She nodded. Bria started to take the phone from me, but before she could touch it, the cell started ringing. My eyes narrowed. I hadn't given Finn the number, and there was only one person I knew of who would have a reason to call LaFleur right now.

So I snapped the phone open and answered it. "Hello, Mab."

Silence.

I waited a few seconds. After it became apparent that she wasn't going to answer me, I decided to initiate the conversation.

"Your girl LaFleur's dead," I said in the cheeriest tone that I could manage, considering the fact that I'd almost been electrocuted tonight. I stared at the other assassin's body. "And growing colder by the second."

"You." Mab's voice was dark, cold, and ugly in my ear.

"Me," I replied, a bucket of sunshine in comparison. "You've been busy since the last time we talked. When was that? Oh, yeah. The night that I killed Elliot Slater at his quaint little mountain retreat."

More silence.

Bria just stared at me, listening to my side of the conversation with the Fire elemental. My sister's mouth tightened into a thin line.

"I have to admit that you gave me a good fight this time," I said. "Hiring LaFleur to come to Ashland to try to kill me was an inspired move, since it was so obvious that none of your own men were going to get the job done. Too bad you backed the wrong horse. Again. But that seems to be a bad habit of yours. One that I'm going to end very, very soon."

"So you killed LaFleur tonight," Mab snarled. "So what? It's not going to save you in the end, Spider."

"Probably not," I murmured, staring up at Bria. "But it sure as hell was fun."

I hung up the phone and passed it back to Bria. It started ringing again the second that she touched it, but she waited until it had stopped before turning away from me, flipping it open, and calling in her kidnapping.

While she did that, I picked up one of my wayward knives and used the hilt to draw my spider rune into the gravel right next to LaFleur's body. Mab already knew I'd been here, of course, but I wanted to drive the point home to her, so to speak.

A few minutes later, just as Bria was finishing up her call, a pair of headlights popped into view at the far end of the train yard. By this point, I'd managed to get to my feet and retrieve all of my silverstone knives, so I palmed one of the weapons, just in case the vehicle held more of Mab's men. Bria didn't have a weapon; she picked a long piece of pipe up out of the junk in the train yard and held it down by her side. She came up to stand beside me, even though she didn't look at me.

Tires crunched on the gravel, and a large silver SUV rolled over to us. The doors opened, and Finn got out of the passenger's side. I expected Sophia Deveraux to hop out of the driver's seat, but to my surprise, Owen slid out of the vehicle instead.

The two men jogged over to us. Owen stopped in front of me, his violet gaze sweeping over my body, but when he realized that I was in more or less one piece, some of the tight concern in his face faded away.

I held up one of the bloody knives he'd given me for Christmas. "You should give me presents more often. Because this one worked like a charm."

Owen shook his head and just smiled at me.

Finn was a little more practical about things. Once he looked me over and made sure that I was okay for the time being, my foster brother directed his attention to Bria.

"Detective," he said. "You're looking well this evening, all things considered."

"Lane," Bria replied in a cool voice, crossing her arms over her chest. "You're acting as smarmy as ever."

Finn grinned, his green eyes twinkling. He loved a challenge, especially when the current object of his affection so obviously hated him. Or at least hated him knowing that she was attracted to him. Even after everything that had happened tonight, a spark of interest filled Bria's face as she stared at Finn before she managed to hide it. Finn saw it too, which made his grin widen that much more.

"We need to leave," I said, interrupting his leering at Bria. "Bria's called the cops and told them about her ... kidnapping this evening. And lucky intervention and rescue by the mysterious Spider."

Finn and Owen stared at me, then at Bria. My baby sister shifted on her feet, but she met their curious gazes head-on.

"The cops will be here any minute," she said in a cool voice. "So I suggest the three of you leave before they arrive-or I decide to change my story."

Owen came over and gently put his arm around me to help me to the SUV. Finn stayed where he was. He looked at Bria, then back again at me, a more hopeful look on his face now. I shook my head, telling him that nothing had been resolved between the two of us.

