Roslyn's face tightened, and she pressed her lips together, as though she was trying to keep from being sick again. Some might have thought that it was hypocritical of Roslyn to have any kind of objection about whatever sort of prostitution that Mab was involved in. After all, she ran her own stable of hookers at Northern Aggression. Most of the guys and girls at the club were vampires, just like Roslyn. The vamps pretty much owned the sex trade in Ashland. That's because for a lot of them, having sex was just as stimulating as drinking blood. Humans needed vitamins to keep going, and vamps needed sex and blood. Get laid, get your B12 for the day. Or something like that. For the most part, it was win-win for the vamps and their clients.
But vamp or not, everyone who worked at Northern Aggression was there because they wanted to be. Roslyn didn't force them to do anything they didn't want to, and she made sure that her giant bouncers kept the club's clients from hurting anyone. Roslyn also let her hookers keep what they made, instead of taking it all for herself like so many of the vampire pimps did on the Southtown streets. If you had to be a hooker, you wanted someone like Roslyn watching out for you, and not some gangbanger pimp who'd take all your money and then beat the shit out of you just for fun.
Jo-Jo dropped her hand from Vinnie's face. "There. He's as good as new. Your turn, Gin."
I sighed. As much as I hated being injured, sometimes I thought that getting healed by Jo-Jo was worse. But I leaned back in my chair and let the Air elemental work her magic on me.
Jo-Jo placed her hand close to my hip, and her palm began to glow milky white with her Air magic once again. A hot tingle sizzled to life deep inside my body, centered in my aching hip joint. Then another, then another. It was like being pricked with thousands of tiny red-hot needles all at once. I gritted my teeth, clamped my hands around the armrests of the chair, and suffered through it. The spider rune scars on my palms reacted to Jo-Jo's magic and began to itch and burn even worse than before, as she used her power on me. Sweat beaded on my forehead, and I bit back a primal scream. Even though I knew that Jo-Jo was helping me, healing me, the deep, dark elemental part of me wanted to lash out at her with my own magic just to get her to stop. Just so I wouldn't feel the wrongness of her power one second longer.
"Dislocated hip, some minor cuts and bruises. An easy night for you," Jo-Jo murmured.
"Yeah," I muttered. "It was just a walk in the park."
A few minutes later, the glow faded from Jo-Jo's palm, the magic evaporated out of her eyes, and she dropped her hand. I let out a quiet sigh of relief and leaned back against the chair, grateful that I couldn't feel her Air magic anymore.
I let myself relax and recover for two minutes before I sat upright again and got on with things. I turned my attention to Vinnie, who was still unconscious in the next chair over.
Normally, I would have let someone who'd been so severely injured as Vinnie sleep until morning. Being magically healed always took a toll on a person, as you went from being close to death to suddenly being healthy again. It pretty much zapped all your strength until your body could switch gears and catch up with itself again. Hell, even I would have liked to crawl into bed myself and not come out until morning. But I wanted answers, and I wanted them now. So I reached over and poked Vinnie in the shoulder.
It took about a minute of prodding before the Ice elemental's eyes fluttered open, and he became aware of his surroundings. Vinnie looked at Jo-Jo and frowned with confusion.
"You're welcome," the dwarf said, before getting to her feet, going over to the sink, and washing her hands again.
Vinnie sat up in his chair, his gaze flicking around the room, taking in all the beauty supplies, obviously wondering how he'd gotten from the park to Jo-Jo's salon. He froze when he spotted Xavier and Roslyn sitting together on a loveseat against the far wall. After a moment, his blue eyes cut to me, lingering on all the blood on my clothes, before going back to his vampire boss and her giant bouncer.
Vinnie opened his mouth, but I beat him to the punch.
"Before you start spouting some lame-ass lie about what you've been up to these past few days, let me tell you what we know," I said in a cold voice. "We know that you've been spying on Roslyn for Mab Monroe. We know that an assassin who goes by the name LaFleur came to see you at Northern Aggression tonight and that it wasn't the first time that you've talked to her. We know that she told you to tell everyone about a shipment of drugs that were coming in down at the docks, in hopes that the Spider would show up and LaFleur could take her out. How am I doing so far?"
Vinnie didn't say anything, but he swallowed once and nodded his head.
"Good. You've decided to be reasonable." I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him a hard stare. "Here's the deal. You tell us everything that you've told LaFleur and Mab, and everything that they've said to you or threatened you with. And, at the end of your story, if I like what I hear, I may just let you live. So start talking."
Vinnie just kept staring at me, his eyes wide in his face.
"Now!" I barked.
The Ice elemental looked at his boss again, but Roslyn's face was even harder and colder than mine. So was Xavier's. After a moment, Vinnie slumped back against his chair.
"I didn't want to do it, Roslyn." Vinnie's Russian accent was even more pronounced than before, probably from all the stress he was feeling right now. "You have to believe me. You've been so good to me. I never wanted to betray you like this."
"I know, Vinnie," Roslyn said in a soft voice. "Now tell us what you know."
He drew in a shaky breath. "A week ago, I'm at the club, working the bar like usual. I go outside to take out the trash, and this woman comes up to me. At first I think she's just drunk or outside smoking something she shouldn't, you know? But she calls out to me, calls me by my name. And she starts telling me all these ... things. Like what time I get off work every night, and where Natasha and I like to eat dinner. Where Natasha goes to school."
Vinnie's voice dropped to a whisper. He swallowed again and forced himself to continue.
"And then she tells me that her name is LaFleur and asks me if I've heard of her. I say no. And she says that after tonight I'll never forget her. She turns and calls out to someone, and this guy steps forward. He was just a guy, somebody that I'd never seen before. She stares at him a second and starts smiling. And then she raises her hand up, and she-and she just-"
"Electrocuted him," I finished. "Right there in front of you."
Vinnie stared at me in surprise. "Yeah, how did you know?"