Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

I’d wanted to be prepared in case Dekes decided to send me a message for roughing up his two goons, and it looked like the vampire’s men were knocking on my door. The poor bastards should have walked away when they’d had the chance—because I wasn’t giving them a second one.

I eased out of my bedroom and tiptoed across the dark suite, using the mental map that I’d made earlier to skirt around the couches, tables, and other furniture. I stepped up to the door, careful to keep away from the glass peephole so that whoever was lurking around outside wouldn’t realize I was awake and already waiting for them.

I looked across the suite at the closed door that led to Bria’s bedroom. As an elemental, she’d be able to hear the stone’s cries too, although they wouldn’t resonate as loudly with her, since she had Ice magic and not Stone like I did. I waited a moment, wondering whether she’d heard my alarm and would come out and investigate, but her door remained closed. Looked like I’d have to deal with our visitors myself. Not a problem.

I blocked out the stone’s wails, put my ear close to the door, and listened. Right next to me, the brass doorknob softly turned and rattled.

“Sorry,” someone muttered on the other side of the door. “Wrong key. It’s this one, I think. The third time’s the charm, right?”

So he’d tried two wrong keys already, and that’s what had triggered the protection runes in the stone. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. If he’d used the right key the first time, he might have avoided tripping my silent alarm.

“You’d better do more than think,” a familiar voice growled. “That bitch skewered my hand like it was a fucking kebab, and I plan on doing the same to her—and worse.”

So Pete Procter, the guy I’d stabbed earlier at the Sea Breeze, was outside, along with his friend with the keys. But neither one of them were elementals, otherwise they would have heard my alarm and realized they were walking into a trap. Too bad for them.

“And Ron, one of the night clerks, told me that sweet little blond piece of ass is in there with her too,” Pete continued. “We’ll have fun taking turns with her. Maybe both of them, all of us, at the same time. There’ll be enough for everyone.”

Pete laughed at his ugly promise, and I heard a few more sly chuckles chime in with his. Make that more than one friend outside. I smiled in the darkness like an animal baring its fangs. Good. I’d hate to get out of bed just for Pete.

“There,” the second guy said. “I told you I had the right key. Get ready.”

A soft snick sounded as the door unlocked. I eased away from it and stepped behind a fake palm tree in a brass pot in the front corner of the suite.

The door opened a crack, and a pair of bolt cutters slid through the narrow space and caught on the security chain. From my hiding spot, I saw a hand squeeze down on the cutters, which easily sliced through the flimsy metal. Trent, the giant, I thought. He’d have the strength to use the cutters with one hand, and he was probably as pissed at me as Pete was for busting him up earlier. That made at least three guys outside. I wondered how many more Dekes had sent, or if they’d decided to do this on their lonesome. Didn’t much matter. They were all getting dead.

“Quiet now,” Pete whispered. “I don’t want those bitches to know what hit them. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll still catch them in bed and make it that much easier for us. We’ll do the two of them tonight, then go out to the restaurant tomorrow and do the same thing to Reyes.”

More dark chuckles filled the air, but they weren’t nearly as black as the cold rage that slowly seeped into my body. It was one thing to threaten me—that was part of my job description as the Spider. But nobody— nobody —came after my baby sister and lived to tell about it. Randall Dekes and his men had just made this fight very, very personal.

The door whispered opened, and light spilled in from the hallway outside. I stayed where I was, hidden behind the potted palm, and let my eyes adjust to the growing brightness. The door opened all the way, and Pete stepped inside the suite. He had on the same garish shirt he’d worn earlier at the Sea Breeze, and his right hand was heavily bandaged where I’d rammed my knife through his palm. That wouldn’t be the only cut he got tonight—not by a long shot.

Another guy, a short human, slipped in behind him holding a large ring of keys that went jingle-jingle-jingle together.

“Quiet!” Pete hissed.

The guy stuffed the keys into his pants pocket. He wore the white linen uniform I’d noticed on the valets earlier, which meant that he worked here at the Blue Sands. Of course he did. Callie had said that Dekes owned the hotel. No doubt the vamp had several folks on staff he could call on for occasions just like this one.

A giant I didn’t recognize crept in behind the valet, and Trent, the giant I’d beaten down before at the restaurant, brought up the rear. The four men eased down the three stone steps into the living room, and there was a whispered conversation as they debated which of the bedrooms to search first.

I stayed where I was, waiting to see if anyone else would follow the men inside, but no one else appeared, and I didn’t hear any soft scuffles of footsteps on the carpet or see any shadows in the hall. Four of them, one of me. Bad odds for them.

The worst fucking odds of their lives.

“There’s no way they’re getting past us,” Pete whispered. “Charlie, turn on the lights so we can see what the fuck we’re doing.”

Charlie, the valet with the key ring, trotted back up the steps and obligingly flipped the switch on the far wall. The second the lights came on, I stepped out from behind the potted tree and kicked the door shut behind me. Didn’t want to be a bad guest and wake the neighbors with the screams that were sure to come.

The door thumped into place, making Charlie, the guy closest to me, whirl around in surprise.

“What the hell—”

That’s all he got out before my knife rammed into his heart, and a crimson stain blossomed like a tropical flower on his white shirt. Charlie was dead before I yanked out the blade and let his body thump to the floor. For a second, the other three men looked at me, eyes wide, mouths open, as if they couldn’t believe that I was up, ready, and waiting for them.

“Get that bitch!” Pete screamed, all pretense of being quiet and sneaky gone. “Now!”

And the fight was on.

Pete rushed at me first. I waited until he was on the stairs, then stepped forward and slammed my fist into his face. He stumbled back, falling off the stairs and hitting a wooden coffee table before rolling off the side and landing on his ass. Before I could follow and finish him off, the two giants came at me.

Swing-swing-swing .

Trent and the other giant worked in tandem, leaping up the steps and lashing out with their fists, trying to pin me against the door, where they could take their time beating me to death. But I slid to one side and scooted back behind the potted tree. The second giant reached through the leaves, trying to grab hold of me, but I ducked around the other side.

Swipe-swipe-swipe .

The giant didn’t even get a chance to untangle himself from the tree before I palmed another knife and started in on him. He was half turned toward me, so I couldn’t slam my blades into his heart and put him down immediately the way I wanted to, but I cut up the right side of his thick, muscular chest like I was butterflying a slab of meat. The giant screamed and staggered back, but I kept right on going with him, opening his stomach from one side to the other, blood and intestines spilling across the white marble floor. The giant screamed again, his feet going out from under him, and slumped to the floor. I drove my knife into his throat, cutting off his hoarse cries of pain, before yanking it back out. He toppled over and joined the valet on the floor, both of them dead.