I nodded. "Count on it."
Owen got back into his battered BMW and raced out of the parking lot. I wasn't too worried about his getting to Eva and Violet in time, since his mansion wasn't that far away. Besides, Mab would be focused on me right now and my immediate family-Finn, the Deveraux sisters, and most especially Bria. It wouldn't be long before the Fire elemental sent her men after Owen, but the lapse should give him enough of a head start to get the girls to the safe house.
There was no time to waste, so I slid back into the driver's seat of the sedan and steered the car out of the lot. While I drove toward Fletcher's house, I pulled out the spare cell phone that had been among the supplies in Owen's trunk and dialed Finn's number again. Once more, it went straight to voice mail.
I growled in frustration. Where was he? What was happening with him and Bria? When I got my hands on Finn, I was going to find out. And, depending on what kind of shape he was in, I might not ask nicely. Because if Finn and Bria were busy knocking boots instead of not answering my calls telling them that they were in mortal danger, well, I was going to be a little pissed.
In between trying Finn, I also called Jo-Jo back. The dwarf told me she'd managed to reach Xavier and Roslyn, and that the two of them were on their way to the safe house. Roslyn's sister, Lisa, and young niece, Catherine, were out of town visiting relatives, and Jo-Jo told me that Roslyn was calling them and telling them to check into a hotel under an assumed name. Jo-Jo had also managed to reach Warren Fox. The old coot had been reluctant to leave his warm, comfortable bed, but he'd seen the need after the dwarf explained the situation. Warren would meet everyone else at the safe house as soon as he could.
That just left Finn and Bria twisting in the wind-and my stomach tightening into more and more knots.
I drove as fast as I could on the slippery roads and not skid the car into a ditch, but it still took me thirty minutes to reach the road that ran by Fletcher's house. Of course, I could have barreled the stolen vehicle right on up the driveway to the old house itself, if not for the possibility that Mab's giants or bounty hunters were here already. I might not have killed the Fire elemental tonight, but I wasn't going to get dead myself by doing something so reckless. The old man had trained me too well for that.
I pulled the car into a cluster of trees just off the road about a quarter mile from the driveway entrance. Five seconds later, I was out of the vehicle, in the woods, and hiking up the ridge to the house.
It was a long, hard climb, made even more so by the injuries that I'd gotten fighting Mab. Jo-Jo's salve had healed the worst of the burns and blisters, but the ointment had done little to stop the mental and physical exhaustion creeping up on me. I gritted my teeth, shoved the weakness away, and hurried on. Every second I delayed was another second that the Fire elemental had to mobilize her troops and send them here.
Still, I paused every so often, looking, listening, and peering into the gray shadows that cloaked the uneven landscape. Nothing moved in the woods but me, and only the rasp of my breath broke the silence. I reached out with my magic, but the frosty stones buried underneath the layers of snow only sleepily murmured of the ice and cold that had seeped into them, threatening to crack their solid forms. Satisfied, I moved on.
I'd climbed about halfway up the ridge when gunshots shattered the silence.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sounds boomed down the slope toward me, each one hammering at my heart and confirming my worst fears. I forced myself to move even faster, to plow even quicker through the snow drifts, until my feet and legs were soaked from the sprays that I kicked up. More shots rang out as I moved, along with hoarse shouts. Both echoed down the ridge to me, making it easy to pinpoint the source. Whatever bad thing was going on, it was happening at the house, which meant that Finn and Bria were in serious trouble.
After about thirty seconds, the gunshots and shouts died down, but the silence didn't soothe me-because the quiet meant that Finn and Bria could already be dead. Once again, I could be too f**king late to save the people that I loved, just as I hadn't been able to reach Fletcher in time to prevent the old man from being tortured and murdered inside the Pork Pit. A fist of fear punched me in the stomach, hitting me hard and stealing my breath, but I kept moving.
It took me another ten minutes to reach the top of the ridge and slide to the edge of the woods. What I saw there in the clearing before me made my heart stop in my chest in a way that nothing else like it had before.
Because bounty hunters surrounded Fletcher's house.
Chapter 20
I'd been expecting the bounty hunters to show up here now that the word was out about who the Spider really was. I just hadn't thought they'd get here so quickly-or that there would be so damn many of them.
A dozen vehicles were haphazardly parked in front of the sprawling structure. The multitude of lights burning inside the house let me see exactly what I was up against. Several of the bounty hunters crouched behind their vehicles, using the open doors as shields. Every single one had their guns out and pointed at the house-or at each other. Half a dozen bodies littered the snowy landscape like forgotten Christmas decorations, blood spilling out from wounds instead of holiday cheer.
There had been one hell of a fight already, probably with the various bounty hunters gunning it out in front of the house to see who got to go inside and capture whatever prize was in there waiting for them. I was grateful for the crowd. The bounty hunters slugging it out with each other in the yard was probably the only reason that they hadn't collectively stormed the house yet and either captured or killed Finn and Bria.
My eyes scanned the ranks. Men, women, young, old, dwarves, giants, even a vampire or two-all with a hard, hungry, predatory set to their shadowy features. I recognized a few of the faces from Mab's dinner party. I couldn't tell if any of the bounty hunters had elemental power, though. No one's eyes glowed in the semidarkness, and I didn't feel any kind of magic stirring in the night air. Some elementals, especially those with considerable juice like Mab, continuously gave off waves of power, like heat radiating off a fire. As an elemental myself, I could sense that constant surge of magic. Even if there had been another elemental in the mix, it didn't much matter. I was going to do whatever the hell I had to in order to save Finn and Bria-if they were even still alive.
One of the bounty hunters let out a low curse and started creeping around the hood of his pickup. He paused and looked over his shoulder. Three more men had taken refuge behind the vehicle. I couldn't tell if they were all part of the same group, but the other three leveled their guns at him, a clear indication that he should go forward-or else. Looked like he'd drawn the short straw tonight.