I waited for Finn to get into position with his rifle on top of the railcar before I palmed one of my knives and headed down the hill and into the train yard itself. I made it to the first railcar with no problem and carefully, slowly, peered around the side. Lights had been strung up all around the depot so the workers could see what they were doing, which meant that it was plenty bright enough down here-in fact, much brighter than I wanted it to be.
Even more debris cluttered the ground than what I'd spotted from the hill, and I had to be careful where I stepped so as to not send metal, rocks, and more skittering off into the shadows. Underneath my feet, the gravel grumbled, groaned, creaked, and whined, just like all the trains had done so many times here over the years. The air smelled of water, oil, grease, and rust.
It took me about twenty minutes to maneuver through the train yard. I stayed well clear of the hubbub of activity around the old depot, as that would be the most dangerous place for me to get caught, and worked my way around to the railcar that Finn said LaFleur had disappeared into.
As I skulked from shadow to shadow, I also kept an eye out for any sign of Natasha. But Finn had been right about that too. I didn't see anyone standing guard outside one of the railcars, nobody taking a tray of food anywhere, and nothing else that would indicate that the girl was being held here somewhere. All the construction workers seemed focused on the depot, the railcars, and their repairs to them.
Which meant that Natasha was probably already raped, tortured, and dead.
My heart twisted at the unpleasant thought, but I pushed it aside and kept moving. Finally, I was able slither up beside the railcar that Elektra LaFleur had entered. Since I didn't want to take a chance on anyone from the depot seeing me hovering beside the front windows, I crept around to the back, the side that faced the Aneirin River. Lights blazed inside the railcar, and I went to the window farthest back, where the golden glow was the dimmest. To my surprise, it was actually cracked open, as though someone had forgotten to completely shut it against the cold. The window was about ten feet off the ground, so I had to scale the ladder on the right side of the car to see in through it. I hung there in midair, like a spider clinging to its own web, and peered inside.
The inside of the railcar was completely finished-opulently so. Thick crimson carpet covered the floor, while the walls had been shined to a high silver gloss. A lone table covered with a fine white cloth sat in the middle of the rectangular area. A single red rose perched in a slender crystal vase on top of the table, which was set with bone china with a scarlet floral pattern swirled through it. A silver bucket of champagne chilled nearby, while a crystal chandelier dangled over the table, sending out rainbow sparks of light in every direction. An enormous bed covered with black silk sheets and crimson brocade pillows took up the back wall. All put together, the railcar looked like some kind of high-class bordello, just as Vinnie had said it would.
Elektra LaFleur lounged on a crimson loveseat in the corner, the dark green of her shirt looking particularly garish against the blood-colored fabric. She twirled a single white orchid in her hand, the same kind of flower that she'd left on the dwarf's electrocuted corpse two nights ago. I wondered whose body she planned to drop the orchid on tonight.
But what surprised me most was that LaFleur wasn't alone-Mab Monroe was inside the car with her.
Mab relaxed at the table, sipping a glass of champagne. The golden gleam of the liquid matched the play of the chandelier's lights across the sunburst necklace that ringed the Fire elemental's creamy throat. The rune's golden rays flickered as though they were actually moving, while the ruby set into the middle of the design proudly whispered of fire, death, and destruction-a sound that always made me grind my teeth.
Mab was dressed down tonight in a dark green pant-suit that made her copper-colored hair seem even redder than usual. Despite the bright lights of the chandelier, the Fire elemental's eyes were still bottomless black pools that seemed to suck the glow out of the crystals dangling above her head. I supposed it was only appropriate, since Mab herself consumed everything she came into contact with, just the way fire destroyed whatever was in its path and left nothing behind but dull, gray, useless ash.
"Well, Elektra, I have to admit that you've whipped the giants and other builders into fine shape," Mab murmured, taking another sip of her champagne. Her voice was as soft and smooth as silk delicately rasping together, but there was a clear undercurrent of power in each word she spoke. "I didn't hear any muttered complaints about working through the night the way I had before you came to town."
