"Look," I said. "I know we have a lot of ... things to discuss, but there's no time right now. We need to get out of this car and out of the train yard before LaFleur comes back. At least, you do."
"And what are you going to do?" Bria asked in a cold voice. "Stay behind and kill her?"
"You'd better believe it," I snapped.
My sister gave me a hostile look. Evidently she didn't care for my brutal honesty. Too damn bad. Because I'd gone through too much as a kid to save her life only to let her die now on this cold December night.
So I reached around and drew my third knife out of the small of my back. I walked across the railcar toward her. Bria tensed, as though she thought I was actually going to use the weapon on her. That hurt me more than anything else she'd said or done. I might be a monster, but I wasn't that kind of monster. And I never would be. She should have known that. She should have just-known.
But I forced the feeling aside, buried it under my determination to get her out of here-no matter what. Surprise filled my sister's face when I held the weapon out to her hilt first.
"Have you ever used a knife?" I asked.
She stared at me for a long moment, then shook her head. "No. Not like you have."
I nodded. I'd expected as much, which meant I was going to have to do all the heavy lifting here tonight. Maybe it was better that way.
"All right. If things go according to plan, you won't have to use it anyway," I said. "But it's better to have a weapon than not, so take it."
Bria stared at the silverstone weapon in my hand as though it were a copperhead that was going to lash out and bite her.
"Take the knife," I ground out the words. "LaFleur could come back here any second, and we don't have time to argue about it."
She hesitated a moment longer, then took the cold weapon from my hand, careful not to let her fingers brush against mine. My heart twisted in my chest at the small, deliberate slight, but I ignored it, the way I had so many other emotions over the years.
"All right," I said. "Here's what we're going to do."
It took only two minutes of screaming and pounding on the metal wall before the giant standing guard out front opened the door to the railcar. About time. I was getting hoarse at that point-and wondering if he was going to be dumb enough to fall for something so old, so cliched. If the giant didn't, if he kept the door closed, then I was going to have to go with my plan B, which was to use my Ice magic to blast through the two-by-fours bolted over the busted-out window.
But just when I was about ready to stop screaming, a click sounded, and the door creaked open.
The giant had fallen for it after all. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy of him. But I wasn't complaining too much. Not tonight. No, tonight I'd take every bit of luck I could get and go back hungry for more. Even if luck was always a capricious bitch who'd screw me over the second that she could.
As soon as the door opened wide enough, I nodded at Bria, who nodded back. Then I drew another breath deep into my lungs, preparing myself for what was to come.
"Let me out of here!" I screamed and flung myself past the giant through the open door of the railcar and down onto the loose gravel that covered the train yard. "That bitch is crazy! She's got a knife! Two of them!"
The giant, who'd started to swivel toward me to grab me, instead snapped his attention back to Bria, who stood in the middle of the car, a silverstone knife in her hand. He stood there, mouth open, eyes wide, wondering what was going on and what he was supposed to do about it.
He never had a chance.
I hopped back up onto my feet and slithered up next to him. Then I grabbed a fistful of his shirt, yanked his head down to my level, and slit his throat with one of my knives. I turned my head, so the warm, sticky, arterial spray of blood caught me only on my cheek instead of going into my eyes and momentarily blinding me.
One down, three to go.
The giant started choking and gurgling, spewing more blood all over my face, neck, hands, and clothes. His hands went to his throat, the way they always did, trying to stem the blood loss even though it was already too late. He went down on his knees and collapsed against the side of the railcar, down for the count.
I looked up at Bria, who was staring down at the dying giant. Shock and horror and disgust filled her face, but I had no time to think about what she was feeling right now-or what she thought of me, her long-lost, big sister Genevieve. I was pretty sure I knew anyway-and it was nothing good.
Of course, the other three giants had heard the commotion of my screaming and their dying friend. They all abandoned their posts around the other sides of the railcar to come and investigate. I palmed my second knife and sprinted to the left just in time to catch one of them coming around the side of the car.
