Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

Maybe the blood loss was making me hallucinate already, but it almost seemed like I could feel the silverstone scars stubbornly holding on to my power even as Dekes tried to pull it out of my neck. It felt as if I was playing a bizarre tug-of-war with my own magic deep inside my veins. Every time Dekes sucked at my neck, I could feel the scars yanking back, trying to keep my elemental power inside my own body where it belonged instead of flowing through my blood and out into the vamp’s greedy mouth. Too bad I didn’t know what—if any—good it would do me. I might be an elemental, but there was only so much blood that I could lose and still live.

Finally, just when I thought I couldn’t stand another second of the vamp’s fucking fangs in my neck without going absolutely crazy, Dekes lifted his head and stared at me. I’d thought that his eyes had gleamed like a cat’s before, but now they blazed like two emerald suns in his tan features. It was eerie, sickening, and disconcerting, looking into the vamp’s face and seeing my own Ice and Stone power reflected in his gaze. A small, dazed part of me wondered if my eyes ever burned that brightly when I reached for my elemental magic.

Jo-Jo always claimed that I was one of the strongest elementals she’d ever met, and I’d managed to go toe-to-toe with Mab and survive. But the amount of magic that I sensed in the vamp right now was just staggering—and it was supposed to be mine . It was mine, until the bastard had taken it away from me.

“The power,” Dekes murmured in a low, reverent whisper, his words slurring like he was drunk on wine. “I never dreamed of such raw power .”

Then the bastard bit me again, driving his fangs into my right shoulder and snapping my collarbone. I screamed again, although the sound came out as a hoarse rasp, since I was already so weak from the blood loss.

I didn’t know how many people Dekes had fed off during his three hundred–plus years on this earth, how many women he had used for their blood and elemental magic, how many times he had brutalized them until their bodies and power wore out and they simply had nothing more to give him. The vampire had no doubt left hundreds of dead women in his wake, thinking no more of them than humans did of the food they consumed on a daily basis.

But apparently Dekes had never encountered anyone with as much power as I had because the vampire fell into a feeding frenzy, like a shark frantically thrashing around in a sea full of chum, trying to snap up every single bloody, bony scrap that he could. The vamp bit me over and over and over again all across my neck and shoulders, his fangs tearing and ripping and slicing into my flesh as if he couldn’t get enough of my blood, as if he couldn’t ever get enough of the Ice and Stone magic flowing through my veins.

“Stop! Stop it, Randall! You’re taking too much! You’re going to kill her!”

I was dimly aware of Vanessa screaming at the vampire and clawing at him with her hands, trying to pull him off me, but I knew that it was no use. Dekes was high on my elemental power, as high as a junkie on any drug could be, and he wasn’t coming down until there wasn’t a single drop of blood or magic left in me.

The bastard was going to drain me dry—and there was nothing I could do to stop him.

For a moment, I sank into the cold, lethargic blackness that was slowly clouding my vision, my body, my mind. It would be so easy to let go, to let myself drown in the darkness where there was no more pain, no more torture, no more anything . . .

Fuck that, I growled at myself. Gin Blanco never gave up—not now, not ever.

I’d found my way out of a collapsed coal mine, I’d been electrocuted by LaFleur—hell, I’d even killed Mab fucking Monroe against all the odds. I’d survived all those things, and I’d come out stronger each time. Not to mention Bria, Finn, the Deveraux sisters, and Owen. I had them to live for now, and I wasn’t going to let some psychotic, power-hungry vamp be the end of me.

Think, Gin . Think .

I struggled to push away the numbing blackness from my mind and focus. My situation wasn’t good. I was tied down, immobilized, and bleeding from the deep, vicious bites that Dekes had inflicted on my neck and shoulders. Even if I were free, there was no way I could have fought my way past the vampire and the giants in the room. Not now, when I was so weak and injured and when Dekes had already stolen so much of my Ice and Stone magic.

Desperately, my gaze zoomed around the library, looking for something, anything, that would help me out of this mess. That would at least make Dekes stop biting me and give me a chance to fucking regroup. But there was nothing. Just books and giants and Vanessa screaming and Victoria lying limp on the couch . . .

My eyes focused on the other woman’s unconscious body, and a plan popped into my head. I couldn’t fight my way out of here, but maybe I didn’t have to. All I needed was a little bit of magic, but that was another problem. There was no way that I could reach for my own power, not with Dekes sucking it out of me as fast as he could—but maybe I didn’t have to do that either.

I looked down at the spider rune ring on my right index finger—the one that contained my Ice magic. I didn’t know if my crazy plan would work, but it was the only chance I had left.

I pushed the pain of Dekes biting me, of his teeth tearing into my neck, to the very back of my mind, surrounded it with imaginary stone walls, and locked it away where it wouldn’t distract me. Then I reached for the Ice magic stored in my ring.

Normally when I used my Ice magic, I pushed it outward, releasing the power through my hands and using it to create lockpicks, knives, and other shapes. But this time, I forced the magic inward, coating my own heart with elemental Ice and then letting the magic spread to my lungs and the rest of my internal organs before carefully pushing it out toward my skin.

Thump . . . thump . . . thump . . .

My heart slowed, and my breathing stuttered, as my lungs frosted over. For a moment, I wondered if I’d miscalculated, if I was actually killing myself with my own magic instead of saving my ass. But I’d subconsciously used my Ice magic to preserve my body once before when I’d jumped into the Aneirin River in the winter, and I was hoping the same thing would happen here. I needed that to happen, or I was as good as dead. Besides, Jo-Jo had always said that my elemental magic was part of me and that it was mine to command however I wished—not the other way around.

I hoped the dwarf was right, because I was about to bet my life on her wisdom.

When I pulled enough Ice magic into my body to make myself completely cold and numb, I rasped out a great shuddering, agonizing cry, arching and thrashing against the ropes as much and as violently as I could. They didn’t call them death throes for nothing.

The sudden bucking motion surprised Dekes enough to get him to stop biting me and lift his head. I kept up with my twitching and thrashing, and the vampire took a step back, wondering what the hell was going on. His eyes were even brighter than before, and once more, I could see my own power burning in his gaze. The sight made me angry—so fucking angry —and even more determined to get out of this alive. Randall Dekes would not be the death of me. He would not .

I kept up my fake death throes for another ten seconds before closing my eyes, slumping forward in the chair as much as I could, given the ropes that held me tight, and letting my body go completely slack.

Nobody moved, nobody spoke. All I could hear was Dekes’s ragged breathing as the vampire struggled to come down from the magical high he was riding on.