It took only a second for the vampire to rear back his hand back and throw my own magic at me.
Chapter 24
I immediately reached for my Stone magic, trying to use it to make my skin as hard as marble, trying to protect myself from, well, myself.
But there wasn't any more Stone power in my body right now than there had been Ice magic before when I'd been trying to make the lockpicks. The ball of silvery magic slammed into my chest, right in the same spot where the giant had hit me earlier. I managed to summon up enough magic to blunt the full strength of the vampire's attack, but the force of it threw me back against the table, and I fell to the floor again. It felt like a concrete fist had hit me, and once again, I gasped for air.
"I'm not sure if you've figured it out yet, but I'm not going to kill you," Dekes murmured, stepping forward and leaning down, his shoes a foot away from my face. "That would be far too wasteful. Oh, no, Gin. I'm going to keep you alive for as long as I can. So I can dine on your delicious, magical blood for as long as I can. With your blood, with your Ice and Stone magic, I can become twice as powerful as I already am. I know about the void Mab Monroe's death has left in the underworld in Ashland. Perhaps I'll move up there and take over her operations. Wouldn't that be ironic? You killing Mab, and then me using you to pick up the pieces of her organization. It's quite poetic if you think about it."
It was one thing to want to kill me outright, to want to carve me up into bloody bits the way I'd done to so many other people. I could understand that. Hell, I could even respect it. But Dekes was suggesting keeping me around as his f**king pet, the way he had Vanessa, Victoria, and who knew how many other women. I'd already suffered once at his hands, and I had no desire to repeat the experience.
The vampire biting me over and over again, driving his teeth into my neck and wrists, and sucking the magic, power, and life out of me for years, maybe decades, on end. Just thinking about it made me want to vomit. To say that it would be my own personal hell was an understatement. It would be a waking nightmare - one that even I might not be able to endure or escape from.
Once again, I felt cold, cold fear pressing down on me, smothering me, paralyzing me, but I ruthlessly pushed the feeling aside, squashing it under my own rage. Fear was a useless emotion. Fletcher had taught me that with our trip to Bone Mountain so long ago. He'd left me there in the woods and forced me to rely on myself that day so I'd be prepared for moments like this. So that I'd have the strength and the will to overcome my fear and take down anyone who was stupid enough to mess with me.
I drew in a breath and surged up, trying to drive my knife into Dekes's black heart the same way that I had the giant moments before. Trying to end this - now.
But the vampire was expecting the move. He held out his hand and blasted me back down to the floor with the Air magic he'd stolen from Victoria when he'd taken her blood. I tried to get up, but Dekes held out his hand, keeping the force of the Air magic steady across my chest and arms like an invisible lead weight pinning me down. No matter how I strained, cursed, and struggled, I just didn't have enough magic to push back his Air power and free myself.
"And now I'm going to suffocate you," Dekes murmured in a silky voice. "But only until you lose consciousness. After that, I'll have my giants make the necessary arrangements to keep you safe and secure. Oh, Gin. We're going to have so much fun together."
Once again, I reached for my Ice and Stone magic, trying to bring enough of it to bear to block his attack, but my reserves were even more depleted than before. I managed to hold him off for maybe five seconds before I felt the air being sucked out of my lungs. Struggling would only use up my oxygen that much faster, so I forced myself to lie still and try and think of some way to fight back or at least get the vampire to release his hold on his stolen Air magic. Because if I blacked out, this fight was over, and I knew that I wouldn't want to wake up to whatever accommodations Dekes had in mind for me.
But there was nothing I could do. My own magic was too weak to counter Dekes's power, and now I didn't even have the energy or freedom to try to raise the knife in my hand and drive it into the vampire's foot. White, then gray, then black spots began to flash before my eyes, warning of danger, doom, and death. If I could have, I would have howled with rage at Randall Dekes getting the better of me not once but twice now -
A ball of Fire streaked through the air and slammed into the vampire's chest.
Since Dekes had been holding on to his stolen Air magic, the Fire didn't immediately erupt and engulf him the way it would have if he hadn't had any elemental power at his disposal. But the shock of the unexpected flames shattered his concentration, making the invisible, airless bubble around me pop open. I rasped in a gasp of air, and cold tears streamed out of the corners of my eyes at how good it felt to be able to simply breathe again.
But Dekes quickly regained his composure. He curled his hand into a fist, and I felt the invisible power stream out of his clenched fingers. Now, instead of using his Air magic to smother me, the vamp was using it to douse the sparks that had singed his perfect gray shirt.
"Leave her alone," a voice called out.
A second later, Vanessa stepped into view. She stood there facing Dekes, another ball of elemental Fire in her hand. The flares and flickers perfectly matched the hate burning in her black eyes.
Dekes brushed the last of the red-hot sparks off his shirt and gave her the same mocking look that he had given me just moments ago. "What do you think you're doing, Vanessa?"
"Killing you," she snarled. "Finally, finally killing you for everything you've done to me and my sister."
On the floor between them, I sucked down breath after breath, trying to get enough oxygen into my lungs to get back into the fight. My fingers trembled, twitched, and then finally tightened around the hilt of my silverstone knife.
Dekes let out another light, mocking laugh. "Please. As if your puny Fire magic could compare with the Ice and Stone power that I've taken from Gin. You should have gotten out of the mansion while you could have, Vanessa. I admit I would have had fun tracking down you and dear Victoria, but now you're not even going to get the chance to run. I'm going to kill you where you stand and find a stronger Fire elemental to take your place. You know that I don't tolerate insolence."
The elemental Fire flashing in the other woman's hand burned a little brighter and a little hotter at his smug tone. Doubt and fear flickered in Vanessa's eyes, right along with the rage, but she'd gone too far to back down now. This was her moment to finally stand up to Dekes, to finally get payback for the horrible, horrible way that he'd used her, her sister, and their magic. Her spine stiffened, and the flames in her hands intensified.