Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

We hurried down the hallway, keeping a lookout for any guards and peering into all the rooms we passed. Every single room, every single wall—hell, every single tabletop—featured some part of Dekes’s collections, whether it was gleaming pirate treasure, stacks of classic albums, or other, weirder, creepier things.

“Never trust a vampire who collects dolls,” Owen muttered as we passed that particular room.

We eventually came to a crossway with halls that branched off in four directions. I stopped, looking and listening, but I didn’t hear anything. No footsteps, no shouts, no snaps of gunfire. I grabbed the cell phone out of my vest and held it up to my ear.

“What’s your position?”

Some faint pops and crackles sounded through the phone before Finn picked up a second later. “Took out the first three guards in the front of the house, then another one who rushed out to join them. Bria, Sophia, and I are going in the front door now.”

“We’re on the third floor and about to start searching the wings up here,” I said. “There are probably at least two more guards coming your way. Be careful.”

“Always.”

I put the phone back into my vest pocket.

“Which way?” Donovan asked.

I thought back, trying to remember as much as I could from the tour Dekes had given me last night.

“Left,” I said. “The library’s down the right hall, and the one beside that leads down to the pool. I doubt that Callie’s in either one of those places. Dekes would want her to be tucked away somewhere more secure and out of sight.”

The three of us turned left and did the same procedure as before, walking quickly and quietly, weapons up and ready, keeping a watch out for any guards and peering into all the rooms that we passed. We reached another hallway, and I gestured for the others to hang back a second. I crept up to the edge of the wall, slid down until I was crouched on my knees, and slowly peered around to the other side.

Jackpot.

The hallway stretched out about thirty feet before coming to a dead end. The door at the end of the hall was shut, and a giant stood tall and stiff in front of it, a concerned look on his face and a cell phone in his left hand. That must be how he was communicating with the other guards. Judging from the loud squawks coming out of the phone, the news wasn’t good.

I pulled back and got to my feet.

“I think we’ve found at least one of the women,” I whispered to the others. “Callie most likely, since there’s only one guard, a giant standing in front of what looks like a locked door. I’ll deal with him. You two watch the other halls in case there are more of them lurking around.”

Owen and Donovan nodded. I drew in a breath and grabbed another knife out of my vest. Neither one of the blades in my hand had my spider rune stamped into the hilt. The symbol wasn’t much to look at, just a small circle surrounded by eight thin rays, but I still missed the feel of the rune pressing into the larger, matching scars on my palms. Maybe it was silly, but it comforted me to know that my knives bore my mark, my rune, my name. More than that, the weapons had been a gift from Owen, and I wasn’t leaving here without them.

But I pushed those distracting thoughts away and concentrated on what I needed to do right now—kill the giant in front of me. There would be plenty of time to search for my knives once the women were free and Dekes and his men were dead.

So I tightened my grip on the blades, rounded the corner, and sprinted down the hall as fast as I could.

The giant had been murmuring something into his cell phone, but his head snapped up at the sound of my boots stomping against the stones. The giant’s mouth fell open, and he blinked as if he couldn’t quite believe that I was actually running at him instead of screaming, turning around, and going in the other direction. By the time his brain figured out that I was in fact real and not some weird trick of his imagination, it was too late. My knives flashed silver in the light before sinking into his chest. Three quick cuts, one to his heart, and two to his stomach, and the giant was down. Still, I leaned over and slit his throat, just to be sure.

“Clear!” I called out.

Donovan and Owen rounded the corner and hurried up behind me. Donovan rattled the door, which was locked, while Owen kept his eyes trained on the hall, watching our backs. I stooped to one knee beside the giant, ignoring the blood and guts still pouring out of his body, and started patting him down. I fished a key ring out of one of his jacket pockets and held it out to the detective.

“Here. Try one of these.”

Donovan grabbed the metal ring. It took him three tries before he found the right key and the lock clicked open. Still holding his gun, Donovan grabbed the knob with his free hand. I took up a position on the opposite side and nodded at him. The detective nodded back. He threw open the door, and we both cautiously peered into the room, weapons up and ready, just in case there were more guards stationed inside.

But the room was empty—except for Callie.

She slumped on a bed in the far corner, right underneath a picture window covered with silverstone bars. She raised her head at the sound of the door opening. One of her eyes had started to blacken, and I noticed several cuts and bruises on her hands and arms, but other than that, she seemed to be in good shape. At least the skin on her neck and wrists was unbroken and not littered with bite marks like Vanessa’s had been. No doubt she’d struggled with the giants who’d kidnapped her, and Dekes had probably smacked her around a little more to get her to sign over her property to him, but the vampire hadn’t sunk his fangs into her.

Of course he hadn’t. Callie wasn’t an elemental, so she didn’t have any magic he could steal. Dekes probably thought his palate far too sophisticated to sully it with mere human blood. It was a small favor that he hadn’t bitten her, but I’d take what I could get.

“Callie!” Donovan cried out, and rushed over to her.

Callie’s eyes widened at the sight of him, and she scrambled up off the bed. “Donovan! Oh, Donovan! I knew that you’d come for me! I just knew it!”

Tears streamed down her face, and she pressed her lips to his. Donovan hesitated a moment before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.

I wondered if the detective was thinking that he hadn’t really come for his fiancée after all—I had. If Donovan could have had his way, he would have knocked on the front door and one of Dekes’s giants probably would have put a bullet through his head a minute later.

But because I wasn’t a total bitch, I let them kiss for a few seconds before I cleared my throat. The two of them broke apart and looked at me, Callie with fear and wariness, and Donovan with guilt.

“Come on,” I said in a harsher voice than I would have liked. I wasn’t jealous of Callie, not really, but the detective had never looked that relieved to see me before—something that still hurt, despite all this time. “The reunion’s over. We’ve still got two more women to find and rescue.”

Donovan nodded. He took Callie’s hand and led her out of the room without a word. He didn’t look at me when he passed. He didn’t want to see the cold, mocking anger in my eyes.

Couldn’t blame him for that.

We rejoined Owen in the hallway. While we’d been rescuing Callie, he’d grabbed the guard’s cell phone and was listening to the crackles of conversation on the other end.