Bria, Xavier, and Owen rushed over to me, each one hugging me in turn. A minute later, Finn and Phillip appeared at the end of the block and headed in our direction.
“Aw, man,” Finn said, coming up to stand beside me, a black duffel bag dangling from his hand. “I didn’t even get to shoot anybody.”
“Well, look on the bright side,” I drawled. “Your clothes didn’t get messed up. Neither did your hair.”
Finn perked up at my reasoning.
I crouched down next to Silvio, who was still slumped against the wall. His dull gray eyes slowly fixed on me.
“Catalina?” he croaked.
“She’s fine,” I said. “And you will be too. There’s an Air elemental healer we know. We’ll get you over to her lickety-split. But I need to ask you something first.”
“Anything.”
“Where did Benson keep his notes? The ones on his experiments?”
“Most of it was in the ledger I gave you,” Silvio rasped. “But there’s more. In the safe. In the lab.”
I grimaced, but I listened as he told me the combination to the safe. I got to my feet and stepped back, while Xavier bent down and gently picked up Silvio, cradling the vampire in his massive arms as if he weighed no more than a child. He probably didn’t, given all the blood and emotions Benson had drained out of his body.
Owen touched my arm. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.”
He hugged me again, pressing a soft kiss to my forehead, and then he, Xavier, and Phillip got into the sedan and left with Silvio.
Finn rubbed his hands together in unrestrained glee. “Oh, boy. It’s looting time.”
I rolled my eyes. “Go on in if you want to. Go see what else Benson had in his safe.”
Finn jerked his head at Bria, who was standing over the vampire’s body. “What about you guys?”
“We’ll be there in a minute.”
Finn nodded, hopped over the wall, and crossed the lawn, heading for the mansion. I went over to Bria.
My sister stared down at Benson, her gaze moving from his frostbitten face to the crude shackles on his arms and legs to the blood that had filled in all the cracks around him. Her features were blank, but she kept rubbing her fingers over the gold detective’s badge on her black belt.
“Are you sorry that it went down like this?” I asked. “That you weren’t able to arrest him?”
She chewed her lip a moment. “Yes and no. Part of me wanted to bring him in, to do things my way.”
“But?”
“But after seeing what he did to you, knowing how he tortured you . . .” She sighed. “Part of me just wanted him dead. And now he is, thanks to you.”
Bria fixed her gaze on me. “But most of all, I’m glad that you’re okay, Gin. I hope that you can forgive me for dragging you into my war with Benson.”
“There’s nothing to forgive. It was my war too. It has been for months now, ever since the underworld bosses started trying to kill me. I just finally decided to do something about it.”
She nodded, then reached out and hugged me, so tightly that I felt the primrose rune around her neck press into my collarbone. I hugged her back even tighter, telling myself that the cold, hard touch of the silverstone symbol against my skin was what was making me blink back tears. Yeah. Right.
“C’mon,” I said, pulling back. “Let’s go see what’s in the safe before Finn steals it all for himself.”
Bria nodded and linked her arm through mine. Together, we turned and walked away, leaving Beauregard Benson behind for good.
•
Bria and I entered the mansion, which was eerily quiet, and headed down to the basement. The drug den was empty of the addicts I’d seen before, although those thick wads of incense still burned in the corners of the room. I didn’t know where all the people had gone, if Benson had gotten rid of them or if they’d left on their own. But wherever they were, I hoped they got some help.
Bria and I walked through the basement and into the lab. Everything looked the same as I remembered it—the refrigerators in the back, the metal table with its vials of powders and scientific instruments, the chair sitting in the middle of it all like a giant white spider.
Sweat beaded on my forehead as I stared at the chair with its shackles, and I could have sworn that I could hear my own screams echoing through the room. But those were just my memories. I’d survived the chair, I’d survived Benson, and I’d survive my memories too, along with the nightmares they were sure to bring with them.
But I had to move forward, because things weren’t over yet—not between me and the person who had supplied Benson with his Burn pills.
So I moved past the chair and went over to Finn and Bria, who were standing in front of the safe. Finn ran his hands over the metal and let out a low whistle of appreciation.
“Benson wasn’t messing around when it came to this,” he said. “I’m glad you got the combination from Silvio, or we’d be here the rest of the afternoon trying to crack this sucker.”
I rattled off the numbers, and Finn spun the dial, opening the safe. The first thing he pulled out was a brick of cash. He let out another whistle, this one more cheerful than before.
“Nice,” Finn purred, and he tossed the cash into his open duffel bag on the floor.
I looked at Bria. “See what I mean?”
She laughed.
Money, guns, drugs. We found all that and more in the safe, along with dozens of notepads. Only these didn’t contain Benson’s formulas, his clients, or the money he had coming in and going out. They were records of all his twisted experiments on people, including elementals like me.
Finn let out another low whistle, then showed me the entry that Benson had made in his notepad yesterday, after he’d forced that Burn pill down my throat.
Shows immediate, violent reaction to drug. Indicative of subject’s own extreme elemental power, Benson had written in an elegant script. Subject experiencing effects of drug in rapid, accelerated succession. Further tests are definitely needed to test limits of subject’s tolerance and endurance of this and other formulas.
My stomach twisted as I thought of all the pain I’d experienced because of the drug. Once again, my own screams echoed in my ears, but I squashed the phantom sounds. This was the reason I’d asked Silvio where Benson’s notes were. I hadn’t wanted anyone to find the vamp’s observations about me. I didn’t want anyone to know my weaknesses.