By a Thread

by Jennifer Estep

  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.

  25

  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.

  While we’d been fighting Dekes in the library, something else had happened—Vanessa’s elemental Fire had spread through the mansion, leaping from one hallway to the next. The flames burned through the structure unchecked, and most of the west wing was already fully engulfed, with the rest of the house soon to follow. We headed toward the main staircase to go out the front door but had to turn back because of the smoke and intense heat.

  Vanessa stood there, watching the flames lick at the walls in front of us. The fire had already engulfed the rooms on either side of the hallway, the ones that housed all the things Dekes had collected over the years. The models, the lockets, the antique dolls. The bright glow matched the fierce emotion in her eyes.

  “Burn, baby, burn,” she muttered in a hard, satisfied voice.

  I cleared my throat. “As much as I hate to interrupt the supreme satisfaction you’re taking in watching the mansion blaze to the ground, I’d really like to get out of here before the whole house collapses on top of us.”

  Vanessa gave me a chagrined smile. “This way,” she said, leading me down another hallway.

  The flames seemed to chase us through the house, moving almost as fast as we did, and we were coughing and choking on smoke by the time we finally stumbled out of one of the side doors. We stood there a moment, getting our breath back and letting the night air clear our lungs, before walking around to the front of the mansion. My cell phone had been broken during my fights with the last giant and Dekes, but I knew that the others would be there waiting for me, just as I would have been for them.

  My friends, my family, stood on the front lawn, a safe distance back from the burning mansion. Owen, Finn, Bria, Sophia. They stared up at the flames, waiting for me to walk out of them, waiting for me to come back to them the way I always did—the way I hoped I always would.

  Nearby, Jo-Jo was using her Air magic to tend to Callie and Victoria, who were both on the grass even farther back from the roaring flames. Jo-Jo had already healed Callie’s minor injuries, and Callie watched while the dwarf worked her Air magic on Victoria. The dwarf had the girl’s head cradled in her lap and was slowly stroking her hair, whispering to her, even though Victoria was still unconscious. I could see the power glimmering in Jo-Jo’s eyes all the way across the massive lawn, and I knew that Victoria would be alert and awake by the time the dwarf got done with her.

  A few of Dekes’s men who’d escaped our hunting party and the fire milled around on the grass and stared up at the burning house as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. I wondered if they were waiting for their boss to stroll out of the dancing flames. If so, they’d be waiting a long, long time. If there was any justice in the great beyond, Randall Dekes was already getting ripe and toasty in hell.

  Vanessa spotted Jo-Jo and Victoria and ran across the lawn to them. The others were turned the wrong way, so they didn’t see me step out of the shadows behind the Fire elemental.

  But Donovan did.

  The detective had noticed Vanessa running out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to follow her movements—and that’s when he saw me. His eyes widened, and he did a double take, just like he had that night in the Sea Breeze when we’d first seen each other again.

  His mouth dropped open, and he blinked and blinked, as if his eyes were playing tricks on him, as if he couldn’t believe that I’d somehow survived the giants, Dekes, and the fire. He should have known by now that I always came back—
no matter what.

  I braced myself for what I knew was coming next, for that old, familiar, bitter disgust to fill Donovan’s face at the knowledge that I was still alive and kicking and that I hadn’t met the messy demise I so richly deserved. But instead of looking conflicted and disappointed as he had when I’d shown up on the hill above Tobias Dawson’s coal mine, relief filled Donovan’s face, and he did a most unexpected thing—he smiled.

  He actually smiled at me.

  It was a wide, welcoming, beautiful smile, full of relief, warmth, concern, and other, deeper things that shocked the hell out of me. It was the smile I’d expected to see that day outside the coal mine; it was the smile I’d hoped to see a dozen times before. It was all that and so much more—it was everything I’d ever wanted from Donovan.

  The others were standing behind him, so I headed in that direction. Donovan hesitated, then took a few steps toward me, then a few more, then a few more still, until he’d walked halfway across the lawn—meeting me in the middle. He didn’t say anything, and neither did I.

