And that's when the fun started.

The giants yanked Vinnie up and started hitting him, while the third man stood back and watched. Thwack-thwack-thwack. The giants held Vinnie up between them, so he couldn't even curl up tight and try to protect himself. Their massive, meaty fists slammed into his chest, his face, even his balls once or twice. Vinnie groaned with every blow.

After thirty seconds, Vinnie was in bad shape. At the minute mark, he looked like he'd been hit by a bus. By the time two minutes had passed, the bus had been joined by a couple of tractor trailers.

I thought about intervening, about jumping into the mix and stopping the torture. After all, I had questions for Vinnie-questions that he couldn't answer if he was dead. But the giants weren't going for broke just yet. They could easily have killed Vinnie with one blow to the head. Quick, efficient, mostly bloodless. But instead, they concentrated their fists on his chest, hitting him hard, but not with enough force to kill. Which meant that they only wanted him bleeding and broken, not dead. Not yet, anyway.

Finally, the giants finished beating Vinnie and dropped him into the sandbox. Vinnie let out another low groan and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood. The thick gobs gleamed like wet rubies against the gold, glittering sand. The giants moved back a few steps and stared down at him with their oversize, buglike eyes. Their ham-size fists hung loose and ready by their sides, just in case Vinnie had any misguided bit of fight left in him.

The third man, the one who'd been leading the way to the playground, stepped in front of Vinnie. I mentally dubbed him Mr. Brown because everything about him was a dark sable color, from his hair, skin, and eyes to the suit, tie, and shoes that he wore. He was much shorter than the other two goons, only about six feet tall, which meant that he wasn't a giant. He smiled, and I saw the fangs in his mouth. A vampire, then. One who wasn't big on personal hygiene, judging from the yellowish tint to his teeth.

"Vinnie, Vinnie, Vinnie," Brown drawled, pacing a loose circle around the bartender, his wingtips sinking into the blood-spattered sand. "What are we going to do with you? You know, you really disappointed LaFleur tonight."

"But I did exactly what she said," Vinnie sputtered. A thick Russian accent colored his voice.

Somehow, Vinnie pushed himself up onto his knees, swaying from side to side as he tried to maintain his balance and not pass out from the excruciating pain that he had to be feeling. Blood trickled down the left side of his face, where the giants had opened a cut high on his cheek, while his right eye had already started to blacken and swell from their hard blows. Sand crusted in his dark goatee and hair, and he had his arms wrapped around his middle, as if that would ease the pain in his sure-to-be-broken ribs.

"I told everyone at the bar about the shipment of drugs coming in. And I gave you the names of all the people who seemed interested, just like you asked. Every single one of them, I swear."

"Well, Vinnie, you must not have been convincing enough because the Spider didn't show last night like LaFleur thought she would," Brown said. "Which means that LaFleur couldn't kill the bitch like she's being paid to do. Like she promised Mab Monroe that she would."

Despite the blood, bruises, and sand covering his features, Vinnie's face paled a little more at the mention of the two women. He swallowed, his Adam's apple bouncing up and down like a yo-yo in his throat.

"Let me try again," he pleaded. "I will tell more people. Many more people. I swear it."

The vampire crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. "I don't know that I believe you, Vinnie. I mean, look what happened tonight. LaFleur comes by to have a little chat with you, to tell you that no one showed up, and what do you do? Wait five minutes, and then bolt for the nearest door. Your actions don't inspire a lot of confidence."

Vinnie didn't say anything, but his face took on a greenish tint underneath the bruises. So he'd tried to run after LaFleur had come by. And, in doing so, he'd brought about this little smackdown and hastened his own death. At least, that's what he would think.

But I knew that LaFleur had just been playing with the Ice elemental. She'd come by the club with the sole intention of spooking him into doing something stupid like running just so her men could beat him. I hadn't had a chance to read Fletcher's file on her yet, but I recognized the type of person, the kind of assassin, that LaFleur was-a sick, sadistic bitch who enjoyed playing with her food before she killed it.

