My eyes narrowed. So Mab had wanted Roslyn watched. Not surprising. As the Spider, I’d publicly taken credit for killing Elliot Slater, even though Roslyn was actually the one who’d pulled the trigger, using a shotgun to finish off the giant. But Mab must have reasoned that since I’d supposedly saved Roslyn that night, I must care about the vampire. That maybe even I was her friend — or at least someone who knew her. All of which meant that the Fire elemental was getting closer to learning who I really was, if she didn’t know already.
Oh, Mab didn’t know that Gin Blanco was the Spider. Otherwise, she would have tried to kill me herself by now. But I often wondered if she remembered Genevieve Snow, the little girl she’d tortured seventeen years ago — and the spider rune medallion that she’d melted into my palms. The jury was still out on that one. Mab had tortured and killed a lot of people since then. Must be hard for her to remember every single one of them. Still, the Fire elemental was hunting for me now, which just gave me more reason to off Mab and her minions sooner, rather than later.
Starting with the men in front of me.
“You didn’t ask. You threatened me,” Vinnie said in a low voice. “Threatened to kill me if I didn’t do what you wanted. Natasha too.”
Brown shrugged. “Details. But you owed Mab, remember? Through our mutual Russian friends, you approached her organization for a favor, and we helped get you and your little girl into the country, green cards and all.”
“But I paid her,” Vinnie protested. “I paid for all that. You took everything that we had to bring us over here.”
The vampire ignored his words. “And now that Mab’s trying to collect on that favor you owe her, what do you do? Run away the first chance you get. Shame on you, Vinnie. Shame on you.”
So Mab and her mob connections had helped Vinnie and his daughter emigrate to Ashland from Russia, and the Fire elemental had decided it was time to collect — in spades. Despite Vinnie’s betrayal of Roslyn, I could understand his motives. He’d only wanted to protect his daughter, to keep both of them safe. I might have done the same thing in his situation. Because I’d do anything for the people that I loved. Protect them, kill for them.
I was even going to die for them, for Bria, when I finally went up against Mab.
“Since you’ve been less than cooperative, Vinnie, Mab’s decided to pull the plug on this whole operation. Starting with you.”
Despite the chill in the air, sweat rolled down Vinnie’s forehead, mixing with the blood on his face. “What about my little girl? What about Natasha? She didn’t have anything to do with this. Please. Leave her alone.”
Brown let out another low, evil laugh. “Like I said before, I like them young. So I’m going to go pay sweet little Natasha a nice, long visit, once we get through with you. After that, well, Mab has plans for her. Big plans. Mab’s starting up a new venture, you see, something that will make Northern Aggression look as tame as a preschool, and Natasha will fit in just fine there. Why, she might just even be the star of the whole show, if you know what I mean.”
Grief and rage and helpless anguish filled Vinnie’s eyes, along with a faint flicker of blue-white magic. Even though he’d been severely beaten, the bartender wasn’t completely out of things yet.
“Das vidania, Vinnie,” the vampire smirked, flashing his fangs and getting ready to sink his teeth into the Ice elemental. “I’ll be sure and say hello to your daughter for you — after I get through fucking her.”
And that was my cue to finally make my presence known. I stepped out of the shadows, walked over to the swing set, and let out a loud wolf whistle. Startled, the men’s heads snapped around to me. Brown bared his fangs, while the giants’ hands tightened into fists. Vinnie stayed on his knees in the sandbox, his eyes wide with surprise, fear, and just a hint of Ice magic.
I walked toward them, stopping beside the metal swing set.
The vampire’s eyes narrowed as he took in my dark clothes and the silverstone knife in my hand. “Who the hell are you?”
I gave him a cold, hard smile. “The bitch who’s here to kill you.”
7
Recognition dawned in Brown’s eyes. “You! You’re her. You’re the fucking Spider!”
“Guilty as charged,” I said, flashing my knife at him. “And I’m ready to play. How about you?”
Instead of racing toward me like I thought he might, the vampire actually did the smart thing. He pointed at the giants.
“Kill her!” he yelled at them. “Now!”
The two giants charged me. Behind them, Brown started digging in his pants pocket, probably searching for his cell phone. Not good. I needed to get to the bastard before he could tell anyone else what was happening here, give someone a description of me, or worse, call for backup. Which meant that I had a minute, two tops, to take out the giants and kill the vampire.
A cold blast of magic surged through the night air, and a blue-white light flashed for a second before winking out.
Vinnie Volga reared up, a jagged Ice knife glinting in his right hand. A weapon that I’d made myself many times. Crude, but effective, as Vinnie no doubt knew since he slammed the shard of Ice into the vampire’s thigh, driving it in deep and twisting it as hard as he could. The vampire bellowed with rage and crumpled into the sand, all thoughts of his cell phone forgotten. Nice move. Vinnie threw himself on top of the other man, and the two of them started grappling, rolling around and around and spraying sand everywhere.
But I didn’t have time to track their progress because the giants were on me. I waited until the first one was in range, then reached over and shoved one of the metal swings at him. The giant wasn’t expecting the move, and the swing caught him in the chest. Not enough to hurt him, of course, but it gave me time to dart forward, hit all the chains, and make the swings start rocking back and forth, creating a moving metal maze behind me.
Instead of being smart and going around, the first giant barreled headfirst into the row of swings, long arms outstretched, trying to get to me before I slipped out the other side. But he misjudged the arcs and ended up with his arms stuck through the different swings, the metal chains crashing and clanging together like cymbals.
I grabbed onto a swinging chain and kicked up, then out, with my feet. My boots caught the giant in the shoulder, and he spun around, twisting the chains around his torso. Instead of spinning back the other way, the giant let out a loud roar and tried to do a Hulk move to break free. But the metal was stronger than it looked, and the chains held firm.
The momentum from my kick sent me back before gravity took over and I swung toward the giant again. I used the opportunity to bury my knife in his chest all the way up to the hilt. I felt the blade scuttle off of his breast-bone before sinking deeper into his hard muscle. I yanked it out. Not enough damage to kill him, but enough to make him think about how much he was hurting.
Sure enough, the giant howled with pain and rage, baying like a wolf at the moon. He brought his fist up to hit me, but the chains wrapped around his body limited his range of motion. Still, he got a blow in on my left hip. It was just a glancing hit, but given his enormous strength, it felt like someone had slapped me with a sledgehammer. Red-hot pins of pain exploded in my hip joint.
I grunted and slashed open his stomach with my knife, going first one way, then the other with the silverstone blade. X marks the spot. Blood spewed out onto my hands and arced through the cold air, painting me with its steaming, coppery warmth.