By a Thread (Elemental Assassin 6)

"Let me guess. Vanessa and Victoria aren't the first women you've done this to, are they?" I asked. "How many women have you collected over the years? How many have you killed? And for what, their blood?"

"Hardly," Dekes sniffed. "This is about so much more than mere blood, Gin. This is about power - elemental power. You asked me before what my favorite thing was to collect. Well, this is it. "

That cold finger of dread started crawling up my spine again. Dekes held up his hand, and elemental Fire sparked and crackled on his fingertips, glowing like red-hot matches. I tensed and reached for my own Stone magic, ready to use it to turn my skin into a hard, impenetrable shell. But instead of throwing the Fire at me, the vampire casually tossed the flames into the fireplace, causing the logs inside to ignite. He stared at the flames a moment before holding up his hand again. This time, a blast of Air roared through the room, swirled into the fireplace, and snuffed out the burning logs.

Now I knew why the crackle of elemental magic around Dekes felt like Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone all at the same time - because that's what it was. The blood that he'd drunk from various elementals had all mixed together in his veins, letting him tap into all four areas. He'd mentioned a woman with Ice magic, and I had no doubt that there'd been one with Stone power just like my own before her - and countless others over the years. All trapped here in Dekes's odd gilded cage and forced to feed him their blood one way or another until he sucked them dry or they killed themselves to be free of him.

"So you don't have any actual elemental power of your own," I said. "You just take it from the women that you force to give you their blood. You know what, Dekes? For all your money and knickknacks, you're nothing but a common thief. "

"Yes, and it's a system that I've perfected over the years, if I do say so myself. And now I've decided to add you to my collection," Dekes said. "You should be honored. "

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? You really think that I'm just going to lie down for you?"

Dekes gestured at his men, who'd spread out in the library like a group of NFL linebackers, putting themselves between me and the doors. "Of course not. That's why I brought in reinforcements. "

I laughed in his face. For the first time, annoyance flared in the vamp's eyes, and his whole body bristled with indignation, including his mustache. He didn't like being laughed at - nobody did - but in his case, it was probably the first time that it had happened in a hundred years.

"In case you didn't hear, in case your buddy Jonah didn't tell you, I killed Mab fucking Monroe, who was rumored to be the strongest elemental born in the last five hundred years," I growled. "Do you really think that you and your giants are going to put me down? Dream on, you sick son of a bitch. "

Dekes glared at me another second before making a visible effort to rein in his temper. "You will do exactly what I say," he said in a soft voice. "You will lay down the knife in your hand and all the others that you have on you, and then you will bare your neck to me. "

"Or else what?" I asked, even though I had a pretty good idea what the or else was going to be.

Dekes stared at me. "Or else I will drain every single drop of blood out of sweet Victoria while Vanessa watches. Then I'll go do the same to your sister, Bria. Jonah told me about her too, and all that lovely Ice magic she has. "

Yeah, I'd thought it would be something like that. I wasn't too worried about Bria. My sister was just as tough as I was, with her own Ice magic to fall back on. She could handle getting away from Dekes's goons with no problem, and she'd have Finn and Owen to help her. Sooner or later, the three of them would realize that things had gone to hell in a handbasket and find a way to escape from the mansion. They wouldn't like it, but they'd leave me behind, hole up at the beach house, and wait for me to appear.

Now the question was how I was going to get myself out of here.

Vanessa looked at me, pleading at me with her dark eyes, begging me to do what Dekes wanted to save her sister. I'd never killed kids or pets as an assassin, and I didn't want to be the cause of an innocent woman's death now either, but I'd do what I had to in order to survive. And right now, that meant playing along with Dekes until I could get close enough to him to strike - or escape. As badly as the situation had deteriorated, I'd be good with either one of those at this point.

I didn't want to leave Vanessa and Victoria behind, didn't want them to suffer anymore at the vamp's hands, but I couldn't get all three of us out of here, not with Victoria unconscious and Dekes and his giants watching my every move. It was a calculated gamble, but I didn't think the vamp would actually kill either of the two women - not as long as they still had elemental magic he could feast on. He was too greedy that way to back up his threat. No, he was just trying to use them to subdue me, and I'd be damned if I let that happen.

"Fine," I snarled, playing along and pretending I was already beaten. "You may have the winning hand right now, but I'll tell you the same thing I told your man Pete before I dumped his body in the pool. You have no idea who you're messing with. "

"Oh, I think I do," Dekes said. "So get rid of your weapons - now. All of them. "

I put the silverstone knife I was holding on top of the stone mantel that jutted out from the fireplace, then pulled out the four others I had hidden on my body and placed them there as well. I made my movements slow and exaggerated so the giants wouldn't have an excuse to rush me en masse and also to give myself a few more seconds to think.

I had two choices. I could reach for my Stone magic, use it to harden my skin, smash through one of the French doors, and run like hell. It was the safer option, even though there was no guarantee of success. And of course, I'd have to leave Vanessa and Victoria behind to face Dekes's wrath. Or I could wait for Dekes to move within arm's reach, grab him, blast him with all the Ice magic that I had, and hope that it was enough to cut through his own stolen power and turn him into a Popsicle. A much bigger gamble, since I'd still have the giants to deal with, but the reward was much greater: kill the vampire now and hopefully save the two women from this house of horrors.

Run or fight, run or fight.

I decided to fight.

I put the last of my knives onto the mantel and waited for Dekes to move into range.

"How nice," Dekes said, walking over and picking up one of the blades. "A matching set. I'll have to add these to my weapons collection. "

He sidled even closer to me. I reached for my Ice magic and waited - just waited for him to take a few more steps in my direction.

"I collect weapons, you know," Dekes said, not seeming to realize the danger he was in. "I'm sure you saw some of them earlier during our tour. I especially like small guns, dart guns. Like this one. "

And that's when the vamp whirled around and shot me.

Too late, I heard something mechanical snap and saw the glint of metal appear in Dekes's left hand. In addition to the elemental power that he stole from his victims, their blood also gave Dekes something else, something that blood gave so many vamps - unbelievably fast reflexes. He already had his gun up and pointed at me before I realized what was happening, and I didn't even have time to create an Ice shield to block his attack or use my Stone magic to harden my skin before he pulled the trigger and a small dart stung my neck. I cursed and yanked it out, but it was already too late. Even as I tried to summon up enough of my Ice magic to blast Dekes to hell, I could feel my limbs going numb.

I only managed to take one step toward the vampire before my legs went out from under me. My last thought before I thumped to the floor was that I'd made