I used my free hand to twist the blade in deeper.
Dekes arched his back, trying to get away from the knife, trying to get away from the pain, trying to get away from me.
I didn't let him.
Blood covered both of us by that point, pumping out of his heart with every slow twist of my knife. Finally, when I'd pushed the blade all the way down to the hilt in his chest, I ripped it out just as brutally as I'd stabbed it in. I drew my hand away from Dekes's mouth, letting the vampire scream as much as he wanted to now, even though his voice was already dying down to a raspy whimper and his green eyes were glazing over.
Then I leaned down and cut the bastard's throat, just to be sure.
Chapter 25
I climbed to my feet, stood there, and watched Randall Dekes bleed out. It didn't take long, considering the vicious wounds I'd inflicted on him, but it was immensely satisfying all the same. Vanessa came to stand beside me. The diamonds and pearls in the choker around her neck and the ones in the matching cuffs on her wrists gleamed like teardrops underneath the library's lights. They matched the glitter of the elemental Ice on the books and walls.
"You killed him," she whispered in an awed voice. "You did it. You really killed him."
"I told you that I would," I said, giving her a crooked grin. "I always like to keep my promises. And don't sell yourself short. You helped - a lot. A whole hell of a lot. You saved me from him, Vanessa."
She nodded, although I didn't think she'd really heard my words. Her lips pressed together in a thin line, and she kept staring at Dekes with wide, unblinking eyes, as if she couldn't quite believe he was gone and that she was finally free of him.
Another popular myth about vampires was that they could come back from the dead or that they were even dead, or undead, to start with. But I'd killed enough folks over the years to know that nobody could get up from that last, fatal slice I'd made across Dekes's throat - vampire or not.
Still, despite what Dekes had done to her and her sister, I thought Vanessa would be okay in the end. After all, the Fire elemental had been strong enough to stand up to the vampire when it had really counted. Instead of leaving the mansion with Owen, Victoria, and the others, Vanessa had come looking for me instead - and Dekes.
She'd had to face him the same way I'd had to, and the Fire elemental was the reason that I was still standing and the vamp wasn't. If she hadn't come in and distracted Dekes with her magic when she did, I would have woken up bound, gagged, and at the vamp's mercy - at the very least. I owed Vanessa for that, whether she realized it or not, and I was going to do whatever I could to help her.
I let the Fire elemental stare at Dekes's cooling body while I went around the library and picked up all my various knives. I put the extra weapons into the pockets of my vest, but the knives that Owen had crafted for me went into their usual slots. My five-point arsenal, back where it belonged.
I also grabbed Owen's staff, which still hummed with my Ice magic, just like all my knives did. Of course, the knives had soaked up my power during my final fight with Mab all those weeks ago, but now they contained even more of my magic. I wasn't quite sure what I'd do with the power that was stored in the weapons, but I was certain I'd find some use for it sooner or later.
When we were both sure that Dekes was rotting in hell where he belonged, Vanessa and I left the library and stepped out into the hallway. I went first, keeping an eye out for any giants who might be left in the mansion, but the men's hoarse shouts and the sounds of their heavy footsteps had vanished from the house like they'd never even been here. I didn't know if it was because Finn and the others had killed all the guards or if maybe some of the giants had gotten smart and slipped out of the mansion. Didn't much matter. If one of them popped up and tried to stop us, I'd put him down just like I had his boss.
While we'd been fighting Dekes in the library, something else had happened - Vanessa's elemental Fire had spread through the mansion, leaping from one hallway to the next. The flames burned through the structure unchecked, and most of the west wing was already fully engulfed, with the rest of the house soon to follow. We headed toward the main staircase to go out the front door but had to turn back because of the smoke and intense heat.
Vanessa stood there, watching the flames lick at the walls in front of us. The fire had already engulfed the rooms on either side of the hallway, the ones that housed all the things Dekes had collected over the years. The models, the lockets, the antique dolls. The bright glow matched the fierce emotion in her eyes.
"Burn, baby, burn," she muttered in a hard, satisfied voice.
I cleared my throat. "As much as I hate to interrupt the supreme satisfaction you're taking in watching the mansion blaze to the ground, I'd really like to get out of here before the whole house collapses on top of us."
Vanessa gave me a chagrined smile. "This way," she said, leading me down another hallway.
The flames seemed to chase us through the house, moving almost as fast as we did, and we were coughing and choking on smoke by the time we finally stumbled out of one of the side doors. We stood there a moment, getting our breath back and letting the night air clear our lungs, before walking around to the front of the mansion. My cell phone had been broken during my fights with the last giant and Dekes, but I knew that the others would be there waiting for me, just as I would have been for them.
My friends, my family, stood on the front lawn, a safe distance back from the burning mansion. Owen, Finn, Bria, Sophia. They stared up at the flames, waiting for me to walk out of them, waiting for me to come back to them the way I always did - the way I hoped I always would.
Nearby, Jo-Jo was using her Air magic to tend to Callie and Victoria, who were both on the grass even farther back from the roaring flames. Jo-Jo had already healed Callie's minor injuries, and Callie watched while the dwarf worked her Air magic on Victoria. The dwarf had the girl's head cradled in her lap and was slowly stroking her hair, whispering to her, even though Victoria was still unconscious. I could see the power glimmering in Jo-Jo's eyes all the way across the massive lawn, and I knew that Victoria would be alert and awake by the time the dwarf got done with her.
A few of Dekes's men who'd escaped our hunting party and the fire milled around on the grass and stared up at the burning house as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. I wondered if they were waiting for their boss to stroll out of the dancing flames. If so, they'd be waiting a long, long time. If there was any justice in the great beyond, Randall Dekes was already getting ripe and toasty in hell.