LaFleur gave her a thin smile. "You hired me to come to Ashland, to restore ... morale and authority to your organization after Elliot Slater's untimely death. To help you open your new nightclub. That's what I've done. I'm mildly disappointed that I only had to kill two of your men to get them all back under control. It was hardly a challenge."
"Three, counting the dwarf you electrocuted at the docks," Mab reminded her. "Which I still think was unnecessary."
LaFleur shrugged. "Well, I couldn't have him go around talking about the fact that I was in town and hunting for the Spider, now could I?"
"No," Mab said. "I suppose not. Especially since you failed to trap and kill the Spider like you promised me."
The Fire elemental's voice was still soft, still mild, but there was no mistaking the stinging rebuke in her words. Mab was pissed that LaFleur hadn't bagged me yet. It was probably the first time in a long time that the Fire elemental hadn't gotten exactly what she'd wanted exactly when she'd wanted it. Yeah, my heart really bled for her.
Elektra recognized the barb in Mab's tone as well. Her eyes narrowed, and a bit of green lightning flickered in her gaze. Even through the metal of the car, I could feel the electrical charge in the air around her.
"Getting that bartender to mouth off about your so-called drug shipment was a solid plan," Elektra said. "It was just the kind of thing that the Spider would go after, according to what you've told me of her previous attacks against you and your organization. It wasn't my fault she didn't take the bait this one time."
Mab's own eyes narrowed at the assassin's casual insolence. "And you promised me the bitch would be dead before Christmas. Something I paid you a great deal of money to accomplish. Something you haven't done yet."
I was mildly curious as to exactly how much Mab had paid LaFleur to hunt me down and kill me. From Fletcher's file, I knew that the assassin's going rate was three million for the simplest of hits. But there was nothing simple about taking on the Spider. So how much had Mab given the other assassin to entice her to come to Ashland and try? Four million, maybe? Five? More? I would have liked to know, if only so I could tell Finn and watch his eyes gleam at the thought of that much money and what he could do with it.
"I don't like people who don't deliver on their promises to me," Mab continued in a soft voice. "I don't think I have to tell someone of your skills and qualifications what happens when one of my employees displeases me."
Black fire flickered in Mab's eyes as she embraced her elemental magic. Even though the metal of the car separated us, I could still feel the intense heat of it, pricking my skin like red-hot needles. Add it to the electrical charge of LaFleur's magic, and it made for one uncomfortable sensation. Not to mention that the feel of their power, which was so different from my own Ice and Stone magic, made a small, primal voice start muttering in the back of my head. Enemy, enemy, enemy ... I ground my teeth together to keep from snarling.
Elektra kept twirling the white orchid in her hand, as though the two of them were talking about something as simple and mundane as the weather. If she was afraid of Mab and what the Fire elemental could do to her, the assassin didn't show it.
"You know, you never did tell me the real reason why you want the Spider dead so badly in the first place," Elektra murmured.
"She killed Elliot Slater and has been picking off my men like they're flies," Mab snapped. "That's why I want her dead."
Elektra tilted her head to one side and studied Mab, sly intelligence glinting in her green gaze, along with the flashing sparks of her electrical magic. "If that was all there was to it, then you would have hired someone far less expensive to come in and do the job, instead of paying top dollar for me. No, I think there's something else going on between the two of you. Care to tell me what is it?"
I studied the Fire elemental. A rare bit of emotion flickered in her black eyes, but I couldn't tell if it was annoyance at LaFleur or concern about what the assassin had deduced so far. Once again, I couldn't help but wonder if Mab herself had put two and two together yet, if she even remembered Genevieve Snow, the little girl she'd tortured all those years ago, and the spider rune necklace she'd used to do it with. She probably had. No matter how much I hated Mab, she was far from stupid or oblivious. Even though I didn't have any real information to support my theory, it wasn't too much of a stretch to think that Mab knew exactly why I was after her, especially since Bria had come back to town.