"It's a real shame," Brown continued. "We all know what's at stake for you Vinnie-namely, your continued existence. I just never thought that you'd do something like this, especially given that sweet little daughter of yours at home. What's her name again?"

Vinnie's face tightened. "Natasha."

The vampire snapped his fingers. "Natasha. I have to say, the first time I saw her, I wasn't exactly concentrating on her name, if you know what I mean. But then again, I like them young like that."

The vampire let out a low, evil chuckle that told everyone exactly what he'd been thinking about doing to Natasha. The harsh sound made even my skin crawl. I'd been around the block more than my share of times. I'd seen a lot of bad people do a lot of bad things, myself included. But men like Brown, who got their rocks off hurting and abusing kids, well, there was a special place in hell for them. My hand tightened around the hilt of my knife. Despite my being an assassin, I'd never taken any real pleasure in killing my targets. They were just jobs to me, obstacles to overcome, nothing more. But tonight, part of me was going to enjoy sending Brown on his merry way. I'd consider it a public service, like putting down a rabid animal before it could hurt anyone else.

"Please, I-" Vinnie started to plead for his life, but coughs racked his body. The Ice elemental doubled over, spewing up more blood.

The vampire's eyes tracked the blood, and he licked his lips at the sight. All vamps needed blood to live, of course. To them, it was just another form of food, nutrition, something that they craved the way that normal people did potato chips. If a vamp had a hankering for a cheeseburger, he'd get a frosty glass of O positive to wash it down with, instead of a triple chocolate milkshake like the rest of us.

And that wasn't all that drinking blood did for them; vamps could also siphon strength and magic out of it. Regular, old-fashioned human blood was enough to give any vampire a little something extra, like enhanced hearing and superlative eyesight. Those who drank giant and dwarven blood on a regular basis got the inherent strength that both of those races had. Just like vamps who sucked down elemental blood got the Air, Fire, Ice, or Stone power to go along with it, depending on whom they were drinking from. Then there were vamps who were elementals themselves, who already had the magic flowing through their veins, instead of having to steal the power from someone else's blood.

But Brown wasn't ready to sink his fangs into Vinnie just yet, because he waited until the Ice elemental quit coughing and straightened back up before he continued his speech.

"Forget it, Vinnie," the vampire said. "It's too late for all that now. Tell me, what did you think you were going to do? Go home, get Natasha, and get out of Ashland? We've had men watching your apartment all night long. And once you tried to do your disappearing act, I took the liberty of calling my men and having them scoop her up, despite her babysitter's protests. You fucked up big-time, Vinnie, by trying to run."

The bartender didn't respond, but anguish and tears filled his pale eyes.

"We came to you with a simple plan," Brown said. "Be Mab's eyes and ears inside Northern Aggression. Watch Roslyn Phillips. See who she hangs out with. Make a list of any woman close to Roslyn who could possibly be the Spider. Pass along the information about Mab's drug shipment in order to help us trap the Spider. But you just couldn't do that, could you, Vinnie?"

My eyes narrowed. So Mab had wanted Roslyn watched. Not surprising. As the Spider, I'd publicly taken credit for killing Elliot Slater, even though Roslyn was actually the one who'd pulled the trigger, using a shotgun to finish off the giant. But Mab must have reasoned that since I'd supposedly saved Roslyn that night, I must care about the vampire. That maybe even I was her friend-or at least someone who knew her. All of which meant that the Fire elemental was getting closer to learning who I really was, if she didn't know already.

Oh, Mab didn't know that Gin Blanco was the Spider. Otherwise, she would have tried to kill me herself by now. But I often wondered if she remembered Genevieve Snow, the little girl she'd tortured seventeen years ago-and the spider rune medallion that she'd melted into my palms. The jury was still out on that one. Mab had tortured and killed a lot of people since then. Must be hard for her to remember every single one of them. Still, the Fire elemental was hunting for me now, which just gave me more reason to off Mab and her minions sooner, rather than later.

Starting with the men in front of me.

"You didn't ask. You threatened me," Vinnie said in a low voice. "Threatened to kill me if I didn't do what you wanted. Natasha too."

