Jennifer Estep - By a Thread

Something I’d just made Dekes do without even realizing it.

In a second, it was over. Instead of skewering me and Vanessa with icicles, the silverstone staff soaked up every bit of the Ice magic that Dekes had thrown our way. Now the long metal rod hummed with cold power. My power, my magic, back in my hands, right where it belonged.

Surprise and confusion filled Dekes’s face before melting into anger once more. He reared back his hand again, but this time, only a few silver sparks filled his palm, instead of the pulsing orb of power he expected. The vamp stared down at his hand like he couldn’t believe he didn’t have any more magic left. Arrogance will get you, every single time.

“But how—and why—”

I cut off his sputtering. “Didn’t I tell you? This staff is made out of pure silverstone. You know about silverstone, don’t you, Dekes? How it stores and absorbs magic? All forms of elemental magic? I’m sure you have a piece or two of it in your collections somewhere. Now this staff is full of all that lovely Ice magic that you just threw at us. My Ice magic. And unless I’m mistaken, you’re all out of juice, Randy. And out of time too.”

The vampire’s eyes widened with understanding, but I didn’t give him a chance to do anything but die.

“Now, Vanessa!” I screamed.

She didn’t hesitate. Vanessa stepped out from behind me and threw every scrap of Fire magic that she had left at Dekes. The vamp wasn’t expecting such a quick counterattack, and there was nothing he could have done to stop it anyway. Not now, with all his stolen magic gone. He raised his hands, but it was already too late. Vanessa’s flames slammed into his chest, and this time, Dekes was the one who flew back against the fireplace and thumped to the floor, flames licking at his clothes and skin.

I didn’t give him a chance to get back up.

I raced over to the vampire and cracked him across the skull with the silverstone staff, forcing him to roll over onto his back. The movement smothered most of the flames sizzling on his body, but I didn’t care. I was more than happy to finish the job they’d started myself. I raised up my boot and stomped down on his chest, feeling his ribs crack under the sharp, heavy blow. Dekes groaned, but I didn’t stop. I slammed my foot into the stab wound on his calf, then put my boot over his face and crunched down as hard as I could, like he was a bloodsucking tick that I was squishing into the ground. In a way, I supposed he was.

In another second, I was in as much of a frenzy as Dekes had been last night, when he’d gone crazy at the amount of raw elemental power in my blood. I could have stood there and kicked and punched and beaten the vamp all night long, letting out all of my rage, frustration, and fear, but I forced myself to come back from the edge and finish the job.

Breathing hard, I dropped to one knee beside him, grabbed another one of my silverstone knives from a pocket on my vest, and shoved it into his heart as hard as I could.

Randall Dekes threw back his head and screamed—and he didn’t stop. He drew in a breath, and I clamped my hand down over his mouth. As much as I enjoyed the sound of his pain-filled cries, I wanted him to hear my last words to him—the last words he would ever hear. The vampire looked at me with wide, panicked eyes. I just tightened my grip.

“You know what, Randy? You forgot one thing. No matter how much stolen blood you have running through your veins, no matter how many elementals you drink from, no matter how powerful you think you are, there’s not a fucking thing you can do about a knife in your heart,” I said. “Especially when the Spider is the one who put it there.”

I used my free hand to twist the blade in deeper.

Dekes arched his back, trying to get away from the knife, trying to get away from the pain, trying to get away from me .

I didn’t let him.

Blood covered both of us by that point, pumping out of his heart with every slow twist of my knife. Finally, when I’d pushed the blade all the way down to the hilt in his chest, I ripped it out just as brutally as I’d stabbed it in. I drew my hand away from Dekes’s mouth, letting the vampire scream as much as he wanted to now, even though his voice was already dying down to a raspy whimper and his green eyes were glazing over.

Then I leaned down and cut the bastard’s throat, just to be sure.

I climbed to my feet, stood there, and watched Randall Dekes bleed out. It didn’t take long, considering the vicious wounds I’d inflicted on him, but it was immensely satisfying all the same. Vanessa came to stand beside me. The diamonds and pearls in the choker around her neck and the ones in the matching cuffs on her wrists gleamed like teardrops underneath the library’s lights. They matched the glitter of the elemental Ice on the books and walls.

“You killed him,” she whispered in an awed voice. “You did it. You really killed him.”

“I told you that I would,” I said, giving her a crooked grin. “I always like to keep my promises. And don’t sell yourself short. You helped—a lot. A whole hell of a lot. You saved me from him, Vanessa.”

She nodded, although I didn’t think she’d really heard my words. Her lips pressed together in a thin line, and she kept staring at Dekes with wide, unblinking eyes, as if she couldn’t quite believe he was gone and that she was finally free of him.

Another popular myth about vampires was that they could come back from the dead or that they were even dead, or undead, to start with. But I’d killed enough folks over the years to know that nobody could get up from that last, fatal slice I’d made across Dekes’s throat—vampire or not.

Still, despite what Dekes had done to her and her sister, I thought Vanessa would be okay in the end. After all, the Fire elemental had been strong enough to stand up to the vampire when it had really counted. Instead of leaving the mansion with Owen, Victoria, and the others, Vanessa had come looking for me instead—and Dekes.

She’d had to face him the same way I’d had to, and the Fire elemental was the reason that I was still standing and the vamp wasn’t. If she hadn’t come in and distracted Dekes with her magic when she did, I would have woken up bound, gagged, and at the vamp’s mercy—at the very least. I owed Vanessa for that, whether she realized it or not, and I was going to do whatever I could to help her.

I let the Fire elemental stare at Dekes’s cooling body while I went around the library and picked up all my various knives. I put the extra weapons into the pockets of my vest, but the knives that Owen had crafted for me went into their usual slots. My five-point arsenal, back where it belonged.

I also grabbed Owen’s staff, which still hummed with my Ice magic, just like all my knives did. Of course, the knives had soaked up my power during my final fight with Mab all those weeks ago, but now they contained even more of my magic. I wasn’t quite sure what I’d do with the power that was stored in the weapons, but I was certain I’d find some use for it sooner or later.

When we were both sure that Dekes was rotting in hell where he belonged, Vanessa and I left the library and stepped out into the hallway. I went first, keeping an eye out for any giants who might be left in the mansion, but the men’s hoarse shouts and the sounds of their heavy footsteps had vanished from the house like they’d never even been here. I didn’t know if it was because Finn and the others had killed all the guards or if maybe some of the giants had gotten smart and slipped out of the mansion. Didn’t much matter. If one of them popped up and tried to stop us, I’d put him down just like I had his boss.