  I stood there a moment, my eyes trailing over him, starting with his black hair and bronze skin and working my way down his strong, lean body. Despite the smoke that boiled up into the dark, humid night, I could somehow still smell his clean, soapy scent, the one that used to appeal to me so very much. Finally, I raised my eyes to his, so that our gazes locked, gray on gold.

  Desire glimmered in Donovan’s gaze, more desire than I’d ever seen him show before—desire for me. For the first time since I’d been in Blue Marsh, he let me see just how much he wanted me, maybe just how much he’d always wanted me. Desire, heat, raw, naked longing. They were all tangled together in the sharp planes of his face, along with other, softer emotions. I stood there and just stared into his eyes, looking at all the things I’d hoped to see, all the things I’d thought he’d never feel for me—ever.

  Finally, Donovan held out his hand to me, palm up in supplication and a silent, agonizing question. I knew that if I took his hand, if I wrapped my fingers in his, he’d kiss me and pull me close, even though his fiancée was less than a hundred feet away.

  I stared at his outstretched hand. Once upon a time, I would have given just about anything to have Donovan look at me like he was doing now, to reach out to me like he was doing now. The old feelings rose up in my heart then, all the electricity that had sparked and hummed between us, all the desire we’d felt toward each other, all the delicious things we’d done to each other the few times we’d been together.

  I stood there, and I remembered all that.

  And then I walked right on past him.

  I saw surprise fill his face, but I kept on going, heading toward the others, heading toward Owen.

  “Gin?” Donovan called out behind me. “Gin?”

  I kept walking, and I didn’t look back.

  A few seconds later, Bria spotted me. My sister let out a shriek of glee and pointed me out to the others. They all ran in my direction, but Owen was the fastest.

  My love caught me in a fierce embrace, lifting me up off my feet and spinning me around and around. I laughed at the dizzying feel of it, and the rush of emotions that tightened my chest to the breaking point. Owen put me back on my feet and rained kisses down on my cheeks, nose, and forehead before finally capturing my lips with his. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back twice as hard.

  I didn’t look at Donovan, and I didn’t give him another thought. Not once. I didn’t need to. Not now, not ever.

  Dekes’s massive mansion continued to burn well into the night. The island’s fire department was eventually called out, but the house was too far gone by the time they arrived. There was nothing the firefighters could do but stand there with the rest of us and watch the mansion disintegrate.

  “Burn, baby, burn,” I said, echoing Vanessa’s words and encouraging the flames with a smile.

  The Blue Marsh Police Department arrived as well. Donovan stood off to one side of the yard, talking with several men in suits and spinning some story about what had happened, while Bria stood behind him, listening and occasionally adding to the conversation. The higher-ups in the department had already come out in full force to make sure that all the i’s were dotted and all the t’s were crossed, since Dekes had been one of Blue Marsh’s leading citizens. Of course, the po-po didn’t know about the had been part yet, but they would when the ashes cooled and they found whatever was left of Dekes’s body in the library.

  While we waited for things to calm down, I filled the others in on my battle with the vampire and how Vanessa had helped me defeat him. Vanessa crouched down on the lawn a few feet away, her arms wrapped around Victoria, who was now awake and sitting up. Both sisters stared at the burning mansion with grim, satisfied expressions on their faces. I got the impression that if they could have, they would have blasted the structure again and again with their Fire and Air magic to make it burn that much hotter and faster.

  Finally, Bria broke away from the group of cops and came over to where I was standing with Owen, Finn, Sophia, and Jo-Jo.

  “So what’s Donovan telling them?” I asked.

  Bria shrugged. “Some lame story about a gas leak getting out of control, exploding, and causing the fire with the added unfortunate consequences of Dekes and several of his men being trapped and burned alive by the flames.”

  “And what’s he going to say about the busted gate and all the bodies with bullets in them?” Owen asked. “Especially the ones outside?”

