He put his other hand on my opposite shoulder and turned me around. I let him and plastered a smile on my face, my lips ready to form an excuse to get rid of the ogling bastard.
I found myself looking up at Jake McAllister. The Fire elemental had traded in his rock-star jeans and vintage T-shirt for a tuxedo. It didn't improve his looks. His body was still too beefy, his face still puffed out with baby fat.
He looked like an oversize kid playing dress-up in his daddy's clothes. But the important thing was that he was here and staring at me.
Of all the people I could have run into here tonight, the possibility one of them would be Jake McAllister had never crossed my mind. So much had been going on the past few days I'd relegated Jake and his threat to kill me to the back burner. But luck, that capricious bitch, had decided to fuck me over once again.
Jake frowned, as though he knew me from somewhere but just couldn't place me. Then, recognition dawned on his beefy face.
"You!" he hissed.
Jake McAllister stared at me. A cruel smile spread across his face, making his cheeks puff out that much more. "You shouldn't have come here tonight, bitch. Because we're on my side of town now, and I'm going to kill you. " His brown eyes landed on the heart-and-arrow rune around my neck. "After I fuck you a couple of times. "
I raised an eyebrow. "You want me? Come and get me, you bastard. "
I slammed my fist into his windpipe. Jake's face went beet-red, and he struggled for air. While he was gasping for breath, I drove my other fist into his stomach.
First one, then the other. Thwack-thwack. Like kneading dough. He bent over, and I hurried away, moving deeper into the mansion.
My desire to find a quiet area to kill someone had just turned into a necessity. I had to finish Jake McAllister now. He was right. This was his turf, or at least Mab Monroe's turf, and I had no doubt the Fire elemental would let Jake do whatever he wanted to with me - if I didn't take care of him first before he could sound the alarm. My eyes swept back and forth over the open doors and rooms I passed. There. That would do.
I looked over my shoulder. Jake McAllister had struggled to his feet. I blew him a kiss. His face reddened, and he lumbered down the hallway in my direction. I stepped inside the room, found the spot I wanted, palmed one of my silverstone knives, and waited. Ten. . . twenty. . . thirty. . . I counted off the seconds in my head.
Jake McAllister was quicker than I'd given him credit for - or just more pissed off. Only forty-five seconds passed before he charged into the room.
"Where are you, bitch?" he growled. "I saw you come in here. "
I didn't respond. Let McAllister figure it out for himself.
"Hiding from me, huh, bitch?" he laughed. "I knew you'd be running scared of me sooner or later. "
I rolled my eyes at his foolish assumption, but still I waited. Heavy footsteps sounded on the tile floor. McAllister's shadow crept closer and closer to my hiding place.
I tensed, gathering my strength. If he got away from me, if he screamed, it was over. I had to kill him with the first strike.
Jake McAllister threw back the shower curtain I was standing behind. The Fire elemental had reached for his magic during his lumber down the hall. The power reddened his eyes, and sparks snapped and hissed around his fat fingertips. His gaze met mine, and he smiled.
"There you are, bitch - "
Last words he ever said.
With one hand, I grabbed McAllister's tuxedo jacket and pulled him forward, so that his torso was directly above the bathtub I was standing in. With my other hand, I shoved my silverstone knife up to the hilt in his chest.
The blade scraped his ribs before plunging into his heart.
Not the best blow I'd ever made, but effective enough.
Jake McAllister's magic snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. The fiery sparks puffed away, and the red glow vanished from his eyes. His arms jerked and flailed against me, connecting with my chest. I grunted at the heavy, solid blows, but I didn't dare reach for my Stone magic to harden my own skin. Any elemental in close vicinity would sense the power surge. Stones were the rarest of elementals, and any magic user who felt that kind of power would be curious about who was using it and why.
Jake opened his mouth to scream. I left the knife where it was in his heart, clamped my hand over his fat lips, and yanked him forward so the blood gushing out of his chest would fall into the bathtub and not spatter onto the tile floor. And so we stood there, seesawing back and forth over the tub, Jake McAllister trying to jerk away, and me pulling him closer, my hands digging into his face.
After about thirty seconds, Jake's legs wobbled and gave way. His eyes glazed over, and his mouth slackened underneath my hand. I dropped my fingers from his lips.
Jake coughed twice. Blood sputtered out of his lips and flecked the front of my dress. Nothing I could do about that right now. So I put both hands on his suit jacket and dragged him forward. He was heavy, and it took some muscle to flip his legs up and over the side of the tub and then to lower his whole body down the steps and into the bottom without letting him thump down. By the time I was done, Jake McAllister was dead, and I was a sweaty, bloody mess.
First things first. I shut the bathroom door. Then I went back over to Jake McAllister. The bathtub was the fancy marble kind that was more like a small pool than a tub and sat on a raised dais. A couple of steps led up to the rim, and several more led down into the square pool.
I got down into the bottom with Jake. The first thing I did was to retrieve my knife from his chest and lay it on the edge of the tub. Then I maneuvered him so his back was facing the rest of the room. I curled his hands under head and splayed out his legs to make it look as though he'd had too much to drink and had crawled into the tub to sleep it off. At least at first glance. If someone turned Jake over, they'd see the blood on his shirt and in the bottom of the tub. But hopefully, I'd be long gone by the time that happened.