Your job is to circle around behind her and get Finn and Roslyn out of there -no matter what. Alexis is sure to have Stephenson with her and probably those two goons from the country club. You need to take them out if we have any chance of surviving this. Can you do that?"
The detective nodded.
"Good. Let's get this over with."
Donovan Caine looked at me a final time, and our eyes met. Gold on gray. I knew what he was thinking. The same thing I was. Two hours ago, we'd been buried inside each other. Now we were both probably on our way to our own deaths. Irony. Another f**king bitch.
Once more I felt that spark of softness in my chest, but I was careful not to let it show in my eyes or face. If he sensed it, if he was kind to me now, I wouldn't be able to focus. Wouldn't be able to do what needed to be done. A luxury I couldn't afford. Not now, not ever.
Caine nodded his head at me. His way of saying good luck. Or good-bye. I was surprised he bothered with the nicety, given the near meltdown he'd had in my apartment. But the detective had bucked back up on the ride to the quarry. He knew he had to work with me a little while longer if he wanted to save Finn and Roslyn.
Then -then he could turn on me.
Donovan Caine stepped away and melted into the shadows, heading toward the back side of the quarry. I waited until I couldn't see him anymore, then squared my shoulders and started walking down an embankment to the front of the massive hole.
As I strode along, I touched the various knives hidden on my body. One in either sleeve. Two more in my boots. One against the small of my back. The cold silverstone metal of the weapons comforted me, the way it always did. Alexis James might kill me, but I wasn't going down easy.
I walked about half a mile before I saw the entrance to the quarry. The city had long ago given up keeping out the bums and wayward kids, and a rusty sign read Enter at your own risk . The remains of a tall iron gate ringed the entrance, but I stepped through a gap where someone had pried the bars loose, and headed inside.
The quarry was shaped like a deep, wide bowl that was over a mile wide. The walls of the quarry rose several hundred feet above my head. Bits of quartz flashed in the gray twilight, reminding me of cameras at a sporting event. For a moment, I felt like I was in some sort of ancient Roman coliseum. A gladiator forced to fight tigers and lions and other men just so I could see another sunrise. In a way, I supposed I'd been a gladiator since I was thirteen, always fighting to survive, and distancing myself from the ugly things I had to do in the process.
I never realized how f**king tired I was of it until right now.
I didn't have to touch the stones to hear their vibrations. With so much of the raw element around me, the sound rang in my head, a low, steady drum, punctuated here and there by sudden beats of unease and anticipation. The stones knew something was wrong, that something had disturbed their slumber and the slow wear of the weather and years beyond the usual deer and squirrels and stupid, drunken kids who slipped from the high banks and fell to their deaths.
A milky white glow arched out beyond a curve in the rock. I'd seen that light before, when Alexis had flipped out at Donovan Caine's cabin. She'd grabbed on tight to her magic already. The only way to make her let go was to kill her. I hoped I was strong enough to do it-for Fletcher.
I rounded the bend, and there she was. Alexis James.
The Air elemental stood in the open about five hundred feet farther in the quarry, where the stone walls rose to their highest peak. The milky white light flickering on her palms bathed the bitch in an angelic glow she didn't deserve.
Alexis's elegant cocktail dress was gone. Or at least covered up. Now she was wearing the same black cloak she'd sported outside Donovan Caine's cabin the night she'd come to torture and kill him. I wondered if she'd worn the same thing when she'd murdered Fletcher. If my mentor's blood was trapped in the fabric. The billowing material made Alexis look like some wannabe wizard out of a Harry Potter book. It didn't really go with the pearls that ringed her neck-or the large jet tooth that hung in the middle of the gleaming strand. The same necklace she'd worn in the fishing photo Gordon Giles had hidden away.
I eyed the rune. Power. Strength. Prosperity. The tooth was as big as my palm and polished to a high gloss. The rune was even bigger than the ruby sunburst Mab Monroe was so fond of wearing. Alexis James was showing off for me.
And she wasn't alone.
My eyes went to Finn and Roslyn. They stood side by side, their hands tied behind their backs with silverstone cuffs. Finn sported a series of fresh cuts and bruises on his face. One of Roslyn's cheeks was red and puffy. Their clothes were torn and bloody, but other than that, they looked no worse for wear. Better than I'd expected.
Alexis had kept her word about one thing, at least.
Three men with guns flanked Finn and Roslyn, forming a potential triangle of death around them. The same three men who'd gotten into the limo at the country club.
Captain Wayne Stephenson. Charles Carlyle's friend from the Cake Walk. The third anonymous flunkie. They must be all the men she had left. Otherwise, she would have brought them all here to kill me. Good to know I'd dispatched the rest of her troops already. That meant there'd be no one to talk after the fact.
I wondered if Donovan Caine had circled around behind the three of them yet. If he could see his senior officer pointing a gun at Roslyn's head.
Finn nodded and gave me an encouraging smile. Roslyn pressed against him. Her fangs poked out of her lips. The vampire was ready to bite anyone who gave her the opportunity. Good for her.
"Assassin, so good of you to finally join us," Alexis James said, throwing back the hood of her cloak.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
"So you're the mysterious Spider." Alexis James's blue-green eyes flicked over me. "I thought you'd be taller."
I returned her cold stare with one of my own. "And I thought you'd have more taste than to wear that cliched witch's cloak. What are you? Twelve?"
"Ouch," she said. "Killer insult." I didn't respond.
"You've caused me quite a bit of trouble, you know," Alexis said.
I shrugged. "Trouble has a habit of finding me. And I have a habit of dealing with it." Her eyes narrowed. "As do I."
We stared at each other. Magic flickered like lightning in Alexis's gaze, brightening her eyes until they were almost pure white. A similar glow outlined her palms. She was focusing on her power, ready to use it on me the instant I stepped out of line. I could feel her Air elemental magic snapping around her like a dog at its master's feet.
The sensation of the opposing element made my skin crawl. Or perhaps that was just because I'd seen what Alexis liked to do with her magic. How she liked to flay people alive with it.