Brown shrugged. "Details. But you owed Mab, remember? Through our mutual Russian friends, you approached her organization for a favor, and we helped get you and your little girl into the country, green cards and all."

"But I paid her," Vinnie protested. "I paid for all that. You took everything that we had to bring us over here."

The vampire ignored his words. "And now that Mab's trying to collect on that favor you owe her, what do you do? Run away the first chance you get. Shame on you, Vinnie. Shame on you."

So Mab and her mob connections had helped Vinnie and his daughter emigrate to Ashland from Russia, and the Fire elemental had decided it was time to collect-in spades. Despite Vinnie's betrayal of Roslyn, I could understand his motives. He'd only wanted to protect his daughter, to keep both of them safe. I might have done the same thing in his situation. Because I'd do anything for the people that I loved. Protect them, kill for them.

I was even going to die for them, for Bria, when I finally went up against Mab.

"Since you've been less than cooperative, Vinnie, Mab's decided to pull the plug on this whole operation. Starting with you."

Despite the chill in the air, sweat rolled down Vinnie's forehead, mixing with the blood on his face. "What about my little girl? What about Natasha? She didn't have anything to do with this. Please. Leave her alone."

Brown let out another low, evil laugh. "Like I said before, I like them young. So I'm going to go pay sweet little Natasha a nice, long visit, once we get through with you. After that, well, Mab has plans for her. Big plans. Mab's starting up a new venture, you see, something that will make Northern Aggression look as tame as a preschool, and Natasha will fit in just fine there. Why, she might just even be the star of the whole show, if you know what I mean."

Grief and rage and helpless anguish filled Vinnie's eyes, along with a faint flicker of blue-white magic. Even though he'd been severely beaten, the bartender wasn't completely out of things yet.

"Das vidania, Vinnie," the vampire smirked, flashing his fangs and getting ready to sink his teeth into the Ice elemental. "I'll be sure and say hello to your daughter for you-after I get through fucking her."

And that was my cue to finally make my presence known. I stepped out of the shadows, walked over to the swing set, and let out a loud wolf whistle. Startled, the men's heads snapped around to me. Brown bared his fangs, while the giants' hands tightened into fists. Vinnie stayed on his knees in the sandbox, his eyes wide with surprise, fear, and just a hint of Ice magic.

I walked toward them, stopping beside the metal swing set.

The vampire's eyes narrowed as he took in my dark clothes and the silverstone knife in my hand. "Who the hell are you?"

I gave him a cold, hard smile. "The bitch who's here to kill you."

Chapter 7

Recognition dawned in Brown's eyes. "You! You're her. You're the fucking Spider!"

"Guilty as charged," I said, flashing my knife at him. "And I'm ready to play. How about you?"

Instead of racing toward me like I thought he might, the vampire actually did the smart thing. He pointed at the giants.

"Kill her!" he yelled at them. "Now!"

The two giants charged me. Behind them, Brown started digging in his pants pocket, probably searching for his cell phone. Not good. I needed to get to the bastard before he could tell anyone else what was happening here, give someone a description of me, or worse, call for backup. Which meant that I had a minute, two tops, to take out the giants and kill the vampire.

A cold blast of magic surged through the night air, and a blue-white light flashed for a second before winking out.

Vinnie Volga reared up, a jagged Ice knife glinting in his right hand. A weapon that I'd made myself many times. Crude, but effective, as Vinnie no doubt knew since he slammed the shard of Ice into the vampire's thigh, driving it in deep and twisting it as hard as he could. The vampire bellowed with rage and crumpled into the sand, all thoughts of his cell phone forgotten. Nice move. Vinnie threw himself on top of the other man, and the two of them started grappling, rolling around and around and spraying sand everywhere.

But I didn't have time to track their progress because the giants were on me. I waited until the first one was in range, then reached over and shoved one of the metal swings at him. The giant wasn't expecting the move, and the swing caught him in the chest. Not enough to hurt him, of course, but it gave me time to dart forward, hit all the chains, and make the swings start rocking back and forth, creating a moving metal maze behind me.