones respond to me. Felt my magic rip through them like lightning, shocking them awake from their long, sonorous slumber, shattering them like they were made of the most fragile crystal. A deep rumble began in the earth below my feet, pushing upward, pushing outward. I couldn't control the power, the raw magic flowing out of me, and I didn't really want to. I just wanted to hurt someone, wanted to lash out at anyone who was left, hurt them like the Fire elemental had me and my family.

One by one, the stones above my head began to crumble and fall. My Stone magic spread outward, until the rest of the house's stones were just as unstable. I felt the stones in the other rooms begin to crack, fall, and slip from the ceilings and walls. Once it started, I couldn't stop it, couldn't stop them. I knew the stones would bring the rest of the smoking house down with them, down on top of the Fire elemental and all her men.

I screamed again, this time in cruel, dark pleasure at the cold, awesome power that I was wielding- "Are you ready?" Finn asked, cutting into one of my darkest memories.

"Yeah," I replied, staring up at the rune before me on the stone wall. "I'm ready."

An hour later, Detective Bria Coolidge was the first one to arrive on the scene. Her city-issued gray sedan skidded to a stop in front of Elliot Slater's mountain mansion. Bria jumped out of the driver's seat. Xavier got out on the other side. Guns drawn, the two cops rushed to the front door, which I'd conveniently left open in antic.i.p.ation of their arrival.

Five minutes later, Xavier came outside, cradling Roslyn in his ma.s.sive arms. The giant had wrapped a blanket over her, and he gently placed her inside the back of the sedan. Xavier started to pull away, but Roslyn grabbed his hand. After a moment, Xavier knelt beside her. He didn't leave her side after that, and I knew that he wouldn't for the rest of the night. Maybe for the rest of their lives.

Bria also came back outside, her cell phone clamped to her ear. I couldn't hear her exact words, but the urgency of her tone drifted up to my hiding spot on top of the ridge overlooking the mansion, just inside the tree line. The same spot that I'd been in when Finn and I had first hiked up the mountain.

And that's when the show really started.

More cars carrying more cops arrived on the scene, swarming over the mansion like ants on a crust of honey-covered bread. Spotlights were erected, along with yards of yellow crime scene tape. It wasn't long before a news van pulled up and parked in the driveway. Then another, then another. I smiled. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Standing in the b.l.o.o.d.y wreckage of Elliot Slater's living room, I'd told Roslyn everything-about my murdered family, about Bria, but most especially about my plan to take down Mab Monroe-or die trying.

The vamp had studied me for several seconds before shaking her head. "You're one crazy b.i.t.c.h, you know that."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm suicidal," I'd replied. "So are you in or out?"

"In." Roslyn gave me a small smile.

And just like that, we were partners. h.e.l.l, maybe even friends too.

As I watched the scene before me, I crunched a couple of aspirin between my teeth and shifted the ice pack that I'd strapped onto my broken wrist before leaving the mansion. I had one more thing to do before I could slip away and go have Jo-Jo Deveraux heal me. Finn was already in the dwarf's capable hands, getting his many injuries taken care of.

Forty-five minutes after Bria and Xavier first arrived, a long, black limo pulled up to the very top of the driveway. Finally she was here. The limo driver got out and rushed to open the back door. A moment later, Mab Monroe stepped into view. The Fire elemental looked like she'd been out on the town. I could see the gleam of sequins on her forest green dress even from this distance. Her red hair looked like dull copper underneath the whirling, red and blue police lights, and her sunburst rune necklace flashed like a ring of golden fire around her neck, surrounding the b.l.o.o.d.y ruby in the center of the design.

At the sight of Mab, one of the cops, a senior captain whose name escaped me, walked over to her, bent down, and began speaking into the Fire elemental's ear. I made a mental note to tell Finn to get me the guy's name, since he was so obviously in Mab's pocket. He might be worth paying a visit to sometime in the near future.

Mab's face remained as smooth and expressionless as ever, but her eyes blackened, sucking in all the available light, instead of reflecting it back. The Fire elemental was p.i.s.sed. The captain finished briefing Mab and stepped back, dry-washing his hands in nervousness. But instead of frying him on the spot, Mab looked across the driveway, where Roslyn sat, still wrapped in a blanket in the back of the police car. Then the Fire elemental stared at the cl.u.s.ter of media folks gathered behind the yellow crime scene tape. They were already screaming at the cops to tell them what was going on.

Which meant that it was time for me to make my presence known.

With my good hand, I pulled a small detonator out of my pocket and pressed the blue b.u.t.ton on top. A second later, a silvery light flashed, bright enough to fill the whole mountaintop. Everyone screamed and shouted, except for Mab Monroe. She just shielded her eyes against the light and looked for the source of it. After a few seconds, the initial burst of light flared down into a shape burning with silver fire in the stone of Elliot Slater's mansion.

A circle surrounded by eight thin rays. A spider rune. The symbol for patience.

I'd never left my rune, my symbol, at the scene of the crime before. a.s.sa.s.sins who did that were stupid and bound to be caught, sooner rather than later. But this was my plan, the crazy one that I'd told Finn, Sophia, and Jo-Jo about. My way to take the heat off Roslyn Phillips for Elliot Slater's messy demise. My way to protect Bria from being killed by one of Mab Monroe's henchmen. My way to get the Fire elemental to focus all her attention on me.

My way to finally declare war on Mab Monroe.

The spider rune continued to burn. I'd poured every last bit of magic that I'd had left into making the rune. Some small explosives from my duffel bag of supplies had helped me put enough juice in it to really make a statement. It looked just as large and ominous as I'd hoped.

My eyes sought out Bria in the crowd. My sister stood a little apart from the other cops, just staring up at the rune on the wall of the house, her mouth open in a combination of surprise and something else that I couldn't quite define or explain. Her eyes dropped to the rune-stamped rings on her finger, and she started twisting one of them around and around. I didn't have to guess which one.

After a few seconds, I pulled my gaze away from Bria. Right now, I needed to make sure that my message had been delivered.

So I reached into my pocket, pulled out my cell phone, and punched in the number that Finn had been gracious enough to provide for me. It rang twice before she picked it up.

"What?" Mab Monroe's silky voice barked in my ear.

"Enjoying the show?" I asked, using a bright, cheery tone to help disguise my voice. "I think it's quite something myself. But then again, I might be a little biased, since I'm the one who orchestrated the whole thing."

"Who the f.u.c.k is this? What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?" Mab snarled.

"I'm talking about that very large rune you're looking at right now. I'm talking about me waltzing into Elliot Slater's little vista up here, putting a shotgun to his head, and pulling the trigger enough times so that his own mother wouldn't recognize the pulpy remains."

As I talked, I watched Mab. The Fire elemental's face didn't change, but her hand tightened around the phone. I hoped she didn't make it spontaneously combust before I was through talking with her. That would rather defeat the point of my little display here tonight.

"Who are you?" Mab asked, her voice dropping to a low, dangerous rasp in my ear. "You might as well tell me now, because I'm going to find you, b.i.t.c.h. And when I do, you're going to pay dearly for this stunt you've pulled."