Either way, most everyone wanted to assume Mab's mantle of power on their own, without any help from me. Fools. With my knowledge of Mab's businesses, legitimate and otherwise, I could have made things so much easier for them. But of course they couldn't see that - they couldn't see the big picture like I could, like I'd always been able to. They didn't have the discipline to plan and plot and think ahead like I did. I'd had to do those things just to stay alive in Mab's employment. Skills that would serve me well, now that she was gone.
Still, if the other bosses wanted to disregard my offers of information and try to climb to the top of the crime ladder themselves, that was fine with me. I'd just sit idly by and wait until they'd killed each other off one by one. Once the dust settled and a clear winner emerged, I would reassess things.
In the meantime, there was one thing I was determined about: that Gin Blanco was going to die.
I stared past the minister at the troublesome bitch. I'd thought she might show up here today. Part of me had hoped she would, and I'd been eager to see her, eager to see just how much Mab had hurt her. If Ms. Blanco couldn't be dead, then being horribly scarred, burned, and a small, pitiful shell of her former self would have been the next best thing. I would have been somewhat satisfied with that - for a time, anyway.
But of course Blanco had gotten some Air elemental to patch her up, probably Jo-Jo Deveraux, that old beauty queen dwarf who was standing with the rest of the bitch's group of misfits. Blanco looked no worse for wear. In fact, her skin was positively glowing, and she looked as fresh and relaxed as if she'd spent a long weekend at a spa. Envy stabbed through me, along with disappointment.
But my disappointment soon turned to anger. I'd been in the rubble-filled courtyard with Mab and Blanco when they had their elemental duel. Once the two of them started in on each other with their magic, I got myself to safety, determined to finally, happily, watch Mab kill the woman who'd caused me so many problems.
But Blanco won instead. Somehow, she did something I didn't think anyone could do: she killed Mab.
That was shocking enough, but what really surprised me was how far and fast I fell as well. With Mab gone, so were all the things I'd enjoyed while serving the Fire elemental: my status, my position, my power, and most important the way I could merely look at someone and see him tremble knowing exactly who my employer was and what she was capable of. Working for Mab had been stressful, but I'd enjoyed those particular perks. I'd earned them over the years with all the messes I'd cleaned up for the Fire elemental and all the long hours I'd spent soothing her raging ego.
But that was all gone, crumbled to ash just like Mab was. Now people didn't look at me with fear in their eyes. Instead, they snickered at me behind my back. Blanco was the reason I'd lost all those precious things - and she was how I was going to get them back too.
I doubted Blanco had thought ahead to what would happen to her now that Mab was dead, but I had - and I'd already sowed the seeds of discontent among the underworld. All I had to do was kill the bitch - or, rather, arrange for it to be done. I've never liked getting my hands dirty that way. I've always found much more pleasure in orchestrating someone's death, rather than actually pulling the trigger myself. Anyone can buy a gun and shoot someone. It takes skill and finesse to take down your enemies from a distance and get away clean, with no one knowing - or at least being able to prove - that you were ever involved.
Ms. Blanco didn't know it, but Mab's wasn't the only funeral I'd been planning recently. She'd find out soon enough, though - and so would everyone else here today.
Calmer now, I turned my attention back to the minister and focused on his words once more. This was a funeral, after all.
An occasion worthy of respect.
Gin Blanco
Jonah McAllister dropped his eyes from mine, shifted in his seat, and stared at the minister again. Despite the minister's somber words, McAllister's thoughts must have been happy ones, because his mouth curved up into a thin smile, despite the smoothness of his features.
I frowned. The lawyer was up to something. I didn't know what yet, but I knew it probably involved me - and my messy death. It seemed like McAllister was always planning that. If that was the case, he was once again going to be sorely disappointed, because I had no plans to follow Mab to her grave anytime soon.
A flash of light caught my eye. I blinked, thinking that it was just the sun reflecting off someone's necklace or tie pin, but the light flashed again, and I realized it was coming from up in a towering maple tree about twenty feet behind the coffin. I squinted against the midafternoon glare, trying to see through the leafy branches and figure out exactly what was making that bright spot.
Suddenly a beam of light slashed across the ground, and a small red dot appeared on Owen's arm before zooming over to my chest - a sight that was all too familiar to an assassin like me.
"Get down!" I screamed, and immediately threw myself on top of my lover.
Crack! Crack!
Two gunshots shattered the solemn silence, drowning out the minister's words and kicking up tufts of grass and dirt where Owen and I had just been standing.
A second later everyone was in motion. Surprised shouts and screams ripped through the air as the semicircle splintered and folks scrambled to take cover behind the tombstones and trees that dotted the landscape. The giant bodyguards shoved their clients down onto the grass, covering their bodies with their own larger, bulkier ones. By the time five seconds had passed, the cemetery looked deserted, as if no one were there instead of everyone hiding behind whatever they could. Whether they lived in the genteel confines of Northtown, the rough projects of South-town, or somewhere in between, most everybody in Ashland recognized the sound of gunfire when they heard it. You didn't live long in this city if you didn't know how to duck and cover when the shooting started.
More red dots popped up here and there in the cemetery as the sniper kept firing, spreading his shots out over the crowd. At first, I thought he was just picking targets at random, but he focused several shots in the direction of Ron Donaldson and Lorelei Parker, even though they were both on the ground being protected by their giants. But not all the crime bosses were cowering behind or underneath their bodyguards. Beauregard Benson remained where he was, his arms crossed over his chest and a smile on his face, as if he were enjoying the chaos and the screams of those around him. Phillip Kincaid was also standing, peering around the side of a statue of an angel as if trying to figure out where the shots were coming from. I couldn't quite tell from this angle, but I thought Kincaid had a gun in his hand, like he wanted to take out the sniper himself.