One, two, three.
I made two deep slashing cuts across the giant's chest, digging the blade in as far as I could. The giant screamed in pain and swung at me, but I ducked and pivoted out of reach. When his fist went wide, I stepped back in range. My boot slammed into his knee, which buckled under the sharp assault.
The giant lurched forward, and I stepped into him and cut his throat as well. More blood spattered onto me, but I ignored the sensation. I pivoted again, this time out of the way of the giant's falling body, and turned to face the new danger.
The third giant-the one who'd been stationed on the back side of the railcar-had also decided to come around this way. He stopped short at the sight of his buddy already on the ground and bleeding out.
"What the hell-"
Last fucking words he ever said. I hopped up onto the back of the downed, dying giant. Using him as a stepping stool, I reached up and slammed my first knife into the third man's heart. He too lashed out at me with his fist, but I ducked under the slow blow, came up inside his arms, and stabbed him again in the stomach, ripping into his guts with my knife, before shoving my shoulder into his chest.
The attack took him by surprise, and he screamed again and lurched back away from me. His feet skidded on the loose gravel. For a moment, his massive arms windmilled crazily in the air. Then, screaming and blubbering all the while, he went down in a pile of twitching limbs, joining his friend.
And then there was one.
I turned around to find the fourth giant, the one who'd been driving the limo, standing at the far end of the railcar. He was a little smarter than his friends because instead of charging at me, he fumbled in his suit jacket for the gun strapped in the holster there.
I sprinted forward, but the giant was faster.
He yanked out his gun, raised it, and fired at me.
Crack! Crack!
The sounds echoed through the train yard, booming like thunder against the metal rails. If LaFleur hadn't heard the fight before, she sure as hell knew something was wrong now.
The giant's aim was true, and two bullets thunkthunked into my chest. They would have killed me-if I hadn't been wearing my silverstone vest underneath my sweater. The magical metal easily caught the bullets and kept them from punching through my heart. I grunted at the hard, bruising impacts and kept running at the giant. He backed up, wondering why I hadn't gone down yet.
That hesitation cost him his life.
My knives flashed silver in the moonlight, and, a minute later, he joined his other three dead and dying friends on the ground.
When I was sure the giants were no longer a threat, I raced back to the middle of the railcar. Bria still stood inside, looking as shocked as ever at the dead bodies littering the gravel like empty beer cans.
I palmed one of my knives so that I had a free hand and held it out to her. "Come on, come on, get down from there! We have to get out of here."
Bria stared at my bloody fingers a moment before shaking her head, leaning forward, and grabbing my hand. I helped her down and started to lead her away from the railcar.
But the sharp, static crackle in the air told me that it was already too late.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Elektra LaFleur standing in the doorway of the other railcar, only fifty feet away from us. The assassin's eyes met mine, and a smile curved her face.
"Run," I told Bria.
My sister stood there behind me, clutching my silverstone knife in her hand, unsure of what to do. Uncertain about whether she wanted to stay and make a stand with me or slink off into the darkness, find a phone, and call Finn as I'd told her to while we'd been plotting our escape.
LaFleur hopped down out of the railcar and sprinted in our direction, green lightning already flickering in her hands.
I grabbed Bria's coat and yanked her forward so that her face was right next to mine. Our eyes met. Blue on gray. And I let her see just how cold and hard I really was deep down inside. I let her see all the black, twisted ugliness inside me, every last bit of it, because I knew it was the only way to save her life right now-even if the knowledge would make her hate me forever. It was worth it to save her. Everything I'd ever suffered for her had always been worth it.
"Run," I ground out the word. "You fucking run like your life depends on it because it does. If she gets past me, and you're still here, you're dead. Dead. Do you hear me Bria? Now run, and don't you dare look back. Don't make all this-don't make everything that I've ever done for you-count for nothing. Or I'll kill you myself, baby sister. Do you understand me? Do you?"
