A primrose.
A small silverstone rune shaped like a delicate primrose rested in the hollow of the detective's smooth throat. A primrose. The symbol for beauty. The same rune, the same necklace my baby sister, Bria, had worn as a child.
Bria.
She looked exactly the same as she did in a photo I had of her and exactly like my memories of our mother, Eira Snow. The only real differences were the hard glint in Bria's blue eyes and her tight, remote features. Both were more pronounced in person than they'd been in the picture. Bria's beauty was a cold, guarded one. An elemental Ice queen come to life in every sense of the word.
For a moment, I wondered if I was losing my mind. If I was already dead, and this was just some sort of bizarre dream or final wish fulfillment before the powers that be shipped me off to Hades. A brief, tantalizing glimpse of what I wanted to see most, only to be taken away as quickly as it had appeared.
I drew in a ragged breath and had to spit out another mouthful of warm, slick, coppery blood before it choked me. No, not a dream. A dream wouldn't hurt this much.
Bria, my baby sister, the one I'd thought was dead for the past seventeen years, the one I'd thought I'd inadvertently killed with my Ice and Stone magic, was here, crouching right in front of me. And all I could do was just stare at her.
Bria's blue eyes met mine. She frowned, as though puzzled by the wonderment in my gaze. "Ma'am, I understand you have a friend on the way. Personally, I'd suggest you wait for the paramedics to get here. You've got some serious, nasty injuries. You need to be stabilized before you go anywhere."
I kept staring at her. A pressure gathered in my chest, an icy fist squeezing my heart so tight and hard I thought it would explode right then and there. Shatter into a million icicles that would impale what was left of my body. An odd, cold wetness ran down my face. Tears this time, instead of blood. Big, fat, salty tears.
Crying. I was crying. I hadn't expected to cry when I saw Bria again. Hadn't expected to feel this icy tightness, this cavernous ache, this intense longing that made me want to scream and wail and weep all at the same time.
"Ma'am?" Bria asked again. "Can you hear me?"
I snapped out of my daze. Now was not the time to be thunderstruck. Now was the time to think, to piece the facts together. Bria was here in Ashland. A detective working for the po-po. I was in no position to talk to her tonight, in no position to do anything but gawk at her. But underneath the blood and bruises, I was still Gin Blanco. Restaurant owner. Stone and Ice elemental. Former assassin. And all-around badass. I could track down my sister easily enough when I was well. When I'd had some time to process her sudden reappearance in my life-and figure out what I was going to do about it.
I wet my split lips to say something, anything, to her. Anything to keep her right where she was-
"Gin! Gin!"
A male voice shouted my name. A moment later, Finnegan Lane stepped underneath the yellow crime scene tape and hurried over to me. Finn wore his usual uniform of a perfectly fitted, impeccable suit. A navy one today, with a powder blue shirt underneath. Even in the semidarkness, the light color further brightened his green eyes, which always reminded me of the smooth, polished glass of a soda pop bottle. His walnut-colored hair just curled over the collar of his suit jacket in an artful array of thick, sexy locks.
In addition to being my best friend, Finn was the son of my mentor, Fletcher Lane, the old man who'd taken me in off the streets years ago. An assassin himself, Fletcher had taught me everything I knew about my former profession. Finn was like a brother to me and one of the few people I trusted since the old man's murder a couple of months ago. Even though I'd retired from being the assassin the Spider, Finn was also my handler now, for lack of a better word. I might not be dealing in the shady side of life anymore, but Finn kept me informed of any goings-on that might impact me-as well as his own lucrative schemes in the corporate world of investment banking that he inhabited.
Finnegan Lane squatted down beside me and stared into my face. His green eyes swept over my bloody features, analyzing and assessing the damage just like his father, Fletcher, would have done once upon a time.
"Geez," Finn said. "I thought you looked bad yesterday. You look like shit tonight."
"Great to see you too, Finn," I replied in a dry tone. "Yesterday I just had the flu. As you can see, it's turned into something a bit more serious."
"Indeed," Finn murmured. "Indeed. And you can tell me all about it later. Right now, we need to get you out of here. Xavier, if you would be so kind?"
The giant nodded, put his free hand under my legs, and scooped me up into the air the way a child might pick up a wayward puppy. Finn held out his arms, and Xavier passed me over to him. They were being as easy and gentle as they could, but the movements hurt. Pain tightened my chest again, making it hard to breathe. Felt like one of my cracked ribs was scraping against my lungs. More blood also pooled in my mouth, but I swallowed it down. I was in enough agony already. I didn't want to have to listen to Finn bitch about me spewing blood all over his precious suit too. At this point, my ears were just about the only part of me that didn't burn with pain.
Finn turned toward the crime scene tape, but Bria got to her feet and stepped in front of him.
"Hold it," she snapped. "She's not going anywhere. The paramedics aren't here yet, and she needs medical attention."
Finn did what he always did when confronted by an angry woman-he checked out her boobs. His green eyes landed on Bria's br**sts, analyzing and assessing them just the way he had my injuries a moment before. His lips curled back into a wolfish grin at the sight. If I'd felt stronger, I would have punched him for ogling my sister.
Once Finn got his fill of Bria's br**sts, his green gaze drifted up to her face to check out the rest of the perky package. He'd seen the same photograph of Bria that I had. It took him a second to recognize her, but when he did, Finn's smile cracked, then flaked off his face like old paint. He blinked a couple of times, trying to make sure he was seeing exactly what he thought he was. When he realized that it really was Bria, Finn immediately looked down at me to see if I'd noticed her, if I'd recognized her. I nodded the tiniest bit to him.
"She's not going anywhere. The paramedics aren't here yet," Bria repeated and stabbed her finger into Finn's shoulder for emphasis.
That got Finn's attention. He didn't like anyone messing with his clothes, unless they were female and taking them off him. "I'm taking her to an Air elemental healer, and she's going to get the best medical attention there is in Ashland as soon as I get her out of here," Finn snapped. "Gin is my sister, and she's coming with me. So back off, copper."