I only wondered if the Fire elemental knew that I was the one that she really wanted to kill. The Snow sister that was the threat to her, the one with both Ice and Stone magic, the little girl who had grown up with desire, skills, and perhaps even the power to kill her.
Mab's lips curved up, but the result wasn't pleasant. Death probably had a more inviting smile than she did. "I pay you to kill people, Elektra, not ask questions. If you can't remember that, then I'll find someone who can. Immediately. And don't be stupid enough to think that Jonah will step in and save you. He's just fucking you so you'll kill Gin Blanco for him."
My eyes narrowed. So Mab knew about her lawyer's plan to eliminate me and that he was getting busy with her new assassin. Interesting.
"Count on Jonah to save me? Please." Elektra let out a light, mocking laugh. "I don't need anyone to save me. I'm just sleeping with him to pass the time. When he bores me, and he soon will, I'll move on to someone else. As for getting rid of that little cook ..." She shrugged. "It'll kill half an hour."
Mab took another sip of golden champagne and studied the other woman. "At least try to make it look somewhat like an accident. Blanco isn't without friends, and I have enough annoyances to deal with right now with the Spider."
Elektra tipped her head. "Of course."
Even out in the cold, I could hear the lie in her voice. There would be no elaborately staged accident. The assassin was going to electrocute me just like she did all her other victims.
Mab nodded and put her champagne glass down on the table. "Now, my sources in the police department tell me that there are no leads on the murder of my three men in the park next to Northern Aggression. Except, of course, for that damn spider rune drawn in the sandbox."
Elektra raised a black eyebrow. "Did you really think she would be careless enough to leave any evidence behind that she didn't want you to find?"
"Perhaps if you'd been there, you would have been able to take care of the problem once and for all," Mab snapped.
"You're the one who pulled me away from your men that night because you wanted an update," Elektra said. "I thought that they could handle something as simple as killing a bartender. Evidently I underestimated them. Just the way you've underestimated the Spider so far."
The two women stared at each other, magic flickering in both their gazes. The feel of their elemental power-Mab's Fire and Elektra's electricity-amped up, until the sensations crackled like invisible lightning all around me. For a moment I thought perhaps they would go at each other and use their magic to decide exactly who was the bigger bitch in the room, just like so many elementals had done before them.
But of course my luck could never, ever get that good. After a moment, Elektra dropped her green eyes to her white orchid, twirling it once more, and acquiescing to Mab-for the time being.
"I'll find the Spider. Don't you worry about that. That's what you're paying me for, and I always deliver exactly what my clients want-whether it's dead on arrival or six feet under," LaFleur said.
Mab nodded, accepting the other woman's promises-for now. "I'll have another job for you after the Spider. We talked about it before."
"The cop? The one with the elemental magic?"
Mab nodded again.
My hand tightened around the silverstone knife in my hand. Bria. They were talking about Bria. They had to be. A couple of weeks ago, Mab had sent Slater and some of his men to murder Bria. Now she was going to put LaFleur on the job. Another reason for me to kill them both as soon as possible.
"Consider it done. Now, on to more pressing matters. What do you want me to do with the girl?" Elektra said. "She's still sniveling away in the next car over and asking for her daddy."
My breath caught in my throat. Natasha. From what LaFleur had just said, the little girl was here and, even more importantly, still alive.
"Since Vinnie wasn't among the dead bodies at the park, I have to assume that the Spider got her hands on him and questioned him about the whole messy affair. If she's as ruthless as she claims to be, then she's killed him by now for trying to help you trap her," Mab said. "Which means the girl is of no use anymore."
"But what about your new club?" LaFleur asked. "I thought you were going to use the girl there. Make her the first star in your stable, so to speak. She should earn you quite the profit among the kid-loving crowd."
So Brown, the vampire at the park, had been right about Mab's nightclub-she planned to make it a place where anything went. Even serving up helpless kids to pedophiles just so she could make a few more bucks. The heartless, arrogant bitch. Anger filled me, the coldness of it pooling in my stomach, and my lips drew back in a silent snarl.