Bria saw the exchange and frowned. Our gazes met and held again. So many emotions shimmered in her bright blue eyes. Shock. Relief. Weariness. And just a touch of fear. The last one saddened me more than I'd thought possible. I didn't want my baby sister to be afraid of me. I wanted her to see the hope and longing that filled my heart. I wanted her to know I would never, ever hurt her. I wanted her to accept me, if only for this one brief moment.

Whatever Bria saw in my face, it wasn't enough to break through this wall between us-a wall I'd built brick by brick, body by bloody body, as the Spider.

"Come on, Gin," Owen said.

His arm tightened protectively around me, as if he could somehow shield me from having my heart broken by my sister. It was already too late for that, though.

"We need to get you to Jo-Jo's," he finished. "You're hurt. You need to be healed."

Bria was the only one who could really heal me right now, who could soothe this fierce ache in my heart. But apparently my sister wasn't interested in having anything else to do with me, because she turned away from my hopeful, searching gaze.

There was nothing I could do but accept her decision-at least for tonight. So I nodded and let Owen help me over to the waiting SUV. Finn followed us.

Bria stood there next to Elektra LaFleur's body and watched us disappear into the night.

Chapter 29

Owen loaded me into the front of his SUV and drove me over to Jo-Jo's. Once we got there, Finn took his own Aston Martin back to the train yard, to keep an eye on Bria from a discreet distance and see how the cops and Mab Monroe reacted to the latest strike by the Spider. I wanted someone that I trusted nearby in case things didn't go as Bria thought they would. If worse came to worse, Finn would charge in and get my sister out of there-whether she wanted to go or not.

Owen put his arm around me again and helped me up the three steps to Jo-Jo's wraparound porch. Before he could use the knocker to bang on the door, I grabbed his arm. I tilted my head back and stared up at him.

"You didn't have to come with Finn, tonight," I said.

Owen looked down at me, his violet eyes flashing like amethysts in the semidarkness. "Yes, I did. Because I care about you, Gin. A lot."

He didn't use the L-word, but there was a catch in his voice that told me that he was thinking about it. Maybe Eva had told him that would also be too much, too fast. I smiled at the thought.

"What's so funny?" he murmured.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."

His arms tightened around me, and I felt the warmth of his body sink into my own. It felt good. It felt right. For a moment, I just stood there and wondered at the soft concern filling his face. I didn't know how or when or even why it had happened, but Owen truly cared about me, bloody knives and all. He'd shown it to me over and over again these past few days, but for the first time, I let myself believe in him-and us.

"There's nothing I can do that's going to drive you away, is there?" I murmured.

Owen flashed me a sly grin. "Finally figuring that out, are you?"

I nodded.

His grin deepened. "Well, it sure took you long enough."

We stood there on the porch another moment, just holding on to each other, before Owen helped me inside and back into the salon. Jo-Jo was there waiting, along with Sophia.

I sat down and leaned back in one of the cherry red salon chairs like I'd done so many times before. Jo-Jo raised her hand, and her Air elemental magic filled the room as she started to heal me. For some reason, it didn't bother me as much as it had before. Oh, her magic still felt like she was pricking me with thousands of sharp needles all at the same time, but it didn't make me grit my teeth the way it usually did, and the silverstone scars on my palms didn't itch and burn nearly as much.

Maybe my nerves had been fried a little more than I'd thought by LaFleur's electricity. Or maybe it was because anything would have felt good in comparison to the jolts that the other assassin had given me tonight. LaFleur might be dead, but I'd remember the crackling power of her magic forever, another little scar on my psyche to go along with all the others that were already there, all the other people I'd managed to kill by skill or magic or sheer luck, like Alexis James, Tobias Dawson, and Elliot Slater.

"There," Jo-Jo said about three minutes later and dropped her hand. "All done."

"That's it?" I asked, surprised it hadn't taken her longer to patch me up. "That's all?"

