I glanced behind me. Sure enough, three giants stood at the far end of the alley, blocking the exit. They stood like I did, hands loose and ready by their sides. So even if LaFleur had missed me with her lightning, the rest of Mab's men would have stepped up to finish the job. I had to admire the assassin's thoroughness. She'd thought of almost everything-except the fact that I was the Spider and just as deadly as she was.
"It is good to be prepared," I quipped and turned back to face the other assassin. "You just never know what kinds of difficulties you might run into in your line of work."
A thoughtful light flared in Elektra's eyes. "You sound like you have some experience in these sorts of things."
"I wouldn't exactly say experience," I said. "Although I do seem to be getting the stuffing beat out of me on a regular basis."
Elektra smiled. "Oh, yes. Jonah told me all about that beating he had Elliot Slater give you a few weeks back. I would have loved to be there for that. Although, if I'd been Slater, you wouldn't have walked away after the fact. How did it feel, though? To be Jonah's little bitch? To know he's the reason you're going to die in this filthy alley tonight?"
I rocked back on my heels and clasped my hands behind me, as though I was considering something. I used the opportunity to palm one of my silverstone knives-one of the five that Owen had made for me. My thumb traced over the hilt, right over the spot where Owen had stamped my spider rune into the metal. The weapon felt cold, hard, and comforting in my hand, the way it always did. Maybe even more so tonight, because it had been a gift from Owen, his way of helping me take down LaFleur.
"Actually, I think you know all about being Jonah's little bitch," I said. "After all, you're the one f**king him, not me. Tell me, do you just bend over and take it? Or do you have to do all the work? Because McAllister strikes me as being a lazy bastard in bed."
Green rage sparked in LaFleur's eyes, along with her magic. "I don't take anything from anyone, bitch. I do who and what I want, when I want."
I shrugged again. "Could have fooled me. I can't imagine another reason why you'd let McAllister f**k you. Oh, wait. I forgot. That's what minions do. Do whatever and whomever they're told. Personally, I would have asked for more money at the very least. But then again, I suppose I just have higher standards than you do."
Elektra's face showed no more emotion at my taunts, but green lightning flickered to life in her curled hand. The color of it matched the cruel glow in her eyes. Temper, temper, temper. I'd gotten to the other assassin and made her angry. I only hoped it was enough to make her reckless, to give me a sliver of an advantage.
"You know, Gin, I was going to make your death relatively quick, if not entirely painless," she said in a pleasant, benign tone, as though she were talking about the weather or some other banality. "Now, I think that I'll just make it hurt."
"Bring it on, bitch," I said and palmed another one of my knives.
Surprise flashed in the other assassin's eyes at the cold venom in my tone, but it wasn't enough to make her think twice about what she was here to do. She held out her hand, and the lightning intensified, growing from a few small, flickering sparks into a solid ball of power. Even across the alley, I could feel the raw elemental power that she controlled.
I only hoped my own would be enough to overcome it.
I reached for my Stone magic, ready to use it to harden my skin, to make my body as tough as the brick of the buildings around us. But before LaFleur could throw her ball of lightning at me, before we could start our deadly, final dance, the strangest thing happened. The back door of the Pork Pit swung open.
And Detective Bria Coolidge stepped out into the dark alley.
Chapter 24
"Gin? Are you out here? It's Bria," my baby sister called out. "I wanted to talk to you about the Christmas party you mentioned to me the other day."
Bria stepped out into the alley in between us, and the door banged shut behind her. I was in front of her, while LaFleur lurked in the shadows behind her.
Before I could move, before I could do anything, before I could even shout out a warning, the assassin struck. Quick as lightning, she grabbed Bria by her shaggy blond hair and pulled the other woman up against her chest. LaFleur hooked her arm around Bria's throat, placing her in a chokehold.
"Detective Coolidge," Elektra purred. "So good of you to join us this evening."
But my sister wasn't going down without a fight. Bria went into immediate attack mode, lifting up her boot, probably to smash it down onto LaFleur's instep before pivoting and throwing the other woman over her shoulder.
Before she could do any of that, Elektra brought up her hand, the ball of green lightning still flickering there, and shoved it into Bria's face. My sister had to jerk back to keep the elemental magic from burning her cheek.
"Ah, ah, ah," LaFleur warned. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Unless you want me to melt that pretty face of yours right off."
Bria's blue eyes narrowed. Despite the tenuous position that she was in, she wasn't afraid-not the least little bit. Instead, I could see her thinking about things, calculating the angles and the chances of succeeding, just as I would have if our positions had been reversed. My sister's gaze cut to me, then to the three giants standing in the alley behind me. She knew as well as I did that the odds weren't with her. Not while LaFleur had hold of her, the assassin's electrical magic an inch away from her eyes.
"Who the hell are you?" Bria spat out. "What do you want?"
"Why, your untimely demise, of course, along with that of good ole Gin here," Elektra said. "You were actually next on my to-do list tonight, detective. How very thoughtful of you to come to me instead. Now I can double my fun. Your death will go a long way toward my employer having a very merry Christmas."
"Mab," Bria snarled. She knew as well as I did that the Fire elemental wanted her dead in the worst possible way. She just didn't know exactly why. "You work for Mab Monroe."
"Correct," LaFleur said in a cheery tone. "I work for Mab. And you know what she's hired me to do, specifically? Make sure that the two of you quit breathing. Immediately."
The lightning intensified in LaFleur's hand, until the glow from it lit up the whole alley. For a moment, I thought she was going to kill Bria right then, right there. I narrowed my eyes and studied the other assassin, wondering how I could distract her long enough to give Bria a fighting chance to get away from her-or at least out of the immediate vicinity of Elektra's lightning. I'd only get one shot, one second of opportunity before LaFleur fried my baby sister with her elemental magic. I'd come too far, suffered through too much, killed too many people, to let Bria die. Not now, not ever.