I shook her once and shoved her away. Bria stared at me another second, as shocked, disgusted horror filled her face at my screamed words until there was no room for anything else. She backed up one, two, three steps-more afraid of me than anything else in the world right now.
What little was left of my heart broke in that moment.
But my harsh words had the desired affect, because Bria turned around and ran, disappearing into the darkness. She didn't look back. Good. I didn't want her to.
At least, that's what I told myself, even if I didn't really believe it.
Footsteps crunched on the gravel. I forced my mind away from Bria and focused once more on the matter at hand-killing Elektra LaFleur before she could do the same to me and my sister.
But Elektra was smarter than her giants. Or maybe she was just that much more arrogant. Either way, she didn't keep coming until she crashed into me. Instead, the other assassin stopped about ten feet away. Her eyes went to each one of the giants on the ground around the railcar, then to the bloody knives I still clutched in my hands.
"Well, Gin," Elektra said in a calm voice. "I have to say you're just full of surprises. Or would you rather I call you by your other name ... Spider?"
I shrugged. "Doesn't much matter to me since you're not going to live to tell anyone about this little encounter."
Instead of being cowed by my threat, given the fact that I was pretty much covered in blood from head to toe and brandishing two silverstone knives, LaFleur laughed. The crackling peal in her voice made me grind my teeth together. I was going to enjoy silencing that sound-forever.
Already I could feel LaFleur pulling her electrical elemental magic around her, bringing more and more of it to bear. The hair lifted on my arms and the back of my neck at the feel of it. Once again, I was struck by just how fucking strong her magic was, just how much raw power she had, but I pushed that thought aside. Thinking about how powerful your opponent was was a sure way to get dead. Weaknesses. I needed to focus on the bitch's weaknesses, not her strengths.
Elektra reached up and wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye. I'd made her laugh until she cried. Too bad I couldn't make her die the same way.
"I'm glad that you find your own impending death so amusing," I said. "Although in this case, laughter will not be the best medicine. Nothing's going to save you."
Elektra smiled at me. "You certainly are confident, Spider. Then again, so was my brother. Right before you killed him."
My eyes narrowed. "Who the hell was your brother?"
Elektra tilted her head to one side. To anyone else, she would have seemed the figure of easy confidence. But I could see the tightness in her face, the calculations taking place in her eyes. She was looking for weaknesses, just like I was. Waiting for the right moment to lash out at me with her magic. My hands tightened around the hilts of my knives.
"You probably knew him best as Viper," she said. "Or maybe Brutus. He had a lot of names."
In the file of information that he'd compiled on her, Fletcher Lane had said that LaFleur came from a family of assassins. The file had even mentioned a brother. I'd just never expected it to be him, Brutus, aka Viper, the assassin I'd killed a few months ago at the Ashland Opera House. A man's face flashed in front of my eyes, and I remembered his tattoo-the one of a snake crawling up his neck, the one he had taken his assassin name from. One that was eerily similar in design to Elektra's orchid, now that I knew what I was looking for.
"That fucking neck tattoo," I spat out. "I should have known. I thought I'd seen it somewhere before."
She gave a delicate shrug of her shoulders. "Family trait. We all have one. Our parents decided Brutus should have a snake, even though I was older and wanted to be called Viper. But they thought it was a more manly symbol. They were rather sexist that way."
I put the pieces together in my mind. "So what? That's your secret motivation? You came here to Ashland, you took Mab's contract to kill me, just to get revenge for your brother? For Brutus? The bastard double-crossed me. He tried to hit me when I was trying to hit someone else. He got exactly what he deserved."
Elektra let out another crackling laugh. "Oh, please. I couldn't care less that you killed Brutus. He was nothing to me. But I'll admit he was a good assassin, which made me curious as to who had murdered him and how. We were always competing with each other, you see. Who could do the most hits, who could get to the hardest targets, who could command the highest price. So when this little job in Ashland came up, I thought, why not come and test myself against Brutus's killer? Why not take on the great Spider? And so here we are."
