By a Thread (Elemental Assassin 6)

We both sprinted out from around the corner and ran down the hall toward the giants. They were taken off guard just like their buddy had been before, but they recovered much quicker. One of them managed to get his gun out from under his suit jacket, raise it, and fire. I was in front of Owen, making me the target instead of him, just like I'd planned.

Crack! Crack!

Two bullets thunked into my chest, momentarily knocking me back, but the silverstone in my vest easily caught the bullets. The giant pulled the trigger again, but his buddy was also reaching for his gun at the same time and spoiled his aim. The third bullet plowed harmlessly into one of the walls.

Then Owen and I were on them, and it was far too late for guns.

Owen took the guy on the far right, bringing his staff down in a vicious arc on top of the giant's head. It wasn't enough to crack open his skull outright, but the snap of the metal was more than enough to daze him, and the giant's eyes rolled up into the back of his head. Owen brought the staff up, then swung it around, this time slamming the end of it into the guy's temple. That blow opened up a gushing wound, and the guy staggered back into the wall. Owen brought the staff around a third time, driving the end into the giant's throat. The giant immediately collapsed, choking and clawing at his crushed windpipe. Owen swung the staff a final time, snapping the giant's head to one side. The giant didn't move after that.

Meanwhile, I concentrated on the giant in the middle, the one with the gun, chopping at his hand with my knife. The blade sliced into his wrist, and he howled with pain. The gun clattered to the floor, and I used my foot to kick it behind me. The guy on the far left reached for me, but this time, his buddy stumbled into him, driving them both back against the opposite wall. After that, it was just a matter of keeping them penned in together while I went to work with my knives.

Slice-slice-slice-slice.

The blood spattered onto the wall, and they soon joined their dead friend on the floor. Once again, I leaned over and cut all their throats, just to be sure.

Never leave any enemies alive behind you. I could almost hear Fletcher whispering the words in my ear, and I was determined to follow the old man's edict tonight, when so many other lives besides mine depended on it.

Owen tried the door, but of course it was locked. I slid one of my knives up my sleeve, then dug through the giants' pockets with my free hand, but none of them had a key for the door. Not surprising. If I were Dekes and Vanessa was locked inside this room, I wouldn't be stupid enough to give the giants the key either. Because if they had a key, for whatever reason, sooner or later, one of them would be dumb enough to open the door at the wrong moment, and that's when Vanessa would strike. A couple of blasts of her Fire magic to the chest would be enough to put down a giant, and I was betting that the elemental had tried more than once to escape.

The door was made out of sturdy wood too heavy and solid to cut my way through with one of my knives, and it was reinforced with silverstone bars. Since the giants didn't have the key, that left only one way to open the door and see who was waiting on the other side.

So I tucked my other knife back up my sleeve and reached for my Ice magic - and was surprised once again at just how little there was of it. Once more, only a few silvery sparks flickered in the palm of my hand.

"Dekes," I cursed under my breath. "Randall fucking Dekes. "

I'd hoped my magic might have replenished itself a bit while we'd been planning the attack on the mansion, but it didn't seem there was any more in my body than when I'd reached for it at the beach house this morning. I'd wanted at least a bit more power when I faced Dekes, but that wasn't going to happen. Since there was nothing I could do about it, I reached for the scraps of Ice magic I had left.

This wasn't the first time that my power had been crippled. For years, I'd had problems using my Ice magic because of the silverstone that had been melted into my palms. The magic-hungry metal had simply absorbed my power instead of letting me easily release it through my hands the way other Ice elementals did theirs. I'd finally overcome the block when I fought Tobias Dawson, forcing my magic past the silverstone, and I'd been able to use it however I wanted to ever since. But thanks to Dekes sucking down my blood, I had only a small trickle of power right now, which made using it as hard as it had ever been - maybe even harder, since I was used to my magic being so much stronger.

I'd told Jo-Jo more than once that I didn't want to rely too much on my magic to get me out of trouble, but that's exactly what had happened since I killed Mab. I'd thought, with the Fire elemental dead and gone, things would be easier for me, that I'd never run into someone with that much raw elemental power ever again. As a result, I hadn't

given much thought as to what I would do if my magic ever let me down or was somehow taken away from me. But I should have known by now that easy just wasn't meant to be - not for me.

For the first time in a long time, I had to struggle to bring enough magic to bear to do what I wanted. It took me a few concentrated tries, but finally I was able to form the simple shapes that I had in mind - two long, slender Ice picks.

"Are you okay?" Owen asked in a concerned voice, noticing the faint, weak sparks of my magic. "Normally, it takes you no time at all to make Ice picks. "

"I'm fine," I said, not looking at him. "Just a little hiccup with my magic. Nothing to worry about. "

I slid the picks into the lock and started jiggling them around. I wasn't quite as masterful at this as Finn was, but a minute later, the tumblers slid into place, and the lock popped open. I threw the picks down on the floor to melt and got to my feet.

"Careful, now," I warned Owen as I twisted the knob. "Vanessa's probably expecting Dekes or his men. "

He nodded and backed up against the wall so he wasn't directly in front of the opening. I threw open the door and did the same thing, leaping back against the opposite side of the hallway.

Good thing, since a ball of elemental Fire blasted out of the open doorway a second later.

I could feel the intense heat of the Fire as it streaked past my position, slicing down the hallway right between me and Owen. If we had been standing directly in its path, we would have been badly burned at the very least. Dekes must not have fed off Vanessa in the last few days - or maybe he just hadn't taken as much of her magic as he had mine, because it looked like she had plenty of elemental juice right now.

The ball of Fire kept going and going, seeming to grow larger and brighter as it sucked more and more oxygen into itself before finally slamming into a wooden door at the far end of the hallway. It exploded on impact, spewing red-hot flames everywhere. I heard Callie scream with fear and surprise, but since she and Donovan were around the corner, the elemental Fire had passed them by without touching or hurting them. The same couldn't be said for the other end of the hall, though. The flames quickly consumed the door and started spreading out along the walls, licking at the paintings, drapes, and furniture.

Yep, Vanessa was definitely in the room. The trick now was getting her to realize that we were friends, not foes.

I waited a few seconds, then leaned forward so that she could see my face.

Another ball of Fire immediately blasted out of the room.

I cursed and jerked back, barely managing to keep my eyebrows from being singed off. I hated having singed eyebrows. The flames once again slammed into the opposite end of the hall, adding more fuel and power to the ones already burning there. I'd wondered before if Vanessa would have enough elemental power to help us, but it looked like her magic had fully replenished itself. It made me feel a little better about my own power eventually coming back.