The dwarf shrugged. "You weren't beat up as bad as you usually are. Those electrical burns were nasty, but not nearly as deep as they could have been."

I frowned. "But what about LaFleur's magic? She blasted me with her electrical power over and over. I thought she was going to kill me with it."

"And you used your Ice magic to counter it," Jo-Jo said, her colorless eyes boring into mine. "She might have got a couple of good licks in on you at first, but then you wised up, and your magic blocked most of hers. I've been telling you all along that you're strong, darling. When are you finally going to believe me?"

For once I didn't shiver at her ominous words. Instead, I sat there in the chair and thought about things. Maybe when I killed Mab Monroe and lived to tell the tale-maybe then I'd believe the dwarf and her claims about just how strong my elemental magic was. But there was a lot more story to be told before then. Many more things needed to be put in place before Mab and I had our final dance. Tonight I was just happy the other assassin was no longer a threat.

An hour later, Jo-Jo, Sophia, Owen, and I were in the kitchen, while Vinnie and Natasha were sound asleep upstairs. Neither one of them had heard Owen bring me in, and I'd asked Jo-Jo not to wake them. They needed their rest.

Jo-Jo had just finished making us all some hot apple cider when Finn came strolling in through the kitchen door. He, of course, turned his nose up at the cider and opted to pour himself a cup of chicory coffee instead.

"So how did things go at the train yard?" I asked. "Is Bria okay?"

"I was actually surprised," Finn said, taking a sip of his coffee and leaning against the nearest counter. "The po-po had already arrived by the time I got back to the train yard, instead of taking their sweet time like they usually do. Anyway, the cops were there, lights blazing, guns drawn, sweeping the area for evidence, and blah, blah, blah. Bria talked to them for a long time, showed them all the bodies, the usual drill."

"Was Mab there?" I asked.

Finn nodded. "She showed up about an hour after Bria called it in. Since it was her property, they let her look at the bodies. They were her giants, after all, members of her security force."

My hands tightened around my mug of cider. "Then what did Mab do?"

Finn shrugged. "Not much. Like I said, she poked around for a little while, then she left. Bria was still there talking to the other investigators so Mab couldn't get to her. At least, not without killing twenty cops along with her. And, of course, the press had also shown up by that point, and all the reporters were clamoring for interviews with Bria, since she was the latest person to be saved by the Spider."

"You think that Mab will go after Bria again?" Owen asked.

I thought about it. "Eventually. But I don't see how she can right now. Mab's had too many losses, too many setbacks in a row. After what happened tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if some of her own men turned against her or maybe even just defected outright. The other underworld sharks like Phillip Kincaid are definitely smelling the blood in the water. Mab will have to work on shoring up her own organization first before makes another run at Bria. I think I've bought her some time, at least."

I was determined to kill Mab long before she set her sights on Bria again-no matter what.

It was late, and I didn't feel like driving home, so I spent the rest of the night in one of Jo-Jo's guest bedrooms-the same room I'd woken up in just the day before. I was wiped out from everything that had happened tonight, but I wasn't too tired to dream ...

It took longer than I thought it would to navigate through the ruined rubble of my house. There were fires everywhere. Busted water pipes that gushed like geysers, broken, splintered glass that cut into my bare feet, electrical wires that sent up showers of blue and red sparks in all directions.

I still couldn't believe I'd done all this with my Ice and Stone magic. That I'd somehow managed to collapse my own house and cause all this destruction with my screams of rage and pain and fear. I hurried on as fast as I could, picking my way over the piles of rubble, ignoring the sharp rocks that sliced my feet and the raw, fresh agony of the silverstone metal that had been melted into my hands. I'd stopped long enough to rip away part of my nightgown, soak it in cold water, and wrap the scraps around my palms, but they still hurt so much, sending a fresh, pulsing wave of pain through me with every beat of my heart. But no matter how much I hurt, no matter how much pain I was in, I was determined to find Bria and go-somewhere. Just get away. Before the Fire elemental found us and killed us both.