Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

“You’d better believe it, sweetheart,” I said. “I’m the Spider. If you haven’t heard of me, well, you should know one thing—I never, ever go back on my word.”

Vanessa nodded. That was good enough for her. She followed me out of the room, and I grabbed the cell phone out of my vest again.

“Vanessa and Victoria are secure,” I said. “Let’s meet up and get them out of here before I go after Dekes.”

“Roger that,” Finn said a few seconds later. “Let’s regroup on the front lawn.”

“See you there.”

I put the phone away, and we moved down the hallway. Donovan and Callie were in the lead, followed by Owen carrying Victoria, then Vanessa, then me. More shouts and screams filled the house now, along with growing clouds of black, billowing smoke. I could feel the heat of Vanessa’s Fire magic still burning in the hallway behind me, gaining strength with every painting, carving, and piece of furniture it gobbled up. If Dekes didn’t send some of his men to contain it, the flames could very well engulf the whole mansion and incinerate all the vamp’s precious collections. What a shame that would be.

We came to another crossway. Donovan and Callie looked right, then left, before they both hurried across the open space to the hallway on the other side. Owen hefted Victoria in his arms and made it to the other side as well, along with Vanessa.

I’d just started to join them when three giants appeared at the end of the left hallway. They saw me standing there. For a moment they froze before all rushing at me at once.

Now I had a choice to make.

I could hurry and join the others, and we could try to outrun the giants and meet up with Finn, Bria, and Sophia. But I wasn’t sure exactly where they were right now, and the giants knew the mansion far better than we did. Even with me acting as the rear guard, it would still put the others at risk, especially Callie and Victoria. All it took was one blow, one bullet, to end a person’s life. No matter how hard I fought, the giants could always get lucky, and then someone would die.

I’d promised Bria I’d save Callie, and I’d promised Vanessa I’d get her and Victoria out of here. They’d all already suffered enough at the fangs of Randall Dekes, and I wasn’t going to let the giants in front of me get their hands on the women—not now, when they were so close to being free of the vamp forever.

But even more than that, I’d made a promise to myself that Dekes would pay for what he’d done to me, and I wasn’t leaving until the vamp was good and bloody and dead. I needed to kill him for my own peace of mind. If I didn’t, I knew the tiny seed of fear and doubt Dekes had planted in me would grow and grow until it crippled me, until I wouldn’t be able to think of anything else but my failure to kill him and take back the confidence he’d stolen, right along with my magic.

So that left option number two, which was me standing and fighting—alone—while the others escaped.

“Gin!” Donovan shouted. “Come on! We have to go. Now!”

I shook my head, and my eyes met Owen’s across the distance. Gray on violet, with so many emotions crackling in the air between us. Love. Desire. Concern. But most of all, understanding.

Owen knew why I’d really come back here and what I had to do if I was going to overcome my fear and the ultimate pain of what Dekes had done to me. He hadn’t said anything, but he knew I wouldn’t be able to live with myself otherwise. That I wouldn’t be able to be me, to be the Spider. Owen didn’t like it, but he understood—he always understood me.

“Be careful,” I thought he said, although I couldn’t hear the words over the yells of the giants running toward me.

“Always,” I replied, although I doubted he could hear me either.

My lover nodded, turned, and headed down the hallway with Victoria. A second later, Donovan let out a curse and started after him, holding Callie’s hand.

Only Vanessa remained behind, frowning at me. Some emotion flared in the Fire elemental’s eyes, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Not with the three guards pounding toward me, getting closer with every second.

“Get out of here! Don’t wait for me!” I yelled, waving my hand at her in a go-go-go motion.

Her tight, worried face was the last thing I saw before I turned again to face the giants.

Owen had given me his silverstone staff when he’d picked up Victoria, and I decided to put the weapon to good use. I tightened my grip on the staff and started twirling it in my hands, quickly getting a feel for the long weapon. Despite being made out of pure silverstone, it was surprisingly light.

The three giants rushed at me. Unlike their friends, they didn’t bother going for the guns they wore under their suit jackets. No, they just wanted to get their hands on me and beat me to death, but I wasn’t about to let that happen.

I stepped up to meet the first giant, slamming the staff into his chest, then pivoting and snapping it around and down, driving it into his left knee and making him lose his balance. He fell to the floor, and his two buddies stumbled over him before righting themselves and coming after me again.

Back and forth we fought. They charged at me again and again, pushing me farther and farther down the hallway with every step we took. I danced in between them, hitting first one, then another, then another with the staff. I opened up cuts and made bruises blossom on their heads, legs, and chests, but I just didn’t have the upper body strength that Owen did, so my blows weren’t quite as vicious as his. Still, I was grateful for the staff, as it kept the giants from immediately overwhelming me. I knew that if I let just one of the bastards put his hands on me I was dead, especially since I didn’t have my Ice and Stone magic to fall back on—or at least not as much of it as I normally would have.

Finally, I managed to get one of the giants down on the floor again. I leaped forward and overturned a table, putting it between me and the other two men, then whipped around to the guy who was on the ground behind me. Before he could recover, I hopped up into a chair that was sitting along the wall and raised up my weapon. Using my weight and momentum, I drove the end of the staff into his head as hard as I could. I managed to hit the sweet spot at his right temple, and his face made a sick, squishing sound as that part of his skull caved in. The other two giants were still trying to get around the table, so I raised the staff and brought it down again in the same place. The left side of the giant’s skull cracked against the stone floor, and blood started to gush out of the head wounds I’d inflicted. He wouldn’t be getting up from those. Not quite dead, but close enough to it not to matter right now.

I stepped back, putting his body between me and the other men, and twirled the staff once more. One down, two to go.

I got a lucky break when the second giant slipped and fell in the blood of his fallen buddy, and I drove the staff into his skull a couple of times just like I had with the first man.

But the last bastard just wouldn’t die. Again and again, he came at me. He was quick for a giant and had good instincts, which was why he managed to sidestep my blows time after time. I was so busy fighting him that it took me a few seconds to realize he’d managed to force me all the way down the hallway and back into the library.

I risked a quick glance over my shoulder to make sure no more giants were waiting inside to sneak up on me from behind. A blur of books filled my vision before I focused on the danger in front of me once more.