  He jerked his head. The giants that Finn, Bria, and Sophia had killed on their way inside the mansion lay strewn about the lawn like oversize garden gnomes that had been toppled over onto their sides.

  Bria shrugged again. “Donovan’s claiming that he came to rescue Callie from Dekes and that the giants wouldn’t stand down and forced him to fire on them. Apparently, he’s going to hang the four bodies Gin and I left in the pool at the Blue Sands on the vampire and his men as well. I heard Donovan say something about infighting among Dekes’s men, some feud that got out of hand.”

  Well, that was a rather convenient way for Donovan to clear his case, but I wasn’t going to complain, since it would keep the cops from looking at Bria and me in connection with those deaths. For once, the detective was actually doing me a favor. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who was mellowing.

  “I don’t think anyone will be too concerned about Dekes, his men, or how they really died,” Bria added. “The folks the vamp threatened will just be glad that he’s gone. So will the other power players on the island, since his death will let them grab a little more of his empire for themselves. Pretty soon, it will be business as usual again.”

  Eventually, Vanessa helped Victoria up to her feet, and the two sisters drifted over to us. Victoria still looked frail, weak, and ashen, but Jo-Jo had claimed she’d be all right in a few weeks now that Dekes wasn’t around to continually suck out her blood and magic anymore.

  Vanessa walked toward me, her arm around her sister’s slim shoulders. “I just wanted to thank you. For coming back for us. If I could have spared you what Dekes did to you in the library last night and again today, I would have. I hope you know that.”

  I waved my hand, dismissing her concerns. “You tried to warn me about him during the press conferece. It was my own fault that I didn’t listen to you. But I think things turned out okay in the end, since the bastard is burning in hell right now. The question is where will you two go? What will you do now that you’re free of him?”

  Vanessa shook her head. “Honestly, I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’m just trying to figure out how I can put clothes on our backs and find us someplace to stay while everything gets sorted out. Even though I hate this place with every bone in my body, I almost wished that the mansion hadn’t burned. At least then I’d have something to start with to help us get back on our feet.”

  I pointed at the diamond and pearl choker and cuffs that she still wore. “Those baubles you have on will be
a good start. The diamonds are especially exquisite.”

  “Really?” Vanessa asked, looking down at the cuffs on her wrists. “I thought they were glass, fakes, just as fake and twisted as Dekes was.”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “I know a thing or two about gemstones, and those are the real deal. You won’t have any problem hocking those for cold, hard cash—quite a bit of cash, actually.”

  Bria cleared her throat. “Speaking of cash . . .”

  Her voice trailed off, and she looked at Finn, who winced.

  “Aw, come on. Do I have to?” Finn grumbled.

  Bria cleared her throat again and gave him a little shove forward.

  Finn sighed. “All right, all right. You know you were talking about cash, Gin? Well, these might help too.”

  He reached into his pants pocket and came out with a fistful of gold doubloons. I recognized the gleaming coins as being part of Dekes’s collection of pirate treasure. Bria cleared her throat a final time, and Finn stuck his hand in his other pocket, drawing out a lovely ruby necklace, three bracelets, and several rings. He stared down at the jewel-crusted booty in his hands before sighing again and handing everything over to Vanessa.

  “Finnegan Lane,” I drawled. “You should be ashamed of yourself. When did you have time to stop and raid one of Dekes’s treasure rooms? Some of us were fighting to stay alive, you know.”

  Finn shifted on his feet. “It was right after you said that you guys had found Vanessa and Victoria. We were retreating out of the mansion, and we passed one of Dekes’s pirate rooms. I knew that if you had your way Dekes wouldn’t be missing it, so I stopped long enough to slip a few items in my pockets.”

  We all looked at him.

  “What?” he muttered. “You can’t blame a guy for looking out for himself.”

  I laughed, leaned over, and rumpled his hair. “No, you certainly can’t do that.”

  26

  “You know,” I murmured a few days later. “I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of this vacation thing.”